Good morning and aloha,
We are now ensconced at a friend's place in Kona on the Big Island. Yesterday (Tuesday) we got up way too early (5:45, we are just getting used to the new time so that felt early) and drove down in commuter traffic to the airport, dropped off our car, and went through TSA at the Lihue airport. The TSA check-in is right at the entrance, something that couldn't exist in GR, because, well, seasons. The kids thought that was pretty interesting.
We flew from Lihue to Honolulu for a connecting flight; we landed at an A gate and had 30 minutes before our flight left to get to the B gate, which was about 30 yards away, so no big deal - not like sprinting through Detroit or Atlanta. Plus the aircraft on which we were to fly was a bit delayed, so people were still getting off. The flight was about 35 minutes total.
The airport at Kona doesn't have jetways; we deplaned onto the tarmac and entered the airport from there, where there were a lot of open air spaces. It doesn't rain too much on this side of the island. We were met outside the gate area by my friend Laura A and her youngest son, Archer, and they had flower leis for us all. I was very touched. It's about 20 - 25 minutes to their place from the airport. Their house is on a hill at about 1000 feet elevation. It's a gorgeous, rambling house, with plenty of room for three boys.
Yesterday was Prince Kuhio Day, so the kids didn't have school. Laura's middle son, Aiden, was sleeping, because he and Laura had just gotten back from NYC for his spring break last week (She takes each of the boys somewhere special for his 8th grade spring break). The eldest, Alec, is returning today from a school spring break trip to California, and we are leaving tomorrow, so they will have been to the airport several times this week.
We hung out around the house, the girls getting to know the two younger boys and Laura for a bit, and then we drove down to the pier where the boys had swim practice for school. They had practice in the ocean near where the staging area for the Kona Ironman is, because their school pool was not able to be used. They complained a bit about having practice in the ocean instead; I thought it was nice to have an alternate, because it sounds as if the pool will be out of commission for a while.
Laura's husband, Adam, came home from an 18-hour shift at work (he works at the ER and then had a meeting in the morning) just as we were leaving. We said hello and then he went to take a nap.
While the boys had practice, Laura and my girls and I walked around a nearby hotel and looked at the historical displays inside, then walked the other way to do a little shopping. The Farmer's Market that we had hoped to go to was closed due to the holiday, but the regular stores were open. My younger kid had stayed behind to watch the practice, mostly because her feet hurt and she didn't want to walk the 1/4 mile into town, but after we all met up again, she and I walked back to a place so she could buy a carved necklace.
After that we came home, the boys cleaned up and we had a nice dinner, and introduced her family to Studio C videos on YouTube. :) We turned in early (it gets dark by 7) and now we're up for a day of exploration, once everyone is up.
Cheers,
wb
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Monday, March 25, 2019
Hawaii, post 4
Aloha all,
Today is Monday, and I'm writing after most of today's events have finished. Our laundry is finally dry but is very musty because it rained so much yesterday that nothing really dried well, so we will have to prevail upon our hostess tomorrow to use her washer. :) The weather report in Kona is sunny and 80 for the next several days, so we could probably hang everything out in the sun and do fine.
Yesterday we had intended to try to find some local hikes, but the weather was very unpredictable and any trails we tried would likely have been too slippery and dangerous to attempt (especially without hiking poles), so we stayed local. We did hike to the beach associated with the condos next door (it's a public access beach), and that was certainly something, because it takes at least 15 minutes of straight hiking to get there. The trail begins on the lawns beyond the condos, and goes down a big grassy hill, then up through some bushes and around and down another quite steep hill, then winds up and down through more ground cover until one gets to a relatively straight walk through some woods. Don't ask me what kind of trees, because botany isn't my strong suit.
After the woods, there are some very steep slopes with steel pipes holding up boards to make some rough stairs (all mud by now); one goes down two of these staircases and over some rocks to a pine-needle-littered trail that runs next to the ocean. This is the north shore, so the ocean is on one's right, and the trees on the left. This trail, which has plenty of exposed roots, meanders around a corner after a few minutes and one can see the beach on the right. There are still large black rocks over which to clamber to get down to the beach level. Whew.
The beach itself is amazing - it's a very quiet cove with huge waves just north which must be mitigated by some kind of reef, because the waves which reach the shore are small. I have read it's a good beach for snorkeling. We didn't get in the water much, though yesterday I did wear my swim togs. This was good because the tide was coming in, so I got hit with several unexpected waves as I sat on the beach. The prime attraction of this beach for me is that it is basically composed of tiny shells, the like of which are made into necklaces on Ni'ihau, and those necklaces sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and rightly so, given the amount of labor that is put into them.
We also went to the Princeville Center to do some shopping; there is a grocery store (I think I mentioned that), and a few small shops. There was a guy at a kiosk selling these necklaces made of the tiny shells; he does the work himself, so it's not a genuine Ni'ihau product, but they were beautiful nonetheless. We talked shop a little because I do the ringweaving (chain maille) that is also very meticulous. He had never heard of it.
We made pasta for dinner in the nanokitchen, and then ate popcorn and watched Studio C videos on YouTube until it was time for bed. It gets dark so early here (comparatively) that I always want to go to bed at 7 PM. I think we are finally adjusting to the time change, and we will be going back home in 5 days, only to get used to it the other way (which is harder). But oh well, that's the price one pays. :) And the girls will have another several days to get used to it because they will be on spring break when we get home.
Today we went to the beach in the morning, since it was sunny, and then to Hanalei, the next town west of Princeville. It's a little coastal touristy town, with some nice shopping and places to eat, and a place called Havaiiki, part museum, part ship featuring Polynesian cultural art and jewelry. We spent a lot of time there (considering that the building is smaller than this apartment) and looked at everything. My older kid finally bought a book of tales about Kauai, and we took home a bunch of "handout" materials they had available.
We had lunch at a nice grille, and also had fun trying on clothes at a place called Tropical Tantrum, which specializes in batik shirts and dresses. I can never get the kids to try on clothes at home so I was impressed that they were interested, especially in the dresses. I ended up getting them each one for their birthday (even though the younger one doesn't have a birthday until June). They look great in them.
The road to and from Hanalei has a couple of scenic lookouts, and there is a single lane bridge on the way there; the way this works is that 5 - 7 cars go over in one direction, then 5 - 7 cars in the other direction. This keeps traffic flowing pretty well. It rained a little on and off - more of a mist, really - and we came home and packed some things to mail home to clear up the luggage. It will be nice to have packages waiting for us when we get home.
The kids are playing chess again - there seems to be a lot of dialog among the "pieces," consisting of playful taunting and banter. Time to make dinner and then pack to leave for the Big Island tomorrow.
Aloha and love,
wb
Today is Monday, and I'm writing after most of today's events have finished. Our laundry is finally dry but is very musty because it rained so much yesterday that nothing really dried well, so we will have to prevail upon our hostess tomorrow to use her washer. :) The weather report in Kona is sunny and 80 for the next several days, so we could probably hang everything out in the sun and do fine.
Yesterday we had intended to try to find some local hikes, but the weather was very unpredictable and any trails we tried would likely have been too slippery and dangerous to attempt (especially without hiking poles), so we stayed local. We did hike to the beach associated with the condos next door (it's a public access beach), and that was certainly something, because it takes at least 15 minutes of straight hiking to get there. The trail begins on the lawns beyond the condos, and goes down a big grassy hill, then up through some bushes and around and down another quite steep hill, then winds up and down through more ground cover until one gets to a relatively straight walk through some woods. Don't ask me what kind of trees, because botany isn't my strong suit.
After the woods, there are some very steep slopes with steel pipes holding up boards to make some rough stairs (all mud by now); one goes down two of these staircases and over some rocks to a pine-needle-littered trail that runs next to the ocean. This is the north shore, so the ocean is on one's right, and the trees on the left. This trail, which has plenty of exposed roots, meanders around a corner after a few minutes and one can see the beach on the right. There are still large black rocks over which to clamber to get down to the beach level. Whew.
The beach itself is amazing - it's a very quiet cove with huge waves just north which must be mitigated by some kind of reef, because the waves which reach the shore are small. I have read it's a good beach for snorkeling. We didn't get in the water much, though yesterday I did wear my swim togs. This was good because the tide was coming in, so I got hit with several unexpected waves as I sat on the beach. The prime attraction of this beach for me is that it is basically composed of tiny shells, the like of which are made into necklaces on Ni'ihau, and those necklaces sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and rightly so, given the amount of labor that is put into them.
We also went to the Princeville Center to do some shopping; there is a grocery store (I think I mentioned that), and a few small shops. There was a guy at a kiosk selling these necklaces made of the tiny shells; he does the work himself, so it's not a genuine Ni'ihau product, but they were beautiful nonetheless. We talked shop a little because I do the ringweaving (chain maille) that is also very meticulous. He had never heard of it.
We made pasta for dinner in the nanokitchen, and then ate popcorn and watched Studio C videos on YouTube until it was time for bed. It gets dark so early here (comparatively) that I always want to go to bed at 7 PM. I think we are finally adjusting to the time change, and we will be going back home in 5 days, only to get used to it the other way (which is harder). But oh well, that's the price one pays. :) And the girls will have another several days to get used to it because they will be on spring break when we get home.
Today we went to the beach in the morning, since it was sunny, and then to Hanalei, the next town west of Princeville. It's a little coastal touristy town, with some nice shopping and places to eat, and a place called Havaiiki, part museum, part ship featuring Polynesian cultural art and jewelry. We spent a lot of time there (considering that the building is smaller than this apartment) and looked at everything. My older kid finally bought a book of tales about Kauai, and we took home a bunch of "handout" materials they had available.
We had lunch at a nice grille, and also had fun trying on clothes at a place called Tropical Tantrum, which specializes in batik shirts and dresses. I can never get the kids to try on clothes at home so I was impressed that they were interested, especially in the dresses. I ended up getting them each one for their birthday (even though the younger one doesn't have a birthday until June). They look great in them.
The road to and from Hanalei has a couple of scenic lookouts, and there is a single lane bridge on the way there; the way this works is that 5 - 7 cars go over in one direction, then 5 - 7 cars in the other direction. This keeps traffic flowing pretty well. It rained a little on and off - more of a mist, really - and we came home and packed some things to mail home to clear up the luggage. It will be nice to have packages waiting for us when we get home.
The kids are playing chess again - there seems to be a lot of dialog among the "pieces," consisting of playful taunting and banter. Time to make dinner and then pack to leave for the Big Island tomorrow.
Aloha and love,
wb
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Hawaii, post 3
aloha and mahalo for reading. 😃
It's 9 AM local time, and we were up later last night than we've made it so far this trip. We are on the north shore of Kauai at our new location and this morning it is quite cool and windy, and raining intermittently. It's a good day to catch up on a few things - laundry, journals, organizing photos, planning for the day. We are at an Airbnb apartment in Princeville; it is a nice space albeit a bit strangely organized. This is an upstairs unit; the stairs go straight up from the front door. At the top of the stairs there's a hallway that turns left, off of which is a large bathroom on the right, a locked closet, one room to the left leading to the kitchen and porch, and at the end of the hall is the main bedroom. The bathroom is almost the size of one of my kids' bedrooms at home, but very curiously configured. There is a turn right as you get in the door, with a closet to the left and a long sink and bathroom counter to the right, beyond which is the toilet and a medicine cabinet filled with various things (including bug repellent). On the left is a tub/shower, and the far side of the tub is a large shelf leading to a little space extending beyond the tub and behind the closet. There's a window in the outer wall of the alcove that is not visible unless you stand in the tub and face the showerhead/closet. It's very strange and a little creepy, especially since there's no light above the tub (one thing I really like is a light in the shower or over the tub).
The "living room" has a TV stand with TV and a couch (folds out into a bed); a sliding glass door opens onto a porch, with a round glass table and three chairs. This is the dining area. The rain catches the edge of the glass table but the rest of it is dry. Just inside the patio door is a folding door about 3.5 feet wide which when opened reveals a "kitchen." My sister used to refer to her kitchen in the Detroit suburbs as the "microkitchen." If that is the case, then this would be the "nanokitchen." There is a sink and a counter, under which is a tiny fridge (big enough for a gallon of milk and a few other things, but not much) and a cupboard with a wastebasket. In the living room is a wire shelving unit with a cooktop, a toaster, a coffeemaker and a decorative bowl. The cooktop seems to be an induction, which I've never used, but am learning. I may have to investigate that more. There is also a small bookshelf with a few books and DVDs.
The main "bedroom" has a largeish (comparatively) closet with linens, hangers, boogie boards and snorkel equipment. There is a surfboard in the bedroom as well. Welcome to Hawaii. 🏄
There is a definite island influence to the decor, but also some Russian items, including a chess board made in the USSR, complete with babushka (matroyshka?) pawns. The kids are having a very lively game of chess, which I believe has just completed. There are "barn door"-type sliding doors with which one can close off the living room and the bedroom, so there is a lot of privacy.
Hm, apparently the chess game did not end altogether friendly. Good thing there is enough space in this place for us to have some time apart - we have been together a lot in the last 5 days, especially the kids.
So, back to Saturday. Another morning of excellent lectures, 10 minutes of which I skipped to trot over to watch the feeding of the koi in the lobby garden at 9 o'clock. The hotel staff give out little cups of food to observers to feed the fish, but the main feeding is by the hotel staff with a bucket and a scoop. When that scoop of food hits the water, the surface roils with fish. We even saw one fish out of the water on a shallow shelf, begging for food. After the initial excitement was over, I hiked back to the rest of the lectures, which went until 1 PM. The hotel staff had come for our luggage in the morning, and the kids left the room before noon (when checkout was) and hung out in the lobby, or watching the cockatoo that lives in the central garden of the hotel.
After my lectures, I located the kids and we walked out to get the car and come back to where our luggage was being held. Then we went to Costco (of course, there's a Costco) and got a couple of things, then headed north to Princeville, stopping on the way for groceries (and Girl Scout cookies). The rental car company provided a grocery store card on the key ring (as I think I said in the first post), so we were able to get "member prices." I still think that's a neat idea; I can't tell you how many grocery stores I've had to say, "I'm from out of town" when they ask for my card. Often the store clerk will use a universal card, but still, it's nice to know I have one to use. We got eggs, bread, carrots, milk, sliced turkey and cheese, and some pasta. It's hard when you're only going to be at a place for a few days to know how much food to get, because you don't want to overbuy. I think we did about right.
We found the apartment/condo without incident - it's right down the street from a condo at which I've stayed in the past, so it was a familiar area. We got our things in and settled, then walked down to the beach. This is not as easy as it sounds. It's probably a 15-minute hike down steep grass, then through the brush and woods, and down another steep slope that has some wooden planks as steps. Then up through the trrees and along side of a low cliff (well, a drop-off, anyway) that runs by the sea. Up and over some large rocks, including scaling down some of the larger ones, and voila, there you are, in a little cove, north of which the waves were probably 4 - 6 feet, but coming into the bay were much less. The beach there is very coarse sand among which you can find tiny shells that wash over from Ni'ihau, "the forbidden island" (ooh, that sounds so spooky to say).
We hung out at the beach for about 20 minutes, then decided to go back "home," where we fixed pasta for dinner; I played a very bad game of chess with the younger kid, and then we watched Finding Dory on Amazon Prime. What a cute movie. I didn't really like Finding Nemo (except for some parts of it) and I found Dory especially annoying in that movie, so I didn't think I'd like this one, but it surprised me, and made Dory a much more sympathetic character.
Now I have laundry hanging in the weird bathroom to dry, and I'm going to gather the kids and we're going to go out somewhere. I don't know if we'll hike, but we'll go somewhere.
Cheers,
wb
It's 9 AM local time, and we were up later last night than we've made it so far this trip. We are on the north shore of Kauai at our new location and this morning it is quite cool and windy, and raining intermittently. It's a good day to catch up on a few things - laundry, journals, organizing photos, planning for the day. We are at an Airbnb apartment in Princeville; it is a nice space albeit a bit strangely organized. This is an upstairs unit; the stairs go straight up from the front door. At the top of the stairs there's a hallway that turns left, off of which is a large bathroom on the right, a locked closet, one room to the left leading to the kitchen and porch, and at the end of the hall is the main bedroom. The bathroom is almost the size of one of my kids' bedrooms at home, but very curiously configured. There is a turn right as you get in the door, with a closet to the left and a long sink and bathroom counter to the right, beyond which is the toilet and a medicine cabinet filled with various things (including bug repellent). On the left is a tub/shower, and the far side of the tub is a large shelf leading to a little space extending beyond the tub and behind the closet. There's a window in the outer wall of the alcove that is not visible unless you stand in the tub and face the showerhead/closet. It's very strange and a little creepy, especially since there's no light above the tub (one thing I really like is a light in the shower or over the tub).
The "living room" has a TV stand with TV and a couch (folds out into a bed); a sliding glass door opens onto a porch, with a round glass table and three chairs. This is the dining area. The rain catches the edge of the glass table but the rest of it is dry. Just inside the patio door is a folding door about 3.5 feet wide which when opened reveals a "kitchen." My sister used to refer to her kitchen in the Detroit suburbs as the "microkitchen." If that is the case, then this would be the "nanokitchen." There is a sink and a counter, under which is a tiny fridge (big enough for a gallon of milk and a few other things, but not much) and a cupboard with a wastebasket. In the living room is a wire shelving unit with a cooktop, a toaster, a coffeemaker and a decorative bowl. The cooktop seems to be an induction, which I've never used, but am learning. I may have to investigate that more. There is also a small bookshelf with a few books and DVDs.
The main "bedroom" has a largeish (comparatively) closet with linens, hangers, boogie boards and snorkel equipment. There is a surfboard in the bedroom as well. Welcome to Hawaii. 🏄
There is a definite island influence to the decor, but also some Russian items, including a chess board made in the USSR, complete with babushka (matroyshka?) pawns. The kids are having a very lively game of chess, which I believe has just completed. There are "barn door"-type sliding doors with which one can close off the living room and the bedroom, so there is a lot of privacy.
Hm, apparently the chess game did not end altogether friendly. Good thing there is enough space in this place for us to have some time apart - we have been together a lot in the last 5 days, especially the kids.
So, back to Saturday. Another morning of excellent lectures, 10 minutes of which I skipped to trot over to watch the feeding of the koi in the lobby garden at 9 o'clock. The hotel staff give out little cups of food to observers to feed the fish, but the main feeding is by the hotel staff with a bucket and a scoop. When that scoop of food hits the water, the surface roils with fish. We even saw one fish out of the water on a shallow shelf, begging for food. After the initial excitement was over, I hiked back to the rest of the lectures, which went until 1 PM. The hotel staff had come for our luggage in the morning, and the kids left the room before noon (when checkout was) and hung out in the lobby, or watching the cockatoo that lives in the central garden of the hotel.
After my lectures, I located the kids and we walked out to get the car and come back to where our luggage was being held. Then we went to Costco (of course, there's a Costco) and got a couple of things, then headed north to Princeville, stopping on the way for groceries (and Girl Scout cookies). The rental car company provided a grocery store card on the key ring (as I think I said in the first post), so we were able to get "member prices." I still think that's a neat idea; I can't tell you how many grocery stores I've had to say, "I'm from out of town" when they ask for my card. Often the store clerk will use a universal card, but still, it's nice to know I have one to use. We got eggs, bread, carrots, milk, sliced turkey and cheese, and some pasta. It's hard when you're only going to be at a place for a few days to know how much food to get, because you don't want to overbuy. I think we did about right.
We found the apartment/condo without incident - it's right down the street from a condo at which I've stayed in the past, so it was a familiar area. We got our things in and settled, then walked down to the beach. This is not as easy as it sounds. It's probably a 15-minute hike down steep grass, then through the brush and woods, and down another steep slope that has some wooden planks as steps. Then up through the trrees and along side of a low cliff (well, a drop-off, anyway) that runs by the sea. Up and over some large rocks, including scaling down some of the larger ones, and voila, there you are, in a little cove, north of which the waves were probably 4 - 6 feet, but coming into the bay were much less. The beach there is very coarse sand among which you can find tiny shells that wash over from Ni'ihau, "the forbidden island" (ooh, that sounds so spooky to say).
We hung out at the beach for about 20 minutes, then decided to go back "home," where we fixed pasta for dinner; I played a very bad game of chess with the younger kid, and then we watched Finding Dory on Amazon Prime. What a cute movie. I didn't really like Finding Nemo (except for some parts of it) and I found Dory especially annoying in that movie, so I didn't think I'd like this one, but it surprised me, and made Dory a much more sympathetic character.
Now I have laundry hanging in the weird bathroom to dry, and I'm going to gather the kids and we're going to go out somewhere. I don't know if we'll hike, but we'll go somewhere.
Cheers,
wb
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Hawaii trip, post 2
Good morning. It's 5 AM local time and I'm out on the balcony in the dark, listening to the waves and writing.
I think I stopped Thursday morning, and I think it's Saturday today. :) Thursday we had another lovely breakfast buffet (included in the room fee - ought to be, the room is expensive enough) and then I went to lecture and the kids did whatever they do while I'm in lecture. I think they did some homework and then walked on the beach. The lectures are consistently good, which is one reason I like to attend these Symposia Medicus conferences (another reason is of course location). There are lectures on dermatology, pelvic pain, breast cancer screening, office "psychiatry" and more. I'm particularly looking forward to a psych lecture this morning on "the unexplained medical complaint." There's also another on "The difficult patient;" we all have some of those, so I look forward to seeing what he says. This psychiatrist prescribes books as well as meds and counseling, which I love, since I do that a lot myself.
After the lectures, which ended around 1, the kids and I ate our leftovers from the day before for lunch and then drove about 1/2 hour southwest to a town called Poi'pu on the south coast. We saw a blowhole called the Spouting Horn, which is an unusual one that has one site that spouts water and another that makes a groaning sound with the waves. It was very soothing to watch and listen, but there's not much else to see there (except for some vendors selling souvenirs and jewelry), so we headed east to a place called Makawehi, where we did an easy hike down to the lithified cliffs, which are limestone cliffs by the sea. From there it was an easy walk down to Shipwreck Beach (there were no wrecked ships that I could see), where we hung out for a little while.
After that we went to the town of Koloa, did a little shopping and had dinner. The restaurant was called the Garden Island Grille, and had burgers and such. The prices were decent (everything's more expensive here). The food was OK; the server was extremely enthusiastic, perhaps because we were eating dinner at 4:30, and talked us into burgers made with the local beef, which she said was amazing, and I thought was rather tasteless. I had a BBQ burger, and the sauce was mildly volcanic (I don't do hot stuff well) so I guess it evened out. I'm sorry to say that the fries were very good, and I probably consumed too many of them.
We shopped a bit more - we bought Hawaiian decks of cards with cool facts on them, and my younger daughter bought a stuffed "emoji" pineapple for her friend who likes pineapples (it's super cute). Then ICE CREAM. The prices were actually pretty close to any tourist place in Michigan, and the serving sizes commensurate. I had a Lilikoi sherbet - I love the Lilikoi soda here - and it was very good. There was a feral chicken lurking near us, and when one of us lost a bit of cone on the floor it disappeared immediately down its gullet. It was quite comical to watch when one piece went under the table; you could see the chicken contemplating how to get there without going near our feet and risking being kicked or stepped on (not that we would have done that). Finally it made a rush for it and gulped it down.
We drove back to the hotel and got there before dark (I have a strong dislike for driving in strange places in the dark) and then took showers and relaxed. I had a bit of a stomachache (perhaps from the local beef, or the hot BBQ sauce) so we turned off the lights around 8 PM.
In the morning Friday I felt much better. No lectures in the morning, as the breakout sessions were at 3 PM (I love the way this conference is scheduled). This left us free all morning and early afternoon to plan a longer adventure, so we had a somewhat later breakfast and drove about an hour to Waimea Canyon in the western part of the island. The speed limit up the mountain is 25 mph, which is about right, but we kept being passed (going the other way) by people going much faster than I would have been comfortable driving on the twists and turns and switchbacks. I was grateful for the 25 mph speed limit but not for the tailgaters. I pulled over when possible to let them speed by, but it wasn't always possible.
We stopped at a few lookouts, and then at the main overlook, then started searching for the trailhead for a particular hike. Once we found the place, though, it was getting late. It was a hike to a waterfall, listed as a "moderately strenuous" hike, but was pretty steep in places. We made it to a cliff overlook but 2/3 of us didn't think we could make it to the waterfall and back in time to get us back to the hotel in time for my afternoon lectures, so we bailed. We hiked for a good hour+, though, so it was not for nothing. Had we been there earlier, we may have done the whole thing. One of the kids is not as much a hiker as the other, so she was a deciding factor, as well as me having some issues with a trochanteric bursitis on one side (lower hip irritation).
We drove to the end of the road to see the Kalalau overlook, but it was very cloudy and we had to wait for the clouds to clear in order to see anything. I thought it was worth it, but the younger kid had had enough and was getting tired, so we called it a day and drove back to the hotel. On the way we stopped at a trading post that has a great selection of freshwater pearls, and the kids got a couple of souvenirs for themselves and their friends.
We got back just in time for me to get to my 3 PM session. There was another after that, and I got out around 6. There were lemon squares and brownies and such so I didn't feel too bad about missing lunch. The kids had some food back at the room, so they didn't starve. They went for a walk on the beach, and we got back to the room around the same time. We walked over away from the hotel, looking for a place to have dinner, and found a little hole-in-the-wall burger place that also had milkshakes and a very pleasant staff. We got take out; as we were waiting for our food, another family came up to order, and we started chatting. The mom is attending the conference and she was originally from Michigan (!), so we traded names and places for a bit until our food was ready.
By then it was raining (more of a hard mist than actual rain), so we got a bit damp but not too bad. The burgers were GREAT (much better than the other restaurant, sorry) and the milkshakes were just what the doctor ordered. ;)
We watched some Studio C videos on YouTube on the hotel TV, and then went to bed around 8 or 8:30.
Today we have to check out around noon, which is nice, because then the kids don't have to wander around homeless for a couple of hours while my conference finishes. After that we will go grocery shopping and then drive up to our AirBnB place on the north side of the island. Stay tuned.
aloha,
wb
I think I stopped Thursday morning, and I think it's Saturday today. :) Thursday we had another lovely breakfast buffet (included in the room fee - ought to be, the room is expensive enough) and then I went to lecture and the kids did whatever they do while I'm in lecture. I think they did some homework and then walked on the beach. The lectures are consistently good, which is one reason I like to attend these Symposia Medicus conferences (another reason is of course location). There are lectures on dermatology, pelvic pain, breast cancer screening, office "psychiatry" and more. I'm particularly looking forward to a psych lecture this morning on "the unexplained medical complaint." There's also another on "The difficult patient;" we all have some of those, so I look forward to seeing what he says. This psychiatrist prescribes books as well as meds and counseling, which I love, since I do that a lot myself.
After the lectures, which ended around 1, the kids and I ate our leftovers from the day before for lunch and then drove about 1/2 hour southwest to a town called Poi'pu on the south coast. We saw a blowhole called the Spouting Horn, which is an unusual one that has one site that spouts water and another that makes a groaning sound with the waves. It was very soothing to watch and listen, but there's not much else to see there (except for some vendors selling souvenirs and jewelry), so we headed east to a place called Makawehi, where we did an easy hike down to the lithified cliffs, which are limestone cliffs by the sea. From there it was an easy walk down to Shipwreck Beach (there were no wrecked ships that I could see), where we hung out for a little while.
After that we went to the town of Koloa, did a little shopping and had dinner. The restaurant was called the Garden Island Grille, and had burgers and such. The prices were decent (everything's more expensive here). The food was OK; the server was extremely enthusiastic, perhaps because we were eating dinner at 4:30, and talked us into burgers made with the local beef, which she said was amazing, and I thought was rather tasteless. I had a BBQ burger, and the sauce was mildly volcanic (I don't do hot stuff well) so I guess it evened out. I'm sorry to say that the fries were very good, and I probably consumed too many of them.
We shopped a bit more - we bought Hawaiian decks of cards with cool facts on them, and my younger daughter bought a stuffed "emoji" pineapple for her friend who likes pineapples (it's super cute). Then ICE CREAM. The prices were actually pretty close to any tourist place in Michigan, and the serving sizes commensurate. I had a Lilikoi sherbet - I love the Lilikoi soda here - and it was very good. There was a feral chicken lurking near us, and when one of us lost a bit of cone on the floor it disappeared immediately down its gullet. It was quite comical to watch when one piece went under the table; you could see the chicken contemplating how to get there without going near our feet and risking being kicked or stepped on (not that we would have done that). Finally it made a rush for it and gulped it down.
We drove back to the hotel and got there before dark (I have a strong dislike for driving in strange places in the dark) and then took showers and relaxed. I had a bit of a stomachache (perhaps from the local beef, or the hot BBQ sauce) so we turned off the lights around 8 PM.
In the morning Friday I felt much better. No lectures in the morning, as the breakout sessions were at 3 PM (I love the way this conference is scheduled). This left us free all morning and early afternoon to plan a longer adventure, so we had a somewhat later breakfast and drove about an hour to Waimea Canyon in the western part of the island. The speed limit up the mountain is 25 mph, which is about right, but we kept being passed (going the other way) by people going much faster than I would have been comfortable driving on the twists and turns and switchbacks. I was grateful for the 25 mph speed limit but not for the tailgaters. I pulled over when possible to let them speed by, but it wasn't always possible.
We stopped at a few lookouts, and then at the main overlook, then started searching for the trailhead for a particular hike. Once we found the place, though, it was getting late. It was a hike to a waterfall, listed as a "moderately strenuous" hike, but was pretty steep in places. We made it to a cliff overlook but 2/3 of us didn't think we could make it to the waterfall and back in time to get us back to the hotel in time for my afternoon lectures, so we bailed. We hiked for a good hour+, though, so it was not for nothing. Had we been there earlier, we may have done the whole thing. One of the kids is not as much a hiker as the other, so she was a deciding factor, as well as me having some issues with a trochanteric bursitis on one side (lower hip irritation).
We drove to the end of the road to see the Kalalau overlook, but it was very cloudy and we had to wait for the clouds to clear in order to see anything. I thought it was worth it, but the younger kid had had enough and was getting tired, so we called it a day and drove back to the hotel. On the way we stopped at a trading post that has a great selection of freshwater pearls, and the kids got a couple of souvenirs for themselves and their friends.
We got back just in time for me to get to my 3 PM session. There was another after that, and I got out around 6. There were lemon squares and brownies and such so I didn't feel too bad about missing lunch. The kids had some food back at the room, so they didn't starve. They went for a walk on the beach, and we got back to the room around the same time. We walked over away from the hotel, looking for a place to have dinner, and found a little hole-in-the-wall burger place that also had milkshakes and a very pleasant staff. We got take out; as we were waiting for our food, another family came up to order, and we started chatting. The mom is attending the conference and she was originally from Michigan (!), so we traded names and places for a bit until our food was ready.
By then it was raining (more of a hard mist than actual rain), so we got a bit damp but not too bad. The burgers were GREAT (much better than the other restaurant, sorry) and the milkshakes were just what the doctor ordered. ;)
We watched some Studio C videos on YouTube on the hotel TV, and then went to bed around 8 or 8:30.
Today we have to check out around noon, which is nice, because then the kids don't have to wander around homeless for a couple of hours while my conference finishes. After that we will go grocery shopping and then drive up to our AirBnB place on the north side of the island. Stay tuned.
aloha,
wb
Thursday, March 21, 2019
Hawaii trip - first post
Aloha. :)
This is the first time in two days I've had time or energy to sit down and recount our recent travels. It's Thursday close to 5 AM local time and we haven't adjusted to the new time yet, so I'm sitting out on the balcony of the hotel room under a nearly full moon, listening to the ocean (and the feral roosters) and smelling the bacon cooking for breakfast. We technically don't have an "ocean view" room because I booked the cheapest one available, but we can see part of the pool and a slice of the bay if we stand near the balcony railing, which is good enough for me.
Tuesday was a day full of hurry-up-and wait. We got up at 4:45 AM and a kind friend drove us to the airport by 6 for a 7:15 flight. They are doing a lot of construction on the airport, and the TSA check-in has changed to be more central. It's less relaxed now. I don't care for the change though I can appreciate the efficiency of it. Of course we all were stopped because we were wearing travel pants with zipper pockets in weird places, plus they took my bag off to inspect because I had a "knife," which was really a multi-tool that doesn't have a blade in it. I should have been smart enough to carry that in my purse; I will remember that next time. The guy who had to inspect my bag was a big fellow, and it was a bit comical to watch him trying to open all the attachments of the tool with his big gloved fingers. I didn't laugh, at least not audibly, because I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to laugh at the TSA officer. They are almost all very kind in our airport, though, so it wasn't a big deal. My older kid always gets nervous "around people in uniform," she says, which is unfortunate. Then she worries that her anxiety may make her appear suspicious. Sigh. We made it through OK.
Our flight to Denver was not only on time but we got in 25 minutes early. That gave us enough time to scout out some breakfast and fill our water bottles before we had to board our plane for Honolulu. That flight was full but not terrible, and we got in 30 minutes early. Our next flight wasn't scheduled to leave for 4 more hours, so we had an extended time in the airport, which is not very exciting (couldn't go outside to enjoy the nice weather, for example). We paid $10 each for two micro pizzas and a sandwich, and mostly sat around. It was getting close to our bedtime and we had gotten up very early so the kids were getting more and more frazzled (the older one goes to bed by 9 or she's toast).
Fortunately, there was a K9 dog training exercise going on right near our gate, in which various dogs were learning to track a guy with a scented bracelet on his ankle. We watched 5 or 6 dogs go through with varying levels of success. They were cute dogs like pointers and labs, not scary guard dogs such as German shepherds or dobermans, and when each one finally found his or her target, s/he lay down and was rewarded with a ball or squeaky toy. Listening to the dogs chomp on their squeaky toys made them even less intimidating. It was nice to have that to watch while we waited. There were also some birds in the waiting area, having flown in somewhere, including a pigeon that had only one foot and was walking around on the stump. It seemed to be getting along all right, though. The birds tended to hang out near the restaurants - smart birds.
We finally got our inter-island flight, which was about half an hour in duration, and then got quickly to the rental car place. Budget gives customers a grocery card to use at a certain grocery store to get the good prices, which I thought was a very neat idea. We will use it when we leave the hotel in a few days and go up north.
I was disappointed to find out that one of the hikes I wanted to do with the kids was not going to be available, because of flooding last year which washed out the road. It sounds as if it was a terrible experience for the people living beyond the washout, and is still very difficult because any traffic has to convoy because the road is only one lane. We will find other things to do, certainly, but wow.
The hotel is only 2 miles from the airport so it didn't take us long (although we did get turned around a couple of times) to get in and get settled. By this time it was after midnight by our EDT clocks, so we took showers and went to bed at 7:30 local time.
Because of this we were up early yesterday, but the restaurant opens an hour early during the conference to accommodate the number of people with breakfast vouchers. There is a fine print thing I didn't see that says I will have to pay an extra $50 a day because I have three "adults" and the room only is for two (13 and up is considered an adult, even though someone who is 13 can't drink, vote, sign legal documents or even drive). The course coordinator is looking into that for me, to see if I can pay for the breakfast separately, because it seems silly that in a room labeled to accommodate 4 people I would have to pay extra to house my dependent child. We'll see how that works out.
The kids slept about 10 or 11 hours and woke up very refreshed before 5. We walked around a bit to find the conference room where I would be all morning, and then went to breakfast. Wow, what a buffet. All kinds of waffles/french toast/pancakes; made-to-order omelettes; smoked salmon; cheeses; fresh pineapple, mango and melon; bacon, sausage, hash brown, cereal, fruit juices, chocolate and white milk.... I didn't need to eat lunch until later. The food was very good.
I checked into my conference at 7, and the lectures started at 8. The conference is very good so far - "Care of women over 50" - but there were one or two things that were more specific for OB/GYN than for a mere family doc (since I don't operate). Overall, though, I am already learning things.
The dermatologist made a mistake in her lecture, calling a certain condition that can cause an enlarged nose (rhinophyma) "C S Lewis nose." I went up to her after and apologetically said, "I think you made a mistake when you called rhinophyma C S Lewis nose - didn't you mean W C Fields?" She laughed and said, "You're right - my son and I just finished reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." I asked if she had read the other books and she said with interest, "No, are they good? We read a family book together and I don't have any ideas." Since I've been reading to the girls since they were tiny, we have a long list of good ones, so I told her I'd be happy to give her some ideas. :)
After the conference (during which the girls slept, did some homework by the pool, and read), the three of us drove to Costco (of course there's a Costco) to get sunscreen (which we couldn't bring on the plane because we only take carry-ons). I was glad to do that because the Costco was only 2 miles away, and they had two containers (plus a small tube) of sunscreen for $12.50, and the hotel wanted $20 for one of the same size. I could make a killing selling some on the side.... but I'd probably get thrown out of the hotel. ;)
We grabbed some lunch at the grocery store deli, and took it back to the hotel. After we ate we went down to the pool, which is difficult to describe. It's 4 feet deep all the way around, and is in a big circle around a central "island" connected by a bridge. We swam and splashed for an hour or so, then went back to shower and change for a reception put on by the conference. They had appetizers that were amazing but I was so full from all the other food I'd eaten that day that I couldn't really enjoy it. They had some trivia questions (my younger kid won a t-shirt) and then we chatted with the dermatologist about books for a while, then walked on the beach and went back to the room to crash. We watched a few YouTube comedy sketches and then went to bed by 8 local time. Maybe we'll be able to stay up later tonight.
That is for now,
cheers and aloha,
WB
Saturday, August 4, 2018
DISNEY! (part 1 of 2)
Hi there, everyone.
Thursday August 2 we got up pretty early (we've adjusted to this time zone now, just in time for it to feel too early to get up) to get to the Disney parks by 7:30. They are only 15 miles away but with the traffic around here, it took us probably 45 minutes to get to the parking lot, and then another 10 minutes to take the bus, then through the bag inspection lines and then the metal detectors.... Wow. I had read about it and we were prepared, but boy, they are thorough.
We used a thing called RideMax, which is a service that charges $15 for 90 days, and allows you to put in the date, which rides you want to go on, how many times each, your time of first ride, your walking pace, and whether you will be using the FastPass system (choose digital or physical), and plugs all these factors into a giant Disneyland algorithm to figure out how to do the parks. We tried it for California Adventure first (since that's the first park we did) and although we deviated slightly from the plan due to very short lines on some things, it worked pretty well. We ended up getting the digital Maxpass, which allows you to order Fastpasses on your phone (you can get a new one every 55 minutes or something like that) as well as providing access to all the photos, included in the cost. I was initially hesitant to add that, because it was $10/person/day, but I think it was wall worth it, in hind sight. I would definitely recommend the RideMax subscription as well, plus an e-book of "tips and tricks" (that was an extra $7) which served us well.
Thursday at Disney California Adventure (hereafter called DCA), we started with getting a Fastpass (FP) for a popular ride and headed for Pixar Pier. The Incredicoaster (what they're calling the big roller coaster there now that it's Pixar Fest) was... not open yet. So we did the Silly Symphony Swings (which were like the swings I enjoy at the fair, but on steroids), which had no line (so we thought it was closed as well, until we asked) and headed for Grizzly River Run, which was... also not open yet. So we did Soarin' Around the World, which was SO COOL, but ended abruptly because a kid's hat fell out of the under seat storage (which I found out by eavesdropping on the cast member who was talking to the family to whom it happened). I wanted to see how it really ended (I think we were close when they stopped it) and there was still no line so I asked the girls if we could do it again, and we did. It was a virtual ride with some movement but had the breeze and the smells as well as the movement, visuals and sound. I really liked it.
After that we had a FP for Guardians of the Galaxy- MISSION BREAKOUT in the Hollywood section. That was fun but mostly terrifying, being jerked up and down at speed with sudden stops. I think I'm too old for this kind of thing. The Guardians of the Galaxy visuals were fun but too short, and then the ride was over. I wouldn't wait more than 20 minutes for it - wait, what am I saying? I wouldn't wait for it at all, because I didn't like it that much. The kids loved it, though. The exits are very clever, funneling you out through the gift shop. There was some Marvel stuff there - Captain America shirts and Avengers pins and books and stuff. I bought a baby Groot because it was SO CUTE, but I didn't buy it until later (went back for it).
After that we went on the Grizzly River Run, which is a water ride in a circular "car." I got one of the seats next to the opening, and I was the destination for most of the water - the thing rotates as it travels, so we never knew which end would be down on the hills. I was pretty much soaked by the end, but the day was already warm, and we had planned ahead, wearing our swim togs under our quick-dry clothes, and packing our important things in plastic zip bags. Oh, the cleverness of us.
The Incredicoaster was open by then, with a 70-minute wait, and I knew I would not do well on that, so I let the girls wait in line and ride it while I walked around, shopped, let my clothes dry, and wandered over to the lockers to get our food so we could eat. It was lunchtime by the time they got off the ride (11:40). We found a shady table and ate the sandwiches we had brought. The Disney parks are pretty good about water, having cups of ice water ready for the asking at pretty much any fast food joint, so we refilled our water bottles often.
We had a FP for Radiator Springs Racers, which was a Cars-themed ride. The Cars Land was pretty clever - I'll probably say it again, but Disney does environments/ambiance VERY well - and we got on to the ride in a very few minutes. It was a really popular ride - the RideMax program was very good about letting us know which FP to get in which order, because the more popular rides had FP availability pushed out several hours. We did some shopping in there as well. We got another Grizzly River Run pass for mid-afternoon (it was pretty hot by then) and my younger kid got the splash seat that time, though we all got wet. We changed our clothes after that - bless the $10/day Disney locker - and wandered around some more, looking at all the increased ride times for things we had stood in line for mere minutes, and smirked to ourselves. :)
By 4:30 we were really tired so we packed it in, picked up our stuff from the locker and headed home, which took almost an hour. We took a couple of wrong turns, partly because my navigator wasn't paying strictest attention in places, but mostly because the roads here are REALLY WEIRD. For example, on the highways, they add two lanes on the right, then make all traffic merge left as they cut them off again, so one is constantly merging to the left. I vaguely remember that from when I lived in San Diego in 1990, wondering as I headed toward LA whether I was going to drive into the Pacific from all the merging right. We got home just before 7 and we were all so tired we didn't eat dinner, even though all we'd had to eat was a turkey sandwich, pretzels and some ice cream all day. We were all in bed by 9 and sleeping deeply.
And that's a good place to end for the time being.
cheers,
wb
Hi there, everyone.
Thursday August 2 we got up pretty early (we've adjusted to this time zone now, just in time for it to feel too early to get up) to get to the Disney parks by 7:30. They are only 15 miles away but with the traffic around here, it took us probably 45 minutes to get to the parking lot, and then another 10 minutes to take the bus, then through the bag inspection lines and then the metal detectors.... Wow. I had read about it and we were prepared, but boy, they are thorough.
We used a thing called RideMax, which is a service that charges $15 for 90 days, and allows you to put in the date, which rides you want to go on, how many times each, your time of first ride, your walking pace, and whether you will be using the FastPass system (choose digital or physical), and plugs all these factors into a giant Disneyland algorithm to figure out how to do the parks. We tried it for California Adventure first (since that's the first park we did) and although we deviated slightly from the plan due to very short lines on some things, it worked pretty well. We ended up getting the digital Maxpass, which allows you to order Fastpasses on your phone (you can get a new one every 55 minutes or something like that) as well as providing access to all the photos, included in the cost. I was initially hesitant to add that, because it was $10/person/day, but I think it was wall worth it, in hind sight. I would definitely recommend the RideMax subscription as well, plus an e-book of "tips and tricks" (that was an extra $7) which served us well.
Thursday at Disney California Adventure (hereafter called DCA), we started with getting a Fastpass (FP) for a popular ride and headed for Pixar Pier. The Incredicoaster (what they're calling the big roller coaster there now that it's Pixar Fest) was... not open yet. So we did the Silly Symphony Swings (which were like the swings I enjoy at the fair, but on steroids), which had no line (so we thought it was closed as well, until we asked) and headed for Grizzly River Run, which was... also not open yet. So we did Soarin' Around the World, which was SO COOL, but ended abruptly because a kid's hat fell out of the under seat storage (which I found out by eavesdropping on the cast member who was talking to the family to whom it happened). I wanted to see how it really ended (I think we were close when they stopped it) and there was still no line so I asked the girls if we could do it again, and we did. It was a virtual ride with some movement but had the breeze and the smells as well as the movement, visuals and sound. I really liked it.
After that we had a FP for Guardians of the Galaxy- MISSION BREAKOUT in the Hollywood section. That was fun but mostly terrifying, being jerked up and down at speed with sudden stops. I think I'm too old for this kind of thing. The Guardians of the Galaxy visuals were fun but too short, and then the ride was over. I wouldn't wait more than 20 minutes for it - wait, what am I saying? I wouldn't wait for it at all, because I didn't like it that much. The kids loved it, though. The exits are very clever, funneling you out through the gift shop. There was some Marvel stuff there - Captain America shirts and Avengers pins and books and stuff. I bought a baby Groot because it was SO CUTE, but I didn't buy it until later (went back for it).
After that we went on the Grizzly River Run, which is a water ride in a circular "car." I got one of the seats next to the opening, and I was the destination for most of the water - the thing rotates as it travels, so we never knew which end would be down on the hills. I was pretty much soaked by the end, but the day was already warm, and we had planned ahead, wearing our swim togs under our quick-dry clothes, and packing our important things in plastic zip bags. Oh, the cleverness of us.
The Incredicoaster was open by then, with a 70-minute wait, and I knew I would not do well on that, so I let the girls wait in line and ride it while I walked around, shopped, let my clothes dry, and wandered over to the lockers to get our food so we could eat. It was lunchtime by the time they got off the ride (11:40). We found a shady table and ate the sandwiches we had brought. The Disney parks are pretty good about water, having cups of ice water ready for the asking at pretty much any fast food joint, so we refilled our water bottles often.
We had a FP for Radiator Springs Racers, which was a Cars-themed ride. The Cars Land was pretty clever - I'll probably say it again, but Disney does environments/ambiance VERY well - and we got on to the ride in a very few minutes. It was a really popular ride - the RideMax program was very good about letting us know which FP to get in which order, because the more popular rides had FP availability pushed out several hours. We did some shopping in there as well. We got another Grizzly River Run pass for mid-afternoon (it was pretty hot by then) and my younger kid got the splash seat that time, though we all got wet. We changed our clothes after that - bless the $10/day Disney locker - and wandered around some more, looking at all the increased ride times for things we had stood in line for mere minutes, and smirked to ourselves. :)
By 4:30 we were really tired so we packed it in, picked up our stuff from the locker and headed home, which took almost an hour. We took a couple of wrong turns, partly because my navigator wasn't paying strictest attention in places, but mostly because the roads here are REALLY WEIRD. For example, on the highways, they add two lanes on the right, then make all traffic merge left as they cut them off again, so one is constantly merging to the left. I vaguely remember that from when I lived in San Diego in 1990, wondering as I headed toward LA whether I was going to drive into the Pacific from all the merging right. We got home just before 7 and we were all so tired we didn't eat dinner, even though all we'd had to eat was a turkey sandwich, pretzels and some ice cream all day. We were all in bed by 9 and sleeping deeply.
And that's a good place to end for the time being.
cheers,
wb
Catching up - again.
Today is Saturday, and it's been a busy week. Monday we were still in the San Diego area and we went to the Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park). The park is about 45 minutes from where we were staying, in an amazing semi-mountainous area. We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see, including the Safari Tour. We were a bit disappointed that the balloon experience (a tethered hot air balloon "ride") was not functioning due to the wind that had picked up during the afternoon. Other than that, it was very satisfactory. It was nearly 100 degrees so we went slowly.
My younger kid wanted "face painting," but on her arm. I convinced her to get a henna tattoo instead, which will last a lot longer and wasn't significantly more expensive. She got a barn owl in her right forearm. The artist, a guy named Alex Boston, did a pretty good job.
We were very tired when we got home and pretty much had leftovers, took showers and fell into bed.
Tuesday we went to Seacoast Village, a little collection of shops and restaurants on the harbor (hence the name) that we heard (from our Old Town tour guide, Philip-with-just-one-L-still-Phil) had been designed and built by Disney in 1980. I had been there before (probably 35+ years ago now) and remembered liking it. We did some shopping, got some soft pretzels and some ice cream, walked around the harbor, and came home. Then we packed and watched a movie (see last blog).
Wednesday was kind of a lazy morning, because we weren't due to check into our next Airbnb until 1 PM, and had promised not to arrive before then (the host said they wanted to do a "thorough cleaning" - can't argue with that), and we didn't have to check out of our current digs until noon. We left around 11:30, and it was a 2+-hour drive to the next place. With the LA area traffic and construction, we didn't roll in until 1:30ish.
Our current lodgings are amazing. The last place was nice, but this is a cottage, one of 6 that share a small pool. It has two bedrooms, a living room, dining nook, kitchen and bathroom. It is very spacious and has AC in all the rooms. The decor is wonderful, very beach-themed (though I think we are pretty far from the beach). We had a problem with tiny ants in the kitchen on our first night (Wednesday night) but we let the hosts know and they took care of the problem while we were gone Thursday. The master bed is like a big marshmallow - one sinks into it and has trouble getting out, it's so soft. I'm sleeping well on it, so that's a good thing, but it feel so odd. The girls have a bedroom with two twin beds; they are excited to have their own space.
For dinner we ordered pizza (take-out) from a local place based on recommendation of the host. He's right; it was very good, and I don't really like pizza much. We went to bed fairly early because we had to get up early for our Disney adventures.
I think I'll do the two Disney days in a separate post (or possibly two).
peace,
wb
Today is Saturday, and it's been a busy week. Monday we were still in the San Diego area and we went to the Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park). The park is about 45 minutes from where we were staying, in an amazing semi-mountainous area. We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see, including the Safari Tour. We were a bit disappointed that the balloon experience (a tethered hot air balloon "ride") was not functioning due to the wind that had picked up during the afternoon. Other than that, it was very satisfactory. It was nearly 100 degrees so we went slowly.
My younger kid wanted "face painting," but on her arm. I convinced her to get a henna tattoo instead, which will last a lot longer and wasn't significantly more expensive. She got a barn owl in her right forearm. The artist, a guy named Alex Boston, did a pretty good job.
We were very tired when we got home and pretty much had leftovers, took showers and fell into bed.
Tuesday we went to Seacoast Village, a little collection of shops and restaurants on the harbor (hence the name) that we heard (from our Old Town tour guide, Philip-with-just-one-L-still-Phil) had been designed and built by Disney in 1980. I had been there before (probably 35+ years ago now) and remembered liking it. We did some shopping, got some soft pretzels and some ice cream, walked around the harbor, and came home. Then we packed and watched a movie (see last blog).
Wednesday was kind of a lazy morning, because we weren't due to check into our next Airbnb until 1 PM, and had promised not to arrive before then (the host said they wanted to do a "thorough cleaning" - can't argue with that), and we didn't have to check out of our current digs until noon. We left around 11:30, and it was a 2+-hour drive to the next place. With the LA area traffic and construction, we didn't roll in until 1:30ish.
Our current lodgings are amazing. The last place was nice, but this is a cottage, one of 6 that share a small pool. It has two bedrooms, a living room, dining nook, kitchen and bathroom. It is very spacious and has AC in all the rooms. The decor is wonderful, very beach-themed (though I think we are pretty far from the beach). We had a problem with tiny ants in the kitchen on our first night (Wednesday night) but we let the hosts know and they took care of the problem while we were gone Thursday. The master bed is like a big marshmallow - one sinks into it and has trouble getting out, it's so soft. I'm sleeping well on it, so that's a good thing, but it feel so odd. The girls have a bedroom with two twin beds; they are excited to have their own space.
For dinner we ordered pizza (take-out) from a local place based on recommendation of the host. He's right; it was very good, and I don't really like pizza much. We went to bed fairly early because we had to get up early for our Disney adventures.
I think I'll do the two Disney days in a separate post (or possibly two).
peace,
wb
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Hello, friends,
Feeling refreshed after having a dinner of leftovers, a nice shower and watching The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension with the girls. They tolerated it pretty well - it *is* an 80's movie and very quirky. I remember watching it more than once in college and liking it, and thinking tonight that... it's weird. But it's part of my youth and I thought they should see it once, anyway. There are definitely some good lines in it, and I love it that it doesn't take itself too seriously.
This one will be shorter than the one for Saturday, because we didn't do much yesterday, which was nice. Over breakfast we watched our church's Livestream service, which is 10:30 at home, and we were up by 7:30 so it worked out perfectly. After church/breakfast we drove out to La Jolla to go to the beach. We parked in this little cave of a parking garage, and there was no attendant on duty. It took us a while to find a sign that said we could pay on the way out if no attendant there.
We walked down to the beach, through not too much traffic and lots of construction, and were surprised to find the rocks covered with sea birds, including pelicans. A little farther south we saw our first sea lions, and stopped to watch them sunning on the rocks. Continuing on the path by the water, we came to an area where we could go out to get closer to the animals. We didn't get too close - probably no closer than 20 feet - but the sea lions didn't seem to notice. Farther along there was a [collective noun] of sea lions lying on the beach, fairly immobile in the sun, surrounded (a bit too closely for my comfort) by tourists.
I looked up the collective noun for sea lions and came up with several: bob, colony, crash, flock, harem (females), herd, hurdle, pod, raft, rookery, and team. These on the beach probably were closest to a "crash," because they were crashed out. We did get down on the beach, but we chose one that was sea lion free, so as not to have to deal with proximity of wild animals, no matter how cute. My elder kid and I waded a bit; the younger one didn't want to get her feet wet, but I said this might be the only time she'd be able to say she touched the Pacific on this trip, so she did.
We walked down to the Children's Pool, and there was a harbor seal on the beach. The PA at the lifeguard station blared that the seal was ill and recovering, and for people to stay 50 feet away. It would have been nice to have someone policing the other beaches a little better. At one point we saw a white woman go off and scream at a bunch of Asian people (whether native San Diegans or tourists, I don't know, but I suspect tourists, because locals wouldn't have gotten so close to the sea lions, I would think). She called them idiots and railed at them to "leave the sea lions alone" until most of them left the beach. While I applaud her sentiment (to protect the wildlife), I cannot condone her methods. I wonder if any of the tourists will remember the US as the place where the crazy white woman screamed them off the beach.
That brings up something else I've noticed on this vacation: while my fellow tourists may not be always very pleasant to be around, I've found the hired people to be extremely pleasant, from the store clerk at Michael's (we had to stop for origami paper) to the information people, to the period-dressed folks in Old Town, and the Zoo and Safari Park employees - everyone has been very kind, more than I've found in other places (save when we were in the UK last year and only had one person be grouchy with us). It has been a nice experience so far from that perspective.
After a couple of hours, we decided to go back home. We did sit for a good 20 minutes on the way back to the car and watch the sea lions frolicking in the waves, including leaping and body surfing. It was so cute to watch them all glide together through a wave, even though only one or two would end up on the beach. Some of them were lying on the beach and letting the waves roll them over as well. It was such fun to watch.
We found an attendant when we returned to our car and paid him, then sat in beach traffic for 20 minutes just trying to get out of town. I'm taking advantage of the time change while I can to get us all up and out early so we can find parking, etc. So far it has worked heavily in our favor, with good parking spots and crowds only increasing as we're ready to leave. We went back to the house for a little while, then went to Costco to get gasoline (what a line, egad) and a few other things, then stopped at Michael's (as stated above) to get origami paper because we forgot ours. We had dinner and did laundry - the washer and dryer are on the back porch, interesting - and then watched dumb Youtube videos for an hour or so before bed (James Veitch, Monty Python's Dead Parrot and Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, etc) because it's important to ground my kids in the classics. :)
time for bed,
good night
wb
Feeling refreshed after having a dinner of leftovers, a nice shower and watching The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension with the girls. They tolerated it pretty well - it *is* an 80's movie and very quirky. I remember watching it more than once in college and liking it, and thinking tonight that... it's weird. But it's part of my youth and I thought they should see it once, anyway. There are definitely some good lines in it, and I love it that it doesn't take itself too seriously.
This one will be shorter than the one for Saturday, because we didn't do much yesterday, which was nice. Over breakfast we watched our church's Livestream service, which is 10:30 at home, and we were up by 7:30 so it worked out perfectly. After church/breakfast we drove out to La Jolla to go to the beach. We parked in this little cave of a parking garage, and there was no attendant on duty. It took us a while to find a sign that said we could pay on the way out if no attendant there.
We walked down to the beach, through not too much traffic and lots of construction, and were surprised to find the rocks covered with sea birds, including pelicans. A little farther south we saw our first sea lions, and stopped to watch them sunning on the rocks. Continuing on the path by the water, we came to an area where we could go out to get closer to the animals. We didn't get too close - probably no closer than 20 feet - but the sea lions didn't seem to notice. Farther along there was a [collective noun] of sea lions lying on the beach, fairly immobile in the sun, surrounded (a bit too closely for my comfort) by tourists.
I looked up the collective noun for sea lions and came up with several: bob, colony, crash, flock, harem (females), herd, hurdle, pod, raft, rookery, and team. These on the beach probably were closest to a "crash," because they were crashed out. We did get down on the beach, but we chose one that was sea lion free, so as not to have to deal with proximity of wild animals, no matter how cute. My elder kid and I waded a bit; the younger one didn't want to get her feet wet, but I said this might be the only time she'd be able to say she touched the Pacific on this trip, so she did.
We walked down to the Children's Pool, and there was a harbor seal on the beach. The PA at the lifeguard station blared that the seal was ill and recovering, and for people to stay 50 feet away. It would have been nice to have someone policing the other beaches a little better. At one point we saw a white woman go off and scream at a bunch of Asian people (whether native San Diegans or tourists, I don't know, but I suspect tourists, because locals wouldn't have gotten so close to the sea lions, I would think). She called them idiots and railed at them to "leave the sea lions alone" until most of them left the beach. While I applaud her sentiment (to protect the wildlife), I cannot condone her methods. I wonder if any of the tourists will remember the US as the place where the crazy white woman screamed them off the beach.
That brings up something else I've noticed on this vacation: while my fellow tourists may not be always very pleasant to be around, I've found the hired people to be extremely pleasant, from the store clerk at Michael's (we had to stop for origami paper) to the information people, to the period-dressed folks in Old Town, and the Zoo and Safari Park employees - everyone has been very kind, more than I've found in other places (save when we were in the UK last year and only had one person be grouchy with us). It has been a nice experience so far from that perspective.
After a couple of hours, we decided to go back home. We did sit for a good 20 minutes on the way back to the car and watch the sea lions frolicking in the waves, including leaping and body surfing. It was so cute to watch them all glide together through a wave, even though only one or two would end up on the beach. Some of them were lying on the beach and letting the waves roll them over as well. It was such fun to watch.
We found an attendant when we returned to our car and paid him, then sat in beach traffic for 20 minutes just trying to get out of town. I'm taking advantage of the time change while I can to get us all up and out early so we can find parking, etc. So far it has worked heavily in our favor, with good parking spots and crowds only increasing as we're ready to leave. We went back to the house for a little while, then went to Costco to get gasoline (what a line, egad) and a few other things, then stopped at Michael's (as stated above) to get origami paper because we forgot ours. We had dinner and did laundry - the washer and dryer are on the back porch, interesting - and then watched dumb Youtube videos for an hour or so before bed (James Veitch, Monty Python's Dead Parrot and Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, etc) because it's important to ground my kids in the classics. :)
time for bed,
good night
wb
Monday, July 30, 2018
This always happens to me. I have the best intentions of keeping up with my "journal" in this space, and then I'm so busy vacationing (vacating?) that I miss a day, which becomes two, and....
Well, this is my attempt to get caught up. We had a busy day today (more on that later) but are now back at "home" in El Cajon relaxing and recovering from the 100-degree heat.
(In case you're wondering why so much improved punctuation, I'm typing this on my computer rather than my Bluetooth keyboard, so the shift key works much better.)
Anyway... Where did I leave off? I think I covered Thursday and Friday (I did tell you about the Zoo, right?). So now for Saturday. We are in the are for almost a full week, so we decided to do the big park days (Zoo and Safari Park) on weekdays, and save the weekend for lesser excursions. Summer is the high season, but I figured weekends would be even busier, so Saturday we decided to go to Old Town. Old Town is the area where San Diego began. It became a ghost town after the "new town" (now downtown San Diego) was established, and then it became a historical site. I posted some photos yesterday on my Facebook page; since they are on my phone I don't have good access to put them here, so you'll just have to take my word for it. So to speak.
Anyway, we were still waking up early, so we got into Old Town around 9 AM and got a prime parking space in a free lot - huzzah. We went to the information booth to find out what there was to do. The parking lot was off the beaten path a bit, and most of the places didn't open until 10, so the girls were a bit confused as to what we would be doing. I only had a vague idea, so after talking with the information booth guy, I bought us tickets on the Old Town Trolley Tour. Genevieve wanted to go to one of the museums in Balboa Park, but since I'm the only driver, I didn't want to drive over there and find more parking, so I figured the Trolley would be a nice way to get there, in a hop-on, hop-off sort of way. The girls (especially the younger one) were a bit grouchy (she's not a morning person) so we were all a bit out of sorts by the time the next trolley arrived. I sat behind the girls at one of the openings (no glass, better photos) and we waited for... whatever came next. The information person said it was a money-back guarantee, so I figured, what the heck.
It turned out that the older male driver, whose name was "Philip, with just... one 'L' - still Phil" (which he said at every available opportunity, until we were all saying it along with him by an hour into the tour) was a retired missionary to Japan, and retired teacher, and he was charming and just corny enough, but really knowledgeable (as one would expect). We were about 15 minutes into the tour when my younger daughter leaned back and said, "Can we ride this all day?" I was very happy that it turned out so well.
The Balboa Park stop was third from the last stop (which was Old Town), so we ended up on the trolley for a good 90 minutes, listening to interesting facts about the airport (single busiest one-runway airport in the US, with flights taking off every 90 seconds), the military bases, the Coronado Bridge, architecture and history of downtown, average rainfall in August (0.07"), etc. It was really neat, and the kids didn't want to get off, especially as there was a pretty good chance that we would get a different tour bus driver for the last two stops, but we disembarked anyway.
There was an artisan show along the road we took to the Visitor's Center, with painters, jewelers with wire pieces, and a man selling ceramics. I am a sucker for a nice ceramic mug or bowl, so we picked them up and held them and admired them, and moved along. We passed the Sprekels Organ Pavilion, a huge open-air space with a pipe organ on a large stage with semi-circular architecture flanking it. Someone was playing a piece I didn't recognize, but it was impressive. It was probably 1/4 mile from the Visitor's Center to the Museum of Man, which my elder daughter had researched a bit and wanted to visit. There was a special exhibit (which cost a bit extra) on "Cannibalism: myth and legend," which she wanted to see. I wasn't particularly chuffed about that, seeing that the "edible" chapter in Mary Roach's otherwise very entertaining book about cadavers made me rather ill, but we opted in because she was really interested.
The museum itself was pretty simple; less occupied than the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. It had very "interactive" exhibits, including one on monsters. There was a giant dream catcher at the end of that exhibit which invited people to write their "biggest fears" on a paper feather and attach it to the dream catcher. The first one that caught my eye simply said, "laundry." I can see where that might be a big fear for someone....
Among the other exhibits was one called Post Secret, in which people are invited to send a post card with a secret they'd never revealed, anonymously, to the collector. It's made into an art project, so the secrets are "illustrated" in a fashion. There was a collection of them in one portion of the museum. As you can imagine, many of them were quite depressing, but a few of them made me laugh. We didn't last long in that exhibit.
There was an exhibit on race, one on ancient Mayans, one on the indigenous peoples of the San Diego area, the Kumeyaay, and one on animals and their relationships with people, so quite a diverse offering in this museum. We were tired and it was close to 1 PM and I was HUNGRY (having been up since 4:30 AM again) so we left he museum to get lunch, managing to find some pretty good sandwiches for not too much (my kids do realize we're spending their inheritance, I think). It was a good call to eat before we went back in to the cannibal exhibit, I think....
The exhibit was some of what one would expect, with stories about explorers, early evidence of cannibalism, and musings about whether "cannibal" was just another epithet (such as "savage") without any evidence to support that certain peoples were actual cannibals. The thing that disturbed me the most was the idea that since these unknown early peoples were shunted into "non-human" or "less human" categories by the explorers/missionaries/whatever, then even if they WERE cannibals, is that so bad? As if the mislabeling of a category of humans justified whatever actual horrific practices they engaged in. They mentioned the fact that the Europeans were engaging in similar acts to the human sacrifice and flaying of live people that the Aztecs did at that time, so who are they to criticize, because after all, the Aztecs "ritually removing and eating hearts... did it out of intense religious obligation: they believed that human sacrifices were responsible for the sun rising each day." Hm. Just because someone believes something strongly, or because it's a sanctioned cultural practice, doesn't mean that it's morally acceptable. I'm sure you can think of some examples yourselves.
Anyway, the spin on this made me uncomfortable, as did the later exhibits talking about which shipwrecks ended up in killing a crew member to be eaten, and the part about the Donner Party, plus the "edible human" "medicinal: section, which I had to skip because of revulsion. The museum had an interactive exhibit with plastic bottles hanging on the wall into which people could put slips saying whether they would eat someone or starve to death - some of those entries were kind of funny, actually, but by then we'd had enough of that. One part that I did think fascinating was a short film on the survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force plane crash in the Andes in 1972. I wondered how the survivors could make themselves eat another person. The story was riveting, and very personal. I still think I'd rather not eat someone else, but I've never been hungry enough or in a position to make that decision. I hope I never am.
Whew, sorry about that. It was a rather intense experience. After that we decided not to try another museum, but to walk back to the Trolley stop and head for home. On our way we stopped again at the ceramics booth and ended up buying three little bowls from the artist, who was a very personable fellow. We will enjoy eating ice cream out of those bowls, I think. It was only a few yards to the Trolley stop from there. There was an employee standing nearby to answer questions; she was also quite friendly and we chatted until the trolley showed up. And Guess Who was the Driver? Philip-with-only-one-L-still-Phil! We were excited to finish the tour with him, which lasted another 45 minutes or so. We saw the hill up which Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun raced a motorcycle, and Little Italy, and a few more things.
Once we got back to Old Town, there were a lot more people there. There was a demonstration of historical arts, such as quilting, basket weaving, and spinning wool thread on hand drop-spinners (whatever they're called - see how much I learned?) I felt sorry for the people in period costumes because it was almost 90 degrees. They were in the shade and there was a nice breeze, but still....
We got some specialty sodas from a place called "Old Town Jerky and Root Beer," which had more kinds of root beer than I had ever seen. I like root beer, but wow. The girls don't like it, but they found some other sodas so we bought two 6-packs of choose-your-own so we could each have 4. One of the ones we bought was called "Leninade" and the bottle says "Get hammered & sickled" and "A taste worth waiting in line for" and "a party in every bottle." I was amused. And the soda was pretty good. We drove home about 1/2 hour and chilled out. I made burgers for dinner and we watched "National Treasure" on Netflix (there's an account for guests here), which my elder daughter had seen parts of in school, but we'd never seen the whole thing. Not bad.
This has been long enough. I will continue with yesterday's installment (which I anticipate being much shorter) another time.
love
wendy
Well, this is my attempt to get caught up. We had a busy day today (more on that later) but are now back at "home" in El Cajon relaxing and recovering from the 100-degree heat.
(In case you're wondering why so much improved punctuation, I'm typing this on my computer rather than my Bluetooth keyboard, so the shift key works much better.)
Anyway... Where did I leave off? I think I covered Thursday and Friday (I did tell you about the Zoo, right?). So now for Saturday. We are in the are for almost a full week, so we decided to do the big park days (Zoo and Safari Park) on weekdays, and save the weekend for lesser excursions. Summer is the high season, but I figured weekends would be even busier, so Saturday we decided to go to Old Town. Old Town is the area where San Diego began. It became a ghost town after the "new town" (now downtown San Diego) was established, and then it became a historical site. I posted some photos yesterday on my Facebook page; since they are on my phone I don't have good access to put them here, so you'll just have to take my word for it. So to speak.
Anyway, we were still waking up early, so we got into Old Town around 9 AM and got a prime parking space in a free lot - huzzah. We went to the information booth to find out what there was to do. The parking lot was off the beaten path a bit, and most of the places didn't open until 10, so the girls were a bit confused as to what we would be doing. I only had a vague idea, so after talking with the information booth guy, I bought us tickets on the Old Town Trolley Tour. Genevieve wanted to go to one of the museums in Balboa Park, but since I'm the only driver, I didn't want to drive over there and find more parking, so I figured the Trolley would be a nice way to get there, in a hop-on, hop-off sort of way. The girls (especially the younger one) were a bit grouchy (she's not a morning person) so we were all a bit out of sorts by the time the next trolley arrived. I sat behind the girls at one of the openings (no glass, better photos) and we waited for... whatever came next. The information person said it was a money-back guarantee, so I figured, what the heck.
It turned out that the older male driver, whose name was "Philip, with just... one 'L' - still Phil" (which he said at every available opportunity, until we were all saying it along with him by an hour into the tour) was a retired missionary to Japan, and retired teacher, and he was charming and just corny enough, but really knowledgeable (as one would expect). We were about 15 minutes into the tour when my younger daughter leaned back and said, "Can we ride this all day?" I was very happy that it turned out so well.
The Balboa Park stop was third from the last stop (which was Old Town), so we ended up on the trolley for a good 90 minutes, listening to interesting facts about the airport (single busiest one-runway airport in the US, with flights taking off every 90 seconds), the military bases, the Coronado Bridge, architecture and history of downtown, average rainfall in August (0.07"), etc. It was really neat, and the kids didn't want to get off, especially as there was a pretty good chance that we would get a different tour bus driver for the last two stops, but we disembarked anyway.
There was an artisan show along the road we took to the Visitor's Center, with painters, jewelers with wire pieces, and a man selling ceramics. I am a sucker for a nice ceramic mug or bowl, so we picked them up and held them and admired them, and moved along. We passed the Sprekels Organ Pavilion, a huge open-air space with a pipe organ on a large stage with semi-circular architecture flanking it. Someone was playing a piece I didn't recognize, but it was impressive. It was probably 1/4 mile from the Visitor's Center to the Museum of Man, which my elder daughter had researched a bit and wanted to visit. There was a special exhibit (which cost a bit extra) on "Cannibalism: myth and legend," which she wanted to see. I wasn't particularly chuffed about that, seeing that the "edible" chapter in Mary Roach's otherwise very entertaining book about cadavers made me rather ill, but we opted in because she was really interested.
The museum itself was pretty simple; less occupied than the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. It had very "interactive" exhibits, including one on monsters. There was a giant dream catcher at the end of that exhibit which invited people to write their "biggest fears" on a paper feather and attach it to the dream catcher. The first one that caught my eye simply said, "laundry." I can see where that might be a big fear for someone....
Among the other exhibits was one called Post Secret, in which people are invited to send a post card with a secret they'd never revealed, anonymously, to the collector. It's made into an art project, so the secrets are "illustrated" in a fashion. There was a collection of them in one portion of the museum. As you can imagine, many of them were quite depressing, but a few of them made me laugh. We didn't last long in that exhibit.
There was an exhibit on race, one on ancient Mayans, one on the indigenous peoples of the San Diego area, the Kumeyaay, and one on animals and their relationships with people, so quite a diverse offering in this museum. We were tired and it was close to 1 PM and I was HUNGRY (having been up since 4:30 AM again) so we left he museum to get lunch, managing to find some pretty good sandwiches for not too much (my kids do realize we're spending their inheritance, I think). It was a good call to eat before we went back in to the cannibal exhibit, I think....
The exhibit was some of what one would expect, with stories about explorers, early evidence of cannibalism, and musings about whether "cannibal" was just another epithet (such as "savage") without any evidence to support that certain peoples were actual cannibals. The thing that disturbed me the most was the idea that since these unknown early peoples were shunted into "non-human" or "less human" categories by the explorers/missionaries/whatever, then even if they WERE cannibals, is that so bad? As if the mislabeling of a category of humans justified whatever actual horrific practices they engaged in. They mentioned the fact that the Europeans were engaging in similar acts to the human sacrifice and flaying of live people that the Aztecs did at that time, so who are they to criticize, because after all, the Aztecs "ritually removing and eating hearts... did it out of intense religious obligation: they believed that human sacrifices were responsible for the sun rising each day." Hm. Just because someone believes something strongly, or because it's a sanctioned cultural practice, doesn't mean that it's morally acceptable. I'm sure you can think of some examples yourselves.
Anyway, the spin on this made me uncomfortable, as did the later exhibits talking about which shipwrecks ended up in killing a crew member to be eaten, and the part about the Donner Party, plus the "edible human" "medicinal: section, which I had to skip because of revulsion. The museum had an interactive exhibit with plastic bottles hanging on the wall into which people could put slips saying whether they would eat someone or starve to death - some of those entries were kind of funny, actually, but by then we'd had enough of that. One part that I did think fascinating was a short film on the survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force plane crash in the Andes in 1972. I wondered how the survivors could make themselves eat another person. The story was riveting, and very personal. I still think I'd rather not eat someone else, but I've never been hungry enough or in a position to make that decision. I hope I never am.
Whew, sorry about that. It was a rather intense experience. After that we decided not to try another museum, but to walk back to the Trolley stop and head for home. On our way we stopped again at the ceramics booth and ended up buying three little bowls from the artist, who was a very personable fellow. We will enjoy eating ice cream out of those bowls, I think. It was only a few yards to the Trolley stop from there. There was an employee standing nearby to answer questions; she was also quite friendly and we chatted until the trolley showed up. And Guess Who was the Driver? Philip-with-only-one-L-still-Phil! We were excited to finish the tour with him, which lasted another 45 minutes or so. We saw the hill up which Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun raced a motorcycle, and Little Italy, and a few more things.
Once we got back to Old Town, there were a lot more people there. There was a demonstration of historical arts, such as quilting, basket weaving, and spinning wool thread on hand drop-spinners (whatever they're called - see how much I learned?) I felt sorry for the people in period costumes because it was almost 90 degrees. They were in the shade and there was a nice breeze, but still....
We got some specialty sodas from a place called "Old Town Jerky and Root Beer," which had more kinds of root beer than I had ever seen. I like root beer, but wow. The girls don't like it, but they found some other sodas so we bought two 6-packs of choose-your-own so we could each have 4. One of the ones we bought was called "Leninade" and the bottle says "Get hammered & sickled" and "A taste worth waiting in line for" and "a party in every bottle." I was amused. And the soda was pretty good. We drove home about 1/2 hour and chilled out. I made burgers for dinner and we watched "National Treasure" on Netflix (there's an account for guests here), which my elder daughter had seen parts of in school, but we'd never seen the whole thing. Not bad.
This has been long enough. I will continue with yesterday's installment (which I anticipate being much shorter) another time.
love
wendy
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Hello, friends,
Greetings from sunny San Diego, California. The 'shift' key on my bluetooth keyboard isn't working very well, so forgive me if i'm not great with capitals - they take a lot of effort.
today is day 3 of our vacation, and so far it has been a good time. The girls and i actually left Michigan on wednesday because our flight was out of chicago and our friends Rose and Chris offered to let us stay at their house (in addition to leaving our car there for the duration). We had an uneventful drive to chicagoland, had a nice dinner and relaxed evening watching a movie, and then took a cab to the airport thursday morning without a hitch.
the time in the airport was about what one would expect; we didn't eat lunch there because we were full from breakfast, and we brought snacks for the plane, so we were pretty well set. the flight itself left about 30 minutes late because we were 1) waiting for some late arrivals, and 2) waiting for a clear runway. the pilot was funny and friendly-sounding and said he would fly at 32,00 feet so we could go faster. and we did, because despite the delays, we landed at our original arrival time at LAX. we caught an immediate shuttle to the car rental place, used the "express" servie to rent because i had reserved a car, and picked out a cute red nissan Rogue (?) hatchback, and drove away. into an hour of LA rush-hour traffic.
Thankfully, i had Genevieve navigating with my GPS, and we were tired and punchy enough to laugh our way through the traffic for the next 75 minutes or so. we are staying near San diego (el cajon) so we had to drive 130 miles after we got off the plane. The girls didn't want to bother trying to find a place for dinner, and by the time we rolled in at 8 local time (11 on our inner clocks) we were too tired to eat, so we went to bed.
day 2: i woke up around 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep - an expected result of going to bed at 9, i suppose - and the girls got up closer to 6:30 or 7. We found a local place to eat breakfast (we hadn't wanted to stop for groceries the night before, either) which was not crowded and very good. i still have leftovers in the fridge from that. we went back to the Airbnb place we are renting, which is a tiny place above a detached garage with one bedroom and a fold-out couch in the living room. There is plenty of space for the 3 of us, though.
after that we got ready and navigated our way to the San Diego Zoo, and got there just as it opened at 9. i think it got to almost 100 degrees; even if it didn't, we were pretty hot and worn out after 6 hours of walking around the very hilly, very scenic (in two senses - beautifully laid out, and no straight way to get anywhere) and well-tended park. we declined to spend $12 each on a sandwich. we had brought out cooling towels and sun-blocking sleeves; i've never tried wetting the sleeves down before, but we did yesterday, and it was AMAZING. highly recommended for keeping cool and preventing sunburn.
There were so many cool animals. Sometimes we walked through exhibits and read all the info; sometimes we wandered by, appreciating the overall impression, and sometimes we say around and watched the monkeys playing or whatever. of course the pandas had us gawking and cooing. There weren't any babies there but the adults are so cute that one can hardly help it. The elephants were another favorite. The gift shops are always so neat - in between the kitsch, there are some really nice things, so i picked up some presents for people at home (already!).
after 6 hours we were tired so we came home. the girls hardly complained at all, even though we were all a bit grouchy from the heat and hungry for dinner. we landed at home for about an hour (and spent some of that time watching youtube videos of baby pandas) and then i headed out to get groceries. i had to go to two places to get everything i needed, and when I got home and fixed dinner it was about 7. That dinner tasted better than anything i've eaten in a while.
I feel very blessed to have the kids i have - they are good-natured and mature, as well as funny and charming. this while vacation would have a different feel if they were complaining or bickering, but they continue to get along as well as ever.
i think i will leave this hear and talk about today in another post. Thanks for your kind thoughts and prayers for us. We are having a lot of fun.
love,
wb
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Catching up, again
Good morning and happy Sunday.
Right now we are moored "in the wild" (that is, there are no permanent mooring rings in our location, so we had to put in our mooring pins) not too far from Bradford-on-Avon (not to be confused with Stratford-on-Avon), southeast of Bath, near the lock. It's about 60 degrees, and I actually went for a run this morning, because we are next to this miles-long towpath, and I thought I ought to. It wasn't much of a run - lots of walking, because I'm out of shape (for running, at least), plus the gravel is harder to run on than pavement. The pavement here (we are not too far from a residential area) would be hard to run on as well, as the asphalt is full of little rocks. No good for barefoot running, anyway.
Thursday we went into Bath again, to see some of the things we had not seen. We split up with Martha and Larry and agreed to meet up at the Abbey at a certain time. We stopped at Minerva's Art Supplies (where we had stopped the day before) and bought the kids some ink for the dip pens we got at the Jane Austen Center. We also found a fabulous bookstore where we could have spent all our remaining time, and I'm sorry to say we bought a few books (not because of the books but because we have to carry them now). I also got to photograph "Mr. Bennett," a character in costume standing outside the Jane Austen Centre, with muttonchop whiskers and top hat. He has worked there for over 10 years and is supposedly the "most photographed man in England." When we got out of the Jane Austen Centre the previous day, however, he was nowhere in sight; therefore I was determined to get a photo of him today. We struck up a conversation, mostly about conversation: I asked him if he had a lot of interesting conversations, and he said in his British accent, "Not really. Most people - not you - are really BO-ring, like all they do is watch the telly. They're very BO-ring - not you, of course." And so forth. Maybe he liked to be asked about himself; most people find that interesting. Makes me wonder what everyone else says to him that's so BO-ring. Our conversation was cut short when a tour bus stopped by to "ask directions" (a ruse, really) - but I got a photo of Mr. Bennett talking to the bus driver.
After that Giselle was hungry, so we stopped at the Intermezzo Express, where we had eaten lunch the day before, and got her another sandwich, even though it was only 10:30. I think both my kids are going through a growth spurt - they are certainly eating enough. The proprietor, Tony, remembered us from the day before, and we had a nice conversation as we waited for Giselle's sandwich to toast.
We headed for the Abbey after that and met M&L. There was a communion service being held at the front of the church, so they asked no photos there, but the rest of the place was fair game. There was an exhibition of "diptychs," in which an artist had done an illustrated manuscript/calligraphy page of a Bible verse, and the opposing page was a stitched/quilted picture. It was gorgeous, but most of the plates were behind glass and difficult to photograph because of the glare. They had postcards in the gift shop with reproductions so I bought one or two. Giselle bought a deck of cards with monarchs of the British Isles; 52 of them and 3 "jokers" - I don't know my history well enough to recognize two of the jokers, but one of them was the king who abdicated in favor of his younger brother during World War II. I learned that from "The King's Speech." Who says movies aren't good for you? I thought it was a nice souvenir. We had fun later putting them in order or reign.
After we went to the Abbey, we stopped for lunch at the same place where T, the girls and I had lunch on Monday - Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I was able to get another kids' meal (side of corn on the cob and a chocolate shake - yum) and the server recognized us. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. We were right near the train station, so we stopped to ask about trains to Scotland for Monday. The person who helped us was named Tracey, and she made us reservations on an appropriate train. I didn't know we could do that, because we have BritRail passes, but she said, "You paid for your ticket, same as everyone else, so why shouldn't you?" So we have reservations.
Walked back to the boat, and set off toward Bradford-on-Avon. We got to go through our first lock, which was an interesting experience. Larry, the girls and I went up to operate the paddles, and open the gates, and M and T piloted the boat into the lock. We were going "uphill" so we had to let the water in to raise the boat up to the next level. Clever engineering. After that I got to pilot the boat to the "winding" place, where we turned the boat around and headed back toward the lock to moor. We found a place about 1/2 mile from the lock and about a mile from town, but I didn't know the distance until I looked it up last night. We were right by a stairway leading up the the road, and we turned right when we should have turned left (not that we would know this) and walked along a residential street all the way into BoA, as they call it around here. Once there, we found an information center (and M&L bought duck food for the kids to use instead of crumbs to feed the ducks, who tend to follow people around, begging) and got some maps. We walked around town and did a bit of shopping, then walked back via the Tithe Barn and then the canal. It brought us on the path next to the lock again, so we were much closer to town than I had thought.
Time to get going, so more later.
blessings,
wendy
Right now we are moored "in the wild" (that is, there are no permanent mooring rings in our location, so we had to put in our mooring pins) not too far from Bradford-on-Avon (not to be confused with Stratford-on-Avon), southeast of Bath, near the lock. It's about 60 degrees, and I actually went for a run this morning, because we are next to this miles-long towpath, and I thought I ought to. It wasn't much of a run - lots of walking, because I'm out of shape (for running, at least), plus the gravel is harder to run on than pavement. The pavement here (we are not too far from a residential area) would be hard to run on as well, as the asphalt is full of little rocks. No good for barefoot running, anyway.
Thursday we went into Bath again, to see some of the things we had not seen. We split up with Martha and Larry and agreed to meet up at the Abbey at a certain time. We stopped at Minerva's Art Supplies (where we had stopped the day before) and bought the kids some ink for the dip pens we got at the Jane Austen Center. We also found a fabulous bookstore where we could have spent all our remaining time, and I'm sorry to say we bought a few books (not because of the books but because we have to carry them now). I also got to photograph "Mr. Bennett," a character in costume standing outside the Jane Austen Centre, with muttonchop whiskers and top hat. He has worked there for over 10 years and is supposedly the "most photographed man in England." When we got out of the Jane Austen Centre the previous day, however, he was nowhere in sight; therefore I was determined to get a photo of him today. We struck up a conversation, mostly about conversation: I asked him if he had a lot of interesting conversations, and he said in his British accent, "Not really. Most people - not you - are really BO-ring, like all they do is watch the telly. They're very BO-ring - not you, of course." And so forth. Maybe he liked to be asked about himself; most people find that interesting. Makes me wonder what everyone else says to him that's so BO-ring. Our conversation was cut short when a tour bus stopped by to "ask directions" (a ruse, really) - but I got a photo of Mr. Bennett talking to the bus driver.
After that Giselle was hungry, so we stopped at the Intermezzo Express, where we had eaten lunch the day before, and got her another sandwich, even though it was only 10:30. I think both my kids are going through a growth spurt - they are certainly eating enough. The proprietor, Tony, remembered us from the day before, and we had a nice conversation as we waited for Giselle's sandwich to toast.
We headed for the Abbey after that and met M&L. There was a communion service being held at the front of the church, so they asked no photos there, but the rest of the place was fair game. There was an exhibition of "diptychs," in which an artist had done an illustrated manuscript/calligraphy page of a Bible verse, and the opposing page was a stitched/quilted picture. It was gorgeous, but most of the plates were behind glass and difficult to photograph because of the glare. They had postcards in the gift shop with reproductions so I bought one or two. Giselle bought a deck of cards with monarchs of the British Isles; 52 of them and 3 "jokers" - I don't know my history well enough to recognize two of the jokers, but one of them was the king who abdicated in favor of his younger brother during World War II. I learned that from "The King's Speech." Who says movies aren't good for you? I thought it was a nice souvenir. We had fun later putting them in order or reign.
After we went to the Abbey, we stopped for lunch at the same place where T, the girls and I had lunch on Monday - Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I was able to get another kids' meal (side of corn on the cob and a chocolate shake - yum) and the server recognized us. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. We were right near the train station, so we stopped to ask about trains to Scotland for Monday. The person who helped us was named Tracey, and she made us reservations on an appropriate train. I didn't know we could do that, because we have BritRail passes, but she said, "You paid for your ticket, same as everyone else, so why shouldn't you?" So we have reservations.
Walked back to the boat, and set off toward Bradford-on-Avon. We got to go through our first lock, which was an interesting experience. Larry, the girls and I went up to operate the paddles, and open the gates, and M and T piloted the boat into the lock. We were going "uphill" so we had to let the water in to raise the boat up to the next level. Clever engineering. After that I got to pilot the boat to the "winding" place, where we turned the boat around and headed back toward the lock to moor. We found a place about 1/2 mile from the lock and about a mile from town, but I didn't know the distance until I looked it up last night. We were right by a stairway leading up the the road, and we turned right when we should have turned left (not that we would know this) and walked along a residential street all the way into BoA, as they call it around here. Once there, we found an information center (and M&L bought duck food for the kids to use instead of crumbs to feed the ducks, who tend to follow people around, begging) and got some maps. We walked around town and did a bit of shopping, then walked back via the Tithe Barn and then the canal. It brought us on the path next to the lock again, so we were much closer to town than I had thought.
Time to get going, so more later.
blessings,
wendy
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Wednesday
Hello friends,
I was right - the day turned out sunny and pleasant, though it was iffy there for a while - cloudy and a drip of rain once or twice. We headed into Bath and walked through the city; we started at a particular store that Martha and Larry wanted to see, stopping at the post office for them to change back some Euros from a previous trip first. Then we walked to the King's Circus, which is a big architectural circle of apartments with some pretty interesting features, including acorn structures on top of the buildings, and took some photos there. I have a panoramic feature on my camera that works pretty well, so I played with that for a few minutes. We next walked to the Crescent; again the panoramic photos. There were two ladies standing by the wrought iron gate, talking and smoking. I got them in a few photos, then decided to move over next to them to get them out of the photos (I had been waiting for them to move on). Of course right when I moved, they started walking away in a direction that pretty much guaranteed they would be in all future photos for the next several minutes. I gave up.
We had walked by the Jane Austen Centre on the way to the Circus and headed back there. Martha and Larry decided to go to a park nearby, because they were not interested, but our family went in and had a little guided tour talking about Jane Austen and her family, her time in Bath and its influence on her novels, etc. The rest of the tour was self-guided, with a short video hosted by the actor who played Wickham in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I had read P&P to the girls a few months ago, and we had watched the BBC miniseries, so they knew what was going on. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite "comfort" books, like a blankie if I'm not feeling well, or just to read its familiar funny scenes. There was a place to try on period costumes (which we did not do) and to write with quill pens, which both the girls enjoyed enough that we bought some nib pens in the gift shop. They also had some attractive little editions of Austen's writings for sale, and I admit I bought a couple of them. I haven't ready any books of hers other than P&P, and I was inspired to do so after this visit, and see what they have to do with Bath as well.
After that, we found Martha and Larry in the park, and all set off to find some lunch. There was some hemming and hawing - it's always tricky to synchronize the agendas of 6 people - so we split up again and they went for fish and chips, and we went to a little hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop called Intermezzo Express, where they made sandwiches to order (rather like Subway, but much better, and with cooler accents). The bread was amazing. We sat on benches in the square to eat and met up with M&L again after the appointed time, and walked on.
On our way to the Roman baths, we stopped in a few shops including a candy store that was AMAZING. The kids wanted Chocolate Frogs (Harry Potter) so we got those, and some fudge. There was also a discount shop called Works that had books, Terry Prachett audiobooks, office supplies, toys, etc.
We got to the Baths around 2:45 and paid the admission. It has an audio tour given through a device rather like a telephone handpiece; you dial in the number of the exhibit you want (they are listed on the signs) and listen, or not, as you like. I thought it was good, but it effectively prevented us from talking to each other because we were listening to the dial up guides, and after a while it got to be a bit much for me because all i wanted to do was sit down. It was also very crowded after a while, and the masses of people listening to the audio tour and not paying attention to where they were going, all packed by the exhibits, got to be too much for me. I think there comes a point by which time one's brain has seen enough and can't process any more. I hit that place about 2/3 through the Baths. So all that remained was to wait for the rest to catch up (I walked ahead slowly with the girls, who tuned in here and there to find out about the exhibits). We spend about 2 minutes in the gift shop, which was quite nice but I was done, then walked out to the main plaza again. We made an executive decision to go back to the boat, because we were all pretty tired. We can moor here until this afternoon (48 hours) so we will go back into Bath again today and do a few more things.
As we walked home we passed a place that we had seen two very pretty snails the day before. Giselle and Genevieve didn't recognize the path, and I said, "It's where we saw the snails yesterday." They vaguely recalled it, and then Giselle said something about "Snails are ugly; snakes are cool." I said, "Watch out - now you've made them angry and they are going to come swarming after us - amble for your life!" Later on, we found some blackberry bushes along the canal and kept stopping to pick some. Giselle (who i think wanted to get home) said, "I think the snails are catching up with us...."
I had bought some minced (ground) beef at the grocery store the other day, and so I made burgers for dinner. One end of the package was frozen (efficient tiny fridge, a bit too cool) so I just "scrunchled" it loose. I had enough thawed to make 6 small burgers. We also had some berries from the store, and that we had picked.
M, L and T went "for a walk" after dinner. M&L went to the grocery store, I think. The girls and I stayed in the boat, which was idling to charge the battery. I couldn't believe they wanted to go for a walk - I thought my legs were going to fall off.... I transferred some photos from my camera to a USB drive (which took longer than I thought) and then my nifty galifty internet hotspot refused to work, so I went to bed. It seems to be working this morning, so here's hoping. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep which has been typical for me this vacation. There is a lot of foot and bike traffic on the tow path by the canal which is gravel, so one can hear passers by quite easily. I think Ill get up and have some breakfast.
Have a good day, all. :)
wendy
I was right - the day turned out sunny and pleasant, though it was iffy there for a while - cloudy and a drip of rain once or twice. We headed into Bath and walked through the city; we started at a particular store that Martha and Larry wanted to see, stopping at the post office for them to change back some Euros from a previous trip first. Then we walked to the King's Circus, which is a big architectural circle of apartments with some pretty interesting features, including acorn structures on top of the buildings, and took some photos there. I have a panoramic feature on my camera that works pretty well, so I played with that for a few minutes. We next walked to the Crescent; again the panoramic photos. There were two ladies standing by the wrought iron gate, talking and smoking. I got them in a few photos, then decided to move over next to them to get them out of the photos (I had been waiting for them to move on). Of course right when I moved, they started walking away in a direction that pretty much guaranteed they would be in all future photos for the next several minutes. I gave up.
We had walked by the Jane Austen Centre on the way to the Circus and headed back there. Martha and Larry decided to go to a park nearby, because they were not interested, but our family went in and had a little guided tour talking about Jane Austen and her family, her time in Bath and its influence on her novels, etc. The rest of the tour was self-guided, with a short video hosted by the actor who played Wickham in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I had read P&P to the girls a few months ago, and we had watched the BBC miniseries, so they knew what was going on. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite "comfort" books, like a blankie if I'm not feeling well, or just to read its familiar funny scenes. There was a place to try on period costumes (which we did not do) and to write with quill pens, which both the girls enjoyed enough that we bought some nib pens in the gift shop. They also had some attractive little editions of Austen's writings for sale, and I admit I bought a couple of them. I haven't ready any books of hers other than P&P, and I was inspired to do so after this visit, and see what they have to do with Bath as well.
After that, we found Martha and Larry in the park, and all set off to find some lunch. There was some hemming and hawing - it's always tricky to synchronize the agendas of 6 people - so we split up again and they went for fish and chips, and we went to a little hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop called Intermezzo Express, where they made sandwiches to order (rather like Subway, but much better, and with cooler accents). The bread was amazing. We sat on benches in the square to eat and met up with M&L again after the appointed time, and walked on.
On our way to the Roman baths, we stopped in a few shops including a candy store that was AMAZING. The kids wanted Chocolate Frogs (Harry Potter) so we got those, and some fudge. There was also a discount shop called Works that had books, Terry Prachett audiobooks, office supplies, toys, etc.
We got to the Baths around 2:45 and paid the admission. It has an audio tour given through a device rather like a telephone handpiece; you dial in the number of the exhibit you want (they are listed on the signs) and listen, or not, as you like. I thought it was good, but it effectively prevented us from talking to each other because we were listening to the dial up guides, and after a while it got to be a bit much for me because all i wanted to do was sit down. It was also very crowded after a while, and the masses of people listening to the audio tour and not paying attention to where they were going, all packed by the exhibits, got to be too much for me. I think there comes a point by which time one's brain has seen enough and can't process any more. I hit that place about 2/3 through the Baths. So all that remained was to wait for the rest to catch up (I walked ahead slowly with the girls, who tuned in here and there to find out about the exhibits). We spend about 2 minutes in the gift shop, which was quite nice but I was done, then walked out to the main plaza again. We made an executive decision to go back to the boat, because we were all pretty tired. We can moor here until this afternoon (48 hours) so we will go back into Bath again today and do a few more things.
As we walked home we passed a place that we had seen two very pretty snails the day before. Giselle and Genevieve didn't recognize the path, and I said, "It's where we saw the snails yesterday." They vaguely recalled it, and then Giselle said something about "Snails are ugly; snakes are cool." I said, "Watch out - now you've made them angry and they are going to come swarming after us - amble for your life!" Later on, we found some blackberry bushes along the canal and kept stopping to pick some. Giselle (who i think wanted to get home) said, "I think the snails are catching up with us...."
I had bought some minced (ground) beef at the grocery store the other day, and so I made burgers for dinner. One end of the package was frozen (efficient tiny fridge, a bit too cool) so I just "scrunchled" it loose. I had enough thawed to make 6 small burgers. We also had some berries from the store, and that we had picked.
M, L and T went "for a walk" after dinner. M&L went to the grocery store, I think. The girls and I stayed in the boat, which was idling to charge the battery. I couldn't believe they wanted to go for a walk - I thought my legs were going to fall off.... I transferred some photos from my camera to a USB drive (which took longer than I thought) and then my nifty galifty internet hotspot refused to work, so I went to bed. It seems to be working this morning, so here's hoping. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep which has been typical for me this vacation. There is a lot of foot and bike traffic on the tow path by the canal which is gravel, so one can hear passers by quite easily. I think Ill get up and have some breakfast.
Have a good day, all. :)
wendy
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Catch up 2
Hello, friends,
I think I got us up to Sunday night. It is now Wednesday morning and so I'll try to get caught up all the way before we get our day in Bath started.
Monday morning we got up early - the kids didn't even complain - got our stuff packed, rechecked the sweet little house for leftover stuff, and left. There was a moment of panic when I couldn't find the car key but it was superficially packed - I didn't have to open every bag to find it - and another once we walked around the block to the little parking lot when Giselle discovered that her mp3 player was not where she usually puts it. Easily enough fixed - we swung the car around and drove by the place for a last check. It wasn't in the house so she knew she packed it - somewhere. We got in the car and drove to the rental place, which is kind of an overstatement - it's a former gas station turned car wash with no parking, no real drop off, and signs everywhere that say "no parking." I managed to find a spot not blocking any gates or driveways, we said goodbye to the car and walked 1/2 block to the train station, where we caught the 7:25 to Cardiff Central. We actually got off one station before that. It was so cool to hear the station names being announced both in Welsh and English.
We were on the train for about 2 hours before we reached our stop, then trudged to the information kiosk and found where the train to Bristol was, then connected to Bath from there. We got to Bath around 12:30 and walked around a bit. In order to get out of the train station, one has to run one's ticket through an electronic turnstile; we have rail passes and they wouldn't fit, so we asked the nice employee by the exit what to do. He very solicitously let us out, and told us where to find a grocery store. We were right near the bus station, and wandered a bit, before we realized that we didn't ALL have to drag our luggage to the grocery store, so I left Genevieve and Thad with the bags on a bench in the square, and Giselle and I scouted. The store was another block away - no problem. We decided to get lunch, as we had eaten so early, and settled on a burger place. I got a kids' meal which came with a grilled corn on the cob option and a shake, so I was happy.
While we waited for our food, I trotted over to the grocery store and picked up some supplies for the boat, which we had arranged with my mother-in-law and her husband to do, because where the boat company is has no good grocery store. Then we took a taxi after lunch to the marina. I was SO glad not to have to drive anymore; riding with the taxi driver, who presumably knows what he's doing, was bad enough. (He drove safely; it's just the narrow streets with maybe 1.5 lanes between hedges and stone walls that get to me.) The kids here are not out of school yet; I think they have another week. Apparently the school day is about 6 hours - Genevieve was envious that they get to "sleep in," but I reminded her that they go to school through July, and she decided she likes her school hours/vacations better.
We met Martha and Larry at the Bath Dundas Marina just before 2, but the boat wasn't ready yet, so we walked around by the canal, used the bathroom, etc. Then we had a tutorial by a man named Gareth, who had been commandeered to do it for us (I think they were VERY busy). He said he hadn't done it in a year but it seemed to go fine. We had watched a youtube video at home about how to run the boats that I think was released by the narrow boat company, so a lot of it was familiar already. Larry, Martha's husband, is captain (obviously), and he made me "assistant skipper," probably because I was standing there when Gareth asked who was second in command, and Larry pointed to me.
We got a much later start than we had thought - more like 5 than 3. Gareth took out the boat from the marina, which was fine with me, as there were boats on either side for about 1/2 mi or more (I couldn't really tell) and it was tricky. Then Gareth left and walked back (there is a tow path on one side of the canal all the way along) and Larry took over. He and Martha had piloted a narrow boat in Wales with some of their other kids and grandkids last week, so they knew what they were doing as well, which was nice. After having had to be in control for 4 days of driving, it was nice to let someone else take over.
We went a few miles and then found a place to moor, and some people got out and wandered around, and some of us organized photos, repacked, chilled, wrote, whatever. The boat is tied up to permanent rings on the shore of the canal. Larry has a map showing where the turnaround points are, and the bridges and locks. We haven't done a lock yet, but there were two bridges, one swing (pivots laterally to open) and lift bridges, which have to be levered up to let the boat through. There are set procedures for opening them, and each boat has a key that unlocks the bridge (if needed), and foot traffic has the right of way over boat traffic. When we get to one, I'll take photos and post them on social media. :)
So that was Monday.
Tuesday morning we got up; Genevieve and I took a walk together and found some blackberries (just a handful of ripe ones) which we brought back, since both of us like to pick the but neither of us likes to eat them. Then we went with Giselle and Thad to a little waterfall which was down the path and across the train tracks (crossing those made Genevieve nervous). Back to the boat and underway; it was my turn to pilot. The boat is 62 feet long and when you steer, it pivots from the center, so it takes some getting used to. I let Larry take over for some very narrow bits when a couple of other boats were passing on the other side, but otherwise it was not too hard to get the basics.
We found out Monday that our 240V plugs didn't work, nor did our Wi-Fi on the boat, so we planned to head for the Bath marina to get that checked out. We can't go any farther than that because our boat is too long for the next turnaround and the company doesn't want us going on the river, where there's a current. When we got to the marina it was very crowded, so we had to turn around to find a spot to moor. That's where I stopped writing yesterday. Larry got out to go to the marina; the rest of us took a little longer to get ready, so we decided to go toward the city and find a grocery store (small dorm-fridge-sized fridge in this boat). We did that, and wandered around the outskirts of the city a bit. By the time we found Larry again, the company had been on the boat and said that it hadn't idled high enough the day before to charge the battery, but now it was reset and fine. The engine has to either be running (forward)or in high idle for at least 6 hours a day to charge the battery.
We returned to the boat with our groceries and stowed them, then got ready for an excursion into Bath (walking). We are somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes' walk fro the city center. It was raining, interspersed with raining harder, the whole time we were there. Our family had been asked if we brought the good weather with us (it was cloudy one other day, the say we went up the mountain), so I'm guessing it has been unseasonably sunny. I didn't mind the rain too much but it makes it more difficult to walk around. We did a bit of sightseeing (externally, didn't go into anything), found an art supply place and a wool shop, and then ate at a place called "Sally Lunn's," "The oldest house in Bath." You can buy the "famous Sally Lunn buns" in the restaurant's museum.... which makes me a bit alarmed. The museum was closed by the time we were finished with a traditionally British meal (chicken and sauce on trenchers was mine) so we were unable to determine whether the bread in the museum is antique or not. ;) We'll find out today.
Finally, bedraggled and damp, we walked back to the boat and hung all our wet things to dry. Larry started up the engine (we were a couple hours short on charging anyway) and turned on the heat, which goes through little radiators on the walls all along one side of the boat. We discovered that the vents in the ceiling tend to leak; there were small drip puddles on the rug and also (unfortunately) on Martha and Larry's duvet.
We settled in and watched a movie (The Court Jester, with Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, and Glynis Johns, c 1954) on my Kindle, and then went to bed about 10.
And I'm done with yesterday - ta-da! This morning we're having breakfast and will head out into the city. The clouds are clearing off so I think it's going to be a nice day.
ta-ra
wendy
I think I got us up to Sunday night. It is now Wednesday morning and so I'll try to get caught up all the way before we get our day in Bath started.
Monday morning we got up early - the kids didn't even complain - got our stuff packed, rechecked the sweet little house for leftover stuff, and left. There was a moment of panic when I couldn't find the car key but it was superficially packed - I didn't have to open every bag to find it - and another once we walked around the block to the little parking lot when Giselle discovered that her mp3 player was not where she usually puts it. Easily enough fixed - we swung the car around and drove by the place for a last check. It wasn't in the house so she knew she packed it - somewhere. We got in the car and drove to the rental place, which is kind of an overstatement - it's a former gas station turned car wash with no parking, no real drop off, and signs everywhere that say "no parking." I managed to find a spot not blocking any gates or driveways, we said goodbye to the car and walked 1/2 block to the train station, where we caught the 7:25 to Cardiff Central. We actually got off one station before that. It was so cool to hear the station names being announced both in Welsh and English.
We were on the train for about 2 hours before we reached our stop, then trudged to the information kiosk and found where the train to Bristol was, then connected to Bath from there. We got to Bath around 12:30 and walked around a bit. In order to get out of the train station, one has to run one's ticket through an electronic turnstile; we have rail passes and they wouldn't fit, so we asked the nice employee by the exit what to do. He very solicitously let us out, and told us where to find a grocery store. We were right near the bus station, and wandered a bit, before we realized that we didn't ALL have to drag our luggage to the grocery store, so I left Genevieve and Thad with the bags on a bench in the square, and Giselle and I scouted. The store was another block away - no problem. We decided to get lunch, as we had eaten so early, and settled on a burger place. I got a kids' meal which came with a grilled corn on the cob option and a shake, so I was happy.
While we waited for our food, I trotted over to the grocery store and picked up some supplies for the boat, which we had arranged with my mother-in-law and her husband to do, because where the boat company is has no good grocery store. Then we took a taxi after lunch to the marina. I was SO glad not to have to drive anymore; riding with the taxi driver, who presumably knows what he's doing, was bad enough. (He drove safely; it's just the narrow streets with maybe 1.5 lanes between hedges and stone walls that get to me.) The kids here are not out of school yet; I think they have another week. Apparently the school day is about 6 hours - Genevieve was envious that they get to "sleep in," but I reminded her that they go to school through July, and she decided she likes her school hours/vacations better.
We met Martha and Larry at the Bath Dundas Marina just before 2, but the boat wasn't ready yet, so we walked around by the canal, used the bathroom, etc. Then we had a tutorial by a man named Gareth, who had been commandeered to do it for us (I think they were VERY busy). He said he hadn't done it in a year but it seemed to go fine. We had watched a youtube video at home about how to run the boats that I think was released by the narrow boat company, so a lot of it was familiar already. Larry, Martha's husband, is captain (obviously), and he made me "assistant skipper," probably because I was standing there when Gareth asked who was second in command, and Larry pointed to me.
We got a much later start than we had thought - more like 5 than 3. Gareth took out the boat from the marina, which was fine with me, as there were boats on either side for about 1/2 mi or more (I couldn't really tell) and it was tricky. Then Gareth left and walked back (there is a tow path on one side of the canal all the way along) and Larry took over. He and Martha had piloted a narrow boat in Wales with some of their other kids and grandkids last week, so they knew what they were doing as well, which was nice. After having had to be in control for 4 days of driving, it was nice to let someone else take over.
We went a few miles and then found a place to moor, and some people got out and wandered around, and some of us organized photos, repacked, chilled, wrote, whatever. The boat is tied up to permanent rings on the shore of the canal. Larry has a map showing where the turnaround points are, and the bridges and locks. We haven't done a lock yet, but there were two bridges, one swing (pivots laterally to open) and lift bridges, which have to be levered up to let the boat through. There are set procedures for opening them, and each boat has a key that unlocks the bridge (if needed), and foot traffic has the right of way over boat traffic. When we get to one, I'll take photos and post them on social media. :)
So that was Monday.
Tuesday morning we got up; Genevieve and I took a walk together and found some blackberries (just a handful of ripe ones) which we brought back, since both of us like to pick the but neither of us likes to eat them. Then we went with Giselle and Thad to a little waterfall which was down the path and across the train tracks (crossing those made Genevieve nervous). Back to the boat and underway; it was my turn to pilot. The boat is 62 feet long and when you steer, it pivots from the center, so it takes some getting used to. I let Larry take over for some very narrow bits when a couple of other boats were passing on the other side, but otherwise it was not too hard to get the basics.
We found out Monday that our 240V plugs didn't work, nor did our Wi-Fi on the boat, so we planned to head for the Bath marina to get that checked out. We can't go any farther than that because our boat is too long for the next turnaround and the company doesn't want us going on the river, where there's a current. When we got to the marina it was very crowded, so we had to turn around to find a spot to moor. That's where I stopped writing yesterday. Larry got out to go to the marina; the rest of us took a little longer to get ready, so we decided to go toward the city and find a grocery store (small dorm-fridge-sized fridge in this boat). We did that, and wandered around the outskirts of the city a bit. By the time we found Larry again, the company had been on the boat and said that it hadn't idled high enough the day before to charge the battery, but now it was reset and fine. The engine has to either be running (forward)or in high idle for at least 6 hours a day to charge the battery.
We returned to the boat with our groceries and stowed them, then got ready for an excursion into Bath (walking). We are somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes' walk fro the city center. It was raining, interspersed with raining harder, the whole time we were there. Our family had been asked if we brought the good weather with us (it was cloudy one other day, the say we went up the mountain), so I'm guessing it has been unseasonably sunny. I didn't mind the rain too much but it makes it more difficult to walk around. We did a bit of sightseeing (externally, didn't go into anything), found an art supply place and a wool shop, and then ate at a place called "Sally Lunn's," "The oldest house in Bath." You can buy the "famous Sally Lunn buns" in the restaurant's museum.... which makes me a bit alarmed. The museum was closed by the time we were finished with a traditionally British meal (chicken and sauce on trenchers was mine) so we were unable to determine whether the bread in the museum is antique or not. ;) We'll find out today.
Finally, bedraggled and damp, we walked back to the boat and hung all our wet things to dry. Larry started up the engine (we were a couple hours short on charging anyway) and turned on the heat, which goes through little radiators on the walls all along one side of the boat. We discovered that the vents in the ceiling tend to leak; there were small drip puddles on the rug and also (unfortunately) on Martha and Larry's duvet.
We settled in and watched a movie (The Court Jester, with Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, and Glynis Johns, c 1954) on my Kindle, and then went to bed about 10.
And I'm done with yesterday - ta-da! This morning we're having breakfast and will head out into the city. The clouds are clearing off so I think it's going to be a nice day.
ta-ra
wendy
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Catch up
Hello, friends,
Note: I don't have a working spell checker and I'm writing on a tempermental Bluetooth keyboard, so please be forviging of typos and spelling errors.
Wow, now I'm three days behind. Vacation is so full and nighttime is for sleeping, not blogging. But now we are on the narrow boat, and I'm done with my driving stint for now (mainly because I now have consistent Wi-Fi, which is spotty on the canal).
I think I left off after Friday. Saturday (still in Wales), we drove a few miles to a nearby town, Llandudno, which I had heard was a big tourist town. Well, it's a bit town, anyway, seaside (right off a peninsula). It is a big town, with a large grocery store, shopping centre, clothing stores, etc. Obviously it's a place people live and shop, because the kitschy Welsh souvenir-type items were conspicuously absent. There were many hotels and eating places, double-decker bus tours (enclosed and open), and a huge pier with carnival-type kiddie rides, food, arcades, cotton candy (candy floss), etc. There was also an Alice in Wonderland-themed park, meaning grassy area with gazebo, etc, not a theme park. There was a smallish stone circle in the middle (small compared to, say, Stonehenge). I have no idea if it was real. I mean, the stones were real, but I have no idea if the circle itself was ancient or not - there was not much of a marker.
We wandered and took photos - it was a beautiful day, sunny and probably 70 or 75 - and Giselle wanted ice cream and was getting a bit grumpy about it, so we had ice cream for lunch. I had clotted cream and honey flavor with a piece of Cadbury Flake (yum). We went back to the car (which was parked in a huge grocery store parking lot) and moved it, because it said there was a 3-hour time limit and I wasn't sure how strict they were about enforcing. We went back into town and into a few shops and an interesting gallery, but then jet lag caught up with us and we decided to go home. We did hit the grocery store for some dinner items - it was a lot like Meijer, or a Super Walmart, with clothing and tools and seasonal items in addition to a huge food selection. Cadbury chocolate is ridiculously inexpensive, so of course we're making it a staple. They have flavors here not available at home, so we're taking advantage and sampling several kinds. :)
In the afternoon, after driving home (egad, getting better but stil nerve-wracking), the family hung out at home and I went for a photo walk in town and on the old city walls (no charge to wander on the walls). I found out the charge and hours for the castle itself, and took a lot of photos, and went home. That night we cooked the mince we bought in the grocery store (that's ground beef, to you) and had that for dinner, then watched While You Were Sleeping. Giselle and Thad were playing British Monopoly, and Genevieve kintted an infinity scarf for the AirBnB owner, which we left on a stuffed (plush) sheep that stands on the itty-bitty hearth.
End of Saturday.
Sunday - leisurely breakfast - scrambled eggs, cheese, pancakes, and what they call "back bacon" which is really more like ham. The kind we had was realllllly salty. I found out later that what we call "bacon" is called "rashers" here. They put their butter in the fridge and leave the eggs on the counter, which I thought was interesting. A lot of people bring their dogs into stores here as well.
After breakfast, we walked over to Conwy castle (about 1/2 mile) and paid the admission fees to visit the castle proper. There was a demonstration called "Lord of the Wings" of prey birds, mostly owls but one falcon or hawk, never found out which. The birds were all rescued and most of them were unable to be returned to the wild. We got to pet them. There were several kinds - a barn owl, a screech owl, an Indian Scops owl (so cute and little), and a 16-week-old tawny owl named Archimedes still with some pinfeathers. So fluffy.....
There was also a weapons demonstration, mostly single- and two-handed broadswords. Genevieve did volunteer, with a 10-year-old lad, for "training," which involvd holding the weapon at arm's length infront of her while the man in charge counted to 5, then rotating it to horizontal (internal rotation at the shoulder, anatomically speaking) and counting, then back upright, then lateral rotation (palm up). Genevieve was able to hold her weapon with her arm straight without faltering, and brought it down slowly when the man said they were done. Then the lad and Genevieve were oufitted with padded bonnets, maille coifs, helmets, bucklers and swords. Then the man running the demo said, "Which one is better? Only one way to tell - ready, FIGHT!!!" He immediately said, "No, no, I'm kidding!" But Genevieve is so used to getting ready to bout that she partially went into an en garde stance. It was so cool.
Conwy Castle was also cool; it's just a shell (like Caernarfon), but had steps up the towers where you could see the city and the harbor. I have a panoramic function on my camera and played with it a lot at the tops of the towers. We'll see if the photos come out.
We walked into town and picked up some pastries (meat pies and such) from a bakery, and walked out to the harbor side to eat. There we saw but did not go into the "Smallest House in Britain." We wandered around a few shops, one of which sold sword replicas and mead, and which had a lovely Northern Inuit dog visiting. :)
After that we walked home, gathered a few things and then got in the car again (egad) and drove about 75 minutes to Chirk Castle, which is a livable castle, built by Thomas Myddleton in the 1600s. It was very fancy inside whith lots of period furniture, cornices, carvings, etc. I liked the stone shells of castles better, but it was worth seeing. The driving was mostly on the highway, so I felt pretty confident. It was Sunday evening and the traffic heading out of Conwy was pretty thick (plus there was a Bryan Adams concert in a nearby town - not sure if this was the cause of some of it) but we were going the other way, so that was nice. There was a bit of tricky driving when we got back into Conwy, with people hurtling toward me in the opposite direction on narrow winding streets with parked cars on my side of the road - I think I hit the folding side mirror on something, but there wasn't any damage. Whew. You can imagine that I was VERY glad to be done with driving the car. If I had to do it all the time, I'd probably get used to it - that day I felt pretty confident except for the last 5 minutes of the journey - but I don't think I'd ever enjoy it. Now I'm wondering if I'll remember how to drive on the right side of the road when I get home.
Sunday night we packed. I was very proud of the girls, who packed without being reminded (once we talked about what the plans were for the evening). I think there were leftovers for dinner; I don't really remember. Thad went out to climb the mountain near Conwy (a big hill, really) before bed, but I was tired from waking up at 5 (seagulls and other birds are REALLY noisy in the mornings) so I went to bed. It gets light around 4 and dark around 10:30.
Oops, mooring the boat now so time to go. To be continued.
cheers,
Wendy
Note: I don't have a working spell checker and I'm writing on a tempermental Bluetooth keyboard, so please be forviging of typos and spelling errors.
Wow, now I'm three days behind. Vacation is so full and nighttime is for sleeping, not blogging. But now we are on the narrow boat, and I'm done with my driving stint for now (mainly because I now have consistent Wi-Fi, which is spotty on the canal).
I think I left off after Friday. Saturday (still in Wales), we drove a few miles to a nearby town, Llandudno, which I had heard was a big tourist town. Well, it's a bit town, anyway, seaside (right off a peninsula). It is a big town, with a large grocery store, shopping centre, clothing stores, etc. Obviously it's a place people live and shop, because the kitschy Welsh souvenir-type items were conspicuously absent. There were many hotels and eating places, double-decker bus tours (enclosed and open), and a huge pier with carnival-type kiddie rides, food, arcades, cotton candy (candy floss), etc. There was also an Alice in Wonderland-themed park, meaning grassy area with gazebo, etc, not a theme park. There was a smallish stone circle in the middle (small compared to, say, Stonehenge). I have no idea if it was real. I mean, the stones were real, but I have no idea if the circle itself was ancient or not - there was not much of a marker.
We wandered and took photos - it was a beautiful day, sunny and probably 70 or 75 - and Giselle wanted ice cream and was getting a bit grumpy about it, so we had ice cream for lunch. I had clotted cream and honey flavor with a piece of Cadbury Flake (yum). We went back to the car (which was parked in a huge grocery store parking lot) and moved it, because it said there was a 3-hour time limit and I wasn't sure how strict they were about enforcing. We went back into town and into a few shops and an interesting gallery, but then jet lag caught up with us and we decided to go home. We did hit the grocery store for some dinner items - it was a lot like Meijer, or a Super Walmart, with clothing and tools and seasonal items in addition to a huge food selection. Cadbury chocolate is ridiculously inexpensive, so of course we're making it a staple. They have flavors here not available at home, so we're taking advantage and sampling several kinds. :)
In the afternoon, after driving home (egad, getting better but stil nerve-wracking), the family hung out at home and I went for a photo walk in town and on the old city walls (no charge to wander on the walls). I found out the charge and hours for the castle itself, and took a lot of photos, and went home. That night we cooked the mince we bought in the grocery store (that's ground beef, to you) and had that for dinner, then watched While You Were Sleeping. Giselle and Thad were playing British Monopoly, and Genevieve kintted an infinity scarf for the AirBnB owner, which we left on a stuffed (plush) sheep that stands on the itty-bitty hearth.
End of Saturday.
Sunday - leisurely breakfast - scrambled eggs, cheese, pancakes, and what they call "back bacon" which is really more like ham. The kind we had was realllllly salty. I found out later that what we call "bacon" is called "rashers" here. They put their butter in the fridge and leave the eggs on the counter, which I thought was interesting. A lot of people bring their dogs into stores here as well.
After breakfast, we walked over to Conwy castle (about 1/2 mile) and paid the admission fees to visit the castle proper. There was a demonstration called "Lord of the Wings" of prey birds, mostly owls but one falcon or hawk, never found out which. The birds were all rescued and most of them were unable to be returned to the wild. We got to pet them. There were several kinds - a barn owl, a screech owl, an Indian Scops owl (so cute and little), and a 16-week-old tawny owl named Archimedes still with some pinfeathers. So fluffy.....
There was also a weapons demonstration, mostly single- and two-handed broadswords. Genevieve did volunteer, with a 10-year-old lad, for "training," which involvd holding the weapon at arm's length infront of her while the man in charge counted to 5, then rotating it to horizontal (internal rotation at the shoulder, anatomically speaking) and counting, then back upright, then lateral rotation (palm up). Genevieve was able to hold her weapon with her arm straight without faltering, and brought it down slowly when the man said they were done. Then the lad and Genevieve were oufitted with padded bonnets, maille coifs, helmets, bucklers and swords. Then the man running the demo said, "Which one is better? Only one way to tell - ready, FIGHT!!!" He immediately said, "No, no, I'm kidding!" But Genevieve is so used to getting ready to bout that she partially went into an en garde stance. It was so cool.
Conwy Castle was also cool; it's just a shell (like Caernarfon), but had steps up the towers where you could see the city and the harbor. I have a panoramic function on my camera and played with it a lot at the tops of the towers. We'll see if the photos come out.
We walked into town and picked up some pastries (meat pies and such) from a bakery, and walked out to the harbor side to eat. There we saw but did not go into the "Smallest House in Britain." We wandered around a few shops, one of which sold sword replicas and mead, and which had a lovely Northern Inuit dog visiting. :)
After that we walked home, gathered a few things and then got in the car again (egad) and drove about 75 minutes to Chirk Castle, which is a livable castle, built by Thomas Myddleton in the 1600s. It was very fancy inside whith lots of period furniture, cornices, carvings, etc. I liked the stone shells of castles better, but it was worth seeing. The driving was mostly on the highway, so I felt pretty confident. It was Sunday evening and the traffic heading out of Conwy was pretty thick (plus there was a Bryan Adams concert in a nearby town - not sure if this was the cause of some of it) but we were going the other way, so that was nice. There was a bit of tricky driving when we got back into Conwy, with people hurtling toward me in the opposite direction on narrow winding streets with parked cars on my side of the road - I think I hit the folding side mirror on something, but there wasn't any damage. Whew. You can imagine that I was VERY glad to be done with driving the car. If I had to do it all the time, I'd probably get used to it - that day I felt pretty confident except for the last 5 minutes of the journey - but I don't think I'd ever enjoy it. Now I'm wondering if I'll remember how to drive on the right side of the road when I get home.
Sunday night we packed. I was very proud of the girls, who packed without being reminded (once we talked about what the plans were for the evening). I think there were leftovers for dinner; I don't really remember. Thad went out to climb the mountain near Conwy (a big hill, really) before bed, but I was tired from waking up at 5 (seagulls and other birds are REALLY noisy in the mornings) so I went to bed. It gets light around 4 and dark around 10:30.
Oops, mooring the boat now so time to go. To be continued.
cheers,
Wendy
Saturday, July 8, 2017
Friday
Hello friends,
I didn't write anything yesterday because, well, I didn't. :) But that doesn't mean we didn't do anything. Actually, I think I needed last night to recover from the day. We went to bed around 9 local time Thursday (4 PM to my friends in Michigan) and I made everyone get up at 7. We slept really well - I think after the previous two days we could hardly have done otherwise. The beds in the house are really comfortable, which helps.
Anyway, I got everyone up at 7, and we had cereal from the convenience store (the little boxes of individual cereals), and got in the car around 8 AM. I was parked facing downhill on the side of the road next to the house, not very well, because I'm not great at parallel parking despite having learned to drive in the Boston environs (well, maybe because of it), and I would have had to parallel park going in reverse uphill with a stick shift. As it was we had to look in the manual to figure out how to get the 6-speed Peugeot into reverse at all - apparently there's a trick to it.
There seems to be a trick to everything around here. It took me several tries to lock the house door deadbolt with the key, and that was just after monkeying aound with it (you have to pull the door handle up all the way past neutral to engage the upper bolts, and THEN you can turn the key to lock the lower one). Sheesh. There does not seem to be a pilot light for the stove - luckily I had a book of matches in my first aid kit, so we've been lighting the burners with those. There is a washer/dryer combination with cryptic symbols on the front; so far I've not been able to run a drying cycle without running a washing cycle first. Yesterday it was cloudy and a bit rainy, and there is no place in the house to suspend my laundry line except underneath the railing on the stairs, which doesn't get a lot of air circulation, but it is what it is.
Anyway, we left for Llanberis, where we had tickets to catch the Snowdon Mountain Railway at 9. It's about 13 miles, or 35 minutes in the car, and I did not start out well. I drove better than the previous day (haven't burned out the tranny yet) but I still hit the curb several times, had trouble finding 3rd gear (downshifting into 1st when you want third is discouraging, to say the least), plus the roundabouts come up so suddenly that I think I cut a few people off, quite unintentionally. Then I took the wrong exit off the roundabout and ended up on a different highway, and had to go several miles on winding narrow unmarked roads with people hot on my tail before I found a place to turn around. My phone does not appear to have internet service - when I called the company last night, the very friendly and helpful customer service person, Meghan, helped me find out that basically North Wales' internet is "under construction," and is "blacked out." She stayed past closing to try to help me with it. We'll see how it works at our next location. The upshot of that is that if I didn't drive on a dowloaded route, the "rerouting" didn't work on the GPS and took me off the map, and the paper map we have is of the entire country, so not good for finding turnarounds.
We did make it (barely) to the 9 o'clock train - first we pulled into the Slate Museum site, and found out that the tran was another mile further down the road. Then I couldn't find parking, but dropped off the family and ordered them to go get the tickets. Found the less-well-marked lot across the road (almost in tears by this time from the stress of driving and getting lost), and made it to the train, last people on.
The train ride up the mountain was almost an hour, and was very pretty, except once we got into the clouds, which was also knd of pretty, but not very scenic. I think it was supposed to be bad weather all weekend, and I had to buy the tickets a month in advance, so it was what it was. We went to the summit anyway; they gave us 40 minutes to walk around and try not to get lost in the mist and fall off a cliff.... There were sheep everywhere, with very long tails and long fleeces - looked as if they needed to be shorn. The landscape (once we got back down) was rather impressive. We spoke to the other people in our compartment, and one couple was from England and told us to go a little farther west to Caernarfon Castle. So after we got back down the mountain, we did. We had better success with that, because the nice clerk at the gift shop for the Mountain Railway drew us a crude map of where the car park was, and golly, there it was.
We wandered around Caernarfon and then went to the castle, which is a National Heritage Site, and is where the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) was - dang, I forget the word, starts with an "I" - well, crowned Prince of Wales, anyway, in 1969. The castle is a big, rambling shell on the coast. We stopped partway through and got lunch at a place on Hole in the Wall Street (where there is a big gap in the wall between the castle and the town). That's where I saw the knickerbocker glory ingredients, for anyone who is following on FaceBook. One more Harry Potter mystery solved.
We went back to the castle until our jet lag caught up with us, and then drove back home to Conwy, where I collapsed from the driving stress again. We had leftovers for dinner from Thursday night (Italian food) and watched a movie (Miss Congeniality) and went to bed.
Which I think I'm goign to do now. Today we went to Llandudno and I drove much better. More about that another time.
blessings
wendy
I didn't write anything yesterday because, well, I didn't. :) But that doesn't mean we didn't do anything. Actually, I think I needed last night to recover from the day. We went to bed around 9 local time Thursday (4 PM to my friends in Michigan) and I made everyone get up at 7. We slept really well - I think after the previous two days we could hardly have done otherwise. The beds in the house are really comfortable, which helps.
Anyway, I got everyone up at 7, and we had cereal from the convenience store (the little boxes of individual cereals), and got in the car around 8 AM. I was parked facing downhill on the side of the road next to the house, not very well, because I'm not great at parallel parking despite having learned to drive in the Boston environs (well, maybe because of it), and I would have had to parallel park going in reverse uphill with a stick shift. As it was we had to look in the manual to figure out how to get the 6-speed Peugeot into reverse at all - apparently there's a trick to it.
There seems to be a trick to everything around here. It took me several tries to lock the house door deadbolt with the key, and that was just after monkeying aound with it (you have to pull the door handle up all the way past neutral to engage the upper bolts, and THEN you can turn the key to lock the lower one). Sheesh. There does not seem to be a pilot light for the stove - luckily I had a book of matches in my first aid kit, so we've been lighting the burners with those. There is a washer/dryer combination with cryptic symbols on the front; so far I've not been able to run a drying cycle without running a washing cycle first. Yesterday it was cloudy and a bit rainy, and there is no place in the house to suspend my laundry line except underneath the railing on the stairs, which doesn't get a lot of air circulation, but it is what it is.
Anyway, we left for Llanberis, where we had tickets to catch the Snowdon Mountain Railway at 9. It's about 13 miles, or 35 minutes in the car, and I did not start out well. I drove better than the previous day (haven't burned out the tranny yet) but I still hit the curb several times, had trouble finding 3rd gear (downshifting into 1st when you want third is discouraging, to say the least), plus the roundabouts come up so suddenly that I think I cut a few people off, quite unintentionally. Then I took the wrong exit off the roundabout and ended up on a different highway, and had to go several miles on winding narrow unmarked roads with people hot on my tail before I found a place to turn around. My phone does not appear to have internet service - when I called the company last night, the very friendly and helpful customer service person, Meghan, helped me find out that basically North Wales' internet is "under construction," and is "blacked out." She stayed past closing to try to help me with it. We'll see how it works at our next location. The upshot of that is that if I didn't drive on a dowloaded route, the "rerouting" didn't work on the GPS and took me off the map, and the paper map we have is of the entire country, so not good for finding turnarounds.
We did make it (barely) to the 9 o'clock train - first we pulled into the Slate Museum site, and found out that the tran was another mile further down the road. Then I couldn't find parking, but dropped off the family and ordered them to go get the tickets. Found the less-well-marked lot across the road (almost in tears by this time from the stress of driving and getting lost), and made it to the train, last people on.
The train ride up the mountain was almost an hour, and was very pretty, except once we got into the clouds, which was also knd of pretty, but not very scenic. I think it was supposed to be bad weather all weekend, and I had to buy the tickets a month in advance, so it was what it was. We went to the summit anyway; they gave us 40 minutes to walk around and try not to get lost in the mist and fall off a cliff.... There were sheep everywhere, with very long tails and long fleeces - looked as if they needed to be shorn. The landscape (once we got back down) was rather impressive. We spoke to the other people in our compartment, and one couple was from England and told us to go a little farther west to Caernarfon Castle. So after we got back down the mountain, we did. We had better success with that, because the nice clerk at the gift shop for the Mountain Railway drew us a crude map of where the car park was, and golly, there it was.
We wandered around Caernarfon and then went to the castle, which is a National Heritage Site, and is where the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) was - dang, I forget the word, starts with an "I" - well, crowned Prince of Wales, anyway, in 1969. The castle is a big, rambling shell on the coast. We stopped partway through and got lunch at a place on Hole in the Wall Street (where there is a big gap in the wall between the castle and the town). That's where I saw the knickerbocker glory ingredients, for anyone who is following on FaceBook. One more Harry Potter mystery solved.
We went back to the castle until our jet lag caught up with us, and then drove back home to Conwy, where I collapsed from the driving stress again. We had leftovers for dinner from Thursday night (Italian food) and watched a movie (Miss Congeniality) and went to bed.
Which I think I'm goign to do now. Today we went to Llandudno and I drove much better. More about that another time.
blessings
wendy
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Vacation, days one and two
Hello friends and family.
I have no idea if anyone is going to read this, but I need to write it, and I'm sure it wont' be as detailed as I like, but perhaps more detailed than you would like.
Anyway. Here we are, nearly 30 hours into our adventure, and we are finally here. Finally at our AirBnB place.
A brief synopsis of how we got here:
Left Michigan around 9:30 for IL. We hung out at our friends' place for a few hours, and then she was kind enough to drive us to O'Hare airport. We got there in plenty of time for our 6:20 flight to Heathrow, which amazingly enough left on time and got in early. Eight hours and 12 minutes from pulling away from the gate in Chicago, we arrived at Heathrow. The flight itself was tiring - the 5-hour time change will be taking its toll pretty soon - and I think I got maybe 90 minutes of sleep. I was very surprised that they served dinner - and a really good one, ravioli with tomato sauce and this quinoa barley salad with cinnamon and cranberries - wow. Wish I had the recipe. They also served a continental breakfast, not so great, but it was a gesture, at least. I sat on the right side of the plane with Giselle (she had the window) and Genevieve and Thad were across the aisle. I have a cool gizmo that allowed Thad and Genevieve to watch one movie, while Giselle and I watched another one. We also had some new neck pillows which were fairly good but nothing beats being able to lie down, which I will do in a couple of hours.
One of the flight attendants (who did the announcements) had on a chain maille necklace, and she noticed the one I was wearing, so one of my trips back to use the loo, I chatted with her about it. She's from South Africa, and she took up ring weaving because her mother did it but had arthritis and couldn't continue. We traded contact information after the flight. I love making new friends.
We got off the plane, one of the last groups of people, and headed for UK border customs. I wish I had had a pedometer; it feels as if we walked miles in the terminal, stood in 1/2 mile of lines (about 40 minutes' worth, and we got there before a couple of other planes unloaded) and then miles of tunnels under the airport to get to the train.
We took the Heathrow Express - we have BritRail passes, which so far have come in really handy - to Paddington Station (its end stop) I was under the impression that we got the train to Wales there. By then it was already 11 AM London time 6 AM Michigan time) and I asked the man at the information kiosk and he told me it would take another 6 hours to get there, told me the times of the trains and the names of the stations so fast that I didn't catch it. I asked him again (politely) and he said, "I TOLD you, it leaves at 14:45." I objected, saying, "I'm sorry, but I've been up for 24 hours" He interrupted, saying "Well, I'VE been up for over 36, so that beats that." I was getting a little irked, and I was not at my best, but I said, "Then you would understand how it would be easy to forget things when you are so tired." I was also feeling alarmed that it would take so long to do what I had heard was a 3.5 hour trip, and we would miss our rental car window. I had also bought a new SIM chip for my phone (ha - and Google is asking me to verify sign-in with my phone, so I'm typing this on my tiny phone screen rather than my Kindle) and the service wasn't working, so I wasn't sure if I could contact the rental car company in time.
You'll be pleased to hear that I didn't totally lose my cool, although I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of some mild cussing under my breath. Instead I went across to the other information kiosk, where a much friendlier man told me, "Oh, for North Wales you need to leave from Euston. You can take the Underground - platform 16 - or maybe it would be better to take a taxi." He smiled kindly at me, too. I decided I had had enough of schlepping our luggage in tunnels under construction, and opted for a taxi. By this time it was nearing lunchtime, and our taxi driver apologized for the slow drive (though he didn't take anything off the fare). But we got to ride in one of those cool black taxis with the fold-down seats, and watch the motorcycles and bicyclists weave between lanes of traffic (that was positively nerve-wracking, especially with everyone driving on the left).
We made it to Euston Station and caught a train within 10 minutes that went to Chester (near Liverpool). We changed trains there for Llandudno Junction. With the exception of the gentleman who was snippy to me, everyone has been very kind and understanding. The Llandudno train was bound for Holyhead and unfortunately was quite packed. I ended up sitting next to a young lady whom I discovered taught English at a local university. She discovered that she had gotten on the wrong train, so we chatted for a stop and then she got off to go in the other direction. She was quite friendly.
By this time we were all fried, and the fact of 6 probably drunk Scandinavians in the car who conversed loudly and randomly burst into song (think "A Knight's Tale," when they all start singing "Gelderland!" to the tune of "Stars and Stripes Forever") did not help things.
We landed at the Junction and only had to walk a block to the rental car place. The men in there were also very nice, explaining things and so forth. Then they put me into a Peugot SUV diesel with a manual transmission (I knew that) and sent me off to drive on the left side of the road in some of the hilliest, narrowest roads I've ever seen, and I'm from New England. It was worse than driving on the North Shore of Massachusetts, and I had this BIG car, on unfamiliar streets, getting used to a manual again (left-shift). I missed the turn into the neighborhood where our rental house was, then had to park on the opposite side of the street facing downhill - I would have had to parallel park going in reverse up the hill with a manual transmission.... I was unequal to the task, and pulled in front of the line of parked cars instead. Ask me tomorrow.
Then I almost walked into the wrong house, couldn't figure out how to lock the door, and couldn't get the lock box closed. Tomorrow I'm going to park in a free parking lot behind a convenience store a block away. It's flat, for one thing, and not as narrow. If we're not carrying luggage, we'll walk.
Time to go get some food. We haven't eaten anything substantial for many hours. We're walking to town - it's only 1/2 mile, and I' not getting in that car again right now. Thank goodness I'm not driving in London.
I have to say, the kids were WONDERFUL. They were crabby and tired but didn't fight and hardly complained, just enough to give a "weather report" on how they were feeling. The more fun adventures start tomorrow. Time for dinner.
Blessings
Wendy
I have no idea if anyone is going to read this, but I need to write it, and I'm sure it wont' be as detailed as I like, but perhaps more detailed than you would like.
Anyway. Here we are, nearly 30 hours into our adventure, and we are finally here. Finally at our AirBnB place.
A brief synopsis of how we got here:
Left Michigan around 9:30 for IL. We hung out at our friends' place for a few hours, and then she was kind enough to drive us to O'Hare airport. We got there in plenty of time for our 6:20 flight to Heathrow, which amazingly enough left on time and got in early. Eight hours and 12 minutes from pulling away from the gate in Chicago, we arrived at Heathrow. The flight itself was tiring - the 5-hour time change will be taking its toll pretty soon - and I think I got maybe 90 minutes of sleep. I was very surprised that they served dinner - and a really good one, ravioli with tomato sauce and this quinoa barley salad with cinnamon and cranberries - wow. Wish I had the recipe. They also served a continental breakfast, not so great, but it was a gesture, at least. I sat on the right side of the plane with Giselle (she had the window) and Genevieve and Thad were across the aisle. I have a cool gizmo that allowed Thad and Genevieve to watch one movie, while Giselle and I watched another one. We also had some new neck pillows which were fairly good but nothing beats being able to lie down, which I will do in a couple of hours.
One of the flight attendants (who did the announcements) had on a chain maille necklace, and she noticed the one I was wearing, so one of my trips back to use the loo, I chatted with her about it. She's from South Africa, and she took up ring weaving because her mother did it but had arthritis and couldn't continue. We traded contact information after the flight. I love making new friends.
We got off the plane, one of the last groups of people, and headed for UK border customs. I wish I had had a pedometer; it feels as if we walked miles in the terminal, stood in 1/2 mile of lines (about 40 minutes' worth, and we got there before a couple of other planes unloaded) and then miles of tunnels under the airport to get to the train.
We took the Heathrow Express - we have BritRail passes, which so far have come in really handy - to Paddington Station (its end stop) I was under the impression that we got the train to Wales there. By then it was already 11 AM London time 6 AM Michigan time) and I asked the man at the information kiosk and he told me it would take another 6 hours to get there, told me the times of the trains and the names of the stations so fast that I didn't catch it. I asked him again (politely) and he said, "I TOLD you, it leaves at 14:45." I objected, saying, "I'm sorry, but I've been up for 24 hours" He interrupted, saying "Well, I'VE been up for over 36, so that beats that." I was getting a little irked, and I was not at my best, but I said, "Then you would understand how it would be easy to forget things when you are so tired." I was also feeling alarmed that it would take so long to do what I had heard was a 3.5 hour trip, and we would miss our rental car window. I had also bought a new SIM chip for my phone (ha - and Google is asking me to verify sign-in with my phone, so I'm typing this on my tiny phone screen rather than my Kindle) and the service wasn't working, so I wasn't sure if I could contact the rental car company in time.
You'll be pleased to hear that I didn't totally lose my cool, although I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of some mild cussing under my breath. Instead I went across to the other information kiosk, where a much friendlier man told me, "Oh, for North Wales you need to leave from Euston. You can take the Underground - platform 16 - or maybe it would be better to take a taxi." He smiled kindly at me, too. I decided I had had enough of schlepping our luggage in tunnels under construction, and opted for a taxi. By this time it was nearing lunchtime, and our taxi driver apologized for the slow drive (though he didn't take anything off the fare). But we got to ride in one of those cool black taxis with the fold-down seats, and watch the motorcycles and bicyclists weave between lanes of traffic (that was positively nerve-wracking, especially with everyone driving on the left).
We made it to Euston Station and caught a train within 10 minutes that went to Chester (near Liverpool). We changed trains there for Llandudno Junction. With the exception of the gentleman who was snippy to me, everyone has been very kind and understanding. The Llandudno train was bound for Holyhead and unfortunately was quite packed. I ended up sitting next to a young lady whom I discovered taught English at a local university. She discovered that she had gotten on the wrong train, so we chatted for a stop and then she got off to go in the other direction. She was quite friendly.
By this time we were all fried, and the fact of 6 probably drunk Scandinavians in the car who conversed loudly and randomly burst into song (think "A Knight's Tale," when they all start singing "Gelderland!" to the tune of "Stars and Stripes Forever") did not help things.
We landed at the Junction and only had to walk a block to the rental car place. The men in there were also very nice, explaining things and so forth. Then they put me into a Peugot SUV diesel with a manual transmission (I knew that) and sent me off to drive on the left side of the road in some of the hilliest, narrowest roads I've ever seen, and I'm from New England. It was worse than driving on the North Shore of Massachusetts, and I had this BIG car, on unfamiliar streets, getting used to a manual again (left-shift). I missed the turn into the neighborhood where our rental house was, then had to park on the opposite side of the street facing downhill - I would have had to parallel park going in reverse up the hill with a manual transmission.... I was unequal to the task, and pulled in front of the line of parked cars instead. Ask me tomorrow.
Then I almost walked into the wrong house, couldn't figure out how to lock the door, and couldn't get the lock box closed. Tomorrow I'm going to park in a free parking lot behind a convenience store a block away. It's flat, for one thing, and not as narrow. If we're not carrying luggage, we'll walk.
Time to go get some food. We haven't eaten anything substantial for many hours. We're walking to town - it's only 1/2 mile, and I' not getting in that car again right now. Thank goodness I'm not driving in London.
I have to say, the kids were WONDERFUL. They were crabby and tired but didn't fight and hardly complained, just enough to give a "weather report" on how they were feeling. The more fun adventures start tomorrow. Time for dinner.
Blessings
Wendy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)