Blog – Page 19 – Steve's Journal

Europe 2001

London, Paris, Rome with Dani

Saturday, July 28, 2001

Orlando

In the spring Linda informed Danielle and me that she would be too busy to travel this summer. So Danielle and I began looking for something interesting to do, and hit upon this relaxed two-week trip to Europe. Although Danielle lived in France from the time she was three months to six months old, this would be the first trip within her memory. I’m pretty familiar with London, even more so with Paris — where Henry Corrado is a good friend — but we settled upon a tour because it was economical, would be a good introduction for Danielle… and I wouldn’t have to lug both of our suitcases.When I signed us up for this European tour, I never suspected we’d be setting out only five days after returning from Australia! But opportunities arise, and the Australia trip was great. Best of all, Linda was able to go along on that one.So feeling like expert travelers, at midday we headed for the airport, and the overnight flight to London.

Sunday, July 29, 2001

London

The Australia conditioning is still working. The trip to Charlotte seemed instantaneous, and the trip across the Atlantic passed fairly quickly as well. We took an Airbus A330, which is a lovely plane. It offers much more coach seating room than the competitors, and has personal video and CD on-demand players in every seat. We were lucky; the seat next to Danielle was empty, so she was able to sleep with her head on my leg most of the way.

I brought a Palm Pilot that came free with a new computer we purchased, and Danielle immediately seized upon it. She’s gotten quite good at the Graffiti writing, and is keeping her trip journal on it.

We arrived at Gatwick a bit early, about 7:50am. The Far & Wide travel reps met us, moved our baggage onto the express train to London, and gave us tickets. The train was the Eurostar style; Danielle immediately noticed the absence of clacketa-clacketa noises.

At Victoria Station another Far & Wide rep met us, and escorted us to a minivan for the ride to the Hilton Metropole. The hotel looks nice, and is conveniently located just north of Kensington. We were met by our Tour Director, Gloria, who secured us a room in the new tower. Unfortunately, our room wasn’t ready yet — no surprise at 10:00am — so we checked everything and, at Gloria’s suggestion, headed by taxi to St. James Palace. Just for the record, the taxi driver was the same surly bastard type that I’ve had every time I’ve ever taken a London cab.

At St. James Danielle posed with the guard, and then we walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace. At 85 degrees it’s hot here in London — yesterday set a record — so the ice cream stand was doing some serious business. We sampled their wares while we waited for the changing of the guard. On Sundays the Mall (rhymes with Al) in front of Buckingham Palace is closed to automobiles, so we were able to jump into the street in advance of the trooping guards and take pictures — mostly of Japanese tourists doing the same thing. Rather than wade through the tourists to see the actual change of the guard, we headed down the Mall past St. James Park and under the Admiralty Arch to Trafalgar Square. There we had a extraordinarily mediocre pizza buffet, bought tourist trinkets, and caught the tube at Charring Cross.

Six quick stops brought us to Edgware Road, where we emerged across the street from the hotel. I’m always amazed by the comprehensiveness of the London Underground. The trip took ten minutes and cost $3, as compared with the $15 cab ride. And no surly driver.Although I was skeptical of the Palm Pilot, it’s been useful for three things so far: currency conversion when I wanted to change Danielle’s $165 into equal parts Pounds, Francs and Lire; Figuring the most efficient Metro route (I downloaded the data for all three cities we’re visiting); and, of course, entertaining Danielle.

On returning to the hotel at 1:30 our room still wasn’t ready, so we camped in the lounge and updated our journals, looking very high tech with our dueling electronic appliances. It was nice to be offered free drinks, but a bed would be much nicer.

At about 2:00pm our room was ready. Danielle was asleep in seconds.

At 5:30 I went down for orientation and then collected her for dinner in La Fiama, the Metropole’s downstairs restaurant. We dined with a nice couple from Arizona, the Drumms, who have been in the UK for twelve days, most of it at the British Open. The demographics of this tour are quite different from the Tauk Tour, although I guess that’s a seasonal thing. The average age of this group is probably late forties, and it’s fairly evenly distributed.

Monday, July 30, 2001

Feeling surprisingly like we’re on the right time zone, we breakfasted in La Fiama and then joined the group for a city tour. We started by retracing our steps yesterday to St. James Palace and Buckingham Palace. I took the opportunity to peek into the window at Berry & Rudd Ltd., one of the oldest wine merchants in the city. Our walk this time took us through St. James Park, along the Princess Diana memorial walkway. Rejoining the bus, we drove through the West End, pausing at Westminster Abbey for a quick photo. Then it was on to the British Museum.

Trying to do the British Museum in an hour is the ultimate exercise in futility. But Danielle and I split off from the group and shifted into high gear, hitting the highlights in rapid fire: The Elgin Marbles (stolen from the Parthenon), the Rosetta Stone (stolen from the French, who stole it from the Egyptians), many, many mummies (ditto) and Latham Man, a 200-year-old man perfectly preserved by being tossed into a peat bog after being ritually killed (this last item was from Northern England, and actually wasn’t stolen).

Next stop: Covent Garden, for lunch and shopping. Danielle and I had a baked potato and a waffle (you can guess who assembled the menu) in an open air cafe, and then Danielle bought several hundred stuffed animals. She’s now in the hole $48 — time to do some math workbook pages and earn some spending money.

The afternoon tour took us to St. Paul’s Cathedral (no photos allowed). It’s big, but not as attractive as Notre Dame. Danielle was hesitant to visit the crypt until I pointed out that it couldn’t be too creepy, as there was a Crypt Cafe. We visited the tombs of Christopher Wren, the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson, and Danielle learned some history. She says they’re studying English history this year in school, so this should put it wonderfully in context.

Our final stop was the Tower of London, where Danielle learned a LOT of history, particularly about Henry VIII and his sexual proclivities. The displays in the White Tower have been significantly improved since I was there last. I still think this original structure, built by William the Conqueror starting in 1066, is the most impressive.

It was extremely hot in London today — hotter than Havana! — and we were all pretty tired by the time we headed back to the hotel. A cool shower improved things, and then Danielle and I headed up to Aspects on the 23rd floor for a leisurely four course dinner. They featured a California cuisine which was the best non-ethnic food I’ve had in London.

Tuesday, July 31, 2001

The wake-up call for Stonehenge and Bath was at 6:45am, but we still got almost nine hours of sleep. If we weren’t reading such an interesting bedtime book — the fifth volume of The Indian in the Cupboard series — we would have gotten more.Danielle caught a nap on the tour bus as we headed through the English countryside to the Salisbury Plain. This is the third Mercedes tour bus we’ve had in as many tours (including Australia) and they’re really comfortable. The ride is smooth enough that I’ve spent it bringing this journal up to date.

Stonehenge:According to Danielle, “The stones are larger, and the circles smaller than I’d imagined.” I concur. There’s an eeriness about the place in its very improbability. Even the busloads of tourists, and the rope that maintains a fairly distant perimeter don’t prevent you from getting the feeling that some really strange things went on here 5000 years ago.

There are four stone rings inside an earthen ditch, with an alley leading to their center. The inner rings are horseshoe shaped, and the outer ones circular. Two of the rings are relatively “small” irregular stones called “blue stones”. These were transported from Southern Wales, over 240 miles away. No one can imagine how, and recent attempts by college students to duplicate the feat have ended with the stones at the bottom of the ocean.

The upright stones and horizontal lintels that we associate with Stonehenge are from much closer — about 30 miles away. But they weigh up to 50 tons. They’re fastened together like giant furniture, with pegs and holes.

Stonehenge was built by a group we call the “Beaker” People, from the fact that they placed beakers in their burial mounds. These mounds are called “barrows”. Several are visible from Stonehenge itself. Little else is known about the site, except for the fact that it’s a calendar. The flat stone near the front aligns perfectly with the central “altar” stone at sunrise on the longest day of the year, and sunset on the shortest.

Stonehenge really only occupies you for about an hour, and the free interpretive audio tour isn’t terribly informative. Nevertheless, it’s well worth the trip because it’s just so darn strange.

Bath:I wasn’t expecting much from Bath — frankly I had no idea what it was; but it turned out to be quite a nice mixture of history and ambiance. Bath is all about water — hence the name. It’s a good sized town built around the site of England’s only hot spring. The story goes that it was discovered by a leper who noticed that his pigs’ skin problems were healed when they bathed in the mud of the hot spring. He did likewise and was cured, then went on to become the king.

Later the Romans set up one of their elaborate bath houses on the spot, and it is chiefly the archaeology of this period that is presented at the historical site. The Roman building incorporated a temple, hypocaust, calderium, and a sacred pool into which you could throw pewter scrolls for the goddess Minerva — chiefly requests to curse people who had done you wrong.

Following the Romans, the Victorians rediscovered the spring, and turned it into a fashionable resort. The discovery of the Roman ruins in the 19th century further encouraged tourism. Today the town is filled with tourists, cafes, shops and flowers. Well worth the trip.

After a late lunch overlooking the river Avon (not Shakespeare’s Avon: Avon is Celtic for “river”, so there are a lot of River Avons — literally “River River”) we headed back to London, arriving at 5:30. Showered and changed, we headed out at 7:00pm for Agatha Christie’s “Mousetrap”, which at 49 years is London’s — and the world’s — longest running play.

It’s presented in a small theater that reminded me of the Victorian music hall described in the Indian in the Cupboard series. The play is quite good, although we’ve watched so many Perry Mason episodes that we had it mostly figured out at intermission. At the end, the audience is sworn to secrecy, but I can assure you that the butler didn’t do it (there isn’t one).

We spent our cab fare on a T-Shirt, so we didn’t stay in the theatre district for a late supper as planned, but instead headed back to the hotel on the tour bus and went to bed.

Wednesday, August 1, 2001

This tour may be called “Leisure Europe”, but the pace hasn’t been too leisurely so far. I’m glad we didn’t select “Frenetic Europe”! So we decided to take this morning off. We’ll skip the optional Windsor Castle trip and rejoin the group for tea at Harrod’s.

After a truly appalling breakfast as only the English can ruin it, we caught the tube to Westminster for the tour of the Cabinet War Rooms. To our surprise, this turned out to be the highlight of our London stay.

The warren of underground rooms, protected by a 3-foot-thick concrete ceiling, housed Churchill and other key planners and military figures during the London blitz, from late 1940 until the end of the war. It has been preserved EXACTLY as they left it — right down to the last paperclip and cigar butt. The narration of the self-guided audio tour was excellent, capturing the uncertainty of the times with bits of actual recordings. Highly recommended.

On the way back to the Westminster tube station we walked past the Horse Guards. Incidentally, Westminster Station is quite amazing. It’s about eight stories deep, with crisscrossing escalators and interlinking tube platforms, and is entirely concrete and steel. It looks a lot like a scene out of Star Wars.

Back at the Hilton we had lunch downstairs. The Caesar salad consisted of equal parts lettuce, ham and eggs, all put through a meat grinder, with two sardines on top. Yum. (How can these people live only 40 miles from France?)

At 4:00 pm the motor coach dropped us off at Harrod’s for tea. Harrod’s is a really, really, really friggin’ big store. It’s six stories of an entire block filled with merchandise, much of it ridiculously priced, but with enough reasonably priced items to cater to all tourists and many locals. There are — get this — 300 departments, and 4000 employees. You can get furniture, plasma screens, furs and lettuce all under one roof. The cheese case alone was about 50 feet long. Tea was the usual finger sandwich and cardboard pastry nonsense, but we enjoyed conversing with the couple from Arizona.

Danielle, who is still trying to “math” her way out of debt, dropped another 32 pounds on stuffed bears and the hard cover special edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.I bought a bottle of water for 99p.

Thursday, August 2, 2001

Paris

Our wake-up call came at 5:00 am, for the 8:23 am Eurostar train to Paris. Is it coincidence that the London station that connects to Paris is named Waterloo?

The train poked along through England until the coastline, when it hit the smooth tracks of the Chunnel. As we pulled away from English soil, we bid a fond farewell to all the history of London, and a not so fond farewell to everything else about the place! Rudeness, inefficiency and bad food dwindled in the distance, as we continued at about 50mph throughout the 20 minute trip deep beneath the English Channel.

As we emerged into Normandy, the train gathered speed and soon we were hitting close to 200mph. It’s most impressive when you pass another one of these TGV’s going the other direction. At 400mph, they’ve disappeared in a little over a second.An hour later we arrived at the Gare du Nord. Our tour bus stopped at the Opera to pick up our local guide, Nicola. Since his mother was American, he speaks with virtually no accent — he sounds like someone out of a1950’s western, in fact.

Our city tour took us down the Champs Elysee, stopped at the Eiffel Tower for photos, and then took us to Notre Dame. The cathedral is impressive, but I think we’re both cathedralled out. More impressive to us was the food from the sidewalk cafes. Danielle says it was the best hot dog she ever tasted, and the brie was even better.

We checked into our hotel at 4:00 pm, and arranged to meet Henry at 7:00 pm for dinner at Quay Oest, his favorite riverfront restaurant, out on the west side.

Friday, August 3, 2001

Henry picked us up at 9:00 am and we had breakfast at La Duree, near the Place Madeleine. Now Danielle understands what a croissant is. Wow.We reached Paris Disneyland shortly before noon, where we went on Space Mountain — which Danielle loathed — and then met Jean Claude Boyer and Frederic Sauthier at Walt’s on Main Street for lunch. Afterwards, we did mostly Frontier land, which is a lot different than Magic Kingdom.For dinner we stopped at the mall in Serris to buy food, and then had a nice evening, dining on the table in Henry’s backyard in nearby Chalifert.

Saturday, August 4, 2001

Today was Eiffel Tower day. Henry picked us up at 11:30am for our lunch at Jules Vernes, the restaurant on the second level, 270 feet above the Seine. Lunch was fabulous. Particular highlights were the butter(!), foie gras and the incredibly complex flavor of the chocolate truffles. Better bring money, though — even the appetizers were $40 each (yeow!) At least it satisfied Danielle’s request for a fine dining experience in Paris, and it could have been worse — it could have been dinner pricing.

After lunch we took the elevator to the top of the tower to experience the view of all of Paris from about 1000 feet. Spectacular. We took the elevator back to the second level and then climbed down the 649 stairs to street level.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Le Bon Marche, a fancy food store in the 7th Arondissment and bought some gourmet foods to bring home with us.

After relaxing for a few hours, we decided that since it was our last chance, we’d venture out onto the Place de la Republique in search of the true Paris bistro experience. The neighborhood was one that seemed to specialize in mussels and other shellfish, which wasn’t quite what Danielle had in mind.

We settled on the brasserie Maitre Kanter because they had duck. It was decent food, but the ambience was great, sitting at a table out on the sidewalk and dining late into the evening. Before desert it started to rain lightly and they moved us inside, where we enjoyed watching the crabs try to climb out of their large rock aquarium. By the end of dinner the skies had cleared, and we headed back to the hotel.

Sunday, August 5, 2001

We slept late again this morning; Henry picked us up at 11:30 and we drove to the Champs Elysee for lunch at the other La Duree. This one serves a complete menu, not just pastries. Mmm.

Next stop the Louvre. The Louvre is really, really, really big. In three hours we walked through perhaps 10% of the collection, pretty much without stopping. There were more Egyptian antiquities there than I remembered, and that area was less crowded than the painting section. The Mona Lisa (La Jaconde, the French call her) is mandatory, of course, but getting to it is another matter. Danielle finally squirmed through the crowd to get a glimpse. It is true that her eyes always seem to be looking at you, wherever you stand, a feature not apparent in the reproductions. It’s just a shame it’s impossible to really appreciate it because of the crowds. After visiting my favorites — the Flemish paintings — we headed back to the hotel for showers, fancy clothes, and a meeting with our tour group — the first in three days. Many thanks to Henry for entertaining us for our entire Paris visit; it was great.

We all boarded the bus at 7:00pm looking very different, in our jackets and ties. The group had obviously grown together during their Paris stay (many had taken up to four optional trips together). Several mentioned that they’d missed us. I guess Danielle tends to liven things up a bit. She enjoys talking to both the teenagers and the older people. I particularly like the Chinese family from San Francisco, the Midwesterners who now live in Marin, and Gloria, our tour guide. At 8:00 we boarded the Batteau Mouches for a dinner cruise on the Seine. Champagne was followed by a four course dinner of surprisingly good food. There were no complaints about the wine, either — a 1998 St. Emilion Grand Cru. It flowed freely, a fact that I’m sure was regretted by a few the next morning.

As the boat rounded the Isle de la Cite and Isle St. Louis, a band began to play dance music, and Gloria coaxed quite a few of us out onto the dance floor — Danielle and I included. A light rain outside, floating down almost like snow in the bright lights of the boat just added to the atmosphere. I was nearly midnight before we got back to the hotel; all in all a very pleasant evening, one I recommend to all Paris visitors.

Monday, August 6, 2001

Rome

Our wakeup call wasn’t until 7:45, but I was up at 7:15 to shower and pack. After breakfast we piled onto the bus and headed for Charles De Gaulle airport. I think everyone was reluctant to leave Paris, as always.The flight was only about 90 minutes, and Air France food was good, as usual. But with the logistics at both ends figured in, it was 5:00pm before we checked into the Mediterraneo in Rome.

Coming into Rome we passed though many mid-20th century buildings, most of which were marked with graffiti. Gloria explained that it could be expensive to clean your building, because it might attract the attention of the tax assessor! As we passed through the ancient Roman wall surrounding the old city there began to be many more ornate and Renaissance buildings.

Our hotel is located near Termini, the main train station, which the guide book says is not the greatest neighborhood, although it looks nice enough. The hotel appears to be about 100 years old, but is in good repair. The floors are marble, and there are rare woods throughout. Our room is large by European standards, with a nicely remodeled bathroom, including a bidet (“If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium” comes to mind). The beds are twin size, though.

Danielle walked through the door and fell asleep. We decided to skip the evening’s walking tour, including the Trevi fountain (of “Three Coins” fame) and the group’s many course Italian dinner, because we had a 6:00am call for the city tour on Tuesday. I went out to a small local market for some water and snacks and scoped out the neighborhood while Danielle slept, then caught a nap myself until 9:00pm.

When Danielle awoke she was ready for dinner, so we walked up to the Piazza di Republica and had pizza and pasta (yes, that’s really what they eat) in a sidewalk Tratorria overlooking the square. For dessert she had a fantastically rich chocolate gelato.

Tuesday, August 7, 2001

Rome is busy, but not like in the movies. We’re told that it’s “empty” because it’s August and everyone is out of town. It’s not empty, but our guide, Gloria, was surprised at how early we got to the Vatican: about a half hour before opening. We were the second or third group in. Our local guide, Amelia, was informative, but not as interesting as Gloria. We visited a single corridor of the Vatican Museum, then entered the Sistine Chapel.

It’s amazingly colorful since the cleaning of a few years ago. I had read some descriptions of the different sections in the excellent Dorling Kindersley Rome travel guide (don’t leave home without it), so it was more interesting than I was anticipating. Gloria rented personal radio headsets for us for the entire day. These were fantastic, as they allowed Amelia to speak in a whisper, even from 100 feet away, and we could all hear her. It made it very easy to collect the group as we moved from area to area, and saved us a lot of time throughout the day.

The Sistine Chapel empties into St. Peter’s square, where we made a U-turn and entered St. Peter’s Basilica. This is the largest of the cathedrals on the trip; the tallest building in Orlando would easily fit under the 448 foot high dome. Inside is the Pieta, now behind bullet proof glass, and many works by Bernini, who shared architectural credit with Michelangelo. Unlike the other cathedrals we’ve visited, this one is a work in progress, with many new mosaics honoring recent popes and parishes around the world. The large “paintings” in the various shrines are actually mosaic copies of famous paintings in the Vatican painting gallery; when examined extremely closely it becomes apparent that they are made of millions of colored glass beads.

After St. Peter’s we took a break so that Danielle could get fleeced in a tourist shop, and then wound our way through the historic part of the city to the Colosseum. On the way we saw many sights in the forum and surrounding area. While it would have been nice to walk, it was over 90 degrees, and the bus’ air conditioning felt great. I was a little surprised to discover that the forum is not only surrounded by modern highways, but is actually bisected by one. Those postcard photos must be shot very carefully.

Inside the Colosseum Amelia led us around the edge of the main floor, describing how the area beneath the floor was used to store live animals. Their cages were winched through trap doors to provide a dramatic entrance at the proper moment. Then they were slaughtered. Fun.

Because of the light crowds, we finished our tour by 1:30, a couple of hours early, and decided to have a quiet afternoon. (We have a 4:30 am wake-up call tomorrow… groan.)

We had dinner in a trattoria on a small street near the hotel. When I say “on”, I mean on — our table was almost in the middle of the pavement. Oddly, it was run by a Japanese man, but the food was strictly Italian, and better than last night’s. I had fettuccine Bolognese and we shared a ham pizza; this flatbread pizza style, reminiscent of what I fix on the barbecue, is apparently the true Italian style, invented in Naples.

Wednesday, August 8, 2001

This was the big day of the trip: Naples (Napoli), Capri and Pompeii. We were on the bus by 5:00am, but I think we were all comatose for the first ninety minutes until we hit a rest stop with a coffee bar.

At 9:30 we reached Naples, a big, unattractive city on a large bay. The culture is different in southern Italy, and the activities of the mafia and the underground economy have hurt the southern cities, which lag the north in prosperity. We were early, as the roads were empty, so we killed a bit of time in a square in front of what was the palace of a southern king. An interesting note is that stray dogs here are not rounded up, they are fed by the citizens.

At the docks we met Marco, our local guide for the day. He was a handsome and charming Italian, but fairly worthless as a guide. During our visits to Capri and Sorrento he was invisible most of the time, and did little more than point out good places to take photos. We emerged knowing nothing of those two places.

In Pompeii he was more informative, but spent much of his time making sure we bought books from his friend. But I digress.We took a hydrofoil to Capri, a 45-minute trip diagonally across the bay. The water was smooth, almost glassy, even as we ventured out into the edge of the Mediterranean. Seagulls floated on it all the way across.

Capri is a dramatic saddle of limestone jutting over 1000 feet upwards out of the bay. There is almost no level ground, but thousands of narrow terraces have been cut into the stone, and are planted with trees, shrubs or vines. A road switchbacks its was up the saddle and then across the vertical cliff face of the northern end. Wherever possible, it is lined with narrow houses squeezed against the cliff face and each other. There are few spots wide enough for even the tiny minibuses to pass, and scooters are the preferred method of transport. Our minibus ride was reminiscent of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride; at one point we had to negotiate a complete 360 in order to make a sharp right turn. We drove though three of the four villages on the five-square-mile island, starting from Marina Grande and proceeding through Capri to Anacapri, perched atop the northern end. Even with the early morning fog still shrouding much of the island, the views were spectacular: deep blue water dotted with dozens of sailboats and yachts, rocky limestone cliffs plunging to the sea, and everywhere colorful bursts of bougainvillea.

In Anacapri we boarded a skyride to the very highest point of the island. This was pretty exciting, as the seats were individual ski lift chairs, so our feet dangled above the scenery as we climbed almost another 1000 feet to the highest point on the island. On the way up our feet nearly grazed the tops of some of the trees, and we passed over many vineyards, gardens, and a backyard filled with what appeared to be shrines made from Barbie doll parts, plastic toys and seashells. From the top of the mountain we looked down another steep cliff to the small grotto where mermaids lured the Greek sailors in the Odyssey.

Back at the base of the lift we walked through the narrow shopping bazaar to the Hotel Saint Michele, an attractive white complex on the ridge, overlooking the harbor. We had a pleasant lunch, sharing a table with the Drumms, then retraced our minibus journey back to the hydrofoil for the shorter trip to Sorrento, at the southern end of the bay.

Sorrento is as charming as Naples is homely. Beautiful old buildings cling to the cliff tops, and the public squares are lined with interesting restaurants and shops. Unfortunately we were just passing through, taking a bus back to our tour bus, but this town definitely merits an extended stay.

The road from Sorrento back to Naples definitely tested the skill of Daniele (accent on the final ‘e’), our tour bus driver for the Italian portion of our trip. It clings to the rocky cliff top, skirting many volcanic beaches, and plunging through long, winding tunnels at several spots. The beaches were crowded with sunbathers and swimmers, but traffic was light.I was surprised to discover that Pompeii is surrounded by a suburb of Naples; I had imagined it in some secluded spot. But unlike the forum in Rome, which is bisected by a major highway, Pompeii is isolated by its size and the local topology, a lot of which is volcanic ash and pumice. Incidentally, Vesuvius erupts about every 50 years. The last time was in 1944. You do the math. There are 500,000 people in the immediate vicinity, and a single lane road leading in and out.

Pompeii is a city. Yes, I knew that, but somehow I was thinking four square blocks. In fact it’s huge, stretching in all directions as far as you can see. The second floors of most buildings are gone, but the first floors, including mosaics, frescoes, and even plumbing survive.

Buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Pompeii was only discovered in the 19th century, and excavation still continues. Delicate objects such as amphorae and wooden things have been gathered up and placed in storage areas or museums, but most of the structures are open for you to walk through.

Marco seemed to be fascinated by anything that was a penis, so we got what amounted to the erotic tour of Pompeii. There were penis stools, frescoes with giant penises, penises carved into the pavement to point you to the brothels, and penises mounted above the apothecary where you got treated for the clap you caught at the brothel. Inside the brothel were detailed paintings of the “menu”. I guess Danielle won’t be needing any sex ed classes.

We also toured some of the baths (which were much more interesting than the complex in Bath), an ornate private home, a bar and casino, and the public square. The level of detail in Pompeii is amazing, and we left with many unanswered questions about mysterious objects that we passed on the way through. Two hours is not enough. I’m not sure two days would have been. We will definitely want to return.

It was another three hours on the bus back to Rome, but the time went quickly, as Gloria told us stories on the way, including the history of the Hapsburgs, the gossip on the British royal family, and a hilarious tale about her vacation in a “camping machine”.We arrived at the hotel about 9:00pm and received sad news. Danielle’s Grandpa Dean passed away today. He was the kindest man I’ve ever known, and we’ll miss him very much. We’ll fly to Los Angeles on Saturday to join Linda at her mother’s.

Thursday, August 9, 2001

A late morning. While much of the rest of the group headed out at 6:00 am for the optional Florence tour, we hedonistically spent the morning in bed. We didn’t actually make it out of the room until after 1:00, but we had an energetic afternoon, walking halfway across the old city, through the Quirinal district, one of the original seven hills of Rome.

We lunched at a charming trattoria in a narrow alleyway, then spent the better part of an hour wandering around looking for the Trevi fountain. In retrospect, I think we missed it by one block three times, but the sightseeing was interesting; in the maze of twisty little streets there were many upscale shops and restaurants. We passed a bronze guy on a horse, a very ornately carved column, and a brand new water fountain built in 1957 where Danielle discovered that by covering the spigot it would water the top of your head (it was hot). Our map wasn’t good enough to identify any of these.

At the Trevi Fountain we threw in three coins: one from England, one from France, and one from Italy. Legend says that if you toss a coin in the fountain you will return to Rome. We’re hoping surrogate tossing works, because our third coin was for Linda.

On the way back, along the Via Nazionale I bought Danielle a gold heart pendant as a remembrance of our trip together.

In the evening the entire group went out to an Italian restaurant for our “last supper”. There were opera singers, and they had our frequent dining companions, the Drumms, play Romeo and Juliet in honor of their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

Friday, August 10, 2001

What an expedition we had getting home! It was supposed to be a nine-hour flight from Rome, but we hit a holding pattern over Boston and then had to stop in Baltimore to refuel. Then we spent an hour waiting for clearance to Philly, and an hour sitting on the runway in Philly waiting for a gate. Finally, after 13 hours in the plane, we got off to face an hour line in immigration. After clearing customs there was a three-hour line to rebook, since all the flights had been missed or cancelled. In fact, the soonest flight we could get was 24 hours later.

Anyway, we spent the night in Philly, and are rerouting ourselves directly to L.A. on Delta, where we expect to be for the next week.

And so we say “Arrivaderci Roma”, and bid a fond farewell to all of Europe. Thanks to Gloria and all the nice people who traveled with us for making it such a special trip.

Australia 2001

I’ve always wanted to visit Australia, both to see a new continent, and to better understand the market for audio, video, lighting and show control products, there. So when I heard that our Australian distributor, EAV Technology, would be exhibiting at the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) Convention in July, and that David Geoghegan, our Director of Sales had a conflict with another trade show, I decided to make the trip and check things out. Researching airfares on the web, I stumbled upon a promotion that seemed unbelievable. For less than the normal price of a round trip airfare, Qantas was offering two weeks in Australia, including airfare between Los Angeles and Sydney and connections to Cairns and Melbourne, plus four nights of accommodations in each. Although they called it the Australia Stop Dreaming “Tour”, it wasn’t really a tour because we could leave any day that we wanted. But it was certainly priced like a tour — lower, even. Just $1599 complete. This is less than the US to Australia airfare alone. A $400 upgrade to the deluxe hotel category also seemed a bargain. So that’s how Linda, Danielle and I came to be heading for Australia in July.

Tuesday, July 3, 2001

Los Angeles

With Linda busy on projects at Disney, Danielle and I took advantage of our first stop being Los Angeles to spend some time with her grandparents. We caught the afternoon non-stop from Orlando, and arrived in time to meet them for dinner at El Cholo.

But first we checked in to our hotel, the St. Regis in Century City. In keeping with the bargain theme of this trip, I’d found a deal on Expedia that offered this hotel at about $200 a night — a bit of a discount from their normal $500-$5000 a night room rates.

The St. Regis is one of the nicest hotels I’ve stayed in, and has some of the best staff. It’s the top of the line for the Starwood Resort company, and is positioned above their Westin chain. There’s butler service, the valets remember your name, and the touchscreen telephone controls the entire room, including the lighting.

Expedia also found us a deal on a rental car — my first experience with Thrifty, and overall a good one.

So by 9:00 pm we were settled in for Nachos and a Combination Number One at El Cholo. Danielle lasted pretty well considering it was past midnight our time, but by the end of the meal she was ready to sleepwalk back to the hotel.

Wednesday, July 4, 2001

Our Independence Day started with room service breakfast on our balcony overlooking the construction site next to the Century Plaza. Then Danielle exercised some genes that she didn’t get from either parent by shopping for jeans at Macy’s, across the street. They were on sale!

Actually the shopping served two purposes. It got Danielle some red jeans to complete her red, white and blue Fourth of July outfit, and killed a couple of hours until noon, when Grandpa and Grandma are up and around. I brought them lunch from El Pollo Loco — the second in a long line of west-coast-only foods that we had on our agenda.

In the afternoon I left Danielle to play with Marjorie and Dean and headed out to the San Fernando Valley to Frye’s Electronics to pick up a 128MB Smart Media Card that they had on sale for an absurdly low price. I was expecting them to be “just out”, but to my surprise, they had plenty, at less than half the going rate, and with a free USB reader. Frye’s is huge. No, it’s HUGE. I honestly found it somewhat overwhelming, with row after row of everything from PCB making supplies to motherboards to books to chips to stereos to adult DVDs to vacuum cleaners (these last two were in separate sections). Note to Grace: we should check into Frye’s as a wholesale source of PC-Card media.

On the way back to the McBrides’ house I stopped at several stores and picked up a cooler, thermos, and food for a picnic dinner. Then we all headed to the Hollywood Bowl, for an evening Pops concert in box seats that Linda had bought for us.

It was a shame that Linda couldn’t join us. It’s always special being under the stars on a balmy night, enjoying great music and the magic of this historical venue. The fireworks that capped off the performance were truly spectacular, the best-synchronized performance I’ve seen.

Thursday, July 5, 2001

More west-coast foods checked off the list. We made a breakfast stop at Stan’s corner doughnut shop in Westwood for the world’s best blueberry buttermilk doughnuts, then hit Shakey’s Pizza for Mojo potatoes. The latter we catered to the McBride’s for lunch, then headed out for a short day at Knott’s Berry Farm, arriving about 3pm.

Mystery Lodge, the world’s best Pepper’s Ghost effect, was the highlight of the visit. The show, designed by BRC Imagination Arts, and using Alcorn McBride control and audio equipment, is based upon a show that Linda helped them do for the GM pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver. In this improved version, a live-action Native American wanders about a long house, summoning up images out of the smoking firepit, and disappearing and reappearing at will. At the end of the show he slowly fades from view, leaving only his walking stick, which finally falls to the ground. Neat.

At Knott’s Danielle got to pan for gold, we rode the old but still fun Calico Mine train, and the log flume. We also lost money on many redemption games.

Fortunately the chicken dinner restaurant was very crowded, so afterward we headed up the freeway to Burbank, and The Smokehouse Restaurant. Located directly across from the Burbank Studios, for fifty years this otherwise average restaurant has been packing them in with the world’s best garlic cheese bread. I grew up going with my folks to their now-defunct location in Encino almost every weekend. It’s still as good as ever.

Friday, July 6, 2001

A morning drive through Hollywood, and breakfast at Jack-in-the-Box (another one of those west-coast places). Danielle was amazed at the Hollywood Jack-in-the-Box, with its bullet-proof barrier between the employees and the guests, and a double-doored box to pass the food between. Welcome to Hollywood.

We spent a quiet day at the McBrides’. I think everyone was tired after their outing to Knotts’. Lunch was from Carl’s Junior (you guessed it, another one of those you-know-what). In the early evening Danielle and Marjorie baked brownies while I went to the airport to pick up Linda. After a brief stop at our hotel we all headed to Lawry’s, the time-honored prime rib Mecca of Restaurant Row.

Lawry’s has moved across La Cienega Boulevard from its location of many years. What’s really disconcerting is that the new building, inside, anyway, is virtually identical to the old one — floor plan, decor, everything. Weird. Prime rib is still served from what Ruth Riechl, the restaurant critic, once described as “silver-plated rolling coffins”. It’s still as good as ever, although I found the portions a bit skimpy.

Danielle spent the night at the McBrides’, her last chance for a sleep-over this trip.

Saturday, July 7, 2001

Linda and I stopped by El Cholo for lunch, since she’d missed her opportunity for the world’s best Mexican food on Tuesday night. Then we spent a quiet afternoon at the McBrides’. Very quiet for me, as I fell asleep on the floor of the living room. It’s not that I hadn’t been getting enough sleep, but the weather this trip was so hot and humid — even more so than in Florida — that I found it really took the wind out of my sails. I guess I’m just used to living in air-conditioning.

In the late afternoon we headed up the coast to Malibu, and Duke’s restaurant. Now named after a Hawaiian surfer, the place started out in the 1930s as The Sea Lion. In fact, at one time there was a pool in front with live sea lions. When I was a child we used to drive up the coast on Saturday afternoons for dinner. I remember watching the waves crash against the plate glass windows, especially in the bar. A few winters ago they did a bit too much crashing, and broke all the windows. So now there’s a rocky barrier, and no more splashing.

Sunday, July 8, 2001

This will be a long day. Up early, packed, checked out, breakfast at McDonald’s (certainly not a west-coast-only thing, but I can’t imagine a large chorizo breakfast burrito with HOT jalapeno sauce in Florida) and we’re off to the airport for our Qantas flight. Departing at 1:00 pm aboard a 747 (in the fourth row from the rear, center, but not as bad as it sounds) we spent fourteen and a half hours reading, doing word jumbles, watching FIVE movies, and eating many meals. A few of them were called lunch and dinner, I’m not sure about the rest. Danielle spent much of the flight listening to the Bill Bryson tapes, “In A Sunburned Country”, his wonderful tour of Australia. One thing’s certain: all future plane flights will seem short! But Danielle held up well, and she and Linda both got some sleep. There was a beautiful view of Sydney and its harbor as we landed about 9pm. . . Monday night.

Monday, July 9, 2001

Hey, what happened to Monday? Eaten by the international date line. We’ll get it back in two weeks.

Tuesday, July 10, 2001

Sydney

We were supposed to be at the Sofitel, but the travel agent waited so long to reserve it that it was full. Then they put us at the Rydges Wentworth, a 5-star that looked like it had potential. Somehow it got booked up, too. So at the last minute we ended up at the Premier Menzies, four steps below the Sofitel in the Accor chain, and a 3-star at best. But the rooms are clean, if small.

Breakfast buffet in the Clarrington Restaurant (why is there spaghetti?) and then off to the Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbor. At first the aquarium seemed somewhat run-down and modest, but the very first exhibit — the platypus — captured our hearts, and everything else was great, too. The pair of platypi(?) were like otters, in constant motion, and we could see them above and below the water. If these things were in a Sci-Fi movie you wouldn’t believe them. They look like otters wearing fake duck beaks and paddle wheel flippers.

We had lunch in the rotating restaurant atop the Centrepoint Tower, the tallest structure in New South Wales — in fact, the tallest in the Southern hemisphere. I’ve been to the top of the CN Tower in Toronto, and the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, both of which are taller, but they can’t come close to the view from Centrepont.

Syndney is simply the most beautiful city I’ve been in. Not necessarily the neatest, funnest, or most intriguing, but from a pure photogenic standpoint, it puts even Paris and San Francisco to shame. located on a spur surrounded by harbors, inlets islands and mountains, there’s something interesting to look at in every direction. And from Centrepoint there’s there’s nothing to block your view.

We walked back to the hotel, which afforded Danielle the opportunity to add to her stuffed animal collection in the shops along the way — wombats, koalas, echidnas, kangaroos and wallabies — the choices are a bit different here.

We had a quiet afternoon, and a tasty dinner — chicken tandoori and Thai chicken — in the hotel dining room.

Wednesday, July 11, 2001

Another buffet breakfast (what the hell is it with this spaghetti, anyway?) and then a visit to the Australia Museum, where they have a fabulous collection of rocks and minerals, an interesting room full of skeletons, and the good taste to use our audio/video equipment.

I skipped lunch and headed over to the SMPTE show for the afternoon, while Linda and Danielle went to Xerts, a space-themed restaurant where you order from a touchscreen at your table and watch cartoons while you wait. Then they toured the Sydney Opera House, which they enjoyed.

At the show I had some productive conversations with Clive O’Brien and Tony Hambling of EAV, and several customers from around Australia. The show is very small, as is the market, and I’m not sure it’s worth the expense of sending someone to Australia for it. I do think that if we had a product that could displace some AMX equipment — and the key here is touchscreen interfaces — that we could wedge our way into this market in a bigger way. On the video player side, it’s cost-per-channel that’s the key to selling against DVD players, as always.

For dinner we caught a cab up to The Rocks, the historic area where Sydney was founded. It was reminiscent of Ghirardelli square in San Francisco. In fact everything here in Sydney seems much more similar to America than to England. Only the money, the side of the street they drive on, and the accents are reminders that we’re not somewhere in the U. S.

We had dinner at Shiki Japanese Restaurant — there’s a strong Asian influence here — where Danielle enjoyed the Tepanyaka (table-top grilling of your own seafood) but not being spattered by hot butter.

Thursday, July 12, 2001

We were up early today for a three-part tour. A bus picked us up at the hotel and took us to Star City, near the big new casino, where we transferred to a different bus for a 45-minute trip to Featherdale Animal Park. Sydney is a city of four million people and five million vehicles, and it shows in the traffic.

At Featherdale got to stroll among kangaroos and emus, and pet koalas, wombats and even an Echidna (careful of which direction you stroke those!) It was quite wonderful. There were also hundreds of bird species, a dingo, and some nasty looking crocs. Mingling with the kangaroos was a real highlight of the trip.

The return bus ride dropped us off at Circular Quay where we caught the Captain Cook luncheon cruise. In retrospect it would have been better to take a different cruise, as the one before ours had 13 passengers, and ours was packed. The views of Sydney from the water were pleasant, including the classic view of the Opera House.

This whole part of the tour was very disorganized, and reconnecting with our bus — or any other — after lunch seemed almost impossible. We decided to skip the third part — a driving tour of the city — altogether and instead took a walk through the shopping areas in The Rocks, then a cab back to the hotel.

Internet connections here have been very difficult, but after many attempts I finally managed to get online and process some email this afternoon.

For dinner we went to The Summit, yet another rotating restaurant atop a nearby building where the food was pretty good, and the service pretty absent.

Friday, July 13, 2001

Cairns

There seemed to be plenty of people willing to fly on Friday the Thirteenth, but the weather wasn’t very cooperative. We were up at 5:30am and at the airport by 7:15 for the flight to Cairns. The only problem was that we couldn’t see the runway for the fog. With no planes coming in, even once the fog lifted, there was no way to get out, so we spent six hours waiting for our flight. This wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounds, though, since we had a nice table by the window, and plenty of things left over from our previous flight to keep us occupied. Danielle made productive use of the time by doing math problems in one of her workbooks, for which she earned almost aus$60.

Speaking of money, Australia seems a real bargain at current exchange rates. The ratio is almost two to one, and things here seem inexpensive anyway (except for gas, which is close to US$4 a gallon).

Take wines, for example. Australian wines are really excellent, but only the really big producers make it to the States; so I’ve been trying to order wines that we can’t get at home. We’ve had some fabulous, intense Cabernets at very nice restaurants, and paid only about US$20 for them.

Anyway, at about 2:00pm we finally took off for Cairns. Helped along by our previous fourteen hour experience, and the very entertaining “Emperor’s New Groove”, the flight seemed extremely quick, and by 6:00pm our cab was pulling up to the Sofitel Reef Casino in Cairns.

What a difference from our previous hotel: marble bathroom, rare wood furniture, and louvered sliding doors dividing up the tropical-style room.

Cairns is unlike any place I’ve been before (perhaps San Juan was like this before they paved it). Lush mountains surround a tropical beach, with a small grid of city streets lined with shops and hotels. The water is that same intense blue as in the Caribbean, but since it’s winter here the breeze is pleasant, but not hot and sticky.

Our balcony is on the south side of the building — the shady side(!) — and affords us a 180 degree view from rainforest to reef. There is a casino at the other end of the building. It is circular, ornate, and reminiscent of a small Vegas casino. There are a few gaming tables which seem to be completely ignored, and hundreds of slot machines. The machines play a peculiar game called Poki. The stakes are very low — in some cases as low as an Australian penny a point. Linda took a crack at it for a few minutes, but never did figure out how it worked.

We dined downstairs at Anthias. Consistent with Australian attitudes, the dress was fairly casual, even though it’s the hotel’s nicest restaurant. The food was superb, and Danielle polished off both her own scallop appetizer and my scallop entree. I inherited her stuffed quail, which was also excellent, and a terrific match to the Rouge Homme Cabernet Sauvignon (aus$41).

Saturday, July 14, 2001

I spent this morning creating this journal, getting caught up on almost two weeks of traveling. We’ve done a lot. Linda has researched tour options here in Cairns while Danielle has worked on her own journal. Room service breakfast was excellent, and included a Mango-Peach Yogurt that Danielle loved. They also made her pancakes, although that sort of food isn’t on their breakfast menu (but baked beans are!) The pancakes were great. Now we’re off to explore.

We spent the afternoon browsing Cairns, having lunch on the Pier. I seems obligatory for visitors to Australia to buy an opal, so I did, but preferred mine “on the hoof”: I bought a rock paper weight.

At the local mall Danielle added to her international collection of Harry Potter books, buying the Australian edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Dinner was across the street, at a small sushi restaurant called Kamome. The Toro sashimi was very fresh.

Wandering around town today we passed a number of Aborigines. A small group of men were very drunk, and laughing among themselves, but most wandered the streets somewhat aimlessly. It’s quite strange; almost as if they were ghost people, no one pays any attention to them. In turn, they seem almost oblivious to their surroundings. It’s almost as if they are looking beyond the buildings and traffic, to the land that was here before. It’s eerie.

Sunday, July 15, 2001

Wow. Today we went to the rainforest. A van picked us up at the hotel at 8:30am and drove us north about 20km to Tjapukai, an aboriginal cultural park. Tjapukai has won the award for best attraction from the Australian Tourism Commission several years running, with good reason. After a preshow of historic artifacts, we saw a live and video production that details some of the aboriginal creation myths, what they call their dream time. The presentation was similar to Mystery Lodge, although the script wasn’t as strong. This was followed by a show in a second theater, with large screen video history of the exploitation of the aborigines, and the Tjapukai in particular. This film was excellent. Then we went outside, and had the unique opportunity to try throwing spears using a primitive spearthrower — what we would call an “atlatl”. We also got to try our hand at boomerang throwing; they really do come back!

After a snack at the snack bar (where it was funny to see the native dancers queueing at the coke machine) we went next door to the Skyrail station.

The Skyrail is a 4. 7 mile gondola ride — the world’s longest — that carries you over the mountain range, just above the treetops of the rainforest. The 36 towers — up to 133 feet tall — were lifted into place by helicopter to avoid disturbing the rainforest. It’s breathtaking as you rise over 1700 feet, nearly kissing the top of the canopy. Temperate breezes wafted through the gondola as we ascended, and the sound of birds was everywhere.

There are two stations along the way, where you disembark and explore. At the first, we went on a ranger-guided walk among the trees. The giant tree pictured at the left was one of the few with no clinging vines, due to its unique defense mechanism: it bark falls off at the slightest provocation. One stinging bush was particularly impressive. If you rub against it, you will itch and burn for months — possibly years — whenever the area gets wet. Its fruit is edible, but who would pick it? At the second stop, we got a spectacular view of Barron Falls, and visited the interpretive center.

At the end of the Skyrail is Kuranda Village, where we shopped for opals and had a late lunch in an open air cafe. Then we boarded the Kuranda Scenic Railway, which wound its way down Barron Gorge, through fifteen tunnels and across many bridges until we reached the alluvial plain. At the end of the 90-minuite trip we were back in Cairns at the railway station just a few blocks from our hotel.

Of the many scenic tours we’ve taken, this was unquestionably the most dramatic and beautiful. It’s not to be missed.

We had dinner on the lawn outside the Hilton, overlooking the pier. While we waited we watched the stars circle the Southern Cross. It seemed strange to not recognize any constellations. The night was gorgeous, warm and balmy. At one point two very large bats briefly perched upside-down in a nearby palm tree. When they swooped away, their wing spans were easily two feet.

Monday, July 16, 2001

Another spectacular day. After an early room service breakfast we walked to the pier and caught the Quicksilver 5, a high speed catamaran. We went up the coast about an hour, first to Port Douglas and then out to Agincourt Reef, one of the 2900 individual reefs that comprise the 2300 km-long Great Barrier Reef. The Quicksilver is appropriately named: it does 60 km/hr. By noon we were tied up along a giant “pontoon”, a multi-level structure with picnic tables, sun bathing area, undersea viewing windows, snorkeling deck, and a dock for a semi-submersible. We violated everything your mother taught you by having a buffet lunch and then snorkeling — well, Danielle and I did, anyway. But Linda got to ride the semi-submersible while we went looking for great white sharks.

Actually, despite Australia’s reputation for things that can kill you, it was the easiest — and easily the most spectacular — snorkeling trip we’ve been on. The snorkeling deck, a grating submerged about a half meter and lined with benches, made it trivial to don our gear and get in and out of the water. And the presence of the reef all around us completely broke up what would otherwise have been two-foot swells; the surface was almost completely calm.

The coral was beyond anything we’d imagined — a bit less colorful than on TV (since we didn’t have bright lights to illuminate it) but infinitely varied. There were hundreds of different kinds on every surface. Myriad colorful fish darted in and out of the crannies, or schooled together in groups of a thousand or more. One fascinating behavior that we observed was that of “cleaner fish” who perform a dance to advertise their availability to the larger fish. These larger fish then literally queue up and wait their turn to be cleaned. They open their mouths and gills, and let the smaller fish remove all of the algae and leftover bits of dinner. Amazing.

After snorkeling, Danielle and I caught the 20-minute ride in the sem-submersible, where picture windows give you a very close view — two feet, at times — of more distant sections of reef. We saw a Whitetip Reef Shark (harmless) sleeping on the bottom. There was also a ray, and dozens of vibrant green parrot fish.

At 3pm we headed back to Port Douglas. The staff was fabulous the entire trip, even handing out cool, lemony towels on the way back. At the Port Douglas Marina we boarded a bus back to Cairns. Port Douglas is a very charming town, with many small bistros and open-air cafes. We wished we’d had time to explore.

The drive down the coast was spectacular, reminiscent of Big Sur. The road hugs the rocky shoreline, squeezed between the rainforest and the narrow, meandering beach. In places it’s barely above sea-level. In the first ten miles we saw only two people. Heaven.

Further along, we passed through a crocodile farm where we crossed a river positively crowded with crocodiles. Later I saw a solitary kangaroo grazing in a clearing. At one turnout two hang-gliders using parasails slowly circled at eye-level just above the rocky coast. This part of Queensland is definitely worth a return trip.

Tuesday, July 17, 2001

This morning I rose early and strolled down the Esplanade to drop off the underwater camera for processing of the reef photos. While I waited I had breakfast and espresso at one of the many sidewalk cafes that line the street. The morning was still quiet, as the shop keepers were still cleaning their facades, and the tourists hadn’t arrived yet. The tide was ebbing, and hundreds of shore birds swooped over the mud flats. The soft reggae music of the cafe was the perfect accompaniment.

After I picked up the photos I went back to pack, and we had lunch on the lawn outside the Hilton, overlooking the pier. They have a great menu: fajitas, curries, and Thai salads.

Then it was off to the airport, where Danielle spent the time earning extra spending money by solving math problems in one of her workbooks, and I continued working my way through the 97-cent jumble book Linda gave me on the first leg of the trip. It’s been a great way to occupy myself in the airports and on the long plane flights, but I don’t care if I ever see another jumble!

We had two flights of about two hours each, with a one-hour layover in Brisbane. I’m afraid it will have to remain one of those cities where I’ve only seen the airport. We arrived in Melbourne a bit after 9:00 pm and by 10:00 pm were settled into our room on the 42nd floor of the lovely Melbourne Sofitel.

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

Melbourne

We all slept soundly after our long travel day, and awoke to a beautiful view of Fitzroy Gardens from our 42nd floor room. While Linda and Danielle slept in, I spent the morning transferring this journal and photos to the web using the hotel’s T1 line (they call it E1).

Here’s a bit of business advice: If, like Royal Doulton, you make a luxury product — for example, fine porcelain — you might want to resist the temptation to put your name on other porcelain products — for example, hotel toilets.

In the afternoon I visited with Clive and Tony at EAV’s new office. It was quite productive. I demonstrated WinScript 2. 0, talked about some selling opportunities against AMX and Crestron equipment, and detailed plans for upcoming products. There was a lot of interest in all four major products we have in development. They each clearly represent good opportunities here in Australia, fitting in better than our existing products.

While I was at EAV, Linda and Danielle walked down to the river, had some sushi at a Japanese restaurant, and did some shopping.

For dinner we went across Flinders Lane to Langston’s Restaurant and Wine Bar, where we had French and English cheeses and an absolutely stunning 1999 Jasper Hill Shiraz that was brimming with flavors — in part due to its amazing 15. 5% alcohol content — including plums, wood smoke and vanilla. My opinion of Shiraz has definitely gone up.

Thursday, July 19, 2001

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Today we rose early to catch a tour to the area surrounding Melbourne, including the Yarra Valley wine region.

While we waited for the luxurious Mercedes Benz tour bus we had a chance to examine some of the unusual flowers at the flower market near the hotel. Some of them were strange, to say the least.

Our tour started by climbing the foothills of the Dandenong Range. A hundred varieties of Eucalyptus (“gum”) and other trees strethed high above, forming a dense canopy. The landscape was like what one might imagine Southern California being like if the climate were more tropical. The giants ferns sprouting from the forest floor reached above our heads in some places.

We stopped at a small teahouse in Ferntree Gully where we had great fun feeding King Parrots, Gullahs and Crimson Rosellas that flew out of the thick Eucalyptus forest and landed on our hands and heads.

Our next stop was a short way up the road in Belgrave. This is the departure point for the historic Puffing Billy steam train which was used to move logs from the forest starting in 1900, and became a tourist attraction soon after. The train and 24 km of track have been completely restored, and are operated entirely by volunteers from all over the world. We took the thirty minute (10 km) ride through the forest to Menzies Creek, where we caught up with our bus for the drive to the Yarra Valley.

Lunch was at Fergusson’s Winery. Danielle had their specialty, the spit roast, but Linda and I selected main courses that didn’t involve any spit.

We stopped for wine tasting at Yering Station, and then a snack and sparkling wine tasting at Domaine Chandon. Linda and I both liked the still wines that Domaine Chandon was selling under the Green Hill label better than their sparklers.

Our final stop was at Eyton (pronounced Eye-ton) on Yarra, where we tasted a range of wines and toured the cellar.

At each of the wineries we visited, we saw magpies, large black and white birds with an elaborate melody. There were also sheep grazing on the cuttings lying between the rows of just pruned vines.

At all three stops, most of the wines were quite good, and a few were excellent. We bought six to bring back with us. I’d love to visit Clive’s wine shop and track down some of the really fabulous Connawara wines we’ve had with dinners, but we just can’t carry any more. I guess we’ll just have to come back on a wine tasting expedition to some of the many other Autralian viticultural regions.

Today’s tour was the best of all the day tours we’ve taken. This was due in large part to our driver, Nemo, who was very friendly, interesting and well-informed. Also, we dropped most of the group off at an animal park for the entire afternoon, so the three of us and one other fellow had a nearly private wine-tasting tour on our lovely tour bus!

We had dinner at Kenzan, the Japanese restaurant in the bottom of the hotel, where we sat in a Tatami room with paper walls and a sliding door.

Friday, July 20, 2001

Today we had a relatively quiet last day in Australia. We walked through Chinatown and then on up to Queen Victoria Market, passing through many blocks of interconnected department stores and malls on the way. We had lunch on the patio of an old brick building (with a sign on its tower saying “Shot Factory”) that has been completely absorbed into the mall, with a conical glass structure enclosing its entire six-story tower.

Queen Victoria Market was a bit of a disappointment. Originally an open-air produce market next to a cemetery, it became so popular that they dug up the cemetery and expanded into it. Now it’s little more than a flea market.

We walked back past the hotel to the tiny opal shop that Linda and Danielle discovered on Wednesday. The German couple that owns it is charming. He is a true enthusiast, who spends most of his time carefully polishing opal sections out of the raw boulders. He showed us one piece that was about 1. 5 inches by 3 inches that looked like trees and ferns when you held it one way, and dancing women wearing white when you held it upside down. The colors and depths of that one and other special stones he showed us were phenomenal — and phenomenally priced, at about $60,000 Aus. We bought a few small pieces that can only be considered trinkets in comparison.

Back at the hotel we relaxed for a while. Danielle finally finished “Curse of Monkey Island”. And I bought some candies for the crew at Alcorn McBride which should prove amusing.

For dinner we went to the restaurant complex on the other side of the river, called Southgate. We had a lovely dinner at Blake’s, a place that serves “New Australian” cuisine. The service was great, and we had an excellent Wynn’s “Michael” Shiraz. It was very noisy though, due in large part to the table seated next to us: ten 16-year-old girls dressed like Britney Spears — in other words, like hookers. Worst of all, they were behind me.

We were originally going to pack Friday night, but when we got back to the hotel there was quite a good singer/pianist playing in the lounge of the atrium that the hotel surrounds, so Linda and I decided to spend a quiet hour enjoying the music. As Bill Bryson noted in his wildly entertaining “In A Sunburned Country”, music in Australia seems to be caught in a time warp. But it was fine with us that all of the songs were thirty years old.

Danielle went to bed, but stayed up late reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. This is a t least her fifth time through it, but the first time with the English edition, which she bought on the trip. She’s enjoying spotting all of the differences in the text: jumpers for sweaters, and no “bloody” noses.

Saturday, July 21, 2001

Up early, lots of packing, then off to the airport and a quick bit ebefore the flight. We’re getting to be old hands at these long flights. Five movies, three meals, and a very short night, and we were touching down in L. A. The sunset in the vicinity of Hawaii was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen — layers of streaky white clouds, pierced by roiling thunderheads far, far below us, and the whole horizon turning orange, then green, then indigo.

Saturday, July 21, 2001

Los Angeles

Yes, there are two July 21sts this month. In fact we landed three hours before we took off! Our room at the Westin wasn’t quite ready, so we had another breakfast while we waited — our fifth meal for Saturday, but not our last. Then we settled in for a nap — six hours worth — before renting a car downstairs and meeting Grampa and Grandma for dinner. We went to Cafe del Rey at Marina del Rey. When Linda made the reservation, she didn’t realize that it’s part of the California Cafe chain, which we like a lot. Dinner was superb — frankly, the best meal of the trip — and we had two terrific wines: Gainey Reserve Unfiltered Chardonnay, and Morgan Reserve Unfiltered Pinot Noir. We settled into bed at about 11:00 pm, and were, of course, wide awake at 3:00 am.

Have I mentioned that Westins suck? For a supposedly high-end hotel, the service seems consistently abysmal. It took two calls to get our bags delivered, two more to get them picked up, and they couldn’t even manage to print an invoice when we checked out. Next time we’ll go back to the Marriott, or Embassy Suites.

Sunday, July 22, 2001

Orlando

Our take-off was slightly delayed because the heating and AC unit failed when the disconnected from the terminal power, but we got off before 8:00 AM, and touched down in Orlando shortly before the start of our quarterly Wine Syndicate dinner, on the other side of town. A quick stop at home, and then Danielle was off to spend the night with Nicole, and Linda and I headed out to meet the group at Emeril’s in City Walk.

In retrospect, Australia was probably our best trip ever. The package we got was certainly the best deal ever. The bottom line for all three of us for two weeks was $5800 — not including food and side tours — a terrific bargain. We had excellent flights and a nice leisurely schedule; it was great to have a day to relax after each travel day. Even the long overseas flights weren’t that bad.

Most of the accommodations were also top-notch, especially in Cairns. The people couldn’t have been friendlier, nor the scenery more beautiful. I highly recommend this trip to everyone. Go while the exchange rate is still two for one!

Caribbean 2001

Miami, St. Thomas, San Juan

Miami

Saturday, April 7, 2001

For Spring Break, Danielle and I decided at the last minute to take a cruise aboard the newly-launched Explorer of the Seas. It’s the sister ship of the Voyager of the Seas, on which we sailed last year. Explorer sails the Easter Caribbean, while Voyager continues its Western Caribbean itinerary. We got a great last minute deal on an outside cabin. We even ended up on the port side of the ship, which proved to be the best view throughout the cruise.

Unfortunately Linda, swamped with six simultaneous projects, couldn’t get away. Never mind that Disney is laying people off right and left, she seems to be required to do the work of half a dozen of them.

So Friday Danielle and I packed up and headed down to Ft. Lauderdale for a night at the beach. That way it’s a relaxed drive to the port on Saturday.

We had a nice time at the beach at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort. We invented a new game, “dueling towers”, where two identical towers made by inverting a plastic cup of sand must be defended against the encroaching surf by the respective players. Danielle found that a combination of walls and trenches worked best.

Saturday we headed down to the Port of Miami, stopping for lunch in a tiny Chinese restaurant on the way. It turns out you can get on the ship long before the advertised 2pm boarding time. Some people reported having lunch aboard. Still, we felt lucky to be settled in our cabin shortly after 2pm. Our luggage arrived soon thereafter.

Explorer of the Seas is extremely similar to Voyager of the Seas. As we wandered around the ship Danielle pointed out to me a wall covering here or a carpet there that is different, but on the whole it’s nearly a twin. Our cabin was about half the size of the suite we had last year, but was very nice, well-finished and comfortable.

After the obligatory lifeboat drill (which we spent mugging for the camera) we checked the seas for any signs of icebergs, and then returned our life preservers to the cabin.

Ain’t technology grand? Even halfway to the Bahamas, of course we could send and receive email in our cabin. Cybercabin turned out to be a modem connection through the phone at 45K. It worked almost 100% of the time, and cost $100 per cruise – maybe not as cheap as a few quick uses of the Internet terminals in the library at $0. 50/minute, but a whole lot more convenient.

Danielle was the social butterfly at dinner. We have people from Ft. Lauderdale, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Philadelphia at our table for 10. It’s actually one of the best tables on the ship, being in a quiet side room right next to a very large window. It’s so secluded that it even took the maitre d’ a while to find it. The food was about the same as the last cruise – good, but not great – but the service was much better.

Nassau

Sunday, April 8, 2001

Well, we survived snorkeling. Linda wouldn’t have liked it. There were a lot of very colorful fish that have learned the boats bring people with fish food. There were also a zillion itty bitty jellyfish (0. 5″ size), harmless, but they would have freaked Danielle out if she’d noticed that we were swimming through them. Fortunately she didn’t. The water was very warm, and fairly clear.

Linda would have liked the ride on the catamaran. We lay on the cargo mesh and sailed back while the crew and a few of the rum-plied women danced to some pretty good reggae CDs.

We managed to lock ourselves out of the safe in our cabin (my fault, I think). It took at least 5 seconds for one of the officers to open it with an electronic device that plugs in behind the handle.

We left port at 2pm today for the long trip to St. Thomas. Danielle went to her first Adventure Ocean Voyagers group. Afterwards there was the formal dinner (which Danielle also attended, since Adventure Ocean is closed at that time).

We got dressed in our best formalwear and went to the captain’s reception, where we had our portrait snapped about a dozen times. I hope Danielle doesn’t pressure me into buying every version. I managed to hold out against buying the stupid photo with the pirate in the background.

Our dining companions all did different things in Nassau. One group went on the pseudo-sub – a boat with portholes below the water – another group went to Atlantis, and the third went on the dolphin encounter. The boy who did this was very enthusiastic about it, but frankly both his descriptions and the printed materials sounded pretty lame. It’s not like you get to swim with them.

Our captain has quite a good sense of humor. He described our day at sea tomorrow as “cruising through the middle of the Bermuda Triangle”.

At Sea

Monday, April 09, 2001

The day started with room service on the balcony. The lochs were the best food I’ve had onboard. Throughout the day I’ll wrestled with the vagaries of C++, while Danielle joined the Voyagers.

We had a “high Italian” meal at Portofino for dinner ($20 extra, and worth it). Danielle, to her surprise, found plenty of things she liked, including a nice cheese plate, filet mignon, and chocolate mousse.

Afterwards we headed for the main theater, where we saw an entertaining – if uneven – musical review called History Repeating, and watched small Spanish-speaking children attempt to commit suicide by leaning over the balcony railing.

St. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands

Tuesday, April 10, 2001

Today we had breakfast on the Balcony overlooking the harbor in St. Thomas – it always reminds me of the Greek islands. Then we headed for downtown Charlotte Amalie (pronounced “Am-all-yuh” aboard one of the 22-person “taxis” that take passengers – on the wrong side of the street – from the Pier, along the harbor to the shopping district. Danielle blew her wad on souvenirs, mostly from the “changes color in the sun” shop. We also checked out a few Jewelry stores and a liquor and cigar shop. They make an excellent rum here in the Virgin Islands, and it only costs about $5 a bottle, but I couldn’t be bothered trying to get it back intact. I looked briefly for Cuban cigars until it occurred to me that St. Thomas is technically part of the United States. It may be duty free, but it doesn’t appear to be free from politics. In fact our only non-U. S. -affiliated stop on this trip was Nassau, so I guess I’m out of luck.

After a snack in the ship’s Promenade Café, we caught the “Leeland Snead” oyster boat (or facsimile thereof) for the hour cruise to Trunk Bay on St. John. I never realized how many little islands, rocks and reefs there were around St. Thomas. You definitely have to know where you’re going.

The crew of the Snead proved to be quite personable, and provided a running commentary throughout the trip. They were mostly Maryland and Virginia expatriates, down for the season. The captain was from North Dakota, a place I don’t associate with seafaring. He must have spent time on the east coast, though, as he had a fuzzy little dog named Chesapeake.

The diving at Trunk Bay was good, not great, but better than Nassau. We snorkeled along the reef and right up to the beach. After some sand and surf play they hauled people back in small inflatable dinghies, but Danielle and I speed-snorkeled our way back to the boat. Some snacks and unlimited rum punch (hic) occupied the hour-long return trip.

After a much-needed shower we headed down to dinner to swap stories with our dining companions. There we watched the sun set on the Charlotte Amalie harbor as we pulled out of port. Since it is only about 80 miles from St. Thomas to Puerto Rico, once we were out to sea we “killed time”, as the captain put it, cruising at what we reckoned to be a mere three knots for most of the night. Oddly, the ship rolls much more at this speed. I sat on the balcony and smoked a (Dominican) Partagas and watched the glow of the lights of the Greater Antilles beyond the horizon.

The cabin stewardess made Danielle a sting ray out of wash clothes and hand towels.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Wednesday, April 11, 2001

As the ship pulled into through the headlands around 6am there was a spectacular sunrise over the fort that guards the entrance to San Juan harbor. In the distance I could see rain coming down over the tropical forest in the mountains.

At 8:30 the bus left for the hour drive to our horseback ride. Our bus driver was very skilled, navigating the traffic while wielding the horn as his chief weapon.

San Juan is a city of barred windows. Destruction sites outnumber construction sites by a wide margin. We were quickly out of the city, though, following the coast on a road lined with fast food stands and factory outlet malls. In about an hour we arrived at the 600-acre Caraballi ranch, a tropical plantation that rambles over several foothills adjacent to the rainforest.

There were about thirty of us on the outing. We were divided into experienced and inexperienced groups, with experienced being defined as “having been on a horse five times”. I was surprised to find myself in the experienced section, and to discover that far more than half of the group was in the “never been on a horse” category.

We were assigned horses individually, and each indeed seemed to match its rider’s personality. Danielle, probably the best rider in the group, mounted “Sensation” a horse that always wanted to be at the front. I found myself on Marquis, who was extremely dependable and loved to eat.

The ride went over rolling terrain, sometimes crossing open hillsides but more often under the trees. The trail was muddy from the morning’s rain, but the horses didn’t seem to mind. They were extremely responsive to direction, and I found myself successfully resting most of my weight on the stirrups, which made for a comfortable ride.

These are Pasafino horses, trained a bit differently than those Danielle normally rides. They have a very quick trotting gate that Danielle called a “jog”. It’s tough for an inexperienced rider to get the horse to do it, but during the brief moments I accomplished it, it was like gliding on ice.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is rainforest_horseride_3-683x1024.jpg

After an hour we stopped for a drink by the river. Normally this is an opportunity for a swim, but we were told that they were expecting flash floods. This didn’t give me a warm feeling as we sat by the bank sipping our drinks. Frankly, I think we were just running late.

Another half hour brought us back to the barn, surprisingly free from saddle sores and with only slightly tired legs. Danielle, of course, was unaffected.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Bus Ride back to the ship got us onboard shortly before our 2pm departure time. The afternoon was a good time to relax in our cabin and catch up on journals.

Danielle again accompanied me to a formal dinner (just between you and me, I think the social experience is growing on her) and then spent the evening and late night at the kid’s pajama party.

The towel animal of the day was a lamb. Or possibly a crab.

Labadee, Hispanola

Thursday, April 12, 2001

Today we awoke in Labadee, a private cove at the northern tip of Haiti (which Royal Caribbean calls Hispanola for marketing reasons). The southern two-thirds of Hispanola is the relatively prosperous Dominican Republic, which was primarily settled by the Spanish. Haiti, on the other hand, is a colony comprised 95% of the descendants of former slaves. Two hundred years of mismanagement and deforestation have reduced it to near-total poverty. On satellite photos you can actually see the demarcation between the two countries. Royal Caribbean’s private cove remains forested, however.

After a late breakfast on the balcony we caught a tender to shore. We stopped briefly at the native marketplace, where we received the Jamaica-like hard sell from dozens of vendors selling utterly worthless native “crafts”. Danielle was out of spending money, but I gave her $10 to let her try out her negotiating skills. In mere minutes she’d negotiated a $2 pair of maracas down to only $10.

We caught the dive boat Fire Dancer for the hour ride to Amiga Island, a tiny oasis surrounded by coral reefs. The water was the clearest we’ve seen on the trip. We started by exploring the 16th century canons, pottery and giant kettles that have been sunk here since our last visit. There was also an enormous anchor. The current was stronger than on our last visit, and I was concerned that Danielle would find it a struggle to make it back to the shore if we went all the way out to the reef, so we contented ourselves with beach play for the rest of our stay.

A strong wind blew up, and the Fire Dancer had quite a fight getting back to the ship. Shortly afterward we set sail, and Explorer also found it rough going. Still, Thursday night is lobster and filet mignon in the main dining room, so even if we have to weave, we make the trip.

Danielle wanted to go to the midnight buffet, and stayed up watching “Best of Show”, which was hilarious — a spinal-tap style fake documentary about a dog show. But in the end, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak, and we both slept through it.

They’ve been replaying the video of some of their entertainment in the cabins. The best one was the “Not So Newlywed Game”. The couples ranged from one married 45 years to one married a week. When they asked the latter “What is the most unusual place you’ve made love?” I don’t think they were expecting the answer “In one of the ship’s glass elevators”.

Today’s towel animal: a swinging monkey.

At Sea

Friday, April 13, 2001

A leisurely day at sea, the best way to end a busy cruise. I spent some time in the cabin torturing myself with C++, then caught Danielle in the talent show, where she recited Shel Silverstein’s “Christmas Dog”. Later she went ice skating, which is a neat trick when you’re six miles east of Cuba.

After a bite at the Island Grill, which affords a 180 degree view of our no-wake zone, Danielle spent the afternoon at Ocean Adventure doing improv and redeeming her Ocean Dollars.

We made a quick stop to say goodbye to our dining companions (and tip the waiters) and then it was back to the Portofino for an elegant farewell dinner.

Miami

Saturday, April 14, 2001

Our lucky color was brown. After a leisurely breakfast in the Windjammer, we were called first for debarkation. There was the usual uncomfortable backup getting to the gangway, but then we quickly cleared customs and hit the road. It felt strange to be driving again. We found that we still had our sea legs when we stopped at a service plaza on the turnpike and felt the building swaying. Even with a break for lunch we were home in under four hours.

Things to remember for future cruises:

Book a port-side balcony cabin between the elevators.

Arrive early, perhaps by noon.

Don’t buy the unlimited soft drink sticker for the charge card. It’s a complete rip-off, since it’s only good in the bars, and they’re never open when you want a soft drink. I think I got two Diet Cokes for my $33.

Book the six-person sailboat snorkel trip on St. Thomas.

Buy cigars in Nassau.

Don’t even think of shopping in San Juan.

Make sure Danielle brings shoes that can actually be worn, and don’t bother packing panty hose, slips, or 75% of her other clothes.

Washington, DC 2000

Before going to Williamsburg for our annual year-end visit to my father, we flew up to Washington Dc so that Danielle could see the nation’s capital.

Our room at the Hay Adams hotel, across the street from the White House. The night view from our room.

The Ford Theater with the box where Lincoln was shot in the background.

Action shot of a snowball at Mt. Vernon.

Danielle with Patricia, Ginnie’s nurse and friend.

Danielle’s Christmas present to Pop Pop: a twig-covered pencil holder.

Las Vegas 2000

In the Fall of 2000 most of The Wine Syndicate group went to Las Vegas, where we stayed at the Venetian. We had some great lunches, dinners and tastings, and also found time for Star Trek The Experience, a tour of Caesar’s Magical Empire, and “O’ at the Bellagio..

Attending:

The Alcorns, Crockets, Henlines, Robinsons and Siegels.

Itinerary:

Thursday, October 12th. Dinner in Red Square at Mandalay Bay.

Friday Dinner in Picasso at Bellagio. Yes, that’s an original behind the Henlines.

Saturday Lunch at Stratosphere’s Top of the World restaurant: Dining at 887 feet.

We capped off our trip with a grand tasting (and 4-1/2 hour dinner!) Saturday night at Delmonico Steakhouse, which graciously provided the appropriate glassware, plus and superb food and service.

Delmonico Tasting Wines:

79 Grands Echezeaux & DRC Echezaux
86 & 91 BV GDLTPR
Guenoc Cabernet Franc
Far Niente Cabernet
86 Ch. Mouton Rothschild
Lynch Bages
91 Dominus
81 Ch. d’Yquem

Canadian Capitals 2000

Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto

*Danielle gets ready for some serious touring… Latop? Check… DVD? Check… Seal? Check.*

Montreal is back there, somewhere, I’m sure.

Monday

On August 21st, 2000 we set out for a tour of Canadian Capitals. We selected Tauck Tours, because of their reputation for a hassle-free experience, with deluxe accommodations and no restrictions on dining choices. Departing from Orlando around noon, we traveled through Cincinnati, and arrived in Montreal — unfortunately — during rush hour. The trip, almost due north, took only a little over four hours; but the cab ride from the airport took another hour.

Monday was really the day before the tour officially started. We wanted time to relax at the hotel. The Hilton Bonaventure in Montreal is an interesting place. The building is seventeen stories tall, but the hotel occupies only the top two floors. It is built facing the interior to eliminate street noise. Most of the rooms surround the swimming pool and garden area in the middle.

On Monday night we had a lovely dinner at the Castillon restaurant, where Danielle experienced the first of many multi-course French meals on this trip. She decided that the cheese course was probably her best bet at most of these French restaurants.

Tuesday

We had most of the day free on Tuesday. After a short walk around the city near our hotel we had lunch at a deli in the underground city of Montreal. We thought about going to the planetarium, but it wasn’t open yet, so we wandered up to the visitor center, where I discovered that the Cuban cigars in the shop across the street were priced for tourists. $45 for Cohibas?! Admittedly that translates into about $30 US, but still…

We browsed brochures for a while, but nothing really captured our interest. I’d spent a month in Montreal one week in the early 90s, and I got the same feeling this time — that there’s no “there” there.

In the end, Linda took a nap, I smoked a delightful cigar called a Vegueros, and Danielle spent nearly four hours in the hotel swimming pool, where she made friends with a girl from the United States named Michelle.

*Julia Stewart, our guide, spells her name the “right way”. You can also see our driver, Andre, in the mirror.*

At 6:00 we met with our tour group for a wine reception. Our tour director, Julia Stewart (“spelled the right way”, she says) is excellent: friendly, organized, knowledgeable, and helpful. She was able to learn everyone’s’ names almost before she’d met them! Her stories of her experiences make the tour much more personal and memorable. Julia is from Nova Scotia originally, but now lives in Vancouver. This is her second year as a Tauck tour director.

*The front of the chapel at Notredame. It’s the world’s largest bronze sculpture..*

*St. Joseph’s Basilica, where you can climb the 99 steps on your knees. We took a big pass on that.*

*The performers at the festival of the governors.*

Danielle was a bit disappointed to discover that there was no one else her age on the tour; we later found out that she was the youngest guests our tour director had ever had! Nevertheless, she gets along well with older people, and is doing a great job of being a mature traveling companion.

The average age of our fellow travelers is well into retirement, but that’s not surprising, since school has started almost everywhere. They’re a very nice group, and have proven to be friendly and punctual.

After the wine reception we had a delightful dinner at the Castillon restaurant with a couple from North Carolina, Dick and June. We talked about Harry Potter and many other books, travel, and our hometowns.

Wednesday

After a nice breakfast in the hotel coffee shop, we met our group for a tour of Montreal. Our motor coach is amazingly quiet. Even climbing a steep hill, there is virtually no engine noise or vibration. Andre, our driver, is from Montreal. Whenever we get on or off the coach, he stands nearby in his coat and tie ready to help.

A local guide name Lis showed us around town, including the 1967 World Expo site and the Olympic Village.

In the old part of the city we visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Although I’m not much into cathedrals, it was very beautiful, with elaborate woodwork and unusual stained glass windows depicting the local history. Danielle lit a candle for GinGin, her step grandma.

Behind the cathedral is a chapel which was burned and reconstructed in the 1960s. Its architecture is jarringly modern, but the bronze sculpture at the front is impressive. The largest in the world, it was made in England and transported to Montreal by ship in thirty-two sections.

Up on Mont Royal (for which the city is named) the view was nearly obscured in fog — which later turned to rain. Fortunately, Montreal is not a particularly scenic city, so we didn’t feel like we’d missed much.

After a quick stop back at the hotel, we crossed the bridge to the Isle Sainte-Helene for the Festin du Guviniers, in The Old Fort. Lunch included singing and piano music. Like many of the old forts in the area, it was constructed after the war of 1812 in case the United States ever again invaded Canada.

In the afternoon Danielle went ice-skating in the high-rise building next to our hotel. Then, for dinner, we wandered down into the underground city beneath Montreal and had an eclectic meal at a fresh food buffet restaurant called Movenpick.

*Water going over the dam right before the falls..*

*In the background are the steps from the level of the falls down to the St. Lawrence River. Yikes.*

Thursday

Thursday was a day for traveling. Our bags were picked up from our room at 7:45, and we were on the road by 8:45, headed from Montreal to Quebec. We stopped for lunch at Montmorency Falls, where we dined on a terrace at the Manoir Montmorency, overlooking the falls. The manor was originally built by Edward, Duke of Kent during the 1800’s. Edward was the son of George, and inherited his father’s fascination with clocks, but fortunately not his manic depression. A military genius, he led an unhappy life, and was eventually forced to separate from the mistress he loved and return to England, where he married. He was the father of Queen Victoria.

After lunch we took the cable car to the base of the falls and back. The falls are higher than Niagara Falls, but don’t carry nearly the volume of water. We walked along a boardwalk that clung to the mountain, eventually venturing out over the falls on a suspension bridge. It was very noisy.

*This strange looking organ is in the chapel beneath the church.*

After lunch we drove past Quebec City and on to the basilica of Ste. Anne-de-Beaupre, a relatively uninteresting church, the current version of which was completed in the 1920’s. The columns at the back of the congregation are decorated with sculptures made from crutches and various orthopedic devices, presumably to symbolize all of the people who have been healed there. I’m not sure what the artificial limbs symbolize, but it must have been impressive! I suspect this stop is on the tour merely to kill time until the hotel rooms are ready.

On the way back to Quebec City we stopped at a place that served maple butter on fresh bread. That was delicious!

Due to road construction we were somewhat late to arrive at the Chateau Frontenac. We’d already made a 6:00 PM dinner reservation, and were dismayed to discover the lobby filled with hundreds of Japanese tourists, all attempting to cram themselves into three small elevators. It looked like a Tokyo subway.

The Chateau Frontenac is the most famous hotel in Quebec — and perhaps Canada. It is easily identifiable, because of its steeply sloped green copper roof. Built in 1893, (although the section we were in was added in the 1920s), other sections have been added as recently as 1993. Our room was spacious, with modern bathroom facilities, and had obviously been completely refurbished quite recently. The Chateau Frontenac is now part of the Fairmont organization.

In spite of the late arrival, baggage delivery to our room was prompt, and we made it to dinner relatively on time, and had a lovely five-course meal. We were delighted to be able to select any items on the menu, all included in the tour. The waiter even flambéed Danielle’s steak at the table, although in the flame height competition his flames were about a foot shorter than at the Castillon. The other highlight of the meal was that the waiter asked Danielle if she cared for some of our wine. Although not strictly legal here, if the parents ask, it’s accepted. We had a 1995 Corton Charlemagne, by the way. It was only moderately expensive — until they added all of the taxes!

*The Old City of Quebec and our guide, Eric, and tenth generation resident.*

Friday

Friday began with breakfast at Cafe Terrasse, where the croissants and pain au chocolate rivaled those of Paris. Then we went on a two-hour tour of Quebec City. Our guide, Eric — (Quebec law requires a local guide in the city) — took us down to the old city, where it seemed that almost every shopkeeper and restaurant owner was one of his relatives. Since he’s a tenth generation resident of Quebec, I suppose that’s not surprising.

We had lunch at Le Continental, a four star restaurant, reputed to be the best in town. Once again Danielle was able to taste the wine, a 1998 Clos du Val Chardonnay (“Le Clos”).

At Danielle’s insistence, we had a lovely carriage ride around town. Our horse was named Roadster. Compared to the summer weather in Orlando, the 70 degree breeze here was heaven.

*Roadster poses in front of Chateaus Frontenac and the wall surrounding the city. Quebec is the only old walled city in North America.*

*I don’t know what you’re looking at, but I’ve got a stiff neck.*

*In the U.S., there would be so many lawsuits over this playground that the lawyers would have to take a number.*

*Here’s an amazing illusion. This is a completely flat wall in the old city. Can you find Danielle in this picture?*

After a rest, some journal entries, and some long-division practice, we headed down to the old city on the funicular. Danielle did some curio shopping, and we took some funny pictures.

*An Excalibur, complete with wooden dashboard.*

*Guard in front of the Royal Governor’s Mansion in Ottawa. Julia described his job as living in the biggest house and attending socials.*

Saturday

Saturday was another day of travel. After breakfast at Cafe Terasse we headed out of Quebec City — to the regret of all. We wished we could stay longer to more fully explore this charming place.

Heading along the St. Lawrence River, we stopped for an elaborate buffet lunch — featuring several dozen salads, among other things — at Chateau Vaudreil, a new hotel built on the banks of the river.

After lunch we followed a winding road past many lovely homes on the Ottawa River, crossing into Ontario and arriving in Ottawa at 5:00 PM.

We learned that Ontario means “sparkling water”; Canada means “collection of huts”; and Ottawa means “floppy ears”(!) — an Iroquois reference to the dangling earrings of the Heuron tribe.

Ottawa is a charming city of parkland and beautiful buildings surrounding the river and the Rideau Canal. The canal runs 120 miles, paralleling the Rideau River. Rideau is french for curtain, so-named because of the way the Rideau River falls into the Ottawa.

Our room at the Westin overlooked the canal and the parliament building, with a view to both north and south. It is one of the nicest hotel rooms that we’ve ever had.

Saturday evening we had a fairly awful meal at the Elephant and Castle, an English pub near the hotel. The culinary contrast between the French and English parts of the country is self-evident!

*Trooping the Colors at Rideau Hall, with junior trooper in foreground.*

*Driving a Pakistani Bus at the Musee de Civilization.*

Sunday

Sunday we had breakfast at Daly’s in the hotel and set out for a tour of Ottawa. Now that we are out of Quebec, Julia guided the city tour herself.

First stop was the Canadian Parliament building. It’s a beautiful structure, filled with elaborate carving, woodwork and stained glass. The House of Commons is like a smaller version of the one in London.

Behind the building is the older Library of Parliament, which survived the fire that destroyed the earlier Parliament building — due to someone’s closing the steel door that separates the two.

On the south side of the building is the Senate chamber. Unlike the U.S., Canadian senators are appointed until age 75. Perhaps because of this, they don’t seem to have any significant role in the government.

After Parliament, we hurried off to Rideau Hall, a park across the street from the home of the prime minister, to view the trouping of the colors. Adrian, one of our co-travelers, is from London. On the way, he gave us a detailed history of the British army, and described the significance of the colors, the elaborate flags given to each company. The flags are actually blessed, and presented by one of the royal family. Even when they are worn out, they are never destroyed, but are stored away in a chest.

The colors, of course, were used as primitive semaphores during battle, since the drums and bugles could not always be heard.

We watched as the red-coated troops marched about the field. The band — which included bagpipes in addition to the full array of usual instruments — was quite impressive. They played for about a half hour.

The final stop on the tour was the Musee de Civilization, an enormous structure on the Hull side of the river. The others on the tour were most impressed by the exhibits, but we’ll have to take their word for it — we never made it out of the children’s museum! It’s the best I’ve seen, with dozens of fascinating experiences that captivated the imagination of the many children packed into the place. In our brief hour, Danielle drove a Pakistani bus, explored a pyramid, unloaded crates from a freighter using a crane, tried on snow shoes, and visited a dozen countries.

On the way back to the hotel the bus dropped us off a few blocks away at the ByWard open-air market, where we had lunch at a sidewalk cafe.

After a break for journal writing and relaxation, we headed out to the Rideau Canal for a boat ride. The guide on Paul’s Boat Cruises (since the 1920’s, the sign says) was named Frank. A student of French Literature at Ottawa University, Frank was quite a comedian.

We learned that the Rideau Canal was constructed by Irish and French workers in just six years in the 1820s. It was built in preparation for a sequel to the War of 1812, which never came. The eight-kilometer portion we toured was created from sections of swamp, bedrock, and a farmer’s fields. Four hundred of the workers died in the swamps alone, from what was later called malaria.

This section and one other that is ten kilometers long are the only manmade portions of the canal. The rest of the 200 kilometers is comprised of natural bodies of water.

Traveling along the moss-laden waterway, it was hard to imagine it in winter, when they drain all eight kilometers by opening the locks that feed the Ottawa River, Then it becomes the world’s longest supervised ice rink.

We had dinner back at the hotel, at Daly’s, then packed for the trip to Toronto tomorrow.

*To be an island, it has to have at least two trees and six square feet of ground cover. Does this count?.*

*This rabbit came up to Danielle, who named him Calico.*

*Parking garage? No. Stainless Steel Fabrication Plant? No, it’s the lobby of the Toronto Hilton.*

Monday

After breakfast at Daly’s, we headed south for Toronto.

It was mostly a day of riding on the bus, but we stopped at Gananoque for a one-hour cruise of the Thousand Islands. If you think Thousand Islands is an exaggeration, so did we — but there are actually 1865 of them! (To be an official island, it has to have at least two trees and six square feet of ground cover!)

The area is one of the most beautiful we’ve seen, rivaling Yosemite, Vancouver, et al. The narration was recorded, and perhaps a bit out of date, but you could have bought a six acre private island with cottage and dock for the astronomical price of $100,000 in 1982. I want one!

Seriously, though, it would be a great place to spend the summer, swimming and boating off of a tiny rocky island, commuting to Ganonoque across the channel. Winter, on the other hand, sounds a bit harsh. Some residents snowmobile across the frozen river to get to town!

We could see the US side of the river from the boat. The international boundary was drawn after the War of 1812, and splits the islands between the US and Canada. No islands straddle the line, although it runs between a pair that are connected by a short bridge — making it the shortest international bridge in the world.

The lunch on the boat was pretty grim, so I stuck with the salad, which was quite tasty and served with — you guessed it — 1000 island dressing.

Mid-afternoon we stopped at a roadside oasis called the Big Apple, which was actually a lot of fun, The bake their own pies, have a large gift shop and restaurant, and the obligatory restrooms. But the real attraction was out back, where you can feed the sheep, rabbits, ducks and llama. The rabbits wander free through the woods, and Danielle had a great time photographing them. It was a well-timed visit, since our current nighttime reading is “Watership Down”.

Julia passed around a clipboard so that we all could contribute to a group poem. Linda’s contribution was:

We greatly enjoyed the tour and eating,
But soon Tauck’s buses will need wider seating!

Danielle wrote:

I had fun although I’m only nine
I even got to taste some wine.

I didn’t get a chance to do one, but it would have been:

Hilton beds are pretty rotten,
But Westin’s are the best we’ve gotten;
Still in all, for what’s around it,
Frontenac’s tops, I’m glad we found it!

We arrived at the Toronto Hilton at 5:00 PM. The building has just been completely remodeled into what can only be described as Parking Garage Moderne. The concrete lobby has all the charm of a cement plant. And the trendy Tundra restaurant offers fine dining in an environment slightly more austere than your average stainless steel box. The food was elaborately presented and mostly top notch, but the designer of the place really should be shot. We had a good time playing with the rocks(!) that held down the napkins, designing hypothetical weighing puzzles for each other. Example: You have four rocks, three of which weigh the same. How many weighings does it take to find the different one?

Julia went to special efforts to get Danielle accommodations on a high floor, so we have an expansive view of the city. But the best thing about the room isn’t that. It’s not even the trendy easy chair that has only one arm(?!). It’s the Internet connection. Plug your laptop’s 100Base-T jack into the cord, launch your browser, and you’re immediately connected to the Hilton’s welcome page. Log in for $9.95 a day, and you’re on the Internet at T-1 speeds. No set up, it just works — I have no idea how.

I’d never actually used the Internet at these speeds; it’s a whole different experience. Ironically, our web and mail server was down (which never happens) when I first connected , but after dinner it came up and I transferred all of the pictures from this trip in under two minutes. Whew!

*Jaws Moose. This guy will give you nightmares!*

*View from the Restaurant 360, 1150 feet up the CN Tower.*

*Yikes! It’s 1100 feet down and that’s a glass floor!.*

Tuesday

Toronto is a city of glass and steel, the antithesis of Quebec. The homes of 4 million people sprawl around a block of towering buildings at the edge of Lake Ontario, smallest of the Great Lakes.

Other than the big buildings, there’s not much character to the city. A local guide showed us around for a couple of hours, walked us through city hall, and then dropped us off for a self-guided tour of Casa Loma.

Casa Loma is a castle-like house built by Sir Henry Mill Pellatt in 1911. More precisely, it was built by about 300 laborers. It cost the equivalent of about $40 Million. Sir Henry and his wife lived in it for less than ten years before he discovered that it wasn’t nearly so profitable to own an electric utility company once it wasn’t a monopoly. The furnishings and house were auctioned to pay his debts.

One of the more interesting things we found in the city were some 600 moose statues. Sponsored by corporations at $6000 each, the moose are clever and often comical. The fiberglass creations have mostly lost their antlers to souvenir hunters or pranksters, but they’re still cute. They will be auctioned in the fall.

For lunch we went to the 1800-foot-tall CN Tower, the world’s largest free-standing structure. The Restaurant 360 makes a complete turn every 72 minutes, affording a terrific view of downtown and the Lake Ontario waterfront. After lunch we walked across the glass floor, which gives you a rather queasy feeling, since it’s 1100 feet straight down!

One the way back to the hotel we passed the theater where we saw The Lion King later in the evening. What a show it was, with fabulous costumes and lighting, and all the great songs from the movie plus many new ones. Several of the performers were quite good, including the ten-year-old boy who played young Simba, and the woman who played Nala — she was truly of Broadway caliber.

*The American Falls. That rock came down in the 1950s. The flow over the falls is greatly reduced to try to discourage such erosion.*

*The Canadian Falls. That dot is the Maid of the Mist. Actually it’s more like the Maid of the Typhoon.*

*The Maid of the Mist IV, pulling up to let us aboard.*

*American Falls viewed from the prow of the Maid of the Mist.*

*American Falls on the left, Canadian on the right.*

Wednesday

After my solo breakfast in the aptly-named Tundra (Danielle opted for room service) we boarded the bus for the ninety-minute drive to Niagara Falls. I had always pictured the falls in the middle of a national park setting, but in reality they’re surrounded by something across between Coney Island and Las Vegas. Still, even the miniature golf courses and haunted houses can’t overwhelm the beauty and massive size of the falls. The Maid of the Mist boats get right up into the spray of the horseshoe-shaped Canadian side. The boats are named after an Indian legend about a maiden who was sacrificed by sending her over the falls in a canoe. Her spirit is said to live in the mist behind the falling water.

Speaking of people going over the falls, the first one known to survive was a schoolteacher who went over in a barrel about one hundred years ago. She was 63! More impressive is the boy who, about ten years ago, accidentally went over the falls in swimming trunks and life preserver and survived. He was pulled out of the water by the crew of one of the boats.

It’s a good thing they hand out ponchos, because the water really comes down when you’re up in the thick of it. The flow is fairly turbulent, and the boat rocks as if it’s shooting the rapids.

We stopped for lunch at The Queen’s Landing, a new and very nice hotel in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It’s a charming town, and we wished we had time to explore it, and to visit some of the many wineries in the area. But too soon were headed back to Toronto, for our farewell dinner and packing for our early flight tomorrow — and a 4:00 AM wake-up call!

It’s been a great trip. Now we have the excitement of getting back so that Danielle can see her new school.

As we fly home, we’ll also be remembering the sights (especially Quebec), and thinking about our tour director, Julia, who starts it all over again tomorrow afternoon…

Photos from the Farewell Dinner at the Toronto Hilton.

Itinerary from the Tauck catalog:

1. Fly to Montreal
Tour begins: Bonaventure Hilton Hotel at 6:30 PM. Discover the many charms of the delightfully French city of Montreal; the day is at leisure upon your arrival. This evening you are invited to a 6:30 PM reception and dinner to meet your Tour Director and fellow travelers.
Meals D

2. Sightseeing Montreal
With its dual English and French cultures, Montreal is one of Canada’s most unique cities. This morning enjoy a sightseeing tour including St. Joseph’s Oratory, McGill University and Mt. Royal, plus a visit to Notre Dame Cathedral. After lunch the afternoon is free to spend as you wish. Visit the fashionable shops of Place Ville Marie, Place Bonaventure, St. Catherine and Sherbrooke Streets, or explore on your own. Montreal is delightful, with many things to do at any time of the year.
Meals BL

3. Montmorency Falls / Quebec
Leave Montreal and head east through the heart of French Canada. Follow the shores of the mighty St. Lawrence River through Trois Rivières to magnificent Montmorency Falls, higher than Niagara Falls! Enjoy lunch beside the falls, then journey to Quebec City for two nights at the Château Frontenac. Sprawled atop sheer cliffs rising above the narrowing St. Lawrence River, Quebec reflects an old-world charm and grace of another era. Highlights include the Plains of Abraham, the provincial Parliament buildings, Porte St-Louis and the narrow, cobbled streets lined with boutiques and cafes.
Meals BLD

4. Quebec City
This morning take a sightseeing tour of Old Quebec, capital of the province, the only walled city north of Mexico. Grayed by the brush of time, ancient stone houses huddle beside venerable churches and historic monuments. You may wish to stroll on Dufferin Terrace, watch the unending line of ships from around the world, or visit the small boutiques of the Old City. For those who wish, continue on to the Beaupré coast and visit the shrine of Ste. Anne de Beaupré and its famous basilica. Return midday to Quebec City; the remainder of the day is at leisure to enjoy this beautiful city.
Meals B

5. Vaudreuil / Ottawa
Travel west, past Montreal, along the route of early French explorers and fur traders. After lunch continue to Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, perched on the banks of the Ottawa River. As the center of Canadian government, it is renowned for beautiful flower gardens, tree-lined streets, numerous parks and noble buildings. The city was chosen as the capital of Canada by Queen Victoria in 1857; at the time it was a somewhat rustic outpost on the edge of the Canadian frontier. View the training center of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police before arriving in the heart of the city for a relaxing two-night stay.
Meals BLD

6. Canada’s Capital — Ottawa
Ottawa captivates the visitor with the charm of its magnificent boulevards, exquisite gardens and regal architecture. This morning’s sightseeing includes views of the Royal Canadian Mint, National Research Center, City Hall, the residence of the prime minister and Rideau Hall, the governor-general’s home; you also have an opportunity to visit Parliament. In July and August see the “Changing of the Guard” (weather permitting). Enjoy the remainder of the day at your leisure.
Meals B

7. 1000 Islands / St. Lawrence
Head south to the St. Lawrence River for a luncheon cruise among the lovely Thousand Islands. Some of the islands are lushly forested while others support only a few pines perched precariously over the blue water. Continue to Kingston, where the great river opens on to Lake Ontario. Travel the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway to Toronto, Ontario’s largest city, for the next three nights.
Meals BLD

8. Toronto / Lake Ontario
Today enjoy a sightseeing tour of Toronto to see the downtown and residential areas as well as the Royal Ontario Museum, Parliament Buildings and the University of Toronto. Visit magnificent Casa Loma mansion, the opulent legacy of Canadian Industrialist Sir Henry Mill Pellatt. The afternoon is at your leisure to visit the museums and waterfront shops, or perhaps take a boat excursion on Lake Ontario. Join us for a special evening attending a theatrical performance of the magical Tony Award-winning musical, The Lion King.
Meals B

9. Niagara Falls
Travel along the Queen Elizabeth Way to Niagara Falls. In addition to viewing the thundering falls from high above, you will descend to the churning waters of the Niagara River and take the famous Maid of the Mist boat to view the falls from below. It’s a breathtaking experience! Travel along Niagara Gorge to view the world-famous Floral Clock, giant hydroelectric plants, Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, and the Whirlpool Rapids. Visit the charming village of Niagara-on-the-Lake for lunch with time to browse through the shops. Return to Toronto for a farewell reception and dinner.
Meals BLD

10. Journey Home
Tour Ends: Toronto. Fly home anytime. A transfer is provided to the airport.
Meals B

France 2000

In May, 2000 my Director of Sales, David Geoghegan, and I traveled to Europe to teach Alcorn McBride seminars in Germany and France. We spent three days in Uhingen, outside Stuttgart, then flew via Zurich, to Paris. After meeting with the technical staff at Paris Disneyland we drove to the Loire for one night, then to Brittany and back to Paris in an 1100 km marathon.

Training seminar at COMM-TEC Germany.

Collecting a few receivables from Henry Corrado, the head of COMM-TEC France.

Steve, Henry and David in front of the Chateau de Marcay, where we spent the night. The Chateau was originally built in the 1100’s as a defensive fortification. The rooms have rough hewn beams, and the walls are very thick.

In the Chateau’s vineyards.

The caves beneath the Chateau.

With Henry in front of the equipment racks at the ESCAL’ Atlantic museum in Saint-Nazaire, Brittany. This installation has a lot of Alcorn McBride gear. It’s a mockup of an entire cruise ship, inside a WWII sub bunker. To exit the exhibits you board an actual life boat and are lowered to the gift shop! (Hmm… I wonder if that’s ADA compliant…)

Three Rivers and Sequoia 2000

In April 2000 Linda was headed to Walt Disney Imagineering in California for meetings about the new Space Pavilion at Epcot. Danielle and I decided to tag along, to visit grandparents. I also conceived the idea of visiting my childhood summer haunts in Three Rivers, just below Sequoia National Park.

Saturday, April 22, 2000

To avoid any Easter morning angst, Danielle celebrated Easter with an egg hunt and baskets Saturday. I say baskets, because she had her friend Megan staying over Friday night, and they both got an Easter basket on Saturday. Saturday evening Linda, Danielle, Nicole and I went to A Chorus Line at the Mark Two Theater. They did a commendable job with their limited facility. It was amusing to see the changes that had been made to the names of popular movie stars since we saw it at the Shubert in L.A. back in the mid ’70s.

Easter Sunday, April 23, 2000

We were up at 6:00 AM to head for the airport. Coupled with the late night before, Danielle was pretty much comatose until we got to the airport. Disney no longer uses Delta, so Linda ended up with a United non-stop. Danielle and I got free first class Delta ticket with SkyMiles, but had a connection in Atlanta. We met up at Marjorie and Dean’s house at about 3:00 PM for a nice Easter dinner of Honey Baked Ham and smoked turkey. Then it was off to the Glendale Hilton (Linda had already checked in) for a very early bedtime.

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Monday, April 24, 2000

Still on East Coast time, Danielle and I were up and out by 7:00 AM. We exchanged our Oldsmobile Alero for a Pontiac Grand Am at the Burbank Airport (the Alero went thump-thump-thump at freeway speeds) and then headed north, stopping for breakfast in Castaic (near the site of the St. Francis dam disaster of 1928, although you couldn’t tell it now). Beyond Bakersfield we took the cutoff through Porterville, drove through an A&W Root Beer stand for something to drink in Exeter, and stopped to peer into a cricket cage at a tackle shop in Lemon Cove. By 11:30 AM we were in Three Rivers.

Lake Kaweah was surprisingly low, considering that the spring melt had already begun. Sometime in the mid ’70s they moved the marina down near the dam so that they could let the water drain lower in the fall (for flood control in the winter). After so many years of going out on the boat at the old location, it still looks like it’s in the wrong place to me. The houseboats looked the same, although I doubt that any of them are floating on plywood boxes full of empty Purex bottles any more! I recalled the spring of 1966, when flooding filled the lake to the brim, and water was running over the four feet of sandbags they’d added to the spillway. The surface had been covered from shore to shore with so much debris – tree stumps, building materials, branches, anything that would float – that it looked as if you could walk across it.

Above the lake we passed what used to be Metz’s Trailer Park, now some sort of cabin rentals. Across the street was the Three Rivers General Store, which we used to call Harry’s. Harry seemed to have at least one of everything ever made. It seemed that no query could stump him – with enough rummaging he would come up with whatever you needed, or a reasonable substitute. The store was still there and looked like it was in business, but it was closed.

There was a new Holiday Inn Express on the right (quite an eyesore), and a new hotel and restaurant under construction on the left. Other than these, we saw very little recent construction throughout the area. Some business have come and gone, but the buildings are unchanged. Three Rivers was amazingly similar to when I last visited, some 25 years ago. I was amazed at how accurate most of my memories had been, especially considering that they were largely forged when I was ten or twelve. Even the map that I drew for A Matter of Justice had only minor errors in it: the gas station too far north by 100 yards, the first part of North Fork Drive too perpendicular to 198.

Our first stop was at the Supermarket and Drugstore. Danielle bought a few souvenirs and collected twigs to make a picture frame. Continuing on into town, I didn’t see the golf course clubhouse, but there seemed to be a new structure near the first hole.

Pat O’Connell’s gas station is still there, although they’re just a towing service and wrecker yard now. I guess when the new gas tank regulations came in it was too expensive to change the tanks. We found out later that Pat, who must be in his seventies, still runs the place.

Three River’s “downtown” still looks almost exactly the same. Pat Lang’s emporium, a sandwich and gift shop, is still at the corner of North Fork Drive and 198. The strip of buildings running north from there on 198 is identical, although many of them are out of business, and most of the rest have changed names.

The Three Rivers Market is unaltered – two gas pumps out front, crowding the façade of the building, narrow rows of everyday staples squeezed inside.

Driving on through town we stopped at Rainer’s Candy Shop, which was the same shop I’d written about in the book, but under a different name. The woman behind the counter, Leslie Fry, was a longtime resident of the area. She reminded me that it had been called Huffaker’s Country Candies in those days. She also mentioned that there was a book called “Sunshine and Buzzards”, written by a local resident, which I might find at Ann Lang’s Emporium. I told Leslie I’d send her a copy of my manuscript.

We drove back to Ann Lang’s for lunch, and I found the book that Leslie had mentioned, and another about the founding of the Kaweah Colony Cooperative in the 1890s. I later discovered that the Kaweah Colony book was written by Pat O’Connell’s son! We asked what building the library had been in – I hadn’t recognized it as we drove past – and learned that it now houses a newspaper, The Kaweah Commonwealth, which was resurrected from a nearly 100 year rest in 1995.

On the way into the newspaper office, we passed on elderly lady coming out. Inside, we asked the publisher, John Elliott, about the library. Indeed, this building (which was even smaller than I remembered) had been the library for many years. He told us that the woman we’d passed on our way in was the daughter of Esther Peck, the librarian of the 1960s! According to John, she ran the library for about 25 years, and died a couple of years ago. John gave us a few back issues of the newspaper, and filled us in on some local history. He asked for a copy of the book to review when it was published, and I told him that in the meantime I’d send him a copy of the manuscript.

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We drove past the Three Rivers Drive In Restaurant, which is now closed. They’ve built a new Chevron station next door. (Apparently the restaurant was also known as Corky’s for a time. Interestingly, I saw a stained glass sign that said Corky’s stored in a window of one of the apartments behind the Three Rivers Market.) Incidentally, the market is a one-story structure, contrary to what it says in the manuscript. There is a deck out behind the apartments in the rear, and there is a partially exposed basement beneath the front part of the building. I’m not certain that the apartments were even there in the 1960s, though.

Having seen most of the town, we headed across the North Fork Bridge, and swung through the rodeo grounds, now called Lion’s Arena. It’s actually on the east side of the North Fork, across another small bridge. I purposely showed it on the west side when I made my map, because I thought it was confusing to have yet another bridge. Now I’m not sure that I even what to show it on the map, since it has nothing to do with the story.

Continuing up North Fork Drive, we passed Trailer Isle for the moment and drove to the Kaweah Post Office. It, of course, was unchanged, since it’s an historical monument. I believe this is the smallest post office in the country. The public area is about the size of a phone booth! Danielle petted a cat named Lilly and sent a postcard to Linda while I took pictures.

On up the road, we crossed the spot where the Bailey Bridge had been. A Bailey Bride is a kind of temporary military bridge. This one ended up being not so temporary. It was installed during the 1950s (I think) and lasted until the flood of 1966 washed it out. It was then replaced with the bridge that Mott would have lived under.

On up the road about a half-mile we photographed the spot where Karp’s trailer might have been, turned back and stopped at Mott’s bridge to take photos.

Then the strangest thing happened. As I was photographing Danielle in front of the bridge, a dog walked into the frame. He was very friendly (even if he did look like a hyena). He took an immediate liking to us, and wanted to get into the car. This is really weird, because the plot of “A Matter of Justice” centers on Danielle’s adoption of a stray dog. Eventually, after considerable wheedling, we said goodbye to the dog, who Danielle had named Blackie, and headed back to Trailer Isle.
There we met Julie and Kevin Pierce, the managers. In gratitude for letting us look around, I gave them an autographed copy of the manuscript.

Trailer Isle is amazingly unchanged since the 1960s – even the sign hasn’t been painted. The permanent resident’s loop has had a few more mobile homes squeezed in, and there are cattle in the pasture, but all else remains the same. I was able to recognize several trailers, including the one that we briefly owned in space 10, and the one across the street that belonged to Kay Gregory.

Our longtime location at number 17 (Danielle Deucer’s in the book) was now occupied by a mobile home, and a concrete parking pad had been poured across the middle of the lawn.

The swimming hole was pretty much the same, although it looked like a few floods had cleared it out. The water was running high. Danielle spent a while prospecting for iron pyrite grains. She also found an abandoned Matchbox car buried in the sand. It looked a lot like the ones I used to play with, but that would be just too weird. Finally we headed back to town to find the new library.

The library is now behind the elementary school, on the east side of the road. As we passed the playing field, I recalled the Halloween fair in about 1966, when, wearing a blond wig and dressed as Ilya Kuryachin of the Man From Uncle, I went into a fortune-teller’s tent, was mistaken for a girl, and told that someday I would meet a tall, dark handsome stranger! I’m still waiting.

The new library is somewhat larger and much nicer than the old one. It also has two computers, a feature I’m sure I don’t remember from 1968! They no longer have the copy of Huckleberry Finn that I read those many summers ago, but they did have a 1960 printing of To Kill A Mockingbird. It appeared to be in mint condition. If Danielle Deucer read it, she was the only one – it was in mint condition. Consistent with my novel, there were plenty of old Nancy Drews on the shelf.

The new librarian, Rita Pena, has held the position for sixteen years. She tried to find a photo of Esther Peck for me, but couldn’t turn one up. She said that she’d get one from Esther’s daughter and mail it to me. I told her that I’d send her a copy of the manuscript.

Now it was time to head up to the National Park boundary and check-in. The Buckeye Tree Lodge turned out to be quite nice – two concrete-block buildings right along the river beyond the Pumpkin Hollow Bridge. It’s actually the last structure before you reach Sequoia National Park. We had the only unit with a kitchenette. This fact and the barbecue out on the lawn got Danielle thinking about cooking dinner. Since the White Horse Saloon, although in perfect repair, is permanently closed, she talked me into it. After some rock hopping on the river, we headed back into town to buy hotdogs and other supplies at the Three Rivers Market. After a cookout and more rock hopping along the river, be made it a fairly early night.

Tomorrow we’ll head up into Sequoia National Park.

Tuesday, April 25, 2000

I arose while it was still dark, being somewhat still on East Coast time, and worked on this journal for a couple of hours. Later, Danielle joined me to write hers. I was impressed with the way she distilled the previous day down into the same highlights on which I have focused.

As the sun rose we went out to the river and took a panoramic shot of all 360 degrees, with Danielle in each picture.

With the car packed, we headed down into Three Rivers for breakfast at the Noisy Water Café. I vaguely remembered the place. The waitress told us that it had been there since the 1930s, and that it was named the same in 1968. It’s impressive that it could have survived so long, because right outside are the pilings of the North Fork Bridge that was built in 1938 and washed out in the flood of 1955.

(The other place we used to eat breakfast was the Buckaroo Inn, down by
Metz’s, but I saw nothing that I recognized when we passed by yesterday.)

After a huge and delicious breakfast of eggs, omelets, pancakes, toast, bacon, hash browns, milk and coffee (well, I said it was huge) we headed back towards the park entrance. Unfortunately we forgot that we were going to get gas at the Chevron Station next to the Noisy Water Café. We remembered when we saw the park entrance sign that said there was no gas in the national park. So, after another round trip into town, we finally made it to the entrance gate.

The ranger advised us that the road was only open for a few minutes at the top of each hour, due to several miles of construction just inside the park. So we spent a pleasant half hour at the visitor center, looking at dangerous things in little glass jars. Another ranger in the visitor center sold us a workbook for kids that included puzzles, word searches, writing assignments and quizzes. By filling it out and picking up a load of litter, Danielle learned that she could earn a “Raven” award, which consisted of a patch to sew on a shirtsleeve. This was a great idea, as it gave her something to do while we waited for the road to open.

The road really is under construction. There’s only one lane for several miles, as they build retaining walls to hold up a new outer lane. I couldn’t tell if this was due to flood damage or just an improvement project.

When we reached Giant Forest, Danielle was delighted by the enormous trees, and even more delighted by the snow that was lying in big patches by the road. At Morro Rock we climbed the first 5% of the way (just far enough to take a picture), then went back to the parking lot – Danielle lured by the snow, I dissuaded by the number of air molecules at 7000 feet!

Next stop was the General Sherman Tree, the largest living thing on the planet. We took two more panoramas at General Sherman, then had a snowball fight next to the parking lot.

Onward to Lodgepole, where we had a pretty good lunch at the snack room. Danielle finished her workbook, and we went to the visitor center to claim her patch. A nice ranger checked her work, and then made an announcement of the award over the PA system!

Another two miles brought us to the brand new Wuksachi Lodge, a beautiful complex atop a 7000-foot ridge overlooking the Sierras. Our room, number 127, was lovely. For $95 a night we got a bedroom and a sitting room, snow right outside, and a spectacular view. Dinner was in a dining room reminiscent of the historic park lodges. The food – Caesar salad, grilled salmon with an orange sauce, and asparagus – was top notch, but the atmosphere is casual. We’ll have to bring the Wedi here some time. We ordered box lunches for Wednesday, which we’ll pick up at breakfast time.

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

After some early snow play we had a nice breakfast in the Wuksachi dining room, picked up the boxed lunches and checked out, heading for Grant Grove.

One of the big trees in this grove was named after then General (later President) Grant in 1865. In the 1890s, these sequoias were preserved by the creation of U. S. Grant National Park, later incorporated into Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. (They were also preserved by the fact that their wood is really weak and brittle, making it next to useless for exploitation.) There is an excellent trail here that passes a lot of nice trees, and goes through a fallen log that was used as an army camp in the late 1800s.

I suppose in the interest of bipartisanship, there is also a General Robert E. Lee tree. (The subtlety of the naming of these trees was lost on me when I was a youngster. General Lee is the southernmost in the grove; General Grant is to the north.)

Nearby is Grant Grove Village. In the gift shop I bought Danielle a large chunk of amethyst crystals as a surprise and then we walked over to the visitor center. This is the best of the three visitor centers in the park. The highlight is a circular room the size of a giant sequoia trunk. In the center is a clear dome holding a single tiny seed. That seed has the potential to expand to 3 trillion times its current size!

Before noon we headed out the Big Stump Entrance of the park, and wound our way down through Badger to Visalia, and from there back to Los Angeles, arriving by 4:00 PM for an early dinner with Linda and her parents at El
Cholo.

Danielle and I agreed that although brief, it was an excellent and memorable trip.

Thursday, April 27, 2000

After several days retracing the locale of A Matter of Justice, today was my day to visit the setting of Everything In Its Path, in preparation to start A Stranger From Afar. After dropping Danielle off to spend two days at her grandparents’, I headed for Ventura County.

My first stop was at the new Chumash Interpretive Center at Oakbrook Regional Park. This park consists of many acres of wilderness, plus exhibits of Chumash culture and history, and even some cave paintings. Out in front there is a sculpture of a small, life-size tomol, the Chumash boat that was made of wooden planks sewn together. Oddly, there were some fancy bas-relief carvings inside it, but they were far too representational be of Chumash origin. The tour of the cave wasn’t available, but I enjoyed the exhibits, and met the director, Frank Winai
Lemos. He kindly offered to check the manuscript for accuracy.

The center can’t be more than a mile from where I used to live in Westlake Village. It’s on the other side of the hill, in an area that was wilderness fifteen years ago, but is now almost solid housing developments except for the park. I saw a sign advertising affordable luxury houses starting at only the high $700,000’s!

Also at the center I picked up a very useful brochure listing Ventura County museums. Following this and a web page from the Ventura County Historical Society, I headed for Fillmore. Unfortunately, route 23 was blocked by a Caltrans truck mishap where it winds over the mountains. After about fifteen I grew impatient and retraced my way back to Thousand Oaks, then out to the coast and Ventura.

At the Ventura County Museum of History and Art I was able to purchase all of the Chumash books I’ve seen on the Internet plus others, and some excellent historical maps. The docent in the gift shop was an elderly woman named Betty who lived in Somis during the St. Francis Dam disaster and remembered it clearly. She also knew Charles F. Outland, of course, and has an autographed copy of Man-Made Disaster. She was amazed when I told her that it was worth several hundred dollars.

From Ventura I drove up 126 to Santa Paula, the home of the main character in the book. It hasn’t changed much since I was last there. I visited the California Oil Museum, originally run by Union Oil, but now operated by the city of Santa Paula. An interesting docent there, who worked for Union Oil for many years, directed me up the street to an antique shop/art gallery/used bookstore named Mr. Nichols. The oil museum is an interesting
one. I learned how the oil pumps literally pull the oil out of the ground. There was also a display of antique motorcycles on loan from the Chandler collection. I
saw some late 20’s models of both a chrome-and-green Harley Davidson and a red Indian that I might be able to use in the book.

At Mr. Nichols I met John (I assume John Nichols). He had assembled an exhibit on the St. Francis dam disaster at the oil museum some time ago, and still had most of it in his shop. He let me look through a hundred or more old photos of the disaster in Santa Paula. I was amused to learn that my pen pal, Dave Hogan, from Santa Clarita, the head of the L. A. Grimm Society, had been there just the week before. What a small world it is. John also agreed to read the manuscript. I purchased a few more Santa Paula references and an old bottle dug up under the train station, then headed back to Malibu Canyon to have dinner with Linda at the Saddle Peak Lodge.

Friday, April 28, 2000

Since Danielle was at her grandparents and Linda didn’t have early meetings, I slept in and then headed for Santa Barbara. On the way I stopped in Thousand Oaks to see if Harold’s House of Omelets was sill there. It was, and was as delicious as ever. Football-shaped, and filled with whatever you want, they’re one of a kind. I had the special – bacon, green chilies, and sour cream. The same woman, albeit 15 years grayer, is still waitressing there. And she still doesn’t have any personality. I think she’s Harold’s daughter.

The drive to Santa Barbara was quick, and by noon the low clouds were beginning to clear off. My first stop was at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. This is a very nice, though not large, building located immediately behind the Santa Barbara Mission, on the hills above town. A 72-foot-long blue whale skeleton was being restored out front. Inside there were many interesting exhibits, including taxidermy and dioramas from 1927 that were very well done. I need to find out if they were in the same building in 1927 (I doubt it).

There was also a lot of information on the Channel Islands, and an entire room of Chumash exhibits, my main reason for going. I bought quite a few
good books in the bookstore.

Driving down into the town, I stopped at the Santa Barbara Museum of History. It’s located in an old (and large) Spanish adobe. Unfortunately almost all of the exhibits dealt with the Spanish occupation – nothing before or after. There were also some truly hideous surrealist paintings of the missions, done by a friar. I did find some more interesting books in the shop, including a young adult fiction that is about a sailor from Cabrillo’s fleet who is reported as killed but actually joins the Chumash.

At first this seemed dangerously close to the plot of my next novel, A Stranger From Afar, but it’s pretty thin and
proved to be quite lousy.

I drove back on 126, stopping at the museum in Fillmore (which was still closed) and following the path of the 1928 flood. The valley widens and narrows several times, which must have greatly affected water level and speed. It’s amazingly far, considering how much damage occurred downstream.

In town I joined up with Linda and we met Danielle and her grandparents for a garlic bread gorge at The Smoke House.

Tomorrow we head back to Orlando. Linda has a non-stop, but Danielle and I go through Salt Lake City, arriving late. Fortunately we have Sunday to get back on schedule. This has been an excellent trip for everyone, with many different agendas: work for Linda, grandparent time for Danielle, and research plus a visit to childhood haunts for me.

Caribbean on The Voyager of the Seas 2000

By Danielle Alcorn, Age 9
and Steve Alcorn, Age 44

For Spring Break 2000, we took a cruise on the Royal Caribbean Voyager ofthe Seas, the largest cruise ship afloat. It’s 1/3 bigger than anaircraft carrier!

We drove to Miami to catch the ship. When we saw it, we couldn’tbelieve how huge the Voyager Of The Seas was. Our cabin was beautiful,and the public areas were even nicer.

Our first stop was Labadee, Haiti. Dad and I went snorkeling on acoral reef with FISH (so obviously mom didn’t go – she’s afraid ofthem). She sat on the beach and read. It was my first ocean snorkelingtrip. We went WAY out there.

Stop two was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We all went on an hour tour ofBrimmer Hall Plantation, where they grow bananas, sugar cane and lots ofother crops. Then we climbed up Dunn River Falls. Awesome. Mom got alittle concerned (she was convinced she was going to die) half way up,but Dad and I climbed all the way.

Our last stop Mexico. We landed in Cozumel and took a ferry to Playadel Carmen, then a bus to the Mayan ruins at Tulum. The Mayans believedthat if you were different you were special: one king had six fingers,red hair, was seven feet tall and lived to be 84 years old. It was HOTat Tulum. Afterward we went to Xel-Ha to go cool down. Uh oh… morefish, so Mom stayed hot.

In addition to the ports, we spent several days at sea, but itwasn’t boring at all. The kids program on the ship was great: Age 3-5were Aquanauts, 6-8 were Explorers (that’s where I went, even though Ijust turned 9), and 9-12 where Voyagers. The last day we even had atalent show.

The people on the ship were really nice, especially our cabinsteward. He made me different animals out of towels: a dog, swan, monkeyand an elephant.

Well that wraps up my vacation. It was a GREAT trip.

Danielle

Boarding the Voyager of the Seas, March 12, 2000.

Reverse view of living room, barand dressing area.

Living room and bedroom with double balcony in rear.

Bathroom. There is also a spacious Jacuzzi tub not visible.

Danielle peeking through the”wall” that separates the bedroom and living room.

This is the three story high”centrum” that run down the middle of the ship. It’s actually more like ten stories high at either end. There are shops, restaurants,bars and a casino on the lowest level of the middle section. The dining rooms are at one end, and the showrooms at the other.

The magnificent three-story dining room.

Yes, there really is a miniature golf course (and a real ice-skating rink) on this ship. It was actually a great course, except that the wind made it a bit challenging. Danielle won, fair and square.

The concierge lounge was open to guests in the suites. Danielle and I spent some time there, playing games, and I worked on my novel there one day. There were complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres every evening.

View of Labadee, Haiti from our balcony.

I could only fit half the ship in this picture from Labadee.

That buoy must be very securely anchored.

Fisherman near La Amiga island at Labadee, where we went on Danielle’s first ocean snorkeling trip.

About 200 yards off La Amiga, with Haiti in the distance.

These tenders took us back from Labadee to the ship. They seat several hundred people, but look how the voyager dwarfs them.

One of the tractor-drawn jitneys at the Brimmer Hall Plantation.

This is the stalk of the banana tree. See that section hanging by the fiber mesh? It just pulls apart tof orm the mesh naturally. They use it for a wide variety of things, including women’s hose!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is voyager-ocho-rios-brimmer-hall-cocoa-679x1024.jpg — Cocoa beans. He made me suck on one. They’re slimy! It’s a long way from there to chocolate.

Climbing a coconut tree with a hemp rope. It’s a common tourist scam to offer you a rope as a souvenir, and then collect $5 for it. (“They’re $10 in the shop, but for you…”) This stunt is particularly effective with kids. Needless to say, we now own this useful household device.

The arbor at the plantation. If you can’t climb with it, you can always use the hemp rope as a garland.

Yes, we really climbed 900 feet of this waterfall at Dunn River.

The midnight buffet on Thursday. We slept, Linda photographed it.

We took a ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen on the Yucatan peninsula. Senor Frog’s is the first place you pass as you get off. “Sorry We Are Open”.

Our guide on the way to the Mayan city of Tulum, or possibly Tulun. Tulum means “Wall”. Tulun means “Swamp”.

Tulum is the only city that theMayans built along the coast. Pity. It was a delightful breeze.

Swimming in the lagoon at Xel-Ha (pronounced shell ha). After the heat of Tulum, it felt great.

More Xel-Ha. This floating thing had a spinning section you were supposed to walk across.

Danielle’s act during the kid’s talent show in Cleopatra’s Needle.

Elias, our cabin steward, made these wonderful towel animals for Danielle every evening. Here is his Dog.

Monkey on Danielle’s Adventure Ocean Kid’s Club Pillowcase

Charleston Wine Trip

In February, 2000 we went with three couples from our wine tasting group, The Wine Syndicate, to the Middleton Inn outside of Charleston, SC for a great weekend of wine tasting, recreation and sightseeing.

I had only been “through” Charleston until this visit. I was amazed at what an interesting city it is. The tip of the peninsula is comprised of a grid of about 10×20 blocks of mostly 18^th century mansions, with average values of $2-4M! It’s now a retail city, with most of the trade going to tourism, although in the past it was a wholesale city. King Street is a bit like Royal Street in New Orleans, with dozens of antique stores in just a few blocks. There are also many restaurants which feature what they call “low country” cuisine — stuff like “She-Crab” soup. The highlight of our trip was a carriage ride, which was filled with an hour of fascinating facts and stories about the old city.

The New Millennium in Williamsburg, January 1, 2000

We saw the new Millennium (or Millennium-1, depending upon how you count) in at Williamsburg, where my father lives on the Kingsmill Golf Course. As usual, we traveled by auto train. New Year’s Eve was spent at a black tie party at the Williamsburg Inn. This was the first outing for my new Fujifilm MX-2700 (1800×1200) camera, with which I am quite pleased.

	For Christmas both Danielle and Linda got Legos — about 3000 in all! That should keep them busy.
	Waiting to board the train. Our car is already loaded.
	Sewing lessons while waiting for the train to board.
	Keeping busy aboard the train by making a stocking for Nicole’s cat, Nipper. The sewing kit was a request to Santa.
	Relaxing in our cabin.
	Journal writing.
	They are constructing a “kitchen” behind one of the houses in Colonial Williamsburg, using 18th century techniques, of course. But wait. What’s that metal scaffolding? After they’d already built an 18th century scaffold, OSHA made them use a 20th century one. Your tax dollars at work.
	One of the things Colonial Williamsburg is known for at Christmas is its decorations, which use all natural ingredients, in the style of the 18th century. The average wreath is replaced once or twice during the Christmas season because of squirrels! This one is made of dried and fresh flowers.
	Here is another wreath that I liked. This one incorporates pomegranates, wheat and feathers.
	Another edible wreath.
	The stocks. One of only two times on the trip that Danielle wasn’t wiggling.
	The other time.
	When you’ve grown up in Florida, ice in a barrel is a real novelty. Hard to believe that two days later it was 72 degrees.
	The only thing better than a frozen barrel? A frozen pond.
	Lunch with Pop Pop at the King’s Mill Country Club.
	Danielle and Pop Pop both like projects. This one is a crystal radio kit.
	Clowning around while building a crystal radio with Pop Pop..
	Golfing on the Woods course at Kingsmill.
	Our porch at the Williamsburg lodge overlooked a duck pond. It was cold for the first two days, then turned unseasonably warm to welcome in the new year.
	Playing Ginnie’s piano. Danielle picked out a whole Christmas carol.
	Black Tie New Year’s Eve party at the Williamsburg Inn.
	Danielle learned the Foxtrot, Cha Cha, and a bit of the Swing.
	Steve and Linda dancing just before the stroke of midnight.
	I call this simply “Millennium Tongue”.
	That must make this “Millennium Top Hat”.
	Carriage ride in Colonial Williamsburg.
	Aboard the carriage. Danielle is wearing her New Year’s Eve party favor — a tiara.
	Jack and Jill (not necessarily in that order).
	In jail.
	Tree climbing.
	Danielle works on her journal in the top bunk as we head home in a new millennium.

Germany

Stuttgart, Germany, October 1999. While visiting our European distributors in nearby Uhingen, I had a chance to enjoy the local Octoberfest, called Volksfest.

Sometimes the best part is coming home — in this case from Photokina 2000. Here’s my welcoming committee at the airport: Danielle with chocolate, Linda with Gran Marnier. Danielle held up a sign that said “Daddy”.

Death Valley, Legoland California 1999

Danielle and I traveled to California in June, 1999 for a two week vacation. Linda, unfortunately, was too busy on projects at Epcot to accompany us. We began our trip with a visit to Linda’s parents in Los Angeles, and saw Knott’s Berry Farm and the Getty Museum. Then it was on to Death Valley for a really interesting few days of 114 degree weather (honest, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity!) Next we spent a night in Las Vegas and caught the Star Trek Experience, where we have equipment installed (Danielle hated it, but it was really cool). Finally, we drove to Carlsbad (Danielle was a great traveler for the whole 7 hours across the Mojave Desert) and visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park, San Diego Zoo, and Legoland. It was a great trip.

Lobby of the Furnace Creek Inn in Death Valley.

Badwater, Death Valley. Elevation -282 feet. Lowest spot in North America.

Lobby of the Four Seasons Aviara in Carlsbad.

San Diego Wild Animal Park. My favorite picture from the trip.

Legoland. Look carefully at the Lego mural.

Legoland. Miniland, showing part of San Francisco.

Legoland. Whizz the dog. Named for obvious reasons.

Legoland. Danielle’s favorite: Lego Driving School (6 times!)

Since Linda didn’t get to go on our summer vacation, when I returned to Legoland in October for meetings, I arranged to take her with me for a backstage tour (on her birthday). We stayed at the same place that Danielle and I did, the beautiful Four Seasons Aviara.

Jekyll Island 1998

In the Fall of 1998 most of The Wine Syndicate group went to Jekyll Island, Georgia, where we stayed at the Jekyll Island Club. There were tastings, dinners, Jonathan’s first golf outing (and Steve’s first in 30 years!) and more tastings.

Attending:

The Alcorns, Crockets, Henlines and Hoffmans (guests).

Click on the small images for a larger view, then use your browser’s “Back” button to return here.

Los Angeles, San Francisco 1998

Our summer 1998 vacation trip was great. We picked Danielle up at SeaWorld camp on Friday afternoon, August 7th, and headed to the airport to catch a Delta non-stop to Los Angeles. The lease ran out on Linda’s car last month. She has her heart set on a Corvette, but the color she wants isn’t available right now, a situation worsened by the recent GM strike. So she’s been renting a car for the past few weeks. It seemed strange to drive to the airport and have no car to park, but it sure was convenient to be able to simply abandon it in the rental car lot like we do when we’re traveling.

The flight was uneventful. Since I earn Delta SkyMiles on American Express card purchases made on my own and the company’s Amex cards, we’re usually able to get free first class tickets for vacations. First class makes traveling with a busy seven-year-old a lot easier. That coupled with plenty to do — a couple of game CD’s on the laptop, an activity book, and some plastic-tasting food — made the flight go pretty quickly. There are usually a lot of Disney people in first class on the Orlando-Los Angeles non-stop, and this flight was no exception, so we had a chance to visit with a few people we don’t see all that often.

When we arrived we rented a car and drove to Linda’s parents’ house. On the way I swung past the house I grew up in and lived in until I got married at 22. The neighborhood seemed a bit more run-down than I recall, with a fair amount of peeling paint and uncut grass, but I suppose it’s holding up better than most of Los Angeles. I drove past the site of the Baldwin Hills Dam, which was only a few hundred yards from our house, but there was little sign of where it had been.

Linda’s parents live in a two-story, semi-Victorian house that was built near downtown Los Angeles in 1903. The house features hand-painted ceiling murals and elaborate oak paneling. Originally lit by gas lamps, it was refitted for electricity in the 1920’s. Saturday we spent a quiet day at home, letting Danielle play with her grandparents.

One of the advantages of an old house is the attic. With an accumulation of seventy years of “stuff”, there’s always something interesting. On this trip I dredged up some old photos for scanning and some interesting old jewelry and books. Linda found a toy crane from her childhood, a recreation of the arcade-type candy or stuffed toy cranes. It has two levers that manipulate the arm and jaws, and a chute into which objects may be dropped in order to get them out of the enclosed plastic cover. After a little WD-40 Danielle had a great time manipulating the levers to retrieve small “treasures” (crumpled paper) and drop them down the chute. It beats losing fifty cents a shot.

We also unearthed a model of Disneyland that Linda made for her sixth grade art fair, in an eerie presaging of her career as an Imagineer. It’s really quite good, and her parents are still annoyed that she took second place behind a girl who leaned her father’s stamp collection against a prefab castle. Talk about holding a grudge. . .

For dinner we went to El Cholo, a 70-year-old Mexican restaurant just a block away from their house. We’ve been going to El Cholo all our lives, originally for their unique style of Mexican cooking, then later for the country’s best frozen Margaritas. The restaurant began as a small house on Western Avenue, then gradually expanded over the years, until today it occupies almost half the block.

Sunday afternoon we headed for the Los Angeles Zoo. Orlando doesn’t have much of a zoo. While Los Angeles’s Zoo has always stood in the shadow of the San Diego Zoo, it’s pretty nice. Located on a hilly corner of Griffith Park, a wilderness area that is the largest municipal park in the country, the zoo offers thousands of animals in very natural settings, with no obvious bars or cages.

When Linda and I lived in Los Angeles we were members of GLAZA, the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association. During the 1980s we watched the zoo grow and improve its exhibits year by year. Since then there have been animal care problems, management scandals, and funding shortfalls, and now the zoo population seems somewhat sparse.

We saw lions, giraffes, rhinos, antelope, ibex, lynx, wolverines, koalas, seals, polar bears, gorillas, flamingoes, lemurs, marmots, kangaroos, wallabies, foxes, wolves and many more. We enjoyed the otter exhibit the most. Two otters in a large area filled with pools, streams, logs, slides, tubes and other playthings spells fun. The two were in constant motion. We watched them play tag for about half an hour. They have quite a sense of humor. The leader would dive into the top end of an inclined tube and slide through, while the chaser jumped in the water and waited to surprise him at the bottom.

After the zoo we drove up to Burbank and had dinner at The Smoke House, a restaurant we’ve been going to for over thirty years. Their business is built primarily on the fact that they have the world’s best garlic bread — really more of a crumbly cheese / sour dough loaf. Mmmm.

Monday Linda and I headed out to Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale. Linda went to visit co-workers in the department she belonged to before she established the Florida presence of WDI Electronic Engineering. I went to make a presentation about our new products to the Audio/Video department. There were about a dozen engineers in the meeting, and our products were very well received. Most of these people are old friends. Since my company makes many of the A/V systems used in new attractions, we have a special working relationship with them, and it’s always a pleasure to see them when I’m back in Los Angeles.

Tuesday we visited the Page Museum at the La Brea tar pits. Danielle enjoyed seeing the skeletons of giant sloths and saber-tooth tigers that were trapped in the tar. We also watched a film about dinosaurs, and why there aren’t any at the La Brea tar pits.

Wednesday morning, bright and early, we headed for San Francisco. We had to pay for this flight, and since it’s only 40 minutes, we flew coach! We rented a car from Dollar, and were pleased to be offered a convertible at the mid-size rate. So top down, bundled up against the fog, we headed for Cliff House and the Sutro Baths.

The Sutro Baths were built at the base of the cliffs overlooking Seal Rocks, in the late 1800’s. The original bathhouse was an enormous structure, nearly spanning the coastal outlet of the rocky canyon. A great, curved roof several stories high protected the bathers from the chill sea air, completely enclosing the football-field-sized pool, steam baths and changing rooms. The structure burned in the early 1960’s. All that remains today are the concrete walls of its foundation, and the caves cut into the jagged cliffs.

Danielle climbed about on the slippery walls under Linda’s fearful gaze, then we all climbed the path to the Cliff House. This is the third structure to use that name. The first two were large hotels perched above the baths. One burned in the early 1900’s after only a few years of service, the second lasted somewhat longer. Today the Cliff House is a restaurant serving well-prepared California cuisine, with a wine list honored by the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.

After a delicious lunch we headed north, through Golden Gate Park and across the Golden Gate Bridge. With the convertible top down the bridge was most impressive, rising some 500 feet above the cold waters of San Francisco Bay. Danielle took a photo looking straight up as we passed under one of the massive arched supports. A mile away from the bay the fog lifted, and we found ourselves surrounded by eucalyptus, oak, cypress, and a few pines.

After a quick stop for sunscreen, we drove up the winding coast on Highway 1, enjoying the contrast to the flatness of Florida. Rocky cliffs plunged to the Pacific as we took in the sights and smells along the way. We skirted a large, freshwater bay at Stimson Beach and headed inland. Near Point Reyes the road wound through thick stands of eucalyptus that provided a deeply shaded canopy. After a stop at the Pt. Reyes National Recreation Area Visitor’s Center, we headed back.

By now it was 4pm, but we couldn’t resist stopping at Muir Woods, a pristine Redwood forest. Walking on deeply shaded paths amid the giant trees, Danielle commented, “We’re not in Kansas anymore. “

Finally, we finished our first day in San Francisco by heading back across the Golden Gate Bridge and downtown, to The Mandarin Hotel, where Linda and I had stayed about ten years ago.

The hotel was as nice as ever, and we had the pleasant surprise of possibly the best room in the entire hotel, on the top (48th) floor, overlooking the Bay Bridge and Alcatraz.

We dined at Silks, the hotel restaurant. The Sommelier, Reneé-Nicole Kubin, formerly of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, was a charming hostess, and the winelist was extremely well thought out. Unfortunately the food was not really at the same level, and the food service was truly disorganized. Still, it was a very pleasant end to a very busy day.

Thursday, after Danielle’s obligatory room service breakfast, we drove down to Fisherman’s Warf. I bought a cap to cover my head, which was slightly sunburned from our convertible exploits, despite liberal applications of sunscreen.

After a pleasant lunch at the end of Pier 39 we picked up the Alcatraz tickets we’d reserved prior to the trip, and caught the boat out to the island.

It was cool on the boat, but still the warmest I’d ever felt the air on San Francisco bay. The ten-minute boat ride provides a time to get in the proper mood to enjoy the lonely solitude of “The Rock”. It’s easy to imagine the hopelessness that the “incorrigibles” sent here for incarceration must have felt.

A new audio tour uses binaural sound, prisoner interviews, and dramatic reenactments to capture the experience of life in the cellblock. We all enjoyed it very much.

Thursday evening we dined in a Japanese restaurant at the Plaza Hotel. After dinner we sat in the lobby listening to the piano music, and pretended that it was one hundred years ago. Danielle had some interesting opinions on the advantages of gaslight over the newfangled electric lights the hotel had just installed.

Friday we walked to Market and Powell, grabbing pastries for breakfast on the way, and stopping at the St. Francis Hotel, where Linda and I spent our honeymoon 20 years ago, to ride the glass elevators. After about an hour wait, we caught the cable car. Danielle enjoyed her precarious perch on the side of the car, right up front. She also photographed the mechanism that grabs the cable.

At the end of the line we got off and walked to Ghirardelli Square. After shopping and lunch we crossed to the Hyde Street Pier. A new Maritime Museum, operated by the National Park Service, takes up the whole pier. There, for the bargain price of four dollars, we practiced riveting, toured a ferry boat from the 1930’s (the longest wooden vessel still afloat), and explored the Balclutha, an 1880’s square rigger used in the grain trade of the newly blossoming San Francisco.

Afterwards we enjoyed the variety of odd musical instruments in a terrific music shop at the Cannery, then caught a cab back to the hotel. We had a quiet and pleasant dinner at the Hyatt, a block from the Mandarin. Both hotels are located in the financial district, which was already growing deserted for the weekend as Friday night drew to a close.

Saturday we arose late, packed and checked out of the Mandarin. Since we’d seen so much more than we’d expected to in San Francisco, we decided to drive through wine country before the plane flight home. We headed north across the Golden Gate Bridge, and in a little more than an hour found ourselves in Sonoma.

Our first stop was Cline Cellars, known for their Zinfandel, and “ancient vines” line of wines. While Danielle fed the giant coy fish in the pond we sampled several wines and purchased a delicious Carignane (“CARE-EE-NYON'”) to bring back with us. We also bought a salami and some cheeses, which we enjoyed out by the pond. Our next stop was Gundlach-Bundschu, a charming stone structure tucked up beneath a hill. We purchased a Reserve 1985 Cabernet from their library, which we’ll share with our wine group. Danielle enjoyed socializing with their rather over-stuffed golden retriever.

Finally, we visited Buena Vista, California’s oldest premium winery, founded in 1857 by Count Agoston Haraszthy, the father of California viticulture. There we purchased a 1986 Reserve Cabernet from their library, while Danielle chatted with their resident artist. Outside, one of the winery cats lounged lazily under a picnic table, consuming a mouse for its lunch.

The day was waning, and we regretfully headed back across the Golden Gate a final time, and on to San Francisco Airport, where we returned our beloved convertible and caught the 7pm flight back to LAX.

During our layover we munched on Mexican food and grabbed one final Margarita at the mini-El Cholo in the Delta terminal. Danielle and I keep journals when we travel, and we used the time to catch up on our drawings and writings about the trip, and to fill out a few post cards. The red-eye left Los Angeles at 11pm, and we all caught a few winks before arriving in Orlando around 7am. After renting yet another car, we headed home, for our own comfortable beds.

And a long nap.

Los Angeles, Las Vegas & Grand Canyon in Art 1996

The annual “Return of the WEDI” trip in 1996 went to the Grand Canyon for the only time.

When I travel I like to keep a journal so I can experience the trip again, years later. Now I use a laptop, but when Dani was little both of use kept travel journals using blank books and colored pencils. Here is a journal I made of our December 1996 trip to the West. Photos from this trip may be found in the Family and WEDI sections.

IAAPA in New Orleans 1996

The annual amusement park show, IAAPA, was in New Orleans in 1996. Here’s a love act with Director of Sales, David Geoghegan.

Bahamas 1995

We went on a “Wine Cruise” to Nassau in the Bahamas.

Here we are with Andy and Libby, friends from our wine group.

Captiva 1991-1997

There used to be a summer wine festival at Captiva near Memorial Day, and we started making an annual trip the year Dani was born. Several members of our wine group went along. After the first year we learned to stay at Land’s End Village.

Good shelling 1994

p_v14alp3jyxw0822 Dani, Linda amd Jonathan Henline, 1994

In 1996 we went on our sixth annual trip to Captiva. Steve was in Europe during the Annual Wine Festival, so we went later in the summer, and were accompanied by the Carstensens. Here Danielle pilots the dolphin cruise while Mindy looks for a life preserver.

Ritz Naples 1996
Starting in 1996 we began going to the Ritz Carlton Naples after Captiva. It’s our favorite hotel, anywhere.

Captiva 1 1997
Back to Captiva in 1997, this time with Danielle’s friend Zachary. Nicole also went along, as she did every year except 1996.

Captiva 2 1997
By chance, a school chum of Danielle’s was visiting Captiva at the same time, and came by to play frogs in the bathtub.

Captiva 3 1997
Here we are on the porch at Land’s End, overlooking the Caribbean.

Little Palm Island 1990, 1993

LP91
One of our favorite places to relax is Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys. With only fourteen grass huts, each with its own hammock, it’s a very private place. Fortunately, there’s also a five star restaurant. We visited in 1990, when Linda was pregnant, and again in 1993, although we endured several inches of rain on that trip.

Little Palm Boat
You arrive by boat…

Little Palm 1 1990
…at a tiny island a few miles off the keys. This is where PT-109 was filmed. It was long a private retreat, but now accommodates a handful of guests, who relax, play, recreate, and dine in the five-start restaurant.

LIttle Palm Hut
There are fourteen of these grass-thatched huts.

Little Palm 2 1990
Lush plantings of Palm trees lend the island a South Seas flavor.

Little Palm 3 1990
The rooms really have thatched roofs…

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…but they’re far from austere.

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And the best seat on the island is the hammock outside your door.

France 1991

Danielle was born in 1991. When she was six months old, Linda, Danielle and Nicole moved to Paris for the EuroDisneyland installation. Danielle and Nicole stayed for three months, and Linda stayed on for an additional three months. Steve made several trips over to visit, and during 1992 Linda visited Florida seemingly every weekend. Talk about a commute!

Lusanne, Switzerland. We took the TGV high speed train through the mountains, and stayed at the Palace Hotel for several days.

Exterior of the trailer at the Davey Crocket campground, EuroDisney.

Trailer interior.

Don’t look behind the couch. Everything was covered with mold.

Now that I can stand, let’s hit the disco!

San Malo in Normandy.

View into our hotel in San Malo.

On top of Mont St. Michel.

Europe 1990

In 1990 I visited Gothenburg, Sweden for a week to install one of the first Iwerks Turbo Tour Theater simulator rides. on the way back I met Linda in Europe, and we spent a week visiting Paris and London.

Hotel Bretonnerie, The Moray District, Paris. A good, cheap place to stay, in a charming area.

Jet lag antidote.

La Tour Eiffel.

Tower Bridge, London.

Williamsburg 1989-2007

My father lived on the King’s Mill Golf Course in Williamsburg, Virginia. We visited him most years, sometimes traveling by auto train. We enjoyed the ambiance of the train, and it’s convenient to have our car and all of Danielle’s “stuff” when we get there.

norv and ginnie in williamsburg 1987 taken by bill alcorn

Norv Williamsburg 1989
Dad’s house in King’s Mill,1989.

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Dani before her baptism, posing in front of the fireplace at PopPop and GinGin’s house.

The Slide.

On the iced-up pond across the street, January 1997.

This ice is slippery stuff.

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Trains are BIG. That red dot is Danielle. January 1998.

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Boarding the train, January 1998.

Pillory 1998
Linda locks Danielle and Pop Pop into the Pillory, Colonial Williamsburg, January 1998.

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Silversmith, Colonial Williamsburg, January 1998.

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Windmill, Colonial Williamsburg, January 1998.

Williamsburg 1998
Behind the Governor’s Mansion, Colonial Williamsburg, January 1998.

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Golfing with Dad, December 1998.

Miss Manderly 1998
With Miss Manderly, a character from the American Girls Felicity book, Colonial Williamsburg, December 1998.

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In the lobby of the Williamsburg Inn, between Christmas and New Year’s, 1999

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Dancing in the dining room of the Williamsburg Inn, between Christmas and New Year’s, 1999

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Blacksmith Shop. Thanksgiving, 2001.

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Thanksgiving, 2001.

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The Capitol. Thanksgiving, 2001.

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Carter’s Grove. Thanksgiving, 2001.

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Thanksgiving, 2001.

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Gunsmith Shop. Thanksgiving, 2001.

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Thanksgiving, 2001.

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Thanksgiving, 2001.

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Thanksgiving, 2002.

williamsburg2002-2 Thanksgiving, 2002.

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Thanksgiving, 2002.

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Thanksgiving, 2002.

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Thanksgiving, 2002.

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Thanksgiving, 2005 Parade.

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Thanksgiving, 2005 Shop.

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Thanksgiving, 2005 walking to a witch trial reenactment.

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Thanksgiving, 2005 at Ford’s Colony.

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Thanksgiving 2007. At the Williamsburg Inn for Thanksgiving dinner, Reggie brought Dani a PB&J sandwich for old times sake.

Eastern Caribbean on the Norway 1989

In 1989 we went for our first Caribbean cruise, on the Norway, Norwegian Cruise Line’s flagship. The Norway was originally built as “The France”, and represented the pinnacle of cruise ship design. Too large to enter the Caribbean ports of call, we used “huge “tenders” to disembark on St. Martin and St. Thomas. We met two charming couples with whom we dined, and enjoyed all of the amenities of the ship. Particularly memorable are the lazy breakfasts on our private balcony.

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Boarding.

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Don’t we look relaxed?

SS Norway 3
The Alcorns, the Segars and the Malloys prepare to “put on the nosebag”.

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Who knows? But it sold them another photograph.

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Casual night.

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Formal night.

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Dancing to Jazz.

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Dining “royally”. The highlight, as always, was “Hot, hot, , hot”.

Greenbriar, West Virginia 1998

For our 20th wedding anniversary, Linda and I slipped away to The Greenbriar in West Virginia for a delightful stay at one of America’s most unique resorts. It’s amazing how fast twenty years have gone by.

New Orleans 1985

The Maison deVille in the French Quarter, our favorite hotel in New Orleans. 1985

Oak Alley, Mississippi. A side trip from New Orleans.

Mexico 1985

Chichenitza in the Yucatan Peninsula. A side trip sponsored by Linn on the way back from a trade show in New Orleans, 1985.

St. Augustine 1983, 1997

Linda and I visited St. Augustine in 1983 after Epcot opened.

Backwards

And a return trip in the fall of 1997 when our wine group spent a long weekend at “The Whale’s Tail”, a bed and breakfast in St. Augustine. This cannon is mounted on one of the oldest structures in the United States.

In August 1998 we had a great time at the historic lighthouse at Ponce Inlet, about an hour drive from Orlando.

St. Thomas 1983

With the stress of Epcot behind us, we took the opportunity to get away for a fourth anniversary trip to Charlotte Amalie in Saint Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands. We flew down, and stayed on the back side of the island in a nice resort. One day we borrowed a car from the resort. That was exciting, because they drive on the left side of the road, but the use American cars. Very odd. Mostly we took cabs. They run on island time, so the driver stops and picks up friends as he drives you.

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The view from our villa at Point Pleasant.

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ditto

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This parrot attacked my camera lens at lunch!

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Linda relaxing after the parrot incident.

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The wine shop in Charlotte Amalie.

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ditto.

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Mmmm. Cruzan rum. $1.99 a bottle.

Morocco 1983

In 1983, with the frantic pace of Epcot’s opening behind us, we visited Morocco, on a Disney-sponsored tour. It was exotic, exciting, and tiring. A great experience, but it was nice to get home!