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| Texas Pride BBQ, Adkins |
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| A side-trip to Smiley |
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| Spoetzl Brewery - where Shiner Beer is brewed! |
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| Dad and his free sample. |
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| Monument Cafe, Georgetown |
Monday, October 27, 2014
Shiner, TX
Once I was feeling a little better after my surgery, we decided to take a short road trip. I had wanted to go to the Shiner Brewery for many years, but it's only open Monday - Friday, so it made it a little difficult. Since Joe is off on Mondays and I was on medical leave, we decided to load up with my mom and dad on a Sunday and head south. First we stopped in Adkins for BBQ at Texas Pride (it was okay). Then we spent the night in San Antonio and started out the next day with a repeat visit to the Magnolia Pancake House before making our way over to Shiner via Smiley. On the way home, we stopped in Georgetown for dinner at the Monument Cafe. That turned out to be a huge disappointment, but overall, we had a great little road trip!
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Surgery
And, so, part of the reason that Joe and I could not take our usual July trip is because on July 23rd, I had a hysterectomy. The surgery was scheduled in April, but at that time, the first they could get me in was June. Guilt overwhelmed me at the prospect of being gone for a quarter-end, so I had them push it out to July. Sigh...
Without going into too much detail (TMI!), I will just say that I have always had my challenges as a woman. But, the last few years things had gotten worse and part of that was contributed to the fact that I had fibroids. I asked my doctor last year about a hysterectomy, but it seemed kind of "unnatural" and so I didn't do it. But, after another year, I had finally had enough!
The procedure, itself, was not bad. They do it without even making an incision on the outside at all. When I woke up in recovery, I had a bit of pain - like cramps - but other than being uncomfortable for a few hours, I really didn't have much trouble. I did have to spend the night in the hospital, which was fine. Joe stayed with me, so I don't think he got a ton of sleep, but neither did I.
I came home on Thursday after walking around the floor at the hospital and going to the bathroom on my own. My worst day, by far, was Friday. I felt somewhat nauseous and I had a lot of pain in my back. I spent the entire day sleeping.
I did my best to follow the doctor's orders as closely as I could. I rested, I walked when he said I should, and I didn't drive for 3 weeks. My first drive was back to the doctor for a check-up. I think I had a mild infection because he gave me antibiotic cream and I had some symptoms of an infection (although I never felt bad). The cream was somewhat worse than the infection, but I powered through it all and by the 5th, 6th, and 7th weeks of my leave, I was feeling pretty good.
I did quite a bit of reading and also that was when I really started catching up on my pictures and blog. The last couple of weeks, I even did some scrapbooking. But as they say, all good things must come to an end and so on September 8th I went back to work.
Without going into too much detail (TMI!), I will just say that I have always had my challenges as a woman. But, the last few years things had gotten worse and part of that was contributed to the fact that I had fibroids. I asked my doctor last year about a hysterectomy, but it seemed kind of "unnatural" and so I didn't do it. But, after another year, I had finally had enough!
The procedure, itself, was not bad. They do it without even making an incision on the outside at all. When I woke up in recovery, I had a bit of pain - like cramps - but other than being uncomfortable for a few hours, I really didn't have much trouble. I did have to spend the night in the hospital, which was fine. Joe stayed with me, so I don't think he got a ton of sleep, but neither did I.
I came home on Thursday after walking around the floor at the hospital and going to the bathroom on my own. My worst day, by far, was Friday. I felt somewhat nauseous and I had a lot of pain in my back. I spent the entire day sleeping.
I did my best to follow the doctor's orders as closely as I could. I rested, I walked when he said I should, and I didn't drive for 3 weeks. My first drive was back to the doctor for a check-up. I think I had a mild infection because he gave me antibiotic cream and I had some symptoms of an infection (although I never felt bad). The cream was somewhat worse than the infection, but I powered through it all and by the 5th, 6th, and 7th weeks of my leave, I was feeling pretty good.
I did quite a bit of reading and also that was when I really started catching up on my pictures and blog. The last couple of weeks, I even did some scrapbooking. But as they say, all good things must come to an end and so on September 8th I went back to work.
July 19th and 20th
July 19, 2014
Today is our 11th anniversary! Typically, we take a trip to celebrate each milestone year, but this year we weren't able to (see next post). But even though we were unable to take a big trip, we decided to at least spend a night at the Stockyards Hotel. The hotel is historic (and I LOVE to stay in historic hotels) and has had many mentions in Texas Highways.
Before we made our way to Fort Worth, though, we spent the day as normal - Joe working and me doing whatever it is I do on Saturdays. This Saturday, I attended a 50th anniversary party for John and Carol Morgan. John and Carol are Theresa's parents and Theresa is someone who has been a friend since we were in junior high. She came to my parent's 50th, so I was happy to go to her parent's. It was great to see everyone and catch up. Theresa and I have grown apart in the last few years, but it was great to see her parents, who seemed so genuinely happy to see me. Plus, I got to see her girls - whose birth I was present at (I even took Theresa to the hospital) and her son, who is now in college at Texas Tech.
After the party, I went home and met Joe, then we made our way down to Fort Worth. We checked into the hotel, where we stayed in the Bonnie and Clyde room - the actual room the villains stayed in during a visit to Fort Worth in 1933. After admiring our room, we walked across the street for a drink at the White Elephant Saloon and then dinner at Risky's Steakhouse.
July 20, 2014
The fire alarm went off in the hotel at about 8:30AM. We had been awake, but were still in bed, enjoying our room. It turns out that the smoker in the restaurant had gotten too hot and set off the fire alarm, which is hyper-sensitive because of the hotel's historic status. By the time that was over, we were totally awake, so we got up and got dressed, then had breakfast at the hotel.
Before leaving Fort Worth, we took one more look around the stockyards. We've been there many times, but it is still fun to walk around. We were minutes from the Fort Worth Herd doing their twice daily walk around the block, so even though we had seen it before, we stayed for an encore.
From downtown Fort Worth, we went to my parents. We had shared dog-sitting duties with my parents while Debbie Lou Hoo went out of town for vacation and we had our weekend in San Francisco and she had thanked us with a gift certificate for Babe's. So, for our late lunch, we had a free meal at Babe's!
So...it wasn't exotic and it wasn't a the week long adventure we're used to, but it was still a fun weekend!
Today is our 11th anniversary! Typically, we take a trip to celebrate each milestone year, but this year we weren't able to (see next post). But even though we were unable to take a big trip, we decided to at least spend a night at the Stockyards Hotel. The hotel is historic (and I LOVE to stay in historic hotels) and has had many mentions in Texas Highways.
Before we made our way to Fort Worth, though, we spent the day as normal - Joe working and me doing whatever it is I do on Saturdays. This Saturday, I attended a 50th anniversary party for John and Carol Morgan. John and Carol are Theresa's parents and Theresa is someone who has been a friend since we were in junior high. She came to my parent's 50th, so I was happy to go to her parent's. It was great to see everyone and catch up. Theresa and I have grown apart in the last few years, but it was great to see her parents, who seemed so genuinely happy to see me. Plus, I got to see her girls - whose birth I was present at (I even took Theresa to the hospital) and her son, who is now in college at Texas Tech.
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| Me with John & Carol |
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| Me and Theresa |
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| Theresa's kids - Jonathan, Morgan, and Megan |
July 20, 2014
The fire alarm went off in the hotel at about 8:30AM. We had been awake, but were still in bed, enjoying our room. It turns out that the smoker in the restaurant had gotten too hot and set off the fire alarm, which is hyper-sensitive because of the hotel's historic status. By the time that was over, we were totally awake, so we got up and got dressed, then had breakfast at the hotel.
Before leaving Fort Worth, we took one more look around the stockyards. We've been there many times, but it is still fun to walk around. We were minutes from the Fort Worth Herd doing their twice daily walk around the block, so even though we had seen it before, we stayed for an encore.
From downtown Fort Worth, we went to my parents. We had shared dog-sitting duties with my parents while Debbie Lou Hoo went out of town for vacation and we had our weekend in San Francisco and she had thanked us with a gift certificate for Babe's. So, for our late lunch, we had a free meal at Babe's!
So...it wasn't exotic and it wasn't a the week long adventure we're used to, but it was still a fun weekend!
San Francisco
Our next weekend adventure took us to San Francisco. I'm telling you - I could get used to all these weekend trips again!
July 11, 2014
Our adventures by the bay started with lunch at the Cliff House. Joe and I went to the Cliff House in 2002, but didn't realize that it was all part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (2002 was WAY before the effort to visit all the national parks). After lunch, we decided to take a walk down the Coast Trail. We had heard that if we headed down the trail and took a turn at the Golden Gate Bridge, we would end up at Ghiradelli Square. Easy, peasy!!! 6 HOURS LATER...we did end up at Ghiradelli Square. I have to admit that we did take a few detours - one up to a viewpoint, one down to a viewpoint, one up to a memorial. So, we didn't walk there straight. But, we also got to the point where we stopped taking detours just to try to get there.
But, I digress....
From the Cliff House, we stopped at Land's End Lookout for our stamp (check!) and then headed down the trail to the Sutro Baths. Again, in 2002, we had seen the Sutro Baths, but didn't really know what they were. As it turns out, at one time, they were actually part of the Cliff House. As we were looking over the baths, we saw something out of the corner of our eyes that resembled a whale, but I thought we were just seeing things. We walked to the overlook and sure enough, there was a whale and her baby playing in the ocean just off the coast. We never really saw mama, but we did get this picture of baby, who was having a jolly good time. In all our travels, we have never seen a whale come out of the water like this! It was very exciting!!!
The Coast Trail was interesting. As I mentioned, we went up and down to different lookouts - all with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. We even stopped at the monument to the USS San Francisco. It was quite interesting, too.
When we arrived at Eagles' Point Overlook, we thought we had lost the trail, but actually we didn't. We made our way to Baker Beach and around to Battery Chamberlin, but then we really did lose the trail. Fortunately, we knew we just needed to keep heading toward the Bridge.
Even after we found our way underneath the bridge, it wasn't quite as easy as we thought to get to Ghiradelli Square. Finally, after walking over 11 miles, we made it! As we approached Ghiradelli Square, I suggested we stop at the first place we came across. I was soooo tired. Even Joe had finally succumb to exhaustion and pain as well. Oddly, it was a BBQ place that we came to, which isn't really what you think of when you think of San Francisco, but it was fine.
We had long ago decided to take public transportation back to the hotel, so while we were eating, I looked up the route and figured out we needed to get on the cable car from one end of the line to the other. Of course, since this was high tourist season, we had to wait on the cable car for quite a long time - about an hour. By the time we got on, it was 10:00. We connected easily to the BART to get back to the airport and arrived there shortly after 11:00. The first time we caught the hotel shuttle, it was really quick - we only waited a few minutes. This time - in spite of the fact that the shuttle is supposed to run every 20 minutes, we waited 45 minutes for it to arrive (this after calling the hotel twice as well). We finally got back to our room a little after midnight. Never has a bed felt so good!!!
July 12, 2014
Needless to say, we slept in. I am quite sore from my adventures yesterday and was not in much of a mood for walking any more. We decided to rent a car so that we could take in a National Park Site. We managed to get moving and left the hotel around noon and picked up the car at 1:00. Our first stop - Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park.
We hadn't eaten, but decided in the interest of time that we would pick something up along the way. Does anyone realize that California does not have fast-food restaurants along the freeways? We got all the way to Richmond and still hadn't seen anything to eat. So, we decided to get our stamp because we thought the visitor center would be a quick stop. Fortunately, right next door to the visitor center was a restaurant. Yea! Score!!! It was called "Assemble" because it was part of the old Ford Motor Vehicle Assembly Plant and it was actually quite good! I had the fish and chips and Joe had a club sandwich. The fries were awesome - oh, and we had frito pie for an appetizer. Yummy!!! It would turn out to be the only meal we ate.
The visitor center turned out to be a lot more extensive than we thought, so it was a good thing we ate! There were a few exhibits and 2 films and we took everything in. In fact, we had arrived about 3:00 and we left as they were closing at 5:00. There is also a driving tour associated to the park, so we toured around Richmond. We ruled it out as a place we would ever want to live, but managed to capture on film all the stops.
That, my friends, is the downside of sleeping late. We only accomplished one thing! But in truth, we were okay with that.
July 13, 2014
We woke up this morning, starving. I suppose it was because we had only eaten one meal yesterday. Joe jumped in the shower and we headed down and scarfed up on the breakfast buffet. I felt like I was eating my last meal. After that, we headed back to the room. I got ready, we packed up and headed out by 11:00.
We didn't really have a plan today, but we drove around the peninsula a bit and decided to make our way up the coast to Pacifica. Pacifica is home to one of the first Triple D's we ever watched - Gorilla BBQ. We thought it would take a while to get there, but in fact, we were there pretty quickly. After our ginormous breakfast, we weren't really hungry, but decided to try it anyway. I had a philly cheesesteak made with brisket with mac and cheese and Joe had brisket with beans, cole slaw, and mac and cheese. We talked about sharing and we should have shared. I couldn't even eat half of my sandwich! We were going to bring it back with us, but at the last minute I knew we would just be throwing it away anyway, so I just did the deed there. The food wasn't bad, but it definitely was not one of our favorites. In fact, something must have been full of garlic because by the time we reached San Francisco, we were both eating Tums.
Our last stop was the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. We paid $14.00 for parking for about an hour and a half. But, the visitor center was quite good!! It was almost a San Francisco history museum, but I thought it was quite well done. From the visitor center, we walked along the Hyde Street Pier. There are quite a few boats docked there, but we were running out of time, so we didn't tour any of them.
It seemed like a quick trip, but we marked a few more things off the list. However, San Francisco is definitely a place we will return to - again and again!
July 11, 2014
Our adventures by the bay started with lunch at the Cliff House. Joe and I went to the Cliff House in 2002, but didn't realize that it was all part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (2002 was WAY before the effort to visit all the national parks). After lunch, we decided to take a walk down the Coast Trail. We had heard that if we headed down the trail and took a turn at the Golden Gate Bridge, we would end up at Ghiradelli Square. Easy, peasy!!! 6 HOURS LATER...we did end up at Ghiradelli Square. I have to admit that we did take a few detours - one up to a viewpoint, one down to a viewpoint, one up to a memorial. So, we didn't walk there straight. But, we also got to the point where we stopped taking detours just to try to get there.
But, I digress....
From the Cliff House, we stopped at Land's End Lookout for our stamp (check!) and then headed down the trail to the Sutro Baths. Again, in 2002, we had seen the Sutro Baths, but didn't really know what they were. As it turns out, at one time, they were actually part of the Cliff House. As we were looking over the baths, we saw something out of the corner of our eyes that resembled a whale, but I thought we were just seeing things. We walked to the overlook and sure enough, there was a whale and her baby playing in the ocean just off the coast. We never really saw mama, but we did get this picture of baby, who was having a jolly good time. In all our travels, we have never seen a whale come out of the water like this! It was very exciting!!!
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| Remnants of the Sutro Baths |
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| The Cliff House - where we had lunch! |
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| A little blurry - I actually blew this up from another picture, but I think you get the idea! |
When we arrived at Eagles' Point Overlook, we thought we had lost the trail, but actually we didn't. We made our way to Baker Beach and around to Battery Chamberlin, but then we really did lose the trail. Fortunately, we knew we just needed to keep heading toward the Bridge.
Even after we found our way underneath the bridge, it wasn't quite as easy as we thought to get to Ghiradelli Square. Finally, after walking over 11 miles, we made it! As we approached Ghiradelli Square, I suggested we stop at the first place we came across. I was soooo tired. Even Joe had finally succumb to exhaustion and pain as well. Oddly, it was a BBQ place that we came to, which isn't really what you think of when you think of San Francisco, but it was fine.
We had long ago decided to take public transportation back to the hotel, so while we were eating, I looked up the route and figured out we needed to get on the cable car from one end of the line to the other. Of course, since this was high tourist season, we had to wait on the cable car for quite a long time - about an hour. By the time we got on, it was 10:00. We connected easily to the BART to get back to the airport and arrived there shortly after 11:00. The first time we caught the hotel shuttle, it was really quick - we only waited a few minutes. This time - in spite of the fact that the shuttle is supposed to run every 20 minutes, we waited 45 minutes for it to arrive (this after calling the hotel twice as well). We finally got back to our room a little after midnight. Never has a bed felt so good!!!
July 12, 2014
Needless to say, we slept in. I am quite sore from my adventures yesterday and was not in much of a mood for walking any more. We decided to rent a car so that we could take in a National Park Site. We managed to get moving and left the hotel around noon and picked up the car at 1:00. Our first stop - Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park.
We hadn't eaten, but decided in the interest of time that we would pick something up along the way. Does anyone realize that California does not have fast-food restaurants along the freeways? We got all the way to Richmond and still hadn't seen anything to eat. So, we decided to get our stamp because we thought the visitor center would be a quick stop. Fortunately, right next door to the visitor center was a restaurant. Yea! Score!!! It was called "Assemble" because it was part of the old Ford Motor Vehicle Assembly Plant and it was actually quite good! I had the fish and chips and Joe had a club sandwich. The fries were awesome - oh, and we had frito pie for an appetizer. Yummy!!! It would turn out to be the only meal we ate.
The visitor center turned out to be a lot more extensive than we thought, so it was a good thing we ate! There were a few exhibits and 2 films and we took everything in. In fact, we had arrived about 3:00 and we left as they were closing at 5:00. There is also a driving tour associated to the park, so we toured around Richmond. We ruled it out as a place we would ever want to live, but managed to capture on film all the stops.
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| Rosie the Riveter Visitor Center |
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| Rosie the Riveter Memorial |
July 13, 2014
We woke up this morning, starving. I suppose it was because we had only eaten one meal yesterday. Joe jumped in the shower and we headed down and scarfed up on the breakfast buffet. I felt like I was eating my last meal. After that, we headed back to the room. I got ready, we packed up and headed out by 11:00.
We didn't really have a plan today, but we drove around the peninsula a bit and decided to make our way up the coast to Pacifica. Pacifica is home to one of the first Triple D's we ever watched - Gorilla BBQ. We thought it would take a while to get there, but in fact, we were there pretty quickly. After our ginormous breakfast, we weren't really hungry, but decided to try it anyway. I had a philly cheesesteak made with brisket with mac and cheese and Joe had brisket with beans, cole slaw, and mac and cheese. We talked about sharing and we should have shared. I couldn't even eat half of my sandwich! We were going to bring it back with us, but at the last minute I knew we would just be throwing it away anyway, so I just did the deed there. The food wasn't bad, but it definitely was not one of our favorites. In fact, something must have been full of garlic because by the time we reached San Francisco, we were both eating Tums.
Our last stop was the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. We paid $14.00 for parking for about an hour and a half. But, the visitor center was quite good!! It was almost a San Francisco history museum, but I thought it was quite well done. From the visitor center, we walked along the Hyde Street Pier. There are quite a few boats docked there, but we were running out of time, so we didn't tour any of them.
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| Real buried treasure found under the streets of San Francisco. |
A couple of posts from July...
July 1, 2014
Happy Birthday, Joey!!! I was a totally crappy wife this year because I didn't get him a thing for his birthday. After work, I stopped at Tom Thumb and bought a crappy card and I got some ice cream. For dinner, we went to Dairy Queen, but I don't feel so bad about that, since Dairy Queen is Joe's favorite thing. Hopefully, I'll make it up to him some day.
July 6, 2014
This was a great week! I only had to work 3 days (Monday we were coming home from Chicago and Friday was a holiday)!!! What could be better? So what did I do with my time off? Well...
Friday - I did nothing. Well, not really nothing. I finished reading up on the Caribbean so that next time we want to go to the beach and decide to check out the Caribbean, we'll be ready. This is part of the "retro" to-do list. I only managed to take a shower because the battery on my laptop died. Joe picked me up and we grabbed dinner, then we watched a movie - James Bond, Tomorrow Never Dies.
Saturday - I spent the whole day with Suzanne. We went shopping, then we had lunch and went to Simply Fit Meals. I dropped her at her house, but then she came back to my house and we went to dinner. Joe, by the way, headed to Orlando to help Rita do some stuff around her house.
Sunday - I got a pedi and met my parents for lunch. After lunch, I came home and cleaned up the desk, which means paying bills and balancing the checkbooks and entering everything into Quicken. I didn't get done until much later than I thought I would, but I was pretty excited to get that done because, technically, I had completed everything I wanted to get accomplished over the weekend!!!
Happy Birthday, Joey!!! I was a totally crappy wife this year because I didn't get him a thing for his birthday. After work, I stopped at Tom Thumb and bought a crappy card and I got some ice cream. For dinner, we went to Dairy Queen, but I don't feel so bad about that, since Dairy Queen is Joe's favorite thing. Hopefully, I'll make it up to him some day.
July 6, 2014
This was a great week! I only had to work 3 days (Monday we were coming home from Chicago and Friday was a holiday)!!! What could be better? So what did I do with my time off? Well...
Friday - I did nothing. Well, not really nothing. I finished reading up on the Caribbean so that next time we want to go to the beach and decide to check out the Caribbean, we'll be ready. This is part of the "retro" to-do list. I only managed to take a shower because the battery on my laptop died. Joe picked me up and we grabbed dinner, then we watched a movie - James Bond, Tomorrow Never Dies.
Saturday - I spent the whole day with Suzanne. We went shopping, then we had lunch and went to Simply Fit Meals. I dropped her at her house, but then she came back to my house and we went to dinner. Joe, by the way, headed to Orlando to help Rita do some stuff around her house.
Sunday - I got a pedi and met my parents for lunch. After lunch, I came home and cleaned up the desk, which means paying bills and balancing the checkbooks and entering everything into Quicken. I didn't get done until much later than I thought I would, but I was pretty excited to get that done because, technically, I had completed everything I wanted to get accomplished over the weekend!!!
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
A Weekend in Chicago
For our 3rd extended weekend, Joe and I decided to visit one of our favorite cities - Chicago. It is the city where we met and we love to visit! Here's some notes from our weekend:
Friday, June 27, 2014
After spending a couple of days in Phoenix for work, I decided to fly straight to Chicago, where Joe and I are spending the weekend and using our InterContinental free night (yearly for being Ambassador Club members). There are 2 reasons I wanted to fly directly: 1) I can fly business since I was in Phoenix on business - that eliminates the headache of worrying if I'm going to make the flight. 2) I'm having lunch with Dave Dickson, the E & Y partner I worked with for years on the AA account. So, I booked a hotel at the airport as cheap as I could and flew in last night. This morning, I worked a bit from my room before heading downtown.
Now, Joe and I had decided that the best way to get to the InterContinental on Michigan Avenue would be to take the blue line to the red line and get off at Grand. He told me - "walk toward the lake when you get off the train." I'm a little directionally challenged, so you can't imagine my excitement when I stepped onto Grand Avenue and there was a compass on the ground directing me East. I KNOW the lake is EAST!!! Joe had said it was only 3 blocks, so I head east and start walking. Not too far into my walk, I saw Nordstrom and thought it was on Michigan, but I was looking at the street signs very carefully and I never saw Michigan Avenue. So, I walked. And I walked. And I walked some more. And I thought to myself, "Damn Joe!!! I can't believe you thought it was only 3 blocks!!!" I whip out my cell phone to see how much further I have to go and dang if I hadn't passed it. Blocks ago!!! So, I turn around and walk back and as I get close, I realize that I didn't see Michigan Avenue because I had walked underneath it. I decided I wasn't all that interested in going up the steps from Grand...did I mention that I was lugging my backpack with the work laptop in it and all of Joe's and my clothes and toiletries in the roll aboard? So, I turn north to take a side street up to Michigan and as I reach Michigan Avenue, I pull out my phone again. This time I discover that I should not have gone north, but I should have gone south. Are you kidding me??? Am I ever going to get to the InterContinental???
I finally did and I decide I'll go ahead and try to check in, but when I attempted to do so, they wouldn't let me because my name wasn't on the reservation. What could I say? I understand - regardless of what I think - I understand. I am able to check my bags with the bellman, at least. I head upstairs to use the restroom and I still have about 30 minutes before I need to leave to meet Dave. Did I mention that it was 80+ degrees with 80+ percent humidity? I LOVE Chicago, but it was quite stifling. And, I was quite sweaty. As I came out of the bathroom, I felt cold air from the air conditioning, so I literally stood in that spot for about 20 minutes to cool off and dry my shirt. Crazy.
When it was time, I headed toward the restaurant to meet Dave. My luck changed a bit when I happened upon Hubbard Street, quite accidentally, which is where the restaurant was. I did walk the wrong way on Hubbard for about 20 steps, but this time I had my phone in hand and realized my mistake very quickly. So, I turned around and realized that Hubbard Street is actually quite the little happening place. It is line with really cool restaurants and bars. I even passed Shaw's Crab House, where I ate dinner with Michele and Kim when they visited me in Chicago in 2001. I had no idea it was on Hubbard Street!!!
I ended up being a little early and Dave ended up being a little late, but I didn't mind. It was great to sit in the a/c and just relax and not sweat. I was able to check messages and clean up my e-mail while I waited.
I quite enjoyed my lunch with Dave. Afterward, I made my way back to the InterContinental. There is a Starbucks there, so I went in and did some work for a few more hours. About the time that Joe's flight left DFW (he bought a cheap ticket on Spirit, which is the reason I had all the bags), I went ahead and checked in. And this time, they let me (I had texted Joe and asked him to call and add my name to the reservation). After I checked in, I walked to Walgreens and got a Diet Dr. Pepper and then I went back to the room and worked until Joe arrived.
We were both hungry, so despite the fact that it was late (9:00ish), we decided to grab a snack. We went back down to Hubbard (back for me, that is) and stopped at a bar called Theory. We ate WAY too much, but it was good. After we stuffed ourselves, we went back to the room and crashed.
June 28, 2014
Sometimes you really don't realize how tired you are and I guess that was the case with us. We slept and slept and slept - until about 10:00, which is pretty unusual for us.
After getting up and getting ready, we decide we will grab some breakfast at Starbucks because we know we are heading to Nancy's for dinner, so we just want to eat light. Unfortunately, there is a line at Starbucks out the door (ridiculous), so we just started walking. Our destination was the loop, where we were going to walk around and see all of the public art installations. We have seen Picasso before, but my pictures lack a bit to be desired and I recently read my Chicago guidebook (thank you, "retro" to-do list / Type-A personality!), which detailed the walk.
On the way, we saw a Corner Bakery and decided to grab our snack. We just missed breakfast, so we shared a sandwich. I saw a kid drinking chocolate milk and having not had chocolate milk in years, I decide that I want some. The problem was that it was truly a kid's drink with a paper carton and a crappy straw. And, my suction power is apparently about a million times stronger than a kid's! At one point, I'm trying to get the box un-collapsed and as I did, a perfectly arched stream of chocolate milk comes out of the box, goes over the table, and hits Joe squarely on the crotch. I couldn't help but laugh, even though I felt horrible. I said, "Oh...I'm sorry...did I get you?" And his response? "Uh...YEA!!! Right in the crotch!!!!" I couldn't help myself - I laughed and laughed. I was only interrupted when he asked, "do you think you could get me some water or something?" In the end, it wasn't that noticeable, but either way, we weren't going back to the room to change.
So, we set off and we saw the art. At the Flamingo, it started to rain, so we went to Barnes and Noble, which is also part of DePaul University. We got a drink and a rice krispie treat. It stopped raining, so we kept going. An hour or so later, we went in to Grant Park and it started to rain again, so we stopped and had a shake at Potbelly. Then it quit raining, so we returned to the park. We had seen most of the park, but there was an art installation there called "Reading Cones" and since I love to read so much, I wanted to find it. The problem was that the book didn't have a map of Grant Park and didn't really say how to get there. Fortunately, I was able to find the location on my phone (what would I have done without my phone on this trip???) and we made our way there. It was pretty disappointing as art goes, but Joe made me laugh when I went to take a picture and he whipped out the guidebook to read it...in the Reading Cones...get it? I would find out later that the Reading Cones had nothing to do with books. It was named after the town, Reading, Pennsylvania where the Cones were created by the artist.
We strolled through Millennium Park, but by this time, my feet were starting to hurt, and it was getting late. We hopped the train back to my old neighborhood and went to our favorite pizza place - Nancy's. The same waitress is still there that has waited on us every single time we've been there. For the last 13 years, she's been serving our pie.
We decided to hop the bus back to the hotel, since it dropped off right in front of the hotel and more rain was coming. We made it to the bus just in time before it started POURING!!! It rained for quite a long time and we even pulled out our rain jackets thinking we would have to make a run for it. By the time we got to our hotel, however, it had mostly stopped.
We talked about going to a movie, but since we had a free movie with our Ambassador Club membership, we decided to watch The Monuments Men with George Clooney and Matt Damon. It was really good. And after it was over, we turned out the lights and crashed again.
June 29, 2014
Today, we decided that we would make our way north and visit the Chicago History Museum. In all my travels to Chicago, I never even knew this museum existed. We first learned about it when we were in Washington, D.C. last year and we visited the Petersen House where Lincoln had died. They told us that his actual deathbed was in a museum in Chicago. So, we looked it up and decided to visit.
We plotted out our journey and decided to walk over a couple of streets and catch the bus. Again, the line at Starbucks was ridiculous, so we thought we would stop somewhere along the way. Just as we reached the street to catch the bus, Joe noticed the Dazed and Infused Donut Shop. This was a place I had read about in Chicago Magazine and had written down to try. So, we popped in. AND, we had 2 donuts each. And then we felt like we were in a sugar coma for the next couple of hours.
We reached the museum about 15 or 20 minutes before it opened, which I must say is something that rarely happens to us. Since it was Sunday, it opened at noon and I have to say we thought the museum was quite good. Downstairs there is an old diorama exhibit that is kind of fun in that old-fashioned way. But, upstairs, they have the history of Chicago and they have an audio guide to go with it. The audio is done by a guy from Second City, so it is quite funny in parts and it adds a lot to the exhibit. We learned about the "L" and how Chicago was a big meat-packing city. We learned about the gangsters and the Great Chicago Fire (which was NOT started by a cow). We learned about the stars on the City of Chicago's Flag (Fort Dearborn, the Fire, World's Fair, and the International Exposition). The last exhibit was about Lincoln. It was just pictures of the people from Chicago that he knew or who worked for him or who influenced him. But then we saw the bed, too.
From the museum, we headed north up Clark to the Chicago River and Oven Grinder Company. This is a place I've seen on the travel channel and read about in books and magazines. Their specialty is the pizza pot pie and I have to say - it was DARN good!!! They put cheese in a dish, then the meat and mushroom sauce, then they put the crust on top and bake it like a pot pie. when they serve it, they turn it over and it looks like a deep dish pizza. Tasty!!! Unfortunately, one of the reasons I wanted to go here is because the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened just across the street and I wanted a picture. Either the sugar high wore off, or I was just too full of pizza pot pie, but I totally forgot to walk across the street. Sigh... Oh well, guess I'll have to go back. And, I can't imagine that I'll pass up a pot pie if I'm there. Ha!
Our last stop for the evening was Second City. I had bought tickets before heading up. This is one of those places we have always wanted to go, but never went. It was so funny!!! The show is presented as a play (vs. stand up acts), but the actors were quite funny and in the end they do some ad lib. The only complaint I have is that we packed in there like sardines, which was really annoying.
We hopped the bus back down to our hotel again and hit the sack.
June 30, 2014
We were a bit scared of the weather that was forecasted to come in this afternoon, so we decided to head to the airport and catch a 12:15 flight home. Unfortunately, on the way to the train, I got a phone call telling us that our flight was delayed. Joe was afraid of this. More unfortunately was that I couldn't hear the whole message, but I could have sworn it said that it was delayed until 3:00. So, on the train on the way to the airport, we decided to initialize Plan B - ORD-XNA-DFW. It went off without a hitch and we even got some Garrett's popcorn to enjoy later.
The "bad" thing? I checked the flight after we got home and it actually arrived in DFW at 3:00, so I must have misunderstood what the automated message was trying to tell me. We would have made the flight, too. We got home about 5:00 and we would have made the flight, too. But I didn't care. We ended up using D2 instead of D1 and we still made it home, which at the end of the day was all we cared about.
Friday, June 27, 2014
After spending a couple of days in Phoenix for work, I decided to fly straight to Chicago, where Joe and I are spending the weekend and using our InterContinental free night (yearly for being Ambassador Club members). There are 2 reasons I wanted to fly directly: 1) I can fly business since I was in Phoenix on business - that eliminates the headache of worrying if I'm going to make the flight. 2) I'm having lunch with Dave Dickson, the E & Y partner I worked with for years on the AA account. So, I booked a hotel at the airport as cheap as I could and flew in last night. This morning, I worked a bit from my room before heading downtown.
Now, Joe and I had decided that the best way to get to the InterContinental on Michigan Avenue would be to take the blue line to the red line and get off at Grand. He told me - "walk toward the lake when you get off the train." I'm a little directionally challenged, so you can't imagine my excitement when I stepped onto Grand Avenue and there was a compass on the ground directing me East. I KNOW the lake is EAST!!! Joe had said it was only 3 blocks, so I head east and start walking. Not too far into my walk, I saw Nordstrom and thought it was on Michigan, but I was looking at the street signs very carefully and I never saw Michigan Avenue. So, I walked. And I walked. And I walked some more. And I thought to myself, "Damn Joe!!! I can't believe you thought it was only 3 blocks!!!" I whip out my cell phone to see how much further I have to go and dang if I hadn't passed it. Blocks ago!!! So, I turn around and walk back and as I get close, I realize that I didn't see Michigan Avenue because I had walked underneath it. I decided I wasn't all that interested in going up the steps from Grand...did I mention that I was lugging my backpack with the work laptop in it and all of Joe's and my clothes and toiletries in the roll aboard? So, I turn north to take a side street up to Michigan and as I reach Michigan Avenue, I pull out my phone again. This time I discover that I should not have gone north, but I should have gone south. Are you kidding me??? Am I ever going to get to the InterContinental???
I finally did and I decide I'll go ahead and try to check in, but when I attempted to do so, they wouldn't let me because my name wasn't on the reservation. What could I say? I understand - regardless of what I think - I understand. I am able to check my bags with the bellman, at least. I head upstairs to use the restroom and I still have about 30 minutes before I need to leave to meet Dave. Did I mention that it was 80+ degrees with 80+ percent humidity? I LOVE Chicago, but it was quite stifling. And, I was quite sweaty. As I came out of the bathroom, I felt cold air from the air conditioning, so I literally stood in that spot for about 20 minutes to cool off and dry my shirt. Crazy.
When it was time, I headed toward the restaurant to meet Dave. My luck changed a bit when I happened upon Hubbard Street, quite accidentally, which is where the restaurant was. I did walk the wrong way on Hubbard for about 20 steps, but this time I had my phone in hand and realized my mistake very quickly. So, I turned around and realized that Hubbard Street is actually quite the little happening place. It is line with really cool restaurants and bars. I even passed Shaw's Crab House, where I ate dinner with Michele and Kim when they visited me in Chicago in 2001. I had no idea it was on Hubbard Street!!!
I ended up being a little early and Dave ended up being a little late, but I didn't mind. It was great to sit in the a/c and just relax and not sweat. I was able to check messages and clean up my e-mail while I waited.
I quite enjoyed my lunch with Dave. Afterward, I made my way back to the InterContinental. There is a Starbucks there, so I went in and did some work for a few more hours. About the time that Joe's flight left DFW (he bought a cheap ticket on Spirit, which is the reason I had all the bags), I went ahead and checked in. And this time, they let me (I had texted Joe and asked him to call and add my name to the reservation). After I checked in, I walked to Walgreens and got a Diet Dr. Pepper and then I went back to the room and worked until Joe arrived.
We were both hungry, so despite the fact that it was late (9:00ish), we decided to grab a snack. We went back down to Hubbard (back for me, that is) and stopped at a bar called Theory. We ate WAY too much, but it was good. After we stuffed ourselves, we went back to the room and crashed.
June 28, 2014
Sometimes you really don't realize how tired you are and I guess that was the case with us. We slept and slept and slept - until about 10:00, which is pretty unusual for us.
After getting up and getting ready, we decide we will grab some breakfast at Starbucks because we know we are heading to Nancy's for dinner, so we just want to eat light. Unfortunately, there is a line at Starbucks out the door (ridiculous), so we just started walking. Our destination was the loop, where we were going to walk around and see all of the public art installations. We have seen Picasso before, but my pictures lack a bit to be desired and I recently read my Chicago guidebook (thank you, "retro" to-do list / Type-A personality!), which detailed the walk.
On the way, we saw a Corner Bakery and decided to grab our snack. We just missed breakfast, so we shared a sandwich. I saw a kid drinking chocolate milk and having not had chocolate milk in years, I decide that I want some. The problem was that it was truly a kid's drink with a paper carton and a crappy straw. And, my suction power is apparently about a million times stronger than a kid's! At one point, I'm trying to get the box un-collapsed and as I did, a perfectly arched stream of chocolate milk comes out of the box, goes over the table, and hits Joe squarely on the crotch. I couldn't help but laugh, even though I felt horrible. I said, "Oh...I'm sorry...did I get you?" And his response? "Uh...YEA!!! Right in the crotch!!!!" I couldn't help myself - I laughed and laughed. I was only interrupted when he asked, "do you think you could get me some water or something?" In the end, it wasn't that noticeable, but either way, we weren't going back to the room to change.
So, we set off and we saw the art. At the Flamingo, it started to rain, so we went to Barnes and Noble, which is also part of DePaul University. We got a drink and a rice krispie treat. It stopped raining, so we kept going. An hour or so later, we went in to Grant Park and it started to rain again, so we stopped and had a shake at Potbelly. Then it quit raining, so we returned to the park. We had seen most of the park, but there was an art installation there called "Reading Cones" and since I love to read so much, I wanted to find it. The problem was that the book didn't have a map of Grant Park and didn't really say how to get there. Fortunately, I was able to find the location on my phone (what would I have done without my phone on this trip???) and we made our way there. It was pretty disappointing as art goes, but Joe made me laugh when I went to take a picture and he whipped out the guidebook to read it...in the Reading Cones...get it? I would find out later that the Reading Cones had nothing to do with books. It was named after the town, Reading, Pennsylvania where the Cones were created by the artist.
We strolled through Millennium Park, but by this time, my feet were starting to hurt, and it was getting late. We hopped the train back to my old neighborhood and went to our favorite pizza place - Nancy's. The same waitress is still there that has waited on us every single time we've been there. For the last 13 years, she's been serving our pie.
We decided to hop the bus back to the hotel, since it dropped off right in front of the hotel and more rain was coming. We made it to the bus just in time before it started POURING!!! It rained for quite a long time and we even pulled out our rain jackets thinking we would have to make a run for it. By the time we got to our hotel, however, it had mostly stopped.
We talked about going to a movie, but since we had a free movie with our Ambassador Club membership, we decided to watch The Monuments Men with George Clooney and Matt Damon. It was really good. And after it was over, we turned out the lights and crashed again.
June 29, 2014
Today, we decided that we would make our way north and visit the Chicago History Museum. In all my travels to Chicago, I never even knew this museum existed. We first learned about it when we were in Washington, D.C. last year and we visited the Petersen House where Lincoln had died. They told us that his actual deathbed was in a museum in Chicago. So, we looked it up and decided to visit.
We plotted out our journey and decided to walk over a couple of streets and catch the bus. Again, the line at Starbucks was ridiculous, so we thought we would stop somewhere along the way. Just as we reached the street to catch the bus, Joe noticed the Dazed and Infused Donut Shop. This was a place I had read about in Chicago Magazine and had written down to try. So, we popped in. AND, we had 2 donuts each. And then we felt like we were in a sugar coma for the next couple of hours.
We reached the museum about 15 or 20 minutes before it opened, which I must say is something that rarely happens to us. Since it was Sunday, it opened at noon and I have to say we thought the museum was quite good. Downstairs there is an old diorama exhibit that is kind of fun in that old-fashioned way. But, upstairs, they have the history of Chicago and they have an audio guide to go with it. The audio is done by a guy from Second City, so it is quite funny in parts and it adds a lot to the exhibit. We learned about the "L" and how Chicago was a big meat-packing city. We learned about the gangsters and the Great Chicago Fire (which was NOT started by a cow). We learned about the stars on the City of Chicago's Flag (Fort Dearborn, the Fire, World's Fair, and the International Exposition). The last exhibit was about Lincoln. It was just pictures of the people from Chicago that he knew or who worked for him or who influenced him. But then we saw the bed, too.
From the museum, we headed north up Clark to the Chicago River and Oven Grinder Company. This is a place I've seen on the travel channel and read about in books and magazines. Their specialty is the pizza pot pie and I have to say - it was DARN good!!! They put cheese in a dish, then the meat and mushroom sauce, then they put the crust on top and bake it like a pot pie. when they serve it, they turn it over and it looks like a deep dish pizza. Tasty!!! Unfortunately, one of the reasons I wanted to go here is because the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened just across the street and I wanted a picture. Either the sugar high wore off, or I was just too full of pizza pot pie, but I totally forgot to walk across the street. Sigh... Oh well, guess I'll have to go back. And, I can't imagine that I'll pass up a pot pie if I'm there. Ha!
Our last stop for the evening was Second City. I had bought tickets before heading up. This is one of those places we have always wanted to go, but never went. It was so funny!!! The show is presented as a play (vs. stand up acts), but the actors were quite funny and in the end they do some ad lib. The only complaint I have is that we packed in there like sardines, which was really annoying.
We hopped the bus back down to our hotel again and hit the sack.
June 30, 2014
We were a bit scared of the weather that was forecasted to come in this afternoon, so we decided to head to the airport and catch a 12:15 flight home. Unfortunately, on the way to the train, I got a phone call telling us that our flight was delayed. Joe was afraid of this. More unfortunately was that I couldn't hear the whole message, but I could have sworn it said that it was delayed until 3:00. So, on the train on the way to the airport, we decided to initialize Plan B - ORD-XNA-DFW. It went off without a hitch and we even got some Garrett's popcorn to enjoy later.
The "bad" thing? I checked the flight after we got home and it actually arrived in DFW at 3:00, so I must have misunderstood what the automated message was trying to tell me. We would have made the flight, too. We got home about 5:00 and we would have made the flight, too. But I didn't care. We ended up using D2 instead of D1 and we still made it home, which at the end of the day was all we cared about.
Monday, October 20, 2014
A couple of notes from June...
So, here are a couple of "posts" I wrote in June. Yes, my blog notes are getting lamer and lamer. It's a good thing I'm getting caught up!!!
Sunday, June 8, 2014
I started out my weekend working on my most current "retro" to-do list (reading up on prior vacation destinations to see what we might have missed). In the hopes of still catching up some scrapbooking, I bought a kit from the Little Blue House, so at a stopping point, I went to pick it up. While there, I noticed the burger place next door - Bronson Rock - and decided tonight would be a good time to start trying some new places.
After dinner, I made a BIG purchase - a new laptop. And this time, I decided to go with an Apple. So far, I love it, but there are a few things I miss. Like "page up" and "page down." I have figured out how to go to "home" and "end" but I still need some lessons in other commands.
Getting Microsoft Office was a bit of a challenge. I went to the Microsoft Store and purchased it online, but they didn't send me my validation number. I spent about an hour on the phone with support, just to have them finally tell me that there was a problem with their server and I would get my validation number in 24 hours. In about an hour, I got it. Sigh...
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Today is Father's Day. I was an errand maniac yesterday - dropped off dry cleaning, got a pedi, picked up a layout I bought at the Little Blue House last weekend, bought a book for my dad, dropped off some clothes for donation. All of that before noon!!! Then, I met Suzanne for lunch and a trip to Simply Fit Meals.
For Father's Day, my dad decided on dinner at Sweetie Pie's Ribeyes. That was even AFTER we offered him a road trip. It was pretty yummy! But, of course the best part was just spending time with my dad.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
I started out my weekend working on my most current "retro" to-do list (reading up on prior vacation destinations to see what we might have missed). In the hopes of still catching up some scrapbooking, I bought a kit from the Little Blue House, so at a stopping point, I went to pick it up. While there, I noticed the burger place next door - Bronson Rock - and decided tonight would be a good time to start trying some new places.
After dinner, I made a BIG purchase - a new laptop. And this time, I decided to go with an Apple. So far, I love it, but there are a few things I miss. Like "page up" and "page down." I have figured out how to go to "home" and "end" but I still need some lessons in other commands.
Getting Microsoft Office was a bit of a challenge. I went to the Microsoft Store and purchased it online, but they didn't send me my validation number. I spent about an hour on the phone with support, just to have them finally tell me that there was a problem with their server and I would get my validation number in 24 hours. In about an hour, I got it. Sigh...
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Today is Father's Day. I was an errand maniac yesterday - dropped off dry cleaning, got a pedi, picked up a layout I bought at the Little Blue House last weekend, bought a book for my dad, dropped off some clothes for donation. All of that before noon!!! Then, I met Suzanne for lunch and a trip to Simply Fit Meals.
For Father's Day, my dad decided on dinner at Sweetie Pie's Ribeyes. That was even AFTER we offered him a road trip. It was pretty yummy! But, of course the best part was just spending time with my dad.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Memorial Day
We returned from Florida on the Friday (or was it Saturday?) before Memorial Day. I really don't recall, but I noted the following in my Blog Notes:
Monday, May 26th, 2014 - "Memorial Day"
Wow... What an incredibly lazy couple of days we have had. Not all bad, I suppose, but I have to admit that I have neither showered nor dressed since we got home from vacation. That is pretty odd, even for me. We have watched 3 movies and cleaned up our DVR, which for the record is on my "to-do" list.
Monday, May 26th, 2014 - "Memorial Day"
Wow... What an incredibly lazy couple of days we have had. Not all bad, I suppose, but I have to admit that I have neither showered nor dressed since we got home from vacation. That is pretty odd, even for me. We have watched 3 movies and cleaned up our DVR, which for the record is on my "to-do" list.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Key West
Our first "big" vacation of 2014 was to Key West. My dad had often talked about going there, so we decided to invite my parents to join us. I didn't manage to complete my travel journal, but here's what I did have (and a little ad-lib at the end):
05/17/2014 - "Florida - Here We Come..."
This vacation started on a Saturday evening - after Joe got off work. And, it included 2 very special people - my parents. Last year, my mom and dad had gone to Hawaii with my dad's brother and sister-in-law and I asked them if there was anywhere they wanted to go that they wanted us to take them. They said they wanted to go to Key West. I think they had contemplated, off and on, doing the trip themselves, but knowing they would have to skirt Miami, and since it was on our vacation destination wish list, we decided to see if they wanted to combine and go together.
There was a bit of slight drama early in the day, when the flight - which had been fairly open - suddenly only had 7 seats on it. But then, in a short period of time, it ended up with 13. By the time we got to the airport, I think there were about 20 seats. Mom and Dad met us at our house at 4:45 and we headed to the airport. We had a bite to eat at TGI Friday's before boarding. We even got to sit together - in 8A, 8B and 9A, 9B.
Our flight was fairly uneventful, and as I am reading a new Bill Bryson book, it went fairly quick for me. We were in the bulkhead, which Joe hates because he finds it terribly uncomfortable. Therefore, the flight probably wasn't quite so fast for him!!!
Upon arrival, we got our rental car and made our way to the hotel. I had made reservations at the Best Western, very close to the airport. It was cheap and I know that my mom and dad like Best Western. I originally only reserved one room, but was going to add a 2nd. Unfortunately, the Best Western website wouldn't let me do that, so we just bunked together on the first night.
05/18/2014 - "The Everglades"
As I sit here recapping our day, I sure don't feel like we got much accomplished!!!
I woke up at 7:00 AM and looked over to see Mom and Dad wide awake. So, I got up and showered. Our destination today was going to be the Everglades National Park. After getting ready, we breakfasted downstairs at the free breakfast and headed out. Our destination was 2 hours away.
We skipped the Oasis Visitor Center, which I thought was an Everglades Visitor Center, but is not, in order to try to get to the 11:00 tram tour at the Shark Valley Visitor Center (which actually IS an Everglades Visitor Center). We got there about 10:45, but the 11:00 tour was sold out. Sigh... I guess because it was the weekend, they had added a 12:30 tour (normally, the next tour would be at 2:00!), so we got tickets for that and then went back down to the Oasis Visitor Center, which turned out to be in Big Cypress National Preserve. I got a stamp anyway and we got to observe some alligators in the "river" just in front of the visitor center.
Back at Shark Valley, we arrived to find the parking lot full. So, Mom and I hiked from the line of cars (which was really a very short distance), while Joe and Dad went to park the car back on the highway. They barely made it for the tour. In fact, I was looking for them and saw them coming - so Mom and I boarded the tram and told the tour guide they were coming. Whew!
The tram tour ended up being pretty interesting. We learned a lot about the Everglades and Alligators. At the halfway point, they stop and let you go up to an observation tower, which we found out was designed exactly like the one in the Smokey Mountains, which Steve, Dad, and I had been to back in 1982. We saw lots of alligators and birds. We even saw the remains of a dead alligator, which was fairly gross and stinky. Ha!
About Alligators: The girl alligators are looking for the biggest boy alligator to mate with, in order to make big babies. The male alligator mates with several females in the same season (pigs!). The female builds a nest for her eggs by digging a hole in the ground and covering it up with dirt. She stays close by to guard the nest. In one season, a female may have 16-20 babies. She protects them, but doesn't feed them. Eggs incubated at 93 degrees or above are males. Eggs incubated below that temperature are females. Average lifespan of an alligator is 45 years.
Because we are here at the end of the dry season (or the very beginning of the west season), the Everglades do not look at all like I expected! Everything is dry. But, the tour guide assured us that by the end of May, there would be water again. There used to be a significantly higher amount of water (the Everglades are currently only 40% of their original size), until man came and damned up the rivers and rerouted the natural flow of water. I have decided that, perhaps, November would be an ideal time to visit. That is right at the end of the rainy season. However, that is also the high season and since I don't like people, that could present a new set of problems.
Our tram tour lasted 2 hours, so we opted to head for Homestead when it was over. We were all hungry, so we went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. I usually try to stay away from chain restaurants while on vacation, but for whatever reason, we don't have Longhorn Steakhouses in DFW, and it was easy. As we turned to go to the restaurant, we noticed our hotel just down the road. How convenient.
After dinner, we checked in and then walked over to the Marriott for drinks. Just something to do... Back in the room, Joe and I were able to watch the season finale of the Amazing Race! It's a lot harder to watch TV when you can't fast forward through the commercials!
05/19/2014 - "More Everglades and our Real Destination..."
Up again for breakfast at 8:00 (we had 2 rooms last night, so that was a little more convenient getting ready), we headed downstairs for the complimentary breakfast. By 9:00ish, we were heading out.
Our first stop was the Coral Castle. I had read about this in the guidebook and it sounded interesting, so we stopped. It turned out to be okay. The most interesting part was really how fascinated my parents were with it. It made me really happy to think that they had enjoyed it so much. (In the end, my dad even said it was a highlight of the trip for him!)
From there, we headed back to the Everglades. Our main purpose was to stop at the main visitor center because there was a shirt that Mom wanted, but they didn't have her size at the Shark Valley Visitor Center. Turns out, they didn't have it at the main visitor center either. In fact, they had way fewer t-shirts there than at Shark Valley, which I thought was kind of interesting.
After shopping, Joe decided that we should go ahead and drive down to Flamingo, so we did. When we arrived, we found the place fairly deserted. Apparently, since it's low season, the visitor center is only sporadically staffed and there's not many people down there willing to fight the mosquitoes. Holy Cow!!! Joe was absolutely attacked by mosquitoes!!! I had a few, but Mom only had one. Meanwhile, I killed 4 on the back of Dad's leg and they were bloody ones. A few got in the car when we left, but we managed to get rid of them.
Back to Highway 1, we made one more stop before getting to the overseas highway -- at Robert is Here. It is a fruit and vegetable stand, but the main draw for us was a milkshake. I had seen people at the visitor center with milkshakes and they looked quite tasty, so I decided I couldn't resist. We read a bit about Robert - when he was a kid, his dad sent him to the corner to sell cucumbers, but he didn't sell them all. So, on the 2nd day, his dad made a sign that said, "Robert is Here!" and he sold out by noon. So, he continued to sell that way (with the sign) and, eventually, opened up a stand. We saw some interesting fruit that we had never seen before (i.e., a jack fruit - which is huge like a watermelon, but prickly - it is used to flavor Juicy Fruit gum). Had it been just Joe and I, we might have tried some, but we didn't. We did, however, get our shakes. Mine was strawberry / banana and it was scrumptious. Joe wimped out with a plain strawberry. Dad had pineapple, and Mom had a Cherry Key Lime.
From Robert is Here it was down the highway to Key West. It took about 3 hours to make the drive. I have to admit that I had a really hard time staying awake. I sat in the backseat so Dad could have the front row view. It was warm, there was a hum of the road, and it was a lot of towns and trees. So, I nodded off and on. Maybe on the way back, I can do better.
We arrived at our hotel about 4:15, but no one was there. It didn't take long, however, for them to come and find us and give us our keys. We found this hotel in Mom's USA guidebook. The rooms are TINY!!! But, the price was right and the place is really clean. Plus, it's walking distance to Duval Street, so I'm perfectly happy.
And, speaking of walking - after we settled in, we walked to DJ's Clam Shack on Duval Street. The was our first Triple D in quite some time. We had lobster rolls and conch fritters, and honestly, the food was pretty good. The lobster rolls had the biggest chunks of lobster I've ever seen - even bigger than the lobster rolls we had in Maine! The coleslaw was good too, and the fries were quite tasty. Overall, it was not a bad choice for dinner.
End of Travel Journal...
We spent 3 nights in Key West, which was probably a day too long for Mom and Dad. Originally, I had thought we would take the all-day trip to the Dry Tortugas, but after I made the hotel reservations, I had second thoughts. I was afraid that Mom and Dad wouldn't enjoy it and/or it would be too much for them. I looked in to it again when we got there, but it was booked anyway. We did get a 2-day trolley tour, which took us to many of the major sites in Key West and helped us not have to walk as much. We saw many of the main sites including the Ernest Hemingway Home, Truman's Little White House, and the Key West Lighthouse. We also spent a couple of hours at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. We saw the Southernmost Point of the Continental USA and we even stood in line to get our picture, in spite of my mom making several comments about not caring if we were IN the picture. To use up the last of our time, we stopped at the Butterfly Conservatory, which I think my mom really enjoyed.
On our way out of town, we stopped at Fort Taylor. We also made a drove to the Blue Hole in hopes of seeing some Key Deer, but we were out of luck. Finally, we made a pass through Biscayne National Park before heading back to Fort Myers for our flight home.
Overall, we had a good time. I'm pretty sure my parents were pretty worn out, but we saw a lot of the town and we tried some different foods, including a few varieties of Key Lime. We still have a few things to mark off the list, so I'm hoping for a return trip someday.
05/17/2014 - "Florida - Here We Come..."
This vacation started on a Saturday evening - after Joe got off work. And, it included 2 very special people - my parents. Last year, my mom and dad had gone to Hawaii with my dad's brother and sister-in-law and I asked them if there was anywhere they wanted to go that they wanted us to take them. They said they wanted to go to Key West. I think they had contemplated, off and on, doing the trip themselves, but knowing they would have to skirt Miami, and since it was on our vacation destination wish list, we decided to see if they wanted to combine and go together.
There was a bit of slight drama early in the day, when the flight - which had been fairly open - suddenly only had 7 seats on it. But then, in a short period of time, it ended up with 13. By the time we got to the airport, I think there were about 20 seats. Mom and Dad met us at our house at 4:45 and we headed to the airport. We had a bite to eat at TGI Friday's before boarding. We even got to sit together - in 8A, 8B and 9A, 9B.
Our flight was fairly uneventful, and as I am reading a new Bill Bryson book, it went fairly quick for me. We were in the bulkhead, which Joe hates because he finds it terribly uncomfortable. Therefore, the flight probably wasn't quite so fast for him!!!
Upon arrival, we got our rental car and made our way to the hotel. I had made reservations at the Best Western, very close to the airport. It was cheap and I know that my mom and dad like Best Western. I originally only reserved one room, but was going to add a 2nd. Unfortunately, the Best Western website wouldn't let me do that, so we just bunked together on the first night.
05/18/2014 - "The Everglades"
As I sit here recapping our day, I sure don't feel like we got much accomplished!!!
I woke up at 7:00 AM and looked over to see Mom and Dad wide awake. So, I got up and showered. Our destination today was going to be the Everglades National Park. After getting ready, we breakfasted downstairs at the free breakfast and headed out. Our destination was 2 hours away.
We skipped the Oasis Visitor Center, which I thought was an Everglades Visitor Center, but is not, in order to try to get to the 11:00 tram tour at the Shark Valley Visitor Center (which actually IS an Everglades Visitor Center). We got there about 10:45, but the 11:00 tour was sold out. Sigh... I guess because it was the weekend, they had added a 12:30 tour (normally, the next tour would be at 2:00!), so we got tickets for that and then went back down to the Oasis Visitor Center, which turned out to be in Big Cypress National Preserve. I got a stamp anyway and we got to observe some alligators in the "river" just in front of the visitor center.
Back at Shark Valley, we arrived to find the parking lot full. So, Mom and I hiked from the line of cars (which was really a very short distance), while Joe and Dad went to park the car back on the highway. They barely made it for the tour. In fact, I was looking for them and saw them coming - so Mom and I boarded the tram and told the tour guide they were coming. Whew!
The tram tour ended up being pretty interesting. We learned a lot about the Everglades and Alligators. At the halfway point, they stop and let you go up to an observation tower, which we found out was designed exactly like the one in the Smokey Mountains, which Steve, Dad, and I had been to back in 1982. We saw lots of alligators and birds. We even saw the remains of a dead alligator, which was fairly gross and stinky. Ha!
About Alligators: The girl alligators are looking for the biggest boy alligator to mate with, in order to make big babies. The male alligator mates with several females in the same season (pigs!). The female builds a nest for her eggs by digging a hole in the ground and covering it up with dirt. She stays close by to guard the nest. In one season, a female may have 16-20 babies. She protects them, but doesn't feed them. Eggs incubated at 93 degrees or above are males. Eggs incubated below that temperature are females. Average lifespan of an alligator is 45 years.
Because we are here at the end of the dry season (or the very beginning of the west season), the Everglades do not look at all like I expected! Everything is dry. But, the tour guide assured us that by the end of May, there would be water again. There used to be a significantly higher amount of water (the Everglades are currently only 40% of their original size), until man came and damned up the rivers and rerouted the natural flow of water. I have decided that, perhaps, November would be an ideal time to visit. That is right at the end of the rainy season. However, that is also the high season and since I don't like people, that could present a new set of problems.
Our tram tour lasted 2 hours, so we opted to head for Homestead when it was over. We were all hungry, so we went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. I usually try to stay away from chain restaurants while on vacation, but for whatever reason, we don't have Longhorn Steakhouses in DFW, and it was easy. As we turned to go to the restaurant, we noticed our hotel just down the road. How convenient.
After dinner, we checked in and then walked over to the Marriott for drinks. Just something to do... Back in the room, Joe and I were able to watch the season finale of the Amazing Race! It's a lot harder to watch TV when you can't fast forward through the commercials!
05/19/2014 - "More Everglades and our Real Destination..."
Up again for breakfast at 8:00 (we had 2 rooms last night, so that was a little more convenient getting ready), we headed downstairs for the complimentary breakfast. By 9:00ish, we were heading out.
Our first stop was the Coral Castle. I had read about this in the guidebook and it sounded interesting, so we stopped. It turned out to be okay. The most interesting part was really how fascinated my parents were with it. It made me really happy to think that they had enjoyed it so much. (In the end, my dad even said it was a highlight of the trip for him!)
 |
| My mom is the same size as Ed, the man who built the Coral Castle. |
After shopping, Joe decided that we should go ahead and drive down to Flamingo, so we did. When we arrived, we found the place fairly deserted. Apparently, since it's low season, the visitor center is only sporadically staffed and there's not many people down there willing to fight the mosquitoes. Holy Cow!!! Joe was absolutely attacked by mosquitoes!!! I had a few, but Mom only had one. Meanwhile, I killed 4 on the back of Dad's leg and they were bloody ones. A few got in the car when we left, but we managed to get rid of them.
Back to Highway 1, we made one more stop before getting to the overseas highway -- at Robert is Here. It is a fruit and vegetable stand, but the main draw for us was a milkshake. I had seen people at the visitor center with milkshakes and they looked quite tasty, so I decided I couldn't resist. We read a bit about Robert - when he was a kid, his dad sent him to the corner to sell cucumbers, but he didn't sell them all. So, on the 2nd day, his dad made a sign that said, "Robert is Here!" and he sold out by noon. So, he continued to sell that way (with the sign) and, eventually, opened up a stand. We saw some interesting fruit that we had never seen before (i.e., a jack fruit - which is huge like a watermelon, but prickly - it is used to flavor Juicy Fruit gum). Had it been just Joe and I, we might have tried some, but we didn't. We did, however, get our shakes. Mine was strawberry / banana and it was scrumptious. Joe wimped out with a plain strawberry. Dad had pineapple, and Mom had a Cherry Key Lime.
From Robert is Here it was down the highway to Key West. It took about 3 hours to make the drive. I have to admit that I had a really hard time staying awake. I sat in the backseat so Dad could have the front row view. It was warm, there was a hum of the road, and it was a lot of towns and trees. So, I nodded off and on. Maybe on the way back, I can do better.
We arrived at our hotel about 4:15, but no one was there. It didn't take long, however, for them to come and find us and give us our keys. We found this hotel in Mom's USA guidebook. The rooms are TINY!!! But, the price was right and the place is really clean. Plus, it's walking distance to Duval Street, so I'm perfectly happy.
 |
| Caribbean House |
End of Travel Journal...
We spent 3 nights in Key West, which was probably a day too long for Mom and Dad. Originally, I had thought we would take the all-day trip to the Dry Tortugas, but after I made the hotel reservations, I had second thoughts. I was afraid that Mom and Dad wouldn't enjoy it and/or it would be too much for them. I looked in to it again when we got there, but it was booked anyway. We did get a 2-day trolley tour, which took us to many of the major sites in Key West and helped us not have to walk as much. We saw many of the main sites including the Ernest Hemingway Home, Truman's Little White House, and the Key West Lighthouse. We also spent a couple of hours at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. We saw the Southernmost Point of the Continental USA and we even stood in line to get our picture, in spite of my mom making several comments about not caring if we were IN the picture. To use up the last of our time, we stopped at the Butterfly Conservatory, which I think my mom really enjoyed.
On our way out of town, we stopped at Fort Taylor. We also made a drove to the Blue Hole in hopes of seeing some Key Deer, but we were out of luck. Finally, we made a pass through Biscayne National Park before heading back to Fort Myers for our flight home.
Overall, we had a good time. I'm pretty sure my parents were pretty worn out, but we saw a lot of the town and we tried some different foods, including a few varieties of Key Lime. We still have a few things to mark off the list, so I'm hoping for a return trip someday.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
April and part of May
Just a reminder that without any notes, I don't really remember too many details (even though I'm only 6 months behind now), just the major activities. But the highlights of April and May are as follows:
Joe's cousin, Tom, celebrated his 50th birthday in April and his daughter, Maggie, had a surprise birthday party for him. It was on a Saturday night, so Joe and I flew up in the afternoon so that we could attend. You could tell that Tom was really touched about the party, so it was very cool to be there.
A few days later I got my first pedicure in over a year. I know that seems silly to blog, but I had messed up my big toes when we hiked the Grand Canyon. I never lost my toenails (yea!!) and they finally grew out. It feels good to have pretty toes again!!!
On April 25th, we went to Music Hall at Fair Park to see Evita. I wanted to see it because it had won the Tony Award a few years ago. The story was interesting (about Eva Peron of Argentina), but the woman that played Evita really didn't have the musical range needed for the part. We still enjoyed the show, but not as much as some others.
Two days later we saw Beauty & the Beast at the Winspear. I always loved that story, which I watched with my niece, Jessica, about 100 times when she was little. It's a cute story and the play was very good. I'm sure Joe didn't enjoy it as much as I did, but I always appreciate that he is willing to see shows with me.
For Mother's Day, we went to see Barb. Joe was worried that my mom would be upset, but she understands that Joe has a mother, too. Nick & Mary decided to have a cookout and Matt & Kim came over with the kids, too. It was fun to get together with everyone. On the way to the airport, we stopped at DQ and we dodged a huge bullet. In spite of the fact storms were moving through the midwest, our flight still went. We had to fly about an hour out of the way to get home, but we made it! A GOOD non-rev experience!
YUMMY!!!
Joe's cousin, Tom, celebrated his 50th birthday in April and his daughter, Maggie, had a surprise birthday party for him. It was on a Saturday night, so Joe and I flew up in the afternoon so that we could attend. You could tell that Tom was really touched about the party, so it was very cool to be there.
A few days later I got my first pedicure in over a year. I know that seems silly to blog, but I had messed up my big toes when we hiked the Grand Canyon. I never lost my toenails (yea!!) and they finally grew out. It feels good to have pretty toes again!!!
On April 25th, we went to Music Hall at Fair Park to see Evita. I wanted to see it because it had won the Tony Award a few years ago. The story was interesting (about Eva Peron of Argentina), but the woman that played Evita really didn't have the musical range needed for the part. We still enjoyed the show, but not as much as some others.
Two days later we saw Beauty & the Beast at the Winspear. I always loved that story, which I watched with my niece, Jessica, about 100 times when she was little. It's a cute story and the play was very good. I'm sure Joe didn't enjoy it as much as I did, but I always appreciate that he is willing to see shows with me.
For Mother's Day, we went to see Barb. Joe was worried that my mom would be upset, but she understands that Joe has a mother, too. Nick & Mary decided to have a cookout and Matt & Kim came over with the kids, too. It was fun to get together with everyone. On the way to the airport, we stopped at DQ and we dodged a huge bullet. In spite of the fact storms were moving through the midwest, our flight still went. We had to fly about an hour out of the way to get home, but we made it! A GOOD non-rev experience!
YUMMY!!!
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