“Running” Across the U.S. (10-10-18)

Once we re-entered the U.S., we had a decision to make…to go back to Virginia and the Carolinas to continue our genealogy research, or beeline for home. We decided to take the time and head to the Carolinas.  But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have fun along the way!

Our first, brief stop, was Acadia National Park, again. We stayed in the more remote Schoodic Peninsula area and spent one day hiking before moving on.













We also met with friends Lester and Sue in Maine- we missed them on the way north. Lester and Paul go way back and its always fun to catch up with them.

By mid September we had arrived back in Massachusetts for a brief visit.  The weather was cooperative so we finally got a chance to go to Lowell National Historic Park.

Lowell (dubbed the "Lowell Experiment" at the time) was built as a carefully planned industrial city, making use of the canals that connected the Merrimac River to the Charles for transportation, fishing, and power production. By the mid 1800s, it was a thriving, massive city, and the largest textile center in the country.

 By the early 1930s its role in the textile industry had severely declined and the city fell into disrepair and abandonment.  This is the Lowell I remember.  High unemployment, high crime- it wasn't somewhere you wanted to visit, never mind live.
Starting in the late 1900s ta re-birth began and over the years the city has begun to thrive again, embracing it's history. I was amazed at the cobblestone streets and the beauty of the waterfront area.

 Another neighborhood we visited while in MA was my own- the one I lived in growing up. The little blue house was ours.

 I am still friends with the women I grew up with on that street, and we all got together for a barbecue before we left town.

 As always, a visit to Boston feels too short, but
we were soon on our way.  We detoured to Cape Cod, (since it was after Labor Day-it would be too busy during the summer) and spent the evening with our friends Les and Alane. On the way to dinner we stopped to get a picture of the sunset.







The place we pulled off to watch the sunset was coincidentally the home of the actual Small Boat that performed the  greatest rescue in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.... the story was featured in the movie "The Finest Hours".  After watching the sunset and checking out the boat, we went back to Les and Alane's and watched the movie!

After leaving MA, we went to VA,  and also spent a brief time in the Carolinas, looking for more family history information.  Finding none, we bee lined for Texas to check up on Paul's mom before heading home to Havasu.

The Very, Very (Very) Slow Trek North (03-06-13)

I’m not sure you can really say we have started the trek north, since we are still in Florida and will be for another week or so.  The weather in Georgia, the next state in our path,  is starting to warm up, but we still have plenty of time.
We moved over to the east coast of Florida to see some “old friends”.  They’re old because we’ve known them a long time, not because they’re old! I met Les and Alane  when I started boating, 20 years ago, and we’ve been friends ever since. They sold their boat a few years before we sold ours, and split their time between Cape Cod,  MA and Boynton Beach,  FL.

Of course,  most of our visit centered around eating:

 In restaurants,

 

 At their house...

and at our house.

I wish I could burn calories vicariously because the only real activity that took place while we were visiting was tennis, and I wasn’t the one playing! 

Alane took up tennis several years ago and actually has participated in several competitions in the last week.  We were able to watch her play (and win) while we were visiting.  If Paul and I keep practicing, maybe next time I see her, we can play a game!

After a great, but, as usual, too short visit, we left our friends and moved north to Kennedy Space Center.  It was only 100 miles or so. I did say we were moving slowly!

Kennedy Space Center is one of those places that if you have a chance to see it, you probably should, but man, it’s expensive.  Basic admission is $50 per person.  We paid it, and made sure we got there early so we would have time to get our money’s worth.

Included in our admission was a 2 hour tour around the grounds, which took us past the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).   The building was used to assemble manned launch vehicles from 1968-2011. It is one of the largest buildings in the world and covers 8 acres of land. The flag on the side of the building is 209 feet tall.

Since the shuttle program has been discontinued, the building will be used by the commercial entities that will take over the task of keeping the space station supplied.  My favorite part of the day was actually a 45 minute 3D movie about the space station.  It covered everything from the station being built to every day life in earth’s orbit.  The fact that the U.S. went from a tense “truce” with Russia, to sharing responsibilities for the space lab, in my lifetime, is awesome.

We stopped to look at the Apollo building that houses a Saturn V rocket- a rocket that stands as tall as a football field is long.

The fuel alone weighs over 5 million pounds and accounts for 91% of the weight of the vehicle. In the 2.5 minutes it takes  the five F-1 engines to propel the rocket 40 miles above the earth’s surface, 534,000 gallons of fuel are burned. By the time the rocket leaves the earth’s orbit, it will be traveling at 24,000 miles per hour.

The Apollo space missions were “fueled” in large part, by President Kennedy’s speech to Congress in 1961 when he stated “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”  The Apollo missions got off to a rough start when the crew of Apollo 1 was killed in a fire while sitting on the launch pad. Even with that significant setback, though,  Neil Armstrong, Mission Commander of Apollo 11, walked on the moon on July 20, 1969, less than 10 years after Kennedy’s speech.

One building is dedicated to information about the robots that play a huge role in space exploration- traveling to places that humans can’t get to, and gathering information to send back to us.  My favorite robot in the building has nothing to do with real space exploration, however, and everything to do with one of my favorite TV shows!

NOLA! (3-27-11)



Alane enjoying the serenade at brunch



   NOLA is one of the local nicknames for New Orleans (LouisianA). It's our second time visiting this city, and I can already say I am sure we'll be back again.   This time around has been made more fun by the fact that our friends drove up from Florida to spend a few days here with us.  Neither of them have been here before, so we're having them do more of the "steering" and decision making on what to see.  We have actually managed to cram a lot in during the last few days, and tonight we finally started dragging a bit, so we broke off the sight seeing and we all spent this evening relaxing at our house, eating Paul's Jambalaya.

Steamboat Natchez

     A lot of what we've been doing is related to food, of course.  On their first day here we got reservations at Arnaud's Restaurant for their Jazz Brunch.  The food was great and we enjoyed a relaxing 4 course meal while listening to a "jazz" trio ( it sounded more like Ragtime).  Last night dinner was at Brennan's, one of the premiere restaurants in the city.  There are so many choices of places to eat here, its difficult to decide where to go. Part of the decision is a wallet one though.  Many of the restaurants are quite pricey, but the food  and the ambiance make it worth it.  

strolling through Audubon Park



At midnight last night we headed to Cafe Du Monde to get some beignets, which are French doughnuts.  None of us is used to staying up until 1 AM any more, so I'm pretty sure that's why we were all dragging today!   This afternoon we had Po Boy sandwiches  at Johnny's (like a sub/hero etc).  Paul and Les split a Muffaleta sandwich, one of the popular New Orleans concoctions that includes cold cuts, cheeses, and an olive based salad.  Quite unique. 

Between bouts of eating, we have managed to see a fair amount of the city as well. We took a two hour ride on the steamboat Natchez down the Mississippi River on a day that the weather was perfect for relaxing aboard ship while having the highlights of what we were seeing pointed out to us along the way. We took the trolley (after figuring out how it works) down Canal Street and along St. Charles Avenue, admiring the beautiful homes and gorgeous oak trees of the Garden District. We stopped at Audubon Park near Tulane and Loyola Universities and strolled through the park for a while.



Jackson Sq. street performers



      Of course we have spent some time wandering up and down Bourbon Street and Jackson Square. There are so many street musicians and performers that entertain passersby day and night, it would be difficult to get bored.

Today Alane finally ordered a "walking" drink- a Daiquiri in a plastic cup that she could drink while meandering down the street- just because she could.

    The last time Paul and I were here I debated whether I wanted to go on a "Katrina" tour or not. We decided then not to do the tour, and repeated that decision this time around, but we did go to a museum that houses a Katrina  exhibit as well as a terrific Mardi Gras display.  It was really very chilling to hear the first hand stories from people who lived through the storm, but also incredible to hear the tales of rescue and survival.  The boat on display is one that was used by locals to rescue over 400 people from their homes. At one point there were 39 people in this small boat.

  Right now I am not sure exactly how Paul is managing to sleep.  It's very stormy tonight- in fact there's been a tornado watch most of the evening.  Right now the rain is pelting down creating quite a racket, and the sky is continually lit up with (usually) distant lightning.  Me, I have my camera ready, looking out the back window, just in case I might be able to get a shot of a bolt coming down from the sky.