Horvaths Travels

2011 Costa Rica

2011-12-15T06:43:00.000-08:00

Location, Location, Location

It's a problem that's far more pervasive than you may realize. Especially in certain countries, and most especially in Costa Rica. Naturally I'm talking about Shaken Wife Syndrome (SWS, not to be confused with SWF).

Two flights to get into the country weren't enough. We needed to drive our 4WD rental car, a Daihatsu Bego, five hours over over roads that started bad and got progressively worse, to get to our hotel, the JW Marriott Guanacaste. That's how we first wound up with the SWS. Anywhere else that we had to drive to only worsened the condition.

Did I mention that the place is remote? Isolated? Far off the beaten path? Yes, it's all that. And more. Guanacaste is far from San Jose, the capital, and it's a drier region of Costa Rica. There is an airport that's closer, but we'd be changing hotels mid-way through our vacation, and the second one is closer to San Jose. The isolation was good in that there was very little congestion, but bad in that it took so darn long to get anywhere at all. And then there were those bad roads, and the resulting SWS.

Not only are the roads bad, they aren't marked very well at all. Somehow we occasionally got where we wanted to go, thanks in part to Google maps/directions. I should mention that these roads are considered the best in Central America. SWS must be an even bigger problem in places like Nicaragua.

Rincon

We actually did not manage to get where we wanted for our first trip to one of Costa Rica's famous Parques Nacionales. The map showed roads leading to Parque Nationale Palo Verde from Belen and Filadelfia (yes, it's pronounced the same as the one in PA). But darned if we could find them. Oh, there were roads all right. Plenty of them. But after some SWS, those dusty, rocky roads usually trailed off to nowhere.

We gave up trying to figure it out. So there we were, back in Filadelfia with no place to go. What to do? Find a different National Park in the opposite direction: Parque Nacional Rincón de la Vieja. After some of the worst roads yet (can your 4WD climb over these boulders?) we found the park. It consists of a dormant volcano including some hot springs, and some great hiking trails through the nearby cloud forest.

Debbie, suffering from a particularly bad bout with the SWS, didn't like the steep boulders in the path, the stream crossings, and then insisted we turn back to avoid the treacherous looking river crossing. It was still a great two-hour hike. Besides the hot springs, we saw a particularly large boa, beautiful blue butterflies, a large guinea pig-like rodent, leaf cutting ants, and army ants.

Palo Verde (Second Try)

The next day we arranged to meet a guide in Filadelfia to lead us on the correct roads to Palo Verde. We'd have never found it on our own. Once we got there, we booked a guided river boat trip on the Tempisque River.

And we were glad we did. What wildlife! First there were the iguanas. Dozens of them in all colors, shapes and sizes. The most noticeable were the large orange males. Then, speaking of prehistoric creatures, we began seeing crocodiles, gobs of them, too. Our guides thought it would be fun to feed them some chicken parts. It wasn't enough to throw the pieces, they also had to put one at the end of a stick to get the crocs to come closer still. They asked Debbie to help with this, and she actually did for a moment. But then she politely returned the stick, preferring to keep her arms and legs inside the boat at all times.

The guides pointed out several birds. A few were even familiar: great blue herons and white egrets. I spotted a large pink bird that I thought was a flamingo. The guide corrected me; it was a spoonbill. There is even a type of heron that eats the crocs. I'm guessing that it prefers the smaller ones however.

We came upon some fairly stationary howler monkeys in the trees hanging over the river. Our guides called to them in howler monkey howls, and they answered. This episode helped answer a mystery of mine: I hadn't been able to figure out what was making the scary noises during my morning run the previous day. Interestingly, the sounds the guides made sounded more like the morning monkey sounds than the ones in these trees.

Our last wildlife experience was certainly the most fun. Our boat pulled up close to another one adjacent to some trees along the shore, and we were greeted by a troop of White-faced Capuchin Monkeys. The little guys scampered onto the boats and took banana pieces out of our hands. I know this probably isn't the best wildlife management process, but it sure was fun.

Time Out

We did set aside some time for relaxation. Debbie would probably say not enough. We drove to the nearby beach town of Tamarindo a few times - there were some good restaurants there. We also thoroughly enjoyed the sunsets at our hotel. We often partially decanted our box of wine (that we'd actually packed in Debbie's suitcase) into smaller water bottles to bring them to the beach. There we enjoyed the wine with the local gouda cheese.

The only problem with all the relaxation was the bugs. It didn't take us long to figure out why our balcony came with a huge roll-down screen. By not using it at night, our entire patio was covered with small bugs. They came into the room at every opportunity. And those evenings on the beach? Our feet became covered with bites, probably from sand fleas or something like that.

The JW Marriott was so high-class, it was low-class. The idea, I think, was to blend in the with surroundings, and also incorporate local architecture. Somehow it generally worked, and the food and service was fabulous.

Arenal

Back to exploring. Now it was time to visit Parque Nacional Volcán Arenal and nearby areas. This time we took a fully-guided tour.

If you look up volcano in the dictionary, you would find a picture of Arenal. It's a cone-shaped one - as classic as they come. We took a boat across the adjacent lake, had lunch, then hiked in the rain forest at the base of the volcano. Our guide for the hike had barely survived the last large eruption in 1968. Many didn't. The mountain's been quiet for a year now, but going to the rim to look down still isn't permitted.

During the hike we learned that army ants invade local houses a couple times a year. Our guide said that when this happens, the people just have to vacate for a day or two. And when they return, the cucharachas are all gone. We saw some of the army ants, but stayed out of their path.

We looked for, but didn't see any sloths (but did see some later). Our guide told us that they sleep for over 20 hours a day, making them the world's laziest creatures. The Mayor of Columbus, whom we'd just met and was part of the group, corrected him. "No," he said, "My son is the world's laziest creature."

I had introduced myself to a guy who I'd seen wearing a Columbus Marathon jacket. Had he run it? No, "I started it," he told me. When I asked what that meant (did he start running it and not finish?, start in the organizational sense?), he told me that as mayor, he was the official starter of the race.

Our tour continued to some hot springs and gardens, followed by dinner, and then the long ride home.

Southward Bound

Since it was four hours to anywhere, it was no surprise that it took four big ones to reach our second hotel, the Los Suenos Marriott. This place is probably swankier, and definitely better located. But better location also means more congestion, and less peace and quiet. And swankier doesn't necessarily mean better service and food. Not that I'm complaining - this place was great anyway you slice it.

The beach town that's close to this hotel is called Jaco. We didn't like it as well as Tamarindo, because it was busier - more difficult to park and get around.

Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio

Manuel Antonio is one of the most heavily visited of Costa Rica's National Parks for good reason: although it's small, it does have truly beautiful beaches and rain forests, and it's fairly easy to get to.

Before visiting the beaches, we hiked the rain forest looking for wildlife. We only saw one monkey, but plenty of sloths, raccoon-like mapaches stealing food from picnicers, iguanas and a Jesus Christ Lizard.

We also hiked on and around the beaches. There are several, and they're all wonderful.

Parque Nacional Carera

Carera was the closest one yet. This is simply a deep, dark rain forest. And what a great hike we had there!

We saw many creatures large and small, but the most fun and exciting were the scarlet macaws. We hadn't seen any for the whole trip until earlier that morning when they were in the trees just outside our hotel room. It was a good omen.

When we saw them in the park, they were also high in the trees, but also flying around and making a huge ruckus. All their squawking almost seems like a kind of wild party. And the colors are as beautiful as advertised.

Our Adventure

We didn't go for the ATV, Canopy Tram, Zipline, Parasailing adventures. Our hikes, watching stuff go by at it's own speed, was adventure enough for us. And then some.

Thank you very much anyway.

Ticos

The Ticos get it. (That's what Costa Ricans call themselves.) They've figured out that if they take care of the planet, it will take care of them. In the early 1970's, they set aside huge amounts of land for their national parks and reserves. These are now paying them great dividends in the way of eco-tourism.

Just about every Tico we talked with recited their country's values: the environment, education and health care. Although this sounds a bit like brainwashing, it would be in a good way. And these are indeed the country's budgetary priorities. Nothing left for military (it was disbanded years ago) and very little for infrastructure (hence the SWS).

90% of their power comes from renewable resources. Beaches can, and do "earn" a blue flag designation for cleanliness (both litter and water quality). The drinking water was good, the food was good, and the people were fairly gracious.

Why can't we be like this?

For more, please see my running blog entry. And you really should.

2011 Gettysburg and Other Stuff

2011-07-05T09:58:00.001-07:00

148 years ago, the greatest (largest and most important) battle of in the history of the western hemisphere took place here. And every time I am here, I get goosebumps when I look over the beautiful, serene landscape and think about that.

We traveled to Gettysburg to see Barry re-enact the person of Moxley Sorrell, a Confederate officer as part of the Living History commemoration of the anniversary of the battle. Veronica and Malcolm were there with us as well.

The original battle took place July 1 through July 3, 1863. Although it wasn't completely decisive, it proved to be the turning point of the war; Robert E. Lee's army was turned back from attacking the North, and they would not win a major battle again.

The re-enactment festivities included talks by Gen. Longstreet (introduced by Sorrell), Gen. Lee, and others. There was music and other speakers. Tents included things to buy for souvenirs and food. The biggest attraction was the battle itself. They had one for each of the three days, but we only saw the one on the First. It was pretty cool: cannons, cavalry and infantry all fighting it out on the huge stage. An announcer helped everyone understand what was going on. It was quite a day. Sorrell, by the way, didn't participate in the battle itself.

Malcolm may not agree. It wasn't a good place for a baby who happened to have a fever. Oh well.

We drove Veronica and Malcolm back to their place, stayed for a day, and then headed home.

2010 Jamaica

2010-12-12T07:05:00.000-08:00

When you pay $65 per night for a resort hotel room in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, you don't expect a whole heck of a lot. Rooms Ocho Rios, was pretty much just that, rooms. But the lady who checked us in at the front desk had been extremely nice, efficient and helpful. So when we were considering whether or not to drive into the Blue Mountains, we went back down to talk to her.

We'd been through the mountains during our previous trips, but it was still a little scary. We'd heard many stories about police doing "racial profiling" and pulling white Americans over to make them pay a traffic fine, whether they'd violated any law or not. There were stories of other bandits and general bad people up in the mountains as well. Driving from Mobay to Ochi had been a little scary at first, but it turned out to be not so bad - there were some crazy drivers, but the traffic moved along, and the roads were passable. We were pretty sure that the roads in the mountains would be a much different story.

I did, on the other hand, still want to see the verdant mountain scenery, get some famous Blue Mountain coffee at a plantation, and maybe take a short hike or two. So we asked, "is it safe to drive up into the Blue Mountains?" Simple enough, no? I expected an answer of something like, "Yes, it's perfectly safe, just be careful on the hairpin turns", or "No, it's not very safe for tourists, but you can consider this organized tour instead." But the actual answer, when it came, was one we'll never forget. "Well... I DON'T KNOW...." That doesn't sound so funny, but the way she said it was. Just ask Debbie to re-enact the whole conversation for you.

Instead of the mountains, we drove to another place on this side of the island that I'd been wanting to see for a long time: the idyllic little village of Port Antonio. This was the home of James Bond author Ian Fleming and actor Errol Flynn. Located on the eastern end of the island, it was supposed to be remote, but scenic. Sounded a little like the village of Hana on the island of Maui. Like the trip to Hana, this drive had some hairpin turns and took much longer (2.5 hours) than planned. It was scenic, but not so much compared to the Maui drive.

When we arrived in Port Antonio, we got a bit of a surprise. Yes, it was different from the other villages we'd seen driving around Jamaica; it was *much* worse; a total slum. We immediately turned around (which in itself was a challenge, with driving on the left and then hitting roundabouts and one-way streets), and drove the two and a half hours back to Ochi. So now we still haven't set foot in Port Antonio, because we never even got out of the car there.

Ochi itself was also a little disappointing. Not the hotel so much, since our expectations weren't high, but the noise. First there was the booze, I mean, sunset cruise. They BLASTED out the noise as we were trying to get to sleep: "Bend over. Boom, boom, boom. Back it up. Boom, boom, boom. Now help me put it in. Boom, boom, boom. Now wiggle, wiggle wiggle." And so on. Then, not to be out-done, a bar down the beach started blasting extremely loud music that finally died down about 3:30am. The announcer may have been the same guy from the boat.

The highlight of the Ochi portion of the trip was, however, Shaw Park Gardens. They were beautiful, complete with waterfalls, gobs of different types of flowers and outdoor ornamentation. The views looking down at Ochi were really great. Vincent, the head gardener, was our guide.

We got to Sandals Whitehouse in one piece. I was sooo very happy to be relieved of that rental car. Whitehouse is on the opposite, southwest side of the island. Sandals is the only resort in the area. The south side is undeveloped, and totally different.

Sandals is totally different as well. You could say that we had different expectations for our nearly $400 a night room than for the $65 a night room. Our expectations were met in both instances. All meals, drinks and tips are included. The resort's layout, gardens, rooms and other amenities were all first class. The food was plentiful and very good as well.

I should also mention that it's party central. It helped that the whole family was there to join the fun.

And speaking of parties, Mike and Brittany's wedding was fantastic. Never having attended a beach or any destination wedding, it sure was memorable. Of course the weather, the beach, the scenery and everything was absolutely perfect. The ceremony was really well done by Sandals and their minister. After some photos we sat down - right on the beach - to a great meal; the best we had there. The day was capped off with a gorgeous sunset. It couldn't have been better.

Debbie and I pretty much stayed put at the resort. There wasn't anything nearby to see anyway. The rest of the gang went on a zipline safari one day, but they otherwise stayed put as well. I snorkeled a couple times and took two other boat trips with Debbie. I ran the beach and the roads. (For more about that, see my running blog.) Debbie and I walked the beach each day as well.

Another highlight was the Jamaican people themselves. After some initial trepidation, we learned that they are truly gentle and very nice to talk to.
The best part of all was being with the family for so much of the fun.

2010 Dan in Romania

2010-10-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

Although I’m usually not self-conscious, I’m truly one of a kind here in Romania. Men, and women for that matter, don’t shave their heads here. At all. In fact, I’ve only seen one other person with a shaved head: another guy named Dan at the office. And I do see a *lot* of people, most of them on the Metro. Most people don’t run at 5am either, and even most of those who do run don’t do so when it’s cold and rainy. I guess that’s not so different from other places. It has indeed been cold, in the 40s and 50s, and rainy every single day for the first week. It eventually cleared up a bit when I was almost done. Did I mention ‘another guy named Dan’? There are a lot of them. Dan is surely a popular name here; I’ve met with several of them. Dans and Bogdans – Bogdans may possibly outnumber Dans by a bit.

Another thing about the guys here: they carry man-purses. I should mention that I carry a backpack with my laptop. But that’s not the same thing. Really, it isn’t.

The last two times I was here (this is my fourth time), I took a train from Bucharest to medieval towns in Transylvania. Since I had a free weekend, I considered this again. I did a tiny bit of research on it. But the rainy weather held me back – I couldn’t see going through all the trouble of traveling in the rain when I can walk around in the rain in Bucharest. Besides, staying in town would give me the opportunity to see the Palatul Parlamentului and a museum or two.

The National Museum of Romanian art is supposed to be one of the great ones, and it lived up to its reputation. As I went through the exhibit halls, the works became more and more modern. I enjoyed all of it, but the more modern stuff from the late 1800’s on into the twentieth century was best.

The Museum also had an exhibit on Dracula. Drac is also known as Vlad Tepes III and Vlad the Impaler. They had several artifacts from his time (late 1400’s) as well as a lot of information about him. The best part was seeing the famous portrait of Vlad. It turns out to be the oldest remaining such portrait, but even it was done after his death, based on a now missing wood engraving of him.

The difference between historical facts and the fiction surrounding this interesting character was driven home over and over. Vlad is regarded as a Romanian National Hero by some, for his generally successful efforts in fighting off the invading Ottoman Turks. Although he treated his vanquished enemies with cruelty, he was probably no more violent than other rulers of his era. The problem was that he made enemies not only of the Turks, but also of other parties in Europe, including Hungary. After his death he became known as Vlad the Impaler in Germany and elsewhere. The Romanians believe that this is due to a prejudice by Western Europeans against the Slavs of Eastern and Southern Europe. Bram Stoker wrote his book, “Dracula” in the late 19th century, where he incorporated Vlad’s now bloodthirsty reputation with the legends of vampires. Romanians believe that this view continues to show prejudice against their people. I find the history truly interesting, but would like to point out that although Romanians are anxious for the truth to be known, they are also happy to accept the tourism that Vlad generates.

A rainy walk through the central historical Lipscani area of Bucharest revealed a pleasant surprise: the place is much improved. Over the years, I could tell that improvements were being made in order to clean up and restore this old district. Those efforts are finally paying off: it’s now a pretty neat place to walk, with shops and restaurants apparently doing quite well. They still have a ways to go, but things are definitely improving.

“Is closed to visitors today.” This, a day after, “No tours today, come back tomorrow,” which was what the guard had told me yesterday. This couldn’t all be based on some jokester’s whim of some kind, could it? Nah. Such are my now comical attempts to visit the Palatul Parlamentului. I stay right across the street from the dang thing. You’d think that after about four attempts, I’d be able to get a tour of the place. But one thing or another always seems to go wrong.

I had devoted most of my Sunday to seeing the palace, so plan B turned out to be the Romanian Peasant Museum. Some had called it Romania’s best museum of any kind, but I preferred the art museum that I’d seen the previous day. Seeing dozens of manikins dressed up as Romanian peasant women, along with their various textiles and pottery, just doesn’t do it for me. Debbie probably would have appreciated the place better than I did. At least it was something to do on another cool wet day.

The third try was a charm. Third try this trip, anyway; I'd tried to get into the palace on other trips with similar results to what I described above. But I had the afternoon off for my last day on this trip, and thought I'd give it yet another try. And I *Did* get in!

And guess what? It was worth all the trouble. The Palace of Parliament is one of the largest buildings in the world no matter how you slice it, and it's truly impressive on the inside. The halls, hallways and terraces are opulent. The view was also spectacular. I'd recommend this to anyone visiting Bucharest.

I still walk to and from the Metro to get to the office. My daily commute is still an adventure. For more on my daily routine here, check out my fun blog entry from last time, A Day in the Life.

It should be mentioned, once again, that one of the best aspects of Bucharest, more than the tree-lined boulevards and busy squares, even more than the museums and historical buildings, is the parks. There are many fine city parks, although most are fairly small, causing my runs to be more or less circuitous. But on the whole, they’re really great.

As I’ve noticed during my previous visits, the people are truly wonderful. The best part of this is that they seem to truly love Americans. Maybe it’s just me.

For more on my running in Romania, see my running blog entry, (Another) Rhapsody of Running in Romania.

2010 Finger Lakes

2010-07-02T13:15:00.001-07:00

The glaciers did it. That always seems to be the reason behind any geological formation anywhere on the planet, so of course it would apply to the Finger Lakes region of New York. The only other explanation I've seen is that they are the hand-print of God. That may be so, but I'm wondering why God came up with eleven fingers.

It is, to be sure, God's Country. There is beautiful scenery, plenty of recreation and over 100 wineries. Debbie and I went for a long weekend to celebrate our 35th anniversary.

After 5 1/2 hours of driving, we dove right into the wineries along the west side of Seneca Lake. This is the biggest of the fingers, and is as deep as the Great Lakes. The wineries almost all have a great view of the lake and the surroundings. We hit several before we wound up at our hotel in Corning, which is to the south of the lakes.

The next day we hiked in Watkins Glen State Park. It's 1.5 miles out through the Glen, which includes gobs of waterfalls, including two that you walk behind. It was fairly strenuous, but we took a slightly easier upper route back. That afternoon, we circumnavigated a different lake, Keuka. Of course there were more wineries to be explored. The best of all was the granddaddy of them all, Doctor Frank's Vinifera Winery in Hammondsport. Also in Hammondsport we took another trip down memory lane by stopping at Pleasant Valley Winery, home to Great Western Champagne. Like Watkins Glen, we'd experienced this place before. Many years before.

For our last trip we took one final trip down memory lane by stopping at Letchworth State Park on the way home. We've camped there twice in the distant past. Letchworth is the "Grand Canyon of the East", although, as I'm fond of saying, they don't call the one in Arizona the "Letchworth of the West". Letchworth is indeed beautiful however, and it was great to see it again.

2010 Egypt

2010-02-20T02:27:00.000-08:00

The Joy is in the Journey
This is always the case, and it should be the opening chapter to any travel story. It’s even more so when traveling overseas, and more so still when traveling to a third world country like Egypt. This time, as almost always, the Lady Adventurer and I endured flight delays, abysmal airline service, and anxiety over possible missed connections and potentially lost luggage. We were also forced to ask ourselves, how much to pay for a nap? The itinerary called for overnight from Detroit to Amsterdam, followed by nine hours in Amsterdam, followed by a 9pm to 2am flight to Cairo. We would be sleep-challenged for two nights in a row; a nap in Amsterdam would be most beneficial.

How much would those Z’s cost? I figured $200 for a hotel, including taxi fare. That’s $5 per wink, assuming we got 40. The solution? We found a “Yotel Hotel” in the airport where we rented an 8 x 10 foot room for four hours for 49 Euros. This is still pretty steep, and the room was comically teensy, but it worked for us.

Our 2am arrival into Cairo was tough. We stood in immigration/customs queues - sometimes the wrong ones - for well over an hour.

Cairo
The arrival at the Movenpick Cairo-Pyramids hotel was at 4am, which turned out to be not an alert time for us. We were stunned to look outside later in the morning daylight to see the Pyramids right there – almost directly across the road! They weren’t kidding with the hotel name. It turns out that crowded, polluted Cairo has sprawled out to the steps of the once remote Pyramids. We were told that modern Cairo now has 18 million inhabitants, placing it as one of the most populace cities on the planet.

Even though Lady Adventurer and I would be seeing them again the next day, we decided to walk the mile or so over to them while we had the extra time. Along the way we were accosted by several (possibly well-meaning) Egyptians, wanting to talk to us, wanting to help us cross the busy 14-lane highway, wanting to sell us camel and carriage rides, wanting to personally show us around the Pyramids. They all wanted a tip. I did tip the guy who helped us to not get killed crossing the highway, as well as a guy who wouldn’t quit following us around at the Pyramid itself because it seemed to be the only way to could get rid of him.

How were the Pyramids themselves? They are as imposing and impressive, not to mention downright BIG, as advertised. It was awesome to walk right up to them and then look up. Oh yes. At 4,500 years or so, they’re pretty darn old too. When we returned the following day we also got around to see the nearby sphinx.

It was interesting to learn the latest theories about their construction. It’s now generally believed that each of the big three were built in about 30 years by skilled workers – probably farmers during their off-seasons; not by slave labor over longer periods as previously thought. There is even some evidence for this as the remains of some of the buried workers are now being uncovered. These people were apparently well treated.

Of course everyone will want to know if I went inside. I did go down into one of the smaller “Queens” Pyramids. The passage was steep, small and dark. It led to a very small cubical nearly empty room that had held the mummified queen. I was told that the inside of the larger Pyramids were the same – nothing to see inside. The tombs in the Valley of the Kings would be far more interesting.

The Egyptian Museum ranks as one of the top two Archeological Museums in the world. The other is in Athens. Although the accompanying information was sparse, the treasures are magnificent. Among other highlights are the bust of Khafre and all of King Tutankhamun's stuff, including his golden death mask. Great stuff!

An important announcement about King Tut was made a few days later while we were still in Egypt: scientists confirmed his cause of death as malaria. They also announced that he had had several genetic disorders. His father was confirmed as Akhenaten (He was the Pharaoh who announced that he was not a deity, and who also stated that only one god exists. What was he thinking?), and his mother was Akhenaten's sister. By this point I'd finally learned more about the Boy King than I'd been aware of from Steve Martin's song.

Relatively speaking, Cairo isn’t so old. Really. It’s “only” been around for 2,000 years or so. Memphis and Saqqara to the south, and the Pyramids of Giza to the southwest, are much older. We did get to see parts of “Old Cairo” in the central part of the city. We got to see the Coptic Christian “Hanging” Church (About 15% of Egyptians are Christian), a church above the spot where the Holy Family hid from King Herod, Benezra Synagogue, and the Citadel, including the huge Mosque of Muhammed Ali. Ali, who neither floated like a butterfly, nor stung like a bee, is considered the founder of modern Egypt. He built this famous mosque in the early nineteenth century.

Alexandria
The trip from Cairo to Alexandria took about four hours. It was notable because of the police escort we were given. At times we had one police vehicle in front of and one behind the bus as well. We also had a guard who was armed with an assault rifle with us inside the bus. Lady Adventurer noted that she wasn’t sure whether to feel more secure (because the guards were present) or less so (because they may have been needed).

I had expected Alexandria to be cleaner and nicer than Cairo, and it was. I had expected it to be smaller and quieter than Cairo, and it was. But with 5 million people, and also plenty of sprawl and traffic, not by much. Here, at least, dust and pollution are mitigated by the prevailing winds blowing in from the north over the Mediterranean Sea.

Founded by Alexander the Great’s Generals, Alexandria has a rich and storied history. Alexander himself had conquered and ruled Egypt, but hadn’t actually set foot right here. One of the stories, of course, is that of Cleopatra VII, the famous one, who had encounters with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. She was the last Egyptian to rule Egypt for nearly 2,000 years. We were able to live part of this history by visiting Fort Quaitbey, the site of the famous Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and also the site of famous battles of the Greco/Roman era. Another goose-bump historical moment came when we visited the new world-class library, Biblioteca Alexandrina. This is at the site of the earlier library, the planet’s original university and center of learning and knowledge.

Lady Adventurer and I walked, and I also ran along the Corniche, the famous miles-long promenade on the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the beaches looked nice, but it was a bit cool for swimming, so we stayed dry.

Also in Alexandria we visited some Christian Catacombs, and the Montaza Royal Palace Park and Gardens.

Marsa Matruh
Marsa Matruh is west of Alexandria, where the desert meets the sea, and the contrasts are extreme and stunning. Before arriving we stopped at El Alamein, site a decisive World War II battle. It was here that German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, was beaten, and the tide of the war turned. The museum was fine, but the Commonwealth Cemetery was particularly moving. One of our British traveling companions told me the story of his father, who was in the battle and then lost in the desert for three weeks. Eventually hooking up with two New Zealanders and a German, they survived by taking water from a broken down truck’s radiator.

Our hotel, the Jaz, was brand new; we were the first to use it. It was a huge resort with hundreds of rooms, and the 37 of us only took up a few of them. What’s more, there were other brand new resort hotels next door, and they were empty as well. We had the whole place, and the beach, to ourselves. We arrived in the midst of an Honest-to-Allah sandstorm of Biblical proportions. As we settled in, the storm abated, but we discovered that the place still had some bugs to work out: most notably the Lady Adventurer was trying to switch on a floor lamp at the same time that I was turning it on from the wall switch, and this resulted in a small explosion and severing of the cord in Debbie’s hand. Her hand turned black, but she was ok.

Although we had some free time here, we did get to do some sightseeing. We saw Rommel’s cave/headquarters, the town of Matruh, and the beautiful beaches nearby. These included Cleopatra’s Beach (she really did swim here), and stunning Agiba Beach.

We were informed that millions of land mines had been planted in the general area in World War II, and that some are still being found. This turned out to be a consideration for my morning run on the beach. For more about that, see my running blog.

Cairo II: the Return
The bus took a different route through the desert back to Cairo. Before arriving we stopped at Wadi Natrun, an oasis village where we saw the Monastery of St. Bishoi. There was some interesting architecture (the place dates back to 340 AD), but the stop was fairly comical because the Monk who showed us around spoke very fast in some strange dialect of English such that I only understood only about ten of his 10,000 or so words to us.

Once back in central Cairo we stopped at the famous Khan Al-Khalili Bazaar. It’s hard to describe. For one thing, it’s huge, taking up dozens of city blocks. Traffic all around the place was bad; it took us something like an hour to park the bus. And then there was the shopping experience itself. We ran the gauntlet of venders attacking us from every side, but we managed to survive with our money intact.

Aswan
Lady Adventurer and I, along with the rest of our group, took a very early morning flight from Cairo to Aswan in “Upper Egypt” to the south. Aswan is the site of the famous “High Dam”, which was built in the 1960s, and has dramatically changed Egypt in several ways: there’s now a lot of electricity, and no more flooding of the Nile, but this is causing farmers to use chemical fertilizers due to the lack of silt, and it’s also causing the shoreline of the Mediterranean to erode. Yin and Yang, good and bad. Another problem was that several ancient temples were to be flooded when Lake Nasser was created by the dam. Some were relocated, and we saw two of them: Philae and Abu Simbal.

Philae temple stands on an island, and was dedicated to the god, Isis. We saw great frescoes, but some had been defaced by early Christians, who didn’t like the depiction of virgin birth by the ancient Egyptians; it seemed they wanted the idea to themselves.

Abu Simbal was particularly stunning. It’s actually two adjacent temples built by Rameses II, also known as Rameses the Great. He ruled for 67 or 76 years, and built one temple for himself and the other for his beloved wife, the beautiful Nefertari. They had been relocated 60 meters up, and 180 meters over and above the lake by Unesco. This was quite an engineering project, as the temples are huge, and are built into hillsides. We had driven three hours through the completely barren desert to reach them. But the trip sure was worthwhile. The temples, as well as their location on the lake are stunning.

Did I mention the heat? Upper Egypt was suddenly extremely hot: something like 35 Celsius, which equates to 95 Fahrenheit.

Cruising the Nile
The Movenpick Radamis II would be our moving hotel for a three night cruise north on the Nile. It was small compared to the Ocean Cruise ships we’ve been on. Unfortunately, all our meals were in the form of buffets, so our bellies didn’t go along with the small theme.

Before moving north we took a side trip to a Nubian Village that I still don’t know the name of. Nubians are the dark-skinned people here in the south of Egypt. They “like to keep crocodiles in their homes”, according to our guide. Of course we thought he was joking, until we entered a Nubian house and saw the pet crocs for ourselves.

The joy was once again in the journey. We went by boat and witnessed plenty of bird wildlife along the way. The herons and egrets were familiar, but some birds, including some colorful ones, were unique. And then there was the camel ride into the village itself. This was extremely uncomfortable for us males; because of the hump, I was continuously pushed forward and down into the protrusion at the front of the saddle, and came off with a somewhat high voice.

The house crocs were friendly, but we decided not to touch the really big one. We did hold a cute little one though. The house was used by four families, had a dirt floor, but interesting décor, and a decent amount of living space.

Along the way north to Luxor we stopped by a couple Greco-Roman era temples: Kom Ombo and Edfu. Edfu was particularly stunning in the early evening.

Luxor
The Valley of the Kings was everything it was to be. We passed on the Tomb of Tutankahmun after hearing that its treasures were all now in the Museum. We regretted this when we heard that the Tut’s mummy itself is still there. Oh well. We did enter three tombs: those of Rameses I, Rameses III and Rameses VII. The paintings, hieroglyphics and other designs in Rameses III’s tomb were particularly fantastic. The colors were amazing.

We also saw the temple of Hatshepsut, which is built into the side of a cliff for a spectacular setting. There wasn’t much to see once we climbed the many stairs however. Hatshepsut (say that name three times as fast as you can) was a rare and very powerful female pharaoh.

Lady Adventurer and I went off on our own and hired a horse-carriage ride through the town of Luxor. It was larger, and more interesting than I thought. The ride through the Egyptian (not for tourists) Bazaar was particularly interesting. Someone rode by on a bike, saw us inside and yelled back, “English Number one!” Atta, our driver knew we were American, and said quietly, “America is best.” We did, unfortunately, encounter some kids begging us for money.

And then we saw magnificent Karnak. What a place. It is Egypt’s greatest attraction after the Pyramids with good reason: the place is awesome. It’s a collection of temples built over a period of 1,300 years, and takes up over 100 acres. There are temples, obelisks, high pylons and hundreds of HUGE columns. The evening sound and light show was a little hokey, but still quite spectacular. We toured the place again the next morning, and still couldn’t spend enough time there.

Luxor Temple is nearby. It’s smaller, but still impressive. The two locations are connected by a partially restored three kilometer long Avenue of Sphinxes. That’s a lot of sphinxes.

Our day, and our entire tour, ended with lunch at an authentic African restaurant followed by a slow felucca ride back across the Nile.

Cairo III – This Time it’s Final
Lady Adventurer and I had an extra day to spend in Cairo, and we made the most of it. We hired a driver from the hotel to take us to Saqqara, an archeological site about 30 miles south of Cairo.

Home to monuments spanning 3,000 years, Saqqara is the location of Egypt's oldest pyramids and tombs. The famous Step Pyramid of Djoser was large and impressive. There was a small but very interesting museum. We also walked to several of the tombs. Discoveries at Saqqara continue. A Dutch and Egyptian team is at work there now. We saw the excavation in progress.

Eventually we had to head back; the heat and air pollution were getting to be too much for us.

Egypt in Retrospect
I find it difficult to reconcile the glory of ancient Egypt with the modern one. A couple undeniable connections include the Aswan High Dam and the Biblioteca Alexandrina. I come away more impressed than ever with the rich history and culture, not to mention the longevity of this great civilization. I also come away somewhat depressed about modern Egypt. The people we met personally were really wonderful. It’s the pollution, litter, crumbling infrastructure, extreme poverty and population explosion that are so disheartening. These are the descendents of the pharos and farmers of those glory years gone by, and this is hard to think about – it just hurts my brain.

As always with these sorts of trips, our guide, Ihab was great – he had a great knowledge and enthusiasm for the heritage of his people’s history. And as always, we had great memories and made many friends amongst our fellow travelers.

Also check out my running blog entry for the Egypt running.

2009 Smokies!

2009-10-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

It all comes down to preparedness.

I was prepared for Gatlinburg. Vaguely aware that it was a street or two of a thousand tourist traps stuck together, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was just that. Located just adjacent to one of the main park entrances, the main street of back-to-back Ripley’s museums, souvenir shops, curiosity shops, fudge shops and restaurants are squished together so closely that it’s almost comical. Traffic on the main drag is slow and bumper-to-bumper. At least it’s compact.

I was not prepared for Pigeon Forge. If Gatlinburg is the gateway to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, then Pigeon Forge is the gateway to Gatlinburg. Like Gatlinburg, it’s unavoidable when entering the park from the north, and contains tourist traps galore – more than I’ve seen anywhere. Unlike Gatlinburg, it’s not walk-able, and unlike Gatlinburg, it’s seemingly never-ending.

We managed to survive Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, explored the park just a bit and then met up with Veronica and Barry. Our log cabin is located just outside Gatlinburg proper, yet it’s up in the wooded mountains requiring the navigation of some very steep hills to get there. And it’s every bit as rustic and cool as expected. My morning runs would be challenging with all these hills.

Bookended by rainy days, Tuesday, October 13, the day we would spend almost entirely exploring the park, was a beauty. I had been aware that the Great Smokey Mountains National Park is our most visited national park. But one would think that even with the beautiful fall foliage, October would still be off-season. I was therefore definitely not prepared for the crowds and traffic.

If one can disregard the traffic, the park is stunningly beautiful - as wonderful as it gets. Between the lower elevations and the highest point, Clingman’s Dome, there are green deciduous forests, then deciduous forests with the changing bright yellow, orange, gold and red colors of autumn, and finally coniferous forests. Although the day was bright and sunny, some of the trails were still covered with running water and mud, and this caused us to change plans a bit. We walked the steep paved path to Clingman’s Dome, only to find a cloud had arrived at the top just before we did. That was ok; we’d seen some great vistas from just below the summit anyway. Then we hiked some other trails leading up to the Appalachian Trail and wound up once again at the still-cloudy top. Barry and Veronica don’t do as much hiking as Debbie and I, but this day’s hiking was fine for all.

Barry then drove is to the Cades Cove area, which is in the western part of the park. The road winds along a river, so it took much longer to get there than we thought. The traffic on the main north-south park road had been bad enough. Once again though, I wasn’t prepared for the traffic at Cades Cove. It was simply awful – bumper to bumper at about 5mph for the 11-mile loop. The scenery in the loop itself was quite beautiful however. There were huge fields and historic farms and churches. We’d also hoped to see more wildlife than a couple of turkeys in the woods. Back to the traffic for a moment: to put the icing on this particular cake, we had to follow a smelly diesel RV for about 20 miles on the way back to the cabin.

The next day was a rainy one, as predicted. We spent several hours at an arts and crafts exhibit at the Gatlinburg Convention center. Later we did manage to take a ride into the park on the Roaring Forks loop. That was another cool primeval type area with plenty of waterfalls.

On our last full day we drove through the park to Cherokee, the town, and center of Cherokee, the Indian Reservation. Just had lunch and then drove back. We did stop a few places, including a walk at the NC visitor center and sightseeing at Newfound Gap, the top of the ridge.

2009 Dan in Romania

2009-07-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

“Maybe you will see beer.” I wasn’t sure how to respond when the guy next to me on the train said this. So I replied carefully: “Beer?” “Yes, you know. Big animal that lives in forest.” “Oh, yes,” said I, “bear”. The train had gotten into the mountainous area of Transylvania, and the forest was indeed thick enough for bear, deer, or possibly even beer. We talked for almost the entire 3 ½ hour trip from Bucharest to Brasov. We talked about how our lives were similar and how they were different. The biggest difference is that he wants to leave Romania to make a better life for his wife and himself. He’s a welder and believes he can get a job in America, Canada, New Zealand or the UK. But the trouble is, he cannot get a visa. When it was time to part ways, he said God bless you and your family, and of course I responded in kind.

There were detailed instructions on how to get to it. And the taxi driver bringing me into central Brasov also gave me directions. I ignored them all. “It” is the tram ride up the side of the mountain to look down upon the town of Brasov. I was sure you’d be able to simply see it and then walk over to it in order to ride to the top. And I thought I’d actually do it, for the good view of this medieval city. Of course I was right about seeing it – you can see it from anywhere in town. But I spent most of the entire time I was there trying to get to it. And I never really succeeded. The medieval streets don’t go straight at all. I later got a map and still couldn’t make it. I did eventually get to a park that I THOUGHT was at the base of the tram, but by then it was time to head back to the train station. And even then, I still couldn’t actually see where to get on the darn thing.

No matter. The joy is in the journey. That’s what I say to seven hours in hot, stuffy trains, and a few hours wandering around in Brasov in the hot sun. I did get to see the “Black Church”, the important Brasov landmark built between 1385 and 1477, and “blackened” by a fire in 1689. I also saw Piata Sfatului, the town’s beautiful “Council Square”. Besides the square itself, there were several other charming medieval cobblestone streets that I wandered around on. I also saw some of the walls and other fortifications that still remain in the village’s perimeter. And the park in the hills above was very nice and shady on this hot day.

So next time my brother asks, “How are things in Transylvania”, I can answer truly, “hot”.

When I came to Romania in 2008, I went to Sinaia, which is also in Transylvania, on Saturday, and wandered around the parks on Sunday. Brasov was only about 45 minutes past Sinaia on the train. So on my Sunday in 2009 I decided to wander the parks of Bucharest once again. I actually had been running in them quite a bit, but now it was time to make some more serious explorations.

In the morning I ran to a park that’s not too far away, but one that I’d not yet been to: Parcul Carol. There is a tall, stunning monument in the center. I’m not sure what it’s about, but I believe it may be dedicated to Romania’s dead soldiers because there’s an eternal flame there. I later walked back to take some pictures.

I also made it through close by Parcul Izvor, where Madonna will perform on her Sticky and Sweet tour on July 26, two days after I depart (maybe I’ll bump into her at the airport), and over to Gradina Cismigio, the Beautiful Botanical Gardens. Just like last year, they had music in the park, even the same old guy dancing in front of the gazebo to get everyone else out there. The Bucharestians were out in droves on this hot Sunday afternoon. What a great scene.

Not wanting to get too much of a good thing, after enjoying the music for a while, I got onto the metro and went north to Parcul Herastrau. Too bad this park is so far away – I think it would be by far the best place to run in Bucharest. It is quite large, and includes a good sized lake. Not to mention a huge statue of Charles de Gaulle. I’m not sure if it’s related, but there’s also an Arcul de Triumf nearby. That, and the long, wide, tree-lined boulevards are why they call Bucharest the “Paris of Eastern Europe”. Veronica is currently in that other city in France, so I asked her to find out if they call that one the “Bucharest of Western Europe”.

I walked another mile or two over to Parcul Kiselef. Last year they had had some wonderful folkloric music, including a guy playing Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody on a violin. This time they had some folklore music as well: a girl singing rhapsodic songs. And she sang extremely well.

There was one more stop, and it wasn’t a successful one. I wanted to finally do a tour of the Palace of Parliament. Yes, the one that’s close to my hotel. The one I can see from my hotel window. The one I’ve run around at least 12 times during this trip alone. Yes, that one. I’ve been repeating the Romanian superlatives about it’s being the largest public/administrative building in the world, and the second biggest building, overall, in the world after the Pentagon. Veronica disputed that with some Wikipedia information (I hate in pesky things like facts get in the way of a good story), but I found something else on Wikipedia that supports the Romanian view. Anyway, I didn’t get in – the next tour was too long to wait for, and too short to get something to eat and come back for. And I was beat. Next time I’ll need to plan this out better.

For more on life in Romania from my strange perspective, see a day in the life, in my running blog.

2009 Canadian Rockies

2009-06-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

Snow in June
Some of us have all the luck. After a long, but not so long as going to Hawaii flight into Calgary, we got into our rental car and there it was: yuchy wet snow slamming into our windshield. And there was lots of it, too. The temperature was above freezing, so it didn’t accumulate much.

Where were those famous Rockies, wondered Debbie? A la Denver, you’re supposed to be able to see them from Calgary. Not with the snow pelting down, however. Finally, about half-way on our 90 minute ride to Canmore, the snow subsided, and there they were. And they were as gorgeous as advertised. Canmore is a small town just south of Banff national park, and it’s where we were to stay for our first couple days. Surrounded by the mountains, it has a spectacular setting. We walked a long way into the central part of the town for dinner before crashing.

We spent a great deal of time during that first day or two being confused. Maybe we’re just getting old, but there were just too many activities to choose from. After talking about it some, and wandering around the Banff Information Centre as well as the town of Banff for a while, we managed to come up with a plan. It really wasn’t all that tough – we knew we wanted to hike and to see the various other sights, so it was just a matter of which hikes and sights. In the end, we chose wisely…

Banff Hiking
We should begin by saying that there was plenty of great hiking just outside our hotel in Canmore. Canmore is about 15 minutes from Banff Townsite, and it’s every bit as nice. I did my running on the Canmore trails, but our hikes were all within Banff and Jasper National Parks.

Our first hike was to the summit of Tunnel Mountain. At 3 miles with 800+ feet of elevation gain, it was moderately difficult. Accessible directly from Banff Townsite, it is probably the most popular hike of all in the Canadian Rockies. There were, therefore, many other people on the trail. But the views of the surrounding scenery were great, as was the cool mountain air. It took us about an hour to make the climb to the top, and then only 40 minutes to roll down. We had considered the Gondola ride to the top of a mountain, but since we hiked up another nearby one, we didn’t feel it was necessary. Afterwards, we did pay a visit to the famous Fairmount Banff Springs Hotel. It’s a castle to rival those in Europe. We had a nice lunch.

For our next trick, we chose the Plain of Six Glaciers Hike in the Lake Louise area of Banff. We knew something was amiss as we were driving up towards Lake Louise and noticed that the cars coming back down were covered with snow everywhere except their windshields. Sure enough, it was snowing off and on as we arrived at the lake for the start of our hike. It was mostly off as we got going, but it sure was cold. Off for us, that is; it was still snowing on most of the mountaintops, and virtually all the trees were covered. The first part of the hike is along the shore of Lake Louise. Although the lake would have been beautiful on a bright, sunny day, the snow added its own beauty and enchantment. Did I say enchantment? This entire hike was enchanted; it was a wonderland the entire way. Once on the other side of the lake we began our climb, which would wind up being on the order of 1,100 feet up to close to about 7,000 feet. We walked through sub-alpine forests, along rocky cliffs, and over past avalanches. Those snowy areas made for slow-going, and they became more numerous as we neared the top. At some point there was more snow than non-snow on the trail. Finally, after two hours we reached the tea house. In the middle of the wilderness and supplied by people on horses is this famous teahouse where we were served a sandwich, soup and tea. What a great tradition this is. There was all snow at this elevation, and we were not able to continue any further because the snow was too deep to hike through. We had actually seen one or two glaciers, but not all six. In any case, it was time to turn back. We will remember this as one of our most wondrous hikes ever.

One other thing about that Plain of Six Glaciers Hike: we saw a strange animal back in that wilderness. Could it have been a wolverine? It had reddish and light orangish coloring, and it walked funny, sort of like a skunk. After much research and discussion with park rangers, we decided that it was indeed a rare sighting of a wolverine. Incidentally, wolverines are so tough that they will attack a grizzly for food. Good thing we kept our distance.

“Oh Canada, Eh!” was a fun show involving Canadians making fun of themselves, but also celebrating their heritage and arts. That was our cultural experience for the week.

Icefields Parkway
This drive through Banff north to Jasper National Park is as great as any drive anywhere. The mountain passes were cold and snowy, and we did a short hike at one of them, Bow Pass, to get a great view of Peyto Lake. After the passes came the Columbia Ice Field, a huge frozen lake from which there are six major glaciers. We got a great view of a couple from the Icefields Information Centre.

At that point we had just entered Jasper National Park, and the terrain changed again. Now as we descended in elevation, the forests and rivers became more beautiful, as did the weather. It was actually warm for the first time on the trip. We did a nice hike down to the lower Sunwapta Falls – there were actually three more falls after the main one that everyone can see without hiking.

Did I mention the wildlife? We saw a young black bear, several mountain goats, an elk, an eagle, a ptarmigan, not to mention beautiful magpies (black and white with a streak of iridescent blue), ravens, and tons of other birds.

Jasper
Finally, we made it to our destination: Pine Bungalows in Jasper Townsite. Pretty rustic place, but it’s a very nice location directly on the Athabasca River. Unfortunately they are four for four in the malfunctioning plumbing fixtures department. And it’s overpriced at $CN 140 per night.

After the snow and cold in Lake Louise as well as on the Icefields Parkway, we were surprised by the 70+ degree warmth in Jasper. Although it’s 4 hours north of Banff, Jasper is lower and is therefore often warmer. In this case, I think it was getting warmer in Banff as well, but we were now out of there.

The Pyramid Lake hike was supposed to be easy, but maybe we’re just getting old. Or maybe we’re over-doing the hiking bit. Anyway, this 2 ½ hour hike was indeed beautiful, just as all the others have been. The view of Pyramid Mountain in back of the lake was grand. We also walked to an island in the lake. Later that afternoon we drove to Malign Canyon for yet another walk down along the falls. That canyon sure is deep.

On our second to last day in the Rockies we were pretty darn tired. We nevertheless wound up hiking the Bald Hills loop near Malign Lake. Listed as “moderate”, it wasn’t. Maybe it was just our sore muscles and tired bodies, or maybe it was the snow at the higher elevations. But methinks it was the effort at getting up to those higher elevations that did us in. Starting out at 5,500 feet, it was sunny and warm. About half-way up, and I do mean up, a closed gravel road we turned onto a small rough trail and continued our upward climb. The tree roots and rocks made it difficult, but as we climbed higher, it was the snow and mud that really slowed us down. At times we weren’t even sure where the trail was because of all the snow. But whenever we stopped to catch our breath, the scenery all around us itself was breathtaking. And eventually we did make it to the top. The view of Malign Lake and all the surrounding mountains was great. At 7,000 feet, it was pretty cold, so we hurried through our picnic lunch, giving crumbs to the gray jays who had asked for the handout, and then we headed back down. Altogether it was 6 ½ miles with 1,500 feet of elevation gain in about 4 difficult hours. During the ride back to Jasper we saw several bighorn sheep on one side of the road, and then later on a large black bear on the other.

You may have figured out that Debbie and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the trails in Canmore, Banff and Jasper. Collectively, in fact, this has to be the best hiking anywhere on the planet. Yes, we’ve had great and memorable hikes in other places, especially Hawaii. But nothing comes close to the grandeur as well as the simple volume of great hiking in the Canadian Rockies. Besides all our great hikes on these trails, I had some wonderful runs on them as well. My running is, as always, chronicled in by running blog: danhorvath.blogspot.com.

To do next time we come to the Canadian Rockies:
• See nearby Yoho and Kootenay National Parks
• See Miete Hot Springs and Mt. Edith Cavell area in Jasper
• See Lake Minnewanka in Banff
• Take a canoe trip on a river or lake
• Take one of the gondolas to the mountaintops in either Banff or Jasper
• Take one of the other million great hikes that we weren’t able to do this time
• Avoid staying at Pine Bungalows (not so terrible – nice location, but not worth the price)

2009 Dan in Peru

2009-04-26T16:40:00.000-07:00

Lima
The first thing to know about Lima is that although it’s on the Pacific coast, it’s also in a desert. The second thing is that 9 million people live here, making it roughly the size of Chicago or LA. Like LA, the mountains to the east trap fog and the ambient air pollution from these millions of Peruvians has turned this into smog. The mountains themselves, the foothills of the Andes, crop up abruptly and are completely void of vegetation. That, along with the desert air, reminds one of Phoenix. But drive anywhere in Lima, and satisfaction is guaranteed that we’re not in Kansas anymore. Besides the pollution, there’s the traffic. It’s pretty darn awful. And then there’s the driving. Staying within lanes? Yielding to right-of-way? Watching out for pedestrians? Traffic laws in general? Mere suggestions. The architecture and various businesses are also unique to Peru.

I’d had plenty of warning about the crime, including kidnappings. The warnings did give me pause. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but it doesn’t look so bad to me. It helps that I’m in, I think, a fairly safe area. The Hotel Golf Los Incas is built into the side of a mountain overlooking a golf course. It’s not far from the office of my client, and in all the driving back and forth, as well as my almost daily running, I haven’t seen anything to be worried about. Not that I’ll take any unnecessary chances, mind you. And my clients, as well as all of the other Peruvians I’ve met, have all been more than gracious.

The Historical center of Lima is, in fact, quite historical. Founded by Francisco Pizarro in the 16th century, Plaza Mayor, the main square, hosts the presidential palace, the Lima Cathedral and several other historical buildings. The architecture here and in the surrounding blocks takes us back to the colonial times. There’s also Peruvian music everywhere. On one of the nearby blocks is the Cathedral of San Francisco. Below the cathedral are the famous catacombs, where 30,000 Peruvians were buries. It’s quite a labyrinth. They’ve unearthed the bones, and they’re on display. There’s a lot of them.

Back to the Plaza Mayor, and people were lining up on the sides of the roads, so of course I lined up with them. As I suspected, a parade started up. It was a folklore parade, as dozens of groups of dancers, all wearing masks and extremely colorful costumes, came dancing by. Each dancing group was followed by a band, and each band appeared to be playing the same music. Quite the cultural experience for old Dan.

My friends from the office, Liliana, Fernando and Fiorella, not to mention Fiorella’s beautiful 5-year old daughter, Rafaella were kind enough to take me to the Gold Museum. Interestingly, there wasn’t a tremendous amount of gold there. The Spanish Conquistadors had plundered most of it. What was left, death masks, chalices and the like, was certainly fantastic however. What there was a lot of, however, was weapons. I’d never seen so many knives, swords and guns of all types. There were also plenty of interesting archeological items. The highlight for me, however, was the mummies. They are extremely well-preserved, and quite fascinating. The nightmares will come later.

My running in Lima is chronicaled in my running blog, including my first run in Peru, and other running in Peru, and finally, Running in Peru – My Final Run for the Trip and Sort of a Summary.

A couple days before leaving, Liliana and Fernando took Mary and me out to the Miraflores area for an evening. Located above directly on the Pacific, including the sea cliffs above, Miraflores is the tourist and nightlife center of Lima. It is noticeably cooler and more humid that the La Molina and Surco districts where I’ve spent most of my time. The area was quite lively. We had pisco sour drinks (good, but very strong!) at a restaurant in the Larcomar mall, which is built into the sea cliff. What a great evening out. It was wonderful of Liliana and Fernando to spend the time with us.

Pacachamac
Pacachamac is an archeological site about 20 miles from Lima. I took a tour In order to get there. On the way I got to see some of the districts of Lima that are on the seacoast: Miraflores, Barranco and others. This part of Lima is quite different from the parts that I’d been used to. Here the haze/fog/smog is very noticeable. It hangs just above the ocean, hugging the surrounding sea cliffs.

The Pachacamac site itself is, like many of the mountains, completely barren. It appears to be as much a desert as any you could imagine. There are a few somewhat green areas not too far away however – they can get water from a nearby river. This river is where the Incas, and those who preceded them, got their water to live on in Pachacamac, which was a fair-sized city in its time. The Incas who inhabited the area were the final regime/era; there had been three others before them. It turns out that Pachacamac was a god as well as this city, and the central focus is at the Temple of the Sun, which is high on a hill. From there one can see miles of seacoast (even with the fog) and a couple of nearby villages.

Well Being
Unwell being is more accurate. Don't even think about drinking the water here. I didn't, but I still managed to get deathly ill. It's something I ate (not the water itself), but I'm not sure what. I'd been trying all kinds of new things, especially at the breakfast buffet. I had to see the doctor at the office's clinic. Now I'm on Cipro. It's killing me to not know what did it.

Cusco and Machu Picchu
Let’s say, just for fun, that you’re in Lima, and that you would like to visit Machu Picchu, the famous Lost City of the Incas. You may think: it’s only a few hundred miles away, and in the same country, so it ought to be easy to do, right? You would be extremely, hilariously, totally wrong.

First you must get to Cusco (also spelled, Cuzco). Cusco, population 350,000, is in the Andes at 11,000 feet, and from Lima, it is 26 hours by car, and 1 hour by air. A long and winding road comes to mind. The cost of the air, we learned, was $430 for Americans and $172 for Peruvians, depending on where you are and what version of the website you use. With some help from Fiorella, I paid the $172. After you arrive in Cusco, you must get a train ($98 R/T) from nearby Poroy to Aguas Calientes. Once in Aguas Calientes, you have to buy a bus ticket ($14 R/T) from there to Machu Picchu. This doesn’t take into account the taxi rides (Lima hotel to airport, airport to Cusco hotel, Cusco hotel to Poroy train station), the need to buy the entry to Machu Picchu whilst in Aguas Calientes ($42), or other general confusion. Oh, and one more consideration: all this takes, at a minimum, three days. One day to get to Cusco, one day for the trains and buses and the visit to the site, and one day to get back to Lima. Not good if you’re on a five-day work week in Lima.

But my colleague Mary, who would be my traveling companion on this trip, and I were in luck: Friday, the 1st of May was a holiday and the office would be closed. With the three-day weekend, and the relatively lower airfare, the trip was doable. At least it seemed so before the 3 ½ hour delay and general mayhem getting out of Lima.

Arriving in Cusco after being in Lima is akin to arriving in Oz after being in Kansas. The air is crisp, clear and clean, but unfortunately, there’s little of it. I’d been at high altitudes before, but never for more than a few hours. It was after a couple hours that I really did begin to feel the effects: difficult breathing, light-headedness and dizziness. It took the rest of the day, and a nearly sleepless night before I felt ok again. This is good because one would want to feel decent for the next day’s tough trip to Machu Picchu.

Despite my difficulties, I just had to get out and walk around Cusco. It’s a beautiful mountain city. After some coca-leaf tea (it really is supposed to help, and is supposedly non-addicting) at our Terra Andina hotel, out I went. I hit the main market area, and that was fun. Crafts, fruits and vegetables, various meats, including whole pigs, various dining options, dogs running around, flies, all kinds of people, you name it, and it is there. The same scene took place on several streets that surround the building as well. Here the fruits and vegetables are very colorful in the sun. Tons of fun for a guy like me.

The main square, known as Plaza de Armas, is also very nice. I saw it several times: daytime, nighttime, when it was nicely lit up, and on a Sunday morning, where there was yet another parade. This parade included folklore dancing once again, and was at least as colorful as the one I saw in Lima. Earlier I had seen the costumed groups marching and dancing into the church for Sunday mass.

Even dinner in Cusco was memorable. I was tempted to have the guinea pig (they call it cuy), but it was twice as expensive as everything else. I settled for alpaca, and it was great. We had some good conversations with fellow travelers there, including some who would be doing the multiple day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I’m going to look into this for next time.

The train ride from Poroy to Aguas Calientes has to be one of the most spectacular in the world. For the early part we witnessed scenic farms and a couple villages that were framed by mountains. Then the mountains got serious. They went straight up to impossibly tall heights, sometimes with walls inches from the train cars. We had to pull ourselves into the windows so as not to get our hands chopped off. For other parts of the trip we went along the whitewater rapids of a rushing river that ran between the peaks of the Andes. We even saw the staging area and hikers for the multiple-day hikes of the Inca Trail.

Upon our arrival in Aguas Calientes, a mountain village that’s in a beautiful setting and made specifically for tourists, we were greeted by mass confusion. Where to buy the bus tickets? Where to buy the Machu Picchu entrance tickets? Where to hire a guide? What order do we do these things in? Mary and I somehow managed to work it all out and get to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu was constructed in the 1400’s and abandoned about 100 years later. Although the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire did not include the site – the Spanish never found it – the Incas left nevertheless, perhaps due to disease. The primary buildings are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. Theories abound as to the purpose of the city. Some of them hold that it was a citadel to control the economy of conquered regions. Others say that it was a home to virgins of the sun, whoever they were, or a prison.

Although it was known locally, it was brought to the attention of the modern world by the American explorer Hiram Bingham of Yale University in 1911. It was later named a World Heritage site and voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. There is now some concern that too much tourism poses a threat to the site. But then it can help too. We talked to volunteers who were there to clean moss and plants that grow on and between the stones. They sure help the preservation effort.

Yes, Machu Picchu is everything it’s cracked up to be. And then some. Of course there was more confusion after getting off the bus and trying to get in. One of the points of indecision was: should we hire a guide? Naaah - $40 or so seemed like just too much. We set off on our own. The map was confusing, so after entering, we just started to climb the high-road path at the first fork. That’s when we saw it. The classic Machu Picchu view. It’s breathtaking. And not just because of the climb we just did. There had been the costs, the travel, the general hassle. But now suddenly it was all worthwhile, just for this one view.

Now it was time to climb around all the stone stairs (lots and lots of stairs) and pathways to explore the place. The scale is deceiving; once you enter some of the lower buildings and open areas you realize how huge the site really is. Mary seemed to always know where she was, but I was happy to just wander around and gawk. We did manage to see most of the main stuff, and even relax a bit towards the end. It was later in the afternoon that we saw the llamas. First a mother and her baby, but then more and more. At one point several of them stampeded by us.

Although I’d seen everything that I wanted to, it would have been nice to come back the next day. I’m still going to consider that hike. As it was, however, it was time to get back on the bus, and then back on the now uncomfortable train to Cusco. The next day it was back on the plane for Lima, where life would soon return to not so normal.

The Good and the Bad
Although the food was generally very good, with more variety than one can imagine, at some point I became sick from some of it. The drugs cured me of the GI problems, but I also developed a cold during my last couple days in Peru. So I’d have to say that although the Peruvian germs liked me, the feeling was not mutual.

Lima is very large, busy and crowded, and at times exciting. The history is fascinating. The pollution and the squalor of the poor tend to detract from it however. Cusco, on the other hand, is a city in a beautiful mountain setting and is just what one might think of when conjuring thoughts of a city in Peru. The market there was very colorful. Machu Picchu is in a category by itself.

Finally there is the Peruvian people. They are as gracious as anyone anywhere. Our hosts at the office, Liliana, Juan, Fiorella and Fernando, became great friends, and everyone else we met was congenial and welcoming. This is what I’ll remember best from Peru.

2009 Hawaii

2009-04-05T18:33:00.001-07:00

ICan'tBelieveILiveHere.com
That's the name of Rita and George's imaginary website. They may actually register it yet, and I hope they do. We had the honor to stay with Rita, George and Chessie (aka Kitty in Paradise) for the first couple nights of our 2009 trip. We didn't plan anything big - just a visit.

Unfortunately, Rita had experienced a death and an illness in her family. It was a tough time to be visiting. She was in the midst of planning to go back to Ohio the same evening that we'd be leaving for Kauai. George was recovering (well) from his knee surgery. In spite of this, we had a nice visit. Rita prepared some nice meals, and we took a grand walk along all of the Kameole beaches in Kihei. A highlight was seeing a whale breach just as we took a rest at the farthest point. George said he could hear the thing flop back into the water. Dinner that night was at Cafe Ole - a wonderful place that we'd been to before.

Rita and I had a very nice run before we had to go on Sunday morning. Sad to go, but it was on to Kauai, and Rita had things to do to get ready for her own trip.

Nualolo/Nualolo Cliffs/Awa-awapuhi Trail Hike
This was some hike. We'd been planning it for months, and it was everything we thought and hoped it would be, and more.

The early part was extremely muddy, and extremely downhill. It was more of a climb than a hike. A climb through mud. After 3.8 miles of thick, slippery muck, and nearly four hours of hiking, we reached the Lolo Vista viewpoint. It was indescribable. Such grandeur to look out upon the Na Pali coastline from the top of the cliffs. It might as well have been top of the world.

After backtracking a bit, the 2.1 mile Cliffs trail was fine, except for one eroded section where we had to literally hug the side of the cliff to get by. Treacherous doesn't begin to descibe the feeling of being inches away from a 2,000 foot drop.

The lookout from the end of the Awa-awapuhi Trail was the most spectacular yet. Simply fantastic. Then it was time to go back up for 3+ final miles of the 9.8. It was a steady uphill hike, not as steep as the climb down. But we were extremely tired and had to stop often.

We made it out alive. It took us over 9 hours - that's about 1 mile per hour - and we were exhausted as I ran down to get the car. What a day.

The Lady Adventurer and I were pretty durn sore for the next day or three.

Island Cars
This was our car rental company. Hertz, Avis, National, etc. are all available, but I decide to save some money with this outfit. I did probably save about $150, but what an experience. We wound up driving a complete wreck. It was so bad it was funny. The guy did tell us that we could swap it for a better one in a couple days, and that we did. Even then we had a problem with the newer car over-heating. I found the loose coolant cap and replaced it after filling it up, and then it was fine. So I guess it all worked out, and we still saved the money.

General Sightseeing
We've been checking out some of the same stuff we've seen on other trips, and also some new stuff, like a waterfall we'd never seen before. The same stuff included home-of-the-magic-dragon Hanalei area (although we'd never before walked that particular beach), Kilauea Lighthouse and Haena/Ke'e Beach. Ke'e beach gets my vote as the world's most beautiful. (Trunk Bay on St. John is second.) We walked it and gawked at the nearby Na Pali cliffs all along. We couldn't believe that we'd actually been on top of them a few days prior. Whenever I see those cliffs I'm always amazed that such an other-worldly place exists. We also saw a couple endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals sunning themselves on the beach there.

Timeshare Presentation
Yes, we'll listen for money. $100 in this case. It was at the Marriott's Waiohai in Poipu. We'd stayed there 24 years back, before it was leveled by a hurricane. Interesting to see, but timeshares don't make no sense at all to me, no matter how nice they are.

Our Marriott
Speaking of Marriotts, ours in Lihue is as nice as ever. We've got a fantastic view of the ocean from our 11th floor room. As nice a home away from home as you can get. Great gardens too. You should see them feed the koi.

Other Hikes
Nothing as big-time as that first big time hike described above, but we're doing other stuff as well. Lots of walking around the resort area, and then some other dirt trail hikes as well. One was the Kuilau Ridge Trail, which was near the middle of the island. The very middle is Mt. Waialeale, the wettest spot on the planet. We weren't far - the mountain was, as always, shrouded in clouds only a few miles to the west of our trail. But we stayed dry for this very scenic and relatively gentle hike. I think I speak for both myself and the Lady Adventurer in saying that we'd happily do this one again.

The Pihea Trail to Alakai Swamp sounded like it would be great hike. Unfortunately, it was raining and very cold (54F) as we started out. And then there was the muddy downhill slope. Not this again. The mud, combined with the cold rain forced us to turn back. The view of the Kalalau valley along the way was awesome as ever, even in the rain.

Just a couple miles back down the road, it was sunny again. We started on a Waimea Canyon hike. The trail descended deep into the canyon, and we turned back after a half hour or so. The best views were from the top, but at least we got a workout coming back up.

The Weather
In general, it never got hotter than about 76 or so. Never colder than about 68 (except at the start of the Pihea Trail in the rain at 4,000 feet. I think that Kauai is best in the summer - for a tropical island, it feels pretty cool in the winter and early spring. And we've had some on and off rain. One day Debbie and I started off on a walk from the resort amongst very bright sunshine and perfect blue skies. Wouldn't you know it? By the time we were about a mile away, a sudden rain storm drenched us. A Marriott coutesy shuttle came by and courteously picked our drowned-rat selves up.

Another experience was sitting down to watch the movie, "South Pacific" on the beach at our resort - they had set up a screen, loudspeakers, chairs, etc. The movie was filmed here 50 years ago, so it was appropriate. After some earlier rain, the skies were clear and there was a pretty sunset. Just after the credits came an airplane scene followed by the song, "Bloody Mary", and with that, the rain. In we went, saying we'll rent it and watch it in our dry basement.

Debbie was really pissed. "Where are all the %#$^* rainbows?" We'd been here a week and hadn't seen a single one. And we'd had plenty of rain AND sunshine, often both at the same time. Last I checked, those ARE the main ingredients. Finally we did see a nice bright one from our lanai. Then another the very next day in the Kalalau valley. Maybe they've been around all along and we just hadn't seen them.

Sunsets have not been overwhelmingly beautiful; it's often cloudy in the afternoons and evenings. The sunrises, however, have been sublime. The whole sky has been taking on watercolor/pastel hues, much to my enjoyment during my daily morning runs.

Allerton Garden
$45 each for a garden tour? And it was worth it? Yes, and yes. The Allerton Garden was truly beautiful, and Wendy the guide made it an experience to remember. It shows what an extremely rich guy who likes plants can do. Also included were some of the areas filmed in Jurassic Park - watch out for those raptors!

The Ends of the Earth
We all know it's Polihale, the wind-swept, sun-baked 17-mile beach on Kauai's western shore. Looking west from here, there's absolutely nothing but blue Pacific Ocean for thousands of miles. That wasn't totally true for us this time, since we weren't able to drive to where the road goes through the park - it was closed. So we were actually facing southwest, and could see Ni'ihou from here. But this stretch of sand feels like the end of the planet no matter what. You can walk for miles and hardly see a soul.

We pulled into a parking area and began putting lotion and otherwise getting ready for our beach walk. No other cars around. After I closed the trunk I asked Debbie if she had the keys. You can guess where this is going: car open, keys locked in the trunk. After much consternation, Debbie was able, with me prying the seat away, to reach behind the back seat and use a hiking pole to snare her key-containing purse.

After our beach walk and picnic, we had shave ice for the first time. Not bad stuff.

Restaurants
Duke's is great. Portofino is ok. Roy's, which we remember as the best Hawaii restaurant chain, was good but not as great as we remembered. Buffets at our Kukui's were very good, but too much. Gaylords in Kilohana was the best all-around. Our last day we went to the hole-in-the-wall Lihue BBQ, and it was really great. And it was also a fraction of the cost of the other joints.

All in all, we had a great time. As always. Time to start planning our next trip back!

2009 Dan in UK (Again)

2009-02-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

I went to the UK two more times in early 2009. A couple interesting things happened:

The first time I was there, I went to a little party. Call this part, "Dress Like an American":

I was in the U.K. on the day of the 2008 presidential election; I had managed to vote early. And now I find myself here once again on the 20th of January, the day of the inauguration. Last time I was overwhelmed at the interest and positive feelings about the election on this side of the pond. This time it’s the same, only more so. To underscore this point, here’s the story of the inauguration party I attended last night.

My client contact here, Kevin, invited me to an inauguration party at a friend’s house in Newbury. Newbury is about 55 miles west of London, and perhaps 15 miles west of the office location. He told me the theme was, “dress like an American.” I found all this a bit hard to believe, but I went along. After work, Kevin and his wife Allison took me to dinner and then to their house so they could stop to dress like Americans. Kevin came out with a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, shorts and a baseball cap, and Allison with a complete cowgirl look with boots, denim jacket and cowboy hat. I was starting to believe.

John and Caroline’s Georgian home was actually appointed with period furnishings. We were greeted by John, a former American who was dressed as Abe Lincoln. The lively group included another cowgirl, a football player, an airline pilot, a U.S. Marine (worn by another former American who last wore the uniform 24 years ago), a native American Indian and Joe the Plummer, among others. I believe I was the only one not “dressed like an American.” On the other hand, everyone kept telling me that I was fine because I was “authentic.”

We all laughed at the George Bush sayings posted all over. There were also American quiz questions – I think I got them all correct. The hostess explained the various American foods: celery and American Peanut Butter, cornbread muffins, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, etc.

Then the place became quiet as we watched the speech. I think it was every bit as moving to the Brits as it was to me. Of course afterwards the party got loud again, but then it was time to say goodbye.

That was my January visit. I went again in February. Upon arrival, I had most of a day, so I drove out to Stonehenge. This are some pretty awesome rocks. I learned the entire history of the place: how the henge was rebuilt twice between 3000 BC and 1800 BC. About where the rocks came from (hundreds of miles away), and how they may have been erected. I also learned about the special location of some of the rocks to commemorate summer and winter solstice.

There was still plenty of snow around from Britain's now famous recent rare snowstorm. It's supposed to snow again in a couple days. Driving may get even more challenging.

Back to the henge, the place is mostly just wierd. Kind of erie. Even the wide-open general location is quite erie. I thought it was interesting that the narator on the ear-phone thought so too.

2008 Dan in Philadelphia

2008-12-17T04:56:00.000-08:00

I'd been here in the Philadelphia area many times before, and I've explored Valley Forge National Park a few times. But since I'm always well west of town, I had never ventured into the city center to see the historical areas there. This day, however, I'd been saying how much I love history and how I'd never been to Independence Mall, when I suddenly realized I had the time to go down there. Of course I didn't want to fight the traffic, and the weather (rain/sleet/snow) was rotten, but I had no other excuses. So downtown I went.

In the morning I had explored Valley Forge again by foot, running around the park for a couple hours. On previous visits I had gone to the visitor center and other historical buildings to learn and take in all the history. So it was ironic to have been there in the morning and to Independence Mall in the late afternoon. I only had a couple hours, but that was enough time to see what I wanted: the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I also spent a few minutes in a Ben Franklin museum.

I learned all about the history of Liberty Bell at the visitor center. I was vaguely aware that it predates the Revolutionary War, and that it was rung to call revolutionary meetings to order. I was also somewhat aware that it was hidden from the British as they occupied the capital (which at the time was Philly). I was surprised to learn that it also symbolized freedom and liberty for African Americans, both before the emancipation, and afterwards for civil rights.

Independence Hall gave me goosebumps. To stand where the signers of the Declaration of Independence debated, and to see their arrangement of tables and chairs was fantastic. Our other important document, the Constitution, was also ratified/signed here as well. Our guide, a National Park Service ranger, did a great job of bringing it all to life.

Even though the weather was so awful, the whole Independence Mall area had its own historic beauty. There is enough other stuff to see to spend an entire day or two there. Maybe next time. At least I did see what I did. And the weather *was* awful coming home.

2008 Dan in UK

2008-11-09T02:22:00.000-08:00

As so often happens, I found myself on a plane over the Atlantic just hours after running a marathon. If you guessed that it was an uncomfortable trip, you’d be quite correct.

I’d been to Merry Olde England before. It was the beginning and end of our Family European Vacation in the 90’s, and more recently I’d been here in June doing the same sort of work I was here for again this time. The location is Theale, which is near Reading – about 40 miles west of London. Last time the taxi fares were ridiculously expensive. The client pays this, but I still wanted to save them money, while also staying a bit out of the way at a Marriott/Renaissance hotel back near Heathrow. So I rented a car, something I’ve never done in Europe. I’d driven on the left before however, in Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica. I had always had Debbie to navigate and remind me to stay left. This time I’d be on my own. What a disaster.

Immediately after arrival I drove out to Windsor to see Windsor Castle. I had no trouble finding the main motorway, M4. I had no trouble finding the exit for Windsor. I had a great deal of trouble, however, following the directions into town, which was only a couple miles. When I did finally get there, it was seemingly almost by accident. But this little spell of being lost finding the village would prove to be nothing. Now the problem was where to park. All of the street areas and parking lots required exact change, and I had only large bills. After several tries, I finally did find a lot that had a change machine.

I walked around the village for a while, and then headed into the castle. It’s a village in itself. You can tell right from the start that it’s a “proper” castle, with a moat, turrets, etc. Of course it has changed and grown over the centuries, but it is the largest and oldest royal castle that is still in continuous use. I think for over 800 years. These days the royal family uses the castle on weekends and for special occasions. The Queen’s colors are flying from the top of the keep when she’s in residence; otherwise it’s the union jack, as it was when I was there. Also, when the royal family is present, some of the state rooms that I toured are closed to the public, so that they may actually be used. The ones I saw were appropriately grand. There were also some famous works of art. Besides the state rooms, some other castle highlights were the chapel, which was grand, and the royal guards.

One would think that finding my way back to the hotel afterwards would be no big deal. After all, it was very close to the airport, on one of the busy nearby roads. But nooo. I accidentally passed the exit and was forced to remain on the motorway almost all the way into central London. This was a near disaster, but I did manage to turn back and again, only by dumb luck, find my way back.

The being lost stuff would actually get worse over the next couple days of work. One would think that once I figured out one way to get to the hotel, that I could just continue to repeat that. But nooo. Not when I only find it by dumb luck. My next bout with being lost was the worst – I got off the motorway one exit too early and found myself on another one going the wrong direction. And then, after many miles I was finally able to get off to try to turn around, but I found myself unable to do so – because I was on yet another motorway! This was truly motorway hell. I should say one good thing about driving in Britain. Only one. The drivers are extremely courteous. No cutting people off; no road rage. I almost never heard the toot of the angry horn. And there were plenty of time where people had reason to be angry enough at me for a toot.

Another experience to report: lunch with at a proper pub. Interestingly, my client had to leave his credit card with the proprietor to cover any tap fee. When I asked, huh?, he told me it was to prevent us from having a beer and running off without paying for it. We weren’t even having beer; we were there for the fine cuisine. And the pub grub really was pretty good.

“Remember, remember the fifth of November.” I haven’t forgotten this extremely profound little poem I learned from the movie, “V for Vendetta”. It turns out that, as noted in the movie, the people of Britain actually do commemorate the day that some anarchist nearly succeeded in firebombing parliament in the 17th century. They celebrate with fireworks and bonfires. The most fun, I take it, is the making of a straw man and throwing him into a bonfire, as was done with the anarchist. I’m really not sure whether this is out of respect or contempt for the guy; maybe a bit of both. I did witness plenty of random fireworks on my way back to the hotel that night. I also smelled the smoke of bonfires as I got out of the car. Don’t know if any anarchists were burning.

Earlier on that fateful 5th or November, I awoke at 4am to watch John McCain and Barak Obama’s speeches as the election concluded. I was surprised at the amount of interest on this side of the pond, and it’s almost all positive. The TV networks and newspapers are full of it. So were the folks I was working with. One guy stayed up all night watching the returns, although he was up with his young baby anyway. But he made his 8-month old son watch Obama’s speech so that the boy would witness the historical moment.

2008 Dan in Lisbon and Bucharest (and Prague)

2008-05-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

It’s not like these two places are close together; they’re on opposite sides of Europe, two time zones apart. But this is the way the work worked out: one week in Lisbon, Portugal followed by a weekend stop in Prague, Czech Republic, followed by two weeks in Bucharest, Romania. I’d been to these places before, so I tried to concentrate on seeing and doing new stuff.

Lisbon
Part of the fun was getting here. Part of that was running the Green Jewel 100K race *just before stepping onto the plane. But that’s another story.

There was too much work and no time to explore. That’s too bad, because Lisbon is lovely. I did do a bit of running in the areas I’d run before – the university grounds (nice soft dirt trails) and Monsanto Park (huge hills and some trails, interesting prison at the top). Each day I took the three metro trains to and from the office. It’s kind of fun to get around this way.

I was finally able to get away from work for a couple hours on Friday afternoon. I took the metro to the city center and walked up, up, up to the Castle of St. Jorge. It’s a huge edifice at the top of the hill overlooking all of Lisbon. The views of Lisbon and environs – all 360 degrees of them – are great up there. The castle itself, built in the 12th century, is mostly in ruins. But even so, the sheer size and complexity of it are something to behold. I should have checked this out the other times I’d been here.

Prague
I stopped here on the way from Lisbon to Bucharest in order to run the Prague International Marathon (PIM). The travel arrangements were highly complex, but everything worked out. At the expo, I met up with Mike George, his mother-in-law, Dolly, wife Judy, and daughter Angie. We had a nice dinner together; they would be cheering me on.

I made it through the marathon. It wasn’t my fastest, but at least I ran a steady pace. Afterwards, as usual, I had to catch a plane, this time on to Bucharest.

Bucharest
It’s been said that Bucharest is the Paris of Eastern Europe. But what has not been said is that Paris is the Bucharest of Western Europe.

As with Lisbon, in Bucharest the hotel and the office are in opposite corners of the city. I was tired of being ripped off by taxi drivers, including the huge rip off I received coming from the airport. And traffic is always very bad. So I figured out to use the metro here as well. I would only need to take one line, but it’s a long walk between the hotel and the station (about a mile and a half) and then I also have to take a bus between the Pipera station and the office. Even with all this hassle, it’s still better than the taxi.

Bucharest has an architecture style all to its own. I think the experts call it neo-classical or something like that. Most buildings are whitish, and sort of grand-looking. They’re usually symmetrical when you look at them in relation with those adjacent or across the street. The boulevards are wide and tree-lined. And then there’s the Palatul Parlamentului, the second largest, after the Pentagon, building in the world. As with my last trip here, my hotel room overlooks the monstrosity.

Everywhere I go in Bucharest I see loose dogs. Not good if you’re a runner. They’re everywhere. The Marriott has its own little pack hanging around, as do the office buildings where I’ve been working. I often see them lying right on the sidewalk leading up to the building; people have to walk around them. And speaking of the office in the Pipera area, what a mess that is. Everything is new: the office buildings, the big homes, the metro station (I think). Too bad there are almost no roads or, for the new homes, no water or sewerage. It’s called infrastructure, and Piper ain’t got it.

I know that there’s much more to Romania than just Bucharest, and I was determined to see some of it. There’s the small matter of Transylvania, which has mountains and castles, one of which belonged to Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula. It really isn’t all that far from flat Bucharest – maybe 90 miles or so. After a bunch of planning and research, I took the metro to the main train station and then got on a train to Sinaia, a mountain village in Transylvania. I wouldn’t be able to visit Castle Bran of Vlad the Impaler fame, because it is perhaps 15 miles from Sinaia by road. But Sinaia has its own castle and plenty more.

My first thought when I got off the train is that Sinaia looked like it belonged in Appalachia. Some of the mountains here are even higher than those of Appalachia though. I walked up to the Monastery and checked it out. Then I walked up to Peles Castle. It’s in a very picturesque setting on the side of the mountain range. I took the English tour and was impressed with the wood floors, walls and ceilings. 90% of the castle was wood of different trees and shades. Dark, but very nice.

There is another smaller castle called Pelisor further up from Peles. I walked around it, but didn’t go in. Then my real walk began. I walked up the road until the town ended, and kept going. There were occasional houses, and occasional glimpses of the great mountain scenery. The road I was walking on was dirty and dusty and full of ruts; they were working on it. I thought I might be near the top, because I heard the gondola announcements. It wasn’t till later that I figured that I was nowhere near the top of the 2,500 meter mountain peak. Oh well; I had to turn back sometime. Back in town I walked around a small village green type park and explored the village some more before getting on the train back to Bucharest.

I had only seen a few parts of Bucharest, but not really very much as a tourist. So I set out one warm Sunday morning to see the essential Bucharest.

I decided to skip a tour of the Big Palace, at least for now; I wanted to see other stuff. I’d been to the central historical area, also known as the Lipscani area, one other time, and it was not impressive. I went there again thinking that it might’ve changed for the better. It didn’t. Yes, it’s old, but I thought there was almost nothing worth seeing, and evidently everyone else thinks so too; there are very few people around. There had been a lot of construction and excavation of historical artifacts last time, and it appears that this has even increased.

Walking on, still looking for something to see, I stumbled onto and into Gradina Cismigio, a botanical garden and park. I wasn’t expecting much, but what a wonderful place it turned out to be! There are beautiful flowers and gardens, sculptured lakes, a large playground and a gazebo/bandstand. I saw families with kids of all shapes and sizes heading to and from the playground. Older folks sitting on park benches. And a polka band. The music had some folks dancing and everyone else tapping their feet. It was getting hot out, but the shade in the park felt just fine. I could’ve stayed all day.

But I thought I really ought to see more, so onward I walked. I saw more wide boulevards and huge squares, including Piata Victoriei. And then I stumbled into another park: Parcul Kiselef. I was going to just walk along side it to get to another square, but something drew me in: gypsy music. It turned out to be another wonderful park. There weren’t so many gardens, but the people were here once again: families with little ones, older folks, etc. This gazebo had a “traditional” band. It sounded like gypsy music at first with a woman singing along with a band, but then they played traditional Romanian music. It still sounded gypsy-ish, with several violin/fiddles, but I know it was Romanian because I recognized a much extended version of George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody. No one was dancing, but as with the polka band, everyone was tapping their feet.

But I thought I should see more stuff, so once again, onward I walked. I saw more wide boulevards and huge squares, including Piata Charles de Gaulle and Piata Arcul de Triumf. Their triumphal arch (covered with scaffolding) is almost as big as Paris’, but I’m trying to find a European city that doesn’t have one. Now it was getting extremely hot – near 90 – and I decided to return via the metro. On my way to the station, I stumbled through, guess what? Another park: Parcul Hebestrau. And this park was every bit as wonderful as the other two. Cool shade, playgrounds, gardens, gobs of people strolling. I could’ve stayed all day.

So that’s the essential Bucharest. Yes, there is interesting architecture, the wide boulevards and the great squares. But those wonderful parks were not at all what I expected. They, in and of themselves, make this place a great city.

2008 Central Europe

2008-04-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

There are reasons why people go to Europe in the summertime; reasons like nice foliage, flowers and beautiful sunny weather. But we had our reasons for going in early spring, and they seemed like good ones at the time. These included fewer people, lower costs and maybe half-way decent weather.

We got the fewer people part right – the crowds were very much on the low side. Lower costs? The package price for the tour, lodging and a few meals wasn’t bad at all. But the near-worthless dollar for everything else put the cabash on any thoughts of saving money. And this brings us to the weather. I had to keep telling myself that it is spring, and the day before Easter, as we endured leaving Cleveland in the snowstorm. At least it would be sunny and warmer in Europe, right?

Frankfurt
Frankfurt was cold. It turned out that this would become a recurring theme. We took a long cold walk around the town, especially in the river area. Then we ate at a very nice small traditional German restaurant. The local specialty was "green sauce"; it wasn't bad. In the evening we met our tour director, "Wentz" Wenceslas.

Berlin
The drive from Frankfurt to Berlin was longer than expected. With the stop in Weimar, it took most of the day. Weimar is the intellectual and artistic home of such Germans as Schiller, Goeth and Bach. It was lunch and a nice cold walk around town for us. We also stopped at the old border between East and West Germany. It was interesting to see the guard towers that were left standing for the sake of history.

Berlin is huge. The contrast between east and west is striking, as the east is dominated by old Communist era starkly ugly architecture. The west is park-like. At our first dinner in Berlin we ate at "Fat Paula's" and learned how she became so.

The bus arrived, with all of us in it, at 8:29, exactly one minute before our scheduled time to meet Ben, who was to take us on our local tour of Berlin. Ben wasn't there. But then, just as the clock turned to 8:30, Ben suddenly showed up from nowhere. Wentz observed, "Such is German punctuality… that Ben would be nowhere to be seen at 8:29, and then appear at 8:30."

We continued to learn about the fascinating history of this incredible city. World War II left the city almost entirely destroyed; only rubble remained. East and West separated after the war, but the West had to be supported by the airlift until a roadway to the rest of West Germany was built. Reunification came in 1989, and the changes thereafter are most profound. The new architecture is stunningly modern. The entire city is alive and vibrant. We saw Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, the parks and the interesting architecture.

Potsdam was rather interesting, especially with the history of the peace conference there. It's a small village 15 miles outside of Berlin; we arrived by train. Most of our time was spent in the famous Sans Souci gardens and palace. The palace itself was a bit on the small side as far as palaces go. Of course the gardens were only beginning to come alive; the calendar still said March, and our bodies told us it was January. The off and on snow didn't help.

Everywhere we went in Germany we saw wind turbines. There are 50,000 of them, and you absolutely can’t miss them. I’m not sure what percentage of Germany’s power comes from wind, but I keep asking myself, wind power is such a no-brainer - why can’t we do this?

Warsaw
The trip from Berlin to Warsaw was broken up with a stop for lunch in the medieval Polish village of Poznan. This town exceeded expectations, since we didn't have any. The town square and church were quite nice. The trip also saw some crazy driving, as drivers coming the other way would be passing others and not seem to worry at all about being in the oncoming lane with a busload of tourists hurtling towards them. Of course we'd move aside, but Wentz needed to reassure us: "Don't worry; this is Poland. It's the way things are here."

It was snowing as we arrived in Warsaw. This wasn't just a few flurries, as we'd been experiencing. This was big-time snow; almost white-out conditions. It was fun to watch it from our hotel dining area, once we had finally arrived safe and sound. Some of the Australians were fascinated with the storm, and one, Skye, went out to make a snow-angel.

It feels like we're living in history. It's like we are, in some small way, a part of it. Warsaw has its own fascinating place in history. Did you know that the word, "ghetto" only meant Jewish neighborhood before World War II, and that it only received a negative connotation after the war started? The Jewish Ghetto had been walled in by the Nazis, but the Jews rebelled in 1943, fighting with everything they had. The rebellion was finally put down months later, and the Ghetto was completely destroyed. Then the non-Jewish Poles rebelled in 1944, only to have their rebellion put down and see the remainder of the city destroyed.

We saw the completely rebuilt Royal Palace, and this *was* impressive. It was huge in scale, and the rooms were ornate to an incredible degree. The gold leaf was especially impressive. We've been doing several of these sightseeing excursions with our friends from the UK, Allan and Susan. It is saving us some money to do them on our own rather than take the organized tour.

Krakow
It rained in Krakow. A very cold, hard rain. This was very unfortunate, because it is a wonderful city. You can’t appreciate it, however, when you spend all your time trying to stay dry and warm. We did manage to see the royal castle and cloth market.

Two other things about Krakow. It is home to these salt mines that must be seen to be believed. 300 kilometers of tunnels. Huge open areas. Lakes. Chapels, Statues. I could go on. Did I mention that the mines are also dry, and reasonably warm?

And then there was the “Polish Folklore” dinner, show and dancing. Audience participation, you know. Yes, some of this included your faithful blogger, himself.

Auschwitz
Nothing can prepare you for Auschwitz. It is far beyond any capability I have to describe it, but I will try anyway. We arrived first at Birchenou, just a few kilometers away. I learned later that this is "Auschwitz 2", and that there is also a "3". It is a huge complex, stretching as far as you can see in each direction. Some of the wooden and brick buildings remain. Otherwise it is a lot of chimneys from all the furnaces, railroad tracks and barbed electrical fencing. Miles and miles of it.

We had a guide for Auschwitz 1. She was extremely informative, and took us into several buildings and described their parts in the killing process. All the buildings together were made into a large museum, and our guide showed us important parts of it. The combs, shoes, suitcases taken from the Jews and other prisoners were hard to take. The quantities were also hard to take. Hardest of all for me was the incredibly large mounds of human hair. It was to be used for pillows and beds. Unbelievable. Finally we walked into one of the gas chambers. Words fail to describe it.

Our guide told us of her two uncles who had lived in the area before the Nazis completely evacuated everyone within several miles. These uncles tried to shelter some Jews from the Nazis, and did so with some success. For a while. Then one of the Jews was re-captured and, probably under torture, told the Nazis of all the locals who helped him. The Nazis placed several hundred Poles, including the two uncles, into the camp and tortured them as well. At least that was the fate of the one she could find records on; there is no word on the other. She is still trying to learn more.

There are people on this earth who doubt or even deny that the holocaust occurred. Those people need to come here.

Częstochowa
Częstochowa was also supposed to be a spiritual experience, but most of us thought it was just plain weird. We lined up along with lines from gobs of other busloads of people, and then "snuck" into church *while mass was going on*! We wound through the churchgoers and monks (it is a monastery) and in back of the altar in order to catch a glimpse of the bejeweled Black Madonna. She was pretty cool, but the whole thing just seemed so wrong for some reason.

It didn’t take long. Lawrence from London, who’s in his early 20’s was traveling alone. Jen from Michigan but who’s studying in the U.K., and who’s in her early 20’s was traveling with her Mom, Louise. By this point in the trip these two were seen holding hands. And sitting together on the bus. And resting one another’s heads on the other’s shoulder. Everyone enjoyed the concept of this budding relationship.

Budapest
Budapest was lovely, as always. It helped that the weather cleared up, and it even felt warm. Since I had been there, I became the defacto tour guide and led a group to the central city to see the sights at night. They were, as always, stunning.

Budapest was just as spectacular by day. Along with Allan and Susan, and sometimes a few others, we walked for miles and miles. We saw Heroes Square, Castle Hill, including the changing of the guard by the presidential palace, the famous Jewish Synagogue with all its associated history, and of course the Chain Bridge and OF COURSE the Danube River.

It had been a long, long day, but it was not over. My work client-associate Istvan, and his friend Vera picked us up and we all went to dinner at a traditional Hungarian restaurant. We enjoyed several hours of conversation over slow, and good, Hungarian food.

In Budapest we also said goodbye to our bus driver, Franco. His son, Giovanni, who was much more on the quiet side would take over for the rest of the trip. We would miss Franco because he was so entertaining. At the rest stops, he would say things like, “You miss bus, no problem. I come back – two weeks.”

Wentz, our tour director is also a funny guy. He’s always helpful and serious when he needs to be. But some folks are funny without even trying, and he’s one of them. Complaining when we weren’t able to get out of an automated parking area in Krakow, he says, “When you have man with mustache, you pay him and no problem. When you have computers, you have big problem.”

Vienna
Vienna is probably even grander than Budapest. Whereas Budapest is in the process of restoring much of its former splendor, Vienna is much farther along. Vienna was spared much of the devastation from war that had befallen Budapest. It seems that everywhere you turn, you bump into a palace. And each one is grander than the last. It’s hard to take it all in.

The Kursalon Waltz show would be our chance to sample Viennese music at its source. The orchestra only had nine pieces, but they sure knew how to play. The music was mostly that of Johann Strauss Jr., but there was also some by other members of the Strauss family as well as Wolfie Mozart. There were some operatic pieces and some dancing to the waltz music. The lead violinist made like Andre Rieu to make sure no one took anything too very seriously. But it was all very well done, besides being fun.

Also in Vienna we spent some time gaping at the Hapsburg crown jewels. They included several diamond and gold bejeweled crowns, other outlandish clothing, and a 2000+ karat emerald.

No travel story can possibly be complete without a word about the toilets. They were mostly ok, and were invariably very clean. The one at our hotel room in Vienna was special though. The Austrians, and particularly the Viennese, take pride in being a very “civilized” society. Indeed, the food, music, architecture, etc. were all outstanding. Too bad about the plumbing. Our hotel toilet was built such that when you sit down, the drain is up near your feet, and there is a slight dry “bowl” right beneath you. Thus anything that you leave is presented right back to you, like on a platter. When you flush, the water pushes it forward into the drain – good thing that part worked ok.

Prague
Prague came with more cold and rain. But later on it cleared up. What a difference that made. Some, including me, have called this the most beautiful city on the planet. Yes, I still think so, but it sure helps to have the sun shining. We bought 24-hour metro / tram tickets, and made great use of them. We spent all the time with Allan and Susan walking and riding and exploring. The medieval town seems to just go on forever. The main districts are the Jewish Quarter, Old Town, New Town (which, being 600 years old, is a relative term), Lesser Town and the Castle District. Wenceslas Square, the Monastery, the Infant of Prague (which we only stumbled upon). We did them all.

PROST!
You have to yell it loud and deep. It helps if you spray some saliva in the process. Then you grab your mug by placing your hand through the handle and as far around as possible, and slam it hard against that of your fellow drinker(s). Good thing these are industrial strength 1 plus-liter mugs. But you’re not done yet. You must look your drinking partner(s) directly in the eye all the while, as you take your long, hearty swig.

This we learned from the 17 and 18 year-olds at our table at the famous Hofbrauhaus in Munich. The place was wild when we arrived, and only became more so as the night wore on. Oom-pa-pa band. Dancing in the isles, and anywhere else you could stand up. Waiters and waitresses carrying four or more of these 1-liter mugs full of beer in each hand, spilling it as they went. A lady mopping the floor around the men’s urinals whilst they were in full use. Spontaneous singing, even when the band wasn’t playing. A vomit-urinal. Eternal Oktoberfest. I could go on.

Oh yes, we did see other parts of Munich as well. The most interesting to some of us was a platform at the head of a square used for some of Hitler’s speeches. There are statues of lions on either side, and it was said that he hid behind the left one during an assassination attempt.

Romantic Road
This is a misnomer. There is nothing at all romantic about the road. It’s the villages here in Bavaria that are romantic. They give new meaning to the word medieval. We stopped at Harburg to view the castle from the other side of the river, and then spent some time walking around Nordlington. The ‘O’ has two dots over it to indicate that it is to be pronounced like a ‘u’. So it sounds like “Nurdlington”. When we saw the inhabitants, I mentioned to Debbie that here were all the Nurds, and their little Nurdlings. The Medieval/Bavarian walled village was right out of the story books. If it wasn’t for the occasional auto, you’d swear you’d hit the 1200 year button in your time machine. The village of Rothenburg was much the same, only more so.

Frankfurt and Goodbye
Now we had returned, and it was time to say good bye. We’ll miss our new friends as well as competent and funny Wentz. And Cosmos did it again. They are a class act that continues to impress us.

The weather had been more lousy than nice, but we’d had a great time in spite of that. The places that I’d anticipated liking the most, Budapest, Vienna and Prague, did turn out to be the ones I still want to return to again and again. But the rest was memorable as well.

2008 Dan in Budapest (Third Time There)

2008-01-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

Long Walk
Budapest was dark and dreary for my first few days there in January, 2008. The buildings are mostly colorless dark grey anyway, but if you add in the fog, the dirty snow (they may use cinders or sand to fight it) and general gloominess, it’s not very pretty. Contrast this with the spectacular beauty in the spring and summer, when the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, the trees are green, and everything’s clear. Of course I’m making the best of it; I always do.

The first time I had a moment to myself was late Friday afternoon. I took a very long walk – this, after a 12-mile run on Margaret Island, a long walk between offices and a long walk from the office back to the hotel. Today’s latest walk, however, was to a place I hadn’t been before: Andrassy Ut. It’s the main drag through Pest and is a couple miles long. There is a lot of upscale shopping, an opera house, several squares, the house of terror and other sights. I didn’t stop much – I just observed, and moved forward until I finally reached Varosloget, home of Heroes Square and Vajdahunyard Castle, amongst other attractions. I’ll bet nobody even looks “Vajdahunyard” up to make sure I spelled it correctly.

It was just beginning to get dark, and the Square and Castle were being lit up – spectacularly so. I wish my pictures could do them justice. I also saw bunches of ice skaters at the Secession Pavilion. After all this excitement, I took the metro back to the river area.

Danube Bend
With some apprehension about possible rain and snow, I signed on for an all-day tour of the Danube Bend area – several villages north of Budapest where the Danube changes from flowing east to south. The weather turned out just fine with hazy sun, although it was still cold. There were only 15 of us tourists in the van: Aussies, Spaniards, Greeks, Brazilians, and me, the only American.

Our first stop was at a cathedral – the largest, and center of the Catholic Church in Hungary – in the village of Esztergom. From the rear side of the cathedral we had a panoramic view of the Danube. We could see how the river changes course, turning to the south. At this point Slovakia was just on the opposite side. Lunch was in a wine cellar underneath the cathedral.

The second stop was Visigrad, an eleventh century fortress 900 meters above the Danube. The fort itself was in ruins, but here the views were even more spectacular than those of Esztergom. There was much more snow and cold at this elevation, but we somehow survived.

Our final stop was the village of Szentendre, which is almost all the way back to Budapest. The village appears semi-medieval, and quite colorful in contrast with the muted colors of Budapest. I learned that it was settled by Greeks, and this explains some of the differences. We had some time there, so I explored quite a bit.

Exploring On Foot
When I’m in a new place, I usually explore a great deal by running, often returning to interesting areas later to explore more fully. I was clued into the good place to run in Budapest (Margaret Island) right from the start, and I’ve hardly run anywhere else. It’s great for running, and the other areas pale by comparison. But on low-traffic Sunday I decided to explore more, and I managed to see some areas that were new to me. The most important of these is Obudai Island. It’s north of Margaret Island, and tougher to get to. Much of it was deserted, and there was ice on the paths and even the roads. I turned back but then found a second bridge onto the island and found a small village at that part. I hadn’t heard of this island until the previous day, but I think it will be more important to Budapest in the future as it will be developed much more. 70% will be left as a park however.

Later on that Sunday I did more exploring by walking. I walked mostly to places I’d been to before; but even so it was good to see the changing of the guard at the presidential palace once again.

Other than a lot more running and walking, that was pretty much it for this trip. My walks back from the office often took me through the central market, which is always interesting. I also walked into some extremely old churches - also always interesting. One other thing: the wishing tree. At least that's what I call it. Lori told me about a tree on Margaret Island where if you place your hands on it and make a wish, it'll come true. There are lots of trees on that huge island, but I did find one that sort of matched her description (it's near a convent), so I put my hands on it. We'll see if it all comes true.

2008 Florida - Marco Island

2008-01-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

We arrived to Beth and Ed’s place late in the evening, as planned. It was about 12:30am by the time we got there and dropped Mom off. Luckily, the flights had gone well, and there’d been no snafus with the luggage or car rental. After staying the night at the fancy-looking, but not-really-so-wonderful Best Western Admiral’s Inn, we met Beth, Ed and Mom at IHOP, and then said goodbye. It was off to Marco Island.

The 3-hour drive down there wasn’t too bad. The check into our condo was extremely confusing – we received 5 keys and at least 10 pages of instructions. And that was just with the rental agency - we still had to register with “the building” for a parking permit (and another $20 fee). One more complaint, and then I’m done. It’s about a half-mile walk to the beach. Actually, that’s a lie. It’s a one-foot walk to the beach. It’s just a half-mile walk to the water. Ok – enough complaining.

I did want to get those toes in the sand right away, so we managed to make the long trek. It really ain’t that bad; it’s actually kind of fun. But.. What to do for New Year’s Eve? How ‘bout a take-home-and-bake pizza from Winn Dixie? Debbie wasn’t thrilled, but we managed. Some people had fireworks on the beach, but I couldn’t make it till midnight. Maybe that had something to do with staying up till 1am the night before. It did enable me to get a good night’s sleep and to get up and do a long run the next day.

Besides the long walk to the ocean, there’s an estuary – an inlet – that’s much closer. It turns out to be miles long, and impossible to completely circumnavigate. Dave and I did discover that you can wade across the thing. And speaking of the beach, I ran the length of it today – all 5+ miles of it. All the time I was getting battered by the extreme wind. There is a myriad of shells on the island, but of course I would up carrying some, including a large conch during part of my run. That’s not all I carried: a pair of flip-flop sandals for Debbie, a Frisbee, a boogie board, and a large, heavy coconut. I had stashed the boogie board and Frisbee, but I did carry the coconut for 2 miles. I thought Dave would consider it a challenge to crack it open, but we never managed to do so.

On another walk, Dave and I observed a fascinating sight: dolphins were on the hunt. We spotted several of them circling what must have been a school of fish. At a couple points in time, the fish went bonkers and were flying up out of the ocean. That must have been their best attempt at escape from being eaten.

Those tremendous winds had brought a big change in the weather. Whereas it had been well into the 80s when we arrived New Year’s Eve, it rained some on New Year’s Day, and turned much colder (40s and 50s) along with the wind, on the 2nd. It was even colder that night – a near record 30F.

Since it wasn’t exactly beach weather, we went to Everglades Gardens in Bonita Springs, a sort-of nature center/garden/zoo. We saw plenty of gators and American crocks, along with Florida Panthers and all kinds of birds and snakes. Did you know that the endangered Florida Panther is the largest cat that purrs? They are trying to breed them with pumas - necessary because the gene pool is too depleted with only 50 animals remaining. Only concern: the pumas are much more agressive. Debbie and Carol got to shop till they dropped at Best of Everything – a costume jewelry store.

The Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was a highlight. There was a 2.25 mile boardwalk through swampy wetlands, including a bald cypress forest. There is abundant wildlife there; we saw plenty of interesting birds.

The Edison/Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers was also interesting. There is a lot to see and experience there, and the gardens are nice, but IMHO, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village are much better.

We hung around the beach for the last day, but it never got warm enough (after that first day) to really enjoy it. We did do a lot of walking, and enjoyed watching the birds, especially the pelicans. And did I mention the shells? More than you can imagine. More in one square foot than *all* of Shell Island (off PCB). There are areas where there are mounds of nothing but shells, a couple feet high, several feet wide, and several hundreds of yards long. Hard to believe.

Too bad Dave, and especially Debbie were under the weather for this trip. And too bad the weather wasn't warmer and sunnier. We still had a few interesting experiences.

2007 Gichi Gummi

2007-09-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

Debbie and I had always wanted to drive all the way around Lake Superior. Going around the world’s largest freshwater lake would have been a long way from where we lived in Farmington Hills, Michigan. But from our Ohio home it would really be a fur piece. Regardless of the starting point, we hadn’t thought about it for a long while. Then came the dueling weddings and all the hoopla. Then came the cleanup and then came the “what’re we gonna do now?” question.

So Saturday came the wedding (the last one – the Cleveland version), Sunday came the propovini breakfast, and Monday came the cleanup and the question. Surprisingly, the same answer came back to both of us independently: Circumnavigate Gichi Gumi. After a brief discussion Monday morning, and some last minute packing and putting up of garden produce, we did something we never, ever, ever do: started a several-day road trip on the spur of the moment. We always plan things out way in advance; this time we were impulsive and spontaneous.

Only made it as far as Mt. Pleasant, Michigan after 5 hours of driving Monday afternoon and evening. At the Mackinac Bridge we would need to decide whether to head clockwise or counter-clockwise around the lake. Debbie said clockwise would be better so that we could make all right hand turns. I couldn’t stop laughing. Not that she was wrong; it’s just that it’s a big lake.

Counter-clockwise it was. 50+ miles north of the bridge we crossed over the Sault Ste. Marie straights into Canada. Since the Soo is the eastern end Gichi Goomi, I had assumed that we’d start traveling west soon thereafter. But noooo. We continued north along the lakeshore for many, many more miles. This part of Canada is strikingly beautiful. The views of the lake are great, and there are hills that are nearly mountains everywhere. The best part is Lake Superior Provincial Park. In the park, Agawa bay and Agawa rock were great places to stop.

After 10 hours of driving, and stopping and walking and gawking along the way, we made it to the hamlet of Marathon and a no-tell mo-tell for the night.

I don’t know why, but I had always been fascinated with Thunder Bay, Ontario. Nothing particular, just the concept of it. A remote city on the north shore of Lake Superior. And that name! Well, it is remote. And the name is still cool. But nothing really special about the town itself. Some industry and a tiny bit of history. Did I mention remote?

The drive through Canada continued to be beautiful, even though there was a rare all-day fog. The 160 miles from the US border to Duluth were also pretty, but eventually not quite as nice as the Canadian shores. Duluth itself is a very nice town though. After being lost for a bit, we found the harbor-front, ate, had ice cream, and a very nice long walk.

The next day we drove the entire length, and then even the width, of the U.P. Then we went on to drive back to Mt. Pleasant for our last night. Start to finish, that amounted to 14 ½ hours in the car, but you’d have to subtract two hours or so for sightseeing. But that sightseeing was great. We visited Holland Lake to bring back camping memories – more for Debbie, but for me as well. We’ve seen it when it’s quite deserted, but there were 5-6 camping parties around. The worst part is the Off-Road Vehicles. They ruined the place for us, esthetically speaking. Other than that, the place looked about the same. Debbie says she won’t need to see it again. We’ll see.

Along the way, we stopped for Grandma T’s pasties. They were filling!

Munising was beautiful as always. Some day I’d like to see the Pictured Rocks. We never seem to have the time.

Our last stop before heading back down was Whitefish Point and Whitefish Bay. There we toured the lighthouse and the connected living quarters. The highlight there is the shipwreck museum. There they have the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald along with information and artifacts from several other area wrecks. Of course we’d been listening to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot over and over, and of course they played it there, over and over. Sidenote: in November, 1975 I was in Atlanta on a business trip, when a hurricane came up from the gulf and (the remnants) went over our heads, heading north. It didn’t rain much, but I was fascinated by the clouds. This was the same storm that wrecked the Edmund Fitzgerald.

We looked out onto Gichi Gummi one last time (there’s a nice beach there), and then headed back.

We made 2,200 miles total.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

2007 Dan in Lisbon

2007-09-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

I arrived in the morning on the Sunday before work. Since the afternoon was free, colleague David and I took a cruise on the Tagus River. It was nice and peaceful. The river opens up to a large bay, so it seems extremely wide.

We saw many fine sights. I had seen many of the same things from shore during my previous trip, but it was nice to see them by boat as well. Some of them were:
· The Parque Noches area, which has extremely modern architecture and is where my client's office is and where a triathlon was in progress. We could see the runners along the shore.
· The Tower of Belem - a castle guarding the mouth of the river.
· The 25th of April Bridge, a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge.
· The Statue of Jesus Christ, a replica of the one in Rio de Janeiro
· Other neat stuff.
Almost every day brings fish for lunch and then fish for dinner. Not that I’m complaining; the food’s great. Like the Spanish, the Portuguese like to have huge lunches, and then small dinners late in the evening. Of course this means that I have huge lunches AND huge dinners to go along with my huge breakfasts. Thank goodness the dinners aren’t quite so late as for Spain – I haven’t had to wait until 8:30 for dinner yet.

But back to the fish: here’s how it goes every time. They place a huge chunk of fish in front of me. It takes up the whole plate, and it looks and smells great. Without thinking, (my brain shuts down whenever there’s food to be had), I slice a big piece and get it into my mouth as quickly as possible. And then, “Aaaargh – what’s all this hard, sharp stuff?” And then I spit out the bones as delicately and politely as is possible, which it isn’t. I wish I had a euro for every fishbone I’ve eaten on this trip.

Once upon a time, a lady appeared to 3 children, told them she was the Virgin Mary, and made some predictions that may have come true, depending on your belief system, and where you heard about it. Each year many thousands of pilgrims converge on Fatima on May 13 to commemorate the anniversary of the first appearance. They actually arrive the previous day in order to take part in all the activities and to watch the procession that night.

So there I was, a pilgrim converging upon Fatima on May 12, just like the 500,000 other pilgrims. This wasn’t just any anniversary either; this was a special one: the 90th. I had signed up for a tour of Fatima along with some other places, and we arrived with all the multitudes. Most of the people were arriving on foot. Many were camping. Thousands attended a mass that overflowed into the basilica courtyard. Others were lined up to pay respects to a shrine at the exact place of the appearances. Many crawled or scooted on their knees. It was all quite a spectacle.

There were plenty of other sights to be had this day: a gothic cathedral and monastery in Batalba. Another one in Alcobaca. Lunch at a fantastic little seaside fishing and beach village called Nazare’. And finally, there was the walled medieval village of Obidos. Obidos is a bit like Rhodes, and perhaps Toledo, even though I’ve yet to go there. It was a stunning setting. I’d have liked to have spent more time there and in Nazare’.

Speaking of stunning settings, I spent another day in Sintra, along with another consultant I’m working with, Ravish. I’d been to Sintra as part of another tour last year, but all I did that time was walk around the village. It was ok, but I didn’t even know what the deal was about the palaces and castles in the area. Having enough time made a big difference.

Ravish and I took a train from Lisbon to Sintra, and then took a bus to the top of the Big Hill / Mountain. At the very top is Pena National Palace in a spectacular setting. The palace itself is like something out of a fairy tale, with fantastic structures, shapes and colors. And did I mention the view? It was great; we could see the sea many miles away on three sides of us (Sintra is in the middle of a large peninsula, which includes Lisbon far to the south).

Next we headed down, but not too far down, to the Moorish Castle. This was about 1,000 years older than the palace, but it was impressive in it’s own way. There were walls galore, and a steep walk to the top. The walls are built on the side of a cliff, so it appears to be a very high wall. In fact, it is a very high wall. As it was for Pena Palace, the panoramic view was wonderful.

Then it was down again. This time way, way down, back to the village. We toured the Sintra National Palace, which had only some very nice views. Some of the 16th century rooms were neat.

And that’s about all the ways you can cook shrimp, I mean… that’s about all the ways you can see Portugal from Lisbon.

2007 Dan in Dublin

2007-09-01T12:31:00.001-07:00

“I’m kind of tired. I was out celebrating my wife’s birthday until 4am. Boy was she mad when I got home!” That was just one of the stories from one of the drivers of the City “hop on, hop off” tour that I took here in Dublin. Another is, “My wife ran off with a policeman. Now whenever I hear a siren, I get worried. What if he’s bringing her back?” One more: “Here is the smallest pub in Dublin. It holds no more than 14 people, including the barman. It’s very safe, because you can’t fall down.” Yes, some of these drivers were pretty darn funny. One of them sang quite a bit. And quite well, too. I took this tour in order to see Dublin sort of on my own, but with a bit of guidance. Some of the memorable stops that I did were: Christchurch and St. Patrick’s Cathedrals, Phoenix Park (a very nice city park where a 10K race was just finishing), Trinity College and St. Stephens Green (a smaller, but still very nice city park). I chose not to stop at the Guiness Headquarters and visitor center. That, however, is considered by many to be a major attraction here.

The folks I work with are extremely friendly. It’s nice to work at a place where they like you. As usual, however, I’m out in the middle of nowhere, so I have to take a tram any time I do into town. But I’m managing ok. It’s a good thing that I took that tour when I arrived – most days all I see is what’s on the 400 or so meter walk from the hotel to the office. Except, of course, what I see on my daily runs.

Those daily runs have really been, to put it as an Irishman would, brilliant. No, I don’t mean the quality of the running; I mean the scenery and the sensory experience. From the suburb of Leopardstown, I head east on bike-paths and sidewalks along the not-too-busy road down (and I do mean down) to the sea. Even this part of the run is very pleasant. There are stonewalls, blossoming trees, flowering gardens, birds singing, and the village of Newtown.

Once I reach the sea, it gets even better. I turn south and run along the shore. There are more stonewalls and villages along the way, along with harbors and seawalls. I go through the village of Dun Laoghaire (pronounced dun leery, but you probably knew that), past Dalkey Castle and turn around at an abbey placed by God on the sea in the village of Dalkey. On clear mornings the sun is often just starting to rise over the sea at this point. Heading back the way I came, I have to push it to get back up the hills, but I don’t mind; running doesn’t get much better.

I’d seen a lot of Dublin, and I’d certainly seen enough of Leopardstown, so for the weekend in between the workweeks, I made my way to the countryside in order to stay at the Marriott Johnstown House Enfield Hotel and Spa. Enfield is in County Meath, about 40 miles from Dublin. Might as well be 400. Friday evening, I got my laptop bag and two other small bags, walked 15 minutes to the tram, rode 30 minutes to Dublin city center, walked 30 minutes to Conolly Station, waited for and then took the train to Enfield (45 minutes), and finally walked 30 minutes from the village to the hotel. The things I do to earn Marriott points.

I thought my Ireland running couldn’t be much nicer than that run to the sea, but it’s really nice in County Meath as well. I ran to the village and then along a canal, where there was a path of variable quality – some mud, some rocks, some cow flops, some cows, some sheep, some crushed gravel, etc. But all of it very serene. The green Irish hills and pastures loom in the background. Trees line most parts of the canal. Maybe running did get a bit better.

So after nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes of slow trail running, I get back to the hotel and, for reasons that I can’t think of, went into the spa/gymnasium. There I saw a notice about the Spa’s annual triathlon. It was to take place that very same day. I somehow gathered that there were both individuals and teams, and then, of course, asked if there were any teams that needed a runner. Of course there was. Before I knew it, I was involved. Show up at half-past 11. “Oh yeah,” I said as an afterthought, “how far is this run?” 5.2 kilometers.

Could I go out and do it again after all that trail running? I figured I could probably make the distance. After breakfast and a cold bath to recover, I went back down to the spa. Do I owe any money? No. Who and where are my teammates? They’re around somewhere – don’t worry about them. Follow Liz to get started. But it’s only ten after 11. Doesn’t matter, we’re just starting everyone in groups of 3, and in this case, 2. You can go now.

So me and Jenny started running towards town, hoping to not get lost (the directions were pretty simple, and there was a biker on the course to help). I got ahead of Jenny and then saw the biker, who yelled some words of encouragement as I went by. He was escorting another runner in. Later on he caught up and rode along with me as I looped through town and began heading back to the hotel. He continued to encourage me, and at one point told me I was doing 10 miles per hour. I slowed a bit towards the finish because there’s a hill to overcome, not to mention strong winds. I finished strong with the biker almost alongside and with Liz and about two others cheering madly. Liz kissed me. You just don’t get this kind of running experience (at least by race officials) at home. My time was 20:26, a PR for 5.2 km. And better yet, by beating Jenny, I had “won” the third or so race of my life. The others were equally low-key. I wish I knew how I did in relation to the other runners. When will I know the official results? There will be a picnic in July where they will be announced. How did my team do? Who knows?

I thought that being in County Meath would bring me close enough to easily get to some historical and archeological sites. Close I was, but there was no easy way to get to any of them. I hired a taxi for 25 Euros each way, and went to Trim. Trim is a medieval village with a large historical castle. From the tour I learned that the castle was built in the 12th century. The keep is quite tall, but only partially intact. Same with the walls. From the top of the keep I could see all around the county, including the Hill of Tara, another famous site. Trim castle is where the movie Braveheart (which is about Scotland) was filmed.

One more thing - Limerick Pork:

Until I went to Ireland, I wasn't aware that there is an actual city called Limerick. I still had to chuckle a bit when I saw "Limerick Pork" on a dinner menu. I figured they meant that the recipe came from there or that's the way they prepare it there, or something. Even so, I still somehow pictured a pork chop spouting a dirty little five-line poem.

So during this morning's long run, I came up with this thought about Limerick Pork:

There once was a piglet in Limerick
Who thought: to escape would be mighty slick
He tried to run away
But the farmer held him at bay
And that's him on the dinner table; so much for that swine trick

2007 Dan in Budapest

2007-09-01T12:27:00.001-07:00

This would be my second time in Budapest, and I wanted to see and do some different things this time. I almost booked a one-day boat trip to the north, where there are supposed to be three scenic towns and a great castle or two overlooking the river. It’s called the Danube Bend area. I chose not to book it however, when I saw the weather forecast: cold and rainy. Cold (low 40s) and rainy it was. So I tried to do some indoor things.

I walked to and explored St. Steven’s Basilica. I’ve now seen a lot of old churches all over Europe, but this is one of the most glorious. It was as ornate as any, but more colorful than most.

I also went to Buda Castle, also known as the Royal Palace, to visit the museum inside. It’s the Hungarian National Gallery, with an extensive set of works by Hungarian artists throughout history. It was quite impressive. As usual, I liked the 19th century paintings the best. Budapest also has a Museum of Fine Arts, but I’ll save that one for my next trip.

The next day, Sunday, was very nice: it was sunny, with temperatures in the 50s. I couldn’t go the Danube Bend, however, because the tour only goes on Saturdays in winter. I could have tried to take a train or bus, but thought better of it; there were still other things that I haven’t seen in Budapest proper.

The day began with me on a metro to Hero’s Square. This square is the entrance to a city part called Varosliget, and is also home of the famous Millennium Monument. With great colonnades, statues galore, and a tall central column crowned by Archangel Gabriel, it is truly stunning. The monument was built to celebrate the millennium of the founding of Hungary, as well as it’s conversion to Christianity, lead by St. Steven. Among the statues is Prince Arpad, along with six other conquering Magyars. You gotta love these conquering Magyars.

Varosliget also contains a zoo, botanical garden, famous baths, and Vajdajunyad Castle. Since I continue to be self-conscious about taking them with people I don’t know, I skipped the baths. This castle, complete with a moat, looks like it’s straight out of a fairy tale. I walked around the interior grounds – it is really neat.

As I returned from the metro stop, I had planned to take Vaci street, a major shopping area, back to the hotel. Along the way is Mihaly Vorosmarty Square, where there was some sort of flea market or festival going on. I checked out the goods and the food (which smelled great) and watched first the little girls, and later everyone, do some folk dancing. They even had a puppet show. You just can’t get entertainment like this at home.

Having been to Old Town, in the Castle District before, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go again, but I wanted to do something with the time I had. So I climbed up once again – it took about 45 minutes from the hotel. And I did see some sights that I had missed: the view from the back of the Castle District hill is almost as spectacular as that overlooking the Danube. I also got to see the famous Vienna Gate.

How Beautiful is Budapest!

2007 Dan in Athens

2007-09-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

For my second trip to Greece things would be different. This time it's a business trip, so I wouldn't have nearly the amount of time to see things as our trip a couple months ago. So after arriving, I spent my first day just walking around the Plaka district; nothing much new to report.

The only full day that I would have free would be Sunday. I booked a 3-island, 1-day cruise. And what a day. I was actually gone from 7am until 8pm. It turns out that the three islands are not quite as close to Athens as I thought; it took a long time to get from one to the other. And one other complaint: the boat was lousy - they packed too many people on board and the food was awful. (Woody Allen likes to talk about the Jewish Ladies complaining about food at a wedding. “The food is awful”, says one. “Yes, and there’s so little of it”, says the other.) But in spite of the long day and the not-so-good boat, it was a most worthwhile trip. Our first stop was Poros, where I walked around the picturesque harbor town. Poros is only about a quarter mile away from the Mycenae area on the mainland, but a long boat ride from Athens. Our next stop was the island of Hydra. It was even more picturesque, and there were some forts to explore in addition to the town itself. Finally we went to Aegina (aka Egina), where I booked an additional tour. I got to see the temple of Aphea, which rivals the Parthenon and Poseidon's Temple. (Also something strange: these three temples form an exact triangle - each is 25km apart. How, and why, did they do this?) We also stopped at an orthodox church that was cool as well. Finally, the Greek music and dancing on the boat was pretty entertaining. So yes, it was a good trip.

On the way to the boat I had met a father and his son. He asked where I live and when I told him, he asked, “is that near Strongsville?” When I told him, he asked if I’d heard of Beef O’Brady’s. I said that I’d just been there for the first time just in the past week. His name is Nick Voinovich, and he is the president of Beef’s and lives in Tampa. We talked a lot. I saw the two of them on the first island, but not afterwards. I thought it was strange that they didn’t get off the bus for the Marriott that night – I figured maybe they’d taken a cab. I saw Mr. Voinovich at breakfast the next morning. “You know when you were heading back to the boat and we were going away from it? My son said, ‘Dad, why’s the boat moving?’ We missed it and had to take a water taxi back to the third island, where we missed the boat again, and then had to get another boat back to Athens.” I had kind’ve wondered why they had been headed the wrong way, but didn’t say anything. I figured they knew what they were doing.

I can’t forget to mention Babis, my personal driver. I know this because he told me; he said, “I be your driver for your whole stay, boss.” That’s another thing: he calls me boss. Whenever I need a ride, anytime day or night, all I need to do is call Babis’ cell, and he comes. He’s from Crete, like Zorba – maybe they all call their clients “boss”. But he’s a wonderful guy. I’d recommend him to anyone coming to Greece.

For my last night I took a long walk up to a hill just below the Acropolis. I had a great view of the sunset and Athens at twilight.

2007 Dan in Madrid

2007-09-01T02:27:00.001-07:00

This is my second trip to Spain. The first was last September, when I spent only a couple days here in Madrid as well as Lisbon. This time it is to be 2 weeks in Madrid, so I went thinking I ought to be able to see and do more. The good news is that the hotel is only a short walk to the office. The bad news is that we're in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of town. This area, north of town is hard to believe and even harder to describe. The word, stark comes to mind.

There are miles upon miles of multi-family residence buildings, office buildings, some restaurants built into the buildings, AND THAT'S ALL! No trees. No schools. No single family houses - I found not one in dozens of miles of running. Oh yeah. Plenty of construction. More construction than you can imagine.

Upon arrival Steve and I took the bus to the subway station, and the subway downtown. We did lots of walking, including a long stroll through one of the city parks, Parke Del Buen Retiro. There were many many folks out for their Sunday afternoon strolls. We also walked through the main train station (including the indoor arboretum), and a few other areas. You've got to enjoy the architecture here. The theory is that it's so nice here because Spain was not involved in either world war, and their civil war didn't cause much local damage. We ate dinner at an outdoor cafe, even though it was getting a bit cool. We laughed at our suffering there at an outdoor cafe, whilst the poor folks back home only have a couple feet of snow and cold to put up with.

Not much happened during that first week of work. Our client kept us fairly busy, but we did have some time for walking. We went to Hippercor (large discount store/supermarket) and El Corte Ingles (large department store chain) one time, and to a mall another night. That was about it for excitement, except this: We walked into the mall, which is quite exclusive, and almost immediately heard the fire alarm. Sure enough, we could smell and even see smoke, and it was coming from somewhere near the cafe I had been recommending for dinner. We got out in a hurry. Later that night we tried to walk back along side and in back of a golf driving range. We were "escorted" back. I thought the security guard was either being very helpful, or we were about to be arrested.

Eating here is a challenge. The food is great, but it's only available at certain times, and you'd better just get used to those times. Lunch is at 2 to 3 pm, we work until 6 or 7, and then dinner is at about 9pm. This doesn't sit too well with a guy who likes to go to bed at 9:30 or 10, and then get up to run at 4 or 5am. So Steve and I are always trying get an "early" dinner at 7:30 or so. But it's a real challenge to find ANYPLACE that's open.

Friday night Steve and I checked out of our middle of nowhere hotel (which looks like it was designed and furnished by Ikea), and into one in the middle of everywhere central Madrid. That hotel, the Best Western Atlantico, is beautiful classic European. The streets are truly alive with people. There are street entertainers, discos, theaters, you name it. And did I mention throngs of people? We walked to Templo de Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple moved here as a gift from Egypt to Spain for their help in retrieval of other antiquities. It was awesome. Then we walked around the renowned palace (it was closed) and through Plaza Mayor, the famous square.

Our friend and interpreter, Sergio, drove Steve and I to Salamanca, which is about 2 1/2 hours west, almost to the Portugal border. Salamanca is first and foremost a university town. The university is built into the medieval city center area, near the main square. I learned that Plaza Major means main square, so that's why multiple towns have squares by the same name. Duh. We walked around quite a bit and saw shell house, an ancient Roman-built bridge and the cathedral, in addition to the square. Sergio's friends from earlier years, Laura and Nikki, were visiting Salamanca from Brazil and the UK, so we all did some crowded tapas bars. We didn't eat much - only a bit of some of the famous jamon - but had lots of good conversation. It was a great day.

The next day Steve and I took a train for a half-hour ride to Alcala de Henares. It's another university town with more historical buildings. There were dozens of huge storks making gigantic nests on the tops of the buildings. We ate and toured the Cervantes (the author of Don Quixote - Man of La Mancha) Museum and an archeological museum. We also saw a quasi-military band playing music in front of the university.

Observations:
-Everyone I work with seems to be genuinely friendly and accommodating. Great folks, these Spaniards!
-When you sneeze, they say, "Jesus".
-When they dubbed Terminator 2 into Spanish, Arnold's "Hasta la Vista, Baby" was changed into "Sayonara, Baby". (I think that works just as well!)
-You don't find chicken on too many menus, but plenty of pork and jamon. -The Spanish have never heard of "Spanish Rice".
-Running here is so strange. When I head out at 5:30 or so, someone has to open the hotel door for me, and there is no one, not one person or vehicle, about. The streets are empty.

That was not the case for my one and only run from downtown. There were throngs of people everywhere, still reveling from the previous night. Of course they must have thought I was pretty strange. But that was mutual. Then I went into Casa de Campo, a very large park near the city center. There I encountered a plethora of prostitutes. I obviously wouldn’t be interested in their wares, but that didn’t stop them from making a few inquiries about my intentions.

Our last night of the trip was a Friday, so Steve and I went back to the city center for more walking and exploring. We checked out Columbus Plaza, which included some kind of strange ultra-modern expo that we failed to comprehend. We marveled, once again, at the throngs of pedestrians out on a Friday night. And we ate at a smoky, but excellent tapas bar, where we enjoyed the best tapas yet.

2007 Hawaii

2007-09-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

"The winds are wrong." That, according to Rita Cognion, is what the long-time kamaiana's (island residents) were saying. Instead of the usual trades from the north, these were coming from the south and were quite fierce, bringing some amount of damage and destruction. We got our share of rain over the 5 days we had in Maui, but also much nice weather as well. From our experiences, rain in Hawaii is never much of a problem, because it a) doesn't usually last real long, b) you can usually see and get to areas where the sun is shining and it isn't raining at all, c) it's liquid sunshine and you're in Hawaii to enjoy it and d) there's usually a rainbow to accompany it.

So after a day of lounging, we decided to drive up to the top of Haleakala to hike the Sliding Sands trail within the volcanic crater. It had been raining at our place in Wailea, but not to worry, I said. We would be above the clouds at the 10,000 foot summit and could laugh at the poor slobs getting rained on below. Sure enough, as we drove up the mountain, we did go through several layers of clouds. There was only one problem: they didn't stop. We didn't make it as far as the summit because the lady at the entrance to the national park told us it was cloudy and raining up there as well. The trip itself was neat anyway. Those rain clouds were pretty awesome, and there were plenty of rainbows in the places where the sun broke through.

We did manage to get a hike in that day. Down past the end of the road (see the running description below), there's a trail over extremely rough lava flows with some great shoreline views. We had done it partway one other time, but this time we went farther, all the way to what I'll call a light beacon: a light-house without the house. It was on a cape at (I think) the very southern tip of the island. Feels like the end of the earth. The surf from those "wrong winds" was splashing all the way up to the top and over 50 to 100 foot sea cliffs. Although the footing is awful, this is a great hike.

Besides that end-of-the-earth hike, and our usual 3-4 mile morning walk along the shoreline walk-way in Wailea, we did one other memorable hike. It was actually more of a climb, down to the "olivine pools", so named by our guidebook. These are on the shoreline on the northeast side of West Maui – what I call the back of the head. The pools are not unlike the Oheo Gulch, aka Seven Pools, but are much less known. They are tranquil pools almost entirely surrounded by rough ocean surf. We didn't get in for a soak, but they were neat to see. And we were the only people around. After the climb back up to the road, we continued to circumnavigate West Maui. That drive is every bit as beautiful and harrowing as the famous ride to Hana. After a while we got tired of stopping to admire the views (ho hum, just another spectacular view) and just kept driving, dodging the occasional oncoming vehicle in the one-lane areas. And of course we didn't take the recommended clockwise direction. Going counter-clockwise as we did means that the steep drop-off cliffs are ALWAYS next to you on the passenger side. Seemed like only inches away.

It was great to see Rita during our time on Maui. She and I ran together a couple times, including once to the end of the road. (I did another solo run there.) Did I mention that it seems like the end of the earth? It really does - especially when the early morning darkness is still there. It's such a memorable running venue, and I'll never forget it. But back to Rita. She's such a great friend, and not just because she lives in paradise! We ate one breakfast (where she was beat-up from our just mentioned long run), and several dinners together. George couldn't make it - he was stuck in Cleveland with the flu. Too bad - we missed him, and Rita seems downright lonely there. Rita and George do have a wonderful condo in Kihei, and she even took us to her office. We couldn't find her desk though - there was only a huge pile of papers (where the desk should have been) with a chair in her cubicle.

It was sad to say goodbye to Rita and to Maui, but it was on the Big Island. Lately we've been leaning more towards staying on one island because the trip between them takes so much time. This one sealed the deal: not only with time, but also stress. We thought we had plenty of time, but nooo: the wait for Hawaiian Air check-in was well over an hour. We did make it, but when we arrived in Kona, we learned that they lost our luggage. And then we had to wait well over an hour JUST TO REPORT IT. They did eventually deliver it to our hotel, but so late that night that we didn't actually get it till the next morning. One other problem that we were somewhat aware of coming in: construction at the Waikoloa Marriott. They have nice pools and the usual beach, but a makeshift entrance and lots of construction noise. To top off the evening we thought we'd try the expensive hotel restaurant, and the food was uncommonly bad. It was much worse than greasy spoon type stuff: they had to work at making these meals terrible. Such is life in paradise, I guess.

The best word to describe the Big Island is "sweeping". That's as in sweeping vistas. I'm thinking specifically of the coffee-growing area south of Kona, the Hamokua coast on the northeast side, and even in the Kohala region where we stayed. There are also probably more contrasts here than anywhere on the planet (at least for such a small area): rainforests, snowcapped mountains, deserts, black, white and green sand beaches, and, of course, lava flows galore. But it's those sweeping vistas that I think of first when I think of the place. There's been only one problem with these vistas: it's been more hazy than for our previous trips here. More on this "vog" later...

The Big Island truly is big. It takes hours to get around or across it. We drove south of Kailua-Kona and toured the Bayview coffee plantation and bought a fare share of their beans. The scenery, gardens and coffee plantations make the area are as beautiful as any on the planet. But it's the Hamokua coast area where I've said before, and again on this trip, that I'd love to live. Once again, great views, and not too much development. It seems almost, but not quite, devoid of people. That's where we hiked quite a ways through the new World Tropical Gardens. Along the way we stopped at Umauma falls - a really beautiful triple tier waterfall and pools.

The running on the Big Island is as awesome as any running anywhere. Although I'd been sick with yet another cold (and never completely recovered from my long-term chest congestion), I ran up the mountain past the village of Waikoloa, up to the area recently hit by the wild-fire. As the sun began to rise, I had great views of all the mountains around me: Mouna Kea, Mouna Loa, Huaalalai, Kohala, but not Haleakala - it was obscured by clouds this time. It's 10 miles up, and my legs felt it - I got slower and slower. When I turned to go back down, I picked up the pace, but even this quad-burning part of the run wasn't exactly easy. But the scenery made it all extremely memorable. I did this run once again on our last day on the island. It was even more awesome, with a great sunrise and mostly clear views of the mountains.

As my cold was beginning to get better, Debbie got it. So we spent a couple days lounging around the resort, where we did manage to get some walking and swimming in. We also made it to Kailua Kona for an evening meal overlooking the bay and the sunset.

It was also hazy at the Pololu valley up at the northern tip of the island. We'd hiked down into the valley before, but this time we were going for the whole enchilada: down into the valley, over to the next ridge and over and down that into the nearly inaccessible Honokana Nui valley. And, of course, back. After a very strenuous 90 minutes of hiking up and down the ridges, we finally got to a point where we could at least see the Honokana Nui valley. It was a beautiful sight from the top, but we couldn't go any further: there was earthquake damage to the trail going down there. Not that we'd have been able to make it anyway -we were tuckered out and still had to get back. Which we did, somehow, manage to do. But those views of both valleys made this a really great hike.

We found out that the haziness we’d been experiencing is called "vog" - volcanic fog. It's caused by the ash, dust, fumes, water vapor and other gasses being emitted from the volcano. It's usually blown away by the trade winds, but those winds have still been "wrong". We did wind up having a few beautiful clear days towards the end of our stay.

We spent a day at Hawaii Volcanos National Park, in part to find the source of the vog. (Not really - we knew what it was.) We listened to a talk by a ranger, did several walks including part of the Kilauea Iki trail (although not the part inside the crater), a short walk to the inside of Kilauea crater itself and a walk in "bird park", which was nice, but we only heard and didn't see too many birds. The exception was a couple of black frankolins. They're like grouse or wild chickens. We did see some bright red Hawaiian Honeycreepers while we were listening to the ranger. We intend to come back again some day (this was our third time here at the park) and hike the entire Kilauea Iki trail.

And that was about it. We had a wonderful visit with Rita, some great hikes and a few excellent meals at Roy’s and other restaurants. Don’t know when we’ll be back, but we’re hoping it’ll be soon.

2007 Florida

2007-09-01T02:15:00.001-07:00

We picked up Mom and then Dave and Carol and headed off to Orlando, via Atlanta. Based on his flight experience, Dave has a new horror movie title: Babies on a Plane. Betsy and Ed had dinner for us that night. I had had a cold to begin with, but it had gotten worse during the week, and then much worse still on the plane. Betsy tried to fix me up by giving me a tablespoon of coconut oil. It was sort of like lard, and I figured it would either cure or kill me.

Unfortunately, it did neither. I had what wound up being a chest cold, and/or bronchitis for the rest of the week. Maybe I needed a few more dollops of that stuff.

The four of us stayed at the Lake Roy Beach Inn. Contrary to what we read about it, it seemed dated and not entirely clean. We saw some geckos on the outside of the window of Dave and Carol’s room. Then Carol discovered that they’d been inside at some point as well – they had left their calling cards around the windowsill. All this tended to upset her a bit.

Bright and early the next day we all went to the flea market on route 27 near Winter Haven. Could’ve spent all day there. It’s Americana at its best. We also stopped at the Cleveland Indians Spring Training facility even though they’re not there just yet.

Before heading down to Fort Myers, we stopped at the Florida Aviation Museum. Saw some old planes, and at least one newer warbird. I got a picture of what looks like Mom in the cockpit of one of them. The four of us took off from there, and Betsy, Ed and Mom went back to their place.

Our place in Fort Myers, a 2-bedroom condo at the Pink Shell, was beautiful. It appeared to be newly renovated. Too bad Fort Myers Beach itself had a major issue: seaweed. Although the sand was pure white, there was a large area of seaweed along the shore. At some places it was a foot or more high. And it stunk. We eventually learned that it was due to the channeling of pollutants in Lake Okeechobee out through a river that ended up there in Fort Myers. The river apparently causes the seaweed to wash up there. This is only a recent phenomenon, and no one seems to know what to do about it. The guy scraping the beach said he wasn’t allowed to move it out of the way. Between that gunk and my chest cold, I didn’t go in the ocean the whole time.

We went to a nature preserve on Sanibel Island. It was a self-drive 4-mile tour; we made many stops and saw a whole mess of birds and a small gater. It was pretty neat stuff. After the preserve we continued driving on up to Captiva Island where we’d heard had no seaweed. They lied, but it wasn’t quite as bad.

We also drove down to Naples to visit Aunt Sue and Uncle Jim. Had a nice time – they have a nice condo there. After dinner we walked the Naples pier and then had ice cream.

For our last act we drove to the Everglades for an airboat ride. We went both fast and slow through mangrove forests, and saw a gater in the water coming towards us – especially when the driver placed his hand in the water. We also had some pelicans land on our boat looking for handouts. It was loads of fun. Saw a BIG Honkin Gater later on.

And that was pretty much it. Too bad we didn’t have more time.

2006 Greece

2007-08-31T15:28:00.001-07:00

Getting There
The entire 2-week trip – including the cost, which was not insignificant – was passing before my eyes. Due to weather in the New York area (it doesn’t matter what kind of weather; any weather will do it - in this case it was a drop or two of rain), our flight to Newark was delayed by over 2 hours, which would cause us to miss our connection to Frankfort, along with our subsequent flights to Paris and then Athens. Our options? Go ahead and begin missing connections or wait until tomorrow. This latter one wasn’t really an option because we would then miss the beginning of the tour and have to hook up with the group in faraway (from Athens) Kalambaka. God knows how we’d manage that.

So we chose the first option and decided to beg for mercy to anyone wearing a Continental uniform. The third try did it. A lady at the Customer Service Desk spent over an hour with our complicated itinerary and made it sensible and doable. We went straight from Newark to Paris, bypassing Frankfort altogether, and then on to Athens. Not only did this work, it even did so for our luggage as well!

We met our Tour Director, Gordon Spicer upon checking into the Acropolis Select Hotel. Ate moussaka for dinner at God’s Restaurant. Really.

Athens
The city tour of Athens was pretty good. We saw the Panathenic Stadium, used for the first modern Olympic games in 1896, as well as for the 2004 Games’ Marathon finish. We saw the ancient Theater of Dionysis (the god of wine) at the base of the Acropolis, and of course the Acropolis itself.

Acropolis means hill-city, and many ancient Greek cities have them. But when we talk about The Acropolis, we’re talking about the one in Athens. At the top are a few temples in various states of repair, the most famous being the Parthenon. The size and scale of the Parthenon are amazing. It had survived intact for 2,000 years, until bombing in a war between Turkey and Italy caused the roof to collapse. The state of disrepair actually seems to add to its allure. There is a beautiful view of all of Athens from the Acropolis as well. We had seen the top and the Parthenon all lit up the night before.

Why did the Ancient Greeks build so many ruins? This actual query is to be the title of Gordon’s someday-to-be-written book. Even after 37 years of being a tour director, he never ceases to be amazed at the people who take these tours. He’s already assured us that we’ll be in the book as well. Although he’s funny at times, Gordon does seem efficient and competent so far.

It is a long bus ride from Athens in the south to Kalambaka in the north. Along the way we passed Marathon, where the first one took place, the plains of Thessaly, featuring miles of cotton, mountains galore, etc. Once in Kalambaka, Debbie and I dined with Margaret and Peter from the UK and Bernie and Linda from Australia.

Meteora
Meteora is the site of several monasteries near Kalambaka. These Orthodox monasteries are perched atop huge rocks in unfathomable ways. Looking up at them from town, my initial thought was that we could never, in a bazillion years, drive to anywhere near them, but drive near to them we did, and in a bus no less. We toured the Varlaam and Bapbapac monasteries and also stopped at a third one. The views were great from up there; it was not unlike Yosemite. This and other things were good topics of conversation with our new friends from California, Jack and Glorina. Although it was still called a monastery, Bapbapac was actually a nunnery. One of the nuns made sure that all the women who entered were wearing skirts or dresses covering the knees; a wrap could be borrowed if necessary. No one tried to sneak by her for fear of getting slapped with a ruler.

Of course the best part of today’s visit was that I was able to tell anyone who’d listen about my friend who actually joined one of these monasteries. You know, the one that was so strict that the monks were only allowed to speak two words every ten years. After ten years of extremely hard, backbreaking work, my friend went to the head monk and exclaimed, “Hard work.” The head monk replied, “OK. We will note your comments. Now go back to work.” After another ten years of toil, my friend said, “I’m tired.” The head monk replied, “Noted. Now get back to work.” After yet another 10 years, my friend said, “I quit.” The head monk replied, “I’m not surprised. You’ve done nothing but complain for thirty years.

After the monasteries, it was on to Delphi, back in the southern part of Greece. So far we seem to have had moussaka and a Greek salad, complete with a liter of olive oil, every day of the trip.

Delphi
The modern village of Delphi is very nice. Much of the town has a great view of the gulf of Corinth. The Delphi archeological site is most beautiful and serene. Debbie and I walked a long way from the area of Apollo’s Temple to see the famous three columns of the rotunda. We were the only ones there, and it was very quiet and peaceful. We could see why the area had religious significance for the ancient Greeks.

The Oracle of Delphi was actually a series of women who told fortunes for the ancient Greeks; anyone up to and including kings. Legend has it that the Oracle would hear the request and then enter the nearby cave for inspiration before returning to tell the fortune. It is now believed that the Oracles experienced hallucinations resulting from gasses within the cave.

“Calimara” means “good morning” in Greek. I must remember not to wish anyone “calamari”, which means squid. We ate some calamari for lunch at a nice place on a typical Mediterranean beach. Then it was across the bridge to the Peloponnesian peninsula. There are mountains everywhere in Greece. It seems a bit like California in this way, and unfortunately it also has the smog, especially in the south. By evening we made it to Olympia to stay at the Olympia Palace. It’s the nicest of the hotels we’ve been at. The food and location were great, and it’s just a short walk to the Olympic site.

Olympia
This is the place where it all began in 776 B.C. The ancient games were held every four years for over a millennium. Pope/Roman Emperor Theodosius I put an end to them in 394 A.D. I find it interesting that the Greeks kept track of the years by the Olympiad along with the name of the winner of the sprint from that year. As we walked through the awesome tunnel and into the original stadium, I couldn’t help but get some goose bumps. Of course I had to take a run back and forth on the approximately 200-meter course. Other folks eventually got the idea to do so too. By mutual consent, we all decided not to run naked like the Greeks did.

Nearby is the ruins of the temple to Olympian Zeus, which contained one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, a giant gold and marble statue of Zeus. It was destroyed by the same Emperor Theodosius I who put an end to the games. What a guy.

Our tours of these places is falling into a pattern set by Gordon: get an early wake-up call, go to breakfast early, get the luggage ready and out of the room early, and get on with the site-seeing early. Although there is some grumbling, everyone realizes that getting to these sites early is extremely important. We are beating all the huge crowds that are just beginning to arrive in caravans of tour busses just as we are leaving. The crowds, not to mention the heat, must be really awful in the summer. Speaking of heat, we’ve had wonderful weather: the days have been sunny and the temperatures have ranged from about 45 to 50 at night to 65 to 70 during the days. Yes, this is the time to go.

We can’t help but believe that the ancient Greeks, or at least the Romans who followed, had better plumbing than the modern Greeks do. Most toilets are somewhat functional, except for a few places where they are literally just a hole in the ground. The hotel showers are a topic of conversation for everyone though. So small that one can’t turn around; made so that the water floods into and all over the tiny bathroom; shower curtains that wind up sticking to your body; I could go on and on.

Epidaurus and Nafplia
We toured the ancient theater of Epidaurus, which seats 14,000, has fantastic acoustics, and is still used to this day.

The city of Nafplia was our next destination. It is a beautiful town along the sea: very Mediterranean, and a nice place to walk. We ate dinner at a nice outdoor restaurant in an alley along with Peter and Margaret. Glorina and Jack were nearby as well.

Mycenae and Corinth
The Mycenae archeological site is hundreds of years older than the others we’ve seen. It’s famous as the home of Agamemnon who, according to the Iliad, led the Greeks in the Trojan War around 1100 B.C. Parts of the site are older still, and much is still being excavated. We saw the famous Lion’s Gate (amongst the 18-foot wide city walls) and the Beehive tomb. Unfortunately we had a foggy day and couldn’t see much of the surrounding scenery from the Mycenaean acropolis, which we were told was outstanding. Maybe we’ll see it next time we’re around.

We subsequently drove on to Corinth for a brief stop. This is the place where Paul gave his letters to the Corinthians. He obviously didn’t trust the Greek Postal Service.

Athens
Once back in Athens, Jack and Glorina, Bill and Jenny from Sydney, Shirley and Ray from Fort Worth, and the two of us all trekked over to the Benaki Museum. A mixture of art and artifacts were there for the viewing. We walked back through the Plaka district and stopped for dinner at a nice outdoor café on a square.

Cape Sounion
Since there was nothing better to do in the morning before the cruise, we took an optional side trip to Cape Sounion. There we saw Poseidon’s Temple, which commands a spectacular panoramic view of the Aegean and Ionian Seas.

Cruisin’
That first week sure had been busy – on the go every day. The theory was that once we got on the cruise ship that we’d be able to finally relax in the lap of luxury and high living. Sure, we knew that the MS Perla wasn’t going to be newest and fanciest ship in the fleet, but we went with it because it was priced right through Cosmos, and because it had a great itinerary.

First the good news. The Perla’s food was excellent. We weren’t enamored with the buffet, but the food in the main dining room was great. The ship’s entertainment was also good. The five or six singers and dancers were the same every night except for the occasional magic show, and that was good as well. The best part was that we wouldn’t need to pack and unpack every day; we could unpack and stay put for the week.

The bad news begins with, unpack to where? Our stateroom was literally much smaller than our bedroom closet in our last house. There were a couple tiny drawers and an itsy bitsy closet. The walls were paper thin, so that we could hear everything going on in the three adjacent rooms. My 18-inch bed was against the wall, so that I was only inches away from the guy in the room next to us, and he snored like a grizzly bear. I used earplugs. Modern Greek plumbing being as it is, bad smells emitting from the bathroom drains had Debbie stuffing towels into all of them. I was half expecting us to begin having Oracle-like hallucinations. And leave it to the Greeks to come up with one-sided toilet paper; heaven help you if you use the rough side….

So although we weren’t expecting the Ritz, the ship was still below our expectations. In spite of all this, we were having a wonderful time. This was mostly because we were spending so much time with all our new Cosmos friends. 28 of the original 42 had opted for continuing on with the cruise, and we were almost like a family now; a family with Father Goose, Gordon. A few of these folks that we became very good friends with, besides those already mentioned, include Becky from B.C., Valda from Rotorua, N.Z., Jeff from Oakland, C.J. and Lay Chen from Malaysia, Gail and Joanne from near Brisbane, Joan from Canberra, and (Panama) Jack, along with Sandy and Al from Florida.

“Hit Di Road Jack!” As good as the entertainment was, these Eastern Europeans were not quite Ray Charles’ material. Later one of them gave Greek dancing lessons: “Step, step behind, keek; step, step behind, keek.” We did only some dancing, but the Greek music was just as our old friend Linda Rafalski had described: “The music starts slowly, and then goes faster and faster, as does the dancing. It ends at its fastest, and then everyone yells OPA! Then the next piece begins slowly, goes faster and faster, and everyone yells OPA! Then the next piece begins slowly… and so on.”

To get from Athens to Istanbul, we cruised through the night and much of the next day. We had hoped to arrive in the afternoon in time to get to the Grand Bazaar. Unfortunately for some reason the Turkish government held us from entering the Dardenells straights for several hours and we didn’t arrive until evening.

Istanbul
Arriving after dark, there wasn’t time to see or do much. We took a short walk before discovering that the laser show we were looking for was best seen from the deck of the ship. We managed to get back in time to catch part of it. The show was part of the celebration for the next day’s Turkey Independence Day celebration.

The following morning I got out for a run in which I made an attempt to run from Europe, across a bridge to Asia. The bridge turned out to be further away than it looked, and I had to turn back as I was running out of time. I have never seen so many flags. Big ones and little ones were on display everywhere for the holiday.

Our all-day city tour took us to the Blue Mosque, one of Islam’s largest and most impressive, the Aya Sofia museum, once a huge Christian cathedral dating from the Byzantine Empire and later converted to a mosque, and finally Topkapi Palace, which, along with one piece of our furniture, dates from the Ottoman Empire. Topkapi provides great views of Istanbul, along with relics of Mohammed himself. The jewels on display, including an 86 karat diamond and some equally huge emeralds, put Great Britain’s Crown Jewels to shame.

Turkey has a secular government, and although well over 90% Islamic, is not fundamentally so like several other countries. Our guide covered her head whilst in the Blue Mosque, but explained that even this was optional. About halfway through the day we were walking around when we heard the noon call to prayer blasted from the Blue Mosque’s minarets. It was all pretty exotic stuff.

Mykonos
When you imagine a Greek Island, Mykonos is what you think of. All the houses and other buildings, even the 400 or so churches, are painted white, and the whitewashing must be done a couple times a year. Only some of the trim may contain bits of color. Even the space between the stones on the walkways is white. We strolled through town, stopping at churches, the hill-top windmills, and for the town’s famous pelican (the one that tried to swallow Gail, whole) before the rain began. Glorina, Jack, Debbie and I made it under an awning to wait it out. Soon it was a storm of biblical proportions. We made a run for it when it abated a bit. Our shoes were soaked from having to step through the flooded areas of the streets.

So much for Mykonos. At least we had had a bit of time there to enjoy it.

Patmos
Yet another of the picturesque Greek Islands is Patmos. We took in some of the scenery before heading to the Cave of the Apocalypse, where John wrote the book of Revelation. The cave is part of an Orthodox Monestary, and a liturgy was taking place at the time, so we had to be quiet and respectful for a change. We did see the large crack in the ceiling that is traditionally thought to have been caused by either God, an earthquake, or both, inspiring the book. I think if I was sitting there and an earthquake caused a crack like that, I’d have a Revelation too.

Kusadasi and Ephesus
After just a few hours on Patmos, we sailed for Kusadasi, on the mainland of Turkey, arriving mid-afternoon. Nearby is the ancient Roman city of Ephesus. The size and scale were enormous; the place must have rivaled Rome itself in its day. We saw a theater similar to the others we’ve been to, a library, a brothel, and everyone’s favorite, the toilets, which still looked usable. Saint Paul preached and wrote (the book of Ephesians) here as well.

Later we went to the Kusadasi bazaar where we were physically pulled into every shop. We wound up bargaining for some leather jackets, but in the end said no because Debbie’s didn’t fit, and I was too afraid of being swindled even though the price seemed great.

Rhodes
Rhodes is a large island, and we spent the day there. In the morning we hopped on a bus and toured the town of Lindos, a beautiful little town along the Mediterranean. It’s been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years. The cobblestone steps were so treacherous and slippery that Debbie and many of the others turned back from the trip to the town’s acropolis. Who thought those cobblestones would be a good idea? Could it be one of the Greek master plumbers? Though smaller, this acropolis is not unlike the one in Athens, and it did have wonderful views.

There was another heavy rainstorm, but in the afternoon we walked over to Rhodes Old Town, a medieval walled city within the larger Rhodes city proper. What a great place – it was just like being at a permanent Renaissance or Middle Ages fair. It was also a bit like Prague. The town’s port also once contained the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge statue to welcome incoming ships and another of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Debbie and I managed to get extremely lost and became a bit frightened that we wouldn’t make it back to the ship before it sailed away. A little old local woman figured out that we were off track and pointed the way, and we made it in time.

Crete
This would be our final pile of rocks: the palace of Knossis. It is an entire city contained within a single palace, which contained over 1,600 rooms. These rocks were part of the oldest civilization we’d seen yet, that of the Minoan Empire of 4,000 years ago. This empire rivaled that of the Egyptians.

In theory the collapse of the Minoan empire was precipitated by the largest tsunami in recorded history caused by the 1700 B.C. Santorini volcano. The disaster to the Minoans of Crete as well as the civilization on Santorini itself is probably the source of the legend of Atlantis.

Santorini
We only had a few hours in the afternoon and evening to see this spectacular island. It was certainly the most beautiful of any we’d seen, and that is saying something. The scale of what’s left from the volcano is enormous, and the town is perched high up on the rim. After tendering over to the island, we took a cable car to the top. What a view! Along with Glorina and Jack, we walked for several miles along the rim. The sunset was great from up there.

Athens
Yes, we were back to the Acropolis Select for the third time. Time to say goodbye to Gordon, who would soon be married in London. All agreed that he did a great job to enable us to have a wonderful holiday.

Would we relax and brace ourselves for the next day’s long arduous trip? Naaah! Even though we were tired, several of us (Jenny, Bill, Glorina, Jack, C.J., Ley Chen, Becky, Joan and Debbie and I) made our way to the National Archeological Museum via the metro. It was by far the best museum we’d seen. There was the bronze statue of Poseiden, now thought to be Zeus, the golden death mask of Agamemnon and many other treasures. After lunch at a sidewalk café, we walked the long road back. Along the way we ventured through a flea market (it was very similar to the ones in America), a meat market with entire carcasses hanging around, and a fish market. We also walked around the ancient agora, a market place dating from the golden age of Greece. Turned out that I had lied about no more rocks and ruins.

By the time we arrived back at the hotel, Debbie had had it. She had succumbed to the cold/flu virus that had been going around. We ate dinner at God’s again and said goodbye to all our friends. We’ll miss them, one and all, for the trip was very much enriched by the experience of having them with us.

2006 Dan in Iberia (Madrid, Lisbon)

2007-08-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

It was the very second after they closed the door and announced that cell phones were to be shut off that I had my panic attack. It was Sunday night and I would arrive in Madrid on Monday morning. Yet I had made the hotel reservation for Sunday night, checking out on Tuesday. I really had only needed one night (Monday), and I was worried that they would cancel my whole reservation when I failed to show up on Sunday. I snuck my phone out and clandestinely called Debbie, leaving her a message to contact the hotel. She did, and all was ok there on Monday morning. Very very modern hotel with thin tv, fancy lighting, computer and spray-all-over shower.

The second panic attack occurred while I was unpacking. I forgot my electrical adapter! This could be very bad - I only have a couple hours of battery life in my laptop and would need far more than that. I asked at the hotel lobby where I could get one, and they suggested a long walk to a Best Buy type store. No luck. The store guy suggested this shopping mall. More long walking, still no luck. Finally, back at the hotel, they arranged for a cab to get me to a large kmart type store (Hipercor), where I finally did get my adapter. There is tons of construction in this new part of Madrid.

Now that most of the day was gone, I had little time for sightseeing. I learned to take a bus and two subway trains to get to the city center. It was pretty neat down there with lots of shopping and restaurants. I didn't really get to see much that was historic or cultural however; just typical European city life. Unlike other parts of Europe, relatively few Spaniards speak English. This provides many cultural experiences in and of itself.

There were no major problems with work, and I made it from Madrid to Lisbon with no major mishaps. Except of course for the problem of using ATMs. I tried 5 different machines in Madrid before they put me on the fraud list and called Debbie to tell on me. They were not allowing the transactions in the first place because Spain is a fraud nightmare for them. Debbie straightened them out. There were also some connectivity problems that kept me up on Tuesday night.

I spent the day on Wednesday doing a full day tour of Lisbon and the surrounding area. Portugal is really beautiful, and there is certainly more to see. Today I saw recreations of: the Golden Gate Bridge (the Portuguese version is called the “Bridge 25th of April”), the Rio De Janeiro statue of Christ, and the palace of Versailles. All were actually pretty impressive, generally built by the same folks who built the originals. There was lots more as well.

· The famous Tower of Belem: a castle on the river to guard the city. It’s sort of symbolic of Portugal.
· The modern monument dedicated to Portuguese maritime discoveries. The name says it all.
· Mosteiro dos Jeronimos: a famous old monastery and cathedral in Belem, and an excellent example of Manueline architecture. I’m not sure I can describe this style, but I may know it now when I see it. Of course it only exists on Portugal.
· The Coach Museum. The Portuguese are justifiably proud to have the finest coach museum in the world. Don’t ever settle for one of those lesser coach museums; this one is truly the best. By the way, it’s coach as in a buggy pulled by horses, not a sports team chief.
· Port wine tasting (a tablespoon) and a taste of Belem pastry – pudding in a puff pastry shell. Yum.
· A walk through the Alfama barrio. It’s a neighborhood that’s famous for its narrow streets and alleys.
After a very long walk to the hotel and back again during lunch, I continued on, and saw:
· The palace of Queluz. It’s the Versailles of Portugal. I kept wondering if they call the building in the Paris area the “Queluz of France”. This one really was very impressive as well, though. Even the gardens reminded me of the real thing.
· The town of Sintra. It’s a medieval town in the hills. It’s very picturesque, but I didn’t do so well with my photos there. I couldn’t even find the palace on the hill. But it was a neat place anyway.
· A couple stops along the Atlantic coast, one to see the ocean battering some rocks and the other to the town of Estoril, where there is some tourist activity and a casino.

That’s about it. Did I mention that it was a “full” day?

My day of work in Lisbon was busy, but I made it through. The client office is in a set of ultra-modern buildings in a different part of Lisbon. More to see if I ever come back.

Here’s hoping that I do.

2006 Dan in Central Europe (Budapest, Prague, Bucharest)

2007-08-31T15:20:00.001-07:00

Dan’s Trip to Central Europe – July, 2006

Budapest
There was the usual confusion and disorientation that occurs when one travels overnight. This resulted in me almost missing my connection from Amsterdam to Budapest after I stood for too long in the wrong line for a boarding pass. But I made it to my very nice hotel room overlooking the Danube.

The Danube, by the way, isn’t entirely blue. It’s more of a slate gray. Also from my window I can see Castle Hill, including the Royal Palace, the famous Chain Bridge, part of Gelert Hill, and other parts of Buda. Hilly Buda is on the west side of the river, while flat Pest, where I’m located, is on the east. I can remember this because of a trick that Debbie told to me. Buda-Pest reads the way it does on a map: Buda on the left and Pest on the right, with the north-south Danube in between.

Debbie and I had fun trying to communicate with each other for free over the internet, using Skype. We’ve still got some kinks to work out, but we did manage to talk.

My work schedule appears to be very busy; I don’t think I’ll have very much time for sightseeing other than a few hours on Saturday and all day Sunday. As an effort towards making the most of this, I took a long 2+ hour walk to see the sights. I started by walking across the famous 1840’s era Chain Bridge, which had entertainment and other outdoor festivities at both ends. Heading north along the river, I had a great view of the Parliament Building, famous for its gothic style. I also went onto Margaret Island, a large island in the Danube, connected to both banks by a bridge. There’s a running track all the way around the island, so I’ll be spending at least a few of my mornings there.

For my morning run I managed to get back to Margaret Island where I did two circuits. The nice soft rubberized track is there for almost the entire circumference, which is a bit more than 3 miles. It’s a few miles to get there and back, and it was getting warm, but what a nice run it was.

My all-day Sunday sightseeing began with a walk across the Elizabeth Bridge and then up, up, up Gellert Hill. There are many paths, but they all seem to lead to the top, and they’re all steep. At the top is the Citadella, or Citadel, a fortress built during the 1848-1849 War of Independence. Also at the top is the Liberation Monument, a statue commemorating liberation from the Soviets. Budapest abounds in statues; there are probably more of them than people here. I’m mostly just kidding, but this one is queen of them all. You can see her from everywhere in the city and she’s huge. The views from the citadel are also the best around. I explored a bit, and then headed down the opposite side.

At the base of the hill on that opposite side is the Gellert Hotel, which includes a spa and famous baths. Although it was very hot, and I could have used one, I wasn’t sure of the clothing requirements, and therefore didn’t partake. I did see the outdoor pools, where bathing suits were, I noticed, indeed required.

I then walked around Gellert Hill and over to, and up Castle Hill. Did I mention that it was hot? This was about the time that Debbie would start calling it a Death March. I somehow managed to stay vertical, and spent a few hours exploring the shops and architecture at the top. There are all sorts of churches and museums. I certainly could have spent more time there, but it was time to go over to see the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace, aka Buda Castle, is very impressive. It was partially destroyed during World War II, but has been mostly restored. It’s humongous – took me a whole week to walk around the dang thing.

Budapest is an incredibly beautiful city. It’s almost hard to believe that my father’s family is from here, with some possibly still around. “Your name is Hungarian, no?” Every group I met with had at least one person ask me about my background. They all seemed interested to hear about my family. I only wish I could have told them more.

I did get to try some traditional Hungarian foods: Chicken Paprikas (not too different than Debbie’s, except maybe a bit spicier), Goulash, and of course lots of bakery.

Work was even busier than I had expected, so there would be no more sightseeing in Budapest. I did manage to spend the second to last evening at the Spoon Café, which is a boat more or less permanently moored in the Danube. Two of my clients, Gabor Barta and Krisztian Molnar took me there. It was a beautiful setting as the sun set in the Buda hills and the Buda Castle and Chain Bridge lights came on as darkness enveloped us. Pretty good Hungarian food there too.

Somehow I couldn’t help but notice: the Hungarian women I worked with were extremely beautiful. Since Debbie may read this, I’ll try not to notice such things in Prague. Yes, Budapest was great – I only wish I had had more time there. Now on to Prague.

Prague
Work has been so busy that as of my first couple of days, I haven’t seen much of Prague at all. I did get to see some of it during the rides to and from work, and on my morning run. But not much. This weekend will be different; I plan to see a lot.

I did have an interesting cultural experience. Public transportation is always a cultural experience for me, and Prague turns out to be no different. While I was able to walk, albeit a long walk, to work in Budapest, it’s much too far to walk in Prague. Taxis are a bit of a pain too, so I resolved to take the tram, which is a slow rapid transit type of thing. After asking a bazillion questions (where do I catch it, which one, what direction, how do I buy a ticket, how do I stamp it, etc), I somehow got everything right (at least the first time) and got to work ok.

I FINALLY got caught up with work, just in time for the weekend. Czech this out: I worked with Ludvik Cermak (from Pilsen by the way, and he pronounced it, “Chermock”), I’ve been eating livance, bread dumplings with roast duck and cabbage, bread dumplings with weiner schnitzel and stew, and so on. Didn’t like that pun about czeching it out? OK – no more. I should note, however, that in the news here, there was a Czech Scientist and an American Scientist studying bears in Alaska. A whole family of bears came upon them and ate them completely up. Authorities tracked the bears down and killed them. Then they opened up the female bear up, and found the American still alive inside. Of course he said, “The Czech’s in the male.” Sorry, I lied about the puns.

It was bound to happen. After about 19 miles of being mostly lost and running on mostly cobblestone streets and sidewalks, I was in my final mile nearing the hotel, and crash! Yes, I tripped on a cobblestone. No, I didn’t hurt myself – I landed mostly on my hands. My biggest concern was whether anyone saw me. As I was running, I couldn’t help but observe that whereas Budapest seemed to have more statues than people, Prague seems to have more castles than people.

Some musical pieces seem to describe places very well: think of Appalachian Spring by Copland, the New World Symphony by Dvorak and the Hungarian Dances by Brahms. But none are better than the Moldau by Smetana. When I hear this music, I can feel in my bones that I’m in Prague. Each time I turn on the TV here, that music is playing as part of the hotel channel, which is just an ad for the establishment here. But I always let it play for a while – I never tire of it, and it really gets me in that “Pragean” mood.

Moldau, by the way, is the English/German way of saying the name of the river that runs through Prague. The Czechs call it Vltava. I can’t for the life of me figure out how they get from an English word from these Czech spellings. Wenceslas Square is Vaclavske Namesti, Charles Bridge is Karluv Most, and of course Old Town Square is Staromestske Namesti. Either Czechs can’t spell, or we can’t pronounce these places. Maybe both.

One would hope that with place names such as those, that at least street signs would be helpful. They are, unfortunately, non-existent. And, according to Czech law, there aren’t any streets at all that go straight. I think I saw some tourists that were still lost from the 12th century. I myself got as lost as I’ve been for many years during this morning’s run. But I couldn’t think of any better place on the planet to be lost in.

Yes, Prague is simply not believable. It’s castle upon castle. Almost any one of the buildings here would be a fantastic historical sight in and of it’s own. And there are THOUSANDS of them. Each one is unique in character, history and beauty.

After my run in which I saw a whole lot of Prague, I saw a whole lot of it again by taking a city tour. It was pretty good, but I probably could have managed on my own too. We drove through New Town (new being relative here – it was built in the 14th century) and through some other parts, and then walked around Prague Castle and the Castle District, the Lesser Town District, the Charles Bridge, and finally Old Town, including Old Town Square. During the tour, I heard a lot about Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech Republic. I mentioned to the guide that I had attended St. Wenceslas School and church. “Oh”, she said. (Not really – she was actually very interested.)

After resting up, I decided to walk over to Wenceslas Square in New Town, since I had only seen that by bus. The statue of Wenceslas is one of the most imposing I’ve seen anywhere – except maybe the Statue of Liberty, and perhaps Budapest’s Liberation Monument. But the setting here is really great.

I also walked over to Charles Square, and then over to the Charles Bridge and back again through Old Town.

I said I wouldn’t notice the Czech women. But I lied about this too. They are beautiful as well, and - let me put this as delicately as possible – they all have those big boobs. It took a while, but a few days later I was thinking about this statement when the irony hit me like a falling piano. Here I was, a wild and crazy guy from America looking at those big Czech breasts.

For my second long run in two consecutive days I pulled the “get lost in Prague” trick again. At least I didn’t trip on a cobblestone this time. I found my way north, up through Letenske Park, where I ran yesterday, and into Stromovska Park. It’s a woodsy place, but there’s also a canal and another river running through. Lots of good running there.

Having spent a day exploring Prague, I had it figured that I’d seen it all and had booked a trip to a castle outside of town, somewhere in the hills of Bohemia. Sounded good until the morning, when I started thinking that I’d had enough of tours; I’d be fine with exploring inside of Prague on my own some more. So I canceled. There had to be at least a couple more things to see.

After about an hour of walking (mostly up), I arrived at Prague Castle once again. I felt there was more to see, and I had an unused ticket for a climb to the top of St. Vitas Cathedral, all 300 to 400 stairs or whatever. The cathedral wasn’t open, so I had some time to kill. I walked up some more to Strahovsky Klaster, a monastery up in the hills. They have a famous old library, and the inside of the church looks almost like the Sistine chapel. No photography, of course.

After some further exploration of the Hrdcany, or Castle District (there’s that Czech spelling again), I squeezed my way between the throngs of people, and into St. Vitas for the climb up the tower. I pulled out my ticket and realized it was the wrong one – it was a used one from something else from yesterday. Yes, I could’ve bought one, but when I thought about it, I determined that it just wasn’t to be.

Bucharest
I’ve learned that it’s not pronounced “boo-ka-rest” as I thought, it’s really “bew-ka-rest”. Keep this in mind if you ever go there.

The Romanian people I’ve been meeting with all have heavy 5-oclock shadows, and thick, bushy mustaches and eyebrows. And you should see the men. I’m 100% kidding about this. I did really work with one lady who had a pronounced ‘widow’s peak’. That’s the Dracula hairdo look with the pointy area of the hairline. Kinda the opposite of what I have.

Getting to and from work is an adventure each and every time. Taxis are plentiful and cheap, and they are about the only way for me to get across town from the hotel. There is only one rule for driving here: there are no rules. That’s not entirely true – there really are a few traffic laws that are followed, such as: always turn left from the right lane, speed up if the traffic ahead of you is slowing down, and use the horn a lot in the event that you happen to be traveling toward oncoming traffic in their lane or if you happen to be going the wrong way on a one-way street. For some odd reason, the traffic really does stop for traffic signals. Go figure.

I’m staying right across the street from the Palace of Parliament, one of the world’s largest buildings. I can see it from my hotel window. It was started by the communist regime and finished after they were overthrown. It took me 15 minutes to run around it this morning. The running here is ok by the way – but there’s lots of air pollution. The funny thing is that the Marriott hotel that I’m staying in appears to be built in the same style as the palace (it’s very fancy) and is almost as big. It’s actually a bit too ostentatious for my taste.

Having gotten used to running circuits around the palace and the adjacent park, I finally decided to be a bit more adventurous for my last run in Bucharest. I went around the palace and kept going down a long boulevard, stumbling my way into the city center. I guess I hadn’t seen it from the many different routes I’d taken by taxi. It’s fairly interesting with a fountain, a central square, and commercial activity all around. My run also took me for several miles along a canal that bisects the city. Pretty decent running, but I’ll be happy when I’m running at home again. I did also head back to the hotel to get the camera. Took a couple of the city center, got one more of the palace, and some of me running in the park as well. In the evening I did some more exploring of the city center when there were more people around. Their ‘old town’ area has some shops and restaurants, but it’s pretty run down. I saw some of the still-present bullet-holes in the buildings from the revolution that occurred here in the late 80’s. the square in the middle does have a nice fountain and is surrounded by more modern shopping, not to mention advertisements.

I think they’re going to let me go home now, based on my mostly good behavior. I’ll try to stay good so I don’t have to come back.

2006 Dan in Dusseldorf

2007-08-31T15:19:00.001-07:00

Out of all the places for phase 1 of this client project, Germany wouldn't have been my top choice. Spain or Italy sound much nicer. Not so sure about the UK. But Germany it is, and here I am. The other problem was missing the Cleveland Marathon this weekend. Nothing I could do about that either.

Getting here was somewhat uncomfortable, as most long flights are. I did manage some sleep on the way from JFK to Amsterdam. The flight from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf was only about 40 minutes in a puddle jumper.

Upon arriving at the hotel at about 2pm, I tried to call home, since I had figured it to be 8pm there. When Debbie didn't answer after repeated tries I started to panic - she had driven home from Connecticut, and should have arrived hours earlier. The panic was worse because I couldn't call anyone else - all my numbers are in my cell phone which was at home since it wouldn't work here. Of course I finally found out that Cleveland is 6 hours BEHIND Dusseldorf, not ahead of it. So it was still morning there, and Debbie wouldn't be home for hours.

Early on, I had only eaten at the hotel and at the client cafeteria. Nothing really great to speak of, but lots and lots of volume. Breakfast (and today, lunch) buffets sure don't help when it comes to controlling intake. Some of the food is quite interesting - the white asparagus as a main course is very good. The waitresses will tell you to eat it because it's good for you. Yeah, but not the gallon of hollandaise you smother it in. You can still order meat or fish as a side dish. Other German favorites abound as well. I feel like I'll weigh a ton when I get back.

Without a car, and a couple miles away from the city center, there's not much to do (except work) and I'm not getting out much. I run in the morning, and walk in the evening, mostly along the Rhine River. It's wonderfully serene, with very wide park-like areas on both banks. And there are walk, bike and run paths galore all over the city, with several stretching for miles and miles along the river.

Work is ok. The client contacts all speak English, but some are hard to understand. The counts can be intense because of the language and because some are tightly scheduled. The good news is that there isn't an over-abundance of follow-on work. So I do have some time to myself in the evenings.

After a few days of hotel food, I finally did venture out some. Yesterday Pam and I walked along the Rhine to a restaurant that I had discovered right along the river. It was nice eating out on the back deck overlooking some yachts. The folks didn't speak much English, but we managed - I wound up with a ball-o-burger meat with fried eggs on top for 7 euros. Pam got filet mignon for 8 euros. Then today we figured out the subway/train situation enough to ride it to downtown and old town Dusseldorf. Being a stranger in a strange land, especially when you don't speak the language means that you spend an awful lot of time being lost, dazed and confused.

Old town is like a typical European town with cobblestone streets, shopping, and several nice restaurants and bars. We ate at a German place where I sampled 4 types of sausage with kraut and fries. This on top of the appetizer of tons of cheese with bread. This is fat/cholesterol heaven.

Speaking of lost and confused, we somehow found our way over to Cologne (via a train from the main station) the next day. More cobblestone streets, bars, restaurants and shopping. But there were two differences: this is the actual home of the original cologne, and there's one mother of a cathedrals here. It seemed to me that it put Notre Dame to shame. We took a $4 english tour and learned about the history of the place. Turns out the the Magi (yes, the original three wise guys) are supposedly buried there by the altar. How's that for history? Then we climbed something on the order of 350-400 feet to the top of the tower. As Lori had said, you must have bats in your belfry to do something like that. Quite a view from up there though.

Every morning I make the usual choices about how long, far, fast to run, etc., but also one of four more choices: east or west bank of the Rhine, and north or south. Today it was south on the east bank, and it wasn't the greatest, even though the footing was good - too much industry there. I've got it figured out now: for longer runs, north along east bank is best, and for shorter runs, south on the west bank rules.

There were two choices Pam and I could think of to see more of the best of Dusseldorf: take the train to a palace built in the 1800s (supposedly rivaling Versailles) and take a city tour. In order to get a more thorough and varied outlook, we went for the city tour. After walking around old town and exploring some more very old churches, we got on the bus. The speaker spoke German first and then English, and it was a bit distracting. After riding around town for a while we got on a boat for a river tour. That was pretty neat. Then the tour wound up going up to the Rhine tower which is 168 meters high - way above the surrounding buildings. But only a little higher than we climbed yesterday. We could see Cologne, our hotel, way up and down the river, etc. Pretty neat too.

So the tour was decent. We were lucky with the weather - it was cloudy, but at least there was no rain like we had yesterday. As a result, I left my umbrella at a restaurant. I think I'd still like to see the palace though.

No discussion of experiences in a foreign land would be complete without a note about bathrooms. Pam and I tried everything we could think of when asking if there was one in the Dusseldorf main train station: men/ladies/women's room, toilets, rest rooms, potties, you name it. We got the same answer from two different information persons: There aren't any of those in Dusseldorf. A bit later on while we were still wandering in the station, Pam asked what "WC" means. That's when it dawned on me: having been to Europe before, I should have known what to ask for. One other thing: there are public walk-in urinals all over town. They have a little boy peeing logo on them. Very handy if you're of a gender who is able to stand during the act. No help for sitting type genders.

For the second to the last evening, Pam and I went back to old town to shop for a few last-minute souvenirs and to eat dinner. Picked up a couple things, and the Agentine/Spanish steak place was really good. Then it was time to take the subway back. We thought we had these things figured out really well. The U77 comes closest to the hotel, but it stops running at 7:30pm and also doesn't go on weekends. That's ok, because we can also take the U70, U74 or U76, which are only a little farther away. It was 7:50 and we were waiting for a U74 or U76 when we saw a U77 come by on a different than usual track. Pam said, "Let's catch that one", but as we were getting on, I had a few reservations: 1) it was on the wrong track, 2) it was after hours, 3) based on 1 and 2, it may have possibly been going the wrong way. I mentioned being dubious, but continued to get on anyway. As the doors closed there came two more reservations: 4) we were the only people on the train and 5) one guy outside was wagging his finger at us in a strange manner.

The train left and after a few minutes pulled up to stop at a subway-train graveyard. There didn't appear to be any way to get out without walking on the tracks, although this turned out to be not completely the case. As the lights began to go out in the train, I said something on the order of, "we're in deep s__t!". We ran up to discuss the situation with the driver, who smiled but didn't speak English at all, except to say, "10 minutes, one stop". After moving over to a different train, he got us going back to the station again after the mandatory stupid-American 10-minute penalty waiting period. There we were able to finally get off and then onto the U74 for the ride home.

2006 Hawaii

2007-08-31T15:07:00.000-07:00

This will be a bit different from the usual tirades. Yes, this will be a special tirade... It will be different in that it won't just be a day-by-day account of our 2006 Hawaii trip. The reason? The trip itself was different this time. We didn't spend a lot of time or trouble to get there. We didn't spend a lot of money whilst there - at least no more than we had to. We didn't do a whole lot, but we did do some things. And finally, we only went to one island, instead of the usual two, and sometimes more.

The trip to and from was as nice and easy as a trip to Hawaii can be - we only stopped once in Houston, then came directly to Maui. Same going back.

We stayed at the Renaissance Wailea. It's a wonderful resort hotel, with all the amenities you can imagine. Unfortunately, it's slightly dated, and there are rumors that it will be turned into condos. This would be a sad development since we'd surely return some day. The Renaissance upgraded us to an oceanview room where we could hear the singing from the place’s restaurant as well as the drums of the local luau. They also gave us some free ice cream, and unlimited coffee and soft drink refills.

Not that we'd ever pay for such a thing as staying at this fancy schmancy joint. Those Marriott Rewards Points take some time to accumulate, but they sure pay off well. I should also mention here that the air, as usual, was based on NW frequent flyer miles. So our costs were mostly the rental car and meals.

Speaking of keeping the costs down, we did something for the first time. We attended a timeshare presentation. It was at the old Maui Marriott in Kaanapali, a place where we’ve stayed in the past when it was a normal hotel, and it was actually a very informative and interesting ninety minutes. Not that we would ever, ever seriously consider such a thing... but we got $150 in gift certificates to be spent on meals at our hotel out of the deal.

There was one other costly item. It really wasn’t that bad – fifty bucks each, and well worth it. It was Warren and Annabelle's Magic Show, back in West Maui/Lahaina again. Debbie and I don’t get out for these kinds of things much, but this was highly recommended. And with good reason - what a great show! Warren's magical skills are unsurpassed (how did he do some of those things?), and he was extremely funny as well. I, in turn, will now strongly recommend this show to anyone coming to Maui.

As usual, we ate well. It didn’t take too much to use our $150 credit, but the food at the Renaissance’s Palm Court dinner buffet was great. The famous onion rings at the resort’s lunch place, the Maui Onion were also yummy, but they did me in. Maybe it’s because one serving was about 8 pounds. Other joints we haunted:

A Saigon Café: Thai/Vietnamese place frequented by locals. Very good food and lots of local color.
Prince Court: In the Maui Prince Hotel, this was our fanciest, most expensive, and generally best meal. The $28 Entertainment Book discount was like a pebble off Mount Everest. But it sure tasted good.
Aloha Mixed Plate: Another place frequented by the locals. With authentic Hawaiian food. It included a lot of food found at the typical luau, but without the entertainment and high prices.
South Shore Tiki Lounge: Another local place, but more of a bar, with food as an afterthought. Food is never an afterthought to Debbie or I. They had a singer who was very good however.
Bada Bing: Very good Italian food. Entertainment Coupon helped here too.
Bamboo Grill: Yet another local joint. I loved the Thai food, but Debbie didn’t think the place was very clean, and didn’t enjoy the experience. Maybe it was because the chef came out to have a smoke in his best dirty white t-shirt.

Other food stuff: Not a whole lot of other restaurants for 11 days there. We had a fridge in our room, so we had milk and cereal as well as lots of fruit for breakfast, and lunchmeat/cheese sandwiches and chips for lunches. The chips and the bakery were not the best ideas.

Two of our three most exciting activities were whale watching and hiking. In the past, we’ve paid good money to go on whale-watching boats. This time we could watch the whales right from the shore. And they were very close by. We could even see them from our lanai. It was pretty amazing stuff. Some would slap their tails on the water multiple times. We even saw complete breaches, which I thought were rare: on different occasions, Debbie and I both saw the whales jump completely out of the water. What a sight!

The other activity that I’m willing to discuss is the hiking. Debbie and I walked every day. There is a 1.5 mile (each way) walkway along the ocean to connect all the resort hotels in Wailea. If we did nothing else, we did that walk. It also made for great people and whale watching. But the big hikes were really big. We did three:

1) Lahaina Pali trail. It heads up the west Maui mountains and back. We could've gone to the other end, but then would've had to arrange for transportation back. It was 5.75 miles, but the 1600 elevation climb over rocky terrain was extremely tough. And coming back down in the afternoon heat wasn't any easier. Took 2 1/2 hours to get up there and 1 hour 50 minutes to come back down. But what views! It wore us out, but what a hike!
2) Waile'e Ridge Trail. It was almost as difficult as the Lahaina Pali Trail, but we didn't have to contend with as many rocks, and there was a bit more shade. This one was also on West Maui, but on the cooler/wetter part. The views were unsurpassed the whole way. The valley below was unbelievable. We hiked the 4.75 mile, 1500 foot elevation climb in about 4 hours. Once again, coming down the steep hills was almost as challenging as going up.
3) Pipiwai Trail. This was our third and last Major Hike, and it was a very nice one. About 4 miles round trip, and about 600 to 800 feet up, it was easier than the others. At the end of the trail was Waikomo Falls, which cascaded hundreds of feet down. There were other falls and many pools as well. It was another beautiful place here in paradise. The hike took about 4 hours. Probably the hardest part about this one, however, was the drive to and from it. Located at Oheo Gulch near Hana, the driving round trip was over five hours. But, as I like to say, the joy is in the journey.

Other slightly less exciting activities included driving around the larger east end of the island twice. You wouldn't think that a simple drive around an island (well, most of it) would be such an adventure. But the "Road to Hana" is justifiably one of the most famous drives in the world. The beauty of the many waterfalls and ocean and mountain vistas did not disappoint. We had lunch in Hana (there really isn't all that much there - it's the journey that's important) and then drove on to Oheo Gulch. This was formerly known as the Seven Sacred Pools – until someone figured out that there’s not seven pools, and they’re not sacred. We kept going around the south end of the island, thereby violating our rental agreement because the road is rough and somewhat scary. Now we're worried that the rental car police will come after us. The south end is spectacular in it's own way, but much dryer. All in all it took us 9 hours to drive the 100 to 150 miles that first time. Debbie was ill afterwards. It must have been the stressful hike the day before combined with the rough road on the trip. The second round trip was counter-clockwise, and we didn’t stop hardly at all, except for the Pipiwai Trail.

One day we drove to upcountry Maui and walked through the Kula Botanical Gardens, and also stopped at Sunrise Market and Protea Farm. That was a nice, easy day.

We did some exploring in the areas south of the Renaissance - Makena, Big Beach, Le Perouse Bay, etc. This is the area that I run to almost every morning. And speaking of running, I did a lot there, especially on that deserted road down through the lava flow to the dead end that feels like the end of the world. It was exciting, mostly because it was extremely dark. Dark enough to be hit by a bicyclist coming down a hill at me. That happened there last time, but this time I had my headlamp for protection and vision.

I also did a bit of snorkeling and swam in the cool ocean after each day’s run.

The rest was active relaxation. Reading, watching the waves, watching the sunsets, etc, etc. That was the best part.

2005 California and Lake Tahoe

2007-08-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

LA

Friday, September 30, 2005

Yikes. The closer we got to hour hotel, the closer we got to the wildfires of Burbank. We had been traveling all day, and had somehow navigated our way from LAX to our home away from home. Since it was dark already, we could see the flames as we drove, and we couldn't help but notice that we were headed right for them. The "Hill of Flames" was seemingly just a mile or so away from the Courtyard, and we stood and watched as we got out of the car. Everyone else assured me that we were safe. Yeah right.

Dana and Todd guided us to Hollywood and Highland, where we ate at the expensive-but-very-good Grill on the Alley. Then we walked along the Stars Walk of Fame and over to Grauman's Chinese Theater - the place with the hand-prints.

Got back at 1am. I had been up for 23 hours and 30 minutes.

Saturday, October 1, 2005

Another touristy day in Southern California. Leaving the wildfires behind, we started out by visiting Dana and Todd's pad and meeting Sam, their charming turtle. Feeding time for Sam was exciting to watch. Going to brunch at Dana and Todd's favorite place (Chez Noir) was quite an experience. What a great place. Best croissants I've ever had. By far.

The touristy stuff started when we got to Universal Studios and paid our $53 per person to get in. We took the studio tram tour, and went to several of the attractions. The best was the T2 in 3D show. Also interesting was the Waterworld show. The special effects for these two were especially impressive.

Dana and Todd had to split and head to a work function for Dana. After some amount of trouble figuring out where to eat in the shopping/tourist area outside the park, we wound up at Gladstone's Seafood. Like all the food we've tasted, it was very good, and fairly expensive. Carol got a bit of shopping done, but we got home at a decent hour.

Sunday, October 2, 2005

"Make the fun stop!!" That's what our friends Dot and Greg say when they're having too much fun and can't take it anymore. That's the situation here in Southern California.

Todd wasn't feeling well, so just Dana came with us as our personal in-the-car tour guide to the beaches. We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway (the PCH) and various other roads through Topanga and on to Malibu. There we lounged on the beach for a couple hours whilst gathering dead, washed-ashore lobsters and other flotsam, flying an alien kite, exploring tide pools and making about 6 throws of a frisbee. It was only in the upper 60s, but it felt nice. Then we ate at Paradise Cove, which is right there on the beach.

After dinner we drove to the Santa Monica Pier to shop, people watch, and sunset watch. It reminded me of Navy Pier - there was plenty to do, and the sunset was really neat. Debbie and I had to explain to everyone about the "green flash". Some of us claimed to see it.

Tomorrow it's on to Yosemite!

Yosemite

Monday, October 3, 2005

We ate breakfast at the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy. I keep wondering if there are older Big Boys with other names, such as Manners? It took only about 4 1/2 hours to reach the Apple Tree Inn in Fish Camp, just south of Yosemite. Wonderful place. We have 3-unit cottages in the woods with heat only from fireplaces. Very rustic.

Dave and I refused to give up. First Carol, then Debbie (to ride the tram with her - they enjoyed it but they froze), then Todd and finally Dana turned back. But we men-folk kept going to the top. Top of what, you ask? The sequoia grove and museum, which was about 1,100 feet up a long uphill trail. Too bad the museum was closed. We did enjoy the walk, and all the Big Trees. The joy is in the journey. Took the two of us over 2 hours to head up, but less than a half-hour to come down. And we somehow beat Todd - he had managed to get lost and come straggling in later.

Dinner was at an informal but good Mexican place: El Cid.

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

After our continental hotel breakfast, we drove the couple miles back to the park, and went right up to Glacier Point. Fantastic vistas of the valley far below. I may have my numbers wrong, but I believe that we were at about 7,500 feet looking down at the 4,000 foot valley floor.

After lunch we drove into the valley. Stopped at a neat walking bridge and skipped some rocks whilst gaping at the rocks above us on both sides.

Yosemite Falls was dried up for the year. Instead of hiking to them we watched a video at the nature center.

Tuesday night we walked over for an expensive dinner at the Tenaya Lodge. Nice place with good, but costly food. Due to those big bucks, Dave and I had to give up the $50 bill we had been passing back and forth to pay for dinners.

Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Another driving day. It took us about as long to get from Yosemite to Tahoe as it did from LA to Yosemite. Too many mountains in the way. It was a beautiful trip though. We got to see parts of Yosemite that we hadn't yet been though. Stopped near Mono lake for lunch.

There was a disorganized meeting for the Tahoe Triple at the Horizon Resort and Casino that evening. The best part was the buffet dinner - it was excellent. Dave and Carol hit the slots afterwards. And not for the last time, either.

Tahoe
Day 1 - Thursday, Oct 6, 2005

It's bad when you're out of breath before you begin a race. Especially so when you're running down a mountain. Could be the 7,000+ feet of elevation. The view from Inspiration point more than made up for the lack of oxygen.

After taking in that spectacular scene and watching the sunrise, we were off. It was clear, 29F, and only light breezes. Perfect. And for most of the way, the run went about as perfect as it could too. My crew consisted of my wife Debbie, brother Dave, and his wife Carol. They did a spectacular job of supporting me.

The first couple miles were extremely down hill, and we soon arrived in the towns of South Lake Tahoe and Stateline. I didn't like the traffic or the resulting exhaust. We had to run along the side of the road the whole way, but the traffic was the most of the problem going up/down mountains, and through town. I started slow even with that drop - about 8:30 miles. The course was marked every 5 miles. I hit mile 5 in 42:51.

Running with new friends Pat from Northwest Ohio and Bill from Invercargill, NZ, I settled down for the mostly level next 10 miles. This included the through town part, but also getting back out into less populated areas on the Nevada side of the lake. Did I mention that Pat and Bill are in my age group? Pat dropped back early on, but Bill pulled ahead of me at about mile 18. I passed 15 in 2:04. I felt great. The next 5 went well also. I hit the 20 mile mark in 2:47 - miles 15-20 had been in 42:50.

But at the 20-mile mark the hills were just beginning. Correction: the mountain was just beginning. Whereas the lake is at 6,200 feet, the finish at Spooner Summit is at 7,200 feet. And it was a steady climb from 20 on, with the steepest parts reserved for the final mile or two. I never stopped to walk. But it was an extremely slow slog. I didn't pass anyone, and nobody passed me. I actually did better than expected, running the final 10K in 55:11 to finish 13th out of about 112 starters in 3:42:11.

I'll take it. After soaking my legs in the icy cold lake, I hope I'll be ready for tomorrow. I'm sore, but I generally feel ok. We'll see.

Day 2 - Friday, Oct 7, 2005

There were some similarities to yesterday:

1) we started at a 7,000 foot plus elevation, so I was hyperventilating *before* I started running
2) we started at a 7,000 foot plus elevation, so there were some big downhills for the first few miles
3) the scenery was fantastic
4) the weather was great - only a few degrees warmer than yesterday
5) the last few were a bit of a death march

Now the differences:

1) I started too fast. I don't know why - I should've known better. But the guys I beat yesterday went way out in front of me, and I just had to try to hang with them.
2) Whereas yesterday was the toughest marathon, excluding ultras, that I've ever done, today's race was merely difficult.
3) Whereas yesterday's course had a mountain climb from 20 to 26, today there was merely a monster hill.
4) I somehow managed to run even slower for today's final 10K than yesterday's.

I suppose I can chalk it up to the accumulated miles on my old legs. I felt fine until a big hill at about mile 14. Starting at Spooner Summit, the first five were in 38 minutes (as I said, way too fast), the second five were in 41:39, and the third five (including the big hill) were in 43:09. So I was at 2:03 for the first 15. But that's where those accumulated miles took their toll.

The scenery was great the whole way. The traffic and exhaust fumes were much better today, but it was still tough to stay on the shoulder. Even the smaller towns on the north side of the lake weren't too bad. 15 to 20 were mostly flat, but I was slowing down: I did them in 44:42 and 20 went by in 2:47 and a half. Still not bad.

I was still slowing down when the big hill hit at about mile 23.5. I still never walked, but that slog was really bad. Even that last downhill mile into Tahoe City was slow. I finished 16th overall in 3:49:41. Something like a minute better than my PW.

Once again, my support crew was great. I don't know what I would've done without them.

Once again, I soaked my legs in the icy cold Tahoe water for about 20 minutes. I'm starting to wonder how much good this is doing me. Tomorrow's course may be tougher than Thursday's. At least they have the roads closed down and more support - this is the main marathon with several hundred participants.

Should I be as worried as I think I should be??

Day 3 - Saturday, Oct 8, 2005

*Excruciating* Quad Pain in the middle of the night. Enough to wake me up and keep me awake.

Last night's sunset pasta dinner cruise had been nice, and did indeed include a sunset and some pasta. But it was disappointing because it left so late that the sunset was just after we got going, leaving the lake dark for almost all of the voyage. It would have been far nicer to enjoy those beautiful hues of blue some more. There wasn't that much to the pasta either. Decent band though.

The 'ole legs were pretty sore, especially the quads, so I took a couple ibuprofen before heading to bed. I guess it was when they wore off that the pain woke me. All I could do is apply a self massage and worry that I may have to be a Did Not Start statistic.

By the time I made it to the start, I was still shaky, but generally better. I made up my mind that I was gonna get through this no matter what. This being the official marathon, there were 588 or so of us. Many more half-marathoners, 10Kers and 20-mile walkers joined us on the course at various times.

The first half was very scenic, but there were only a few views of the lake. I was indeed making it through, albeit slowly. There were only a few hills, so I managed about an 8:30-8:40 pace. The mountains were looming however.

God put many hills and mountains on this planet. But why o why did He always place them at about the 20-mile mark of every marathon? This time there was a huge climb at about mile 16, followed by a steep downhill, and then another tremendous climb from 19 to 20. I was reduced to walking for the first time in the three days. The scenery during these miles has to be as spectacular as that for any marathon anywhere. That helped with the pain.

I had hit the 15-mile mark in about 2:10, but it took me 53 minutes to negotiate those mountains to the 20-mile mark. Right at the 20-mile mark we were at Inspiration Point, at 7,000++ feet, the highest point on today's course. It's also where we started on day 1. It's also what I was calling "Perspiration Point", but then changed it to "Desperation Point".

The next three miles were severely downhill, but my attitude was "Damn the Quads, Full Speed Ahead". I did manage to pass a lot of people, and my legs held up, but then I slowed down again when we hit the nice, wooded bikepath for the final three miles. Pat, another triple guy, and a couple others passed me as I was desperately trying to get in under 4 hours.

Somehow I did, but not by much: 3:58:58. Bill the Kiwi ran his fastest of the three to win our age group. Pat and another guy got 2nd and 3rd - Pat had run with me before leaving me in the dust in the final 2 miles or so.

But I made it! As great as the Triple has been, I'm really glad it's over. Yes, I am proud of my accomplishment. I think I'll take tomorrow off.

Epilog / Lessons Learnt

I can't figure out how I could have trained any better. It wasn't practical for me to do any altitude training. I sure put in the miles, especially in terms of long runs. Back to back long runs and three in a row at times. Perhaps more hill work would have helped. In any case I still go by the mantra: “the will to win is nothing without the will to prepare”.

The triple was harder than most ultras are for me. This is mostly because I tried to race, such as it was, each of the three runs, whereas for ultras I usually slow way down and just slog through them.

In terms of time, I did about what I wanted and expected. The courses were about as tough as I expected too. That is to say, they were the three toughest marathons I've ever done. The altitude made all of them difficult for a lowlander like myself. Day 1 ended going up the mountain to Spooner Summit. Day 2 was the least difficult of the three, but it still had two big climbs at about miles 14 and 24, not to mention that it was long by about a half-mile. I know: suck it up, Dan. Day 3 was arguably the toughest of all - that double climb up to Inspiration Point at mile 20 was a monster. I know: suck it up, Dan.

It was neat being a rock star. That's how the other marathoners and half-marathoners viewed us triple-people. Time to come back down to earth now.

As pleased as I am with my overall time (11:30 for the three days), my place (17th of about 112 or so starters) and the overall experience, I do wish I had paced myself better. I'm sure that if I'd held back just a bit on day 1, I'd have done much better for the second half of days 2 and 3. The word 'conservative' just isn't in my vocabulary. I have a lot of admiration for those triplers who managed to have consistent times for all three runs. A few even got faster each day.

The best of the Tahoe Triple:

-Having a crew. This made me feel like I was part of a team. Great fun.
-The camaraderie. All of the competitors got to know each other very well during this shared experience. Pat from Toledo, Bill the Kiwi, Gene from Erie, the Mexican guys, even former 4-time winner Sean all seem like good friends now. I look forward to bumping into some of them again some day.
-The scenery, of course.
-The difficulty. If it had been easy, anyone could've done it.

In need of improvement:

-Traffic control. We knew this would be a problem for days 1 and 2, and it was. Something needs to be done.
-Organization. The race directors need to get their processes under control.
-Cost. It was well over $200. I did get three shirts (a wind shirt for the regular thon, and a tank top and sweatshirt for the triple), as well as a nice plaque. I also got a good buffet dinner and the bus rides out to the start. But it still seemed like a lot of moola.

Those are fairly minor quibbles. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'll count this among my proudest and most enjoyable running experiences. I probably won't do this again, but I may be a bit less afraid to try other new challenges.

2005 Hawaii

2007-08-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hawaii 2005

Saturday, January 8
It turns out that airplane smoke alarms can be scary things. Not so much when they go off whilst still on the ground as they did there in Minneapolis. No, they’re scary when they go off again, in the air, after the problem was “fixed”. We were a might concerned – especially since it was a little hard to breathe. They announced that we would head back to the Twin Cities, but you don’t just turn a DC-10 around all that fast. By the time we dumped our fuel and were met by the three or four fire engines on the ground, an hour had passed. By the time we got going again (on a new plane, thank you), several hours had passed, causing us to miss our connecting flight from Honolulu to Kauai, causing us to overnight in a junky Honolulu Hotel. And we thought that once we got off the ground (late) in that Cleveland snowstorm, everything would be fine. But at least we were in a junky hotel in Hawaii.

Sunday, January 9
Kauai isn’t really all that hot in January. Not that we’re complaining about 70’s during the day and low 60’s at night. They had recently had some terrific flooding from a storm that brought 14 inches of rain. We’re lucky to have missed that one.

We picked up a copy of “Kauai Revealed” by Doughty and Friedman. It calls itself the “Ultimate Kauai Guidebook” and it really is. Although it’s best to use it as a reference, it’s interesting enough to read from cover to cover. Everybody is walking around with these things, and bookstores stopped bothering to carry any other guidebooks.

Our resort is pretty swanky. We’ve got our own huge bay (Nawiliwili) and beach (Kalapacki) mostly to ourselves. Too bad we can’t swim at the beach. The rains caused bacteria to wash into the nearby river and into the ocean, making swimming unsafe. I thought that only happened in Cleveland.

After driving up to Wailua Falls (the one you see on Fantasy Island), we had a nice champagne brunch without champagne at our hotel. Note to self: always ask price before feeding face. We should’ve remembered that one from our 1985 “Ice Swan and Caviar” incident here in Kauai. The price for the 2005 buffet was in the neighborhood of $37 or so. Each.

Monday, January 10
Kauai is incredibly beautiful. Each and every square inch of it. It’s exactly what you think of when you conjure up a picture of a tropical paradise. By the way, chickens are to Kauai as geese are to northern Ohio. Except they’re noisier, but don’t seem to poop quite as much. Apparently several bantam chickens got loose during a hurricane a decade or two ago. Since then, they’ve taken over the island. From their perspective, it’s “Chickens in Paradise!”

I now have the Kalalau Trail out of my system. At least for another 20 years. In 1985 we hiked the two miles (seemed like 20) along this coastal trail to a beach along the way. We then explored a bit and turned back. Since then, I’ve been wanting to hike the entire 11 miles of the trail, even though Debbie doesn’t want to backpack, which is the only way the whole 22-mile out and back thing can be done. I had this brilliant idea that we could have a boat take us to the end of it so that we could walk back. Unfortunately, we learned that boats are not allowed to land at the end of the trail in the Kalalau valley. So in 2005, we just hiked in and then back out again. We didn’t even make it as far as we did 20 years ago. After a couple hours of climbing rocks and slipping through mud, we’d had enough. As before, however, the views along the way are spectacular – especially the lookout about a ½ hour in. So maybe it was worth it. We’ll see how it’s changed when we tackle it in 2025.

We stopped in Hanalei on the way back. We were again disappointed to learn that the Magic Dragon was out for the day.

Tuesday, January 11
We thought about taking a boat, including a snorkel trip, to the “forbidden” isle of Niihau, the only inhabited Hawaiian Island that we haven’t set foot on. But then we thought again. It turns out that you can’t even get off the boat to go ashore there. Why, you ask? Because it’s forbidden.

Wednesday, January 12
Now I have hiking in general out of my system. The Honopu Ridge Trail came highly recommended by our guidebook. But with the mud, hills and thick jungle, it was at least as tough as the Kalalau Trail. After over two hours of slithering through 2 miles and over 1000 vertical feet of that stuff (recall the mudslide in Romancing the Stone), we wound up on one of the narrow ridges of the Na Pali Cliffs, with huge deep valleys on both sides. (Incidentally, Na Pali means “cliff” so I’m being a bit redundant here, but then, anyone who’s seen these cliffs understands why.) We were treated to truly magnificent views. We made it back with one or two un-muddy spots, and one or two unscratched areas on my legs. Debbie had been smart enough to wear pants.

Although it’s a totally different valley, I must say that the Honopu Valley looks an awful lot like the Kalalau Valley, which you can just drive right up to. But then, the Joy is in the Journey. Isn’t it?

Dinner was at Dukes. We had some good Mahi Mahi.

Thursday, January 13
Liquid sunshine spoiled our day at the beach. With Kalapacki Beach off limits, we drove, snorkel gear in tow, down to good old Poipu Beach for the day. I’ve never seen so much rain and sun, at the same time for so long. We might have still gone into the water, but the wind had kicked up some big waves too. We consoled ourselves with a nice lunch at familiar Brennecke’s. Just another shitty day in paradise.

Friday, January 14
We drove up north again to take a self-guided walking tour of Limihule National Botanical Garden. They had excellent examples of all of the original and endangered native Hawaiian plants, as well as those bad ones introduced by the Polynesians and Europeans. I say bad because they’re choking out the original native stuff. Why is that important, you ask? Because once the native stuff is gone, it’s gone forever – lots of it grows here and nowhere else. Besides the interesting plants, another attraction was the location: Limahule Valley is stunningly spectacular – it’s where the Na Pali cliffs begin. Too bad the skeeters were spectacular as well.

On the way back we stopped at the Guava Plantation. Then we had good Italian food at Café Portofino.

Saturday, January 15
Whereas Kauai is awesomely beautiful, the Big Island of Hawaii is just awesome. Whereas every square inch of Kauai is utterly gorgeous, there are plenty of places on the Big Island that are just plain ugly. This is mostly because of the ubiquitous lava. With the flows so recent in the geological past, nature hasn’t had so much of a chance to turn the whole place into a paradise. Yet. The lava flows, covering miles and miles of the island, are especially prominent on the drier west side (the Kona side where we were) because water and plant life have not had as much of an opportunity to work. This is not to say that the place isn’t awe-inspiring; it is. Sweeping views over vast distances, including multiple volcanoes see to that. And some parts of the island are extremely pretty.

Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, the two tallest mountains, were snow-capped. At dusk we drove up to the Mauna Kea visitor center at the 9300-foot level. We wondered why so much traffic was headed down as we were headed up. We later learned that they were skiers (some bringing back pickup loads of snow!) coming down from the summit. At the visitor center we did some stargazing using some telescoped provided by the University of Hawaii and an astronomy organization. The BIG telescopes (best on the planet) are 4500 feet higher at the summit. We looked at Saturn, the moon and the pleides and orion nebulae. It never got too cold – only 49F. That was better than the summit, where it was 31.

Sunday, January 16
We walked down to some ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs near our hotel, and spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. The surf was too rough to swim in the ocean. The few degrees difference between the Big Island and Kauai (low 80s vs mid 70s) make a huge difference. It definitely feels tropical here.

Monday, January 17
IZ is to Hawaii as Bob Marley is to Jamaica. Several years after his death, his popularity still appears to be on the rise. You hear his songs everywhere you go. Luckily, it’s the type of music everyone seems to love and not get tired of.

Two MAJOR hikes today.
Hike 1: We drove to the town of Waimea, parked at the end of a road and hit the trail. It began through some fields, which then turned into a forest. The forest included some bamboo areas that had some eerie cracking noises. I guess bamboo does that. It was a nice and relatively easy hike – we covered the two miles in much less than half the time it took us in Kauai. Then we got to the edge of the Waipio valley. There was a sheer drop of 2000 feet. The trail continued along the edge of the cliff with the sheer drop becoming ever sheerer. Remember the Tarzan movies where they are walking along the side of a steep cliff and every now and then some porter tumbles down? That’s what it was like. We went along that edge for a while before turning back. Good thing we didn’t run into anyone coming the other way.

Hike 2: After a great lunch at Daniel Thiebault’s in Waimea, we drove to the Pololu lookout. It’s a pretty view of the Big Island’s ocean cliffs, with Waipio being on the far end. We had never ventured down to Pololu Beach until now, however. The path was steep, but not overly difficult. The beach has black sand, and the whole area in the valley was neat. Getting back up wasn’t quite so easy, but then, the Joy is in the Journey.

Tuesday, January 18
The Big Island is Big. It took us quite a while to drive to the south end, and we never made it to the eastern side this time around. Along the way we toured a coffee plantation (Greenwell Farms) and bought some cheap Kona coffee from them at 28 bucks a pound. We then checked out a huge, mostly empty subdivision of 1-acre lots that are available for only a few thousand each. The only problem is that there’s no electricity to be had. Or water. Or soil (it’s all lava boulders). We’re going to hold off on the land speculation for now.

We spent the afternoon and evening in Kona. Kona is cool. Dinner was at an Indonesian place called Sibu. Although the food was unusual, it was probably the best dinner we had in the islands. As always, the Kona sunset was supreme.

Wednesday, January 19
We have the Griswalds as neighbors. They like to smoke, have LOUD arguments and LOUD phone and walkie-talkie conversations out on their lanai, which is just above ours. “ALOHA! GUESS WHERE I’M AT!” Five minutes later: “ALOHA! GUESS WHERE I’M AT!” A couple hours later, with the walkie-talkie: “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DINNER AT 7:30. OH, YOU CAN’T MAKE 7:30? THEN WE’LL ALL GO AT 8!” Five minutes later: “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DINNER AT 8 INSTEAD OF 7:30…” and so on.

Dinner was in Waimea at the Waimea Ranch House Grill. Good steaks, but so-so service. Don’t like being forgotten about. At least the Griswalds didn’t show up there.

Thursday, January 20
We went on a whale-watching cruise. Saw a few of the hump-backs, but every time someone would see the spout and holler “Thar She Blows”, our boat would head over to where the whales had just headed under. We never got to see them really well until one surfaced fairly close by as we were heading back.

We ate at Roy’s Euro-Asian Cuisine. Great food. Then we watched a nice hula show put on by several generations of the same family along with a bunch of little keikis.

Friday, January 21
Between the pollution and the high surf, today, our last on the islands, was the only day I could venture into the ocean. So I finally went in for a snorkel. Saw some neat fish and coral. One eel too. Later on Debbie and I spotted a sea turtle near the shore.
Other wildlife we spotted during our stay on the two islands: Mongooses (Not mongeese. They resemble stealth squirrels), owls, and a bird called an ‘a. And oh yeah. Plenty of chickens.

2004 PCB

2007-08-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

Debbie and I flew down with Dave and Carol to the Redneck Riviera (aka Panama City Beach). We mostly enjoyed the beach, but took a side trip to Shell Island (where there are no actual shells) and the Naval Air Museum in Pensicola.

2003 Australia and New Zealand

2007-08-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

In November, 2003, we took a second trip to Australia and New Zealand. I wrote up a very nice story about that adventure, but I lost it! My old laptop seized up, causing me to lose some files, and this write-up was one of them.

So this story, somewhat short on facts and details, is the best I can do from memory… four years later.

This had been one of our most anticipated trips, especially because of the planning and logistics. We worked with our friends Greg and Dot and Brett and Amy to plan the whole thing – we would meet up in kiwiland. The other fun thing was figuring how to do it all using frequent flyer miles and some hotel points. That made it all the more complicated, but interesting.

Debbie and I were the cheapest as far as trying to use the fewest miles was concerned. We wound up flying to New Zealand via Tokyo, Guam and Cairns, Australia. Really. That’s circumnavigating the Pacific Ocean. And it took several days. But we made the best of it, stopping over in Guam (ok island, but I don’t feel the need to return), Cairns (we’d be back later this same trip), and then Auckland, NZ, before heading to our final destination on South Island.

That final destination was a lodge just outside (walking distance from) Abel Tasman National Park. The park is on the northwest corner of the South Island, and it’s as idyllic a place as you can imagine.

Amy and Brett, and Dot and Greg were all there. We all loved the place. The hiking and running in the park, especially along the jagged coast, was fantastic. Amy and I ran for hours each morning along the beautiful coastal trail. As a group, we kayaked, and took a boat trip to see the sights. We also did one really long (9-mile) one-way group hike.

After a while, we all went our separate ways. Debbie and I flew back to Auckland, and then drove up to the Bay of Islands in the north of the North Island. It’s basically a bay with some islands in it. Good boating.

Our next trick was to get over to Port Douglas, Australia. This meant getting back to Auckland, flying to Cairns, and driving north from there. Once in Port Douglas, we met up with Dot and Greg once again. Port Douglas is where the rain forest of Queensland, Australia meets the Great Barrier Reef.

There we explored the rain forest and took a boat ride to the Reef for some snorkeling. Although the beaches looked inviting, they were extremely dangerous because of box jellyfish that could severely injure or kill you. It was possible to swim in a netted off area, but in my estimation, an enterprising jellyfish could jump over the net if the right wave came along. No thanks. The resort had the largest swimming pool in the southern hemisphere. That was enough for me.

On our way home we overnighted in Honolulu. We took a bus to the Punchbowl crater to see the war cemetery there, along with the great views of Oahu. This part of the trip was as enjoyable as any of the rest.

And it was all enjoyable. The thing I came away with the most, however, was a newfound awareness of the environment. The folks in both Port Douglas, and all over New Zealand, are fighting at the front lines of the war to save the planet. The rain forests are being cut down, and the Great Barrier Reef is dying. All at an alarming rate. I vowed to do what I can to help. Since this time, Debbie and I have joined the Sierra Club, and made a few other changes in our lives. Not enough, but we’re just getting started.

2002 Outer Banks

2007-08-28T07:31:00.001-07:00

Friday, 06/07/02

The inevitable question: Fish, or cut bait? Not being a fisherman, I was never quite sure exactly what that meant, but it sure seems like an inevitable question. And we sure were in a quandary. After stopping for a break we had just gotten back onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike when traffic came to a standstill. It wasn’t like we were crawling along; we were completely stopped. The quandary arose because we were close to an exit. Not knowing what the holdup was, we watched for about 15-20 minutes as car after car took the exit to who knows where.

Dave figured out some alternative routes, so, to Debbie and Carol’s consternation (“Those guys – they won’t just sit, wait, and be patient!”), off we went. Up and down, over mountains, hills and dale. By the way, a dale is another thing I was never sure about. After some very beautiful scenery, and relieved that no locals made us squeal like pigs, we arrived at our hotel in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Betsy and Ed arrived at the hotel a bit later, having been stuck in the same traffic jam. After a few drinks, we somehow wound up in a detailed conversation about prostate exams.

Saturday, 06/08/02

Who should walk into the Waffle House outside of Richmond, VA, while we were having breakfast, but John and Jill and family. They had stayed at the hotel next door the night before. What a coincidence!

We arrived in Salvo at about 2:00 PM wondering where all the traffic went. For every other trip, we’ve had terrible traffic jams as we approached the Outer Banks. This time it was clear sailing all the way.

Everyone was surprised at how cold it felt. It was probably in the low 60’s, but the wind was so strong that there was actually a wind chill factor.

In the good deeds department, Dave and I had never expected to be pushing a car out of the sand, but that’s what we found ourselves doing. As we were headed towards the Food Lion, a woman of size, in the middle of nowhere, and obviously in distress, was waving to passing autos. We stopped to help, but weren’t able to push her Buick Century out of the sand. We acted as if we understood how such a predicament could happen to anyone, but later wondered how anyone could be quite so dumb as to take a two wheel drive vehicle on that sandy road to the beach. We were able to recruit the help a fellow with a pickup truck who was able to pull her out with a chain.

Sunday, 06/09/02

The winds calmed down a bit, but it still felt pretty cold. We still went to the beach and played in the pool.

“Ann’s Palace” isn’t quite one. Although it’s really fine, it also has some drawbacks, such as a non-closing refrigerator, non-working telephones, a cold pool, ants, a cockroach, a broken toilet, etc. We were able to fix about half of the problems.

Deanna and company engaged in a stimulating game of dominos.

Monday, 06/10/02

It’s finally warming up. Several of us went kayaking on the sound. Not terribly exciting, but it was still a-ok – we saw some pelicans and a jellyfish.

Jill was the last one to dinner. She had some lame excuse like needing to feed the baby, and she had told John to put some food aside for her. Carol had other ideas, however. She arranged her lasagna such that only a tiny morsel was left for Jill – the other tray was hidden in the microwave. When Jill saw what she had to choose from, John almost became a battered husband. But we all got a good laugh.

Tuesday, 06/11/02

Jack dropped me off just over the Oregon Inlet Bridge and I ran all the way home. But not before taking a tumble within the first ½ mile - I tripped over some concrete that was uneven by 1/16 inch. Otherwise, it was a good 19 mile run.

Dave, Carol, Debbie and I went to Duck to see Heidi, sister of Halle Berry’s rental place. It sure was a beautiful house.

Jack caught some fish – dolphin/mahi-mahi and mako shark. It was good on the barbie, but I kept saying that I like it fresher.

Several of us went to the sound to watch a very pretty sunset. We watched someone kite-surfing on the water.

Wednesday, 06/12/02

A bunch of us went on the Pea Island bird-walk. We saw lots of birds, but unfortunately, I don’t remember what any of them were.

Later in the day we went south to Cape Hatteras. We saw the relocated lighthouse and then watched turtles in a pond. Some of us shopped whilst others played miniature golf. Then we all got together for dinner (on Mom) at the Breakwater Restaurant in Hatteras. Since we had originally planned on meeting at the place across the street, we left the station wagon out as a signal to John and Jill that we’d relocated. It took actual human contact (from Ed) however, to get the message across to them. Everyone enjoyed the good food.

Thursday, 06/13/02

This time we headed north, to Manteo. Some folks went to the aquarium, and then everyone but John and Jill and family met at the Weeping Radish for a little light lunch (heh heh). Afterwards we went to the Elizabethan Gardens.

Friday, 06/14/02

Just hung around at the beach, and got Bubba’s Bar-BQ for dinner.

Saturday, 06/15/02

BIG-TIME Traffic jams during Jack and Deanna’s “short-cut around D.C. We’ll take the long way home next time.

Took us about 14 hours for the 12 hour trip.

2002 Caribbean Cruise

2007-08-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

2002 Cruise

Saturday, 05-25-02

We flew in separately, except for Val and me. We all met at the San Juan airport and got our rental car and headed east to the Westin Rio Mar Beach Villas and Golf Resort at Dorado Beach. The 17 mile trip took us an hour through the San Juan traffic.

So we grabbed a quick dinner and proceeded to enjoy the rest of our short time in Puerto Rico. What a great resort it was. Valerie said that it's THE place to go if you only had a month or so to live.

We walked along the beach as the sun was setting and the moon was rising. Valerie was thrilled to find a coconut. Then we swam in the pool. It's simple stuff, but it sure was fun.

Sunday, 05-26-02

We all woke up early (well, normal 5:00 AM for me - I walked the beach at sunrise), and ate breakfast at the club room. The Westin had upgraded my free stay to club level and we had wound up with a suite and all this free food.

Too bad we had to leave that wonderful place, but there was a rainforest to see, and a ship to get on.

The El Yunque Rainforest was very hilly and scenic. Debbie and I had been there, but this time we did it up bigger, with all of us going on a long hike up a 3500 foot mountain. Veronica really enjoyed the trek, but Valerie's spirit wasn't in it. I kidded her that she must have thought that we were going to the Rainforest Cafe (TM). We could see a good part of the island after we got to the top of Mt. Britton. Pretty neat.

Didn't get to shop in San Juan. We returned the car to the Hertz office at the Caribe Hilton and then taxi'd the two miles to the ship.

As expected, it was a confusing hassle to get on. But after an hour or so we were able to get into our respective cabins and have a bite.

Also as expected, the Carnival Destiny is huge and fancy and confusing. We also spent some time deciding on shore excursions. After dinner and the boat drill, we watched as the ship left San Juan harbor. The night-time departure was pretty cool.

Monday, 05-27-02

Had a rough time getting my morning run in. It was pouring rain at 5:30, but I got going as it let up. As expected, it was interesting running as we were getting close to St. Thomas, but also as expected, going around the 10 laps per mile track was less than optimal. When the spa opened at 6, I managed to break two treadmills.

The approach to Charlotte Amalie was spectacular. If there's a more beautiful port in the world, I haven't seen it.

Took an open air taxi to Magens Bay beach. It's one of the many beaches around that are called "one of the most beautiful in the world". And it really is great.

In the afternoon we took a tram to a high point above the harbor to take pictures. Then we went to town to shop. Debbie and I walked there while the girls taxi’d it.

Tuesday, 05-28-02

We all took the Martinique island tour. Long bus ride. We saw the town of St Pierre, which was the Paris of the West Indies before the volcano of Mt Pelee destroyed it almost exactly 100 years ago in May, 1902. We drove near the actual volcano through a rain forest. Spectacular scenery - too bad we couldn't get out of the bus more to walk. Then we returned to our starting point - the main city of Fort De France, the current Paris of the West Indies. I was sorta wondering if Paris is known as the Fort De France of Europe.

As expected, we're eating way too much. We work ourselves from meal to meal. Today was the captain's dinner and reception. Can you spell l-o-b-s-t-e-r? Everyone dressed up real nice and we took pictures.

Wednesday, 05-29-02

Barbados isn't so great-looking as you pull in. But then Veronica and I got onto a boat (it was going to be the two girls, but Valerie has a cold). We went north along the coast. There were beautiful beaches the whole way. We then got some exercise by getting onto kayaks and going further along the shore. Then we snorkeled with sea turtles - the boat people fed them. All in all, it was a great trip.

Debbie and Valerie shopped and swam in the ship's pool, then we all took a taxi to Church Point Beach. Nice place - we spent a couple hours there.

Thursday, 05-30-02

Today was a "fun day at sea". We did the galley tour, had afternoon tea, listened to big band music, saw a couple movies, went to the evening show... those sorts of things. Only prime rib and baked alaska for dinner.

Friday, 05-31-02

If it's Friday, this must be Aruba.

Took a taxi to Palm Beach. It's another very nice one. Veronica, Valerie and I all rode on a "banana boat" - a long yellow double tube pulled by a power boat. We got splashed up and bounced up and down a lot.

Aruba sure is hot. Veronica bought some very pretty Tanzanite earrings, but during all that afternoon shopping, Valerie got sick. She was so nauseous and weak that she wasn't able to move for a long time, even though we all knew that the best thing would be to get back to the ship where water and air conditioning was available. We finally helped her back and she recovered. Still don't know if it was food poisoning or the heat or both.

Saturday, 06-01-02

Yet another "fun day at sea". The girls and I went to an afternoon show. "Heather", the singer pulled me up on stage, sat me down, and proceeded to dance around me and sing, "You Give Me Fever". When she was done she planted one on my cheek. Too bad my children were in the audience. Debbie noticed the lipstick evidence right away.

We packed and prepared for tomorrow's big travel day.

We can certainly complain about a few of the things that Carnival does on these cruises. But on the whole, they do a fantastic job of treating us like royalty. Mona-Lisa (her real name) and Marcin, our wait-persons, and Edgar Grange, our cabin steward, all gave great service.

2001 Hawaii

2007-08-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday, December 1, 2001
It was a long day, as expected. Got up at 4:30 AM to run, then Kathy took us to the airport at 7:00 AM. The first flight, to L.A., left at 9 AM. Then we left from L.A. at 12:45 PM Pacific Time (3:45 PM EST) to arrive in Honolulu at 4:16PM Hawaii time (9:16 PM EST). The final flight from Honolulu to Hilo was delayed, so we didn’t get to our room until 10:00 PM Hawaii time (3:00 AM, EST). Looks like we almost made it to 24 hours total. Luckily for me, I got 7 or 8 cat naps on the various flights. Debbie only got one, so she was fairly tuckered out by the time we hit the sack.

Sunday, December 02, 2001
Hilo is on the wet side of the Big Island, as opposed to Kailua-Kona, which is on the dry side. What with all the rain and not so great beaches, the Hilo area is not visited as often by tourists as the other areas. So it appears to be a bit behind the times. But there are some neat things to see and do in the area, not the least of which is the volcanoes. So we decided to spend a few days here before heading to the other side, where I was able to get us into a very nice joint with my frequent hotel points. Here in Hilo, though, we wouldn’t exactly be in the lap of luxury. Debbie got us into the Hilo Seaside Hotel for $49 a night. And even though the place is friendly and clean, it’s worth about $49 a night. Did I mention that it rains here a lot? It does. We visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for most of the day, and we got quite wet. We still enjoyed ourselves – we got to see a whole lot including a fairly long hike through the rain forest, and a walk through the big lava tube.

After heading back to the hotel, resting a bit, and eating dinner, we came back in search of flowing lava. It was supposed to be much more spectacular at night. Based on advice from a couple park rangers, we approached from outside the park, along a rough coastal road that had been closed after being covered with several lava flows, driving as far as possible, and then walking over extremely difficult terrain. There we were in the pitch darkness, walking for miles over old lava flows, Wal-Mart flashlights in hand.

Would it be worth it? That’s what we kept asking ourselves. Especially when it started raining again as we were halfway into our walk. We did meet some other flashlight-carrying pilgrims who did say it was. I was mostly worried about the rain though. The footing was bad enough – how much worse would it get from the rain? The only lights anywhere were the occasional flashlights, and a dull orange glow in the distance.

When we got close enough to that dull orange glow so that it wasn’t dull anymore, we could see that it definitely was worth it. We were able to get within about a quarter mile of where the bright orange molten lava was flowing into the sea, creating new land, making the Big Island bigger. Waves were hitting the pouring lava, creating billowing orange steam. What a sight! I took some pictures that could not possibly do it justice.

The trip back was much better. The rain had stopped, and full moon had come out to help light the way. This was good, since our batteries were dying anyway.

Monday. December 3, 2001
Enough with the liquid sunshine already. Since it rained all night and morning, we decided to keep the sightseeing indoors with a look at the Lyman Museum. It was a typical museum, with your typical combination of natural history, cattle ranching and 1900’s Hawaiian missionary information.

The rain did stop a bit in the afternoon, and the sun actually came out a bit. After a lunch of macadamia nuts and grapes sitting in the car at Liliokulani Park – it was still too wet to sit outside for our picnic – we drove over to the Hawaiian Botanical Park. This turned out to be yet another highlight of the trip. That’s two in two days, in case you’re keeping track. We’ve been to dozens of botanical gardens, but this one most certainly beats them all. Lots of plants from all over the world that we never knew existed. Beautiful waterfalls and seascapes too.

We spent a goodly amount of time driving around Hilo, which isn’t that big, looking for a homeless shelter. No, the hotel wasn’t kicking us out, we just had a pizza to unload. Pizza Hut had given us one free for ordering one that we ate, and we wouldn’t be able to store it for the next day, so we asked around about the shelter. After various sets of directions, depending on which local we asked, we finally found it and donated our pizza. Hilo seems to have never made it out of the fifties. All the rain makes it seem even more drab. But, as always, we’re making the best of the situation and enjoying ourselves. After all, it’s still Hawaii.

Tuesday, December 4, 2001
In driving the 140 or so miles around the south part of the island and up the western shore, we drove into another world. One that is dryer (the liquid sunshine suddenly became the real thing), and filled with flowers. The south Kona coast seems to be nothing but flowers. Further north from the Kona area is the Kohala area where our hotel is. For a description of the scenery, see the note about my long run, just below.

But first I gotta comment on this here hotel. Five nights at The Orchid at Mauna Lani is a freebie for all of my stays at Sheraton Hotels. Otherwise the price would’ve been $320.00 or more per night. Plus a $12.50 “activities” fee. Well we still had to pay the activities fee, but we’re not complaining too much. Posh living in the lap of luxury. That’s us. Actually, it even seemed a bit intimidating to us at first. Until we got used to things. The resort sprawls over a huge area. And it’s all beautifully landscaped, in stark contrast to the surrounding lava flows. In spite of all this, we’ve enjoyed other places even more. Since the resort is a destination in itself, we ain’t gonna leave it for a while.

And now, here’s a description of my Wednesday run:

Big Time Run on the Big Island

Sweeping Vistas. Other-Worldly. Magical. Surreal. None of those terms can adequately describe my 20 miler here on the South Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, but maybe all of them can. Throw in incredible and awesome and you may start to get the picture.

I hadn’t done a 20 miler since the Towpath Marathon, nearly two months ago. So I knew it would be a chore. And I’ve actually run part of this route before, when we stayed at a nearby hotel six years ago. From that experience, I remember that it surely wasn’t the easiest of routes either.

It all began at 4:50 AM, as I left our hotel, The Orchid at Mauna Lani, and headed up and off into the darkness. My destination was the village of Waikoloa, about 10 miles up towards the mountain of Mauna Kea. And back.

Even at this early hour, with the help of the moon and stars, I could make out the silhouettes of several of the mountains, along with the lights of various villages and resorts. For the vast majority of the entire run, I would be able to see for dozens (or more) of miles in all directions. 2+ miles got me out onto the main highway, then it was another mile and a half to the road that goes up to Waikoloa.

As I made the turn, the gravity of the situation hit me. Gravity as in my own. Gravity as in lifting my (considerable) body weight up, up, up the mountain. It’s not a very steep grade, but it is constant. The road winds left and right through the old lava flows. I also had a very stiff (maybe 30-40 mph) head wind to contend with. This all added up to 10+ minutes per mile for the 6 miles up to the village. This hardly even qualifies for running in my log. I start calling them “junk miles” at 9 and a half minutes per mile. A minute slower than that is hard to even acknowledge. But the miles were marked, so I wasn’t able to fool myself into thinking I was doing better than I was.

All the way up, though, the views were taking my breath away. As if I had any. It was beginning to get a bit lighter as I approached the village. I got a bit of water and turned back. Now I could more clearly make out four of five major volcanoes that make up the Big Island: Kohala to the north, 13,796 foot Mauna Kea to the east, Mauna Loa to the southeast and Hualalai to the south. The fifth, Kilauea, was obscured by Mauna Loa. I was also able to see the sea better now, and beyond that, rising above the clouds, 10,023 foot Mount Haleakala on the island of Maui. I’m not sure how far that is, or for that matter, the elevation of Waikoloa, which would tell me my total elevation gain, since I had started at sea level. I’ll probably look these things up one of these days... All of this beautiful sweeping scenery was in stark contrast to the immediate surroundings for the entire way up: chunky black and dark brown lava, in piles and small hills. There’s almost no vegetation – only some scrubby grass. That’s the Big Island for you. It lends new meaning to the word, contrast.

Now running downhill and with the wind, I had no illusions about any really fast running. My legs were too beat up from the first half of the run. But I did manage a few miles that were just under 8 minutes. It took me about 95 plus minutes to get up the mountain, and 84 to get back down. The effort was about equal, but as I approached the resort again, the ole’ legs were pretty wobbly. I had been thinking that it would be my slowest long run ever, but as I finished in just under three hours, I can log it as merely one of my slower long runs. Certainly not my easiest. The Honolulu Marathon is in a few days, and even though I’m here in Hawaii, I’ll miss it due to logistical problems, as well as being horribly out of shape. But at least I got this long one under my belt. Scenery wise, it will be one that I’ll never forget.

Wednesday, December 5 to Saturday, December 8, 2001
Although we did a bit of sightseeing (Kohala area – Hawi and Waimea, and Kailua-Kona), we mostly just hung out at the resort. We both had very bad colds, probably originating from the long flights over here. Never again will we leave home without the only true cure for colds: Zicam. It wasn’t available here. Otherwise, if you’re going to be sick, Hawaii is a pretty durn good place for that to happen. One notable experience during this time was The Attack of The Two-Inch Cockroach While I Was in The Bathtub.

Our final night was spent on top of Mauna Kea. Well, almost on top. We took off during the afternoon and bought sweatshirts along the way to go underneath our jackets. After driving through several layers of clouds, we arrived at our destination above the clouds, just at sunset. That destination was the visitor center for the Mauna Kea astronomical observatories. It’s at 9,300 feet; the big telescopes (the biggest and best on the planet) are at the summit. Having driven all the way up last time we were here, (with a four-wheel drive, during daylight hours) we didn’t feel the need this time.

This time, the University of Hawaii Astronomical Club had several smaller telescopes at the visitor center. They focused on various objects and then let folks look at them. We saw: Mars, Saturn, a blue-gold double star, the ring nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, other galaxies, star clusters and a comet. It was all very cool. Both figuratively and literally.

Sunday, December 9, 2001
Getting between islands was always a bit of a hassle, but now it’s a much bigger hassle. They’ve really gotten into the security spirit here in Hawaii – we had to wait in several long lines, and had our bags and our persons searched at several times.

We finally made it to our destination, the Renaissance Wailea Beach Resort on Maui. Another freebie, this place isn’t quite as ostentatious as the last. But it’s still quite nice. I think we probably like it better. The Wailea area of Maui is great; it’s almost like Kaanapali. Unfortunately, just to the north is Kihei, which is busy and built-up, almost like Waikiki.

Monday, December 10, 2001
With our colds almost gone, we took it easy most of the day. I did some snorkeling and saw two octopi, one of whom insisted on playing peek-a-boo with me. I even got Debbie, who claims to be not semi-aquatic, into “their world” (the ocean). Later in the afternoon we tried to get on a whale-watching boat, but it was cancelled.

Tuesday, December 11, 2001
After doing a bit of research on hiking trails, we found one that sounded interesting. We drove south through Makena, as far as the road would go. Then we started walking along the shore on a trail. After a mile or so of old lava flows, forests, rocks and sand, we walked by some free-spirited folks sunbathing and swimming in the nude. Debbie was a little afraid to walk by, but I said that they should be the self-conscious ones, not us!

After our little hike, we got onto a whale watching boat that actually left the port. This outfit, a different one from yesterday’s no-show, was non-profit, but actually guaranteed that we’d see whales. The wind was hard to believe. Of course that made the waves rough too. And wouldn’t you know it? No whales! Wind-beaten, we staggered off the boat and received our vouchers for another trip.

Here’s another running tale about my Wednesday run:

Another Interesting Run in Hawaii - This Time Almost Killed a Guy

We’re now staying in Wailea, on Maui. The day before yesterday, I did my now weekly 20 miler, running north through Kihei and back. I didn’t enjoy this run nearly as much as my running on the Big Island because of all the development and traffic.

So this time I decided to head south. It’s much less developed that way. Debbie and I had driven south through and beyond Makena yesterday in order to hike on a trail at the end of the road. In the process of driving, I measured up to 6 miles for today’s 12 mile run. During our hike we experienced some free-spirited naked people frolicking on the beach. But that’s a different story. Almost.

I started out about 4:40 AM. There was hardly any traffic, and after a while, almost none. After getting through Makena, the road narrowed, and there were no more lights. In fact, with no development, it was pitch dark. There may have been a few black cats eating lickerish, but I didn’t see them. I did see the stars. Lots of them. And meteors. At least 6 or 7. At times the road was close to the ocean, so I could also look out to sea in those areas too.

But I was trying to be mindful of safety as well. The road seemed to get narrower and more winding as I went on. The last southbound mile was the toughest. Although the road had been smooth, it suddenly became very rough and uneven. I had to pick my feet up high for fear of tripping and falling. I also had to keep stopping to make sure I was still on the road, with the total darkness and all.

After turning around at the six-mile mark, I still ran slowly and carefully past the uneven pavement, and onto the smoother surface again. At that point I resumed running almost normally again. That’s when Something hit me. Hard! I didn’t know what it was, but I felt a tremendous impact against the right side of my body, mostly on my arm. I staggered quite a bit, but managed to keep my feet. I looked behind me to see what it was and I found a guy and his bicycle on the ground.

I ran over to him. He wasn’t moving – I became terrified that I’d killed the poor guy. I yelled are you OK several times before he started groaning and moved around a bit. Worried that perhaps he shouldn’t be moved, I asked if he was able to move everything and he said yes. He insisted on getting up, so I helped him. Then he fell again and got up a second time. I kept asking if he would wait while I ran to get help, but he seemed more worried about getting his bike up off the road and continuing on. I advised that he walk his bike for a while, and this he did. I followed for a while, but then decided that he was apparently all right, and turned around to go back the way I was headed.

What a strange encounter. Afterwards, I kept examining my own possible guilt in the matter. I had on my reflective vest, but not my blinking bicycle lights. I wear them at home for my early morning runs, but don’t take them when I’m on the road; I certainly will from now on. I had been on the left side of the road, facing the non-existent traffic, but I wasn’t all the way over to the side. I was simply too afraid of running off the dark road. By the looks of his clothes and hair, the guy was a free-spirit type. He didn’t really say much to me, other than mumbling a few words. I hate to make judgments based on appearance, but it’s possible there was some substance abuse involved. Of course his grogginess was most likely simply the result of hitting the ground so hard. In any case, he had apparently been coming down a hill very, very fast when we collided. He had no lights of any kind on the bike.

My arm is bruised and has developed a lump, but it’s not broken. I’m sure the biker’s pains are much worse. I still feel pretty bad about the whole thing. I sure hope he’s ok.

Wednesday, December 12, 2001
I went snorkeling again, and this time I saw a friendly eel. At least it looked friendly; we didn’t get close enough to shake hands.

Debbie and I agree that, although the sunsets on all the islands are great, Maui’s are best. We try not to miss any of them, but I gave up on keeping the camera handy. Every time we go to Hawaii I have to stop myself from taking hundreds of sunset pictures. We’ve already got enough to fill several albums. Now we just enjoy them, sans camera.

Thursday, December 13, 2001
Early Alzheimer’s Alert: I keep losing stuff! So far I lost the binoculars, a suitcase lock, a hat (later found), and my camera battery and charger (which we had to go back - through terrible traffic - to the hotel to retrieve). At least so far, I haven’t lost this here laptop.

There was another try at whale watching, but rain and high winds cancelled the trip.

Our next (and last) free hotel is the Hyatt Regency Maui, in Kaanapali. Debbie got us a free night for taking a class at work. Too bad it’s only one. This place is the swankiest of them all.

Here at the hotel is the Palm Court, “one of the ten most romantic restaurants in the world”. Our meal, however, wasn’t as romantic as it was adventurous. Gale-force (actually 60 MPH) winds had knocked out the power as we walked to the restaurant, but we were assured that the chef would still be able to produce most of what was on the menu. The only lights were from candles. And the food was outstanding, as we would’ve expected. But what we didn’t expect was that those winds would wreak havoc with the 3 story glass door/windows that had been closed for protection. After several attempts to secure them failed – they kept opening and crashing into the set tables. The windows themselves didn’t break, but lots of other table settings did.

Friday, December 14, 2001
This was the day that we had to leave, but not before one last try for the whales. And we did see some! There were three humpbacks, two big ones and a young-un, and it sure was exciting to watch them. We could see and hear their spouts of exhaled air and then we’d watch them gather air for a while before diving again. No big breaches, but for some dives we would get a glimpse of their tails. The environmental-friendly crew were only slightly amused when I asked that they pass the harpoon.

And that was it. As always, we were surprised at how much there was to see and do that hadn’t yet been done. Yes, we’ll be back.

2000 Outer Banks

2007-08-28T07:19:00.001-07:00

Note: this trip came just a couple of days after our complex move from Detroit to Cleveland...

2000 Outer Banks Trip

Friday, May 19
We got to Hagerstown with Dave and Carol in 5 hours even with a 45 minute stop to eat a fine dinner at Hardees. The Days Inn hotel wasn't the greatest. Did some tailgating on our actual tailgate, but didn't see the rest of the family.

Saturday, May 20
After talking to everyone in the morning it appears that the Days Inn was even worse than it seemed; several beds weren't right and although there were eggs and hash browns and toast the next morning, that's all there was. Dave called out to Ed and told him not to touch the coffee - that it was awful. But since Ed was across the room, the entire restaurant became aware of Dave's opinion.

Absolutely awful traffic jam on route 168 south of Norfolk. Never found the cause. Dave also indicated that Val drove slower than Grandma. The wonderful lunch at Hardees made up for that bad experience however. Everyone (except John and Jill who drove through the night) got to the house within about 20 minutes of each other.

Drum Runner is certainly the house for us: 6 bedrooms and more importantly, 6 bathrooms. All the amenities. Except for a pool - there's one for the community though. Val's happy to have her own little room.

We have to walk across the street to get to the boardwalk to the beach. Not a big deal. But the deerfly “gauntlet” once we’re on the boardwalk IS a big deal. They live in the juniper bushes that crowd certain portions of the path.

Sunday, May 21
Val, Debbie and I went to church in Buxton with Mom. It was standing room only and very hot. Debbie and I wound up on the side deck with some other hot and over-crowded folk. We all left at half-time (after communion).

Stopped at Food Lion for lots of necessities afterwards.

Val, Debbie and I made dinner for everyone that evening: stir-fried veggies with undone teriyaki chicken. I felt a little bad about the chicken. But lookyahere. It was starting to rain, and Dave (the other chef) and I felt rushed – we did just finish before the hard rain began. I do know that Carol prefers her chicken slightly undone anyway.

That rainstorm became a Very Heavy rainstorm in the evening.

Monday, May 22
Most of us drove to Manteo to go to the newly expanded aquarium. Big traffic jam in Rodanthe where they were installing a culvert. It was bad heading up, but much worse coming back. Everyone enjoyed the aquarium even though Austin had said, "I don't want to just go see a bunch of fish swimming around."

Dave, Carol, Debbie, Val and I Stopped at the Weeping Radish for beer and dinner including spatzle and onion rings on the way back. Everyone else went to the Down Under.

Another Big electrical storm in the evening. Lots of lightning. Fun stuff.

Tuesday, May 23
Val and I went kayaking along with Deanna and Jack and family. This was a guided tour, and although it was an easy and serene 3 hours, we saw very little wildlife. We all applied sunscreen, except for the bottoms of Val's and Deanna's legs. Val has a nice handprint where her burn starts.

I was no smarter. Dave and I walked to the Food Lion and back and then I helped Val launch her new kite - all without sunscreen. As a result my shoulders are bright red.

Lasagne galore for dinner. Lots of wine too.

Played miniature golf at Uncle Eddy's in the evening with Val, Deanna and Jack and family, and Jill and John and family. It turned out to be about 4 holes too many for tired little JT who had a little temper tantrum despite some good after-match ice cream. I asked John if that's how he acts when his golf games turn out poorly.

Electricity went out a little after 10 even though there was no storm. Must have been making up for the nights when there was a storm but no outage. It was fun trying to find flashlights and candles.

Wednesday, May 24
Jack caught the limit of 3 BIG FISH - all Yellowfin Tuna. It cooked up just great.

John and Ed went golfing.

Thursday, May 25
Betsy, Debbie and I went on a bird walk at Pea Island. Saw lots of birds. Appropriately named Kim King-Wren was our guide.

Most of us stayed home - it was necessary to eat and dispose of the leftovers. Jack and Deanna and family went to Ocracoke.

I went into the ocean after a noontime run and Yeeeeow! My skin was burning and itching like crazy. Other folks had the same problem. That’s got us all really wondering: could it be billions of tiny jellyfish? Bacteria caused by pollution from the storms? Biological warfare from Saddam Hussein?

The biggest storm of all came in the late afternoon. Valerie, Carol, Debbie, Dave and I were squished into a dry 8 foot square area on the deck.

Friday, May 26
Several of us went shopping while others went to the Wright Brothers Memorial and Museum. The highlight of the day was throwing moldy hot dog buns to the seagulls after our wienie roast.

Built a major sand castle. It spanned several acres.

Everyone went out to the Soundside restaurant in the evening.

Saturday, May 27
Lots of traffic coming back through DC, but things were much worse going the other way. The whole trip took almost exactly 12 hours.

Interesting things heard in the car for this and other parts of the trip:

· "Won't we need to de-thaw it?" (Valerie wondering about the leftover Chinese food for when we got home.)
· "They're making spoof of the Europeans" (Debbie discussing the little round car plates that say HI and OBX, since they look like the European country plates.)
· "You're going to pee yourself silly" (Debbie to me for drinking too much water during the trip.)

1999 Australia and New Zealand

2007-08-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

September 23

Egads. Three weeks exploring Down Under with only the two of us together. We knew it was going to be interesting. It sure took LOTS of planning. First on the trip logistics themselves, and then on everything else necessary to increase our chances of having a still-standing house upon our return.

The getting-there part of the trip was every bit as grueling as we had anticipated. Most of the problems involved sleep or lack thereof. New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of us. It never failed to hurt my brain when figuring that out. A slightly easier way to think of it was that they're 8 hours behind and a day ahead. It meant we would have to stay awake much later than usual on the trip to start getting the hang of their time.

September 24

They can keep their @#! food and give us some #@! leg-room. That was Debbie’s comment, but I feel the same way. The trip from LA to Auckland took about 13 hours during which we saw 3 movies and were given 3 nice meals. Unfortunately, the plane's cattle class was set up in such a way that even sardines would march out in protest. 10 seats across and about 1.4 centimeters between the rows of seats. Where do the knees go? - That's the first question everyone was asking as they got on. And don't get me started on getting in and out of the seats while maintaining a 45-degree body angle! We slept a bit on those flights, but it was certainly not restful sleep.

September 25

I wanna live right here. After that grueling trip, getting out of our rental car (a Mitsubishi Lancer) Debbie immediately said the whole ordeal was worthwhile just for this. "This" was Christchurch, one of the most beautiful cities on this planet. (I'm not the first to say that either.) We got out of the car at the city's largest of many parks and began walking. If two people ever needed to walk, it was us. And walk we did. All morning and into the afternoon. Within the park is the city's Botanic Gardens. The day was gorgeous, lots of families were out and the spring flowers and gardens were as nice as any we've seen anywhere. We decided that (move over Big Island of Hawaii), THIS is where we really want to live.

After the parks, we did some more walking at the Arts Centre, drove up into the mountains to the south for some great views of the city, then got cleaned up and did some MORE walking in the City Centre, eventually finding a place for dinner. We had lamb. The other 44 bazillion sheep on the island didn’t notice that this one was missing.

Stupid cultural misunderstandings. We had lots, but this one was typical. As we were checking into our first hotel in New Zealand, the lady asks "Would you like some milk?" Debbie looked at me, and said, "do we need any milk?" not having the slightest idea what we would want it for. Of course, neither did I, so I said no, I don't think we need any milk. When we got up to our room we figured it out: there was coffee and tea with a hot-water maker, and it was teatime! We were also offered milk at each subsequent hotel, although a few already had it in the fridge. Live and learn. We’ll never turn milk down again.

Debbie also wanted me to mention the toilets. When we collaborate on our book, "Toilets of the World" we'll certainly note that those of New Zealand are cone shaped, with two buttons, one for a small flush and one for a BIG flush. When to use which is left to the imagination. Men’s toilets sometimes consist of a stainless steel wall with a grate to stand on, over a drain. And if you are in need, New Zealand is the place to be; toilets - Clean Toilets - are everywhere. Each and every burg and hamlet sports a large sign boasting about their public toilets. New Zealanders must be horrified when visiting the US.

September 26

This place is wild! After experiencing the beautiful town and the extremely civilized (more like Brits than Brits are - they say "excuse me" just for breaking eye contact to get your food while serving you at McDonalds) inhabitants, I was surprised during my 5am run that this otherwise extremely quiet city was hopping, jamming and otherwise going wild still from the night before. After we had seen all those runners around the park the day before, I was somewhat of a sore thumb trying to run through all that ruckus.

The drive from Christchurch to Queenstown took a good 8 hours. There was almost no other traffic of any kind at all. Of course we made stops for meals and to take pictures of all the scenery. Lots of sheep. And domestic deer. And hedge fencing. After a while you get tired of spectacular views, which never really stop. The sheep never stop either.

Queenstown is strictly a tourist town, sort of like Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The setting, on a lake surrounded by mountains is breathtaking, but I'm running out of superlatives. It's fairly crowded too. We walked about town, saw some Kiwis (the birds, not the people) and other native birds at a bird reserve, ate at a famous restaurant called the Boardwalk which is right on the lake, and then took the Gondola (cable car) trip up the mountain in the evening. Lots of screaming from Debbie as the thing goes almost straight up for 1300 feet or so. Spectacular (now I have run out) views from the top.

September 27

It sure gets cold here in Queenstown. Close to freezing. And windy/blustery as well. After walking around town some more we ate a quick lunch and headed to Te Anau. Te Anau is on the way to Milford Sound, and otherwise in the middle of nowhere. Our Hotel was 30 km outside of this nowhere place, although it’s uncertain how you can be 30 km outside of nowhere. There's only the one road going into/out of Milford and the Te Anau Downs Motor Inn is on it, along with nothing else but sheep.

Debbie and I took a wilderness hike down to Mistletoe Lake. Extremely quiet, except for all the bird songs. We saw a couple of the famous New Zealand fat pigeons, and heard the varied songs of the black/blue birds with the white thingies on their necks.

Bought food in town for meals since there are no restaurants at all around. Interesting trip to the local supermarket.

The real highlight of the day was the stars in the evening. They were every bit as bright as they are in the U.P. We saw the Milky Way, a shooting star, Mars, and some things you can never see in the Northern Hemisphere: Magellenic Clouds, Alpha Centauri (our nearest start), a globular cluster (through the binocs) and the Southern Cross. Fantabulous.

September 28

I ran for 15 miles (somewhat under 2 hours) on one road (the ONLY road) and encountered only 4 vehicles and a helicopter. One local, hauling his sheep dogs stopped to talk, and although we were both smiling a lot, we couldn't find a mutual language with which to communicate. Recall the milk fiasco. Anyway, it was a beautiful early morning (frosty) run.

We had debated whether to try Doubtful Sound, which was an expensive all day cruise or Milford Sound which was much less costly providing you drive there, and shorter. We were happy with the latter plan; the drive over, through Fiordland National Park was almost unbelievable - better than any National park I've seen anywhere. And the cruise itself was great.

Several stops on the way through the park meant many, many pictures of lakes with mountains, as well as rivers with mountains, and some mountains by themselves. We saw a kea: an extremely friendly New Zealand parrot. He tried to dismantle our car, and then almost hopped into the car with us when it was time to leave.

Milford Sound is not really a sound; it's a fiord. We were told the difference, but I forget... Oh yeah. A sound is caused by glaciers. Anyway, after using the "s" word (spectacular) so much elsewhere, there aren't many words left for Milford Sound. Maybe Double-Spectacular. The day was gorgeous, and we went all the way out to the Tasman sea, where it suddenly became windy with waves. We spotted seals and penguins during the return trip. The group of ethnic people that all crowded onto the front of the boat and sang some ethnic version of cumbaya was interesting as well.

During our late afternoon walk, Debbie and I observed some interesting birds once again, along with our fat pigeon friend again.

September 29

Well, I beat yesterday's record. This time there was only one other car during my run, and that was just before I turned in our place to finish up. Not even the farmer in the pickup from yesterday.

Possums are a nuisance here - they're all over the dang place. And since they often end up as roadkill, the locals call them "squash-ums". They appear to us to be more like weasels than our possums back home. Naturally, when we see one on the road we each try to be the first to yell, "SQUASH-UM!".

With all the driving we've been doing (between 3 and 8 hours a day) we see our share of squash-ums. I'm sort of getting used to this driving on the left stuff too. (Debbie still screams a lot.) I only forget once in a while and wipe out an occasional pedestrian or sheep. Turns were tough at first, but I got the hang of those pretty quickly. Still having a tough time with round-abouts though. The signs say, "Give Way", and I say "To Whom???".

Here on the South Island there is nothing even resembling an interstate highway; almost all the roads are 2-lanes. But since there are only around 12 other cars here, these 2-lanes are more than sufficient.

Dunedin (pronounced dunEEdin) seemed livelier than Christchurch, even considering those early-morning revelers. Dunedin is a college town - the famous University of Otago is here - and there was quite a party outside our room's back windows in the evening. We walked a lot, but were too tired from all the hard driving to really enjoy the town very much. We saw the Otago Early Settlers Museum (where the first words out of the receptionist's mouth were, "The toilets are this way..."), and ate dinner at Portraits at the Abbey Hotel. Earlier we had done our shopping at Peggydales.

September 30

There was more traffic on the trip from Dunedin back to Christchurch than anywhere else so far. By this point we were REALLY tired of all the driving. Functional air conditioning would have helped. And we're not even in Australia yet.

We stopped to see the Moerke? Bolders, which are definitely alien life forms. They are said to be "concretions" formed by the build up of minerals. But these are the same people that tell us that nothing happened at Roswel. The really scary part is that some of them have hatched!

I've been remarking on the scenery, but not so much on the New Zealanders themselves. They are gracious and kind to strangers almost to a fault. Everyone we encountered genuinely wanted to serve us and make our stay a pleasurable one. And of course it was. No one that we encountered was the least bit unfriendly or surly, whether they were serving us or merely encountering other drivers on the road; you almost never hear the “Toot of the Angry Horn” in New Zealand. The service could have been a bit faster/more efficient at times, but it didn't bother us - especially since there is almost no tipping.

Prices were excellent too - generally better than in the States. Nobody ever tried to gauge us, even when they certainly had an excuse to do so, like when they were the only restaurant or petrol within scores of miles. We'll really miss this place.

Met some friendly Kiwis (the people, not the birds) on the flight to Brisbane. They had just seen Bill Clinton who was in New Zealand just a couple weeks prior. Turned out that he had been to the same restaurant in Queenstown that we had. There were some interesting stories and such. And speaking of stories, the lady who ran our Brisbane Hotel wouldn't stop talking about her trip to Michigan. We got a kick out of her.

I just caught a cough and cold. Boo Hoo.

October 01

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, Buses and Boats. Except maybe for the trains. Of course that may change... We somehow made it to Gladstone, which is well north of Brisbane. We immediately started re-arranging our travel plans to get back to Brisbane after our time at Heron Island, and then on from there. Debbie says I'm always her toughest client, as I'm always trying to optimize our plans. I'm proud to hold that distinction.

Bus to the boat and the boat to Heron Island. That 2 hour boat trip was a real puke-o-rama. I'm sure glad I had taken my Bonine for motion sickness, otherwise I would have been grabbing for barf bags with the rest of them. As it turned out, I was knocked out by the drug and slept the whole way, while Debbie actually enjoyed the rocking of the boat and watching everyone lose their lunches. Well, maybe she didn't actually enjoy that last part, but it did keep her entertained.

When we finally got to the island, everyone from the boat was disoriented to some extent. The combination of the drugs, my cough (which I'm beginning to believe is more like the flu or some sort of sinus infection), and still being dizzy from the boat really did me in. I was like a zombie for the rest of the day and evening. Debbie wasn't 100% either.

The first thing you notice about Heron Island (other than its size, which is miniscule) are the birds. Billions and Billions of them - all shapes and sizes, and all intent on letting humans know that they're the ones in charge. Noddy terns, herons (of course), doves, seagulls (of course) are all over. Some fly right at your head, or have nests in trees along the walking paths inches from where your head passes. We always need to be careful when looking up.

Heron Island is the only resort where you can walk right out onto/into the Great Barrier Reef. We're also inside a national park. There is some sort of University Research Station here as well.

Since the place is so ridiculously expensive, we expected that the food, which is included in the "tariff" would be very good. And I thought it was. Debbie’s not so hot about it. She ate only one bite of our steak dinner (which I enjoyed) and quit, saying it was too “animally”. I think she was still woozy from the boat. Of course I would not let her forget her comment for the rest of the trip. As in, I don’t like those green beans; they’re too “vegetabally”.

We went to the stargazing talk in the evening. Very interesting and informative. The stars had been brighter in New Zealand, however. When one of the southern hemisphere type people asked if we can see the Milky Way in the north, I answered that, yes you can, but it appears right-side up.

October 02

I'm a bit better today. Still have the sinus infection or whatever, but the dizziness is mostly gone. Still somewhat out of whack though; my muscles and joints ache a whole lot. Debbie is fine now.

We went on a reef walk with the resort's guide. She showed us lots of creepy crawly critters, including about 6 different types of sea cucumbers, which Debbie and I refer to as sea slugs. Maybe sea turds would be a better description. We're starting to wonder if these things might be the aliens that were born of those boulders in New Zealand. We also saw sea stars and about 200 different kinds of coral. A cute little shark came to visit, swimming between many folks' legs.

Next we went on a bird walk with another guide. This was quite interesting too. There are about 300 birds per cubic foot here on the island. We keep thinking that with all the noises they make, they're plotting and massing for an attack, ala "The Birds".

I snorkeled in the afternoon and saw lots of stingrays and one easy-going big shark.

October 03

Debbie and I circumnavigated the island after breakfast. Didn't take much more than 45 minutes or so.

I then went off for my snorkel boat trip. Saw lots of colorful fish and coral; more than you can see from shore. Also saw another shark and a sea turtle. I don't know if it was the cold water or the standing in the pouring rain for 1/2 hour waiting to get on the boat (we were going to get wet anyway...) but my illness took a turn for the worse in the afternoon. I wound up with a fever. What now, pneumonia?

"Pardon me, but may I come in and place something into your toiletry system?" Our answer was certainly in the affirmative. The toilets here had been about to get a very poor rating in our "Toilets of the World" book. Debbie had even complained when we first arrived. It did improve with whatever they did. Maybe we’ll move that rating up a notch.

October 04

I felt a little better again today after yesterday's fever. Just to be sure, I went to see the nurse. She gave me some medicine, but I decided not to take any because I was about to take the Bonine for the dreaded boat trip back to the mainland.

In spite of my illness, I really liked Heron Island. It certainly is a "very natural place", as they say. The birds and the reef (better than your average barrier reef) really do make it special. Debbie enjoyed the reef and the birds as well, but felt that we can get the same sort of thing, with more luxury, for a lot less money, a lot closer to home. I suppose I could agree with her on most of that, but I liked the food better than she, and we both thought highly of the service, including the guides.

So we probably will not be back, but I am happy to have had the experience. Now if I can only recover from this #@#! illness.

It was fortuitous that I only took one, instead of the usual two Bonine tablets. That's because this is one of those cases where the cure is almost as bad as the disease, and it turned out that the boat ride back wasn't bad at all. No one at all got sick this time around. Didn't spot any whales either.

What was bad, however, was waiting in the Gladstone Airport for over 5 hours for our flight back to Brisbane. The change of plans the other day had been to fly rather than drive for this leg of the journey to "make it easier on us". Didn't get in until after midnight. The joys of travelling. We did have some long conversations with a few nice Australian folks while waiting. So it really wasn’t all that bad.

October 05

I was starting to feel almost sub-human. But now Debbie decided to catch whatever I had. We can only hope that her version won't be as bad. We'll try to keep her out of the snorkel gear.

Trying to navigate our way from one side of Brisbane to another proved to be a difficult task. We spent a good deal of an hour or so going the wrong direction in the wrong area. Finally, when we were at our most-lost point, in spite of everything, to our complete surprise, we actually got to our destination: the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Fig Tree Pocket. Of all things! For as lost as we were, it could have just as well been Ayers Rock.

We saw lots of Koalas, and I got to hold one (Lisa) for a picture and an extra fee. We also saw Kangaroos and Wallabies (you could walk right up and touch them too), as well as Wombats, Tasmanian Devils, Kookaburras, and lots of these other strange critters from OZ.

It took less than an hour (including minimal being-lost time) to get to our next hotel in the Gold Coast area. This part of Australia is a lot like our Miami Beach - high-rise hotels, bright lights, and excitement. We stayed south of Surfer's Paradise and Broadbeach in Burleigh Heads, where things were slightly quieter. There are very nice parks for walking along the shore.

We bought what I hope will be the LAST pair of glasses that Debbie will require for this trip; she had lost sunglasses in an New Zealand toilet so we replaced those there, and she had broken her reading glasses so we bought a pair of those in Burleigh. She was starting to feel a bit better in the evening after the Chinese restaurant for dinner.

October 06

These Aussies are every bit as friendly as the Kiwis. Every single person we've encountered, whether they were there to provide service or not, has been exceedingly friendly. There are more of the Aussies though. And we've therefore heard the Toot of the Angry Horn a bit more often here. But it is still a much friendlier place to drive (or to do anything else) than in the states.

With the roads almost the same as they are in New Zealand, we're moving a lot slower simply because of the greater volume of cars (and cops). Today we drove to Kempsey - about halfway to Sydney. We stopped to see the Trial Bay “Gaol”, a jail, no longer in use, built in the 1800's on a beautiful spot by the sea. We saw some other great seascapes as well, at the nearby lighthouse in Hat Head National Park.

October 07

And we thought navigating our way through Brisbane was a challenge! Talk about nerve-racking. It took us about 6 hours to get to the outskirts of Sydney, and then forever, give or take a fortnight, to get through it to the other side of town. That's our problem - we're always going to the other side of something.

And nerve-racking it was. We were never really badly lost; it was just tough to drive through the traffic on the narrow, crowded streets. Just like any big metropolis - you shouldn't even THINK about driving here. And parking? hahahaha. And and and heaven help you if you accidentally wind up driving in a bus-lane.

This Unilodge Hotel is really a weird joint. Although it was a bit less expensive than some of the other hotels, it's a mile or more from most of the city's attractions. We took the bus downtown to the pier, where we walked for a while before getting on the Sydney Harbor Cruise. Really beautiful - especially at and after sunset. I hope at least some of the 340 photos I took come out. After a warm day, it was VERY cold on that boat. We were dressed for the occasion, but Debbie is pretty ill.

October 08

This really is a nice city. Too bad it's so far away. And crowded.

We bought tickets that allowed us to take a bus around the city and get off where we wanted and then get back on another bus. Great way to see the city. We walked around Darlington Harbor (where some of the Olympic events will be held), then stopped at the aquarium (where we saw some fishes and sea slugs), walked around (but not in for very far) the opera house, and finally walked around the (slightly risqué') King's Cross area.

Long day, but we sure saw a lot. Debbie's case of the flu seems to be at it's worst, too. She probably has a fever.

October 09

The bars sure stay open late. I encountered many an inebriated Aussie coming out of the bars, during my 5:00 am run. Sort of like Christchurch except much more so.

Never a dull moment. Or I should say, never a wasted moment. Today we drove to the Blue Mountains. The national park is only around 90 minutes west of Sydney. We stopped at several spots to take pictures; all the vistas were very scenic. Some started to get crowded as the day wore on.

And speaking of crowded, it turned out to be the "Garden Festival" day in the mountain town of Leura. Nice town, beautiful flowers and lots of interesting crafts. Lots of people too. Wall to wall.

On the way back, we stopped at the new Olympic Park, where most of the events will be held. Although we could have taken a tour or paid $12 to park and see the stadium, we chose to just drive around and act lost, which we were. At least we got to see the stadium from the outside.

We've been generally eating a large meal around 2:00 pm after bakery, yogurt and fruit for “brekky” (or is it breakie?). Then we have bakery or something light in the evening. Funny thing about these lunch cafes: sometimes you get your soup, salad and main dish (don't call it an entree) all at the same time. We're always on our toes!

Debbie's a bit better now.

October 10

Today there was a dull moment. In a rare bit of poor planning, we had decided to spend this day getting halfway from Sydney to Melbourne and to stay in the small hamlet of Albury, New South Wales. As it turned out, we probably could have made it all the way to Melbourne quite easily. I think part of the problem was that these plans were made during Debbie's wine-drinking days, and there are several wineries around that we wound up skipping. The other problem is a different last-minute plan change: we're going straight into Melbourne as opposed to going further along the coast, which would've taken longer - we may still get the coast in as a side trip.

Whereas the highways from Brisbane to Sydney were slow and boring (with long stretches where there is only one lane each way), these from Sydney to Melbourne are smooth and fast. Still a bit dull though. The rolling hills were pretty, however, and many were covered with purple flowers. For only the second time on the trip, we encountered a rain shower. The first was on Heron Island.

Australia is exactly like America except:

1) the people here are generally nice
2) the people here generally obey traffic laws
3) there are some really weird animals here
4) the place names are ludicrous:
there's Dubbo, WaggaWagga, WeeWaa, Coonabarbran, Woolgoolga, Cootamundra, Toowoomba

And these are just some of the towns we drove through or nearby.

October 11

I really think those laughing Kookaburras are laughing at me. I hear them when I run, and I don't particularly like being the butt of their silly jokes. And don't get me started about those scheming Magpies... We've also been seeing Cockatoos and Crimson Rosellas along the roads as we've been driving.

Melbourne is every bit as lively and crowded as Sydney. It's almost as large, and has a very interesting mix of new and old architecture; quite often a new skyscraper will be sitting right next to a very old looking 100+ year old building.

We walked around the botanic gardens as well as other parks and gardens - there are plenty to go around. We also walked around the nearby coastal town of St Kilda. Lots going on there too. Nobody was swimming at the beach; it was cool and rain was falling off and on. We ate at a very fancy restaurant on the bay call Stokehouse. Debbie was self-conscious of her cold sores that came on after the flu. But she shouldn't have been. She should have been self-conscious because we were the only people in the restaurant who (with our t-shirts and windbreakers and jeans) looked like ragamuffins that the wind and rain blew in. That was all ok though; we're Americans.

Met a couple from Wisconsin at our hotel. It was interesting to compare notes.

October 12

We went out with a bang, not a whimper. For our last full day in Oz, we decided to explore the Great Ocean Road. This took us through some spectacular coastal scenery west of Melbourne, all the way to Port Campbell.

It was quite a drive. Port Campbell is about 160 miles from Melbourne, but with all the zigzagging and some brief stops it took us 8 hours to get there. It was certainly worth the trip however. We got to see the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, Moonlight Head, and other famous sights. There was even a rainforest and our first sight of Koalas in the wild.

After all that tiring sightseeing, it only took 2 and 1/2 hours to return to Melbourne via a different road. Still a loooong day.

I think that now we're ready for our trip home.

October 13

Here we sit. In LA. Waiting (being held captive) for the weather-induced traffic problems in Detroit to be resolved. At least we made it this far. We had the other delay in Gladstone, but I suppose these coulda been worse. But then maybe I should reserve judgement until we're actually on the ground in Motown.

Anyhoo, time for reflection. We sure saw and did a lot for the time (on the order of 20 days total) and money (on the order of $7500). There isn't a whole lot we'd have done differently. We're really happy to have done the things we done. Maybe a few things that we would do differently next time, though.

Like spending much more (or maybe all) of the time in New Zealand. We loved it that much. Not that Australia was bad; we enjoyed that too. But anywhere else would pale in comparison. Next time we do go to both countries, we'd like to see some other places. The North Island of New Zealand is also supposed to be nice, but not quite as spectacular. There are some parts of South Island that we'd still like to see, including Invercargil, Stewart Island and Doubtful Sound. In Australia, we'd like to see Tasmania, Perth and points west, and parts of the tropical north as well as (maybe) the outback.

As it was, we chose well to see what highlights we could. The planning was mostly right-on. If anything, we may have been able to drive from the Gold Coast to Sydney, and from Sydney to Melbourne in one day each. But being conservative had its rewards too; we got to see some areas that are not frequented by visitors quite so much.

The scenery was great throughout. Although New Zealand couldn't have been better, what we saw of Australia was actually very nice too. We think we saw most of the best of it though; the outback areas would probably be less interesting. We were thrilled with the birds and other wildlife. Lots of variety! Finally the people were great. New Zealanders just seem to love travelers. They go out of their way to be helpful. The Aussies were almost as nice. The only real problem there was that there were more of them. Sydney and Melbourne are great cities, glittering jewels, but they are still cities, in the sense that they have lots and lots of people. Still, American cities can learn a lot from them in terms of having vibrant downtown areas and keeping urban sprawl under control.

As I've already half-jokingly noted, Australia is a lot like America: better in some ways, like the cities, and behind in others, like highways and crime (where they have a long way to go to catch us). New Zealand is in a class by itself.

1998 Hawaii

2007-08-27T13:21:00.002-07:00

Wednesday 12/02

Now I know why we don't make this trip very often. Besides the expense, there's that grueling trip. We left at 9:30 AM Eastern Time and arrived at 9:30 PM Hawaii Time. With the 5 hour time change, that's:

· 17 hours of travelling
· 4 airplanes and 5 airports
· 1 major rerouting made necessary by a late arrival (we watched our connecting flight roll away from the gate)
· 2 dreaded middle seats
· 3 naps by me
· 0 naps by Debbie
· 3 airplane meals (now that made it all worthwhile)

One thing we woulda done differently was to book the trip directly to Kauai from the mainland instead of going through Honolulu. We wound up missing Honolulu anyway, but only after the rerouting and some other dipsy-doodles.

Thursday 12/03

Some people were complaining about the huge waves caused by the wind and rain we were getting. But I thought they were swell. Sorry for the Horvath type joke. I'll try to restrain myself. The rain was on and off. When it was on, we could usually find a rainbow somewhere.

Our condo, the Kiahuna Plantation in the Poipu area of Kauai is the cat's meow. We've got lots of room and our garden view is beautiful; too bad there's a long walk to the beach and a longer one to the pool. We like watching (and feeding) the local birds. We made plans to cook lots of our meals in our kitchen. Here though, cooking is defined as pouring milk over the cereal, or slapping some lunchmeat on some bread to go with the Taro Chips and beer. We went out for our dinners. The little pet Gecko that lived in our kitchen didn't seem to mind our schedule.

Didn't do much but hang around this first day. We stayed around Poipu, and explored the ruins of a really nice hotel there called the Waiohai that we stayed at 13 years ago. Sort of like the Lost World of Jurassic Park. It had been done in by Hurricane Iniki. We walked to dinner at Brennecke's, which was still there.

Friday 12/04

"There's a Kamehameha!" is translated as "Stop the car; I want to see this." Perhaps some further explanation regarding that translation is in order. The State of Hawaii has erected signs on the roadsides to designate points of interest. The signs are little pictures of King Kamehameha I, who united all of the islands in the early 1800's. So now Debbie, and presumably all other automobile passengers in the state have only to point out the Kamehameha signs in order to instruct their drivers to stop. It works for us anyway. On every one of our trips.

The high winds and occasional rain forced a cancellation of our NaPali boat trip, so we drove to the western shore of the island, to see some beaches that we hadn't been to before. And of course stop at any Kamehameha's along the way. Polihale Beach is at the end of the road; the road stops there because that's where the NaPali cliffs begin - it's not possible to circle the island by car. Anyway, it (Polihale Beach) seemed more like the end of the earth. Although the high surf made it way too dangerous to swim, the beach was truly gorgeous. And remote! We walked for miles and saw only three other souls.

It turned out that we couldn't swim at any of the beaches, even those in the usually calm Poipu area, all due to the surf.

That evening we took in some local color by eating in a little bar in Lihue and then watching the "Festival of Lights" Parade. Yeah, it was a little dinky, but it was good, small-town fun.

Saturday, 12/05

We spent the entire day driving around the east and north side of the island, towards Hanalei. No magic dragons were spotted; if there had been any about, they would have had Kamehameha signs attached. The off and on rain was mostly on this time, so we couldn't see as much of the stunning scenery as we would have liked. But we'd been there before and still have the pictures to prove it. We did make a couple of stops that we hadn't before:

At the Kilauea Lighthouse Wildlife Sanctuary we saw several types of seabirds and watched some really huge waves hitting the sea cliffs below.

We also enjoyed the Guava Plantation, sampling different guava products and touring the gardens. We discussed starting up a Guava Wine operation there. It worked for Pineapple Wine on Maui.

On the way back we ate a Brennecke's again, and then walked across the street to the beach to see three endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals. Got really close - two were sleeping on the beach while the third one kept moving around to try to get comfortable.

Sunday, 12/06

The NaPali boat cruise was cancelled again due to wind, rain and waves. Things did seem to be improving, however.

We drove up to the Kalalau lookout. I really struggle to keep myself from taking pictures of the fantastic scenery - when I had taken the same scene years before. This time the main goal was to find some birds for Debbie to identify with her new Hawaii bird book. Found a few. But Brrrr. It was cold up there! We had a very nice picnic lunch in Kokee Park. We've been seeing at least one rainbow per day - today's was over the Kalalau Valley. On the way home we stopped at a butterfly plantation.

Monday, 12/07

We finally made it out on our NaPali boat, the NaPali Explorer. It was well worth the wait. The crew was super nice and helpful at pointing things out. And we had only 13 passengers, while they're geared for 30 or more. The cliffs were stunning and awesome as ever. Besides this boat trip, we have now hiked part of the Kalalau trail, saw the cliffs from the western beach, saw them a couple times from the Kalalau Lookout and flew over them by helicopter twice. Every time, however, we find something new. This time we saw:

· Several Green Sea Turtles, up close
· Spinner Dolphins (so called because they jammed with the Spinners back in the 70's) Oops. There I go again.
· Several caves, really close up. And in. With the boat.
· No whales. Oh well, we were just about a week too early.

I went snorkeling, but not for long. That water was just a bit too cold.

Riding the waves back made for a really exciting trip. Thank goodness for Dramamine.

Tuesday, 12/08

There were a few hours to kill in the morning/early afternoon before our flight to Molokai, so we drove to Wailea Falls and then to the Menehune Fish Pond. The Menehune are mythological little people that the Hawaiians believed built this and other fish ponds.

After the nice place on Kauai, the Molokai hotel, the Kaluakoi Villas was a disappointment. Another long walk to the beach/pool, noisy neighbors, no screen door to the lanai and plenty of bugs, Geckos and other creatures.

The surf was too rough to swim here as well.

Wednesday, 12/09

There are three ways to get down to the Kalaupapa Peninsula, where the leper colony was (and still is) and where the famous Father Damien brought order to the chaos in the 1800's. You can fly down in a small plane, take a mule ride, or hike. The peninsula is cut off from the rest of the island by 1700+ foot cliffs. The lepers were dumped off there since there was no way out for them.

Once on the peninsula, it is illegal to venture anywhere without a guide or a tour, since victims of Hansen's Disease, as it is now called, are the only residents, and they don't want visitors in any other fashion.

This all sounded like just the ticket for me and Debbie (really!), so away we went, hiking our way down.

Didn’t get too far. For one thing, we wound up following the mules. And since it was raining, the trail was extremely muddy. And the mud we were walking in wasn't just plain mud. The mules… Never mind.

It was too late to catch the plane, so instead of Kalaupapa this day we drove east along the southern shore to Halawa. Another trip that we had done before, but another one that was worth doing again, with more stunning scenery. We weren't allowed to walk across the private property to the remote waterfalls like we did 11 years back.

I had the best fish yet at the Molokai Pizza Café, which is just a little hole in the wall. Then for dessert we went over to Purdy's Natural Macadamia Nut Farm. Mr. Purdy himself, the owner and farmer, took us for the little tour and gave us some samples. It was fun and informative, but he must have used the word, "natural" 100 times.

Thursday, 12/10

"Are you aware that the passenger door is open?", I yelled, doing my best to stifle my panic. The pilot of the 6-seater, which had been rolling down the runway, reached over and yanked it closed just as the wheels were about to leave the ground. He yelled back something to the effect that that was the only way to get air into the cabin.

I knew it would be a quick trip and it was - only about 5 minutes. In fact, all the pilot really had to do is roll the plane off the cliff and hope to land it safely on the peninsula below. Scary, but quick.

Kalaupapa International Airport was fairly informal. It wasn't too busy during 45 minutes or so that we waited for our tour to pick us up. Not too busy in the sense that for a good part of the time, we 5 passengers were the only ones there at all.

Finally an old broken down school bus showed up. It had the words Damien Tours written on top. An old tall, but slightly bent over guy who seemed to look at people a little funny got out and took $30 cash from each of us. It turned out to be some of the best $60 we ever spent. The guy's name was Richard Marx, and we assume that he is one of the 45 remaining patients/residents. This is because he is the sheriff, judge, mayor and everything else, and only patients are allowed to live there. The patients are allowed to leave, but prefer to stay. After we picked up the ass-riders (as he called them), we were off, tooling around the peninsula.

We learned a lot about what life is like there today (there are no new cases; the youngest patient is 58), as well as what it was like in the 1800's. The place was a living hell until Father Damien and later a few others showed up to help put some order in place. Mr. Marx was an expert on Father Damien (following his footsteps all around Molokai and Belgium), on Hansen's Disease (appearing at the UN about it), and on the entire peninsula (where, as I said, he is the chief).

He wasn't too kind in his opinions about the National Park Service, including the new administrator, which run the place as a National Historical Site. Or about the Mule Riding company, which puts pressure on him to "stay on schedule".

We had a picnic lunch at what has to be the most beautiful picnic spot in the world - the site of Father Damien's St. Philomena Church, where we were on a low cliff, looking over the sea and the much higher cliffs and small islands off the coast.

The plane ride going back was much scarier than the one coming down. The first question was, would the plane make it up and over the cliff. Then it became, can the pilot make that little plane turn and actually fly into the wind? Somehow we made it.

Debbie and I were laughing about the whole scary incident while driving back home, when I noticed an earth mover, moving dirt on top of a cliff overlooking the road in front of us. I jokingly said, "I hope he doesn't move any of his dirt over the side" as I approached at 60 mph. Just then, Debbie yelled "STOP THE CAR!". I started braking, while asking why, and she yelled "BOULDER!". Then I saw it too. An Indiana Jones type of boulder was coming down the cliff towards the road just in front of us. Although we weren't yet directly below it when I came to a stop we were close. Then it started to occur to me that the boulder would hit the road and then roll down to where we were (and on top of us) anyway. I was trying to quickly think about backing back down the hill, when I saw the boulder and several smaller rocks strike a concrete barrier that was between the road and the cliff. It hit the top of the wall and fell back in towards the cliff. Meanwhile another car (another of the twelve or so that exist on Molokai) was approaching from the other way at a high rate of speed. I did the only thing I could: signal to him frantically with my headlights, but he just gave me a quizzical look as he went by. By that time the danger had ceased anyway. All of that happened in about 3 nanoseconds.

Friday, 12/11

It was "Bad Luck with Busses Day" for our first day on Oahu. First, we couldn't find the shuttle that's supposed to run from the airport to Waikiki, so we had to take a taxi. Then we tried to catch a public bus (their system is called, "TheBus") to go to Pearl Harbor. Maybe we were invisible, but the one we were supposed to get on passed us right up. We gave up on that one too.

There wasn't much to the Marathon Expo, compared to other such running events.

We had Chinese Dim Sum for lunch - a new experience for Debbie. Dinner was Chinese too - in an Italian/Chinese Restaurant. The Entertainment 99 discount messed them up so much that it took several of them a half hour to figure out our bill.

Were we bummed about any of this? Heck no! This was Waikiki, and we were hanging loose. And we had a real hotel (the Outrigger Waikiki in case you're keeping score) with both an accessible and swimmable beach and pool. Also by this time it was finally hot and sunny most of the time. Somewhere along the day we actually went a day or two where we didn't get to see at least one rainbow,

Saturday, 12/12

Debbie had expressed her reservations, but we made it all the way to Pearl Harbor on TheBus with no problems. Like Kalaupapa, this was a very sobering experience. A short film had everyone teary-eyed, and then they took us by boat to the Arizona Memorial. It was serene. When we returned, a veteran of the battle told us of his experiences. I think that that was the most interesting part of all.

TheBus ride back included some great theater, consisting of some very interesting characters. The most interesting character of all was one that we met later on - a little old Chinese guy who operated (you guessed it) another Italian Restaurant.

Sunday 12/13

I awoke at 3:00 am and was out the door by 3:30, heading for the race. Debbie and I laughed because at that time we could hear the toilets flushing all over the hotel (they were those loud kind), indicating morning constitutionals for all the runners. Debbie watched me run by the hotel at 5:45 and then met me at the finish at Kapiolani Park. There sure were lots of Japanese banners and tents there.

We lunched at the cheap little Chinese place that we used to frequent 15 years ago. Same old hole in the wall with good prices and good food. Then we walked back to the park for the awards ceremony. I learned that I was not the winner.

The dinner cruise that evening was very nice. Good food and a very nice sunset. We watched for the "green flash" of light that's emitted as the sun sinks into the ocean. I saw some green; Debbie didn’t.

Monday 12/14

Just hung around the beach and the pool. Funny to see so many people hobbling around. 'Course I was hobbling a bit myself, too.

We had a good lunch at the Top of Waikiki Tower, and then a fantastic supper at Nick's Fishmarket, which deservedly enjoys an excellent reputation.

Tuesday, 12/15

Surprise! The trip back home was actually easier than the one going out. Go figure. Anyway, we're home now. And we've got rainbow withdrawal. And I haven't seen a Kamehameha in a while…

1998 Florida Panhandle

2007-08-27T13:21:00.001-07:00

Florida Panhandle Trip
September, 1998

To go to Florida or the Caribbean in late September is a crapshoot in any year. But to go in 1998 proved to be somewhat of a sure thing: we were almost sure to get hit by one hurricane or another. We actually did wind up getting lucky; we managed to wedge our vacation between a tropical storm and (most) of Hurricane Georges.

There was a funny incident at the Memphis airport. We were changing planes on the way south and Debbie almost knocked a man over at a pedestrian intersection between concourses. I looked at the guy and there was no mistake in my mind: he was Shelby Foote. He was the historian who was repeatedly interviewed during Ken Burns' Civil War TV series. Already a noted author, he had become very popular as a result of his fascinating commentaries on the various aspects of the Civil War. And Debbie almost floored him!

Afterwards I told Debbie who she had run into. She had not seen his face and could not remember him from the TV series.

We were very disappointed with the Quality Inn in Panama City. After a long day of travelling, including driving 2 further hours from the Pensacola airport, we had somehow expected better. The worst thing about our suite is that it smelled like mildew unless we turned the A/C up all the way. And then we froze.

Another disappointment were the "Best Beaches in the World", as Panama City Beach claims. I don't think so. The sand is indeed pure white. And soft. It's like powdered (not granular) sugar. But the hotels, of which there seemed to be hundreds, were right next to each other and had crowded out the width of the beach, including any sand dunes. So maybe it was the best sand in the world, but terrible planning had made the area some of the worst beaches. It was sort of like Myrtle Beach with nice sand.

We spent a day at St. Andrews State Park, where the original dunes and wide beaches had been preserved. THOSE really were nice beaches. Saw a deer and lots of birds there, but no gators.

The whole time we were there, we (especially Debbie) kept an eye on the Weather Channel. It seemed that everyone else did too. Kind of scary to see Georges getting closer by the hour. All along, though, we had figured that we'd get out just in time. It was supposed to hit land sometime Sunday and our flight out was Saturday evening. We had good weather the whole time that we were there, except for some increased wind and waves early Saturday. And there were even some waves on Friday evening. Don't know if it was related, but we saw several manta rays in the water darting around and swimming real fast at times. We also walked out to the end of the pier to watch the local fishermen pulling in some big ones.

I had planned to run in the Destin Mid-Bay Bridge run Saturday morning. Since the weather was still nice, I didn't think the race would be cancelled. Just before getting to the bridge I saw what looked like a wild dog cross the road in front of me. Then I saw another: it was a coyote! I had never seen one before. I drove over the bridge, looking for a gaggle of runners on either side, and although I found some porta-potties on both ends, there were no runners. Except for one fellow running across the bridge. I saw him when I crossed it the first time, and then again when I came back. I decided to park and run the bridge anyway, since I had come for that purpose and it looked like there was plenty of space to the side of the traffic. I saw the other runner coming towards me and I asked him about the race. He said he thought it had been cancelled. Maybe the increased wind, which did make it a little scary up there. But it was really beautiful. Almost breathtaking.

We stopped several places along the way back from Panama City Beach to Pensacola. The Eden State gardens consisted of a huge old logging family home and acres of live oaks with Spanish Moss. Grayton Beach had once been called America's most beautiful, and here I think they may be right. It was spectacular. Without any hotels (a few homes and condos) it would be tougher to find a place to stay, but we would definitely check it out if the opportunity arose. We also made stops at Blue Mountain Beach and Destin.

As soon as we got inside the Pensacola Airport, the rains of Georges began. It poured at times, but then it let up at other times. When it was close to boarding time for our turbo-prop, there was an announcement that we'd be going 10 minutes late. This was at a time when it had stopped raining, but very dark and angry clouds were coming on quickly. I said to Debbie, a bit too loudly: "Why don't they just wait until the eye is right over us!" Several people smiled at my concern. The takeoff into the rain and clouds was pretty scary; it was quite a relief to finally escape into the sunshine. We were one of the last flights out that evening, and the airport was closed on Sunday.

While we were changing planes again in Memphis, we were walking down the concourse and who should we see? Shelby Foote! I almost couldn't believe my eyes, so I asked Debbie if she had seen him going by. She had not, so I said, "Let's go back and look!" We made a 180 and caught up with him for the purpose of looking at him in the face. This act must have looked very weird to anyone who might have been observing us. Shelby himself didn't seem to notice. Debbie laughed and said, "Now I know who you meant!" And she did agree that it was indeed him, and not some look-alike.

Some questions then came up in my little mind:

Should I have asked for an autograph? I really would like to have met him, but I'm not the greatest of conversationalists on the spur of the moment at the Memphis Airport.

How did this coincidence (seeing him not once, but twice in the same place, 4 days apart) happen? Does he live in Memphis? Does he live at the airport and just walk the concourses?

Anyway, it turned out to be a memorable (even more than most) trip.

1998 Outer Banks

2007-08-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

The 1998 Outer Banks Trip

Friday, June 12

Cliff and Jennifer had a real nice wedding in their yard. Both the ceremony and the reception were outside. Those of us who were NC bound had to book out of there early - just as the thunder clouds were about to strike.

Driving out of Northeast Ohio became a matter of escaping the storms. We actually did make it without too much rain falling on us, but the wind and the lightening were pretty scary. Every time I thought we were out from under the storms, more seemed to reappear from the North. Dave and I later surmised that they "had the angle on us".

Everyone got to Breezewood by about 12:30 am. Between the wedding and sitting around the Breezewood Plaza Motor Lodge Best Western, I heard a couple good ones:

What do Jack the Ripper and John the Baptist have in common?
The same middle name. (Note: I was later caught substituting Bozo the Clown for John the Baptist. It still works.)

A large shipment of Viagra was stolen. Police are now looking for "hardened" criminals.

Saturday, June 13

Coupla hours of sleep later, and time to hit the road again. It was Deanna and Jack and their kids in one van and Betsy, Ed, Mom, John, Jill, and J.T. in the other. The two vans took off earlier than Dave and Carol (in their car) and our family (in the wagon). So we went southeast from Breezewood in two smaller caravans.

Everything was going fine, including getting through D.C., until we got to Richmond about 12:00 noon. Then the I64 beach traffic hit. Most of these people were headed for Virginia Beach, not the Outer Banks, but everyone had to travel I64. After we got past the Virginia Beach area, everything was fine again. For a while. We waited in traffic for over an hour to get across the bridge to Kitty Hawk.

Just as we were wondering how the two vans were faring, since the cellular phone idea didn't pan out, who should pull up next to us in the traffic? Jack and Deanna. Due to several J.T. related stops, the other van was further behind.

When we finally arrived, there were lots of "never agains", and lots of sighs of relief. John, Jill, J.T., Mom and Betsy and Ed got there about an hour after the rest of us. As it turned out, J.T. was a real trooper, as he took the trip, and the whole week, in stride. Must be something to do with having a pretty good mom!

Lugging all our "stuff" up 3 flights of stairs was a real chore. Deanna hurt her back somehow. It would continue to bother her for several more days. Dave just plain gave up lugging after a certain point.

There was a frantic supper preparation, in order to accomplish two goals, satisfy our considerable hunger, and finish the grilling before the storm hit. We were successful in both arenas, but what a storm! I think it was the same one that hit Cleveland the night before.

Sunday, June 14

This day didn't start out too good for me. Not only did I have my own personal troubles, Mom, who was the only one up at the time, managed to tell everyone else about my toilet runneth-ing over problems.

This turned out to be a beautiful clear day - with relatively low humidity. It wound up being the best one of the trip in this regard. It was still warm though. Warm enough to spend almost all of it at the beach. The only break in the action came when all the "boys", including some of the large ones, spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get Aaron's little stuffed bunny caught on top of the ceiling fan. I think Austin took this job the most seriously though.

That walk to the beach is a difficult one. We found out that after you climb over one sand dune and think that you're there at the beach, you actually have another one to scale. Funny how many times that fooled me.

Our house, "Sunrise" is real nice. It is not quite as big as Perfect Peace was, and it has two less half-baths, but one big plus is it's swimming pool. That proved to be just the thing for the kids - all 17 of us kids.

Monday, June 15

We got another storm in the early morning, just as Jack, John and Ed were going on their deep sea fishing trip. They went anyway, and although the storm passed away quickly, the water was choppy for them. They caught enough for dinner - mostly Ed's Wahoo, also known as the "chief among fish".

While those guys were gone, Debbie managed to get Dave and Carol upset with a few rounds of "so, what do you want to do today?".

The fish dinner was really good. Debbie, however, started to become a bit militant about going out for dinner instead of cooking for 17 people. Betsy, who also helped with the chores, did not become militant.

Tuesday, June 16

Several folks went on the bird-walk in the morning. They came back talking about gnats, having been reminded of the Journey of Gnatty Dan.

The rest of us got a late start to the day - after all, we were on vacation. Everyone went to the beach, and got involved in the major engineering project of building a sand castle. Since this was much too important job just to leave to the kids, Dave, Jack, John and I got involved, too. It actually came out pretty cool, even though there seemed to be a distinct lack of up-front planning.

Mom, Betsy, Dave, Carol and our whole family went to Kitty Hawk to see the Wright Brothers' Memorial. We learned some interesting tidbits, like the major reason the Wrights chose the Outer Banks was to combine a vacation with their flying aspirations.

Carol's lasagna assembly was a big production. Valerie helped a lot. It turned out real good. The best ever, as I like to say.

Debbie, however, became even more militant about going out for dinner instead of cooking for 17 people.

Wednesday, June 17

Dave wound up with some very interesting sunburn design patterns. He was beginning to look like a patchwork quilt. I don't think that he could replicate those patterns again if he tried. He kept saying that it hurt everyone else more to look at him than it hurt him.

Several of the ladies went trinket shopping. And this was not to be the last time, either.

Everyone went to the Down Under Restaurant in Rodanthe for dinner. It wasn't bad, but their air conditioning was broke, so we were quite hot. The restaurant folks didn't seem to want to take Jack's offer to look into their problem seriously. At least going to this restaurant would help curb the militancy problem for a while.

Thursday, June 18

This time, Debbie and I took the bird-walk. It was very interesting, and we saw and learned tons of neat stuff. Like that the thing sticking out of the water there in Salvo was part of a 19th century shipwreck. And what the commercial fishermen we saw in the morning were going for. (Fish.) Meanwhile, Jack and Deanna took Alissa, Austin and Aaron to a children's nature program, also at Pea Island/Bodie Island.

Dave and I, with the help of several spotters, were trying to rid the ocean of jellyfish. As you can imagine, this is a terribly important job. The spotters (like Jack and Valerie) would find one, and I would catch it in a bucket. Dave would then bury it safely in the sand dunes. Since we didn't finish (I believe that there were at least a few jellyfish left in the ocean), we'll have to come back and complete the job some day.

I can't wait to see the video that John was taking of Jack, Valerie, Alissa and me walking into the ocean. We were looking for more jellyfish, when it will appear to the camera that we all simultaneously screamed and jumped back and straight out of the water. We had seen a Manta Ray!!! He was big and he was looking right at us. Of course we were all well aware that these things won't attack humans, but they sure can startle you when you're not expecting to see one. Did I mention that he was big?

Later on we saw him (or possibly her or maybe other rays) swimming along and followed from the shore. Everyone else on the beach started doing the same, so we had this roving gang of humans running along the shore, watching the creature in the sea.

Debbie, Carol and Mom went to the Elizabethan Gardens. Then the "girls" took their mother-in-law to the Froggy Dog Saloon and they had shrimp and beer.

Dave, Jack, Alissa, Veronica (who had to tear herself away from her doily crocheting) and I went kayaking on the sound. It was nice to go along the shore and then around some islands. We saw egrets and turtles.

Dave started the Bonfire of the Vanities that night.

Friday, June 19

Debbie and I took a nice long walk on the beach first thing in the morning. Lots of the others did the same.

Some of the gang went to Cape Hatteras. Dave and I spent a good part of the day observing the movements of a carpenter bee that we had sent into the pool.

We all went to the Pilot House for dinner. Pretty good, but by the time they could serve all 17 of us, two and a half hours had gone by.

Saturday, June 20

Our family left at 4:44 am and made it home by about 7:15 pm. Not bad! No traffic problems at all this time. The rest of the gang took two days to do the trip.

Maybe we will consider doing this again…

1997 New York

2007-08-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

NYC Trip
June, 1997

It was Lindsay, Valerie, Debbie and I off on this great adventure to see the Rent and the Big Apple in general.

06/19/97 Thursday

Our taxi ride from the airport to the hotel gave us quite a tour of Manhattan already. Streets filled with all sorts of people. The streets and the people seemed to go on forever. All this for only $22. Plus tip. Plus $3.50 for bridge fare.

After checking in, we began walking. And walking .... Stopped at the Empire State Building to go to the top. The girls wanted some of the other rides too, but we didn’t have enough cash. Waited in line for an hour or so. Good view from the top, though.

We ate at Caesar’s in Murray Hill. Good Italian food made by mama herself.

After walking back, we crashed at the hotel. The Marriott Marquis is right on Broadway at Times Square. In the thick of it all.

06/20/97 Friday

More walking. After stopping for a muffin, we walked to catch our Gray Line double decked bus tour. It was fun and cool riding up on top and seeing the whole city from that viewpoint. We got good narration along the way, too, from an actual New Yorker.

We got off the bus at Battery Park to get on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. More waiting. This time it was fun because there were street entertainers to watch. When we got there, there was a long wait to get into the statue and a longer one to climb to the top. So instead we just walked around the island. That was fun by itself. More waiting, of course, to get back.

The Gray Line tour would allow us to get on and off anywhere anytime. So we got on again to continue around the city. This time it was very hot. Valerie started getting a sunburn, so we moved downstairs. It was like an oven in there. And the narration was not as good this time either.

Crashed at the hotel.

Rent was a great show. All four of us really enjoyed it. Most of the original actors were there and the singing was fantastic. I’m still not sure that I understood all the details of the story. But as Debbie says, that’s opera.

Times Square was all lit up. Really a sight at 11 pm.

06/21/97 Saturday

For my morning run, I ran around and through Central Park. I found out that you’re not supposed to run against the grain (arrows) on some of the roads. They close the roads to auto traffic, but there are thousands of runners, walkers, bikers and bladers. All going the opposite way of me, until I wizened up. I was also able to scope out the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so that we could walk there later.

When we did walk there (“there” was about two miles from our hotel) later in the morning, it was already getting hot. The museum was cool, though. After going through the Egyptian and Medieval Exhibits, Debbie and I were really enjoying the European paintings, especially the impressionist ones, when the girls began getting bored. We really needed more time in there, but had to go.

Stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for a late lunch. Not as bad as I thought. Lindsay bought her dad an expensive bomber jacket from the HRC store. Still more stops and shopping on the way back.

Crashed at the hotel.

Debbie and I went out to a Brazilian restaurant (Via Brasil) for our anniversary. Thought we’d try something different. Lots of beans, a cream of rice, okra with chicken, sausages with yucca. Brazilian entertainment. Different, all right. And it was really quite good.

The girls got room service and a n in-room movie while we were out. They really had a fancy spread when we got in.

Later on we all went out to Times Square to take pictures. Quite a sight, once again.

And quite a trip. NYC is like a whole different planet. Loads of fun.

1996 Provo - Turks & Caicos Islands

2007-08-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 28, 1996 through Monday, July 1, 1996

The sand on the beach was as white and as soft as powdered sugar. There isn’t much else on the island, except maybe more sand, however. But that was okay with us.

Providenciales (Provo) of the Turks and Caicos Islands is larger than I thought, however: roughly 8 by 30 miles. It is mostly flat as well, with only a very slight ridge in the middle. There isn’t even a real town there, but only a few stores. There are probably about 8 to 10 hotels, and our Royal Bay Resort will soon be the largest.

We went to the Travel Agents’ talk for our first morning. Got some interesting information, mostly about how the hotel will be expanding its rooms and services. It isn’t an all-inclusive yet, but will be in a year when it becomes a “Beaches” resort, still owned by Sandals. We, however, had an all-inclusive package for our trip.

And the food and drink were both excellent and plentiful. We had buffet breakfasts, lunches mostly at the outdoor bar and grill (the grilled Mahi Mahi sandwiches were my favorites), and dinners at the main restaurant. Our last evening was spent in the better restaurant for which we needed to make reservations 2 days prior. The rack of lamb was very good, but then all of the other meals were good, too. We also had our share of beer and bar drinks at the outdoor bar.

Service was very slow, but very friendly. We especially liked the happy guy handing out towels and snorkel gear.

Our days were spent trying to decide whether to lay on the beach or by the pool. There wasn’t much shade, so we were in the sun quite a bit. We got a cabana at the beach once, but wound up roasting inside. We were careful not to get burned, anyway. The resort and the beaches in general were extremely un-crowded; it must have been a low tourist period. It was fine with us.

I went snorkeling a few times. The coral was really beautiful; it was like a forest. I also saw the usual pretty fish, but nothing unusual like stingrays, turtles, octopi or eels. Until my last time out. Then I decided to go out to deeper water. I saw a school of small barracuda, which were a bit scary despite their size (maybe 18 inches long or so). Then I saw a huge one maybe 4 or 5 feet long. Remembering Debbie’s warning (“Don’t stare at them”), I took a quick look and the skeedatled.

Our last morning on the beach was spent walking. And walking and walking. In the hot sun. It might as well have been a desert for the heat and lack of drink. It was nice to jump in the ocean occasionally, though. Debbie had wanted to get to the nearest shopping area, Turtle Bay or something like that, but we didn’t quite make it. Just as well; It would have been tough to buy anything without shoes or money.

Too bad we couldn’t have spent a bit more time in Provo. Maybe we’ll be able to come back.

1996 Outer Banks

2007-08-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 7, 1996

“The Trip from Hell”
We were worried about getting through the construction in Toledo, but that only held us up a few minutes; it was the Pike that got us. We were delayed over an hour for our trip to Carol and Dave’s. The worst part was that just as we would emerge from a construction zone, after waiting and waiting, there would be a torrential downpour to slow us up some more.

After pizza at Carol and Dave’s we caravaned to Breezewood on the PA Pike. This 3 1/2 hour segment went very nice. And the signs in PA are so friendly: “Welcome! To the PA Pike!” and, “Thanks for driving the PA Pike!”. In Michigan they say things like, “You should be happy we let you drive here”.

“Live Wire”
Betsy, Ed, Mom and Austin were at the motel when we arrived. The rest of the May family came in later. Beer and wine were flowing, and it got a bit wild. Austin was the wildest of this wild bunch. He became concerned when Ed told him that he had lost his room key. So much so that he ran all over the motel, telling everyone about the ordeal. It seems that this kid has no “off” switch. When he does go to bed at night, he’s simply recharging his batteries.

“China Theory”
Dave was almost as concerned as Austin, but his worry was about China. He has a friend who flew to Beijing from Detroit, and Dave’s theory is that you can’t get back, due to the rotation of the Earth. The East/West rotation would work against an eastbound traveler. Debbie solved the puzzler by saying that all the plane has to do is fly to the North Pole and then go downhill to anywhere. Jack and I got some good laughs out of these theories.

Saturday, June 8, 1996

“Brain Shutoffs”
There was a major finding this morning: from talking with Mom, Betsy and Deanna, it seems that all of the Horvaths throughout the generations have a sleeping problem. We wake up in the night and then can’t get back to sleep because we think too much. Jack says our Brain Shutoff valves are defective. Mom says that she has managed to survive in spite of this problem. So far...

Caravaning some more, Dave and I lost Ed somewhere in Virginia. We became worried that his old van may have broken down. Upon arriving at the start of the Outer Banks, we noticed that Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head were very commercialized, and became concerned that the whole area would be this way. The segment from Nags head to Rodanthe, however, eased this fear. It was filled with absolutely nothing. It’s feast or famine. We got to Rodanthe in about 8 hours. The last hour seemed longer than the other 7 combined.

The house (Perfect Peace) sure is big! And nice. And new! 5 big bedrooms, a loft (for our kids), kitchen, living room, dining room, pool room, and about 19 or 20 bathrooms. Somehow, the family still could have used more bathrooms. All this was up on stilts.

We immediately staked claim to the bedrooms. Debbie and I got one with a jaccuzzi. There is a hot tub outside, too. Deanna and Jack had a bit of trouble sorting out the arrangements for their kids, but eventually worked it out.

Ed, Betsy, Mom and Austin rolled in only about 90 minutes after us. They had stopped to eat and had taken a recommended “alternate route” near Norfolk, which cost them a little extra time.

Dave and I cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for supper.

Sunday, June 9, 1996

I ran the first of my morning runs. There are limited choices: you can either go north or south. When I got back, I was re-awakened by Dave’s wild n’ crazy shorts.

“Big Event”
Today’s truly big event came when Jack caught a crab. After letting the kids see it, we all tried hard to get it to go back into the ocean before figuring out that Mr. Crab wanted to go the other way - to the dunes. Betsy made sure he made it. It sure was an ordeal for Mr. Crab. He was not a “happy crab”.

Meanwhile, Allissa has been collecting shells. There are now two human made objects which can be seen from space: the Great Wall and Allissa’s Shell Collection.

“Content as a Kitten”
Dave caught Aaron and placed him on his lap. Aaron didn’t move, but appeared as content as can be. It got a bit cool, so Dave wrapped a towel around Aaron. If anything, he was even more content now. Eventually, Dave had to leave, so he picked Aaron up, got up himself out and placed Aaron back down again, towel and all. Aaron continued to sit and look contented. He would probably still be there if his mom didn’t eventually move him on to somewhere else.

We all ate dinner at Sweetwater in Nags Head (who was that town named after, anyway?). There was a beautiful double rainbow afterwards.

Veronica hurt her little toe on the loft stairs. Debbie is afraid that it may be broken. We taped it up. I think it was all an excuse to stay glued to MTV for the week.

Dave and I had a marathon straight pool game in the evening. This got us so sick of pool that we didn’t play the rest of the week.

Monday, June 10, 1996

5:00 AM. In the morning. Jack had just taken off for his deep sea fishing trip, and I was walking downstairs for my run when I almost tripped over Aaron. He had walked out of his room and was quietly and contentedly sitting on the stairs, kind of like the way Dave left him the other day. I did manage to get him (and Allissa, too) back to bed.

“Journey of Gnatty Dan”
It was dubbed this because I went out a bit tooooooo early on my morning run. I ran through clouds of gnats, many of whom impaled themselves upon my body. The worst of it was when they got into my eyes, nose and mouth. Note that this experience was probably just as unpleasant from the perspective of the gnats as it was from mine. As the sun rose, the gnats eventually dissipated, preparing to impale themselves on the next runner who emerges through the darkness.

By running south, I discovered that there is lots of nothing in that direction, too. After Rodanthe came Waves and Salvo, and then the nothingness.

Veronica and Valerie bought blue beach slippers, so Debbie dubbed them “Blue Footed Boobies”, as they headed towards the beach.

Jack caught some fish, which we bar-b-qued for dinner along with some chicken. It sure was good. Then we roasted marshmallows over a bonfire. Dave had been finding firewood all afternoon. He says his ancestors were hunter/gatherers. Maybe they were just gatherers. We finished off the evening in the hot tub. Life is tough.

Tuesday, June 11, 1996

“The Long Day’s Journey into Night”
After relaxing in the morning, we all took off to head south towards Okracoke.

Our first stop along the way was Cape Hatteras with it’s famous lighthouse. After visiting the Visitor Center, most of us climbed the 270 stairs to the top. Nice views. What did you expect? Back at the Visitor Center, as we were getting ready to leave, a Park Ranger came out and gave a talk about pirates, especially Edward Teach, AKA Blackbeard, AKA Dave Horvath. All of the kids enjoyed it and the adults did too.

We drove on down to the ferry to Okracoke Island. There was about a half hour wait to get on. The ferry held about 30 vehicles. The 40 minute ride was fun, but it was beginning to get hot. This was certainly the most I had ever gone through just to go out to dinner. (Which was the stated purpose of the trip.) Of course, in road trips as in the trips of life, it is the journey, not the goal which is important. The bad part was that we would have to come back via the same ferry.

Once on the island, we drove on to the town of Okracoke. Note that there is neither Okra nor Coke there... Okracoke is as far as you can go by road in the Outer Banks. It is a nice little resort town that reminded me of Key West.

Since we were early for dinner, a place called Howard’s Pub was our first stop. Although we tried, we couldn’t sample all 275 different kinds of beer.

When we got to the Back Porch Restaurant, we were actually seated on the back porch. I think they just wanted to keep us away from the rest of the patrons. The food was good but expensive. And it was a long trip back. Several of us saw dolphins from the ferry.

Wednesday, June 12, 1996

This time I was dive-bombed by deer flies on my morning run. I’m going to have to stick with running south instead of north. I’ll take the gnats any day.

Although it hasn’t rained today yet, there has been a little rain every day, mostly during the night and early morning. It hasn’t bothered us, since there’s been sun, too. Temperatures have been in the mid 80’s, and it’s been muggy and breezy. You can’t really swim much in the ocean. The water has been cold, but rapidly becoming warmer. The waves, however, are HUGE. It’s fun to just wade and let them beat up on you.

Today there was some throwing of the football and flying of the kite at the beach. After lunch we all took off for Roanoke Island. This time it was to the north with no required ferry ride. It seemed much closer, too.

Our first stop on Roanoke Island was the N.C. Aquarium. Lots of fish. What did you expect? There were alligators there, too. I didn’t realize that gators lived as far north as N.C., but they do. We then ate dinner at the Weeping Radish Restaurant, which is also a microbrewery. After dinner, we drove to the Elizabethan Gardens, where the flowers and other flora are beautiful. What did you expect?

Deanna then went back to the house with the two boys. The rest of us went on to see “The Lost Colony” an outdoor drama about the first English settlement in the New World. It seems that the people disappeared. It reminded us of Tecumseh, although I still liked Tecumseh a bit better. But we all did thoroughly enjoy this one.

Thursday, June 13, 1996

This was the first day to start off clear (finally - a sunrise) and with low humidity. After a few days on the go, we decided to take it easy for the last few.

“Yippee - I - O - Kayak”
Dave, Valerie and I went for a walk and wound up kayaking in the sound. We started out south, against the wind. With the wind and waves, we couldn’t get too far; especially Val, who was having a bit more of a tough time than us guys. After a half hour of struggling we turned around and got back in five minutes, with the help of the wind and waves.

Deanna, Jack and the kids went to Bodie Island National Seashore Park for a good part of the day.

“The Fire that Wouldn’t Die”
We made a big bonfire in the evening, in part to burn the boxes from all of the pizza that was consumed. The fire refused to go out, despite the sand and water we used. Dave had to go out later on to douse it some more. Then I noticed that it was flaming again when I got up the next morning.

Friday, June 14, 1996

Yet another sun-soaked day. My long run south (to avoid the deer flies) and in the sun (to avoid the gnats) was very dehydrating. Why do I do this?

We did a bit of shopping, by foot and by driving. And we also spent a lot of time at the beach. Dave and the youngsters built a crab colony in a bucket-volcano. Dave could probably explain the concepts involved better than I can here. Meanwhile, Jack and I played frizbee and foxtail.

A good part of the day (and in fact, a good part of the week) was consumed by Dave and I arguing about the route home. I wanted to go straight through, the way we came. Dave wanted to avoid the D.C. traffic, go through the mountains and stop overnight.

We cooked an excellent surf and turf meal - steak with mahi mahi and swordfish.

Saturday, June 15, 1996

“The Jam”
Our family did what we wanted: to go the way we came and drive straight through, and Dave, along with everyone else did what they wanted: avoid D.C., take Skyline Drive through Shenendoah National Park and stop for the evening. Our trip was tough - the jam in D. C. held us up an hour - but we made it in 15 hours and had Sunday to relax. Everyone else did enjoy the breathtaking scenery of Skyline Drive; something you don’t see every day. They got home Sunday afternoon.