Tuesday, March 28, 2017

We are in Wolf Run State Park, Caldwell, Ohio.

We spent a week with my dad in New Bern, NC.  He’s 89 and still living on his own.  Here he is with his new hobby, model trains.  He actually painted the mountain backdrop. 

While there we experienced what we hope was our last snow of the year. 

Dad’s looking for another dog.  He’d like a female Maltese (white fluffy dog) but he’s also looked at a Chihuahua.  If you know of any Maltese available, please let us know.

We left Dad’s and headed for Winston Salem, NC, stopping in Raleigh to have lunch with my niece, Jamie.  She works in IT and seems to be doing well.

Winston Salem has a great county park, Tanglewood.  We love staying there.  This was the view from our window.

The park has great walking trails, a dog park, horseback riding, golf, and the campground.  Until this visit, it’s been pretty empty, which isn’t unusual for this time of year.  But this year it was almost full.  There were two different groups there.  One was a group of small trailers, mostly teardrop trailers.

We stop here because it’s a good halfway point between New Bern and Johnson City, TN, where friends live.  It’s also the home of Steve’s nephew Bryan and his wife, Katie.  We had a nice visit with them.

In Johnson City, we visited with Molly and Nick and their kids, Will, Clara, Fritz and Katie Ann. We were there for almost a week and the only picture I took was one of the water tower near our campground which is painted to look like a hot air balloon.

But we enjoyed visiting with the kids and getting their impressions of their trip to China to pick up their sister, Katie Ann.  Big conclusion?  The great wall is BIG.

Molly said the trip was an eye opener for all the kids and has changed their perspective of the world.  I’m sure that’s true.

Katie Ann has been with her family for almost 2 years.  She’s made great progress in that time and with the exception of her speech skills, is pretty much a normal 3 year old. 

She decided I was okay and we climbed the backyard (it’s terraced) to swing several times.   She started experimenting using a regular cup during our visit and I don’t think it will take her long to ditch the “sippy cup”.

We left Johnson City and headed for Milton, West Virginia.  It was a stop on our way to The Wilds, a conservation project in Ohio.  Milton turned out to be a pleasant stop and we extended our stay a day to visit a glass factory there.

After gathering molten glass on the blowing rod, the craftsman shapes it to the rough shape of the item.

In this case, he’s creating a heart shaped jug.  The next picture shows him shaping the neck.

Then, with the help of an assistant, he places the molten glass into a mold, blowing through the rod to push the molten glass into the crevices of the mold.

Returning to his bench, the craftsman prepares to hand off the jug to another worker.

  

The other craftsman has collected some glass on the end of a rod and attaches that to the bottom of the jug.  With a tap in the right spot, the original craftsman breaks the jug at the neck, releasing it from his rod.

The second craftsman moves the jug into another furnace to heat the neck of the jug so it can be shaped.

   

Then the jug is placed in a cooling oven.  The glass has to cool VERY slowly or it will shatter.

I’ve always been fascinated by glass, liquid at high temperatures, solid at normal temperatures.  We’ve visited glass studios in Colorado, Seattle and Kokomo, Indiana.  This factory, however, had an additional attraction.  In a garden behind the visitors center were no fewer than 5 species of waterfowl. 

I have no idea what kind of bird the one with the red face is, but he had the oddest waddle!

Time for bed.

Deb

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

We are in Wilmington, NC.   I apologize for not blogging more but we haven’t done a lot of traveling this winter.

We’ve mostly been busy on grandparent duty with Maria in Plano and Orlando.  It’s a tough job, but somebody gets to do it.  Maria’s other grandmother, Olga, received her permanent residency status in the US in September and had some things to take care of in Russia, so we spent most of November, December, and January in Plano being active grandparents.  It was a blast!

And, as anyone who has spent any time with an active toddler, that doesn’t leave much energy for anything else.

In February, Natasha had a conference in Orlando where she could obtain her needed continuing education credits, so we headed for Disney World.  We were camped there for 3 weeks, the first week for Natasha’s conference, a week of rest and then a week for Mike’s only break in the NBA season, the All-Star break.  Mike likes to take a family vacation then, so everyone was at Disney World for another week.

After that, we visited with friends and family who are in and near the Villages in Florida.  If you haven’t heard about the Villages, Google them.  It’s a retirement community that actually works.  I’m intrigued by them from a management aspect.  If you like to be active, it’s the place to retire.

We visited Steve’s sister, Nancy, who’s building a house near St. Augustine, FL, and then hopped on a plane for a last visit with an old friend back home.  He passed away this past Saturday.

We’re headed to my Dad’s in New Bern, NC, visiting family and friends along the way.  We expect to be home by the first of April.

I’ve had a request to blog about our Disney trip, so here goes.

Those of you who know us well, know that we are Disney addicts.  We first traveled to Disney on our honeymoon in 1973.  At that time, it was just the Magic Kingdom and the only hotels on site were the Polynesian and the Contemporary, although the Fort Wilderness Campground was also open.  We stayed at the Polynesian.  

There have obviously been many changes over the years and we’ve lost count of how many times we’ve actually been there.  These days, we rarely plan a trip ourselves, tagging along with our “kids” when they plan a trip.  I must say, after years of doing all the planning, it’s quite nice just to be along for the ride!

So, what was new in February?  Well, Maria was tall enough to go on some thrill rides.  She was all excited by that, until she went on them.  She went on the Seven Dwarf’s Mine train and said it was too fast and too many people were screaming!  

And even with a poncho on and hiding behind daddy’s shoulder, she got soaked on Splash Mountain.  She was not a happy camper.

However, Dumbo and the Teacups were favored rides and most things she wanted to go on again.  Here she is, looking cool with Steve.

 She’s pretty good at waiting, although got a bit bored waiting for the Muppets in Liberty Square.  It’s an unusual show, taking place in the second floor windows of several buildings.  The Muppets tell the story of the Declaration of Independence as only the Muppets can.

The opening ceremony each morning at the Magic Kingdom used to be done in front of the railroad station.  Now it is done at the hub in front of the castle, so there are actually a few places to grab a quick bite for breakfast along Main Street.  Both Casey’s and the Ice Cream Parlor have breakfast items to munch on while you wait for rope drop (opening time when they drop the rope holding back the crowd).

There’s also a new sit down restaurant in Adventure Land, Jungle Skipper Canteen, themed after the Jungle Cruise ride.  We didn’t eat there this trip, but have before during its shake down.  It’s fun and the food is good.

Epcot’s big news is the new version of Soarin’.  In the old version, you took a hang glide ride over California.  The new version is around the world, including the Matterhorn.  There are now three theaters for Soarin’ so the lines seem to move a bit faster.

We managed to get a reservation at Le Cellier Steakhouse in the Canadian Pavilion one day while we were on our own.  It’s a great restaurant, but expensive and hard to get into.  We had some gift certificates, so we used them there.  It’s still very good.

Disney Hollywood Studios news at this point is what is gone.  The Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground is no longer and the Lights, Motor, Action show has disappeared to make room for the new Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land.  Construction has begun, but I think it will be two years before we see anything.  They have added a second line in the Toy Story ride, which is identical to the original.  This is another ride that Maria loves!

They are on their second version of the Star Wars fireworks at the Studios and I think I like the first one better.  The new version uses lots film images projected on the buildings and unless you are in the right spot, you’ll miss some of it.  But it’s still great John Williams music and fireworks.

We did manage to be in the right spot for the fireworks show.  Before Christmas, I saw mention of a Star Wars tour of Hollywood Studios.  It’s a 7-hour tour and includes a snack, quick service dinner and the dessert party before the fireworks, along with a tour of anything related to Star Wars and/or George Lucas in the park.  So we got front row seats for the 10-minute film, Path of the Jedi, rode Star Tours with a bunch of Star Wars fanatics (what fun!), front row seats for Star Wars, A Galaxy Far, Far Away (a stage show), participated in the March of the First Order, had a guided tour of the Launch Bay and reserved standing room for the fireworks.  It was Steve’s Christmas present, extra special because he hadn’t heard about the tour ahead of time.

Animal Kingdom’s big news is their nighttime show, Rivers of Light.  Animal Kingdom has been trying to make itself into a full day park and this will help.  It reminded me most of Epcot’s closing show, without the fireworks.  It’s beautiful.

But the new “land” at Animal Kingdom, Pandora, is set to open in May and will have all kinds of new things.  Animal Kingdom was originally imagined as having past, present and imagined animals and this will fill in the imagined animals.  

Animal Kingdom is also offering evening safaris, but we never stayed late enough to try them out.

One new experience we did try out was the campfire at Fort Wilderness.  Every night, they light two campfires for roasting hot dogs and/or marshmallows, have a sing along and show a movie.  Chip and Dale show up and greet everyone during the sing along and then dance with the kids (of all ages).  Then they depart and one of the Disney movies is shown.  All for free if you bring your own hot dogs and marshmallows.  We took Maria twice and she loved it, except she wasn’t able to take Chip and Dale home with her.

We had a family from Brazil sit next to us one night.  I couldn’t convince them to let me take their son over to roast a marshmallow (not enough English on their part and of course, no Portuguese on mine) but as the sing along started, the guy started belting out You Are My Sunshine and knew She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain, too!  They weren’t staying at Disney, but the campfire is open to everyone.  We ran into them the next day at Mickey’s Philharmagic. 

After Natasha’s family left, we ended our stay with the Hoop De Doo Revue dinner show at the campground.  We saw it about 30 years ago and hadn’t seen it since.  It’s on the expensive side and we’re cheap.  But we put another gift card to use and enjoyed ourselves.  This meal is an all you care to eat set meal where they bring out bowls of beans and corn and chicken and ribs, etc. so I wasn’t sure what they would do for me.  Well, as usual, Disney took care of me.  This is what the chef brought out:

That’s a quarter of roast chicken on top, ribs, potatoes and corn.  And I had a strawberry sundae for dessert!

The show is a family friendly old time show you might expect with a name like Hoop de Doo.  Bad jokes, puns and audience involvement, all as expected at Disney.  We had a good time.

Our plan is to be home for Easter and then head for Alaska again.  We’ll be meeting up with 4 other couples from our tour two years ago.  We’ll meet up in British Columbia and then head for Alaska.  Although we’ll follow much the same route (there are only 2 roads in and out of Alaska), we’ll be spending more time in some places and less in others.  It should be a great trip!

I’ll try and get this uploaded tonight, so you can see it Wednesday.

Take care,

Deb

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

West Lafayette, Indiana

This was the view from my window Saturday.

In the summer, all we see are trees.  As fall proceeds, a view across the Wabash River valley is revealed.  In the winter, we actually have glimpses of the river.  Life is good.

“May you live in interesting times” is a curse often attributed to the Chinese, although there is controversy about the origins.  We certainly live in interesting times.

It’s 73 degrees at 10 am in mid October and yet we are supposed to have a colder than normal winter.  We have the first woman from a major party running for president against a reality TV star.  (Steve and I have already voted, as we will be on grandparent duty on election day.)

And Bob Dylan has been awarded a Nobel Prize.  I’m sure Sheldon (Big Bang Theory) is having a fit.

His award immediately brought to mind this song.

The Times They Are a-Changin'

Bob Dylan

Come gather around people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone

And if your breath to you is worth saving

Then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changing

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no telling who that it's naming

For the loser now will be later to win

Cause the times they are a-changing

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's the battle outside raging

It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changing

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly aging

Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand

Cause the times they are a-changing

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slowest now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fading

And the first one now will later be last

Cause the times they are a-changing

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

The Times They Are a-Changin' lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Co.

Written in 1964, it just shows that as much as things are changing, they are staying the same.  The only constant is change.

Have a great day and don’t forget to vote this year!

Deb

Sunday, September 11, 2016

15 years ago today, 4 planes were hijacked and used to kill over 3000 people.  It was an attack worse than Pearl Harbor.  

A Russian college student was staying with us at the time and she and I watched the resulting horrors together, after calling her mom and assuring her we were OK.  At one point she turned to me and said, “I still feel safer here.”  Please let that sink in.  This nation had just endured the most vicious attack in it’s history and yet a foreigner felt safer here than in her own country.

But in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the best came out in people.  First responders from all over rushed to New York to help.  School children in New York made peanut butter sandwiches for the rescue volunteers.  And a small town in Newfoundland played host to 7000 airline passengers.  The town’s population is only 10,000, but has acted as a airport refueling station since WWII, so had the tarmac to hold 38 planes flying transatlantic routes.  

Gander, Newfoundland, did not have restaurants and hotels to house the passengers, so schools, churches, community centers, and homes were opened.  For 3 days, while all flights were cancelled in the US, the people of Gander and the surrounding villages cheerfully hosted the passengers.  They refused compensation and the passengers have set up a scholarship fund for the local children.  It has already produced at least one doctor for the area.

We drove through Gander this summer and it is a small town with a big airport.  Newfoundland has one big city, St. John, several small towns, and many tiny fishing villages.  The people are still friendly and helpful.  

Those are some of my memories of that time.  But one that has remained was the monologue on the Daily Show on it’s first broadcast after the attack.  The Daily Show is a satirical look at the news, particularly good at skewering politicians.  I had never watched the show, but stumbled on it that particular night.  It touched me and I found a text copy of it to keep.

I quote it in its entirety here:

“Good evening and welcome to The Daily Show. We are back. This is our first show since the tragedy in New York City.  And uh – there is no other way really to start this show than to ask you at home the question that we’ve asked the audience here tonight and that we’ve asked everybody that we know here in New York since September 11th, and that is, “Are you okay?”  And we pray that you are and that your family is.

I’m sorry to do this to you.  It’s another entertainment show beginning with an overwrought speech of a shaken host.  And television is nothing, if not redundant.  So, I apologize for that.  It’s something that unfortunately, we do for ourselves so that we can drain whatever abscess is in our hearts and move onto the business of making you laugh, which we haven’t been able to do very effectively lately.  Everyone’s checked in already, I know we’re late.  I’m sure we’re getting in right under the wire before the cast of Survivor offers their insight into what to do in these situations.

They said to get back to work.  And there were no jobs available for a man in the fetal position under his desk crying which I would have gladly taken.  So I came back here.

Tonight’s show is obviously not a regular show.  We looked through the vaults, we found some clips that we thought might make you smile, which is really what’s necessary, I think, right about now.  A lot of folks have asked me, "What are you going to do when you get back?  What are you going to say?  I mean, jeez, what a terrible thing to have to do."  I don’t see it as a burden at all.  I see it as a privilege.  I see it as a privilege and everyone here does see it that way.

The show in general, we feel like it's a privilege.  Just even - even the idea that we can sit in the back of the country and make wise cracks, which is really what we do.  We sit in the back and we – we throw spitballs, and uh – but never forgetting the fact that it's a luxury in this country that it – that allows us to do that.  This is a country that allows for open satire, and I know that sounds basic and it sounds as though it goes without saying – but that’s really what this whole situation is about.  It’s the difference between closed and open.  It’s the difference between free and - and burden and we don’t take that for granted here by any stretch of the imagination and our show has changed.  I don’t – I don’t doubt that.  What it’s become, I don’t know.  “Subliminable” is not a punch line anymore.  One day it will become that again, and - and Lord willing, it will become that again because that means we have ridden out the storm.

But the main reason that - that I wanted to speak tonight is - is not to tell you what the show is going to be.  Not to tell you about all the incredibly brave people that are here in New York and in Washington and around the country.  Uh, but - but we’ve had an unenduring pain here – an unendurable pain.  And I just – I wanted to tell you why I grieve, but why I don’t despair...(crying) I’m sorry.

Luckily we can edit this.  One of my first memories is of Martin Luther King being shot.  I was five and if you wonder if this feeling will pass...Uh, when I was five, he was shot.  Here’s what I remember about it.  I was in a school in Trenton.  They shut the lights off and we got to sit under our desks and we thought that was really cool and they gave us cottage cheese, which was a cold lunch because there was rioting, but we didn’t know that.  We just thought that “My God. We get to sit under our desks and eat cottage cheese.”  And what if – that’s what I remember about it.  That was a tremendous test of this country’s fabric and this country’s had many tests before that and after that.

And the reason I don’t despair is because this attack happened.  It’s not a dream.  But the aftermath of it, the recovery is a dream realized.  And that is Martin Luther King’s dream.  Whatever barriers we’ve put up are gone even if it’s momentary.  And we’re judging people by not the color of their skin but the content of their character.  And you know, all this talk about “These guys are criminal masterminds.  They’ve – they’ve gotten together and their extraordinary guile...and their wit and their skill.”  It’s a lie.  Any fool can blow something up.  Any fool can destroy.  But to see these guys, these firefighters, these policemen and people from all over the country, literally, with buckets rebuilding.  That, that – that is – that’s extraordinary.  That’s why we’ve already won.  It’s light.  It’s democracy.  We’ve already won.  They can’t shut that down.  They live in chaos and chaos...it can’t sustain itself.  It never could.  It’s too easy and it’s too unsatisfying.

The view from my apartment was the World Trade Center and now it’s gone.  They attacked it.  This symbol of American ingenuity and strength and labor and imagination and commerce and it is gone.  But you know what the view is now?  The Statue of Liberty.  The view from the south of Manhattan is now the Statue of Liberty.  You can’t beat that.

So we’re going to take a break and I’m going to stop slobbering on myself and on the desk and we’re going to get back to this.  It’s going to be fun and funny and it’s going to be the same as it was and I thank you. We’ll be right back.”  http://genius.com/Jon-stewart-9-11-monologue-annotated


As we remember the horror of those attacks, we also need to remember what is accomplished when we work together.  We have our differences and we stumble along the way, but this IS a great country.  We have freedoms unknown and unheard of in other areas of the world.

We will never be able to completely guard against terrorist attacks.  An individual set on harm will usually find a way.  But they can’t destroy us unless we let them.   We must continue to tear down barriers that divide us and continue to build this country together, all of us, regardless of race or creed.  

Take care,
Deb

Sunday, August 28, 2016

We are in Fort Wayne, Indiana, our last stop before home.  Fort Wayne has the third best genealogical library in the country, after the National Archives and the Mormon sources in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Someone left their fortune to develop it and it has been put to good use.  We’ll spend a day there before heading home.

My sincere sympathies to those of you who have had to endure this heat all summer.  I’m not good with heat at the best of times and after spending the summer as far north as we were, I wasn’t ready for this.  And, yes, I know that this is actually cooler than it has been.  We will head north again next summer.

I also want to remember to stay out of Direct TV satellite range in 4 years.  We were far enough north and east that we couldn’t get satellite TV during the conventions.  While the Internet kept us informed, I didn’t have to listen to all the talking heads drivel on.  Maybe we can plan an overseas trip for that summer.

The last adventure in Canada that I wrote about was coming back from Newfoundland.  We accomplished the ferry journey without incident and drove to a nearby campground for the night.  Which is where the fun began.

We had supper and then Steve decided to head out and try to make some satellite amateur radio contacts.  He’s done a lot of that on this trip and has a nice stable tripod that he can mount his antenna on.  What I didn’t realize was that he sometimes doesn’t use that and ends up waving the antenna around in the air by hand to find the satellite.  Ok, fine.

But it’s dark and he said he was going out to an overlook.  About an hour later he comes rushing back in, grabs two flashlights and says he needs my help.  This is not good.

We hop into the truck and he heads back to the “overlook” and explains the problem:  while waving his antenna around and trying to broadcast, he set his phone on the truck where he could see the information about where the satellite was.  You can see what’s coming.  He packed up his antenna and his radio and jumped into the truck and headed back to the trailer.  Getting out of the truck he checked for his phone.  He doesn’t swear very often.

So back to the overlook we went, which was in reality a wide spot in the road, and we’re hunting for the phone with flashlights.  My phone is turned off; we only use one phone in Canada to cut down on international costs.  But I turn mine on to call his phone, hoping to hear it ring.  Silence (at least when the 18 wheelers weren’t whizzing by).  Later I realized that we wouldn’t hear it ring, as it only rings in his hearing aids and was too far away for that.

Panic.  But Steve remembered that he had the Find My Phone App on his phone and he used that to locate the phone – about 100 yards down the road from where we were looking.  It stayed on the truck way longer than it should have!

Only a few dings on its case and one scratch on the screen.  We were very lucky!

Now, stop what you are doing and check your phone.  Do you have the Find My Phone App?  If not, get it, install it and Google how to use it.  You won’t regret it.

Steve won’t be doing any more nighttime beside-the-road satellite communications.

The next day we headed north on our way to Quebec City. 

The drive through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick was interesting, as the landscape changed from rocky hills to river valley farmland.  Quebec City sits on the St. Lawrence River, which over the millennia has left relatively flat land for farming.

 By the time we reached the St. Laurence River, it almost felt like the mid-west.

Both last year and this year, as we have traveled around Canada, we have noticed that most signs, directional, informational and advertising, are in at least two languages.

The languages are usually French and English, but in the Yukon were frequently English and a First Nation Language (or occasionally all three). 

In New Brunswick, we saw signs that were in English and Gaelic (Scottish) (we think).  

So as we are headed toward Quebec, I’m expecting to see signs in French, as that’s the official language in Quebec, with the English below.

Not exactly.  Stop sign.

Road sign.

Hmm.  Even New Hampshire had a dual language welcome sign when we reached there.

We really enjoyed touring old Quebec, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Take care,  

Deb