After our walk with Jim in the morning, we returned to the hotel to change for Ben and Michelle’s Sunday afternoon wedding. Although the morning had been delightful, as we walked up toward the State Capitol building near where the wedding was going to be, it started to drizzle. The wedding was at the Monona … Continue reading
We arrived in Madison, WI, Saturday afternoon and met up with the other out-of-town guests and the wedding party that evening after the rehearsal dinner. Sunday, the day of Ben and Michelle’s wedding, Jim Gern, the father of the groom and my long-time dear friend, took the morning to take us on a walk along … Continue reading
Leaving Chicago, we drove south and east around the bottom of Lake Michigan, then north to Lansing, MI, to visit Dale’s brother, Tim. He lives in a nice suburban neighborhood of East Lansing and has recently retired from teaching at Michigan State University – MSU – which also happens to be my initials. Here’s Tim’s … Continue reading
Since it was raining when we went out today, we decided to visit the Field Museum of Natural History. We could have spent days in the Field Museum and we only scratched the surface in the four hours we were there. We wandered through the permanent Ancient Egypt exhibit and the Ancient Americas exhibit, as … Continue reading
After Navy Pier, we walked south along the lakeshore through Grant Park, turning east before reaching the Field Museum, then returning north to visit Millennium Park. We were intrigued by the Frank Ghery designed Pritzker Pavilion, named for its main donor, Jay Pritzker, owner of the Hyatt hotel chain; that’s it on the left, below. … Continue reading
We’ve been in Chicago for the last two days, on our way to visit Dale’s brother, Tim, in Michigan and then to my godson’s wedding in Wisconsin. During our time here, we took in a view of the downtown from the top of the John Hancock Building, 95 floors up. Here’s a panorama view of … Continue reading
We’re on a week-long RV trip in Florida while we have a home exchange guest, Germán, staying in our house in the Keys. We stayed in Germán’s house in Bariloche, Argentina, during our recent trip to Patagonia. Our ultimate destination is Gainesville to visit the kids, but we’ve also decided to make a vacation out … Continue reading
This morning, as we were sitting on our balcony enjoying a cup of coffee as the sun rose, there was a splash across the canal and Dale yelped, “Shark!” But it wasn’t a shark. It was a dolphin, feeding on fish in the canal. And he wasn’t alone. We counted three dolphin – an unusual … Continue reading
Thursday morning, we stopped to see Kelly at work. While she’s applying to graduate school, she’s sharpening her baking skills as the pastry chef at Volta, a popular coffee shop in Gainesville. Here she is, standing behind some of her creations. The scones looked really good. We visited for an hour, then headed out to … Continue reading
We left Buffalo on Monday, planning to drive to Gainesville without stopping to do any sightseeing or excursions. We’ve really enjoyed being in the northeast to see the leaves change; the leaf-peeping season came earlier this year than it did last year. This photo was taken in New York, not long after leaving Buffalo: We … Continue reading
Before we left Buffalo, we took Trevor to the grocery store to help him stock up for the winter. Trevor lives in the city in Buffalo, sharing the ground floor of this apartment… …with another AmeriCorps volunteer, Jamie. We had a great visit with Trevor and will be seeing him again in a couple weeks … Continue reading
We had nice weather on Friday and decided to drive back up to Fort Niagara with Trevor so we could visit while walking around outdoors at the Fort. Trevor had been to Fort Niagara with the kids he mentors, so he also doubled as our tourguide. Fort Niagara sits at the mouth of the Niagara … Continue reading
By the end of the day Tuesday, the RV had been repaired with a new alternator and new chassis batteries and we were on our way to Buffalo, stopping at Lyons, New York, to visit Von Gern’s mother, Betty. We had seen Betty in Madison back in July at Jim and Von’s son’s wedding where … Continue reading
Departing the edge of the Adirondacks, we drove to the Saratoga National Historical Park to visit the battlefield that it commemorates. The battle at Saratoga – actually, there were two battles – was a turning point in the American Revolution; not just because the Americans defeated and captured the British army there, but because that … Continue reading
We returned to Albany from South Florida on Sunday evening and drove the RV to the Cummins service facility a couple miles away where we spent the night in order to drop the RV off for service early Monday morning (hoping they would be open on Columbus Day). I had narrowed down the problem we … Continue reading
Sunday, while the sun was out, we went to a Celtic Day celebration at the Mills Estate. There were Irish dancers and story tellers, Guinness and haggis (we indulged in neither). But, mostly, there were pipers: I’m a big fan of bagpipe music, especially the Uilleann pipes, the national bagpipe of Ireland, which derives its … Continue reading
We had intended to spend a little time in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, although we did need to get to Rhinebeck, New York, by Sunday, September 30th. Unfortunately, we encountered bad weather, so we decided to just drive the backroads without any significant sight-seeing. By the time we got to Rhinebeck on Friday, water … Continue reading
We’ve been traversing Maine via U.S. Highway 1, known to us in the Florida Keys as the “Overseas Highway,” but here along the North Atlantic coast, referred to as the “Atlantic Highway,” and also, occasionally, as “Maine Street” (those clever New Englanders). At any rate, as we left our Walmart camping site in Rockland, Maine, … Continue reading
Yesterday, as we began our travels south in Maine, we took a wrong turn out of Calais and – purely by accident – ended up at West Quoddy Head State Park. We continued driving, looking for somewhere to turn around, which isn’t as easy as it sounds when you’re on a rural road, driving an … Continue reading
We decided to leave Bangor and drive to Houlton ME which is located right at the Canadian border. From Houlton, we waited over night for Hurricane Leslie to continue on its way past Nova Scotia. Here’s the radar map from Monday evening showing the outer bands over Halifax, the capitol of Nova Scotia, about 300 … Continue reading
Our plan was to get to Maine (ME) in four days, and we succeeded. To continue the listing of our travels so far: Day 4 (Sunday) – Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, stopped in Bangor, 413 miles, overcast most of the day. The drive from Milford CT to Bangor ME was similar to the … Continue reading
We’ve been making pretty good time on our trip north to Nova Scotia: Day 1 (Thursday) – Florida, Georgia, stopped north of Savannah, 561 miles with rain about half the time; Day 2 (Friday) – South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, stopped north of Richmond, 475 miles, a few small showers; Day 3 (Saturday) – Maryland, … Continue reading
We started out this morning for a little drive up I-95…to Nova Scotia. Here we are, just getting on the Interstate at its southernmost terminus; that’s downtown Miami in the background. Say goodbye to Miami Beach and South Florida for a couple weeks… Last look from the top of the Golden Gate flyover in North … Continue reading
Tropical Storm Isaac decided not to visit Florida after all, veering southwest around Key West at the last minute late yesterday. The winds probably gusted to around 50 mph, continuing through today, and we had quite a lot of rain, but no damage to our home or the neighborhood. Today, we walked to the end … Continue reading
We spent yesterday and this morning preparing for Hurricane Isaac’s arrival. Here’s the current position: Isaac is projected to get to Hurricane Category 1 status about the time it hits us in the Florida Keys. This will be the first hurricane to make landfall in the Keys in 7 years. We’re expecting sustained winds of … Continue reading
The Road Less Traveled 