November 2011 - PCB, Florida

Its pretty cool to have an 81-year old mother-in-law that drives herself 7 hours to the beach for a month!   Of course, she'd be cool if she stayed home too, both figuratively and literally.  After being gone for 3 weeks, our dog was missing her grand-mama so we brought her for a visit.  There are no beaches quite as beautiful as those on the gulf coast!   We took a day trip yesterday to Destin.  Its really changed in the past 20 years with lots of new shopping areas and condos.  We also stopped at Blalocks Seafood Market and purchased fish and shrimp locksley for dinner. I must say it was pretty good!




Today we found a pet-friendly beach across from Pier Park and took Lucy there to run and romp in the sand.  She was exhausted and fell asleep in my lap on the way back to the condo.  In fact, she's not moved much since then.  Maybe I should check on her.  It started raining this afternoon, so we've spent most of the evening reading and warming our laps with our PCs.   Relaxing!

Chicago, September, 21, 2011

We took the El back to Midway to catch our plane home.  After arriving at Midway, we hung out for just a few minutes at the CTA machines and quickly found people willing to accept 4 complimentary CTA passes that were good for another few days.   After a quick flight back to Nashville and a 2-hour drive, we’ve once again arrived safely home. 

Chicago, September 20, 2011

We went down to the Chicago River this morning and boarded  a boat for a 75-minute architectural tour of the Chicago waterfront.  It was a great way to spend a sunny, 70 degree day in Chicago!  Afterwards, we grabbed a quick lunch and walked around the lakefront, stopping to talk and enjoy an ice cream with good friends.  We ended our last day in Chicago with an excellent dinner at Sapori’s Trattoria.  Chef Anthony Barbanette wowed us with an assortment of tapas and delicious bread pudding.

Chicago, September 19, 2011

This morning we took the El to Oak Park just west of Chicago to walk around and see the Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses and Ernest Hemingway’s birthplace.  This is the area where the Favs once lived.  Later in the afternoon we made our way to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs play the Brewers.  We had Chicago dogs outside the park and beer inside the park.  Even though the Cubs are 22 games out of first place there were over 35,000 fans there (park holds around 40k) and the Cubs won 5-1.  We went back to Sheffield’s after the game to celebrate.

Chicago, September 18, 2011

We got an early start and went to the 9:30 a.m. service at 4th Presbyterian Church downtown. It is a huge church and the pews were filled. Senior minister John Buchanan has announced his retirement at the end of the year and the Favs wanted to hear him one more time. It was a good sermon. One of his statements stuck with me and I paraphrase “… if Christianity was a crime would there be enough evidence against you to convict you?” After church we enjoyed a wonderful brunch at The Four Farthings Tavern and Grill with their old friends; Mike and Nancy, and Doug and Barb. Mike, we feel, is destined for greatness. He has studied the art of lip print reading. He was gracious enough to read several of our lip blots (on paper napkins) after our brunch. As he read mine, thoughts of palm readers came to mind and I tried my best to show my poker face. He talked about certain characteristics of the lip print and finally said that it appeared that I had a lot of experience with numbers, most likely having a job in the accounting field. Although I’m sure my poker face wasn’t very good, I was still quite impressed with his new found “skill”. He also gives demonstrations of his “flea circus” to groups that are interested. (Seriously!!!) They were all very nice people and we were honored to get to meet them.

 Later that afternoon we attended the play “In the Other Room”. There is a second title, but we will let you Google that to see what it is and what it is all about. Let’s just say it was quite comical and there was some discussion as to how the play would go over in our home town. Later in the evening we went to Kingston Mines and listened to several Blues bands.

Chicago, September 17, 2011

We drove to Nashville with a couple of our “Favs” to catch a Southwest flight to Chicago. The Favs lived there about 12 years ago and were kind enough to ask us to go with them and re-live some of their Chicago memories. Of course, there is enough “analism” within the four of us that you know the trip includes an Excel spreadsheet to track expenses for the group.

We arrived at Midway and bought 4 weekly CTA passes for the “El”. We opted for public transportation and walking as our chief modes of transportation. What better way to experience such a great city. After settling in our “flat” near Wrigley Field we visited Sheffield’s Beer and Wine Garden to soak up some Chicago culture. Later we enjoyed deep-dish pizza from Giordano’s.

Home Sweet Home!

As our adventure comes to an end, I can't help but comment about our first "group trip".   We couldn't have possibly had better traveling companions in our group of 22.  By the end of the trip, we felt as if we'd made new friends and we hope they were able to return to their homes safely.   Will we take this type of trip again?   I guess the answer to that one would be, if the destination is safer and easier to do in a group, SURE!   But, we're not ready to trade in our free spirits just yet! 

Our flight from Amsterdam couldn't have been better.  We had booked two aisle seats in the center of 3 seats in the middle of the plane.   After boarding, Richard asked the stewardess if there was a possibility that the middle seat wasn't booked.   She smiled and said the flight was over sold and there wasn't a chance.  We patiently waited for our traveling companion to board, not wanting to get too comfortable and buckle in.  When the doors to the plane finally closed, the stewardess walked past us and smiled and gave us the thumbs up!   She said there was one empty seat on the plane....how lucky are we?


Nine hours and three movies later, we land in Memphis, TN, then on to Muscle Shoals international airport!  We arrived home around 9 p.m. after having been up for 28 hours, and our dog was standing at the door to greet us!


Two days later we're both still a little shaky and disoriented.  But the bags are unpacked, the lawn is mowed, and the Pflueger Odyssey continues!   We'll be packing up again in two weeks.....stay tuned!

Amsterdam

Just as they said, the wake up call came at 1 a.m.!!!   We actually were asleep (with some help) at 8:30 p.m., so we got up feeling rested.  Our shuttle left the hotel at 2 a.m. and we arrived at the airport around 2:50 a.m.   Our flight on KLM was great!!  We managed to get a window and aisle seat with an empty seat between us.  We both slept most of the 3 hours to Amsterdam.  We decided to check our bags so that we could be free to discover Amsterdam.   While packing last night, we put everything we didn’t need in the checked luggage.    Richard had been to Amsterdam 25 years ago and said he was there for 7 days and it rained every day.   That went in one ear and right out the other.  Duh!   We’d not seen any rain for the past 15 days and it had been HOT!!!    After we landed, we took the train to the Central Station.   The weather was…..cool (60ish) and RAINING, and our umbrella and raincoats were in our checked luggage.   After walking around awhile, we ducked into a sidewalk pastry shop and ordered a coffee.  We began talking with the shop owner and his wife and asked them where we could buy an umbrella.  She quickly went to the back room and came out with an umbrella and said, “here, you can have this one”.   We couldn’t believe it.   She said that someone had left it there and that we were welcome to it.   So, we ordered a pastry and sat and visited for awhile.  We didn’t want to press our luck, so we headed back to the train station (with the umbrella).  After arriving back at the airport, we found a young oriental couple that were leaving the airport and we offered them our umbrella.  They seemed surprised, but gladly accepted it, smiled, and thanked us.   So we’re sitting here at the gate in Amsterdam, awaiting our 8 hour flight to Memphis.  More later, pending a safe arrival back in the U.S.A.!!!

Meteora/Athens

Today is our last day and the group seems to be happy to be ending the trip. This has been a good holiday but as usual, we’re ready to get home. Hurricane Irene is presently impacting the North Carolina coast and moving northward so we’ve been closely watching the weather on the east coast. As expected, we learned this morning that our flight from Amsterdam to Boston had been cancelled! We tried to contact Delta/KLM online, but the website wouldn’t allow us to change destinations outside the northeast U.S., and they were all shut down because of the storm. We were thinking that if we could get a flight to Atlanta, things would work out well. Then, we found a local number in Greece for Delta/KLM. When nobody answered, we found out that they only work Monday – Friday. This was Saturday morning! Plan B was to wait until we got to Athens and either go to the airport and try to change our flight or to purchase an international SIM card and call the 1-800 Delta number. When things like this happen, it makes you really appreciate all the 24/7 services we have in the U.S. We sometimes forget that the rest of the world isn’t like this. You may get someone from the Philippines when you call, but at least they answer the telephone. There is some comfort and speaking to a live agent.




While in route from Meteora to Athens, Maria, our tour leader used her cell phone to call the Athens airport and got someone from KLM on the phone for us. When we asked about a flight to Atlanta, we were told that there were no seats available. Although the agent was helpful, she basically only answered yes or no and, not being familiar with U.S. geography, was unable to make any suggestions. After several rounds of questions and receiving “No”, I finally found out that there was a direct flight from Amsterdam to Memphis! We would stay on our original 5 a.m. flight from Athens, and would not depart Amsterdam until 2:10 p.m. What luck! We dropped one leg of our journey and we now had time to leave the airport an see Amsterdam (at least for 2-3 hours) and still connect with our original flight from Memphis to Muscle Shoals at get home by 8:40 p.m.!!!!


Needless to say, we were much more relaxed on the remainder of our long bus ride to Athens. After checking into our hotel, (Hera Hotel), we visited the Plaka and flea market in Athens. Tonight was the farewell dinner and we were scheduled to have dinner with our fellow ship mates (from the “other” group). However, our wakeup call was scheduled for 1 a.m. so we opted to skip the dinner and try to get a few hours of sleep.

Kalambaka/Meteora, Greece

We departed Delphi and on the way to Meteora we stopped at the famous battle site of Thermopalye (recently depicted in the movie 300). Although the site is no longer a seaside location due to siltation it was interesting to see the actual location and to learn that there were also 700 Thespians who died along with the Spartans who get no credit in the media.

The Meteora Hotel is on the outskirts of town and has an excellent view of the rocks made famous by monasteries built alongside and atop them. We spent the late afternoon at the pool.  The next morning (Friday 8/26) we toured two of the six remaining active monasteries. 

The group was split up into 8's and were taken to the home of a local family and treated to dinner.  It was a very special evening and we were made to feel like family!

Delphi, Greece

This morning we toured one of the most prominent archaeological sites in Greece.  Everything you learned about Greek mythology in childhood comes to life here!  Delphi was believed to be the center of the world in antiquity.  The cult of Apollo in Delphi began around 800 B.C. and went on until the end of Roman times--for more than a thousand years!  The sun was shining today and it quickly became very hot!  We opted to stay in Delphi while our travel companions went to a restaurant outside of town for lunch.  Although the Greek food is wonderful, after 8 days in the country, we opted for a change and ordered a "Greek" cheese and fresh tomato pizza!  After lunch we visited the antiquities museum in Delphi and then returned to the hotel.

Piraeus, Athens, Arachova, Greece

Tuesday, August 23rd, we arrived in Piraeus, the port of Athens.  The previous night the Captain advised that we would have "moderate to rough seas".   We slept very little.  We kept thinking about how we would get out if we capsized and what we would use for flotation since all the life jackets were stored on the top sun deck in a locker.  We were scheduled to dock at 6 a.m., but it was almost 8 a.m. before we docked.

The two OAT groups split up as we disembarked.  We are scheduled to meet up again in Athens for dinner on the last night of our trip.  Since our time in Athens was very short, our group decided to spend a couple of hours at or near the Acropolis, on our way to Arachova.  We decided to walk around the Plaka since we had been to the Acropolis in 2002.  We sat down at a sidewalk cafe' and enjoyed a delicious chocolate and banana crepe.  Yum!


Afterwards, we drove about 2 hours to Arachova (after lunching at a quaint roadside restaurant in the country).  Arachova is about 2500 feet above sea level and is a beautiful little mountain village.  Its high season is during the winter ski season.  It reminded us of Murren, Switzerland.  Our hotel (Hotel Anemolia) sits on the side of the mountain with a spectacular view of the mountains.   This is a completely different atmosphere than the Greek isles.  After checking into the hotel, we walked back to the village to explore.  There were lots of photo opportunities around each corner you turned. 

That evening we were given a Greek cooking lesson from the chef at the hotel.  We learned to make Moussaka (layered eggplant, potato, zucchini, ground beef/sausage, topped with a Bechamel sauce that made an excellent crust), Spanakotiropita (cheese and spinach pie), and Tzatziki (yogurt, garlic, cucumber, oil and vinegar).  Our reward was that this became the appetizer for our dinner.  After dinner we managed to Skype with folks at home.  With an 8-hour time difference and poor internet connections, communication with home has been rare.

Syros, Greece

We arrived early morning in Syros, the capital of the Cyclades. We took a morning walking tour of the town with Maria and the group and then broke away from the group for some exploring on our own.  There were a couple of interesting churches.  These were nice stores selling produce, pastries, etc.  We bought several bars of olive oil soap.  This island is different from the rest in that it is not a tourist destination.  Most of the stores closed at 3 p.m.


Most of the afternoon was spent resting and packing for tomorrow's departure from the ship.  The Captain's farewell toast was in the evening, followed by yet another delicious dinner.

Naxos, Greece

Jan said the crew had a rough time docking this morning (2 a.m.), but I slept through it. Naxos is the largest of the Cyclade Islands and is less touristy. We docked right at the main town and it is a convenient walk to shopping, taverns, etc. Coffee was a little weak this morning but only a comment to Eko and he prepared a fresh pot of good coffee. One of the good things about small ship cruising is that the crew and captain are very accessible. They will always take time to talk with you. The chef is very nice and you can sign up to receive copies of recipes that you like.


We took a guided walk along a hill town about 15 minutes from the harbor. It was a nice walk and good to get out into the countryside. We visited an ancient quarry and found an unfinished colossal statue of a man that was from around 600 BC. Jan and I volunteered to walk behind the group to catch any stragglers (at Maria’s request). I would not make a good tour group leader.


We returned to the ship and took a nap, after having two restless nights. I never know if it’s called going back to bed or taking a nap if it’s before lunch. Oh well, we got up in time for lunch. Again, it was a wonderful meal. After lunch we headed out own our on to explore the island of Naxos. We walked along the harbor and quickly found the old city which consisted of narrow, winding, walkways and beautiful old buildings. We have taken lots of pictures of interesting doors on this trip!


For dinner we were taken to the home of a Greek family. They told us that the feast they prepared for us was a typical dinner. They fed 23 people. The appetizers were cucumber, tomatoes, and pepper salad, grilled zucchini and peppers, boiled potatoes and zucchini with olive oil and lemon, spaghetti and meat sauce, green beans, cheese, something that looked like quiche, and other things that I can’t remember. The main course was roasted chicken and potatoes, and dessert was more cheese, watermelon, and cake. Their home was lovely, just as they were.


When we returned to the ship, several local folks dancers came aboard and entertained us with song and dance. They managed to get most of us up to dance with them. We’ll keep those photos out of the blog!

Mykonos, Greece

Our itinerary was changed last night because of excessive winds. We were unable to travel to Delos, which was inhabited from at least the 3rd millennium B.C. Instead, we traveled to our next stop, Mykonos. The ship departed around midnight and the “rock and roll” onboard began. The trip was so rough that nobody got much sleep and we arose this morning to items turned over or knocked off tables in our cabin. Although we didn’t get sick, it was a pretty restless night. We arrived around 6:30 a.m. to cooler temperatures, around 72 degrees. Naturally, it warmed up considerably and we left on a tour of the island around 9 a.m., spent time on Paradise beach swimming, and returned to the ship for a delicious lunch. The food onboard has been wonderful!

This afternoon we walked around the main town of the island around the harbor. It is a beautiful area and has buildings that are similar to Venetian buildings. They are located right on the water and the area is referred to as Little Venice.   We could have stayed longer but the souvenir shops are starting to all look alike.   One of the most unusual sites was octopus hanging from ship masts and in front of stores drying.  This is how they process them for eating.  Mykonos is a very windy island most of the year according to the captain.


The ship left late in the evening for Naxos.

Santorini, Greece

We docked in the late afternoon at Santorini. It is an awesome sight sailing into the caldera at the harbor. The main village is hundreds of feet above the sea with vertical cliffs up to the village. Since it is not a particularly calm harborage, the docking procedure seemed very rough. Our ship (M/V Arethusa) is small enough to dock at the port whereas other cruise ships have to anchor offshore and tender in passengers. At sea level there are only a couple of shops and taverns. There are three ways to reach the village at the top of the cliff; walk up a steep, paved path, take a cable car, or ride mules. This evening we rode the cable car with David and Bonnie from California and got a glimpse of the village. It was packed with young people walking around the narrow streets and sitting at restaurants and taverns. The last funicular was at 10:40 pm and managed to get there in time to return to our ship.

OAT provided passes the next morning, which could be used for either the cable car or the mules. We took the mules up to the city and loved it!

It was about a 15-minute ride up the mountain. The mules were well behaved, however, they tended to rub against the stone walls and telephone poles on the way up. Several people received mild abrasions and bruises on their legs. David, our friend from last night’s adventure (who chose to take the cable car up) made the following comment when asked if he was going to take the mule or the cable car “do you think I’m going to trust my life to what might possibly be a Greek, pissed-off jack ass?” Maybe you had to be there, but several were in tears!


We boarded buses and toured the village of Oia for a couple of hours and then returned to the village of Fira. At Fira we had lunch with other folks in our tour group and then walked (shopped) around the village until time to board the ship.

While we were touring we heard that the ship had to be moved away from the dock and anchored off shore and that we would have to tender. Seven of us took the last tender at 6:30 pm. The seas were pretty rough and apparently the only way to board was by climbing up a rope ladder dropped down the ship. As we approached the ship and saw the rope ladder, Richard commented that “this is certainly different than a Princess cruise”. It was pretty interesting, but we managed to board without any major event. Later, we laughed as we recalled hearing our tender mate Fern repeating “I’m not liking this”. Apparently the earlier group had a much rougher time boarding because of rougher seas and inexperienced pilots. It was a fabulous day and fit the company’s name perfectly (Overseas Adventure Travel).

Amorgos, Greece

The passengers on the boat were divided into two tour groups today. The “Hikers” and the “Easy Riders”. The hikers would be touring the Hozoviotissa Monastery, which happened to be on the side of a mountain. There were an estimated 400 steps to get there.

The other group would be driven to the parking lot at the base of the Monastery, get to look up and take pictures, and then take a walking tour of the town. Naturally, we were hikers. The climb and view were amazing. Words and photos do not do it justice. We met the Abbot who was very welcoming. It was not a bad walk up the steps to the monastery. We were met by donkeys who re-supplied the monastery.

Afterwards, on the way back to the boat we visited a small village in the center of the island where we walked around and then sat and enjoyed a cold beer. We returned to the boat and had free time at the harbor. We tried Greek cheese pie which came highly recommended, but tasted very similar to quiche…not what we were expecting.


This evening we sailed for Santorini. The captain said he expected rough seas. Several people had gotten sick the previous day between Patmos and Amorgos so we took precautions and had a Dramamine. Turns out the seas were not quite as rough as the day before but we had a good nap during the crossing.

Patmos, Greece

No wakeup call this morning! I went downstairs a little after 7 a.m. and brought back two large coffees. We boarded our coach after breakfast and made our way to the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, which was sitting high upon a mountain surrounded by the hora, (the capital) of the island.


Afterwards, we were taken to one of the caves that legend says St. John was exiled to and from where he wrote the book of Revelations.


We left Patmos after lunch and encountered rough seas as we sailed to Amorgos. After a 4-hour journey, we docked in Amorgos at dinner time. After dinner we went ashore and explored the harbor area.


The internet connections in the islands is pretty weak.  I will be uploading pictures soon!

Ephesus, Turkey

Our wake up call for this morning came at 5:30 a.m. After breakfast at the hotel, we departed for the Istanbul airport, and took a 30 minute flight on Pegasus Air to Izmir, Turkey. We boarded a bus and headed to Ephesus. We began our walk through the ruins at the top of the ancient city and explored this amazing city. It was larger than we’d expected and archeologists were onsite excavating the terraced houses. The outdoor amphitheatre was very impressive. Although not quite as large as the one in Rome, it was pretty impressive.

After that we visited St. John’s basilica by the Temple of Artemis. This is where they claim that St. John is buried.

Due to manufacturing technology, the art of making handmade Turkish carpets is becoming a lost art. We were taken to a carpet cooperative where young girls sit in front of wooden looms and make exquisite rugs. We were shown how the silk for the rugs is gathered from the cocoons and how natural herbs are used to dye the wool. Naturally, they would have loved for us to purchase a rug, which they would gladly ship home for us. One of our fellow travelers (Renata) had her eye on one that cost $14,000.

Next we headed to Kusadasi to board our 50-passenger ship, the ARETHUSA. After a quick briefing by the crew we enjoyed dinner aboard our new home for the next 7 days.

Istanbul Turkey Day 2

This morning we were awakened by our 7 a.m. wake up call.  We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 8:30 am.  We boarded a nice bus and our tour of Istanbul began.   We were joined by a local tour guide, Sermin Uthes, who did an excellent job describing what we were seeing.   We began with a stroll through the Grand Bazaar.    We had expected the bazaar to be similar to Marrakech’s market, but were surprised.  It was very clean and we felt very safe.  

 

We would occasionally see a young boy around the age of 8 years old that was dressed in what appeared to be a royal costume.   Someone told us that this was part of the celebration that the boys had recently been circumcised.  Apparently there is a huge festival and the boys get to dress up like this.  Hmmm....

Afterwards, we traveled to the Topkapi Palace, which was built in the 15^th century by Mehmet II.  It was initially built as his primary residence, but served as the seat of government and also contained a school.  The palace was eventually abandoned in 1853 and was reopened in 1924 as a museum.   Some of the pieces we found of interest (and I might add some speculation) were a staff that supposedly belonged to Moses and a hand bone of John the Baptist!

Next we visited the Blue Mosque, which is still an active mosque.  We removed our shoes as we entered and the women with bare arms were given a scarf to cover themselves.   We weren’t required to cover our hair because we weren’t entering during a time of prayer.   The floor of the entire Mosque was covered in Turkish  carpet.   

On our way back to the hotel, we asked to be let off the bus near the spice market.    Although we felt we might be labeled as the renegades of the group by our fellow travelers, we enjoyed a leisurely walk through the spice market and then were pleasantly surprised to find restaurants that lined the underside of the bridge that crossed the Golden Horn (connecting the two parts of Istanbul).   We walked back to the hotel and then later ventured out on our own and found a large pedestrian street that was full of nightlife.    There were numerous local restaurants hidden in narrow alleyways.  We picked one out (or actually they picked us out as they had barkers standing outside each and every one, trying to get you to come in and eat).   We enjoyed a light dinner of tapas (stuffed mussels, grilled shrimp, and lots of bread).    On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at an ice cream stand and were entertained by the young entrepreneur  that used a long ice cream scoop to put ice cream on the cone that I had been given.  As I was taking the cone, he pulled the long scoop back, taking the ice cream off the cone.  After several jovial tricks, I received my ice cream cone and Richard began playing the same game with him, only this time with the Lira that he was anticipating for his pay. 

Upon returning to the hotel, Richard selected “R” in the elevator and we were totally amazed to find a rooftop bar and restaurant that overlooked the city of Istanbul.   The views were absolutely breathtaking!!!   We could see the Hagia Sophia off in the distance lit up with a Ramadan sign in lights.  All this topped with a full moon.

What a day!   What an adventure!   We are so blessed to be able to do the things we do!

Istanbul, Turkey Day 1

The flight from Boston to Paris took only 6-1/2 hours, but took an additional 3 hour flight to finally arrive in Istanbul. Although travel weary, this afternoon was the only chance we were going to have to see the Hagia Sophia because it was going to be closed on Monday and we were departing Istanbul early on Tuesday morning. We met two of our group members at the airport (Rocke and Fern from New York) and they too wanted to see the Hagia Sophia. This remarkable building is more than 1400 years old and it was worth the effort we made to see it! It was built over two earlier churches and inaugurated by the Emperor Justinian in the year 537. It was converted to a mosque in the 15th century. Today it is a museum. Rocke recommended also visiting the Basilica Cistern, which was directly across the street. It was the film location of a scene in the James Bond movie From Russia With Love.

After returning to the Maramara Pera Hotel, we met the remainder of the 20 travelers in our group, enjoyed a nice dinner together, and very quickly fell asleep around 9 p.m. However, our visit to Istanbul came during Ramadan and after fasting all day the locals partied till late. We were awakened around 10:30 p.m. by an outdoor concert across the street from our room. We quickly donned our ear plugs and fell back asleep.

Boston

We flew from MSL to MEM at 6:40 am. Pretty early for us but it was a good and convenient flight. We then flew to Boston on the flight from hell. Hell was a 6 yr old and a 3 yr old who were totally out of control. “Daddy” dozed during the flight and “Mother” did nothing. Earplugs helped some. If an adult caused the disruption they did he would be arrested upon landing.   A couple of Sam Adams Red Bricks helped take the edge off though and we quickly recovered.

We stayed at the Omni Parker House in Boston which was an excellent choice. Everyone was very helpful; got a late check-out; and the hotel was very convenient for us.

We walked most of the Freedom Trail which went by our hotel. We ate both days at Ye Olde Oyster House near Quincy Market (found a good thing so did it twice). Today, August 13 we took the Blue Line to Harvard and took a historical walking tour of the campus.

Weather was perfect both days. We enjoyed Boston, but now on to Istanbul!

Get Ready, Get Set.....

Counting down the days until our next big adventure.   Stay tuned!

The Trip Isn't Over till Its Over!

Well, its time to go home! Out of the resort wear and back into jackets and jeans!

We were picked up at the hotel at 9:30 a.m. When we arrived back to the Montego Bay airport, we were told that our plan was delayed due to bad weather where it originated. However, they could put us on an earlier flight that was leaving soon. We gladly accepted and arrived in Charlotte, NC at 2:45 pm. It was foggy and stormy in NC and our plane wasn't schedule to leave there until 6:05 pm. We kept watching the boards as plane after plane was delayed due to bad weather. Finally, it was our time! But our plane had not yet arrived. First, it was delayed until 6:20, then 6:40, then it got there. Only to be told then that there were maintenance issues that needed to be taken care of. Absolutely! We insist! Don't want to be boarding a plane with maintenance issues. So we patiently waited for the report....all the while looking for Plan B just in case it was cancelled. Then, finally, we were given the go ahead and left Charlotte around 8 p.m., arriving safely into Huntsville, and arriving at our final destination "home" at 10 p.m. All is well that ends well!

Last Day!

Our last day was spent lounging under a palm tree on the beach, reading books, working puzzles, and pretty much doing nothing!

We made a dinner reservation at the gourmet restaurant at the Bahia (Don Pablo). We thought we'd save the best for last and it proved to be very much true. This special dinner made our 10 ten list of the best places we've ever eaten! Our waiter, Greg, provided excellent service and put on quite a show at our table preparing our dessert.

Sunday Dinner

A very relaxing day on the beach today, doing pretty much nothing!

All that nothing was followed by dinner at the Mikado, a Japanese restaurant here at the Bahia. The Jamaicans are very good at a lot of things, but impersonating a Japanese chef isn't one of them. We managed to stay up to see the 10 p.m. show, which is held outdoors in a large square surrounded by souvenier shops and one drug store.....and we quickly learned there's a reason its called a drug store!!!! The show was a steel drum band (The Silver Birds) that was quite entertaining. There were 5 steel drum players, a drummer, and a fellow playing several 50-gallon drums. They also had a couple of "lady" dancers that had unique talents to say the least.

Dunns River Falls

We went to Dunn's River Falls yesterday and climbed up the 600 foot waterfall. It was absolutely thrilling! This is one of those things you have to do before you "get too old"! Man, was that water COLD! But we really didn't notice because the climb was so exhilarating. We also did some shopping in Ocho Rios, but that didn't take long. You can only look at T-shirts and obscene wooden figurines just so long! But was Ready Freddie ever ready!

Today was spent lounging around the beach, reading and napping! Maybe we were too old for the falls!

Plan B - Jamaica

Since June of 2010, we've been researching, studying, and looking forward to a 15-day trip to Egypt! With less than 3 weeks to our departure and that part of the world's situation quickly deteriorating, our tour company informed us they were cancelling our trip. Although we had mixed emotions, very much relieved with regards to our safety but yet disappointed that we would not be seeing the pyramids and tombs that we'd spent a great deal of time learning about. It was as if we'd studied for the test and found out that class had been cancelled!

So, with that behind us.....on to plan B! We had cleared our calendars and were ready to go somewhere.... somewhere WARM! So with one week's notice, we booked a trip to Jamaica, chosen because we had not been there before.

We did our research on Trip Advisor and decided to book 7 days at an all inclusive, small, resort in Ocho Rios. We give our star rating, based on the reviews. First, that it wasn't a good place for kids, because there were no activities (*****) Second, if you were looking for a drinking and partying all night long, this wasn't for you because the place basically shut down around 10 p.m. (*****) Third, the accomodations were dated, but clean (**). Fourth, the food was excellent (*****) So, you can see the 5 stars outweighed the 2 stars....this is why we chose it.

So, on Wednesday morning, we got up at 3 a.m. to drive to Huntsville to catch our 6:10 a.m. flight. We arrived in Montego Bay around 12:45 p.m. It was 4 p.m. by the time we arrived at the "resort". So far....so good. We checked in. The staff was exceptionally friendly. We settled into our room that stepped directly onto the beach. You could walk 25 steps out our door and be in the ocean. However, the patio and bar were also right there. It did appear to be a quiet, laid back kind of place. Little did we know that everyone must have been napping when we arrived. We had dinner around 7 p.m. and although the selection was small, it was quite good. A combination of Jamaican and American food. Around 9 p.m. the karaoke began. Bad, bad karaoke right outside our door!

We had been told also that the property was full and there were no other rooms they could move us to. The next day we asked the front desk to call Apple Vacations and they refused. We could not use the internet because the service was down the entire time we had been there. I had a minor panic attack. We're in a strange country, unable to communicate with anyone. Not being allowed to call for help. Were we being held hostage? OK, I said it was a panic attack!

Finally, we kept pressing the front desk and they got us connected with Garfield Gayle, Apple Vacations. He was very helpful and found us a vacancy at Bahia Gran Principe, Runaway Bay. We quickly packed up and left.

The only thing that the two resorts had in common was that they were both in Jamaica! Enough said.

We love the Bahia and would highly recommend it.

JD's Got A Gator!

Decked out in his camo ball cap and rubber boots, 3-year-old JD test drives his Christmas present from his papa Bill and Nana (Alisa). Appears to be a keeper!

Justin, Mindy, and JD left today. Richard and I drove to Bartram's Trail and hiked to the top of Scaly Mountain. Richard said the elevation was 4800 feet, but I believe it must have been 48000! We hike 2-1/2 hours.....but felt more like 2-1/2 days! After 3 days of eating, working puzzles, and visiting, I needed the exercise.

Happy New Year!

A rainy day in the mountains kept us from getting outside to play today, but it enabled all of us to spend some quality time cooking, watching Alabama football, and playing games. We were honored to have Alisa's Aunt Alice come for a traditional New Year's lunch of ham, black eyed peas, collard greens, corn bread, and butternut squash casserole. Mary Ann and Sable arrived this morning as well. We all worked on a jigsaw puzzle over the past two days. One more day and it should be finished!