An Ernest Hemingway Day

What is an Ernest Hemingway Day? It's one that turns out better than you expect or hope for and has lots of fun, adventure, and little or no unpleasantness. I guess it's the kind of day ol' Ernie would approve of and I think he would have approved of the one we had a couple of weeks or so ago. While it did not involve bullfighting, it did involve the manly American sport of football, along with much drinking and camaraderie.

Michelle has a younger brother who has two kids named Joe and Melissa. Joe has been playing football since he was in Junior High School. He has played all the way through High School and for four years of college. The particular day in question was the last game of his Senior year at Franklin and Marshall College and effectively his last football game ever. To make a long story short, they won. They won against a team, Gettysburg College, who was favored to beat them. F&M won 56-38.

Since Gettysburg had made a field goal early on in the game, that meant that Joe's team won by three touchdowns - and in the fourth quarter no less.

And that was just the start of the day's fun.

(For readers who are football fans, a detailed description of the game can be found at the F & M football site here: http://godiplomats.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/111007aac.html )

Michelle, Sue (Joe's mom), Joe, his dad, and yours truly on the field before the game. They had a nice ceremony for the seniors and their families. I kind of like the Dorothy Parker hat Michelle wore that day.

After cheering ourselves hoarse right through to the last second of the fourth quarter, we repaired to the parking area (set aside especially for team parents) and commenced partying while we awaited our "conquering hero". Since it was the last game of the season and the last game for the seniors period, the parents went all out. People had feasts catered by fancy New York City delis, whole turkeys, filet mignon, whole wheels of Brie, gourmet cupcakes from "Crumbs" (an upscale New York bakery) etc. etc. It also goes without saying that the booze was flowing pretty heavily too.

Well, among all the gourmet excess our girl Michelle brought along three big racks of Costco spareribs that she had slow cooked the night before and which we reheated on her brother's portable propane grill. They were the hit of the of the party. People we didn't know kept coming by and mooching ribs from us. When Joe arrived from the locker room he tucked into a plate and declared them delicious. His buddy "Sparks" declared them the best ribs he ever ate. Michelle was happy.

The tailgate festivities went on until well past dark with music and dancing and fire pits, and proud parents and siblings crowded around the players, shots of tequila and Captain Morgan's drunk to the victory and everyone generally enjoying themselves. Finally, however, it was time to take a break and go check into our hotel. And what a hotel!

We were booked into a place around the corner from the college called the "Lancaster Arts Hotel" (http://www.lancasterartshotel.com/). It was probably one of the best hotels we've stayed at in a long time. It occupies what was once a tobacco warehouse that has been been completely redone into an amazing contemporary hotel while retaining the original brick walls and wood floors. It is what Michelle describes as a "boutique" hotel - if you've ever watched the show on the Travel Channel with the young woman named Samantha, it's the type of place she often stays at for her show. Anyway, the bed was extremely comfortable, there was a wall-mounted flat screen TV, modernistic track lighting and many other neat touches.

However, after a short bit of recuperation at our hotel, it was time to continue the celebration. This was to be at the official student "dive" of the F&M football team: a bar called "Hildy's". This was a short walk from our hotel (from here on no cars were involved due to the anticipated alcohol consumption).

At Hildy's we met up with Joe and his buddies and some of the other parents. There we consumed serious quantities of beer by the pitcher and again did numerous shots. I felt like it was forty years ago and I was back at old Stevens Tech in Hoboken.

Next, we were informed that we were invited to a frat party hosted by Joe's fraternity (he is the chapter president) and found ourselves in a small apartment in a converted loft with about a bazillion dancing and drinking students and a live band crammed into a minimal space along with numerous kegs of beer. After a while though, us old farts were getting worn out and decided to call it a night. Joe ran blocking for us through the impenetrable crowd (always useful to have a nose tackle along) and we made our way back to the hotel.

The next day we dragged our hung over bodies out of bed and headed home to Jersey.

Like I said: an Ernest Hemingway Day.

A Good But Not Great Adventure

About a month ago, my nephew Mark called me up one Friday and asked if I wanted to go to Great Adventure the next day with him, Lucy and The World's Cutest Grandnephew. So, once again, we loaded up the car seat in the 4Runner, strapped in Little Mark, and off we went with my trusty Garmin (GPS) in hand.



Our objective was to ride as many of the insane wild roller coasters at Great Adventure as possible and in Mark's case, all of them if possible. Also, of course, we planned to take Little Mark on as many kiddy rides as we could and show him a good time.



Yeah, right. Even in October, the lines for the major coasters were 1-1/2 to 2 hours long. As a result, Mark got to ride three coasters in a whole day there, and Lucy and I got to ride one each. I will admit that the first coaster Mark chose to ride was basically batsh*t insane. It was called the "Kingda Ka" and the main feature was a section of track that shot over 400 feet straight up (were talking an actual 90 degrees to the ground) and then after a tight 180 turn in the X/Z plane, straight back down again. I chose the better part of valor and went with Lucy to the kiddy section of that particular part of the park and we showed Little Mark a good time. He even got to see some tigers (probably for the first time) in an enclosure that they had there. Lucy told him what they were called in English and Portuguese. He got to go on some kiddy rides and a cool slide that looked like and elephant's trunk. I think that section of the park had some kind of Rain forest theme.

Little Mark has a good old time on one of the kiddy rides - there were a lot of these for the little ones.

Anyway, Mark was on line for about an hour and a half for a ninety-second ride. I found Great Adventure annoying in that they do have something called a "flash pass" available that will get you a reserved time to get in ahead of the line. But guess what? It costs you another $30 or so beyond the $60 it costs to get into the park. I was not happy with this concept; especially since the Disney parks in Orlando have a similar system that is free. Once you've paid your admission to a Disney park, there are kiosks where you can reserve your entry for some time later in the day - no additional charges.

Here is the "Kingda Ka" that Mark rode on. This is the part that shoots you 400+ feet in the air.

Next, Mark and I went together on a coaster called "El Toro" that was supposed to be the fastest wooden roller coaster in the U.S. Again, we waited over an hour, while Lucy took the little dude on some more kiddy rides. It was a great coaster though. I experienced zero G's numerous times as my butt left the seat and then plopped back down again in the various drops and twists. Mark (who is a coaster connoisseur) even said it was a pretty good one.



Finally, Mark and Lucy went on the "Superman" roller coaster and ended up on line for like two hours. But I didn't mind since I got to take my lil' buddy on some kiddy rides in some kind of Bugs Bunny land that they had. We also wandered all over the park with him in his stroller and then bonded over hot dogs and french fries. Actually, the french fries were a useful distraction which kept him from wondering where the hell Mom and Dad were all this time.



Eventually, Mark and Lucy finished their ride - they enjoyed it - and were reunited with their son. We spent another couple of hours wandering the park including a thwarted attempt to get on the "Batman" coaster (a two-hour wait!) and more kiddie rides for Little Mark. The day ended with a Halloween parade of costumed "Zombies" and we headed home. Little Mark was asleep in his stroller before we even made it out the front gate of the park.



At any rate, a good time was had by all.

Crabby in Delaware

Michelle's sister, who accompanied us on our Alaska adventure, lives in Lewes, Delaware. A few weeks ago, we went there and spent a few days with her.

Lewes is an old town located right on the Delaware Bay and is the southern terminal of the Cape May (NJ)-Lewes ferry. The ferry terminal in NJ is about two miles from the end of the Garden State Parkway. Now normally, we would take our vehicle on the ferry to Delaware. However, this time we did something a little different. The ferry terminal has a parking lot which is free to ferry passengers. You can leave your car there, and buy foot passenger tickets to go across. All they ask is that if you are going to leave your vehicle overnight or longer, you give them you license plate and registration # when you buy your ticket. It's cheaper to go this way and you avoid waiting in line in the vehicle lanes. Basically we walked right on about five minutes before sailing. We had a pleasant hour and one-half cruise, and my sister-in-law picked us up at the Delaware terminal.

The Cape May-Lewes ferry

As usual, we had a great time. We went to the beach twice; there is a state park near Lewes called Cape Henlopen which has a beautiful beach. In fact I have assurances from Little Mark, who visited the following week (Michelle's sister is his Grandma), that the sand is highly diggable. We also did a bunch of shopping in the outlets which are located in and around Lewes. I kind of like outlets because while Michelle shops for women's clothes, I can usually find a men's store nearby to wander through. In fact, one of the outlet malls in Lewes has a Black and Decker outlet store. Talk about a "manly" outlet!

We also visited a place called Dover Downs. It's a harness racing track combined with a stock car track that hosts NASCAR twice a year. I believe when it's in NASCAR mode it calls itself Dover Speedway. Anyhow, they have a casino there. The casino has no traditional table games with dealers, but it did have some interesting blackjack machines. Instead of a single person machine like the older blackjack machines and video poker, they have six seats in front of a video screen. Each seat has buttons in front of it for all the possible choices: hit, stand, double, split, etc. When the game is played, a virtual dealer appears on the screen and you sort of interact with her/him. The advantage is in the companionship of your friends at the same table as you would have in a "live" game, with all the kibitzing and conversation among you which makes losing your money a little less painful. We played for a while, my sister-in-law and I lost some money, Michelle won a little - we had fun.

The next day, Michelle's sister had a dinner engagement so we were on our own for dinner. We headed to our favorite crab joint: Lazy Susan's. They are not far from my sister-in-law's house and are a classic shore crab shack. While readers may remember from my tales of Alaska, my all-time favorite crabs are the Northwestern Dungeness variety, East Coast blue crabs are nothing to sneer at and are delicious in their own right. Lazy Susan's serves them in the traditional way: one sits at a picnic style table covered with brown wrapping paper and the crabs are dumped by the dozen right on the table. Wooden mallets are provided to crack the claws to get at the sweet meat inside, and plastic knives are there to dig out the meat from the body.

Now there is some technique involved in eating blue crabs, mainly in how to open the crab shell and what parts to discard, but the helpful staff at Susan's will be glad to demonstrate the proper "moves". It's not hard to learn in any case.

We ordered a dozen crabs with corn on the cob for an accompaniment and they were delicious.

The next day we were driven to the ferry and headed home to New Jersey.

Dinner in the Ironbound

The other night our nephew Mark and his wife Lucy took Michelle and me to a great Portuguese seafood restaurant in the "Ironbound" section of Newark N.J. The Ironbound is a neighborhood in Newark which is near the downtown and stretches along the Passaic River. It is roughly triangular in shape and is bounded on all three sides by railroad tracks - hence "ironbound". Many years ago it was a predominately Italian neighborhood which gradually changed over to Portuguese and is now becoming more Brazilian but with a continuing Portuguese presence.


Lucy is from Brazil originally, and lived in the Ironbound for some time prior to meeting Mark. As a result she and Mark are quite familiar with the area (they visit there a lot to eat and see friends) plus Lucy of course speaks Portuguese which is a plus.




Anyway, they wanted to take us out to dinner to celebrate Michelle's birthday, so we strapped a baby seat into my SUV, strapped Little Mark aka "The World's Cutest Grandnephew (TM)" into the baby seat and off we went.



There is a kind of a back way into the Ironbound that Mark and I both use. It involves taking I-280 east and bypassing all the Newark exits to get off in Harrison. Take a left onto Harrison Ave, take Harrison to Frank E. Rodgers Blvd, turn right and go all the way to the bridge over the Passaic River. Once over the bridge you are in the Ironbound section and then it's four blocks straight to Ferry Street which is the main drag of the area. Coming back is even easier, as there is an entrance to I-280 West from Frank E. Rodgers Blvd.



Anyway, we went to a Portuguese Restaurant called Vila Nova, which is located on the corner of Ferry Street and Niagara Street. There was free parking across Niagara Street in a bank parking lot. There was an "attendant" of sorts in the lot who sort of directed people into spaces - since my vehicle was actually in one piece when we came out of the restaurant I tipped him a couple of bucks.

Mark and Lucy chose the place based on the fact that Michelle the Birthday Girl wanted Portuguese seafood and they knew this place since Lucy used to live right across the street when they were dating. We trooped into the place and were seated at a nice big round table, a highchair was secured for Little Mark and we were ready to go.

The restaurant had lots of atmosphere and large quantities of good food. The only negative was that it was a very hot and humid night and the antiquated air conditioning system in the dining room couldn't keep up. As a result, we were somewhat uncomfortable from the heat.

However, as I said, the food was good and plentiful. We actually ended up ordering too much food, although we did eat most of it. One dish that Mark recommended was a broiled seafood combination. It was supposed to be for two people; when it came out it was more like it could have fed three to four. It contained a whole broiled lobster, a huge piece of wonderful broiled flounder, a couple of huge prawns and a bunch of scallops, shrimp, mussels, and clams.

Well it would have probably been enough, but we ended up ordering two more dishes: some broiled grouper which was very good and some wonderful salty Portuguese style spareribs. The restaurant also gave us a loaf of Portuguese sausage bread that was very good and of course the main dishes came with a huge plate of saffron rice and another plate of those tasty Portuguese fried potatoes. Naturally, this was all washed down with a pitcher of Sangria. The four adults plus the little dude managed to polish off all of the seafood platter and a good chunk of the grouper and ribs. In the midst of all this gluttony we also found time to play peek-a-boo with Little Mark by hiding behind our napkins. He thought this was hilarious. Finally, we could chow down no more and regrettably we had to say no to the great looking dessert cart and ask for the check.

On our way back to the car, Little Mark stopped to "flirt" with a little Brazilian girl of about his age (2 years) who was sitting in the Vila Nova's sidewalk cafe with her mom and dad. But alas, we dragged him away to head homeward.

We went back the same route we drove in and were all soon back at home.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant, but would caution that the portions are huge so don't overorder unless you're a big fan of doggie bags (the waitstaff seemed to have a tendency to encourage overordering). Also, try to avoid going on hot, humid days. Again, it's the Vila Nova, 265 Ferry Street, Newark, NJ 07105, telephone 973-344-8540.

The Colbert Report

Last Tuesday was Michelle's birthday so by way of celebration we went in to New York City to be in the studio audience of the Stephen Colbert show: "The Colbert Report" which airs on Comedy Central. Last year we were able to get tickets to be in the studio audience of "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart and we had a really good time, so we were looking forward to this trip. We had gotten tickets a few months ago to see Stephen Colbert, but due to their overbooking, we were unable to get in at that time, so they gave us VIP tickets for this date which guaranteed we would get in.

We got four tickets total so we went in with Michelle's sister and her friend. True to their word, the show ushers let us right in without having to wait in line. We did have to spend about an hour in a waiting room, but at least there were places to sit, a water fountain, and restrooms.

Finally, we were ushered into the studio. I was surprised that the studio audience for "The Colbert Report" is only about half the size of that for the "Daily Show". They seated us and then announced that before the taping of the show, they were going to do a skit making fun of an incident a couple of months ago when Stephen fell and broke his wrist and they needed us for audience reaction shots.

The skit involved some muscle builder guy with no shirt, just a tie, taking the part of Stephen Colbert and running around the studio like a maniac. He also threw (fake) $100 bills to the audience and autographed some woman's baby (naturally she was a plant and the "baby" was a doll). Eventually, Stephen's stand-in flexed his muscles and took a swan dive onto a load of padding on the floor. As for the rest of the audience, we were told to cheer and clap hysterically at the appropriate times and to show shock and horror when "Stephen" took his fall. The stage manager and others that were there running the skit were pretty nice and the whole thing was a lot of fun. After it was over, they told us that the skit would used on a future show. Also, I got a fake $ 100 bill to keep as a souvenir. Then it was time for the regular show to start.


Stephen Colbert came running out to real cheers and applause this time and did run around the stage like a maniac. I can see why he did fall since the stage includes a raised platform where his desk is. He answered a few questions from the audience and greeted us warmly. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. He made a point to say that he was out of character at this point before the start of the actual show. I should point out that his "shtick" is to take the part of a right-wing blowhard ala Hannity/O'Reilly/Limbaugh. Of course he takes it to clueless extremes that are hilarious. It's a real send-up of the Fox News and right-wing talk radio universe.

His show that night was funny, as usual, one bit Stephen did was a feature called "Worthy Opponent" in which he debates himself and made fun of "War on Terror" paranoia.

His guest that evening was Michael Shermer founder of the Skeptics Society and the author of a book which he was there to plug called "Why Darwin Matters". True to form Stephen Colbert took the part of a right-wing intelligent design supporter and hilarity ensued.

The show was in a building on West 54th Street between Tenth and Eleventh. Afterward we walked to a restaurant on the corner of Ninth and 50th called "Roberto Passon". It was an Italian place recommended by friends of Michelle's sister. The food was very good and reasonably priced for a restaurant in New York City. Here is a link to the restaurant web page: http://www.robertopasson.com/

After dinner, I got the car and we headed home.

One really strange thing was that both in our trip into the city, and our return to New Jersey, traffic was extremely light. It may have been the combination of a Tuesday night, rainy weather, and summer when people are away, but it was still weird.

Anyone who is interested in tickets to either the Daily Show or Colbert should check on the Comedy Central web site. But when you go, get there early and be prepared to wait a couple of hours. Otherwise, you may get cut off the way we did the first time. You will then be guaranteed entrance the next time they give you tickets, but you will then have made two trips into the city. Although, I must say that the first trip we made was not a total waste even though we did not see the Colbert Report that time, as we went in very early to New York and spent some time in the Metropolitan Museum of art.

Also, we finally did get to see ourselves on TV. On a later show The Colbert Report featured Stephen getting his cast removed. As part of that whole bit, they showed some parts of what they had taped with us before the show that day. Sure enough, as the stand-in guy took his pratfall, there were the four of us in the audience looking "shocked and concerned". They actually used very little of what they taped that day, but at least we didn't end up on the cutting room floor so to speak. I think the segment, which aired on August 23rd can still be seen on the Comedy Central web site. The Colbert Report (also for tickets) site is here: http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml

North to Alaska VII

The last time around I left us on the train to Talkeetna AK. Talkeetna is a small town with a year-round population of about 800. It's a popular tourist destination and it's other claims to fame are as a jumping-off point for expeditions setting out to climb Denali (Mt. McKinley) and as the town which was the inspiration for the quirky little Alaska town in the 90's TV show "Northern Exposure". That show was filmed in Washington State, but having been an occasional viewer of the show and having seen Talkeetna, I can see where they captured the atmosphere of the town pretty well, including the community radio station. Well, we pulled into the Talkeetna RR station and our faithful bus and driver were waiting for us. The next stop was our hotel: the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge.

It was a very nice hotel with two restaurants and a huge wood-burning fireplace in the main lobby. But it's main claim to fame is that from the patio in the back of the lobby, you can see all the way to the Alaska Range and, weather permitting, get an excellent view of Denali itself. Well, the weather only permits on the average 60 days out of any given year.

Here is a picture I found of Denali from the Lodge on a perfect day

Here is the view we saw. If you look hard, you can sort of see a bit of the mountain poking through the clouds above the dark, saddle-shaped mountain in the center.

That evening, we took a shuttle bus into the booming metropolis of Talkeetna in the pouring rain. We ended up at what I would consider the ultimate Alaska wilderness dive - a bar and restaurant called the "West Rib". We loved it. Contrary to what you might expect from the name, they did not serve ribs of any kind. The name refers to an approach route to Denali used by many climbers. What they did serve was an amazingly good seafood platter of salmon, halibut and Dungeness crab. I also tried an ale called "Ice Axe" which was around 9% alcohol. It tasted like regular ale with a shot of vodka in it. After one, I switched to Alaska Amber.

Michelle and her sister in the "West Rib"

The next day, we pretty much had to whole day to kill in Talkeetna before our train left in mid-afternoon to take us to Anchorage and the end of the trip. We went back into town and ate breakfast at a place called "The Roadhouse" which is a restaurant and bakery. Their breakfasts are so huge we were advised to order a half portion which was plenty big enough even for my appetite. Afterwards, we wandered up and down Talkeetna's two block long main street and checked out the various gift shops and galleries. There were some nice but expensive things; however, nothing jumped out and said "buy me". In the end, Michelle found a neat miniature mask in the hotel gift shop of all places. It is by a Native American artist and depicts a wolf with its prey in its jaws.

Main Street Talkeetna with the "West Rib". The "Roadhouse" is down the street to the right.

Eventually, we returned to the hotel and hung out in the lobby until it was time to get on our bus and go to the train station. It was during this time that we got the (very) partial view of Denali from the back patio.

We got on the train and headed for Anchorage. Dinner was served on the train and we saw some more scenery and eventually we wound up at our last hotel, the Marriott in Anchorage. The next day we were up at Oh dark hundred to catch our flight home via Seattle.

Well folks, that concludes the story of our Alaska adventure. I'm sure I left a lot out, but that will be stuff to bore family and friends with. Generally speaking, I would say that the cruise/land tour is the best way for the average person to see Alaska. My only recommendation would be that anyone who does this reverse the order. That is, arrange to do the Alaska interior land tour first, and then get on the ship in Seward and cruise to Vancouver. The trip can be booked this way and has the advantage that after the fairly hectic schedule of the land tour, you can look forward to the relatively relaxing cruise portion. Other recommendations (some of these are based on an earlier cruise-only trip we took): try to make it to a Dungeness crab dinner, gold-panning is fun, the WP&Y railroad is great, whale watching is very enjoyable, if your ship happens to go to Sitka (this trip didn't) there's a wonderful raptor rescue center there with close-up views of bald eagles. Also, see Denali Park, don't miss river rafting, and be sure your tour takes the riverboat in Fairbanks. Oh, and if you like beer, don't miss the Alaska Amber.

North to Alaska VI

After a bus ride of several hours, we arrived at the gates of the Denali National Park and Preserve. Denali is the Native name for the tallest mountain in North America also known as Mt. McKinley. The bus dropped us off at our hotel: The Grand Denali Lodge. It is located on top of a mountain near the Park entrance and there was a spectacular view from our room. After a few minutes to freshen up, we were off to our whitewater rafting adventure on the nearby Nenana river.

The view from our room. The river is the Nenana where we went rafting

A bus from the rafting company picked us up at our hotel and took us to their base on the Nenana river. There we were all fitted with "dry suits". These are tight fitting rubber suits which are water tight and keep one from getting wet if you should fall into the river's icy, glacial fed, thirty-five degree water. We also had to don life vests. They then herded us onto a school bus and drove us to the put-in point some thirteen miles upriver from their base. There they divided us into groups of eight or nine to a raft. Each raft was piloted by an experienced river guide who steered us with a pair of oars from a middle seat - in our case this person was a young woman who despite her youth was quite experienced and had even done raft guiding in New Zealand. Our job was simply to hold on and enjoy the trip.

I should point out that the raft trip we took was one of two possible routes. Ours was considered more of a scenic wilderness trip and less of a thrill ride in that we only experienced a few class II and one or two class III rapids (rapids go from class I to class VI with VI being the most dangerous). The other route had more of the class III rapids. However, our guide told us that ours was by far the more scenic route. I think she was probably right. Other than the other rafts, we saw no other humans or signs of humanity during nearly the entire 13 mile trip on the Nenana. It was only as we came to the end that we saw some houses along the banks. The scenery and the atmosphere was really amazing, the rapids we did shoot were a lot of fun (those suits proved their usefulness) and while it rained a little bit during the trip (who cared? Rubber suits!) it was enough to create a beautiful double rainbow which we haven't seen since we were in Hawai'i. The only bad thing is that we were not permitted to bring any cameras unless they were waterproof - so unfortunately no pictures of this trip.

Here is a picture from the Web of the area we rafted on the Nenana

By the way, the raft trip (including preparation) started at six o'clock in the evening and ended around nine forty-five - and it was still broad daylight. The sun only sets for a couple of hours a night in that part of Alaska in the summer! After the raft company took us back to our hotel, we ate a late dinner and off to bed.

The next day, we were picked up by a U.S. Parks Service bus for our Denali Park tour. The Parks service decided some years ago to ban all private vehicles from most of Denali Park in order to preserve the integrity of the eco-system. The only way to see the park by road is on the Park Service bus tours. The drivers are all park rangers and qualified naturalists, so this is probably as good a tour as you would get in any case.

The bus took us to the visitors' center at the park entrance where we watched a short film on the history of the park - and more importantly scored some coffee and bagels for breakfast at the snack bar. Then we headed off down the park road. The park was very beautiful with mountains, tundra, and taiga (taiga is a sub-arctic forest made up mostly of evergreens with some broadleaf trees). Unfortunately, we did not see much in the way of wildlife - just a couple of caribou too far away to photograph, some snowshoe hares, and some wild sheep which were pretty much just moving white dots high up on a mountain. The bus driver/naturalist said this was pretty much par for the course - seeing wildlife was a luck of the draw sort of thing.

The Savage River in Denali Park

Eventually, the bus tour wound up at the Alaska Railroad terminal in Denali Park, where we boarded a rail coach for the next leg of our trip. I found it interesting that the cruise companies have their own private rail cars for their land based tours. They are coupled on to regularly scheduled Alaska Railroad passenger trains traveling on the line between Fairbanks and Anchorage. The RCL coach was quite nice. It was two levels with the top having a full length vista dome and the lower level being a dining car and kitchen facility. On the day we left Denali bound southward to the town of Talkeetna we ate lunch on board and it was quite good. While we spent most of our time up top in the dome where the view was unobstructed, the dining deck had large picture windows so that even while eating we did not miss much of the spectacular scenery. The train also had an on-board tour guide who told us what we were looking at and answered questions.

A view of our train from our private coach. The other cars you see are regular Alaska Railroad passenger cars

Eventually, our train pulled into the town of Talkeetna AK where we were to spend the night. More on that next time.

Next: Talkeetna, a classic Alaskan gin-mill, and the elusive Mt. McKinley.

North to Alaska V

Well, as Marty Allen would say: Hello dere! To continue the narrative of our Alaska adventure, we arrived by air in Fairbanks AK on the evening of the day our ship docked and officially began the land portion of our RCL tour. They put us up in a hotel called the "Sophie Station". It was a nice place with a decent but pricey restaurant and the rooms were actually suites with sitting rooms, full kitchens and balconys in addition to the bedroom and bath. The beds were quite comfortable and the rooms were clean. If I had any objection to the place, it was that it was not near anything easily walkable. We could have taken a shuttle to downtown Fairbanks, but after a day that started at around 5:30 AM, we were not feeling very ambitious. So we ended up eating in a "pub" that was an adjunct to the hotel restaurant. I had a buffalo burger - quite good and supposedly lower in fat than beef, and Michelle had some tasty fish and chips made with Alaskan halibut.

The hotel was about a quarter mile from a store called "Fred Meyers" which is a chain in Alaska. This particular store was a combination department store/supermarket - something on the order of a Walmart, but not as large as the typical Walmart store. I walked over there to pick up some snacks and diet coke for the rest of our trip. On the way I saw something that hit home about how far north we were. Each set of four parking spaces in the hotel lot were clustered around a short steel post. On top of each post was a cluster of four electrical outlets. I then recalled being told that in -40 to -60 degrees F a vehicle left out overnight had better have an electric block heater to keep the crankcase oil from becoming a solid immobile mass that no starter will be able to turn over. Well it seemed strange since the temperature in Fairbanks that day was in the 80's with 90 forecast for the next day but I was told later that in winter, it can fall to -60. Some temperature range!

Riverboat landing in Fairbanks

The "Discovery II"

The next day we breakfasted at the hotel and then were bussed to a landing on the Chena River which runs through Fairbanks. There, we had some time to shop for tee shirts etc. and then onto the sternwheel riverboat "Discovery II" for a trip on the Chena and Tanana rivers. The riverboat trip was quite enjoyable as they did more than just point out scenery. For instance: they arranged for an Alaskan bush pilot to take off and land his float plane right next to us on the water. That was for starters. Then, a little further down the river they pulled into a landing at Trailbreaker Kennels, the home and dog kennel of the late Susan Butcher: a young woman who had won the famous Iditarod dogsled race a number of times. Sadly, Ms. Butcher passed away a few years ago at quite a young age, but her husband and others keep the kennel and tradition alive. The dogs are trained in the snowless summer by pulling a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle with the engine removed. As we watched from the deck of the boat, the dog trainers had a team hitched up to demonstrate for us. It was amazing how excited the dogs were at the prospect of a run. Sled dogs are bred for this and it is what they love to do.

Here is a picture of dogs training by pulling an engineless ATV

After our stop at the kennels, the boat continued on to the junction of the Chena and Tenana rivers, where it turned down stream into the Tenana. Next stop was a recreated Athabascan Indian village where two young women who attend the University of Alaska - one an Eskimo and the other an Athabascan Indian- showed us around the exhibits and described the Native Alaskan cultures. We also met an Athabascan lady named Dixie Alexander who makes her summer home at the village and is a world renowned maker of traditional Native Alaskan fur parkas. These are made from all natural animal pelts and decorated with elaborate and beautiful beadwork. One of her parkas is actually on display at the Smithsonian. At the village we also had the chance to see some reindeer and some more sled dogs close up.

Another interesting thing at the village was a traditional Athabascan fish wheel. This is an ingenious device invented by the Indian people which uses the river current to turn a wheel upon which are mounted baskets that scoop up the salmon swimming upstream to spawn. I have to say that this device and other things I was told and saw left me very impressed with the Native Alaskan people and their ability to survive for thousands of years in a hostile and unforgiving environment.

Incidentally, if you're wondering what the difference is: Eskimos (Inupiaq, Yupik and Cupik peoples) are a coastal people who live on the west and north coast of the state. Athabascans live in the interior, Aleuts live on the south coast and the Aleutian Islands (naturally), and Tlingit, Eyak, Haida and Tsimishian Indians live in the coastal panhandle region. These people in the panhandle have a lot in common with the Native people of the Pacific Northwest regions of the U.S. and Canada. E.g. they are totem pole carvers.

Anyway, after the tour of the village, we reboarded the Discovery II and it was back to the landing where we set out from. At the dock we boarded our tour bus and it was off to downtown Fairbanks where we had lunch (Italian food of all things) and wandered around the downtown where some sort of gold rush festival was in progress. After that it was onto the tour bus and off to Denali Park.

Next: Denali, whitewater rafting and a train ride.

North to Alaska IV

It occurs to me that I should digress for a bit and describe something that we saw during our cruise, even though I'm telling it out of sequence. Like most ships, the "Radiance of the Seas" had nightly shows with their on-board orchestra and singers/dancers, along with specialty acts such as magicians, comedians etc.

Well one night, somewhere in the middle of the cruise, the announced act was a comedian named Marty Allen. Now Marty Allen is someone I vaguely remember from TV during my childhood/teen years back in the 50's and 60's as one-half of an act known as Allen and Rossi. Michelle had a similar recollection of him. Mr. Allen was best described as a short, somewhat chubby Jewish guy with a head of wild hair that looked like an oversized black Brillo pad. His trademark line was "Hello dere". Well, the name of the on-board show was "Hello dere" and indeed it was that Marty Allen. He appeared with a female singer named Karon Kate who did a few standard musical numbers (she has a decent voice) and acted as a straight woman to Marty when he came out on stage. She is also his wife of twenty-three years. Unfortunately, all of the jokes he told have been circulating on the Internet for years, and at least one, involving an Irish woman and the "rhythm method" has been around since I was a kid. I guess the big thrill was actually seeing this guy still alive and doing comedy. To put him in perspective, he was a guest on the Ed Sullivan show when the Beatles made their first US appearance there. Oh well, at 85 years old the guy has a lot of heart to still be doing Vegas and cruise ships.


Marty Allen

Returning to the chronological account of the trip, the "Radiance of the Seas" docked at the port of Seward AK on Friday, July 20th, exactly eight days after we sailed from Vancouver BC. Since we were continuing with the cruise line's land portion of the tour, we waited until we were called to board our bus to Anchorage, about a three-hour trip from Seward. The trip was, however, not boring. It took us through the Kenai Peninsula which is a scenic national park filled with mountains and glaciers. Our trip called for us to then take a plane from Anchorage which is on the south coast of Alaska to Fairbanks AK in the central part of the state. However, since our flight was not scheduled until the later part of the afternoon, they had to do something with us to kill time so they took us to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. We had time to have lunch in their restaurant and tour some of the galleries. There was a lot of traditional native Alaskan art and galleries of art by non-native artists depicting life and history in the state in times gone by. My favorite gallery, however, was an exhibit of contemporary art by native Alaskans. It consisted of art done in various media including video installations and dealt mostly with the artists' visions and feelings about their roles as traditional people in a modern society. I would have liked to have spent more time in this exhibit, but we had to hop back on the bus and head for the airport.

Next: Fairbanks and the riverboat: sled dogs and another native artist.

North to Alaska III

Sunset at sea - taken by Michelle

Hello again. When I last left my faithful readers (all two of you) we were departing beautiful downtown Skagway AK for our next stop - Icy Strait Point: a small Native Indian fishing village and site of a former cannery. The basic entertainment choices here were: a.) a hike in the woods b.) a trip on a whale-watching boat or c.) a form of insanity called a zip line in which you are driven up a mountain for 45 minutes in a bus, wait an hour in line and then spend 90 seconds screaming as you're strapped in a harness and slide down a wire cable for 1500 feet back to where you started. Needless to say, we went whale watching.

The old cannery at Icy Point Strait

The whale watching boat was a large twin hulled power boat that had three decks and was fairly comfortable and stable. The tour was accompanied by a young woman naturalist who told us about whales and what to look for, what we were seeing etc. We did see whales. Since summer is the time the Humpback whales migrate to Alaskan waters to feed (They're not dumb - they spend winter in Hawai'i) there were plenty of sightings. In fact, we got fairly lucky as a mother Humpback and her calf surfaced near our boat and put on quite a show of rolling over, splashing their tail flukes etc. All in all it was probably the best shore excursion we had taken to that point. It was also the best whale watching we have seen since the time we were in the Gulf of Maine outside of Bar Harbor and saw a rare form of cooperative action among Humpbacks called "bubble netting". It's a way the whales work together to herd herring into a small area for easier pickings. When Michelle mentioned that we had once seen this to the naturalist on this current trip she was boggled and pretty much said that behavior was so rare as to be a kind of holy grail for whale watchers.

A humpback whale breaches - picture taken by Michelle.

After the whale watching, we walked along the small boardwalk they had on the town waterfront, watched some of the lunatics come down the zip line, and ate some great fried halibut (halibut, along with salmon, is kind of the Alaskan national fish) in a small restaurant overlooking the water. It occurs to me that I may not be doing Icy Strait justice. It is a very beautiful spot scenically and worth the stop.

That afternoon, we set sail for the Hubbard glacier. We arrived there the next morning. The Hubbard glacier is located far up a bay. It is a huge river of ice, some six miles wide which makes its way many miles down a mountain valley and ends at the salt water bay. Since glaciers are always moving forward, chunks of it are always breaking off and falling into the bay, forming small "icebergs". Apparently in Greenland this happens with even bigger glaciers which form not so small icebergs and hence what happened to Titanic. However, our bergs were not so big or dangerous (fortunately). Of course our ship's captain, a Norwegian chap who fancied himself a comedian, started coming on the ship's PA system about 7:00 AM with reports on our progress toward the glacial face and a few lame Titanic remarks thrown in for good measure. Fortunately, he was a far better seaman than comedian and he was able to safely navigate our 90,000 ton ship to within 1200 feet of the glacier. In fact, we were told that this is supposedly closer than any other cruise ship gets. Since I used to struggle to get a 1 ton sailboat within two feet of a dock, I was duly impressed by this feat.

Our closest approach to the Hubbard glacier.

Needless to say, the view of the glacier was spectacular. We were close enough to hear the roar of the ice as it began to break off from the face, and to see the splash and puff of powdery crystals as the break actually happened. It was like being in the middle of a National Geographic special. Finally, though, the ship turned around and headed back down the bay and we were on our way to Seward AK, our final port.

Next: Weird shipboard entertainment and Seward to Anchorage to Fairbanks.

North to Alaska Part II

Okay, so I left us as our ship was making its way up the "Inside Passage" of islands and channels which form a good part of the southeast Alaska "panhandle". Next stop: Juneau, the state capital. Incidentally, the ship's using these island-sheltered waters had one huge advantage for anyone prone to seasickness: there was no motion of the ship. The whole time we were in those waters, you might as well have been in a building on dry land.

Back to Juneau: it's the state capital but it's the only state capital which cannot be reached from the rest of the state by road. You either fly in or take a boat (And before you yell: "What about Hawaii?", Honolulu, the state capital, can be reached from any part of its island of Oahu, which is at least part of the state.). Juneau's shore excursions consisted of panning for gold, a salmon bake, and getting rained on. Actually, the rain was not unexpected - it's pretty much standard summer weather for SE Alaska and we came prepared with waterproof slickers etc. The gold panning was kind of neat. We were bussed into the hills behind the town by a sort of Gabby Hayes wannabe who then led us on foot to a creek bed where he passed out pans and gravel and showed us what to do. Michelle and I both duly panned out (with much help from Mr. Hayes) miniscule but visible specks of actual gold which we then deposited in the glass vials provided to take home with us. I doubt either of us will ever make a living at prospecting at any time in the near future, but we had a great time. Then it was on to the salmon bake.

Michelle pans for gold!

The salmon bake was held outdoors but thankfully under a series of plastic canopies (the rain still had not let up). It consisted of salmon cooked over an alderwood fire accompanied by various salads, cornbread, beans etc. The salmon was not King salmon (generally considered the best quality) and was not as good as we had expected, but the rest of the food was quite good. However, the two best things about the salmon bake were quite peripheral to it: a pit where you could roast marshmellows over an open fire, and a bear cub hanging out in a tree. Other than some bald eagles we spotted on the way to the previous day's crab feast, he was our first wildlife of the trip.

The bus from the panning/bake dropped us off in the center of the Juneau shopping district where, after an aborted attempt to get a beer in the local "Famous Olde Saloon" - wall to wall tourists - we wandered through some shops and then took a tender back to the ship. Our next stop was Skagway.

Skagway's claim to fame was that it more or less existed to fleece the prospectors on their way up the White Pass to the Klondike gold fields in Canada. Skagway is at the head of an inlet that is as close as you can get to the Klondike by sea and from there you had to cart yourself and your gear over some mountains into Canada. The big tourist attraction is the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, a narrow gauge railroad built to carry miners etc. up the White Pass into Canada. It was literally carved out of solid rock in the sides of the mountains in the pass. We had taken this ride the last time we cruised Alaska, so this time we opted for the cheaper and less time-consuming van ride up the modern road on the other side of the pass. The trip was quite enjoyable. Thanks to this road, Skagway does connect with the rest of the world through Canada unlike most of the other towns in the AK panhandle. However, if anyone is there for the first time I highly recommend the railroad - it's quite spectacular. Any way, our van driver was an interesting guy. As one of the 800 or so year-round residents of Skagway, he pretty much knew everyone in town and like many locals held about three jobs. Afterward, the van dropped us in the middle of Skagway and we wandered into a local tavern for some lunch. Michelle and I shared an amazing sandwich. I don't remember what the tavern called it but it was a what we called a Thanksgiving night sandwich. That is, it was turkey breast, stuffing and cranberry sauce with lettuce and tomato. It was served on thick slabs of homemade style whole grain bread and was probably better than anything we had eaten thus far on the ship. After wandering around the town a while, it was back to the ship. But first, I stopped at the train depot and got a deal on a W.P.&Y. R.R. T-shirt and baseball cap. Also, got a nice photo of their one steam locomotive chugging along with a cruise ship in the background - kind of sums up Skagway.

We drove over this bridge on the way up the White Pass. It's supported only on one side because it crosses a fault line.

A waterfall in the White Pass

The W.P.& Y. R.R. steamer with cruise ships in background. "Radiance of the Seas" is to the right.

Next: A Native American fishing village and whale-watching.

North to Alaska

This seems to be sort of turning into a travel blog, but Michelle and I just got back from a two-week jaunt to the 49th State. Thought I'd post some thoughts on it here.

Our first stop was Vancouver B.C. where we were to board the Royal Caribbean Lines' "Radiance of the Seas" for the north bound journey to Seward AK via several stops on the Alaska Panhandle (the Southeastern part of AK that stretches alongside Canada toward Seattle). We got there the day before we were to board and stayed overnight at a hotel near the Vancouver airport in order to preclude any horror shows perpetrated by late flights, lost luggage etc. As it turns out, everything went smoothly with flights and luggage. Also, due to the vagaries of flight scheduling and time change we arrived in Vancouver about 10:30 AM. At that point we made a decision not to spend our one day in the city sitting on our butts in the hotel but instead to take a Vancouver city tour and see the place. It was a good decision. We booked a four-hour city highlights tour for the afternoon and off we went.

Vancouver seen from the top of the Harbour Centre Tower

Vancouver is a really lovely city with what seems to be an excellent quality of life and it is surrounded by considerable natural beauty. It's located on a peninsula among various bays and river deltas. As a result it has excellent deep water port facilities along with many recreational areas such as beaches and small boat marinas. Our tour was on a bus with a number of stops throughout the city. The tour guide was very knowledgeable about the city, but he was also a bit of a character. For one thing, he ended every statement with "eh". Now I know this is supposedly a common practice in Canada, but he did it so much it was almost a caricature - he reminded me of the Mackenzie brothers, the two beer-drinking mock Canadians on the old Second City TV show. He also claimed to be a drummer in a rock band and an expert on the city's various micro-brews. He may have been that last thing-I tried a pint of his recommended beer and it was quite good. Anyhoo, the tour took us to Stanley Park, a green oasis of a peninsula adjacent to downtown, and various sections of the city including Chinatown, "Gastown" (a kind of hip restaurant and shopping district) and a stop to take the elevator to the top of the Harbour Centre Tower which is their version of the Space Needle but not as tall (but with a great view of the city). My favorite stop on the tour was called Granville Island. It is a small, artificial island in a creek near downtown and is sort of the Vancouver Greenwich Village. Lots of galleries, shops, theaters, and restaurants crowded into a walkable space and surrounded by water and boats. We ate dinner there in a Tapas bar called the Sandbar - it was quite good. To sum up: it was an enjoyable first day of vacation and the next morning we were up bright and early and off to the "Radiance of the Seas".

"Radiance of the Seas"

We showed up early for the boarding - they said 1:00 PM, but we got there at around 11:00 in the morning and pretty much walked right on the ship. We had a nice cabin with a balcony and kind of a sitting area; also, the bed was very comfortable. As for the public areas of the ship they were very tastefully done - lots of wood and artwork. The ship was fairly new so it had a huge central atrium that ran from deck 4 to deck 11 with glass-enclosed elevators. It had the other usual cruise ship stuff: a theater for evening shows, a casino (where I actually won at Blackjack unlike Las Vegas) and lots of bars including a nice piano bar with a fairly talented chap who played and sang requests. Of course since it was a cruise they pretty much fed you continuously in various places around the ship. Unfortunately, the food was for the most part not outstanding. It was decent but I've personally had much better on other cruise lines. But we went to see Alaska, so stuffing our faces was secondary. Enough description of the ship, if you've been on one modern cruise ship, you've been on them all.

After a day at sea we docked at our first port: Ketchikan Alaska. We booked two shore excursions there: a crab boat trip and "feast" and "The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show". The crab boat trip was on a sort of enclosed patio boat where they took you up an inlet to some crab pots which they hauled out for some marine biology type measurements on the Dungeness crabs they caught. They then let the crabs go. It was moderately interesting. The best part was the "feast". They took us back to a lodge along the inlet and fed us mass quantities of steamed Alaskan Dungeness crab. These are not the king crab caught on the "Deadliest Catch" TV documentary. They are actually caught like our east coast blue crabs in salt water inlets and bays. They resemble our crabs a little but they seem to be meatier and the meat is sweeter. Eating them is similar to eating the blues - basically a slob's convention of cracking claws and digging out meat with bits flying all over the place - great fun! The feast included one beverage of choice. Fortunately one of the choices included a pint of Alaska Amber beer. Mmm, steamed crabs and good local brew. Doesn't get much better than that.

Me, stuffing my face with Dungeness crab

After the feast they bussed us back to the dock and it was a two-block walk to the lumberjack show. It was fun watching them saw huge logs and climb tall poles and try to log roll one another into a pond. It was staged in the form of a good natured competition between two teams with lots of clowning and shouting. After that, it was back on the ship and off to Juneau. More on that tomorrow.

The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show

Happy Birthday Kathleen

Yesterday was June 19th, which is a day of some historical significance - it was the day in 1865 when the Union Army showed up in South Texas and finally informed the slave population that they were free, two years and more after the Emancipation Proclamation. As such, it rightly has great significance to African-Americans in Texas and elswhere in the U.S. who traditionally celebrate it as "Juneteenth".


June 19th also happens to be the birthday of my all-time favorite actress: Kathleen Turner. Most people probably remember her from her earlier film work in the 1980's. She was best known back then for her debut film : the very sexy and steamy neo-noir "Body Heat". Other 80's films for which she is known include: "Crimes of Passion", "Romancing the Stone", "Jewel of the Nile", "Prizzi's Honor" and "Peggy Sue Got Married".

Kathleen turned 53 yesterday, and while she is certainly not the lovely young actress from the 1980's anymore, she is still an attractive and striking woman. More important than her looks however is the fact that if anything, her skills as an actress, which were excellent in her younger days, have become even better. Once she became "too old" to be a conventional Hollywood leading lady, she reinvented herself as a stage actress (actually she has been doing stage work throughout her career). I believe that it is on the stage that she has done her best work.

Specifically, she has just finished a nationwide tour of the Edward Albee play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". Previous to the tour, the play was seen in New York City and London. I had the privilege of seeing the play in 2005 in New York. Ms. Turner was wonderful in the role of Martha. She and Bill Irwin, the actor who played opposite her in the role of Martha's husband George meshed their skills and their characters' personalities to create an amazing, funny, and poignant experience for the audience.

The best part was after the show, Ms. Turner and Mr. Irwin stood outside the theater's stage door signing autographs and I was fortunate enough to exchange a word or two with Kathleen as she graciously signed my copy of Playbill. Needless to say, that Playbill remains one of my prized possessions.

Kathleen Turner signing autographs in New York City.


For a Wikipedia synopsis of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who


At any rate, Happy Birthday Kathleen.

There are some other things to report in my fairly boring life, but they shall have to await the next posting.

More Las Vegas

Now that a couple of weeks have passed since our involuntarily extended Vegas Vacation, some more things have occurred to me. I don't know if any of the people (if any) who read this will be traveling to Vegas, but I'll throw in these observations.

First, some annoying things: The Strip has always been infested by guys who seem to earn their living handing out brochures for what are essentially poorly disguised prostitution operations. There seem to be less of them now or perhaps they are becoming more discreet. Time was if you were a male walking the Strip with a female and clearly a couple, these clowns would still try to press these massage parlor etc. ads into your hand. This seems to have pretty much stopped. They may have finally figured out that handing a flyer to the male half of a couple is a waste - even if the guy were secretly interested, his only option would still be to discard the thing in front of his female companion or face some serious questions.

While being part of a couple now seems to discourage the hooker brochures, it is definitely a liability when dealing with another, and in some ways more annoying scourge of Vegas: the time-share bandidos. Every hotel and casino we went to of any size had people who would come up to you and ask you things like "are you enjoying your stay?" or "where are you folks from?" and other seemingly innocuous questions, all of which are a lead in to get you to come and listen to a time share sales pitch somewhere. Now I have heard that in some cases if you are willing to sit through the pitch and resist the salesmanship 101 that you are subjected to, you can get some freebies. Personally, I have never thought it to be worth it and since I have no intention ever of buying a time share, I find the initial approaches by these people to be nothing but annoying. In fact I think they are more annoying than the hooker brochures. At least the hooker guys don't try to be your friend and engage you in pleasant conversation.

These turkeys seem to be everywhere, from a top of the line hotel like the Venetian to the seedy casinos on Fremont Street. However, there is a secret to avoiding them, discovered by Michelle: don't let these people know you are a couple. Whenever we crossed the lobby in the Luxor and came near the time-share booth, we stayed twenty feet apart and pretended we didn't know each other. It worked like a charm. They are only interested in couples for their pitch so "single" people are ignored.

Now for some not so annoying things. Namely some good places to eat in Vegas. The best food for the money we found was in our new favorite restaurant- a tapas bar called "Firefly". They had awesome tapas including these amazing stuffed dates and "sliders" (essentially White Castle sized hamburgers) made from filet mignon and a whole lot more washed down with Estrella Galicia Spanish beer - mmm. It's located on Paradise Road, just west of the Strip between Flamingo and Sahara. Worth driving to or cabbing if you don't have a car. Another favorite is "Roy's" which is not far away on Flamingo. "Roy" is Roy Yamaguchi who became famous in Hawaii for his Pacific Rim fusion seafood. If that sounds too elitist or something let's just say he does some kick-ass fish. And it's priced for about half of what you pay for similar food in one of the fancy in-casino restaurants on the Strip. Other recommendations: a good breakfast buffet at the Treasure Island - also the "Kahunaville" coffee shop in TI, also, they have good, cheap and plentiful, food in the coffee shop at "Terribles" Casino on Flamingo. New York New York has a fake "streets of New York" area adjacent to their casino which has lots of places to wander and nosh. Other places include "Bahama Breeze" and "McCormick and Schmicks" on Flamingo - both chains but decent food at reasonable prices.

Oh, and one final thing: what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas - except for the buffets - they go home on your waistline.

The Accidental Blogger

So anyway, I just set out to post a snide comment on my niece and nephew's blog and Blogspot led me down some sort of twisted path which resulted in my having my own blog. Hmmm. Well, I suppose I could rant about George W.Bush etc. etc. but some huge percentage of the people on line seem to have that covered, so instead I'll rant about airlines in general and Continental in particular. Namely how last weekend (St. Patty's Day actually) Continental stranded Michelle and me in Las Vegas by cancelling our flight to Newark and informing us that they could get us home by Wednesday or possibly Thursday. The annoying thing was that while they said the problem was weather related - and the NY airports were closed Friday and part of Saturday due to a snow/ice storm- our flight wasn't supposed to get to Newark until 9:30 PM Saturday and Newark Airport had opened at noon (needless to say the weather on the Vegas end was perfect). I suspect that the problem in such a case really lies with a lack of back up planes, crews etc. In other words, there is a lack of depth in the airline industry's ability to deal with these situations that causes a one day airport closure to result in a cascading series of flight cancellations that can stretch over days. I'm sure the whole thing has to do with saving money (for the airlines) but the public ends up paying the bill.

Now, granted, there are far worse places to be stranded than Vegas, but it cost us a bunch more money and Michelle two extra vacation days that she had not planned on and couldn't afford to give up. We had to scramble to find another room for three nights since we had already checked out of the Venetian where we had been staying -the Venetian has amazing rooms and a good location but they're not cheap and to stay Sat. night would have been outrageously expensive. Thanks to a call to my sister-in-law in Florida and some fancy footwork by her on the computer, we got a room at the Luxor in the pyramid. Well, I always wanted to stay there, and it was kind of neat to ride an elevator that went sideways, but frankly, the place is not what it used to be.

The upside was that we got to spend St. Patrick's Day night listening to Irish music while playing Blackjack machines outside the fake Irish pub at New York, New York. Since they were charging $25.00 a head cover charge just to get in the pub that night, I think it was less expensive to sit and slowly lose money in the machine. Did I mention that there are walkways from the Luxor to both the Mandalay Bay and the Excalibur? From the Excalibur there is a pedestrian bridge across Tropicana avenue to NY, NY. So anyway that's how we ended up there on St. Patty's day.

We also had to extend the rental car for another four days, but we did get a break in that the weekly rate then kicked in and it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

To add insult to injury, the losing streak we were both on during the time we planned to be in Vegas, continued for our unplanned stay. Yeah, I know we could have stopped gambling, but, c'mon, it's Vegas. What else is there to do?

Well, thanks to some more fancy footwork by Michelle we were finally able to get back home on Tuesday - but the only flight we could get was into LaGuardia via Cleveland. When we changed flights in Cleveland we saw stacks of cots piled in the Continental Terminal where people had obviously spent the weekend (like I say, worse places than Vegas). Fortunately, thanks again to my sister-in-law, we got a limo service to pick us up at LaGuardia and take us to where our vehicle was parked at Newark Airport.

Anyhow, I guess I've bitched enough for my first blog post.