Cruise Searching Time!

Hmmm....  I think my parents are a bad influence on me.  I told them about shopping for an April birthday cruise the other night while I was upset about my plumbing problem and they said, they wanted to go sooner than April.  So now we are looking at doing a Princess cruise out of Houston between November and February.  So today I will begin shopping for the least expensive 7 night cruise leaving from Houston during that time period.

My dad and I like taking winter Caribbean cruises for the same reason.  You leave Texas while the temperature is kind of cold and miserable and wake up the next morning to 80 degrees and sunny.  I'm not a cold weather person.  I'd be happy if the temp was 85 degrees here all year long.  So, at the first signs of winter, I start thinking about getting away to the Caribbean.  I think one of my all time favorite memories from a Caribbean cruise was walking around the market area once in Costa Maya and overhearing someone's phone conversation with a family member back home in Austin as they were being told that there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground.  I was sweating at the time and was so happy to be shopping for Mexican chotchkies in the 90 degree sunshine.

We're going to look at Princess cruises for a couple of reasons.  I've only been on one Princess cruise and I'm interested in doing it again.  The first one I went on was out of Galveston probably 10 years ago.  Mom and Dad's Alaskan cruise was on Princess.  My single experience with Princess was really nice so I'd like to see what's changed, if anything.  Mom and Dad loved their Alaskan cruise with Princess but it also was several years ago.  So we are all anxious to see if Princess is still as nice as we remember.  The other reason for looking at Princess for this cruise is that Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas will be in dry dock for the entire month of January which is one of the prime months we are looking at going.  So that will limit options on Royal Caribbean.  That's not to say that we definitely won't do Royal Caribbean.  If it turns out to be the best deal and the timing is right, it is not out of the question.

Anyway, once I find an inexpensive week to go, I will let all of you know.  I think it would be a lot of fun to know 10 or 20 people on the ship.  The most people I've ever known on a ship I have been on was my last cruise.  I knew 8 people on that one.  It was kind of fun to run into someone that you know from your everyday life on an excursion or while walking around the ship.  And the nice thing about ships is that they are sort of like Vegas.  What happens on the ship stays on the ship.

I'm going to get busy now searching for cruises.  You guys have a great week.

Calgon, Take Me Away!

Do you ever have those "Calgon, take me away!" moments?  I get them a lot.  In fact, I think I've had more than my fair share of them in the last year.  For instance, things were going pretty good this week.  Sure, I had a migraine on Tuesday that pretty much incapacitated me for most of the day.  But after about half a bottle of ibuprofen and 6 hours of sleep, I was fine.  When I say, I had a "Calgon, take me away!" moment, it's a real moment.  Like last evening around 6:30 when I went in the kitchen and decided to clean the refrigerator out.  Actually, that wasn't the moment at all.  The moment didn't really happen until 30 minutes later. Here's how it went down.

I had 5 or 6 bowls of leftovers in the fridge that needed to be emptied and washed.  My parents are coming up today and I am cooking tonight and it sucks when you finish dinner with friends or family in the house and you can't fit the leftovers in the refrigerator because there is stuff sitting in bowls from 1977 that probably couldn't be identified with a microscope and a petri dish.  So, I decided it was high time I tested out my brand spanking new garbage disposal that was installed about 6 weeks ago.  Obviously, it has been slightly used since the installation.  But I generally only use it to wash the scraps down when I am cleaning out the sink.  I throw all chunks of food waste in the trashcan.  

You see, over the years I have had too many plumbing issues to put something as risky as an onion peel or a piece of meat in the disposal anymore.  It seems like every time a plumber has ever sat on my kitchen floor peering at me from beneath the kitchen sink he has added another item to the list of things that shouldn't go down the garbage disposal to the point that I'm not sure it can handle water anymore.  So, I've been very careful with the new one.  I had a goal of going 3 months without seeing a plumbers muddy footprints on my entryway floor.  I'm such the optimist!!!

So, in my frenzy of cleaning the refrigerator out I came across a bowl of mashed potatoes and another bowl of gravy.  Surely a garbage disposal can handle those two things, right?  I mean they are practically liquid.  And in there current state they were even more liquid like than normal mashed potatoes and gravy.  So, I tossed them in with the water running full blast and the disposal switched on.  The next item was a bowl of green peas.  How much harm can they do... really?  So, in they went.  Then I got bold.  I had a bowl of this potato and sausage skillet dinner thing that I make.  There wasn't much and the only chunks were sausage cut into bite size pieces.  I was feeling wild and carefree, so I threw it in.  Once all of that was done, I rinsed the bowls and put them in the dishwasher thinking to myself that I would turn the dishwasher on just before going to bed.  

Then I made my way back into my living room.  I had nothing to work on for clients.  So, I sat on the couch and began to flip through channels hoping to find something good on TV.  After a few minutes I went back into the kitchen to get a glass of tea and stepped in a puddle of water.  It wasn't a little splash of water, it was a puddle.  I followed the puddle and it seemed to be coming from under the kitchen sink.  So, I opened the cabinet and everything was wet.  Boxes of dishwashing detergent were soak clean through.  The box of trashbags came apart in my hand when I pulled it out.  Boxes of light bulbs fell apart when touched.  So, I pulled everything out dried things off as good as I could and then turned the water on and looked under the sink with a flashlight.  The water was coming directly out of the garbage disposal.  Nice.

So, I called the plumber who installed it and he said he had a completely packed day on Friday.  But he can come over on Saturday before I have to go to a shower in Keller and fix it.  So here's the situation I face.  My house was spotless prior to pulling everything out from under the kitchen sink.  Now, there is junk stacked around my kitchen, the cabinet is still soaked and the cabinet doors are open to help it dry.  The floor is filthy and needs to be re-mopped.  I have a dishwasher completely full of dirty dishes and my mother who could find major fault in Martha Stewart's homemaking capabilities will be here in 5 hours.  

I can't turn the dishwasher on because it drains through the garbage disposal.  So, I'm thinking that I'm going to have to empty the dishwasher and wash those dishes in the side of the sink that isn't leaking.  But last night when the "Calgon, take me away!" moment actually happened all I could think about was actually being taken away.  So, I got a glass of wine instead of the tea that I had originally gone into the kitchen for, came back into my living room, sat down at the computer and started researching cruises.

There are two non-Carnival ships leaving Texas ports on the weekend before my 51st birthday.  One is a Royal Caribbean ship and the other is Princess.  They will both be headed to Belize, Roatan and Cozumel.  Following my ordeal with the garbage disposal, I fully intend to be on one of those ships.  Currently, a balcony is starting at $1099 on Princess and $1049 on Royal Caribbean.  I'm thinking I'll go on Royal Caribbean's newly renovated Navigator of the Seas and check out the upgrades.  (It will go into dry dock in January and the renovation will be complete by the first week of February.)  I mean, really it's my duty as a travel agent to check it out once the changes are complete anyway, right?  I could just go spend a couple of bucks on a box of Calgon if I didn't think that it would damage my plumbing and end up costing me even more in the long run.  Nope, I'm pretty certain that a cruise in April will be cheaper in the long run. So, who's with me?

Can You Spend Too Much Time on Vacation?

Are there vacation spots you feel like you could go to over and over again and never grow tired of visiting? It seems like I feel that way about most of the places I have visited.  Granted, there are those places that I spent a single afternoon at and I feel like I have done them justice and never intend to return.  But for the most part, I almost always leave a vacation location thinking about what I'll do next time I come back.

I've been wondering what causes this.  I think for me, it is the fact that I visit so many locations while on a cruise.  That means you have part of a day in that location.  Part of a day isn't enough time to even decide if you really like a location or not.  Some of the places that I have spent upwards of a week in, still require more time before I'll be able to really say, I've seen it all, I don't need to go back.  That's my goal.  I'd like to get to that point about a lot of places.  But then I wonder, if I get to that point, am I going to look back and be like, Ugh! If I have to go to Rome again, I'm going to throw up!  Quite frankly, I don't see it happening.

I think of the time I spent in Europe in 2008 both on land and during the cruise the only place I am certain I don't need to go back to is Palermo, Sicily.  It's not that it's a bad place.  I just think that a day is plenty of time to spend there.  It was very pretty.  Maybe if you are into all the mafia movies, you would be more interested in it than I was.  But I hate those movies and since Sicily is soooo proud that it is the birthplace of the mafia, it just didn't seem to be my kind of place.  I think Whitey Bulger would probably really enjoy it. He's like in his 80's now and what will he spend like 1000 years in prison?  Hmmmm... Hope he got to go earlier in life.

I used to think that I had also seen all of Florence that I needed to see.  We were there on a very rainy Monday in November.  I think we may have had about 4 or 5 hours there since we visited both Florence and Pisa in the same day and we managed to have a sit down lunch in that time.  So, you can imagine how much time we actually spent seeing the sights.  Plus, since it was Monday everything in Florence was closed.  I'm not sure if you were aware of this, but in Florence the shop owners learned years ago that tourists come into the city and want to spend massive amounts of money over the weekend.  Closing on Sundays for religious reasons was cutting into the bottom line.  So the shopkeepers all began to stay open on Sunday's and close on Monday's for religious reasons.  So now, it's like a ghost town on Monday.  If you add rain and 50 degree temperatures to the equation, it's a pretty dead place.

I think before I go back to Florence, I'm going to need to study.

 So while we were in Florence we saw the Ponte Vecchio and a small part of the Church of Santa Groce where Michelangelo, Rossini Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei are entombed. We didn't even go into the baptistry because we were in such a hurry.  That night at dinner back on the ship some of our dinner mates were talking about how beautiful it was and and I was like, oh... yeah... um-hmmh....  I had no idea what I had missed. The parts of Florence that I saw were lovely.  But I was pretty convinced that it was just about shopping since we spent an hour or so walking past closed Gucci and Versace shops taking pictures of the store fronts.  I thought to myself, I would hate spending a week here and just gazing at shops where I couldn't even afford to buy a disposable shopping bag.

Seriously, I was so put off by the possibility of spending time in those horrible pretentious shops that I totally glazed over the fact that Michelangelo, Dante and all of those guys were a major part of Florence's history. Then if you add to that the fact that The David was undergoing restoration while we were there so we didn't even get to see it, I think my misconception about Florence should totally be excused.  My travel buddy, Jenny has been saying since the moment we left Florence that she wanted to go back.  But I really thought it had to do with all the shops that were closed that she walked past taking pictures of.  Now, I realize that there actually is a LOT to see there and the shops just threw me off the scent of really great sights.  I guess if I did go back and spend a few days there, we could split up and I could go sit at an outdoor cafe sipping wine while she visited Versace and such.  I'd be willing to make the sacrifice.

I know that I need at least another week in Rome to see all that I need to see there.  Honestly, I'd really like to just move there for 6 months and totally be absorbed in Rome.  I think that there should be a program for people age 50 and up where you do a home exchange for 6 months.  You both continue paying your own mortgage or rent and all your other bills but you exchange homes for 6 months.  So, I'd go to Rome and live in their house and take care of their pets while they come to Dallas and lived on Meandering Way and take care of Jingle and Shiner.  It'd be a great program.... You know, if you could find any person in Rome who was willing to spend 6 months in Dallas.  How would you sell that to someone in Rome?  Hey!  Come to Dallas!  JR's not dead!!!!  REALLY... We'll introduce you to him AND Sue Ellen!!!!  Yeah, I don't see that working.  Even if you got someone in Rome to agree to it initially after the first 105 degree day in summer or the first icy day in winter they'd be out.

Places that I feel like I need to spend a lot more time are not limited to Europe.  There are multiple places in the Caribbean that I need to spend at least a week in.  It doesn't even matter what place we are talking about really.  Is there water?  Is there sand? Then I haven't spent enough time there.  I always laugh when I hear someone on a Western Caribbean cruise say, Ugh! I've been to Cozumel a million times, I never want to go back!  Really, 'cause last I checked they still have water, sun, sand and tequila.  What's your problem?

Of all the places in the Caribbean the one that I really want to spend a lot of time in the most is Roatan.  I know that everyone else feels that way about those Eastern Caribbean islands and honestly, if you told me you'd pay my way I wouldn't turn any of them down.  But if I have to pay and can pick anyplace to spend some serious island time in, it would be Roatan just because the snorkeling is amazing, I'd really like to learn how to dive and it would be a great place for it and you could probably get the most bang for your buck there.  At some point, money has to come into play, right?

Yeah, why would anybody want to go back to a horrible place like this?

As far as inside the US, I can't count all the places that I either haven't been to at all or haven't been to enough.  Just two weeks ago I spent 2 days in Boston and feel like I need at least another 5 days just to see all that I missed.  Granted, I feel like I have officially seen all that there is to see in New York.  But I'd still go back anytime I got a chance.  There are always new plays to see and it's a blast to go with someone who has never been to see their reactions to everything.  Plus, the most time I have ever spent in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one day and I feel like I could spend a week there!  I will tell you that if I never have to go up to the top of the Empire State Building again, I'll be very happy.  But otherwise, there's really not too much that could become a beating for me as far as NY goes.

I could kind of do without Vegas completely.  If you aren't into gambling then it's sort of a waste.  But if you are into gambling and you want a travel companion, I'd go to Lake Tahoe with you anytime!  I've only been there once and I really want to go back.  Somebody told me once that you need to just lay by a pool in Vegas.  But I can tell you that I don't need to be laying by a pool with a bunch of beautiful high rollers.  And if it gets right down to it, I have a pool in my condos that I can lay around.  Why do I want to fly half way across the country to lay by one?  What a waste!

I've never been to Washington DC.  I know what you're thinking... How is that even possible?  But when we were kids all of our vacations were spent driving West rather than East and as an adult, I've just never gotten the chance.  I really want to go.  But I can't decide if I want to go with someone who has been there multiple times and it seems like everybody has been there multiple times.  Here's my dilemma.... If I go with someone who has been there multiple times, are they going to stand behind me bored looking at their watch while I'm walking around something like the Lincoln Memorial or strolling through a particularly riveting part of the Smithsonian and inadvertently making me feel rushed.  Or will they say things like "Oh, you don't need to waste time doing such and such, you need to see THIS instead" when such and such is what I realllllly want to do.

I know that no one I travel with would want to rush me or cause me to miss something that was really important to me.  But I know from personal experience that I have stood at the top of the Empire State Building on several occasions calculating all the time that was wasted going through security, standing in line for elevators and then standing at the top waiting to get close enough to the edge to see anything at all and looking at my watch thinking I can't believe I am wasting another 3 hours of my life on this....  You can't help but have a horribly bored look come over your face when you are at a terrible tourist attraction that you have been to 100 times and never want to go to again especially if you had to pay money to get into it! When I look up and see that expression on somebodies face, I want to make it go away.  So then I know I'll say something like "Let's go!  I can go to the top of the Washington Monument anytime..."  While in my mind, I'm thinking... really?  'cause I've had so many opportunities in the past...  That's the chance you take when you go somewhere with a person who goes regularly.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you have a travel bug, there really aren't a lot of bad places to travel.  Some just require a little more time than others.  But here's how you know if you've really got it bad.  Have you ever gotten in the car in East or North Texas and thought to yourself,  Woohoo!!!!  In eight hours we'll be in West Texas!!! and still been exited after having that thought?  If so, you've got it bad and we need to talk.

Head Toward Dark Skies!

I don't normally write a Saturday travel blog.  But I have a very good reason for doing so today.  It's almost like a public service that I feel I must provide to you all.  You see, Monday and Tuesday morning will be the best times this year to view the Perseid Meteor Shower.  If you don't know what I'm talking about prepare yourself to be amazed.

The full moon will set around midnight on Sunday night.  So, the best hours for meteor viewing will be after that moon set until dawn and then again the following night from about 1 AM to dawn.  If you set an alarm and get outside a little after midnight, it will give you time to get yourself situated lying down on a nice blanket and give your eyes some time to adjust before the best part of the show begins.  At the height of the meteor shower you can expect to see up to 70 meteors an hour.  These aren't just little flashes in the sky, these are those good old fashion "shooting stars" that go all the way across the sky in some instances.

When I was 12 my family was driving across West Texas coming home from Oregon during this meteor shower and we all woke up to watch the show.  Let me tell you, it was definitely a show!  The dark sky with meteors flying over every minute or so, sometimes with two or three in the sky at the same time was unbelievable!

But here's the key and the reason that I am putting this on my travel blog and not just on my personal blog. You've got to get out of the city in order to see it.  Now, there are a lot of places you can go for viewing a meteor shower.  But the rule of thumb is that when you look up in the sky, you must be able to see each star of the big dipper clearly for optimal viewing of the meteor shower.  There are 7 stars in the big dipper if you were wondering.  If you live in Dallas and you think the 6 stars you've been seeing in the constellation all these years are all that's there, you're going to be in for a big surprise when you drive 90 to 100 miles outside of the city and see all the stars that actually exist in a dark sky.

If you have an RV, this would be the perfect opportunity to use that sucker!  This could be the answer to all those times you've looked out of your kitchen window at the eyesore in your driveway and thought, why did we spend all that money on that thing?  Maybe it was necessary for this exact weekend!

So, here's my suggestion.  Grab a blanket, a couple of bottles of wine and if you are so inclined a camera with a tripod.  Pack it all up in the car or RV on Sunday.  If you don't have an RV get on line or you could even call me before you leave and find yourself a nice little bed and breakfast some place in East Texas or the hill country and spend a night or two.  In case it's cloudy one of those nights you'll want an extra night to make sure you see as many shooting stars as possible. Have dinner at a quirky diner wherever you stop for your meteor viewing.  Be sure to order the chicken fried steak at the diner.  There's no point in doing all of this if you aren't going to do it right.  Go to bed early on Sunday night, after all you're in a small town in east or central Texas, what else are you going to do?  Then set an alarm for 12:30 AM. Go out in a field somewhere open your bottle of wine (hope you remembered the corkscrew and glasses). Spread your blanket out and lay back and watch the show.  You might have to call in sick on Monday and Tuesday (so you should probably start practicing your raspy voice now).  But here's a small sample of what you might see....

While you're out there in east or central Texas, be sure and stop at a DQ once or twice.  You'll thank me for this advice after you've done it.  Also stop in at a diner that serves homemade pies.  I personally could be talked into to doing this myself around Ben Wheeler or Edom.  If you go to Edom, you can eat at The Shed. Of course, Edom's not big enough to have a DQ, but there is one in Van and Canton.  So, you'll be okay. And the Chicken Fried Steak and pie at The Shed are to die for!  Believe me, I've had both.... in one sitting...

Don't worry, you're not going to get hit by a meteor, these are mostly tiny little things that totally burn up in the atmosphere before the ever actually reach earth.  But if you do, think of how famous you'll be!  Maybe they'll even change the name of the annual meteor shower to your name in memory.  I've always wanted my own meteor shower.  Have a great weekend and happy meteor viewing!

Advice From a Marriage Expert (NOT!)

Are you in a vacation rut?  Do you go to the same place year after year?  Maybe you own a time share and it's just easier to go there for two weeks every year than to exchange your two weeks for a different location or you're just afraid that you won't like any other place as much.  You might be like me; you have discovered how easy and inexpensive cruising out of Galveston during the fall, winter and spring is so you just keep doing it once or twice a year even though you end up in the same places time after time.

If you are like me, you probably don't even consider it a rut.  I mean how could a vacation possibly be a rut? Right?  It's a vacation and you are getting away from your day to day life whatever that consists of.  Whether you work outside of the home in whatever capacity, you are a stay at home mom with small children, or a retiree.  Sometimes you just have to get away and you really don't care where you go to get that change of scenery as long as it's not at home and you aren't cooking and cleaning.

But if you've fallen into a vacation rut there are things you can do about it.  Maybe you love going to that time share in Mexico for two weeks every year and you don't want to stop but you also want to see what else is available.  If that's the case, maybe you should check out some of the last minute weekend deals in another part of the Caribbean.  Maybe you are looking to see a little bit of the the good ol' USA.  You can get to Colorado or into the mountains of New Mexico easily for a long weekend from north Texas. Just think about how much cooler it is in the mountains right now.

Another issue that a lot of people face is the out of state relatives.  If you have close family out of state, you probably spend a lot of vacations traveling to see them and just do your family duty.  If you're a woman there is no way you can consider this vacation.  Seriously, I know what these vacations can be like.  First of all you probably travel in a mini van for 10 to 15 hours each way with 2 to 3 arguing kids in the back.  If they aren't arguing, how many more times can you possibly listen to that stupid Pixar movie that keeps playing over and over again in the backseat?

Once you finally arrive, you're with family, so you have to make nice and help out in the kitchen each time a meal is cooked, you are probably chasing your kids around the house trying to make sure they don't break anything and threatening them within an inch of their lives.  You're making your family's beds and picking up after them so that your host isn't horrified that you might never leave.  Fellows if this is your idea of a vacation, maybe it explains some of the nagging you get all year long.  I'm just sayin'.....

I'm thinking that your life might be a little nicer if you and the wife got away from ALL of the family for just a short period of time.  Sure the investment might be more than a dozen roses costs you.  But the pay off is slightly better too.  A lot of my married friends now try to take big anniversary trips to celebrate the significant ones, you know... 10, 20, 25 and so on.  But guys, if you are only letting your wife know how much you appreciate her every 10 to 15 years... Yikes!  I'm not trying to pressure anybody into anything and I am not doing this simply because I could make a few bucks by planning your trip for you.  I was recommending anniversary trips to my guy friends long before I ever became a travel agent.  You want to see your friends happy.  You want their marriages to last.  You get tired of listening to their wives bitch....

So men, if you think it's time you took your wife somewhere special even if it's just for a long weekend, I have some ideas.  And ladies, if you think it is time your husband let you know how much he appreciates you... it's not entirely unethical to print a copy of a blog out and leave it lying around haphazardly, like say in his golf bag or propped against his bike rack.  You never know it could result in that second honeymoon you've been dreaming about for years.

I could go on all day about the benefits of taking your wife away and leaving the kids with family for several days.  After all, I talk to your wives all the time and you should hear some of the things they say!  But I'll just make one suggestion.  Look at her Pinterest account.  Is she pinning lots of photos of full laundry baskets, screaming kids with peanut butter covered shirts, sinks full of dirty dishes?  Or is she pinning pictures of hammocks on exotic beaches, sunsets over beautiful bodies of water and luscious landscapes?  Now you be the judge.

If anybody needs help printing this and ideas for placement, please give me a call at 469-828-0254.

Wrapping Up Rebecca's Graduation Trip

Wednesday morning we once again went to Thornton's for breakfast.  We had the waiter from lunch our first day in Boston and he remembered us....  It was sort of like we were going to a place "where everybody knows your name...."  We chatted with him briefly and had another great breakfast before heading out on our list of places to visit that day.

The first thing we had to knock out was Trinity Church.  So we walked there first.  It's a beautiful old church in the middle of Boston surrounded by big glass office buildings.  We had driven by the church a couple of times on the Trolley, in fact the picture to the right was taken on Monday from the Trolley as we passed but didn't have time to get off.  We walked around the area briefly mostly just because we were slightly disoriented. There is a fee to go into the church.  I think we paid $8 per person.  Most days they have a guided tour once or twice during the day.  Check the website before you go for tour times.

After leaving Trinity, we went back over to Hunnington Ave. to visit the Christian Science monstrosity that we had been walking past all week.  As we drove past in the Trolley on Tuesday, the driver pointed out the reflection pool where if a person walks in just the right place, it can look as though they are walking on water.  So it was something we had to try.  We wanted to go inside and see the famous pipe organ, but when we tried to enter, we were told that we couldn't until 1:00 PM and we had to be at the airport by then.  That was not an option.  So we ended up just taking pictures outside and then heading back to our hotel to get our things and checkout.

Upon checking out of the hotel, we took a taxi to Logan airport. We ate lunch at the airport, it was uneventful, just typical airport food.  On the way home we had a single stop in Washington DC at Dulles airport to change planes.  I've never been to DC before, so I'm thinking this counts as a trip to our nations capital even though I never left the airport.

Walking on water?  Not so much....

This looks a little more like walking on water....

They wouldn't let us in!

Kids and a few adults playing in the fountains.

The one thing I can tell you about Dulles airport is that those people need to invest in a freaking moving sidewalk.  When a person has been traipsing around New York and Boston for five and a half days, the last thing they want to do is walk a mile or two through an airport carrying a bunch of luggage and in a hurry.  I'm not really sure why we were in such a hurry, we had two hours to change flights, but Rebecca was rushing and rather than walk alone, I was trying to keep up with her.  So we practically sprinted to our next gate and then sat there and waited for a few hours....  Ugh!

We were back in Dallas by 9:45 or so on Wednesday night and at my house by 10:30.  Thursday we met Rebecca's Mom in Athens so that Rebecca could get home.  Overall, it was a great trip.  We've been back for a week now and I feel like I have almost recovered.  I have one nephew left to take on a graduation trip and then I will be done.  He won't graduate until 2015 and I am holding out hope that he will agree to do a rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.  But we'll see.  I've been trying to get one of them to agree to that for about 4 years with no luck.

Try to stay cool today!  Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike What day is it Mike?

Day 5 of Rebecca's Graduation Trip

Day five of the trip turned out to be one of our fullest although you couldn't really say we took it easy on any given day.  We started out around 8 AM stopping at Thornton's for breakfast where we had eaten lunch the day before. We sat outside where the temperature was in the high 6o's which to a couple of Texans in July felt like heaven!  As with the day before, the food was great and the waitstaff quick and friendly.

After breakfast we walked down to our Trolley stop.  I didn't mention yesterday, but we had gotten two days on the Old Town Trolley for $32.50 each.  I wish we could have had two full days on it to make the most of it.  But we unfortunately didn't start until after 2 PM on the first day.  They have two routes that you can go on.  We only did the Green one.  You also get a 45 minute Harbor Cruise with your purchase which we did make time for on day five.  It's a great value.  The green line alone has 16 stops and the drivers are very informative, friendly and helpful.

So once we were on the Trolley on Tuesday, we decided that we wouldn't get off until we reached Faneuil Hall and Boston Harbor which is stop 1.  We were getting on at stop 8.  You may recall that stop 1 was the same stop that we had gotten off at the day before and never got back on due to the time and the fact that we were side tracked by North End which is only a few blocks away.  Everyone I had spoken with before the trip talked about how wonderful Faneuil Hall was and I'm sure for the right person in the right situation, it is terrific.  But I just didn't see it.

There were carts with souvenirs set up and then there were mall type stores like Anne Taylor, Coach and so on and then there was food.  Well, not knowing that it was a place to eat, we had just finished a huge breakfast less than 30 minutes prior to arriving at Faneuil Hall, so we couldn't have eaten if we were held at gunpoint.  There is a replica Cheers there that we later went back to for a late lunch. But I think I have mentioned previously that I have a strict rule against shopping during vacation.  So the mall type shops were so far out of my wheel house that while Rebecca shopped at Coach and another shop or two, I sat on a bench and caught up on Facebook.  If I hadn't kept reminding myself that this was Rebecca's graduation trip and not necessarily just my vacation, I would have insisted that we leave immediately.  There were performers there.  But I honestly just didn't have the patience to watch them.

So we walked back over toward the Trolley stop and decided to do our Boston Harbor sightseeing cruise before getting back on the Trolley.  We got in line for that and were on the boat within 15 or so minutes.  We sat on the top deck on the way out.  As we were leaving the tour guide on the boat announced that we would have the option of disembarking at the Charlestown Navy Yard and visiting the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill or just staying on board and going back.  There is also a Trolley stop at the Navy Yard.  So if we got off, we could either wait an hour for the next Harbor Cruise and return to stop one on that or just pick up the trolley at the Navy Yard which is stop 3 and we would only miss the North End which we had already seen the day before.  So we decided to get off.

We took a few pictures then immediately got in line so that we could board the USS Constitution.  There are two options for the Constitution.  You can either do a guided tour which takes longer and has a little bit longer wait for the starting times.  Or you can do the self guided tour which only allows you on the deck.  We chose the self guided tour since our time was so limited.  So we waited around for 20 minutes or so and then were allowed on board where we took a few pictures and then left.  By the time we left the Constitution, the harbor cruise was nearly due back.  So we decided to go back to stop 1 via the harbor cruise.

In front of the USS Constitution

Watch out Boston!

Once we were back at stop 1 it was around 2 o'clock so we decided to go to the Cheers replica place for lunch before getting back on the Trolley. Keep in mind that we had 7:10 PM tickets for the Red Sox game on this night.  So we were working against the clock all day. After lunch we got back on the Trolley and didn't get back off until we got back to the stop closest to our hotel.  We went past a ton of places that I would love to go back and visit and weren't able to stop. When we got back to the hotel it was after 5.  So we quickly got dressed and headed out to Fenway Park.

Our approach as we arrived at the ball park.

I had Googled walking directions for us to get to Fenway before leaving on the trip.  It was only a 20 minute walk so, if we hadn't been in such a rush, it would have been very pleasant.  As it was, we were a little stressed about getting there early enough to shop for Red Sox souvenirs, see the park and get something to eat before the game began.  As it turned out we got to Fenway in less than 20 minutes because of our rush and went straight to our seats to see what they were like before going back to the concourse for shopping.

Inside at last!

Here are our seats!!!

I got myself a cap that I love!  Rebecca bought gifts for several people and a cap for herself.  Then I got a Samual Addams before we headed back up to our seats for the pre-game festivities.  There was celebration honoring former manager Joe Morgan before the game began.  Then we were underway.  The Red Sox were clearly dominate on the night we were there with a great pitching performance by Workman and homers by Ellsbury, Pedroia and Saltalamacchia.  The Saltalamacchia shot came out near us in centerfield and I thought for a second that we might be ducking to keep from getting hit, but it didn't quite make it to our section.

During the game a vendor came by selling Fenway Franks and I must say that there is no better hotdog at any ballpark in the country.  It is without a doubt the best ballpark hotdog I've ever had.  I'm not sure if it is due to the fact that there is not as much crust on the bun or if it's just because it's a Fenway Frank.  But it is delicious!

The view of the Green Monster from our seats.

The final score was 8 - 2 with the Red Sox easily winning.  Beyond the homeruns and the great rundown at second base the other highlight of the game for me and Rebecca was the singing of Sweet Caroline.  That was so cool!  All in all, I think we both enjoyed our experience at Fenway about 10 times more than Yankee Stadium.  That's not to say that Yankee Stadium was bad, but just that Fenway is so great.

We were in Section 38, Row 5, Seats 1 & 2.

Following the game, we walked back to the hotel taking it a little more slowly on the way back and just enjoying the walk.  It was pleasant.  There were a number of other people walking back toward the same area so we were never completely alone walking back.  There were some residents out on their stoops.  But you never felt threatened or like you were in a bad area.  It was just nice.  Once we were back at our hotel, we finished our Mike's cannoli's from the day before. It was a really great day.  The only problem was it needed to be much longer to do all the things we wanted to get done. We still had Wednesday morning left to tie up lose ends in Boston.  But there was a going to be a lot to cram in to a very little time.  Have a great Tuesday!