One More National Park

Well, we are not done with National Parks this year! After visiting our friends near Cleveland, we drove east and south to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's a beautiful river valley that has a train that runs through it. We didn't get to ride that train, but we did see it roll by.

There is a pretty falls called Brandywine Falls. We took a walk to view the falls from several angles. It was Maria's suggestion that we visit the falls and we really enjoyed it. It reminded Bob of Old Man's Cave in Hocking County.

Earlier in the weekend we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and saw the United States Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron -- the Blue Angels! at the Cleveland Air Show. It's the third time that Maria and I have seen them this year! Its the fourth location that Bob has seen them - Dayton, Cleveland, Houston (Pasadena, Tx) and the first time in Pensacola, Fla.

We watched from the pier just outside the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We were going to watch from the water on our friend's boat, but Lake Erie was very choppy. The waves were crashing into the breakwall. We missed a great potential picture. The Number 5 and 6 planes take off together and the number 6 stays low and then "Goes Ballistic" (as Goose says in TopGun.). When #6 came off the runway, he was just beyond the pier we were on. That could have been a great picture. We came home Sunday... the wind died down and the sky was clear. We could have gone out on the boat and then seen the "high" show.

Last Days of Summer

Since this is the girls last week of vacation, and Debbie is working, I have usually taken a day or two and spent time with the girls. In the past we have gone swimming, or to the zoo. This year, we had so much fun at Long Pond in Acadia, that we tried kayaking again. This time on the Little Miami River! We did the short trip, but it was fun! No one fell in, but Bob did take on a little water when he backed into a log.

The Rest of Summer Vacation

Well, it's almost back-to-school time... another Summer comes to an end. In fact, Debbie is already teaching and the girls start on Tuesday.

So I thought it would be good to put a little more of Summer Vacation on the blog. While this wasn't part of the New England trip, it is still a lot of great fun!

After we got back, the girls went to zoo camp. Maria went for a week and the their cousins came over and went with Sarah. Why we spend the money on zoo camp - I don't know - we found this snapping turtle in our driveway that week! Wildlife came to us!!

We spent a fun-filled day at the lake with friends. Swimming, tubing, boating, jumping in and eatin' good food.

We even got Debbie back out on the links! We play with some friends in a golf-scramble for Alter Hockey! We play with our friends Phil and Amanda. Amanda and Bob managed to team up for an Eagle on #13. Amanda hit a solid tee shot and Bob hit with a 6 iron from about 160 yards and he got a lucky shot! The most fun was taking the girls' cousin Natalie to the Ohio State Fair!

We saw horses, cows, sheep and goats, pigs (and piglets), and the big boar. We saw the Ohio State Fair Band and listen to the Ohio State Fair choir at the Natural Resource Center pavilion. Natalie, Maria and Sarah tried to catch a fish, but no luck. Maria and Sarah (and Bob) also tried the kayaks again on the pond.

Maria and her girl scout troop submitted a project to the fair that got third place! Here she is calling one of her friends in the troop!!

Home Again

We're home... more later.

Well, it's a week later and I am finally posting something. I was going to stop and let the girls swim at Oglebay Park! But, alas one of us wasn't feeling well and we thought it wasn't nice to swim and leave someone out. So, we just drove through and headed home. We finally stopped for lunch mid-afternoon. Can you tell me where?



I am still sifting through the pictures. Maria took over 1000 pictures, and Sarah had 1000 pre-vacation and vacation pictures to sift thru.

So, if I find a few gems... I will post them here,too.

Hope you enjoyed the ride!

Heading Home

We left Delaware and headed toward home. We could go north through Pennsylvania, or south through Maryland. Paul suggested to the girls that we go to Hershey, Pa. So we headed up toward Strasburg and Lancaster, Penna. Debbie drove and Bob got a good shot of the Strasburg Railroad heading into the station.


The highlight of the day was a visit to Hershey's Chocolate World. Like everyone else, you really don't see the real process any more. You take a ride on a gentle car through an animate tour of the process of making chocolate bars and kisses.

We had lunch there, bought a few souvenirs and headed west again.

We stopped for the night at Bedford Pennsylvania. The girls swam for the last time on vacation..... or did they? ??

Goldie Locks and the Three Bears

After leaving New York, we stopped in New Jersey for lunch. We reassessed the rest of our vacation and decided that we are ready to come home. So we didn't do anything but eat lunch in New Jersey.

We decided to stay near Bob's nephew's and stop into see them. When we contacted them, they invited us to stay in their guest room. They have a wonderful guest room and wonderful house. It is a work in progress, but the progress they have made is marvelous! Kelley and Paul fixed a delicious dinner. Then we were entertained by Veronica, Eve, Maria and Sarah in three short plays... "Blown Away", "Princess and the Pea" and "Goldie Locks and the Three Bears".


As we left, Kelley had some good coffee and fresh fruit for breakfast. To be honest, the best we have eaten are at the friends and family we have stopped to see.






Veronica's bed is the old youth bed that her Grandmother and yes, Uncle Bob used to sleep in. Grandma would be so happy to see here in this bed!

Bob couldn't get Eve to smile at him, but he did manage to snap this shot after Maria got her to smile!

New York

Well, here is where our short term plans changed. Our first plan was to stay somewhere and travel into New York City and back out. However, after looking into it, we found a reasonable hotel at a reasonable rate in the city. So, we got up on Monday morning, and took the ferry from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Port Jefferson, Long Island. We found something to eat on Long Island. Then we drove into the city on I-495. We stopped to pick up tour tickets that Debbie bought online. Then we found our hotel. We couldn't check in, so drove up to Yankee Stadium and then back to the hotel. We checked in, parked the car and took the downtown tour.

After the downtown tour, we had lunch at a deli in Times Square. After the sticker shock on the menu, we had some good food. Then, we took the afternoon tour uptown. If you have been following these blogs the last two years, you remember we found hot weather in Seattle last year. Well, we found the hottest day of the year in the City. These two tours were hot! The evening tour was cooler, but not much. It took us over to Brooklyn to see the city from there as well as see parts of Brooklyn and the lower east side. We returned to our hotel room and settled in for the night. The hotel was squeezed into a spot on 26th street and the room - with two double beds was a bit of a squeeze as well.

Tuesday morning we got up and had breakfast at the Malibu Diner on 23rd Street. Good breakfast for a reasonable price. Then we checked out and picked up our van. We then tried to find a parking space near the last part of our tour - the boat tour. The boat simply took us down to the Statue of Liberty and back. However, it may have been the most fascinating tour since we got the best view of the two most significant events of the last ten years. First, where Scully landed the plane and second, the site where the towers stood. Lady Liberty looked great! The last time that Bob saw her (from the air only), she was wrapped in scaffolding.

Here is another vacation perspective. Growing up in Ohio, we've seen many barges on the Ohio River. Last year we got to see a barge on the Columbia and this year on the Hudson. Bob's mom would have loved this part. At each Fire Station, we saw a plaque, honoring the firemen who died on 9-11. And of course, on each of those we thought of Deb's dad.

Original post...
3 tours 97 degrees... no post tonight.
zzz

Quiet Fourth

We started our day at St. Malachi's near Boston. Early morning masses are for the older folks and this was no different. The cantor and the music were good, but a bit slow. The priest, a diocesan priest, worked in missions in South America. His sermon was wonderful. Then we drove through the campuses of Harvard and that other school -BC... Yes, I almost talk about them like I do that school up north.... We didn't make it to BU, but we did look at Boston College. Later in the day we also drove around the campus of Yale.

Then we headed Rhode Island. The fifth new state we've been in. We stopped in Newport to see one of the fancy summer homes along the shore. We visited the home of the Vanderbilts - the Breakers. It had a self-guided tour with digital hand-sets - kinda cool. Unfortunately, this was not built by Commodore Vanderbilt, the train mogal, but by his grandson.

Sarah Flipped in the back yard of this house! Then we headed over the Claiborne Pell bridge (which I may post a picture of if I have time later) and headed for Connecticut - state number 6. We are staying the night in Bridgeport. Tomorrow - New York City.

Not Our Boat

This wasn't our boat..... But we did see helicopters hovering overhead and wondered what was up.

Ship in Boston Harbor runs aground

Vacation activities

This has been the girls favorite evening activity-- swimming. Of course, Debbie's favorite activity is reading and she has finished four books. Bob is reading a book and he is blogging and checking on work once a day. Sarah finish one book and has started another and Maria is starting to enjoy the required book she has to read this summer.

More Bahston

We continued our tour of Boston with the other part of the package we purchased. A tour of the Boston Harbor from the harbor. This boat looks like the one we were on. Before we got down to the pier, we walked through old Statehouse. We saw John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson and Abagail Adams. (or actors), but we didn't get to hear them speak.

Here is a view of the a view of the harbor. Of course, this ride wasn't as windy and cold. In fact, it was a beautiful day and just a tad bit hot. After the harbor tour, we had lunch as Chart House, right there on the harbor.

Then after lunch, we travelled up one or two stops on the trolley to see Paul Reveres house, and the Paul Revere statue and Old North Church in the back ground. We found out that Revere wasn't the only courier to run that night... and he didn't make it all the way to Concord.... Samuel Prescott did. But Revere is remembered more thanks to Longfellow. Poem From there we returned back to the hotel and relaxed.

Boston

NORM!! No, nobody called "Bob" or "Debbie" or "Maria" or "Sarah" when we entered the place, but we did eat well at Cheers. Maria and Sarah didn't understand what the hub-bub was about. They've never seen "Cheers".

We were taking the Trolley Tour of Boston when they stopped at Cheers - or the Bull and Finch Pub. I asked the driver if they served food. When he answered yes, we jumped off.

The tour took us to several parts of downtown Boston. Bob's favorite was of course Fenway Park. We didn't get to go inside. We could only see portions of the field and the left field scoreboard from the outside. But at least I can say I saw it. It's in the category with Candlestick and PacBell, Fulton County, Kaufman and Tiger Stadium that I have only seen from the outside. (and someplace called Crosley Field)

The day was getting late when we got to the interesting historic part of town - Bunker Hill and the U.S. Constitution. We snapped some shots of Old Ironsides and realized we didn't have time to get up to Bunker Hill. So we headed back to the hotel. We parked at the end of the Red-Line and took the subway into town. It was the girls first experience with that!

DAR SHE BLOWS !!

DAR SHE BLOWS !!!!
Thar She Is !!

There She Goes....

Yes, we went Whale watching today! We got up at 4:30, watched the sun rise at 4:51, had breakfast on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor and then went whale watching. We rode on the "Friendship V". According to the GPS, it is a boat that can cut through the seas at 30-33 mph. It took us from 68.2 W 48.23 N to 67.34 W and 44.9 N. Unfortunately, the app that could have told me that distance, I forgot to set.

It was a bit chilly out there, as you can see. Actually, the temperature wasn't cold, but at 30 mph or more.... the wind chill was a killer! When we got to the feeding area, called the "Ball Park", the sun came out and it was quite pleasant!

The girls were cold, but they loved it! However, they were very quite in the car afterwards... The cold air takes it out of you!

Here are some of the other shots we got of the flukes. They said that this is probably a juvenile humpback. Rare to see it alone. The observer didn't recognize it as one they know.

The best shot of a fluke was probably taken at the highest zoom -- I think that is why it's a little blurry.

We also saw birds... this one was rare, but I didn't get it's name...

We also saw lighthouses. Again, I didn't catch the names.

Good Morning Sunlight

Good Morning! Sunrise over Bar Harbor Bay! No, we didn't get up at 3 AM and go up to Cadillac Mountain to watch the first beams of light. We just watched it come up over the bay. 4:51 in the morning, Yaaaaaawn - back to sleep for a bit.

Be sure to check yesterday's entry.

Acadia National Park

WE MADE IT!

We took off from Freeport a little earlier than the last few days. We drove for about three hours. In Bangor, we drove over the Penobscott River (but we didn't see Donald ;-)). We drove into Bar Harbor past our hotel and and had to loop back around to it. Then we went down to the city of Bar Harbor for lunch overlooking the bay. After lunch, we went into town for a quick bit of shopping. From there we drove up to Cadillac Mountain. 1500 Feet above see level and what did we see? We saw the sea! The Atlantic Ocean, Bar Harbor Bay and much of Acadia National Park!


After we left Cadillac, we went to Jordon Pond and bought Acadia shirts and hats. Then we drove to Long Pond for a surprise for the girls. On Long Pond they have kayak's for rent. The four of us, went kayaking for about an hour and a half.



Maria and Debbie were in one kayak and Bob and Sarah in the other. After an hour or so, we tried switching and while we were switching a duck tried to bite Debbie and then one tried to bite Bob.





We then went back into Bar Harbor for a bite to eat and we saw the reason it's called Bar Harbor. There is a sand bar that allow people to get out to one of the islands at low tide.

Stay tuned!!! Tomorrow is going to be very fun!!!