I just returned from a fun girls’ trip to Key West. The reason for the trip was to visit Dry Tortugas National Park. Mission accomplished. Here’s a peek at Key West in December.
Tag: fun
Old dogs. New tricks.
I believe I have entered my mahjong era. Lori bravely started teaching a few of us this game. Very interesting. And challenging to learn. This is not the mahjong tile matching game you may have seen from days of the first desktop computers. It’s more like a complex version of Rummikub on steroids – LOTS of steroids.
We played two games this afternoon. I learned more each time. Very fun. I look forward to more mahjong play. Thanks, Lori!
A sweet day with good friends.
I joined my dear girlfriends today for a delicious birthday lunch. And then spent an afternoon at Pease Park.
Late night on campus.
We headed to campus tonight to catch Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. And a few sights along the way.
The tower was nicely lit. It couldn’t have been for the game tonight.
The venue was Hogg Auditorium, which recently finished a renovation. Very nice.
Paul Simon was in attendance and got a shout out from Wynton during the show.
Sea trial.
We took Nirvana out for a sail in Sunday’s beercan. We didn’t win the race, but I won the latest battle in mending the jib. My latest repair held nicely in 20+ knot winds. 👍🏼
Lessons learned.
I thought I’d share a few takeaways from our trip on the Queen Mary 2 and our 9-day wander through British history.
October is a great month to book on the Queen Mary 2 and walk around southern England. Not too cold. Not too crowded.
Get a starboard cabin if you are on an eastbound transatlantic passage of the QM2, imho. The winds are usually blowing out of the north, so it made for more pleasant balcony experience.
Never leave home without a tiny tube of superglue. 🙂 On day 2 of our trip the earpiece on my eyeglasses broke off. The weld at the metal lens frame just gave way. I was on a boat for 7 days where the only stores sold expensive bags, art, and watches. Fortunately, the QM2 worker in the store who I asked was one of the jewelry designers. She whipped out her toolbox that had some flexible jewelers adhesive. A dab of that got me through the week, when they broke again. I hit the first Tesco on dry land for my own tube of superglue.
It isn’t always raining in England. For us, it only rained on two of our travel days, and one afternoon when we walked around Portsmouth Southsea along the coast. We, and our luggage, are pretty waterproof so it was fine. Ok, I just did the math, turns out it rained one third of the days we were in England. Which, in retrospect, is a lot. Oh well, it was nice to have the beautiful sunny days that we did. I remember them more vividly than the rainy days.
Be flexible.
Check closure schedules ahead of time for the places you plan to visit.
The British National Rail Two Together Railcard paid for itself several times over. A better deal than 2 Senior railcards, if you always travel together. We took the train 6 times.
Just do it.
Thanks for reading.
💙
Ashore.
We disembarked the Queen Mary 2 at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal in Southampton on a sunny, brisk day. Our travel plans typically include train travel, which we prefer to rental cars. So we waved goodbye to the grand ship and grabbed a cab to Southampton Central Rail Station. We headed out on a day trip to Winchester.
We stowed our bags at a business near the rail station to explore the 10th-century, medieval capital of England on foot.
Our goal was to visit beautiful Winchester Cathedral, whose construction began in 1079 and was completed in 1532. When we arrived, we learned it was closed because it was hosting back-to-back graduation ceremonies for the various colleges of the University of Winchester. Doh!
I did try to breach their defenses several times, but the Cathedral is still well-defended. So we admired it from outside and decided to make another visit later in our trip to see its grand medieval architecture from the inside.
After our consolation lap around the Cathedral grounds, we toured the City Museum, which tells the history of Winchester from its Iron Age, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon origins to the present day.
We then headed off to find what remains of the ancient Winchester Castle. Its Great Hall still stands, adjacent to the modern-day Crown Court. Inside is the Round Table of the legendary King Arthur’s Knights. The massive oak table is thought to be one that the real King Alfred had built for a wedding celebration in the 13th century, but King Henry VIII in the 16th century had it painted with the Tudor rose, the names of 24 knights, and the character of King Arthur said to be in his own image to link him to the legend. Or so one story goes.
Stained glass just loves a sunny day!
Nearby stands the West Gate of the former Castle. Modern-day traffic just zips by.
We grabbed lunch in a nearby pub and then caught a train headed to Portsmouth Harbour Rail Station. Portsmouth is home to the Royal Navy’s Historic Dockyard, and our base for the next 3 days.
More historic ships and ancient architecture to come!
Links for the curious:
British National Rail website. Install their app on your phone for easy access to timetables, real-time train status, and online tickets. I used it every day. There are multiple local railways (South Western Railway, Great Western Railway, etc) that have their own websites, but the National Rail app integrates them all.
British National Rail’s Railcard information. This is a railcard that you purchase for a one-time fee, valid for a year. In return, it gives you 1/3 off train fares in off-peak times. We bought the “Two Together” railcard for 35£ and it paid for itself several times over. It’s a digital card, so you should install the Railcard app on your phone to show at ticket offices and to ticket inspectors on the trains.
Radical Storage website for luggage drop/pickup locations. They also have an app, but I just purchased via their website on my phone. This worked great for us. Their location in Winchester that we used was a vape shop 🙂 But it was very convenient to get to from the train station. The system is easy to navigate and use, and I felt our bags were very secure both times we used it. They have locations worldwide! I’d definitely use them again.
Winchester Cathedral visitor info. Make sure to check for scheduled closures 🙂
The Explorer Pass to visit Winchester’s City Museum, the Great Hall, and Westgate.
Red Hook.
I’ve been to NYC too many times to count, but I’ve never spent time in Brooklyn. We had a quick visit here, this time we stayed in Red Hook.
We enjoyed walking around the neighborhood, finding a nice lobster pound.
And we took a nice tour up and down the East River.
We ran across this pretty boat, the SV Clearwater, getting some paint touch up. The Clearwater is the sloop Pete Seeger raised money for, and had built, to raise awareness of the pollution in the Hudson River back in the 1960s. It is still actively promoting environmental education as a floating classroom, and has inspired countless other efforts across the country. More info here: https://www.clearwater.org/the-sloop/
Air & time travel.
Forty-six years ago, in a galaxy that seems oh so far away, I took my first airplane trip. I remember sitting for hours in the terminal at JFK waiting on our connecting flight. The big board continually clicked and flipped to show flight status and gate updates.
I heard that that old terminal has been preserved and turned into a hotel next to Terminal 5 at JFK.
Today Monte and I flew into Terminal 8 at JFK, and I just had to find this time capsule before we left the airport.
It was fun to see those old memories come back to life.
Messing around.
While visiting Washington State a few weeks back, I took a photo of a beautiful wooden carving that was unceremoniously displayed in the corner of a building at the top of some stairs. Today I uploaded it and played around with it a little bit. I love the result. I think I’ll make some notecards with this image. 🙂
Have a great Friday!
And the original:
Dock wrangling.
We loaded up Porter Belle on the trailer yesterday to help John with the dock at his lake house. When the rain came over the July 4th weekend his cove went from high and dry to full in about 24 hours.
His formerly dry dock floated just fine. But its ramp/walkway sank. It’s still attached but hanging straight down. Its flotation block must have broken away in the storms. All the professional dock wranglers are still booked up so we spent the day giving it a shot ourselves.
At the end of the day, we were not successful. But it was fun to row up and down the cove a dozen or so times. And to problem solve different ways to try to raise the walkway. None of them worked. But the best part was that when we packed everything up, the giant flotation block miraculously floated by! We snagged it for when the professionals eventually make it out. There’s a reason they call them professionals 🙂
There are many ways to spend a good day at the lake. This was just one of them.
February rewind.
On short notice, I had the opportunity to join Lori at a beach resort in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Bonus was getting in a nice long visit with Rudy and Lauren. It was beautiful there. And snorkeling in January is good for the soul!
Headed to the Texas Panhandle.
We have driven by the Palo Duro Canyon State Park many times on trips to and from Colorado over the last 25+ years.
This week we took a little road trip to go see it. Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States. It’s located in the high plains of North Texas; the Llano Estacado. The elevation at the rim is about 3500’ and the floor of the canyon lies about 800’ below. It is called “the Grand Canyon of Texas” and the steep, layered rock walls sure echo those of its namesake.
We took the 8-hour drive up and stayed in a cabin on the floor of the canyon that was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The park is stunningly beautiful. Being in the heart of nature for a couple of days was unforgettable.
The visitor center provided a nice introduction to the geology and history of the canyon.
And oh the stars! We sat outside for hours watching the sky.
On the way home we made an overnight stop in Lubbock. We enjoy visiting the McPherson Cellars tasting room whenever we are in the neighborhood. We can always find another couple there to talk with over a glass of wine.
We stopped in lots of tiny Texas towns to check out their antique stores, historic county courthouses, and Main Street cafes.
Home sweet home now – ‘til the next road trip.
Til next time.
My main intent for this trip to Seattle was to see my 7 great nieces & nephews. ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
I also spent some good time with all but one of my nieces and nephews, and my sisters. I got a chance to visit my friend Irene again. We surprised her mom who I last saw at our high school graduation too long ago. What a special treat.
The Pacific Northwest is beautiful. It never disappoints.
Sheila365 