We are the mundane
It was 6 degs yesterday morning when I snapped this shot of our hotel. What was I thinking….. Montreal in Feb?!
But we’ve had a great time. Just cool to hang with the kids in a foreign land. They both tried snails one night, Charlotte actually ate it.
We’re on the train home now. A long ride, but kind of an adventure in itself. really beautiful, especially along Lake Champlain.
We’re off to visit Shannon for a few days, then Martha’s Vineyard and Newport, RI. I’ll post some pictures when we return.
Here are a few pictures of our week in Orlando. Weather was hot but beautiful! The kids had a blast…Blake said his favorite part was his nightly trip to the ice cream shop at the resort with MarMar!
with the exception of Shannon…she already had plans to go to Sarasota. We leave tomorrow morning and return on Mother’s Day. We’ll take plenty of pictures and unlike Steve F. will post them when we return.
Not us, we’re drinking rum. No, at the Dominiom Club in St. Croix’s rainforest, today we had the highlight of our trip so far. We bought a couple beers for a couple big pigs.
Spent the weekend in Dewey Beach DE where the latest rage in bar shots is the “Tidal Wave”.
Here’s a video I shot of a bunch of Santa Clauses (more on that later) doing Tidal Waves (yes I did one too but I couldn’t videotape myself) at the Starboard in Dewey.
The shot can be anything that you’d like, it’s the water in the face that gives it the name. The shot was taking the bar by storm and people were lining up to have water thrown in their faces 
OK – now the Santa suits story.
There’s a group in Philly that sponsor’s their version of a Santa Claus bar tour (similar to the one that I run in State College but on a slightly grander scale). Their tour is called the “Running of the Santas”.
“Rudolph’s Revenge” is their July version of the Santa Run. It’s a bus/ferry trip from Sea Isle City NJ to Dewey Beach that departs Friday night and returns on Sunday with the centerpiece of the trip being the Revenge Party at the Starboard.
Here are a couple of photo’s I took at the Starboard during the Rudolph’s Revenge party.
Next year I might bring my Santa costume, or I might try the Starboard’s Dewey Beach version of Pamplona’s “Running of the Bulls” festival instead – or maybe both.
We had an awesome trip to Chicago! Could only have been better if UncleLar had been there.
• All the cousins were together
• Some of us saw The Waco Bros. and ate “Slingers”.
• We skated at “The Bean”
• We went to Shedd Aquarium
• The kids & I went rock climbing
• And Lex returned to the scene of the crime, “The Assault of the Portal” and cursed the gate with his middle finger
…far too much partying!
…in the sun! Yes, it will be 25 years of wedded bliss on Wednesday. To celebrate, we went to Key West, with good friends of ours, Ed & Mary Kipp. They are celebrating 30 years the day before us (and they’re younger than us!).
Here are a few pictures:Â 1) Sunset on the pier 2) Lobster dinner at an outdoor cafe 3) Poolside at our B&B
Next week we’re off to Orlando with Dawn, Chris & the “K-boys”. That should be interesting! Â We’ll post more pictures upon our return!
Finally uploaded pictures from vacation. Loved Paris…most impressed with Notre Dame (although indoor pictures of most buildings we took on vacation did not turn out). Also got to see Mona and Venus at the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph. We definitely wished we had more time, three days is not enough (especially when we had very bad rain one evening).
Geneva was more relaxed. Steve’s class (on cultural relationships) was a week long. It gave me time to go out and about on my own. We know a couple from HSBC who live there, so the wife showed me around one day. I know Geneva’s public transportation system better than Chicago’s. One evening I was the tour guide for a group of Steve’s co-workers.
Than, three days in Italy. Much too short! We took the train from Geneva to Milan, then Milan to Genoa. We stayed in Genoa, at the Hotel Bristol Palace. The spiral staircase is rumored to be the inspiration to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. We crammed in Pisa and then two days visiting Cinque Terre (fives lands). The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the surrounding “Field of Miracles” was fascinating (again though, several of my pictures did not turn out). There is a domed Baptistery with amazing acoustics. You can hear an echo for ten seconds…enabling a person to harmonize with himself. A security guard sings every half hour to demonstrate. It’s pretty neat!
Cinque Terre was the best. We decided to go there on the recommendation of a friend of Shannon. There are five adorable villages built on the cliffs of the Italian Riviera. They’re connected by hiking paths through the cliffs (trust me, we took the simple trails). We hiked from the first to the fourth village. Unfortunately our train was 1 1/2 hours late, so our schedule got a little fouled up. We got to the fourth village at 8PM and decided not to attempt the fifth in the dark. We then sat outside along a bay and had a wonderful Italian dinner.
