I'm going on vacation!

And, I am so excited.  I am traveling on Sunday, which happens to be my birthday,
with some of my oldest and dearest friends in the world.  We are headed to sunny Florida 

and on Monday we'll hop aboard a cruise ship headed for Key West & the Bahamas.

To get into the spirit of the trip, we have all re-named ourselves with Spanish names....don't really know

why we picked Spanish?  I think Maria started that, yes it was Maria.  Any how, Maria, Consuela, Lupita

& myself, Sarita are so very excited.  I have only cruised once, back in November with 44 of my church pals, and the other senoritas haven't ever cruised before.  So, it is definitely the blind leading the blind.

We really don't have much on our agenda, we want to visit Hemingway's house in Key West, 

do some people watching, read a book, giggle & laugh and act like we did in Jr. High.
Oh, it's going to be great!

Bon Voyage!

Sarita

A whole lotta nuttin'

I know, I know....... I need to post something, but I just ain't feelin' it. I have begun 4 or 5 posts but haven't finished any of them. At least two of them involve photos which have been removed from my camera by one of my children and loaded onto a computer which I do not have the password to retrieve. Hmmm, whose bright idea was that?

We have been busy putting in a garden, planning and attending my 30th high school reunion and work, work, work. It was great to see old friends and I do mean old! Here is a pic of some of my oldest & dearest... then & now... life just wouldn't be the same without them.

Then... 1980

Now.... 2010

We are looking forward to a wonderful Summer, even if we haven't a clue what we shall do yet. We thought we were going to a family event, but they have pretty much 'priced' us out of it. Asking a family with 3 full time college students to take a 4 day trip to Colorado costing 5K is just too steep for us. Jeff and I were planning on taking a trip abroad for our anniversary, but we have decided to wait until 2011 since we will be welcoming a new grandbaby into the world before the end of the year. We will however be taking a few trips along the way.

We recently traveled to Kansas City for Baseball & BBQ. KC has a gorgeous downtown area and we enjoyed our trip immensely. Let me just say that Arthur Bryant's has the absolute best bbq. Here is my sandwich, there is not way I could eat all of it. Fries are their specialty, yum!

We have begun to make plans for a trip to Arkansas in July & Las Vegas in September with Tara and Darrell. We had such a great time on our last adventure we can't wait to do it again.

So, here's wishing you a wonderful Summer filled with great friends, old & new. Simple times like building a garden and exciting trips near & far.

We'll talk again soon, this time I promise it won't be so long.

1226 miles and 3 days later!

Ok, once again we have survived a road trip.  I think I am really getting to old for this.  We

filled our cupboards and frig with food, told our children to not leave the house and then .... headed out on our road trip in the snow!

We spent the night in Bossier City.  Already totally wiped out after what should have been a 3 hour drive but turned into a 5 hour drive because of the weather.  Here we are the next morning getting ready to drive another 6.5 hours.

We ran into trouble in this snow because the freeways & overpasses were closed and we had to drive around Bossier City and make a big loop to get back on 49.  We saw a lot of crazy drivers and quite a few wrecks along the way. We had planned to be in New Orleans by lunch, but after way too many hours on the road we made a pit stop at Race Trac for hot dogs and finally made it to the New Orleans Hard Rock at about 3pm.  Here we are with the staff of HRC New Orleans.

Then we made our way on to Biloxi. Where we checked in to another hotel, changed our clothes and headed over to Hard Rock Hotel/Casino/Cafe' Biloxi for the concert.

Heart put on an awesome show and we were about 15 feet from Nancy & Ann!  Here is Nancy belting out Barracuda!

Then we headed over to the cafe' and had a later dinner.  We had a great time and I think Darrell has turned Jeff into a HR groupie like himself!  Here we are with the staff at HRC Biloxi.

 

When we got up Saturday morning in Biloxi, we were exhausted.  We couldn't believe we had to do that drive all over again.  I mean... seriously, what were we thinking?   We are definitely too old for this.  We drove back through New Orleans as Saturday was the first day of the Mardi Gras parades.  The town was a mad house.  We stopped and ate lunch at one of Jeff's favorite places, Frank's and had muffelatta sandwiches.  The walked around the square for a little bit.  We walked down Bourbon Street for about two blocks and decided we were just not part of that crowd, if you know what I mean.  We quickly detoured and headed toward Cafe du Monde for biegnets.

 As we began to head home from New Orleans at 4pm on Saturday we quickly realized that we did not want to make the long trek of 8 hours home that day.  We finally found a hotel in Alexandria and spent the night.  We we began making plans for this trip we had no idea that we would be hitting New Orleans during Mardi Gras and thus making every hotel from Biloxi to Baton Rouge booked up and even Shreveport/Bossier was full for Saturday night because of Valentine's Day.  We finally arrive home about 4pm on Sunday, exhausted but content.... and ready to plan our next adventure!  But next time.... if it's more than about 3 hours, we're flying!

Hello from New Orleans

Hard Rock Cafe Staff & us, New Orleans LA

We raced Ida home... and we won!

Just a quick note that we did survive the cruise. It was extremely rough seas but, we had a great time. I have lots to talk about, but today is for working and tonight is for visiting my Violet girl in her new home!

tata for now,

Julie

A new adventure across the sea....

Ok, I am about to call it a night. My friend, Tara has already been delivered to my house by her husband and son and we are soooooooo excited for our adventure to begin. Tomorrow at 6am sharp my sister will pick us up and we will have just one more stop to make... to pick up Sendy. Then it's off to the Port of Galveston! There we will hook up with 40 other friends to sail to the Caribbean. I am taking the dell mini, but I don't know if I will be able to post anything while on board the ship. But, I will definitely post when I get back.

I will be missing my fella, as I don't like to travel without him, but somebody's gotta stay here and spoil that Violet girl for me while I am gone.

Gettin' ready to cruise....

I am going today to get my passport. I am so excited! I am been assured that I don't necessarily have to have it for my cruise will all the girls in November, but I don't want to take any chances. Besides, as my dear friend, Barbara says "you should never be without one, because you never know what opportunities might arise". And she is right. So world travel... here I come!

Days 7 & 8.... a bluuurrrrr

We are home safe and sound from our trip to beautiful New England. After 7.5 hours & 3 flights aboard the same aircraft we arrived in Dallas on Tuesday afternoon. Southwest insists that they have direct flights, but as near as I can tell Manchester, NH to Orlando, FL to New Orleans, LA to Dallas, TX is not a direct route!

I joked and said that I was going to eat lobster three times a day. Truth is I never did that and only ate it twice one time. That was enough. It was quite enjoyable, but they constantly wanted to serve it with fries and truth is.... that got old quick. We did have delicious food on numerous occassions.

Our favorite had to be at Red's Eats in Wiscasset, ME which was featured on the FoodNetwork. This was the restaurant (er.. shack) the entire trip was planned around. Yes, we traveled 2500 miles one way to eat here. We were afraid it might not be worth all the hype... we were wrong. It was delectable. They don't dress the lobster rolls at Red's. It comes plain on a warm toasted bun and you get to choose whether you want mayo or buttah! It was devine!

29th Anniversary.... Day 6

Bubble Rock, elev. 14,000 ft
Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME

Cadillac Mountain, elev. 16,000 ft.
Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME

New England... Day 5

We began our day at the Coastal Coffee House & Internet Cafe just a few blocks down from our campground in picturesque Searsport. The shop is just a tiny coffeehouse but came highly recommended by a lady at the bathhouse. We packed up the mini and decided to try it for breakfast. I ordered Dave's Fire in the Hole. An everything bagel toasted perfectly with a sort of spanish omelet with spicy sausage and peppers and a couple different types of hot sauce. Any how...it was great. So good in fact we went back for lunch and ordered lobster rolls to go so we could picnic on the beach. The owner remembered us and called us the Texas Bluebonnets. What fun.

When we went back for lunch to the little cafe' had about 6 customers on Harleys they were Canadian and were speaking french. The funny part was that they kept opening and closing the screen door that led to the outside dining area... they finaly turned to us and in english said ' we just love that sound' it was the squeaky screen door. French Canadians are everywhere. At home the second language is Spanish. Here when you use the ATM it prompts English or Francis?

We stopped at a few antique shops Jeff bought a sign. Headed on up to Penobscot Narrow Bridge and Fort Knox. We went up the tower at Penobscot which was equilavent to 42 stories and could see for miles. It was a beautiful day. Then we toured Fort Knox. No money there...

Then we headed back to Searsport which is just lovely and ordered our lobster rolls to go and had a picnic on the beach.

After we got back to the campground we decided to take a hike. We walked the water's edge which is not sandy. It is what they call craggy, full of rocks, large and small, much of it granite. The hike took us about 1 mile to Moose Point State Park in search of wild blueberries. We didn't find any, but hiked on out to Moose Point proper and then back again, about 3 miles. We had just enough time to clean up and get ready for our Lobster Bake on the beach.

The campground has a lobster bake on Saturdays and it is only by inadvance ticket purchase. Jeff ordered our tickets when he reserved the campground. There were about 20 or so of us eating down on the beach. The meal began with steamed mussels that were harvested straight out of the bay earlier in the day. I decided you can eat anything if you dip it in melted butter. I tried a few, ok maybe more than a few about 6. I left the rest for Jeff. He enjoyed them all. We got to know our fellow campers, a young couple from upstate NY that had just arrived about an hour earlier, and a family of 6 from Chattanooga. We had a fabulous meal. They unloaded the lobster which had been steamed in an outdoor brick oven. The lobster was covered by seaweed, which they called rockweed which is what they make MSG from. They told us that because the seaweed is a natual flavor enhancer and it is what the lobster is blanketed in it would be tastier. They were right. It was by far the best lobster we have had the entire trip. Our meal included all the clams & mussels we could eat, homemade bread, baked potatoes and corn on the cob. Followed by homemade peach/blueberry cobbler and ice cream from a local dairy.

I am now on laundry duty and Jeff is playing with fire. This will be our last night in Searsport as tomorrow begins our trek southward toward Manchester and then home again. We are having a wonderful time, will greatly miss New England.

BTW, everyone that we have encountered whether it has been service personnel, cafe owners, vacationers, etc has been wonderful, northerner and southerner alike... and a few Canadians too!

Travel New England sometime soon, you will love it!

Got Lobstah?

Howdy from New England ... Day 4

I am exhausted after today's activities but I wanted to share with you what we have been up to day:

• Woke up @ the campground, showered and headed for the festival in Rockland
• Drove through Camden, location of the apartment Katherine Heigl's character lived in in the movie 27 dresses
• Went to the Festival ate lots of lobster, had our picture made with King Neptune & a giant Lobster
• Walked around this lovely little town
• Drove over to the Breakwater Lighthouse and walked the 3 miles in the drizzle to get to it, but it was worth it, we packed tennis shoes and rain panchos
• Arrived back at our campsite to find that it had been raining HARD all day
• Went to a hole in the wall restaurant in Searsport, called Captain Shorty's and had the best all you can eat Fish Fry EVER!
• Came back to the campsite to find it still RAINING
• Played a little table tennis with Jeff in the rec room
• Came back to the tent and settled in for the night, it's cool outside, slightly raining, but comfortable and dry in our tent. I am sitting here on an air mattress using a battery operated lantern and typing this from my new Dell mini, which I wasn't too sure about before we left but am crazy about it now.
• Just realized today that we are only about 200 miles from the Canadian border.
  
• Having a great time in Maine, wish you were here.
  

New England ... Day 3

Today we awoke in New Hampshire and packed our belongings and headed for Maine. You had no idea how close all these little states are, they are crammed right up next to each other and when you are driving you just weave in an out of them. Our first stop today was a Starbucks in Portsmouth. Just an adorable little town on the coast where the Declaration of Independence was read.

Next we stopped in York. I have ancestors that were born, raised and buried there. I wanted to find their gravesites, but I had already been told earlier in the week that I wouldn't find their graves. They were buried on one of these small islands and erosion has washed most of the graves away (era 1650 - 1700) and add to the fact that there were no stone masons here during that time for markers to be made. That was disappointing, but it was exciting as well. You see my great grandfather X8 & 9 are from the Isle of Shoals, just off the coast of Maine @ York. I did get to copy a number of books that had some information about them and a few more clues about them. I know one was a butcher and that they were colorful characters. Mmmm, I wonder if I am anything like them?

We stopped for lunch in Cape Elizabeth at Two Points Lighthouse. Delicious lobster rolls. Here is a photo of my lunch. Note the picture with the quarter next to it. I wanted to show you how big this sandwich really is... not very big for $13. It was a little pricey, but look at the view. We ate outside with a beautiful view of the Cape with a lighthouses on either side of us. It's Wicked Awesome! To quote a local phrase.

On to Searsport. This was quite a drive, but it will put us very close to Rockland (which is all booked up for the weekend). When we booked this trip we didn't realize that we would be here during the 62nd Lobster Festival in Rockland, but we were very happily surprised. We arrive at this little campground for our first night of tent camping. We unpacked our suitcase complete with tent, 2 sleeping bags, sheets, lantern, flashlights, tablecloth, rain panchos, 4 pillows and bug spray. Which was the first thing that got used. Set it all up and realized that we were maybe 50 yards from the ocean. Beautiful. Jeff started a fire and cooked us a delicious dinner of ..... hot dogs. That's ok, it's the first meal we have had in 3 days that hasn't included seafood and since we are hitting the festival tomorrow, we decided to take a break. It was a great meal complete with s'mores. This campground has WiFi which is great. It is not a large campground and a little quirky... just like us. We are going to sleep tonight under the tall pines and stars.

(Me at our campsite on my dell mini)

Let's chat again tomorrow... same time, same channel.

julie

Hello from New England

Jeff and I have begun our adventure.
Day 1: Travel from Dallas to St. Louis to Philly to Manchester!
Day 2: Spent the day at Hampton Beach and then dined on fresh lobster.
Day 3: Leaving New Hampshire and heading for the coast of Maine.

We had no idea that New Hampshire had so much to offer the summer traveler. Everything is beautiful and green and lush. I can't even describe it... it's a little like northern California and Colorado all rolled into one but with a beautiful beach thrown in.

Jeff and I stopped off this morning in Portsmouth on our way to Searport. That is our next camping destination. Yes we are camping our way through New England! So far we have stayed in a pretty rough cabin but tonight begins tent camping. It rained last night and more showers are expected. We are ready for it. We are going to Two Points Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth today.

Jeff asked me if I wanted to stop at Starbucks down on the old market square and get on the net, I said sure. He said you wanna stay about an hour? I said I don't know, can we. He said 'Baby you get to make all the rules on this trip'! WhooWeee!

This picture was taken at the Wakeda Campground in Hampton Falls, NH. When we saw it we just cracked up, with both the doors open and the flower box and looking all cute.

Tata for now,
Julie & Jeff