Tag: travel

Our road trip to Vermont

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Thought I’d share some camera phone pics from our road trip up to Vermont, first vacation sans Gage 🙂

We stopped in Westfield, New York, for lunch. Ate a a cute local diner and then decided to take a walk through the neighborhood before getting back on the road. As we were walking through this cute residential neighborhood, we saw this

IMG_3815Really?  I stopped, curious.  Jason refused to even acknowledge what he was seeing until I said I was going in and then he refused to come with me into some stranger’s house just because there was a sign in the yard. (I blame this on The Never List that we were listening to in the car)  Well, as soon as he refused I was even more determined.  I assumed that I was going to walk up that back deck and in.  Um, no. As I got closer I saw that I had to go down these stairs to the basement and once there I had to ring a doorbell.  Lucky for me Jason got nervous and followed me down.  The man was very nice and we left $200 poorer.  You just never know what places you will find to spend your money 😉  (we bought Gage’s birthday present – a Thomas Lionel train set, plus some other cute train stuff)

We spent the night in Syracuse and went to Destiny USA , which was awesome.  It was an incredible place to spend time, a mall/movie theater/entertainment experience.  Jason raced a car and we went to Wonder Works (LOVED) where I did fun thinks like get in a space shuttle and lie on a bed of nails.

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The next day we arrived in Burlington and enjoyed finding the Earth Clock without a map (hey, it was at least a few miles from the hotel)

earth clockBy the time we got there the sun was setting over Lake Champlain and there were a few people there talking about gods and goddesses. When they started beating the drums they brought from home we decided to try to find the hotel again.  We enjoyed our few days in Burlington, great city that I’d visit again.

On our 15th anniversary we headed to Stowe, but with two quick stops. One at the Ben & Jerry’s factory where we took the tour (I am a loyal fan now. They are doing it the right way).

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Then we stopped at the once home, but now hotel of the real von Trapp family.  The family still owns the inn and they are also starting a beer label. There were no tours but we walked around and visited the gift shop.  That was cool enough for me since I can’t count the times I’ve seen  The Sound of Music.

IMG_3940von trappeThis was the view. Beautiful, right?  I need to watch the movie again!

Then we headed to the beautiful Stowe Mountain Lodge.  When we checked in and told them it was our anniversary we immediately got upgraded to a suite that was nicer than our first three apartments!  We loved our stay and felt very pampered.  They even had shuffleboard out back.  I was winning until I started talking smack and then Jason crushed me.

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The hotel even provided babysitting so next time we can take Gage 🙂  We had a great trip and loved what we saw of Vermont, so relaxing and beautiful.

Walking San Francisco

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We arrived home this morning at about 1 am after almost a week in San Francisco.  First, I have to mention our flights out and back.  Last Saturday morning we’re in the plane on the runway for takeoff and the pilot drives back to where we boarded and tells us that on the way to the runway he accidentally drove through a snow pile and just wants to make sure everything is okay.  And then 10 minutes later comes back and tells us he’s completely ruined the engine and they’ll have to find us another plane.  Seriously, shouldn’t a 737 be able to handle a little snow?  We switched planes and it was all good.  Then on the way back we were in the plane and a light came on, didn’t come on, whatever, and we had to get off the plane and wait.  And wait.  Four hours later we were good to go.  During that time we were able to meet a wonderful family Noel and Maura and their two kids Will and Ellie.  They made the wait easier to take.  So my advice?  If you need to get someplace on time don’t fly with us!

We stayed at The Palace downtown…

Jason’s conference was being held here and it is beautiful hotel.  Our taxi driver from the airport told us that we came just in time for the Chinese New Year parade that evening.  This is second only to the one in China (so the local news told us) and lasted a long time.  I can’t remember the last time I saw a parade…

We took the required trip to Alcatraz and learned so much about it’s history.  I didn’t know (or remember) that it had only been in use as a prison for 30 years. 

The ferry ride there was only 10 minutes and provided some lovely views of the city.

I had my fish ‘n chips at Fisherman’s Wharf, hiked up the hill to Coit Tower, overworked my short legs through the hills od Nob Hill & Russian Hill, saw the famous painted houses and spent quite a bit of time in Chinatown.  I went to the Fortune Cookie Factory where I saw the women making the fortune cookies and had some fresh off the line.  I love fortune cookies so I brought a big bag home.

I spent Monday at Golden Gate Park and my favorite place on this trip was there.  I loved the  Japanese Tea Garden.  It is peaceful and beautiful and I could have spent all day there with my camera and book.

There was a wonderful tea house near the entrance where I stopped on my way out for a nice cup of jasmine tea.

So, there you have it.  A wonderful week in beautiful San Francisco.  I was unconnected all week long.  Not one email or blog or website.  I’m feeling refreshed.  Even if I am looking outside my window at huge mounds of snow.

Traveling

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“Traveling is the ruin of all happiness.  There’s no looking at a  building here, after seeing Italy.”            Fanny Burney, Cecilia

Rome

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We just got back to the hotel after about 7 hours of walking around the city.  We are resting before heading out to dinner.  Our favorite experience today was sitting in front of the Pantheon eating McDonalds fries and a Big Mac.  It seemed so wrong.  Both Venice and Florence had McDonalds, but today we saw at least half a dozen around the city.  The only other American fast food we’ve seen is a Burger King a few blocks from our hotel.  Today’s fries and Big Mac were was our first non-Italian food in almost a week.  I must admit it was a nice change of pace.

There are massive beautiful churches everywhere and we walked into everyone we came across.  We also went to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain.  Rome is quite a bit of a walk because it is not even – you walk up and up only to walk back down the next block before walking up again.

We happened into a piazza where a political rally was being held.  We had no idea what was going on, so we moved along pretty quickly.  There is also a big police presence around the city.  Some of them are just standing on a side street with their hand on their guns ready to shoot.  It was weird. 

So far we have had fun.  We certainly won’t run out of things to do here.  There are tourist everywhere.  The car/scooter/pedestrian war is crazier then in Florence.  Everyone seems to think they have the right of way.  We just follow someone who looks like he knows what he’s doing.

Rome

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Our train made it to Rome in an hour and a half!  We are getting ready to head out to the Spanish Steps and other fun stuff.  Rome is enormous! 

 

On to Rome

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We are leaving beautiful Florence behind to travel to Rome.  I’m not sure how good our internet access will be at the hotel, so we’ll see if I can keep up.  I’m sad to be leaving our great hotel.  We have 2 1/2 hours on the train.

Yesterday I watched the Simpsons in Italian.  It was fun 🙂

Florence, day 3

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This morning we started at the Bargello museum, which houses wonderful Renaissance sculptures.  Jason & I agree that the sculptures we have seen around the city has been our favorite art pieces.  The coolest thing in the museum was the restoration of David by Donatello.  They had it laid out on an operating table with lights and instruments all around him.  There were women there working on him and it will take the rest of the year to complete.  It was interesting to watch them work.

We then headed to Santa Croce, a 13th century Gothic church that is home to many famous tombs.  The place was massive inside with two large courtyards and a small museum in the middle.  We saw the large tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, and Machiavello.  There were other tombs, but since we can’t read Italian and we didn’t recognize the names I cannot say much about them.  We were both fascinated by all of the people buried under the floor of the church where you could just walk over their marble ‘caskets’.  It was a little eerie.

After the church I came back to the room because I needed a rest.  Jason continued across the river to Michelangelo Piazza and Fort Belvedere which both had stunning views of the city.  He claims he took enough photos that it will seem like I was there myself.  We’ll see.

There are people arriving at the hotel that drove here.  After being here for a few days I can say without hesitation that I am so glad that we did not rent a car to drive here.  I do not know how there are not more pedestrian/car/bus accidents.  Not a lot of people drive cars, but those that do buzz past you pretty close.  I love seeing the little mini cars that seat two people, but Jason couldn’t fit into.  They are cute 🙂

Jason is taking a siesta before our evening drink at the hotel.  We have really enjoyed our time here.  There is so much to see that it would take at least a week to come close.  Tonight we’ll walk over to the train station to get our tickets to Rome tomorrow.  I think the progression of cities was a good one.  Venice was small, Florence is over 400,000, but it feels a bit smaller because it is another great walking city where everything you want to see you can reach without a car.  And our last stop, Rome I think will be big and feel big.

Ciao!