Off on an adventure...

T. (aka The wife, aka DW (dear wife) in cruise speak) and I are off on a Caribbean cruise… I may have mentioned this before…

There is a plan.

We pack… The plane leaves in less than 4 hours… we haven’t packed… some might think this is an issue… we don’t… we are professionals… If you are not professionals, don’t try this… but it works for us.

Back to the plan…

We fly the red eye to Ft Lauderdale Florida… spend Saturday, Saturday night and now most of Sunday in South Florida… before boarding our ship … it’s a two day get away before THE VACATION starts… what a concept… If we laid one more vacation on this thing I would think we were retired (fat chance)

We will land early Saturday morning in Ft Lauderdale, claim our rental car, and drive south on I-95 in search of breakfast… I have my eye on a couple of places in Miami Beach… Both are modern diners, they are cute, painted pastel colors, and at 9:00 in the morning no one else will be up… we will enjoy our meal.

Having eaten we will resume our trip south, towards Vizcaya, a museum, a house museum (I run a house museum, its my job) and gardens… It is reportedly quite an estate… (T. has been there… I never have, but will be going soon)

Having toured a house museum, we will retreat north towards Ft Lauderdale… we may pause in Miami, in one of their Cuban neighborhoods, or we may speed past on I-95 north…

We have a place to stay, the Riverside Hotel, on the “New River, on Los Olas Ave… By the time we return north we can check in… then wander about… We need wine… there is a good used book store nearby, and there is a house museum nearby (I run a house museum, I like house museums, when traveling I tend to visit house museums ) Actually there at three house museums in Ft Lauderdale… I have visited two, including the Stranahan house, with is one block from our hotel… the third, so far unvisited is nearby, and we will probably visit it, claiming another merit badge on my house museum manager’s uniform (we don’t really wear uniforms… but if we did there would be patches or merit badges for every house visited… but we don’t wear uniforms (we don’t need no stinking uniforms) so we don’t have patches and merit badges, but if we did…)

Sunday, we will find breakfast, find provisions (a couple of bottles of an oaky Chardanay, and a couple of books) and if we haven’t yet visited we will visit Old Fort Lauderdale Village where we will find 1907 King-Cromartie House, a museum of pioneer lifestyle… (and another merit badge, not really)

We were supposed to board our ship, Holland America’s Neiuw Amsterdam, after 1:00… today they announced that boarding was being pushed back to 4:00… they have a tummy virus on board and need to clean the ship up… in an effort to evict the virus (Norovirus… a really contagious intestinal bug.) Appearently we are still planning to sail at 10:00.

We (T. & I) will delay our boarding until 6:00 or so to avoid the crowds, and there will be crowds…

We have a friend joining us on our trip, Tomas, tropical storm/hurricane/tropical storm/hurricane/tropical storm… (repeat) Tomas…

The Weather Channel is covering it… as a special “thing” They have special reports… from Haiti, from Grand Turk (we will visit Grand Turk on Tuesday…)

As of now, Tomas is a Cat 1 hurricane… aka a bad storm that circles…

The Weather Channel has special coverage…”Hurricane Tomas” From their coverage… “There is potential for strengthen, not major strengthening, but strengthening…. Tomas pounds the Caribbean… We are talking about 75 mile per hour winds, maybe… up to 95 mile per hour winds… Big time heavy rainfall… (2” in 24 hours…)

It isn’t really much of a storm… We get harder winds during winter storms, but they aren’t hurricanes… they don’t circle… and more rain in 24 hours… but the storm doesn’t circle… Southern California reaches higher wind speeds with the dry Santa Anna winds… but they don’t circle…

Hurricanes can be devastating… just look back to Andrew in 1992 and Katarina in 2005… but this is not Andrew or Katarina… Tomas is dangerous, particularly if you are a Haitian earthquake survivor, living in a tent… It that is your life this sucks…

But, if you are on a cruise ship, with stabilizers, buffets, a really nice dining room, an attentive staff, too many bars, a pool, several hot tubs… you may need an umbrella ashore… you may miss a port… but this isn’t a disaster…

But if you are the Weather Channel, and need to fill airtime, calling it a disaster, doing live feeds of 70 mph winds… “Its tearing at the corner of the roof over there”… “look at the lawn chair being carried down the street” or “the water is rising… Its now several inches deep in the street” makes it immediate and real and brings higher viewer numbers….

I am tired of it all, I think I will go on a Caribbean cruise… We have a plan... reports to follow…

Packing (or not)

We fly tomorrow night… on a red eye for Ft Lauderdale… the prelude to the next adventure…

We will spend a couple of days and one night in Ft Lauderdale, then off on Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam for a Caribbean cruise… Grand Turk, San Juan, San Martin, and a private island in the Bahamas… add a couple of days at sea, along with cross country flights, and it looks like a one week vacation.

As noted before, this is a true vacation… no agenda… no required sites… just a vacation, a getaway, to celebrate an anniversary, our 30th… for us it is just another year… friends and coworkers seem to think it is important.
We will spend a week on a ship… with stops in tropical ports… their maybe alcohol involved, wine, beer, whisky, and maybe even rum… We will spend time on a tropical beach or two… we may swim…

There will be meals, memorable meals… some elaborate, but some, likely less so… not less good, but less elaborate…

We are not ready… we haven’t packed… It’s not our fault… we blame work… both of us… I worked late last night… until 9:00 or so, then home to cook for a potluck, at work. A turkey, and dressing (don’t stuff the bird, stuffing is evil, or so says Alton Brown, and I agree, Brother I agree.)


“Suddenly it's Christmas,
The longest holiday.
When they say "Season's Greetings"
They mean just what they say:
It's a season, it's a marathon,
Retail eternity.
It's not over till it's over
And you throw away the tree.


Christmas will come soon enough, whether I am ready or not (I’m not… I will go on record as saying that… I am not ready for Christmas) We use artificial trees at Patterson House, and we never throw them out… we just take them to the Teen Center in March where they become part of the “Enchanted Forest” for Leprechaun Land… and event for small children… and parents…

But I am tired, and not ready for the vacation… there is a coverage plan due, and meeting agenda that needs to go out… and there is the Tiny Tot trip to Ardenwood… It’s in my performance plan… as a thought, a maybe, but a goal none the less… and on Oct 27th, it became a possibility… and needs to become a reality… 300 three year olds visiting a house museum, and the surrounding farm… As of this afternoon it is close to a reality… we have a plan… which needs to be approved tomorrow before I leave… for the vacation, where I am to escape work, and planning for a visit by 300 three year olds… 300 three year olds sounds a lot like small children… (and parents…)

Tina and I are beyond small children (as in 300 three year olds) this is just not where we are… except at my work… our darling kids (everyone involved in cruises, and cruise vacations is Darling… Darling Husband (aka DH) Darling Wife (similarly aka DW) or Darling Kids, more specifically, darling daughter (DD) and Darling Son (do I need to say it a fourth time?, DS) ours, Steph 24, Brian 22, as far as I know neither have plans to make us Grandparents… eventually probably, but not now… (this is known as a “good thing”)

All of this means that while I and T. need a vacation, all is conspiring to prevent the vacation… the relaxation… We will escape the pull of the jobs… we will board the airplane… stay at the hotel… board the ship for the cruise… but right now it doesn’t feel that way… the flight, in 24 hours is far, far away, and we are not really ready.

A second post in one day…

More and more I find that it is travel that inspires me to write for the blog… hence the 2^nd post.

T. and I continue to get ready for the latest trip… while waiting for the World Series to start… the Giants are playing, our Giants… I have dyed my beard black and am wearing orange and black…

We took a break and went over to the coast for lunch… For those of you not familiar with the location of Casa de Hees, we are in San Mateo on the San Francisco Peninsula, about 15 miles south of San Francisco. San Francisco Bay lays about 200 yards to the east, the Pacific Ocean lays about 6 miles to the west, across the local version of the Coast Range… a chain of low, 1,000 to 2,000 foot tall mountains protecting inland California from Pacific storms… of course, to the ocean its closer to 20 miles of two lane road. Directly across the hills is Half Moon Bay, a small, cute, rural town. Our target was further north, in Princeton, with its small boat harbor, and lots of restaurants… we favor two, the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co, and Sam’s Chowder House… today the Chowder House won. We sat outside… it was warm, almost hot… we both had lobster roll sandwiches, T had wine, I had beer…

Half Moon Bay and the coast side can be difficult in the month of October… Half Moon Bay is known for its pumpkin festival, and its pumpkins… getting there over the windy two lane roads can be difficult if not nearly impossible (I would say impossible, but officially, something like 250,000 folks make it each year… all in search of orange squash.) Today was different, there was no traffic, there was no wait at the Chowder House… there were still lots of pumpkins for sale, still ponies to be ridden, but apparently the folks who wanted pumpkins and pony rides had come on the previous weekends, and were now at home getting ready for the annual fall candy hunt (as opposed to the annual spring candy hunt, aka Easter).

Having eaten, and lounged in the sun, on the shores of the Pacific, we returned home to the planning and packing…

The suitcases are down from the rafters, Tina has set up the portable clothing rack, and has started to hang the chosen items… she has modeled several outfits and swim suits… decisions have been made.

I have much of the miscellaneous stuff piled on a chair. This is getting real.

The World Series coverage has started… Lyle Lovett signing the National Anthem, accompanied by a man on an acoustic string base… nothing fancy, just a wonderful rendition of our national song… followed by the former Presidents Bush throwing out the first pitch… I didn’t agree with their politics, but can respect the two men as our former leaders.

Back to the packing and planning… I am tracking a hurricane, Hurricane Tomas, as it builds in the Caribbean.

It is currently (Sunday Oct 31^st) a class 1 storm (wind speed currently 75 mph) roughly due south of Puerto Rico, headed west, but projected to stall, then hook north and reach Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) Friday the 5^th. It’s not clear if it will strengthen or weaken (currently weakening, but expected to cross some warmer water and could strengthen.)

If it does hook, and then continues north, at predicted speed, it could be in the Bahamas or off South Florida on Sunday the 7^th. The water north of Hispaniola and north is cooler, so if it goes that way it will most likely be a weakening storm…

The commonly published storm track (aka the cone of unpredictability) does not extend beyond Friday the 5^th, so much is conjecture, although Host Terry has posted a weather underground chart on the first page of this discussion that suggest that it should be in the Atlantic, 5 degrees north of our path (or 300 knots, 350 miles) by Monday the 8th. The 10 day forecast for Ft Lauderdale shows Sunday the 7^th as broken clouds, temperatures in the 70’s…

I suspect that our cruise will not be affected, but it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on the storm, and I continue to watch the Weather Channel, the National Weather Service and Weather Underground. This could become an obsession. I don’t expect it to impact our cruise, but I am worried about the impact on Hispaniola, particularly to Haiti and its many earthquake refugees.

Now the game has started… at the top of the 1^st, with our second batter up, we have a man on base… no outs and the game calls me more than the blog…

Goodnight…

Packing…

T. and I are off again… flying next Friday after work, off to Ft Lauderdale for a Caribbean cruise… This trip is a true escape, a vacation... we chose the sailing based on the date, not on the destination(s) Grand Turk, San Juan, San Martin, and the Bahamas.

Today is Sunday, our last day off before, and we have the extra bedroom, so packing is commencing…

Packing is more than just a chore; more than stuffing random clothing and stuff in a suitcase… it’s the first pre departure ritual… Well, not the first of the pre departure rituals… those start months before as Tina sends me emails about possible trips, we send each other links to information about ports and possible activities… but the packing is the first of the real physical acts…

The basic clothing is easy… so many socks, underwear, a bathing suit (it is the Caribbean after all) shorts, and flip-flops… Then it starts getting complicated… I take my tux (yes, I own one) and need to find all the accessories… studs, cuff links and cummerbund… the shoes are probably at work (I run a historic house, a Victorian house and occasionally wear tails at work…)

I need to gather the cameras, the memory cards, the batteries, make sure the laptop case is ready with cords and cables and such. We will need phone chargers, or cables to connect the phone to the computer… I take a GPS and a map… Tina claims that I want to tell the Captain where to steer, but I just like to know where I am. The GPS needs batteries, so I need to find those too. We are spending some time in Ft Lauderdale before, so I need that map too.

I need books… there is a pile at my feet of so far unread wonders… I need to decide which will accompany me.

We are likely to head over to the Coast for lunch… Sam’s Chowder House and a lobster roll sandwich are calling… and there is a baseball game tonight… The 4^th game of the World Series… Its kind of important… we have a dog in the fight this year… the Giants are ahead by one going into tonight’s game…

Pumpkins, a harbinger for the change of seasons… The coming of the cold time.

Here in the land of endless sun and no snow… we are experiencing the change of season… A week ago it was hot, very hot, three digit hot… not any more… Yesterday it gradually clouded up… It’s raining… It’s a soft rain, a warm rain… in the language of the Navajo it would be a female rain, a gentle nurturing rain, but it is rain, and we don’t do rain well.

It is harvest time… We had our Harvest Festival at Ardenwood Historic Farm last weekend… this weekend is Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon bay. Next weekend we do the Candle Light House tours at Patterson House… Halloween follows soon after, with the many children in search of candy. Elsewhere people, some family, are celebrating Oktoberfest… It is a time of celebrations and ceremonies to mark the change of weather.

Here in the land of no snow the leaves have only threatened to change color… most are still green… still healthy… still growing… I am hearing reports that elsewhere, in the Rockies, in the High Sierras, the Cotton Woods, the Aspen are now bright yellow… but so far not here yet.

It is a time of sports… Baseball’s season is ending… our Giants are in the playoffs… We are up one game in the National League Pennant race… the second game is this afternoon… Go Giants!

It is a time of pumpkins, corn stocks, and an all too fast descent into Thanksgiving and Christmas… Christmas is already for sale at the local chain hardware store… pushing Halloween out prematurely, at 30% off…

Oh, yes, Go Giants!

Random thoughts… and observations

AKA… The truth is truly stranger than anything we can create.

First observation….

My last post I was critical of the “Tea Party”…

Now, the Naked Cowboy, a street musician, usually found in New York’s Time Square, wearing tighty-whities, cowboy boots and hat…. Playing a guitar, has announced his candidacy for President in 2012, on the tea party ticket… really, I can’t make this stuff up… The Tea Party has become a public joke… and the clowns are piling on… (and to my knowledge he has never had a relationship with a pig… really)

Second observation…

The Giants… the San Francisco Giants, once, long ago the New York Giants, but now the San Francisco Giants are in the playoffs… into the second round… We play the Phillies next week… we have hopes… we have the rally corn… really… Saturday morning while getting ready for our Harvest Festival we (EBRPD staff) found an ear of Indian corn, colored black and orange… we true fans believe this is a sign… can hope…

Third observation…

There was a mining accident in Chile… miners have been trapped underground… their government rallied to the cause… this evening the last miner war brought to the surface, rescued… It is a wonderful event… men (including women) saving men. A celebration of life… A celebration of what we can do when we decide to… I congratulate and celebrate the rescue workers, the Chilean government, and most of all the miners who did so much to rescue themselves. T. and I visited Chile last January… we liked the country, the people… We share your joy.

Loving politics, and comic theater…

Apparently it’s the silly season…

For years, in car racing the “silly season” referred to the end of the racing season when drivers were leaving teams, looking for new teams, for new sponsorship deals… a time of rumor… of deal making…

At the risk of making fun of what is truly important, an election in which our legislators who will guide this country for the next several years are elected… I need to rant and rave…

I am reminded of an old story, a joke, but with a ring of truth…

Many years ago, in Texas, a much younger Lyndon Johnson was running for office… The story varies… in some instances he is running for a county judge. In other versions it is for an assembly seat. In all cases the race is a bare knuckles political fight, apparently once common in local Texas elections…

Texas politics and politicians have a reputation… not a good reputation… Political columnist Molly Ivans once stated that one Texas congressman “was so dumb that if he were any dumber, you'd have to water him twice a day” (this is not to say Lyndon Johnson was dumb, only that Texas politics have a reputation…) Molly found much to comment on in Texas politics…

So the story about Lyndon Johnson says that he asks a friend, his campaign manager to start a rumor that his “Distinguished opponent has had cardinal relations with his barn yard sows…”

According to the story, his friend, his campaign manager asked “do you expect the public to believe that he is a pig F%#ker????” to which Johnson said “no, but I want to hear the bastard deny it”

We are now experiencing an election which includes a divergent political movement… the Tea Party movement… Lead by the unknowing, the uneducated… making pronouncements… about history… (I am a historian… I know history… they don’t, and are getting it wrong…) The Tea Party thinks they are reliving our anti tax history, when patriots dumped English tea into Boston Harbor… One of their national leaders believes she can see Russia from her home near Anchorage, or was it the Governor’s mansion in Juneau, either many thousand miles away from the international boarder…

So their most successful national candidate… Christine O'Donnell, republican candidate for the Roade Island senate seat is now denying that she is … A Witch… Pointy hats, broom sticks, pentagrams and such, a witch…

Lyndon Johnson would be laughing his A@* off…

The back story is that in college, many years ago, she experimented with Wiccaism… As she says, she "began my first night touring a satanic altar. Blood on the altar and everything." But she isn’t a witch… that’s her story… (personally, I will go on record as saying “I strongly believe that Christine O'Donnell has never had a sexual relationship with a pig”… really. I believe…)

The last time witches in New England had national exposure, we were dunking folks in ponds, burning folks at the stake, and generally getting hysterical… maybe not this time… please…

It doesn’t help that the Tea Party is generally to the far right of center, a place shared by conservative Christians… not Wiccans… maybe the polar opposite of Wiccans… might that affect her political ambitions… no more than any number of conservative Christian evangelical preachers who are found to have relationships with gay prostitutes (this is not a reflection on gay prostitutes, but on conservative evangelist preachers…)

The sad part is I am probably more conservative than most… but can’t stand the Republican party and their Tea Party friends… I don’t find them conservative, just angry, cheap, and stupid… I would rather spend time in a Golden Gate park meadow with 300,000 of my closest friends… Some who might be liberals… very liberal…

I want to restart the Bull Moose party of Teddy Roosevelt… a real, constructive conservative movement… I believe Teddy was the best modern conservative to hold national office… really…

We can learn from history… but likely we won’t.