July 11, 2010 by kim.

Chris and I were visiting his family in Fredrick, MD over the 4th of July, and we decided to take a side trip to Gettysburg, PA. I had never been to Gettysburg before and this was a fantastic time to go, since the battle took place from July 1-3 in 1863 and how neat to be in such a historic spot right around the time it happened all those years ago and it was RIGHT THERE, so we went.

We opted to do an audio tour instead of walking around to different battle sites, only because it was in the upper 90s and we thought it would be a shame to see one monument and get heatstroke, thus putting a damper on the whole vacation. We ended up buying a CD from what we thought was the official visitors center, only to find out at the end of the tour that we had entered Gettysburg from a back way and missed the MAIN visitors center which probably had an audio tour CD that didn’t sound like it was from the early 50s. It almost sounded like one of those filmstrips from grade school minus the beep to tell you to change to the next slide. Instead we would hear, “drive left past the stop sign and continue on to the next monument. You should be driving at 15 miles per hour so that what I say matches up with what you see. If you haven’t gotten there yet, turn me off, and turn me on again when you arrive. Then, pull over to the side, and I will tell you more about this monument.”

Weird.

We stopped at many monuments and took many pictures, but we moved quickly so we wouldn’t melt. Then, we came upon Longstreet Tower, named after General James Longstreet. Naturally, we wanted to climb this behemoth, so we tore ourselves from the air conditioned car and began our ascent.

After the first set of stairs, I was already winded. I couldn’t believe it! All the walking I do and one set of stairs almost does me in? Well, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I was determined to get to the top, and get to the top, I did. All 120 steps. Then I sat down for a while to catch my breath. When I finally recovered, I took a couple of pictures.

This is the East View:

Isn’t it pretty?

This is the South View:

Well, the South View sign, anyway, and the parking lot, of course.

Here is a view looking down:

Both interesting and a bit freaky, no?

Finally, the tower itself:

Tall, isn’t it?

What – did you really think I was going to show you monuments and things of that sort? I’m showing you things that people don’t get to see much of. Parking lots, signs, large towers …

Okay, okay. You win. Here’s a monument that I found rather interesting:

No political statements here – I just like the statue.

Isn’t history fun?

Posted in Fun, Holiday, Vacation | No Comments »

January 18, 2008 by kim.

Okay - just one more blog about the Virgin Islands, and then I’ll stop boring you with vacation pictures…until next time…

We saw a lot of different wildlife during our stay. I hope to have a better camera and a quicker hand the next time we travel, as I missed a few things I wanted to take pictures of, and other things didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. For instance - if I had my wits about me at 1:30am on one of our walks to the bathroom in the dark with only a flashlight to lead the way, I would have brought my camera along to take a picture of the hermit crab we saw and almost stepped on.

Instead, I was able to snap a shot of this land crab:

Funny thing about this crab - we heard it before we saw it. It was early in the morning and we heard rustling around our tent. We thought it was a person, or at the very least a deer (which we did see another time, but only got blurry photos). Chris bravely peeked out of the “window” and saw the crab. I got my camera and went out to take a picture. It quickly sidestepped away, but I was able to get close enough for the photo. I then hightailed it back to the tent because it was giving me quite a dirty look, and that claw didn’t look too inviting.

Here are some other animals we were able to see:

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

Bananaquit

Ground Lizard

House Gecko

Iguana

Frangipani caterpillar

Goat from Miss Lucy’s establishment

There were also chickens roaming Miss Lucy’s establishment, but I missed getting pictures of them. Of course.

That wraps up our trip to the Virgin Islands. Many thanks to Wally and Vernie for flying us out there - we had a wonderful, wonderful time and think about Cinnamon Bay every day!

I’d also like to give recognition to Chris who took a number of pictures this trip - specifically, Annaberg Sugar Plantation and surrounding landscape, the goats, the Miss Lucy sign, the airplane and Santa. Thanks Chris!!

Hope you all enjoyed our vacation as much as we did!

Posted in Vacation, Nature, Insects, Animals | No Comments »

January 17, 2008 by kim.

The day we left St. John to go to St. Thomas, it rained. Naturally, as we are inclined to do, we decided to get in a little sightseeing. We went to the Sugar Factory right across from the campsite:

Too bad it was raining. We would have liked to hike the trail around those ruins. We didn’t even know there was a trail there until that day, or we would have taken advantage of it when there wasn’t a downpour.

We checked out of our tent to head to St. Thomas where we would be staying in a hotel for a night before flying back to IL the next day. Before we left, though, we took one last look at the beautiful beach that we would be leaving behind:

We were sad to go, but we couldn’t stay forever. Well, we could, but that would require another move…

At any rate, we made it to the taxi that took us to the ferry that took us to St. Thomas, to take another taxi to the hotel where we were able to flop down on a real bed and take a HOT shower.

I really only camped once before, and it seems to me that the shower there was at least warm, but at this campground, I was rather surprised to find the shower to be ice cold and furthermore, outside:

In hindsight, it really wasn’t that bad, but at the time - I was FREEZING.

After getting all cleaned up, we went to eat at the only restaurant within walking distance of the Best Western. Since it was after Christmas, they still had some decorations up. We thought this Santa was pretty cool:

We spent the rest of the day and the next morning wandering around and taking pictures. We had to check out at noon and the flight wasn’t until almost 4:00pm, so we just hung out in the little airport they have there.

The first leg of the flight went pretty well, but the second leg was delayed going into Chicago due to weather. We didn’t get home until 3:00am (after a short detour to McDonalds).

We were happy to be home, but missed St. John at the same time. I’m sure we’ll go back again.

Soon…

Posted in Vacation | No Comments »

January 17, 2008 by kim.

Yet another installment in the Virgin Islands series…

We had a couple days of glorious weather, and then it began to get stormy. It was still sunny with warm weather, but the water was quite choppy.

No swimming for me. There’s no way I’d get in that water, especially with these warnings posted:

After lunch, Vernie and Wally came down to the beach to enjoy the sand and surf. Vernie and I stayed on the sand. Wally and Chris ventured into the surf.

Did I mention that there were warnings?

Chris almost became that guy. This is how it went:

Chris and Wally brave the water

First of many pummeling waves

Wally goes under

Yet another wave

Chris is engulfed as Wally looks on

The men return to the beach

Thankfully, they made it back to the womenfolk with nary a scratch. I’m not sure about Wally, but Chris spent the rest of the day resting and recovering from the beating the ocean gave him.

One’s life flashing before one’s eyes can be quite exhausting, you know.

Posted in Vacation, Nature | No Comments »

January 14, 2008 by kim.

We’d start our day with breakfast at the T’ree Lizard Restaurant.

We’d sit and relax, read the printout of the NY Times, take in the fresh air, and say “Hi” to the three cats who roamed around the dining area.

They were sweet, and if we wanted to, we could have taken them home. It’s true - you can adopt the strays. They’ve been fixed and everything. We just thought Matilda might try to scratch our eyes out if we pulled a stunt like that, so we refrained.

One of the afternoons on the island (all the days seemed the same to us) Wally and Vernie took us for lunch in Coral Bay to a restaurant they liked called Miss Lucy’s.

The food was good, and I enjoyed watching the chickens and goats wander around the place.

Kim & Chris

Wally & Vernie

Later, we went to the Annaberg Sugar Plantation to walk among the ruins.

Windmill used to grind sugar cane stalks into juice for processing in the early 1800s.

So much history on this island, and we only hit the tip of it. Next time, we’ll plan for more sightseeing.

Beautiful!

(To be continued…)

Posted in Vacation, Animals | No Comments »

January 11, 2008 by kim.

Oh yes, my friends. We actually went on a real vacation! Chris’s folks (Wally & Vernie) bought everyone (siblings, spouses, kids) a trip to the Virgin Islands. Wow. What an amazing gift!

I had no idea what to expect. Our long day of travel started when we woke up at 4:00am, finished packing, drove through the frozen tundra to the airport, caught a flight which didn’t leave on time, missed our connecting flight in San Juan, P.R., caught a later flight on a small plane (puddle jumper) for one of the shortest flights that I’ve ever taken (about 25 minutes), and finally (after about 13 hours) arrived in the Virgin Islands. In the dark.

We waited on St. Thomas for a taxi to take us to the ferry that would take us to St. John where we would be staying with Wally & Vernie. The taxi is more like a suburban that holds 12 people, and they don’t leave until the vehicle is packed. Tight. We eventually got on our way and made it to the ferry just in time.

After about 20 minutes on the ferry, we landed at St. John where Wally picked us up in his rented Jeep Wrangler. He drove us to the cottage in Maho Bay where they were staying, over bumpy, winding, treacherous roads made even more dangerous by the fact that they drive on the left side of the road there. Nerve-wracking!

When we arrived at the cottage, we took out flashlights to maneuver the numerous steps up the hillside to the front door:

Picture these in complete darkness

Imagine our surprise when we walked into a little studio cottage. Wally and Vernie had just gotten there that day and didn’t know that when they specifically requested a cottage with a bedroom and a living room, that it would end up being the SAME ROOM. This meant that we’d be sleeping only 10 feet from the in-laws. Hmmm. That kind of puts a damper on the romance. Time for plan B.

The next day, we started looking for some accommodations of our own. We went down to Cinnamon Bay to see Chris’s brother Eric, sister Linda and nephew Ryan. Eric was staying at the Cinnamon Bay Campground in a cottage, and after we saw it, we thought that it might just suit our needs. Chris went to ask about it, but they had no cottages available. Only tents.

Tents. No toilet. No sink. No electricity. Just an off-the-ground tent and a few cots. Chris didn’t think I’d go for it, but I surprised him, myself and everyone else by agreeing to stay in one.

We were given some options, so we looked around and decided on this tent. Number 10:

See it near the bottom? There is a full map on the Cinnamon Bay website, for your reference

Not too bad, and not too far from the bathrooms. Of course, we didn’t study the map beforehand so that we could go to the bathroom in the middle, not far from we were. No, we went to the ones on the left. Made for a more interesting walk at 1:30am through the woods in pitch blackness.

We went back to the cottage to get the luggage, and Chris carted it from the car to the site:

We got settled and decided that after all that work, we deserved some time swimming in the most beautiful water I’ve ever seen:

Couldn’t you just eat it up?

Stay tuned - it’s not over yet…

Posted in Vacation | No Comments »

January 8, 2008 by kim.

On Tuesday, we went from 8 degrees:

To 80 degrees:

I’ll tell you all about it…soon…

Posted in Vacation, Nature | No Comments »

July 10, 2006 by kim.

On Saturday, Chris and I went to Six Flags Great America (Great ‘Merica in Bush speak). Neither of us had been there in well over 10 years at minimum (almost 20 in Chris’s case). Let me tell you - it has changed. Maybe it was our perspective that changed, but it just didn’t seem as “Great”. Things looked a little run down and in need of paint. Or, we’re not as jazzed about amusement parks as we used to be. We went on a total of 8 rides - 4 rollercoasters, 2 water rides (not at the waterpark), and 2 barely-a-ride rides.

Coasters: Wizzer, American Eagle, Demon, Batman

Water rides: Yankee Clipper, Roaring Rapids

Barely-a-Ride: Scenic Railway, Great American Raceway

http://www.sixflags.com/parks/greatamerica/index.asp

We were doing pretty fine on the rides. The lines weren’t very long at all because we weren’t lining up for the newer ones. The American Eagle (built in 1981) rattled our heads a bit, but we thought that was pretty normal, since the wooden roller coaster has a tendency to be a bit rickety. The water rides were fun and we got soaked. The railway and raceway were nice and slow. We even saw a Tribute to the Stars show - Tina Turner was great; Prince, Britney Spears, Madonna and Elvis…not so hot.

Then came Batman.

I had been on this ride twice before, years ago. Chris had never been on it. It is a very fast ride with a couple of loops and corkscrews. I think the whole ride takes 10 - 15 seconds. Seriously. It was fun, but when it was over, it came to such a fast stop that I didn’t even know where I was for a few seconds. My eyes felt like they were spinning in my head. When we got off the ride, we were both very dizzy. We went to get something to eat (soft pretzel, nachos, coke - $14.00!) and I felt like I was falling to the left while standing there. We sat and ate, and decided to walk around a little. I kept feeling dizzy with slight nausea. We decided that we were done and left to go home. We picked up some sandwiches for dinner (Jimmy Johns subs), but when we got home, neither of us felt like eating. I went to bed at 9:00pm.

My diagnosis - slight, mild concussion.

We still don’t feel quite right. I still have the same symptoms, but less intense. Combine this with the pain in my upper lip / area above my teeth caused by playing peek-a-boo with the cat the day before and smacking my face against the wooden edge of the back of the armchair when she jumped up somewhat unexpectedly right where my face was as I popped up. I’m in great shape.

I think it is safe to say that it will be a very long time before I get on a rollercoaster like Batman (if ever again). I’ll stick to the old-fashioned, rickety, up and down coaster like the American Eagle. Or, something nice and slow like the Scenic Railway.

I must be getting old.

Posted in Vacation | No Comments »