Connecticut

We spent the last week in Connecticut, mostly just hanging out at the relaxing country campground where we're staying. It's such a lovely setting; so green, lots of trees, two ponds on the property where Tom did a bit of fishing.


We did manage an exploratory drive through Rhode Island, driving up around Providence and then down to Newport before returning to Connecticut. I've got to say, other than Newport we were not enamored of the state. Just seemed to darned crowded to us. So many people for such a little state.



We also spent a day in Mystic, Connecticut which is a charming sea port town that we really enjoyed. And of course while we were there, we had to eat lunch at Mystic Pizza (of movie fame.) Very good pizza but I still haven't found anything to beat Geraldo's Pizza in Fairbanks. Funny that the best pizza I've ever eaten was in Alaska of all places.


Tomorrow we move on again. We'll be driving about 120 miles north to Salisbury, Massachusetts. The RV park we'll be staying at is only 1/2 mile from the ocean. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll get some good beach weather.

New York

This week we are staying at a membership park in Wurtsboro, New York; just a little bit south of the Catskill State Park in the lower elevations of the Catskill Mountains. It's a very green, heavily wooded area that kind of reminds us of Alaska.

It's also about 80 miles northwest of New York City where our niece Lorrie lives. On Saturday evening, Lorrie took a train up to visit with us for the night and Sunday afternoon. We loved seeing her again. We realized it's been about 4 years since we'd seen her last.



We drove her back to the city late Sunday afternoon. Now that was quite an adventure. Talk about traffic jams. Wow. Bumper to bumper cars the whole way once we got near the George Washington Bridge. And that was on a Sunday. I can't even imagine what it must be like during the week. We got to see Lorrie's small but charming and cozy apartment and meet her adorable kitty cat before we had to head back.

Still bumper to bumper traffic until we got back over the George Washington Bridge. Then the congestion eased, but I somehow managed to miss an off ramp and had to circle back around to get on track again. Which would have been no big deal, but it meant I had to go through a toll booth. Which would have been no big deal, it was only one dollar, but we're such rookies at that kind of thing, we didn't know the "exact change" lane meant exact coins not bills. We had a dollar bill ready but once we got up to the gate we saw a big bowl sort of thing to toss your coins into, but nowhere to put a dollar bill and no human toll taker anywhere nearby. We scrambled to find a dollar in coins. No luck. Now what? It's not possible to turn around and traffic was lining up behind us so we couldn't back up and go into a different lane. Finally I noticed a sign that read "If coin reader fails, honk horn, wait 10 seconds, then proceed." So that's what I did. I honked, counted to 10 and drove off. Hopefully we won't get a ticket in the mail a month from now.

Amish Country

We drove about 80 miles east yesterday to Kinzers, PA - a town in Lancaster County in the heart of Amish Country. Today we took a sight seeing drive around the area and marveled at all the beautiful farmland. Barns, silos, farm houses, fields of corn and other crops, grazing cows and horses as far as the eye can see. And in some areas almost as many horse and buggies as cars. I just loved the horses they use for their buggies. These are not the large heavy draft horses used for plowing. These are sleek, long legged, high stepping beauties. We were impressed with the simple, yet hard working way of life lived by the Amish people.

Chocolate!

Yesterday we visited Hershey, Pennsylvania, home of Hershey's Chocolate Company. I was disappointed to learn tours of the actual factory are no longer available to the general public. Instead you go through a sort of "faux factory" with simulations and video of the various processes involved in creating Hershey bars, Reeses, and Kisses. It was interesting, but not the same as seeing the real thing.

We did enjoy the trolley tour through town where the guides told us much about the life of Milton Hershey. He was a man to be admired, investing much of his personal fortune to keep the town prospering during the great depression as well as founding a school for orphans that still operates today to benefit underpriveleged children.

Williamsburg, Monticello and D.C.

Wow, the Williamsburg area was exhausting. But fun and fascinating too. We spent five days immersed in colonial and revolutionary history while we explored Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia.

From there we went a couple hours north to Charlottesville, VA where we toured Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. I learned quite a few things I never knew about our 3rd President. The man was a genius.

After three days in Charlottesville, we are continuing our U.S. history lessons in our nation's capitol. We are currently at an RV park in College Park, MD, just a few miles outside of Washington D.C. We've been on the go every day. So far we've toured the Capitol Building, wandered around the Library of Congress, sat in the courtroom of the Supreme Court Building, viewed most of the war memorials as well as the Washington and Lincoln monuments, seen the White House, and explored several of the Smithsonian Museum buildings. And in the middle of all that, we managed to squeeze in a day at the AT&T National Golf Tournament hosted by Tiger Woods in Bethesda, Maryland. We saw Tiger make two of the seven birdies he got on the first day of the tournament. Along with other notables, we also got to see Vijay Singh play a few holes. We only have two days left here and there's no way we'll be able to see everything on our list before our time is up. We'll have to come back someday.

There is more I want to say about all these places, along with pictures we want to share, but we're just feeling so overwhelmed with all this tourist activity, we can't yet find the words. We'll expand on this entry when things slow down for us a bit. But we wanted to at least give you all an overview of what we've been doing.

So Long South Carolina

We've been in Myrtle Beach for a few weeks now and have really enjoyed our time here. We spent most of our days just hanging out at the beach which was very relaxing. Well, mostly relaxing. There was that one day where the lifeguard called everyone out of the water due to a shark sighting.

We also went to the Gospel Brunch one morning at the House of Blues which we loved. Wonderful music and great food. We were both so stuffed by the time we left, we could barely move the rest of the day. I've sworn off buffets - at least until the next one.

Wilmington, North Carolina, another historic port town is about 60 miles north of MB and we drove up there one day to explore the riverfront area.

All good things must come to an end, or in our case at least move on to another good thing. Tomorrow we head to Williamsburg, Virginia.

Beach Fun

We took a walk along the beach at low tide the other evening and discovered some fascinating little creatures called coquinas. (koh-keen-uh .... accent on the keen) The waves wash them up onto the sand and they look like pretty little multi-colored pebbles. Then the "pebbles" seem to sink down into the sand and disappear. On closer look though, you can see that these pebbles are actually alive and purposely burying themselves.













We also walked up to one of the fishing piers, giving us a good view down the coast line. We enjoyed seeing what the locals were catching, an angel fish of some kind, a mackerel and even a baby shark (which was promptly thrown back).




It sure is fun living in a beach town for a couple of weeks. I can see us spending a whole summer here at some point in the future.

Tomorrow, we plan to spend the afternoon at the beach again. Oh, the monotony.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

We arrived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Tuesday. It's a beach resort vacation community at the northern end of the South Carolina coast. As we were driving along the highway through town, we were amused to see what seemed like a miniature golf course and/or a beach/surf/souvenier shop at every corner. We are currently staying at the Myrtle Beach State Park. The camping area is only about 1/2 a mile from the beach so we've been able to spend quite a bit of time enjoying the sun and surf and walks beside the waves with the dogs.



We decided we wanted to slow down a little on our trip up the east coast, so we're going to stay here for another couple of weeks. Our reservation at the state park was only for 5 days, which is up on Sunday, so then we are moving about 15 miles up the highway to a "regular" RV park. It's not on the beach, but close to the water and I'm assuming we'll find a public beach close by.


We'll have to test our putting skills at one of those mini-golf places.

Plantations

We visited the only working tea plantation in North America. Currently owned by Bigelow Tea, it is located on Johns Island, one of the necklace of islands surrounding Charleston. I guess I never really thought much about it, but a tea bush looks nothing like I would have thought. It looks like any generic shrub. Only the new growth is harvested to make the tea, so they have a machine created specifically for that purpose. It is driven down the rows of plants and any new growth shooting up from the top is cut off and collected in the bin at the rear.

Aside from growing and harvesting the tea there, they also process it. We toured the factory and learned how tea goes from a freshly harvested leaf, to the final product, all within about a 24 hour period, with black, oolong and green tea all coming from the same plant. Very interesting.



From there we drove about 10 miles north to the Magnolia Plantation along the Ashley river, which grew rice in pre-civil war days. The owner at that time, John Grimke Drayton, an Episcopal minister, became an avid gardener when he was advised to spend more time outside for his health. The grounds of the plantation are famous for their extensive gardens. We spent about two hours walking the beautiful grounds. Unfortunately, our timing was off. While the azaleas, hydrangeas, magnolias and some lilys were blooming, there are also hundreds of camelia bushes throughout the gardens and they were past their prime. I can only imagine how spectacular the gardens must look when they are blooming.



Also open for tours is the plantation house. I was eager to see it until I found out it was actually the third house on the grounds. While the story of the house is interesting, it is not the 300 year old house I was hoping to see. The original house was destroyed by a lightening strike and the second was burned when the union soldiers came through the area during the civil war. This third house was originally a cottage located further up the river. After returning to the plantation at the end of the civil war, John Drayton dismantled it, floated it down the river and rebuilt it on the foundation of the old house. It was added to over the years and generations of the family continued to live in it until about 1975.

Charleston, South Carolina

Yesterday we traveled to Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is on a penninsula with the Ashley and Cooper rivers on either side and the Atlantic ocean at the point. Like Savannah, Charleston is another town steeped in Civil War history. In fact Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, is located at the mouth of Charleston's harbor.

Charleston has a historic district that is similar in a lot of ways to Savannah. We took a tour on a horse drawn carriage which was fun and interesting. In colonial times, the city was known for its religious freedom and tolerance and attracted people of all faiths. However, unless you were from the official Church of England, you could not call your building a church. They were usually referred to as "meeting houses." Two of the longest streets in Charleston are named Meeting Street and Church Street.

Many of the homes built along the water front are narrow on the street side, but go quite deep into the property. This was to take advantage of the ocean breezes for cooling the house. The first air conditioning.


Then we took a harbor cruise tour, which took us past Fort Sumter. From the water, you can see the many church steeples that gave the town it's nickname of "The Holy City."

Savannah Historic District

We spent the day exploring the historic district in downtown Savannah today. We started with a guided "orientation" tour aboard a motorized trolly, then continued on our own on foot. Such beautiful old buildings and these lovely "squares" every few blocks that are mini parks with gorgeous old live oaks, fountains, statues or monuments, very cool. This slide show contains the various building and park square pictures we took.


This is the house General Sherman lived in during his occupation of Savannah in the Civil War.

And this flower bed is where the bus stop bench was located for the filming of the movie Forest Gump.

And this is Paula Dean's Lady and Sons restaurant where we had lunch. All three floors are in use as dining rooms, each with slightly different decor. We were on the third floor by a window. We opted for the buffet which is just good old country cooking - fried chicken, sweet potatoes, black eyed peas, collard greens, mac n cheese, lima beans....It was a good choice for today. The weather was rather dreary, clouds, rain, unseasonably cold. So comfort food was just what we needed. All was delicious. The collard greens were my favorite. I've only tasted them once before and I liked them well enough, but Paula's are awesome.



We could spend days strolling around here, but tomorrow we plan to visit a couple of forts that were key in defending the Savannah river during the civil war.

Rain, Rain Go Away....

It rained all night and was still at it this morning. Even our froggies wanted to come inside.

Georgia on My Map

We crossed the border into Savannah, Georgia today. We had a few sprinkles along the way on the drive up, but the moment Tom parked the motorhome at the registration area for this RV park, the skies opened up and let loose with an absolute deluge of rain. We were soaked to the skin by the time we got the motorhome parked in our space and set up. It has let up some now, but the rain is still falling pretty steadily so we'll just stay inside and dry out tonight.

The weather forecast for this area looks pretty dismal for the entire four days we're supposed to be here. Hope we get at least a little break from the rain so we can enjoy exploring Savannah. But whatever happens, we WILL get to Paula Dean's restaurant while we're here!

Beach Stroll

We took a nice long walk along the beach today. I realized this was the first time I'd been in the Atlantic ocean. The news last night said the water was around 78 degrees. After the first shock of cold on my feet and legs I thought they were full of baloney. But I quickly got used to it and maybe the news was right. We should have worn our suits!

Jacksonville, Florida

Today we moved to Jacksonville, Florida which is just south of the Georgia border and on the coast. We are staying at Hannah Park. The trees and vegetation are so lush and thick it's like a jungle in here . It's hard to imagine the beach is only about a half a mile away. We haven't been out to see the ocean yet. We'll do that tomorrow.

Ignore the Bug on Your Dashboard

Saturday we went to see the new movie Star Trek. Great movie for anyone who was even a slight fan of the old Star Trek. And it will probably win over a whole new generation of fans too. We loved it.

But on the way home, we were slowing for a red light in front of us and - crunch - our car was rear-ended. The gal driving the minivan that hit us said she was distracted by a bug on her dashboard. She was trying to kill it and hit us instead. It would be funny if it wasn't so annoying.

Luckily no one was seriously injured and the damage to the Saturn is pretty minor. A bit of a dent and a few scratches in the bumper. The estimator came out to the RV park today and looked at it. "Only" $1500. Amazing how fast it adds up because to look at it, it doesn't look too bad.

Repairs will have to wait though since we won't be anywhere for more than 5 or 6 days at a time for the rest of the summer. Thank God the damage is small enough that we CAN wait.

Bye Bye Mickey

Today we said goodbye to Disneyworld. It's been a fabulous stay, but we were ready to move on. We drove about 80 miles north to the Grand Lake Golf and RV Resort in Citra, Florida. Our friends Doug and Karen have stayed here before and recommended it. It's a nice park with a golf course so that is sure to keep us entertained.

Last Day

Today is our last day here at Disneyworld. We spent the afternoon at the Magic Kingdom park returning to our favorite rides and attractions. And we timed it so we'd be able to see the big afternoon parade. We'd seen the night-time light parade a few days before, but I don't have pictures of that. Nothing really came out in the dark. But here's a few photos from today.

Birthday at Disneyworld

Today is my birthday and it's hard to imagine a better place to spend it. Since we already had 10 day admission passes, they couldn't give me free admission on my birthday, so I was given a $75 gift card instead. Not too shabby, huh? And I was given a button to wear so everyone knew it was my birthday. I've never had so many people wish me Happy Birthday before.

We started the day at the Animal Kingdom so we could visit all the animals again. And so we could go back to their Broadway style production Finding Nemo - The Musical.

It's hard to describe this charming and magical stage show. Performed by live actors using colorful and imaginative theatrical puppets, this was definitely among my favorite experiences at Disneyworld. Here's a small clip of the "Fish are Friends not Food" number.

After a short stop back home to walk the dogs, we then went to the Magic Kingdom park for another ride on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. And of course, another chance to watch the awesome fireworks show.

It's been a very happy birthday.

Hollywood Studios

The only theme park we hadn't been to yet was Hollywood Studios, so today that was our destination. Hollywood Studios has a few rides, like The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and my absolute favorite, The Rock 'n' Roller Coaster staring Aerosmith along with a studio back-lot tour, some live musical shows and stunt shows and more. I've been having problems with motion sickness on some of the rides, so it was with a bit of trepidation that I got in line for the roller coaster. But my mom reminded me to take Dramamine beforehand, so I was crossing my fingers that would work. Thank God for Mom and Dramamine because I don't know if I would have survived without them. This super high speed ride is a doozy. It takes place in almost complete darkness and includes several loops and corkscrews all while some of Aerosmiths greatest hits are blasting in your ear. Awesome ride.

The stunt driving show was interesting and had some exciting moments too. Besides showing off amazing driving skills, they revealed some of the secrets of how they create certain effects. For instance they demonstrated a chase scene with the "hero" driving backwards much of the time. Turns out they had a special car with the driver facing the rear of the car. So even though it appeared the car was moving backwards, the driver was going forward.


We have now been to all four of the theme parks here at Disneyworld and still have another 5 days to go back and revisit our favorite things as well as the attractions we missed the first time around. Somehow I don't doubt we'll still be busy every day.