Summer

It's my favorite time of year in Unalaska.  The hills are getting greener and greener by the day, wildflowers are blooming all over the island,  the sun is shining (sometimes) and (hat and gloves to the contrary),  it is 'warm' outside.    Rich and I both went right back to work on Thursday after arriving home on Wednesday evening.  He had a fancy dinner to do and I was running a little behind on organizing our next fun event for Channel 8.   Have you ever seen the show "Cash Cab," where taxi passengers answer trivia questions for money?  We are doing our own version called "Unalaska Prize Ride" on July 18 so I spent Thursday and Friday making phone calls and driving around town to get sponsors and prizes for the show.  As always, Unalaska businesses are very generous and it didn't take long to have a load of goodies to give away.  If you are a local, give us a call or flag us down on the 18th and let's see how smart you are!

Friday evening we went to the deck barbeque at the hotel.   Wednesday night Seafood Buffet is amazing, the Sunday Brunch is fabulous, but my real favorite is the deck barbeque every Friday night during the summer.  There's always a great selection of food and it's fun to sit outside with a group of friends and enjoy the evening.   Which is what we did.

We are back on our healthy kick, eating much less and only good-for-us food.   We both turned 55 on vacation, which means we are entitled to use the Community Center for nothing.  FREE!  I was so excited that I went right over on Friday, got my ID, and walked the track for 45 minutes.   :)    Saturday, Rich worked for several hours and then we decided to take a hike since it was a pretty day.   We drove out up the pass and hiked part of the river valley trail to the Peace of Mind cabin, though we did not have time to go all the way down.   Still, we got a nice little workout to get us back on track.   Driving the rest of the way around the pass, Rich caught this eagle flying over the hill.

One minute the fog was hiding everything from view, and the next minute a nice little window opened up.

Otherwise, we're just catching up on errands and chores and getting back into the routine.  My sister won a ticket to come and visit (you might remember Dan Young having a contest on his blog months ago) and will be spending a week with us in August.   Can't wait!  My niece and nephew want to come with her so I have been trying to work on mileage or companion fare tickets for them.  Of course, it is always WAY too complicated to get tickets to Unalaska.   I couldn't get anything to come together on the Alaska Air website last night.  Today I called AK Air and did NOT get anyone helpful.   So frustrating.   But tomorrow is another day and I know we can work it out eventually.   Think positive thoughts for us!

Finishing up Vacation

These are out of order and some of our photos are missing due to the hard drive tragedy but here's a little bit more of vacation and then I will be done with it!  The first pix are of Charleston.  It was a beautiful city and we enjoyed getting out in the sunshine.  The old homes were gorgeous, as was the landscaping.   Charleston seemed like the real "south" to me and had that old southern charm about it.  

I love old cemeteries.



We always try to stay downtown if possible so we can be in the middle of all the activity and use our feet or public transit instead of driving.   This is the Mills House, which we liked so much that we extended our stay an extra day.  (Thank you again, priceline.com).

The courtyard at the Mills House.

Then on to Charlotte, which had a totally different feel to it.  We again stayed downtown but Charlotte's downtown was a much more modern, business-oriented area.  Lots of banking and commerce going on.  It was pretty but did not have the charm of Charleston.   Everyone was so dressed up, too!  The temperature was hot but all of the bankers and businessmen were walking around in long sleeved shirts, ties, and sometimes jackets.  There was a road show of "Phantom of the Opera" being performed so we also saw lots of people dressed to the nines for the theater.  We stopped at an Italian cafe right on the sidewalk and I felt kind of out of place because all of the other women were in dresses and heels with their makeup and hair done to the max.  Ooops.  

Walking back to the hotel, we caught this little band playing on the corner.  They sounded great!

We had to find a laundromat after so many days of traveling.  

These were on the corner near our hotel.  There was also a small farmer's market right outside the hotel entrance one day, but it was the first day of the season and not too many booths were up.  

The view from our room, reflected.   We actually went to the pool a couple of times in Charlotte.  I even have a little bit of a tan.   :)

One of my former Community Center coworkers now lives outside Charlotte with his family.  I can't keep track of where everyone is so I was surprised to see a note from Frank on facebook saying "I live right near Charlotte--call me!"  We did get to have a chat and catch up with each other on the phone, but he was taking a class and we were heading out so we were not able to get together in person.   I need to be more organized but this road trip was really pretty random and we didn't even decide where we were going next till the night before we left sometimes.  :)   One of my other former coworkers, Shannon,  now lives in Arizona but was coming to Atlanta and staying at our hotel for a conference on the day we left there.  Crazy.   Missed her by a few hours.

Then on to Richmond, which is another beautiful and historic city.  We walked to the State Capitol and wandered the grounds. 



The Court of Appeals.  

Civil Rights Memorial on the Capitol grounds.  I love the quote from Thurgood Marshall.

Downtown Richmond on the 3rd and 4th of July was deserted!  We couldn't get over it.  The streets were empty and there was little activity anywhere we went.   On the morning of the 4th, we drove over to the Carytown district and had a nice little breakfast outdoors at Weezie's.   We had considered going to DC for the 4th of July but decided the road closures, traffic, and crowds would be a nightmare.  We then thought about spending the 4th in Atlantic City before going back to my Mom's, but many hotels were sold out and the rest were hundreds of dollars per night.  We were shocked.  I guess Atlantic City was a prime destination for the holiday...who would have known?   Since we were getting a little road weary anyway, we blew off plans for more travel and headed back to Mom's to visit and relax for the last few days.  

Another great vacation done.  We loved seeing everyone and I was especially happy for all the sunshine and warm weather.  :)  

Back home and where do I begin?

Look how green our little island has become since we left on vacation.   I had to stop along the road today and catch a few photos of the lupines, the green hills, the low clouds and the clear water.  What a beautiful place!

A visiting vessel out by Alaska Ship Supply.

So our vacation is done and we missed more than a week without the computer.   I was going to try to condense but I just have too many photos I want to post so you will have to bear with me!   I will probably have to do two entries to get everything in.  Not only did we miss posting about vacation, we didn't get to talk about the SHOCKING Sarah Palin resignation!  You know there is more to that story.  Just can't wait to hear what it is.   :)   I don't think she got her basketball analogy quite right...she's not exactly "passing the ball," but more like slamming it onto the court in a little hissy fit and going home without finishing the game. 

After our road trip, we went back to my Mom's in New Jersey for a few more days.   My nieces never cashed their birthday checks so we did a little shopping.   Becca picked out a "my little pet shop" case

while Alex bought a Hannah Montana wig and microphone

which her dad and several others had to model.   How do you think my brother looks as a blonde?

Mom and I took a walk around her cute little town, Laurel Springs.  I have always liked all of the old homes there, though this turret house needs a paint job.

Formerly a bed and breakfast, but now a family lives here.

Laurel Lake, where my grandparents "courted."  The poet Walt Whitman spent summers in Laurel Springs and enjoyed taking mud baths here.   His summer home is preserved as a museum in town but we didn't make it over to take a pic.

More interesting homes

The weather was lovely and all the flowers were in bloom along Mom's street.

This was my grandparents' house, which was always our home base when we came back to visit between military assignments.   My mom grew up here, my grandparents lived here till they died, and my brother's family lived here for a couple of years.  I remember there were always lots of flower boxes on the porch, along with big rocking chairs where we would sit and watch the world go by.   We played "step ball" on these steps, caught fireflies in the back yard, picked Grandpop's juicy Jersey tomatoes out of his garden, helped Grandmom hang laundry on the clothesline, and read books on the window seats in the attic.   It makes me sad that strangers live in the house now and I know that my grandparents would not be happy with the condition it's in.  They were always so proud and meticulous about their house and their yard.  

The kids' dad and I rented this house when we lived in Laurel Springs for my two years of grad school at Rutgers. Sarah learned to walk here and Bonnie was born while we lived in this house.  We were only a block away from my grandparents and would walk down to see them regularly, eat lunch with them, and pick Grandpop up for walks with Sarah in her stroller.   The present owners have really done a lot of work and it looks completely different than when we were there.  I couldn't even see into the back yard because it's all landscaped with tall bushes and has a fence around it.  For years, we could still see the sticker we'd put in Sarah's bedroom window that would let the firefighters know there was a child in the room in case of an emergency.  :)  But times march on and that's not there any more, either.

Laurel Springs Elementary School where I attended part of 5th grade before moving to Germany.   When my sister and I attended, this was the girls' entrance.  Girls and boys were not allowed to mingle.  :)

This is the Philadelphia skyline as we drove back into the city to leave on Tuesday.   Our time in Jersey was pleasant and relaxing.  Rich and I made a pilgrimage to our teenage stomping grounds, saw the house his family lived in, drove along the back road behind McGuire AFB, observing that they are tearing down all of the base housing which made me think that any last little remnants of our existence there will now be eliminated.  Is this sounding like a melancholy post?!  Just thinking about the passage of time and how everything changes.   I know many people think of New Jersey as a very industrial state but we were surrounded by beautiful green fields, farmland and forests.  Unfortunately, the camera battery was dead.  :) We kept looking for people we knew but the closest we got was recognizing the name on a woman's tshirt when we stopped at a farmer's market to purchase peaches, plums and cherries.  We didn't have the nerve to ask her if she was married to a guy we went to high school with.  Someone pulled into my ex boyfriend's driveway right as we drove by but we didn't stop.  I guess we didn't want to seem too pitiful, stuck in the past.  LOL

Mom and I got pedicures, she made her world famous spaghetti, we went out for "frozen custard," we sat on the deck to eat breakfast and bask in the sunshine.  The weather was gorgeous the whole time.  

My cute nieces Alex and Becca riding along to the Amtrak station in Philly to see us off.

Philadelphia, near the train station

My adorable nephew Billy. 

My sister in law Patty, her kids, and my mom took us to Philly to catch the train to Newark for our flight(s) home.  We were told to be at Amtrak an hour ahead of time, so we dutifully showed up at 2 PM, obtained our tickets, and were instructed to wait in "line 3" to go to our train.  We lined up behind a bunch of other people and were sent down an escalator.  The man checking tickets got confused about the train numbers, but when I said, "Newark?" he replied "yes," and told us to go ahead.  We got downstairs and realized we were just going to be sitting on a bench next to the track for an hour.  Rich decided to go upstairs and look for magazines while I sat with all of our luggage (we thought we would be able to check our bags, but NO). Shortly, all of the people downstairs got on a train and left.  I was sitting there by myself when an Amtrak employee came over and asked "are you waiting for a train or something?"   Me: "Yes."  Amtrak guy: "What time?"  Me: "3."  Amtrak guy: "THREE?!!  Why are you down here?"  Me: "We just checked in and came down here to wait."  Amtrak guy:  "You are not supposed to be down here till it's time for your train."  Me: "I'm sorry, no one told us that and the guy at the line let us come down.  Do you want me to leave?  My  husband is upstairs...I don't think I can carry all this stuff myself."  Amtrak guy: "You are not supposed to be here.  Let me see your ticket."  Me:  "My husband has our tickets in his pocket.  Do I need to leave?"  Amtrak guy:  "Well, they  might change the track for your train.  I don't know."  Me: "Do I need to leave or not?"  Amtrak guy: "No, I guess you are all right."  Walks off.  No one else in sight. I try to read my magazine but I am a little nervous.  I call Rich on his cell phone.  Luckily he has it with him--I figured it would start ringing in the backpack in front of me.  :)  He says he is upstairs and they won't let him come back down because it's not time for our train yet.  LOL  

I read some magazines and call my kids while I sit there.  Eventually Rich talks a woman into letting him come back down but she tells him he's too early for his train and DON'T GET ON THAT TRAIN that's coming right now.   He says the people upstairs seemed very annoyed with him for not knowing what was expected.    However, no one explained anything to us and how were we to know that only one trainload of people at a time is allowed to go down to the tracks?!  The woman who gave us our tickets was extremely friendly but she sure did not give us all the info we needed.  How hard would it have been to explain the procedures?    Needless to say, after the experience Aidan and I had with Amtrak workers in Newark, this did not go over too well.  I am thinking Amtrak needs some customer service training for its employees.  

So eventually our train did come and we loaded up all of our luggage without any major issues; at least this train was not packed and there was room for our suitcases without having to struggle to squeeze them into a tiny space and thankfully no one bawled us out for not doing it right and no one gave us any pearls of wisdom like "see, there's always a solution."  LOL

It's only an hour train ride to Newark, where we caught the tram to our terminal and got on board Alaska Air bound for Seattle.  I had the dreaded middle seat and it was a very LOOOONNNNNNGGGGG 5 hour, 36 minute flight.   We had a little layover in Seattle and then off to Anchorage on an Alaska Air "combi," which carries freight in the front and passengers in the back.  I was in the middle seat again but at least it was only a 3 hour flight.  Then the real fun--arriving in Anchorage at 2:21 AM and having to sleep in the airport till our flight home the next morning.  Not my favorite thing to do but we did manage to get some rest, had breakfast, and went to Pen Air to wait.   I didn't know a soul there, which is highly unusual!  We had to stop in BOTH King Salmon and Cold Bay, something I have never done before.   Supposedly we were "heavy" and needed fuel but we also noted they were unloading cargo in Cold Bay.  After all that, our three hour flight turned into almost five.   Were we happy to be home?  You betcha.

Computer Issues

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to say we won't be posting much for the rest of our vacation. The hard drive on my laptop has crashed and tech support has not been able to come up with a solution that we can implement while on the road. In fact, a new hard drive is being shipped to my mom's so we can switch it out when we get back to Jersey. It really frustrates me since this was a brand new computer that my job just purchased for me a couple of months ago. Not only have I probably lost all of my work documents, but all of our vacation photos, which is--of course--the more upsetting to me. No offense to my job.

We left Atlanta on Sunday and drove to Augusta, where we met up with our old high school friend, Terri. We had a very nice visit with Terri and her sweet little mama, had a great lunch at a local spot, and a sightseeing tour of old Augusta. Thanks, Terri, for lots of fun!

From Atlanta, we drove to Charleston, where we are staying at the Mills House Inn right downtown. We parked the car on Sunday and have not been in it since. We've walked a lot and took a bus tour of the historic sights in Charleston, which taught me a great deal of information I never knew or I had forgotten. :) John Calhoun, "the original Rebel" is buried here--he apparently wanted to secede from the Union long before the Civil War ever happened. Our tour guide also told us about some early "Indian troubles," stating, "they were not our friends." I said to Rich, "No, WE were not THEIR friends," and the guide halfway overheard me and made me repeat it for the whole bus. Nothing like getting identified as the resident trouble maker right off the bat. He did acquiesce, "Well, if anyone has any right to complain, it's the Indians." I wanted to take a walking tour called "Slavery and Freedom," but we have not been able to get an answer on the phone to make a reservation, so that is probably out. Last night, we had a fabulous dinner at the Peninsula Grill, one of Charleston's best and most well known restaurants. Today we are going to do some more walking and visit one of the old historic homes, plus we need to do some laundry before we head out tomorrow. We had a ton of great photos that I cannot post now so you will just have to imagine Charleston. It is definitely old southern charm defined. Having a wonderful time other than computer withdrawal. If you are on facebook, check with me there since I will probably be more able to write a quick update instead of a blog entry.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far. I am soaking up the sun. Nice!

Hotlanta!

Saturday we went to Piedmont Park for the weekly farmer's market. The day was very sunny and hot.


I bought a pair of locally made earrings and, while in Georgia, of course we had to try the Georgia peaches, which did not disappoint!

Flowers are in bloom all over the city.

After the market, we went to lunch in a little tavern near the park and then drove to the Carter Center. I wanted to see Jimmy Carter's library and museum and especially the Center, which works on peace and justice issues. Unfortunately, everything was closed for remodeling so we just looked around the grounds.

The Freedom Parkway stretches from the Carter Center to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, which was our next stop. The Site includes a large center dedicated to educating people about Martin Luther King's life and the Civil Rights struggle. It was fascinating and moving to see recreations of events that occurred during our growing up years, while listening to some of King's words playing in the background. Seeing signs that said "whites only" reminded me of my own life as a child in another part of Georgia. It is still hard for me to believe that, as a society, we were comfortable treating people so cruelly.

This is the house where Dr. King was born.

And the gravesite where he and his wife Coretta Scott King are both buried. It was a very hot day but there were throngs of people walking in the hot sun to visit this site, school classes, families wearing their reunion Tshirts, church groups and travelers. It just made me think that the dream is still alive and maybe there are enough of us to change the way of the world.

A view of downtown from the MLK site.

Walking to the Ebenezer Baptist Church.


This is where I want to work: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. :)


From there, we went to Underground Atlanta, which is basically a mall under the city where there are still some old Civil War era buildings and streets. It was interesting to see the historical information but otherwise not all that impressive.

Yes, according to the Coca Cola building, it was 94 degrees. Not too bad!

We had dinner at a place called Pittypat's Porch, which also serves "southern" style food. We had fried chicken, ribs, black eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread, biscuits, mashed potatoes, salad bar and desserts of pecan pie and bread pudding. We were miserable afterwards. We have got to stop eating so much!

Back at the hotel, we watched "Gran Torino" on pay per view. This is an excellent movie by Clint Eastwood. See it if you have not already!

Today we drove to Augusta and had lunch with our old high school friend Terri, then on to Charleston where we are spending the next two nights. I'll add more photos and catch up on those portions of the trip tomorrow.

Leaving Asheville and on to Atlanta

Here are few more sights as we headed out of Asheville. I wanted breakfast and we ended up in West Asheville at the coolest little cafe where we sat out on the patio and chatted with our server. She was wearing a pink tutu with shorts under it, then had cut off a pair of pants and made little leg sleeves out of the pant legs, tied with ribbon, worn over combat boots. Loved it! Come to find out she grew up in Kenai. Her parents are still there.

Should have taken a picture of her but we left the camera in the car. Breakfast was divine--I had breakfast bread pudding with a hot compote of fresh blueberries and whipped cream on top. All home made. Rich wanted to know what made it "breakfast" bread pudding. Just the time of day, I guess. He was teasing me about having dessert for breakfast. It was delicious. And, of course, I had to have sweet tea. Man, I am going to be a sweet tea addict by the end of this trip.

We saw this on the road as we were leaving.

On to the gorgeous Blue Ridge Parkway.



We took back roads through the hills of NC and boy, did some of them wind around like crazy. It made the trip a lot slower but we really didn't mind too much. We finally arrived in Atlanta yesterday evening. We had pricelined a room and got the Marriott Marquis downtown for $75. We love priceline! We are on the 39th floor with a nice view of the city. Last night we walked to the Sweet Auburn Bistro where we had wonderful "southern" food--fried chicken, pork chops, mac&cheese, collard greens, cornmeal pancakes, peach cobbler and strawberry shortcake. Oh, and sweet tea. We could hardly walk back to the hotel.

Asheville, NC

We arrived in Asheville yesterday afternoon and got a room just off downtown so we can walk anywhere we want to go. Lots of cute shops, cafes, restaurants, and interesting sights to see. At Malaprop's, a local independent bookstore, we bought several more books to add to our collection, including one called Nikolski that I accidentally came across. It's a novel by a Canadian author named Nicolas Dickner and involves several characters who all have a sort of loose connection to the Aleutian island. Weird, huh? Later, we had dinner at a little place called Salsa which served Mexican-Caribbean food.

Today we slept in, then walked to the Tupelo Honey Cafe for breakfast (me) or lunch (Rich). I had some yummy sweet potato pancakes with peach butter and candied pecans. Not to mention the southern special--sweet iced tea. I usually don't sweeten my tea but when in the south, what can you do? And I have to say that people in the south definitely know how to make iced tea!

We stopped in the 10,000 Villages shop and bought a few little things, then back to a local artisans shop that we had scoped out yesterday and purchased a nicely carved rolling pin for Rich, some soaps, and some photo greeting cards, all made by local folks. We love supporting the community we're visiting.

The Basilica St. Lawrence
This guy was guarding the entrance to the market.

The view as we walked back to our hotel

We've had a lazy and relaxing day. I sat out by the pool with my book till I started feeling like I was burning and probably needed to go inside. I think it's in the 80's today--I'm loving it! Went to the hotel bar and ordered up some iced tea (sweet, no doubt) to take to the room. Now we are considering dinner.