Home at last

We were listening to a Chicagoland radio station as we got closer to home and they cut in with a tornado warning for our town - ~100 miles away. The wife called her dad and the storms were nasty and moving fast. Since we were so close to my sister-in-laws house we stopped there and waited out the storm. Good thing as it was bad. Even had a tornado a few blocks away. After it passed we headed home.

No power once we got there. That came back around 2:00am. Internet access around 10:00am. Nice vacation but I'm glad to be home

On the way home

On the way home now. We're near a lake and a noisy musuem.



The GPS was helpful today. Readings maps to find the hotel is so yesterday!

OTOH the GPS allowed us to find the wife's moms home in the middle of nowhere, PA and get back to the interstate.

In the middle of nowhere

Really. No Where. It's so close to no where that the nearest Wal-Mart is a 25 minute drive.



On the other hand once your GPS knows where your condo is you can go exploring. That is a blast!

Road Trip

Hit the road for a little vacation with the whole family.



Driving with a GPS is fun. This is the end of day 1.

Mellow Mushroom

Seen in Franklin, Tennessee. Thing1's first thought was "hippies". In reality its a pizza place.

Summer Vacation

Two of them: one with the family and one just with Thing2.

The family is going to Tennessee in June. Something about the Country Music Fan Fest or something like that. The wife will have fun and the rest of us, well, we find something to do.

The trip Thing2 and I will be taking is a bit different. Our church's senior high youth leader is working on a trip to the Gulf Coast (probably Mississippi) to work with Lutheran Disaster Relief in rebuilding homes.

Have you ever had something come up in your life that you just felt you had to do? Thats how I felt last night when the leader was describing the trip. Like many Americans I donated money post Katrina and Rita. But that seems distant. Spending a week there actually having a positive impact on someones life? That is just too awesome of a challenge to pass up. I hope everything works out so we can go.

Mississippi in July - should be a bit on the warm side. Probably humid as well. Can't wait!

An evening at the Fair

The wife decided a few weeks back that we should go to the fair. Ok - I've never been to a county fair and I was still on vacation so off we went.

There was the usual chickens and roosters, pigs and cows, horses and elephants.

Yes - elephants. A African and a Indian. Very well mannered and trained.





Couldn't talk Thing2 into a ride after this.

There was a real reason we were here. His name was Trace Adkins. Both the wife and her sister are huge fans so the wife bought tickets (8th row) for all of us. My sister-in-law drove up from Hammond with her husband just for the show. Nice thing about the field we were in - it was mud. We've gotten a lot of rain the past few days so the fair organizers had put mulch down to that were aisles to walk in. Didn't help the seating that much.

Trace puts on a pretty good show. Mixes it up quite a bit tossing in some blues and classic rock tunes (imagine songs from Foreigner). The crowd got real quiet during Arlington. Very powerful song. He followed that up with a new song that is just as patriotic.







Everyone (even Thing1 and 2) seemed to like it. This was part of a bargain for Thing2 - she and the wife are going to see Jesse McCartney next weekend at the DuPage County Fair. Me and Thing1? We'll be eating pizza.

Vacation - Day 12 - July 18th - Home

Took off and headed home. Tried to time around the Hammond traffic snarl but it didn't work out. However traffic moved nicely and we were home by 6:15pm.

After 2100 miles the only traffic accident occurred was 15 minutes from home.

We were on the exit ramp from 290 to Thorndale Avenue. Two lanes turning left. We were in the left lane second from the light. Turns green and after a few seconds we start to move. The car in the right lane and first at the light gets hit by someone running the light. This was 3 or 4 seconds after we got the green.

Made it home, ordered some pizza, and collapsed.

No place like home.

Vacation - Day 11 - July 17th - Youngstown, Ohio

Took off from NYC about 9:30am. Pain getting out of the hotel as the elevator was jammed every time we needed it. The parking garage got the van pretty quickly. Once we were loaded we were out of the city in ~10 minutes. Cruised through New Jersey and Pennyslvania. Stopped in Youngstown for dinner at the Waffle House and found some cheap (for today) gas.



According to some locals this area always has the cheapest gas in the country.

Stopped at a Country Inn for the night. Nice place. The wife had something interesting happen.

First some background. The wife attended high school and college in Arizona. One of the people she knew from there lives in East Stroudsburg, PA which wasn't far from the resort we were staying in. She tried calling the number listed for his parents and got his mom. He wasn't home (on vacation with his family) so she left a message. Well at the hotel in Youngstown she saw someone she thought she recognized. Turns out if was her friend and his family. However the friends wife wouldn't let them talk. Bummer for both of them.

Vacation - Day 10 - July 16th - Times Square

We decided to go out and wander Times Square again. Never know what you'll see. It was a bit quieter than Saturday but still interesting. We came across a painter who had his work for sale.



Pretty impressive considering all he used was spray paint, newspaper, cardboard, and a putty knife. Thing1 bought his first piece of artwork!

I'm a big fan of AMD procs. Both at home and at work. This billboard updated every minute.



We walked around for a bit and called it a night. Our feet were tired. Time to call it a night.

Vacation - Day 10 - July 16th - 5th Avenue

The wife and Thing1 like to take a trip to Michigan Avenue in Chicago every Christmas. Wander the stores we'll never be able to afford. Since we were close to 5th Avenue and its shopping off we went.

Lots of expensive stores. We didn't go into most of them as the people inside, well, kinda looked down their noses at us. On the other hand we did go into Tiffianys and looked at rings that had prices tags on them over $650,000.00. The sales people were quite polite. Incredibly friendly as well.

Thing1 wanted to go into the Nintendo store. They had a musuem upstairs where we found this.




Solid stuff there.

At the upper end of 5th is Central Park. What a oasis. It was 95 in NYC and it seemed like 15 degrees cooler in the park. Beautiful place. Wandered around a bit and decided to head back towards Times Square.



I found a way to park in no parking zones too. Just need the right plates.



Thing2 had found a Build-A-Bear coupon in the local paper. We wander down to the store and she finds the perfect bear.



Since hunger pains were making people cranky we looked for food. The wife and I wanted something local but the kids wanted something generic. Picked a TGI Fridays and went in. After one look at the menu we decided that it was appetizers. A burger that is $7.95 at the Fridays in Hoffman Estates was $18.95. A bottle of Miller Lite was $6.80. What a rip. I'll never eat there again.

Time for a bit of a rest and more wandering Times Square.

Vacation - Day 9 - July 15th - Hotel NYC

Now we had to find our car and head uptown. Did I mention that traffic in Manhattan sucks? Road work at 5:00pm on a Saturday closing 2 lanes for 30 yards? This place has to be a complete disaster on week days. Found the hotel and parked. Three days of parking here will be almost $100.00. Ended up having to use a porter from the hotel. What a rip. Checked in - twice as much as I'm used to paying for a room. I'm sure there are cheaper places but not where we wanted to be. It was entertaining playing dodge-em with taxis ... and surviving!

Had dinner at Ray's Pizza. Very good pie. Good sauce and plenty of garlic. Then we walked around Times Square.

Big and Rich have it right - freak parade. What a strange and wonderful place.







All kinds of people



I must have heard 15 different languages. Lots of NYPD around as well. They have a small station right in the square.



There is also a military recruiting station in the square.



If you're ever in NYC wander Times Square at night. Just dont wander to far off the square.

Vacation - Day 9 - July 15th - WTC

After the trip to the islands we headed over to the WTC site. Hard to believe it was almost five years ago. There were thousands of people around the site and touring the church that acted as a refuge for the workers. It was a very moving experience.

Do you remember the cross that was found in the wreckage? It's still there.



We walked around the site. It was like reliving the day. People were talking about what they were doing on September 11, 2001. We visited Trinity Church. It still has a lot of the memorials that were left when Broadway was reopened after 9/11.

The kids were starting to get a bit hungry. Time to find the car and the hotel. Somewhere near Times Square.

Vacation - Day 9 - July 15th

Heading off for New York City! Only the wife has been there and that was many years ago. We have reservations for a cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. My ancestors came through there a long time ago.

The wife, thinking ahead as usual, made reservations on the first cruise out to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Like an airport you have to arrive 2 hours early to get through security. No knives (how naked can one get. I have four of them with me...) or nail clippers allowed. That means leaving the resort before the crack of dawn. At least traffic should be light getting to Manhattan.

And it was. It was nice that my iPass worked in the toll booth of the Holland Tunnel. I had stopped to give the attendant the fee ($6.00) and she said I had ExpressPass. Cool! Lower Manhattan streets are the pits. Torn up, one lane, cars, and garbage trucks everywhere. Took awhile to find a parking spot near the ferry to Liberty Island. Expensive too.

Picked up our tickets and got in line for the security check. Two USCG patrol boats cruised by. M60's mounted fore and aft.



This line only took 45 minutes. No knives allowed. Such nakedness. :-( I had my CRKT KISS folder in use as a money clip. Took off the blade in PA but the screeners still wigged out. Didn't say anything about the Surefire in my camera bag.



If you have never been to the Statue of Liberty - please go. Between it and Ellis Island- they are incredible experiences. Plan on spending the day ... just waiting in lines. Just kidding. If you want to tour the statue there is a different pass that you have toacquire. Do so ahead of time. Plan on another line for the screening procedure. Another metal detector and a sniffer for explosive residue... 45 minute line. Interesting to find out that there is a NYPD SWAT team there at all times. One can see them wandering around the island.

This is the family on the observation deck of the Statue.



Ellis Island - the history is amazing. My family started in this country through these halls.



Back to Battery Park and the WTC site

Vacation - Day 8 - July 14th

Our last day at the resort. More kicking back and relaxing! I took the kids bowling while the wife checked her email. She only had 250 messages of which 215 were spam. Need to switch her to Thunderbird after vacation. Had some ice-cream for lunch and went swimming.



All I had was a brownie sundae with some whipped cream. Got a lot of whipped cream!

And then it was time to pack. Most of it was done in 15 minutes. Just a few things to take out in the morning and then we are off.

Vacation - Day 7 - July 13th

Woke up to rain. Heavy rain. At 1:30am. Closed the windows and went back to sleep. When we got up the rain was over so Thing1 and I headed to the driving range while the girls went to a free movie. The buckets were on the small side so I'm glad they were 2 for 1. Borrowed some old clubs and had some fun. Headed off for some bowling. Didn't do too bad with a 153. Then some pool. We both managed to scratch a few times while attempting to sink the eight ball. Oh well. Happy hour and a half is coming soon!

Margarita's. Yummmm. Half price made them taste even better. The kids went off bowling and Thing2 beat Thing1. Thing1 hates losing ... to Thing2.

After swimming we noticed that some folks were using laptops in the pit bar. Hmmm - wireless? Asked at the desk at it was free! Probably a good thing we didn't know as Thing1 would have been hanging out there. After swimming Thing1 and I grabbed our laptops and checked mail. I only had ~3000 messages in my inbox at work. After a few minutes about 60 of them were actually useful.

Vacation - Day 6 - July 12th

A rainy day. Seems like most of the eastern U.S.is getting rain. We're going to the movies and see Pirates of the Caribean 2.

Twas an excellent movie. The wife thought it was a bit gross in places (Davy Jones has morphed a bit) but the story cruised on. The ending is a good setup for the third movie. Came back and went bowling and swimming. Managed to have a contact pop out so my swimming was cut short. Luckily the wife had her contact case so I took them both out and put then in her case. Twas blurry on the way back to the room. Without tequila...

Watching the local news and we're seeing that some of the things we wanted to do are still having water problems from a few weeks ago. Time to rearrange the plans. Adapt, Improvise, Overcome.

Vacation - Day 5 - July 11th

After breakfast Thing1 and I decided to hit the driving range. We had a 2 for 1 coupon so we figured it would be fun. Took a ride over to the range and they had no balls. At 10:00am no one had been out to clean up the range from the previous day. Went and played pool instead.

We're not huge NASCAR fans but since our resort is pretty close to Pocono International Raceway and they offered a free tour so we decided to go. This was our ride.





It was lots of fun. We couldn't walk on the race track as there was a Indy car class going on but we were able to walk in the pits and see the track from the racers level. Our guide was knowledgeable and seemed to really love NASCAR.



The family in Victory Circle.



The track offers a ride along program - $110.00 for 3 laps at race speed. Unfortunately it's not available this week (Indy Car class) as both the wife and I wanted to go. Top speed is 175mph and the driver gets a few inches from the wall. That would be so much fun.

This is about 1/3 of the stands. They hold ~90,000 people. Toss in all the RVers in the infield and the 2 lane road that leads into PIR can get real jammed.

Vacation - Day 4 - July 10th

Road trip! Well - not a long trip. We headed off to the town of Jim Thorpe. It's only about 30 minutes south of the resort. Well - we would have except for the road work. For some reason the state was repairing both directions of the only road going through Jim Thorpe at the same time. This was causing long backups in both directions. I missed the turn for the parking log the first time through and we had to go wait in the road work a second time. The wife was not happy with me...

At the same time the state was doing their work another contractor was ripping up the main street in Jim Thorpe. Nothing but noise. We wandered around for a bit. Found some interesting stores and lots of friendly people. I love small town America! The town has a civil war memorial that seemed out of place. Interesting but out of place.



There was also a clock tower. It played several songs - mostly religous themed.



Somehow I don't think we'll hear that in NYC next week.

Vacation - Day 3 - July 9th

We spent the first day just relaxing and doing a bit of exploring Split Rock Resort. It's a all inclusive resort - swimming, golf, boating, bowling, a movie theatre, and more. One really would not have to leave unless they wanted to. We did some swimming and just unwound. This is what I needed.