The Blog Less Traveled

My wife and I took a little trip to southern Georgia over the New Years weekend to attend a wedding. The weather was absolutely perfect during the day – 68° and sunny. I got up Saturday morning and decided to go for a run. Our hotel was right on the river walk across from the Ray Charles monument and park. It was about 8 o’clock but there wasn’t a soul on the river walk. I had it all to myself. The only thing I saw were squirrels and snails. There’s a winding paved walkway along the Flint River and I took a nice 10-mile run. The temperature at that time was in the mid-50s, which is ideal for running.

After the run we did a little sightseeing and went to Radium Springs. It’s a pleasant spring-fed watering hole that empties into the Flint River. We attended the church wedding early that evening and ended the day at a private New Years celebration at the hotel. A good time was had by all.

Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Happy New Years!

We just got back from a two-week vacation to the Washington D.C area. We were visiting our daughter. On Tuesday, August 23rd, we were on the 7th floor of an apartment building when an earthquake struck. I’ve been exposed to earthquakes in the past in both California and Maine. However, being in a high-rise is a totally different experience. The shaking was longer and much more pronounced. Also, earthquakes are not a very common occurrence in that neck of the woods so you’re not really expecting it to happen. There wasn’t any damage that we could see and when we looked out the window to the streets below, there were dozens of people running out of the various buildings and businesses in the area. We eventually came out of our building and walked around the area. Of course everyone was on their phone trying to call or text someone but the cell towers were immediately saturated and calls/texts weren’t getting sent. Eventually, things went back to normal and people reentered their buildings. We figured that would be the end of our excitement for this trip. We were wrong.

Four days later, Hurricane Irene struck. We were in New Orleans in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew struck. Andrew caused some damage in our area, but overall it was more of a really bad storm than a hurricane. Most of the damage from that hurricane was in Florida. Concerning Irene, the media sure made it seem like a catastrophic event was about to take place. The day before the hurricane, we went to the grocery store and bought a couple of meals that we could eat if things got bad. Of course I bought a half-gallon of ice cream. If I’m going down, I’m going to be eating something I like! Anyway, Saturday came and went and Irene only brushed alongside the D.C. area. There was some wind and water damage in places, but overall, things went pretty well. We easily survived natural disaster #2.

That takes care of the “Earthquake” and “Hurricane” in the title, but what about the “Lion”, you might ask? Well, while I was there, I installed the latest operating system upgrade for my daughter’s Apple computer, OS X Lion. Ha!

As I noted in a previous post, we spent some vacation time in Washington, D.C. If you’re willing to drive a short distance from D.C., there are many other places to explore. One side trip we took was to Annapolis, Md. It’s only about 30 miles or so from Bethesda. We met some old friends of ours from Monterey, CA who live in the Annapolis area. We spent a little time with them and walked around the shops and sites in the downtown area. We had a nice lunch at Pusser’s Restaurant (photo on left). It had a great view of the Annapolis waterfront. Of course you can’t go to Annapolis without also visiting the United States Naval Academy. Fred and Cindy gave us a nice tour and we spent a little time in the Academy gift shop. I spent a few weeks myself at the Naval Academy back in the early 80s, but it was so long ago that I didn’t remember too much of it.

One final place we visited on our last day in Bethesda was the Georgetown Cupcake shop (photo on left). This is the store that is featured in the television series, DC Cupcake. I didn’t know that at the time, but my wife and daughter sure did. Normally, there is a long line of people waiting just to get in the door. Fortunately, this was a Monday afternoon and we were able to walk right in. As small as they are, those little suckers are expensive! $2.75 apiece or $29/dozen. We bought a few and took them back to our hotel room and indulged ourselves. We definitely had a great time seeing our daughter and visiting the sites. The time just flew by. The next day we were headed home and made it back in about 10 hours.

My wife and I recently got back from a little vacation to the D.C. area. I haven’t been there in about 20 years and it was interesting to see all the changes. Our main reason for going there was to visit our daughter. She’s in her last year of medical school and is presently doing some medical rotations at the Bethesda Naval Hospital (photo on left) in Bethesda, MD. In addition to being the hospital for U.S. Presidents and other Washington VIPs, it provides medical services for many of our military troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s quite an impressive facility and is directly across the street from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) complex. If you were going to be sick, this would be a good place to get some medical attention.

In addition to seeing our daughter, we were able to make a couple trips to the downtown D.C. area. On one trip, we took the Metro Rail. It’s actually a pretty stress-free way to get around. You can get an all-day rail pass and pretty much get to all the sites and attractions. We were able to see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, World War II, Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, Smithsonian Institution, etc. On another day, we drove into town and went to the White House, Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery. You can easily spend a week or more trying to get to all the sites. Two days is definitely not enough.

I would definitely recommend using the Metro Rail to get around. You can pretty much get to any site you could possibly want and avoiding the massive traffic congestion is a major plus. The only bad thing about going at this time of year is the weather. It can get a bit warm, especially if you’re out on the National Mall for any period of time. I’m really glad we went, though. Besides getting to see our daughter, I think it’s well worth it to visit our National Capital.

Another bucket list item bites the dust. I’ve always wanted to see a shuttle launch in person. I went down to Florida in late 2007 to finally see one, but it was cancelled at the last minute for technical problems. I was going to wait around for a day or two, but decided that there was no guarantee that it would make it, so I left. This particular shuttle did finally launch, but not until after a week had passed.

As luck would have it, my wife and I were recently invited to a wedding in Georgia. These were friends we had met over 25 years ago. We hadn’t seen them since 1986. One of their daughters was getting married who was only two years old the last time we saw her. We gladly accepted. At the time, I didn’t know that a shuttle launch was scheduled for April 5th, only two days after the wedding. A week or so before the trip, the shuttle launch was mentioned in a news article I was reading. What a great surprise and opportunity this was. We went to Georgia, had a great time attending our friends’ wedding, and left the next day for Florida.

We arrived in Titusville around 4pm the day before the launch. We didn’t have any plan as to where we would stay or watch the launch. We pulled into a bank parking lot next to a city park called Space View Park. As it turned out, this was one of the best public access areas to view a shuttle launch from. It’s on the Indian River, directly across from the NASA launch pads. You have an unobstructed view of the launch and there is a live audio feed from the mission control center. We were able to listen to all the audio going on between Houston Control, the local NASA launch site and the astronauts in the shuttle. We totally lucked out. Also, we arrived early enough so that we were able to secure a great spot. We ended up getting our sleeping bags out, and stayed the entire night in the park. That was definitely an adventure. I can’t remember the last time my wife and I went camping and slept in a sleeping bag. The weather was perfect for our outdoor camping adventure and there were plenty of people there to pass the time with. To top it off, we happened to be sitting by a Canadian gentleman who was a walking encyclopedia on all things space-related. This guy was telling us everything and anything related to the shuttle. He knew every fact and figure imaginable, and then some. It was really quite interesting listening to him.

As the scheduled 6:21am launch approached, people were excited and nervous. We were excited about seeing a night launch, but also nervous about the possibility of a cancelled launch for technical problems. After staying out all night, it would have been a big disappointment to have the launch scrubbed. It was pretty cool listening to all the live audio between the various control personnel and the astronauts aboard the shuttle. About 20 minutes before the final countdown, an announcement came over the PA system that a warning light had illuminated and the launch was put on hold. You could hear the crowd groan when it was announced. However, about 10 minutes later, the announcement was made that the problem had been fixed. There was a big cheer from the crowd. The weather was absolutely clear that evening. Not a cloud was in the sky. Because of that, we were able to see the International Space Station pass overhead about 10 minutes or so before the launch. That was an unexpected surprise.

At 6:21am, the launch went off as scheduled. Wow!!! What a sight. The sky really lit up as the rocket engines were ignited. The skyline went from almost total darkness to a brilliant white fireball. The people at the park were cheering and clapping like crazy. You can see and hear the shuttle for several minutes after the actual launch. It’s something truly amazing to see. Even after the shuttle finally disappeared in the sky, the people at the park were still pretty pumped up. To top it off, about 30-45 minutes after the launch, we were treated to a spectacular sunrise. We ended up doing quite a bit of driving in a short period of time to see this, but boy was it worth it.

This was the last scheduled night launch. However, there are three more daytime shuttle launches scheduled this year before the program is shut down. If you haven’t seen one yet, I highly recommend it. You won’t be disappointed.

Below is a short two minute video I took of the shuttle launch.