See America 2008

Looking around the web I realized that there are many folks trying to find that catchy jingle that runs under the Travel Channel's promo spots. I've uploaded my extended dance version MP3 remix of that jingle rendered at 320 kbps. My favorite clip on that spot is at the end when Anthony Bourdain sweeps across the scene with a lighter. Make sure to keep watching the Travel Channel! If anyone knows the artist that created the jingle, I'd like to give him/her props, but I recall seeing somewhere that the jingle was written just for that 1-minute promo and appears nowhere else.

Labels: anthony bourdain, be a traveler, jingle, promo theme song, travel channel

As the chief planner and architect of this trip, I also suffer some gnawing regrets for plans that fell through and for some under planning, in hindsight. You have to weigh the drive to plan each day against the ability to "go with the flow". As a consequence, some important details get overlooked and other minor details turn out to be major. As adults, Cathy and I can deal with such hiccups in the plan, and as it turned out, Kimberly and Jake were also able to roll with shifting itineraries and time constraints better than we would have given them credit for prior to the trip.

Chief avoidable disappointment - missing the Dave Neihaus induction, in fact, missing the entire induction ceremony at the Hall of Fame. We could not find out until we got to Cooperstown that the ceremony didn't start until 1:30pm. We had hoped for some interaction with the inductees during the morning that day. Didn't happen. We could only spend until noon at the Hall of Fame, before continuing on to Palmyra, Buffalo, and Niagara Falls to get in at a reasonable hour. As it was, we had to do the whirlwind tour of Palmyra, Hill Cumorah, and the Sacred Grove, and didn't get back on the road to Buffalo until 6pm. We did not make it to Buffalo until 8:30, where we stopped for a quick dinner, then continued to our hotel in Niagara Falls, arriving a 9:45 that night.

Next disappointment: No trip up the Gateway Arch. I could have purchased advanced tickets online for a specific time, but didn't want to risk missing our time due to travel problems. As it turned out, the Cardinals were in town that Friday and the game with the Cubs brought hoards of visitors to downtown St. Louis, including the Arch - just a block from Busch Stadium. The wait would have added another hour and a half, plus the time spent up in the Arch. We still needed to make it to Evansville, Indiana, for the night, to keep the rest of the trip on schedule. Bummer.

The third is a tie between missing out on Mammoth Cave National Park and missing out on Fenway Park. Again, had I purchased advance tickets online for the cave tours at Mammoth Cave, we could have added that to the very long day going from Evansville to Charleston, WV, but by the time I looked for tickets, all the tours were sold out. I feel bad about Fenway, because we were so close, but it was a Red Sox - Yankees weekend and was sold out all year. Also, we might have been able to do the Fenway tour, but never made the attempt.

The kids might add that we should have planned for more time to deal with huge crowds at Cedar Point. We had to miss riding the Millennium Force, perhaps the greatest roller coaster in the world. We only got 5 total rides in 6 hours. More time would have afforded us the "luxury" of spending 1.5-2 hours in some lines. Here's a hint, Cedar Point, ever hear of FastPass???

Lesson learned: The best laid plans will always overlook seemingly minor details that come back to bite you. Also, you can't plan for disruption to the plan, but you can be prepared to roll with it and take it in stride.

Labels: induction ceremony, Niehaus, trip planning

Well I've finally accounted for 99% of our trip costs. There are still some minor things like luggage tips and other odd cash transactions that I don't have receipts for or just plain can't remember. The table below lays it out by category:

Expense	Amount
Car Rental	811.76
Train	756.00
Dinners	639.25
Gas	595.28
Lunches	406.94
Fees	393.85
Souvenirs	298.00
Breakfasts	249.49
Parking	127.00
Walmart (groceries, sundries)	103.33
Refreshments (drinks, snacks)	89.79
Hotel (One night wasn't covered)	89.15
Mass Transit	80.00
Added Fees (inside attractions)	62.50
Cabs	45.00
Wireless (hotspots, hotels)	33.85
Highway Tolls	20.00
Total	4801.19

So it works out to about $1200/person, $320/day, and $1.60 per mile driven. The gas cost/mile driven was 19.8 cents/mile. Yeah it cost way more than I thought going in. We were shocked at the food prices we were seeing in the restaurants, but were firm in sticking to our pledge of "no national chains" and keeping a "when in Rome" attitude. When I mentioned in an earlier post that I expected it to cost $2000-$2500, I had mentally already factored in the car rental and the train tickets. If you take those out, the actual total for the things I was counting in my original estimate equates to about $3300 - still way over my estimate.

Lesson learned: Plan on budgeting double what you think this kind of trip might cost - then be pleasantly surprised if it costs less. We are in good enough shape financially that we could expense this trip without carrying a credit card balance, but we did tap some savings to do it. Dave Ramsey would probably argue that if you had to use cash for all these transactions, and not credit cards, you almost for sure would spend less. The ease of a credit card makes you spend more than you think you are spending.

Labels: cross country drive budget, delta sky miles, how we did it, travel rewards, trip planning

After polling the family and seeking their rankings in isolation from each other, the ratings below emerged.

Rank	Jacob (11)	Kimberly (14)	Cathy (43)	Dave (44)
1	Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY [The actual Hall of Plaques]	Water Country USA	LDS Church History Sites [Sharon VT, Palmyra NY, Kirtland OH, Nauvoo IL, Carthage IL]	Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY [The Museum]
2	Water Country USA	Cedar Point	Rural Drives [NH, VT, Upstate NY, IL, WV, VA]	Boston [Freedom Trail and the baseball vibe]
3	Cedar Point [Mean Streak]	Boston [USS Constitution]	Boston [Freedom Trail; Red Sox/Yankees weekend atmosphere]	Washington DC [Arlington Cemetery, Korean War Memorial]
4	Washington DC [Monuments and Tomb of the Unknowns]	Nauvoo, IL	Washington DC [Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Korean War Memorial, Smithsonian]	Sharon, Vermont [Solitude and the sense of history; beautiful Green Mountains]
5	Boston [USS Constitution]	St. Louis	Appomattox National Historical Park [Living history ranger talk]	The smell of corn growing – thick in the air in Dubuque, Iowa
6	Niagara Falls	Washington DC [Monuments and Mall]	Chicago [Sears Tower, colorful cabbie, walk through downtown]	Water Country USA
7	Field of Dreams, Dyersville, IA	Washington DC [Tomb of the Unknowns]	Baseball Hall of Fame [Museum, Buck O’Neil, Tribute to great fans, no-hitter balls, Abbot and Costello Who’s on First	Chicago [The urban experience]
8	Sears Tower, Chicago	Niagara Falls	Niagara Falls	The Acela Express DC-Boston run on AMTRAK
9	Nauvoo, IL [Hitting a home run in stick ball game]	Field of Dreams, Dyersville, IA	St. Louis [Gateway Arch]	Field of Dreams movie site
10	St. Louis [Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Route 66]	Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY	Field of Dreams movie location	Nauvoo, IL [The Nauvoo Pageant]

Time to start reflecting on the trip, the pros, the cons, the costs, and the benefits. Using the Delta Website, I looked up what 4 nonrefundable, coach class, tickets would cost for a flight from Pasco, WA, to Reagan National - leaving on a Tuesday and returning on a Tuesday two weeks later. The quote I got was $5884 or $1471 per person. Of course that reflects much inflation since we booked our SkySaver tickets in October last year. Our flights cost us 75,000 miles from Delta and 20,000 miles from Alaska, which translated to $40 in fees to book using miles. Even if the tickets had been $1000 apiece last October we still paid for the trip with the miles alone.

We also saved $2440 on lodging. That's what the reward nights amounted to in avoided room charges, excluding room and sales taxes, which could easily add another 10-15% to that total - as those charges are also avoided when redeeming reward nights. Granted, if we had to pay for our own hotel rooms, there would have been more budget choices selected. However, there are no real budget choices for hotels convenient to DC, Boston, or Chicago. So, the savings were calculated as though we would have stayed in the same properties and paid the AAA rate.

So, the flights and lodging savings amount to $8324 - the amount we would have had to spend to take the same flights and stay in the same hotels paying market rates. The next post will discuss the detailed costs we actually did incur. Rough figuring in my head, we spent $2000-$2500, but I need to pile up the receipts and do some math. Stay tuned.

Labels: cross country drive budget, delta sky miles, how we did it, travel rewards, trip planning

We got out to the mall by about 10:30 and hiked to the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Vietnam Wall. We passed the Washington Monument and the WW II Memorial on the way, but didn't take time to stop at those monuments. At the Lincoln Memorial we took time to read the Gettysburg Address and his Inaugural Address from his re-election in 1864.

Sad to say this was my first visit to Korean War monument since it was built. It was the most impactful for me - and not just because my Dad is a veteran of that war. The soldier statues truly appear haunting and life-like. Of the war monuments, this one does the most to allow visitors to imagine what things might have been like.

Hot, hungry and thirsty, we snagged a cab to the Natural History Museum in search of cool air and refreshments. The Atrium Cafe there provided both in abundance, and we ate our last meal of the road trip there. We were able to spend only about an hour and a half touring the museum after lunch before we needed to get back to check out of the hotel and head to the airport.

I highly recommend the Crystal Gateway Marriott for its convenient location to the Crystal City Metro stop. It has a connecting tunnel to the Crystal City Shops and the Metro, and is just one stop from Reagan National Airport.

The trip home was uneventful - the favorite adjective of frequent travelers. No glitches, despite the Hurricane Eduard impacting the Texas airports. We got home about 10pm Tuesday night and crashed into bed.

Future posts will break down the trip and provide some reflection for those considering a similar trip. We covered 3010 miles in our rented minivan, over 10 days of driving. We found that to be just about right, and our days were full for sure. Any more driving and the overall experience for all would have been diminished proportionally. As it turned out, all seem to have thought the trip was great and would change little. We will explore this more in future posts.

Yes, we are aware that we could easily spend a week or more in the Williamsburg area seeing historical sites and amusement parks. However, our initial planning for this trip, we decided to focus only on Water Country USA. We were not disappointed. The park was packed on a Monday, but the weather was perfect - not too humid. I'm sure all would agree that the Hubba Hubba Highway (AKA a lazy river) was our favorite "ride."

We spent the whole day there, then headed for Washington around 6pm. We managed to pick up some Popeye's Chicken that we ate in the van on the way. We had the goal to turn in the van at National Airport by 9pm, and we just made it. We are staying at the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Crystal City, a very nice conference hotel right next to the airport and the Metro.

Plan for tomorrow: The goal is to visit the rest of the monuments on the Mall that we didn't have time to see at the start of the trip. We also hope to see the Museum of Natural History. Our flight is not until 5:25, so we should have time. The other goal is to get home without any glitches in the air travel. Hopefully, tomorrow's entry will come from Richland.

Even if I had remembered to adjust the time zone on my cell phone alarm, and we had jumped into action at 6am EDT, we would not have had enough time to fit Jamestown into the schedule. As it turned out, I jumped up, out of alarm, realizing that my cell phone still thought it was central time - so our hopes of getting out of Charleston by 7:30 were dashed. We didn't get in to Williamsburg until 8pm, anyway.






First, we wound our way out from Charleston up the Kanawha River and the New River, its tributary. We visited the New River Gorge National River at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. The overlooks at this site provide great views of the New River Gorge Bridge, the longest arch span and the highest vehicular bridge in the Western Hemisphere - an engineer's mecca. The views up the canyon also were quite impressive.

From New River, we crossed some more Appalachian "mountain country", which to this westerner seemed like touring rolling hills and broken woods, but beautiful none the less. I was impressed, as we approached the Virginia state line, of just how pristine the landscape looks today, given the history of resource exploitation all over the East. Hard to tell driving it today.

We next visited the Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Park. We learned much about the last week of the Civil War, and I found myself disgusted with my lack of knowledge. I know more about WW II than about the Civil War, and that seems wrong to me - something to work on. I never realized that the actual surrender took place in a residence near the Courthouse, rather than in the Courthouse itself. We also watched a living history presentation portraying a corporal in the Union Army and his recollections of the war, as he would have recalled it in the months immediately following the surrender. The Ranger in period costume did an outstanding job of distilling his view of the war from start to finish in about a 40-minute talk.

From Appomattox we made for Williamsburg, ignoring earlier plans to visit Jamestown, as it was 4:30pm and we still had 2+ hours of driving ahead and all were hungry. We ate BBQ in Powhatan, VA, at Perrin's BBQ. It was very good que, as they say. Stick with the "Original" sauce if you go there. We are staying at the Williamsburg Marriott, a very nice conference hotel.

Plan for tomorrow: Three words - Water Country USA. Then back to DC for our last day.

Pics Updated.

Today was spent on I-64. We opted to cruise over to Charleston, WV, where we arrived about 6pm with the loss of an hour from Central to Eastern time. We saw lots of pretty country through southern Indiana, northern Kentucky, and western West Virginia.

The only experience of note was our interesting search for gas in sparsely populated SE Indiana. The gas warning light came on near Sulphur, Indiana. So, though the options appeared sketchy at best, we stopped for gas here - where they still use the mechanical/analog pumps and the price is $4.56/gal. Click on the picture to read the pump instructions.

We had lunch at Shoneys in Frankfort, KY, a southern food buffet chain. Jake tried Catfish for the first time and loved it. In Charleston, we had dinner at Farm Table Family Restaurant. I ordered liver and onions and had Jake try the liver. He loved it. His tastes seem to be evolving beyond foods like hot dogs and toast, and he may actually trust his Dad's choices when it comes to food.

Plan for tomorrow: Tomorrow will be the longest travel day of the trip. We plan to see the New River Gorge National River, the Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Park, the Colonial National Historic Park (Jamestown), and Williamsburg.

Pic gallery has been updated.

Today we began our trip back to the east after reaching the apogee of the journey west. We first visited the Carthage Jail in Carthage, IL, and took the full tour.

From there, we headed for St. Louis. We had lunch in the boyhood home of Mark Twain, Hanibal, MO. Nothing special, just a Chinese buffet with an opportune location given restroom needs at the time.

We made good time getting to St. Louis around 3pm. We came here with the goal of going to the top of the Gateway Arch, but quickly realized that we should have made advanced reservations. The combination of a summer Friday and a Cardinals home game night made the wait time over and hour and a half to go up the Arch. Knowing we still had 180 miles of road to cover, we passed on the wait, but toured the Museum of Westward Expansion instead. After, taking lots of photos from the grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, we made a short side trip to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, featured on the first "Feasting on Asphalt" miniseries on the Food Network. From there, we crossed southern Illinois and southern Indiana to Evansville. We had a late dinner at Mangiamo's Italian Grill, next to the hotel. The food was very good. We are staying at the Fairfield Inn Evansville East.

Plan for tomorrow: Right now we are leaning toward making a variance tot he original plan. I had planned for us to go to Mammoth Cave National Park, but again failed to make advance reservations for the possible cave tours. Therefore, we would be aced out of seeing the Cave, making a trip to the Park a long side trip with not much pay-off. So, we are looking to make an uneventful 360 mile drive to Charleston, WV. In the morning we will look at some options for side trips along this route.

That goes for the Field of Dreams and for Nauvoo. We spent about an hour this morning at the Field of Dreams movie site in Iowa. The weather was sunny, hot, and as humid as we have experienced. Jake pitched from the mound. Cathy and I played catch with Jake in the outfield. Kimberly and Jake reprized some key scenes from the movie. We bought some souvenirs.






We can check that off of life's list. Applause to the farmers who own the property for keeping it open, free, and noncommercial.



From there we angled our way south to Nauvoo, IL. We ate lunch at the Grampa John's cafe, where they serve a "luncheon", which is basically a cafeteria-style line of entrees and sides. I went through the line being highly skeptical, but was pleasantly surprised at how good each dish was. The fried chicken was excellent, as was the cole slaw.


We toured around the restored town site and the visitor center. In the visitor center we ran into our neighbors 3 doors down, the Van katwjck's, from Richland. Our first "small world" sighting of the trip. We visited the Brigham Young home and the John Taylor home. We also saw the restored Times and Seasons publishing office. The main event, however, was the Nauvoo Pageant. This is an outdoor stage production depicting what life was like during the building of Nauvoo, and the early prosperity of the LDS Church. I think we all found it outstanding and well worth sitting in the muggy and buggy environment.















We had dinner at the Nauvoo Mill & Bakery, a nice little sandwich shop on Mulholland. Of note, they offer "Maid Rite" sandwiches - a hybrid of the hamburger and the sloppy joe. Prior to the pageant, the kids engaged in some of the pioneer games in the period fair provided. Kimberly took tot he tug of war, and Jake was humbled somewhat by a game of stick ball. We stayed in the Hampton Inn in Keokuk - very nice for the bargain amount of points covering our stay.















Plan for tomorrow: We will visit the Carthage Jail, where Joseph Smith was martyred. Then its on to St. Louis to see the Gateway Arch, and have a Concrete at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. We will stay the night in Evansville, Indiana.

We had a great half day in Chicago. We went up to the Sears Tower Sky Deck on the 103rd floor and took in the sweeping views at all compass points. The weather was immaculate. I would recommend this to anyone. This is more involved than just walking into the building and taking the elevator tot he top. They stage the elevator rides by showing a 10-15 minute video highlighting the history of Sears and construction of the building that we found quite interesting.


From there it was westward ho. After insane traffic trying to leave Chicagoland (in the 3pm hour), we traversed the state of Illinois along the northern border with Wisconsin, through beautiful rolling farm land. Much of is was reminiscent of the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where I grew up. It was not as flat as I was expecting. We crossed the Mississippi River into Dubuque, Iowa, where we are staying at the Mainstay Suites, an excellent budget suites motel - no pool though.









Plan for tomorrow: Visit the Field of Dreams movie location - that farm near Dyersville, IA, where much of the movie took place. From there, we head south to Nauvoo, IL, another significant Mormon history site. There we hope to see the Nauvoo Pageant. We will then continue south to Keokuk, IA, for the night.

For future reference, there are no "light" visitation days at Cedar Point during the summer peak season. I had a dim hope that going there on a Tuesday, being a typical work day, we might catch a break from long lines one might see on the weekends.

The place was a zoo. You know when a theme park has its own radio traffic info signs on the interstate 20 miles away that lots of folks are headed there. Today was no exception. The weather was sunny and hot, and the roads were choked in the 10am hour. For some perspective, we arrived about 10:30 and parked in section 28-C of 75-K potential sections.

We decided to walk to the back end of the park and make our way forward to the entrance, checking off roller coasters as we went. As we walked, we decided to dive into a line if there seemed to be few riders. We first rode Mantis, after a full 1 hour in line. Rather than pictures, you can view the park's video of these rides by following the ride links. Next we rode Mean Streak twice, back-to-back, and the wait was shorter than the actual ride - go figure. We have experience now with two of the country's major wooded coasters, Mean Streak and Ghostrider at Knott's Berry Farm in California. I think Mean Streak is a longer duration ride, newer, and features more steep drops, but we thoroughly love both. I think we agree that Mean Streak was the best ride we were able to ride today. From there, we rode Iron Dragon and Blue Streak in succession with very little wait. Finally, we rode Raptor, after about a 45 minute wait. We had hoped to ride the Millennium Force, but the 1.5 hour wait time was too much to overcome, given that we still had to drive to Chicago by nightfall.

So the inevitable compromises trading off attraction time and driving time had to be made, and we left Cedar Point right at 3 pm, as originally planned, after only getting to ride only 5 of the 17 possible coasters and getting just 6 total rides in 4.5 hours. The kids were in great spirits about the plan and no one felt cheated. A new sign of growing maturity in Kimberly and Jake, as they were able to "do the math" and figure that even if we had all day, we would not be able to ride all the coasters possible, due to the crowds in the park and the associated wait times.

We got into Chicago and are staying at the Courtyard Downtown/River North, the best hotel room so far on the trip. We pulled off the freeway for dinner in South Bend, Indiana, at regional chain found in the Midwest and South called Stake and Shake. It is basically a retro diner concept featuring fast food and waiter service, where everything is ala carte. We liked the food (burgers) and had no complaints.

Plan for tomorrow: Right now the plan is to go to the top of the Sears Tower, but beyond that we have not yet planned. We will likely make better plans after a good night's sleep and a good breakfast in the morning. We also arranged for a late check out, so we can tour around without our luggage.

Sorry, no pics were shot today...

Today might have been the closest-to-plan day so far. We were eager to get up and get out of the dump motel we had in Niagara Falls. There was zero traffic at 9:30 going into Canada over the Rainbow Bridge border. We paid $20 to park in the main public parking, which is a bargain if you consider that no other admission is charged for full access to the Canadian side of the falls.

We did what I imagine 99% of tourists do at Niagara Falls. We walked the paved walk from just above the falls, downstream to nearly directly across from American Falls. These two huge waterfalls are truly magnificent and should be seen in person once in one's life. Then we crossed the main avenue and walked back to the car via the several souvenir shops along the way. We were back across the border by 11:30am.

Since we were trying to keep a schedule, we passed on all the other tourist trap attractions in the area and headed south and west to Ohio. In an attempt to control costs, we are having our lunches on the road, from the cooler we bought and provisioned as we left Boston. We made it to the Kirtland Visitor Center by about 3pm. While there we took the abbreviated tour, which included a 24 minute film about the settlement of the area by Mormons in the 1830's, which can only be seen at that visitor center. The film was followed by a tour of the Whitney Home and the Whitney Store. These locations figure very prominently in the early history of the LDS Church. The first Bishop's Storehouse was run from the Whitney Store and became the basis for what today is a worldwide welfare and humanitarian aide complex spanning 6 continents.

Tonight we are staying at the Hampton Inn in Westlake, OH. It is below average for the many Hampton Inns in which I've lodged before, but is a night and day improvement over the dump we stayed in yesterday. We had dinner in the local Buca di Beppo - a chain yes, but not one available to us in the Tri Cities. The food was good, but for some bizarre reason, they did not have any bread available. They resorted to baking pizza dough into dinner breads. How does that happen?

Plan for tomorrow: Drive 40 miles west to Sandusky and the Cedar Point theme park. Known as America's Roller Coast, this park on the Lake Erie shore is considered the roller coaster capital of the world. I expect we will spend 4-5 hours here, depending on the crowds, then make for Chicago.

Additional pics have been uploaded.

We arrived in Cooperstown just in time for the Hall of Fame to open. However, upon inquiring several times, it became apparent that the hope of meeting Dave Niehaus in person would be dashed. That didn't diminish the experience of the Hall of Fame, however. We were in awe of the sheer magnitude of exhibits and depth of coverage of the stars of the game through the generations.

I will say that the opening movie presentation focusing on the baseball experience was either too short or should spend more time focusing on the games and plays that have become lore over the years. If you want to evoke emotion in your visitors, that's certainly a good way to start.

We spent 3.5 hours wandering the 3 floors, which again was not enough time for Jake who was drinking it all in. We had to break away and move on to Palmyra, or we would not get in to Niagara until the wee hours. We were also disappointed that the Induction Ceremony was not until 1:30. So, we would not be able to see Niehaus' induction speech in person as we had hoped. Let me say, however, that in no way was our experience diminished - the Hall of Fame exceeded my expectations completely.

By 3:30 we made it to the Smith Family Farm and the Sacred Grove sites. We took the full tour then wandered through the Sacred Grove. You really need that experience to help bring to life the many artist renditions of what took place there. The Church has done a great job of restoring the farm and preserving the current grove.

We next ventured into Palmyra and visiting the original printing site of the Book of Mormon and got another full tour of that original building. By the end of that tour it was after 6pm, and we were tired and hungry. So we quickly drove to the top of the Hill Cumorah and walked out to the Moroni monument.
























We finally made it to the Buffalo metro area in the 8:00 hour, and set to looking for food and gas. We happened upon a small Chinese take-out joint called Gin Gin by chance and found it to be surprisingly good and cheap for a change. By about 9:45 we were checking in to the Niagara Falls Quality Inn, which turned out to be somewhat of a flea bag, but the price was right. The motel had undergone several renovations over the years, and out second floor room had what used to be an exterior window that now overlooks the inside of the new lobby. Need I say more?

Plan for tomorrow: We would like to get over to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls reasonably early, and hopefully avoid what Monday traffic there might be. Then its on to Kirtland, Ohio, to see more LDS history sites in that area. We plan to stay in Westlake, a western suburb of Cleveland, Monday night.

Until today I had not realized just how verdant the State of Vermont really is. The pictures I've seen do not do it justice. Vermonters, of course, have no interest in trumpeting these facts to the wider world, and inviting more settlers. Jake was especially impressed with the greenery, making me realize that he has no frame of reference other than the Tri Cities for comparison.

After making our provisioning stop at one of the more hideous Walmarts we could recall, we ventured north out of Massachusetts, into and through New Hampshire, and into Vermont. As the miles rolled by, the topography grew more varied, and the traffic lightened proportionally. At this point I should introduce our transportation - a new Chrysler Town and Country minivan rental from Thrifty car rental. We are doing a one-way rental from Boston to Washington DC.

Our single goal for the day was to visit the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in the hills above Sharon, VT. We got there about 1:30 and were about the only visitors around. We took the guided tour, including the golf cart tour out to the remains of the original homesteads on the property, owned by the Mack family, Joseph Smith's mother's family.

I was surprised to learn that the "Old Turnpike Road" traversed the Mack property. This wagon route linked Canada with points south in the US during the 1800's, and remnants of the old stone walls on its borders are still visible. Also ruts cut into an original stone bridge are still visible today.




As with all the Church historical sites, volunteer missionaries staff the visitor centers, maintenance functions, and other visitor services such as tour guiding. I concluded that this site must be the best post at which to serve in the system of historical sites. The combination of peace and natural beauty is tough to beat. Because the area is so remote, it does not see the hoards of visitors that other more prominent sites receive.

Our plans to eat at Eaton's Sugarhouse fell through, as we were too late for lunch and they close after lunch on Saturdays. However, we did find another pizza gem, upon the recommendation of the tour guide. Village Pizza, in utter isolation north of Royalton, really makes a great pie. The place is run by a Greek family, so there are Greek dishes and deserts as well. We had a half sausage and olive, half Hawaiian, and were in pizza heaven. In the West, I've had nothing better.

From there we navigated through the Green Mountains, including Killington Village and the heart of Vermont's ski industry, all the way south to Albany, NY. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Airport Conference Center. Sounds impressive, but the place was about what you would expect from a budget motel - 1970's construction, formerly smoked in rooms, etc. It was a points bargain for me, but I would never stay there again.

Plans for tomorrow: Lots to do. First we will visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. With some luck, we hope to meet Dave Niehaus, voice of the Seattle Mariners, who will be inducted into the broadcasters wing of the Hall tomorrow - see earlier posts for background. From there we plan to visit the historical sites in the Palmyra area, including the Smith Farm, Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, and the village of Palmyra. From there, its on to Niagara Falls, NY, for the night.

As always, picture highlights get uploaded nightly.

The lame title for today's activities is purely my idea after patently rejecting many other suggestions including "The British are coming", "The Home of the Free and the Sox", "One if by land, two if by sea", and "... Are you guys here for the game?" Taken together, those titles might explain the day we had, but the central theme was really the journey through history that is the Freedom Trail.

After getting another late start, we picked up the trail in downtown Boston near the Old State House. We ventured around a bit in that area, then took lunch near Faneuil Hall at the replica Cheers known as Sam's Place. Quite good, but extremely overpriced for what you get. That's how hungry we were after missing the hotel breakfast buffet. Skip this tourist trap if you have the choice. The service was horrible, but the open-air market noontime vibe was fun. Taking stock as we waited for our food, we would have preferred to patronize the Salty Dog next door, but now, after reading its reviews, I think we did as well as could be expected for the tourist area we visited.

What became evident upon boarding the T train for downtown, while at lunch, and just about every other event, was that this is a Red Sox - Yankees weekend. The anticipation of the weekend series at Fenway was palpable in all quarters. Many fans from both teams were out and about all day in all places. We even were greeted by a group of grandmas heading back from their dinner to watch the game on someone's new widescreen HD TV.

Taking the trail really brought home the need to spend more time than the brief one day we had planned. Yes we were able to see all the sights, but the richer learning experience and context to the history was lost in sacrifice to time. We did take the fully guided tour of the USS Constitution, the oldest sailing warship in the world and found the 45 minutes invested to be well worth it.

After impersonating sardines on the T, while trying to get back to our hotel during the outbound commute time, coupled with the extra load of Sox game T riders, we did get back and were somewhat exhausted. We found a local Vietnamese fusion place across the street from the hotel, called Zenna. I heard no complaints and would venture that it truly lived up to its rave reviews. Jake and I had the House Fried Rice, which was delectable. Kimberly had the Chicken Fried Rice and loved it. Only Cathy showed any bravery and ordered a more traditional Viet-inspired noodle concoction, which she also loved. The service was outstanding.

Plans for tomorrow: For me, the fun part of the trip begins as we set out in our rented Chrysler Town and Country for the road portion of the vacation. To facilitate a long road trip after flying across the country, we decided to provision the trip locally. That means we will invade a Walmart tomorrow and get things like a large cooler, lunch staples like deli meats, peanut butter, bread, healthy snacks, liquid refreshments, and ice. Otherwise, tomorrow's leg will be relatively short, and will feature a trip through New Hampshire and Vermont to visit the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, a Mormon Church history site near Sharon, VT. We should get there around noon, and have also heard about an amazing "sugar house" near Royalton, called Eaton's Sugarhouse, which doubles as a restaurant and maple sap refinery. After that, its on to Albany, NY, where we prepare to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame the next day in Cooperstown.

We left Washington DC this morning on the 10am Acela Express. We arrived at Penn Station NYC about 12:45 and set out into the city with only a loose idea of how to spend our layover. We thought finding a Manhattan lunch would be a good idea. Tougher to pull off in practice though, as we found most places along E 33rd in the 7th, 6th, and 5th Avenue blocks to be maxed out. We considered trying to do the Empire State Building trip to the top, but found the lines too long.

Meanwhile the kids got some exposure to street life in the Big Apple, with lots of characters, homeless, and crowds of tourists and working stiffs. Perhaps the most interesting was the lady on the street corner calling loudly for "no rights for vampires," which still has us scratching our heads. After a quick google, looks like there is something of interest to some in this vein.

After finding most places either too full or too scary to enter for lunch, we happened upon a Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs joint right across from Madison Square Garden (the one linked is the Coney Island original), and found it somewhat empty at 1:15. So, we got our lunch there. Very good, as expected. We each had the classic dog with some homestyle fries and a drink.

During our layover, we did a "temporary baggage check" at Penn Station so we could amble about unencumbered. We thought we would have more time to see more of the city during our layover, but we ended up playing it safe and making sure we had plenty of time to get our bags back and make our train to Boston.

Both the trip to NYC and the trip to Boston were uneventful and featured a few cat naps amongst the crew. Other than seeing a lot of run down areas (what you would expect along the tracks) in the big cities like Baltimore, Wilmington, Newark, and others, only seeing the Chesapeake Bay proved interesting. However, we did break out Angelina to see how fast the Acela Express was moving. At several points, speeds surpassed 125 mph. Now that was impressive on its own.

Angelina also proved her worth as she managed to successfully navigate us from Thrifty Car Rental "near" the Logan Airport, where we picked up our minivan, in a summer downpour. Remember the Hertz commercials where they show the poor saps who decided to not use Hertz getting soaked in downpours as they search for their rental car in the sea of rental cars? We could have been filming that today. Thrifty had the right price for the vehicle we wanted, but it was literally the furthest rental outlet from the Logan Airport, and we got soaked finding the van and loading our bags.

So we find ourselves in the Courtyard Brookline near the Coolidge Corner T stop. We hadn't eaten on the train, nor did we bring provisions with us. We got in about 9pm and immediately ordered pizza from the local Pizza Republic on Beacon Street. The basic sausage and olive was fabulous, and the thin crust was perfect. They used whole pitted black olives and sliced Italian sausages for the toppings.

Plan for tomorrow: Again, nothing too ambitious. We will attempt to hike the Freedom Trail and take in the Revolutionary War history along the way. It would be cool to see the USS Constitution tall ship at anchor in Boston Harbor. The weather looks iffy and we will be playing it by ear.

After suffering the effects of jet lag, we got a late start to the day. However, we managed to make it to Arlington National Cemetery in time to view the noon changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Admittedly, this experience was more meaningful for Cathy and I than it was for the kids. As an American adult, you cannot help but be moved emotionally when you view the reverence and ceremonial precision of the Marine guards as they carry out their timeless vigil.While at Arlington we also visited the Eternal Flame at the JFK grave site. As we were leaving the Cemetery, we saw the Presidential Motorcade arrive. No idea why the President may have been visiting - wish I would have snapped some pics.From Arlington, we took the Blue Line to the Smithsonian Metro stop and exited to the Mall. We decided to visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and find refuge from the hot and sticky conditions. We spent the rest of the afternoon there, but only saw a fraction of what could be seen. We decided to see an Albert Einstein Planetarium show and an IMAX movie. I think Jacob was the only one of us to remain awake through the "Cosmic Collisions" show. The IMAX movie, "Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag," sounds enticing, but was actually a real yawner. I fail to understand why IMAX film makers continue to neglect the power of the medium and leave out the potentially stunning visuals one would expect to see - you know, fighters cruising through varied landscapes like canyons, mountain ranges, etc. Maybe 3-4 minutes featured these scenes, but the rest ranked an enthusiastic "thumbs down" from me.
For dinner, we ate at Jaleo in Crystal City. Jaleo is a Spanish tapas confiteria that features a menu full of what are essentially appetizer plates. They also feature several paiea offerings. After some coaxing, we got the kids to try some tapas and they loved them. We also ordered the shrimp paiea, which was melt-in-the-mouth scrumptious. I have eaten there on several occasions while in DC on business, but never expected the kids to go for anything out of their frame of reference. Now the stage is set for more experimentation during the rest of the trip.

I will be posting the best of our pics on my Picasa site, so if you want more context to what we saw and did look there.

The plan for tomorrow: Get up much earlier, book over to Union Station and take the Acela Express (AMTRAK) to NYC, then on to Boston. We hope to be able to go to the Statue of Liberty during our train layover in New York. Let's see how we do.

Arrived in DC with no significant travel mishaps. Coming through Atlanta, that says a lot. We are staying the first two nights in the Courtyard Crystal City. After arriving, we broke in the Metro novices and went to Union Station to pick up our train tickets for the trip to Boston on Thursday. We had dinner at Johnny Rocket's in Union Station - a throw-back diner featuring old fashioned hamburger fare. Everyone was quite satisfied with their choice from the menu.

We set a goal for the trip to avoid all chain restaurants available to us in Richland. So, no McDonalds, Burger King, etc. Regional chains are fair game, as are national chains with no presence in the Tri Cities. For example, Popeye's would qualify as a nonlocal chain for us.

The plan for tomorrow: Visit Arlington National Cemetery and view the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Visit the monuments on the Mall and a selected museum of the Smithsonian.

We will be in Washington DC. As most of the family is routed through Atlanta, please wish us the best. I have had no luck getting through Atlanta without significant, itinerary-changing, delays and re-routes. We hope to have uneventful flights leading to rendezvous tomorrow evening at National Airport around 5pm.

I can tell you that with all the planning and lists of to-do's and other preparations we've been making all along, we still find ourselves scurrying around for last minute things. That is the price we pay for trying to continue life's routines, rather than fixate completely on this major vacation.

We're feeling good. Jake has made peace with leaving his all star team in mid-tournament. We've stopped the mail and the paper. We're packed and ready. Time to hit the hay early, as we fly out at 5:20am.

Next post will be from DC.

Well, those tough Greater Richland Little League 11s are still hard at it in the Washington State Tournament. After getting down 3-1 in the first game against Walla Walla Pacific, they roared back and took control, winning 9-3.

That's why we play the games. After all was said and done, FWN had self destructed under pressure. Their #2 pitcher didn't have his stuff, and wasn't used to facing our patient hitters. After the first walked-in run, he was lifted for the clear #1 hurler, who fared no better. He gave up several more walked-in runs, which led to a complete dismantling in a less than stellar game, and GRLL won 14-6. Two more wins and they play for the State Championship. The loss was especially devastating for Federal Way, as they used up 4 pitchers, and may have a very difficult time containing the team they play in the consolation bracket. ESPN 960 AM sought out interviews after the game.


Again, solid pitching and timely hitting were the hallmarks of the victors. This time, the defensive lapses did not cost Greater Richland, and the season that no one thought would happen continues. The toughest part for us, of course, is breaking away from the team family for our long planned family vacation - the subject of this blog. We have gone back and forth on whether we could have Jake ride out the tournament with his buds, then be transported to us at some point in our journey, but when it came down to the tough decision, Jake made peace with himself and made the right choice. We leave tomorrow before dawn on our flight to DC.

We lovingly refer to our Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition, as "Angelina", as the "Jane" voice sounds somewhat like the Lara Croft character in Tomb Raider. Since January, I have been using the Tom Tom for all my car navigation while on business and family car trips. I paid $150 for it and it has performed outstandingly. Although all in-car GPS units are somewhat quirky and are only as good as the map database installed, I've found, by comparing notes with colleagues, that Angelina finds my destinations noticeably better than much more expensive Garmin and Magellan units designed after the market leader Tom Tom came along.


Angelina will navigate the minivan portion of our trip. I have been utilizing the free map updating service and the free user community map correction service to keep the map database for the USA up to date. I also have relied heavily on the integration capability with Google Earth, which I first learned about while burrowing into the Tom Tom documentation.

Labels: Google Earth, Tom Tom, Tyre

• DC Monument Tour
• Arlington National Cemetery
• Nationals Baseball
• Smithsonian Museums
• The National Mall
• Liberty Bell
• Times Square
• Statue of Liberty
• Boston History Tour Freedom Trail
• Plymouth Rock
  
• Fenway Park Tour (no Sox tickets)
• Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial
• Baseball Hall of Fame - Cooperstown
• Sacred Grove - Hill Cumorah
• Niagara Falls
• Kirtland Ohio
• Cedar Point
• Sears Tower
• Cub's Game
• Field of Dreams movie site
• Nauvoo Pageant
• Carthage Jail
• Gateway Arch
• Mammoth Cave National Park
• New River Gorge National River
• Appomattox Courthouse
• Water Country USA

Remember those constraints listed in the blog subtitle - about Little League baseball controlling most of our summer? We planned this trip to occur after Jake's 11-yr old baseball season thinking that if things went much as they did last summer, his last tournament would be over by July 20th, and our frequent flyer window opened on 7/22. Further, we could leave the summer of his 12 yr-old season open since the sky is the limit for 12 yr-old little leaguers - as they can go all the way to the world series in Williamsport, PA.

So, of course, those crazy kids went out and battled hard to capture the WA District 12 title without a loss, but with lots of gutty, gritty, gamer performances up and down the line up. Most of us will not soon forget the no-hitter to start the tournament, the diving web gem in centerfield and resulting double play of the runner at third, two game-saving diving stabs at second base, inning after inning of stellar catching in 100-degree heat, and all those timely hits!

As a result, they move on to State. The tournament starts Saturday the 19th, and we leave on our trip on Tuesday the 22nd. The trip of a lifetime wins out over a State tournament bid, and Jake will have to leave his teammates after just 2 or 3 games. This is an agonizing position to be in, as he is one of their pitchers, and losing any team member now is really tough on all involved. So wish the Greater Richland Little League the best as each age division is going to State. If you want to help us defray the costs, you can chip in and donate to our league.

As promised, and after some backorder delay, I have our new camcorder. I decided I needed a high-end optical zoom, and a hard drive, but that HD capability would have to wait until prices drop significantly. After much online research, I decided on the Panasonic SDR H40P model, which features standard video quality, a 42x optical zoom and a 40 GB hard drive. As of mid-June, I paid $373 with free shipping. All the HD models of any repute start at about double that.

I have no issues with the camera unit itself, but it shipped with the wrong USB mini B cable, so I can't as yet offload the video to the computer. Of course, Panasonic uses a nonstandard mini B connector, so I have initiated a customer support inquiry to see if they will send me the correct cable. Stay tuned. Also, more to follow on the camcorder's performance, but I like it so far.

Seeing that December was the last post, it seems like a belated Happy New Year would be in order. It also seems like time for an update on our "See America" vacation plan. Much has happened since the last post. The big ticket parts of the trip have fallen into place. In addition to securing our Delta Sky-Saver tickets to Washington DC and booking all our hotels with hotel points at various chains, we have our Acela Express AMTRAK tickets for the DC-NYC-Boston leg of our trip. We also have our tickets for Water Country USA and for Cedar Point amusement parks.

The other piece of exiting planning news surrounds our visit to Cooperstown. We've been planning to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of our trip. Long before learning anything about Induction Week, we were planning to make a one-day stop on July 27, which happens to be the 2008 Induction Ceremony. Further, Seattle Mariner broadcasting legend Dave Niehaus is slated to enter the Broadcaster's Wing of the Hall that day!

Lastly, I just ordered a new camcorder, which will be the subject of a future post. Stay tuned.