Tom's Great Adventure

More Easter Break

2011-10-23T20:31:00.000-04:00

We arrived home from NYC at 4:30AM. We caught a few hours sleep. Then up again to drive to Baltimore, actually PA for the funeral of Carol's Grandmother. After the service on Friday we drove to Baltimore and spent a couple of days with Bobbie and Bill, Carol's sister and brother-in-law.

My new family is learning the Cook philosophy of "There is always more to do." So on Saturday we went to DC and toured the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. It was really memory lane for me. In my previous life, I spend a week at the Air and Space Museum in a special Associates Program. Lots of lectures, lunches and dinners with special folks like Paul Garber, Director Emeritus, and many behind the scenes activities. The typical day started at 8am and ended at 11:30 or midnight. Sorry, no pictures from that ancient past.

THIS time we did take a few pictures.

Eastern DC-3

1903 Wright Flyer

Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5B

Lindbergh's Ryan NYP

"Spirit of St Louis"

.
It was too pretty a day to stay indoors - at least that's what the other three people in our group thought. I could have roamed about the Air and Space all day.

Some great time spent with Bobbie and Bill. Then it was back to the "routine" of Salem, VA.

We're having more fun than anyone deserves. But I saw this great quote the other day which explains it.

JUSTICE is when you get what you deserve.

MERCY is when you don't get what you deserve.

GRACE is when you get what you don't deserve.

I am NOT the King of Slugdom

2011-10-10T08:41:00.000-04:00

But I certainly qualify as a Crown Prince.

So I haven't blogged in five months. And the last blog was about Christmas.

I've been very busy.

Summer was a whirlwind of travel.

And now I'm

Pretty much doing nothing.

Kids got back into the school routine. Carol got back into the work routine. I got back into the House Daddy and be a slug routine.

So this should be my "What I did this summer" blog. But there's some catching up to do before I get to that.

The teachers were amazed and pleased that both kids had their homework from the time they were away all done. Apparently many parents don't get on their kids quite the way we did.

Emily's French teacher came into the conference in February, laid her notebook on the table unopened and said, "There simply isn't any area where I could ask for improvement from this student. She is always prepared for class, with her homework done. She is cheerful, courteous, eager and happy to participate in class and just really wants to please." In not exactly the same words, all of her other teachers said pretty much the same thing.

I said, "Would it be possible for you to put that child on the bus a couple of days a week because that is not who gets off the bus at our end."

Carol said, "If that's asking too much, could you just give me a video of your class so I could at least SEE that child."

When I said that if she only had 6 hours of "nice" a day in her, it wasn't fair that the teachers should get it all, they replied, "Oh Yes, it is. Because of all the other kids we have all day that aren't like her."

ANYWAY - they BOTH finished the year on A/B Honor Roll. A first for Emily - with all the pressures of her first year of High School.

We are so proud of both of them.

And again, life threw us a curve ball. They were supposed to spend all of Spring Break with their Dad. Long story, but that did not happen. We had to go to Baltimore on Thursday for the funeral of Carol's Grandmother. Easter Sunday is the one time each year that our entire parish goes to one service.

Gee, that leaves us with the first part of the week with nothing planned.

So at the last minute we decided to go to NYC for a quick, one night trip. The overnight bus left Roanoke at 10pm Monday and got us to Canal St at 7:00am Tuesday morning. A quick cab ride to the Fairfield Inn just off Time Square had us at the desk asking - at 7:30 in the morning,

"Any chance of an early check-in?"

"No Problem, your room was unused last night. So it's ready."

A quick shower, big complimentary breakfast and by 10:00am we were walking down 8th Avenue.

POST OFFICE

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

THESE TWO DON'T NEED CAPTIONS, DO THEY ?????

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IN - DUH - BRYANT PARK

ONE OF THE LIONS AT THE LIBRARY

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Some of the Easter Flowers

We got to St. Pat's in time to celebrate Noon Mass. Then it was walking again - to Grand Central and Rockefeller Center.

Here are a few more pictures - Rock Center, its famous statues, topiaries and LEGO store .

Then I stood in line at the TKTS booth to get tickets for an evening show. Carol and the kids left me to go have some fun.

Got tickets for Chicago and headed back to the hotel to put our sore feet up for a little while. The Sheraton right next to our hotel has an excellent restaurant - The Gotham Bistro. The lunch - which was actually two entrees and two appetizers with non-alcoholic drinks was just a little over $75.00 but we had a Restaurants.com $25.00 gift certificate so it was "only" $60.00 with the tip. Love NYC.

Then

BROADWAY

And after the show - a stop at Junior's, who has finally ventured from Brooklyn to Manhattan - for some of their incredible cheesecake. Remembering the size of the portions from last time, we got two individual servings to share between the four of us. We ate about half and saved the rest for the next day.

Off to a sound sleep. Well deserved. We did a lot for one day. The kids were real troopers. No complaining about all the walking - well, only a little.

The next morning, with a little later start, we did some more sightseeing.

I got back in the TKTS line while Carol and the kids roamed around Times Square.

It's a little hard to find "kid friendly" Broadway shows - like we didn't think THIS one would be appropriate

So we went to this one instead.

And we all loved it.

Dinner at a Thai restaurant on Canal Street and then it was time to catch the bus back to Salem. We arrived in Roanoke at 4:00am and caught a few hours sleep before we got up to drive to Baltimore. More about that in the next post.

LAST DAY IN PARIS - IS THAT SUNSHINE?

2011-05-06T20:50:00.009-04:00

We woke up to a bright SUNNY day.

Second one on the 3 week trip.

SO - we HAD to plan another walking tour. A quick Metro ride took us to Jardin du Luxembourg. And we enjoyed walking through the admittedly winter gardens - for a short while before it clouded up and started to sprinkle.

So, ONE MORE TIME, a change in plans took us to Les Invalides.

It's a fascinating HUGE museum with lots of military uniforms, weapons and Napoleon's favorite horse, a little the worse for the wear.

And Napoleon's tomb

It's obvious that I'm VERY tardy in blogging our Christmas trip. So here are some pictures of Paris that I can't attribute to any specific day. But we took them -

and WE WERE THERE -

Views from our flat, with the Eiffel Tower in the distance

We had an uneventful train ride - if you describe 180 mph as uneventful - back to London.

A day of rest and then a LONG day getting home.

In spite of Carol's concerns, the house was standing and the cat was alive and healthy. It was a good time for all.

LIFE IS SO GOOD !

NEXT TO LAST DAY IN PARIS

2011-05-06T09:55:00.009-04:00

Monday - Emily's turn to be sick. Carol, Andrew and I head out to see -

More CHURCHES !

and La Conciergerie

This medieval palace is on the island with Notre Dame, along with La Sainte-Chapelle.

Carol's WONDERFUL guide book (THANK YOU AGAIN to Carol's co-worker, Marianne for such a great gift) said that a combo ticket for both was slightly reduced in price AND the line to buy tickets was almost always short at La Conciergerie and VERY long at La Sainte-Chapelle.

PERFECT information. People were standing in an hour long line to buy tickets at Chapelle. We walked half a block past them to the other ticket booth and had our tickets in 2 minutes. THEN we got to walk past all those people waiting to buy tickets and walked right into the Chapelle.

FINALLY - a church where we were allowed to take pictures. Most of these were taken by Andrew. "Great Job, Andrew!"

Tom and Casey joined us for the tour of the Conciergerie.

Again this picture is from the web because somebody in authority decided to clutter up the biggest medieval hall left in Paris with an art exhibit.

Here's some "street art" on a fountain statue.

Tom had a favorite Thai restaurant he wanted to take us to, so off we went on the Metro. Tom speaks passable French. The young waiter spoke French and Thai. Tom ordered a soup that the menu said included "boules de boeuf" in French or "ลูกชิ้นเนื้อวัว " in Thai. He was convinced that the kids were going to get a really exotic dish with beef balls. When the soup came, I knew they were not authentic because they were about 1" in diameter. I kept trying to tell Tom that they were simple meatballs made of beef because they were so small. The young waiter insisted that they were what Tom thought. Gotta give everyone - except Carol - credit. Thinking they were what Tom said, everyone - except Carol - tried one. I finally convinced Tom to ask the owner, an older Thai lady. At first she said, "Yes. That's what they were." But when I asked Tom to just say, "Testicles." she laughed out loud and said, "oh, NO NO NO. These are not that. Way too small. Just ground beef." When Tom said, that was not what the waiter said, she laughed harder and said that he loved to kid the customers. Tom asked if there was a restaurant nearby that served testicles and she said, "No. But two blocks down is a restaurant that serves penis." We all decided that we were too full to try something else.

On one of walking tours we had gone through the major book shop area of Paris and the kids wanted to go back to Shakespeare and Company.

Of course. We're in Paris - FRANCE - let's spend the afternoon in an English bookstore. It WAS fascinating, just check out the link.

But I thought I'd seen enough English books during our two weeks in ENGLAND. So I asked for a FRENCH bookstore. Specifically children's books because a dear friend had asked me to get a child's book or two for her. She had even given me the lists of titles with the ones she already had marked off.

First section on the first floor - I picked a couple. Then on to the third floor. There was a BIG banner which I couldn't read, but I knew what it meant ! There were most of one of the series my friend wanted, marked down as much as 80%. Some were so old the original price was in Francs. And France went to the Euro in 1998 ! So I bought a bunch.

Another walk to an Italian restaurant that had guys on the street offering "specials with this coupon." Cheap (for Paris) meals and a free drink. Andrew ordered a "personal pizza".

Our meals weren't quite as over sized, but close.

Wall art in the restaurant

Upstairs they had not put away all their Christmas decorations.

Easy Metro ride home.

One more day in Paris.

Life is so good.

MUSEE D'ORSAY AND EIFFEL TOWER

2011-04-25T17:07:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, it was Carol and Andrew's turn to have the stomach bug. So Emily and I headed out on our own adventure to see the Musee D'Orsay.

AGAIN, no pictures inside. But outside we had to reassess our opinions about French crowds which had been formed at Montmartre. The line for D'Orsay went down the block and around the corner. Near the museum, it wound back and forth around ropes and posts like Disney World. Except when we got there, we saw that there were NO ROPES OR POSTS. The people just twisted back and forth to take up less space. And no one jumped line !

The line wasn't too awful bad considering it was "Free Sunday" for the museums. But Emily did have time to take some pictures of the outdoor sculptures.

OF COURSE - A HORSE !

Last Summer at Biltmore we saw this print

from a 1515 picture by Durer, who never actually saw a rhinoceros. It was accepted as accurate for many years.

Apparently long enough for someone to sculpt it for display outside the D'Orsey -

When Emily and I went to the flat to eat before meeting the rest of the clan at the Eiffel Tower we found that Andrew was feeling better. So the three of us went in search of Tom etal. We found them just before the went through the turnstiles. Thank you Tinkerbell.

We all went to the first level. Emily started feeling poorly so I took her back to the flat. Andrew stayed with Tom and the crew. They all went to the top. Then they went ice skating - INSIDE THE EIFFEL TOWER !! Who knew !

We only have a couple of days left in Paris. We're hoping for better weather and everyone well.

MORE WALKING IN PARIS

2011-04-08T17:15:00.013-04:00

Doing these posts so long after the fact, along with my PDA crashing and erasing all of my calender entries for the past years has resulted in some errors. We did not go to the Louvre on New Year's Day, we went on Dec 31st. All pictures and descriptions are completely accurate - they just didn't happen on the day I said.

On New Year's Day, knowing we had the football game scheduled, we went out for another walking tour.

Starting with the Arc de Triomphe.

Magnificent

AND they had a Port-a-John - which by now you've learned is very important to this old man.

I was wearing my Penn State jacket. Three co-eds came up to us and said, "HI - Are you from Pennsylvania?" It's good to know that the legendary PSU allure still works, even for an old man !!! They were not Penn Staters but were all from PA. They had seen us earlier on the Metro and didn't say anything. But twice in one day was just too much.

We did not exchange names or email addresses so I don't think they'll ever find me or their pictures. But with the wonders of the WEB and Google, who knows.

Accepting the realization that we were NOT going to have a clear sunny day in Paris, we went to Montmartre.

We did not go into Sacre Coeur because the line was WAY too long. And it wasn't even a line - it was a major mob scene.

"We're not in England, Toto."

But we did enjoy the outside and the view - even through the fog.

From here we went to The Moose for the PSU bowl game - but I've already told you about that.
Tomorrow is Sunday - free admission to Paris Museums. We'll see what we're up to doing.

NEW YEAR'S EVE IN PARIS

2011-03-20T17:17:00.009-04:00

I got so excited sharing our "snail experience" that I closed the last blog and completely forgot that it was our NEW YEAR'S EVE dinner.

We had planned to go to Montmarte, which is a hill on the north side of the city, with beautiful views. It would have been a perfect place to see ALL the fireworks all around the city, without the outrageous crowds around the Eiffel Tower or on the Champs de Lysses. But the fog was so low that we decided to stay in and enjoy the night in our apartment - and out on the balcony.

Midnight came and we all went out on the balcony to watch the light show at the Eiffel Tower and watch and listen to fireworks in and around our neighborhood. After about 10 minutes or so, Carol said, "I don't think those were firecrackers." We all listened. Sure enough, they were gunshots. We decided that it was time to go inside and call it a night.

The next morning I got up REALLY EARLY and went to the Louvre to get us all tickets and avoid the line.

Didn't work - I stood outdoors in line for almost an hour.

Oh yeah, it DID work. Carol, Andrew and Emily came later and didn't stand in line at all.

Once inside, we split up. Andrew wanted to see the Egyptian section first. Emily and I had gotten our fill of Egypt at the British Museum. Here are some of the things Andrew and Carol saw

Emily and I went into our American Tourist mode and headed straight for the things that Emily's French teacher had put on her "Must See" list.

and continued on through gallery after gallery of incredible sculpture

And as I've said before, Emily will find horses wherever we go

This one is solid silver

After a quick lunch, we split up again and then came together at the apartments of Napoleon III. Half way through this section we decided that although we had been thoroughly impressed with the Biltmore Estate last summer, compared to the "real thing", the Biltmore is a double-wide. "Sorry, Mr. Vanderbilt. Nice try."

Here are some pictures so that you can judge for yourself.

Some much beauty, so little time - and energy. We wore ourselves out and then went on to see more.

This is a section of the original fort, built on this location in the late 12th century.

The paintings were incredible, too. But Emily really likes sculpture more and the crowds made it almost impossible to get good pictures of the paintings.

And the day STILL wasn't over.

It's New Year's Day - BOWL DAY back in the States

AND Penn State is playing in the Outback Bowl.

AND the rumor mill is rampant with stories that this will be JoePa's last game. We hear this almost every year, but this year we heard things like, "The family has chartered several jets so that all of his children (5) and his grandchildren (17) can be there."

AND he was going for his 25th Bowl win - against a highly ranked Florida team.

OK, so we're in Paris and American College Football is not real high on their list. There must be SOME option. Tom and the internet come through again. He finds "The Moose", a Canadian Sports Bar in the Odeon section of Paris. He calls them on Friday and they confirm that they will have ALL THE BOWL GAMES.

So after a long day at the Louvre, we head to The Moose to meet Tom, Ann and the kids. We get there first.

But we are told, "No, the Outback Bowl will not be on. It's not on any of our FOUR satellite boxes. We're not sure why." I become VERY upset and ask to talk to the manager whom I believe is the person Tom spoke to on Friday. He's not there, but will be in 15 minutes before kickoff. Tom and crew arrive. We decide we have no other options at this late date so we sit and wait for the manager. Who confirms that for some reason, the game is not on satellite.

BUT if we don't mind a little jerky picture at time, he'll be happy to put an internet stream on a big screen.

WE ARE HAPPY ! Good food, GREAT BEER and an exceptionally friendly and accommodating staff.

And with 5 kids ranging from 4 to 14, we did test them !

Laughed with a guy who was cheering for Florida and asked if he had gone to Florida. Turns out he didn't. He went to the Naval Academy and played football against Penn State back in the 1960's.

OK, so we lost the game. And JoePa announced that he had no intention of retiring, he was still having too much fun.

We still had a GREAT TIME !

PS - Except for the pictures at The Moose, Andrew's pictures at the Louvre and four of the ones at Napoleon III's apartment, EMILY took all of the pictures in today's blog. I shared some of her incredible flower pictures last summer. She really is a very talented young lady.

THIS MUST BE PARIS - THOSE LOOK LIKE SNAILS

2011-03-13T11:48:00.014-04:00

When we got back to the apartment after our walking tour, we found that Tom had gone grocery shopping and there were preparations to be made for dinner.

Carol, Emily and I stayed out of the (very small) kitchen while Tom, Andrew and Sarah prepared SNAILS.

Then the table was set

and we all enthusiastically partook of the feast

Well, ALMOST ALL

I ate them, too. I'd probably like asbestos tile with that much garlic and butter on it. Carol did not try any. She was about to, until Ann tried one for the first time and said, "Just about what I expected. It's like a large semi-hard booger." Carol decided to pass.

We told her that she couldn't have any dessert if she didn't eat dinner, but she wouldn't budge - even after she saw the two desserts.

A "King Cake"

and a "Buche de Noel"

What a great meal with my families in Paris !

PARIS - NOT IN THE SPRINGTIME - BUT STILL PARIS

2011-03-05T12:12:00.022-05:00

Only the English seemed to have mastered keeping the old while making it new.

St. Pancras Station from the outside.

And the inside after a multi-million update to become the British station for the Eurostar service.

EUROSTAR - WOW - 5 hours from the door of Tom and Ann's flat in London to the door of the flat in Paris. That includes the tube ride at both ends, ticketing, immigration and customs and the train ride. On a train that travels at 211 mph between London and Dover, slows down to 60mph through the chunnel, then back up to 250 mph in France.

After an early morning start from High Barnet we arrived at St. Pancras station where we boarded the Eurostar. Thank you, ANN for using your knowledge from past trips with 3 little ones. She simply took all 9 of our passports and handed them to the Immigration Officer. He looked at each one, pointed to the person he saw pictured on the passport and motioned them through the gate.

We arrived in Paris with 5 hungry kids, in spite of bringing lots of snacks onto the train. Between the metro stop and the flat were several cafes, bakeries and a McDonald's. SO, our second meal in London was at a BurgerKing and our first meal in Paris was at McD's. So much for the international experience. We more than made up for it, but that's for a later blog.

After getting settled in at the flat, we all rode the Metro to Notre Dame.

At this point we had been in England, and now France for 2 weeks and we had seen less than 8 hours of sunshine.

Note to everyone - "Seasonal Affective Disorder" is VERY REAL !! Carol says that she knew something was wrong when she walked into Notre Dame, looked up and said to herself, "Yeah, it's another church." Mentally she then slapped herself on the back of the head. Our fellow NCIS fans will understand.

Emily found a little joy, right here in the middle of winter.

Ann and Carol went grocery shopping. Tom and the rest of us stopped at his favorite charcuterie for two roast chickens. Quiet dinner at "home." And to bed. Preparing for an early start Thursday.

Carol and I and our kids got out early and went to the Louvre. Unfortunately, our "early" wasn't nearly early enough. The line was over 90 minutes long just to get in. And that gave us a pretty good idea of how crowded it would be.

Marianne, a dear friend and co-worker of Carol's had given us two wonderful guide books, one for London and one for Paris. The Paris one had several walking tours in it. So we took a walking tour of that part of Paris. Across the square from the Louvre we found the Jardin du Palais-Royal an 18th Century arcade surrounding a large courtyard and gardens. In the courtyard are "The Columns" by Daniel Burren. An outdoor sculpture consisting of black and white columns. Didn't impress me much as "art" but the kids had a ball.

Through the garden

and along some streets with the original mosaics

to Rue de Beaujolais and on to the Opera Palais Garnier.

Rue de la Paix, which is full of elegant jewelry shops led us to Place Vendome which is the home of more high end jewelry stores, banks, the famous Ritz Hotel and many French fashion design houses. The column with Napoleon on top was erected in 1810, fashioned after the Trajan Column in Rome.

We enjoyed the view and the window shopping.

Only window shopping.

All the shop doors were guarded by liveried gentleman who did not appear to be welcoming such as us.

Next we went to Place de la Concorde - a huge square/park where the mass executions of the French Revolution took place. There was a big holiday carnival which looked like fun. BUT I had to go to the bathroom so we ran through it to the Champs-Elysees which the guide books say is the most elegant avenue in Paris.

NOT AT CHRISTMAS TIME.

We thought we had been transported to Gatlinburg, TN. Complete with rides, hot dog stands AND pay toilets.

With THAT emergency over, everybody realized that they were hungry. I refused to go to another McD's or BK's.

This IS PARIS !

We crossed the river and headed toward the Eiffel Tower.

We knew the food at the Eiffel Tower would be very expensive. So we stopped someone on the street and asked about someplace to eat. He said we would be in tourist territory from where we were all the way to the Eiffel Tower and the food would be "bad and expensive". But if we walked a few blocks out of our way we might find something. All we saw were fancy restaurants with valet parking.

THEN - LOOK - JUST DOWN THIS STREET - A DOMINO'S !!

We ran two blocks to find that it was delivery only. Weird Paris zoning.

We were about to give up and go to a Starbuck's. But I stopped a young lady walking while eating what looked like a baguette stuffed with meat and cheese and asked her where she had purchased it. She told us which street to turn on. She said, "There will be a pastry shop on the left. DO NOT GO THERE!. Half a block past it is the sandwich shop." We found it. Emily and I had a grilled cheese thingie. But with incredible bread and, of course, really incredible cheese, it was heaven on a plate. Andrew had quiche and Carol had a chicken cheese grilled sandwich. All excellent, reasonably - for Paris - priced and served by friendly people.

Speaking of friendly people. This is as good a place as any to tell you about our experience with the French people. We went expecting arrogant, Anglo hating snobs who would completely ignore, or worse, English speaking tourists.

From one end of Paris to the other, we approached shop clerks, museum guides, metro employees and many, many citizens and said, "Pardon-moi. Parlez-vous anglais ?" Which was pretty much the total of our French.

In EVERY SINGLE CASE - except one, a valet parking attendant in front of a fancy restaurant - we were greeted with a huge smile, a gesture of two fingers close together and a "Ah, a wee bit." And then they stayed talking to us until we figured out the answer to our question.

There were one or two who scowled at me and said some variation of, "Of course, but why would I ? YOU are in FRANCE." Then they'd laugh and help us.

I would not hesitate to go back, even without my French speaking son, Tom as a guide. He was very helpful. But we spent several days on our own and got along fine.

Warmed by the restaurant and the food, we headed back out to walk to the Eiffel Tower.

We postponed going up because of the fog. Another day, we hope.

Back on the Metro and after a change of trains, to the apartment.

ONE MORE TIME - I hope SOMEBODY is paying attention - our first day in Paris and we didn't do ANYTHING (the Louvre) we had planned. We had a WONDERFUL day with "Plan B" which wasn't even a plan until after we decided not to do the Louvre.

Life is ALWAYS good. Even when it doesn't go as planned.

LAST DAY TO SEE LONDON

2011-03-02T15:00:00.010-05:00

Carol and Andrew chose to spend the day at the Natural Science Museum while Emily and I went to the British Museum. Tomorrow we leave for Paris.

We all had a great time and we very glad that we divided the kids. At least one of them would have been bored to death if we had taken both of them to either place.

Andrew only took a few pictures - school was closed for holiday and the museums were jammed full.

Emily, on the other hand - well, let's just say, "Thank heaven for digital cameras."

She will find horses any place she goes

Lots of bones

A Roman mosaic

Another horse

THE Rosetta Stone

After a few hours in the museum, Emily and I decided to walk to Covent Garden.

On the way -

We did not find the Muffin Man.

Covent Garden was alive with street performers.

Performers

And all lit up for Christmas

Carol says that she and Andrew had a wonderful time.

I KNOW that Emily and I did. I am so blessed to have such a young lady in my life.

Tomorrow it's up early to catch the Eurostar to Paris.

Life is so good.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 27th IN LONDON

2011-02-25T08:55:00.013-05:00

We had planned to tour London after visiting St. Paul's Cathedral. But we spent most of that day inside St. Paul's so on Monday we went back and started over.

We walked around St. Paul's,

onto the Millennium Bridge to take pictures of Shakespeare's Globe Theater

and the Tower Bridge.

Then we walked up the river towards Westminster Abbey.

A slight detour took us to the home of the Horse Guards.

Then past Big Ben - with the London Eye in the background -

And on to Westminster Abbey

Here is the main entrance

and the south entrance

And once again, no pictures were allowed inside. But, again, trust me - it was a marvelous and awe inspiring visit.

A LONG walk took us to Buckingham Palace

We had tickets to "Love Never Dies", Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera".

But first , a quick bite to eat and then on to Piccadilly Circus for a view of London's answer to Times Square. Not as many lights as NY but interesting contrast between the hip new lights and the very old buildings.

And our horse lover Emily keeps finding picture opportunities.

On to the Adelphi Theater.

Hop on the Tube and return to Tom's flat - VERY late after a VERY long day. The kids - and we - survived. With almost no drama except on the stage of the play.

Life is good.

Tinkerbell Jersusalem - BUMP

2011-02-20T07:28:00.003-05:00

TINKERBELL JERUSALEM
"BUMP"

For my friends who are even MORE computer illiterate than I, "Bump" is used to bring a posting back to the top of a chat room.

ANYWAY, my blog doesn't list entries older than one year on the index to the right. I re-post this story each year to make it easier for newcomers to find.

Here's my story about the book and what it did for me. This book, and the author are responsible for a LARGE part of my outlook on life and my present journey.

Mary Ann, my wife of 36 years and best friend for 46 yrs (Yes, we were 11 when we met) died on July 3rd 2004.

In October, three months after Mary Ann's death, I hit bottom. In over 5 yrs of counseling for depression, this was the only time my counselor ever asked if I was having suicidal thoughts. I wasn't suicidal, but the fact that she asked indicates where I was. She gave me some very good advice and it helped some.

But, at least for a little while, I really needed to get away from everybody and everything that reminded me of Mary Ann. I had signed up as a Mortgage Broker in order to get health insurance. They sent me to a school in Newport Beach, CA. The only place I have really great memories that do not include Mary Ann is the Southern California area. I went to conventions in Anaheim regularly and usually stayed over the weekend in Newport or Laguna Beach. In those days airline fares were a lot cheaper if you stayed over a Sat night. The school ran all day Thur and the other participants left Thur evening.

I moved to a hotel closer to the beach for the weekend. On Friday I walked Balboa Island all day. It was almost deserted, exactly what I had planned for my "recluse-dom". Sat morning I went to my favorite thrift shop in the whole world. A tiny place about three blocks off the beach in Laguna Beach. I'd been going there for 20 years or more. Usually not more than twice a year so I'm sure no one there considered me a regular. But I thought of it as "my" shop. Two things about Orange County, CA. The labels in the thrift shops are different than those I find back east. And no man there would be caught dead in a thrift shop so men's suits were always $10.00. Unless they were having a half price sale.

I couldn't find anything that fit and I needed to buy something because I needed to go pee and they had a big sign that said "No Public Restrooms". In the past when I bought something and I could say, "Yes, I know about the sign, but the other ladies usually let me go down that hall to the second door on the right", they took pity on me. But I couldn't even find a necktie that I would ever wear. So I was looking at the books. There was "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" on an easel. Not even on the shelves with all the others. Standing up there waiting for me. I didn't know it at the time, but that was my first "Tinkerbell" inbetween. It looked interesting and it was 50 cents.

So I bought it.

I went down to what I supposed would be another deserted beach in Corona Del Mar, which is a tiny town surrounded by Newport Beach. There seemed to be quite a bit of activity for an Oct morning, but I figured, hey it's Saturday. I sat down on a bench and started reading.

For an hour and a half or so, I devoured the book. Then I came to the page where the author says, "It's all here. If you don't believe it, look around now. Lift your eyes. Do you see it? In the field of your vision, no matter where you are, there is an inbetween, a carrier of spiritual light, sending its healing and comfort to you, its love and beauty."

My first thought was, "I could sure use some 'healing and comfort' right now. But I spend 90% of my reading time sitting on the john. So there's a 90% chance that when reading this I'd look up and see a dirty shower curtain. OK, I'm staying at the Marriott, so I'd look up and see a clean shower curtain. Same difference. But I was on the beach. I looked up and there were 4 adorable little kids, three boys and a girl, playing in the sand right at my feet.

You know how I love kids. I have no idea how long they'd been there. I grinned from ear to ear with crocodile tears just streaming down my face.

OK. "Not only are there inbetweens, but they're PERSONALIZED inbetweens."

The lady sitting at the far end of the bench said, "Excuse me. Are you OK." I said, "Yes." and gave her a quick description of the book. Then I said, "It said, 'Lift your eyes' and when I did, there were the kids. I've had a very bad 4 years and kids have been my salvation.

I love them all. And please look at this picture." (pg 143). She said, "Oh my God. That's Jessie" who was the little girl playing right in front of me. I said, "Yes. It certainly looked like a twin to me. Except Jessie's hair is down. And the girl in the picture has a ballerina bun."

I got up to leave and she said, "NO. YOU CAN'T LEAVE. Jessie's mother is at the bathroom with her brother and you have to wait and tell her the story and show her the picture. We drove an hour to get here and most of the way we were talking about what we could do to Jessie's hair so she could play with the boys more easily. And we couldn't bring ourselves to even mention cutting it short. We never thought of a tight little bun. You HAVE TO wait to show her." So I did. Playing with the kids in the sand the whole time.

OK. At the same time I'm HAVING inbetweens, I can be GIVING them to others.

When I again got up to leave, they said, "Oh No. You have to stay. It's the 100th anniversary of the founding of Corona Del Mar and there's going to be lots of great food this afternoon and then at 6:30 there will be a free concert here on the beach."

I stayed. The food was incredible. I was sitting in the food court talking to a 90 yr old lady who had spent her entire life in Corona Del Mar. She assured me it was the best place in the world to grow up and live out your life.

Then the music started. The very first song was, "Cherish" and I started bawling like a baby. But it was OK. There was a married couple at the table with us and they both were crying, too. Again I was asked, "All you going to be alright." And again I said, "Oh yes. It's just that song has so many memories. And actually, they're doing a really good job of playing it." She said, "Well they should. It's The Association."

I said, "Yeah. Right. The Association.

At a Chamber of Commerce fund raiser.

On the sand.

At 6:30 on a Saturday evening.

Free."

She said, "It really is. They grew up here."

I left half a chocolate dessert on the table and ran to the beach. Where I sat with about 200 people and cried and listened for two hours. "Cherish", "Along Comes Mary", "Windy", "Never My Love", "Everything That Touches You", on and on for two hours.

OK, inbetweens ARE there all the time. If we just open our eyes to see them. And some of them are really impressive. I mean really, THE ASSOCIATION ???

That night I called the publisher's phone number that was inside the book and left a message on a machine. "I know it's out of print, but I need about a dozen copies of "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" to give away to friends. It has renewed my life and I need to share it with others. Some of my friends have a real need to read it right now. And some I want to hand the book and say "You're a major inbetween in my life."

My ticket home was for a 6:00AM Monday departure from LAX. That was standard. My usual plan was to return the car to Rent-a-Wreck on Sunday morning. They're about 30 minutes from the airport and they don't have much staff on Sundays. So I'd get there, ask them to call someone to come in and take me to the airport, then drive a mile up the highway to a diner and
have breakfast. This time Charlie said, "Tom, a couple got here about 20 minutes ago and I called a driver. He should be here by the time we get your car checked in." He was, so I got to LAX much earlier than usual.

There were three flights to Charlotte where I would change planes to Roanoke. 2:00, 4:00 and 11:00. If I got standby on the 2:00 I almost always made it to Roanoke late Sunday evening. The 4:00 was "iffy" and of course the 11:00 meant a middle of the night arrival, followed by a 7:00AM departure to Roanoke.

I asked the ticket agent for something that "looks like a boarding pass" so I could get past security to the gate to try and get a standby seat. He gave it to me.

I looked at a very long line and said, "Please tell me that line is for Southwest Airlines" which shares the terminal with USAir. He said, "No. That's the line for security. See that lady in the red dress standing way down there in the doorway? She's 2 hours from the x-ray machines which are at the top of that escalator. And I don't know how far the line goes outside that door down the sidewalk."

I said, "There are about the same number of people outside as there are in the terminal. So I'll miss the 2:00, probably miss the 4:00 too. Oh well, I can always catch the redeye." He said, "Wait a minute. Aren't you a member of the USAir Club?" I said, "Yes." He said, "We have a special elevator for you." He took me around behind the ticket counter, put me on an elevator and said, "Show your club card to the first person you see when you get off the elevator." It was the person I call the "x-ray concierge" who stands at the head of the security line checking tickets and saying, "You go to that machine." I showed him my card and he sent me directly to a waiting machine. That saved me 4 hours of standing in line.

OK, the inbetweens just keep getting better if you're really looking for them. I'm beginning to catch on.

The lady at the check-in desk said, "We're booked solid and there are two people ahead of you on the stand by list." I showed her my club card and she said, "OK. You're number one on the list for the 2:00 flight."

There was ONE standby seat.

It was an aisle seat.

I don't know if you've ever had the pleasure of going through the Charlotte Commuter Terminal. It's a big circular room with about 15 gates spaced around the perimeter. When I got there, it was packed full.

The kind lady said, "Oh I'm sorry. That flight to Roanoke is full." I said, "Oh, just take my name. There's always at least one no show." She said, "No. You don't understand. All 15 passengers have already checked in with me. There are no seats. You will not get on that airplane unless you see a stretcher leave this area with someone strapped to it." When I said, "Oh well, I'll catch the next one." She replied, "It's the last one tonight." When I said, "OK, I'll spend the night in one of those big leather recliners in the Club Lounge", she said, "We close the lounges at 11:00pm now." She thought I was crazy when I said, "Oh well. Something will work out or I'll just wait here until morning. That'll be OK, too."

There were two empty seats in the whole place. In a row of 4 with a young guy at one end who had put his bag on the seat next to him, I thought to save it for his companion. I sat down in the other end seat. A little while later a drop dead gorgeous young lady came in and checked in at one of the counters. Then, looking very tired, she stood and looked around. For some reason, I got vibes that she would not sit between the two of us. So I made eye contact, smiled, got up and moved to the middle seat and motioned to the end. She came over, sat down and we started talking. Nice conversation. She'd just finished a real estate school in Charlotte and was headed home.

Guys - you know me well enough to really appreciate this. For the very first time in my entire life, I ended a conversation with a beautiful young lady that was willing to continue talking to me. Don't ask me why. I haven't done it again since.

But when I did, the man on the other side said, "Hi. Where you flying to?" I said, "No place tonight it seems." and told him how my stand by system had let me down this time. He said, "Well, I'm a USAir pilot flying to Roanoke tonight to be there for my Monday morning schedule. For some reason they gave me a seat. Let me go out to the airplane for a minute. If the jump seat is empty, I can ride up there and you can have my seat."

At this point, I don't have to tell you what happened next, do I?

Of course, the jump seat was empty and a very puzzled gate lady said, "Mr. Cook, please come to gate 35, I have a seat for you."

OK, if you expect them, with gratitude, they just keep coming and coming. And all this within 36 hours of finding the book.

Monday I slept. Tuesday I went to my Grief Support Group and there was a questionnaire about our progress. Questions like "Can you say the name of your loved one without crying?" "Are you able yet to see even brief moments of joy?" I said, "Able to see them? God is hitting me over the head with them."

But wait, there's more. About a month later I got a phone call. "You left a message on my machine about "Tinkerbell Jerusalem. How can I help you?"

"I need some copies to give away." And I told her a very short version of this story. She said, "I think I can help, but how did you get my phone number?" I said, "It was in the book."

"NO, it wasn't. The main number was in the back of the book but it was disconnected years ago."

"Well, YES it was. How else would I have found you."

"My partner and I had an difficult breakup and we closed the business and I kept the second office number for my home phone but it's unlisted."

"I didn't get it from Directory Assistance. I got it from the inside front cover of the book."

"NO. All that was there was the address. And there's no longer a phone number associated with that address."

"You're not listening. It was IN THE BOOK."

"Where?"

"On a sticker inside the front cover."

"Oh my God. When we closed the company, I got stuck with the excess inventory and the left over office supplies. When I shipped some "Tinkerbells", I had some stickers that weren't going to be used anyway so I stuck them inside some of the books."

"There, see. No big deal. I found one of those books."

"YEAH BIG DEAL ! We sold thousands of that book and I put stickers in maybe 24 of them. And if you hadn't found one of those 24 you never would have found me. Tell you what, I have a partial case, probably 20 or 21 books. I'm going to mail them to you. When you get them, if you would please look at the outside of the box, see how much the postage was, and send me a check to reimburse me for the postage."

"Wait. You can't do that."

"EXCUSE ME. They're my books and I can do anything I darn well please with them. I've schlepped them through three moves in the last 5 years. If anyone had asked me, "Why?" I wouldn't have been able to tell them. Until now. Obviously I was saving them for you. They ARE your books. And I'm giving them to you. So there."

And she did.

When I gave them all away I called her back and said, "I need more books. Could I talk to you about buying the publishing rights?" I figured if I published some and sold half at retail, I'd have the other half paid for and I could give them away. She said, "When we closed the company we returned the rights to the authors. That author was living in Hawaii but I think she's moved back to Southern California. I believe I know someone who might have her email address. I'll get it for you." The next day she sent me Bonnie's email address with a "PS". "I found another case of books in the garage under some snow tires. I'm mailing them to you." So I had another 24 to give away.

I emailed Bonnie with the short version of this story and told her that she had saved my life. Or at least restored it to me.

I got an email back that said, "YOU are my inbetween for today. Please call me." The day before she had broken off a 4 year relationship with someone she loved dearly because, "He just didn't cherish me the way I cherished him." She was really feeling down and slightly worthless. She said that she had cried most of the night, second guessing herself. Then she got up and my email was there.

We talked for 3 1/2 hours. It was like we'd known each other all our lives, been out of touch for a short while and just picked up right where we'd left off. We became very good "long distance friends." And emailed regularly. A few months later we were laughing because we were both unemployed but so busy that it seemed impossible to get together on the phone. We actually made a "phone date" when she knew she'd be driving for a couple of hours. During that conversation she mentioned that her schedule was getting overwhelming. She was coming east to Vermont for a week long Yoga seminar but she had to leave it two days early to fly back to CA. We then determined that it was the same week in July that I would be in NY helping my son, Jeff and his family move from Niagara Falls to New Paltz. Since she was flying into NYC and bumming a ride with friends to VT, she couldn't stop in New Paltz and see me. I threatened to block the Thruway since Jeff's new house was 2 miles from an exit. Then I said, "What about on the way back to NYC?" She told me she had a Thur afternoon flight out of Albany. When I asked, "How are you getting to the Albany airport?" She laughed and said, "Airport shuttle I guess. Unless somebody offers me a ride." So I picked her up in VT, had 45 minutes to talk on the drive, then lunch and another 2 hours to talk before her flight. Incredible woman, really incredible conversation.

That conversation was a major turning point in my recovery.

Jeff is every bit as organized as Mary Ann was. I was in NY 15 days in July. By the first of May, he had my schedule worked out for all but two days. Back and forth to Niagara Falls a couple of times, work at the house on the days he could get off work, etc, etc.

One of the two free days was that Thursday. The first time Bonnie had been east in 30 years. The first time I'd been on the Hudson side of the Catskills since 1969. She and I being 45 minutes apart. Her schedule requiring her to go home early. From Albany. On one of only two days that I could have picked her up. And finding all this out after a chance remark about being too busy.

I now KNOW that she's so right about so many things. I see inbetweens every day. When I go to bed at night if I can't recall one, I know it was there and I just missed it. Bonnie, through that book and her friendship really did change my life.

Check out her latest project here.

I don't know if I'll be working with Bonnie on her website, re-publishing "Tinkerbell", maybe doing seminars together. But she and I KNOW that we're going to be working together sometime soon.

I'm out of books again. But it's available on the web for a couple of dollars plus shipping. Obviously, I think it's a "must" read for everyone.

CHRISTMAS IN LONDON WITH FAMILY

2011-01-31T19:46:00.009-05:00

Emily's and Andrew's teachers had been wonderful in getting their 2 weeks of homework organized before we left. Even though one week of it was for after the Christmas break. And they even stayed in touch during the break via email, especially when the kids had questions about something.

But it still required some coaxing to get them to do it. On Thursday, the 23rd, we "divided and conquered." Carol and Emily went to the city and visited the Victoria and Albert Museum and Harrod's. Tom and Andrew stayed at the flat while Andrew did homework.

On Christmas Eve, we rested during the day and went to St. John the Baptist Church in High Barnet. Just a short walk from the flat for a beautiful Christmas musical service. The earliest part of the existing building was built in 1560, or the late 1400's, depending on your source of information.

The REALLY INTERESTING part of the church history, to me at least is that the dark stone that you see in the building is FLINT ! Hey, it's what they had available and apparently the work force was cheap. I can't imagine trying to cut enough flint blocks to build a church, but there it stands.

Just down the street from the Church is Tom and Ann's favorite neighborhood pub. Ye Olde Mitre Inne, established in 1636.

After the wonderful service, we came home and "hung the stockings with care" thanks to Tom's ingenious apparatus to hold all 9 stockings without putting holes in the mantle !

Our Tree

Christmas Day was a little subdued, giftwise, for the 5 kids. We told Emily and Andrew that we were not going to carry gifts to London just to try and figure out how to bring them back home along with all the souvenirs that we knew we'd buy. So we gave them some English money and each got a new camera before we left.

But Tom and I hit the "Cherry shops" - Picture a Goodwill store of about 400 sq ft, dedicated to a specific local charity. There were at least 8 or 10 of them on High Street.

We found a Griffendor hat for Andrew

And a tee-shirt for Emily

Sarah got some Playmobil, including this van that she and Emily are assembling

To add yet another family tradition to our blended families, Carol made her mother's Lasagna - from memory because she forgot to bring the recipe to London. Carol said it wasn't right but none of us had ever had her mother's so we thought it was great. Except for Casey and Sarah who said, "It's too cheesy". TOO CHEESY ???? Isn't that like "too garlicky" - just can't happen?

In the afternoon, all except Tom and Ben went to see "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" from the "Chronicles of Narnia" in 3D. You will remember, I'm sure that Emily's one "must do" in England was to visit C. S. Lewis' grave which I wrote about in a previous blog.

Just four more days until Paris but we'll stay busy in London. Starting Monday because transportation workers are on strike on Sunday.

LONDON - CHRISTMAS IS COMING

2011-01-26T12:07:00.009-05:00

We did not return the cars on Monday. So Tuesday we took advantage of our freedom and went to London's largest mall for last minute Christmas shopping. After the mall we took the cars back and brought home pizza.

Wednesday the four of us went to "the city". The plan was to see St. Paul's Cathedral, stopping at King's Cross Station to find "Platform 9 3/4".

We thought that after St. Paul's we'd take a bus ride to some other sites. But we spent most of the day at St' Paul's. It was so beautiful and interesting, for all of us, for different reasons.

AGAIN, we were not allowed to take pictures. BUT there are public domain photos that show some of what we admired.

The Dome

And a 360 degree picture of the High Altar

We climbed most of the way up the Dome. We couldn't go to the very top because of the snow. Here are some pictures from the Dome.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

The Millennium Bridge.

Our second London meal had been at a Burger King at Victoria Station - because we did not know there was a food court upstairs. So after a short bus ride, we ate at a Garfunkel's. Ann had told us about this chain that provides "All things to all People." Excellent food, great service, reasonable - for London - prices. Then it was off to meet up with the rest of the family to see "Wicked." Which was not in the West End, but right across the street from Victoria Station.

YES, all 9 of us, plus a friend of Sarah's made a magical gathering of 10.

A GREAT SHOW. Followed by a long tube ride home.

ONE MORE TIME - A great time although we'll have to do the "rest of the tour" we had planned on another day. St. Paul's was worth it !

IT'S MONDAY, THIS MUST BE WINDSOR CASTLE

2011-01-20T20:26:00.009-05:00

Even though the roads were still slippery and we didn't have Tom to guide us, the four of us took off to Windsor Castle. No problems either driving on the wrong side or finding the Castle. Parking, on the other hand, was a challenge.

After finding the Castle and being told very politely by a guard that we could not park "there", we followed his directions to a parking garage. We also found it easily - but it was full. Then things went awry. We ended up leaving town on an Expressway, turning around and trying again from the beginning. This time we found a college parking lot that was available while the school was closed for holiday. After a short walk, we arrived back at the Castle.

Looking like a Castle oughta -

AGAIN, no pictures allowed inside. Trust us, British Royalty does know how to live.

Outside - the changing of the guard. Not the spectacle of Buckingham Palace, but very impressive, none the less.

And MUCH more accessible

We found our way home without incident - AND found another close parking space.

Tomorrow we return the cars and start seeing London like a local - taking buses and the tube.

OXFORD IN THE SNOW

2011-01-20T12:25:00.009-05:00

Please don't look at the "posting date". We've been home almost two weeks and I'm just getting to the blog. I needed the two weeks to recuperate from our "vacation." So, posting just like it was still December in England. Here we go =

After not being able to convince Tom to spend the night, "We don't have a change of clothes, we don't have jammies - we don't even have toothbrushes or razors." I played the feeble old man card and said, "I just can't face a two hour trip turned in to 5 hours by the snow - in the dark."

So we checked into a couple of rooms at a Holiday Inn Express, ate dinner and went to bed. The next morning we drove to Oxford. Famous for its universities and history. But we went for two reasons. Andrew wanted to see some Harry Potter sites and Emily wanted to visit the grave of C. S. Lewis. The snow still wasn't bad enough to cause major problems but enough to make Oxford a winter wonderland.

Here is the gate to Christ's College, the site of Hogwart's dining room.

Unfortunately, since the schools were on holiday, we were not allowed inside. we did take a bus tour of Oxford and saw some "Hogwart's looking" sites.

Thanks to Tom's iPod, Google and GPS, our adventure through the snow was complete with a visit to the Holy Trinity Church graveyard in Headington, Oxfordshire, England. Along with bearable weather, we were due for another inbetween. The graveyard was covered in 3 inches of snow. There was a service going on in the church and I was contemplating entering quietly and seeing if there was an usher that I might question about the location of our quest. I really didn't to disappoint Emily after we'd made it so far. But I didn't want to be rude to worshipers, either.

As I stood outside the church door pondering, two latecomers walked up. I asked them where the gravesite was and they gave us general directions to the right area. AND when we got there, we found that others just before us had cleared the stone. We never would have found it without the help of these seen and unseen strangers. Is Emily learning from these inbetweens? I hope so.

The drive home was relatively painless AND we found parking spaces for both cars. This was a major inbetween because most people had not moved their cars in three days and NO ONE plowed or even shoveled anything.

3" of snow is not terribly unusual for southern England. Several days of temperatures well below freezing is VERY unusual. Normally everybody sits still for a day and everything melts away. This time everybody sat still for 6 days and, sure enough, just like always, everything did melt away.

ONE MORE TIME - almost nothing went as planned

and we had a wonderful time anyway.

Life is so good.

WARWICK IN THE SNOW

2010-12-26T07:32:00.025-05:00

Two small cars were much cheaper than one minivan big enough for all nine of us. So off we go - caravaning through the snow. The countryside IS beautiful and the roads aren't horrible, yet. Tom led - he had some idea where we were going, AND he had a GPS. I had a white hanky tied to his rear window wiper arm to follow.

Except for a traffic jam, due to locals trying to get up a slippery grade of about 2%, the drive was completed without incident. We dropped everyone off at the front, drove through the rest of town, parked the cars, walked back to the castle and FOUND OUR GROUP. How DID we ever live without cell phones?

The "Gypsies" were in the courtyard, complete with strongman, fortuneteller, perriot dancer, and "Brenda the Bearded Lady."

Inside, there was a roaring fire in the banquet hall - set for dinner with 100 or so of your best friends.

In the lower level, the residents were getting ready for what would become the Battle of Barnet. Lots of cooking, sewing, fixing of armor and weapons.

With wax figures

and the occasional reenactor.

This lady was sewing banners for the battle.And was willing to come out of character to answer some questions about the battle and the outcome. Seems the Duke of Warwick's force were winning handily until some of his troops got confused by the similarity in their banners and those of the opposing forces. They attacked their own troops and they lost the battle. The Duke lost his head.

The upstairs was set up as a later, slightly more gentile period around the turn of the last century with a young Winston Churchill and his contemporaries.

All we could say after our visit this summer to Biltmore was, "Mr. Vanderbilt, 'Eat your heart out.'"
This is the REAL STUFF. Well, much of it, anyway. Another of the reenactors stayed completely in character to Tom, but when he asked if there was anything he could do, I said, "Yes. Please tell me when the snow will stop." In a perfect stiff English accent he replied, "So sorry, m'Lord. I can't help you with that. Do you Google?"

There were other visitors as well, from a slightly earlier time.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse. But it certainly turned the castle into a fairyland.

So we said, "Good by" to Warwick Castle and its inhabitants. We did pause for Tom to say a special farewell to Brenda.

Life really is good.

LONDON - DAY 2 & 3

2010-12-23T10:24:00.018-05:00

Of course Ben was the CUTEST child in the program.

After a yummy dinner and a couple of pints at "a pub with a Thai kitchen" we all watched Casey shine. Sorry, no pictures. But, "trust me" she was wonderful.

Friday morning we were up bright and early to take the tubes to see the Tower of London.

In the middle of a snowstorm. Hey, at least it wasn't still raining.

No pictures allowed of the Crown Jewels but here are a couple as we entered. Snow pellets do really strange things on a digital camera.

The Beefeater cut the outdoor tour short because of the snow. We found a delightful female Warden to take us on a tour of the inside. From King Henry VIII's armor to "modern day indoor conveniences".

And the truly amazing Norman chapel.

Lots of armor, weapons and I don't know what

OF COURSE, after we'd spent most of the day indoors, when we came out the SUN WAS SHINING. (I'm writing this a week later and that's the ONLY sunshine we've seen.Maybe tomorrow). The walls and towers were still closed because of the snow,
so Emily got a picture of the guards, we hit another great pub and headed back to High Barnet. I met Tom along the way and he and I went to get two rental cars for tomorrow's adventure to Warwick.

In what is forecast to be the "Blizzard of the Century". We don't know if that means the 21st Century or the last hundred years. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

LONDON

2010-12-23T09:36:00.014-05:00

We arrived in London a week and a day ago but this is the first "downtime" I've taken.

I say , "I've taken" because Emily and Carol are out again today, shopping and seeing more of the city.

It was the first time Emily and Andrew had flown and Emily wanted proof for her friends to see.

We arrived around 8:30 am local time on the 15th. Except for schlepping all the luggage, we had an uneventful trip across the pond and into London from Gatwick airport.

We had tickets to see Harry Potter on the IMAX screen at the British Film Institute at 2:30pm, excuse me - 14:30 so we had a little time to start our sightseeing. We took the train from Gatwick to Victoria Station and then a bus to Waterloo on the South Bank. Where Andrew took this picture.

And here's Emily's first London picture

Even though it was cold and rainy, street performers were braving the elements to try and make a pound.

When I dropped a pound in his basket, he said, "Thank you. Thank you very much."

After the movie, we took the tube back to Victoria Station and chilled for an hour at a Burger King because it was rush hour and we didn't want to tackle the really crowded tubes with our luggage. More major schlepping and an hour later we were at Tom And Ann's flat in High Barnet - ready to collapse. Having survived Day One.

Our next day is a quiet "try to overcome jet lag" day. I go to see Ben in his school Christmas Pageant. YES, they still have them over here! And then dinner out with the whole family before we go to Casey's dance recital.

x

TINKERBELL JERUSALEM NEWS

2010-12-13T13:43:00.004-05:00

Well, I said three or four blogs ago that I had to get our summer vacation travels published because we were leaving soon for London and Paris over the holidays.

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon, arriving London Gatwick at 7:30am on Wed.

And here I am finishing the blogs I wanted to do before we left. I finished our summer together in the last blog.

THIS one is MUCH more important. Please "click here" and read my April 10, 2010 blog about finding the book "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" and, much more importantly, how I came to meet Bonnie Kelley, the author.

We've stayed in touch, rather irregularly. And although it's not the project we envisioned together, SHE has completed - or started - a wonderful project.

"Imagine the Good"

is such a far reaching project that I cannot possible explain it all before our plane leaves tomorrow.

So, PLEASE click on the link and learn what this group of women are doing.

AND BUY THE DVD !!

I'm not receiving any remuneration for this endorsement. Except the thanks of Bonnie, a dear friend who changed my life with her book and her counsel.

Bonnie was director and co-producer of the DVD. Her love for life and people is evident throughout.

That's all for now - we're off to Europe !

Life is SO good.

SUMMER EXTRAS

2010-12-08T08:53:00.013-05:00

Our planned travels for the summer of 2010 ended with the week in Gatlinburg.

But sometimes things don't go as planned - For example, see my blog from April 2009 where Carol and I got married ;o)

After our week in Asheville, we had one more trip. Not planned, but, Hey, that's what's life is all about.

We had traded into our N Myrtle timeshare for a week in August. We were giving it to a family who are some of our best friends. But then their situation changed and they couldn't go. We offered it to another dear friend who said she'd go with her two daughters. Then one of the daughters canceled so we decided to join Marianne and her daughter Angie. This could have been a total disaster because the timeshare is really really small. It trades as a two bedroom but it is TINY. And except for Carol working with both of them, we'd had none to little time with them.

As usual, when will I learn, EVERYTHING went wonderfully. By the middle of the week, we said, "We don't want to come back to the beach ever again without you two !"

From the beach to Broadway at the Beach and Ripley's Aquarium, to just hanging at the pool. We had A BALL !

We even made it to a couple more sunrise walks.

We had thought that we'd not make it to Brookgreen Gardens until maybe next year. But, here we were back at Myrtle Beach. And we'd promised Emily that we would go, "the next chance we got." So -

Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, artists, poets, REALLY RICH people started their "gardens" in 1931. The vision was to collect work of the finest American sculptors, provide an outdoor showcase for Anna's incredible work, all in a garden setting highlighting South Carolina Lowcountry indigenous plants and animals. Their success shows in the simple fact that the gardens have been open to the public since 1932 and the number of visitors grows every year.

EMILY found THREE of her true loves - art, nature and photography. I cannot put ALL of the 201 pictures she took over two days. But here are a few - I can't even say, "of the better ones" because almost all of them were this beautiful.

And not to be too redundant - but if you "click" on the picture, you'll be taken to a much larger version.

And I even took pictures, too

And complete strangers took pictures of all of us

We've found a new secret about leaving Myrtle Beach but "shhhhh" don't tell anybody.

Another wonderful inbetween, my - becoming OUR - trademark of making an incredibly right decision for totally wrong reasons. The kids REALLY wanted to go back to Johnny Rockets. The only time we could possibly work it in was on the Saturday we were leaving. Carol insisted, while I wanted to get an early start home. We agreed to stay until 2:00.

Our checkout was 10:00 Saturday morning. The same as almost everybody else who were at Myrtle for that week. We have found that leaving earlier, even MUCH earlier on Saturday morning did not avoid the incredible traffic jams in the small towns west of the beach. In order to go to Johnny Rockets, we decided to check out, go to Ripley's Aquarium, have lunch and then head home in the middle of the afternoon. And it worked out perfectly. Broadway at the Beach was almost deserted, there were no crowds at the aquarium or the shops or the restaurants.

Emily, Andrew and Angie

Andrew, Tom and a Horseshoe Crab

A close look at a shark

The ride home was unobstructed by all those other tourists. We DID see mile long lines of stop and go traffic headed TO the beach.

So another - week long - inbetween. Mary Ann and I used to agree that the secret to a long happy marriage was "Low Expectations."

What I had simply hoped would not be a disaster turned into a great week with new wonderful friends.

Life is good - especially at the beach !

OK - JUST ONE MORE

2010-12-06T11:43:00.001-05:00

Carol has wanted to see Biltmore for a long time. She wanted to go while we were in Gatlinburg, but it just didn't fit into our schedule.

Carol reminded me that we hadn't been out in the Airstream since last summer. And we found a campground within 4 miles of Biltmore. And we hadn't been to Maggie Valley or Cherokee either. AND we had an open week before our next trip to the beach.

So, off we went.

An easy drive to Asheville was ended with an infuriating loop around the town while trying to find the campground. We actually drove past the exit, got off and back on three times before we finally found it. But we finally arrived safely and picked a quiet spot overlooking the river.

The next day we took the ten minute drive to the Biltmore.

No picture taking was allowed inside the house, so go back to the top of this page and click on the Biltmore link. It really is amazing what you can do when money is no object. A friend of a friend said that the outrageous, excessive opulence actually made him sick to his stomach and he had to leave before finishing the tour. But as people whose mantra is "Too much is never enough", we LOVED IT ALL. Emily wants to buy the place and move in. I told her we could sell the doublewide and maybe pay for a couple of days maintenance on the house and the remaining 8000 acres.

Emily has discovered the joys of photography. She took many, many wonderful pictures of the vast array of flowers in the gardens. Here are a few -

After touring the house, we went to the "farm". The kids had a good time, but Emily, especially was in heaven visiting with the two retired carriage horses.

There was lots of cool stuff for Andrew to explore, too. Most of the equipment was labeled "antique" this or "antique" that. I'd really prefer "vintage" or just "used" since I remember almost all of this stuff being used back in Delaware County, NY on my cousins' farms.

The world's largest Chia pet

Doc Cudd, a blacksmith who really is an artist. Not only does he make art out of the steel, he plays the anvil as a musical instrument.

Carol had wanted to come to the NC side of the Smokies for Biltmore. But I'd been disappointed in our two trips to the TN side that we hadn't made it to Cherokee and Maggie Valley. Two of my parents best friends lived in Maggie Valley and I had such wonderful memories of Frances and Clayton Alexander, their beautiful home, their hospitality and friendliness to a little boy AND Clayton's trout pond.And many, many trips to Cherokee, LONG before it had a casino !

The Alexanders had traveled with my parents before I was born. Clayton and my Dad were both heavy equipment operators and went wherever the work, living in their trailers. So I guess the Airstream, even the doublewide were already bred into me.

When they stopped traveling in the late 1940's, Frances and Clayton returned to where they were raised near Waynesville, NC. Calyton really didn't want to stop playing with his giant boy toys, so he started a sand and gravel business. It was successful, so he started buying "bottom land" for access to the sand and gravel. A lot of land, pretty cheap because it was just a mountain "holler" miles away from the nearest town. When the area later became known as Maggie Valley, they were sitting on a mountain of money. They sold a lot of it, but kept the mountain behind their house. In the 1960's, the mountains were already completely covered with houses. At night the sparkled like stars. Except for a completely dark section behind their house. Clayton wouldn't sell it because he loved his mountain AND there was his trout pond. Not for fishing, just for enjoying. When we walked up to the pond, he would stop real hard on the bank and the big, beautiful rainbows would come to get fed.

The whole area holds so many wonderful memories for me that I wanted to share them with my new family. Clayton died 20 years or so ago and Frances died a few years ago. I found the road but the house was gone. The heirs had sold everything to a developer. We stopped at the sales office and were told that the house had been razed but the pond was still there.

This is where the house was

After a few minutes of "you can't go back", we drove on to Cherokee. Which had also changed greatly in 40 years. MUCH bigger, noisier, touristy with a casino and big hotels. But there were also new museums that we all really enjoyed.

I especially wanted Carol and the kids to see "Onto These Hills". IT had not changed. Still a truly moving experience. It's an outdoor amphitheater. We heard lots of thunder and saw lots of lightning. But the rains held off.

But it was only early afternoon, VERY hot, and Onto These Hills wasn't until evening. Something else that hadn't changed was the Oconaluftee River. Because many years ago some VERY smart Cherokees decided this river, flowing right through the town was a treasure that had to be saved. So Oconaluftee Islands Park was formed. Many childhood memories again, of my many summer days spent in the Beaverkill River in NY.

We had to be home Friday afternoon because it was their Dad's visitation weekend. I didn't want to worry about truck or trailer problems making us late. So we talked about leaving Asheville Thursday and spending the night someplace closer to Salem. During my travels as a single guy, I had met Garvey Hayes, another single guy in Florida. He wintered there but had a farm in VA where he had put in a few camp sites on Cripple Creek. I dug out his card and called him to see if any spots were available. There were, we went and FELL IN LOVE with the place. Quiet, right on the creek, miles of trails, HORSES, and Garvey and his new bride treated us like long lost friends for life.

The back of Airstream is almost hanging over the creek.

The campground doesn't have insurance for riding, but Emily was happy just to make friends with a new bunch of horses. Garvey said, "Don't let her go inside the fence. The horses would probably stomp her. NOT because they're mean, but because they're so spoiled they act like they're big dogs and they'd knock her down trying to be THE ONE getting all her attention.

And they really did follow her up and down the fence like puppies.

Andrew even enjoyed "visiting" with them

By Thursday evening, Carol and I were saying, "Instead of going home with the Airstream tomorrow, let's just take the kids to their Dad's and come straight back here for a weekend alone together."

So that's what we did. And by the time we were headed home Sunday night, we had decided to leave the Airstream at Cripple Creek for at least a couple of months and go there every chance we got. Weekends with the kids and weekends without the kids.

More wonderful friends and good times, all because I was paranoid about getting home on time.

And did I mention? REALLY GREAT motorcycle riding in every direction!

GATLINBURG - 2nd HONEYMOON

2010-12-05T16:55:00.009-05:00

We drove to Galinburg on Saturday, July 24th. Got to the resort before check-in so we all went to the pool and enjoyed the mountain air.

There was a Magiquest in Gatlinburg, so the kids had another day of wizardry and spells.

When we were at Myrtle Beach, we told Emily and Andrew that "tourist things" could wait until Gatlinburg, where we had no ocean.

SO - next on the list was the Titanic Museum. At first I was disappointed when I learned that these weren't the people who had done the exploration and recovery diving. The artifacts were from survivors, families of those lost, and general debris found floating at the time of the wreck.

BUT - when I got inside and saw all of the information they had gathered, I really enjoyed it. Emily and Andrew really got into it also. They gave us each a ticket so that we entered as one of the passengers. Then we could go through the museum and see what happened to each of "us". The differences in the classes and what happened to them was particularly poignant.

We purchased tickets for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". Again I went as a skeptic. I had seen the show on Broadway with the original cast and Carol had the CD with Donnie Osmond. So I really wasn't expecting what we saw and heard. Almost all of the performers sang better than on the CD. It really is a wonderful show. Lots of glitz and incredible talent.

The tickets were "two-fors" and for the second show, we picked "Magic Beyond Belief". And again, a great choice. We were all amazed. And got "up close and personal with the performers, human and animal.

The BIG promise to the kids was that we would go back to Dollywood. We had a wonderful time on our first trip in April of 2009 and everyone was looking forward to returning. AND a big bonus for me was that my grandson and son, Tyler and Adam could join us because Adam had moved to Knoxville. We had way too much fun to waste time taking pictures, but I had to post these -

Adam, Tyler and I went to Dollywood Splash Country for a fun and exhausting day. It was cut short by rain and this old man was thankful. When is somebody going to build a water slide with an elevator ?

Thank you Lindsay for meeting me in Bristol with Tyler. Thank you Adam for joining us - and for the wonderful lunch at Cheddar's.

Thank you God, for all my Blessings. My "old family" and my "new family". I never thought I'd be this happy again.

STILL AT THE BEACH

2010-12-03T07:24:00.013-05:00

After a week of surf, the kids were bored.

WTF ?

Which I understand to mean, "Why the Face?"

Anyway, I put my foot down and said, "Hell, NO" to a waterpark. We're at the ocean for crying out loud. But we did get away from the Beach for several days.

The kids loved "Magiquest". Which is an indoor role playing game. Lots of quests, adventures and generally good times. It's at Broadway at the Beach.

We also went to Huntington Beach State Park and hiked the dunes. The causeway to the beach splits what was once a single body of water. But now one side is saltwater and the other side is fresh.

Here's the saltwater side

And on the coast of South Carolina, where there is fresh water, there are alligators !

We only saw one, but it was fun watching him - not moving.

Emily took this picture

And Andrew took this one

and this one

We also visited Atalaya

Atalaya was an incredible house built by the Huntington family of NY. Across the highway they built Brookgreen Gardens. But we had to save that for a future trip.

We did get a couple more days of beach time in before heading back to Salem.

That's our timeshare building in the background.

Back to Broadway at the Beach, where we had lunch at Johnny Rocket's. Where you can get GREAT burgers and fries, REAL milkshakes and listen to 1950's and 1960's music.

AND JUST GET SILLY - well, at least for those of us who still remember how

Then we headed home for 10 days or so to rest before returning to Gatlinburg, TN.

Which was the last planned trip of the summer. We were supposed to be saving for our trip to London after all.

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH 2010 - THE FIRST TRIP

2010-11-24T15:27:00.001-05:00

We headed to the beach mid day July 5th and arrived late in the evening after an uneventful trip.

Schlepped everything up to the unit and took a late night walk on the beach. Just happy to be there on Monday after the truck problems.

We got up early Tuesday morning to watch the sun rise over the ocean. Except, it wasn't over the ocean, exactly, but over the high rises up the beach a few miles. You'd think after all these years, I'd remember that the "Grand Strand" runs almost east/west. It was beautiful anyway.

Just a reminder, if you "click" on a picture, you'll get to see an enlarged version.

We had a ball on the beach -

and body surfing in the ocean -

Then we bought Boogie Boards -

The sun did not shine all day, every day, but the beach is so beautiful anyway -

Life is a beach

but good !

2010 - OUR SUMMER VACATION

2010-11-20T19:58:00.004-05:00

After all that Michael (Carol's ex) put us through in the spring, Carol decided not to give him any more time with the kids than the existing court order required. Which was "Alternate Weekends". The order made no mention of summer vacation so she told him he would see the kids every other weekend, period.

Since that made anything like the 6 week trip we took last summer undo-able, we decided to make a bunch of 10-12 day trips in between his weekends instead.

AND, I had several weeks of timeshare that I needed to "use or lose" in 2010, so we only took the Airstream out once.

Before we started traveling we had birthday parties the last weekend in June at our church swim club - a few days after the fact, but that was so they could both be on the weekend. Andrew on Saturday and Emily on Sunday. A great time was had by all.

We had many of our friends there, too. But they have asked not to be pictured ;o)

The weekend of the 4th of July was "his" weekend to have the kids, so we postponed our departure for our two weeks in N Myrtle Beach until Sunday evening.

WHAT AN IN-BETWEEN ! I got the truck packed earlier than I thought I would so I decided a couple of hours before we were to get the kids to go get diesel fuel. The truck (have I told you how much I LOVE my TRUCK? Yeah, I think I have but it is worth repeating) started fine, backed up about 8" and QUIT. Cranked like mad, but would NOT start. Since it's a diesel, there's not much to check. It was getting dark and I couldn't see anything obviously loose, no overpowering smell of fuel, at a loss. I told Carol that I'd call AAA in the morning and have it towed to the dealership. Oh yeah, that'll be July 5th and they'll all be closed. Oh well, we've got TWO weeks of timeshare at the beach, so I'll have it towed and we'll find out Tuesday morning when they can fix it. If not Tues or Wed, we'll downsize drastically and take the Crown Vic instead.

Monday morning, AAA guy shows up. I've called all the dealerships and confirmed that they're all closed for the holiday. Turns out - the young AAA guy's Grandmother was the previous owner of our double-wide so we talked about the great summer evenings he'd spent there. He asked me to lift the hood. I did, although I was thinking - "yeah, a 20 something tow truck driver will know how to fix my diesel." Apparently I said at least part of that thought out loud because he said, "We've got a tow truck with this same motor." He found that the fuel filter had sprung a leak. I said that at least that was probably something that the dealer could fix Tuesday morning. He said, "Let me tow it to our shop. If that's all that's wrong, we can put a fuel filter on it. If it's more, we can always tow it to the dealership."

If you've been reading my Blog, you KNOW what happened. We were on our way to the beach before 1 pm, for less than $200.00.

THANK YOU !!

MORE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES

2010-11-12T08:16:00.002-05:00

I MUST blog soon about "What we did on Summer Vacation."

BECAUSE it really was a wonderful trip filled summer, but a MUCH BIGGER reason is...

We've planned a trip over Christmas break to spend 24 days in London and Paris. If I don't blog summertime before London, I'll never get back to it.

But first, a little about the upcoming trip - Last spring, Lee Ann, my daughter-in-law got a job offer to spend 12 months in London. She went in May. Tom, Sarah and Ben followed in June. Casey followed in July.

When Lee Ann found a 4 bedroom apartment in northern London Tom announced to his church that, "Lee Ann found a 4 bedroom flat so we have a guest room and would like any and all of you to visit." A woman came up to him and said, "Tom, does that mean that I now have a bedroom in London that I can trade for my apartment in Paris?"

SO - with a free place to stay in London and an apartment in Paris, we decided this was, as Tom so beautifully put it, "the opportunity of a lifetime, or at the very least the opportunity of a childhood for Emily and Andrew."

We've bought the airline tickets and I'm working on line to buy "Wicked" tickets because we couldn't afford them in NYC last year. Yeah, we couldn't afford NYC theater prices, so we'll see it in London instead.

NOBODY ever said I was a logical person.

You've probably gotten tired of hearing this, but

MY GOODNESS, I love Salem,VA.

The high school has a published zero tolerance attendance policy. Miss 10 days in a semester or 20 in a year and you receive 0 credit, regardless of your grades. I talked with the Vice-Principal. He said, "Give me the dates when you have them and we'll work something out. I'm certainly not going to be the one to tell a 14 girl she can't go to Europe."

Salem Schools' motto is "Children First: Every Child; Every Day."

It should be, "Common Sense RULES !"

God is GOOD and LIFE - in Salem - is GREAT !

I'M BACK

2010-10-11T07:50:00.005-04:00

It's been months since I've blogged - not because nothing exciting has happened, quite the opposite. I just couldn't bring myself to write when so many things were in a constant state of turmoil, with no end in sight. An ancient Chinese saying, that you use to curse someone is, "May you live in interesting times." The past few months have been very, very interesting.

Well, SOME of the turmoil has subsided and it's time to get back to "Tomsgreatadventure".

As you know, my great adventure of a single guy living and traveling full-time in my Airstream trailer ended on April 14, 2009 when I started an incredible new adventure by marrying Carol, Emily and Andrew.

I just re-read my blog from November 13, 2007 where I said, "They've found a place in my heart that feels like I have a new family." Little did I know then - I'm so happy, and thankful that God had different plans for me. As Mary Ann used to say, "There is a God and She has a sense of humor." I could almost hear Her say, "Looks like you're getting WAY too comfortable. Let Me stir things up a little."

Last February Emily's Dad convinced her to file assault charges against me. Then he filed Abuse and Neglect charges against Carol and me, filed for full custody of the kids and tried to get a Child Protective Order that would prohibit Carol from having any contact with Emily until she was 18. He kept Emily in violation of the court ordered visitation schedule and prohibited Carol from seeing or talking with her for 7 weeks. Carol was able to see her at school, once a week or so, in the guidance counselor's office.

We went to court at the end of April. At the end of my criminal trial the judge said, "I find the defendant innocent of all charges. Mr. Cook I'm very sorry you had to go through this." Then while looking directly at Michael, Carol's ex, he continued, "And I'd like to think that all the adults in this situation truly had the welfare of the child at heart." It was obvious to everyone, except maybe Michael, by the look on the judge's face that he didn't believe that had been the case.

All the other charges were dropped, too. But Michael's petition for full custody was continued.

When Carol told her boss about the charges, she had no choice but to suspend Carol. When you're working with toddlers, or any children for that matter, any charge of Abuse - no matter how unfounded - means suspension. Actually in most cases it means losing your job entirely. BUT - Carol was put on administrative leave and told her job would be waiting for her after the charges were dropped, as the church knew they would be.

So why no blog, even after the court findings ?

Because of the still hanging specter of custody.

Why Blog now?

Because the custody hearing was October 6th and it's almost all good news. Michael did NOT get full physical custody of the kids. He had also petitioned for alternate week custody and that was denied as well.

Carol was granted Sole Legal Custody which means Michael no longer has ANY say in the children's schooling, counseling, medical treatment, religious training, discipline, etc etc etc. He did get some additional visitation. But the bullying, threatening and messing with everything Carol tries to do for the kids should be OVER.

So I can blog again and easily say,

"THANK YOU GOD. LIFE IS GOOD !"

TINKERBELL JERUSALEM

2010-04-10T20:20:00.003-04:00

OK - enough people have asked about my references to "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" and "inbetweens" that I'm posting my personal "inbetween" story here.

It was posted before but this blog doesn't make it easy to search by date except for the current year.

SO - here it is again - Enjoy and start looking for the inbetweens in your life.

Here's my story about the book and what it did for me. This book, and the author are responsible for a LARGE part of my outlook on life and my present journey.

Mary Ann, my wife of 36 years and best friend for 46 yrs (Yes, we were 11 when we met) died on July 3rd 2004.

In October, three months after Mary Ann's death, I hit bottom. In over 5 yrs of counseling for depression, this was the only time my counselor ever asked if I was having suicidal thoughts. I wasn't suicidal, but the fact that she asked indicates where I was. She gave me some very good advice and it helped some.

But, at least for a little while, I really needed to get away from everybody and everything that reminded me of Mary Ann. I had signed up as a Mortgage Broker in order to get health insurance. They sent me to a school in Newport Beach, CA. The only place I have really great memories that do not include Mary Ann is the Southern California area. I went to conventions in Anaheim regularly and usually stayed over the weekend in Newport or Laguna Beach. In those days airline fares were a lot cheaper if you stayed over a Sat night. The school ran all day Thur and the other participants left Thur evening.

I moved to a hotel closer to the beach for the weekend. On Friday I walked Balboa Island all day. It was almost deserted, exactly what I had planned for my "recluse-dom". Sat morning I went to my favorite thrift shop in the whole world. A tiny place about three blocks off the beach in Laguna Beach. I'd been going there for 20 years or more. Usually not more than twice a year so I'm sure no one there considered me a regular. But I thought of it as "my" shop. Two things about Orange County, CA. The labels in the thrift shops are different than those I find back east. And no man there would be caught dead in a thrift shop so men's suits were always $10.00. Unless they were having a half price sale.

I couldn't find anything that fit and I needed to buy something because I needed to go pee and they had a big sign that said "No Public Restrooms". In the past when I bought something and I could say, "Yes, I know about the sign, but the other ladies usually let me go down that hall to the second door on the right", they took pity on me. But I couldn't even find a necktie that I would ever wear. So I was looking at the books. There was "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" on an easel. Not even on the shelves with all the others. Standing up there waiting for me. I didn't know it at the time, but that was my first "Tinkerbell" inbetween. It looked interesting and it was 50 cents.

So I bought it.

I went down to what I supposed would be another deserted beach in Corona Del Mar, which is a tiny town surrounded by Newport Beach. There seemed to be quite a bit of activity for an Oct morning, but I figured, hey it's Saturday. I sat down on a bench and started reading.

For an hour and a half or so, I devoured the book. Then I came to the page where the author says, "It's all here. If you don't believe it, look around now. Lift your eyes. Do you see it? In the field of your vision, no matter where you are, there is an inbetween, a carrier of spiritual light, sending its healing and comfort to you, its love and beauty."

My first thought was, "I could sure use some 'healing and comfort' right now. But I spend 90% of my reading time sitting on the john. So there's a 90% chance that when reading this I'd look up and see a dirty shower curtain. OK, I'm staying at the Marriott, so I'd look up and see a clean shower curtain. Same difference. But I was on the beach. I looked up and there were 4 adorable little kids, three boys and a girl, playing in the sand right at my feet.

You know how I love kids. I have no idea how long they'd been there. I grinned from ear to ear with crocodile tears just streaming down my face.

OK. "Not only are there inbetweens, but they're PERSONALIZED inbetweens."

The lady sitting at the far end of the bench said, "Excuse me. Are you OK." I said, "Yes." and gave her a quick description of the book. Then I said, "It said, 'Lift your eyes' and when I did, there were the kids. I've had a very bad 4 years and kids have been my salvation.

I love them all. And please look at this picture." (pg 143). She said, "Oh my God. That's Jessie" who was the little girl playing right in front of me. I said, "Yes. It certainly looked like a twin to me. Except Jessie's hair is down. And the girl in the picture has a ballerina bun."

I got up to leave and she said, "NO. YOU CAN'T LEAVE. Jessie's mother is at the bathroom with her brother and you have to wait and tell her the story and show her the picture. We drove an hour to get here and most of the way we were talking about what we could do to Jessie's hair so she could play with the boys more easily. And we couldn't bring ourselves to even mention cutting it short. We never thought of a tight little bun. You HAVE TO wait to show her." So I did. Playing with the kids in the sand the whole time.

OK. At the same time I'm HAVING inbetweens, I can be GIVING them to others.

When I again got up to leave, they said, "Oh No. You have to stay. It's the 100th anniversary of the founding of Corona Del Mar and there's going to be lots of great food this afternoon and then at 6:30 there will be a free concert here on the beach."

I stayed. The food was incredible. I was sitting in the food court talking to a 90 yr old lady who had spent her entire life in Corona Del Mar. She assured me it was the best place in the world to grow up and live out your life.

Then the music started. The very first song was, "Cherish" and I started bawling like a baby. But it was OK. There was a married couple at the table with us and they both were crying, too. Again I was asked, "All you going to be alright." And again I said, "Oh yes. It's just that song has so many memories. And actually, they're doing a really good job of playing it." She said, "Well they should. It's The Association."

I said, "Yeah. Right. The Association.

At a Chamber of Commerce fund raiser.

On the sand.

At 6:30 on a Saturday evening.

Free."

She said, "It really is. They grew up here."

I left half a chocolate dessert on the table and ran to the beach. Where I sat with about 200 people and cried and listened for two hours. "Cherish", "Along Comes Mary", "Windy", "Never My Love", "Everything That Touches You", on and on for two hours.

OK, inbetweens ARE there all the time. If we just open our eyes to see them. And some of them are really impressive. I mean really, THE ASSOCIATION ???

That night I called the publisher's phone number that was inside the book and left a message on a machine. "I know it's out of print, but I need about a dozen copies of "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" to give away to friends. It has renewed my life and I need to share it with others. Some of my friends have a real need to read it right now. And some I want to hand the book and say "You're a major inbetween in my life."

My ticket home was for a 6:00AM Monday departure from LAX. That was standard. My usual plan was to return the car to Rent-a-Wreck on Sunday morning. They're about 30 minutes from the airport and they don't have much staff on Sundays. So I'd get there, ask them to call someone to come in and take me to the airport, then drive a mile up the highway to a diner and
have breakfast. This time Charlie said, "Tom, a couple got here about 20 minutes ago and I called a driver. He should be here by the time we get your car checked in." He was, so I got to LAX much earlier than usual.

There were three flights to Charlotte where I would change planes to Roanoke. 2:00, 4:00 and 11:00. If I got standby on the 2:00 I almost always made it to Roanoke late Sunday evening. The 4:00 was "iffy" and of course the 11:00 meant a middle of the night arrival, followed by a 7:00AM departure to Roanoke.

I asked the ticket agent for something that "looks like a boarding pass" so I could get past security to the gate to try and get a standby seat. He gave it to me.

I looked at a very long line and said, "Please tell me that line is for Southwest Airlines" which shares the terminal with USAir. He said, "No. That's the line for security. See that lady in the red dress standing way down there in the doorway? She's 2 hours from the x-ray machines which are at the top of that escalator. And I don't know how far the line goes outside that door down the sidewalk."

I said, "There are about the same number of people outside as there are in the terminal. So I'll miss the 2:00, probably miss the 4:00 too. Oh well, I can always catch the redeye." He said, "Wait a minute. Aren't you a member of the USAir Club?" I said, "Yes." He said, "We have a special elevator for you." He took me around behind the ticket counter, put me on an elevator and said, "Show your club card to the first person you see when you get off the elevator." It was the person I call the "x-ray concierge" who stands at the head of the security line checking tickets and saying, "You go to that machine." I showed him my card and he sent me directly to a waiting machine. That saved me 4 hours of standing in line.

OK, the inbetweens just keep getting better if you're really looking for them. I'm beginning to catch on.

The lady at the check-in desk said, "We're booked solid and there are two people ahead of you on the stand by list." I showed her my club card and she said, "OK. You're number one on the list for the 2:00 flight."

There was ONE standby seat.

It was an aisle seat.

I don't know if you've ever had the pleasure of going through the Charlotte Commuter Terminal. It's a big circular room with about 15 gates spaced around the perimeter. When I got there, it was packed full.

The kind lady said, "Oh I'm sorry. That flight to Roanoke is full." I said, "Oh, just take my name. There's always at least one no show." She said, "No. You don't understand. All 15 passengers have already checked in with me. There are no seats. You will not get on that airplane unless you see a stretcher leave this area with someone strapped to it." When I said, "Oh well, I'll catch the next one." She replied, "It's the last one tonight." When I said, "OK, I'll spend the night in one of those big leather recliners in the Club Lounge", she said, "We close the lounges at 11:00pm now." She thought I was crazy when I said, "Oh well. Something will work out or I'll just wait here until morning. That'll be OK, too."

There were two empty seats in the whole place. In a row of 4 with a young guy at one end who had put his bag on the seat next to him, I thought to save it for his companion. I sat down in the other end seat. A little while later a drop dead gorgeous young lady came in and checked in at one of the counters. Then, looking very tired, she stood and looked around. For some reason, I got vibes that she would not sit between the two of us. So I made eye contact, smiled, got up and moved to the middle seat and motioned to the end. She came over, sat down and we started talking. Nice conversation. She'd just finished a real estate school in Charlotte and was headed home.

Guys - you know me well enough to really appreciate this. For the very first time in my entire life, I ended a conversation with a beautiful young lady that was willing to continue talking to me. Don't ask me why. I haven't done it again since.

But when I did, the man on the other side said, "Hi. Where you flying to?" I said, "No place tonight it seems." and told him how my stand by system had let me down this time. He said, "Well, I'm a USAir pilot flying to Roanoke tonight to be there for my Monday morning schedule. For some reason they gave me a seat. Let me go out to the airplane for a minute. If the jump seat is empty, I can ride up there and you can have my seat."

At this point, I don't have to tell you what happened next, do I?

Of course, the jump seat was empty and a very puzzled gate lady said, "Mr. Cook, please come to gate 35, I have a seat for you."

OK, if you expect them, with gratitude, they just keep coming and coming. And all this within 36 hours of finding the book.

Monday I slept. Tuesday I went to my Grief Support Group and there was a questionnaire about our progress. Questions like "Can you say the name of your loved one without crying?" "Are you able yet to see even brief moments of joy?" I said, "Able to see them? God is hitting me over the head with them."

But wait, there's more. About a month later I got a phone call. "You left a message on my machine about "Tinkerbell Jerusalem. How can I help you?"

"I need some copies to give away." And I told her a very short version of this story. She said, "I think I can help, but how did you get my phone number?" I said, "It was in the book."

"NO, it wasn't. The main number was in the back of the book but it was disconnected years ago."

"Well, YES it was. How else would I have found you."

"My partner and I had an difficult breakup and we closed the business and I kept the second office number for my home phone but it's unlisted."

"I didn't get it from Directory Assistance. I got it from the inside front cover of the book."

"NO. All that was there was the address. And there's no longer a phone number associated with that address."

"You're not listening. It was IN THE BOOK."

"Where?"

"On a sticker inside the front cover."

"Oh my God. When we closed the company, I got stuck with the excess inventory and the left over office supplies. When I shipped some "Tinkerbells", I had some stickers that weren't going to be used anyway so I stuck them inside some of the books."

"There, see. No big deal. I found one of those books."

"YEAH BIG DEAL ! We sold thousands of that book and I put stickers in maybe 24 of them. And if you hadn't found one of those 24 you never would have found me. Tell you what, I have a partial case, probably 20 or 21 books. I'm going to mail them to you. When you get them, if you would please look at the outside of the box, see how much the postage was, and send me a check to reimburse me for the postage."

"Wait. You can't do that."

"EXCUSE ME. They're my books and I can do anything I darn well please with them. I've schlepped them through three moves in the last 5 years. If anyone had asked me, "Why?" I wouldn't have been able to tell them. Until now. Obviously I was saving them for you. They ARE your books. And I'm giving them to you. So there."

And she did.

When I gave them all away I called her back and said, "I need more books. Could I talk to you about buying the publishing rights?" I figured if I published some and sold half at retail, I'd have the other half paid for and I could give them away. She said, "When we closed the company we returned the rights to the authors. That author was living in Hawaii but I think she's moved back to Southern California. I believe I know someone who might have her email address. I'll get it for you." The next day she sent me Bonnie's email address with a "PS". "I found another case of books in the garage under some snow tires. I'm mailing them to you." So I had another 24 to give away.

I emailed Bonnie with the short version of this story and told her that she had saved my life. Or at least restored it to me.

I got an email back that said, "YOU are my inbetween for today. Please call me." The day before she had broken off a 4 year relationship with someone she loved dearly because, "He just didn't cherish me the way I cherished him." She was really feeling down and slightly worthless. She said that she had cried most of the night, second guessing herself. Then she got up and my email was there.

We talked for 3 1/2 hours. It was like we'd known each other all our lives, been out of touch for a short while and just picked up right where we'd left off. We became very good "long distance friends." And emailed regularly. A few months later we were laughing because we were both unemployed but so busy that it seemed impossible to get together on the phone. We actually made a "phone date" when she knew she'd be driving for a couple of hours. During that conversation she mentioned that her schedule was getting overwhelming. She was coming east to Vermont for a week long Yoga seminar but she had to leave it two days early to fly back to CA. We then determined that it was the same week in July that I would be in NY helping my son, Jeff and his family move from Niagara Falls to New Paltz. Since she was flying into NYC and bumming a ride with friends to VT, she couldn't stop in New Paltz and see me. I threatened to block the Thruway since Jeff's new house was 2 miles from an exit. Then I said, "What about on the way back to NYC?" She told me she had a Thur afternoon flight out of Albany. When I asked, "How are you getting to the Albany airport?" She laughed and said, "Airport shuttle I guess. Unless somebody offers me a ride." So I picked her up in VT, had 45 minutes to talk on the drive, then lunch and another 2 hours to talk before her flight. Incredible woman, really incredible conversation.

That conversation was a major turning point in my recovery.

Jeff is every bit as organized as Mary Ann was. I was in NY 15 days in July. By the first of May, he had my schedule worked out for all but two days. Back and forth to Niagara Falls a couple of times, work at the house on the days he could get off work, etc, etc.

One of the two free days was that Thursday. The first time Bonnie had been east in 30 years. The first time I'd been on the Hudson side of the Catskills since 1969. She and I being 45 minutes apart. Her schedule requiring her to go home early. From Albany. On one of only two days that I could have picked her up. And finding all this out after a chance remark about being too busy.

I now KNOW that she's so right about so many things. I see inbetweens every day. When I go to bed at night if I can't recall one, I know it was there and I just missed it. Bonnie, through that book and her friendship really did change my life.

Check out her latest project here.

I don't know if I'll be working with Bonnie on her website, re-publishing "Tinkerbell", maybe doing seminars together. But she and I KNOW that we're going to be working together sometime soon.

I'm out of books again. But it's available on the web for a couple of dollars plus shipping. Obviously, I think it's a "must" read for everyone.

A WONDERFUL FAMILY CHRISTMAS

2010-02-02T14:38:00.016-05:00

OK, I'm REALLY slow in posting. Life just keeps happening.

AND I'm a WORLD CLASS procrastinator. I can spend hours being very busy and accomplish absolutely nothing of consequence.

The Christmas Season hasn't started at the Cook house until we've made COOKIES !!

Bobbie, Carol's sister from Baltimore came down two days before Christmas. Then we drove on to Rick Creek, VA to visit their 91 yr old grandmother.

Andrew sings in the Children's Choir at Our Lady of Nazareth Roman Catholic Church. They perform 4 or 5 times a year and Christmas Eve is one of the best. We had Christmas dinner here on Christmas Eve and then went to the Children's Mass. It, was, as always, an inspiring service and the kids sang beautifully.

Carol, Andrew and Bobbie at OLN

Since the kids were leaving early Christmas morning to be with their Dad, we came home from Church and opened all of our presents. Then we had dessert for supper.

The day after Christmas, Tom, Ann and the kids drove from State College to Massanutten Resort.

Adam and Tyler arrived later that evening and we arrived, with my daughter Lena the next day. I was able to use two weeks of my timeshares to get two units almost across the street from each other.

Here is a panoramic view from our balcony. Click on the picture and scroll to the right to see the slopes.

Sunday evening Tom, Adam and Tyler went night skiing. We went to the Indoor Water Park which was one of main reasons we picked Massanutten. Tom, Ann, Adam and all four grandkids are skiers. Carol, Emily, Andrew and I had never been on skis in our lives, so a place with alternative activities, centrally located, was perfect.

Monday morning, the skiers went skiing. I helped Carol, Emily and Andrew get equipment rented, booted up and they went off to ski school.

After an hour of instruction everyone was ready for a break. Lunch, rest and then back for a second hour. Andrew stayed at the school. Emily and Carol went to the beginner's slope and their first experience with the lift. Both made it down the hill and called it a day. I spent most of the day sitting with Lena and Ben because the group consensus was that "Grandpa is way too old to learn to ski."

Here's Ben and Tom after a morning on the slopes.

Emily, Ben and me at the lodge.

Ben on my knee

Tuesday we went to the pool. Carol, Andrew, Ann, Casey, Sarah and Ben made Tie Dyed Tee Shirts. Andrew and Emily played ping pong. Tom, Adam and Tyler went skiing. This resort really does have something for everyone. Then since Adam, Tyler and Lena were leaving, we opened Christmas presents.

Wednesday we all went to the Water Park. Thursday, Tom and family left for "real skiing" in the Adirondacks. (Which they canceled because it got VERY COLD.)

So - we're left alone. And the school package starts looking AWFULLY attractive. I joined Andrew at the first class. Then Carol stayed at the school with Andrew. I skipped the second class and Emily and I headed for the slopes. With a couple of rest periods we made 9 runs. Fell down a couple of times and are looking forward to going again. Grandpa might be old, but he ain't THAT old. I get discounts on lift tickets and equipment rental AND in 6 more years I can ski FOR FREE !!!

This was the first time ALL of both my families were together and I think I speak for everyone when I say, "We had a ball."

You may be getting tired of hearing this, but I AM SO BLESSED !

NOVEMBER WENT THERE, TOO

2009-12-11T06:57:00.004-05:00

I titled my last blog, "Where Did October Go?" because I'd been so lax at posting. Well, it's happened again. Another month has flown by without a blog.

And it's NOT because there's been nothing happening.

On the 3rd, we had Parent-Teacher conferences. Andrew's was quick and easy. Mr. Edwards said, "He's a great kid, doing well in his studies. And I do silly things on purpose just to hear his wonderful laugh." Emily's took a little longer. Not because of any problems, but because I talked too long with teachers that had Jeff and Adam. Brought them up to date on my two son's doin's and on some of their classmates. Absolutely MADE Mrs. O'Hare's day when I told her that Mike Barber was a middle school science teacher in Charlottesville. NOTHING makes a good teacher happier than learning that one of her students followed in her footsteps.

The next day my son in State College called and said, "Hey, Dad. Wanna go to the PSU/Ohio State game?" I told him there were two conditions. The weather had to be good enough - as in no rain and temperature above 40 - for me to ride the Honda and the seats couldn't be in one of the nosebleed sections. The seats were good and the weather promised to be almost balmy. So Friday morning I headed to State College. With my frequent stops, it's a 7 hour ride. But it was in the 50's by noon and a great ride.

Friday night the frat brother who had the extra tickets invited us to join him and his family at The Tavern which is an old Penn State tradition. It's where you take your parents when they come to visit. I took mine there 40+ years ago. We went there with Jeff. Jeff and Ann's rehearsal dinner was there. And then we learned the real reason we'd been invited. Everybody else was driving in Friday evening and the Tavern doesn't take reservations. Never has, probably never will. So, "Would we mind going down early and getting our names on the list to eat around 8:30?" Of course not. Jeff called around 5 and the lady said,"Oh, if you're here by 7 it should be no problem." So we went down around 6:30 and it was a complete zoo. PACKED shoulder to shoulder. Took 5 minutes to fight our way to the check in. The greeter said, "We're seating #48 and you'll be number 165 with seating around 10 or 10:30. But wait, I need to check and see if we're even giving out any more numbers." He came back and said that the chef said it was OK to give out a few more numbers, so we could plan on eating around 10. Then a man came up and said, "What did they tell you?" When I told him "10 o'clock, number 165", he said, "We're not going to wait any more. Here, you can have our number 94." So we found an empty table - another little miracle in itself - and waited for the gang. Had time for one drink with them and then we sat down to dinner at exactly 8:30. We had a wonderful, leisurely meal and just as we got up to leave a few minutes after 10 we heard them call number 165. Thank you, kind gentleman, whoever you are. And remember, it always pays to wear your Penn State colors. Because he said he wouldn't have approached me if I'd been wearing red !

Well, you know what happened at the game. We played poorly and lost. But in a stadium of 110,000, we sat down next to two of Tom's frat brothers. Not only brothers, but from the same class. More in-betweens every where I look. They had a great talk while sort of watching the game.

I posted on Facebook that I was in State College for the weekend to see if any of my old PSU friends might respond. No one did - except Marie, the young lady we met in Jamaica this summer. She joined us on Sunday for a hike up Mt Nittany. And she got her first motorcycle ride as part of the day.

AND she has video to prove it !

A wonderful day, great friends

AND Marie hit it off so well with my grandkids that Tom and Ann hired her the very next day to babysit. So they've got a new "daytime" babysitter, Marie has some local friends for when she wants to escape campus life and she has some spending money.

All because we said, "HI" to a couple of strangers in Jamaica.

Tinkerbell lives !

WHERE DID OCTOBER GO??

2009-11-12T13:13:00.010-05:00

Kids in school, Emily playing soccer, Andrew singing in Church Youth Choir, Tom playing bass with "Silver Heads and Nimble Fingers" at various nursing homes, Carol quitting her afternoon job to be home when the kids get off the school bus.

BUSY month that just FLEW by.

With many wonderful in-betweens and gratitude for wonderful people in our lives.

One of these is Peggy Wright, who is the leader of "Silver Heads and Nimble Fingers." She asked me to join them last year when they were invited to play at the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival sponsored by Ferrum College. I guess we were a hit because they invited us back this year. The only bad part was that again this year it was a weekend that Carol's ex had the kids so they missed it. But WE had a great time, didn't embarrass ourselves too badly AND GOT PAID TO DO IT !!!

Ferrum College is a small (1000 students) college in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's a beautiful campus. Last year it rained most of the day. This year we drove down in the rain but by 10:30 the sky turned blue with white puffy clouds and sunshine.

Again this year we played in the Chapel, which was the venue for Gospel.

This is the bell tower.

And the entrance to the Chapel

We were listed as playing "Carter Family Gospel." And we did several old Carter Family songs, but added some newer things as well.

Carol thinks THESE are the pictures of the band that you should see

THEN CAME HALLOWEEN !!!

I know I've talked over and over about how great the people in Salem are.

But here's just one more example - the very first visitor we had on Halloween night was Mrs. King, a neighbor from two doors away. She said that she and her husband were going to spend Halloween with their grandkids. They wouldn't be home when Andrew and Emily came trick-or-treating so she brought little bags of candy to them.

Rhiannon, a friend of Emily's from Elementary school joined us for trick-or-treating. Carol took them around our neighborhood while I watched the first half of the Penn State/Northwestern game. Then we went to an older neighborhood in Salem where they really "go all out" for Halloween. Up to and including haunted houses.

Andrew was ScoobyDoo, Emily was Sally from "A Nightmare Before Christmas" and Rhiannon was a Prom Queen.

Earlier in the day Saturday, Salem did it again with a fantastic Pumpkin Festival at the Farmer's Market. Lots of activities for the kids, free pumpkins, cheap eats, kids of all ages in costume.

My BIG disappointment of the day was - I wore my Airline Pilot tee-shirt and carried a laptop bag and nobody "got it". So maybe Salem is full of wonderful people who just aren't as sick as I'd thought.

Life is good in Salem.

ANOTHER GREAT CMA RALLY

2009-09-24T07:33:00.013-04:00

The weekend of Sept 19th - actually Thursday for me - we attended the Christian Motorcyclists Association State Rally in Dublin, VA.

I went down Thursday with the Airstream. Carol and the kids followed Friday afternoon after the kids got out of school.

This is the same rally we attended last year. The big difference for us was that last year we did one short program for the kids. This year we did two longer ones - AND - there were more kids. Not as many as we would have liked, but Freda Hubert, the State Coordinator for the CMA Youth Movement says, "We'll keep putting on quality programs and word will spread." So we'll hope for a bigger crowd next year.

The kids that were there were absolutely delightful!

So faith filled and enthusiastic !

Carol did some great craft projects with them.

I led them in songs to help them learn the 10 Commandments and the 10 Plagues.

We had to leave Saturday night after the program because Andrew sang in our Church Youh Choir on Sunday. Again, I am so encouraged by the young people that God has placed in my life. At our Church, at CMA events, at Emily's and Andrew's schools.

Emily and Andrew.

And of course, MY GRANDKIDS!!

Ben had a birthday on August 31st.

NO NO NO - How could such attentive parents make such a BIG mistake?

He CAN'T POSSIBLY BE FOUR. Time can't possibly fly by that fast. There MUST BE some mistake.

There is - I shouldn't blog without complete information.

Ben is THREE. He's just so smart that I thought he was 4 !!! There was an extra candle on the cake to celebrate Ann's birthday along with his.

I think he liked this present.

The whole family spent some quality time at the beach.

Those pictures don't have anything to do with CMA or the Rally. It's just been too long since I've posted pictures of my BEAUTIFUL grandkids.

I am so Blessed.

SETTLING DOWN IN SALEM

2009-09-23T11:25:00.004-04:00

As usual, I'm late posting this, but the kids started school on Sept. 8th. Here they are with Mom, waiting for the bus.

Andrew's bus comes around 7:30 and Emily's around 8:00. WAY too early, in my mind at least. But working parents want them all gone before 8 or 8:30, so that's that. Salem runs High School, Middle School and Elementary school routes with one set of buses.

Labor Day weekend was our "last hoorah" before school. We each had a day alone with each of the kids. Carol took Emily to Books-a-Million while I took Andrew to Michael's. Then we went to Pizza Hut, followed by a 40 mile ride on the Honda. He finally grew enough this summer to reach the pegs !! Carol went shopping and to lunch with Emily.

Then, a couple of days later, we traded. Same routine for Emily and me. But Carol took Andrew to Chuck E. Cheese for the afternoon. A great end of summer time for us all.

On Sunday, after Church, we all rode to Hillsville to visit our friends at the Gun Show and Flea Market. And forgot our camera. Cindy's sister-in-law Kathy took some pictures so you'll have to check back later.

School is starting off well. Both kids have great teachers. We're especially excited that Andrew - 3rd grade - East Salem - has a male teacher. Mr Edwards came from the county. He had been an elementary teacher and the Head Football Coach for Hidden Valley High School. He resigned as Coach because his son played football as a Freshman at Salem High last year and Dad missed all of his games. When the Salem coach found out about his resignation, he offered him a job as assistant coach at Salem. So not only will Dad get to see all his son's games, he'll be coaching the team as well. Given Salem's dedication (obsession?) with football, I worried out loud to a friend that Andrew might have a really poor teacher who happened to be a good coach. Turns out I was totally wrong to worry. The friend has kids at West Salem and was VERY upset that Mr. Edwards was at East Salem. West Salem had hopes of getting him on their staff because his wife teaches there. Great Teacher. William and Mary Alum. We've since met him and are totally impressed. Andrew will have a great year.

Last night was Emily's "Back to School Night" at Andrew Lewis Middle School where she is in the 8th grade. We met all of her teachers and again are totally impressed with the Salem school system.

I had an interesting start with 1st period, Science. I said, "Hello. I'm Tom Cook. Emily Wheeler's step-dad." to Mrs. O'Hare. She said, "It's so good to see you again. I had your son Tom my first or second year here. I guess he's all grown with a family by now." When I told her that I thought she might be mistaken because he was 40 years old and she didn't look old enough to have taught him she said, "Well I did. I was only 12 years older than my 8th graders that first year. He was a very, very good student." She really didn't remember him being a major pain. I guess selective memory is a good thing.

The teachers all displayed a true love of the kids and passion for their subjects. I'm sure I'll be posting about the other teachers as we work with them and Emily to get successfully through this transition year.

Life is Good in Salem !

STILL JAMMIN' IN JAMAICA

2009-09-05T08:19:00.003-04:00

We were sitting at "our" table at lunch one day when a beautiful woman and her equally beautiful daughter came in holding drinks with little umbrellas in them.

Since we knew those were the "welcome cocktails", we said, "Hi. Welcome to Jamaica."

Bert and her college bound daughter, Maria were celebrating Maria's next step in life by spending a few days in Jamaica. They weren't staying a full week because they had to leave Thursday to go home and pack for Maria's Saturday departure to college. We talked with them a little, found out they were from Philly, and that Bert works in the HR department for the city. Both were excited but apprehensive about Maria going off to school.

At dinner a couple of nights later I went to the bar to get drinks. I was wearing one of my Penn State shirts and the bartender read, very slowly, "Peeennnnn State. Where is that?" I said, Pennsylvania - in the US." He said, "Oh. Is it a company or something."

AARRRGGGGHHHH "No, it's a university."

I came back to the table with the drinks. Carol took one look at my face and said, "Honey, what's wrong." When I told her what had happened, she said, "Well, you can't expect everyone in the world to know about Penn State."

"Oh yeah? Why not?"

She suggested that I get over it and enjoy Jamaica.

When all else fails, there's always chocolate. So I went to the dessert buffet. Bert and Maria were there. When Maria saw my shirt, she squealed, "Penn State! That's where I'm going Saturday." and gave me a big hug. Take THAT, clueless barkeep !

We were having way too much fun to spend time taking pictures. Fortunately, some of the other new friends that Bert and Maria made took some of them. And Bert allowed me to take a couple from her Facebook pages.

Here's one.

and another

Our last night there they joined us for dinner along with another student they had made friends with. See a trend here? "..friends who took pictures; another friend; us; These two captured the hearts of everyone they encountered. What a GREAT pair ! And we were lucky enough to be included in their circle.

We've exchanged email and Facebook addresses and we look forward to keeping up with their lives - AND Maria's conquest of PSU !

Tinkerbell strikes again. What a wonderful "inbetween."

We got up in the middle of the night to make our 7:00am flight. Jamaica immigration people require that you arrive at the airport 2 1/2 hours before departure. Uneventful connection in Miami and on to Charlotte, followed by the drive home.

We saw a bunch of thunderstorms on approach to Charlotte but the pilot did an excellent job of twisting and turning around them.

We also saw a bunch more on the drive home, but missed driving through any. As we were headed up the mountain on I-77, we saw a big rainbow off to the side. Since we were on the side of the mountain looking out over the lower plain, we could clearly see the entire rainbow. Including where both ends hit the ground. Cool.

Then, all of a sudden, one of the ends shifted and came down in the mist to end on the highway right in front of us. And it stayed with us as we drove for a couple of miles. Magical. Of course, all the cameras were packed in the luggage.

But it was a great return to Virginia.

Great trip. Great place. Really great people.

Wonderful honeymoon.

But it's good to be home.

Life is good - here in Virginia!

SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS

2009-08-31T17:03:00.004-04:00

Our major event - and expenditure - in Jamaica was a trip to Dolphin Cove.

Great photo ops all over the place and your camera is welcome everywhere

EXCEPT in the dolphin area. There the staff takes videos and still shots to sell to you later. Actually we couldn't have taken pictures anyway. We were too close to the dolphins.

Our group consisted of only the two of us and one other couple. Usually there are 4 couples so we got to do a lot of the stuff twice. Great fun.

Unfortunately the video is of all 4 of us, a little over 8 minutes long. I've tried to edit it but can't seem to make anything work. So until I come up with a better solution than playing it on the TV and videoing it with my camera, I guess I'm stuck with still shots.

We started by getting acquainted with our two new friends.

Then we each got taken for a ride

Then we got personal

TA DA - TA DA - TA DA - DRUM ROLL, PLEASE

For the grand finale, Beta and Cometta put their noses on the arches of our feet and pushed us through the water until we went fast enough to come completely out of the water. Then they carried us across the lagoon and ended the ride by tossing us in the air.

I went first,

Then Carol,

Since we went first, we didn't know that it might be difficult. Then the other couple followed. She planed along the water like a surf board and never got in the air at all. He lifted into the air and immediately fell off. Later in the day we watched a group of 8 and none of them got out of the water.

We've watched the video many times now and have a couple of theories.

1. We're just fit and athletic.
NOPE, That ain't it.
2. Our youthful enthusiasm.
NOT THAT either. Most of the others were younger than Carol. And all were less than half my age.
3. We REALLY LIKED the dolphins, were completely comfortable with them and THEY KNEW IT. So they gave us a better ride.
THAT'S GOTTA BE IT.

What an incredible day.

Life is Good !

HONEYMOON IN JAMAICA. WE BE JAMMIN' MON

2009-08-29T19:57:00.010-04:00

As I blogged last week, we decided it would be selfish to go to NYC without the kids, so we spent a week in Jamaica instead.

We went to Charlotte, NC the night before and caught an 8:00AM non-stop on USAir.

Carol had never been to the Caribbean. When the plane descended, she got her very first look at that blue/green water. She said, "Oh my goodness. Why didn't you tell me what the water was like?" I said, "Because there is no way to describe it."

If you've seen it, you understand. If you haven't - well, you have to to understand.

Everything bad you've heard about Jamaica really doesn't apply to the north coast. Kingston may still be bad, but we flew into Montego Bay, rode east for about an hour to Runaway Bay and found everybody friendly, accommodating and very eager to please. No troops with machine guns any where. Nobody tried to sell us any drugs. Nobody hassled us to buy trinkets. Even the shopping trip to Ohco Rios was delightful.

We stayed at a small, all inclusive resort that fit our needs perfectly. Only about 80 rooms and less than half full at this time of year. We arrived at the resort at about 1:00pm. By 4:00pm bartenders at both of the main bars knew our names and what we were drinking.

The "beach" was really two small lagoons protected by breakwaters.

We were able to swim, snorkel - more about that later, kayak, pedalboat, sunbath, eat, drink and socialize without leaving the resort.

But we DID leave the resort.

First, we took a day trip to Ocho Rios to shop. Met some interesting people from California. Got a detailed warning about the the street hustlers and how we should just say, "NO MON. We don't want none." and how there were "tourist police" whose only job was to see that the locals didn't get too pushy. We heard stories about them asking your name, coming back 5 minutes later with a carved wood turtle with your name on it and demanding $10.

But we didn't experience any of that. Maybe the good old NYC "don't make eye contact" habits worked. We did succumb to a plea to enter the craft market and "Please, come to my booth inside and let me show you my carvings." While I was buying carvings from his uncle, the young man took Carol down two booths to meet his wife and I think we met two more relatives before we got out. But everyone was friendly and gently pushy. We enjoyed talking and bargaining with them.

The next day we went to Dunn's River Falls. 600' of cascading water which you pay money to climb. More fun than it sounds. In the USA, the lawyers would have already gotten rich and you'd have pads, wooden walkways, helmets and probably be safety roped the whole way. In "NO Problem, Mon" Jamaica they have "guides" who lead you on the climb - and they're optional.

Back at the resort, I convinced Carol to go snorkeling. We had gotten my old gear out and practiced a little in the pool at home and she had gotten very comfortable. I even bought her a "dry" snorkel in case the water was choppy. We started in the sandy end of the lagoon and she was fine laying on the water watching the little silver fish.

Then we went out a little further and two things happened that ended her snorkeling career. Some seaweed brushed against her leg. And she got "up close and personal" with a 3' long fish that looked a lot like a barracuda. It wasn't a barracuda, and she knew that. But it didn't matter. She says she's a wonderful snorkeler - as long as it's in a swimming pool.

Tomorrow it's off to Dolphin Cove to go swimming with dolphins. Carol is a little apprehensive after the snorkeling experience but I think I've convinced her it will be fun. "C'mon dear, they're mammals. All cute and cuddly like our cat Peaches, just no fur."

We'll see.

Life is so good.

QUIET TIME BACK HOME IN SALEM

2009-08-21T18:33:00.003-04:00

We arrived home in Salem safely Sunday afternoon, July 26th after a wonderful week at the CMA Rally.

On Wednesday I had a job interview. As many of you know, I retired 10 years ago.

I had NO intention of going back to work.

And I had made that VERY clear to Carol before we got married.

BUT

previously when I've been here in Salem I volunteered at a pre-school nursery for Somalian Bantu children while their mothers took English classes. I had called Catholic Refugee and Immigrations Services to volunteer again. They're no longer having a classroom program, so no need for a nursery. Oh well, maybe something else will develop.

Then I was talking with Carol and realized that if I worked at her pre-school program in the mornings, she could quit her afternoon job. And if I was disappointed that I couldn't do the same thing 3 days a week FOR FREE, would it really be work?

So I had a job interview Wednesday.

Michael, Carol's ex will take the kids on Friday, the 31st. On August 1st Carol and I will leave for PA Dutch country, NYC and New England. The New England part has been planned for a couple of months. NYC got added because Carol and the kids had such an incredible time last month. And there are several more Broadway shows that Carol hasn't seen yet.

Well, that WAS the plan.

OK, this isn't being written in a timely manner. Actually, today is August 21st.

And we just got back from a week in Jamaica.

Because on Thursday, July 30th I was checking some of my cheap travel sites and found a really great deal for a week in Jamaica.

Airfare, all inclusive including meals, alcohol and non-motorized watersports, airport transfers, everything.

Cheap.

AND the kids had such a great time in NYC.

AND it doesn't cost anything extra to take them with us in the Airstream, except for the theater tickets.

SO it really wouldn't be nice to go do something without them when we could take them there with us at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Even at an all inclusive resort where kids stay free, it'd be $800. extra for the airfare to take them to Jamaica. And this was an adults only resort anyway.

So we went to Jamaica.

Oh, the sacrifices we make for our kids.

Pictures and the story will follow soon.

CHRISTIAN MOTORCYCLISTS ASSOCIATION

2009-08-11T14:45:00.007-04:00

I've blogged some about the great people in the CMA. Carol and the kids and I had a wonderful time at the VA State Rally last September. So it was a no-brainer to come back for the National East Rally at the fairgrounds in Lewisburg, WV.

We arrived on Monday, July 20th. The Rally didn't start until Tuesday but getting there early assured us of a camping spot with full hook-ups. And a chance to "chill" for an evening before things started happening.

Good decision. No problem with the parking because there was lots of space. Most of the bikers came on their motorcycles with either a popup trailer tent or plain ol' tent so they didn't need the spots with hook-ups. But the day of rest was appreciated because things really got busy starting Tuesday afternoon.

Each morning and evening there was a service for the adults with a separate service for the teens and another for the pre-teens. The days were filled with seminars and prayer meetings. We didn't make many of those because there were no kid's activities during the day. But there was a beautiful little playground, a cafeteria and a "Goody" store with lots of CMA logo stuff.

Here is Andrew with the CMA KIDS instructor, Larry Sims.

And with Gabe, a new Best Friend.

The "newlyweds" showing off Tom's "biker do".

The week FLEW by and all of a sudden it was Saturday, the last full day of the Rally. We met some great new friends, caught up on the doin's of some old ones.

And at the "Bike Games" on Saturday, Emily was the rider for the WINNING TEAM of the "tennis ball drop." Victoria McGraw was the driver. Here's a video of the winning run.

I am so sorry that I didn't video some of the other entrants. Because Victoria and Emily make this look SO EASY. Trust me, it's NOT! About 15 entries of which 3 had a perfect run the first time. On the second one, our girls were the only one with a perfect run. One of the others dropped a ball off the cone and the other one ran over a cone. Victoria is incredibly smooth at VERY slow speeds and Emily was so gentle in placing the balls on the cones. IF the other drivers got close and slow enough, the dropper put the ball onto the cone with too much force and it bounced off as soon as they let go of it.

The "Winner's Circle" !

Saturday evening 9 of us went to dinner, all in my new truck. Chinese Buffet 'cause I said we weren't all riding home in one vehicle after Mexican.

The infamous 9 minus Carol, who is taking the picture.

The back seat

We attended an early service on Sunday morning and then hooked up and came home to Salem.

Life is good !

PATAPSCO VALLEY STATE PARK, MD

2009-07-27T08:34:00.008-04:00

We arrived at Patapsco Valley State Park on Monday, July 13th planning to stay three nights. It was soooooo beautiful and convenient to Carol's sister's house that we stayed another two days.

We spent some time with Bobbie and Bill, Carol's sister and brother-in-law. The kids got to play with Aunt Bobbie a couple of days. They came out to the campsite for dinner one night.

We also went to Cockeysville to visit Peggy Bealefield, a friend from our "Doll Show" days. Great time all around. The kids really loved Peggy's three Chihuahuas, Betty, Taggy and Patches. Peggy treated us at the Nautilus Diner in Timonium. I didn't plan that - there was one of her and four of us - but I learned YEARS ago not to argue with Peggy. I had been there with her before so I was prepared for the size of the portions. They were a repeat of the Carnegie Deli. Peggy asked the waitress to just put the tossed salad that came with her dinner in a to go box to start with because she knew she wouldn't have room for it. Carol ordered the pork chop dinner. The three large, thick chops were served on a serving platter sized plate and that's all that was on the plate. 'Cause that's all there was room for. All the sides came in separate dishes. She ate one and we took two home. I took home at least a dozen scallops that were sweet as butter. The desserts looked so good that we took two of them home, too.

Now we had a decision to make - it's Friday, July 17th. We are due in Lewisburg, WV on Monday, July 20th. It's about an hour and a half out of our way to go home to Salem for the weekend. The reason we would do that would be to pickup the Honda and have our motorcycle at the motorcycle rally. But we knew there wouldn't be much time for riding and we would have to find someone to watch the kids.

So we decided to go camping instead.

Really.

In the past 5 weeks of traveling and living in the Airstream, we haven't really been "camping." We've always stayed at a campground, except for the first night in a WalMart parking lot and when we were guests of Mike and Donna. But it was just a place to park while we went to do the things we were in that area to do.

Since we were coming to the end of our time with the kids, we decided to skip going home.

We drove from Frederick, MD to the campground on US 340 instead of taking I-81. Slow really is better.

About the time the kids got hungry, we saw it was 10 miles to Luray Caverns. Thank God, Again, for the Airstream. We parked and fixed ourselves a yummy lunch right in the trailer. We walked from the "RV" parking through a little rain shower to the entrance which - surprise, surprise, is right next to the gift shop. And the exit is THROUGH the gift shop. Everybody is learning from Disney. As I was buying the tickets we realized we'd forgotten the camera. And it was still raining. I'm really glad. The people with cameras were a real pain as all the polite people stopped and waited as they composed their perfect shot. Over and Over and Over. More important, I don't think they enjoyed the tour as much as we did just walking and looking. So click on the link above and enjoy! There is a small antique carriage/car museum on the grounds that was very interesting, too.

We found Stoney Creek Resort in the Shenandoah Valley near Stuart's Draft, VA. If you click on the link, you'll see a beautiful lake, basic mini-golf course, big pool and lots of trees. Since it was a weekend, bingo and a karaoke night were available, too.

I told them I would not be at the Karaoke because of a sign they refused to take down for the evening. It said, "No alcoholic beverages in the community building." I told them, "I would never sing outside of church without the benefit of alcohol. And until I started playing at nursing homes last year, I didn't think I'd ever played to a sober audience."

But we had a great time in the pool, playing golf, and building a campfire to make S'mores.

And for the FIRST TIME on our trip, the water was warm enough to tempt
Carol.

This teepee was available to rent. But it didn't have airconditioning. Which we were sure we'd need - in Va, in July.

But we never turned ours on. It dropped down into the mid 50's at night. The second night I got up in the middle of the night and closed the windows.

This is a "stitched" panoramic picture. Actually 4 pictures that a neat program I found on the web puts together automatically. A bit "fish eyed" (the dam I'm standing on it straight, not curved) but it gives you a great view of the lake and campground.

Next stop, the National Rally of the Christian Motorcyclists Association.

Life is so good !

STATE COLLEGE, PA

2009-07-21T15:30:00.022-04:00

We left Jersey City the morning of Friday, July 3rd and drove to Seven Mountains Campground 15 miles East of State College, in Spring Mills, PA. I stayed there for two months last summer and Carol came to visit for the 4th weekend so this arrival was like a reunion.

Kathi came out from behind the desk with hugs and "Welcome MR AND MRS Cook!"

Carol just pointed out to me that I haven't mentioned our cat, Peaches who is traveling with us. She rides in a carrier on the backseat of the truck between Emily and Andrew and she has been an exceptionally well behaved traveler. No kitty Valium needed. She does "meow" some. Sometimes rather pitifully and we didn't figure out why for awhile. Then we noticed that she only seemed really distressed when our ears were popping from altitude changes. Now if we could just teach her to hold her nose and blow, everything would be fine. She has pretty well accepted everyone and the sharing of the Airstream space.

I blogged last year about the 4th Fest and that State College has the 2nd largest fireworks display in the country. All Carol could say last year was, "The kids have got to see this." So this year, they did. Tom drove up to the area very early, got a great parking space in the "tailgaiting" section and rode his bicycle back to the house. Then we piled 4 adults and 5 kids into my truck (did I tell you that I LOVE my truck?) and drove to as close as we could get. Schlepped chairs, drinks, toys and food to the Eurovan and settled in for the afternoon. The kids played games, rode rides and we all picnicked and enjoyed the beautiful day. There was a small carnival area

The fireworks couldn't compete with the sunset that preceded them.

The fireworks are choreographed to music played over a local radio station. There were 5 or 6 different songs with appropriate fireworks. After each one, Andrew and Emily asked, "Are they over?" The final, for real, finale is about three minutes of 40 shells PER SECOND. And we were close enough to feel the force of the explosions. We didn't even try to get pictures.

Sunday was a day of rest. On Monday we - meaning (listed by age) Tom, Carol, Emily, Casey, Andrew and Sarah went to Penn's Cave. It's a great "first-timer" cave. The kids loved it and so did Carol and I. Especially since it was a boat ride (we got to entertain the gang while sitting down!)

Dinner at the Olive Garden, since it is Casey's favorite restaurant in the world and no one else could decide.

Tuesday afternoon we had a kid's day - dinner with all of my family plus Ann's sister, Ellen and her daughter, Ella. We went to Baby's. It wasn't called "Baby's" in 1964 when I lived a block away and went there several times a week, but it was, and is a chrome diner with great comfort food. AND on Tuesdays, kids EAT FREE !! Since we had 5 adults, at least in calender years, all 6 kids ate free. And we all had great food.

Then off to the $1.00 movie theater for "Monsters vs Aliens". The theater is always $1.00 but on Tuesdays the popcorn and drinks are $1.00 each, too. I was so full from Baby's that I didn't even buy popcorn. And the movie was definitely worth one dollar.

WEDNESDAY - THE BIG DAY !

Kidsfest, the day before Artsfest officially starts. Kids can rent space, set up booths and sell things they have made themselves. Casey with some family help, sold tie-dyed clothes. Baby sizes up to adult. Mostly re-cycled stuff. And she did very well, again this year. Sarah isn't technically old enough to participate so she shares Casey's booth and sells pet rocks and votive jars and magic wands.

Thursday, the 9th we went to Artsfest. But first we stopped at People's Choice Festival of Pennsylvania. More crafts than art but nice people, great food and lots of stuff for the kids. I took Emily and Andrew by Dragon's Breath forge to talk with my friend from last year, Tim Bradford and his wife, Karen. Tim works at these events with a portable forge almost exactly like the one my Grandfather used. Check out last year's blog for pictures. I'm STILL having problems getting my head around the idea that this man from my memories is Casey, Sarah and Ben's Great-GREAT-Grandfather.

While many people think Artsfest is about the hundreds of incredibly talented artists and their wares, WE know that the kids are right when they say it's all about the "buckets."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - Andrew - Sarah - Emily - Casey - Ella - - - - - - - - - -

and the wall

and the music

These are the Rustical Quality String Band. The female fiddler is a friend from a local jam. They really put on a great show. I guess they should, they've been playing together for over 31 years!

and playing air guitar and gettin' down to the music

and meeting and greeting really great people

from left to right that's Cindy Alley, me, and Graham Spanier, President of Penn State.

Carol's not in the picture because she was taking it. We arrived at the stage a little early and Carol said, "Do you want to sit over there in the shade?" I said that I did and went over and sat down next to Cindy before I realized it was she. Small World. Lots of inbetweens.

Saturday evening Tom and Ann hosted a picnic with some of their friends, some of their kid's friends and one of our friends - Cindy Alley. She sat down and started talking with Tom. I stuck around for the conversation for a little while. But shortly after he found out that she was a geologist, not just married to one and that Karen is doing some kind of project at Colgate that he might be of help with, I found that I didn't understand any of the words. So I left the two of them and enjoyed other company, great conversation and wonderful food.

Sunday we went back to Artsfest - we HAD to - we'd gotten Creamery Ice Cream every day we were there and didn't want to ruin our record. We also walked across campus to get these pictures at the Lion. If you have to ask, "What Lion?", you haven't been paying attention.

Back to Seven Mountains. Even though we were exhausted, we had one more campfire and made s'mores.

Tomorrow it's off to Patapsco State Park near Carol's sister in Catonsville, MD.

Life is good!

NEW YORK CITY

2009-07-19T19:31:00.012-04:00

LIBERTY HARBOR MARINA AND RV PARK really is just across the river from Manhattan. That IS the Statue of Liberty in the picture. We didn't get to go to it because full "crown" tours were booked through September.

But we did

See TWO Broadway shows

Eat at the Carnegie Deli

Eat at 69 Bayard Restaurant in Chinatown

Go to the top of the Empire State Building

Tour Macy's and Herald Square

Take a pedicycle ride around Central Park

Walk Fulton St all the way across lower Manhattan, from Ground Zero to the South Street Seaport

Walk Broadway from 33rd to 59th streets - both ways

Ride the subway (many times)

Survive a bus ride AND a cab ride

Visit the Natural History Museum

and take the Circle Line Tour around Manhattan

IN TWO AND A HALF DAYS.

We got there Tuesday afternoon and left Friday morning.

Our neighbor at the RV Park saw us leaving on Friday, July 3rd and said, "I told my wife, 'That Airstream is abandoned' because there was no one there when we got up in the morning and there was no one there when we went to bed at night."

It was a whirlwind three days but apparently not too overwhelming because Carol and the kids want to go back. Especially to see more Broadway shows. And eat.

The hike across Fulton St was their first exposure to the city. We got out of the PATH subway from Jersey at Ground Zero. I knew there was a TKTS booth at the Seaport that not only sold "day of performance" tickets like the Times Square booth but also sold "next day" tickets for the Wednesday matinees. We checked into Liberty Harbor around 2 PM and got into Manhattan around 3. Of course there were severe thunderstorms and we got drenched. But we did get tickets for that night's performance of Mary Poppins and Wednesday matinee tickets for The Phantom. I told the ticket agent, "This is the first time in the City for my wife and kids, I hope these are good tickets." The Mary Poppins tickets were mid-mezzanine with a great view and the Phantom tickets were 7th row orchestra on the aisle. Couldn't have done better at full price.

When we got off the subway at Time's Square it was raining hard again. We stood under the marquee for Mary Poppins and watched people scurry. I asked a cop if Mama Mia's was still on the corner. He said, "Out of business." So I asked about the Stage Door Deli. "Out of business." Broadway Diner? "Never heard of it." So we ate at McDonald's. It was an incredibly busy McDonald's. And it was three stories high. And we were out of the rain and right next door to the theater. But, Food Gods of the City, please forgive me. I'll do better tomorrow.

Mary Poppins was Supercali --- oh, you know! It was wonderful and we all came out singing. The rain was gone and we had a beautiful late night walk 10 blocks to the 33rd St PATH station. We even found a bargain on the way - 10 postcards for a dollar. We bought 30. Two blocks later we saw "15 for a dollar." Oh well, welcome to Manhattan. We were in bed by midnight.

Wednesday we got our usual early start and went to the Empire State Building before the matinee. Then we went to Macy's so Carol could spend her $50. gift card at the "real" Macy's. She was so overwhelmed by the 9 humongous floors of merchandise that she didn't buy anything.

We walked up to Time's Square and stopped at a street vendor along the way to get hot dogs and a soft pretzel.

Here's as close as we'll probably ever get to starring on Broadway.

After spending WAY TOO MUCH for Phantom T-shirts, we went into the theater and found our seats. The show was amazing. So much better than the movie. There is just NOTHING LIKE a Broadway production. And Phantom is the best.

OK, now it's time to appease the City Food Gods. Carnegie Deli, here we come. I had prepared Carol for the size of the portions and for the world famous surly waiters. Well, the kids charmed our waiter and he was absolutely nice. Oh well, I still had the portions to impress her. And they didn't disappoint. She had a roast beef sandwich.

Here's a picture of HALF of my pastrami on rye.

The kids had hamburgers and chicken fingers with portions about the same. Then all four of us split one piece of strawberry cheesecake. And we got to hear our waiter tell a hesitant customer behind us. "It's the best cheesecake in the world, lady. Sometimes you just have to do it."

We needed to work off that meal so we walked up to Central Park. It really was good exercise because we were carrying about 5 pounds of food in our "doggie bag." But before we could walk very far, a pedicycle driver stopped and said, "Can't I show you Central Park?" I didn't think he'd stick around after he saw that there were four of us. But he not only stayed, we negotiated an "end of the day" price. He gave us a great tour, even stopping to take pictures of us.

As we walked back down 7th Avenue to stop at the M&M store, I saw two familiar faces. Chuck and Pat Marlowe fellow parishioners from Our Lady of Nazareth in Roanoke. Chuck worked in the city some years ago and they were back in town to see South Pacific. Small world.

On to M&M World, where we bought a Statue of Liberty Green M&M dispenser and two M&M baseball caps.

Continuing our walk down Broadway, the kids stopped to pet one of New York's Finest horses. The policemen were very friendly - and patient. We talked to a couple with two little girls who had left their brand new American Girl dolls to pet the horse.

Back to the PATH station and a ride to Jersey City.

Thursday looked like more rain, so we went to the Natural History Museum. This was a MUST - it should be a MUST for everyone, but especially for us since we had just watched "A Night at the Museum" a couple of days before.

We met the couple with the kids from yesterday. They were staying at a hotel on 79th street, right across from the museum and they came everyday. Because the hotel had no parking. They were parked at the Museum parking garage and the Museum validated their parking ticket. Which I thought was an incredible deal for Manhattan. 20 years ago I paid $40./night at the Marriott. But "validate" meant $25. per night instead of the regular price of $50. Still a good deal. Just not free.

Everyone was overwhelmed, AGAIN by the sheer magnitude of the museum. After a few hours, we headed downtown to the Circle Line Pier. It sprinkled a few drops while we were waiting for our boat but the sky cleared as we were leaving the pier. Within a few minutes it started raining again. Fortunately the boat wasn't crowded and we were able to move under the roof.

The Lady

Downtown - sure looks different without the World Trade Center

OK - you gotta click on this one and view it in LARGE SIZE.
It's the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge in the same picture with the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

We didn't take many pictures with the digitals but Andrew had some film cameras and we should have more pictures to post in about two weeks when we swing back through Salem for a few days.

69 Bayard is a restaurant in the heart of Chinatown that Mary Ann and I went to regularly in the mid 1960's. Hasn't changed a bit. Very few Caucasian customers, not much attention from the waiters, REALLY crummy little (one) restroom, huge servings of incredibly tasty food at very reasonable prices. A local (meaning Chinese) neighborhood place. I asked one of the waiters if he knew a family member of the owner, about 60 years old, named "Jimmy". He said that he didn't. It was still the same family, but 40 years meant TWO generations had owned the place since I'd been there. At least it's still there. Another of our favorites, Chumley's, literally fell down a couple of years ago. An interior chimney collapsed, pulling down the town house that was Chumley's along with parts of two neighboring buildings.

We left NY tired, broke and sorry we had to leave. Carol and I will probably return in August.

But State College and the 4th Fest were only two days away, so off we went across PA.

Life is Good !

ON TO EQUINUNK

2009-07-19T18:16:00.008-04:00

We left Tuaghannock Falls on Friday, June 26th and drove East across southern New York State to Hancock. It's where I lived and went to Jr High and High School.

We crossed the Delaware River into PA and followed the river south about 10 miles to Equinunk, a little community of about 1200 people. Although I think they've included a rather large geographic area to come up with that many.

A few miles out of town is where my friend from High School, Donna Lind DuBois lives with her husband, Mike.

When we told them we would be passing through, Mike immediately offered to let us stay in his back yard. Complete with water and electric. It really is a slice of heaven on earth. It was so dark the first night that when Carol and I woke up we thought there was a lightening storm. It was the fireflies outside our Airstream windows.

Of course, there are some drawbacks to living this far out in the country. Mike is the only person I know who built an electric fence around his bird feeder - to keep out the bears.

We got up bright and early Saturday morning to have breakfast at the Circle E Diner in Hancock. It's where I always had an early breakfast when I was working for my Dad on the milk truck - starting in 1957. New owners, same great food.

Then I took Carol and the kids on the "Grand Tour". We went up the river on Old Route 17 through Readburn and Fish's Eddy to East Branch where I lived from age 3 to 12. Our old general store/house was in a terrible state. Falling down, actually. I went to a house across the street to see if anybody was home. A young boy came out and said, "Are you looking for Grandpa? He's over here." and went running to get him. A man came out from behind another house and said, "Are you looking for me?" I said, "I'm not sure - who are you?" He immediately yelled to his wife, "Honey - come out and see who's here - it's Tommy Cook."

By then I recognized him as a Cicio brother but I didn't know which of the 4 he was. It was Paul, who had married Brenda Young who was my best elementary school friend. The last time I saw him I was 12. Guess I haven't changed much after all. We talked a few minutes before it started raining. A NJ man had bought my old house and gutted it to make apartments. But he quit after tearing out the inside and hadn't done anything to it in over a year. The porch had fallen down the week before we got there. After a short side trip to Peaksville, we got back on 17 to go to Cook's Falls, where my family settled in the early 1700's. Found the old cemetery with my great grandfather and other ancestors. Then we drove along the Delaware back to Donna's.

Another dear High School friend that I've stayed in touch with all these years is Marilyn Johnson Stamets. She and her husband, Ron came to Donna's for dinner Saturday night, bringing Pizza for all. We had a wonderful mini-reunion.

On Sunday we went to the Pine Mill United Methodist Church. A beautiful little country church where Donna and her sister have sung since they were little children. It was the 100th anniversary of the current building and many of the parishioners stood to reminisce about their years attending there, along with stories of their parents and grandparents. One lady stood up and hesitantly said, "I really don't know if I should speak because I'm such a new comer. I've only been attending here 25 years." I told Carol, "Welcome to the mountains."

Sunday we drove to Marilyn and Ron's for dinner. Andrew, always more adventurous than Emily, went swimming in a small pond across the dirt road from Marilyn's. It was really dark water but we convinced him (and his mother) that if he splashed a lot, the snakes would not bother him.

I tried to get a picture of Ron and Marilyn's glass patio door but I couldn't get a clear shot that showed the big bear paw prints about 5' up on the door. He was just curious, I guess.

Emily and Andrew did get to experience some of the fun we had as kids.

Along with the tire swing, they enjoyed picking wild strawberries with Donna's grandchildren, and watching a doe and her fawn walk around their yard.

On Monday we went to Hancock to visit with Mr. and Mrs. Lester, two teachers at Hancock Central when I was there. They live in a beautiful house overlooking the school. Retired now, Mr. Lester is still recording secretary of the school board. Although the school was closed, since he had a key we got a tour. Much renovation and changes since I was there. But the pictures of the class of '63 was prominently displayed in the hall. And the auditorium was as beautiful as ever.

Monday night we had dinner at Palmi's, a new restaurant in Equinunk run by Fabio Chindamo, from Lake Como, Italy. He was previously the chef at the Delaware River Club which is THE premier Fly Fishing Club in the world. Since we were there on a week night, Fabio greeted, took our orders, prepared the food and served it. On the weekends he has one waitress to help. But he always cooks all the food himself. All of our dishes were wonderful and dinner for 6, including the two kids was less than $100. Quite a bargain for the quality and quantity. So if you're ever passing through Equinunk, PA, be sure and stop.

On Tuesday morning we left for NYC!

Old friends make

Life so good.

CAYUGA LAKE

2009-07-18T20:33:00.010-04:00

Monday, June 22nd.

We left Grand Island and fought Niagara Falls and Buffalo traffic for about an hour. Then we were on "old US 20" which pretty much parallels the Turnpike but is a much, much prettier and slower drive. Beautiful farms, lakes, hills and valleys.

So we put in a CD from my friend, Karen Alley (see my Aug 14, 2008 and Sept 11, 2008 blog entries). That beautiful countryside, my wonderful new family joining me on my travels and that incredible hammered dulcimer ringing out created the most wonderful experience I could imagine. For four hours. (No, the CD isn't that long, we just played it over and over.) If you'd like a copy, please email Karen at coralreefs@comcast.net and she'd be very happy to sell you one.

Tom had recommended a couple of State campgrounds in the Finger Lakes region but the ones he suggested didn't have spaces big enough for a 34' trailer. So we made reservations for two nights at Taughannock Falls. Another "inbetween". It was so beautiful that we stayed four nights. Wonderful hikes along the glen to the falls. Great swimming in Cayuga Lake - if you like 64 degree water.

AND our campground fee gave us free access to any other State Park we were willing to drive to. There were several in the area and we went to most of them.

Here are some pictures from Tunghannock

Watkin's Glen

Buttermilk Falls

Robert H. Treman

Cayuga Lake

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Although ONE reason there are no pictures of Carol in the water is because she took all the pictures, the REAL reason is because Carol did not go in the water. What a Wuss.

While in NY, we re-celebrated Emily and Andrew's birthdays. They each received a personal DVD Player to help keep them occupied on the drives. At this moment Emily is in the bedroom watching hers - she DID NOT approve this picture !

Life is Good !

LAST DAYS AT NIAGARA

2009-07-12T11:14:00.021-04:00

Saturday looked like another rainy day. We REALLY didn't want to "Walk Behind the Falls" on a cloudy day. Somehow, after the movie, rapids and Maid of the Mist, we KNEW we'd get very wet and we wanted the sun to dry us out.

I went looking on line for free indoor activities and found the Niagara Science Museum. The link will tell you all about Nick Dalacu, a brilliant physicist who has made rejuvenating this part of Niagara Falls, NY with his museum as the centerpiece, his life's passion.

We showed up on Saturday, parked on the sidewalk in front of the building and I went to see if it was open. The door was unlocked. I walked in and started walking around yelling, "Hello. Anybody home?" A voice directed me to a back office. It was Mr. Dalacu, who said, "Welcome. I am humbled that you've come to visit. We're still in the development stage and things aren't labeled very well yet, but let me show you around." And that began a fascinating tour of a fascinating man's collection of incredibly eclectic "stuff".

Fossils

Geodes and mineral samples

Various office machines, scientific instrumemts

On Sunday the weather cleared. And it was Father's Day. Emily gave me a Canadian leaf tie and Andrew gave me a Canada coffee mug. And everyone contributed to a package of maple candy. The real stuff! I remember it as a "not so special" treat back in NY when I was a child. I ate maple cream on my toast most mornings. Has it just gotten outrageously expensive? Or was it just as expensive back then and I didn't appreciate it? Probably a little of both.

We went back to Canada, to Morningstar Mill, a grist mill that a volunteer group has rebuilt and opened as a museum. The grounds also included the mill owner's house, furnished as it was at the turn of the last century.

The "water wheel" in the picture above was added in 1999 because the tourists kept asking, "Where's the water wheel?" The ACTUAL power was generated by the 15" turbine shown in the picture below. This one turbine ran the entire mill. It generated 49 horsepower. A typical water wheel produces 8 horsepower.

Then back to Niagara for our walk behind the falls.

And over to the American side for a visit to Goat Island and a REAL closeup view of the falls from the top.

And a great view of the American side.

AND a view of the really crazy people who took the "Cave of the Winds" walk on the American Side.

Tomorrow we leave for the Finger Lakes.

Life is Good !