Thursday Night July 31, 2008

I just got done checking the flight to Amsterdam again and while the numbers have changed a little, there are still 8 seats in Business Class. Should be an easy flight over and even better coming home on Tuesday. Time to go to bed.

Friday Aug. 1, 2008

I got up and going a little before Chearl this morning and continued to pack for the trip to Amsterdam tonight. As I was finishing packing, I thought that I would take one last look at the flight just to see if things were still OK.

Imagine my shock and disappointment when I looked at the flight to see that the back of the plane had gone negative and the number for the front was on its way down also. THAT’S IT! I QUIT.

I relayed the news to Chearl and headed out to work. That flight is going to be over-full and I don’t want to be anywhere close to it.

Chearl and I bantered back and forth all day and she finally found a flight to Boston that looked do-able so we listed for that. I was going to pick up Chearl at work and then she lets me know that Delta will not let you park your car at the office for more than one day so she was going to meet me at home and we were going to leave from there.

We said goodbye to the girls and headed over to the airport and put the car into the employee lot.

We headed upstairs in the terminal to list ourselves and there were very few people around the check in area. We used a couple of S2B passes and then headed to the gate.

Chearl wanted to eat at the Outback there at the airport so we stopped there and got a bite to eat. I had a chicken sandwich and it was OK.

After the dinner we headed down to the gate to wait for the flight. I stopped and bought a book and Chearl got a couple of books while we were there.

We were close to the top of the list but were acutely aware that there were no first class seats left. Oh well. I went and took a benedryl just in case I ended up in the center seat of a 737 for the 2 plus hours to Boston.

We got our boarding passes and we were in 10A and 10B (bulkhead) which did not seem too bad. When we got on and settled the last person on the flight was a fellow and an explosives dog (Aries) which had just graduated from school in San Antonio Texas and were flying to the dog’s new home in Boston. He was going to be a front line explosives dog at Logan.

The dog had noticed that there was another dog confined beneath a seat just a few rows behind us and he was quite focused on that. Chearl finally got up and moved from 10A to 11D and I moved out to 10C so that the guy and dog could take 10A and B and not be as antsy as he (the dog) was in the aisle.

We landed about 10 p.m. and we took the Hertz bus to find our car. Our car was in slot 13 (Mazda) so we got in and got the GPS situated and then called the hotel to find the address. After plugging this address in, we headed off to Woburn for the hotel. The fellow next to me with the dog said that it was pronounced Woobun so we just went with that for the balance of the trip.

We found the hotel with not much difficulty and checked into room 515 and bundled in for the night.

I had left the curtain open just a smidge and noticed during the night that there was a small thunderstorm. About three flashes of lightning and that was it. It did rain for a while though.

Saturday August 2, 2008 (Anniversary day!)

I got up early and got going and waited for Chearl to arise. Once she got up and we got down to the breakfast room, it was packed! There was no room for anything. It was not a big deal because there was nothing that really floated my boat for breakfast anyway. It was certainly not like the good breakfasts at the Holiday Inn Expresses that we usually stay in. They had some bread, bagels and some funky little things for the microwave that did not too good so I just got some juice and coffee and returned to the room.

Chearl had found some information on the Kennedy presidential library in South Boston so we packed our things and headed for that. Once again the GPS was a handy little device and it took us right there even though the driver did make some erroneous turns on the way down.

We went through the library and while it was not as good as the Nixon library in California, it was interesting in its own way. There was lots of old 50’s and 60’s memorabilia.

Since we had a rather light breakfast we headed to Quincy for lunch since it was close by. We had lunch on the bay. I had a crab roll which was OK and a lemonade.

After lunch we walked around the pier a little and looked in the few stores that were available and then headed back to the car to find a Walgreens. Chearl needed some tape and some other things. CVS was not quite good enough so we spent a little time finding a Walgreens.

After getting the goods, we headed north on I-93 to I-95. When we arrived on the New Hampshire turnpike, there was a line about 2 miles long to pay the toll. Frustrating! When we got close to Kittery (first city in Maine) I decided to jump off and try to go up Route 1. BAD IDEA! Kittery was crammed with people at the outlet malls. It took us a while to get through town and on our way again and when we finally got rolling we stumbled across one of those little wood stores for shoes that Chearl likes. Chearl found nothing but I ran across a pair of Columbia sandals that were quite nice and yet only $23. DEAL!

Not too long after leaving the shoe store, we ran into a bunch of stopped traffic inbound to Ogunquit. This lasted for more than an hour. After Ogunquit and Wells, things lessened a little and the traffic southbound was backed up. We were not certain of the attraction, but we will be taking the expressway around these two towns from now on if we have to go through there on a weekend. Since it was getting late in the afternoon we stopped only for Chearl’s antique graze in the town of Arundel (by the road to Kennebunkport) and she went in shopping and I merely changed into my new sandals in the car.

We finally made it to the Holiday Inn – West in Portland and checked into room 2211 (discovering that the room was very well suited for anyone vertically challenged!) and I was trying to find a nice place to go for dinner. I found the number for Anjons in Scarborough where we had eaten a few years ago and they said that they could take us around 7. We got cleaned up and headed south to Scarborough. We had a little wait there but got seated early and I had The Anjon scampi which was seafood in a garlic butter sauce served on a bed of linguini. Chearl had the ravioli and a couple of meatballs. After a meal like that we just moaned all the way back to the hotel. TV and alka-seltzer for the balance of the evening.

Sunday August 3, 2008

We woke up to rain.which then turned into a full blown thunderstorm. There was lightning everywhere and very noisy. We thought that we would find a breakfast eatery close to the hotel and did. Up the street was a Dennys. We went in and there was a couple waiting in front of us. One of the waitresses kept looking our way saying that she would be with us in a minute but she never came around. Then other folks came in and it was then that we discovered that they were taking names. A group behind us put their names in and Chearl went off and got the list reorganized to the correct sequence. Bottom line was the Denny’s experience was certainly a mess this morning. I had pancakes and juice and Chearl had some grilled adventure.

As we were leaving we made a pact to never eat at that restaurant again and went back to the Holiday Inn to get our things for the trip to Freeport.

The storms had stopped and the tain subsided and we made the short trip to Freeport and stopped at all the fun places. LL Bean, Hartmann, Abacus, etc. Our dog place has apparently moved down the road some so we did not make it during this trip.

After Freeport, we headed south to Portland and went over to the Portland Head Light. The afternoon turned out to be gorgeous and some of the pictures that I took there, while tilted, turned quite nice.

After the Head Light, Chearl wanted to go through the Victoria Mansion in downtown Portland so we headed there. There were three or four other couples waiting for a tour so we just signed up and took the tour of the house. It was interesting, but the $12 admission fee was quite high for the results.

After the mansion we drove down by the waterfront and then headed back to the hotel.

I had noticed a Ruby Tuesdays across the street so when it came time to go to dinner, we walked there. I had a lemonade and got the Mini Trio for dinner. Chearl got the mini-burgers for dinner and boy were they good! I had a crabmeat, turkey and burger and they were all very good.

We headed back to the hotel after dinner.

Monday August 4, 2008

We had to head south to Boston again so after breakfast at the hotel we checked out, loaded up the car again and headed south. Chearl wanted to stop in Kennebunkport so we set the Garmin for that destination and headed south on I-95.

Approaching Kennebunkport the traffic started bunching up once again and as we got into town figured that the public parking within town was going to be at a premium so we headed across the bridge and found a place to park along the main drag.

We walked back into town and Chearl stopped at the Lladro dealer and was looking for crystal and other things and finally settled on a Christmas ornament. After this store we continued window shopping around town and then went to find our car again and headed back south.

Chearl had found a brochure about some maritime museum and as we headed south towards Boston on I-95 we saw a sign for the maritime museum in Newburyport. We drove into town and it was a charming little town but the museum was open on only Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Not today.

We walked around the town a little more and then headed back. We had originally planned on stopping in Salem on the way back to Boston so we continued south on Route 1 towards Salem. The closer we got to the city, the less either of us wanted to stop there so we just continued along to our hotel in Woobun again.

When we arrived in Woobun we found the hotel and checked into room 124 on the ground floor. It was getting close to dinner time and since we have been forgoing the lunch routine, we headed to a restaurant on Commerce Way (not really too certain what it was, but we saw a Mexican restaurant and headed on in. I had a chimichanga which was quite good. Of course, we both pigged out on the chips and salsa in the beginning.

Another pig fest! Back to the hotel to rest and get ready for the trip home tomorrow.

Tuesday August 5, 2008

Our flight out was supposed to leave at 10:15 and we had asked at the front desk when we checked in about how long it would take to get to the airport on a normal morning. We were staying about 15 miles from the airport but the girl said that it would probably take about an hour.

We had to return the car, take the shuttle to the terminal and check ourselves in so we wanted to be on the road by 7:30. On the return trip, the GPS took us directly to the airport and we were able to get the car returned very quickly and the bus to the terminal was waiting for us.

We checked in and Chearl had bought some maple syrup while we were in Maine so she had to check her bag. We went through security (I forgot to pull my lotions, etc. from my suitcase and they never even questioned it) and then to gate A14 to wait.

Apparently there were some good storms that rolled through the Ohio Valley early on today and our flight was delayed about an hour because of that. All the while we were waiting, I kept glued to the screen and noticed that the nuber of seats would go up, then down, then up again. What’s up with that?

There was a group of 3 ahead of us (they – S2, we were S2B) and then all of a sudden, they got cleared into coach. Chearl and I were #1 and 2. I noticed that they were still offering upgrades for the flight and then lo-and-behold we got 1A and 1B (first class) for the trip home. Amazing!

The flight home was uneventful and we arrived a little late. We picked up the car and went home to see the girls.

Another anniversary done!