August 08

I started off my vacation album with a photo of a beautiful sunrise, so it seems only appropriate that I end my vacation album with another pretty photo.

That, and it's the best picture I've taken today.

Boyfriend and I left our timeshare in Daytona Beach too early this morning, but we got to see this stunning sunrise. We actually had enough extra time on our hands to have breakfast at Waffle House -- a real treat for me. We got lucky and had an entire row to ourselves on the flight up, so we had a little additional space. And we came home to a happy kitty cat, thanks to our wonderful landladies who took such good care of Pretty Boy while we were away.

The vacation was great, but it sure is nice to be home.

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August 07

More than 20 years ago, when I lived in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, for a summer, I got to visit Kennedy Space Center. It was the highlight of a pretty crappy summer.

Since I vacationed here this year, I couldn't let the opportunity to visit again pass. It was just too much. So I dragged Boyfriend there with me, and despite getting caught in one torrential downpour, we were able to take the tour, visit some exhibits, and thoroughly enjoyed our tour there.

I got to travel out to the viewing platform nearest Launch Pads 39A and 39B -- the sites from where the Saturn Vs were launched to the moon, the Space Shuttles are launched, and the new Orion spacecraft will be launched. Discovery was on Pad 39A while we were there, though it was mostly hidden by the gantry. Then we saw the Saturn V rocket display -- fascinating.

If you ever get the chance to visit KSC, I highly recommend the tour. It can't be beat.

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August 06

Boyfriend and I made the trek to Orlando and Epcot today. After a minor kerfuffle with the GPS unit (our charger broke) and about 30 minutes' detour to get a replacement charger, we were finally on our way to Orlando and the Magic Kingdom. Then we headed for a walk around the world.

Once we arrived, we headed through Canada and England to France for lunch. Boyfriend described it as tasting like "something from Air France." Morocco, Italy, Germany, the American Experience, and a few other countries along the way, we finished walking around the central lake.

We went on a couple of the rides (most notably: Spaceship Earth) and considered dinner there, before deciding to head home and eat some of the food we have to finish in the next two days.

I don't often get to visit 11 countries in one day -- especially without a passport. It was an interesting day.

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August 05

Boyfriend and I spent a low-key vacation day today. We made $125 by sitting through one of the most entertaining and charming high-pressure sales pitches I've ever had the pleasure to sit through, then headed over to my parent's place here for dinner and games night.

I love Scrabble, and Boyfriend and I consider ourselves pretty good at it. Having a third and fourth person in the game is tremendously helpful in making the game interesting, and my mother was a willing participant.

While she claims not to be very good at the game, she won the thing, leading by 40 points a couple of times during the play and ending more than 60 points ahead of either Boyfriend or me. The board was kind of dense, and the distribution of tiles is pretty even.

It was really a lovely way to spend the evening.

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August 04

The vacation continues apace. Boyfriend and I meandered down to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Museum just south of Daytona Beach this afternoon.

Unfortunately -- or fortunately, considering the muggy, humid atmosphere of Florida in August -- the lighthouse itself was closed because of a nearby lightning storm. The other buildings of the museum were open, including a really fascinating exhibit about Fresnel Lenses. The First-Class Fresnel Lens -- 12 feet tall, about 10 feet wide of about a thousand prismatic lenses -- is truly impressive. It looks like something out of Jules Verne.

I managed to get some interesting photos of the lenses and the property, including this classic view of the lighthouse itself. All in all, a great evening.

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August 03

Boyfriend and I had my parents to dinner at our timeshare tonight. It was an opportunity for me to show off his cooking skills.

It was also a chance for us to give my mother her birthday gifts for the past two years.

Last year, we had a beautiful handmade lapel pin created especially for her by an artist friend of mine. It is quite stunning, but when we flew down for her birthday, I didn't check a bag -- and an eight-inch long straight pen would not have made it through security.

This year, Boyfriend tracked down a bottle of my mother's favorite -- and long since discontinued -- fragrance: Geminesse by Max Factor. This was quite the coup, and I knew my mother was going to be thrilled. As indeed she was.

Her birthday was last month, but I think this was well worth waiting for. :-)

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August 02

The last person to stay in this unit before us left the alarm clock on and set for 6 am. It was quite a surprise to be awakened so soon after we'd gotten in, unpacked, showered, and finally dropped to sleep.

Turns out, it was kind of a nice surprise.

I got up and scratched myself before stumbling out into the living room. Our living room has two large sliding glass doors overlooking the Atlantic, and I was startled to see this amazing sunrise. The cumulus clouds in the distance were silhouetted perfectly by the rising sun. Not being a morning person, it's a minor miracle that I was able to get my camera and tripod, set up on the balcony, and shoot several images until I got the shot I wanted.

It was a great way to start the morning, and hopefully a good omen for the rest of the week.

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August 01

This is a "safety shot." It's an easy-to-get photo for the blog, since I knew it was going to be a busy day of travel going on vacation. (That's also why this didn't get posted yesterday.)

The Boyfriend and I jetted off to Daytona Beach on Saturday for a week's vacation. It's only three hours by plane, but there's a world of difference between the Atlantic Coast of Florida and Boston.

Obviously, we're not practicioners of the art of packing light. In fairness, I usually use the smaller red bag, which will fit in an airliner overhead bin, and consolidate my camera bag and computer bag into the red backpack. As I had to bring gifts for my mother, who we're seeing here, I knew I would have to check a bag. (My friend Keith the jeweler custom-made her an exquisite eight-inch long lapel pin that never would have made it past security!) I also had a couple of books, which would have been too heavy to carry on, even had I wanted to.

We got a late start on everything involved with this vacation, so it was a delight to arrive here and see the wonderful timeshare condo waiting for us. Once in Florida, everything went flawlessly.

More vacation photos will be forthcoming in future entries. I'm looking forward to seeing what I get.

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July 22

Making lists usually helps me to be more organized. Today, instead of being a tool to create and foster order, my lists became a force of entropy.

I started off the day with two lists: one a punch list for my upcoming vacation to Daytona Beach, the second a more general to-do list for today. By the time I was done, I had four lists and various printouts scattered all over my desk.

In order to work out what to do and where to do it, I needed to make a vacation budget. But when I went into my budget to double-check my figures and balance my checkbook, there was a discrepancy. My planning for this trip hinges on my having money; effective planning requires I know how much money I've got.

Inevitably, my lists began to overlap. To-dos for today matched stuff on the Daytona list. Unfortunately, while some items were redundant, other's were not. I was spending more time looking at lists than accomplishing tasks by the time it was over.

By the time I had two highlighters out to check stuff, I knew it was time to step back and start over. It was the right decision. While I'm only a little closer to being done with my to-dos today, I'm a lot closer to being able to make progress. And small progress is better than none.

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May 18

Behold the Railsplitter Covered Wagon, a tourist attraction in Lincoln, Illinois, and according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest covered wagon in the world. It's 40 feet long, 12 feet wide, 24 feet tall, and weighs five tons. Abe, seated on the front, reads from a law book; he's 12 feet tall.

Personally, I'd like to see the horse they found to pull the thing.

This is actually a great example of the kind of tourist attractions that used to line Route 66, the "Mother Road." Lincoln is on the historic route, and its Route 66 heritage is a big part of the city's tourist appeal.

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May 16

It's been a day of academic accomplishment in Lincoln, Illinois today. Ruth's family had a big celebration today because of all the graduates. From left to right:

Shannon (Ruth's daughter) completed eighth grade, an accomplishment Ruth takes particular pride in because Shannon is homeschooled.

Jimmy (Ruth's father) received his college degree today, almost 30 years after he began working on it. He didn't have the benefit of a high school education when he started, so this accomplishment is doubly impressive.

Whitney (Ruth's niece) graduated from high school and will start college on Monday. She's camera shy and, judging from the speed with which she plans to get started on her own higher education, a glutton for punishment.

Ruth received her degree in the same ceremony as her father. She hasn't been working on it for as long as Jimmy has, but she's justifiably proud of the accomplishment of getting her degree while homeschooling children and working full-time. I suspect her biggest desires are to get lots of sleep and rest.

Between the graduation, the cake, the party, the photo ops, and hanging out with friends, it was a busy day. I'm glad I made it here.

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May 15

My travel plans left me with a day of ... well, nothing to do. With my friend Ruth working and the kids still in school, I literally had nobody to entertain and no place to really do it. So I went for a photo walk.

Taking the photo walk was a dicey proposition. A line of storms came through yesterday and more were coming today, so I had to get out while it wasn't raining and the light was okay. I drove out to the airport and the Heritage in Flight Museum, which was closed. Their website is still under development, and their answering machine doesn't state the operating hours. It's a completely volunteer-run operation, but getting real information is tough. The planes parked outside are totally accessible, though, so I snapped some photos.

Then I drove over to the architecturally-significant Logan County Courthouse (seen here). It's a little more than a century old, and according to wikipedia, it is, "considered the second most architecturally spectacular surviving historic courthouse in Illinois' 102 Counties." It's a pretty building.

And I went down a remaining abandoned portion of historic Route 66, to the site of a former bridge over Salt Creek. The concrete piers of the bridge are still in place, and it's a nice walk down.

The sky began darkening around then, so I put my camera away and hied back to the hotel to relax a bit. I'd promised to take Ruth's kids swimming tonight, so a nap was in order to brace myself for herding three loud teenagers. That was an adventure in itself, albeit one that yielded no photographic evidence.

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