While I was on the long flight home, Brad & Lorie headed off to Disneyland. Here's their recap of the differences between Anaheim & Paris: "We went to Euro Disney on Sunday. It was cold and rained most of the day. However, the park wasn't crowded. It is acutally quite different than Anaheim. Space Mountain, for instance, has a loop and corkscrews in it. Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion (phantom manor) are longer and Indiana Jones is a roller coaster."
It sounds like it would have been fun - oh well, there's always next time!
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Day 3 in Paris was jam packed with museums! First off we took the train out to Versailles. While most of the interior has been recreated, it is still an amazing building. It's huge! The whole thing really was designed to impress and intimidate people. A restoration process has been in the works for the last two years and the place is looking good. We spent a couple of hours looking around but passed on wandering the gardens. During the winter the fountains are turned off and it's very cold and brown outside. The best part of Versaille was just imagining how the royal family lived. There's nothing to compare and I can see why the people turned against the King. He really lived to excess!
Once the crowds moved in it was hard to really see or hear anything so we left the palace and went back to town. Lorie wanted to see the impressionist exhibit at the Orsay, so off we went. Since this was the second stop of the day we encountered a larger crowed than at the L...
As Homer said, I was stuck in Chicago for hours. Falling snow is a beautiful thing unless you are in Chicago. I watched the stuff fall down for hours, soft fluufly flakes, so deceptively quiet. 4 hours of it and I was wondering if I was going to spend the weekend at ORD. Finally my flight was given the go and I was off to Paris, hours after the original plan.
Brad & Lorie were waiting for me at the Paris airport and the shuttle was still waiting for me even after a 3.5 hour delay go Blue Vans! We got checked into the hotel which is right by the Arc de Triomph and on the Champs-Elysees. First up though was the Eiffel Tower. It looks every bit as cool as I imagined and we were there long enough to see the night lights come on. After spending nearly hours there it was time to stroll the Champs and find dinner. We ended up having Thanksgiving dinner at a Persian restaurant and it was fun! I'd now been awake for nearly 36 or more hours so it was time for me to crash....
Economics in Beer 101. Yesterday LJ, Ms. Kitty and I were off to Karl Strauss for the promised Russian Imperial Stout that was guaranteed to be there in November. KS made good on their promise and the desired beer was available. After a pint of the Imperial Stout and lunch, we decided to switch to Downtown After Dark, still a dark beer but without the extreme high alcohol content of the Stout. It was Sunday after all and we all had things to do today. So we had our second pint and were ready to head home when I realized that we could get beer to go!
We ordered up a 1/2 gallon of the Downtown After Dark and the bill came to $10.75. Now we had just spent $4.50 per pint times 6 pints for a total of $27. We were getting 7 or 8 pints for $10.75 and when you bring the jug back, you save another dollar on the refill! This is a deal that works for everyone. There's no need to drive and hang out at a bar just to drink and then worry about driving home. The bar can save money o...
Winter has come to Carlsbad. Last night the storm moved in and I spent most of the night wondering if the big tree was going to fall down. That would have been a bummer because if that tree goes, it will probably take down my new fence. Luckily the tree stayed intact and most of the damage this morning is flooding. It's even 41 F. outside and I've broken down and turned on the heater to warm the house up. Ms. Kitty and LJ are coming over today to scrapbook and I don't want to turn them into icicles!
I also woke up this morning still disliking the movie Kinsey. The quick history is Dr. Alfred Kinsey published the first sex survey that we now see in present day form in every issue of Cosmopoliton magazine. Kinsey was the person who made it possible for there to be a Dr. Ruth or a Dr. Drew, two far more entertaining people to watch. Kinsey on all accounts was not a personable guy and the movie does hint at this and show it to some extent but the kind side of Kinsey...
As I mentioned earlier about Al Stewart, one of the best things about his concerts is his storytelling. Last night we heard about the year that he toured with Yoko Ono (pre-John) and her performance art act. The way the story goes is that Yoko could spend 6 hours on one song about the sky falling and she would turn everything into performance art. Her flat at the time was all white and everything in it was sawed in half for the sake of art. One day the band drove by the Austin Healey dealership in the UK and Yoko insisted they stop so she could purchase a car, paint it white and saw it in half. This being her pre-rich days and the Austin Healey dealer being protective of his cars, Yoko and Al left without painting a car white and sawing it in half. So, today when I saw this white car with the stripe down the middle I had to stop and "saw" it in half, in honor of the story.
This is where I got in trouble from the guard. There are signs everywhere telling you not to touch the cars or get inside the exhibits. I did neither. I thought it was okay to sit on the fake curb but as soon as I did the guard came running over and yelling No! No! He was rather rude about the whole thing so I sat on the floor instead. The guard was glaring at both Mondo and myself and supervised this entire photo. Then he wouldn't leave us unguarded. As we walked out of the room he followed us but we were able to throw him off as he saw young boys looking down the up escalator. Their suggested disobedience was enough to get the guard into a frenzy and he ran over there telling the poor boys to get away and not play by the escalator. Even the parents were stunned by this guard but Mondo and I took the opportunity to ditch him and run into the Batmobile room. Sadly the Batmobile room was too dark to take a fun picture.
Today was full of post-concert activity. First up was "Kinsey," starring the Jedi Master, Liam Neeson. The movie received 88% on the Tomatometer so it seemed worth a look but on this one, I did not agree with the Tomato Critics. I'll post the review in the morning but there are far more fun things to think about right now. After the long movie we stopped in for lunch at the nearby deli and split the Matt Damon sandwich. It was yummy and I'm sure there are many fans out there of roast beef, tomato, green chili, and swiss cheese on cheesy bread. After that we set off to the Petersen Automotive Museum to see the classic trailers on exhibit as part of the Vacationland series.
Here and There Blog
Mondo and I are in LA right now getting ready for a day of fun. Last night Al Stewart was doing the double show at McCabe's guitar shop in Santa Monica so we made the trek up here. It's always a good concert when you combine Al with McCabe's and last night we even had nearly a trio of performers! In the second set one of the original members of Al's band came in to play bass. It's a good thing this guy can still rock because he was so drunk he could barely walk but somehow he could play! Well the shows were fantastic and Al even talked to us during the break and was quite chatty so we were happy. The best part about his shows isn't always the music but listening to him tell stories which is a comedy unto itself.
The Pixel Blocks below were how Mondo and I entertained ourselves pre-concert. We'll see what happens today, hopefully it'll be a limited release movie, good food, and who knows what else?
At the end of each cruise you get a recap of the ship's log for the week. Here's the short version of my cruise:
Nov. 6th - 4:45 pm cast off mooring lines & depart for Key West. 8:36 pm Vessel passing Tampa fairway buoy, setting southerly courses through the Gulf of Mexico.
Nov. 7th - 5:30 am Veendam passes the most western tip of the Florida Keys (Dry Tortugas) & turns to an easterly course into the Straits of Florida to Key West. 11:20 am Veendam safely docked at Mallory Pier, Key West. Weather: Clear skies, & fresh north easterly breeze 74 F. 5:57 pm Veendam sets southwesterly course for Belize City, Belize.
Nov. 8th - At Sea. During the night the Veendam sails on a southwesterly course passing north of Cuba. Mid morning, new southerly courses are set through the Yucatan channed, Cuba east, Mexico to the west. Weather: Partly cloudy skies, fresh northerly breezes & slight seas. 77 F.
Nov. 9th - 6:54 am. Veendam safely anchored. Shore s...
The Incredibles was a must see movie on my list and I finally managed to squeeze it in. It started out exceptionally promising because - drum roll - The showed the The Revenge of the Sith trailer! Now I'd already seen it on tv, downloaded from the net and watched it over and over but there is nothing like a SW trailer on the big screen. Even if the movie sucks, Lucas knows how to put together two minutes of fantastic footage.
The Incredibles screening I went to was jam packed with children under 5 and thier parents. If this audience was any indication, under 5 is too young for this movie. Children were crying and restless as the movie had very dark themes at times, scary images, and non-child dialogue at times. The parents were talking amongst themselves, chatting on cell phones, so we had this whole other arena going on.
The movie itself is beautifully animated and has a great storyline. It's charming and clever and fun to watch. Children over 7 will enjoy it a...
The last day at sea was busy. First up, was the Mariner's reception for past passengers. There all the long time Holland America Line (HAL) cruisers get their recognition medallions. Since those are people with 100 plus HAL days, most of us went there for the free drinks. At this point in the trip I was so tired of champagne since we'd had free glasses and bottles of it for the entire time I ended up just getting a diet coke and watching in amazment that some people have cruised over 500 days with one line. There was a lady there who took her first trip with HAL in the early 50's when she graduated from college. It was all very impressive but as soon as it ended we were out of there because there was a lunch about to be served for the guests in the deluxe suites.
Terri and I went to the Crow's nest and settled in for the lunch. I was lucky enough to get a glass of red wine here, for some reason the ship was happy to give out free champagne and white wine but r...
