Subject: Postcard from Washington D.C.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Today it is sunny outside though it is cold (mid 30’s). We drive over to Shady Grove this time since the parking lot is free on the weekends. We actually make it on the first train to leave the station as it opened at 7:00am and the train didn’t leave until around 7:15. Again plenty of seats which on the weekend is how I remember it. However as we go downtown we start picking up more passengers which seemed odd for a Saturday. Turns out that this weekend is the Cherry Blossom Festival with the big parade being today. Looks like we won’t be the only ones down on The Mall today.

Since we have an appointment today at 9:00 for the White House tour we meander over that way stopping off at the White House Visitor Center run by the Park Service. A good place to get in out of the cold and use the bathroom. Plus they have some pretty good exhibits there and souvenirs. It’s on Penn Ave., just in sight of the WH and worth the stop if you are ever up that way.

We head over to where the gates are to the WH. Turns out there is a mix up and our scheduled tour is not until 10:00 so we have some more time to kill. While trying to figure out what went wrong with our 9:00 appointment we are having a difficult time finding the phone number of our tour guide and the boys needed a pad and pencil to write down his phone number. They were amazed that I was able to dig that out of my “Man Purse” which I am using for the first time on this trip. I’m giving it a trial run as I plan on taking it to India with me later this year if it works out on this trip. During all of this confusion Earl calls me a “manipulator”, I’m not sure why but there is probably a good reason. Must be because none of us knows what the hell’s going on and we are having memory fade outs. It’s no fun getting old. We do eventually make it on the tour and it was a pretty good one as all the security personnel doubled as tour guides and did a very good job filling in the history of the various WH rooms.

Across the street from the WH was the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery which housed the “Ghost Clock”. If you are ever in DC go visit the Ghost Clock as it is an amazing piece of art.

During the day and also on Friday, whenever we were out and about touring I would notice that Carlos was very good at pointing out the pretty girls that would happen to walk by. That is not all that amazing as DC does have a lot of pretty girls. What was amazing is that I noticed a peculiar pattern and that was that every time Carlos would point one out, Earl would instinctively pull out his comb and start combing his hair. Now, I ask you, how many 60+ year old men do you know that still carry a comb with them? God bless him.

After the WH tour, we took the subway over to Arlington where we visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as well as President Kennedy’s gravesite and the Custis Lee mansion. We also saw the graves of 3 of the “5 Stars” from WWII; Halsey, Leahy and Bradley. Also while there, Earl pointed out the grave of the “Rock of the Marine” from WWI. Carlos, ever the astute observer (remember all the pretty girl sightings?), pointed out that the grave stone actually said “Rock of the Marne”. A significant difference that I’m sure is important to everyone except perhaps the people in Texas that are rewriting our country’s textbooks…

We end the day taking the subway over to the National Cathedral which was just “down the street” from the subway stop. It was in a nice neighborhood in Northwest so we felt very safe walking the sidewalk to the cathedral. We ended up the day by eating in a diner-like place named “Z-Burger” close by the subway stop.

By the end of the day, Mike H.’s pedometer says we had walked close to 15 miles.

Subject: Postcard from Washington D.C.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Today it is cloudy outside and looks like it could rain at anytime. The temp is a little warmer but still in the low 40’s. We will tour the Tidal Basin today with the blooming cherry blossom trees and see some of the memorials around it like the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII memorial, Vietnam, Korea and FDR’s. We drive downtown early in the morning in order to get a parking space close to the White House. We needed the van as it carries our change of clothes for our private tour of the West Wing which will be late this afternoon.

After doing the monuments, we walk over to the Smithsonian buildings and have a rest and a quick snack. Then we tour the Air and Space and then over to the National Gallery. From there we go to the Archives where we wait in line for about 40 minutes to see the Constitution. While in line it starts a light rain but it doesn’t last long. After that it was up the street to find Ford’s Theater and the Hard Rock where we will have lunch. By the map, I wasn’t really sure where the Hard Rock was but Mike H. had been there on a previous trip and knew it was in the general area of Ford’s. I decided to ask one of the guards in the Archive (big mistake). After getting directions from her on my map we head out. At this point I must interject, and say that “Earl was right”. He said the Hard Rock was on 10th street, but I was taking the gang up 7th street according to the guard’s instructions to who knows where. Turns out this was the second time this trip that a DC local gave us incorrect information. It’s all coming back to me now and I’m remembering that you never ask a local for directions because they don’t know a lot about the local tourist attractions. Earl wasn’t going to let me forget that either and wanted to make sure he got his “Earl was right” included in the trip summary.

We did make it to Hard Rock for lunch but were unable to get in Ford’s Theater as the line was quite long and our timed tickets said 4:15 which would have conflicted with our West Wing tour. After lunch we started meandering back to the van which was something like 15 blocks away. LONG blocks too. On the way there we spotted the Old Post Office on Penn Ave., and stopped in for a look. The first floor is shops and eateries so we browsed around a bit before heading out. There is an elevator to the top floor observation deck but the line was long (as are all lines in DC) so we were unable to go up. It’s a good place to get postcards and lapel pins as one shop is devoted to nothing but lapel pins.

Back at the van we take turns getting dressed for our West Wing tour. The dress of the day is coat and tie. Carlos has forgotten to bring his from the motel so he opts out of the tour. The rest of us go on the tour with our same guide from the Saturday WH tour. He takes us to the press room where the president gives press conferences. I get to sit in Helen Thomas’ chair which is front row center. Earl sits in the Fox News chair. Big surprise there. Fortunately I’ve brought along some Lysol and was able to detox him before getting back in the van. We also get to look into the Oval Office plus the cabinet meeting room as well as the situation room. And we get to use the bathroom, which turns out is a really big deal for all of us. While on the WH grounds by the Rose Garden, we keep seeing the curtains on the second floor, where the first family live, being pulled back. Since the president is out of the country we take this to be the president’s daughter’s looking out at us as we see someone’s hands. I wave up but get no response, probably because they are distracted by Earl combing his hair…

At the end of the day we drive back home up Wisconsin Ave. and Embassy Row. Too bad I saved this for the last day as it started to rain plus it was now dark and the boys didn’t get to see much of the Embassies.

At the end of the day, Mike H. calculates that we have walked 35 miles in just three days of touring. The ride back to Louisville on Monday will be a good time to rest our feet.

Until next time,

Mike A.

Subject: Postcard from Melting Snow in Louisville, KY

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Well, the temperature got up to 39 degrees early this morning and of course my thoughts turn to something I haven’t done since October of last year. And that was I decided to wash my van in the driveway. The van hasn’t been driven a lot this winter but still it was pretty filthy. And since I was going to be using it later in March to go to Washington D.C. with the “trip boys”, I decided to strike while the iron was hot, or in this case the weather was nice. This past week had been pretty bad weather wise, what with the 6+ inch snow on Monday and then the rest of the week being cloudy with temps in the teens and 20’s I figured I better get this done.

I use to wash all my cars by hand in the driveway during the winter and always prided myself in being able to do so. But alas, it’s been a few years since I’ve done that. While washing the van was not difficult, the thing that kept coming to mind was this is not nearly as much fun as it once was and why didn’t I have kids so they could doing this for me. Actually, scratch that, as I know several friends who do have kids and not a one of their kids would go out in the snow and wash a car for them. In fact, a few of them if they saw their dad washing a car would probably bring theirs over and get him to wash it too. Don’t make me name names. You know who you are…

Anyhow, the van is now washed and looking pretty good even if I do say so myself. Now, I’ve just got to get the interior spruced up and it will be ready for Washington. When I was moving it off the parking pad today I believe I heard the clinking of beer bottles in the back left over no doubt by the trip boys when they went to Mt Rushmore this past September. I guess it has been a while since I last used the van.

It’s been over 15 years since I last drove in D.C. and I know that’s going to be a challenge. I figure if I can get the trip boys to have at least 3 beers for breakfast before we head out (an easy task) they should be mellow enough to where they shouldn’t be too terrified of the dense traffic and my driving. At least that’s the plan. I’ll let you know how it works out.

It’s too bad The Barb wasn’t a drinker when I last lived in Washington because then should wouldn’t still be telling all those stories about my driving and how terrified she was to be my passenger. Yeah, and I can only imagine what it would’ve been like had she been driving…

Until next time,

Mike A.

Subject: Postcard from Lexington, KY

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I know, it seems just like a few months ago when I went to Lexington with Earl and Mike. I can’t remember the exact date but it was late last year. Today, we travelled to Lexington primarily to watch a basketball game in legendary Memorial Coliseum. The House that Rupp built. None of us had ever done that before and it’s been on our “list” for several years. As some of us are not getting any younger, okay, make that all of us, we decided to make the trip to see the UK women play Florida.

The day started off cold about 27 degrees and partly cloudy when we departed around 1:00PM. It eventually got to around 30 and we actually saw the sun for the first time in about 10 days. We arrived in Lexington around 2:15 and since the game was not until 7:00, we had some time so we toured campus. Just a casual note of observation but I suppose it finally hit home to all of us that we just aren’t as young as we used to be because walking around campus not a single coed would look at us. Not a SINGLE one!! That’s disheartening, especially for Earl. I took it fairly well though. Actually, that’s not true what I just said about the coeds. I was able to get two coeds to talk to me. That was the two times we stepped inside buildings to ask for the restrooms. Yep, I’ve still got it. Oh, and one other thing about those campus restrooms; the art-work is a lot more graphic than what I remember when I was back in school.

At 4:00pm we met Mike’s daughter Katie at a local pub downtown for dinner. It was named Pazzo’s; a great place and very good food. We had pizza (what else would you have just off-campus?). It was Katie’s birthday (Exactly, one month after Cary Grant’s, you can look it up) which we celebrated by getting Earl to pick up the tab and Mike paid the tip. I just love it going out on Katie’s birthday as I never have to pay for my OWN dinner! That shared parenting deal that Mike and Earl have worked out seems to work pretty well and I’m sure Portia would be proud. I’m coming back here next year. As it was getting close to game time, the three of us headed down the street to Memorial Coliseum for the game. A short 3 block walk. Within 5 seconds of getting inside, Earl spies a free t-shirt giveaway and goes bananas getting one and promptly loses his ticket. Apparently, you can’t take old people anywhere. In the future, I will keep the tickets for safekeeping.

The only thing we missed on this trip was going back to ALLtech’s downtown brewery for another tour and taste sampling. I’m sure we will include that on the list the NEXT time we are in town and this time I’m getting MY picture with Anne!!

Until next time,

Mike A.

Subject: Postcard from Snowy Louisville, KY

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Awoke today to 6+ inches of snow and temps in the low teens. It’s has been exactly a week since I came back from warm and sunny Florida and I was thinking that the warm glow would last longer but apparently I was wrong. When I was working I would look at a 6 inch snow as a fun challenge. Now I look outside and wonder just how quickly I can get back to Florida. At least my snow blower worked well and The Barb is happy because for once I actually cleared the driveway instead of guilting her into doing it. I’m sure the novelty will soon wear off and I’ll be back to scheming how to get her to do it.

Of course Pilar, ever the flight risk, took this opportunity to explore parts of the neighborhood she never gets to normally visit. It took longer to round her up than it took to clear the driveway.

I need to warm up. Wonder if any of the hotels close by have Jacuzzis in the rooms?

Until next time

Mike A.

Subject: Postcard from Florida--#1

The following postcards are from my 18 day trip to Florida in January of 2010. I took this trip with The Barb and we visited Orlando for a week and then went on a cruise for 8 days where we stopped at St Maarten, St Thomas, San Juan and Haiti. Then we drove back home.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Port of Call: Leaving Louisville on Friday. Travel day to Auburn, AL

Yes, I'm sitting in my room in Auburn Alabama using my new birthday present which was giving to me last night (A Netbook or a "mini" laptop for those of you that are not up-to-date with the new technology like me...). This is our first stop on the trip to Florida as we will stay here and attend the UK game (with Ashley!!) today.

Anyhow, back to ME and my birthday. I'm not really liking this new technology that much because The Barb has been sitting in this hotel room for the past two hours doing g-mail with her family. First she was doing it on her iPod 'Touch' and now on MY Netbook as the keyboard is better. Had this been in the "old technology" days, I would've already been out sightseeing for two hours instead of staying in the hotel room being a slave to email technology. I’m already missing my paper journal. Earl, I need one…

Anyhow, since The Barb has barricaded herself in the bathroom for the "morning constitutional", I’ve got a few minutes (okay, hours) to crank out this email, so back to ME...

I purchased the iPod Touch for The Barb about 8 days ago in anticipation of her birthday later this month. Actually, it was the easiest gift I ever purchased as one day I was walking through the office at home and The Barb says to sit down at the main computer and press "Accept" on the Amazon screen. I asked what I was doing and she said "You are going to purchase my birthday present". I had never heard of an iPod Touch but felt quite the shopper when I saw how much it cost. Actually, when I found out I said something that I shouldn’t mention here. She said if I didn't purchase it for her birthday then she was going to get it anyway, and besides then I would have to find something else to get for her birthday. (Actually, I was thinking of getting her nothing as I figured the retirement cruise was good enough...) Here it was only two days into her retirement and she is spending money like a drunken sailor, or Earl, what is that word Mike uses for your spending habits?

So, one day before this trip her new iPod Touch shows up.

On Friday, as I was packing the car, I see this wrapped present for me which she says to load into the car. I said I didn't want to take whatever the present was on the trip as it would just get in my way, plus I wasn't aware I needed a birthday present since I thought the cruise was... Well, you know how well that didn't work the last time so I just put the present in the car and went on.

All was going along pretty well on the trip until we were passing through Nashville and that's when I started analyzing what my present might be that was wrapped and in the trunk. That was where this trip literally went south as it took me all of 75 seconds to figure out what was in the present. In fact, it took me less time than that as I got it on the first guess. And even though The Barb had on sunglasses and I couldn't see her eyes, I could tell by her muscles on her face that I had nailed it. I've still got it and am still a pretty good analyst even at 65 mph and dodging traffic going through Nashville.  

As I said that's when the trip went downhill as The Barb starting ranting on me as how I ALWAYS am able to guess the presents she has wrapped by just shaking the box or in this case just thinking about what might be wrapped in the trunk and coming with me on this trip. Actually, I don't guess them 100% of the time as my success rate is closer to 75-80%... She calls me "Monk" which somehow I find complimentary.

Well, she got over the ranting after about 100 miles. And to think I didn’t even know I needed a netbook…

So, now that I have my new netbook to use on my travels I should be able to keep my "postcards" updated without my manual journal plus I can send emails from time-to-time using this gmail account which came with my blog page.

Now, don't look for any new postcards on my blog as I'll probably not do the actual updates until I get back.

And though I've looked at these netbooks at SAMS recently, I didn't really pay attention to how much they cost but I'm thinking it wasn't cheap which means if this spending trend continues I will need to be dead by 75 or else I'll run out of money.

Tomorrow we head out for Orlando.

Yaris Watch: Earl, Friday we saw a blue/grey sedan as it blew past us on I-65.

Mike (Formerly, Detective Columbo, but now "Monk") A...

Subject: Postcard from Florida--#2

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Port of Call: Orlando, FL

It's amazing what a few months will do to your psyche. Yesterday, I awoke to gray, windy skies with a temp of 54 degrees. It eventually got to be 55 for the day with rain all day. Today it is still cloudy (6:30am) and the temp is 55. All day yesterday I was out in the weather and with the exception of the one time when I opened my car door and the wind blew it out of my hand, I was just fine with the weather and felt it was rather pleasant for this time in January. However, back in August when I was vacationing in northern Michigan with the temps the same as they are now, I was whining and b@#$%$#@ (rhymes with witching) my head off the whole time. That probably qualifies The Barb for some sort of medal.

Of course, after visiting SAMS yesterday (A tradition on ANY road trip...) and finding out what these Netbooks cost I'm back to (use that witching word) my head off...

The Barb is only into her second week of retirement and at this spending rate I better start looking for a good mobile home to live in...

I am now in Orlando having driven down from Auburn in a very high wind. Had to keep two hands on the wheel at all times. Temp hit 70 late in the afternoon just as we were getting into central Florida. It was a long day’s drive taking about 10 hours what with stops and all. Actually we were doing okay on the drive until about 25 miles away from our final destination when we encountered a backup on the turnpike due to an accident. Nothing like ending a long day’s drive with an accident that takes up 50 minutes of your time.

Will be going to Sea World Monday which is only about 5 minutes from our “Tuscany Village” like vacation condos. These are at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club on International Drive (A mouthful, just call it the Hilton Tuscany Village like I do) We are staying on the top floor (7th). I’m not sure about the actual Tuscany region of Italy, but somehow I’m thinking 7 floor villas is not something you will find there. ...And working toilets... We have working toilets.

Since we are staying at a Hilton Resort I’ve been spending the last two days bonding with Paris. Since we both have such busy lifestyles we often get others to do our bidding for us. You know the menial tasks; running errands; washing our clothes; shoveling the snow from the driveway (Thanks, Barb…). However, in some situations Paris and I have to do it for ourselves so for that “just stepped off the beach” look, Paris has recommended I try out her special friend, which is tan in a bottle. I’ve been trying it for the past two days. I’m not sure why Paris likes it as it smells and turns my skin orange. However, if this is what it takes to get me to look like Paris then so be it. I’ve even developed this disgusted look I use when I’m in the elevator with others so they will be confused as to where the odor is coming from.

Yaris Watch: Saw a white sedan today on the drive down.