Tag: Vacation
Mackinaw City 2004
James first trip to Mackinaw became an annual excursion for the family. We think its a great way to start the summer off so we try to go before Memorial Day if we can. The time between Memorial Day and Labor Day all the hotel rates double and suddenly we have an expensive vacation. Fortunately James has not yet started school so we can take advantage of taking him to Mackinaw during the off season.
This year there was still a chill in the air. The month of May might be considered part of summer, especially toward the end of the month, but in Mackinaw with the strong winds and northern location it was still early spring.
Las Vegas 2003
Our original plan for our wedding was to fly to Las Vegas and have a Vegas wedding, inviting friends and family and such. We were going to do this in October 2001. Unfortunately the 911 attacks occurred and put a delay of about a year on everything. We ended up getting married in Sept a year later and going on a simple honeymoon in Norther Michigan (no one was in a big rush to fly back then).
However in January of 2003 we finally took our Vegas vacation and had a blast, seeing a couple shows and pretty much all the sights and sounds of Vegas. When I was last in Vegas they were building the Paris and Venetian Hotels so we made sure to visit both of these places on this trip.
While we did not take many pictures on this visit, we took many videos and here are a few.
Saulte Ste Marie 2002
These are pics from the boat tour through the soo locks in Michigans upper peninsula on the Canadian border. We stopped at the Soo as part of our Honeymoon, although most of it will be spent on Mackinaw and Mackinaw Island. The day is very overcast so hopefully the weather will be better for Mackinaw.
I remember the Soo Locks and trips up here as a kid. Its a great place to spend a day, but I don’t think you could get more than a day out of it, unless you like casinos, then you will be in your glory.
Time Square New York 1998
Because my work is in New York I get to travel there alot. A truly beautiful city like no other in the world. While in Mt Vernon (where our plant is located) I would take the train to Grand Central and spend a few hours walking around the streets of New York. I especially enjoyed Times Square and I decided that one day I would spend a weekend at Times Square and finally did over a gorgeous weekend in late August.
The highlight of this trip was seeing “The Phantom of the Opera” which I had seen in Toronto twice. The weather was perfect and it was simply a great weekend visit to probably the best city on earth.
Great Wall of China 1996
After a 15 year absence from the Orient I found myself back, this time for my work as I flew into Beijing and then went on to Chon Quin. Probably the biggest thing I learned was there was not any Chinese food in China, at least not what they have at the China Buffet in my home town.
This was actually a visit for my work, and I spent about 10 days working but did have the one day for sight seeing and did manage to see the Great Wall of China. I remember buying the camera that took these pictures from a tourist booth and when I went to take the picture, some of them were already taken. It was a used disposable camera. I also found that everything in China is negotiable. If you go into a store in America and its marked $5 the cost is $5. If you go into a store in China and its marked $5 that’s simply where the negotiating begins. In fact, in order to close the deal and get the final 10% of the sale for my company, I had to give up the tools that I brought with me, losing them during negotiations with the Chinese Government representative.
Waldenwoods Vacation 1989
This was the year of the infamous sail boat. Everyone was admiring the small individual sail boats that were being sailed around the lake at Waldenwoods. Basically Waldenwoods rented out these small sale boats that could hold one or two people. They offer a free training course that took 15 minutes, but the specific party involved had no interest in this and went along and rented the small craft proceeded to guide it into a swimming area of the lake, with small children dodging the incoming craft since the two people in the party did not know how to turn a sailboat into the wind.
Yes, the culprits were cousin Mark and James Dad. Shown on the left is James Dad and Aunt carrying the boat back to the rental place at Waldenwoods. Needless to say, lots of fun this year at Waldenwoods but unfortunately this might be our last time here as they are turning it into a golf resort.
Washington DC 1980
Jimmy Carter was the President at the time of this visit. Iran had taken the U.S. Embassy hostage, and a rescue operation had failed. The day after the mission failed, James Dad decided to join the military to see if he could help out. James Grandma thought it might be a nice trip to fly into Washington for a weekend so we ventured off to the capital of the United States for a weekend excursion. The vacation included several bus tours which were nice and informative, but depending on what side of the bus you were sitting on you really could not take it all in. Most of the free time we had was spent at the Smithsonian or visiting the monuments and we found out we did much better on our own than with the tour, although the tour kind of gave us direction to where we wanted to go.
Disneyworld 1979
The seventies were without a doubt the year of Disneyland vacations as I think nearly every family member made the two hour Delta flight once or twice during the decade. James Dad got to visit Disneyland twice, both times with his Mom and sister Peg. The first time was at the Polynesian hotel and the second one was at the golf resort (even though no one golfed, it was a pretty decent hotel as were they all at Disneyworld).
This was the era of the E tickets which were used for the most popular rides at Disneyworld. The E ticket could get you into the haunted mansion or the pirates of the Caribbean, basically the best rides at Disneyland. The tickets came in a pack that you tore off and only a few were E tickets, others were various letters for various other rides.
I wish we had taken more pictures of our time here, but we were busy having a lot of fun. In addition to the rides, James dad enjoyed the shops on main street especially the two magic shops. Aunt Peg loved the “its a small world” ride, and Loretta enjoyed the floral decorations throughout the park. At twilight an electric parade on the lake would go by the hotels and entertain the guests. What more could you expect from the happiest place on earth.
Hawaii Trip 1978
Eight years after their trip to the Bahamas, Aunt Peg and Grandma (from James persepective) once again ventured out on a major trip, this time to Hawaii.
Now they stayed pretty busy with trips in these intervening years, including two trips to Disney World with James Dad in tow, but the Bahama trip and Hawaii trip were special as they were a mother daughter thing.
The photograph to the left was taken at Jack Cione’s lavish South Sea stage revue … with the music of Jack Demello … as part of the exciting Follies Polynesia, a unique show in Hawaii with beautiful girls, lavish costumes, and memorable music.
The photo was taken by Kahala Kai Photo Service.
New Orleans 1971
Loretta and Peg decided to take a little vacation and head to Louisiana to visit the city of New Orleans. The enjoyed the wonderful food that the city has to offer including a visit to Antoines, a very popular restaurant recognized nationally for their cuisine as they visited many points in the city including the Legendary French Quarter. If you would like to see what the Antoine menu looked like in 1971 in pdf format click the link below.
They also managed to find time to visit the above ground city of the dead. Early settlers in the area struggled with different methods to bury the dead. Burial plots are shallow in New Orleans because the water table is very high. Dig a few feet down, and the grave becomes soggy, filling with water. The casket will literally float. You just can’t keep a good person down! The early settlers tried placing stones in and on top of coffins to weigh them down and keep them underground. Unfortunately, after a rainstorm, the rising water table would literally pop the airtight coffins out of the ground. To this day, unpredictable flooding still lifts the occasional coffin out of the ground in areas above the water table, generally considered safe from flooding.
