Tucson – Pima Air Museum Redux
For those of you who are readers of this site, you may remember when we visited the Pima Air and Space Museum on our last trip to Tucson a year ago. Yes, you know who you are. Ellen was having some leg issues then and I had to push her around in a loaner wheelchair outside. Because the ground wasn’t conducive to the narrow wheels, I couldn’t see nearly what I wanted of the many aircraft stationed around outside on part of the eighty acres of the facility. We did, however, get to look around at the displays inside the several large hangars there. So I was determined to revisit the museum and stroll the grounds and see some of the many aircraft I missed last time. Ellen’s leg is much better this year so it was a go. Actually, I wanted to...
Read MoreTucson 2013 – Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show
The normally blue skies in Tucson, Arizona, had turned gray by the time we arrived at our first venue of the annual Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show, a group of tents arranged in a gravelly vacant lot on Oracle Street near downtown. The sign declared everything to be of Moroccan origin and my first thought was, ‘How did they lug all this stuff here from Morocco?’ We are talking rocks, you know. It was later suggested that their wares stay in this country and travel to various shows in the southwest so it’s not like they have to shlep it back and forth from north Africa all the time. We next visited a hotel, the Hotel Tucson City Center, which was entirely taken over by vendors, both inside, and out around the pool. This was a much more...
Read MorePhillipsburg, Sint Maarten
We arrived at Sint Maarten (that’s the Dutch spelling for their side of the island) shortly after dawn under clear skies. Since our tour wasn’t scheduled until 10:30, we could take our time about breakfast. As I was waiting for Ellen to get ready, I wandered out on our veranda and noticed a barge pushed by tug boats inching up to our aft starboard side. It looked industrial with a small crane in the middle of an otherwise flat and unremarkable deck, but there was nothing about it to suggest what it was there for. It was soon tied up to the ship, and I made a mental note to stop at Guest Relations to inquire about it. Curiosity, nothing more. After breakfast, I stopped at the main desk on deck three and asked the young lady what the barge...
Read MoreRoseau, Dominica
We had something new happen that we had never experienced in our eleven years of cruising. When we were seated in the tour bus, we were given a legal size two-sided release form on which we were supposed to list all ailments and prescriptions and initial in half a dozen places, mostly agreeing that we wouldn’t sue the tour company should anything happen. Bear in mind we were going to visit a brewery, not go zip-lining. This was actually our third surprise after, first, the tour being changed from afternoon to 9 am. The second was a message in our cabin the night before that no shorts or tank tops were allowed on the tour – on an island in the Caribbean, no less. And now, we were being asked to sign away all legal rights and divulge the most personal...
Read MoreBridgetown, Barbados
Visitors to Barbados are cautioned not to wear any clothing with a camouflage pattern. I remembered this from last year but never received a good explanation for it other than that it is just not allowed there. Our tour took us on a small bus from the rather industrial looking dock area out into the countryside. Navigating Bridgetown proper was a traffic-clogged process, and the very narrow lanes added to the slow pace. Our tour guide/driver kept up a running dialogue throughout, offering interesting information about Barbados and its history. He also pointed out that Barbados was the only place where a McDonalds fast food store had opened and not prospered, lasting only a year before closing. There is now a used car lot on the site. KFC, however, is thriving,...
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