Off to New England

 [Tuesday 8 July]

So it's off to New England for a week. We fly to Boston, rent a car and make our way to Hampden ME (Bangor area) for a couple of nights to visit Susan's sister and her family (part of it anyway). Then it's off to Vermont for an overnight to pay our respects to one of Susan's dearest friends who left far too soon. From there it's off to MA, just south of Worcester to spend our remaining nights with Dick and Dorothy in Douglas, MA. We'll have supper with the MacDonalds in CT, hit Providence for brunch on Sunday and end our trip with dinner at D & D's along with niece Mallory and her dad Steele. 

Our kind neighbor Don T. picked us up bright and early Tuesday morning for an 8:30 nonstop flight on Allegiant to Boston. Allegiant is pretty much a no-nonsense airline; no business class, no first class, no reclining seats and you've got to pay for pretty much everything except for the use of the bathrooms. But it was a quick uneventful flight with touch down at Logan International about 10:20. 

The plane docked at the international terminal and it took some time before we could figure out how to locate the car rental center. After what seemed like an interminable walk past many gates and customer counters we found the shuttle bus outside the terminal. After waiting for only a few minutes in 94 degree heat, the bus came and we were soon dropped off at the rental center. We checked in to Avis and headed off to the garage where we picked up our car -- there was some brief confusion about where the key to the car was (found underneath the driver's seat). Having straightened that out, our next challenge was figuring how to get out of the airport. 

We eventually made our way up Route 1A to Route 1 and on to I-95 north to Maine.

The drive north was uneventful and we were blessed with reasonably decent traffic. Choosing to drive into Maine on a Tuesday after the Fourth weekend was probably one of our better decisions for sure.

Even though our car had a huge touch screen with GPS we had to stop at the Maine Welcome Center to pick up a paper map -- my wife who is also the family navigatrix loves paper maps. As we walked inside I couldn't help but notice a small boulder with a memorial plaque dedicated to the Federal Highway Transportation workers (listed by name) who were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. 

We did make a second stop soon after at the service plaza near Kennebunkport to pick up something to eat. The choices were limited to junk, extra junk, and garbage. We ended up with a wrap purporting to be chicken salad but which, no surprise here, turned out to be flavorless. We were really looking forward to a home-cooked meal at Joyce's "Hampden Inn" that's for sure.

Back on the road we turned onto I-295 just south of Portland. After skirting through Portland we soon found our exit for Freeport and L. L. Bean. That part of town was pretty chaotic since Bean, which already has several large stores downtown is presently working on building a huge new "flagship" store. We checked out the hunting and fishing building, followed by the apparel and home stores. I took advantage of the time to sit on one of the numerous rocking chairs to watch people.

inside the hunting and fishing building

the L. L. Bean boot mobile

Although Freeport was busy, traffic was surprisingly light and we were  soon back on I-95 heading north. The drive was smooth and peaceful, traffic light and weather fine. We did spy several (old?) eagle nests on the power pylons as we closed in on our destination but otherwise there was little else to see.

We pulled into our hotel, a Home2Suites, just short of Bangor and near the airport, at a little before 4:00 pm. After checking in and settling into our room I took a short nap. It was time to refresh and recharge and off to Joyce and Avery's to meet up with the Bergman clan for dinner. We had lovely time together, catching up, hearing about the latest news from this corner of the planet. We haven't spent much time with this side of the family so it was fun to chat with Jon and Naomi with the real bonus being able to watch and interact with their kids. And dinner was wonderful: pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and Joybell treats for dessert.

Tomorrow it's off to Winter Harbor, Schoodic Point and Gerrish's Cafe to relive those glory days of 2007!

The Boston Leg 12-13 September

color change in Grand Rapids - already!

Unlike our previous trips abroad to Europe where we flew out an international gateway -- typically Boston or New York -- direct to London or Paris, this year is different. Two factors were at work in forcing us to stretch our travel time to Paris: one was British Airways and the other simple geography.

In order to use our large number of BA air miles we had to fly out of one of a handful of international gateways. The other is, of course, that we now live in the midwest, a thousand miles from the nearest usable airport.

So, yesterday we flew from Grand Rapids to Boston by way of Newark. Leg One of our journey to France for 2016.

We were up before dawn to finish packing and getting the house ready. We loaded my mother-in-law's car and the three of us drove to the airport.

It was a gorgeous day for travel. About 70 degrees F when we drove to the airport in Grand Rapids where we found ourselves in line -- by ourselves!

All quiet on the B Concourse

We checked in, dropped our one bag off to security-- the TSA handler turned out to be a young woman we knew from another business in Grand Rapids -- and made our way through security. Even though we had TSA Precheck (creatively called "TSA Pre") there were only four of us in the security line so there was no wait there either.

Once through security we relaxed at the gate until our plane pulled in, offloaded it's cargo of passengers, and loaded up a new group -- ours.

One hour thirty minutes later were were gliding down to Newark, giving us superb views of the Manhattan skyline. Once on the ground we made our way from Terminal C, the tiny plane terminal, to Terminal A the BIG plane terminal - hey, that's how our flight attendant described them.

Since we had a bit of a layover and it was lunchtime we grabbed a bite to eat. Most of the eateries in Terminal C, at least down the C112 corridor, were fixed with iPads at each dining station for ordering (and more); and there were plenty of tables with stuffed chairs also loaded with iPads and charging stations mixed in with gate seating.

Anyway, we found a spot at the Vanguard Kitchen. We ordered right off the iPad, swiped our card on the device fixed to the table top, which initiated the food preparation. Fifteen minutes later we had our food and it was pretty tasty, I must admit, although quite pricey. During the meal we simply turned the iPads face down on the table although we noticed lots of folks were using them to check email, surf the web, play games, etc., while eating. That didn't appeal to us -- we believe connectivity goes just so far. . .  One thing we thought interesting: you could pay with a credit card or United air miles.

We boarded our Boston leg flight at a little after 2pm (1400) and after a quick 39-minute flight ending in a spectacular glide down over Boston Harbor, landed at Logan Airport. It was just about a 15-minute wait to get our checkin bag, and another 10-minute wait for the Logan Express bus to Framingham where Susie's brother Dick would pick us up.

And so it all worked as planned. Or hoped. Anyway, the travel weather was perfect, and flights on time (actually both arrived at their destinations a bit early). While commuter traffic getting through and out of Boston was lousy we were on the bus and really quite unconcerned. Fifty minutes later we pulled into the Logan Express terminal at Framingham near Shopper's World Mall where Dick loaded us up and the three of us were soon cruising down I-90 to Route 146 south and Douglas, Massachusetts.

We sat outside in their garden, sipping sparkling wine and enjoying the last light of the evening. Dorothy had a tasty meal ready for us. After an evening of good wine and even better food we headed upstairs to bed.

After a good night's sleep we felt refreshed and ready for another long day of travel. The upside to all this is we don't feel rushed or harried; we just take our time. Time is what we have plenty of, right now anyway.

Our British Airways flight out of Boston doesn't leave until nearly 10pm (2200) this evening so . . . . .  our plan will be to hang out in Douglas and then Dorothy will drop us off at the Framingham shuttle about 4pm (1600). One tiny curious glitch so far has been that we are unable to checkin online -- the message from BA when I try to do so simply says "Proceed to the airport to pickup your boarding passes." Hmmmm. That sounds a tad ominous.

Whatever may come of that small mystery, since we used our air miles to upgrade to Business class we'll at least be able to spend time relaxing in the BA lounge with wine and food before boarding the plane for our red-eye to London. More about that in the next post!

Whale watching out of Boston harbor, revisited

It's all about the people, silly, people watching that is. But whichever you prefer, it's a great way to kill five hours or so on a beautiful summer day. At least in Boston (or rather out of it). These were taken a few years back. . .

Landing at Logan Airport

Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston

Since closing up shop last spring Susan has been freed to to finally take up a few things lingering on her to-do list. One of these was taking rowing lessons at the Narragansett Boat Club.

Located along the western (Providence) bank of the Seekonk River, the NBC offers a variety of courses for all age groups. So, in early summer Susie first started with the basics on a barge of like-minded beginners. After a short hiatus of several trips traveling to Michigan, she finally got back into the swing of things and joined the next level up, the "zephyr" class: one person one boat. She loves the workout, and is especially taken with this days when the river is like glass and it's just her, the boat, the river and the oars.

Well this past weekend was one of the rowing world's preeminent events, the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts. Teams from all over the world came to compete -- not just university teams such as Boston, West Point, Navy along with scores of other colleges but boat clubs of all age groups were represented as well. The southern bank of the Charles River was pretty much wall-to-wall rowing boats, teams and paraphernalia between the Eliot and Arsenal Bridges.

Traffic along Soldiers Field Road around Christian Herter Park, the hub of the event, was insane and parking was at a premium to say the least. So we opted to leave our car at a nearby mall lot -- near a Staples store -- and walked 10 minutes along the river to see what the fuss was all about. We soon found ourselves knee-deep into big-time rowing subculture. The river was packed with team boats, eights and foursomes seemed to be the mainstay team sizes represented while we were there and it was not only interesting and enlightening but downright fun to watch the boats gliding effortlessly (!) up and down the river.

Although rain spitted off and on that afternoon there was no serious interference by the weather gods and like so many others, we thoroughly enjoyed being out on a nice autumn day along the river savoring life.