May 23, 2013 - Taste of Istanbul, going home and Epilogue

May 23 & 24 Constanze Letsch is our "Taste of Istanbul" guide. She also is a journalist for the London Guardian. Conni, is a young outspoken German with a wonderful command of the English language (she was in Texas for a few years) and fluent in Turkish. We met at 9:30AM in front of the Hamdi Restaurant which was not far from the tram station near the harbor. The tram was not as crowded as it was yesterday. We probably should not have had breakfast since we began to sample food on this "Taste of Istanbul" extravaganza almost from the...

May 7, 2013 - Getting There

The big day has arrived and we headed out to the Rochester airport in mid-afternoon (unusual for us to leave in the day). Out plane was right on time and we headed west to Detroit. As we passed over the west end of Lake Ontario, we could see the Niagara river. We had a good 3 hours in Detroit, so we had dinner (airplane food is not a recommended thing). The new Detroit airport is a big improvement over the old airport we remembered from our RIT consulting days. The plane ride was awful (good for coach though). (We were spoiled by our last...

Nov 13, 2012 - Going Home Nov. 13 - 19

Nov 13 (Tue.) - Nov. 19 Going Home We stayed overnight in Bangkok and departed to Japan for our flight across the Pacific to San Francisco where we would spend a few days with our friends Linda and Don and then the weekend with our son, Greg and his partner Chuck. We practically collapsed at Linda's and had some very nice "wind down time" with excellent meals. We got to meet her newest dog, Eddie, who got his exercise on the treadmill! While in San Francisco, we had a harbor tour and enjoyed Greg's newly remodeled house. One dinner was...

Oct 16, 2012 - Photo Itinerary

Here is the plan for our next adventure. We spend quite a bit of time in Vietnam and then go to Laos and Cambodia. Our next leg it to Bhutan, but we have a few days in Bangkok first. On the way home to Webster, we stop to visit in California with our friend Linda and her husband Don and then to visit Greg and Chuck. It's a month-long adventure!

Aug 10, 2012 - No J-A-M Racing tonight

***August 10, 2012 Rochester 5:30pm No sailing tonite. Thunder and lighting. Wind starting to pick up. 6:19pm. Still raining pretty hard. Came over to Schooners for a bite to eat. Can't let the whole nite go to waste!! 19:45:14. Going over to Charlotte Beach to get an ice cream. 20:34:26 took walk on beach....

Jul 18, 2012 - Rochester, New York

Before we left the campground this morning, we walked to the beach area along Lake Ontario. It was a small beach, but private and, of course, a great view of the Lake. We continued our tour along the Seaway Trail following the coast of New York and Lake Ontario. Our first stop was Southwick Beach State Park. This park is adjacent to the Lakeview Wildlife Management Area and contains coastal sand dunes. It is a nice park with camping facilities and concession stand. It was surprisingly busy for a Wednesday. We decided not to spend much time...

Oct 12, 2011 - Bayley's Soccer Game

On Wednesday evening, we went to watch Bayley (daughter Shannon’s girl) play soccer. She has always been very agile and a great team player. Unfortunately it was raining and a bit chilly. Our son, Rob took some great pictures of the game. Bayley played goalie and fullback. Savannah (son Rob’s girl) was bored and chilled, so she and I went exploring and found a bunch of wildflowers. It is amazing to still see Brown-eyed Susan, Queen Anne’s Lace and Cornflowers blooming in the middle of October. The weather has been very mild. The end of a...

Oct 10, 2011 - J-E-L-L-O

We kidnapped three granddaughters and headed for the Jello Museum in LeRoy, NY. I wasn’t sure what to expect…giant jello sculptures?...free jello samples? It turned out we got a very interesting history of the area and how “Jello” came to be. They had original artwork that was used for advertising. Norman Rockwell had at least one painting there. They used a very unique advertising technique: They would go into a town and hand out free Jello samples to half the town. The other half got free cookbooks that featured Jello. This is the first...

Oct 9, 2011 - Head of the Genesee--Regatta

Crew is a very popular sport up here. I have only seen it in the Olympics. Meg, our granddaughter is all about crew now. They train on the Erie Canal and the Genesee River. She has traveled some competing in rowing events (regatta). We changed our intended route to see our granddaughter Meg compete in crew. She is training as a coxswain (the person who runs the show, directs the crew, and motivates them) for the young men's varsity crew. This day she also filled in rowing for the girls novice crew. It was a beautiful day on the river and...

Oct 7, 2011 - Webster Park Family Campground

I was not aware that Columbus Day was such a big deal. I always had to work. When I called to make reservations at the Webster Park Family Campground, I almost didn’t get in. They had a last minute cancelation and saved it for us. The next closest campground would have been about 50 miles away. Webster Campground is run by the county. At one time it was a boy- scout camp. What a great place! There are trails all over. It is across the road from Lake Ontario. Public access is further down. (about ½ mile) There are 40 sites in a big circle....

Jun 3, 2011 - Rochester Hamfest

Another RV state, New York. We drove about 4 hours today from the Wilds of PA north to Rochester, NY. We are staying at the Residence Inn here in Rochester while our motorhome is parked in the parking lot. We are here so we can attend the ARRL Atlantic Division Convention. This is a rather large event for Amateur Radio operators from the western New York region, including Canada. Tom serves as the Atlantic Division (which covers western and northern New York and 5 other ARRL Sections south to Maryland & Washington, DC) Vice Director...

Jan 2, 2011 - We are off to Florida!

Unlike last year's blizzard conditions, we are having a "January Thaw" with overnight temperatures in the high 30's. We hooked up the car in the afternoon of New Years Day and everything was packed including the refrigerator that was filled with frozen soups, stews, sauces, and Bolognese. It is always great to get into a new campsite after a long day of driving and break out one of these delicious meals. We rose at 5:30 full of excitement to begin our trip with the aim to get on the road at 7AM - and we were only 15 minutes late! We even...