Back From Vacation

We just returned from vacation yesterday. We spent a week in Memphis with my wife's sister and her family. Our niece is three. She bossed our kids around all week. It was pretty funny.

We ate some great Memphis barbecue at Jim Neely's Interstate Barbecue. It was magnificent.

We saw Graceland, the home of one Elvis Aaron Presley. My eight-year-old son went to Memphis with no clue who Elvis was. After touring Graceland, he wanted to be rich like Elvis. Later that day, he asked, "Dad, why didn't you name me Elvis?" My response, "Because, we didn't want you to get beat up." The one thing that surprised me is that Graceland was smaller than I thought it would be.

We went to the Shiloh Battlefield. It was only the second American Civil War battlefield that I have been to. (The other is Gettysburg.) I cannot even think of the words to describe it. There is a sense that so many men died there. It is almost as if they blood still cries out from the soil.

We went to the National Civil Rights Museum, which is on the site of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered. Most of us fail to realize the struggle that so many African-Americans went through to attain equal rights.

We went to Mud Island, which has a scale model of the last 1000 miles of the Mississippi River and a museum of the Mississippi River.

We went to the Pink Palace, which was the home of the founder of Piggly Wiggly, the first modern grocery store. The kids had fun doing a treasure hunt for which they won a bunch of junk.

It was a great time, and very relaxing.

Spring Break

Ahhhh! A week off. I am looking forward to the coming week of time off. I will, however, not be a couch potato the whole week. I will be working on my bibliographic project for my Twentieth Century European History class. Maybe, I will also be able to post a little more.

Vacation Pictures

Here are some pictures from our vacation.
The first one: No, that not the "great white whale," that is me hitting the water slide.
The second: The ship we were on.
The third: Roatan, Honduras.
The fourth: Mayan Ruins at Altun Ha in Belize.
The fifth: Elmslie Church in George Town, Cayman Islands.
The sixth: Church of the Nazarene School in Belize City, Belize.

Vacation Recap

This past Christmas vacation was very much different from any we have had.

My wife's parents took us and my wife's sister's family on a cruise through the western Caribbean. We set sail on December 23, and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day floating southward. On December 26, we landed in Belize, a small Central American country. We visited the ancient Mayan ruins at Altun Ha. (If you say it fast enough, it sounds like Altoona.) On the 27th, we were at Roatan Island in Honduras. The following day we visited Grand Cayman. (That was great because I had to check in on my offshore bank accounts. I wish!) The 29th, we floated north toward Florida, and we debarked on the 30th.

All in all, it was a very relaxing vacation. I have never seen such small showers, and so much food. The water in the Caribbean was blue and clear as glass. The weather was quite balmy. (Sorry, to those stuck in colder climates.)

Happy New Year, to all.

Vacation

We just got back from vacation the other day. We visited the northeast part of the United States.

We visited the Baseball Hall of Fame (the picture above) in Cooperstown, NY. Having been a baseball fan for years, I was like a kid in a candy store. Never have I seen so many middle-aged men bouncing around a museum gleefully followed by so many bored wives.

After that we headed to New Hampshire via the Vermont. Then we went on to Massachusetts. We went up to Maine for a lobster dinner.

We spent a couple days in Boston. We visited the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. We then walked The Freedom Trail in Boston. This included the Old State House of Massachusetts, Faneuil Hall, the Old North Church, and other places. The next we looked at the Adams Historic Park in Quincy, Mass. just south of Boston, and then we visited Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

After that, we headed for New York City. I have never seen so many people. We visited Ground Zero where the World Trade Center was attacked, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and went to a New York Yankees game. We even rode the New York City subway. We got back from the game after 11:00 PM. I was a little nervous about our two-block walk to the hotel at that hour. I thought the streets would be desserted. At that hour, the streets were full. I could not believe it. It really is "the city that never sleeps."

We also stopped in Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell, which was smaller than I had thought it would be.

It was good to get away, but it was also good to get home again.