Travel Here – Page 4

ART, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Restaurants & Bars, Shopping, TRAVEL

Our First Day at Sea

June 18, 2018March 7, 2018 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: ENJOYING THE BOAT

There she is! Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas. On our day at sea, we explored many of her charms and suffered a few of her deficiencies. Come along and see how it went.

Up & At ‘Em

First up, the gym! I’m an early riser, so I take advantage of it to get in an hour on a stationary bike. The gym on Vision of the Seas is nice, but quite small. On this morning, pretty much every spot on the equipment was filled.

I got my hour in and headed back to the room via the the buffet. I filled up my soda cup, got Bill some ice water and picked up a few pastries in case Mr. Bill was ravenous.

Breaking Our Fast

We enjoy the luxury of sit down service and convivial company, so we returned to the Aquarius Dining Room for our morning repast. There is no assigned seating, so you get the luck of the draw in table mates. The luck of the draw in food was pretty marginal, especially their sorry excuse for Eggs Benedict.

We ended up at a table with a bunch of round dancers, who were nice, but only interested in their dancing, so we were relieved when a mother and her daughter arrived. After a little chatting we discovered they’d been caught in all the flooding from Harvey and it was interesting to hear about their experiences. They became our new cruise buddies and we enjoyed seeing them several other times during the week.

We went back to the room so Bill could wrangle with his computer and the market. I took a shower and got ready for the day, in part by perusing the Cruise Compass and picking out the good stuff, like the Art Auction

Champagne Art Auction

One of my favorite things at sea are the Park West art auctions. How can you lose if you’re spending your morning looking at art and hearing tidbits about artists and the art world, while you sip free champagne? I’m probably not ever going to be bidding, but it’s relaxing, fun and interesting. Bill doesn’t exactly feel the same way. He’ll attend, probably more for the champagne than the art, but he sits there, giving me a running commentary on the dangers of buying art at sea, just in case I get the urge to lift my bidding card.

Were I to actually bid on something, it would be because I thought it was a pretty picture and I’d enjoy looking at it. Occasionally I’ll say something complimentary about a painting and Bill reacts as if I’m considering purchasing a fake Mona Lisa and he demands to know which wall we’d hang it on. It sort of takes the fun out of the dreaming, but I just shake my head in amusement and have another sip of champagne.

Beyond the champagne, there’s always a free gift of art. This time a 7×7 seriolithograph by Yuval Wolfson. If I had any space on our walls, I could frame it and hang it. Instead it will end up in my scrapbook. There was an extra bonus this time which will also find its way to my scrapbook. To hold the audience’s attention, they also have drawings for Royal Caribbean chotkies, like t-shirts and water bottles. To my amazement I won one of the drawings and I got two lovely 8×10 photos of the ship – one of which is shown above – and which will kick off my scrapbook of this adventure.

Winding Up the Day and Gearing Up for the Night

The auction lasted past the sit down lunch, so we were forced to go back to the Windjammer for a buffet lunch. It was marginally better than the Embarkation Buffet, but that’s not saying much.

Usually we would have explored more of the boat, but on this trip, Bill had to keep an eye on the market, so we went back to our room. I really can’t complain about the relaxation. The room was comfortable, the sea was just outside our window and after catching up on my travel journal I did a little reading.

Come back next week and I’ll tell you about formal night.

Accommodations, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, TRAVEL

While I Was Sleeping

June 11, 2018March 7, 2018 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: VOOM DID NOT ZOOM

My first day at sea was ending, but Bill was unfortunately just getting started. Not the best way to spend a cruise.

The Trading Day

Many people think that folks who trade stocks are sitting at their computers all day long, buying and selling, and there are traders who do that, but that’s not Bill. He only makes a few trades a day, if any, at very specific times, mostly at the opening of the market. What he does the rest of the day is research, testing systems and writing code. In fact it’s what he does when the markets are closed that is the most important.

At the end of the day, when he knows whether it’s been a good day or a bad day, then Bill has to get ready for the next morning. His systems will tell him whether there are any potential trades coming up, but he has to decide to whether to execute them or not. He also has to be sure there is plenty of money in the accounts to make his purchases and he has to be very careful about his orders. A careless click on the computer or the wrong wording in the order could cost him thousands.

Trading on the Boat

So, as I changed into my pajamas, Bill was firing up the computer to get ready for his morning trades. Even sitting at his desk at home, this can take hours, according to what’s happening in the market. On this particular Monday, the market had been taking a nosedive since the Friday before and Bill had both of his hands tied behind his back. All he had was a laptop and a bad internet connection. Usually he has multiple computers streaming information onto two huge screens and a rocket-face internet connection which he pays a premium for.

While our cabin was plenty big for sleeping, relaxing, grooming and changing clothes, it did not offer Bill a perfect work space. There was a desk-like area for putting on make-up, but it was not ideal for his purposes. He was hyper-aware that he was just a few feet away from his sleeping wife, so he was trying to keep his movements and noises to a minimum. He also had very poor internet connection and was suffering from the speed of the computer and the small screen.

Electricity everywhere and not a plug to plug into!

Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning he decided he might have more luck with all of it out in the public areas. He’d find a comfy chair somewhere near an electrical outlet, prop his laptop on his lap and finish up his work. What he found was that comfy chairs were easy to come by, but electrical outlets were not. He tried a little bit of everything, but as soon as he would find something that might work, one of the other twelve people wandering around the ship after the bars closed would come sit next to him and do something distracting – like argue with their girlfriend or clip their toenails or listen to music so loudly that even though they were using headphones, Bill could hear it.

Eventually, he was able to discern there were no trades that had to made in the morning, but that was only half the battle. He needed desperately to do some more research, but it just wasn’t going to happen. He crawled in bed for an hour or two, but no sleep was to be had.

Come back next week for our day at sea.

Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL

Off to Dinner

June 4, 2018June 4, 2018 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: NICE TO MEET YOU!

Even though the Embarkation Buffet on Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas was a disaster, it was still early in the cruise, so I gave them a pass. I blamed us for being so last minute and hoped better meals were ahead. I was also interested in who we’d end up with for table mates.

Matches Made in Heaven

When it comes to our table assignments, so far we’ve been pretty lucky and thankfully, for this cruise, our luck held. I’m not much on names, but Couple #1 was a youth pastor and his stay-at-home wife. Couple #2 was a pair of coffee shop/truck entrepreneurs. Couple #1 was on their first cruise to celebrate an anniversary. Couple #2 seemed to be frequent cruisers. He liked to gamble.

I happen to enjoy formal dining arrangements, a holdover from traditional cruising. One of the big reasons is because I don’t like training a new waitperson for each meal, but I also like the opportunity to get to meet new people, even if though no one may become my new best friend.

We’ve been through a variety of seating arrangements, from formal, timed meals with assigned seating, to Norwegian’s Freestyle. My least favorite was Freestyle. We were traveling with friends, so we really didn’t miss the chance to meet people, but having a new waitperson every night was not so much fun.

Not Exactly Heavenly Food

I was looking forward to our first meal, because first nights at sea are traditionally lobster night. Not on this cruise. You could get lobster, but it was over there on the part of the menu where you had to pay a surcharge. I like lobster, but not enough to pay extra for it. Instead I had escargot for an appetizer, lamb shanks for my entree and a pear concoction for dessert. It was a decent meal.

The escargot was off the charts. Not even the hint of a complaint in that department. The entree was OK. I would have preferred lobster, but nothing wrong with what I had. Dessert was a disaster. If you ordered a Pear Chocolate Crisp, what would you think you were getting? Well, probably not what I got – a row of mousse-y squirts with puree’ed pear in the middle of each squirt and a hardened chocolate decoration stuck in the center of the plate.

They really liked mousse-y, pudding-y desserts on this cruise. Like the Chocolate Sensation they always had in the buffet. It was kind of a chocolate fluff with a chocolate crumb crust. If you saw my face while I typed that, you’d know how bad it was. The Pear Chocolate Crisp was in the same category. With their penchant for mousse and pudding you might think their Creme Brulee would have been good. Well, it wasn’t. It was better than the Pear Chocolate Crisp, but so runny that I would have been embarrassed to call it Creme Brulee.

Instead of beating you up day after day with how bad the meals were, I’ll do some summarizing here. The Lobster Bisque was awful. No cream was used in the making of that soup! Campbell’s cream of tomato soup is thicker and at least as tasty, if not more flavorful. Two guys at our table would order steaks cooked exactly alike, but only one of the steaks would come out with grill marks on it. How did they even do that? The carrot cake was so dry that you could have choked on it. Each meal was an exercise in how not to cook! What a disappointment!

As bad as what we were eating was, one of the ladies at our table required a gluten-free menu and she was having a very hard time. This was no fad thing. Gluten made her sick and caused her hair to fall out. She was not the kind to make a big deal out of it, the way I see some people do. She was very gracious and appreciative of the efforts expended to accommodate her, but I noticed she would look hopefully at every dish delivered, give it a taste and then quietly push it away.

It was time for bed, at least for me. Come back next week for the next chapter of our adventure.

ART, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Performing Arts, TRAVEL

Dinner & a Show, But Not in That Order

May 28, 2018March 6, 2018 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: WELCOME ABOARD SHOWTIME

Though he was still fighting the internet, my sweet husband put a good face on it and headed to the Masquerade Theater with me for the Welcome Aboard Showtime. Live entertainment is something we really enjoy, but don’t often splurge on it. It’s usually one of the highlights of our cruise. Follow me to the 5th deck.

Getting There is Not Half the Fun

Our least favorite space on any cruise boat is the casino. The area is usually loud, and it also has lots of lights blinking, garish decorations and second hand smoke. For some reason, the people who design ships think it’s cool to direct traffic through there. We disagree with them, but apparently that doesn’t make any difference.

On Vision of the Seas going through the casino was just about the only way to get to the theater without going outside and when you’re all dolled up, outside is not preferable. Those romantic shows you’ve seen, where a couple stands at the railing of a ship at the end of the evening, are lies. Most evenings, unless you’re on a protected deck, the wind is enough to blow you and your carefully coiffed hair into the sea.

Bill probably didn’t even realize what kind of expression he had on his face as we walked through the casino, but I saw it. It definitely said, “What have I gotten myself into?” I was hoping the show would be good.

The Royal Caribbean Singers & Dancers

For fun lets call them the RCSD for really-can’t-sing-or-dance. Well, there was one guy who was a pretty good dancer, but I’m not sure whether he was all that good or they were all that bad. When he’d do a high kick, he’d almost smash his nose, but none of the others were anywhere in his league, so even that was distracting rather than entertaining. The singers were consistently weak. I know there are all kinds of really talented people out there dying for an opportunity of any sort. Where were they all when it was time for Royal Caribbean auditions?

The Comedy of Nery Saenz

The best part of that evening’s entertainment was that the RCSD were not the whole show. The bulk of the time was devoted to a really funny comedian. I’m not all that crazy about comedy routines, because usually they cuss too much, use foul language, depend on sexual innuendo and insult people. This comedian managed to be funny without resorting to any of that.

The comedian’s primary shtick focused on how un-glamorous it is to be a comedian on a cruise ship. He poked fun at himself and his husbanding skills. You got the idea that while being away from home all the time was difficult, he really loved his wife and family. He also had a show later that evening, so he’s probably well-versed in cussing, foul language, sexual innuendo and insults, but I didn’t go to that show and I’m glad I didn’t. If only people 18 and older are allowed, I’m probably not going to enjoy it.

After the show it was time for dinner. You won’t want to miss that, so come back next week.

Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Welcome to the Galveston Cruise Terminal

May 7, 2018March 5, 2018 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: CLIMBING ABOARD OUR CRUISE

After all the difficulties Bill had faced trying to get out of town, our actual departure was fairly smooth. We left within 15 minutes of our targeted ETD. We miscalculated where the HOV lane would dump us, but even going out of our way in downtown Dallas, the traffic was so bad on I-30 we made time with our mistake. About 11, we exited at a rest stop to use the facilities and change drivers. By 2, we were at the cruise terminal, but so were a whole lot of other people.

Not Exactly a Tourist Destination

I want you to know that Galveston is a wonderful place to visit, but you wouldn’t know that from a picture of their port. It is an industrial port with a couple of cruise ships thrown in for good measure. What can I say? It’s ugly!

We dropped our bag off at the terminal and made our way to the parking lot. (Yes, that was a singular bag! I got everything in one suitcase!) We’d saved $5 by booking online (Thank you, Sherry!) We needed to be on board by 3:30 and I hadn’t been worried when we got to the terminal, but the parking lot made me nervous. I don’t even think a hurricane would have lit a fire under these people, but we did make the deadline.

Going Through Security

I understand the need for security measures, but I hate it. You’re passing around important documentation and taking valuable items out of your carry-on, not to mention dressing and undressing. When I’m flying, I try to dress around the metal detectors, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t even think about going through a metal detector to get on board the cruise. Maybe that’s why I had on a metal belt and shoes with metal decorations on them. I took off the offending accessories and tried again. That time my sunglasses set it off.

I went through all the rigmarole of getting dressed again and headed for check-in. Suddenly, I needed my glasses and I couldn’t find them. This would cause a panic in any situation, but if you read my blog last week, then you know why the disappearance of my glasses made me absolutely frantic. I ran through the terminal back to the place where I re-dressed. I made the people at the metal detector and x-ray machine prove my sunglasses weren’t there. I felt tears brimming in my eyes.

I ran back to the pile I’d left next to Bill and started rifling through my backpack again. Bill wasn’t happy. At the moment he was more interested in checking in, but if I had lost my new prescription sunglasses, he was going to be even more unhappy. Sitting in the floor, dumping everything out of the backpack I did find the glasses, but by then I was already suffering heart palpitations. It would take me awhile to get back to normal and before that could happen, I would misplace another pair of glasses.

But enough about my glasses, lets go have lunch.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, International, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL

A Plethora of Pyramids

November 7, 2017October 7, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: DON’T LET GIZA BE YOUR ONLY PYRAMID EXPERIENCE

If you go to Egypt, you’ve got to see the Pyramids, but don’t stay in some Cairo hotel and take a day trip to the Giza Plateau. Get out of the city and stay at the Mena House. Someday, hopefully, they’ll finish the new museum that is supposed to replace the antiquated Cairo Museum and doing it this way will make even more sense. But even if they never finish the museum (a distinct possibility given the tomorrow/bokrah mentality) you don’t want to be just another tourist. There’s more to the Pyramids than you see at Giza.

A Tourist Trap to Avoid

Before I go into what you should see, let me steer you away from the Light and Sound Show. I had been warned, but back in 1996, the Luxor Temple Sound and Light Show was one of the highlights of my trip. The stunning display was interesting and entertaining. Chances are that in 1996 the Pyramid Sound & Light Show was pretty amazing, too, but it’s not anymore.

There’s a huge outdoor theater which would seat hundreds of people, suggesting the show was once a really popular attraction, but I’d be surprised if there were 50 people at the performance we attended. What’s more, the parking lot and entry were right next to a spot used as a toilet by the local camel population. You need to be careful where you step and the smell will bowl you over.

I had threatened to enjoy the performance from my balcony at the Mena House, but wasn’t sure if I could see it from there. It really doesn’t matter whether I could see it or not. The balcony would have been a better choice.

The obligatory Sphinx and Pyramid picture

You Will Go to Giza First – and You WILL Like It or ELSE

Egyptians don’t see their country the way we do. I had great difficulty convincing my nephew that I really did want him to schedule our guide to visit Dashour and Saquara. Having already seen Giza, I really didn’t want to waste my time there, but skipping it altogether was not to be allowed. What’s more my excellent guide, Zuzu insisted we had to start the day there.

My nephew and his friend had toured with Zuzu the day before and warned us that he was a little, shall we say, stubborn. With Steven and John, the main problem was that he was going to give them all the information they paid for whether they wanted it or not. I didn’t see that being a problem for me. I challenge any guide to tell me more than I wanted to know about what I’m seeing. However, Zuzu was a little stubborn in other ways, too.

When we got in the car to begin our day, I explained how I had already been to Giza before and I preferred to start at Dashour. Zuzu said we would get to Dashour, but we’d start at Giza. I tried several approaches to convince him I was the customer and he should do it my way, but whatever tack I used, he wasn’t going for it. I didn’t want to be that Ugly American, so content in the knowledge we would get to all three pyramid locations, I decided to sit back and enjoy the tour.

The Solar Boat Museum

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go to the Giza Plateau at all, because my previous unorthodox tour had not included the Solar Boat Museum and I wanted to see it. I just didn’t want to waste time stomping around the Pyramids and the Sphinx, if it meant I’d miss out on Dashour and Saqqara.

Well, we did stomp around the Pyramids and the Sphinx. And guess what, they looked just like they did last time we were there. Granted Zuzu provided more background information than I got from Ahab’s guides, but after a lifetime of watching shows about Egyptian archaeology, Zuzu didn’t have much to add that I hadn’t already learned from Zahi Hawass and Giorgio A. Tsoukalos .

The Solar Boat Museum is fascinating, but they make you wear these awful shoe covers and pictures are not allowed. The boat was buried in the sand somewhere around 2500 BC. It had been disassembled before burial and the pieces were intact when it was found in 1954. It was painstakingly reconstructed over a number of years and then in 1985, the Egyptians built the museum to show off the treasure. Don’t miss it if you visit the Pyramids.

My Giza duties fulfilled, Zuzu let Izzat take us to Dashour. Come back next week and enjoy that part of our day. In the meantime, here’s a video of our visit to the Pyramids.

ART, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Hanging Out at DFW

May 9, 2016May 13, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: INTERNATIONAL DEPARTURES AT DFW

I’m not exactly a fan of DFW, but if I have to go out there I hope I’m flying out of terminal D. For one thing, that means I might be going out of the country, which is always good news to me. For the other, it is by far the best terminal from which to depart.

New and Improved Travelers

There was a time when my husband tried to push the travel envelope to the very edge. He wanted to find out just how close he could cut it. It seemed every trip we were the passengers breathlessly running aboard as they closed the door. Unfortunately, I had been raised by a father who considered earliness to be next to godliness. That race for the plane thrilled my excitement junkie hubby, but I would go into pure panic mode.

Over the years we’ve both mellowed out. This is a good thing, since these days, travel is a very different endeavor from what it was twenty years ago. Anybody pulling a last minute maneuver, like some we did back in the day, would find themselves cooling their heels in some TSA holding space.

Nowadays we get to the airport with hours to spare. We treat the terminal like a tourist attraction, tasting the local treats and checking out the souvenirs.

A Plug for Park &’N Fly

When we fly, our car is parked at the Park ‘N Fly facility on Park Lane. We drive in. A bus pulls up and a nice driver pops out to help us with our bags. Frequently we are driven directly to our terminal, but even at busy times we get from our car to our gate lickety split. The nice driver offloads your bags and you’re almost done.

Over the last year, we joined Costco and guess what! Park ‘N Fly, which is already a bargain at full price, has discounted rates with Costco coupons. You buy 5 day blocks of tickets for $35 and we’re talking discounted. The price is so cheap that we saved money with the coupons even though we had to buy and extra day. The coupon never expires, so we’ll jut hold on to it until the next trip – maybe the one we’ll make to visit our new friends in Oregon we met aboard the Viking Tor.

Our driver for this trip may just be the most charming we’ve ever had. He was filled with the joy of his salvation and was listening to a sermon on his sound system. He politely asked if that was OK with us, but we just amen-ed with him and said a few hallelujahs. He asked where we were headed and when he found out about our cruise on the Danube he really wanted to go along.

Hurry Up and Wait

At the Lufthansa check-in we stared down the kiosk and tried to determine which number or piece of paper it preferred, but we were grateful when someone came to assist us with the check-in, especially since I had already theoretically done that online. It seems to me that all this digital stuff just makes more work. Used to be you called up your travel agent to buy your fare, got a hard copy ticket, took it to the desk and were checked in. Now you dabble online to find a ticket, get a virtual ticket, check-in online, get a virtual boarding pass, fritz with the kiosk at the airport, get pieces of paper and still have to report to a live agent to check-in your bags. Convenience, schamenience!

The line for the TSA security check was not too bad and then we were in, with a couple of hours left to kill. I had visions of sitting down over a good meal at Cafe Izmir, Cool River Cafe, III Forks or Sky Canyon. Then I made the mistake of allowing Bill to see the directory of restaurants and ended up at Popeye’s. You may think I’m kidding, but it’s the truth. Bill loves Popeye’s and since we’re usually trying to eat healthy we stay away. With all food being calorie free on vacations (wink wink) he wanted to get some.

Murdering Time

After our chicken we roamed the terminal and looked at all the places we could have eaten and checked out the shops. Along the way we saw some interesting art installations spread throughout the space. We really began to feel like tourists. Many of the most beautiful installations were mosaics on the floor which photograph poorly. We also found this interesting public interactive.

We decided it was getting close enough to departure time that we should get to our gate. They’d decided to start boarding early to beat some turbulence, so getting there early had been a good thing.

If you’re coming through Dallas or leaving from our airport, I hope you’ll get to enjoy Terminal D. If not, you’re stuck with the usual. Maybe if you’re stuck there long enough on a layover you could take the train over to D and dine in style.

On Wednesdays I’m sharing my Viking River Cruise, the reason we were at the airport in the first place. Please check back and share the adventure.

Cruising, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Cruise Report: The Return

April 25, 2016April 27, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: NO MATTER HOW HUMBLE, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Most folks who travel will tell you one of the best parts of the trip is coming home. I have to agree with them. I loved my recent cruise on the Danube, but sleeping in my own bed has its advantages.

What Did I Miss Most?

What I always miss most during my travels is Diet Dr Pepper. No airport in the world has my beverage of choice. A few airlines will offer it, but very few and certainly not Lufthansa or United. Soda machines outside Texas rarely have it and locating a six pack of it at my American destinations can be somewhat of a challenge. Finding any Dr Pepper product along the Danube was not going to happen, so once a day I would settle for a Coke Light to get my daily dose of caffeine. Coke Light is the European answer to our Diet Coke. Coke Zero? Forget about it!

Other Things I Lacked

I missed my bed and most particularly my top sheet. The mattress, though smaller than the one we sleep on at home, was perfectly comfortable. The contour sheet, pillow and pillow cases were all very well and good, but the only cover we got was a comforter. It was a very nice comforter, but I really missed having a top sheet.

Another thing wrong with the bed was that it was attached to the boat and at 3 AM in the morning, when the captain put the pedal to the medal, everything on the boat would vibrate. When I was a kid I thought it was cool to put a quarter in the hotel bed and enjoy the vibrations, but I giggled all the way through the “massage.” On the boat I would come awake wondering what was happening and then figure out that I’d been wakened by the boat’s vibrations – again. Of course, then I’d toss and turn. I was too hot with the comforter on and felt weird without a top sheet, so I’d usually stay awake until it was finally time to get out of bed – not by choice, of course.

When I did get up, I immediately regretted the tiny bathroom in our cabin. While the length of the shower was more than sufficient, for my money, I’d have preferred a little more elbow room in the other direction. I’m not a fan of showers, so I stood as close to the showerhead as I could, to get the most of me wet or I’d get a chill. Hence, I was stuffed into the front of the shower stall banging into the walls and doors – a far cry from my large soaking tub at home. Sitting on the toilet was particularly claustrophobic, but there was enough room for the brushing of teeth.

I moved the rest of my ministrations into the main room, taking over what I think was supposed to be a desk, but it made for a great vanity table – with the exception of the light. To turn on the light above the mirror, I would have had to turn on all the lights in the room. Not a good idea with Bill enjoying his final moments of sleep. (He had no problem with the vibrations, for which I was glad, but a little envious.) So, I would crack open the curtain of the sliding glass door which was right next to me – the benefit being that I put on my make up with natural light.

All Is Forgiven

In truth, I know these are minor irritations. While I struggled with the bed and bath, I was not cooking meals or washing dishes. A maid showed up to make up the bed and restock the linens. I didn’t fight the crowds at the grocery store or worry about traffic. In fact, I didn’t worry about anything. I didn’t know or care who was ahead in the election process or if anyone had been blown up. Even if I was missing my Diet Dr Pepper, having a bottomless glass of wine at dinner certainly made up for it.

20160422_213554 — Sorry, you have to imagine the frog voices.

As much as I love traveling there was one very priceless moment as I arrived at our home. The night was pitch black except for a brilliant full moon. I couldn’t wait to get out and take a picture. As soon as I opened the car door I could hear our frogs. They were all singing their welcome. I’ve identified three types of voices, the basso bullfrogs, frogs with a clicking sort of song and the sopranos screaming at the top of their voices. Thankfully the sopranos only sing a few nights out of the year, but they were out in full force when we arrived.

The picture didn’t come out very well, but I’ve shared it anyway. In the coming weeks I will share all the wonderful things we did on our cruise and all the amazing things the crew did to make it a memorable experience.

So, I’ll be changing things around here on the blog again. Mondays will remain Travel Here stories about things to do in the Metroplex. Wednesdays will return to Travel There stories where I’ll tell you all about the cruise. Travel Bug Tales, which were started as a sort of filler, have become very popular, so they’ll replace At Home in Heath on Fridays and if I have Rockwall County things to share with you, I’ll include them on Mondays. So I hope you’ll join me Wednesday for my first installment on the cruise.

Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States, WRITING

Continuing on the Wrong Foot

November 4, 2015October 30, 2015 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: THE TRIP WITH NO NAME GETS BOGGED DOWN IN BIG D

So, I’m suffering from a case of the blues, I’ve had a crazy week, my computer is all screwed up, there’s a certified letter at the post office and I need to attend a media event so I can write an article before I head out of town. Easy peasy, right?

On the Way Downtown

At least Bill was up and he was working on my computer. I coached him along by running in between the master bath and my office while I got ready. Of course, the office and the master bath are on separate floors at opposite end of the house. I was a little bit late, but I had to go to the post office first, because Bill wanted to know the story behind the certified letter and he was working on my computer after all. So, I make a mad dash to the the post office in Rockwall, called Bill with the bad news the letter reported (certified letters always have bad news) and pointed my car down I-30.

I had smooth sailing all the way to Fair Park which lulled me into thinking that I might actually make it on time. Suddenly, the road ahead was filled with red brake lights. Almost simultaneously my bladder informed me that I needed to make a trip to the restroom and I needed to go as soon as I could.

Oh, and did I mention that I’d gotten a new GPS for the trip, because a map update for my old one was going to cost almost as much as a new one. I knew how to get from my house to the Arts District, but I wanted to get familiar with the new instrument’s idiosyncrasies. The GPS, which I named Nancy the Navigator, dumped me in the middle of downtown and then got mad when barricades wouldn’t let me follow her instructions. I picked my way through the construction alone and made it to the museum. My watch said I’d only be a minute or two late. I just hoped they’d have a slow start so I could visit the facilities.

Let’s Park

I pulled into the appropriate parking lot, but chose the wrong lane. Seconds ticked by as I held a frustrating conversation with the woman in the attendant’s booth. Mechanical noises flooded out of the underground lot and the woman’s speech sounded like I would if I had my mouth full of pebbles. She finally left her booth, walked over to the lane I should have entered, pulled a ticket for me and handed it to me. Then she said the only thing I had understood in the whole exchange, “Park down on level six.”

The voyage to level six was excruciating. I still needed to use the restroom in the worst way and the ramps were so steep and tight that if I’d gone any slower I would have been going in reverse. I parked the car on six, hoped I didn’t look as manic as I felt and started searching for the elevators. If they had any signs pointing to them, I didn’t see them, but then I hadn’t seen that I was entering the garage in an exit lane either, so who am I to complain.

On to the Museum

I rode up on the elevator, crossed the lobby to the mezzanine outside and then hurried down a set of stairs to the museum. They’d move the door on me since I’d visited the museum last, but I finally made my way in. I was less than ten minutes late, but the event was in full swing. The artist and a curator were in the exhibit introducing it to the assembled members of the press. I had hoped to fit right in with my peers, but I’m sure my hair was flying in all directions and I looked like a deer staring into headlights. And I was dying to go to the restroom.

I bravely attempted to ignore my personal needs and pay attention to what the artist was saying, but my bladder was having none of that. If coming in late wasn’t embarrassing enough, I had to wander away from the group and find a restroom. While taking care of the necessities I practiced deep breathing exercises and then patted my hair into place. I kept telling myself all of this frustration was not the end of the world, but right then it felt like it was.

The Day Continues

Though I felt as if I’d been wandering around down a rabbit hole, only a few moments had passed and the artist was still in the same corner he had been when I left the group. I started taking notes and making pictures like a pro. In spite of it all I had enough to write a good article – if I had a computer to write it on when I returned home.

No such luck. I had a text from my bestie letting me know she could leave work early and the day had not exactly gone as planned, so I still had things I needed to do. I resolved to focus on the trip and if the article was posted on Monday instead of Friday, then who but me was going to care. It’s not like anyone was paying me for writing about the exhibition opening. This blog is a labor of love.

I changed out of my member-of-the-press outfit and put on my traveling clothes. I loaded up the car and had some lunch. I fritzed around with my computer some more, hoping beyond hope that it would just miraculously fix itself, but in the end it didn’t and I had to start Norton again. I gave it up and left the house.

Is it any surprise that when I got to the 7-11 to fill up my car the 7Rewards app wouldn’t open up, so I had to pay for what should have been my free soda? Are you at all surprised that traffic was awful and even though I’d left with time to spare I barely got to my friend’s office at the appointed time? Or that I turned on the wrong street even though I actually knew where to go? Or that my friend had fallen the night before while packing and was barely ambulating?

The Trip With No Name hadn’t even begun and I already had a few choice appellations for it! Come by on Wednesday and we’ll head off towards Oklahoma City.

ART, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States, WRITING

Starting Off on the Wrong Foot

November 3, 2015October 30, 2015 Jane Sadek

AT HOME IN HEATH: THE TRIP WITH NO NAME STARTED OUT ON THE WRONG FOOT

It’s not unusual for someone to go on a long weekend to brighten their outlook on life, but along with failing to inspire me to come up with a better name than The Trip With No Name, things seemed destined to get more frustrating for this recent road trip.

Booking a Room

After I ordered tickets for Living Proof in Wichita, KS, I sort of ignored the hotel information in my confirmation packet. I’m such a huge fan of Expedia and Trip Advisor that I assumed I’d be able to get a great room at a bargain price which would blow away the conference’s negotiated deals. I was wrong.

What’s worse is that my assumption led me to put off making my reservations. I mean really, who was going to go all the way to Wichita for a Bible Study? Well, it turns out thousands and thousands of ladies from all 50 States were going to make their way to the city and thousands more were going to watch on simulcast.

But I didn’t know that, so I waited until about a month before the conference before I finally sat down and researched rooms in Wichita. I quickly found out that the conference had negotiated some pretty amazing deals, but I also found out most of them were already booked. My first inclination was to find a room within walking distance of the arena. Total fail. Then I cast my net further. I ended up getting the conference rates, but they were at a DoubleTree at the airport. Not the end of the world, but not exactly my vision for the weekend either.

An Exciting Invitation

As I continued my planning for Wichita, I received an invitation to a media event from one of the local museums. I’ve been blogging about local attractions for quite awhile now, but until recently I hadn’t made it to their media list. I have a few publicist in New York and Chicago who send me invitations from time to time, but my budget doesn’t exactly cover flights to the Big Apple or the Windy City. Gas to the Dallas Arts District is much more affordable. Since Deb and I weren’t leaving until after she got off from work, I’d have plenty of time to pop by the museum and write the article, right? Well, not exactly.

A Mixed Up Week

I don’t exactly live in a rut, but I do seem to get along better when things happen according to routine. The week of the trip had nothing routine about it. Monday was a holiday and my videographer client was having a picnic for all of us who work for him. It was just the beginning of a strange week. Tuesdays are the day I usually go into the videographer’s office, but Bill was having dental surgery, so I went in on Wednesday instead. As I pulled into the garage Wednesday afternoon I had the realization that in a mere 24 hours I’d be picking up my bestie and we’d be heading north. I hadn’t even thought about what I was going to wear and I hadn’t done the laundry either. It was going to be a long evening. At least I’d picked up sushi on the way home, so I didn’t have to fix dinner.

Dinner was easy, but other things challenged me. Things like my dog, who chose that particular day to have gooped up eyes. And things like the certified letter notification that had been in the mail. Those never have good news, so I promised Bill I would go by the post office on the way to the museum. It should have been easy. The media event didn’t start until ten. It would be a cakewalk – right?

Good Morning Meltdown

I’m an early riser. On the morning of the trip I was in my office about 5:30, even though I’d been up late getting ready to leave. The first thing I did was open up my email. As I perused the inbox, it seemed as if an email from my husband was the most important item, so I clicked on it. Suddenly, a weird article about some celebrity opened up. At first, I assumed I had just clicked the wrong thing, but it was quickly apparent that something was seriously wrong.

My husband is not an early riser. At 5:45 he would not have welcomed a hysterical bedside visit, so I ran Norton while I tried to work around the fact that I had no computer. I did have the laptop from work, but it’s not optimized for all of my sites and passwords, nor is it synched to my printer. So I limped along hoping everything would be alright.

Norton got through at just about the same time my husband woke up, but I had a sneaky suspicion Norton had not killed the beast on my drive. A few clicks confirmed my fears. Then, I broke one of the sacred laws of our house. I told Bill about my problem before he had his coffee. Then I spent the next hour or so trying to get ready to leave while I coached Bill through saving my computer.

Things only got more interesting, but I’ll tell you more about it next week.

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