Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum

Photos

We're on our way to Florida for the holidays. This trip we've finally stopped to visit the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. A stop here was first recommended to us by Clay's sister Sue & her husband Mike a very long time ago! We must have driven by it on I-95 over 30 times over the years. When it was offered as a paid excursion by ACL last month, I balked as we'd drive by it again. So, here we are at last. I think it is a well done museum, but I am just not that interested in WWII history, so it was rather wasted on me. Clay was disappointed that the B-17 on display was not accessible (for years? There was a video saying it would reopen in 2014!) now. We were both disappointed when we went back out to the car in the parking lot to find that someone had keyed a big long arc in the paint of the hood. What is wrong with people? We did note the prominent and frequent signs in the parking lot to hide your valuables, so vandalism and theft are evidently expected problems in the lot out front. For the cost of admission, you'd hope they could provide a secure lot. Just saying. We bought our tickets online at $11 each, the senior rate of a $1 discount.

We are spening the night at a Sleep Inn at this I-95 exit. It is fine. It is convenient. It is a free night's stay for us using 8000 Choice Rewards points. So we can't complain about it! We found a Chinese restaurant very close by. It had a menu online and looked inexpensive. We went to fill the gas tank and eat. It was New China. Two problems, it turned out that it was a takeout place and while the portions were huge compared to the prices, the food was not very good. There was a lot of it!

So, that is our first day on the road. Tomorrow will be better because we'll end at Mom's house!

I don't expect to do much blog posting over the holidays. I am still trying to get years' worth of photos moved off Flickr before they start deleting photos from free photo storage accounts like mine next month. I'll be busy getting ready for Crystal Serenity's 2019 World Cruise too. So, expect new travel posts in mid-January 2019.

Happy Holidays!

Photos

We're Going Around Again, briefly

We couldn't survive long without an upcoming trip being booked. Now wasn't the best time with the hustle of the holidays and the leaking water supply line in the front yard needing to be completely replaced, but when a door opens you should step through if you can. We did it.

We are booked very last minute on Crystal Serenity's 85-day 2019 World Cruise. I'll blog about it here and not create a free-standing blog for the trip even though it is in no way a road trip.

Here's an overview for you:

a map

an itinerary

DATE	PORTS	ARRIVAL	DEPART
Jan 13, Sunday	Los Angeles/San Pedro, CA, USA		Embark pm
Jan 14, Monday	Los Angeles/San Pedro, CA, USA
Jan 15 - Jan 19	Cruising the North Pacific Ocean
Jan 20, Sunday	Oahu/Honolulu, Hawaii, USA	7:00 AM	11:59 PM
Jan 21, Monday	Maui/Lahaina, Hawaii, USA	8:00 AM	10:00 PM
Jan 22 - Jan 23	Cruising the North Pacific Ocean
Jan 24, Thursday	Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Jan 25 - Jan 26	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
Jan 27, Sunday	Pago Pago, American Samoa	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Jan 29, Tuesday	Crossing the International Date Line
Jan 30, Wednesday	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
Jan 31, Thursday	Lautoka, Fiji	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
Feb 01 - Feb 02	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
Feb 03, Sunday	Waitangi, Bay of Islands, New Zealand	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Feb 04, Monday	Auckland, New Zealand	8:00 AM
Feb 05, Tuesday	Auckland, New Zealand		6:00 PM
Feb 06 - Feb 07	Cruising the Tasman Sea
Feb 08, Friday	Sydney, Australia	5:00 PM
Feb 09, Saturday	Sydney, Australia		6:00 PM
Feb 10, Sunday	Cruising the Coast of Australia
Feb 11, Monday	Hobart, Tasmania, Australia	8:00 AM
Feb 12, Tuesday	Hobart, Tasmania, Australia		1:00 PM
Feb 13, Wednesday	Cruising the Bass Strait
Feb 14, Thursday	Kangaroo Island, Australia	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Feb 15, Friday	Adelaide, Australia	8:00 AM	9:00 PM
Feb 16 - Feb 17	Cruising the Great Australian Bight
Feb 18, Monday	Albany, Australia	7:30 AM	5:00 PM
Feb 19, Tuesday	Busselton, Australia	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Feb 20, Wednesday	Fremantle/Perth, Australia	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Feb 21 - Feb 27	Cruising the Indian Ocean
Feb 28, Thursday	Mauritius/Port Louis, Rep. of Mauritius	8:00 AM	9:00 PM
Mar 01, Friday	St-Denis, Réunion, France	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 02, Saturday	Cruising the Indian Ocean
Mar 03, Sunday	Taolanaro, Madagascar	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 04 - Mar 05	Cruising the Indian Ocean
Mar 06, Wednesday	Maputo, Mozambique	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
Mar 07, Thursday	Richards Bay, South Africa	7:00 AM	9:00 PM
Mar 08, Friday	Durban, South Africa	7:00 AM	9:00 PM
Mar 09, Saturday	Cruising the Coast of South Africa
Mar 10, Sunday	Port Elizabeth, South Africa	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 11, Monday	Cape Town, South Africa	7:00 PM
Mar 12, Tuesday	Cape Town, South Africa
Mar 13, Wednesday	Cape Town, South Africa
Mar 14, Thursday	Cape Town, South Africa		7:00 PM
Mar 15, Friday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 16, Saturday	Luderitz, Namibia	7:00 AM	4:00 PM
Mar 17, Sunday	Walvis Bay, Namibia	8:00 AM	11:00 PM
Mar 18 - Mar 20	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 21, Thursday	St. Helena	7:00 AM	3:00 PM
Mar 22, Friday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 23, Saturday	Georgetown, Ascension Island	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 24 - Mar 26	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 27, Wednesday	Dakar, Senegal	7:00 AM	11:00 PM
Mar 28, Thursday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 29, Friday	Porto Novo, Cape Verde Islands	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 30 - Mar 31	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Apr 01, Monday	Santa Cruz de la Palma, Spain	8:00 AM	5:00 PM
Apr 02, Tuesday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Apr 03, Wednesday	Málaga, Spain	1:00 PM	11:59 PM
Apr 04, Thursday	Cruising the Mediterranean Sea
Apr 05, Friday	Barcelona, Spain	8:00 AM	10:00 PM
Apr 06, Saturday	Monte Carlo, Monaco	4:00 PM
Apr 07, Sunday	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Apr 08, Monday	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Disembark am

Voodoo Doughnuts

I'm back to talk about Voodoo Doughnuts. We first had these in their home town of Portland, OR. They have traveled quite well to Universal Orlando Citywalk.  Today we ate the last 2 of the dozen we purchased on Friday night! We needed a lot more than 2 mornings to eat a dozen! So, I have some favorites and some not so favorites. We got an itemized receipt, so I know what we had. Here goes...
Clay's favorite is Apple Fritter. At $2.95 and dinner plate-sized, it is a bargain. Sharing or 1/2 a day seems a good idea. Clay tried to eat one + help eat his share on the first morning after the ant clean up and I think that just about did him in. That brings me to Memphis Mafia, our least favorite and most expensive at $5.25. It is described as Fried dough with banana chunks and cinnamon covered in glaze, drizzled in chocolate and peanut butter with peanuts and chocolate chips on top. It could serve a family of 4 dessert. It was overwhelming and too many flavors and too greasy. We advise against it. We ended up with one of these because when we originally ordered, Clay requested 2 apple fritters and they were out. As we walked away, the guy behind us called us back as the fritters had been restocked. Clay got his fritter but we kept the Memphis Mafia. Some of my favorites have cereal on top. Those did not store or travel well. The cereal was soggy by the morning after. Keep that in mind when ordering. If you aren't going to eat them immediately, I'd advise again cereal topped doughnuts. We got Triple Chocolate, Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting and Cocoa Puffs at $1.95. We got Oh Captain, My Captain, Raised yeast doughnut with vanilla frosting and Captain Crunch at $2. One of my favorites was Grape Ape, Raised yeast doughnut with vanilla frosting, grape dust, and lavender sprinkles at $2, a delicious blend of sweet and tart. A new seasonal favorite was Grinch at $3.75, another great combination of sour apple custard filling with sweet icing on top. It even traveled really well. Among regular selections, I also have as favorites Portland Cream (Raised yeast shell filled with Bavarian cream and topped with chocolate and two eyeballs, representing the vision of the great city of Portland at $2.45), the signature Voodoo Doll (Raised yeast doughnut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake (characteristics of Voodoo Dolls are all different) at $3.20), Old Dirty Bastard (Raised yeast doughnut with chocolate frosting, Oreo cookies, and peanut butter at $2.60) and PB&J (Raised yeast shell filled with raspberry jelly, topped with peanut butter and a side dip of peanuts at $2.95. The last 2 regular doughnuts that were not too special after all that, were Bar Maple (Raised yeast doughnut with maple frosting on top at $1.60) and Diablos Rex (Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting, red sprinkles, a vanilla frosting pentagram, and chocolate chips in the middle at $2). 

A Happy 60th Birthday

Nov 30 photos

Dec 1 photos

I had a mostly terrific time for my b-day in Orlando. I had second-guessed my decision to travel for 1 day to spend in Orlando after all the last minute travel we've done this fall, but in the end I was happy we went. We drove down in the middle of the night on Friday morning. We had one stop for gas and biscuit breakfasts at Bojangle's in Walterboro, SC on the way down. We arrived too early to check in and spent a couple of hours at an outlet mall. We went on to the Holiday Inn & Suites by Universal Orlando about 2pm and they let us check in around 2pm. It is conveniently located for an easy walk to Universal Studios and CityWalk. We had stayed here for a previous b-day trip and returned. Last time we checked in after midnight due to a canceled flight. The desk clerk took pity on us and upgraded us to the Suites tower. It was really a nice place to stay then! This time we got what we paid for which was a good-sized, clean room for $225 for 2 nights. The big difference in my mind was the view. From the suites tower, we could see Hogwarts. From the inn tower, we could see the new Hyatt. We really only slept there anyway, so it didn't matter. Since we were early, we took a nap. The beds were weird. They sloped from a high center to low sides. It felt like you were crawling uphill the whole time in bed. Both beds were like that! There was a construction project building a pedestrian bridge over Kirkman Rd. We decided if we come back, we'll try the DoubleTree which is on that side of the street. I guess it would depend on the price as it is only one extra street to cross!

I had a birthday dinner request at CityWalk for tonight. Tomorrow on my actual birthday, we'll eat fast food in Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. So by about 5pm we arrived in CityWalk. My request for tonight was Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. We had both looked at the menu and picked what we'd order. I stayed with my picks and my meal was delicious. Clay fell apart at the table and asked if he could get a plain hamburger with mustard and onions which was not on the menu. He was disappointed. He's not sure what happened. I had the Croque Monsieur which was perfectly done. I shared the flourless chocolate cake with Clay. We both agreed it was the best version of flourless chocolate cake we'd ever had. It was served warm and came with a scoop of Nutella ice cream. Clay decided if we'd both shared everything I ordered it would have been perfect. Maybe next time! My other reason for dinner at CityWalk was Voodoo Doughnuts. I wanted to take a dozen back to the room for 2 days of breakfasts. It turned out a dozen was at least a half dozen too many! And we left them out the first night and attracted ants. They didn't get inside the box but it was a mess.

On my actual birthday, Animal Kingdom opened to WDW Resort guests an hour before opening to the public. Still it wasn't too crowded. We had to swap our email printout ($260 for 2 1 day/1 park tickets + $25 for parking) for magnetic keycard tickets and go get a b-day pin for me. We were still in sight of the rope for a rope drop entry. That means you get there before park opening. For us that was 9am. We dropped the ball on booking our fastpasses for today. We wound up with only Festival of the Lion King show at 10am and Rivers of Light show at 7:30pm. We rode Kilimanjaro Safari before the show and got there too late to use our fastpass! We walked right in and sat right in front! The one ride which was the reason for the trip was Nav'i River Journey in the new land of Pandora at AK. That was the only low point of the day. We couldn't get fastpasses for it and had to wait 85 minutes in a standby line. The ride itself was only a 3 minute dark boat ride. It was fine but nothing really new or exciting. Nothing to warrant an 85 minute wait. Oh well. We saw Pandora in daylight and after dark. I'm glad to have done both. I missed a lot in daylight that was amazing in bio-luminescence mode. We spent the majority of the day collecting Wilderness Explorer badges. You can pick up a WE handbook as soon as arriving on Discovery Island. Then walking through the park you find guides and troop leaders who teach you something, or you have to do something in your book or the park to earn a sticker for them to put in your book. It was fun. You could at least do it with a short wait each time. If we'd ridden more than 2 rides all day, we'd have needed more days! We ate lunch at Satu'li Canteen. I had picked Steamed Pods (cheeseburger bao buns). Clay couldn't decide again and was going to try for a kid's menu cheese quesadilla. I saw a dish with 2 pods on it and figured rightly that we could just share one order. That worked perfectly. Clay was pretty much off his feed this weekend. Usually he is the one who has studied all the menus and is in anticipation of every meal. Not so this weekend.

We had great weather. Partly cloudy and a high in the mid-70s I think. It sprinkled on us for about 5 minutes in the afternoon. Not long enough to get the umbrellas out. We took in the last show of tohe day of Finding Nemo by walking right in about 1 minute before it started. Time for an early dinner. We ate dinner at Yak & Yeti's fast food side. Again, Clay couldn't decide. I shared my Honey Sesame Chicken and he ate an egg roll on the side. It was just right.

We really enjoyed the Tree of Life Awakenings and the River of Light show. They were both also new since our previous visit.

It was a good day and a good Birthday. Since I was wearing my button, I guess at least 100 times today random strangers wished me a Happy Birthday. There was usually just enough time between wishes that I was surprised each time someone told me!

Nov 30 photos

Dec 1 photos