Back in Texas

And just like that, it's over.

We had a mostly uneventful return trip last night. Our flight out of Boston was delayed because of a pretty hefty thunderstorm, so we sat on the runway in the rain for about 30 minutes or so. We finally got off the ground, adding yet another thing in my life that I have never done before, and that's take off in the rain. I tell you this much, I would much rather take off in the rain than land in the rain.

We made it to DC for our connecting flight with just over 30 minutes to spare. We originally supposed to be there with an hour and a half layover. We had just enough time to grab some more pretzel dogs, use the restroom, discover that the gate information we had gotten was wrong and get to our proper gate. We walked up to our gate right when they were letting first class on. Great timing!

Oh, yeah. And we could have upgraded to first class for $135 each on that flight, gotten dinner and comfortable seats. But Christi said no. :-( Oh, well.

Back in Texas at around 9pm. There was a group of young people from Pennsylvania (can't remember what town) who were going on to El Paso from DFW to cross over into Juarez on a mission trip. They were going to help build a house for someone. It was cool sharing our plane trip with them. One young man on our row had never flown before. And the looks on their faces when they heard that it was 100 degrees at 9pm in Texas...THAT was priceless!!! We just told them to wait until they got to Mexico. I wished them God's blessings as we got off the plane in Dallas.

The one thing I missed the most about Texas? Drinks at Sonic. There are no Sonics in New England, at least not that we saw. So you can bet we will be stopping there on the way to church this morning!

I've got a few more pictures to upload to the computer and post at flickr, but, as you see, I have now added my flickr link to the sidebar.

In Red Sox News, Jason Bay continues to make good in Boston, hitting a home run in yesterday's route of the Athletics. I am loving this. This is the Red Sox we all know and love. I know Oakland is struggling, right now, but this is also what the Sox need to get their momentum back.

Now, if we can just find that guy that Tonya Harding hired to wack Nancy Kerrigan in the shin and sic him on Eva Longoria. EVAN! I meant EVAN!

TTFN, y'all!

Day 7--The Golden Egg and America's Stonehenge

August 1, 2008

Christi was actually up before me Friday morning. We had our usual leisurely time in the morning with our coffee. Sometime around 10am, we decided to go get something to eat and try to find a place in Salem, NH, called “America’s Stonehenge.”

We decided on a little restaurant called “The Golden Egg.” It was fabulous! Friendly service and the food was great. Christi had a special called “Fire-eaters Eggs,” I had a smoked salmon omelet, and Steph had chocolate chip pancakes. Christi’s won. I had a couple bites of her eggs, and they were “to die for.” My omelet was good, but not as good as the Fire-eaters.”

After breakfast, we set out for Salem. We had to go back into Massachusetts a bit on I-95, then back into New Hampshire on the 495. We finally found the place, thanks to our GPS thingy. It was waaaaay off the beaten path, with not a lot of signs along the way. Christi was skeptical.

We got there and went in to the main building, where we purchased our admissions. There was a 10-minute video presentation in a side room that explained the origins (or the unknown nature of the origins) of the place called “America’s Stonehenge.” There are parts of this place that have been dated back 4000 years. Much like the original Stonehenge, the origins and purpose of the place is unknown.

After the video, we set out up the trail (according to one of the girls in the shop, there would be approximately ½ mile of walking. About halfway up the first trail, Steph started freaking out on us. She didn’t want to walk, she was afraid of bugs, etc. This has happened several times on our vacation, I just didn’t write about them. This one was probably the worst, though. Finally, Christi just took her back to the gift shop so I could try to enjoy the place.

So I continued on by myself. It was a very interesting walk, and there were quite a few things of interest on the way. The central point of the whole structure seems to be a walk-in cave/chamber that the archeologists have named “The Oracle Chamber.” So named because of long tube hewn in the rocks that is called “The Speaking Tube.” There was also a place within the Oracle Chamber where a person could crawl in, hide and observe everything without being seen.

I followed all the numbers along the way, and tried to get a picture of every spot in the exhibit. I don’t really think the place lives up to its name, “America’s Stonehenge,” but I do admit that there is something strange and inviting about it. There are large stones around the periphery of the structure. The next to last stop on the trail is a large, wooden platform (from the ground, it looks like a children’s playground), from where you can overlook the whole area. There is an astronomical chart in the middle of the platform which points at the various large stones on the periphery. Each one designates a point of sunrise or sunset, such as the equinoxes, and various other dates. It was quite fascinating.

A lot of the structures in the area have been rebuilt by the archeologists, some as long as seven years ago. There are excavations, in the area, though, that they have dated back several thousand years.

Whether or not the marking stones around the outside are authentic or not, I can’t say. Do we believe the archeologists, or are they making stuff up? Who knows? It is all very interesting, though.

I got back to the gift shop, we bought some sodas, and headed back to the house.

We discussed dinner plans, and decided on a place in Rye we had passed several times, called “The Carriage House.” It had a sign that said “Casual Dining.” But it didn’t open until 5pm, so we waited a few hours, while lounging around and enjoying the ocean. We did that a lot this week, which was the primary purpose for being here.

The Carriage House was a charming little restaurant. Pricy, but the atmosphere was really nice, and the people were very friendly. Turns out was sat right next to the bar upstairs (we had a spectacular view of the nearby beach), and I had an ongoing conversation with the bartender about Manny and the Red Sox.

As for the food, well, it was different, that’s for sure. Christi and Stephanie both had a Philly Cheese-steak Wrap that came with fries, but they were sweet potato fries. Christi didn’t like those, but Steph did. I had one of the daily specials, which was grilled swordfish with a sauce that I can neither spell nor pronounce. They had a half-portion available, so I got that. It had a large shrimp on it, along with a bed of rice, a huge broccoli sprout, and some stuff that looks like it came out of the yard. I ate everything but the yard stuff. Turns out, the waitress read the special wrong. It was supposed to have been salmon. But, since she told me swordfish, the chef made it with swordfish. I’m not sure I would have cared. It was very good. We decided to have some dessert, there, too. Christi and Stephanie shared a thing at the waitress’s suggestion that was kind of a hot fudge croissant. I had Crème Brule. Holy cow! I have only had that once before, and I have loved it both times.

It was the most expensive meal on our trip, but it was really good and enjoyable.

We headed on back to the house, to watch a thick fog roll in while Steph and I watched the Red Sox game. They won!! 2-1. And Jason Bay scored BOTH runs. Later, I saw a clip of Manny hitting into a double play to end the Dodgers game, and then a clip of him doing that thing where he doesn’t run after the ball. There was a ball hit out to left-center and the center-fielder beat Manny to it. He looked kind of lost.

The really cool thing was that, when Jason Bay came up to bat the first time, he got a standing “O” that lasted several minutes. Boston fans….there’s nothin’ like ‘em!

Unfortunately, the Sunbeams won again, too. But the Halos beat the Evil Empire again, 1-0 (in the ninth inning!), and the Rangers battled back to beat the Blue Jays. So it was a mostly good night.

The power went off in the middle of the night, around 1:30am. Stayed off for almost two hours, which made sleeping difficult, especially for me, because of that machine I have to use. I don’t sleep well without it, because I have sleep apnea. But it finally came back on a little before 4am, so we got another few hours of sleep.

I’m typing this all on Saturday morning at around 8:30. We have to leave our little paradise in about an hour and a half. I’m going to get in my devotional time before we have to leave, so I will close for now.

It’s been a pretty remarkable week.

TTFN, y’all!

Day 6--Hampton Beach, New Hampshire

July 31, 2008

Thursday, we kind of puttered around the house until almost noon. We were all hungry, so we got in the car and headed down the road towards Hampton Beach, with our swimsuits on. The weather was nice with a bit of a cloud cover. It was foggy/hazy out on the ocean when we got up. I love mornings on the ocean like that. They are kind of creepy, but very pretty.

We found Hampton Beach, got a parking place (it’s $1.50/hr to park there), put in a little over 2 hours worth of quarters, and started walking to find a place to eat. We found a little restaurant on a corner that had its menu posted all over the windows. Looked decent, so in we went. Christi and I shared a meat lover’s pizza and Stephanie had a “small” calzone. They said small. It was half the size of our pizza! We ate some of that, too. We all kind of shared everything. It was pretty good.

Then we went on across the street to the beach. It was relatively crowded, but not too bad. We saw it last year on a Saturday. I wouldn’t want to be out there on a Saturday. We put our stuff down and went down to get our feet wet. The water was chilly, but, as they say, “it’s not bad once you get in.” And that was true. The initial impact was rough, but when your skin gets acclimated to it, it’s really pretty nice. I got in about waste deep, and Christi and Stephanie went in almost as far. We just kind of walked around in the ocean water for a while, then got out a loaf of bread and started feeding the gulls. After that, we went back across the street, ordered so fried dough (it’s like a funnel cake, only with no funnel) and I went to get the car and picked up Christi and Stephanie at the corner. I got back to the car with 3 minutes left on the timer. How’s that for accuracy?

We drove back to the house, Christi went out and laid on the deck some more, while Steph and I lounged in the house. Around 5pm, I put some potatoes in the oven, then around 7, we cooked a couple of big steaks and had a nice dinner. Unfortunately, by that time, it had begun to rain, so we couldn’t eat outside. We did, however, eat at our kitchen table, right by the windows, so we could watch the occasional lightning flash out on the ocean. There was also one of those cargo ships out there and at dusk it turned its lights on, so that looked pretty cool, too.

During all of this, the California Los Angeles Anaheim Orange County Angels, along with their newly acquired Mark Teixeira, were beating the whatzit out of the Evil Yankees, which I enjoyed thoroughly, even if it was the Angels. The Rangers lost to the worst team in baseball, to split their series 2-2. Rangers remain in second place, now 12.5 behind the Angels.

Thank the Lord, the Sox had the night off. They needed it, after all the drama and the sudden trade maneuvers that occurred yesterday. Manny is gone. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but he had really pushed the envelope of “Manny being Manny” this time. Hopefully, the team can recover. They play Oakland tonight, and can help themselves and the Rangers at the same time. These three team deals are confusing, but I think I finally got it. The Sox gave two players to the Dodgers; the Dodgers gave those two players along with two of their own, to the Pirates, who gave Jason Bay to the Dodgers, who in turn traded Bay to the Sox for Manny. If you’re scratching your head, join the club. I’m still not sure I totally get it, but either way, Manny’s a Dodger and Jason Bay, whoever the heck he is, is a Red Sox. I saw his numbers, though, and apparently, he’s about as good at the bat as Manny.

BUT WILL HE BE AS MUCH FUN????

I think not.

Will he be able to throw someone out at second from that corner in left field?

I think not.

Oh, well.

Sigh.

Anyway, this is our last day/night at this house in New Hampshire. Don’t know what we are going to do. We may just lounge around and do nothing all day. We’ll have a few hours tomorrow that we have to figure out what to do with, because we are supposed to be out of the house by 10am, and our flight doesn’t leave Boston until 4-something. The car is due back at 2-something. And then, back we fly, to 100+ temperatures.

Ugh. I’m sweating already.

TTFN, y’all!

So Long, Manny!

Manny Ramirez is a Dodger. Jason Bay is coming to Boston. In a deal that involved three teams, the trade was done right before the deadline. Manny will play for Joe Torre. The Sox gave up a lot for this Bay guy. Including Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen. I'm not sure we can afford to give up bullpen, even as bad as it is, lately. I hope that we can recover from the drama. We'll see. In spite of all the stupid things he said over the last couple of days, I'll miss Manny. I'm sorry to see him go to the National League. That's like leaving the country as far as I'm concerned. I care less than zero about the National League. I'll never root for a NL team. Don't know why. Just the way it is.

TTFN, y'all!