Maine Update

The flight finally got booked but on a different date than we had planned.  Also got a chance to view the Maine video that I had checked out from the library.  We were disappointed to find that 95% of the video focused on people you might find in Maine, rather than on attractions/destinations.  The video did show one business that we were already planning to visit (Red's Eats), so we now have a better visual idea of what to expect. The destinations that it did show were either too brief (Acadia National Park) to get any better sense of whether or not we should visit it, or focused on things we are not interested in (a music box collector's house, for example).  Almost a fifth of the video was comprised of three random hikers rambling on about their experiences on the Appalachian Trail (which ends in Maine). However, no video of the trail was provided. Two of the hikers looked like they had had a little too many nuts in their granola trail bars, if you know what I mean.  Another looked as if he had been eating bacon, eggs and washing them down with milkshakes on the trail (while riding on a moped).  Another positive from the video was there were a couple of cool shots of whales surfacing in the water off the coast, which increased our desire to do a whale watching tour.We are now scouring the travel books looking for places we'd like to see and things we'd like to do. I'm writing down the ones I'm interested in to narrow down a bit later.   

Resolutions and Frustrations

I'm ignoring you Mr. Soda Pop.

Resolutions: I'm doing something a little different this year.  Instead of a New Year's Resolution I am resolving to give up something bad or improve myself in one area per month.  In January I successfully gave up eating fried foods.  This month I've given up drinking pop. (So far, so good, which is something, given that I usually drank at least 2 cans per day).  Although I'll allow myself to eat some fried food this month, my plan is to keep it to a minimum.  Next month when I give up something (or try to improve in something), I will allow myself an occasional pop or fried food, but hope to keep both to a minimum.  That way, by the end of the year, I'll have weaned myself off many of the vices that I've been holding onto and will hopefully have improved myself in other areas where I was lacking. New approach.  We'll see how it goes.

Frustrations:  Angie and I are planning a vacation to Maine. Angie has done quite a bit of on-line research and I have checked out a few travel books, a travel video and have interviewed a couple of people regarding their Maine experiences. Although we still have some fine-tuning to do as far as lodging and itinerary, we were all set to book the flights by redeeming mileage points we have been saving for the purpose on our credit card. Alas, when Angie went to book the flight only one seat was available to redeem but the website deducted both of our credit card points. Although there are other flights available for redemption AT THIS MOMENT, we were told it will take 5 days to credit the points back so that we can book the flight. By then it is very possible that the seats on the other flights will no longer be available.  Frustrated, but I'm sure it will all work out.  If we aren't able to get a flight to Maine, we can look at alternate destinations and keep the Maine trip on the back burner for a future trip. 

Winter of our Discontent, Part 2: The Thaw

Temperatures made it up to 50 degrees today!  The sunshine helped brighten the day.  With the warmer temperatures Spring Fever is starting to settle in as well as thoughts of summer vacation.  I picked up some additional Maine resources at the Public Library this weekend (two travel books and a travel video).  We have checked into flight schedules and found some possible alternatives using miles that we have available from one of our credit cards. We confirmed with a friend, who is an airline employee,  that there should be no problem making connections in Washington DC, even with a short scheduled layover.  That eased our minds.  As soon as Angie gets vacation approval (hopefully tomorrow), we will go ahead and book the flights.  Then we'll need to move on to rental car, accommodations, and itinerary. Some have advised us that Arcadia National Park is a must-see. Others have said it's no big deal. Since it will be a 3 hour drive (each way) from the airport we want to make sure it's worth the drive. Hopefully the video and travel guides will prove helpful in making that determination.   

Ice Ice Baby

February 1, 2011 Ice storm hit last night as I was tutoring two of my students.  When I went out to my car there was a thick coat of ice on the car that took about 15 minutes of elbow grease application to remove.  School was canceled today due to the ice.  Took these photos in our yard.  We are definitely not at the beach (but wish we were) !