Category: Travel

On November 3rd we went to the zoo. I took the day off in honor of my birthday (since I had to work the actual Friday after my birthday), and we did a day-trip to Ashboro. It turned out to be a relaxed, enjoyable day.

We left later than expected, but headed off down I-40 toward Raleigh. We stopped once at a rest area near Raleigh to feed CEF and let MDF run around. After that we didn’t stop again until lunch.

We took Highway 64 (?) from Raleigh instead of I-40 all the way, and it turned out to be more of a back road at some points. It went through a number of small towns and we had to slow down to 35 MPH at times. We stopped in Siler City to have lunch. We first tried to eat at a local burger restaurant, but it was popular and packed full — standing room only. So we went down the road to Sir Pizza to eat their buffet.

When we finally got to the zoo, it was almost 3 PM. We figured we had until 6 PM before the zoo closed, but CDF spotted a sign that said it closed at 4 PM during winter months! So we had to rush. We still paid to get in, even though we had an hour left, since we had driven almost all day to get there.

Enjoying the Zoo

MDF had asked to see the monkeys, but they were on the other side of the park. We did not know how far away that was and decided to walk. That did give us the opportunity to see polar bears, bison, and the gorillas. It was a long walk though. We finally made it to the monkey building and the baboons, especially, put on a show for us.

Baboon

After that we started making our way out of the park. We stopped to look at the lions, giraffes, zebras, and warthog. I thought we were going to the exit, but when I looked at the map, I realized that if we left by that exit we would end up in the parking lot at the opposite end of the park, not where we needed to be. Fortunately the park has a tram service, and we got to ride the “city bus,” as MDF said, back to the other side.

Last Stop, Giraffes

Once we left the park, we stopped at a Salvation Army Store that CDF had seen on the way in. She and MDF went inside to shop while I fed CEF. But when I was done they still were not done, so I joined them. CDF ended up finding a number of good clothes that day.

For supper we ate at a Bob Evans just outside Raleigh (or maybe Cary, I’m not sure). The Italian sausage and pasta plate I got was delicious, and CDF enjoyed her soup and sandwich combo.

We didn’t get back until 10:45 that night, but it had been a great day.

2006-03-19 5:32 PM

I left Wilmington this morning at 10:55. CDF, MDF, and I had left the house around 9:30 and got to the airport in plenty of time. I had time to check in and then walk around and look at the shops for a while. By the time I got back to the gate, they were already loading, so overall, timing was good.

The plane to Charlotte was small, but not too small. The inside was tight, I had to duck my head to keep from bumping the exit sign in the isle, and if I stood up straight, my head could touch the ceiling. It had about 18 rows of four seats, so it could probably hold 70-80 people. The flight from ILM to Charlotte was very smooth and I was looking forward to the rest of the morning.

The plane going to Washington was bigger, it looked like it could hold 120+ people. I got stuck in the middle seat of 3. I started out on the isle seat, but then ended up moving over one so a late passenger wouldn’t have to climb over me. I don’t know if that was the best idea or not. The guy to my left, John Anderson by the ticket stub he forgot, was slightly gruff to start off with and got grouchier as the flight progressed.

They served refreshments (peanuts and a drink) on this flight, but then forgot to give the guy to my left his coffee which he complained about for the rest of the flight. The guy on my right was a young man who’s father had apparently been a pilot — at least one of the flight attendants had flown with the guy’s father. So because of that the flight attendants paid him a lot of attention, which only irritated the guy to my left, since they still hadn’t brought his coffee (he did get cream and sugar).

The captain has said that it was cold and windy in Washington, and we might have a rough landing, but I didn’t realize just how rough. As soon as we started on the approach to the airport, the plane started bouncing around in the turbulence. After a few minutes I started feeling sick. Fortunately my stomach held together, but my hands and legs got all tingely like they had gone to sleep — who knows where all that blood was going. But we made it down safely, and the worst was over. Strangley enough I started having hiccups as we taxied along, and they didn’t go away until I was out of the airport.

I had to take the Metro to the hotel, but the station was one escalotor ride away from the bagage claim area, so it was very convientient. It felt a little like riding trains in Japan, except I could read all the signs this time. I bought a ticket for $1.35 which would take me to the Wardman Hotel/Zoo station. I had to switch tracks once, but didn’t have a problem finding which one. I had to wait for about 10 minutes at the intermediate station — which was under Chinatown — and stood in a big underground area beside a black family. The mother was telling the (i’m assuming) father not to take the baby’s pacifier away unless he wanted the baby to start singing, which most other people with think was screaming. Hmm… Also there were a bunch of people with cameras, either a tourist group or a photographers convention I guess — probably tourists, since they seemed to think they could take pictures of the whole subway station from the balcony and use their flash to light it up — which I thought was doubtful.

Finally I got to the exit station and went up two sets of escalators. The first was very long, almost made me dizzy and sick again looking up it. But soon enought I was up and out of the subway tunnels, and only one block away from the hotel! It actually took me longer to walk around to the front of the hotel, than it did to get to it.

So now I’m in the hotel, registered for the conference, and thinking about what I want to eat for supper. I saw Joel in the hallway and he suggested Chinese, or Mexican down the street. He’s going to go eat with friends, but we will both be at the reception at 7 PM tonight. I got some coffee and a muffin from Starbucks after deciding $8.00 for a sandwitch was too much at the hotel’s gourmet “take-out” shop.

This fall we spent a couple days at an Atlantic Beach resort with CDF’s parents. It was too cold to spend much time on the beach itself, so we did some shopping and visited a few museums around the area. MDF and I also explored the resort grounds a lot. We took the camera and I got a few pictures, but one that caught my interest later was a view of the sunset from the condo window on the first night.

Sunset

I took vacation time the first week of November and we went out to the Outer Banks of NC. We stayed at the Outer Banks Beach Club in Kill Devil Hills — not a mile away from the Wright Brother’s Memorial.

The resort was right on the beach, though we were the second row of buildings so we didn’t have a view of the water. We stayed on the third floor in a three bedroom condo — including a kitchen — and had a view of the pool. Of course it was too cold to swim in the outdoor pools, but MDF liked to look out at them and gave each one a name: the adult pool was the Momma pool, then there was the Baby Pool for little children, and the hot tub was the Sister Pool. She really wanted to swim, and one day we did finally go over to the indoor pool and swim for half an hour, but even then we froze!

We spent a lot of time on the beach, and the weather was great for it. It was around 75 degrees during the day, and so we spent a lot of time walking around on the beach, “in our toesies,” looking for shells, and just playing in the sand. Every once in a while we’d stick our feet in the water, but it was chilly already.

We took our bikes with us, and one day rode up to the Wright Brother’s monument and park. Unfortunately the traffic light was one that required a car to trigger a change, and one never came by. So with all the traffic going up and down Highway 508, we never did cross and go into the park. But we got to see the monument and area from distance before we turn back and just enjoyed the ride.

This was our first real day on vacation. Yesterday we had gone out on the beach a little and walked around the resort some, but hadn’t done much of anything.

After spending some more time in the morning on the beach (I think it was MDF’s idea), we took our bikes out to ride around. We headed north on Hwy 12 — which has become nothing more than a side road since Hwy 58 took over, but that was good for us. We actually went out to the main highway to try to cross over to the Wright Brother’s memorial, but traffic was constant, and our bikes wouldn’t trip the traffic light for us to cross. We waited for a while to see if a car would come along that wanted to turn, but nothing did. So instead we turned around and rode back to the resort.

Yesterday we had promised to take MDF swimming in the inside pool, so when we got back to the beach house, we got our stuff ready and went across the street to the office/pool. In spite of being inside, the pool was still cold. Too cold for me to get in past my hips, but CDF and MDF managed to get in nearly all the way. MDF had a good time regardless of the temperature, and probably would have stayed longer, but we took her out because she was starting to shiver.

This week CDF, MDF and I went to charlotte for the Summer IIPS Conference. It took us about 5 hours to get there, going down I-40 to I-85 and then into Charlotte. We stopped once, or twice each way to take a break and have lunch, so it was about 2.5 hours of driving straight. MDF did really well, she didn’t fuss or cry much, and was a really good girl the whole trip.

One amusing story about MDF was, while we were driving she would ask what does this say or what does that say, and every once in a while I’d ask, “What does MDF say?”

The first few times she’d say, “Yo,” and that became the joke about what MDF said. But then I asked it again and she said she didn’t know. So I said, “Yo?”

“MDF all done ‘Yo’ing!” was her reply.

We stayed at the Mariot Executive Park, where the conference was being held, and I was slightly disappointed with it. We didn’t have a fridge, microwave, or VCR like the web site said, and the internet connection cost $10 a day anyway you tried (i.e. I thought wireless was free, but an outside company charged for it).

Monday morning we went to the Discovery Place in uptown Charlotte. We were a little dissappointed in that too. First we had to wait outside for half an hour because their opening time had changed. Then we found out it was $1.00 more expensive per person than advertised, plus you had to play $5.00 for parking. The museum exibits were nice, but not completely worth the overall price and hassle.

We used the pool at the hotel. MDF loved it. Strangley enough we were cold in spite of the 100-degree temperatures, but we were in the indoor pool that didn’t get the direct sun.

The conference itself was interesting. The most useful information (to me) was presented on the first and last days. It looks like the coming months are going to be filled with interesting upgrades on the Admin Systems.

We are back from Japan. It was a long flight, but in some ways, not as bad (at least stress-wise) as the flight over.

We kept a journal of the trip, one I decided to call Box Frame. It actually started as a photography blog, and hence the unusual name.