Remember there are more pictures after the end of the blog. In our hotel we see a sign in the elevator that says on Dec 24 and Jan 5 that the elevator is reserved for Santa Clause and the 3 Kings. Kings day here is the big day to give presents….. Nicky, Tim, Susan and I took off to grab a quick breakfast, get some money out of the ATM and find a present for Hector. I suggested a Smart Box. I love these and sure wish the states had them. You buy a type of book, like lodging, food, adventure…. And in it are a list of places all over Spain where you can get hotel nights, food or whatever the books says, for free. We bought an adventure book and a food book for ... read more

Sunday – Day 1 Our next trip begins. Susan and I are heading to Spain to visit Nicky and Tim. I’m leaving from the beach and meeting Susan in Raleigh for our flights. Shelly is heading to Brazil and leaving out of Raleigh also. She is taking her surf ski so she has to take the truck. I head out and am on the road when Shelly calls. The truck lost its brakes about 7 miles from the coast. She got it back home and got a cab to the ILM airport where she had rented an SUV (1 way) to get to Raleigh with her ski. She found it for $98 online. Well she got to the airport and they said they had no cars – online lies sometimes, they said. She went to the ... read more

Saturday Today we are going to head to visit Aunt Lolly (mom’s sister) and her son, my cousin and his family. We were not going to leave the hotel until after 11 so mom and Sally wanted to sleep in. Not the sisters. We got up early had a quick breakfast and off on our adventure. Our first stop was the “Walk Across the Hudson”. It is an old railway bridge that has been converted into a pedestrian bridge. We didn’t have time to go completely across and back (would have been 3 miles total) but we did get out about ¼ of the way and made a few pictures. Our next stop was the Vanderbilt house. We drove thru the area and saw another one of their houses. Wow, they sure had money to have ... read more

Thursday We’re losers. The lotto ticket was worthless. I guess we should have bought it at the Dunkin Donuts the first day. After eating at Panera bread, I fill my big glass with a giant diet Pepsi. Guess where it ends up? Luckily it lands in the multiple cups holds so there is not too much damage but it did take a while to clean up. This morning’s drive was heading inland and we saw barns, trees and rural scenery. I worked on the blog in back seat. Our first stop was Concord NH (the capital). We made mom walk around the lovely downtown and capital. We saw statues, a fake liberty bell (bell painted with the crack) at the capital. There was a clock tower with bell that the hammer struck on the hour and ... read more

Monday Today’s Score Card Elevator 1 – Susan 0 : We started the day early as we knew we had a long day. We got all our luggage together and Susan and I went down to checkout and the get car and pack it. We got in the elevator and on the first floor Susan holds the door for me while I get the luggage cart out. Then Susan heads out of the door and I’ve never seen an elevator move so fast and not stop. It caught her mid stride and pushed her over into the wall. Susan had even seen the door coming and put her hand out to stop the door that was one messed up elevator door. Whoa…. The front desk heard about that. Dunkin Donuts 21.2 : After leaving hotel we ... read more