We finally got out of Florida today just as the first band of Ike hit the Panhandle. We were in Florida for 2 1/2 days geocaching! Hey, we have the time and we aren't ones to resist caching. Got an email today that our cruise itinerary has changed in that they have taken away the stop in Petropavlovsk, Russia. Dang it! I really wanted to go to Russia! I'm hoping that they will find another place to go along the route so that we won't be missing a stop somewhere. Angkor Wat sounds good to us! Tomorrow should find us in [View Full Entry]

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Today was the day. We have officially begun our trip! Finally we get to just GO.....no more planning, packing,worrying about hurricanes...'cause we are on our way! We picked up the rental car and left in the afternoon with the first of the outer bands of Ike coming in. The weather improved as we got further north. Didn't go too far today; just far enough to get away from Ike. We aren't in a rush; we do have until Saturday before we need to be in Chicago. Now, what would a new location be without a food comment? The fav here in [View Full Entry]

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So, it has been decided for us. We are renting a car and driving 1,500 miles to Chicago. Yeah, thanks Ike. We are planning on leaving on Monday and getting as far north as we can. West would be nice too but when you live at the bottom of a state that is as long as Florida is, you have to drive quite a ways north before you can head west! With three days of preparation taken away, this weekend will be quite busy cramming all the stuff in we need to do to leave on Monday. The adventure begins soon! [View Full Entry]

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Gustav is done now but we have Hannah, Ike and Josephine marching across the Atlantic. Hannah looks like she will miss us here in South Florida but is aiming towards where we need to be going by train next Thursday. Ike is right behind and as of tonight, we are in the middle of the path they are showing. We are still not sure if we will have to reroute our return trip after the cruise due to damage from Gustav and now we are rerouting the outbound part! We are thinking that we will cancel our train from Miami to [View Full Entry]

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The monkey wrench has a name. Gustav. With it bearing down on the Gulf Coast, we are rethinking our return trip from Los Angeles at the end of our cruise. The plan now is to take the Sunset Limited to New Orleans, spend the night and then head out the next day on the Crescent to D.C. and then the Silver Meteor down to Miami. The likelihood of Gustav destroying not only New Orleans again, and possibly taking out the tracks along the Gulf Coast, makes us want to look at other options. Not what we wanted to do. The thought [View Full Entry]

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I am so excited! I am an absolute Phantom Of The Opera "Phanatic"!. We have seen this musical in Chicago, Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston, FT. Lauderdale and London (England-where it all began). Now we will be able to add Seattle to our list of locations. Another activity we will engage in is a bit of fun called Geocaching . Click on the link to go to the website to get the full explanation. In a nutshell, we go hunting with a GPS unit for "hidden treas [View Full Entry]

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Good heavens. Today I spent hours with my clothes. Formal (12 nights), Informal (7 nights), Resort Casual (46 nights). For all you women out there, you know how tough this can be! For you men? I don't wanna hear about it! '-) I'm about half way through figuring out what I'm going to bring. I haven't gotten to the shoes or jewelery yet! I see that we also have several Balls. "Black and White Ball", "Oriental Ball", "Halloween Night" and the "Tropical Paradise Ball". Ummm....what the heck do I bring for these events? Dave has it easy. He has a tux. [View Full Entry]

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Less than one month and we head off on our journey! We will be taking a 65 day cruise on Holland America's Amsterdam . We start off on September 11th from south Florida on Amtrak's [url=http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Route/Vertical_Route_Page&c=am2Route&cid=1081442674074&ssid=134] Silver Meteor . We take that (overnight) up to Washington, D.C. where we change over to the [url=http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Route/Horizontal_Route_Page&c=am2Rout [View Full Entry]

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