PARIS, FRANCE August 1-8, 2006 Tuesday, August 1, 2006 After spending the first part of our vacation in Dubai, the hotel’s Lexus cab took us to the Dubai airport for our noon flight to Paris on Air France. We arrived around 5 p.m. and took a cab to our hotel, the charming Grand Hotel Leveque, in the heart of Rue Cler on the Left Bank. Rue Cler is a pedestrian, cobblestone market-street right out of a picturebook. What a great hotel...superb location, immaculate, friendly, pleasant, on a bustling and colorful pedestrian street. The street is full of bakeries, wine shops, [View Full Entry]

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DUBAI 2006 Friday, July 28 and Saturday, July 29 We departed from Houston on our 9-hour overnight flight on a Continental 777 to Paris. Bill and I each got about 4 hours of sleep on the comfortable Business/First Class seats that recline to nearly 180 degrees. Arriving at Charles deGaulle airport at 11 a.m., CDG did not impress us with its lack of signage, confusion, slowness, general dirty surroundings, lack of chairs at the gate, and finally, the 10-minute shuttle from the gate to the airplane. The old terminal is over-crowded, but the new terminal is not yet ready, so we [View Full Entry]

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ALASKA CRUISE August 5 - 12, 2005 Bill, Linda, Ed, Charlotte Day 1, Friday The four of us left early in the morning for the airport, arriving in plenty of time to enjoy an hour or so in the President’s Club before boarding our Continental flight to Seattle. Unfortunately, when we got to Seattle, we discovered that our connecting flight to Anchorage on Air Alaska had been cancelled and that the airline was trying to book the passengers on other flights. We were lucky to get on a flight that left two hours later and would just barely allow us to [View Full Entry]

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WEST COAST WHIRLWIND Spring Break, March 11 - 20, 2005 We had a marvelous but whirlwind trip to California and Oregon during spring break! First, we spent three and a half days with Bill and Shirley and our handsome grandsons, enjoying their gorgeous new landscaping, several meals at the Club, touring the Battleship Midway in San Diego, taking the boys for haircuts and a movie, going to Mass, touring model homes in the area, and just playing with Will and Henry. On Tuesday, March 15, we drove up to Guadalupe, California, to see Cousin Larue, stopping at Buellton for its famous [View Full Entry]

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Exploring Costa Rica December 29, 2004 - January 3, 2005 Day 1 We relaxed in the President’s Club at IAH before our 3-hour first class flight on Continental to San Jose, Costa Rica, arriving mid-afternoon. San Jose is considered the most cosmopolitan city in Central America and indeed is one of the most beautifully situated capitals in all of the Americas, nestled in the fertile “Valle Central” (Central Valley) and surrounded on all sides by lush green mountains. It basks in a perfect climate of spring-like temperatures year-round. Our first stop was at the Santo [View Full Entry]

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WESTERN CARIBBEAN “TEXARIBBEAN” CRUISE June 25 - July 2, 2005 Saturday, June 25, 2005 Seven of us boarded the NCL Sea at the Barbour’s Cut terminal just outside of Houston for our 7-day western Caribbean cruise: Linda, Bill, Mama, Brian, Christy, Lisa, and Eric. The boarding process was smooth and efficient, and we were in our staterooms by 3 p.m., readying for the mandatory lifeboat drill. Bill, Mama, and I are in a gorgeous and spacious VIP suite at the front of the ship on deck 8, immediately below the bridge (#8001) with two large windows forward as well as two [View Full Entry]

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GERMANY Plus Six Driving Trip, May 20 - 31, 2005 Day 1: May 20, 2005, Friday We relaxed in the President’s Club lounge before boarding our 1:15 p.m. flight on a Continental 777 to Frankfurt via Newark. Our Business/First Class accommodations were comfortable, and the food & service were topnotch. The luxury seats featured a variety of position controls and individual monitors for dozens of movies, games, and music selections. After a few hours of sleep, we awoke in Frankfurt at 9 a.m. local time. Day 2: May 21, 2005, Saturday We picked up our rental car, a Volkswagen Golf, [View Full Entry]

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12-NIGHT SCANDINAVIA & RUSSIA CRUISE June 12-24, 2003 Our fabulous cruise to Scandinavia and Russia began on the evening of June 11, 2003, with a direct overnight flight to London, first class on Continental. Arriving at Gatwick around 7 a.m., we were met by a bus that took us the 2 ½ hour-drive to the English port of Harwich, where we arrived just as embarkation was beginning. The well-organized process took about ten minutes, and we were on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ GRANDEUR OF THE SEAS by noon! We ate lunch, found our way around the ship, checked into our [View Full Entry]

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The Amazing Kingdom of Thailand March 11-23, 2003 Our vacation in Thailand was a cultural, sensual, idyllic experience from beginning to end, from Bangkok to the hill tribes, from the Buddhist temples to the elephants. No other traveling experience matches exotic Thailand. Visiting is like entering another world of picturesque beauty, natural charm, fascinating history, and lovingly preserved customs. As for the Thais, they are among the most gracious people in the world, and they live happily in their blessed land. Their constant smiles, serene attitudes, and gracious manners were par [View Full Entry]

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May 26, 2001 Our early afternoon flight to Boston on Continental in first class was pleasant. We departed Boston on Icelandair promptly at 9:30 p.m. for our five-hour flight to Reykjavik. We had ample leg room in the exit row, but the seats seemed more narrow than usual, and there were no blankets! May 27, 2001 Arriving at Keflavik Airport at 6:30 a.m. after only a couple of hours’ sleep, our feet were disinfected on mats to prevent introducing foot and mouth disease as we entered the terminal. Our 40-minute bus ride to Reykjavik gave us our first glimpse of the [View Full Entry]

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