paulahays - Paula Hays

Bob and I are close to embarking on our 8th year of travel, so I'm trying out this blog site. I'm hoping that this will work better than what we have been doing for the past 7 years. Up until now, we've been using emails with photos -- sending out perhaps 20-30 emails per trip (each year) to around 60 people. With a blog, those 60 people will have the freedom to go to this site if they choose. Or maybe they won't. 20 to 30 emails is a lot and I don't like the thought of people going "oh, no" when they receive them. So we'll see how well this works. It seems like it has a lot of good features.

2009 Trip -- Leg One
July 9th 2009 -» August 2nd 2009

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Joined on: June 29th 2009
Last Login: November 13th 2009

Blog Entries: 18
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Blogs & Travel Journals

by paulahays, order by Date newest first.

By paulahays
October 28th 2009

Last Log North America » United States » Florida » St Petersburg

Nat'l Park Service Steamtown

This last log is about Bob's love -- steam trains. The first batch are from Steamtown, Scranton, PA, including the trolley, and the second batch of photos are from Strasbourg, PA, Amish country where some earlier photos were taken out of the train window. So far in our travels, Bob and I have ridden 20 different trains, almost all steam, some trains several times. The PHOEBE SNOW ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN -- (from Wikipedia) Rail travel around the year 1900 was not pleasant. After a long trip on a coal-powered train, travelers would frequently emerge covered in black soot. The exception to th [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 23rd 2009

Log 17 - Canadian Museum of Civilization North America » Canada » Quebec » Gatineau

Museum of Civilization, 1

This museum is amazing! Paula Canadian Museum of Civilization From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Established 1856 (1989) Location Gatineau, Quebec Type Human and cultural history Visitor figures 1.3 million per year The Canadian Museum of Civilization is Canada’s national museum of human history and the most popular and most-visited museum in Canada. It is located in Gatineau, Quebec, directly across the Ottawa River from Canada’s Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario. The Museum’s primary purpose is to collect, study, preserve, and pre [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 23rd 2009

Log 16 - Ontario sights North America » Canada » Ontario » Peterborough

doll house

These photos are from two delightful towns in Ontario -- Smith Falls on the Rideau Canal and Perth. We visited an historic house in Perth, where the remainder of that 22,000 hunk of cheese resides (you were sent photos earlier). Here are some photos of a quilt for you who are into quilting and needlework and also a remarkable dollhouse. Smith Falls, in addition to being the chocolate capitol of Ontario, surrounds the middle of the Rideau Canal which runs from Ottawa (the 8 step locks, remember?) to Lake Ontario. If you enlarge the map slightly (you can double click on [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 21st 2009

Blog 15 -- snow in the Smokey's North America » United States » Florida » St Petersburg

beginning of the snow

Well, we're back. Thank goodness the weather is so perfect here at home. Going from snow to hot, humid weather within a day would have been a shock, even more than coming off a great trip. Here are some photos of the Smokey Mountains just this past Saturday and Sunday. We stayed at a campground in the Smokey's just outside of Bryson City, NC for three nights, leaving Sunday afternoon. On Saturday we headed up to Clingman's Dome and ran into snow on the way up. By the time we reached the top (minus the long uphill walk), we ran into [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 17th 2009

Log 14 - Boldt Castle North America » United States » North Carolina » Bryson City

another heart

The story of Boldt Castle on Heart Island is intriguing - and sad. “George Boldt came to America in the 1860’s from Prussia, the son of poor parents. A man of tremendous organizational skill, daring and imagination, he became the most successful hotel magnate in America, managing /profit sharing the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia. . . . Boldt Castle stands as an eternal monument to the memory of the man whose dreams were no more far reaching than his capabilities.” George married Louise when she was 15 and she became a true partne [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 17th 2009

Blog 13 - Thousand Islands North America » United States » North Carolina » Bryson City

Gananoque Boat Line

We took a Thousand Islands tour boat on our last day in Canada. It’s amazing how much house some builders could put on a teeny island. Almost every island had a house on it, some in the US and some in Canada . Then we went to the top of a huge observation tower and took some photos of the area. Our campground was just a stone’s throw from the bridge between Canada and the States which we crossed the next morning. [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 16th 2009

Blog 12 -- Lancaster County, PA North America

Amish buggy #2

Today is Friday and we’re in the Smokey Mountains, in a National campground right outside Bryson City, North Carolina. It’s in the 50’s and cloudy, but not raining, thank goodness. These photos are around the Lancaster County, PA area where Bob grew up. The Lancaster train station is one of the oldest still in use in the country. Bob remembers taking trains there as a child. [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 14th 2009

Blog 11 -- quirky stuff North America » United States » Pennsylvania » Berks County

shortest international bridge
These are two islands joined by a bridge. One is in the US and one, Canada. The story goes that when the couple in the house got into a fight, the husband would leave the country . . .

I really enjoy taking photos of things which are purported to be “the biggest . . . ,” “the oldest . . .,” “the heaviest . . .,” etc. and also really quirky stuff. Following are a few dandies. About the cheese -- In 1893, a 22,000 chunk of cheese was shipped from Perth, Ontario to Chicago for the World's Colombian Exposition on the Canadian Pacific Railroad's World's Fair Cheese Train. This cheese, which was 6' high and 28' in circumference, required what would amount to 1 day's milk from 10,000 cows. That's a lot of milk and a lot [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 13th 2009

Log 9 -- Algonquin Logging Museum North America » United States » Pennsylvania » Berks County

Algonquin Logging Museum sign

We're back in the States as of yesterday morning. We went through customs (no problem, and they didn't even ask if we were transporting cats) and then went straight to Boldt Castle in the 1000 Islands area of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Photos to follow. Today we toured Steamtown, a National Historic Park in Scranton (photos to follow) and now we're spending the night in Bob's sister's driveway near Reading, PA. -- in our camper, of course. In the meantime, a couple of comments.****************************** We very much like the way Canadians' behave, at least from what we've seen. They se [View Full Entry]

By paulahays
October 9th 2009

Blog 8 -- animals and garbage North America » Canada » Ontario » Peterborough

recycling, trash, compost & garbage bins

The Canadians are amazing in their efforts to reduce garbage. At each provincial campground where we stayed, they had bins for glass, plastic, aluminum, compost (including most paper and cardboard, even dairy and meat), and whatever was left -- the garbage. Needless to say, there wasn't much garbage after all the other receptacles were used. Note photo. I'm also sending some photos of a couple of animals we've seen, some tableaus from the Algonquin Museum, and our other two travel companions, Becky and Jasmine. They're just wonderful travelers and fun to have around, except around 5:00 AM [View Full Entry]

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