Blogs from Massachusetts, United States, North America - page 114

It Seems That Some Stereotypes Do Contain Truth Arriving back in the US was as exciting as it was scary. Coming home meant a chance to reconnect with friends, see family and enjoy foods that we had really missed over the last year, but it also meant coming to grips with the United States. After a year long, eye opening view of the rest of the world, the United States had become a big, loud, scary place in a lot of ways. Thankfully US immigration has a setup in Dublin which allowed us to go through immigration prior to even getting on our plane to leave. That meant, much to our astonishment and happiness, that we didn’t have to wait in lines to get out of the airport once we hit Boston. Once our bags ... read more

Nancy and I returned to the United States via London the following day. Our only setback was a tiny drug-sniffing beagle who went after our luggage cart at Logan - but he was only interested in our licorice, and the customs officers waved us on. We even got to keep our open bag of cashews. Haggis Girl resumed her studies for a few days until her father and sister arrived and whisked her off to Italy for a mini-vacation. Sheesh!... read more

The plane was delayed: the start of our adventure. But that was okay, because Nancy and I got some dinner at a surprisingly inexpensive restaurant right next to our departure lounge at Logan. I enjoyed hearing about Nancy's joys, frustrations, and challenges as an English and language arts teacher at John T. Reid Middle School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The late departure made it a little easier to nap on this red-eye flight, but we didn't sleep soundly; we only dozed between visits of the snack cart and play sessions with the high-tech Virgin Atlantic entertainment screens mounted to the seat backs. These included a "Journey" option with which we tracked our flight progress over the Atlantic. We had set our watches ahead at the start of the flight so that time seemed sort-of normal when we ... read more

Days 67-72: Obfuscator writes - Monadnock State Park was fairly pretty in the morning light, but there was little to see without doing a lot more hiking, and we didn't have the time for that. We got moving, and decided how to spend our day before we were due to arrive in Boston. A site in our atlas caught our eyes, which was America's Stonehenge. America's Stonehenge is a large and and fascinating site. Apparently after many years of study, they've figured out that this massive formation of standing stones is about 4000 years old. Theories about its uses vary wildly, but there seems to be strong evidence that it is built with astronomical significance, much like the Incan temples, or the more famous Stonehenge. It also has what could be a sacrificial alter (complete with ... read more

Dear People, Well Daylight Savings Time is now over and although blue skies woke us up this morning, it is definitely on the chilly side. No more rain as the residue from Noel passed in a day. The campground has turned off the water, but we still have power. Showers & hot water are available in the bathroom and fresh water can be had from a long hose in the men's bathroom so we can fill up. Yesterday was a good day to relax and watch the rain come down. We have been reading a lot; I'll submit a reading list before our trip is over. Evenings are spent with games: cribbage (D leads by 1), gin (W by 2), Scrabble (W by 2), Phase 10 (both card & dice are too close to count), and ... read more