Blogs from North America - page 4

The excitement is building for our departure next Saturday for our trip to Alaska. Since Ray and I just arrived back in New Hampshire last week it has been a busy week of packing, and the Spring clean up of the yard. We have completed all of the reservations at the campgrounds we enjoy that tend to fill up quickly, and have reserved a car rental for our Yellowstone visit. The boys, however, have been on a cruise (of course) and will be arriving back in Naples tomorrow. Being that packing is so grueling they will probably hire someone to pack for them. We will be meeting up with them at the airport in Minneapolis where we are booked for the 4:30 bus to Forest City, Iowa, then the fun will begin!... read more

It's time for another Garvin cruise adventure, and here is the blog which will try to document what we are doing. This year's trip is actually called the 27 Day Western Europe Grand Adventure - according to the cruise line. We booked this trip about a year ago while we were on the previous cruise (sale price was 50% off), and it seemed like something far in the future. That is until a few days ago when it suddenly was just around the corner. Now the trip has actually started, and we are in sunny southern Florida. We flew into Ft Lauderdale on a flight which left St Louis at 7:15 in the morning. Off course we had to be at the airport a couple of hours earlier, so we got a very early start this ... read more

You may have guessed that I use the airline lounges whenever possible. Often times, when I have used miles to upgrade to Business Class, a visit to the airline lounge is included. Short of that, I have a Priority Pass, which is part of the Chase Sapphire Visa card program. In moments of true desperation, with lots of time to kill at the airport, I have purchased a lounge pass. Usually, the foreign airlines have better lounges. I would place Singapore, Air New Zealand, and Turkish Air at the top of the lounges I have visited. But lately, some of the US airlines have improved immensely, namely the Admirals Lounges of American Airlines, and United Polaris Lounges. Why? For one, they pour complimentary champagne!! And the food is upgraded. One of my first and best lounge ... read more

Hi Everyone, Traveling home. Between the train station, the airport and the train station in the airport, I cannot begin to tell you how many times I uttered the words “do you speak English?”. Thankfully most people were willing to help if they could. There were a couple times that several of us tourists were huddled around asking each other, trying to figure out which way to go. In the train station, beside the train, we were having one of those conversations and an English speaking passenger heard us, got off his train and told us that yes, that is the train to the airport and then he got back on his train. Very friendly people here. The airport goes on forever and has so many corridors to walk down or walk past. I did go ... read more

Hi Everyone, I had been so proud of myself for remembering, about a week before leaving on the trip, that would need to get buy something in order to utilize my curling iron in Amsterdam, since they use a different current and plug than we do. I'm not so proud any more - after plugging my unit into their outlet and plugging in and turning on my curling iron in the bathroom, I went into the bedroom to start getting ready. Wasn't too long when I smelled something like smoke. Went into the bathroom and realized that I had purchased an adapter, not a converter and my curling iron was smoking! Thank goodness I smelled it before it became a fire. Then I went off for my tour. Got there with plenty of time before they ... read more