Cruise Report Part 1: Leaving Home and Day 1

I was hoping to post about the cruise before now, but we've been a bit busy since we got back. We had a little down time so I started on it, but then we got busy again and it had to wait. But, finally, here it is. I've decided to split it into an entry for each day. Hopefully there won't be too much delay between entries.

The Cruise

In case I didn't mention this before this was a Disney cruise. It was a four-day (kinda), three-night cruise to Nassau and Disney's private island Castaway Cay (pronounced "key"), with the home port at Port Canaveral Florida. My travel agent sister-in-law told us it was a four-day cruise, but it was more like two and a half. The ship started boarding around mid-day on the first day, and we got off the ship on the morning of the fourth day. On each day it left port around sundown, arriving at the next port the following morning.

Leaving Home

As seen in my post on that day, the car was frosty on the morning we left. Our plan was to drive as far as we could the first day without staying up too late, then drive the rest the next morning. We ended up stopping in Saint Augustine, Florida, just a couple hours away from the port. As it turns out the hotel clerk recently moved there from our town. Small world.

Cruise Day One

We had the typical free breakfast at the hotel, then drove to the port next morning. We apparently got there earlier than most. The lines were very short and fast and we spent an hour or two sitting in the terminal and looking at the Christmas decorations and the model of the ship. (As it turns out there are two ships, more or less identical except for "art deco" vs "art nouveau" decor, and the model was of the other ship.) We also talked to my wife's folks on the phone. None of her family arrived until after we had boarded.

We boarded the ship and as we entered the main lobby we were asked our names and announced. After that we went to the buffet for lunch, then walked around the deck to kill some time until our cabin was ready. Along the way we happened upon a couple ping-pong tables and decided to play a bit. We didn't keep score, just played for fun. It was just as well the way the ball kept rolling away. Fortunately the portion of the deck with the ping-pong tables had plexiglass covering the view over the side.

We talked to my mother in law on the phone and were told that my sister in law and her family were checking in. We went back inside to the boarding area and waited on a balcony above where we were announced in hopes of getting a shot of them coming on, but after about 15 or 20 minutes of waiting we gave up. After a bit more wandering around, and finally meeting up with the family, we watched a bit of the show they put on on the middle pool deck. Then the ship left port as the sun set.

The cabin was nice. We got an interior cabin to save money. It was near the stern. (That's the rear of the ship to you land-lubbers.) It was comparable to a small but nice motel room. The only problem was the outer metal part of the hose to the shower head was broken and the rubber hose inside tended to kink. We didn't mention it to the cabin steward, figuring they probably couldn't fix it until they got back to port anyway. The cabin was, of course, decorated in a nautical Disney theme.

There were shows each night, and scheduled dinners at three restaurants. The shows and dinners were scheduled so that there were two shows a night, and two dinners at each restaurant. Passengers are scheduled in groups so that each night you eat in a different restaurant and get the same serving crew each night. As it happened, our group was scheduled for the late dinners. The first night we ate in the Animator's Palette restaurant. The whole room is in black and white, as are the staff uniforms, but some of the walls are painted screens with the same scenes in color behind them. Over the course of the meal the scenes are lit up so they appear in color, and the staff changes in to colorful vests. The food was pretty good. It was fairly fancy, as I recall, but I don't remember what I had.

It was late after that so we called it a day and went back to the cabin. There was a towel sculpture of a bunny on the bed, along with a couple chocolates, a schedule for the next day's events and activities, and a card congratulating us on our wedding anniversary which was that month. After such a long and active (for us) day we were ready for bed. As we passed through the Florida straits, as we would later learn, the seas were a little more rough. Since we were near the stern the effect was more than it would have been amidships. For me it was nice. I kind of rocked me to sleep, though I was awakened in the night by the coat hangers swaying and clattering in the closet. They were quiet after I shoved them to one side (which I recommend as a bedtime routine if you ever take a cruise.) I don't think my wife liked it as much. We were told later by our restaurant servers that the seas were less calm than usual for our cruise, but the previous cruise was much worse due to the weather. In fact, we had not boarded by the normal entry due to the gangway being damaged by the motion of the ship in port.

That's it for the first day. More later.

A frosty start heading out for our Carribean cruise

But we're in Florida now and will be boarding ship tomorrow. I'll try and post again before we sail (steam? diesel?) out of range.

Ultrasound Results, Heavenly Bodies, and Off We Go A-Cruisin

Okay, I'm sorry this took so long, but we've been a bit busy.

The ultrasound, and accompanying blood tests, came out perfect. We went in with about a 1 in 100 chance of Downs and such, based on our age, and when the results were in we were at about 1 in 2000. We got some good views of the baby, though once again I was unable to be in the room. This is my fave: alien baby. I tell everybody it has my hairline.

Last night I lucked into getting some shots of the moon, Venus, and Jupiter in close proximity in the sky. I had read a few days ago about them being close, but the weather has been unfavorable. Luckily last evening it cleared up for a while and I was able to get a view around dusk. This shot was taken hand-held with a fast exposure to get some lunar surface detail and minimize halos. It came out okay, but I wish I'd had my tripod handy. If you got shots of this phenomenon too, post a comment with a link. Click it for a somewhat larger view.

Tomorrow we are leaving to go on a cruise in the Bahamas. It's a Disney cruise, perpetrated by my Disney-obsessed sister in law, so one of the ports-of-call will be their private island with its manufactured beach, scenery, and entertainments. I believe we'll be stopping at another island as well with real stuff to see. I'm not sure how the weather will be. We were signed up for snorkling and such but a bit of research has revealed an average water temperature in the mid 70s this time of year so we've canceled that. I guess we'll just do a bit of biking and lounging. In any case I'll try to take pictures, and if my phone miraculously works I may post one or two from there. We'll be back Monday.

Some Of My Photos - IV - City In Motion

This is another shot from our trip to New York. The camera shook - we were on top of a tour bus - but I like how it came out. I think it gives it a real sense of motion, which fits New York well. Pretty cool, really.

This was taken in Manhattan on the city lights tour before we crossed over to Brooklyn where I took the skyline and Brooklyn Bridge pictures.

Prints of this photo are available for purchase.
City In Motion Custom Framed Prints and Greeting Cards at imagekind.com

Some Of My Photos - III - Brooklyn Bridge on A Cloudy Night

The Brooklyn Bridge under a cloudy city-lit December sky. I took this at the same time I took the previous picture of the New York skyline. I like it pretty well, except for the way the tower of the bridge lines up with that building.
In this full resolution close-up, the tower is more distinct from the building, and you can see that what looks in the other view like part of the lit-up sign on the building is actually an American flag flying on top of the bridge tower.

Prints and other items featuring this photo are available for purchase.
Brooklyn Bridge on A Cloudy Night Custom Framed Prints and Greeting Cards at imagekind.com
Brooklyn Bridge on A Cloudy Night Prints and Greeting Cards at redbubble.com
New York Night Giftware at cafepress.com
New York Night Giftware at zazzle.com

Some Of My Photos - II - New York Skyline on a Cloudy Night

The New York City skyline lights up the clouds on a cloudy December night. I took this on last year's trip to New York and Pennsylvania. We were on a city lights tour on one of those open-topped tour buses, and had stopped at a pier across the East River in Brooklyn. Shortly after this picture was taken it started raining, and on the way back over the bridge we rode through the worst of a thunderstorm. I had an all-weather coat which protected me and the camera well enough. My wife had a plastic poncho the tour guide gave out. It was a bit tattered by then end of the drive, and a fold had channeled a good bit of water onto our bag. Nothing was damaged, though.

Prints and other items featuring this photo are available for purchase.
New York Skyline on A Cloudy Night Custom Framed Prints and Cards at imagekind.com
New York Skyline on A Cloudy Night Prints and Cards at redbubble.com
New York Night T-shirts and Gifts at cafepress.com
New York Night T-shirts and Gifts at zazzle.com

Some Of My Photos - I - San Gervasio on Cozumel

One of the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio on the island of Cozumel off the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. San Gervasio was dedicated to the Mayan goddess Ixchel, goddess of midwifery, fertility, medicine and weaving. We visited on our honeymoon, which was of course when I took this picture. We didn't have a guide or anything, and my wife wasn't quite as interested in Precolumbian civilizations, or walking, as I was, so we mostly poked around the ruins nearest the parking area. I'd like to go back again some day, and I think my wife would be more up for exploring these days too.

Prints and other items featuring this photo are available for purchase.
San Gervasio Custom Framed Prints and Cards at imagekind.com
San Gervasio Posters and Gifts at cafepress.com

Catching Up On The IVF, and This Weekend

IVF

Okay. If you've been keeping up with my blasts on my other blog you know what happened, more or less. I suppose somebody might come this way via a web search on "IVF blog" or some such, though, and wonder how the cycle ended, so here goes for the record.

My wife had ordered a bunch of El-Cheapo™ pregnancy tests, with the primary purpose of monitoring the drop-off of the trigger shot, whose presence in the body will give a false positive on a pregnancy test. Once you see that fade to nothing you can be more sure of subsequent positive tests. She has been participating in online IVF communities and more than one person there has said that those tests will drive you nuts - particularly if you get all negatives and then finally get a positive blood test.

Well, she went ahead and did the tests, and kept taking them a couple times a day after the trigger faded. They kept coming up negative, putting her into a bit of a funk, until one came up just barely positive. She was ecstatic. She did another a couple hours later. It gave an even fainter positive, but we chalked that up to dilute urine and I talked her into not doing any more until morning. We figured the urine would be more concentrated and the pregnancy further along so the result should be a darker line. She got up to pee in the middle of the night and got nothing. Then again the next morning - nothing. The same that night and the next day. Well, as you can imagine, she and I were in more of a funk than she was before the positive test. I got her to agree to not take any more tests until we got the results of the blood test. She tried, but couldn't hold out and took one the day before the blood test. Negative again.

She did a little research, and found that the positive test followed by negatives is most often indicative of a "chemical pregnancy" which is when an embryo starts to implant then fails. It was a totally unknown thing until recently when the tests began to detect pregnancies early enough to see it. We both went through a bad time then, each of us breaking down in turn over it all. By the next day, we had pretty much gotten our grieving over it done and took the news of the negative blood test calmly since we were expecting it. We had been holding out a sliver of hope, that maybe the urine tests were defective, or her chemistry odd (as mentioned above, they don't work so well for some women for some reason), or that maybe it was a second implantation that had kicked the chemistry up into detectable levels before failing while the first continued. In the end that proved as false as it was unlikely.

While on the phone with the doctor (I was on another line with a customer who called at the same time) my wife told him that if we do another cycle we'd want to do a full workup on her to see what might have gone wrong that we could correct or compensate for. He agreed, of course. We'll be calling in some time this week for an appointment to discuss our options.

The Weekend

This weekend we devoted to getting away from things - a break in the routine activities & surroundings to give us a breather before getting back to dealing with all this.

Saturday we drove to Williamsburg and Jamestown. We had lunch at a decent little deli in Williamsburg next to the William & Mary campus, near the historic district, after driving from there to Jamestown and back looking for a good restaurant. (We had found a place in the guide book that specialized in pies - meat, dessert, & pizza - and were looking for that. Turned out to be basically a shack along the road, so we decided to skip it until we could hear more from someone else who'd tried it.)

After lunch we decided it was just plain too hot to walk around town and headed back to Jamestown again to the museum there. Once there we parked and went in, to discover that what looked like a big air-conditioned museum was actually just a ticket counter, cafe, and gift shop, as far as we could see. The settlement museum and replicas of the three ships that brought the colonists were, of course, outside in the heat. We decided to skip that and take a look in the gift shop. We got some hat+t-shirt bundles. My wife plans to give her hat to her dad. We had planned on staying in a hotel that night and doing more touring the next day, but it was supposed to be even hotter so we decided to go home and try to tour some nearby caverns the next day.

Sunday I was awakened by my wife telling me the internet connection was down. I got up and checked it out. Sure enough the lights on the cable modem were fewer than normal. I reset it with no improvement. I reseated the cable - again nothing. I called their tech support and was put through some voodoo manipulations (part of which - the shutting down of the computers - I skipped since I know that makes no difference to a cable modem when you're using a router) which again had no effect. The phone tech scheduled a visit by a technician monday between 8 and 5. That done we headed out.

We had picked up pamphlets fir various interesting attractions at a rest stop the day before, and there were three caverns with tours within a day trip distance. Two - Luray Caverns and Endless Caverns - are very near each other so we figured on taking the shorter-length tour first then the other if we felt up to it.

We went to Luray first. The web site said the guided tour was about an hour. I think it may be out of date. The tour was an at-your-own-pace walk along a brick path (with the entrance down a pre-OSHA flight of stairs), with guides stationed at interesting points describing them periodically. It took us almost two hours.

Three highlights:

The Princess Collumn, near which some of the bones of a teenage native american girl were found by the man who discovered the caverns. (According to the guide there are two theories as to how the bones got there: either she wandered in and got lost and died there, or she had been buried in the ground above and her bones were gradually washed down a sinkhole and fell through cracks in the rock. Since only some of her bones were there and there wasn't enough light for scavengers large enough to take them away, the latter theory is favored as most likely true.)

A giant stalactite that fell from the ceiling about 7000 years ago. Dripstone has formed over parts of it since, indicating how long it's been lying there.

The Stalacpipe Organ. A man from nearby noticed that the stalactites each vibrated with a different pitch when struck. He went through the stalactites in one room of the caverns and found one for each note on an organ keyboard, then fitted them with electricly triggered rubber hammers connected to a keyboard. For years they had a guy who played it, but he retired several years ago. Now they have it rigged to play automatically and only have it played live for special occasions. The tones are quiet but very nice.

We took lots of pictures, many of which I'm sure were shaky in the low light, but I'll try to pick out some good ones to put in my album here.

After that we went to a local Pizza Hut for a late lunch. We decided we were too tired from Luray - and we had leftover pizza - so we decided to head home. It was still a little early, so we took a scenic route.

Now we're back home, and it's back to the old routine at work and home. I think we will try to make more of these day trips in the future, though.

Oh, and when we got back the cable modem was working again. Probably an outage that we were just the first to report. If we had cable TV too instead of DirecTV I'm sure that would have given another clue. I guess I should call and cancel that technician's visit. :)

Last Weekend - Finally

I just realized I said I'd blog about what we did last weekend, but never did. I'm a bit restless in anticipation of tomorrow (see previous entry) so I guess I'll work a bit of that off by writing this entry.

It started off with an invitation to a birthday party for a cousin of my wife's who she hasn't seen for years. Turns out it was sent at the instigation of another cousin we saw at my wife's grandmother's recent funeral. It was to be in relatively unfamiliar territory for us, a couple hours' drive away in Williamsburg, and with mostly strangers attending, so at the last minute, in the hotel suite we shared with my in-laws, we decided to blow it off.

Instead of going to the party, we drove down the street to a K-Mart and bought swim suits, then hit the indoor pool at the hotel. It was nice, about 80 degrees, but a bit salty. I think maybe it was desalinated sea water, but maybe it was some weird chemical they were using. Who knows? We had fun, swimming back and forth (for the first time in a couple years) and playing around. Afterward we went out to eat, ending up at Chili's. On the way out there was a fife & drum playing next door.

Apparently, Jamestown was having its 400th anniversary, and Bush was there exploring his future career options. There were lots of people in town, taking shuttle buses to Jamestown for the celebrations.

While driving around deciding where to eat, we spotted some horses in a field surrounded by a split rail fence. We parked and walked across the street, hoping to put them a bit, but the wandered off to graze. One apparently had an itchy belly. He tried to scratch with his foot but couldn't reach, so he lowered himself to the ground and wriggled around. It was weird.

The next day we were trying to figure out what to do with our Sunday. We hadn't really found anything compelling in the brochures in the lobby. My sisters in law and their kids planned to go to Busch Gardens. My in-laws mentioned that they have a deal for residents where we can get a season pass for the price of a one-day ticket, so we figured what the heck, there's nothing to lose. We went and had fun.

We pretty much followed the same path through the park we followed last July, entering through the England area, then heading over to Italy. My wife insisted on riding the Escape From Pompei ride, getting herself splashed while I took her picture from a covered observation area. Then she rode some other rides. I didn't ride much since my back was twinging me a bit and I wanted to wait until it warmed up some. Did I mention it was sixty degrees when we arrived?

We rode the teacups, or Turkish Delight as it's called there, and hopped the train to the Canada area (or New France as they call it.) We could smell the smoked meat as we got off. Then we could smell the smoke from the designated smoking area and all the designated smokers who were there. We had arrived at the park around 11 AM, so we headed over to the German area and the Octoberfest food pavilion. We got in the cafeteria-style line and got fries, cake, drinks, and some institutional-grade pizzas. Yum! The carrot cake was pretty good. Lots of raisins, though I think it would have been better with a few less. There were German-style dancers and a band there entertaining the crowd and getting everyone to yell out "oi! oi! oi!" Her family showed up there and we talked and ate as families do, and the five-year-old refused to eat as five-year-olds do.

We headed out and took a spin on the bumper cars. I bumped my wife pretty good a few times, and she gave as good as she got. It was fun. The back of my head was hurting from smiling the whole time. After that we rode the Katapult (or Scrambler as the painted-over plate on the center structure read.) Man, that thing really whips you around. It felt like we were about to be flung across the park every time we went around. It was great. If it wasn't such a line I would have liked to go on it again. The bumper cars too.

After that we had about an hour or so before the time we wanted to head out so we'd get home right around sunset. We thought about taking a round trip on the skycars, but we asked and found out we would have to get out and get back in line at each of the other two stations. We skipped that, vowing to ride them next time, and headed toward the park entrance. When we got there it was near time for the Pirates 4-D show to begin, so we headed in.

The seats were wet, so we knew we were in for a little splashing. We picked a pair of dry seats and waited. I marveled at with the 3-D glasses on my hand looked like it was coming right at me. My wife didn't find it quite so marvelous, so I stopped. The show started. It starred Leslie Nielson and Eric Idle (who wrote it) and was obviously made with the kids in mind. The 3-D was decent, and the additional effects - spraying water, blowing air, buzzing seats, added a lot of fun to it. It was actually enjoyable having Leslie Nielson spit water on us.

After the show it was time to go, and we headed out right on schedule. There was a bit of traffic on the way home, but ultimately it only took a half hour extra.

I'm not sure when we're going to go again, but I am looking forward to it. My wife is going to be really stressed in the coming month, and more if we have to try the IVF more than once, so a little fun escape at the right time will be just the ticket.

The picture above is the Griffin, Busch Garden's latest roller coaster, as seen from the train. It was open for a one-day sneak preview opening on Mother's Day. Top center you can see the sigle car, three rows of ten seats each, I believe, poised at the top of the big drop 250 feet up. We watched it a few times from various vantage points. The car stops, hanging over the edge for a few seconds, building the suspense for the riders. The it drops plunging straight down for a portion of the drop, as you can see by the track. We did not go on that ride, though I believe one of my sisters in law did. She's a friggin nut.

Entry for February 27, 2007

Well, it's been nine days since I've blogged last. What's happened in that time? Lots of working at Secret Headquarters. Lots of design brainstorming & production on cafepress (over 200 designs now, including size and light/dark variations.) And a bit of pleasure in between.

I took my wife to a quilt show this past weekend. You can see the photos in one of my albums on the top page, if Yahoo sees fit to allow you. A friend of my wife sent her a link to these photos of the show posted by someone I don't think any of us know. They're smaller, but include more of the information sheets and cover some quilts I didn't even see.

We had a bit of snow the night after that. Two inches of wet slushy stuff. At least it was easier to shovel than the half inch of ice we had before. (I had to chop at that with a spade to break it off the front walk.)

That's about it, other than watching a three-episode marathon of Heroes recordings to catch up before the most recent one. I suspect I may have missed an episode of Rome due to the vagaries of our DVR's scheduling system. I'll have to check HBO's online episode list against my recording list to be sure. I think I'll move it up on the prioritizer list.

Anyhoo... How have you all spent the last nine days?

Extreme Heights

Scared of heights? Then stay away from this Grand Canyon attraction when it opens.

Press release:

Grand Canyon West, a destination owned and operated by the Hualapai Tribe at the Grand Canyon's western rim, announces March 28, 2007 as the official public opening date of The Skywalk. The Skywalk will be the first-ever cantilever shaped glass walkway to suspend more than 4,000 feet above the canyon’s floor and extend 70 feet from the canyon's rim.

Access to The Skywalk will run from dawn to dusk and will cost $25 per person in addition to the cost of a Grand Canyon West entrance package. One hundred and twenty people will be allowed on the bridge at a time. Admittance is first come, first serve for walk up visitors; however, reservations can be made. Guests will enter and exit the walkway via temporary buildings while the adjacent visitor’s center is being completed. Grand Canyon West plans to issue numbered shoe covers — in in order to avoid scratches and slipping - to each visitor that enters the open-air walkway.

Prior to the public opening in March, Grand Canyon West will host a "First Walk" event for media and VIPs. The name of the first public figure to step on The Skywalk will be announced closer to the opening.

The historical rollout of The Skywalk structure, with the glass in place, is scheduled for February 27 to March 2. The initial part of the rollout process involves jacking the structure up off of the supports and then subjecting the structure to several days of thorough tests that replicate the conditions of final placement. After the final testing is complete, the multi-million pound steel enforced structure will be rolled out across the canyon's edge, which takes multiple days. Immediately after the structure is in position, it will be seated and attached to the foundation. Details for a media event during the rollout will be revealed closer to the event.

Official Site
National Geographic article
Snopes article
Height comparison with famous tall structures

I would love to go there, and from what I've read of the erosion in the area I better not wait too long.

We're back! We're Sick!

We're back from our New York City trip. We had planned on doing a morning tour of the harbor on the Circle Line, but we both woke up with colds after our adventure on the tour bus. Take my advice: don't ride an open-top tour bus when there's a thunderstorm in the forecast. I plan on posting some select photos, but haven't decided whether to put them in an album on the front page or post them one at a time in the blog. Anyway, here's a rundown of the trip, with Google Maps links where I can find the spot:

Day 1: Worked a bit at the shop to get a last few orders out then drove to Gettysburg. Spent a bit more time than anticipated in the museum and weren't able to complete the CD-guided driving tour. What we did see was interesting and I got some good pics dispite the rain & mist. After grabbing a quick bite at the KFC just outside the park, we drove on.

We didn't start looking for a hotel until around 9:00 PM and didn't find an affordably priced one until around 11:00. I think we were driving through some sort of golf resort rich section of New Jersey. We went out to get a bite before bed and ended up driving for half an hour without finding anything but night clubs, high-end restaurant, and one closed Burger King. They did have some nice holiday lights in the town square, though. My wife had some crackers and we went to bed.

Day 2: The hotel served a free breakfast (and for $120/night it better) that was pretty good. They had a cook there making omelettes to order and a waffle station where you could make your own fresh with premeasured cups of batter. They were fresh and delicious. Out in the parking lot I took a pic of a couple huge houses neighboring the hotel. We were definitely out of our element.

Driving on we made our way to New York, or rather to the hotel near Palisades Park New Jersey. It was still early so we dropped off our luggage at the desk and, on the advice of the desk clerk, took the bus from the Vince Lombardi Park & Ride to the New York Port Authority bus terminal.

We walked towards Times Square and once there bought a two-day ticket for the tour bus but talked them into giving us three days because of the rain in the forcast. (The tickets are sold by agents on foot near each stop, and seemingly everywhere else.) We waited a bit for the bus and went on the downtown tour. (Here's a map of their downtown & uptown routes.) We saw lots of neat stuff and I got lots of pics.

We hopped off in Greenwich Village to get some lunch. (You can get on and off at any stop for the duration you pay for.) We ate in a little pizza joint on a corner and who should walk in for a slice but John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls. If I had a camera phone I would have taken a pic while making a fake call, but all we had was the regular digital camera and I didn't want to be too touristy. We just finished our lunch and left without making a big deal of it. I'm not sure, since I didn't get a good look, but I think another band member was with him. The pizza was really good, but for the sake of the band's privacy I won't post the name of the joint.

We hopped back on the tour bus and saw lots of other sites, including a glimpse of the World Trade Center site through the churchyard of the Church of St. Peter as we passed by on Broadway, and our best view of the Statue of Liberty as we swung around the tip of the island, the United Nations buildings, and Rockefeller Center where they had lit the tree the night before.

After cleverly pretending to be guests to use a hotel's lobby restrooms, we took the uptown tour, seeing many sites including Central Park, several museums, the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Grant's Tomb, and a few mansions & churches. We also passed the site of the shooting of John Lennon, in front of his home by the park. Unfortunately, the bus was moving just a little bit and the pics I got are a bit blurry.

After the tour we met up with my wife's family and ate at Planet Hardhollyrockwood, or whatever it was, by Times Square. (Actually, we ate near Darth Vader & Chewbacca costumes, so I guess it was Planet Hollywood. At my sister-in-law's insistance, no doubt.) The food I had was decent, actually, but not as good as that pizza from lunch.

After that we headed back to the hotel. The Port Authority was hot as hell, and we had just missed our bus and had to wait a while for the next one. I think switching the thermostat there must be a union job.

Day 3: After a late start, due to much socialization with the family over breakfast in the hotel lobby, we headed into town again. We started off by hopping a tour bus and jumping off at the American Museum of Natural History and seeing the Cosmic Collisions show in the planetarium. After the show we wandered around the museum, mostly in the vertibrate evolution exhibits. I got some nice pics in there, including some nice ones of the grounds, Central Park, and the city out the windows. It was rainy out but nice and comfortable inside.

The only glitch was when we were watching an orientation video in a large darkened alcove furnished with several wooden benches. I spotted something moving in the aisle. Turns out it was a mouse. The kids there seemed quite amused and tried to chase it.

We lost track of time - there's no way to see all if the museum in a day - and missed the last uptown tour bus so we had to take a taxi back to Times Square. It was a wild and weaving ride, but very smooth for all that. I gave the driver $15 on a near-ten-dollar fare. Was that too much?

We debated a bit on what to do next, and decided on doing the city lights tour. It looked like the rain had stopped, but as it turned out it wasn't quite done.

We toured around the city a bit, stopping at Lord & Taylor's store to walk past the window displays and popping inside to see the interior decorations. (Got pics.) The tour map doesn't indicate very well the route of the city lights tour. It turns out it includes a trip across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn. That was an interesting drive at night from atop an open-top tour bus. Very windy. We stopped at a nice little pier under the Brooklyn Bridge (I forget the name) for some pictures of the skyline and an ice cream cone for my wife.

It started to rain so we headed back to the bus where they handed out cheap plastic ponchos. I had my coat with a hood so I put mine over our bag. The heavy rain naturally hit us as we started back across the bridge. All we could do was hunker down and try not to let our hoods blow loose. One woman ahead of us had an umbrella that kept blowing inside-out. Another tourist next to us had an abandoned poncho blow back into his face. There was much laughter.

By the time we got back into town the rain had stopped so we continued with an abbreviated tour. We did pass by Rockefeller Center again. The place was lit up beautifully. A nearby building was lit up in blue floodlights woth projected white slowflakes falling down its side. I didn't take any more pictures, though, for fear of a sudden downpour hitting the camera. The tour guide said we could take the lights tour again the next night if we wished, but we were planning to leave anyway.

After that we headed back to the hotel, by chance meeting up with my in-laws as we waited on the bus platform. My MIL is a bit freaked out by busses. She doesn't like not seeing the road as they go over bridges & overpasses. She had her eyes closed for much of the ride.

Day 4: The next morning we both woke up with colds. We had planned on taking the morning cruise of the harbor, but decided that we couldn't take the 40-degree temperatures and packed up to go home. Fortunately, without extra stops a direct route home is an easy half-day drive.

So here I am at home, sick in my jammies & robe. I'll post pics later this week, possibly over an extended period.