Innov8d Travels

I moved my Travelblog to my new website, it's now at http://innov8d.net/.

It snowed lightly overnight, which was a total surprise when we woke up. We got back from Middle Earth pretty late and it was totally clear when we got it. Nice little surprise when we woke up!

The wind was still blowing, but not as bad as the day before, but it was coooooooold now. We drove over to the gorge with the idea that we'd walk the trail along side it and check it out. The combination of wind and ice quickly changed our minds. It's too bad because it looked cool.

This is lookign down into the gorge. It's supposedly 158 feet down.

A large bridge spans the gorge by where we were staying. This is a view of that bridge from the trail.

We stopped briefly in the Quechee Village Arts and Crafts Center and browsed through the antiques and collectibles that were for sale. After that we started the trek back home.

We ended up stopping at Portsmouth Suba in Portsmouth, NH and L.L. Bean in Freeport, ME to pick up gear for our upcoming trip to Dry Tortugas National Park and Everglades National Park in Florida.

Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart were playing at the Middle Earth Music Hall in Bradford, VT so we decided to head over to see them and stay in Quechee, VT near Quechee Gorge.

An unbelievable wind storm kicked up the day of the show which made the trip over pretty interesting. The wind (think swirling leaves) combined with the general lack of snow this year made it look more like fall than mid-winter.

It took us around four hours to drive from the house to Quechee, VT.

We checked into our hotel (Quality Inn at Quechee Gorge) - pretty basic place, but perfectly acceptable! Then we had to call Middle Earth for directions because I had forgotten to print out the directions before we left the house. Doh! Once we had directions we were off on our way!

We got to Middle Earth way before the show started and were REALLY surprised when we were greeted at the door by Mark Stuart. We had a lovely conversation with him and Stacey and then we went to scope out the place while they did their sound check. We reserved some seats in the performance area and then settled into a booth in the bar and had dinner. The food was very good and we both totally over ate! If you are ever at Middle Earth, ask them what the Dragon Egg is made out of.

The show was amazing (especially once a group of noisy people were shushed and then later left). Middle Earth was really a wonderful venue, we were both really glad to have made the trip over! I bought Mark and Stacey's "Must Be Live" CD and Mark's "Songs from a Corner Stage" and chatted with Mark and Stacey a bit more.

Then it was back to the hotel for the night!

My boss approved the vacation today, so we're good to go. The delay in getting approved also means that we're going to extend the vacation to be able to get cheaper plane tickets since the original "cheap" ticket flights are now sold out. We'll be flying to Miami, FL on Thursday 3/2/6 6:00AM and getting home to Portland, ME on Monday 3/13/6 7:30PM.

Booked the plane tickets through Travelocity.com, so we're committed to doing this now!

We're solidifying our plans to go to Florida to kayak and camp in Everglades National Park, snorkel and camp in Dry Tortugas National Park, and snorkel with manatees in Kings Bay. I sent an email to my boss today requesting the time off. Still not sure if we're REALLY going to be able to make this happen, but really excited at the possibility!

I've been researching kayaking and camping in the Everglades and multiple sites have pointed to books by Johnny Molloy as being excellent resources. I bought "A Paddler's Guide to Everglades National Park" by Molloy to help plan our kayaking route and find the campsites and chickees where we will be overnighting on our way.

I also bought "Beach and Coastal Camping in Florida" to help find great beachside campsites to stay at while we're traveling around Florida. This one is by Molloy too, I think he may be my new idol. *grin* Seriously, if you're into camping/hiking/kayaking/canoeing, check out his site!

Laurie found the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida" while searching Amazon for books related to our trip. I bought this one too because it'll make a great field guide for us as we explore Florida and its wildlife.

We got up early in the morning and checked out of the Best Western in Northampton, grabbing a quick breakfast from the free continental breakfast provided by the hotel. We had to get to the Metro-North Railroad station in Brewster, NY to catch the morning train into Grand Central Station in New York City. We took 91 south out of Massachusetts into Connecticut and onto 84 west from Connecticut to New York. The drive was pretty easy without any major problems and we made it to the train station with plenty of time to buy our tickets to Grand Central.

We loaded the train when it arrived, having a car to ourselves we settled in for the ride. It was a handful of stops down to Grand Central, but this made the commute into the city MUCH less stressful than trying to drive in and find parking.

Laurie got a picture of the clock in Grand Central shortly after we arrived.

After we arrived we gave Ann a call on my cell phone (she had called while we were on the train, but I had missed the call) to see if they were ready for us. They were still getting ready and Kirsten was going to meet at their hotel room around noonish. We decided to walk down to the Westin and get something quick to eat on the way.

Laurie got a picture from the street as we were walking down to the Westin, Madame Tussauds NYC is in the right of the shot.

We stopped at a bakery/deli by the Westin and had something quick to eat and then we headed up to Ann and Jim's room. We went back to the revolving door for the Westin and tried to go in. Hmmm, door wouldn't spin. I pushed a bit harder. Nope nothing. OK (and this is uncharacteristic for me) I decided must be REALLY stiff, so I gave it a MAJOR shove. Then the part of the door that I was shoving started moving, but the door as a whole didn't. Oops, busted it. So we scurried away quickly. It wasn't my intent to be destructive, but I apparently succeeded. We decided to see if there was another door and we started to head around the block and yup, there was a door on the other side you could actually go in.

We went up to Ann and Jim's room and MAN what a view. They had a corner room with a wonderful view of the city. Laurie took a picture back down the street (again including Madame Tussauds for scale).

Kirsten showed up shortly after we did and we decided to try to get a cab to take the five of us over to the American Museum of Natural History. Ann and Jim checked out and left their bags with the valet downstairs and we went out to the see if we could get a cab. The best we could get was four in a cab, so Kirsten used her subway pass to head over while the rest of us took the cab.

The primary reason for going to the museum was to see the Darwin Exhibit while it was there, but we decided to make a day of it and try to hit as many exhibits as possible.

After getting tickets to everything we possibly could, we stopped quickly in the cafeteria for lunch and ran to the first two shows we had purchased tickets to.

We got tickets for two events in the Hayden Planetarium (or plana-arium if you are a South Park fan, I however do not have such a rare bone disorder) - "The Search for Life: Are we Alone" narrated by Harrison Ford and "Passport to the Universe" narrated by Tom Hanks. They were both pretty similar, but the Tom Hanks version was more compelling in my opinion. His version conveyed a lot more information and utilized the projection equipment in the planetarium much more fully. I highly recommend it if you're into astronomy at all!

We also hit the Darwin Exhibit and tried to take in as much as we could given the tremendous crowds trying to get into the exhibit. Laurie got a picture of the Komodo Dragon exhibit (nope, they aren't alive) that was just outside the Darwin Exhibit. The whole Darwin exhibit was very informative and gave both a good overview of the man and his science.

We realized we hadn't actually gotten tickets to the Butterfly Conservatory even though we had really wanted to go see it. Ann managed to wheel and deal with the people at the customer service desk and they got us in to see the exhibit. We couldn't stay long, but it was pretty cool. Ann loves butterflies and says there's an even cooler conservatory down in Key West, FL that they have been to before. Sounded really cool. There were moths in the conservatory that were bigger than my head. *grin* The picture below doesn't do it justice, but this thing is HUGE!

To round out our trip to the museum we caught the Galapagos documentary at the IMAX. It was just a bit hokey (some of the banter in the movie was clearly rehearsed), but it was really cool to see film from the Galapagos on a screen that size! I would LOVE to go to the Galapagos some day and be able to see it firsthand. Laurie would love to go someday too, so maybe we'll pull it off!

By the time we were done with everything, the museum was closing so we decided to go get some dinner. We walked a little bit and picked Scaletta Ristorante because Italian sounded good to everyone (and not to mention Ann's Italian heritage AND it was her birthday!). The food was indeed very good and the restaurant was just a touch upscale. Probably 5 different people waited on us at different points. Everyone had a good time though and we even got the Maitre D to take a couple of group pictures of us on the way out. The crowd that frequented the restaurant were definitely averaging much older than us, but we still had a fun time.

We walked Kirsten to the bus stop so that she could head back home and we caught a cab back to Ann and Jim's hotel so they could pick up their bags and their car. They drove us back to our car at the train station in Brewster, NY and then we followed them back to Ann's place in Connecticut.

We chatted with Ann and Jim for a bit and Ann showed us pictures of their last trip to Key West and told us that they were heading down again in early March. She showed us pictures their last visit to Dry Tortugas National Park. It really looks amazing! It is primarily a fort that takes up almost all of Garden Key which is 70 miles west of Key West (and only 90 miles north of Cuba!). They even allow overnight camping on the beach outside the fort! Laurie and I both think it sounds really cool and would love to get a chance to go there some day. The Butterfly Conservatory that Ann was talking about earlier in the day also sounds like it would be really amazing! We had been thinking about taking a weekend trip down to Florida to catch Dar Williams in concert, maybe we can coordinate something around that.

We crashed in Ann's living room on an air mattress she borrowed for us to use.

This weekend was Ann's birthday and we decided to make it a bit of an event (well, for us at least *grin* although hopefully she enjoyed seeing us too). We went to Northampton, MA, then down to NYC (to meet Ann and Jim), and then stopped in at the cottage in Old Saybrook, CT on the way back home.

To start off the weekend, we went to see Susan Werner at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA. We both love Susan (this was the third time we've seen her since Laurie and I got together) and figured that since this would be our first time going to the Iron Horse it'd also be fun to experience a new venue.

We drove straight from the house to Northampton, MA after working a half day from home. We got there with a bit of time before the show started, so we grabbed an open table along the wall on the first level and ordered some dinner. The food was OK, not spectacular, but not terrible either.

While we were eating, the opening act came on. Her name was Kristen Hoffmann, and she had a distinctly different style than Susan for sure. I enjoyed her, but she definitely had more of a pop vibe than folk. She accompanied herself on piano and guitar with some backup from a laptop with prerecorded tracks. I bought her "Divided Heart" CD and Laurie got her to sign it during the break.

Laurie got a quick shot of Kristen on stage.

After Kristen, Susan came on and put on her typical great show. It was a pretty similar set list to what she's played the last two times we've seen her, but she's clearly coming off the "I Can't Be New" tour and starting to throw in more new stuff and oldies. By the end of the show she was pretty much taking requests from the audience (even if she couldn't actually remember all of the words to them some of them). It was a typical great show and we were both glad to have had a chance to see her again.

Overall the setup at the Iron Horse was pretty decent. I didn't check out the second floor, so I don't know what the view was like from there, but our seats were good. If you get there early enough you might be able to get one of the tables right down on the floor in front of the stage. We really only had two problems, first the staff at the bar was being pretty noisy at points and secondly having people on the level right above you pushing chairs around and moving about could be kind of distracting at times. All in all though, great venue and an outstanding show!

After the show we stayed at the Best Western in Northampton, MA. It was your typical chain hotel, pretty decent overall.