Tag Archives: vacation

Orlando FL: Universal Studios and SeaWorld

Eric and Kathryn returned from their vacation in Orlando where they spent 4 days visiting Universal Studios and SeaWorld. They stayed at the DoubleTree Hotel and were within walking distance of Universal Studios and a bus ride from SeaWorld. There were several shops and entertainments between the hotel and Universal Studios. Below Kathryn and Margaret pose in front of the elephant.

Eric and Harrisen look to have a basketball dribbled onto their heads in front of NBA City.

Eric poses with Jaws.

Eric and Harrisen tackled an urban climbing wall.

Eric, Margaret, Harrisen and Kathryn pose with the characters from Madagascar.

They had a perfect seat for the Shamu Show, but the boys were disappointed they didn’t get wet! So the 2nd day they returned to the Shamu Show and sat in the Splash Zone and happily got soaked.

Eric got to feed the dolphins, rays, sharks and seals.

Feeding the dolphins was fund so the group returned to do a training session. They got pet the dolphins and teach them a couple of tricks.

They taught a dolphin to stand and make a noise.

The last day was the warmest so the group returned to Adventure Island in Universal Studios for water rides.

Eric and his souvenir stuffed seal named “Orlando”.

Toddy Pond, Maine

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We have been blessed with wonderful weather during our vacation. We went swimming every day – usually twice. We did jumping competitions from the dock; swam to a large nearby rock for sunning; and twice we took out the pontoon boat for tubing and swimming in the middle of the lake. We played Jump or Dive, Marco Polo and any other ad hoc water game we could think of.

Below Eric, Kathryn and Scout lounge on the large rock and then Scout, Kathryn and Eric swim in from the rock.

Below Pam relaxes in the tube while Eric prefers being thrown into the water.

Below Jim prepares to dunk Eric, who can be seen below the water in the next picture.

Kathryn and Jim Helmer ride the waves while tubing.

Kathryn picks blue berries. Jim and Eric enjoy fishing from the end of the dock at evening.

Scout, Kathryn, Jim and Eric around the evening fire. Kathryn and Pam on top of Blue Hill Mountain.

We had lots of native blueberries – in fact every other day 2-3 people would pick a bowl from the surrounding bushes for our breakfast cereal. We had a home cooked lobster meal one night, did take out lobster rolls one night, got invited to friends for chicken BBQ and ate at an ocean side restaurant last night to celebrate our 34^th year anniversary.

We had a campfire for 3 nights. On Sunday or Monday night we saw a meteor shower with 8 meteors in a 10 minute span including one of the brightest single meteors I have ever seen.

In ‘down’ times we played lots of Sorry. We picked up a new board game called Scotland Yard and played that several times between swims as well.

We had one more quick swim before lunch on Saturday and then drove the 4-5 hours to stay in a motel 6 just NW of Boston and then completed our trip on Sunday morning. Somehow a single 9 hour drive isn’t that appealing.

Keuka Lake

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Tom & Debby were visiting from Seattle for the Skelly Family Reunion. Following the reunion they booked a camp on Keuka Lake and invited us to spend the week with them. It was hot and sunny with temperatures in the 90s every day. Sunday we went grocery shopping and swam. Sunday night we watched Flares Around the Lake and 90 minutes of fireworks. At times there were 12 simultaneous fireworks visible from our viewpoint on the dock.

Monday Kathryn, Eric and Debby went to Roseland Water Park. Tom and I went to the Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. Tuesday we stayed home to swim and in the evening we drove to Victor to shop at LL Bean and met Pat and Janice for Dinner . Wednesday Kathryn, Tom and Debbie went on a Wine Tour while Eric and I swam and had water gun wars. Thursday we swam and fished. Friday we returned home.

When we weren’t in the water and spraying each other we had marathon Sorry games – below Eric and Debby do battle.

Bennington, VT

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We left home on Sunday afternoon to travel 3 hours to Bennington, VT to meet our friends Kent, Kathi and Julia who were visiting from Eugene.

We met them for dinner Sunday night and then played tourist on Monday. One item of interest was the Bennington Monument celebrating the Battle of Bennington. During the summer of 1777, the British put in motion an ambitious campaign designed to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies and thereby crush the American rebellion. For two months, General John Burgoyne led his army down the Lake Champlain-Hudson River corridor toward Albany with apparent ease, capturing several American forts along the way. In August, however, he found himself in desperate need of provisions, wagons, cattle, and horses. Burgoyne then made the fateful decision to send an expeditionary force to the small town of Bennington, Vermont to capture these much needed supplies. At the Battle of Bennington, which took place between August 14 and 16, the British army and its Canadian, Indian, and Loyalist supporters faced Patriots defending their newly proclaimed independence. What might have seemed like a minor victory for the Patriots contributed to the British defeat at Saratoga a few months later and thus helped decide who would win the American War of Independence.

We also did a walking tour, looked at all the painted street moose and spent a couple of hours in the hotel pool to combat the heat.

Science abounds in Ithaca

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Saturday morning Kathyrn, Eric and I took a short vacation to Ithaca. In the AM we visited the Museum of the Earth an earth science and natural history museum affiliated with the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) and Cornell University. We had lunch at the State Street Diner and in the afternoon we visited the Sciencenter. We played with the hydraulic, electrical and acoustic devices.

After the museum we went to have dinner with Kieran, his wife Victoria and their puppy Flavio.

Rochester Museum of Play

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We planned a vacation with Helmers to visit the Rochester Museum of Play to see the Lego exhibit. Jim and Pam took their grandson Vance,. We met in Syracuse and drove out on Friday morning. We spent 4 hours in the museum in the afternoon. We enjoyed the Lego exhibits and the rest of the museum.

On our way to the hotel we swung by Kathryn’s parent’s house one last time. It was bittersweet.

The hotel had a pool which we all enjoyed both that evening and again the morning before we departed for home.