Days 2 – Saturday – Charleston

The first day of our cruise was “at sea” and uneventful. The second day was in Charleston, SC and was the only port where we had specific plans. We had tickets for the 9:00 tour of Fort Sumter. We had taken Bud around the ship Friday. We needed an early breakfast Saturday. Bud decided to sleep in. So we gave Bud directions to breakfast and went to bed. Saturday, we got our early breakfast and headed out to the Fort Sumter visitor center. The combination of light rain, high tide, and a full moon flooded the Charleston waterfront. We had to go some blocks out of the way to bypass the floods. We made it to the shuttle boat in time. We took a very foggy boat ride out what “they” said is rhe fort. Unfortunately, while we were on the water, Bud slept in. All day. When we got back tp the ship and were ready for dinner, we woke Bud up. He had slept all of Friday night and all of Saturday.

As it turned out, while he was sleeping, we were missing our tour. The high tide had also flooded the the fort. We got a very foggy boat ride out, waited a half hour while the rangers confirmed the fort was flooded, called HQ, and got permission to send us back, and then got the boat ride back. Was it strange that it was so foggy we couldn’t confirm where the boat actually went? Did we see the outside Ft. Sumter, or was it  and all as fake as the moon landing and the round Earth? Bud recovered himself for dinner. We got this picture of a Coast Guard boat escorting us out of Charleston. I’m not sure what makes Charleston so threatening. Is possible this wasn’t just an escort? I noted that just as I took this pic, the “Coast Guard” ship stopped following us. My theory is that they saw me taking a picture and knew they were “burned”. Perhaps “they” drugged Bud. And maybe “they” will pick us up and arrest us at a future port. This may be my last message to the free world.

Port Canaveral

It’s Sunday. Royal Caribbean is not offering any Sunday services. Is it possible the cruise line is an evil entity trying to entrap us? Evidence is circumstantial, and I hesitate to mention the possibility … yet … I’ll tell the story and let you decide.

This time we got Bud to breakfast and got him comfortably seated in a public area of the ship. Then we walked off onto the dock. We wanted to go the Manatee Reserve. We walked all over, running into tall fences and locked gates. There is no way out of the Port Canaveral terminal, other than to purchase a $60 round trip (for two) transport. I’m not joking. We walked all the way to the terminal exit. The only way out is a long causeway that leads directly onto I-95. We were not planning to tell anybody about *them*. We only wanted to walk to the manatee reserve. It’s just like the old paranoid distopian TV show “Escape”.

I have photographic evidence … the flood and fog … the escort boat … I wish I could transfer the evidence from mt camera to the web.

What will happen when we go to Miami? Will we be permitted to send more messages? If we don’t return, find my camera. The evidence is rhere.

We had our first snow last Thursday. It was an inch or two of wet snow. The streets were completely clear by the end of the next day. This has been the rainiest day on record for Baltimore — and that’s with 6 more weeks to go.

We spent a lot of time this week planning trips, including most of Thursday. Our Italy trip ends at Morocco, the closest airport is in Niece. Getting flights from Baltimore to Rome, then Niece back to Baltimore wasn’t working well for us. We finally decided to fly out of JFK. We’ll drive to NY the day before, stay at a hotel near the airport, then park our car at the hotel. We were able to grab Economy Plus seats for crossing the Atlantic for a reasonable price. Both flights have a connection in Europe. Our connecting flights will be economy steerage, but their only an hour or two long. We also spent quite a bit of time planning hotels and such for our Texas Tour in March.

We had our neighborhood Thanksgiving party Saturday evening. We’re looking forward to a members only night at the aquarium tomorrow.

We will leave for our Thanksgiving cruise with Bud on Thursday (Thanksgiving day). In addition to the normal cruise activities, we’re looking forward to a tour of Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC. I’m going on a snorkeling trip when we get to the Caribbean. (Danita isn’t going because she can’t see without her glasses.)

The cheapest internet plan on this ship is $150, which I think is outrageous. So we aren’t getting it. We should be able to find free WiFi when we dock at some ports. But there are “at sea days” and a day at the company island where we won’t have internet access. We’ll have our cell phones, but they may not work at sea either. If there’s an emergency, you can contact us through Royal Caribbean’s emergency contact number. You will have to pay for the call with a credit card. The fee is $8/minute, with a maximum of 10 minutes. The number is 888-724-7447. Or you can send an Email and we’ll see it in a day or three.

I hope this finds everybody doing well,

The dishwasher is installed and it is wonderfully quiet. It even shines a light on the floor while it’s running so you don’t accidentally open it while it’s running. Bud’s suit will be ready tomorrow. Danita will pick it up and take it to Bud’s Wednesday. She’s hoping it will fit well, and  she won’t have to take Bud back to Jos. Banks to have more adjustments made. But what I’m really tickled about is our internet service. After our home phone number was ported to Ooma, I went on the internet and saw a deal for new customers — 100 MBPS for $45/month for 2 years (new customers only). I called Verizon and asked for the deal. The service rep was shocked that I asked, but she checked and decided she could give it to me. Our speed is twice as fast. We don’t notice that because we don’t need the additional speed. But I’m completely tickled by having the price for “triple play” cut almost in half. Simple minds are easily entertained, I guess.

So I’m saying we’re caught up. But it’s not really true. I usually wash the deck and porch in the fall, and I didn’t make it this year. I have no choice but to give up for the year. We had our first frost last night.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The trees started their fall colors about the time we got home. The peak of this year’s colors was Friday. It was warm, cloudy, and humid. The colors were vibrant, with may views of yellow against red and green. Friday night, a strong front came through with quite a squall. It spawned a small tornado that took down a 50-foot wall at an Amazon warehouse, and a second small tornado that pulled some roofs of in Carrol County. Needless to say, plenty of leaves also came down. But the colors still look pretty good today.

We were scheduled to attend a neighborhood party this weekend, but it was cancelled due to lack of interest. We volunteered at a Church dinner. It was pretty much a disaster. There weren’t enough dining room volunteers. We were running around trying to plug holes and put out fires. Attendance was higher than anticipated. They ran out of dinners. They ran out of salads. They ran out of deserts. They ran out of order pads. (We didn’t have paper to write the orders on.) They even ran out of trash bags. As soon as the last of the crowd was settled, Danita and I left and went to Jason’s Deli for our dinner. Needless to say, we didn’t make a dinner donation.

We’re getting closer to catching up from our vacation. Our Verizon contract for internet, phone, and TV expires 11/29. They want to raise our monthly fee from $92 to $125. That includes more bandwidth, but we don’t put any strain on our existing 50 mbps service. I plan to switch Verizon to internet only. I purchased an Ooma internet telephone device. It’s set up and working. I have started the process of porting our home phone number. I also purchased an antenna pre-amp because one of the UHF stations Danita likes to watch doesn’t come in very well without it. I did some tests with the pre-amp, and found it to be an excellent device at what I thought was a very reasonable price.

The car needs servicing. The dishwasher has to be installed. Bud ordered a suit which has to be tried on and picked up (for dinners on our upcoming cruise). The list is getting shorter.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We made it home. The cruise was quite nice. In general, I didn’t see a lot of difference between the Queen Mary and other cruises we have had. They all turn your bed down in the evening and tidy the room in the morning. They all have nice dining rooms and evening entertainment. The Queen Mary excelled at having a lot of public areas for the number of passengers. That’s a good thing, because we were all on the ship for a week with no opportunity to go ashore. And the 3:30 tea was very nice.

Transfers between London and the ship, and between the ship and Amtrak went smoothly. The train to BWI airport left on time and had only a 20 minute delay due to track work. The taxi ride from the airport was a bit of a trip. There was a disgruntled cabby earnestly expressing his dissatisfaction with an imperfect world. Fortunately, he wasn’t our driver.

There’s a lot of stuff to do getting home after a month. We’ve made progress on much of it, but for some reason I’m having trouble moving the things on my list from “started” to “done”. The dishwasher leaks and needs replacement. I selected a Bosch 300 series, visited a couple stores, and ordered one. But if I hold the order until Nov 3, I can save $230. So that’s started but not done. The fan in the bathroom that sparks when turned on was easier than I thought. I was able to wedge a ladder around the toilet and tub. Removing the fan was easy. I found a replacement fan for $120. That was pretty expensive, especially considering I could buy the entire unit new in the box for $12. So I ordered the entire unit. We’ll see if the new fan fits the old box. Started but not done. The front light for my bike is fixed. They just needed me to call them with credit card information for the $8 repair. I thought it was a very reasonable price. When it arrives, that can move that from “started” to “done”. And so it goes.

We had one issue that vaporized into thin air. I get my prescription plan from Maryland as a retiree. Last year, the legislature snuck a provision into a law that took this benefit away from all retirees. Open season started a couple of days before we returned. I was going to have to hunt through all the prescription plans and pick something out. To our great good fortune, somebody sued Maryland and had a federal judge rule that they couldn’t remove our prescription plan benefit this year. We had no idea about it because all three of the web sites I use to get local news aren’t available in Europe. (Actually, an amazing number of US web sites aren’t available in Europe.) When we picked up our mail, the insurance packet had big bold letters on the outside of the envelope indicating we could choose to keep our prescription plan this year. I did a quick web search, and sure enough, it was prominently reported. That issue went directly to “done”.

We have a neighborhood party this evening. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

When planning this trip, we decided to take a cruise to get home. Then we decided to take the Chunnel train to get from Paris to England. Then we realized we could spend a day in London if we wished. I had read the book “Longitude” by Dava Sobel and decided I would like to see the first chronometers. And that’s what we did to end our trip.

(Straddling the Prime Meridian – one foot in the East, one in the West)

It’s a compelling story. Ships can find their latitude from the stars, but they can’t find their longitude. It’s a time of great competition for lucrative trade. England offers a large prize for a solution, with the value graduated to accuracy. John Harrison invents a clock rugged and accurate enough to keep good time on a ship. Sailors can determine their local time from the sun or the stars. If they know the time in London, they can calculate their longitude. Is Harrison’s chronometer accurate enough and rugged enough? Can it be manufactured, or is it an impossibly complicated device that can’t be duplicated?

Harrison built four chronometers over several decades, named H1 – H4. H1 was a huge clock. It replaced a pendulum with 4 large masses swinging back and forth on pivots. (You can see two of the masses in the picture.) It was good, but not quite accurate enough for the maximum prize. H2 was not as accurate as H1. Harrison discovered the heavy mass on long arms can be unstable. He came up with a circular balance (used in mechanical watches today). H3 was better, but still not quite accurate enough. His last chronometer, finished after decades of work, met all the requirements. It looked like a large watch.

We got to see the original of all four chronometers. H1, H2, and H3 were running. H4 is in working order, but is wound only on special occasions.

For our last vacation activity, we saw a ballet. This was an conventional ballet, with a story and traditional dance. There was no mooning. To get from our hotel to the Royal Opera House, we took our first Uber rides.

Our cruise home starts today. We meet a shuttle at the train station, just 1/3 mile from our hotel. Once on board, we will have internet access, but it is immensely expensive. I plan to check Email once a day, but lacking a serious emergency, I won’t post our adventures.

We arrived in London mid-morning Tuesday, dropped our suitcases at our hotel, and walked to the British Museum. Lord Elgin removed some of the friezes from the Parthenon and sold them to the British government. We were surprised how much we learned. The friezes were mounted at eye-level, which made them much easier to see in detail. They also had a couple of short movies explaining what we were looking at. The most whimsical thing we saw was a statue that for all the world looked like it was made with ancient Lego blocks.

(Could this be a 2,500 year-old Lego block?) 

While we were there, we stumbled on an ancient clock exhibit. We saw some very old clocks, back to the 1500s. We also saw some chronometers, which is our objective for Wednesday.

Today is our last full day in Paris. Tomorrow we take the chunnel train to England. We spent the morning at the Orangerie Museum, which has Monet’s huge water lily paintings in two very large oval rooms. It also has a large collection of artists from the impressionistic era and later. We stopped for lunch. While we were eating, we saw a large honor guard of maybe 100 mounted police. We found out that the President of South Korea, Moon Jae, is visiting.

After lunch we visited Notre Dame cathedral.

This is also the area where the iconic green book stalls are located. They sit next to the sidewalk. They are easily locked up. When the owner wants to open, they unlock the stall and swing the doors open. Some of these sell trinkets, but most sell used books and magazines.

We’re taking a bit of a rest this afternoon. Tonight we will have dinner with Thierry Koeberle, an old colleague of mine from Malco / Schlumberger / Axalto / Gemalto.

There are no impressionistic paintings in the Louvre, so we we went to the Monet Museum. I don’t generally take pictures of paintings, because better pictures are available on the web. But this painting is unique. Early in his career, Monet and others had an exhibition. Monet titled this painting “Impression, Sunrise”. A critic labeled the exhibition “impressionistic”, meaning it as a put-down. The insult didn’t stick, but the name did.

Having seen some excellent art, what could be better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than a visit to Mont Marte? We viewed the sidewalk artists, enjoyed some onion soup, and visited Sacre Coeur. In addition to the normal things to see and do, Mont Marte was celebrating the 80th anniversary of the concentration of the Sacre Coeur abby. The area was quite crowded with people, food tents, wine tents, etc.

We finished off our day by going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe after dark to see Paris at night. This picture shows the Eiffel tower lit at night  (left). For 5 minutes an hour, the tower twinkles (right).

We spent the morning at the Rodin Museum. There are a large number of works. Many of them are plaster casts, but there are plenty of completed bronze works also. The statues of Balzac were interesting. There’s a nude Balzac in brass at the Baltimore Museum of Art. There is a plaster cast of this piece in the Rodin Museum house. And there is the “finished” brass statue of Balzac clothed in the Rodin Museum garden. One can see how Rodin progressed in his work. Personally, I think the earlier nude is a stronger work.

Of course one should see the Paris Opera House. Instead of taking a tour, we attended a performance Saturday afternoon. The audience was in a festive mood. Many people were taking pictures before the show, both tourists and French. We saw one group lean over their balcony box to take pictures of people they knew in the adjacent box. A man who sat in front of us wanted pictures of his teenage daughter, who was reacting in a typical teenage way. The house was packed. There wasn’t a single empty seat anywhere. I’m not sure how to describe the performance. It was a very contemporary dance. It was the first time I was mooned by a dance troop. (It was a very polite mooning.) Anyway, we had a good time.

While traveling around Paris, I was able to get a pretty good shot of the Eiffel Tower.