Boston - Day 1

BOSTON 2016

We arrived in Boston late Friday night after a delayed direct flight on JetBlue from Austin.  I had never been to Boston, nor had the kids.  Shellie had been once before.  Also, my bandmate Craig Downie lives there, so it is going to be great to catch up in person, even if we don't have time to write much music.

The plan for the weekend is pretty open - we are using the Boston Pass to focus on seeing sights with an entrance fee on M-F, so we're trying to find attractions off the Boston Pass for the weekend. 

Last night we checked into The Verb, a cool looking hotel across from Fenway Park. In the picture, our room is the first floor one right behind the pool where the girl is standing.

The Verb has a retro Rock N Roll vibe and is literally a stone's throw from Fenway. 

On day one we set out toward the Prudential center and to find some breakfast.  We had an Awesome breakfast at a place called Dillon's - on Boylston near the Prudential Center.  I had their EMFT (English Muffin French Toast) which sounded scary but was delicious.  The kids and Shellie liked theirs too. 

We journeyed on to the Prudential Center to find a glove so the kids could get it autographed at the game - we walked out with all kinds of extra Boston Red Sox merchandise.  Then we tried to get tickets on the Duck Tour (a tour in a vehicle that goes on land and in the water).  They didn't have any tours until 6pm, so we booked for Sunday. 

Then we took the subway to Boston Common and walked about 10 blocks to the Boston Tea Party Museum.  This is one of the top-rated things to do in Boston and it was really cool.  People dressed up like old timey Bostonians relate the events of the Boston Tea Party and it's interactive as you take part in a town meeting, throw fake tea over the side of a real ship, and see some movies.  We all thought it was worthwhile.  Then we took a cab back to the Verb to get ready for the game.

 

Bix and I went over to Yawkey way and got him a David Ortiz shirt and then went back to the hotel.  We went back the park about an hour and a half before the game so the kids could try to catch a batting practice home run, but we didn't catch any.  Mom and Dad caught some beers and steak sandwiches and then we saw the second Boston Massacre.  9 men were killed by the Angels from Los Angeles 21-2.

 

 Bix went back to the store where he bought his shirt to get the autograph of a famous ex-Red Sox player and got Oil Can Boyd to sign a picture and his hat.  Fenway is really cool and a great place to see a game.  I thought the Green Monster (the wall in left field) was even bigger than it looks on TV. We're going back for a tour later in the week.

 

 

Port Aransas (Port A)

This is a general guide to Port Aransas, Texas.  I’ve been to Port A many times in my life both with the family and when I was single and this is a mishmash of things to do and see.  Strangely, in the 25 years I’ve been going to Port A, not much has changed.

Port Aransas is a seaside town which is technically on Mustang Island which is an 18 mile long island connected at the south end to Padre Island.  Everyone I know says they are going to Padre Island when they mean Port A on Mustang Island because it’s virtually indistinguishable.  At the north end of Mustang Island is Port Aransas, which is accessible to the mainland by Ferry.  On the south end of Mustang Island is a bridge south to Padre Island and a Huge bridge over to the mainland and south Corpus Christi.

Getting there

You have two basic options to get to the island – the north route and the south route.

North route (faster from north of Corpus)

You need to get to Aransas Pass to take the ferry over to Port A.  You can do this from downtown Corpus or from more northerly routes coming in from the major Texas cities.  At Gregory, you have a choice to go Hwy 35 around the town or through the town of Ingleside.  I think the 35 route is a little faster – no stoplights.  The north route is also great because there is a big HEB just before you get to the ferry line – you can pick up food and all other kids of essentials before you get to the island where the selection is not as large and the prices are slightly higher.  The ferry times can be short or long depending on season.  There may be signs as you’re coming in – I think there’s one near Sinton – to indicate how long the line is and if you should divert and go the south route.  It’s normally pretty reasonable waiting though, even when we go down for Memorial Day.  The kids think the ferry is more fun too.

South route:

From the airport or south Texas it may be faster to go across the big bridge (John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway) to Mustang Island.  After you go across the bridge you will turn left at the first major road and drive north to Port A.

If you’re already in Corpus, either route is fine.

Places to Stay

I can’t say we’re overly experimental when it comes to staying different places in Port A.  There are accommodations for all sorts of tastes, from Hotel, to condo, to beach rental.  We usually stay at a place with a big pool because the kids and Shellie only like the beach in small doses.  Places we’ve stayed are the Courtyard Condos, Sandcastle, and Port Royal.   All of those are a hotel/motel-like condos that rent out to visitors.  Port Royal is the most expensive and boasts (at one time, still?) the largest pool in Texas.  It’s a humongous three-tiered pool with slides and a swim up bar.  Sandcastle’s pool is pretty nice too, just not as large.  Both have beachfront access.  Courtyard is more like  a standard motel and you have to walk a short block to the beach.

Almost anything is walking distance to the beach, so it’s hard to go wrong there, but you can also get a beach vehicle pass and drive down and park on the beach – good if you’re going to take a tent, chairs, beach toys, etc.

Places to Eat

At your hotel

Most every hotel has BBQ pits for hamburgers and hotdogs.  You can get anything you need at the IGA (grocery store in town).  Also most condos have fully functioning kitchens, so you can make lunches for the pool or beach.  Port Royal has a restaurant, but we’ve never eaten there.  You can also get fresh seafood at a couple of places near the ferry.  I have heard of a shrimp boat that goes out daily and then you can buy by the pound at the park on the Port A side of the Ferry.

Port A Pizza – really fast and really good.  You can get carryout or delivery. 

Places in town

• Near the ferry – there are a bunch of higher end restaurants - Viginia's on the Bay, Trout Street
• Shells – really small restaurant between downtown and the hotels
• Spaghetti works – buffet Italian in a very uniquely shaped building
• Moby Dick's  -  across from the shark store - big portions - long wait, but they have a store too

Other fun things to do

• Gambling cruise out of Aransas Pass – just on the other side f the ferry – will take you to international waters to gamble – we haven’t done this in a while
• Shark shop – there are many souvenir shops and they’re all worth checking out, but we always go to the store with the huge shark next to the IGA.  The kids love playing with the hermit crabs, sometimes they have strange pets like monkeys or birds in the front for photo ops, they have a huge selections, including custom t-shirts.
• Golf carts – there are a couple of companies we’ve used – one between the Shark shop and the IGA and another on the other main cross street toward the beach.  The one near the IGA has funky colors to choose from and the other is more plain, but it’s a fast and good way to explore the island’s neighborhoods and beaches.
• Winton's Candy shop – has barrels of vintage and fun candies to buy.

In Corpus Christi

Sometimes it’s fun to go to the Aquarium or the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi – both are located on the north side of the bay.

Maps

Lots of stuff is downtown at the corner of Ave G and Alister

North and South Routes

 

CONDOS

Seattle - Day 2

Here's the route we took

Sunday morning, I dropped off Shellie at CD’s house so she could hang out there and watch the Seahawk’s playoff game.  Then she was going to spend the day with Grandma.

Our car as seen from the Space Needle

The kids and I headed to down-town Seattle for a fun day seeing the sights.  We parked at a lot next to the EMP museum and Memorial Stadium off 5th street and then headed to the Space Needle to see the view.  At the Space Needle we bought the Seattle City Pass which would save us money over the four attractions we were going to.

Bix and Brooke look at a time
lapse of Seattle  on Bix's Birthday

I had been to the Space Needle previously, but it was nice to visit it with the kids, and inside was warm.  Outside on the viewing platform it was cold and windy and rainy so we only stayed out there a little bit.  Inside they had a bunch of cool electronics where you could see Seattle change over the years through pictures and time lapse photos.

Bix vs. Terminator

Brooke and Sci-Fi Hello Kitty

After the Space Needle we headed to the EMP Museum, an interestingly shaped set of buildings that housed many different exhibits.  We visited a tribute to horror films with lots of memorabilia, a similar one for Space movies, and one for Fantasy…  then we saw Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix exhibits, a two-story tribute to Hello Kitty.

Brooke Jams Out

Tower of Guitars

The kids and I got to jam out in a huge music room where you could play all kinds of instruments and do everything from singing to mixing and recording.  In all, we spent about 2 hours at the EMP museum and it was our favorite stop.

Brooke's Doppelganger?

BUTT-erflies!!!

Bix's favorite: Triceratops - see his Diplodocus Video HERE

After the EMP museum, we went to the Pacific Science Center which is also on the same premises as the Space Needle and EMP Museum – the Seattle City Center.  The Pacific Science Center is like a really big kids’ museum – the average age was probably 6.  

But we really saw some cool exhibits.  




We went into a butterfly room with live butterflies flying all around, we saw animatronic dinosaurs, model trains, and a laser light show to the music of Journey.  The light show was really cool, and relaxing.  We didn’t spend a lot of time at the PSC, but enough to enjoy it and then we headed out on a hike across town to the other downtown area around Pike Place.

The walk to Pike Place Market looked short on the map: only about 2 inches, but it was probably more like 2 miles.  When we got there, we headed to the fish market to watch them throw fish across the stall and catch it to wrap it up.  It’s very entertaining, but in the time we were there, only about two fish were thrown.  So, we headed to the Aquarium. 

I liked the Seattle Aquarium – it had a lot of tide pools where you could touch sea stars and anemones and then it had quite a few mammal exhibits with sea lions, harbor seals, and our favorites - the sea and river otters.  



We watched the otters for a long time – they are super cute.  We did NOT like SeaCucumbers; they are the opposite of cute (no offense to any sea cucumbers reading this.).

By now it was starting to get dark so we grabbed a cab to Pioneer Square, which is not really square – more of a triangle.  We had a ghost tour starting there in an hour.  Seattle is famous for its underground and ghost tours, so I thought it would be fun for the kids.  

We used Spooked in Seattle as the tour company and they were pretty good.  We went on a walking tour (in the rain) and learned about many deaths that occurred in the area.  I thought Brooke would be scared, but she was OK with all of it until we went back to the shop at the starting point and went into a dark room on the original first floor to listen to recordings taken from the AGHOST team that investigates paranormal activity.  We heard eerie recordings of unexplained noises in haunted locations and it was pretty creepy, especially when the recordings were so clear, but not made by the people making the recordings… 

 

Kids and Grandma Helen

Grandma and Lucas

We were going to go back up in the Space Needle after the ghost tour, but we were tired and hungry so just went back to our car and hit McDonald’s and called it a day – we headed back to Stanwood to pick up Shellie, see Grandma, and visit with the kids’ second and third cousins Rebecca and Lucas.

Seattle - Day 1

Seattle - DAY 1

We took Alaska Airlines from Austin to Seattle direct.  Despite not getting our seats together at first because we booked through Orbitz, Alaska fixed it so we were 2 and 2 which worked fine.  The plane seemed new and the luggage compartments were angled away from the center so I could actually walk around and get out of my seat without bumping my head.  You have to watch movies on a tablet (which they provided if we didn’t use our own) and had to buy anything worth watching – for about $5-6.  We went just before dinner and landed at 9pm so tried to get something on the plane but the food options were limited – settled for spicy chicken and rice and a cheese plate.

We stayed at the La Quinta in Everett which was fairly centrally located to the things we wanted to do up north as well as being not that far from Seattle.  Hertz had a special on the Mercedes 450 SUV, so we took that for more room to haul around grandma (who, I should stress, is not very big).   

Our Route

On Saturday, we had free breakfast and then went to pick up Grandma for a day of touring.  We met up with Shellie’s friends CD and Lori Mackenzie and followed them north to the north end of Whidbey Island - Deception Pass – a long bridge that ties Whidbey Island to the mainland at the top edge. 

Pedestrian walkway along Deception Pass Bridge

Brooke at Deception Pass

At the pass we got out and braved the cold winds to explore the area.  There are pedestrian sidewalks along each edge of the bridge and on each end there are stairs below the bridge to hike along the embankment. We got some nice pictures and hurried back to the car where it said it was only 44 (felt like -4).

Then we drove to the southwest end of the island to Fort Casey, now a state park.  It has a unique fort built into the landscape with cannons that peek out over the top.  The kids had fun exploring and getting scared walking through the dark rooms.  

Fort Casey Cannons built into the Burm

In the bunker

We spent about 30 minutes exploring the different bunkers.   We saw a bald eagle flying around near the fort, then went back to the warm car where grandma was asleep.

After Fort Casey, we went to the ferry to head back to Mukilteo on the mainland across from the south end of the island.  We ate at Ivar’s, a favorite seafood place of the family. They have really good clam chowder. 

I think it's funny they had this logo way before all the Keep Calm memes came out:

KEEP CLAM

Kids Playing Skip-Bo with Grandma

Kids with Kaitlin and Poppy (the dog) :)

We spent the rest of the day visiting with Grandma and running errands, then we went to CD and Lori's house where the kids played with Kaitlin Mackenzie and we went to the Casino for a couple of hours and called it a day.

Venice - Day 11 and 12

Venice day 11

Bright and early we had to get off the ship.  We were like old pros now with the people mover and the waterbus to our Venice hotel and got there in no time.  Our room wasn't ready at 9am, so we checked our luggage and went out exploring.

First we went in search of the famed Rialto bridge, a very large bridge over the grand canal, lined with shopping stalls all along the bridge's span. 


But before we got there, we hit the Rialto fish and produce market.  Shellie took pictures of all the strange fish and other creatures, and we saw people shopping for giant pears and picante peppers in large bundles. 

 

Finally we got to the bridge and took our selfie from it,  on the other side we wandered around aimlessly and eventually ended up in St. Mark's square, the number one attraction for Venice. 

SMS (I made that up) is a huge plaza bordered by a lot of similar buildings with gothic and Byzantine architecture, and the famed St. Mark's Basilica at the east end.  People were feeding pigeons and two string quartets were playing music in tents on either side of the plaza.  St. Mark's Basilica was beautiful on the outside - tomorrow we are going to tour it.  We also got a picture of the Bridge of Sighs, a very small indoor bridge that links the Doge's place, where trials were held, to the prison. 

 

After SMS, we grabbed a waterbus to avoid the light rain and headed to the hotel.  On the way we had an excellent lunch and Shellie bought a carry on bag for the plane.

Our room was supposed to be a superior room - better than the first time we stayed there, but instead it was smaller, with a view of the interior courtyard.  It was ok for us so we didn't complain, but it was actually about 1/2 the size of our cabin on the ship!

 We were tired and took a short nap only to find that we wasted too much of our afternoon and didn't have much time to see two nearby sights: the Frari church and the Scuolo Grande of Saint Roch.

We tried anyway and based on their hours decided to do the Frari church and then hit the Scuolo in the morning,  the church was very beautiful inside with massive naves with humongous altars to saints around all the sides.  We were allowed to take pictures so check it out:

 

Afterwards we headed across the canal for dinner and casino.  We were lucky at the casino and paid for dinner at our favorite pizza place.  We liked the pizza we got the first time better, but the food was still good and reasonably priced.  We got home at a decent hour - big day ahead.

 

Venice Day 12

We didn't get up too early and headed out to find breakfast outside of the hotel.  We stopped at. Cafe across from the Frari church and they didn't have breakfast so we just got coffee and at some boxed Cheerios.  Then we went to the Scuolo Grande of Saint Roch.

This place was amazing with huge paintings around the walls of the first floor and the second floor ballot which looks like the Sistine chapel with its huge paintings.  I bought a book and at right you can see what the place looks like.

 

Then we headed to the meeting place for our 1:30 tour on the other side of the Rialto bridge.  Since we were early we ate lunch in the plaza (campo) by the meeting place. 

Our tour guide Stephania showed us three neighborhoods on the way to SMS and pointed out some great places of interest including where Marco Polo and Casanova used to live. 








Finally we reached SMS and St. Mark's.  We were able to skip the long line and go straight in.  Earlier in the day, SMS had flooded at high tide, so there were still wooden platforms everywhere to walk on.

 

We could not take pictures in the Basilica, so I will try to describe it and maybe show some pictures from the Internet.  We first went to the second story and balcony of the basilica when we could see the interior close to the domes and see out onto SMS.  Unbelievably the gold domes are covered in the inside in what looks like gold paintings, except it's actually 10,000 square meters of mosaics, made with tiny tiles the size of my pinkie fingernail.  Jawdropping.  They also had the original bronze four horses that adorned the front of the basilica - these were life sized and very detailed.  Now they are inside to preserve them and replicas are outside on the balcony.

 

 

 

From the balcony, we could take great pictures and video of SMS and the waterfront and the Doge's place and the library.  We went back inside to marvel some more at the mosaics then headed to the Doge's Palace. 
 

The Doge's Palace was where the head of the state of Venice lived and where trials and important events occurred.  It is a large building surrounding a courtyard.  The rooms and staircases are filled with some of the largest and most impressive Renaissance paintings.  I could take pictures in here, so hopefully you can get a feeling for the size of the rooms and paintings.

 

 

After going through the various rooms, we got to walk across the Bridge of Sighs, named for the sound prisoners would presumably make as they headed from the court to the prison building next door via the bridge.  The prisons looked more like dungeons and the rooms were small like our room at the hotel :(.

 

After the tour we went back to the hotel and out for an early dinner.  The first place  we went to closed unexpectedly while another couple an us were approaching it, so we both independently googled some other places to go and ended up at the same restaurant Al Nono Risorto.

 They had two specials and Shellie got one and I got the other.  The food and he service were both very good and we'd definitely go back.  Shellie even had scoops of Parmesan cheese on her food and she normally won't eat it!  We even had desert, and even though it wasn't the cannoli she'd been craving, it was very good.  Maybe they don't make cannolis in Venice - wrong region?

 

Now we have to pack to go home.  We are looking forward to seeing the kids at the end of a long travel day tomorrow.

 
 
In the morning, we took a water taxi to the airport in the morning and left Venice in the dust.