The Cave, The Grand Hotel, and the Quaint Hostel

After a day visiting monster gardens and saintly churches, we took a little time to visit something that is of the more natural world. Italy's Grotte di Frasassi consists of large caverns and large formations. The tour lasts just over an hour, and the entrance lies in a scenic gorge. If you enjoy caves, you won't be disappointed, the cave is a somewhat inflated version of the many smaller privately operated caves in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Finally, we headed to San Marino. A small town perched at the top or a isolated crag San Marino is, like Vatican City, a nation independent woman greeted us in her own hallway, and let us into our room. To anyone visiting, I would recommend Affitta Camere Franciosi as a nice inexpensive place to stay. Our room was equipped with a kitchenette, and the front patio was covered in tropical plants. The woman directed me to smell the large trumpet shaped flowers hanging heavily from one bush. The rich sweet smelling flowers were wonderful, and when I asked for the name she answered in Italian, and I was able to figure out when I got back home that they're called Angel's Trumpets here.

from Italy. We largely visited just to say that we had. We arrived after dark at our hostel, where a small and wrinkled elderly

After this, we went on a search for food. This being a pretty small town, there weren't too many options, and we finally Settled on the Grand Hotel San Marino It was a prix fixe menu, but unlike the seafood incident, we knew what we were getting into. From crisp spinach filled appetizers to lemon basil ravioli, steak and sausage main course, and small and sweet chocolate deserts, this was one of the best meals we had within Italy.

Sadly, we hardly stopped to take a picture of San Marino, and we were gone with first light for new adventures. We barely paused to take a picture of the entrance after coming down the hill as we left. San Marino is more than just a place to sleep and eat, and for those whose travel is a little more leisure oriented than mine, it would certainly be relaxing to spend a few days.

As good things must

The last day of our August 2006 trip started out as we drove to fossil butte NM. There is a museum there, and a few trails. Along the road to the museum we spotted a ruffed grouse, and snapped a picture, though it blends in so well It's a little hard to make out. The museum has a video on the fossils, and some very nice specimens on display. We made some crayon rubbings from the fossil plaques they had on display, but at this point, I just didn't want to do a lot more hiking/walking. Instead of hiking, we went hunting for a fossil store. and we found one, back in town, with a nice man running the counter who sold us a basic fish fossil for a reasonable price, and a cross section of a petrified tree that looks nice on our mantle.

Having had our fill of fossils, we headed into Utah. Just as you cross the state border, there are huge red rocks that cut up into the air, but after a while they diminish, then disappear all together. By the time we arrived in Salt Lake City, the terrain had grown to resemble Idaho. We stopped in town only to eat at a Marie Calender's. We probably should have ordered pot pies, because the food we did order was so bland, I think the meat was boiled and not seasoned at all. It was perfectly edible, but I cook better food at home.

We continued on to Antelope Island, located in Salt Lake. And we did see antelope, as well as buffalo among the golden grass and sunflowers. Satisfied with a drive around the island, we headed back to Boise, stopping to eat a huge ice cream desert at the same Jaker's we'd had dinner at when we first began our trip. Finally, we returned to ground zero, and boarded the plane the next morning.

Lewis, Natchez, Avaleen, and some very good Junk.

In mid July we took a little trip down to the area of Tennessee that is south of Nashville. This is one part of the state I haven't been to much, aside from once making a brief visit to the Natchez Trace Pkwy. And this visit too, began with a stretch of the Trace, and a piece of history that was new to me.

You might not immediately recognize the name Merriweather Lewis, but if I told you he took an expedition with William Clark, you might guess who he is. Well, after returning from that famous trip, Lewis became Governor of the Louisiana Territory. Business brought him along the Natchez Trace. While there is some controversy as to what brought his life to an end near Hohenwald, TN, it is generally accepted as a suicide. Merriweather Lewis died and was buried right here in Tennessee.

We made another stop along the Trace to take a short walk to see fall hollow. This aptly name little spot is a small hollow/holler/gully which two small streams pour into creating several small but pretty waterfalls.

In this area also is the Amber Falls Winery. This winery has a broad selection of wines. We tasted the sweet and semi-sweet, and were not disappointed by any we tried. We picked up a couple bottles, and then headed to Linden, and the Avaleen Springs Bed and Breakfast. The first thing we saw when we pulled up were orange tabby cats everywhere.
After the owner greeted us and showed us the cabin and the dinning/social area with books, movies and boardgames in the guesthaus, we were left alone to explore the properties 30 acres with trails leading past friendly fish in a beaver pond, small waterfalls, and little statues tucked in every corner.

For diner, we headed into Hohenwald to eat at the Junkyard Dog Steakhouse, whose quirky atmosphere and good food make it an unusual find for such a small town. The walls are hung heavy with decorations, ranging from old school sports pictures, to mardi gras beads and masques, to western items. The steaks were perfect, tender and juicy.

After returning full to the Bed and Breakfast, we spent the twilight relaxing in adirondack chairs, a cat in each lap, and a glass of wine as we watched bats dart overhead in the darkening sky. In addition to the relaxing atmosphere outside, the inside of the cabin impressed as well, with a cedar latter that could be used to climb to a loft, and a massive tub that, combined with the jets and the provided bubble bath made enough foam to fill my tub at home a few times over.

Overall, I was very impressed with this little corner of my home state. It's one area I hope to visit again soon, maybe to watch the leaves change, and have a good steak. Coincidentally, Hohenwald is also home of the Elephant Sanctuary

Realm of Tane

A visit to the Realm of Tane, at Tamaki Maori village is an interesting ride. It starts with a bus trip to the grounds of the village, where we were greeted by the village warriors. Following that we entered through the gates and saw how a village may have been set up, and some of the activities that were carried out there. We moved into a meeting house, where they shared with us powerful haka dances, as well as sweeter songs. We left the meeting house and entered the dining hall to have some food cooked in a traditional hangi. The food is cooked by being buried in a pit with hot rocks. It is a similar method to the Hawaiian Kālua, often used to cook pigs for luaus, and no wonder, as the Maori people originated from that area.

Overall, the experience was fun and entertaining. The meeting house and dining hall we perhaps not the traditional experience I was looking for, but they weren't offensively so. The dancing was the best part. The food was somewhat bland, with the exception of desert, so please, have gravy with your meat, that is where the only real seasoning is.

Perhaps just as entertaining was the ride home, with the bus circling roundabouts while many were forced to sing songs they felt represented their country, whether they be anthems or other. While I was grateful not to have to sing, I was disappointed that the only other Americans chose to sing Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini....a song not on my list of conceivable options.

It appears that since my trip in the fall of 08, the website and the story theme of the trip has changed. I would assume the experience, however, would be roughtly the same.

Williamsburg: History in Action II

Our second day at Williamsburg found us at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. After we had spent the first part of the day taking in some of the sites and shops we had missed the day before. We visited the blacksmith, the gun shop, and the Milliner's shop among others. We were at the museum to take a guided tour through the pottery collections and learn about the different styles and other interesting facts about the collections. While we were waiting, we had some very good chili from the restaurant there, and Jake took in the Lock, Stock and Barrel exhibit of colonial era guns.

When it came time for the tour, our guide started in the small Identifying Ceramics: The Who, What and Ware exhibit, using the displays there to explain the different methods and styles. Then, we were taken throughout the museums collections where we were shown many interesting pottery pieces which exemplified the different styles. After the tour was done, we explored some of the other areas of the museum, historic flags, furniture, and portions of the former Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds, which occupies the building above the basement museum. We also made a stop in for some crafts: making Christmas ornaments form old Christmas cards. I love to have Christmas ornaments as souvenirs, and we wound up making two very attractive ones to go on our tree for hopefully years to come.

Then we headed for dinner among the Merchant Square's shops. We chose Season's from the options, and after we were seated were delighted to find that Friday nights were Prime Rib night. for $15 per person, we both enjoyed a fantastic steak with two sides and a salad.

After diner we took a much needed promenade down to the capitol building to wait for the soldiers to gather for the torch lit fife and drum march to the palace greens. Once the soldiers had struck up their drums, they began marching up the street. Some tourists ran along beside them, but Jake and I fell in step behind. It is amazing the quick and easy pace a march can set. It was an impressive display, despite the loose mob of tourists surrounding it, and I couldn't help but try to match my step to the soldier in front of me.

florida panhandle

Our first introduction to the Florida Panhandle was Pensacola, where our route south deposited us. We didn't find much of interest here, and wound up swimming at Henderson Beach State Park in Destin on our first day in the area. The red, dangerous current flag was flying, and the waves were good. We wore ourselves out boogie boarding. I'm glad we got a chance to use them again. the last time we used them was several years ago at the outer banks. The sand on the beaches around Destin is pure white and is so fine it actually squeaks when you scuff your feet. There was little trace of sea life. No shells or crabs, just some sea weed and birds.

We had lunch at the Destin Diner. The food was good home style stuff. Jake has country fried steak, I had Italian meatloaf with marinara, and we both had hash browns and fries for sides. Service was awful, despite the fact that there was almost no one there, but you can hardly hold one bad server against a place. We had dinner at a place called Bobos or Bozos, or something like that. It wasn't in Destin, but further east. They had a children's dance contest including the cha cha slide and the chicken dance and a kids limbo competition. Then the fellow orchestrating all this sang some memorial day appropriate songs. It was pretty fun actually. the food was good, we had a chicken sandwich and a burger though, because the prices here are outrageous. I wasn't too surprised that beef and even chicken ran high at about $18 for the cheapest steak, $16 for chicken, but I thought, gee, maybe that the seafood would be cheap?? no... it costs as much as steak.... that's why we had sandwiches. They were only about $8 each.

We had hoped to stay at the campground in the park, but as it was full, we contented ourselves to use their showers. This was pretty much the way it went for the next few days. Every campground was full, so we slept in the car every night, and just used the showers in the parks to keep clean.

When we woke up, we were a little tired from swimming, so we headed inland to Rocky Bayou State park, and explored 2 of the trails there, the Rocky Bayou trail, and the Puddin Lake trail

The first trail led amongst live oak and saw palmettos, and was covered with unnumbered scurrying lizards. There was also a smake, and a frog along the way as well. the Puddin lake trail was a good deal more interesting. It led along a marshy lake, and in the low branches of a tree we spotted an anole, a bright green lizard with a pink colored fan on his throat, which he would open as he bobbed up and down doing pushups. Just a short ways further we saw two large birds of prey in a massive stick nest at the very top of a dead tree, which reached well beyond the tops of the living trees around it. We both jumped to the conclusion of bald eagles, but binoculars revealed that this was a pair of osprey. After watching them for some time, we continued on the trail and saw a turtle crawling up from the small lake, covered in fresh mud, and also a few dear in the undergrowth just across the water. We spent the remainder of the day reading along the shore of the lake here, and then headed down towards panama city.

in panama city they have a nice little park, I believe it is called oaks on the shore. We went down to a beach there and saw many many hermit crabs and fiddler crabs, and Jake picked up a couple empty shells to bring home.

then we ate at the treasure ship, which is a full size replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship, the Golden Hind. Why yes, it was delighfully touristy, tacky, and yet... unrefined. the prices here were better by a couple dollars. I got the steak (fantastic) and Jake got the mahi mahi fried fish basket (pretty good) and we split half and half.

we realized when we returned to the car that Jake's empty shells weren't so empty, and we returned them to their beach. After that we drove way down to Port St. Joe and spent the night again in the car.

In the morning we headed to St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park. There were only gentle waves here, and the water was a murkier green. There were lots of shells here. We then headed to the inland side of the peninsula, and walked a trail along the shore. Here, the brown pelicans were diving like crazy. The water on the inside is beautiful. The sand bars in the water cause the shades of blue to shift with the depths and create a kaledescope of every cool shade. There are streaks of bright green and pools of dark blue. we also saw more fiddler crabs, and spent quite a lot of time watching them gesture and fight. we also saw a dried and dead horseshoe crab, but no live ones. We stopped for pizza at Hungry Howie's pizza and subs. This is apparently a Florida chain, as I've never seen them elsewhere. The pizza was about pizza hut quality/style. We also stopped for a Shrek Shake at McDonald's... they are good, and disgusting looking. We wound up driving back up to Panama City in search of better waves.

We found some waves at Saint Andrews SP. here they were crashing, and Jake finally persuaded tired me to boogie board some more. The waves were huge, but broke unpredictably. I did manage to ride a few almost all the way up the beach though. Mostly I just got knocked about a lot, but it was still great fun. At one point a little cruise ship turned in towards the beach, undoubtably giving dolphin tours as about 4 dolphins immediately appeared near it. Finally we headed back to the showers... only, there were no individual showers, just the exposed shower heads every beach has. Despite the fact that their website claims showers are available. So I did the only sensible thing. I washed and conditioned my hair in the sand showers available. About this time a pirate ship rounded the corner and appeared in front of the beach, and about this time we headed for home. We stopped before leaving the park to check out some wild alligators in a pond, with an island of brushy trees in the middle. the trees were weighed down with Great White and Great Blue herons. a few possibly green herons,and snowy egrets. Great Blue Herons are definitely the most aggressive of the bunch. All these birds were nesting. The alligators barely moved.

We stopped for some quick dinner at Whataburger, another small chain. The food was ok. We made it into southern Alabama by night, and finished the drive home in the morning. we made a brief stop in Decatur for some BBQ. and to stretch our legs at a park there. Once home, we did the final thing that was "included" in our vacation: we saw Pirates 3. very good. But if you didn't like the second one, you probably won't like this one. it's full of action and special effects, and borders on the ridiculous. I think there will be a sequel. I'm not sure if it was a happy ending or not. You'll have to see it and decide for yourself.