Europe, Texas, etc.

Since the last post I have fallen down on the job. Let me do it piece by piece and we can go from there.

England - Left from Elmira, NY on USAIR connecting in Philly to Gatwick in London. Fligts on time and comfortable (at least considering we were in coach class). Picked up on time in Gatwick by Globus travel and delivered to our first night's hotel, Novotel on the west side of London. Hotel was nice, location was out of the way a bit but close enough to a tube statiion. Dinner in the pub was good but breakfast (the famous Full English Breakfast) was outstanding.

For those of you who have never had a Full English Breakfast, think of the Sunday Brunch at most US hotels - and make that happen every morning. Granted, there were no Mimosas or Bloody Mary's, but the food was all there and good. I like breakfast anyway so the Full English is near and dear to my heart.

Second day in England and in th morning, the Globus tour bus was there to start us out good and early.

Over the next several days we would stay in Plymouth (embarkation point of the Pilgrims) and go to Land's End, see. St. Michael's Mount, the costal town of St. Ives and Lynmouth. Spending a night in Bristol and on back to London. But between London and London we would see Bath (the Roman baths), Stonehenge (for the third time - still inspiring), visit an Abbey, go for a short train ride. But I will be fillling you in on more detail on the next post.

Reno, NV

Recently traveled to Reno, NV for an AMSUG Conference. We stayed at the Silver Legacy (nice enogh, but the rooms were small, no safes, no hair dryers but well cleaned daily and a great view). When I checked out there was a charge for a bar visit that I didn't make, but the front desk cleared with with no problem.

Conference was held at the Reno Sparks Convention Center and the facilty was roomy and clean - only issue was getting their daily but the AMSUG had chartered sufficient buses to make the trip easy.

What was exciting about the trip?

• Windstrom with hurricane force winds on Monday
• Power outage in the conference center at about 5:00 or so
• Power not fully restored in the conference center until late morning on Tuesday
• Snow storm on Tuesday morning
• Earthquake on Tuesday morning

Now, don't tell me that Reno can't generate some excitement!!!

Air travel was obtained from USAIR and almost all flights were on time. The only delay was on the final leg of the return trip - twenty minute delay on a normal one hour flight - but we still got back to Elmira just about on time. Didn't save any fuel on that leg of the trip.

Next trip - Friday, May 9th to Europe, so stand by for more travel adventures.

Time to Catch Up

Since the Member-only Reception for the opening of Reflecting Antiquities at the Corning Museum of Glass, we have been back twice - once for 2300 Degrees and once for a Meet the Artist series presenting Karen Lamot - a glass artist working out of Prague, Czech Republic.

Everything that the Corming Museum of Glass does it first class! The Museum is outstanding, the staff and volunteers incomparable.

Corning Museum of Glass - "Reflecting Antiquity"

Mary is a docent at the Corning Museum of Glass and I am a member so last night we attended the members only opening of the newest show - "Reflecting Antiguity" - The first major exhibition to focus on the influence of ancient Roman styles on the glassmakers of the 19th century, “Reflecting Antiquity,” shows modern works along with an exceptional grouping of rare ancient Roman glass.

Corning Museum of Glass is not only a world-class museum, but it also knows how to throw a members only opening party.

Exhibition curators David Whitehouse, executive director of The Corning Museum of Glass, and Karol Wight, senior curator of antiquities for the J. Paul Getty Museum, will introduce the exhibition with a short lecture in the auditorium, followed by a reception and book signing in the galleries with the show open to members this evening.

Entertainment was provided by classical guitarist Bill Groome.

If you are in the Steuben county, New York area and you don't stop by the Corning Museum of Glass you are missing a real gem.

Ain't airlines Great?

So, several months ago, October 1st to be exact, I made reservations for three of us from work to fly to Reno, Nevada, for a conference. Got great flight times getting us into Reno about 1:35 with plenty of time to get ready for the first night's events. On the return trip we we scheduled to leve Reno at 9:30 and got hom at 10:23 with a 1-1/2 hour layover in Philly.

Well, so I checked the reservations for our April flights last week and there is a message that there are some changes that need to be made.

I contacted the airline and now we get in at 3:30 (just barely enough time to get ready for the 5:00 starting time and then on the return trip we have a 3 hour and 20 minute layover in Philly and get home at midnight.

What good does it do to make reservations well in advance if they change the flight times to make it more inconvenient for the travelers? Doesn't seem fair!

We will survive - always do. Let's hope we get bumped from a flight and get that free travel voucher. Been trying for that for years and haven't been lucky yet.

Wine and Car Trouble

The Finger Lakes area of New York is well-known for its wine and scenery. So, we decided to make an early Valentine's Day celebration and hit some wineries before dinner in Ithaca. Unfortunately, we only got two two wineries before car troubles caused an early end to the day. We did get to Hazlitt Winery on Seneca Lake and then Knapp Winery on Cayuga Lake. At both wineries we ran into a lot of folks celebrating Mardis Gras a bit early. In fact, the Cayuga Wine Trail was having a Mardi Gras weekend so it was fortunate for us that the car troubles brought us to an early end. Trying to battle the masses of Mardi Gras celebrants at the wineries could be frustrating. Because it is winter up here - the local falls (and there are a lot of them) tend to be a little icy. Here is Hector Falls, just north of Watkins Glen.

Now, I owe Mary dinner at Thai Cuisine in Ithaca for Valentine's Day - they have some great Thai specialties and are well know throughout this part of Upstate New York.

Robert Burns 249th Birthday Celebration

Last night, Mary and I attended the local Scottish-American Society's celebration of Robert burns 249th birthday. It was a good night, complete with Pipes & Drums of the Caledonian Highlanders, Irish dancers from Ring of Kerry dance school and Pat Kane, a local Irish entertainer. On top of that there was the presentation of the Haggis and the recitation of the Address to a Haggis written by Robert Burns.

We brought George Eisinger, a local retired Pathologists and also at our table were Dick and Marilyn Kozacko (friends from the Polish Arts Club), Dr. & Mrs. Forrest. Once Mary learned that Mrs. Forrest had recently returned from Poland, she pumped her for all sorts of information about Poland (probably the subject of a future trip for us). I talked to Dr. Forrest about England as he had been stationed there when he was in the Air Force Medical Corps.

Plans continue to gel for our May 2008 trip to England and Germany with only a couple of reservations yet to be made.