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.

Arline Reservations to be made

We have cleared it with work, made reservations at the Edelweiss lodge so it is time to make the final airline reservations that will serve as the framework that we will have to work within. Looks like it is 12 days or so in London, the Chunnel train to Paris, a train to Cologne, Germany and then trains throughout Germany to Lubeck, Berlin, Permasins, Nuremberg, Garmisch and Munich to catch the homebound plane. Mary is having so much fun planning this trip!

Brotherhood of Doom

Just finished reading Jim Little's "Brotherhood of Doom". I thoroughly enjoyed the memoirs of a man (and friend) who entered the Navy as a Seaman Recruit and retired as a CWO-4 after spending almost his entire career in the Navy's Nuclear Weapons field.

You can check our Jim's blog at http://oldgunner.blogspot.com/

Planning continues for 2008 travel experiences

Mary continues to make arrangements for European Vacation in May. It is amazing how many different prices can be located for the same hotel/tour/plane flight! We had seen at least four prices for the same hotel on the same dates in London - finally a local travel agent was able to get us a confirmed (pre-paid) reservation for 60% the prices on the Internet.

The Seattle area will be our travel destination in September. The Navy Nuclear Weapons Association is having their 24th annual reunion then. This is a great time for us old sailors who worked in the Navy's nuclear weapons field to get together and reminisce about the old days. Check out the NNWA's website at http://www.navynucweps.com/.

Just a comment - haven't made airline reservations yet, but found out that US Air changed (last year I think) the upgrade rules for European flights. Unlike any other upgrade rules, your ticket must cost at least $1200 round trip before they will allow one to upgrade. At least my miles aren't expiring on me! It would have been nice to get a pair of first class seats for those long flights!!

First Post

January 16th is the first post on this blog. We are in the midst of planning a trip to England and Germany in May. Weather in Elmira is cold (no surprise). Further blogs will bring you up-to-date on what goes. We just bought a used 2003 MINI Cooper to be Mary's car and it attracts a lot of attention.