Vacation Part One

 

 I said that I would write about the trip we went on a few weeks ago, but I've been rather busy since we returned home, so I'm just now getting around to it, sorry.

Of necessity, I've got to split this up into several different posts, just so I can share more pictures and maybe things will make a little more sense.

We left Anchorage on  April 24th in the middle of the night. Fortunately, our very good neighbors ran us into the airport at 11:00 PM to catch what was supposed to be a 2:30 AM flight, the only one to Cincinnati that would work. Of course we didn't leave on time. We had to wait over an hour for a stewardess to arrive on another Alaska Airlines flight, so they could be fully staffed, so we finally got away closer to 4:00 AM. No surprise.

We arrived in Ohio at 5:40 PM, since we gained four hours flying east. Of course the rental car we were guaranteed wasn't available, but they did manage to find me a suitable one with a built in GPS. The next day we went to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. It's the replica of Noah's Ark, and to say the least it was impressive. At 450feet long and over three stories high, it is massive. Of course, it had to be, in order to pack all the animals that needed to be saved from the flood. One of the things that stood out to me was the massive amount of food and water that had to be carried on the ark for all the animals and people. The speculation is that all the animals were juveniles, which makes sense, since they wouldn't be ready to mate, they would eat less, and they would be easier to handle. There was also speculation that they all ate only plants or such things as moths for protein.

From there we went to Marion, Ohio, our home town. We visited the graves of our families, drove around the town, looked at our childhood homes, which seemed so small, and Jan visited a high school friend. We had dinner with my sister, Brenda, and spent the night.

The next day we drove to Niagara Falls. To be honest, I wasn't especially interested in seeing it, but once there, I was so glad I was there. It was truly a spectacular sight. Of course we went on the boat, The Maid of the Mist, and got pretty well soaked. They give you these ponchos that are made of the same material as dry cleaner bags I think, but they don't do much to keep the mist off. The most startling thing to me was that we were in the minority of people who were visiting. Most of the people there were of foreign descent. We ate two foot long hot dogs and had two drinks, for a grand total of $26.00. Never buy food at a tourist destination.

We left after spending two nights, and met up with our friend from Hoonah, Renee Alexander and her daughter Normandy at a Denny's outside of Syracuse. She met us there and bought our lunch. It was great to see her again.

We left there and made it to Vermont where we spent two nights. We were meeting up with our friend Buffalo Bob Holden. It was surprising that the leaves still hadn't even come out on the trees yet, but there were multitudes of forsythia bushes in full bloom. We visited the Vermont Country Store and shopped around, picking up a Christmas ornament to help us remember our trip. The store has a little bit of everything, even candy that hasn't been available for years.  Zagnut candy bars, Necco Wafers, Tootsie Rolls, Mary Jane's and others that I haven't seen for years. Of course the penny candy had gone sky high, and while it may still have tasted the same, one would have to pay a lot more to get a taste of nostalgia.

We scarfed up Buffalo Bob and started the rest of our journey, down to Hatteras North Carolina to visit friends that Bob has known for years. That will be part two of the story.