Our "No Fly" Cruise

I usually post to this blog while traveling but this time we were mostly out of range of internet connection or if we had it, it was very expensive. This time I am going to re-enact the whole thing day by dayb but it will all be after the fact.

Day One:

We drove our car about 30 minutes away where we left it parked for free for the duration and board a motor coach (BUS, to those of us not in the travel business).

We had a stop at the Civil War Museum and the Pennsyvania State Capitol in Harrisburg. No pictures from the museum but here is the PA state capitol.

 



















Inside we saw increasingly elaborate domes.

A nice skylight



Classical Style



Gigantic Tiffany Lamp Dome

Our first night was in Bethlehem Pennsylvania was at the steel mill! I'm not kidding. They have turned the old Bethlehem Steel Headquarters into a Casino/Hotel and the old mill still looms gloomily next door.

 

 

Our room was a complete contrast.

 



 

 



Day Two:

Princeton New Jersey

The town and university were amazing as was our very peppy tour guide. The founder of the school was John Witherspoon and his great great however many greats grand-daughter is the actress Reese Witherspoon. Our guide was very much Reese-like.

She is an adult with a teen-age son, but could be a Princeton cheerleader.
Guess who lived in the house below.

If you guessed ALBERT EINSTEIN you are right
 

We lunched at the exclusive private Nassau Club where I invaded this guys privacy when I snapped this. That's Woodrow Wilson over the fireplace. His nemesis, Grover Cleveland, who was also a Princeton & US president hangs over another fireplace to the left.

 



By now, you are probably wondering what kind of cruise this is. Where is the ship? Well, we arrived at Cape Liberty port in Bayonne New Jersey around 2:30 to board.

Our Stateroom

I thought it quite roomy...Dan not so much.
 

We set sail. The Verrazano Straits Bridge is ahead. It connects Brooklyn with Staten Island.
My next post will show more of the ship and SUNSHINE! Stay tuned.

By the way, in case you are wondering we are NOT on a Carnival Cruise.











Our Last Day

The sun was out and the blue sky was back for our last day. Down at Mallory Square a cruise ship was getting ready to leave. We visited the art and history museUm in the old Custom House and I dragged Dan back to the fabric shop to take some photos so I could use them on my other blog HERE.
It is now Sunday as I write this and we are back into snow-blowing and sewing.



This is an enormous arerial view of Key West done in NEEDLEPOINT!

We and the pelican watch one cruise ship leave and the other one is retrieving its passengers

The Seam Shoppe on Truman St.

Clouds in Paradise

Today was overcast and windy but still way warmer than Ohio and since I knew the forecast we had more indoor activities. We started at the Hemingway House and then the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. AND I finally found my fabric shop!

Biker Day

Not much to show you today. We rented bikes and expended quite a bit of energy riding around. Checked out the beaches . They have some sand and a stiff breeze today but lots of seaweed stuff at the waters edge. We had a late lunch and pedaled back to use the hotel pool. Never thought to take a picture of us on the bikes. These pictures are the Key West Garden Club, a cruise ship docked, and the waves on the south shore of the island.

Sea Legs and Snorkels

We boarded the ferry American Freedom and traveled 70 miles west of Key West today to the smallest national park, the Dry Tortugas. The military built a naval fortress here that began construction in 1825 and continued on and off for 30 years and yet was never finished. After a tour of the fort we had the opportunity to try snorkeling for the first time. We did reasonably well but we liked being airborne better yesterday!

The ride back was rough for the first of the 2.5 hours but we persevered and arrived back in Key West for another sunset and displays of creative talent at Mallory Square.

Correction

The picture of the LITTLE WHITE HOUSE in the last post is NOT! I had to pick it from little thumbnails and chose the wrong one. No photos were allowed inside and it really wasn't much from the outside. The picture is just a nice building we saw! I have added some outside area from the place.

Sturgeons in flight!

Parasailing was simply awesome beyond words. We could have sailed up there for hours. What a sight to see birds flying BELOW YOU.

After this, we took a tour of Harry Truman's Little White House. All of the old folks were on that!

Key West Arrival

We left the house at 5:30 AM in a 10 degree chill and arrived to a cloudy but 72 degrees a little before noon! Posting a few pics but the real fun starts tomorrow.

New Adventure Coming Soon

Watch this space for an upcoming additions as Dan and Cheryl visit Key West, Florida. Dan really wants to go to Cuba???? but this is as close as he'll be getting.

This is the friendly tarantula I ran into yesterday, while hiking at Bandalier National Park in New Mexico.  He looked a lot bigger in person!