London Trip #1 - Across The Pond

Trip 1 began on August 7 as I met Mr. B and we headed to Detorit's Airport.

We got through security without issue and boarded the plane to London, England leaving Michigan after 6:00 pm.

 

You can put the flight information into Foreflight and see the route they have filed. Kinda neat to see we ere moving along at 450 knots and climbing.

It was a smooth flight, and 8 hours later we arrived on August 8.

We then had fun navigating the tube to our hotel in Trafalgar Square, complete with a transit worker at Heathrow sending us in the completely wrong direction to catch the proper train. 

We sorted that out, and found the right subway train and route, even though the London underground steadfastly refuses to put a "You Are Here" marking on their rather extensive maps of the underground, and headed into town.

We changed subway trains at Paddington Station on our way.

Sadly, No bears were spotted.

We soon arrived at Trafalgar Square 

 

and after walking around went to our hotel and dropped of our luggage as we had arrived way before check-in time.

The adventure had begun.

Getting There Can Be More Than Half The Fun

Had my first ever dive live-aboard experience last week.

I went with Blackbeard's and sailed the Exumas in the Bahamas on the mighty Morning Star.

Blackbeard's has been described as camping at sea, and the company touts itself as offering twice the fun at half the cost - and they're right.

The Morning Star is a 65 foot motor-sailboat, and with 22 divers and 6 crew on board, space is at a premium.  Since everyone involved understands this and its  a bunch of like-minded diving enthusiasts, it works out.

But first I had to get there.

I hoped on the plane at DTW that would take be to Atlanta and then on to the Bahamas. A couple hour layover in Atlanta gave plenty of time to get the connecting flight.

Not so much.

As we taxi'd out of the gate, the pilot informed us that one of three generatgors on baord was showing as failed, and while we could fly like that just fine, we had to have a mechanic check it off.

So we went back to the gate.  And waited for a marshaller to take us back in.  Then we waited for a sky-bridge operator. That done, we were ready to go and still in good time.

But no.  Next we had to get 1,200 pounds more fuel as we had burned off too much waiting around. So we waited for that.

Then we had to wait for a sky-bridge operator to move the damn sky-bridge away from the plane ans the prior one had apparently wandered off. So we waited for that too. Time kept on ticking away.

We spent more time at the gate than the actual flight time to Atlanta, and I arrived there 8 minutes after the flight to the Bahamas had left.

Welp, good thing I had planned to arrive a day before the departure.

I got put up in a hotel in Atalanta and they put me on the earliest flight out the next day which would be tight, but do-able, but not how I had planned to get there. I had to cancel my hotel in Nassau and re-arrange ground transport to the ship. I also lost the opportunity to re-shuffle my bags as they were packed for weight and lithium battery issues rather than how I wanted them on the ship.   Ah well, flexibility is important when traveling.

So, when unexpectedly stuck in Atlanta, contact MrGarabaldi.

We got together, along with his heir, and he took me to the Dwarf House for dinner. I did not know what the Dwarf House was exactly until we got there.

It turns out, The Dwarf House is the original location of Chik Fil A.

 

It has a larger menu than the typical Chik Fil A, including fried pickles and hamburgers!

So I had to try both, and both were great. They really need to put those fried pickles on the regular menu.

It was fun catching up with MrGarabaldi and Heir, and we had a nice time. Real nice folks, and it is always good to see them.

Then in the morning I got up, checked out and figured out how to get to the international terminal from the hotel which was a short hop from the domestic terminal.   I then waited in the security line for awhile and then got to the gate for my plane.

Soon I was on the flight to the Bahamas and ready to go and we taxi'd to the runway after only a slight delay.

It was a pleasant flight, and we soon had the blue water of the Caribbean below the plane.

We landed and then went through Bahamian immigration.

 I then retrieved my checked bag with all the dive gear that had made it, and went through customs which was very simple and got waived through and out to the pick-up area where I met the shuttle that would take us to the boat.

Quite a few people were there for the shuttle with one other for Blackbeard's and 4 others for the  Aqua Cat, the more spacious and luxurious live-aboard. We all chatted excitedly about our upcoming trip and Jeff, my fellow Morning Star passenger and I decided we would buddy up for the dives.

So we departed the airport and headed off to the boat.

South Carolina, Toronto, And Home Again

So just got back from quite the trip, distance-wise.

First we drove down to South Carolina.

We were just in time to experience the temperatures there dropping into the 20s.  Ouch. Not what they usually have, nor what the place we were staying in was built for weather-wise.

The poor little furnace in the Airbnb inside the resort complex struggled mightily but couldn't bust 60 odd degrees during the cold snap.

The resort had an indoor pool and hot tub complex built basically into the wall of one of the other buildings and it wasn't exactly what you'd call hot either. The water ended up warmer than the air, and the poor hot tub struggled to get to 80 with steam rising above it.

Met a nice family from Atlanta while we were there and the poor folks had to wear jackets in their unit. We, being made of stronger stuff, only had to wear jackets while going out and could handle being in our unit in sweatshirts, so long as we wore socks, as the floor was freezing and never got warm enough to walk on it barefoot.

Still, we had a good time. Got some hiking in, drove around a bit, walked on the beach. I got work done remotely, and the seafood was terrific. Great place, nice people, and about 16 hours away or so.

Of course, the day we left, the temperature got up to 66 degrees and t-shirt weather.  Figures. Next year, I think we need to push farther south.

Then we drove straight up from there to Toronto to spend New Years with Tash's mom.

That was a bit of a haul.

Weather there and on route was warmer than in South Carolina, as everything had warmed up. Go figure.

Had a nice New Year's celebration stayed up to midnight to watch the fireworks and exchange gifts as is tradition.

 

Kinda fun watching the CN tower change colors of its lights at midnight, and fireworks going off around it in celebration.

We drove back today.

The drive back was good with very light traffic and we were making good time until we hit the border.

On the highway leading to it we were then sitting over an hour stuck in traffic. Thus made no sense given how light the traffic was on the highway leading to the border. 

But, right before the bridge, trucks were lined up for miles and then the cars also came to a screeching halt and a standstill that took some time to clear.

Once across, no problems, and we made good time.

Now home unpacking, doing laundry, and getting ready to meet 2023 head on.

Indiana Nice Is Apparently A Thing

So this weekend I traveled to Marion, Indiana for a Modern Samurai Project class.

Leaving at 3pm on Friday traffic was ridiculous near 696 but opened up on 275 until hitting near Ann Arbor when it again slowed to a standstill for no known reason, and then opened right back up.

Made it to Marion in decent time and checked into the Hampton Inn there with no issues and rather nice and friendly staff.

I unloaded the car and then got some gas and went to get some dinner.  

I saw that Brooks Upper Crust Pizza was highly recommended and so I went there to get some pizza.

It turns out they were carry out only so I placed an order for a small pizza and they got to making it while I waited.

Quite a few people were coming in for pickup of pizza orders while I waited, and I then had a nice chat with the owner.  He explained they weren't doing dining in now as the wait staff did not want to come back to work.  This is a recurring problem and a lot of places are having as people are still being paid as much or more to stay home on UI than go to work.  He's thinking of converting it to quick-order dining to deal with the lack of wait staff as he misses having people and families in his restaurant.

So he showed me around the restaurant which is in a historic building on the river and very eclectically and nicely decorated with a lot of neat items and memorabilia, with much of it dating back to the late 1800s.  Kinda neat, and it would have been nice to dine in as it has a nice view of the river and a very nice ambiance.

Super friendly people there and the pizza was excellent. 

A thin crust round, but not so thin that it tasted like cardboard, and not too chewy either but just right and rather addictive.  Different from Detroit-style pizza but good in its own way.  Curiously Indiana apparently serves nacho cheese with bread-sticks in pizza joints, which is totally different from the Michigan style of marina/tomato sauce for dipping bread-sticks.   Local customs and all that. 

So I took the pizza back to my hotel room, enjoyed it immensely, and then did a bit of work, and I then prepared for class on Saturday.  A good start to the weekend.

A Nice Weekend Road Trip

We left Friday to travel northward.  The kids had never been to Michigan's north so we were looking to remedy that.

So up north we went.

The clouds were low and foreboding as we did so, and rain soon showed up.

First we stopped briefly in Pinconning for provisions.

The Cheesehouse Cheese Shop.

As the suggestive name suggests most suggestively, it has cheese.

Lots of cheese. And meat sticks, and candy of all sorts, and local wines and other provisions.Well stocked up, including with some really tasty venison meat sticks, we continued north.

Next we passed through Indian River.

 The highlight of the travel through there was the 32-foot-long Steel Sturgeon.  

Then on to Cross Village and the Tunnel of Trees.

The Tunnel of Trees were considered a bit of a disappointment by the kids.  Rather jaded and cynical they are.  To be fair I can't blame them too much as there really wasn't much to it - a fair amount of trees over a road but not super-thick so not really tunnel-ish.  In short, not worth the diversion. At least not during this time of year.    

Cross Village was rather pleasant though, with some very nice people and shops and the kids got to spend some time with a artist's springer spaniel who truly enjoyed the kids' attention.

We stopped in Cross Village for lunch at Legs Inn and the meal was fantastic.   They're famous for their Polish food and the fame is well-warranted.  We had the Polish Lunch and it was awesome.  On order was more than enough for two people.  The Polish desserts were also great, and great friendly service too.  Highly recommend it if you're in the area.

We then made it up to where we were staying in Harbor Springs, and tucked in for the night.

Israel: Day 2 Part 2 City of David and Hezekiah's Tunnel

After the ceremony and going to the main Western Wall plaza, we changed and started to explore Jerusalem.

We headed to the City of David, an active archeological site that includes many recent discoveries.

We first headed down into the area of the Burnt House and House of the Bulae - an area destoryed by the Babylonians when the First Temple was destroyed.

Then we headed towards Hezekiah's tunnel, a water system dug in 1750 feet long dug through solid rock in the 8th century BCE. An inscription found inside the tunnel describes it being but by two teams working form either end and then meeting up, which was quite a feat of engineering.

Flashlights in hand we stepped into water up to our knees and headed through the tunnel.

If you have claustrophobia or fear of dark cramped spaces, entry is not recommended. I had to crouch and duck walk through some sections.

On the upside the tunnel was nice and cool and the water was also nice and refreshing for our feet, and where else can you walk through a water tunnel built thousands of years ago?

The map gives a pretty good idea of the layout.

We emerged and passed by a new wall that had been recently found dating to the First Temple Period.

In short Jerusalem is absolutely covered in history, and more history and archeological discoveries are being found there everyday.

And the day wasn't even done yet.

Israel: Day 2

We woke up and realized we were waking up in Jerusalem. Since we were a bit jet-lagged we had no trouble getting up early and we were rather excited to take on the day.

The day was set for Leah's Bat Mitzvah at the Wall.

We got up early and met our tour guide and picked up the Rabbi and then were dropped off and walked to the Robinson's Arch at the Southern End of the Western Wall. As we did we passed by blowing shofars and other musical instruments being played to mark Orthodox Bar Mtzvahs that were going on at the time.

The Robinson's Arch was first discovered and excavated in the 1860s and is used by the non-orthodox for religious ceremonies at the wall, unlike at the main plaza which is separated by gender.

The ceremony took place on a platform set by the Western Wall.

We did the morning service and Leah read form the Torah for the first time.

All her practice and hard work paid off. She was letter-perfect with the portion and did great. She also gave a good D'var Torah, which is a speech concerning her understanding of the portion she read (in English) and how it applies to her.

It was a great and meaningful ceremony and we were extremely proud parents.

After the ceremony we walked to the main Western Wall plaza, where we split up and each went to the Wall to say a prayer and to put in a kvitl (a prayer) into the wall.

Pretty awesome moment, that.

That ended the first half of Day 2, in the next half, we explored Jerusalem.

Israel: Day 1

We flew out of Toronto, driving there in the early hours of the morning for a direct flight on Air Canada.

We arrived at the airport a suitable number of hours early, checked in our bags, cleared security, had lunch and then got on the plane. The plane was a 787-9 Dreamliner. Seated in Economy, the seats were decent room wise, but the backs were thin enough that the little bugger sitting behind me hitting my seat with his knee at dd times got annoying after awhile.

A nice, smooth 10 hour flight where I got to catch up on some movies with the in-flight entertainment system (The Mule, Green Book, and Super Troopers 2 'cause by the end of the flight I wanted mindless comedy and got it). Service was good and friendly , food palatable enough for airline food - but pass on the omelet, order the pancakes, trust me. Interestingly, every announcement was first in English, and then repeated in French, Hebrew, and Arabic which made every announcement take forever. A tad bit of turbulence but nothing terrible, managed to catch a short nap even. Landing was smooth as silk and we had arrived in the Holy Land.

We cleared passport control and customs quickly.

We then got transport for th ride to Jerusalem and arrived at our AirBnB on Jabotinsky street.

The AirBnB owner courteously allowed us to drop our bags off when we arrived there at 11am even though check in is at 2. We then headed off much less encumbered, to explore and walked about 25 minutes to the Mahane Yeyudah market.

Quite a huge market it is.

Fruit and vegetable stalls were evrywhere and we bought some fresh fruit, some dried fruit and other delicacies as we wandered around.

Then we headed back to the AirBnB at 2, dropped off our purchases and headed off to the German Colony.

The German Colony was, as you guessed it and as the name suggests, founded by Germans.

In 1873 the Templers (note not Templars, but Templers) settled in the area. Today it has trendy shops and eateries and was very nice to walk around. Some shopping was done, including at Sabon that had a delightful fountain/sink "well" for washing hands and trying some Sabon products.

Very nice,a nd they got to try and then by some nice prodicts and felt very refreshed after doing so, and then we went to a nice fresh bakery which had delicious baked goods as a snack.

After the German Colony, we headed home and had a light dinner.

Then to bed, as the next day would be for an event that was the main reason why we had traveled to Israel.

I'm Back

With many a tale to tell and journeys to recount.

In the past two weeks I've been to Israel for a very special occasion, spent a 5-hour layover in Germany, visited Canada, and then yesterday flew myself to and from Escanaba.

Heckuva couple weeks.

Dives 250 And 251 In The Warm Waters Of The USVI

Dives 250 and 251 took place on February 10 in the beautiful, warm, blue waters of St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands.

Right after the Disney Fantasy had docked and lowered the gangway, I was off to find a taxi to take me to the Coki Dive Center for the dive.

The drive introduced me to an oddity about this US territory.  Even though the vehicles have left-hand drive just as at home, they drive on the left side of the road British-style (and formerly Dutch-style whence their tradition came) which caused me quite a start initially.  This was especially so as all road signs and road markings look like you're on the US mainland but you're driving the wrong way.

In any case I made it to the shop, got onto the boat with five fellow divers from various locales, and we were on our way.

No wetsuit was needed, as the water temp was a blissful 81 degrees.

Dive 250 was at Vetti Bay. Max Depth 46 feet for dive time of 45 minutes.

The highlight of dive 250 was a turtle that swam by:

There was also the wreck of a small trawler.

The dive was in 81 degree water, and there was a fun medium-speed current that made much of it a drift dive where you just let the current carry you along.

Dive 251 took place at Spring Bay and was to a max of 55 feet for a 46 minute run time.

This dive featured fish, corals, and spiny lobster.

The dives were operated by Coki Dive Center in St. Thomas and they run a great dive op - on time, safe, and fun with a boat captain and dive master that was very on the ball both in keeping track of all six divers and finding marine life for us to look at and enjoy.

So if you're looking for a first-class dive operation in the US Virgin islands, Coki Dive Center is highly recommended.

Fantastic, warm and easy dives.

Leaving And Leaving On A Jet Plane

Travel can be interesting sometimes.

In this case we spent a longer time on the plane on the ground than we did in the air.

None of these issues were really the airline's fault, in this case Spirit, just a bunch of circumstances that snowballed into a massive delay.

Boarding was actually quite efficient so kudos to Spirit Airlines for making the process actually work for once.

First there was a long line for deicing of the plane. Since conditions were for ice, ice, and more ice, this wasn't optional.

Then just after we got deuces the wind shifted and instead of taking off directly from the runway right beside the deicingpad we had to do a tour de tarmac.

Then just as we reached the hold short line at the runway an announcement came over the intercom "is there a doctor , nurse or paramedic on board?"

It seems an elderly gentlemen on the way to a wedding started having some serious health issues. An ambulance arrived and he and some of his party were offloaded. Then they had to remove their luggage, refuel and deice the plane yet again. As the air conditioning system can't be running during deicing this made the plane rather hot and stuffy, but overall it a huge deal. We finally got to the right runway and took off to much applause from all. The pilots and crew were pretty good about it and rather apologetic but it wasn't their fault.

We arrive about two and a half hours late for a three hour flight. But, we did arrive safe and sound and it's warmer by far where we are now so I'm not complaining.

Traditionally, Isn't It The Other Way Around?

Most of the time the flow of refugees is from the US to Canada, right?

Tonight we got to take in refugees that just arrived a few minutes ago from Toronto.

After the ice storm they just experienced, they're all without power and heat at their homes. People are still losing power their as trees keep coming down taking power lines down with them, and there's no good estimate on when it will be back on. So we said sure, drive on over, and here they are.

So it's a packed house with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece along with us here.

Hey, family means they've got to take you in, and vice versa right?

Labor Day Weekend Adventures

Murphy's Law came to town for the Labor Day weekend and we decided to get a dive in.

I found a charter that had openings in Alpena, about four hours away from the house. The plan was to drive up Sunday late afternoon, get a hotel, be at the dock at 07:30 and then go dive the Nordmeer, a 470 foot long German Freighter that sank in 1966. I have the hotel booked, the charter booked, the tanks filled, the car loaded and ready to go.

So ML arrives at the house and then we load his gear and we drive on up to Alpena.

ML of course doesn't like the course the GPS selects so he changes it a fair bit and off we go. ML is then further peeved when I refuse to pass in no passing zones and to exceed the speed limit in excess of 20 mph over, so he takes over driving about half way, and its a bit like "Hey! Look! Squirrel!" every few minutes or so, and my car reached 100 mph on multiple occasions and for sustained periods. But we arrive safely regardless.

So we check in at the hotel and it meets ML's stringent standards, which you can read upon at his weekend adventure post.

We then go to The John Lau Saloon which was inexplicably out of burgers so we had some very good Fish n' Chips as an alternate. We also had some decent Michigan-made brews to go with it which were nice and refreshing after the long drive.

ML then fixates on a Moose Head mounted on the wall and wonders where the rest of it is.   He asks our waitress and she doesn't know either.

It will remain yet another unsolved Moosetery.

We head back to the hotel, watch Master and Commander on the TV for a good dose of both action and nautical content, and called it a night.



The waves in the movie were a portent of what we would face the next day.

We arrive at the dock located in Rockport, about 7 miles north of Alpena on time and there is no boat to be seen.

 I call up the Captain and I'm reasonably sure he forgot to call me to cancel the dive as he explains he cancelled it as the others who were booked on it were too new and inexperienced as divers to go out in the conditions that were being forecast.

I say we're here and willing to go and leave it up to him to decide if we should go. He's asking us, I basically say he's the captain and its up to him.

He then says to hang on until 8 and he'll be there.

He arrives in a quite small 18-foot boat and decides we will give it a try.

So we're in this real small boat, with a total of 4 seats, two of which face aft and off into the waves we go.

Now the waves are getting to be 6-8 footers and we're having an interesting time. ML and I are in the seat facing backwards so we get fun views of the stern rolling up and crashing down with the waves. It gets real interesting on some big waves where the sky simply and completely disappears for a moment and all we see is water.

Luckily, I'm already in my drysuit or I'd be soaked before I even get in the water.

We then reach the Nordmeer site, the wind and waves have picked up even more and it's beyond the margins of safety for diving, so no diving the Nordmeer for us. So we head towards Thunder Island where its supposed to be calmer, and it is, but not by much.

So we gear up to dive the wreck of the James Davidson. It's a freighter that sank in 1883. It's in about 35 feet of water. So we make it off the boat, swim over to the down-line, get to the bottom:

Murphy's Law near the Davidson

There's really not much to this wreck but the remains of the hull. Rather disappointing after a four hour trip and the anticipation of the Nordmeer.

Remains of the James Davidson

Before I can shoot a compass bearing back to the up-line however, ML is taking off.

He's zipping away not in a straight and level line, but moving like a diving ping-pong ball, or a hyperactive squirrel looking for nuts: to and fro, up and down, back and forth and forth and forth. So, I'm trying to shoot a compass bearing, photo the wreck, keep track of where the heck we're going, and keep him in sight and he's moving like a bat out of hell with malfunctioning sonar.

And then poof, he was gone.

Communication with your dive buddy is rather key, and my diving companion doesn't quite get it.

Lovable as he is, he's an ADHD diver.

So I start a circle search to find him and hey, there's no ML down here, anywhere.

I then do my best to backtrack to the up-line, after following him on his very random wandering this is not easy as there's a complete lack of reference points on the bottom and good luck holding a compass course. So I do my best guess and while I don't find the up-line, I surface close enough to the boat to be able to swim to it. I don't see ML in the water or on board which gets me worried. I signal the captain that I'm ok and then give the signal for "Where's the other diver?" The captain points and sure enough ML is hanging on to the ladder at the back of the boat.

I swim over to the boat and ML lets us know his head is hurting so I tell him to get back on the boat. We get him back on board, then I board and that's it for diving for the day. We then have to head to Alpena rather than back to Rockport as the waves are even worse that way.

Here's a clip from the voyage back:

That was quite mild compared to what we had going out and around Thunder Island itself, and you can see the boat's a bit small for conditions. Ah well, it was a good try.

So after getting our butts kicked by the waves, we reach Alpena, have a beer and then haul our gear into a cab for the hop back to Rockport.

We got our gear in the car, said goodbye to the captain and went on our way.

Now, as you may or may not know, ML and traffic jams really just do not mix.

Patience with traffic is not one of his virtues.  We get stuck on I-75 in a jam and then spend quite a while doing some squirrel-like navigation to avoid it on back county roads.  First west, then east, then south then east, then south then west then south again. Crazy and random navigation in action but it works.  Yes, I then acquiesce to his constant demands that I pass quite a few cars on single lane roads and speed like a demon, which was rather fun, but it would get complicated as he constantly adjusted the route as we went, with him making some very last minute turning decisions.  I even overtake a souped-up classic Ford Mustang that ML takes a few photos of and sends them to Keads as we pass.

All good though, as we arrive home safe and sound.

Then we have a nice dinner out at Taormina's Pizzeria with Proud Hillbilly's daughter and Son-in-law and their baby, and it's nice to meet them.  Then home to walk the dog, tuck the kids in a prep them for school for their first day.

Quite the adventurous weekend indeed.

The joys of legal travel

Blogging has been light recently as I've been really busy at work and no time to blog during lunch or otherwise.

Now I'm about to experience my first real legal travel experience. I've been around various courts all over Michigan but this is the first out of state work travel for me. So I'm psyched.

I'm now headed to San Francisco for a mediation hearing on behalf of a client that should prove to be quite interesting. Wish me luck as its a big one and a lot is riding on it.

Just landed in Phoenix on thew way. The client sprang for an upgrade at the airport to first class on the flight to Phoenix as it was longer which was very nice of him. First time flying first class and I must say it was a very fine way to travel by air - a nice lunch, a pleasant and helpful flight attendent, and a nice sized seat with decent leg room, not to mention getting to board first and get off the plane first.

Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix is very nice indeed, and makes the Smith Terminal at Detroit Metro seem downright dilapidated, colorless, and user-unfriendly by comparison.

Now waiting for the flight to SFO, which will be economy, but shorter.

I'll have pics of San Francisco taken and posted as time permits.