Madison, Wisconsin - May 2012

I haven't had to travel in a while but when my next assignment came up and I found that it was in Madison, WI, I was excited.  I've been there a couple of times before but it was during the winter.  I like the town.  Madison is an isthmus with Lake Mendota on one side and Lake Monona on the other.  This trip I actually stayed in Capitol Square which is a square block that surrounds the capitol building.

This is a view of Lake Monona from my room at the Inn on the Park which is directly across from the Capitol.

When in Madison, I had to go back to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Casa Lara.  I had the chile verde - delicious!  Lucky for me my room had a fridge so I got to bring the leftovers home and have them for lunch the next day.

This is the Capitol.  If you've been watching the news, you may know that the citizens are trying to recall Governor Scott Walker.  I think it's still ongoing.

I just thought this was funny.  It's a window at a toy store in Capitol Square.

I spent 4 days in Madison, most of them in my room working.  On my last full day there, I quit working at 5 to take a walk around the city and get some fresh air.  This is a view of the Capitol from Monona Terrace.

Lake Monona.  The weather was amazing!  People were sailing and relaxing.

Self portrait at Lake Monona.  I know the hair is a bit wild but it was windy out there by the lake.  Monona Terrace is the top of the convention center that is like a cement park.  There are trees and flowers and most importantly, chairs next to the lake where people can sit and chill.  It's free to go up there.  The perfect addition to my visit to the lake would have been a lovely glass of wine and my fabulous spouse, not necessarily in that order.

Another view of the Capitol as the backdrop to the Monona Terrace fountain.

One of the things that was really cool is that all around the square were food trucks.  There was a guy selling Mexican food, one selling Cajun food and, my favorite, the hot dog guy.  On one of the days I took a quick lunch break and got a chili dog from the hot dog guy and sat out on this bench and ate.  It was a nice break to the day and the chili dog was good.  Also around the square were Pubs.  This being a college town (the University of Wisconsin is on the other side of town), the Pubs are plentiful and they are busy.  They all have outdoor seating and by 5 pm they are packed.

This is my hotel - Inn on the Park.  It's a Best Western.  It was nice.  It was a great location.  It had an indoor pool and a nicely equipped workout room (which I did NOT take advantage of!). 

This is a picture of the same hotel in 1875.  The hotel was opened in 1871 as the Park Hotel to serve the legislators.  The price was $3 per day for room and board.  It's a little more than that now for just 'room'.

Another photograph of the hotel in 1912.  There were historic photos all over the hotel. 

This was a nice trip.  As always, I wish I'd had more time to walk around.  This time I was particularly busy but I'm glad I got to go just the same. 

Oh! and the client meeting went really well.

Cemetery Tour

As many of you know, I love history.  When I travel around I like to find out about the places I'm visiting.  Every place has something interesting about it.  When we travel for pleasure, my first thought is to get the 'lay of the land' by taking a city tour - one the points out all the places of interest.  After our last vacation, I realized that I'd never taken a city tour of Dallas and I've been here since 1980!  I looked for a city tour on line and found that there weren't any.  Shame on you, Dallas!

What I did find, however, was the Dallas Historical Society.  They offer very interesting tours like the one I took a couple of weeks ago.  This particular tour is called the Cemetery Tour.  It's not what I expected - it was better.

Our tour started at Greenwood Cemetery located right in the heart of Dallas.  It's in Uptown on Oak Grove Road (right off of Central Expressway).  I never even knew it was there.  This is the oldest cemetery in Dallas.

This was a really neat headstone.  It looks like a tree trunk.  When you see this type of headstone, it means the the person buried is a member of a fraternal organization that began in 1883 called Woodman of the World.  Oddly, they are insurance salesman.

This is Francis.  She was our tour guide.  She's 90, which surprised me.  I would have guessed 60's.  She's been in Dallas since the 1920's and knows all kinds of stuff related to the cemeteries in Dallas.  This has earned her the nickname 'the Cemetery Lady'.  She was awesome!

There are lots of veterans of the Civil War buried here.  All of the Confederate soldiers' graves are marked by this little metal marker that designates the person as a Civil War veteran.

 We talked Mom & Dad into going with us. 

 This is the section of the cemetery where the Union soldiers are buried.

There's a huge vacant space in the cemetery that is covered with trees.  Some Dallas developers wanted to buy the land and build on it.  Francis fought the developers (of whom Roger Staubach was one) and told them they couldn't develop on the land because there were burials.  When the developers had an archaeological dig, they found 14 bodies buried there so they stopped.  The bodies (probably just skeletons at this point) were re-interred in this one spot.  The previous graves were unmarked so they don't know who is buried here.

Several of Dallas' original settlers are buried here.  This mausoleum is built for Christopher Columbus Slaughter.  Colonel Slaughter was a cattle rancher and a philanthropist.

Here, Francis was describing the dedication ceremony for the historical marker.  Note the Civil War marker next to the historical marker.

This section of the cemetery is for the Cockrell family.  Sarah Horton Cockrell was one a Dallas entrepreneur.  Her husband, Alexander Cockrell, had several businesses for which Sarah kept all the records.  When Alexander was killed, Sarah took over the businesses full time.  She commissioned the first bridge over the Trinity River.  By 1892, she owned about 1/4 of downtown Dallas and several thousand acres in Dallas County.  The tall obelisk monument is Sarah's grave. 

 This plot belongs to the Cabell family.  This would be the same Cabell family to which Earl Cabell (of the Earl Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas) belongs.  Earl Cabell was the mayor of Dallas during the time that JFK was here.

After the Greenwood Cemetery, we all drove around the corner to the Freedman's Cemetery.  I've driven by this place a million times and never knew it was a cemetery.  I always thought it was a park.

This cemetery was a burial ground for many of the freed slaves that had settled here after the Civil War.  When they began excavating in the preparation for the widening of Central Expressway, they found a skeleton every time they put the shovel in the ground.  There weren't many markers.  Francis, our tour guide, was part of the project and she said there was only one marker that they found.  The marker is embedded in the wall behind the statue.

This is a view of the whole cemetery.  It's really beautiful.  It's right off Central.

The cemetery tour was only about 2 hours long.  We only hit a few highlights of the cemetery.  I think Francis could probably have talked all day.  After the tour, we went to Gonzalez Restaurant on Jefferson for some outstanding Mexican food. 

The Dallas Historical Society has several other really cool tours.  If you're interested go to their website.  www.dallashistory.org then click on the Historic City Tours link.

Mariner of the Seas - Cruise April 2012

It's vacation time!  We decided to take a family cruise.  Cruising is a great way to travel with a big group.  In fact, it's more fun when you cruise with a big group.  This group consisted of me and John, my mom, John's parents, my godfather (Nino) and my Uncle Ed and Aunt Cheryl.  Nino and mom rode down with us and Ed & Cheryl followed.  The Chaneys met us at the pier.

Nino and mom sang 'oldies but goodies' from Grand Prairie to Galveston.  It was a cappella too!  They were both listening to Nino's iPod.  Five hours!

 Waiting for John and Ed to come back from parking the car so we can board the ship.

The requisite boarding photo.

 After we dropped our stuff off in our rooms and had lunch, we walked around the ship.  This time we were sailing on the Mariner of the Seas.  I think this is bigger than the other two ships, the Rhapsody and the Voyager (both 'of the Seas').  This particular ship had an ice skating rink, rock climbing, a little putt putt course and a basket ball court.

 We had some first timers with us.  Ed and Cheryl and my Nino were all on their maiden voyage. 

 Waiting up on deck to sail away.

Enjoying the view of Galveston.

 Wandering around the deck.

We had to all go to our muster stations so that we'd know what to do if the captain ran into something.  On the way, I took photos of the ship.  This is the promenade where all the shops are.  There are quite a few bars as well.  Some of the inside rooms have windows that open up to the promenade.

We made our way to the muster station by way of the casino.  This is the floor.  The entry to the casino is a glass floor with this stuff underneath.  I thought I was going to fall through!

Ed & Cheryl at the muster station.  The first cruise we did, you had to wear your life jackets to the drill but this time, no.  I was at the very back against the wall.  It was very claustrophobic.  Plus, the people wouldn't shut up so you could hear the instructions!  I was glad we had no need to actually go to the muster station.

The hallway to our cabin.  Redrum!

Sea days were spent like this - out on the balcony reading or just watching the ocean.  It's very relaxing.

 

In light of the fact that everything on the cruise was 'All you can eat', I decided that I would take advantage of the gym.  They have great equipment so I ran on the treadmill 4 out of 7 days.  Not too bad.  The first day was very rough.  You could feel the boat rocking and it was difficult not to fall off the treadmill.  But, this was my view while running.  Ahhh...

The first full evening was the first formal night.  It's nice.  Everyone gets dressed up and it's a lot of fun.  Well, probably more fun for the girls than the guys.  This was a great photo of all of us.  This was actually during dinner.

Before going in to dinner, we had to get our pictures made.  Here's the Chaney family.

 

Mom and Ed.

After about 100 pictures, we were all kind of warm so we found a bar to get some refreshments. 

There weren't enough chairs so some of us had to make do.

The paparazzi was everywhere!  This was a nice shot of Mom and Nino.

 This was supposed to be of just Nino but someone's big head got in the picture.

 Ed and Cheryl.

 Mom - Formal night.

 Mom and Dad - Formal night.

The first port of call was Cozumel.  Having been there a few times, I had planned on staying on the ship but John wanted to go to Senor Frog's.  As it turns out, it was a good call.

 Getting off the ship.

 That's a weenie little Carnival ship parked next to our ship.

 John in Cozumel looking for trouble.

 Mom resting.

Mom and John with Senor Frog.

The two drinks there were HUGE!  I can't remember what we got but we couldn't finish them.  Nino is happy because his 'little' cup of Crown Royal ended up being three shots.

 The balloon hat lady found us.

 We're matching.  It looks like I have a towel on my head.  The balloon lady is behind John.

Mom..looking good.

Mom & Dad with Senor Frog.

The water in Cozumel was crystal clear and a lovely aqua color.  It looked very inviting especially on such a hot day.

The next stop was Georgetown, Grand Cayman.  I wasn't feeling well when we docked so I stayed on the ship while everyone else got off.  This is a shot from my balcony.  We didn't dock so to get off the ship, you had to take a tender boat.  At one point, I saw one of the Carnival ships take off and there was a tender boat racing behind it.  I guess the tender boat driver got hold of the ship captain because the Carnival ship stopped.  When the cruise line says be on the boat at a certain time, they aren't kidding!

Pirate Ship at Grand Caymen.  I was sitting in the balcony recovering from the gym when I saw this ship go by.  It was one of the tourist excursions.  I heard the guy tell everyone, '1, 2, 3, Arrgghh!'.  It was kind of funny.

 

The water in Grand Caymen was the most beautiful blue.  It looked so inviting, I just wanted to jump in.

 Yo ho!  It's Jack Sparrow and Ed.

 Cheryl and the pirate.

John went in to Grand Cayman with is parents to have a drink.  Here's John with Dad.  In retrospect, I wish I'd gone with them.

Mom and Dad in Grand Cayman.

 Mom and Nino having a cool refreshing drink in Grand Cayman.

The pier at Falmouth Jamaica.  The town built the pier specifically for Royal Caribbean.  When the 'tourist season' ends, the pier shuts down.  Ramona, our guide, was telling us that they all have nothing to do when the season ends.

 That's Ramona and Nino.

Ed & Cheryl at the Good Hope Plantation.  The views from here were amazing!

Good Hope Plantation was originally a sugar plantation.  Now they have several oranges trees as well as sugar cane.  The house was built back in 1755.  The wife of the original owner is buried in a little building to the right of the front door. 
The counting house. Apparently, it was rude (and bad luck) to count your money in your house so there was a counting house where the books were kept. This is now a honeymoon suite that can be rented out.
At the back of the counting house in the base of the building is this room. It's where the slaves were put when they were in 'timeout'. Although, I would venture to guess it was a lot worse then than it is now.
This is the potty chair. It's right in the bedroom. I guess it's easier using a chair than a chamberpot. Also, you could close the lid...
The plantation owner was the first to have running water (hot and cold) for bathing purposes - even before New York City.
Waiting for the bus to come back and take us to the pier.
Azza, the belly dancing teacher. She was at every 'sail away' party on Deck 11. She danced to all the songs...all by herself.
Sunset leaving Falmouth, Jamaica.
Towel animals - this one is a bat.
Rain on the 'high seas'. It was cool. I didn't know it would rain this far out. Pretty dumb, I know.
Towel animals. I think this one is a dog.

Friday night was the last formal night.  I didn't even remember that they took this picture but my mom had it.

 We were all one room apart because I thought we needed privacy.  Instead we all spent most of the time yelling to one another across the balconies.

 Deck 4 was as close as you could get to the water without jumping in.  We were all mesmerized.

 Drinks on the deck.

 Coffee on the balcony - the best part of the day.

 Hanging out on Mom's balcony.

 Nino & Ed.

 Nino, Mom and Cheryl - Jamaica.

 Nino and Des.  Des was our room attendant.  She was very cool.

 Hanging out and waiting to go into Jamaica.

 After Ed and Nino had three very large beers, Ed was King of the World.

 Mom and Cheryl on the lovely staircase.

Ed and Cheryl on the staircase.

The 'Bingo Babes'. Cheryl won $300 and Mom (Judy) won $1,200.