Tales of a Shoebox Princess

 After our drive up the Jersey Turnpike, we got to Jersey City to our very nice hotel. Ain't never been to the Big Apple, but it's on our agenda this evening! more bridge! We did not go through the Holland tunnel yet, but there it is. We'd checked into the hotel and decided to take the subway into NYC and go to Central Park. Kinda filthy but charming because I like mass transit like this. Jim's bucket list gets another checkmark when we stop by the Dakota to see where John Lennon was shot.  In Central Park across the street is the memorial. Jim was wearing a Beatles shirt and some guy stopped him to ask where exactly John was shot and Jim was very helpful pointing it out. I laughed because out of all the people in the park at this memorial--and there were many many people here--the stranger on a quest picked exactly the right person to answer his question.  Buskers singing Beatles songs Central Park was quite busy this evening. See all the people on the bridge? And ther...

The parking lot of the cutest little breakfast diner I have ever seen. EVERY parking stop in the lot was painted like this Omelets and crepes for breakfast! Pink is definitely a theme at the Bayside Skillet.  Even the parking space strips are pink and the sign is pink and the awning is pink striped! EVEN THE EXIT SIGN IS PINK AND STRAWBERRIED   Across the street is someone's private astronomical observatory on their house. I want to meet the owner. Does he/she give tours? Do they do events?  After breakfast, Jim and I headed to the beach on the other side of the street. I could sit and stare at this view for hours.  Doesn't it look peaceful? There were some people, but the beach was large enough so everyone has several hundred square feet of personal space. I would vacation at Ocean City again. My toes just needed the barest touch of water I do have a picture of Delaware! The bridges on the east coast are fun to look at! Such geometry! Our destination is New Jersey a...

 Back in early 2020, Jim and I had planned a nice week-long fall drive in new England to cross off some states that we hadn't been to. The pandemic scuppered those plans, but we kept trying to find time to reschedule. Finally last fall, we settled on late May of 2025 and Jim set to work planning our route, looking up places to stay, etc. We discussed what we wanted to see while on our drive. I had one week between the cruise and the road trip, which was just enough time to do laundry and repack my suitcase.  We left Thursday after work and drove 3-ish hours to Wisconsin and I took no photos because we were just in the car and then in the hotel. Who needs to site-see in WI when you live in MN, although someday I would like to go to Door County. WI is delightfully wooded, but the drawback with woodsy areas is you get a lot of deer roadkill on the highways. The next day we drove all day to just south of Columbus Ohio. It was a nerve-wracking drive because of the traffic through C...

When we went for breakfast this last full day at sea, one of the ship's personnel walked around the buffet encouraging attendance at a cooking demo in the theater later on that day. We thought why not? Who doesn't like food?  We saw lots of towel animals randomly placed around the ship!  By the time we got to the theater to attend the cooking demo, the seats were nearly full. We had to sit separately. The demo was being given by the head chef and the head maitre'd. A few minutes in, it was apparent this was for laffs.  Maitre'D must have had stage experience because he knew how to play to the crowd. Every time someone came in late, he would stop what he was doing and politely greet the latecomer, thank them for coming and ask for their cabin #. He would assign someone to send them chocolate covered strawberries. I wish I'd been late. Chef would giggle at MaitreD's antics (over filling a pot with pasta, picking up pasta from the floor and putting it back in the p...