Stowin' Away

Stowin' Away!

Mr. Fox had a very eventful and busy October!  In addition to his trip with Lisa and Linda, traipsing around New England in search of the ultimate covered bridge, he found time to hitch a ride with Steve on a few business trips.  After returning from Boston, Steve did not realize that Mr. Fox was still nestled down in the side pocket of his backpack.

We guess he thought all this travel was pretty exciting, so he hopped the next few trips to learn about the glamour of business travel!

Toronto, Ontario Canada

The first stop was Toronto, Canada.  Mr. Fox got a taste of yet another 'foreign' country!  The trip took us to Alliston, Ontario about an hour North of Toronto.  Not knowing that Mr. Fox was with him, Steve did not get a picture with the red wanderer.  However, he did take a picture of the sun setting over the Toronto streets.

A few days after returning from Canada, Steve was off to Portland, Oregon.  This time, he realized that Mr. Fox was in his backpack when he was preparing for takeoff in Jacksonville.

Hotel Window - Portland, OR

The next morning, Mr. Fox got his picture taken in the hotel window, his first taste of traveling for business. After the days work, they moved hotels to downtown Portland to be closer to the next days meetings.

Downtown Portland

Ah, the excitement!  Hotel room to meeting,  to hotel room to meeting.  Really, they did have an hour to walk through downtown Oregon, however, true to the climate, is started raining so they had to high tail it back to the hotel.

The next day they left Oregon behind, but not without a great parting shot of Mr. Fox on the plane with Mount Hood in the background.  Sometimes it can be pretty interesting!

Mr. Fox and Mt. Hood

The next stop on Mr. Fox's stowin' away adventure came the following week during Halloween.

Steve was scheduled to visit Sandy, Utah just outside Salt Lake City for two days of meetings. He once again was left in the backpack side pocket and on this occasion, they were going to get a little chance to play tourist.

Real Salt Lake Soccer Practice

Arriving in Salt Lake City and getting to their morning meeting, Steve was pleasantly surprised to see a soccer field across the street from the office.  When asked, our hosts explained that the Real Salt Lake professional soccer team practices on that field. During the meetings, cars started arriving and the players were making their way onto the field, stretching and preparing for practice.  The team was in the MLS playoffs and were preparing for a game two days later.  Mr. Fox insisted he get his picture with the team, so Steve made his way across the street during a break to oblige!

Utah by the way, is a very beautiful state.  The valley where Salt Lake City is situated has majestic rocky mountains on each side that provide wonderful views from pretty much anywhere along the valley floor.

Mountains near the soccer fields

Later in the afternoon, Steve's meetings were cancelled.  Trying to get early flights back to Jacksonville proved to be near impossible to prohibitively expensive.  This trip followed hurricane Sandy's visit to the North East, and the airlines were trying to get all the stranded travelers to their destinations.  There were few, and very expensive, seats that would get them home early, so they kept our reservations and decided to work from the hotel and see a little of the area.

On the road to Park City

The team, Mr. Fox, Steve and Steve's associate Sergio decided to spend the evening and have dinner in Park City, Utah.  Only about 30 minutes from the airport, it was a nice drive up into the mountains.

Something that they did not expect was that the entire city shuts down on Halloween and everyone shows up downtown in full costume to trick-or-treat along the main street. There were throngs of witches, goblins, princesses, pirates and myriad of other beasties out that evening.

Halloween in Park City Utah

They worked the next morning and then decided to downtown Salt Lake City to visit the Mormon Temple. It is a pretty impressive area and they spent a little time in the Family Research Center, trying to look up their history.  Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

Mr. Fox in the Mormon Tabernacle

Mr. Fox in front of the Temple

Boston

We complete our trip by finishing in bean town, Boston! We decided to take a trolley around the town to soak up a little of the history and to help us decide where we might want to tour later in the day. The trolly guides are a riot, bad jokes and all, and a wealth of information, even if their facts don't always agree.

Freedom Trail

After the trolley, we decided to visit Paul Revere's house. After taking a quick moment to cross the street to take a picture we decided to go in, however, a High School field trip arrived and jumped in front of us... So much for visiting Mr. Revere!

We then decided to follow the Freedom Trail to the Old North Church (yes, of Paul Revere fame). This is a neat Church that shows how it was to worship before central heat! The pews are actually boxes that the members owned and brought heated bricks from home to keep them warm during the service.

Following the Church, we hopped the trolley over to Fanieul Hall, and central Boston. Here, Mr. Fox had his picture taken at the start of the Freedom Trail.

We finally made our way back to Mr. Revere's house and took our tour, sans loud High School kiddies.

After a nice lunch together in the basement of Quincy Market, we went back to the hotel, fetched the trusty jeep (oops, I forgot to take a pic), and headed to the airport.

A great weekend with Mr. Fox and my wonderful wife.

Salem

On Monday we were up bright and early to head to Boston ... A quick stop by Gloucester to see the "Old Man and the Sea" statue (sorry, no pics), there was not that much else there!

We took the scenic route, taking us through numerous quaint villages and towns, before arriving in Salem where we decided to spend the afternoon.

The House of Seven Gables

Salem is all decorated for Halloween, and you can imagine what that is like for a place famous for witches! There is a month long celebration and the place is full of 'colorful' people! No visit to Salem would be complete without visiting the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. This is series of 20 benches engraved with the names of those executed as witches.

After a nice lunch we hiked over to the House of Seven Gables where we toured the house, climbed a very small staircase behind the fireplace and generally learnJed how late 1700's folks lived. Mr. Fox was intrepid and tried his hand at ship captain.

Captain Fox

Finally, we visited the Salem Witch Museum, where we saw a presentation that chronicled the witch trials. All in all, a nice day, however, Lisa and I both agree that Salem is a pretty strange place, and will go in our book as 'been there, done that'.

We completed the evening by meeting up with my work colleague Dan and his wife Janice. They took us on a wonderful tour of Marblehead, north of Boston. Beautiful homes on the Atlantic ocean, caped by a great dinner at a local Italian restaurant!

Rockport

After a long delay on Saturday morning, I finally arrived in Boston around 5:30. We jumped into the orange jeep and headed to Rockport, MA. We are staying in a nice B&B, without the breakfast part, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The room has a big picture window looking out at the lighthouse and Sandy Bay. The lobstermen make their way up and down the shore here, picking up traps and dropping new ones.

We ventured into Rockport for the day, "a little drinking village with a fishing problem" is their tag line. It is a quaint village with a sheltered harbor and a lot of neat little shops and homes.

Bridges of...

Mr. Fox, revelling in the foliage!

The trio has spent the last few days scouring the backroads for bridges.  Here is a small collection of their pictures.

Henry Bridge

Paper Mill Bridge

Silk Bridge

The Truck

Mr. Fox, likin' the truck!

A quick post tonight...the team has been cruising, enjoying the fall sights and beautiful scenery.  Mr. Fox continues to explore the fall bounty!  I think he has been lobbying Lisa to get this cool truck for him, imagine if he had his own wheels!

The weather has not been cooperating, but it appears that they are touring the local covered bridges, something severely lacking here in Jacksonville, and probably Houston too.  I will post pictures and news of their adventures soon.

Backroads...

Hurricane Moutain Road

Today, Mr. Fox's band of adventurers decided to be bold.  They started with a bright sunny morning and meandered the backroads of New Hampshire and Vermont.   They took a lovely drive up a very narrow road up Hurricane Mountain, crossed back into Maine (a little side trip to see more leaves)! Lisa was thrilled that the temp had dropped to 48! brrrr...





Mr. Fox took in the autumn bounty at a road side stand, he looks like he is really enjoying himself.  He looks perfectly comfortable there among the gourds and squash!










He took advantage of another scenic stop to collect another leaf from North Conway, NH for his fall collection.

Today took them through the White Mountain Forest on their way to Vermont where they visited Vermont's Little Grand Canyon, Quechee Gorge. According to their texts, the scenery is absolutely gorgeous!





They ended up in Ludlow, VT where they will spend the next two nights at a really neat B&B.  The room they are staying is was Thomas Edison's favorite when he stayed there!