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!

The Bridge...

Yea, that's Lisa!

Mr. Fox, Linda, and Lisa awoke this morning to a beautiful, sunny, autumn day.  They started out heading south toward New Hampshire and decided to see what they could see...and see they did! First up was a road side wonder in Rumford, ME.  They stumbled on a converted "Muffler Man" statue outside the visitor center, painted to look like Paul Bunyan.  Linda texted me that Lisa had found a new man.

After the morning flirtation, they continued down the road where a sign beckoned them to an old covered bridge. It turns out they were touring the covered bridge over the Sunday River in Bethel, Me. The original bridge was built in 1822 and has been repaired or replaced several times during its long life.

After the day's travels, they checked into their hotel in Conway, NH.  The view is spectacular, as you can see in Mr. Fox's photo.  On the technology front, they are having difficulty sending messages and e-mails, even through the internet connection.  Maybe this is what they mean by small towns having a slower pace!

Acadia!

Yesterdy Mr. Fox and the girls visited Acadia National Park just south of Bar Harbor, Maine.  The weather decided not to cooperate as it was overcast and foggy most of the day.  The pictures show a beautiful and somber park shrouded in fog and haze.

The drive looked like it was going to be a bust of a day, but when they arrived, the fog cleared enough for them to see just how beautiful the park is.  The waves crashing on the rocky shore and the wonderful views of the Northern Atlantic was truly spectacular.

Mr. Fox, staying on mission, continued to collect the fall leaves. As you can see, he does not want us to forget why he is on the trip!

The intrepid team is traveling around the great white north in an orange Jeep.  I will try to get a picture of it in the next post.

Mr. Fox collecting his leaves.

They are having a blast and are headed back to New Hampshire on Sunday.

Thunder Hole

Beautiful Acadia!

Maine!

Mr. Fox enjoying the view

The reason for the trip was to take in the beautiful changing of the leaves (and eat lobster), while the weather is not really cooperating, Mr. Fox was able to pose with some beautiful scenery.  They made their way up the eastern seaboard from Portsmouth, NH into Maine and through Kennebunkport.  In Kennebunkport they saw the former President Bush's compound.  Then it was on to Bar Harbor where they would stay for the night.

In an ironic twist of fate, as they arrived at the hotel in Bar Harbor, a Trafalger bus pull up with a load of tourists! (For those that don't know, Trafalger was our tour provider in Europe this summer!)

After lugging their bags up 3 flights of steps and settling in, it was already pitch black outside at 6:30pm!  They were then off in search of an authentic Maine Lobster dinner (this appears to be on Linda's bucket list)!!! From what I could tell, the dinner was a smashing success and they are having a wonderful time.

Posing with the star of the season!

Lobster!!

Off to New England

Mr. Fox is off on another adventure!  He is arrived yesterday in Boston, Mass courtesy of Jet Blue.  He and his trusty traveling companions, Linda and Lisa made their way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Known as 'Tugboat Alley', they watched as two tug boats docked a ship with the first salt delivery of the season!

Later in the afternoon, they journeyed over for a little history, visiting the home of William Whipple, as signer of the Declaration of Independence!

A Day in Paris

Mr. Fox at the Louvre

Sorry that this post is so late, the trip home was long and this is the first chance I have had to post for our last day in Europe.

Saturday was a full day in Paris, we started early with at bus tour around the city, we drove up the Champs-Élysées, past the  Arc de Triomphe, to the main square where there is an Egyptian Obelisk marking the spot where the guillotine stood during the French Revolution.  The bus trip took us past Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower and ended back on the Champs-Élysées where we took a stroll down what is supposedly one of the most expensive strips of land in the world.

Following our stroll, we were on our way to the Louvre museum for an early afternoon appointment.  We were warned that it was as busy as Versailles, so we were prepared for another pushing match with the crowd.  Luckily, even though it was crowded, it was nothing like Friday's herd.

Our guide was much better than the guide for Versailles, and she took us on a quick 2 hour tour of the museums.  We started in the basement where we viewed the base of the original Louvre castle.  The base of the castle was discovered in 1985 and confirmed the original jail that was only myth up to the discovery.  The current Louvre palace was built directly on top of the old one and has expanded into the largest museum in the world.  We moved pretty quickly through the museum, with stops at the Venus de Milo statue, the Mona Lisa, and we even had time to view the French crown jewels of Louis XVI.

From the Louvre, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower.  We entered the lift and made our way to the second level.  The view is impressive from here, I can't imagine what it would be like at the very top. (Lisa has been up there and says that it is pretty scary!)  We took pictures, admired the views of Paris and generally marveled at this engineering masterpiece!  While Linda and Lisa waited in line to take the lift back down to the ground, Clayton and I started down the stairs, followed later by Michael, Emmy, and Anthony.  The walk down was much less taxing than the Cathedral in Cologne and my legs did not hurt afterward.

Mr. Fox cruising down the Seine

Our final dinner was a farewell dinner with the entire group in an old Parisian establishment.  It was supposed to be a pretty big deal, as we had to select all three courses 3 days ahead of our reservation!  Well, we were not that impressed with the French cuisine.  The appetizers were a little sketchy, the fish had bones, the beef was 'interesting', and we had an interesting encounter with the manager on the wrong number of Chocolate Mousse desserts.  It was pretty funny listening to our tour guide and the manager arguing...I am sure Caroline did not enjoy it, but the manager was being a jerk.

Mr. Fox and the Eiffel Tower

We finished our meal and headed out for a final cruise down the Seine river to see Paris 'wake-up' and become the 'City of Lights'.  We had a good time, cruising past Notre Dame and finishing up by the Eiffel Tower with it's lights sparkling in the cool Parisian night!

After the cruise, Caroline had one final stop before heading back to pack and bed. The Eiffel Tower does it's sparkling trick 3 times a night and the bus took us to the prefect spot to view and take pictures. Clayton and I found an unobstructed view where I took pictures and he captured the spectacle on my phone.

All in all, a very busy final day!  I will be posting some more pictures and will probably post a final summary a little later.  For those who followed the entire trip, thank you very much for your interest and endurance!  I know we are all exhausted and will take some time to recover from such a wonderful vacation.

Gettin' to Paris

Friday started out the way most of the travelling days did, on the bus.  We made good time through the farmlands of central France, seeing more beautiful sunflower fields, along with corn and other staple crops. (And the errant Castle and Church!)

Mr. Fox in Beaune, France

We had a mid-morning stopover in the small medieval village of Beaune, France.  We simply walked around and window shopped, however, Emmy (with her personal shopper, Michael) bought a beautiful new dress (and some other things I'm told).

Mr. Fox at Versailles

We arrived on the outskirts of Paris a little before three in the afternoon where we made a stop at the Palace of Versailles.  The palace to Louis XIV, Louis XV, and the last palace Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette saw during the French Revolution.  The palace is huge (over 1700 rooms I think), but crowded.  It was beautiful, but as you move from room to room, you get crushed going through the doors!  There as a lot of pushing and shoving (and that as just our group!).  In one instance, a rather rotund man was pushing Lisa with his stomach.  Michael put his hand between his mother and the fat man, pushed him back and said, "No, too close!"  Michael said that the man stood there with the look on his face saying..."did that just happen?"  Oh, the adventure that is Europe!

The palace was a little overwhelming, and the guide not very good, so the group hightailed it out of the Kings abode, into the courtyard, and off to the meeting spot at the main gates.  Needless to say, we have been to Versailles, and that is all we're saying about that. (I will post some pictures though).

Mr. Fox getting ready to enjoy the Moulin Rouge!

After making it into the city and checking into the hotel, we were off to our evening adventure, The Moulin Rouge! (Red Windmill in English)  Here we were treated to a nice meal in the largest cabaret in Paris. The highlight of the show, for us anyway, was when Micheal was selected out of the audience to participate in the show by the mime.  He, a Chinese man, a Chinese woman, and a German (Michael thinks) woman all joined the mime on stage for some antics and a very funny skit.  Michael stole the show by ad-libing and generally giving the mime a hard time, it was very entertaining!

It turned out to be a pretty long night and we were all ready to get back to the hotel for some sleep for our last day in Paris (and Europe!)

Headin' to Paris

Mr. Fox with a Bocce ball sculpture in Cannes

Thursday was primarily a travel day, as we are headed for the grand finale in Paris. We left Nice and traveled a little west to Cannes, home of the famous film festival. It is really a small coastal village with expensive boats in the harbor, the film festival hall, and not really much to see.

We visited the local farmers market, which was filled with everything from flowers to vegetables to chickens with their feet still on (Clayton's favorite: skinned rabbits with their eyes still in their heads) and all kinds of herbs and spices.

In the afternoon we stopped in the small Provençal town of Avignon. Avignon is famous for the Papal Palace, that housed 6 Popes in the 14th century before they returned to Rome in the early 15th century. The Papal Palace is HUGE! Take a look at the panorama, as the camera would not take it all in from the square.

We had a really nice lunch in the village square. Linda was looking for crepes, so we found an outside resturant that served them. Lisa had chicken, while Clayton, Linda and I all had cheese crepes. They were delicious! After lunch, we did a little shopping in the street side shops.

Mr. Fox with a namesake establishment in Cannes, France

I think everyone slept on the bus on our way to Lyon. There were no planned activities in Lyon, so Caroline took us to the city center for dinner. We walked around the old city where we used a secret passage originally used by the silk merchants and the French resistence in WWII.

Some of the group wanted escargot, so we found an outside cafe that served them. Linda was the only brave one among us to order the large snails.

Dinner and the company was delightful, and we headed back to the hotel to rest up for 2 days in Paris!

Tomorrow we travel most of the day for a 3pm tour of the Palace at Versailles, then on to the
Moulin Rouge for dinner!