Last evening we had a really fun dining experience at Fireside Dining at Empire Canyon Lodge. It starts with raclettes of cheese melting onto a plate by the fire! Yum! And it only got better from there. It’s a fun dining experience that you should try if you are in the area!

Tonight we had the MOST AMAZING Christmas concert at the Church of the Later Day Saints Conference Center. The center holds over 21,200 people and every seat was filled. We had a VERY early dinner (3:30 pm) in order to be in line when the doors opened at 6:30 pm. The Roof Restaurant is in a hotel in Temple Square and was the perfect spot to dine! We even enjoyed some local school choirs singing in the lobby of the hotel.

The Concert had two special guests —the award winning tenor, Alfie Boe and Tom Brokaw. Th tenor sang beautifully, but Bill and I thought Tom Brokaw stole the show! He came out and told the story of Gail Halvorsen, a WWII bomber pilot whom, at Christmas time, ended up,organizing the dropping of chocolate rations to the children in Berlin by handkerchief parachutes. Brokaw relayed the story (I’m sure it’s in his book , The Greatest Generation) of this wonderful man who really embodied the spirit of Christmas giving in war torn Berlin at the end of the war. It was a very moving story. The surprise was that the 92 year old Halvorsen appeared on stage and was briefly interviewed by Brokaw! He is quite spry for 92 and still fits in his original flight suit he wore when making those “candy drops”! This truly is a magnificent concert in a magnificent setting. If you ever get the opportunity to attend this glorious concert, you MUST do it! There can’t be a better Christmas concert in the US!

While we had a beautiful evening, it was marred by the sadness of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. I know in the moment of silence that was called for in the temple, there were 21,200 people praying for all those that have been affected…..God bless them all….

Well, you know how all year long I’ve been bragging about all the amazingly good weather we’ve had on every trip? I think that streak may have come to a screeching halt with hurricane Sandy! However, in another strange way, our tremendous “luck or good fortune” stayed with us!

Now, I’ll be the first to admit we weren’t “roughing it” — the Chatwal is a far cry from that!! We were only 5 blocks away from where all the power outages for Manhattan started! The actual night that Sandy came ashore with all her destructive might, we were in a very insulated bubble. Our little section of Manhattan had very little rain and less wind! I think the position of all the buildings in our area shielded us tremendously! We all were thinking that there was an awful lot of “over reaction and hype”! Boy were we wrong! But, you have to understand that where we were, there were still several restaurants open and we were fine outside walking around. When the news stations began to show all the damage in the first light of day we were amazed and dismayed! There is tremendous devastation. Donations to the Red Cross would be a great idea and I encourage all who read this to text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10.00 to the relief fund.

After much scrambling and a lot of different plans our “SUPERWOMAN” travel agent, Arlene Feen, managed to get us on a flight out of Bradley Field in Windsor Lock, CT! She secured a car and driver to pick us up at 5:00am at our hotel and drive us to the airport. Now, as we wait at the gate, we are hoping all goes smoothly in Atlanta! We are trying to get Grant’s friend, Mike, home in time for his daughter’s first Halloween! His son and daughter are going as Batman and Batgirl– something he didn’t want to miss!! Looks like he will make it!

We have been scheduled every day since Monday on a flight out of LaGuardia. LaGuardia remains 2′ underwater. We think it’s going to be quite a while before air traffic will be going in or out of there. We considered trying to rent a car and drive back to Florida, but ultimately rejected that idea because of the blizzard hitting south of NY and not knowing how bad the roads were going south. We were briefly booked out of Philadelphia, but better flights became available in Hartford so here we are!!

I do have to add one other piece of information to show you how our “luck” continues to hold. Though its embarrassing to admit, this experienced traveler left her drivers license at home!! I had taken it out of my purse and put it in a fanny pack to go to the football game and I forgot to put it back in my purse. Once again, our trusty travel agent saved me by faxing a copy of my passport to me. We were concerned TSA would give me a hard time, but with the faxed copy of my passport, my Medicare card, and photo id from Woodfield and the Boca Resort, it was no problem at all. It probably helped that I’m a registered GOES traveler!

Our flight from Bradley is showing a 20 min delay which will make our Atlanta connection really tight, but we remain “hauntingly hopeful”! Happy Halloween to all!!

Well, who would have known that our wonderfully fun trip to New York would end in a Monster win for our Dolphins and a RECORD monster storm for the east coast?!!!

We are safely holed up in our wonderful Manhattan hotel – The Chatwal on 45th Street near Times Square! The hotel is keeping us for an extra two nights since flights for today and tomorrow have been canceled. At this point we’re just hoping to get home Wednesday in time for Halloween.

Except for being hugely bored, all is well. The hotel staff is being wonderful and we have a great little Irish Pub right next door that is staying open and has quite good food.

Grant and his friend Mike are outside walking around between the rain bands. The buildings seem to be blocking the worst of the wind where we are.

Saturday morning we made our way to the impressive 9-11 Memorial. It’s a beautiful site very well done. They are super organized in moving people through screening procedures. If you can, be sure to visit.

We saw two fantastic Broadway plays on Saturday. The first one was Nice Work If You Can Get It— a total hit as far as all of us were concerned! We all thoroughly enjoyed Matthew Broderick in this play!! The second play is also a hit– though quite raunchy and very irreverent. It was VERY funny– The Book of Mormons– this play brought to you by the creators of South Park.

The best part of the weekend was yet to come, though. We went to Met Life Stadium for the Jets/Dolphins football game. Our seats were graciously given to us by Santonio Holmes (part of a charity he benefits) and they were some seats!! We were in the Presidential gold level suites!! Couldn’t have been any nicer. The other guests in the suite were two Jet wives with their families and an attorney who represents several NFL players. They were all gracious losers and we tried to contain our enthusiasm! What an exciting and complete game for our Dolphins!!!

But now, the rest of the story… We are here for the duration of a record storm!! This one will be in the record books for a long time!! Big THANK YOU to our tirelessly working travel agent, Arlene Feen with ProTravel, who is trying to figure out how to get us all safely home as soon as she can!!!

Well, what a hoot 6 women are having! So far, they have not ask that we leave the train! Actually, everyone seems to be enjoying all our laughing and giggling! The scenery has been amazing.

The countryside into the town of Kamloops is far more arid than any of us would have thought. The landscape looks a lot like Arizona at times! We’ve seen quite a few Canadian geese and a herd of Big Horned Rocky Mountain Sheep.

The two meals we’ve had have been awesome!! They’ve been truly delicious with a beautiful presentation!

There is a lovely older woman, Pru, who is traveling by herself. She joined us for breakfast on the train and sat with Mary again at lunch. They are having a lovely time.

We’ve eaten so much today, we are all skipping dinner. Everyone is vegetating in their room since we have to be in the lobby at 6:10am tomorrow!

I can’t tell you how much fun were all having! Maybe the photos will give you a hint!

What a fabulous last day in Mill Valley!! It was a PERFECT tennis day. It was a tad more serious on the courts today (they are, after all, competitive athletes) and the tennis was both great AND FUN!

But first let me digress and say a quick word about last nights fund raiser/black tie affair. It was a worthy event that raised a lot of money for the respective charities. The Bryan Brothers band was great for the second night!

This morning we were treated to a homemade breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon and macadamia nut pancakes) at the magnificent home of friends of the O’Fees, Fred and Dina Eisenhart. Their home is 4 stories on the side of a mountain! Awesome view and awesome hosts!

Such a fun trip and a fun day! Met lots of very nice people! Murphy Jensen, by the way, is a super nice guy-now the tennis pro at the Cloisters in Sea Island. He was the captain of team USA.

The Bryan Brothers are incredibly nice about letting people see, touch, and wear their gold medal. They are such amazing ambassadors for their sport! Their old tennis coach, Dick Gould,(now Director of tennis at Stanford) was there today to support and cheer the players on! He is the distinguished gentleman wearing the Gold Medal. We actually got to hold it and Cindy got to wear it!!! What more could you ask for a tennis day?!

Yesterday we had an awesome time with Jim and Gloria Mack, proud owners of the Jemrose Winery! They were gracious enough to open their home to us for the night – a super nice couple who just happen to also make an awesome wine! They were also nice enough to arrange for a tour of a winery where the grapes are in the process of being crushed and fermented. A very interesting tour with some great wine tastings!

Last night was the cocktail party for the opening night of the tennis tournament. All the players were there, with the exception of the Bryan Brothers who were setting up for a 2 hour concert to benefit the local food banks. It was a GREAT concert for a wonderful cause. Everyone was having a great time—-both band and concert goers!

The tennis tournament is a team tennis affair and the players are having such fun! It’s a wonderfully intimate, relaxed event where you can really enjoy the tennis personalities! This year the players are: Lindsay Davenport, Gigi Fernandez, Rennae Stubbs, Conchita Martinez, the Bryan Brothers, Mark Knowles, Justin Gimelstob, Wayne Ferreira, Murphy Jensen and Wayne Bryan— a fun loving group of pros!!

Tonight is a black tie dinner and auction with the pros and the Bryan Brothers band playing again. Should be great fun! Big thank you to our friends, the O’Fee’s who invited us to join them on this adventure!!

Well, all good things must come to an end and so it does with our Irish trip. We’ve been blessed with great weather and beautiful sights.

Our final day we visited Casel Rock and had a wonderful lunch in the village. Upon returning to BallyFin we went for a horse and trap ride. Our horse was Billy and our driver was Victor. We had a lovely drive around the estate which is 8 miles of grounds!

After the trap ride, I went on a tour of the Manor house which proved most interesting. I then collected Bill and we took one of the golf carts to go see the walled gardens—beautiful! All in all, a beautiful trip where we all had a great time. Our final dinner was with two Navy Captains (retired) whom we had met the day before. They were most interesting and dinner was delightful!!!

When Irish eyes are smilin’ it’s because they’re looking at BallyFin for the very first time!

I feel like I am an invited guest to a magnificent country manor in the 1800’s! You do NOT feel like you are in a hotel. For those of you who have been fortunate enough to visit the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, Bally Fin feels a lot like the Vanderbilt’s estate home! There is even one room with real gold on the ceiling! It took 11 years to restore the manor home which had greatly deteriorated as a school until it was purchased in early 2000. The current owner is in residence while we are here. We are told he is Mr. Keebler and I’m speculating that it’s the Keebler of the cookie and crackers fame– with the Keebler Elfs looking a lot like leprechauns! Service is impeccable. It’s like they read your mind for every desire and then remember for the next day. The Chef makes incredible dinners. Tomorrow we are touring the 8 miles of grounds by horse and trap.

Today, however, we had a delightful guide by the name of “Mick” (hates Michael) Coghlan who took us first to Kilkenny Castle. We very much enjoyed the tour of the castle AND the shopping at the design center across the street.

Then, because Mick is an EXCELLENT golfer (he’d be the first to deny that though he had a 6 handicap and has played with Rory McElroy and Tom Watson) he took us to the Mt Juliet Golf Club for lunch– a jewel of a place and former home to the American Express Tournament! We also saw the 13th century St Canice’s Cathedral.

He drove the back roads for us to enjoy the fabulous Irish country side and villages. We had, once again, the most PERFECT weather day!!! Sunshine and perfect temperatures– you would hardly believe it was Ireland!

After lunch, we went to Waterford to tour the factory! It’s a wonderful tour where you can see the craftsmen blowing and etching the famous crystal. We also did a bit of shopping there! (Is anyone surprised?)

Then back to our wonderful BallyFin for drinks and dinner. We met a lovely couple in the “Salon” – two Former Navy Captains whom we are having dinner with tomorrow night. The wife currently works for USAA and he actually ran the scoreboard at the Navy-Notre Dame game!! They’re a very interesting couple.

Staff at this hotel is phenomenal. Attention to detail is their expertise.
The manor house only has 15 rooms– it can hold 29 people! So you see, it is like being someone’s guest at a country estate!!

Tomorrow is our last day but I will try and do one last blog tomorrow evening!! Such a lovely place….

Well, Dublin has really rolled out the “green” carpet for all these football fans ! While those of us rooting for Navy may have been vastly outnumbered (7,000 to 24,000) and outweighed by a huge amount on the field, no one’s spirits could have been brighter or voices louder!!! The scoreboard certainly did not reflect the spirit of the Navy fans or even all those brigades of Midshipmen! We even had the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations here to root the team on! (they were seated just below us because we were dead center on the 50 yard line!)

Last nights pep rally in the park across from the Shelbourne Hotel was fantastic – just like any good college pep rally should be! Navy Band was awesome!! Fans super! We have academy graduates here all the way back to the class of 1950! Of course, Mary was hoping to meet someone from Grandpa’s class of ’46 but we never found anyone further back than 1950.

The weather for game day was SPECTACULAR! It was sunny with just a hint of fall temperatures in the air! And there was no rain! Duffy had a great time! She cheered loudly when we had opportunities — be they few and far between. At the pep rally last night she remembered all the words to Navy’s Blue and Gold!! She’s loving every second – even if we didn’t end up on the right side of the score!

Tomorrow we leave to drive to BallyFin ! Can’t wait to see this magnificent manor house that took 11 years to restore. There are only 15 rooms in a huge old manor home that sits on 640 acres. We hope to see fabulous gardens and there is an amazing art collection in the manor house. I will be posting photos so stay tuned!!!

PS The photo of the gentleman speaking at the pep rally is the Secretary of the Navy- very distinguished guy.

Well, we’ve had another stunning two days of magnificent weather!!

We did a driving tour yesterday of Vancouver. It’s a lovely city filled with roof top gardens everywhere! We got a real feel for the city and tomorrow we are going back to an artist colony area called Granville Island. It’s filled with galleries and shops of artisans.

But today we took a 40 minute sea plane ride to Victoria. We were met by our guide who showed us all around Victoria– another gorgeous city which definitely equals or surpasses Vancouver. Clearly one of the highlights of Victoria, however, is The Buchert Gardens! We walked and enjoyed the whole thing!! If you get to Victoria you should see it — even if you don’t consider yourself a “garden person”! Tomorrow is our last day. We’ve had a wonderful time! Next trip is Ireland at the end of August!! Stay tuned!!