Niagara Falls - Winter 2008

Story coming soon....

Road Trip 2008 - Gateway Arch

Our next stop on the way home was a visit to the Gateway Arch and Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National park in St. Louis, MO.


This memorial was amazingly tall! Much bigger than I expected in fact you could see it for miles when we first entered St. Louis from the west. We would have liked to have visited it during the evening but we arrived quite late in St. Louis to begin with.

Getting There & Parking

We found getting there a bit confusing. We ended up over the Mississippi and into a what look like a bad part of Illinois before our GPS corrected us and got us back on another bridge over to St. Louis (the picture above is from the Illinois side). When we had finally arrived, we had a car carrier top on our roof so parking in the garage was out of the question! Parking there cost about $6. We followed signs for the RV parking but that wasn't clearly marked either. We finally found parking in front of the arch.

Visitor Center

The main visitor center is located underground just below the Arch Structure. We arrived at 845AM and it was about 15 degrees outside. The entrance to the arch is located underground. The doors opened at 9AM (so we had to wait outside in the bunker). Security is very tight. Expect to go through metal detectors and have your bags check similar to the airport.

The area includes a large open lobby, huge museum, gift shop, old fashion store (to get coffee), and two movie theaters. This is run by the National Park Service and even have a junior rangers program which the kids were able to go through the museum, answer questions, and earn their Junior Ranger path.

For tickets there are several options. We choose to take a ride to the top and watch the Lewis and Clark movie. There is another movie about the making of the arch.


At the Top

Riding up to the top you take a small tram of 4 to 5 cars. Each car fits about 4 to 5 people and takes a few minutes to get to the top. Our family fit fine in one car. You get some amazing views of St. Louis out of small windows from the top of the arch on one side and some other views of the Mississippi and Illinois from the other side.

Pictures will be here.


Lewis & Clark movie

The Lewis & Clark movie was AMAZING! The 45 minute movie gave an accurate historical account of how President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis & Clark and crew to explore the land newly aquired from the Louisanna Purchase. It gave an account of new animals including the Prarie Dog and how the Native American woman Sacagawea.

Speeding....

*** BUMP -- due to comments ***

Late this past Saturday evening at Danforth Bay, I was walking the dogs with my daughter near my site and out of nowhere a speeding car turned the corner, swerved, and came very close to hitting us. The driver then proceeded to rush up the hill going well over the posted speed limit of 7MPH. We were a little taken back but AOK.

A few minutes later the same car rushed down the hill! I yelled "SLOW DOWN" with absolutely no reaction but fortunatley our favorite DBCR security guard was turning the corner and went chasing after the young driver and later gave him a lecture and lesson on how dangerous it is to drive in a campground with that is nearly full.

I later found out that Danforth Bay may be putting in NEW speed bumps but they may be delayed the grading job was unsatisifactory to the campground and since then the excess water from the severe storms has caused many of the roads to be in repair.

We have noticed from our site a number of "speeders". It is really concerning because we have 1 small child and other older children that are allowed to roam the park. With the campground now filled with LOTS kids running around, people on bicycles, walkers, etc. I have become more cautious when driving my car to my site or driving my golf cart around and obey the posted speed limit rules
It you are on vacation then SLOW DOWN on everything. I learned this on Ossipee Lake Road where I nearly escaped a speeding ticket (going 53 in a 30 MPH zone). The Freedom cops target this area. I've learned to SLOW down and enjoy the scenery and great weoods

Fall Road Trip 08 - T-REX (Kansas City) review

Review of T-REX Restaurant

On Saturday December 6th we left the OKC Memorial and headed north on I35 (with hundreds of Oklahoma University Sooners fans heading north passing us at peaceful 75 to 80MPH for a game against Kansas City). Our next planned destination stop was to visit the T-Rex Cafe in Kansas City, KS.

Driving through Oklahoma and Kansas was very scenic. The land was mainly flat, many small oil drilling rigs, large farmland. The beautiful untouched prairies at the Flint Hills was simpy amazing. Wichita (the largest Kansas city) seemed no bigger than Nashua or Salem NH to me. If you blinked you might of missed it!

T-REX

Landy Restuarants, the same fine folks that bring you the themed Rainforest Cafe and the Aquarium restuarant also bring this very cool and exciting experience of dining with the dinosaurs and other sea and land creatures. If you love those places chances are you are going to love T-REX as well!

Atomosphere:

The atomosphere, experience, thrill, curosity, or whatever you want to call it is the main reason to visit T-Rex. We made a 100+ mile detour on the way home to have this dining experience (which we heard about at our recent Aquarium visit). The front of the building is amazing with life size dinosaurs statues and "pre-historic rock". Inside just about every dinosaur creature (fully skinned of course ;->) you can think about comes to life at some point. On two floors, T-REX has 7 different theme dining rooms so your dining experience is sure to be different if you visit often. There are aquariums, creepy-crawly things on the walls, and even a "meteor shower" every 1/2 hour.

Check out my pictures to see how this restuarant is themed.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/569571323QcmUkQ

Grade: A++

Food:

We ordered quesadillas for an appetizer and sodas. For dinner my wife and I had a thin crust tomato sauce pizza with sausage, onions. The boys had a plain cheese pizza and my youngest daughter had the alfredo noodle sauce kids meal. The quesadillas were good (not the best I've had) but the pizza was only mediocre to put it politely. Well food is not the main reason to come here and we could have ordered some more of the expensive items on the menu. Perhaps higher quality???

Grade: C+

Service:

Unfortunatley the service during our visit was horrible. It was the 1st time I've left less than a 15% tip in a long time. We had to wait over 15 minutes to get a table and they had plenty of seating as the resturant was only 1/2 full and upstairs was mainly empty. It was a good time to snap some photos. The waitress was even worse as it took forever to get our food and when I asked for a drink refill it didn't arrive until the end of the meal. I ended up sitting at my table waiting for the waitress to return my credit card while my family shopped in the gift shop. This restuarant was staffed mainly by teenagers who in my opinion had very little experience. Quite a difference from the great service we got at the other Landry restaurant, the Aquarium in Nashville

Grade: D

Shopping

Great shopping area with lots of souvieners (no postcards though :-<). My wife let my youngest son "build-a-dino" sponsored by Build-A-Bear.

Overall we had a great time. The only problem I have with these "Theme-Restuarants" is that I wish they would provide some higher quality lower priced items on the menu

Winter Cuddling....

Winter camping can be cold! We have been bundling up with the doggies in our beds on cold nights to keep them warm (vs. their crates). They learned and cuddled up together for a nap this afternoon on their warm and cozy dog bed.

Happy New Year!

Happy "Camping" New Year

Happy New Year!

Yay -- 2009!



I know 2008 was a difficult and not a very good year for a lot of people. I hope 2009 will be better for everyone. 2008 was the year of super high gas prices, bailouts, recession, tornados and wild weather, and a new president. For us, overall this year had its share of disappoinments as well but for the most part there was also many blessings.



As for camping with this last trip we have now camped every month of the year and on every major holiday! For holidays this year alone we added Easter, Halloween, Christmas, and New Years Eve.



We look forward to what God has in store for us in 2009!



Again, Happy New Year Everyone!

Fall Road Trip 2008 - Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial

On our way home from Dallas we stopped in to visit Oklahoma City National Memorial in Oklahoma City to pay our respects (and to teach our children) to the 168 victims who died during the tragic bombing that took place on April 19, 1995.

The memorial was very moving and nicely done. The reflecting pool (shown above) is where once N.W. Fifth Street continued.

Just to the left of this in this picture is where an empty chairs is placed to represent each of the victims. We stopped by in the evening and then again in the morning.

Pictures are located here:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/569568815skfZzl

Fall Road Trip 2008 - Dallas Zoo Review

Logistics

In the beginning of December we visited the Dallas Zoo located just minutes from downtown Dallas. The temperatures in Dallas at this time of year vary widely. One day were were there it was 75 but the day we visited was a chilly but sunny 48 degrees and we were warned ahead of time that most of the animals were inside and not available for viewing. Being "tough, cold blooded" New Englanders we wore just light jackets and jeans and were fine.

There is a parking charge of $5 per car. Admission to the zoo is $10 per adult and $7 for children. You can save a bundle by showing them your AAA card. Our total admission was only $26. Due to the weather and it being a week day there was only a handful of visitors in the park.

There is a carousel and monorail ride which costs extra.

The Dallas Zoo currently has two sections: Wilds of Africa and Zoo North



Wilds of Africa:

To enter this part of the park you need to walk through a wide tunnel (the Dallas METRO rail and other highway is located above) which contains exhibits to view. Upon entering the African section you immediately come upon African Penguins. They didn't mind the cold and were about playing. Unfortunately though on this "chilly" Dallas day, the rest of this section of the park was a bit disappointing. The monorail was not running (due to the weather and most likely the low attendance) and indeed many of the animals were inside and there is no inside viewing areas. We did not see any gorillas or chimpanzees. We did see some storks, crocdiles, and some really cute meerkats along with an Okapi (which to me looks like 1/2 donkey and 1/2 zebra).

Throughout this 'woodys trail' part of the park there is life-size bronze statues of certain animal for the kids to play around and snap a picture or two. One section even has lots of live bamboo trees growing.

Zoo North

The older part of the zoo (I presume) contains many more animals. This part of the park for the time that we visited was much more entertaining. My 4 year old son got a kick out of the Lemur (since he loves the show Zamoobafoo). This section is much larger and could take several hours to properly tour. They have a huge cafeteria and modest size gift shop.

Most of the animals not afraid of the cold included: the Elephants, Rhinos, Giraffes (had an inside viewing area).

They even has some exotic animals which you don't typically see in zoos in the Northeast including: Cheetah, Red-flanked Duiker, Kangaroos, Wallaby's, African Bongo, Giselles, etc.

Overall a GREAT selection of animials including several various species of monkeys. We spent a good amount of time watching them interact with each other. One even had a new born. Also it was a bit disappointing because the Tigers were in.

There was a children Zoo section as well. We didn't have time to visit this area.

Overall

I really didn't find the Dallas area all that appealing with heavy traffic for miles around at all differnt hours. However, if you find yourself in the Dallas area with your family then I highly recommend visiting the Dallas Zoo. We visited for a quick 3+ hours but we could have easily spent a whole day there (especially in warmer weather).

Our pictures are located here

Icy Christmas Roads

Merry Christmas!

Last night with warmer temps to melt a good deal of the snow, some rain followed by cold temps and high winds the roads litterally became sheets of ice!!! We had a hard time coming down some of the hills.

Fortunately the Danforth Bay staff was right on this (even though the campground was technically closed)! A sand truck came around in the early afternoon and made things much more managable.

One of the our new adventures of being winter campers!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! We are camping this Christmas in our travel trailer. We have no water of course but Danforth Bay has GREAT accomodations including a kitchen area to help prepare meals and cleanup.

My wife wanted to continue the "house building" tradition but I was against it due to the stickyness and mess. Guess who won? LOL! Actually -- it wasn't too bad at all. Here are some of "the Gingerbread" houses the kids made.

Now I just hope this icestorm passes and doesn't take out the electricity....

Free Admission to Santa's Village for Ice Storm Victims

If you were affected by the recent ice storm you can get free admission to Santa's Village in Jefferson, NH this week.

• December 21st
• December 27-28th

Details are here:

http://www.santasvillage.com/public/contact/ice.cfm

We visited Santa's village in Summer 2006.

Our review is here:

http://newenglandcamper.blogspot.com/2006/08/santas-village-review.html

King Pine's New Years Celebration

I heard this on the radio today 94.9 FM and later found an inviation in my e-mail inbox. We also heard they have sleigh rides available! We are hoping to do some cross country skiing at King Pine this year as well.

It's snowing up here and more to come!!! Great time to visit the North Country of NH and King Pine is a nice place for all members of the family.

Here is an email that I recieved from King Pine:

What a great deal:

A family-friendly New Years Eve celebration. Looking to spend New Year's eve with the family this season? We've put together a special evening that offers games, events and of course, skiing and snowboarding! Our family-friendly celebration even includes a torchlight parade that everyone can participate in.

Here is what the night looks like...FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY:

• Lift tickets for New Year's Eve - 4pm through 10pm
• Outdoor music and bonfire at the base of King Pine
• Ice skating in our covered and well-lit "Tohko Dome"
• Outdoor Hot Tubs, provided by Softubs of North Conway at the base of King Pine
• Torchlight parade at 10pm - all welcome to join in!
• Family fun ski & snowboard raceFOR KIDS: All the above, plus...
• Twisted-10 Big Air Series - PRELUDE (non-competitive and open to all ages and abilities)
• Tykes Night Out @ 7-9pm with face painting, magic, balloon tieing, games and FUN! (geared towards 5-10 yr olds).

Enjoy it all at our regular ticket price of...$20 (13+), $12 for juniors (4-12)Snowtubing will also be available that evening from 5-7 pm and 7-9 pm for $15 per person. Advanced reservations recommended.

New Years Eve lodging @ Purity Spring Resort. Relax... spend the holiday with us for even more fun! Our New Year's Eve lodging package includes all the above PLUS 2 nights logding, all meals, complimentary child care from 4-9 pm (advanced reservation only), complimentary skiing and snowtubing ... and even a pizza party sponsored by Flatbread Pizza in the kid-friendly Trail's End Tavern at 10:30pm!

Winter Camping Tips #!

We are winter camping in our RV trailer this year for the 1st full year. Some tips learned and I'm sure more to come.

• Tip #1: Get a good pair of boots! Make sure they are water proof. Sneakers won't cut it. My feet are wet! Bring lots of socks.
• Tip #2 (RV): Don't Open Slider: We have an RV with a slider glass door. Keep it shut! We have had lots of ice and snow build up in the tracks, causing the door not to shut and more cold air to come into the camper.
• Tip #3: (Insulate Windows): We are going to try to seal some of our windows with window treatment bought at Walmart. Not sure if this will work or not. Stay tuned...

Winter camping can be lots of fun. We hope to ski, cross country ski, snowmobile, shop, go tubing and maybe even take in a sleigh ride.

Hoping to hit King Pine, Cranmore, and possibly Wildcat this year!

Road Trip 2008 - Travel to Dallas

Graceland

From Nashville, TN we headed down I40 to Memphis, TN. I learned that Tennessee takes a long time to travel through going East to West! Almost 4 times longer than Mass. I do love the 70MPH speed limits. Never saw law enforcement once! My wife wanted to stop in at Elvis Presley's Graceland but by the time we arrived it had been closed for several hours. We were surprised to find that this location is more or less set back in a small city. The is a small side access road that you can drive up to and "live park" to get out and take a peak. That is exactly what we did on this rainy cold night (along with a few dozen other people). The picture of the house is from the city street. The visitor center across the street was all lit up with Christmas lights along with music playing (by the king of course!) Elvis' plane "the Lisa Marie" is available for touring as well. Overall, I expected Graceland to be much more in a country setting. It was very interesting but it is probably somewhere I would visit without children.

We stayed the night in Little Rock, Arkansas. The next morning I tried to convince my wife to visit the President Bill Clinton's Library but she wanted nothing of it so we moved ahead to Dallas Texas.

Saltgrass

We were in Dallas for a week while I was on business. Dallas is a HUGE city and believe it or not can be quite intimidating to drive in with these super structure highways and over passes. This was enough for my wife to stay in and catch the kids up on their homeschool work while I was at work. Also my oldest son was sick so we didn't go anywhere. The last night there we ventured out for steak at the Saltgrass restaurant. I beleive this is a southern chain resturant but definately ALL Texas! My wife had Cattleman's Prime Rib with a very large baked potato smothered in sour cream along with a tasty caesar salad. The prime rib in our opinion was just a bit on the fatty side but otherwise very tasty. I had the Wagon Boss Top Sirloin steak (cooked medium) along with a baked potato and a full sized garden salad. My steak was absolutely delicious and I ate every bite (no fat whatsoever). I heard a long time ago that the meat is tastier and leaner in Texas because the cattle are wheat fed vs. corn fed (not sure if this is true or not but I do have to say the entire meal was great). The waiter supplied plenty of wheat bread with a sweet butter. We went through 3 loaves! The weird part of the dining experience that was that the home of "JR Ewing" were were dining in a "dry area" and in order to have a beer they had to scan my license. The beer (can't remember the name) was OK and I didn't want to go through the hassle so only had 1 small glass (and I later found out that it was inexpensive: only $1.50 compared to my wife's $2.29 ice tea.

Great Time! Even the kids enjoyed their pizza and chicken nuggets. My daughter even ordered and the devoured the kids BBQ Baby Back Ribs. The service was awesome and made us feel at home waiter dresses in Western style.

Winter Camping starts at Danforth Bay!

Winter camping started this weekend at Danforth Bay. Our original plans was to head up on Thursday evening but mother nature had changed that plan! The ice storm which hit northern Mass and southern New Hampshire caused us to loose power at home and we wisely stayed home. We ended up loosing power early Friday morning and it did not come back until Friday evening. Our neighbors right behind us (on a different street) still does not have power and this includes 1/2 of our neighbors. Hope everyone made out ok! We headed up on Saturday morning.

Some winter camping tips are already forming:

• Hats, mittens, scarfs, winter coats are needed!
• Ice-delocker. Our locks were FROZEN! I had to pull the blow dryer out of my wife's suitcase in order to open the camper.
• Ice-chipper is your most important tool!
• Lots of blankets. We found some fleece throws at Walmart for $4.
• Sleds! The kids enjoyed taking walks and going through the woods.

Stay tuned! More to come for sure!

Road Trip - Fall 2008: - Aquarium Restaurant Review

This is a first of series of reviews from our recent travels to the deep South and the Midwest.

Our first stop was a very brief stop in Nashville, TN at the Grande Ole Opry complex. We didn’t catch any concerts, nor did we see any country music stars. In fact I was very unimpressed with the area. I was expecting something a bit more "country" but instead it was like another super mall complex with a superhighway along the perimeter.

We did manage to enjoy a very nice lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant in the Opry Mills mall complex.

Quick Review:

• The entrance has a large size circular ceiling to floor fish tank.
• Another overhead viewing "fish tank" stretches through thee archway of the reception area to the entrance of the dining room.
• There is a huge tank in the middle of the dining room featuring many types of sea creatures including sharks, schools of fish, and even a guitar nose stingray. Plus many more.
• The restaurant itself, is well themed and very relaxing. You literally feel like you are dining at the bottom of the ocean.
• Kids can get up and walk around to explore the fish.
• A diver appears in the tank twice a day for feedings.
• The service here was excellent! The waitress came around and asked if we had any questions about any of the fish.
• Great place for the family as well as a romantic date.
• The food was good but a bit pricey. $5.99 for kid meals. $17 and up for entrees
• As this was lunch we had burgers and subs (about $10-$12)

Pictures of this great restaurant is here.

Updates to NEC sites

Hello All!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to a great and exciting winter in New England and perhaps traveling beyond! Thank you for all your support!

I will have at LEAST 5 new interesting post to provide in December and (probably more). Stay tuned!!!

If you would like to see some of our detailed pictures be sure to sign up as a "follower" and I'll send picture e-mails, travel upates, etc. I'm currently re-organizing my webshots photos and will be making some much needed changes.

Happy travels to everyone and Merry Christmas!

NEC (Bob)

Journey to Bethlehem

Journey to Bethlehem, Windham, NH
(photo courtesy of Windham Bible Chapel)

The presentation of "Journey to Bethlehem" at Windham Bible Chapel, in Windham,NH is coming this weekend!!! (Rt. 111 off of Rt. I93 to S. Lowell Rd., Left onto Cobbetts Pond Rd.)

Travel back in time and experience the people, places, and circumstances that surrounded the birth of Jesus Christ. Follow your guide on an outdoor journey as you travel from the city of Nazareth to the town of Bethlehem. You'll encounter the Roman Guards, Wisemen from the East, Old Testament Prophets, Shepherds tending their sheep, messenger Angels, ending your journey at the Stable with the Christ Child lying in the Manger.

Hours:

Thursday, December 4th - 7 to 9PM
Friday, December 5th - 7 to 9PM
Saturday, December 6th - 5 to 8PM

FREE ADMISSION OUTDOOR GUIDED TOURS EVERY 10 MINUTES FAMILY CAROLING AROUND THE BONFIRE HOT COCOA & COOKIES

Feel free to visit the church's web site at http://www.windhambible.com/

Hope you all can come and treat your family to a live reenactment of the true story and meaning of Christmas this Holiday Season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers.
Hope everyone has a wonderful upcoming holiday season.

Danforth Bay Off Season Review

Feel like doing some late season camping? Why not! Gas prices are low. No crowds, no problems getting in and some campgrounds are open year round. Danforth Bay Camping Resort in Freedom, NH is one example and definately one of our favorites. We have been camping here for over 5 years now. Off Season / Late Fall is our favorite time to camp. We love the quietness and serenity.

Worried about not having water? Danforth Bay has full hookup sites (winter water / winter sewer) located in the Chocura section of the park). If your camper is winterized (like ours) Danforth Bay has....

• Warm, heated, clean, modern restrooms
• Metered long hot showers
• Kitchen area for washing dishes, cooking meals, etc.
• 24 Hour Laundry room

Things to do:

• Christmas shopping at Settler's Green (20-30 minutes away)
• Skiing at nearby King Pine (opens 12 December), Cranmore, and other great mountains
• Walking around the campground
• Relaxing, Playing games, watching a movie in Danforth Bay's family room.

Where to eat? Some of our favorites are:

• Pizza Barn, Ossipee, NH (15 minutes) is open on weekends (check below for my review)
• Yankee Smokehouse, W. Ossipee, NH (10 minutes)
• Whittier House, W. Ossipee, NH (10 minutes)
• Cafe Noche, Conway, NH (25 minutes)
• 99, N. Conway, NH (30 minutes)
• Many, many more!

Other mentionables:

• Friendly staff and seasonal people
• Modern Family room with Big Screen TV
• Fall colors, leaves
• Did I mention: Very, very quiet