England And Scotland

We had a wonderful time in the UK for two weeks, we will highlight the adventure as we saw so much it gets overwhelming. In London we stayed at the Holiday Inn, Mayfair district. Good location and decent price for the 3 of us, while the food was gotten better in London, its pricey, so if possible eat in the pubs, and try each pubs beer, I did , lol. We saw Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Tower of London, British Museum , Churchill's War Room, Hamton Court, Stonehenge, Oxford and Sherlock Holmes Museum and a few other places. Those mentioned are must see with kids, for us the best where Tower of London, War Room and Stonehenge. You can get a tour of Stonehenge and one other location for a 1/2 day which is better than driving out on your own unless you have a car for the duration of your holiday. Also the on/off bus is very good , we tend to use that at the start to get a fell where everything is.

We then flew up to Edinburgh and joined our tour, we used Collette Vacations and they where great but we discovered we didn't like the part of living out of the suitcase (the longest we where in one place was 2 nights), it works for some but ...Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood are excellant while in town , the other highlights where Culloden Battlefield (like Gettysburgh for the Scots) Ring of Brodgar, similar to Stonehenge but older, and Skara Brae which is a newly discovered remnant of a stone village approx 5000 years old (like Ring of Brodgar) which very little is known. The real highlight was Orkney Island, where we learned about Italian POW's during World War 2 and the church they built, but you need to go and see it and hear the story,its too wondeful to spoil. The Isle of Skye , Loch Ness and an hour cruise on Loch Lomand were included and all fun. We ate a lot of Salmon and Fish and Chips, but when in the UK do what they do, lol
We added an extra day in Glasgow, which has a couple of very excellant museums, one of which is the Children's Science, all hands on and great for kids of all ages

So much more to tell, but its more fun to tell and show pictures in 3D, so until then...

Chicago Redux

As you can see we sometimes go to places more than once. In fact we may do Chicago again in the Fall before our friend moves away. First off food, these first few are in the Lakeview section. Lulu belle's Pancake House, not to be missed, huge portions (and I'm no little guy) the apple cinnamon pancakes were to die for, Ethan's omelet was huge and the rest were delicious, bottomless coffee cup and a warm, friendly staff. Dinner that night was Frieda's (Mexican), again very big portions, however fixed review, I loved mine while my wife left it was spicy without adding anything to the food. Sunday we ate at Ron of Japan, if you like hibachi and think Benihana is good, take if 5 levels up, we will go here again. Last dinner was La Gondola Cucina, which got a plus in my book due to a great beer menu, including one of my favorites not available in NYC , Edmund Fitzgerald Porter by Great Lakes Brewery of Ohio, the food really was outstanding and do not be put off by the outside decor

As for activities, we bought a City Pass (saves a few admission bucks) and hit Museum of Science and Industry, Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium. The first reminded me of American Museum Of Natural History in NY , way too big to see in one day, lots of interactive stuff and 3d movies , great for science geek kids. We are space junkies so Adler was was a real treat for us, nice exhibit on NASA and the Moon program. We wanted to do the Beluga Whale Experience but you need to be 50 inches tall and we were off by 2 so next time, either that or the Penguin's (my fave) it was sold out months in advance so plan

No hotel as we stayed with our friend

Cruise Redux

We set sail on the NCL Gem on December 22 for a 9 days cruise. We were set to visit Puerto Rico, St Marteen, St Thomas and the Dominican Republic. On Saturday the 22nd it was a beautiful evening as we sailed under the Verrazano Bridge, on Sunday after Ethan spent the day in kids program and Mom was doing her CME program, Dad had a massage and we dined in the new Brazilian BBQ restaurant. I must say it was great, so much so that Ethan proclaimed " we must eat here again " and we did later in the week. We also ate in the Hibachi and Steakhouse restaurants. Once we got far enough South we started sunning and swimming in the pool. Alas the first port was Puerto Rico and we hadn't thought ahead, and due to it being Christmas Day everything was closed, so we just walked around a bit and looked at architecure which Ethan loves. The next day we did two excursions, this was St Marteen, first a glass sided boat so we could see the waterlife up close, after lunch we went snorkeling and then to a beautiful beach to relax.In St Thomas we went to Magen's Bay, which we where told was voted one of the 10 best beaches in the world and while it was fabulous , 10 best? Maybe. Our last excursion was in the DR where we ferryed to see mangroves and caves with historic picturegraphs, also an Ethan favorite. Saturday and Sunday were onboard days, Dad hit the spa again for another massage and a facial, as did Mom.Sunday we hit some choppy sea and lucky for us our stateroom was high enough that we din't get sick as many below did.As Ethan gets older and enjoys new food and adventure the cruise gets better, we love NCL as we don't have to dress for dinner even in the specialty restaurants, you can if you want but jeans and a collared shirt works
We love crusing so much we put a downpayment on our next one. Back to normal life and the countdown begins to June and our first adventure to Europe , England / Scotland