FL, AL, LA, TX, GA, FL, ME 1998-99

Sarah rides the Rocket at WDW, Florida

Jan 5, 1999

Hi!

It is cold here in Miami Beach, but it expected to warm up tomorrow.

We spent the past two weeks in the keys. We got our scuba certification in
Key Largo and scubaed the coral reef. We were joined by Jennifer, Beryl,
and Daniel who also completed the open water part of our scuba training
which began in October in Lynbrook, NY [except for Dan who did all of his
scuba stuff in Raleigh, NC and just scubaed around while the rest of us were
being certified]. The weather was warmer then, around 80 degrees by day and
the low 70s by night.

We went to Key West to welcome in the New Year and watched the 'giant conch'
drop on the roof of Sloppy Joe's Saloon. The crowd was pressing, but unlike
Times Square, many revellers wore shorts and many were drinking. What
appears to be a tradition there: Champagne bottles were popped at the
stroke of midnight by many in the cheering throng.

We brought the girls to MIA on Saturday for the flight home and on Monday
brought Danny to MIA for the flight back to Raleigh, NC to pick up his car
for the drive back to Atlanta,GA where he is finishing up at GA Tech.

While in the area we visited the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. We saw a
wonderful assortment of tropical plants and animals. At a wild bird
sanctuary on Key Largo, the staff gave us the opportunity to hand-feed fish
to pelicans, cormorants, and egrets.

We also had the opportunity to go on 'road-kill' patrol with a ranger at John Pennekamp State Park.

Now that the kids have gone home, the van seems so much roomier.

Regards to all,

Allen & Sarah

Jan 8, 1999

We're moving up the east coast. We toured a section of Ft. Lauderdale which
is known as the Venice of the U.S. [although there is already a Venice, FL].
Homes have been built along canals so that everyone in the area has
waterfront and a bulkhead for their boat. Many boats have masts so tall
that traffic has to be stopped and bridges have to be raised in order for
them to pass through the channels. With masts no longer made of solid wood,
but hollow metal, one wonders why a boat mast is not made to telescope as does an
automobile antenna, thus saving time for motorists. It must be a macho thing.

While there we also visited the Discovery Science Museum, an ASTC affiliate.
We arrived at opening time and were the only visitors to the museum for
about an hour. Later about half a dozen other visitors came; staff
out-numbered visitors that morning. In addition to the usual hands-on
science stuff, there was a very good interactive section on health which
included a restaurant section where one chooses from menus from either a
Mexican, Italian or Chinese restaurant. The on-screen waiter discuses your
choices and your electronic conscience debates with your appetite over the
health of your selections.

An extensive section on Florida ecosystems portrays a variety of areas using
a combination of diorama and live organisms in enclosures and tanks. This
was more extensive than any other similar displays that we have seen in our
past visits to museums.

A traveling exhibit on bats was extensive, interesting and informative. It
closes here this weekend, so we were fortunate to have seen it. It may pop
up somewhere else on our travels. This Fall we saw a temporary exhibit on
the human hand at the Liberty Science Center that we had seen in Asheville,
NC in the Spring.

Regards to All,

Allen & Sarah

Pensacola, FL
Feb. 3, 1999

Hi!

We left WDW after two weeks of wandering the theme parks. We actually
only spent 12 days in the parks. We spent 2 days at the motel while my
back was getting back into shape. It's amazing: I shlepped and hoisted
scuba tanks, mounted and dismounted the bikes on the front of the van,
etc. and my back goes out draining water from an eight pound bag of
ice!!! Go figure!

We had a lot of fun at the parks. Each time that we go to an attraction
we see something that we missed the time before; there is so much clever
detail. Also, the parks are consistently being changed. For example,
Eastern Airline's "If You Had Wings" is now "Buzz Lightyear's Space
Rangers;" a ride in which you operate a rocket ship and fight against
the Zergs using laser cannons. Sarah reached 'Space Pilot' level,
nothing to sneeze at, but still came short of my 'Space Ace' status.
The old GM building at EPCOT is now a 'test track' which is scheduled to
open in March. We had the opportunity to by-pass the ninety minute wait
by volunteering to go on as singles to fill empty seats so that all
cars are full. As it turned out, we both were in the same six passenger
vehicle.

On the down side, "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" has been closed to become the
future 'Wimpy the Pooh' ride. I discussed this with WDW personal and I
was informed that there was picketing in the park when the closure of
Mr. Toad was announced. The park person expressed surprise that anyone
would care about a "cheesy ride that was nothing but cardboard
cut-outs." I explained that it was not the Mr. Toad ride that was
important to people; it was the concept of Mr. Toad. I felt a
loss, having had Mr. Toad as a personal role model. I guess that "Wind
in the Willows" is not shown much any more and a whole generation has
grown up without seeing Mr.Toad gallivanting about the countryside in
his van blithely ignoring responsibility. It is their loss.

We got plenty of exercise in the parks. At EPCOT [where we spent most
of our time] it is a three mile walk from the entrance through World
Showcase and back. Sarah particularly enjoyed visiting the pavilions of
the eleven countries and dining in their restaurants. We ate at the
Norwegian buffet four times; lots of fish, six kinds of herring alone.

We didn't just walk and eat. We saw the numerous shows, browsed the
shops, and enjoyed the ambiance.

At the Magic Kingdom [where we spent almost as much time] we got bumped
around on the roller coasters, spun on the rockets, splashed on the
flume and twirled in the tea cups. We also took some leisurely rides
such as the carousel and the insipid 'Small World.'

We spent only two days at MGM Studios and one day at Animal Kingdom. Of
course, we had been there in August and in December before going to the
Keys.

Several nights we went to Pleasure Island, Disney's theme park for
adults. It's still Disney, however: Fun without sleaze. It opens at
7p.m. and closes at 2a.m. We only closed the place on one occasion.
Eight clubs open onto an all-night street party and every night is New
Year's Eve. We spend most of our time at the 'techno' dance club
"Manikins' where fog and flashing lights give a surreal atmosphere to
the revolving dance floor. One time we out-lasted all other couples on
the dance floor.

The weather has been good. Eighties and bright sunshine the first week,
seventies the second. Rain fell either at night or while we were
inside.

We are now on our way towards New Orleans for Mardi Gras. We've been to
Mardi Gras celebrations from Mobile, AL to Galveston, TX over the years,
but N.O. is the best. Lots of floats, music, and drinking; lots of
drinking. Unlike NY, open consumption of alcohol in N.O. does not seem
to be prohibited. The unofficial city motto seems to be "Party 'til you
puke." One need not drink only from a paper bag; walk-away cups are
available. Mardi Gras is in the middle of the NYCPS mid-winter break, so
I may see many former colleagues along the parade route. If you're
there, please don't vomit on my feet; I may be wearing sandals. If you
plan to be in N.O., let us know. Maybe we'll be able meet up.

Regards,

A&S


New Orleans, LA
Feb. 11, 1999


Hi!

We spent five days in Mobile, AL and went to five parades. It is mostly
a family crowd. The restaurant/bar strip in Mobile is only about four
or five blocks long. Parade favors include a lot of candy, peanuts and
Moon pies [marshmallow sandwich cookies]; we got enough Moon Pies to
provide us with lunch until Passover.

In New Orleans, the parade route is adjacent to the French Quarter with
at least twenty-five square blocks of restaurants and bars, etc. In the
last letter we told you that the Sleazy influence was absent from
Disney's Pleasure Island night-time adult theme park. Sleazy, the
eighth dwarf who was cut from the final print of Snow White, left the
film industry and became an entrepreneur in New Orleans' French Quarter
along Bourbon Street. Although financially successful, judging from the
number of establishments that he currently operates, he is still looked down upon.
[It's a dwarf thing.]

We got more necklaces in one night in New Orleans than from the five days in
Mobile, but no Moon Pies. Which is good, because necklaces are not
chumatz.

More to follow after Mardi Gras!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

OB & Mrs. J

New Orleans' French Quarter during Mardi Gras.


New Orleans, LA
February 17, 1999

The coincidence of Mardi Gras week-end with President's Day gave
Louisianians a four day weekend and others an extra day or week [for
those with a mid-winter break]. The above made the last Mardi Gras of
the millennium the most crowded. More streets were packed, more beads
were thrown, more breasts were exposed and more pants were dropped than
at any previous time in New Orleans history.

Many locals attend parades in their own communities and attend quieter
parties with friends and relatives and avoid down town N.O. The Mardi
Gras parade in Metarie, a suburb of N.O. (we went to a parade there one
night last week) drew over a million people. The major Krewes [social
organizations] of N.O. construct floats which cost $10,000 each and
throw tens of thousands of dollars worth of souvenirs to the throngs
during each parade. Nine million dollars was spent on throws this year
by N.O. Krewes. One parade may have several dozen floats which follow a
theme, such as Salute to Jules Verne, and also have many marching bands
from schools as far away as Pennsylvania.

It is difficult to avoid catching some souvenirs. On Mardi Gras Day,
the Truck Parades go through town. Rather than elaborate floats and
bands, these parades consist of only decorated flatbed trucks with the
riders throwing beads and toys. It looks like it is raining Chinese
imports. If you don't keep your hands up, you run the risk of getting
hit on the head with stuff.

We watched numerous parades, as many as four in a day converged on down
town N.O. along different routes. On Friday we had shipped six pounds
of beads and trinkets home and by last night had several times that
amount in the van. [Send $3.20 (to cover the cost of postage) to my home
by the end of the month and we will ship almost two pounds of bead
necklaces to you via Priority Mail.]

In the French quarter we saw the raunchy and sleazy as well as the drunk
and disorderly. Mostly it was a friendly, well-packed crowd, often
willing to display real parts of their anatomy for plastic jewelry. {As
distinguished from Los Angeles, where people show plastic-enhanced parts
of the body for real jewelry.]

Then again, some ideas blend and confuse: With all of the people
exposing their upper torsos with impunity, some people mistakenly
believe that anything goes. A hapless college student was escorted away
by the police as he dropped his drawers. The police offer admonished
him with, "You wouldn't do that at home, why do you think you can do
that here?" Of course, it is not often that a woman in a New York
street will raise her shirt for plastic beads. Unfortunately, some
people must have missed that lesson in high school where they would have
learned the difference between primary and secondary sexual
characteristics and what MUST be kept under wraps. Age was no barrier
to conduct: Men and women in their late sixties were revelling and
revealing as much as their college-age counterparts.

Although the weather for the two weeks preceding Mardi Grad weekend was
sunny with temperatures running 15 to 20 degrees above normal, the
temperature was below normal from Friday until Tuesday morning.
Therefore, we wore our shoes and long pants for much of the festivities.
On Fat Tuesday, we went back to shorts and sandals. We quickly returned
to shoes as we were spending too much time scanning the streets for
broken bottles and avoiding puddles of beer [in both pre and post
digestion condition].

The cost of parking down town went from $5/day to $25/day; bathrooms
were 'for customers only' or available for a dollar or two. Portable
toilets were available on a block just north of the French Quarter. We
parked several blocks from the French Quarter for almost half the price
and had our own toilet facilities and our own restaurant.

It is difficult for us to eat in N.O. restaurants. Since we don't eat
catfish, shellfish, and pork, most creole and cajun foods are off limits
to us. In some restaurants in the French Quarter, that is all that is
on the menu. However, Sarah make good jambalya and gumbo using items
available in the local supermarkets. Not only don't I have to leave a
tip, but I get a chance to kiss the cook, or offer her some beads.

On the cultural side, we visited the Chalmette Plantation site of the
"Battle of New Orleans" where the citizens and solders defended the city
in a two hour battle that cost the British more than two thousand men
while the Americans lost fewer than a dozen. Although this decisive
January, 1815 battle was fought several days after the peace treaty was
signed in Ghent [a fact unknown to the combatants], it established the
U.S. as a major world power. Also, had the British gained control of
New Orleans, the Mississippi River and the western U.S. may have been
too good a piece of real estate for the British to give up and they may
have refused to honor the as yet unratified treaty.

We visited the New Orleans Botanic Garden and Longvue [a 1940s mansion
and formal gardens built by a wealthy cotton merchant]. There is a
Garden District of elegant homes from past centuries which we also
toured and we wandered through the French Quarter during quiet times
last week nosing through shops and occasionally eating beignets [deep
fried dough squares with powdered sugar].

Regards,
A&S

San Antonio, Texas
March 4, 1999

We spent several days in Houston after leaving Lake Charles, LA. While
there we visited the Museum of Health Science, the Museum of Natural
Science, and the Johnson Space Center. We spent 6 hours at the space
center. That and the two other science museums were included in our
membership with the Southern Museum of Flight.

The Museum of Health Science, although small, has the best hands-on display
of the human body that we've seen in a museum. The Museum of Natural
Science has the usual stuff but has an elaborate and beautifully done
malacology and gem exhibits and an extensive exhibit about the petroleum
industry [no surprise here]. The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is Mission
Control. The actual control room is interesting, but not exciting, and, of
course, there are the rockets. There is much to do in the
educational/activities part of this museum including many hands-on
activities and films concerning space exploration.

We drove the short distance to Galveston and wandered the shops in the old
part of the island for a day. The buildings are turn-of-the-century; this
part of the island was not as severely damaged when the hurricane destroyed
much of the town several decades ago. Moody Gardens is a collection of
large glass & steel pyramids, one of which houses rainforests of different
continents. Birds and butterflies roam free. More than one thousand
cocoons are delivered each week and are placed in a hatchery. Twice a day
the recent emergees are released into the pyramid. We watched the 10 a.m.
release. This summer will see the opening of the aquarium pyramid.

We followed the coast to Corpus Christi stopping for a tour [private, as it
turned out since we were the only visitors at this time] at the Sea Center
Texas, a state-of-the-art hatchery for saltwater fish. With a long gulf
coast protected by long barrier islands, the bays of Texas attract many
fishermen. Some of the more popular sport fishes are bred here and released
into the bays. Hatchery-bred fish comprise 20% of the catch, we were told.
One fourth of the broodfish are replaced yearly to prevent the development
of a sub-species.

The Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi was large and colorful,
especially the new exhibit of jellyfish. Many tanks of these gently
undulating animals swirled with activity and currents swept the jellyfish
through the water. We also were able to touch a shark and stingrays
(destingered, of course). Also in Corpus Christi was a botanic garden, but
it is not well developed.

It was amusing to watch the evening news in Corpus Christi. Being used to
NYC news stories, we were surprised to see lead stories such as 'With the
increase of clubs in the downtown, street parking is becoming difficult to
find and some patrons have to walk as much as five blocks' and 'With the
recent computer problems, will report cards be issued on time.' There were
follow ups to these stories on additional broadcasts.

In San Antonio we visited the Alamo and wandered the Riverwalk. Constructed
as a WPA project in the late 1930s, the Riverwalk has shops and restaurants
along a slate walkway bordering on, what else, the river. We visited some
shops and dined al fresco on regional food. Actually, the river is mostly
underground in culverts at this point to reduce the chance of flooding the
downtown area. {There was flooding in parts of San Antonio this past fall.
The campground was under five feet of water and is being rebuilt as we
speak. The weather was great with one day exceeding 90 degrees with bright
sunshine. We've had above normal temperatures since we've been in Texas as
well as below normal rainfall: great for us; sucks for them.

Also in San Antonio we visited the zoo, which we also visited last year, and
the Botanic Garden [as first timers since this is our first year as members
of an affiliated group]. The Botanic Garden features areas representative
of the ten geographical regions of Texas along with several original
dwellings brought to San Antonio and some reconstructions. The Botanic
Garden boasts several modern glass and polished steel conservatories, each
of which features a different biome [except for alpine tundra which is in a
display case]. The carriage house from a mansion was moved here and serves
as an upscale restaurant. As one sits in a former horse stall, one can dine
on an artistically arranged garden of food on a plate including twigs,
leaves, flowers, and cactus (despined). Sarah wasn't sure whether to eat it
or plant it but we were assured that everything on the plate was edible.

By New York standards, the museums may be smaller than ours and not cost
effective [admission vs. materials presented]. In comparison with the AMNH,
Bronx Zoo, and the Smithsonian (in Washington, D.C.), these places are small
and relatively costly even though they may have elaborate and unusual
exhibits. [In NYC, we get more bangs for the buck.]

Regards,

Allen & Sarah

Dallas, Texas
March 10, 1999

Howdy!

We have turned the corner of our trip and are heading home. We expect to be
back in New York by the last week in March. The weather has been mild. It
is cooler as we travel north. Highs here are in the 70s. We're not having
as much fun as we were having in the past. It's one zoo, botanic garden, or
science center after another. How many times can we look at the same kinds
of animals or plants. Fortunately, we occasionally find something unique or
unusual. The food is good; we like TexMex cooking, but too much of a good
thing makes Jack a fat boy [and his little wife, too]. What we need are fat
free nachos and cheese that have taste.

We have spent several days in Dallas. The Museum of Natural History, the
aquarium, the Dallas Horticultural Center and The Science Place are
together with the Cotton Bowl. The Museum of Natural History focused on
animals found in Texas. A special exhibit on Texas dinosaurs ended two
months ago, but we had seen it at the museum in Ft. Worth several days
earlier. Some unique specimens were shown in the dinosaur exhibit. It
wasn't 'Texas Size' but it was interesting. The zoo in Dallas was larger
than some of the zoos that we visited on the way here from San Antonio, but
not that large. The Science Place currently has an extensive special
exhibit about 'Microbes.' Look for it in a science museum in your
neighborhood. Many exhibits travel around the country. One of the
exhibits in The Science Place had been in the Brooklyn Children's Museum.
We've seen the same special exhibit in several museums as we travel around.
For example, his fall, we went to the Liberty Science Center and saw a
'Human Hand' exhibit that we had seen in Asheville, NC the previous spring.
Many museums have scales to demonstrate biomass comparisons for energy.
We check our energy levels often. We've got a lot of stored energy; How
many lightbulbs do you think we can keep lit for an hour?

Sarah enjoys the flowers at the Dallas Botanic Garden's Annual Bulb Show.

A particular high point of our visit to Dallas was the Dallas Arboretum and
Botanic Garden. Currently the Botanic Garden is having its Spring Flower
Show. It is the 'Largest Show of its Kind in the Southwest' It certainly
is the largest and most colorful Spring display that we've ever seen. There
were 175,000 bulbs, 75,000 annuals, as well as azaleas and other perennials.
A special feature was a twenty foot tall topiary peacock with a 2,000
square foot flower tail on the ground. Another peacock, somewhat smaller,
is nearby. The show runs officially from early March through mid April,
but will continue past that as long as the flowers last. Beautiful
fountains and sculptures adorn the grounds as well. This was once the
grounds of an geophysicist who became a multimillionaire earlier in this
century by locating a vast oil field in Mexico. He built his home here in
1940 [tours are given in this Spanish Colonial Revival style home, the first
in Dallas with central air conditioning].

One of the things that we notice about tours is the amount of misinformation
that is spread by the well-intentioned tour guides. For example, we learned
about the famous 'Gugenheim' Bible, that 'Salom' Borglum carved Mt.
Rushmore, and that lichen are a 'plant and animal' in a symbiotic
relationship. Ask me about the pine nuts that have 200,000 calories per
ounce compared with a 200 calorie candy bar as an explanation as to how
animals are able to survive the frozen winters; we've heard that one
several times in different national parks. In this case, we know where the
misinformation comes from.

One night we had light rain followed by a morning of high winds, tornado
alerts, flood warnings and heavy rains. They really need the rain in the
area. Locally, there has been 0.25" of rainfall this year; normal is 4.0".
Yesterday's 1.0" helped the farmers a lot. There has been below average
rainfall in Texas for the past three years, although this past October saw
swollen rivers and flooding. The campground that we stayed at in San
Antonio was under five feet of water in October as well as some of the shops
that we visited in another part of town. In case I forgot, when we were in
San Antonio we also visited the Japanese Sunken Garden which was built in an
abandoned quarry starting in 1917. [As a reaction to WW II, from 1942
until 1983 it was known as the Chinese Sunken Garden. It took a long time
for the name to be changed back. The entrance gate still says Chinese
Garden.] We finally saw the garden with water in its pools this year. It
has been undergoing intensive renovations for the past several years. Each
year that we return, we see a more complete exhibit. Additional plantings
are being done now.

On the way here from San Antonio we visited the state Capitol in Austin.
Part of the building is the land office where author O'Henry worked when he
wasn't writing [one hopes that he wasn't doing his writing on the job, but
you know about government employees].

In Dallas' ' West End' are many up-scale clubs and restaurants. We went to
several. One features exotic game from their own ranch in the Texas Hill
Country. {We saw the ranch a few years ago when we were in that part of
Texas.}

Regards,

Allen & Sarah


Atlanta, GA
March 17, 1999

Hi, y'all!

We had rain and cold weather leaving Tyler, Texas heading east and for
the next three days. We holed up in a casino on the Red River through
Shreveport, La. The van, of course, stayed in the parking lot where we
were allowed to spend the night. Casino security told us that we could
stay the week at no charge. We felt that we couldn't afford to stay
there that long.

In the last letter, we mentioned up scale restaurants in Dallas. Up
scale usually refers to restaurants whose portions are sparse for cost.
Our definition of 'up scale' referred to restaurants that provided a
table cloth. Over time we have had to modify our definition to include
those restaurants which use Kraft paper to cover their tables. Our
current definition of 'up scale' refers to those restaurants in which
one places the order directly to a person and not shouting into a
clown's mouth.

We visit a lot of zoos and you're probably wondering why we visit so
many - aren't the animals all the same? Visiting a zoo is like playing
golf: you have a good walk. But at a zoo, no one is keeping score, you
aren't pressed to hurry by those wanting to play through, and you often
get a chance to feed some goats. Also, the wait is shorter.

We spent some time in the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, Texas; a small zoo.
The most popular animals are found in all large zoos, but smaller zoos
often display regional animals which big zoos don't have. Not only are
we interested in seeing different and unusual animals, but we also like
to see the creative ways in which they are exhibited. [Of course the
Bronx Zoo is the best (with the Milwaukee and San Diego Zoos in 2nd &
3rd.) and some zoos are so small that if the animal gets sick or dies,
they have to close the zoo.]] For example:
The Texas Zoo in Victoria displays only Texas animals.
The Omaha Zoo has the best penguin enclosure. Their tiger exhibit
building is top notch, too.

The St. Louis Zoo has the original Victorian buildings from the 1876
Centennial Fair. The insides have been artfully redone. It is the best
looking zoo that we've visited.

The Caldwell Zoo in Tyler has the best designed African Veldt that
we've seen anywhere. Using artificial streams and hidden dry moats,
lions, elephants, giraffe, cranes, and antelope appear to be together on
the plain. But there is more: On the edge of the veldt a 'stream'
turns against a glass wall. Through the glass one can see the fish in
the 'stream' and the wading birds along the shore (separated from the
other animals by another glass wall].

While there we also visited the
petting zoo. Sarah likes to feed the goats. I almost got into trouble
for feeding the cats; I tried to feed them to the alligators.

We didn't do everything in Texas; we saved some things for another time.
The Dr. Pepper Museum and Mary Kay Museum will just have to wait.[Maybe
for a long time.]

In Birmingham, Alabama's largest city, we visited the botanical garden
and the McWade Science Center. We are saddened that NYC, the Capital of
the World, does not have a world class hands-on science museum. Many
smaller cities around the country have NYC outclassed in this regard.

More rain is predicted for this week end in the southeast, so we'll be
heading home in a day or two after visiting here with Dan. We're camped
in the parking lot outside of his apartment.

Regards,
A&S

Key Largo, FL
June 3, 1999

We hole-ed up in Delray Beach to avoid the Memorial Day crowds at the theme
parks and the Keys. We got in several days of ocean swimming. It is
official end of the jellyfish season and the official begining of the sea
lice season. Then we headed to the keys. The temperature has been around
90 and usually sunny for much of the day.

Currently it is bright sunshine and warm. We went scuba diving to see the
coral reef and part of a wrecked Civil War era steamship. The water was
very calm and 82 degrees. We wore our wet suits because we don't have
exposure suits, but we weren't too hot.

During the second dive of the morning, a moderate current started while we
were under water and we surfaced about a quarter mile from our dive ship.
We hopped onto an nearby charter ship which dropped us up water from our
boat.

The colorful fish schooling around the coral are interesting to watch. We
also saw some barracuda.

We plan to leave here either tomorrow or Monday, return to Disneyworld for a
last use of our annual pass [exp 8/21/99], then go to Atlanta for Daniel's
graduation [6/12/99].

Regards,

OBJ&S

Atlanta, GA
June 13, 1999

Hi, Y'all

We noticed a big difference at Disneyworld when we stopped off for a few
days on our way from the keys to Atlanta. There were more people, therefore
the lines were much longer. The longest line was at TestTrack {the new GM
ride at EPCOT]. It was consistently 90 minutes or more.

The new Winnie the Pooh ride [which replaced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride] at the
Magic Kingdom had a wait time of 45 minutes. The ride lasts 3.5 minutes.
Sarah wanted to go on the ride. I remained loyal to Mr. Toad and refused to
go. You know what kids are like; Sarah began to whine, so I relented and
took my 'hunny' for a ride.

A lot of space at EPCOT is boarded up for the construction of 'Millennium
2000' which is scheduled to open in October and run through early January,
2001 [so that it can attract both those that believe that the Millennium
ends this year and those that believe that the Millennium ends next year].

A long one day's drive took us to Atlanta, GA for Daniel's graduation from the Georgia Institute of Technology. We arrived a few days early in order to attend a small luncheon for Computer
Science students graduating with honor [you know how I am about free food].
The commencement ceremony on Saturday morning took four hours. There were
no long speeches, but giving out diplomas to 1600 graduates takes a lot of
time and most were there to get them. This as Georgia Tech's largest
graduating class since many students moved up their graduations to avoid
problems with the school's change to a semester system rather than the
current quarter system. [Credits get adjusted and who knows what else.]
Daniel is graduating later than planned because he took off six months to be
an intern at Cisco Systems in Raleigh, N.C. last year. [He turned down a job
offer from Cisco (and several other large firms) to take a job with Scient,
a software company in San Francisco. He told us that being with a smaller
company will give him greater opportunities for advancement and, also, he
preferred to be in San Francisco rather than the cities where the large
companies were located.

Sarah and I were disappointed that Daniel chose a job so far from NY, but we
don't plan to be in NY too often and his job has a field work component and
the company will fly him home for week ends. In many cases they don't care
if he flies to S.F. or N.Y. Also, Sarah says that she is getting tired of
the same old scenery [FL to TX] and would like to spend some time in CA, AZ,
& NV.

In any case, since Daniel's flight to Europe is Tuesday, we can't dawdle on
the way north and plan to be home by Monday.

Regards,

Allen & Sarah

We're in Maine

Warm days, cool nights

Rocky coast

Sandy beaches with cold water

Quaint villages with interchangeable gift shops

Hiking & biking, swimming & reading

Limited computer use

Regards,

A&S

Bar Harbor, ME
July 29, 1999

We've been biking the carriage roads of Acadia National Park which follow
the naturally hilly contours of this glacially-carved granite coast. The
roads were funded decades ago by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to provide a
restful escape from modern technology. They were restful for the people in
the carriages, however if one has to huff and puff on a bicycle, it's
another story. It would have been a bit easier if the glaciers had ground
away the granite a little more.

There is an extensive free bus system which carries passengers and bicycles
on several routes servicing the motels, campgrounds, and the village of Bar
Harbor as well as the accesses to the carriage roads.

We made a wrong turn while biking today and found ourselves several extra
miles down hill from the van. The way down was a scenic and easy route
which passes ponds and beautiful vistas. At the bottom, we caught a buss
and returned to the section of the carriage road that we had originally
missed and proceeded to get back to huffing and puffing.

Imagine biking up and down granite hills for several miles to a sandy beach
and diving into the 56 degree surf letting the steam escape from you body.
We can imagine it, too, but wouldn't do it. We used the heated pool at the
campground.

The weather has been good. We've missed the high temperatures that NYC has
been experiencing, but it is warmer than usual here; it hit 87 yesterday,
but today is cooler.

Regards,

A&S