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Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 6

Today was Anne of Green Gables all day, all the time.

For those of you who haven’t read the books (I haven’t) nor seen the TV shows/movies (I only vaguely remember them) it might be a wonder that a fictional character has this kind of impact. I think that LM Montgomery, who wrote the books, was so strongly associated with Prince Edwards Island (all but one of the books was located at PEI) and local pride; there is lots of that we have learned helped.Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 6

Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 5

Today was our transition from the first part of our trip, in Cape Breton Island, to Prince Edwards Island.

Interestingly when we asked people in Cape Breton about PEI, they almost always said that it was pretty nice but they rarely visited there. One person described PEI as a potato field surrounded by water which we thought pretty funny. We found when we landed in PEI, the reverse was equally true. There they all said that Cape Breton was very pretty, but rarely went.

For one thing it is free to drive over the very short causeway to Cape Breton. It costs between $40 and $60 to take the ferry, or drive over the bridge, from PEI back to the mainland one-way. It is free to enter PEI. So once there, the trick is to figure out to sneak out and avoid the toll. Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 5

Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventures in Nova Scotia – Day 4

Tuesday was a leisurely day starting in Ingonish on the East side of Cape Breton about half-way down the coast, completing the loop we started yesterday, swinging back in a circle through Baddeck and ending up in the early afternoon in Mabou, at the bottom of the west side of Cape Breton.

The Lantern Inn & Hollow where we stayed overnight was on the Atlantic Ocean. That morning, we walked on the beach. Ellen & Dan’s Excellent Adventures in Nova Scotia – Day 4

Ellen and Dan’s Excellent Adventures in Nova Scotia – Day 3

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Today had two main parts to it, the Alexander Grahme Bell museum and our trip around much of the Cabot Trail.

To finish off a comment on our stay in Baddeck, a lovely community on the shore of a truly beautiful lake, Bras D’Or, our B&B we stayed in called the Water’s Edge Inn, was a great place physically, really nice room, and very centrally located in the town. However, it was pretty ordinary when it came to breakfast. The only juice was Apple, the breakfast consisted of a pre-measured container of fruit-salad, you know with that heavy syrup stuff, a plastic bag with two slices of white bread which could be toasted, and an optional cup of waffle mix which could be poured into the waffle maker. Ouch.Ellen and Dan’s Excellent Adventures in Nova Scotia – Day 3

Ellen and Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 1

Ellen had long expressed an interest in visiting Prince Edwards Island, the site of the Anne of Green Gables stories, and nearly Nova Scotia. I had always heard it was a very beautiful place to visit, the high’s were going to be in the 70’s, not the 90’s, and going would be consistent with my saying yes to as much as possible so Ellen would let me continue to go to Disneyworld once every two years.Ellen and Dan’s Excellent Adventure in Nova Scotia – Day 1

The Big Bang Theory Hearts Firefly

For those who knew me when I was the CIO at the US Department of Transportation, you will know that I held a monthly lunch with a small band of fans of both the TV show Firefly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series), and the movie Serenity, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/serenity/.

For references to this, see the end of the interview I gave for the DotGov Buzz, http://www.usa.gov/Federal_Employees/USA_Buzz/Newsletter_0522.html#dotgovspotlight, and the reference from a column in Federal Computer Week, written by then rising star Chris Dorobek, http://fcw.com/Articles/2007/09/16/Circuit_633659049783559373.aspx.

I even ran into Firefly fans when in China this last summer when we went to see a solar eclipse, https://www.ourownlittlecorner.com/2009/07/21/serenity-on-the-yangtze/.The Big Bang Theory Hearts Firefly

Buffalo Bob, Howdy Doody, and Hilton Head Island

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Periodically my wife, Ellen, and I go to visit Ellen’s parents in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Every time we visit I am reminded how lucky I was to not just to marry Ellen but also to marry into such a wonderful family. I have learned much about my professional life and how to behave like an adult, something I recognize is always a bit out of reach for me, from both David and Barbara Elow. And to top it off their relationship with my two daughters which has only deepened over the years is such a pleasure to experience.

In addition, there are always great things to do and see and learn about when we visit Hilton Head and the area around it, as we did this last weekend, January 9th and 10th.Buffalo Bob, Howdy Doody, and Hilton Head Island

So How Do You Start The Darn Thing

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After staying in a hotel in Sacramento where the air conditioning broke and where there were no other rooms free, I flew down to Los Angeles this morning for the second of my two stops in California.

The plane flight was uneventful, I was able to get tomorrow’s boarding pass before leaving the airport, and then went outside to catch the rental car shuttle.

After waiting for what seemed a VERY long time for the shuttle for my unnamed rental car company to come, whose name rhymed with Mudget, I arrived to get my rental car. The guy at the counter told me it was in C-8 around the building to the back, the list location near the road.So How Do You Start The Darn Thing

A Solar Eclipse Is Much More Than Just A Visual Experience

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“First Contact!” 

 

The shout came from the group of professional astronomers and experienced amateurs who were collected at the edge of the plaza at the local Wuhan University which our group had reserved to watch the eclipse. 

 

Excitement increased among the crowd of ninety Eclipse Chasers who had traveled from all over the United States, Venezuela, Columbia, England, and Canada. The noise level from the nearly 1000 local citizens mostly standing on the edge or the plaza rose also though it was obvious they were less clear on what was happening. 

 

First Contact refers to the first moment that the edge of the moon touches the disk of the Sun. From that point on begins what is both the longest and shortest periods of time that any of the observers will experience. First Contact in Wuhan was called out at around 8:15 am, three hours after our bus left the hotel and five hours after the first of the three buses had left the hotel; that first bus carrying those people with telescopes and specialized photographic equipment. 

A Solar Eclipse Is Much More Than Just A Visual Experience