Between PHL and Lower Bucks County

I'm just going to start off and say that outside of Philadelphia and Bloomington, there would be a lot of advantages to having a car. There will be more about that as we get further outside of Philadelphia.

Our first transport need was from Philadelphia Airport to Langhorne, Pennsylvania. The airport site has a fairly extensive list of ground transportation options:

http://www.phl.org/passengerinfo/transportationservices/Pages/shuttlesLimousines.aspx
 
Langhorne is in Lower Bucks County. We called a few of the shuttles in advance. One number was never answered, one had never heard of Langhorne, and one sounded fine but they had really bad reviews. Also, shuttles are usually per person, so it adds up. The hotel page estimated that a taxi from the airport would be $40. That seemed excessively low, but it had room to be higher and still be the best deal. We decided to try that.

One concern was that we were getting in pretty late. Our flight was scheduled to land around 9:30 PM local time. We didn't think a taxi would be thrilled to head out thirty-six miles into the night with low chances of a return fare, but not having to worry about scheduling in advance, in case we were late or needed to eat, seemed wiser. We have taken taxis from airports before, and it's usually a pretty simple process. You walk out to ground transportation, find the taxi rank, and wait your turn. Not here.

Shuttles, buses, and all other forms of ground transportation were on one side, and taxis were on the other, except the taxi side was remarkably dark and empty. I was a little worried about that, but then a driver behind us called and asked if we needed a ride.

He had a town car service and the group he was supposed to take to Atlantic City was a no-show. We agreed without asking how much it would cost, which was foolish, but it felt safer than heading into that darkness.

I don't regret that. He was a good driver and we had good conversation. Actually, it was mainly about football. People in Philadelphia are very aware of the Ducks now that they have Chip Kelly. Explaining about the Ducks and the Beavers, but how we really hate the Huskies most, led to a nice discussion of how everyone hates Bill Belichick. Also Tom Brady. Unless you are from New England.

I believe we also discussed sport with the taxi driver who took us from Langhorne to our hotel in Philadelphia. Both drivers were friendly, answering questions and pointing out interesting things as we drove past. We appreciated that.

I don't remember which driver answered the airport question, but this is important to know.

Apparently regulations do not allow the taxi rank to be outside the doors. You have to tell the person at the desk that you want a taxi, and they will phone for one. The taxis are nearby, and it's not a long wait, but that is not on the web site, it is not posted anywhere, and the person who pointed us to the exit for the taxis, and who may actually have been the person who makes the call, did not mention that. That seems like an oversight, and one that made us wonder about Philadelphia being named the third least friendly city in the United States:

http://www.phillyvoice.com/philadelphia-ranked-unfriendly-cities/

We found friendlier people later, but that night it seemed true.

We did not get a chance to test what the driver said about the taxis, but some basic searching seems to show a preference for PHL Taxis and calling them yourself. It is easier to find tips for taking the train and then getting a taxi at the train station: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g60795-s301/Philadelphia:Pennsylvania:Arriving.And.Departing.html.

Sabbatical Overview

This travel blog was started after my sister Julie's first sabbatical. There was a lot to write about Australia and New Zealand that if I had tried to cover it on the main blog it would have taken me away from blogging about anything else for quite a while.

It took a while to hit my stride with this blog, just like it did with the other two. Now I enjoy the function it fills, where I have a regular day to write about places I have been and think critically about them.And it has now been long enough for us to his Julie's second sabbatical.

This trip was not as long or exotic as the first one, but we visited several new places that we had been wanting to see for a while. This is what I will be writing about for the next several weeks.

We left on September 5th, 2015. Our first flight sequence took us from Portland to San Francisco to Philadelphia. Once in Philadelphia, we used a car service to take us to Langhorne, where we stayed at the Courtyard Philadelphia Langhorne.

The next day was spent at Sesame Place.

Monday we headed back to Philadelphia via taxi, settling in at the Residence Inn Philadelphia Center City. This was right near City Hall, so that and Kennedy Plaza were the first places we explored. We had gotten the Philadelphia City Pass, which included a city tour through the Big Bus company. In addition to touring through the city you can get on and off at various stops, and we had two days to do this, which helped us see many different sites.

We caught an early morning Greyhound on the 10th to Easton Pennsylvania, home of the Crayola Experience. The bus terminal is very near the factory tour, so we explored Crayola before even checking into our hotel, taking a taxi to the Holiday Inn Express.

Reversing that, the next day we had a taxi take us back to the bus terminal, catching a Greyhound to Harrisburg, from which we took a taxi to Hershey, Pennsylvania and the Simmons Motel. After leaving our bags we walked over to Hershey World, which you could just as easily call Chocolate Heaven. We stayed overnight, the next day visiting Hershey Park and the adjacent ZooAmerica. Pouring rain and a love of chocolate sent us back to Hershey World.

We had a taxi take us back to Harrisburg, this time for the airport. We were flying to Minneapolis via Chicago. A taxi from the airport took us to the SpringHill Suites Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport/Mall of America, which has a shuttle to the Mall itself.

Our first day there we just looked around at different stores and features, but the next day we did several attractions as well, exploring the Aquarium, playing a round of mini-golf, and surviving the Amazing Mirror Maze.

 

Tuesday, September 15th, we checked out and took a hotel shuttle back to the airport. This time our layover was in Phoenix. We arrived back in Portland around 7:30 PM.

If you think that sounds exciting so far, just wait for the details!

Portland Metro Area - Beaverton Chuck E. Cheese

http://www.chuckecheese.com

Every now and then we like to play skee ball. We're not particularly good at it, but we still like to try it. This generally leads us to Chuck E. Cheese, and it occurred to me this time to write it up, and evaluate it.

For the purposes of skee ball alone, Chuck E. Cheese may not be the best place. This is where a kid can be a kid, so an adult trying to be a good might find that the balls are too low, and it doesn't take like for your back to start hurting.

Chuck E. Cheese still ends up being a good place, because then they have so many other things that are fun, and you can get a pretty good deal on tokens, allowing you to try many different games. I thought the mice racing bikes was cute, but feeding peanuts to the animals was also fun, and something you could get better at.

The pictures focus on video games, but there were also football and basketball throwing games, and generally a good variety. It is not as big as Big Al's, John's Incredible Pizza, or Dave & Buster's, but there is a charm in that. I think there is also a greater focus on customer satisfaction. One thing we really appreciated was that all prizes at the redemption center could be purchased outright and the prices were reasonable. For anyone who has ever had not quite enough tickets, you know how valuable that can be.

Adults can get in and get out in a relatively short amount of time. Kids may want to stay for the show, and to dance with the mouse, and that's okay.

One reason we went was that we heard the menu had been updated with more sandwiches and things, but we ended up sticking with pizza, which is always a good choice.

The other thing I will say about the food, and this will sound negative but is not intended to be, is that in a place swarming with children you should not use the salad bar. We saw a couple of kids pick things off the salad bar with their bare hands. This is not at all surprising, and it's kind of common sense that it would happen.

Just stick with the pizza.

Portland Metro Area - Nonna Emilia's in Aloha

http://nonnaemilia.com/take-out-menu

Nonna Emilia is one of my favorite restaurants. I don't think of it as a restaurant in the traditional sense, because we mainly use it for take-out pizza. However, Steve and Jen recently came to check out the area, and we wanted a place to visit and good food while we did it.

I guess the first thing we can see is that I should have used my flash, but I try not to be an obnoxious photographer, and that felt like it would have been obnoxious. There were candles on the tables for mood, and we were all able to see each other fine.

The ambiance is good. I tend to see more family dinners and friendly gatherings than dates. If you are the kind of person who does not like eating heartily on a date, this would not be a good place, because they give you a lot of food.

Most orders include antipasto and a choice of soup or salad. In addition there is the bread, and the bread is really good. That's before you even get to your entree.

This was from a previous visit, so I don't have photographic proof, but I cannot overstate the size of the calzone. I got three meals from the leftovers that time. While you might not look at the menu and think that the prices are really inexpensive (there are a lot of meals in the $13-$17 range), if you consider the value of the leftovers those deals are pretty good.

That night there was one order of spaghetti carbonara, two of gnocchi (in butter instead of read sauce) and two of lasagna.

The food is good. One thing you might want to consider is taking advantage of their lunch buffet if you would like to get an idea of the food without committing to any one dish. My favorite will still always be the pizza.

I know some people have found the crust to be too much. Their crust is very thick, and I guess you would say it is more break-like. I don't hate thin crust, but this is so good. And it is good in a different way then the bread, which is also so good. They are good bakers.

But there is something more too, in that they have the best Italian sausage. Usually based on the manner in which it is made, there is a grainy texture to the inside of sausage, which is fine, but they have something else going on here. It is layered, but in a smoother, more refined way, and it is excellent. That's why regardless of what I am choosing from the menu, I am always looking for sausage, but I should also mention that the calzone had an excellent cheese blend.

(Their tomato sauces do tend a little more toward the acidic side, so if that is an issue for you, consider the alfredo instead.)

I remember once someone making fun of Aloha, and so they made this quiz, and one of the questions was "What restaurant is Aloha famous for?" and the answer was the McDonalds'. Well, that McDonald's was a major high school hangout and I worked there, so nothing against that, but we have some great restaurants in Aloha where you can get good food at a reasonable price, and most of them have a history where they have been around for a long time.

Nonna Emilia's has been here since 1978, the same year we moved here, so it's a part of my history, and my favorite.

Good food here.

Portland Metro Area - The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Oregon City

http://www.historicoregoncity.org/

We visited the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center as a family shortly after my sister Maria took her summer camp there.

Between the two experiences there is a fairly wide range of options.

Maria's group was led by a tour guide and participated in different activities like packing a wagon and writing with a quill.

We wandered around looking at the exhibits by ourselves. We were able to do this without paying admission. Even though there is an admission price listed, that is for being guided and for some of the interactive exhibits. It is worthwhile, but you can learn things on your own, as there is some good documentation.

Even going with self-guided, we all had different experiences because I got hung up doing an old-fashioned puzzle and my family went ahead. (I have a hard time leaving things undone.)

If you have been near Oregon City on I-205 you have probably noticed the eye-catching giant wagon frames. (Well, they would be the frames for the wagon covers.)

As you get closer you see that the frames cover buildings, containing different exhibit areas and even an area for performances in Wagon III. There is also an Oregon Pioneer Garden and a store carrying Oregon items that reminds you of other good places to visit, like the Portland Rose Test Garden and Tillamook Cheese Factory.

You can really get as much or as little as you want from the attraction. They are good with children, and I think it is worth going for the tour with them.

There is a lot of history right in this area, so you may also want to visit http://www.orcity.org/.

Italy in our future

Having family in Italy is wonderful. It also makes things complicated.

I was planning a trip with my sisters where we would go to Vicenza, but would see other places too. The initial complication was that we wanted to take our mother with us, but she did not want to do all the sightseeing, so we were trying to sort out where she would go, and where she would miss staying in Vicenza, and how to get everyone back and forth between all the locations.

As that was starting to come together, my brother and his wife announced their own trip, and which day they would be in Vicenza, and would need someone there to translate and introduce. He had not been there since he was two, and she had never been there, so it was good for them to go. Seeing my aunts and uncles marvel over this change from the toddler constantly going in and out of every door to the tall muscular man was very touching.

It did completely sink the other trip. Certainly money was an issue, but having enough time and being able to get the right time off from everyone's jobs was just impossible.

Still trying to plan and strategize, it became clear that trying to bring our mother along for our multiple destination trip was not going to work well either.

That shouldn't have mattered, because before we thought that her next trip would be her last one. The flight is hard on her, and not getting any easier, and she has lost many of her family members. We will always want to maintain the relationship with our cousins, so it can make sense that we would go without her. The trip we made for my brother should have been able to be her last trip, but somehow that didn't feel right. It feels like she needs to go again.

So, it feels like what is needed is one more trip with my mother, and one more trip with my sisters.

The one with my mother would be staying around Vicenza, but I could happily spend some time exploring Parco Querini and Giardini Salvi on my own. I would love to make it inside La Rotonda, and prove it can be done. I have still never been to Montecchio.




Also, I really want to go to Soave. That is a community known for their wine, which I am not generally into, but you can see the castle when we go between the airport in Verona and Vicenza, and the castle walls come down the hill like arms embracing the hillside - at least that's how it looks to me. It might look different once there, but I'd like to check it out.

With my sisters we want to see Florence, and more of Venice - especially the islands in the lagoon - and Vicenza of course, but we also want to go to Rome, and when there you can easily go see Pompeii and Capri. I want to go there. And then you find little things, like from Florence it is pretty easy to get to Pisa, and between Florence and Venice one potential stop is the Ducati factory. That would be pretty cool.

Those are the things we hope to see, and it only takes time and money. Only.

Here are some random pictures I liked but haven't used yet.

Italy - Downtown Vicenza

I have already mentioned that traveling via car I had not understood the proximity of various locations.

Part of that is that in the downtown area driving is heavily restricted. If you live in certain apartment complexes that are right there, you can have a permit, but otherwise you need to park outside of the main area. This makes the area more pleasant for walking, but also distance wise it is very walkable.

It is still cobblestones. We had one person with arthritis in our party and one with fibromyalgia, so they sat and had some drinks and snacks while some of us explored as we were waiting for the rest of the party. Still, it's an area where you can do that.

There are little bars and coffee shops. There is other shopping, including a very nice chocolate shop where they spoke excellent English. I believe we also passed a jewelry shop. I was looking at architecture, because they have beautiful buildings. There are a lot of offices in the area too.

And there are restaurants, so once everyone was there we went and had pizza together.

After that, it was an easy walk to the train station - past park where they have the annual festival - where we saw off my brother and sister in law, and then we headed back to the parking. My mother and I would leave the next day.

So it was a beautiful night, in a beautiful place, with lots of love and laughter and food.

As we were passing the park, one cousin was telling me about the festival. My mother had always spoken fondly of it, and suddenly I was seeing where it happens every September. I told her about our Rose Festival in June, and then my brother mentioned that Pride happened right after it. She told us that they had Pride too, and at about the same time. My brother then mentioned the naked bike ride. They don't have that, but they got a good laugh out of it. Honestly, biking is so supported there that I'm not sure there would be a reason.

Here are some pictures from that night.