The Traveling Idiots-Where The Tuck Are They Now?

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Newport, Rhode Island..........a few quarters short!

The Atlantic Ocean is on my left and the mansions along the Cliff Walk are on my right

Size wise, Rhode Island is the smallest of the fifty states. With a little over a million people, it is the eighth least populated state (Wyoming is #1 with 575,000). We docked in Newport Harbor, which was filled with large sailboats and several yachts that had values listed between 50 and 100 million dollars. I'm not sure if they were in town for the Newport Jazz Festival, which we missed by a day or simply keeping the tradition of Newport as a summer playground for the rich and famous. Newport has a long history as the place where the wealthy families from New York would retreat to during the summer. The Vanderbilt family would spend around six weeks per summer at their "summer cottage" which is actually a seventy room oceanfront mansion known as "The Breakers".
Newport is another great city that is easy to explore by foot. The harbor is not large enough for cruise ships so we were anchored offshore. Getting ashore by tender (small boats) is never fun but we were up early and on one of the first tenders. We took off along America's Cup Ave. which turned into Memorial Blvd. This took us to the Cliff Walk which is a coastal walking path that passes behind several of the many large mansions of Newport. As we walked along, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the mansions on the other side, we were inspired. We thought it might be nice to see if we could buy one of homes. Nothing too over the top, we don't need seventy rooms, maybe something in the 25-30 room range. Sadly, we quickly realized that we'd probably be a few quarters short on the price tag. I'm sure the upkeep on those places is pretty expensive and being intentionally homeless isn't bad, so we quickly put that idea to rest.

Easton's Beach, the Cliff Walk begins here

The Breakers

The Marble House

Newport Tower. It was originally a windmill built in the mid-1700's

In addition to exploring by foot, there is also a local bus #67 that runs frequently along Bellevue Ave. and the cliffs area. It stops close to several of the mansions such as the Breakers and Rosecliff and Marble House. All of these mansions are now owned by the Newport Historical Society and are open to the public. We toured the Breakers several years ago, and while I can't remember what the cost was it was well worth it to get a glimpse of how the wealthiest of the wealthy lived.

Not exactly a 100 million dollar yacht but a cool picture

Brooklyn............a big piece of the "Big Apple"

The Manhattan Bridge from DUMBO

There were a couple of options as to where the ship would dock in New York. One in the mid-town area on the west side of Manhattan. The other option was across the East River from Manhattan in Brooklyn. While most folks were probably hoping for the Manhattan location we were wishing for the Brooklyn location. We were pulling for Brooklyn because it would allow us to easily explore some new areas of the city without having to deal with the crowds in Manhattan. Our wish came true and we docked at the Red Hook Cruise Terminal, which is located on the mid-western side of Brooklyn. Our location gave us a great view across to the Statue of Liberty.
About 8.4 million people live in the five boroughs of New York. Brooklyn's population is just over 2.6 million, or roughly 30 percent of the entire population of the city. It truly is a big chunk of the "Big Apple"!
We headed out shortly after docking, with our sites set on exploring an area of Brooklyn with a somewhat unique but quite logical name. The area we had in mind was about two miles from the terminal and is known as DUMBO, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It's actually in the area where both the Manhattan Bridge and the more famous Brooklyn Bridge come within a few blocks of each other. The area has undergone a major renaissance in recent years, with old warehouses being converted to shops, apartments and condominiums. There is also a nice mix of greenspace along the waterfront, making it a great place to spend a day if you're visiting or to live. Speaking of living there, we enjoyed saying hello to our nephew's fiancee, Nermin at their apartment which is located in this area.

A selfie from the rooftop of Kyle and Nermin's apartment

A Brooklyn City park between the cruise terminal and DUMBO

There is a pedestrian walkway that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan. You'll have great views of the Manhattan skyline from the Bridge. Once in Brooklyn you'll be on the edge of the DUMBO area

By the end of the day we had covered close to twelve miles of Brooklyn. I'm sure there are many other interesting areas of Brooklyn to explore but our feet were tired and the skies were quickly turning gray. We almost made it back to the ship before the rain started coming down in buckets
The soaking rain actually felt good after roaming around just a tiny portion of this huge borough.
If you're looking for a new or different New York experience check out the DUMBO area. If you're staying in Manhattan it's an easy walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I think you'll love it as well as the views back across the East River to the Manhattan skyline.

Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge Park

Monday, July 29, 2019

We're off.............Miami to Charleston

From the top of Fort Sumter

It's Monday afternoon and we're making our way north towards Canada, although not at a very rapid pace. The cruise left Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday afternoon. We docked in Charleston this morning. By land it's around a 550 mile drive. By ship it's about 440 miles. That’s a distance we could have covered in much less time, but no complaints. The seas were calm so it was a nice relaxing journey from South Florida to "Chuck Town" as it is affectionately known to the locals.
Before getting on the Caribbean Princess Saturday we spent Friday night in Miami. We enjoyed going to the Miami Marlins game Friday night. This was ballpark number 25 out of 30. Later in this adventure, if all goes well, we'll go to games in Toronto and Pittsburgh. This will leave only Detroit, Cleveland and Anaheim. Then I can proudly proclaim to have seen a game in every major league teams home ballpark (Beth is a few behind me, although she has been the planning mastermind behind many of the baseball adventures we have enjoyed through the years). That proclamation along with a dollar will get me something off McDonalds Dollar Menu.

Marlins Park is a nice stadium. Although the air conditioning was appreciated on a hot and humid Friday night, Beth and I agreed that all of our best baseball experiences have been at outdoor stadiums. Like Tropicana Field, which is home of the Tampa Bay Rays, most of the fans showed up dressed as empty seats. All in all it was a good experience and to the best of our knowledge it was the first stadium where all signs were in both English and Spanish.

Tickets (Boletos) weren't in high demand at the Marlins Game

Loving the air conditioning

The park offers a great view of the Miami skyline out the windows!

Saturday morning we drove out to South Beach and did a little walk and drive around. Locals and tourists were slowly making their way towards the restaurants along A1A and the beach which is just a few hundred yards away from the busy street. The art deco hotels along South Beach are really interesting to see. Although we quickly decided that they're better viewed at sometime other than the middle of the summer. By 9:00 AM the temperature was already touching on 90 and the humidity felt like it was in the 90 percent range.

Miami Beach early on a Saturday morning

We tend to go to bed early and be early risers so this morning we enjoyed our morning coffee and tea as we cruised quietly into Charleston. This coastal city has become a very popular destination known for it's deep rich history, the massive Southern mansions, plantations and gardens as well as being a food lovers paradise.
We enjoyed walking along the sea wall and streets in the White Point Gardens area, where huge beautiful homes line both sides of the tree lined streets. We also took the ferry out to Fort Sumter where on April 12, 1861 the Confederate fired on Union troops starting the Civil War. By the time this war ended over 620,000 Americans had died. This number of casualties is only slightly less than the number of Americans that have died in all other conflicts combined!

Entrance to Waterfront Park...……..just south of the cruise terminal

White Point Garden

This was the "slave market". It is now a museum

If you go to Fort Sumter try to catch the first ferry of the day. There is a very nice flag raising ceremony that occurs at 10:30 that was really enjoyable. The park ranger that conducted the ceremony put into perspective what it means to live in a free country and that a little respect for diversity and differences of opinions can go a long way. I wish everyone could have heard his words of inspiration.

The ferry is the only way to reach Fort Sumter

Approaching Fort Sumter

We finished our time in Charleston roaming around the Charleston Market area which was doing a bustling business on a Monday. We've been to this really cool city several times and it never disappoints. In addition to all the sights, it is also an incredibly friendly city. One that we look forward to visiting again and again!

Charleston City Market

If you are a regular reader of this blog, thank you! I will try to post during the cruise whenever possible. We're not going to pay the highly inflated prices for internet on board the ship...……...we're on a retirees budget!

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Next up; Cruising, Ben and a little baseball

Map showing the port stops for Canada & Colonial America. For more details, refer to the disclaimer below and the itinerary port table on this page.

Our itinerary...…..except Charleston SC has replaced Norfolk, Va

The carry on luggage and backpacks have been put away for a month. It's time to pull them out, throw in a few clothes and head out. The modes of transportation for this adventure will be by ship, train, car and airplane. Hopefully it'll give us a little reprieve from the heat and humidity of the Florida summer.
First up is a thirteen night cruise up the east coast from Ft. Lauderdale to Quebec City. There are multiple stops along the way in both the US and the Canadian Maritimes. From Quebec City we'll travel by train to Montreal for a few days before taking another train to Toronto. After a few days in Toronto we'll be picking up a rental car and driving, by way of Niagara Falls. to spend a little time with Ben in Pennsylvania before flying back to the sunshine state.
As fate would have it, we'll be able to take in a few baseball games along the way. Our plans are to catch the Marlins, Blue Jays and Pirates. This will leave only the Angels, Indians and Tigers to check off the list to achieve the goal of seeing a home game in every MLB city. That's a lot of hot dogs, nachos and peanuts!
In addition to seeing the big boys play, we're also looking forward to taking in a game or two of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
As usual, there'll be plenty of blogs along the journey.

Sunday, July 7, 2019

A few magical days!

All Together!

It's that time of the year. We're in the middle of the annual beach house gathering out here on Anna Maria Island. This event, which brings together around 100 members of Beth's extended family for two weeks, has been well documented in previous years blogs. The Rook Tournament is in full swing. The 4th of July gathering at the "big house" was as grand as ever, and in a few hours we'll be getting together for the Sunday meal.
For a few magical days this past week the entire Tucker clan was together. This really isn't an easy task. Ben lives 1,125 miles away in Pennsylvania. Sarah, Joey and James are close to 3,000 miles away in California. Thankfully they were all able to make it to the island for a few days. The time passed quickly, but it sure was a blast. Of course James was the center of attention. We were able to celebrate his third birthday a few days ahead of his actual birthday (July 9). He lit up the room from the time he woke up until he went to bed. He loved swimming in the pool and the gulf, playing with his family members, making crazy noises with his Great NaNa, catching his first fish and more. It was a magical couple of days with everyone under the same roof!