R. Craig Collins' Portfolio: Florida 2000

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Florida 2001 © R. Craig Collins, 2001/2007

I had a conference in San Antonio (click here for San Antonio Pictures), then the family headed out to Florida.
Then I was off to Boston for a conference. (click here for Boston Pictures)

Dad and the girls

Dad, Gracie, and Diane in Orlando

Samantha, Marc, and Austin

Samanta (Sam), Marc, Austin, Diane

ME and Susann

Mary Ella and Susann

Sam and Austin

Marc and Sam with sparklers

Gracie and Diane with sparklers

The new Elantra GT in Gulfport

Mosaic of Gulfport

Family in Gulfport

The family at Gulfport

San Antonio

My Room at the Marriott Rivercenter, San Antonio

View of San Antonio

The view of the Alamodome from my room in San Antonio

Boston

(Pictures below)

What a trip!

I had to wait in Dallas to board the plane to Boston, due to a broken lavatory. So I got to Boston late, and had to wait in a huge line for the rental car. Driving toward town, I discovered the dome light of the rental was out, which made it hard to read the directions to the hotel. But they were useless anyway, as the town is so dug up due to the 'big dig' work on I-93 that exits and streets mentioned on the directions were inaccessible. Plus, the one-way streets made it hard once I got closer to downtown, but finally made it in.

Driving was required to get from the hotel (#1 is first hotel) to Northeastern (#2 on map) for the conference, as the hotel our wonderful travel agent put us at was no where near a subway stop, and the 1.1 miles in took from 18-30 minutes due to traffic.

Map of Boston

Did I mention Boston was having a heat wave, and Northeastern University actually had rooms that were not air-conditioned? I guess they normally don't need them with low summer enrollment and normally cool weather, but it was a nightmare hiking around campus, and really put a strain on me for my evening site-seeing walks.

Monday night I walked down to Fenway park, then took the subway to Boston Common, walked down Beacon Street, and ate at the home of Cheers, the Bull and Finch.

Tuesday night, I drove downtown, parked near the wharf in the north-side, and ate in Quincy Market, near Faneuil hall, and went past the Old North church on the way to the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill. You really can't see the sights from a car, so I new I'd return again, on foot, later.

Wednesday we had a late night meeting as part of the conference, so I really didn't do anything that evening.

Thursday night, I drove to the Prudential center, left the car, and took the subway into downtown, and walked the whole freedom trail, so I could really see it. I walked from 7-10, got a cold smoothie at the Prudential Center, and then went back to the hotel.

Friday, I got a brief reprieve from the heat when it started raining in the afternoon, but it backed off later, so I took a tour on the WWII amphibious Ducks, and had a great time, in spite of the heat, and a flat tire on the Duck that delayed us about an hour. But that was not the worst part of the day!

That last day of the conference, the power grid failed due to all the energy use, and the part of the city where my hotel was went black at 2:15 in the morning.

The power still wasn't back when I left at 7:30 for the conference at Northeastern, and it still wasn't on after returning from the duck tour, at 10:00 pm. So I had to pack my suitcase in the dark, un-air-conditioned room, and haul my stuff to another hotel for the last night.

This hotel, the Colonnade (#3 on the map) would have been perfect for the whole trip... on the Subway line, across from the Prudential Center, and a short walk to Northeastern.

It was not a good trip back either! While we got to the airport just fine, the lines to check the baggage was horrid, and then our plane sat on the tarmac for almost an hour, before we took off. So we got into Dallas late, and I had to run across the three terminals to try and catch my flight back. I got there just as they started boarding the bus which take you to the regional paddock, boarded the puddle jumper, and then found out that the flight from Dallas to Waco had a scheduling problem, and there was no captain to fly the plane. We waited on the plane for a while, then they put us back on a bus back to the terminal. Finally the got an entire flight crew together, and back on the bus to the plane.

Just as our plane got to the runway, it started raining, HARD. The pilot came on and said that there was a windshear alert, and we had to wait for about 15 minutes before we could take off. Finally, we got airborne, and I had the 2nd bumpiest flight ever... a real 'e' ticket roller coaster ride.

Drove to the house, pulled my suitcase out of the back, and then put my daughter's suitcases in, for their vacation visit to their GrandmaLyn in El Paso, which meant driving back to DFW (two hour drive), as I didn't want them to have to change planes with all the problems in the news lately.

A connecting flight delayed the girl's take off, so they left about 10:00, and I didn't get back home until 12:30 am, after getting up at 5:30 that morning!

Needless to say, I didn't do much Sunday, aside from laundry, shopping, and catnaps...

Oh well.

Hotel in Boston