mortaine's blog

STS-123 Endeavor Launch Impressive Despite Overcast Skies

mortaine — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:19:17 -0500

On about five hours of sleep, John and I headed up the coast to Titusville last night to watch the STS-123 night launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor. We stayed overnight in Sebastian, an hour away, and so we drove up to and arrived on the shoreline about forty minutes before launch. We found...

Caliente en Sámara

mortaine — Wed, 5 Mar 2008 17:03:29 -0600

John and I are in Sámara, which is on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. It´s about 90 degrees (F) in the shade around here, and the sun is fierce. Sámara is on a beach, so we do have some nice water and waves and bikini-wearing scenery to enjoy. Also, the cervezas are not too expensive, though for...

John Pennekamp State Park (Key Largo, Florida)

mortaine — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:42:54 -0600

My husband and I visited the John Pennekamp State Park, on Key Largo last weekend for snorkeling and relaxation. The snorkeling was okay, the relaxation....

First, let me start out by saying that Saturday was a very frustrating day for me. We drove all day Friday, so John was pretty tired. I was more...

Kennedy Space Center

mortaine — Wed, 6 Feb 2008 13:54:59 -0600

As Johnny mentioned in the last post, we’ve been exploring SPACE the past two weeks. We went to the Kennedy Space Center twice to see the exhibits and the shuttle and learn a bit about the space program.

There’s a full-scale...

The Other White Meat

mortaine — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:43:51 -0600

An interesting local dish down here on the Atlantic Coast of Florida is “Gator tail.” Along with frog legs, gator is the kind of dish you really only see in bayous and rural wetlands, like the Intracoastal Waterway, which runs up the East Coast of Florida.

The first time we tried gator...

Buying an RV

mortaine — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 13:08:12 -0500

The weekend of the 3rd, John saw that the RV he'd been eyeing on eBay had not sold and was re-listed. It seemed like a lot of what we needed, with very little we didn't want. It has the on-demand Aqua-hot water heater-- John loves his showers, so unlimited hot water is a plus. It has a desk, which is...

Home again

mortaine — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 00:06:14 -0600

Well, I got home on Friday. The trip home was entertaining. We were delayed about an hour coming out of Marquette, but I didn't notice-- I had my wristwatch on Central time instead of local (Eastern). I didn't figure it out until we were landing.

My flight home was supposed to be Marquette-Detroit-Minneapolis-San...

Winter

mortaine — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:53:38 -0600

Marquette is a good place to go in January. It wouldn't seem so, but if you're looking for winter, in the full winterness of the season, this is the place to go. Even this year, where the first foot of snow fell as my plan landed Monday night, it's a good time to go for quintessential Winter.

Most...

In Marquette

mortaine — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:01:56 -0600

I arrived last night in Marquette, Michigan at about 6:00 in the evening. There was snow on the ground when I landed, apparently from just that day, as Marquette has had an unseasonably warm winter this year.

Oddly, my flight out of San Jose was the only one delayed by weather-- the planes needed...

Business travel

mortaine — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:30:49 -0600

On Monday, I embark on one of my rare business trips. Generally speaking, I need to travel about twice a year for business, though it's possible that will grow as I work for companies further afield from my home office.

In preparation for this trip, I've done a little research on packing and travel....