Day 8 - Germany, Austria

Had breakfast at the hotel in Rothenburg. It was a very fancy looking breakfast with all sorts of things on the buffet. Even desserts and chocolate. It was more like a very fancy brunch! The tea was loose tea that you brewed yourself in these little pots. There were all sorts of fabulous fresh fruits, breads, jellies, some scrambled eggs, cereals. It was yummy.

We were headed for Dachau and then on to Oktoberfest, but we got into a huge traffic jam on the way to Dachau (which is on the way to Munich, where Oktoberfest is) and had to change our plans. We had to stop just off the highway for lunch, which was not part of our original plans, but there are strict rules about how long a bus/truck driver can drive without a break, so it was time that Ronnie had to take a half hour break. (They have computer chips on the buses that record all the information that cops can access at any time.) So we ended up eating at Burger King!! The funny thing at this Burger King was that on the rest room doors, instead of women and men, they had a picture of Barbra Streisand on the ladies’ room door and an ancient picture of Don Johnson on the men’s room door! It was hilarious. They also had a big print on the wall of the Colony Hotel in Miami. Not sure why, but . . .



We finally made it to Dachau after 6 hours on the road, instead of the normal 3 hours! It was a sad thing to see. It was not an extermination camp, but a lot of people did still die there. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so I didn’t see all of the exhibits. It was too late to go to Oktoberfest by the time we left Dachau, so we had to drive straight to Austria. We will go to Oktoberfest tomorrow afternoon with another Rick Steves tour group.

We stopped at the luge at a ski area in Bavaria and we all rode down twice. It was so fun! The first time down we all got the hang of it and the second time down, people really flew! Teresa hit the wall and hurt her face and shoulder. The luge was right beside the castle we are touring tomorrow (the one that Cinderella’s castle was themed after) and there were cows on the mountain beside us with cowbells on. Really cool!

The rivers and lakes in this area are a very beautiful green color. And I can’t get over how many flowers there are everywhere! Almost every house has window boxes overflowing with tons of flowers. So pretty. The fields we drove through are the greenest green with taupe cows standing around in them.




We arrived at the Hotel Maximilian in Austria at about 6:30 It is a really nice hotel in this cool Austrian ski town. Our room is very nice with a little terrace. We were also able to get our laundry done for 6 euro! Yay! Didn’t have to wash our clothes in the sink today! The hotel has ping pong, pool, and foosball. Gary beat everyone at ping pong. We all met for dinner in the hotel at 7:30 for dinner. It was weiner schnitzel again! Enough with the weiner schnitzel already! We had cream of cauliflower soup for an appetizer and that was really good! Also, the apple streudel was good, also. After dinner, we all got our computers and headed to the lobby to update blogs and catch up on email. Got to bed after midnight.

Day 7 - Rothenburg, Germany

Had breakfast at the hotel and left by 8:30. Headed for Rothenburg. Drove past Frankfurt and Weisbadden. .




One thing I have noticed about Germany is that people are chubbier than other places I’ve seen in Europe, especially the women.

Arrived in Rothenburg and checked into the Hotel Gerberhaus. It was a really fabulous hotel. Hardwood floors, light pine furniture, four poster bed, comfy down comforters and pillows, and a nice modern bathroom. We all checked in and then scoped out each others’ rooms. Everyone’s rooms were very nice. The whole hotel was decorated nicely. We walked around the town and ended up eating a picnic lunch with a bunch of the group members in the Castle Garden. They had bought breads, cheeses, meats, strawberries, pastries, etc… Then, we went on the Rick Steves Get Away from Tourists walk with three of the other group members. We walked around the castle wall, climbed a tower (which cost 1.5 euro when you got to the top), and then toured the St. Jakob church, which has a huge, very detailed wooden alter carving. From there, we walked into a few stores, then got a snack - Gary got a pretzel and I got the world’s greatest apple streudel. That streudel was just indescribably delicious. I had already wolfed down ¾ of it before I even realized it and was only planning to eat half! I took a picture of it before biting into it because I knew it was going to be something special! J By now it was 5:00 and we were to meet for dinner at 6:00, so we went back to the hotel to freshen up. This consisted of passing out on the bed from 5:00 to 5:50! I didn’t move a muscle that whole time.



We went to dinner at Hotel Klosterstuble. We had ordered our food ahead of time based on a description of choices that Jennifer had been given. We could choose Weiner schnitzel with fries, salmon with potato salad or apaitzle, a noodle/pasta dish . I chose the weiner schnitzel because I didn’t want potato salad. I would have rather had the salmon. The dinners came out and the salmon looked fabulous and had boiled potatoes with it and then came the weiner shnitzel, which was sort of like a breaded pork chop and of course, it had potato salad with it!! It was ok, but I wished I had gotten the salmon. At least weiner schnitzel and potato salad was a more German type meal!

After dinner, we walked up to the town square where we were to meet “The Night Watchman.” This is a guy that dresses as a medieval times night watchman and gives a tour of the city, giving an entertaining lesson on the history of Rothenburg. The night watchman’s main job was to be on the lookout for fire while the people slept because that was the biggest danger in those times. He also told of how during WWII, the Americans bombed Rothenburg, but it was foggy and they missed the main part of the city. (Jennifer, our guide, had said earlier in the day that her dad was one of the ones bombing Rothenburg.) Also, at the end of the war, there were some Nazis in Rothenburg, so the US had given the army the order to destroy Rothenburg. Supposedly, the officer in charge of carrying this out had grown up with a picture of Rothenburg on the wall at his home in New York because his mother had gone there on vacations before, so he wanted to try to save the city. He requested and got authorization not to destroy the city if they would surrender, so they did and the city was not destroyed.



Jennifer was talking with the night watchman after the walking tour and they were talking about the Rick Steves tours and the watchman said that he heard that 40% of Rick’s tours were cancelled this year due to the economy. Glad our tour didn’t have to be cancelled!



We walked back to the hotel and it was about 9:30 at this point. I was beat. We were just getting ready for bed, when Gary announced that he couldn’t find his day pack. He hadn’t taken it to dinner and on the walking tour and it didn’t seem to be anywhere in the room. It had his passport and other things in there. We were just getting ourselves ready to head back out and look for it at the last place I remember it being - on the ground in front of the bench where we were eating our pretzel and streudel, when Gary found it in the window sill! He had laid it there and I had pulled the curtains closed, not even paying attention that the bag was there! So, crisis averted! Yay! No lost pack!

Day 6 - Bacharach, Germany

Click here to see blog of two of the other folks on the tour


A video of our group learning German on the bus.


Herr Jung, our Bacharach tour guide.


A video of our impromptu piano concert.

Had breakfast at the hotel at 7:45. Met our local guide, Herr Jung at 8:30. He is a 78-year-old man who has a lot of interesting history to tell. He was born in eastern Germany and just got out in time before they put up the Berlin Wall. He told us of his experiences as a young boy during WWII. He told about hiding in their basement while the bombs dropped and the planes fought each other. He took us all through the town and showed us all the interesting things about Bacharach. We sang O Come All Ye Faithful in a church, we had an impromptu piano concert in a woodburning shop, we climbed up the mountain behind the town and looked down on the town and the Rhine. It was one of the most awesome experiences ever. Words can’t really describe this guy and the experience that he provides.

After the tour, we took a 20-minute bus ride to St. Goar, a little town that is also on the Rhine. We ate lunch here and then walked up to the top of the mountain behind the town and took a tour of the Rheinfels Castle. That tour was ok, but in the middle of that tour was an experience that I have to say really STUNK! We “walked” through an underground tunnel that was part of the castle and it was really just a man-made tiny little cave with no lights (we had to take flashlights which weren’t bright enough by the way) and were hunched over the whole time. (Which by the way, I am not supposed to do because of my back problem, let alone, stay in that position walking for somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes.) The tour guide said it would be 4 minutes and there would be a few places we had to hunch down. Well, it was way longer, we had to be bent at the waist the entire time, it was dark and slippery and tiny and I was freaking out. PLUS, some group ahead of us without flashlights, held us up, so we were actually stopped in this place for about five minutes or so! I actually started yelling for people to move it! Forget about being nice, this was crazy! Everyone hated it, but especially me! My poor buddy, Jamie, was in front of me and she is 6’2” tall! She was having a really terrible time. She ended up crawling on her hands and knees towards the end. Ugh! Everything else about this tour has been great, but that tunnel thing gets a huge thumbs down! I will be complaining about that experience for the rest of my life, I am sure of it.

After that, we had a nice stroll through St. Goar, which is a very cute town, also. Grabbed a gelato and one of our friends, Catherine, from Monterey, shared some tart type treat with us. Then we went down to the dock at St. Goar and took a cruise on the Rhine River. That was so great. We looked at all the castles along the river and Jennifer, the Rick Steves guide, treated us to apple and cherry streudels, which she had bought in St. Goar. Yummy! The cruise dropped us off at Bacharach, right in front of our hotel and we walked around for a bit and then we ate dinner at a local place with four of our group-mates. We ate out on the sidewalk and it was very pleasant. For dessert, we all had apple streudel AGAIN! So in about a 3-hour time period, I had gelato, streudel, dinner, and more streudel! Back to the hotel to blog and rest up and get ready to head out tomorrow for Rothenburg.

Day 5 - Netherlands and Bacharach, Germany

Had breakfast in the hotel at about 7:45. Once again, a great buffet breakfast, good juice, good tea. Yum. Checked out at 8:30 and walked with all our stuff to the bus. The bus is very nice and huge - it's a full sized coach bus for only 16 people. The bus driver is Belgian and his name is Ronnie.

This picture shows most of the group getting off the bus.

At 10:30, we stopped off at an open air museum at Arnhem in the Netherlands. They have all types of displays set up to show you about life in the Netherlands through the years. There were places where they made cheese, paper, linseed oil and linseed cakes out of what is left after making the linseed oil (cakes were for the animals). There was also a big laundry place to show how laundry was done way back when. There was one area where they had all these old timey bikes and little four wheel car type things where you steer with your feet and make it go by pulling a bar back and forth like rowing. The bike had a big front wheel and little back wheel and it was really hard to steer. Noone wrecked, though. Several people on the tour had a race on the little car things. There was also a thing that you could sit on (two people) and rock back and forth sort of like a see-saw, but it also spun around. I rode that with Becky, the young attorney from Dallas, and it was really fun. Then everyone had to try it. Most all of the people in the group tried out all the toys.

We ate lunch at the museum with the group. It was Dutch pancakes. I guess the Netherlands is famous for its pancakes. We had one that had cheese on it, one that had egg, onions and vegetables, and the third was a dessert type pancake with apples, raisins, currants and cinnamon. I liked the third one and the first one was ok, but not crazy about the second one.

We got back on the bus and went to Bacharach, Germany. This is a beautiful little town on the Rhine River. Our hotel is a 700 year old building right on the river, but between the hotel and the river are train tracks! Between these tracks on this side of the river and the tracks on the other side, 400 trains per day go by! Luckily, this 700 year old hotel has triple-paned glass, so the train noise is not too bad. We have a nice river view, but that means we also have the trains!   The pictures below are of our hotel.  The top oneis taken from down by the Rhine and the other is taken from the back side of the hotel where you go in.

We walked around Bacharach for a while. It is a really old town, dating back to medieval times. There is a castle up on the hill. There are a lot of vineyards up the sides of these mountains on each side of the Rhine. The town itself is so quaint and German-looking, it looks like something from Busch Gardens or Epcot Center. I guess those places are modeled after real places like Bacharach, Germany! Before dinner, most of the group hung out on the terrace that overlooks the river and the train tracks and had a fun time. At 7:30, we the group had dinner in the hotel. We had some type of stuffed chicken, potatoes and soup, followed up by ice cream for dessert. It was a nice time and good meal. Afterwards, we went back out on the terrace until about 10:30. Then, we went up to our room, where I proceeded to stay up way too late updating the blog and catching up with email!

The picture on the left is Gary walking through Bacharach.  Below that picture is my "buddy," Jamie.  We all have buddies who we are responsible for checking on every time we are leaving for somewhere.  That doesn't mean we'll wait on them, but we just need to know if our buddies are there.  Jamie is my official tour group buddy, but has also become our unofficial buddy.  She is a really fun girl from Canada.  Gary's buddy is Theresa from Plano, Texas.  She is in the bottom-most picture below - the blonde lady on the see saw like thing.

Day 4 - Amsterdam (15 Sept)

Had breakfast in the hotel at 7:00 AM. It was a really good buffet with bacon and eggs and lots of good breads, etc… Can’t wait for tomorrow’s breakfast! Left the hotel at 7:50 (walking briskly) to catch the 8:15 train into Amsterdam. The train was packed, so most of us had to stand for the 20 minute train ride.


We took a tram (like the Baltimore light rail) to Westermarkt, which is where the Anne Frank house is. This is a picture of the house (with the black doors). Anne's father's business was located in the downstairs part and the hiding place was on two floors hidden in the back behind a bookcase that opened. The bookcase is still there. We took a tour of the house and it was really good. It was so sad, though, to be in those rooms where those poor people had to live for two years and then to be standing on the street in front of the house where they were taken out on Aug 4, 1944, when the Gestapo came to get them. Of the 8 people in the house, 7 died in concentration camps. Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen just one month before that camp was liberated. They still don’t know who tipped off the Gestapo that they were hiding there.


We then walked all around Amsterdam, looking at the canals and the palace, among other things. There are many “coffee shops” throughout the city where they don’t sell coffee, but they do sell marijuana! You have to smoke it in there. You can really smell it strongly when you walk by those places! And the people sitting in there look really out of it. Our tour guide said that they are allowed to have marijuana plants in their home, up to 5 per household.

There are public urinals out on the streets in Amsterdam. They are only about chest high and the lower part is open, too. We saw one guy using one and it is very wacky.

We had lunch at a place called La Place downtown. It had all sorts of fabulous food in sort of a cafeteria style. We got really good, thin-crusted pizza and some really fresh fruit. It was so good.

Next, we went to the Rijkmuseum and saw tons of Dutch art, including Rembrandts. There is a huge Rembrandt there called Night Watch, which is pretty famous. One guy, Steven, had finished up in the museum and walked around a little. He found the US Embassy and took a picture of it. He was detained by the embassy staff and had his passport checked out and was made to delete the picture! He is the most clean-cut all American looking boy around, so it was pretty funny that he had that run-in with the feds!

We took off walking again and took a canal cruise. That was really nice. We rode right past the Anne Frank house again. There are 100 canals in Amsterdam, over 50 miles of them. It’s a lot like Venice, only there are no gondolas, just regular boats and houseboats.

The houses in both Amsterdam and Haarlem are really skinny, but deep, because they were taxed by the amount of frontage on the houses. There are a couple houses that are about the width of a window. They are big windows, but still, these houses are narrow!

After the canal cruise, we walked through the red light district of Amsterdam. We were warned not to take pictures because they might smash your camera or come out and throw water on you. The water thing actually happened to a guy on one of our guide’s tours. He tried to hold his camera down at waist level and sneak a shot, but the girl saw and ran out and threw water on him. This was some kind of experience, can’t really describe it. Girls are actually sitting or standing in sort of like shop windows trying to drum up business. They are all dressed very scantily and some are actually standing right up against the glass! There were a few slim, attractive girls, but most were quite chunky and Gary was wondering what type of guy would patronize one of those girls. It felt weird seeing these girls, because they are sitting right there looking at you. Sort of like Kathleen’s description of looking at the world’s smallest woman at the state fair. Very awkward. And of course, lots of “coffee shops” in that area. One guy on the trip told us that there’s a mini red light district in Haarlem, so Gary had to check that out when we got back here later that evening. It was just the same, only smaller. He walked into a place and asked how much and then he said he didn’t understand what they said in reply but he thinks there was a five in there somewhere. I have to keep my eye on him tonight and make sure he doesn’t sneak back down there!

We came back to Haarlem at about 7:30 and had to eat dinner quickly so we could get somewhere by 8:00. We stopped in at this place called Inter Snacks. Some sort of Asian people were running it. I had fish burger and Gary had chicken burger. Not our greatest meal, but ok. Then we took a ten minute stroll through Haarlem’s red light district, where we saw one girl in the window and Gary went in one place and asked how much (as mentioned above). Then we went to the huge church in the square to an organ concert. This organ is extremely huge and old and was played by Mozart and Handel. The music was very nice and a lot of people turned out for the concert. It is right across from our hotel (the Ambassador). Most of the group went to the concert

Day 3 - Haarlem, The Netherlands (14 Sept)

(Very poor internet at the hotel in The Netherlands)

Jet lag caught up to me last night and I was awake at midnight. We had to get up at 3:15 to get ready to go to the airport, so it was not good that I didn’t really start getting sleepy again until about 2:45! We left our B&B at 4:15 in a minivan traveling 85 mph to Heathrow. I am not kidding about the 85. And not kilometers per hour, either. It was in miles! I know how fast because I could see the speedometer. Everyone on our plane going to Amsterdam was all business and very serious. They were in a huge hurry, too. I thought Amsterdam was laid back, but I guess these were British business people just heading over for meetings.

We got there in about half an hour. Then, we took a bus to Haarlem and arrived at around 11:30 AM. Haarlem is all bicycles. Actually, a lot of Amsterdam is bicycles. As we drove to Haarlem on the bus, we could see that there were tons of bikes parked at evey bus station. I kept falling asleep on the bus because I hadn’t slept last night. We were able to check into our room about 1:30 and then I took a nap for about an hour and a half. Then, I washed clothes in the sink. Speaking of our hotel, it is done in an Egyptian motif, as you can see in the picture. Very funny. Not sure why they chose that.



Haarlem is an old city with cobblestone streets and a huge church in the middle of it. We will probably go to an organ concert there tomorrow night. Mozart and Handel have played that organ.

We met up with our tour group at 4:30, or as we say here in Europe, 1630. There are 16 of us all together, plus the tour guide. There are two women that are lawyers. One is an experienced one, and the other has only practiced for a year. One woman is an executive coach. There is a couple that lives in Rhode Island and Pine Island, Florida. There are a couple people from Seattle, a couple from Eureka, California, another Florida couple, a girl from Monterey, two ladies from Plano, TX, a girl from Canada, a girl from Dallas, and a guy from NYC. They seem like a nice group.
We went on a guided walking tour of Haarlem (led by a local guy named Hans) with the group and then went to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant.

We are now back to the hotel and getting ready for tomorrow’s activities in Amsterdam.

London - Day 2

We slept like logs on our first night in London. Would have probably slept in some, but we had to eat breakfast between 7:30 and 9:00 in our B&B. We had a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon (it's really salty ham, but they called it bacon), tomato, beans and toast. Yes, I ate beans and tomatoes and liked them. I highly recommend this B&B. The lady that has been working here the whole time we've been here is really nice.

After breakfast, we headed out walking around Belgravia and we really did walk over to Margaret Thatcher's house. We would have stopped in, but I was afraid she might not be up this early on a Sunday morning. Here's a picture of her house and guard.

Joan Collins and Liz Hurley live around there, too, somewhere, but we didn't have time to visit them.

We headed down to Victoria Station and then took the tube over to the Westminster station to see Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc...

We toured through the National Gallery, which has a lot of really neat and old art. We saw stuff by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Michealangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Monet, Raphael, Titian, Cezanne, Botticceli, and many more. In the middle of all that art, we had some fabulous snacks in the cafe and here is a picture of my favorite!


We walked to Picadilly Circus (that's a cool name)and stayed there just a little while. There were hundreds of police there because some demonstration was about to happen. I can't imagine how much was being spent to pay all those police.



Then, we walked through St. James Park and over to Buckingham Palace. That was pretty neat to see. Here's a picture of us in front of the palace. Saw the guards out there, but they weren't changing at the time we were there.

On our way back to the hotel a few minutes ago, we heard a man get hit by a car and turned to see it just after it happened. That was really awful. These British drivers are terrible whether they are driving in our country or their own!

Now, we are back at the B&B and getting ready to head out for dinner here in Belgravia and then will call it an early night since a car is picking us up at 4:15 AM to take us to the airport tomorrow, to catch our flight to Amsterdam.

P.S. Now back from dinner - ate at the Traveller's Tavern on Elizabeth St. Another good meal.

London - Day 1 Continued (evening)

London - Day 1 Continued

We ate dinner at a pub down the street from the B&B called the Belgravia Pub. It seemed to be full of local people, mostly men, watching soccer. The Manchester United were playing some team called the Something-or-other Spurs. This crowd was all for the Manchester United. They were watching this game as if it were the Super Bowl or the last game of the World Series. Very different. If soccer is ever on in the US, people don’t even pay attention. These folks were glued to the screen and were yelling, cursing, etc… The cursing sounds hilarious when done with a proper British accent. I had fish and chips (and peas) and it was really good! Gary had a tuna melt.

After we ate, we walked over to the Victoria Station to catch a double decker Night Bus Tour. It was a cool 2-hour tour and we sat up on top. A really neat way to see the city. We enjoyed it thoroughly, but it was cold up on top of that bus at night. Next time I take a night time bus tour, I’ll wear some warmer clothing!!

London - Day 1

Well, we finally made it to London! We were delayed in Phil for about an hour and a half, then delayed in Dallas for about an hour or so waiting on other people to make the connection. Finally made it to London today about 2 PM London time (9 AM Maryland time). Flights were fine, but note to self and everyone - don't ever fly from Phil to Dallas to get to London. The Dallas to London flight alone was 9 hours, and that's after flying from Phil to Dallas! Ugh!

Had to wait in a long line to get through the airport. There were some really smelly people in that line, too, unfortunately. Took the tube from the airport to Victoria Station and then it's about a 15 minute walk to our B&B.
Here's the link http://www.cartrefhouse.co.uk (Of course, we walked a lot farther than we had to because Gary decided the address was 249, but it was 129. We have to make u-turns even when we are walking!) It's in a very nice area. Margaret Thatcher and Andrew Lloyd Weber evidently live in the neighborhood. We'll be stopping by Margaret's place a little later.

We are getting ready to head out and do some exploration now. Just wanted to check in briefly. Have a great Saturday everyone!!

-Kelly

Gary and Kelly's European Vacation 2009

I am revisiting my blog now after over a year away. I guess Facebook sort of took over, so the blog was ignored. Well, here we are back so that we can keep all of our family and friends updated on our trip without letting the whole Facebook world know that we are away.

It's the night before our big trip and we are pretty much packed. I think I may still have to take a few things out of my bag because it is rather puffy and it already weighs 22 pounds and I haven't put the netbook in it yet!

Tomorrow we'll be leaving from Philadelphia and flying to Dallas, then sitting around Dallas for a few hours before heading to London. I'm thinking that might not be the most direct route, but it's all we could get for free with our miles at the late date that we were booking tickets. Our actual tour starts on Monday (9/14) in Haarlem, The Netherlands, but we will be hanging out on our own in London until Monday morning, when we fly to Amsterdam.

Have a great weekend everyone and stay tuned for more exciting news from the journey!

Gary Conquers the Monster Mile

Today, we went to the Dover Speedway for Gary to drive 10 laps on the "Monster Mile!" We showed up at 8:00 and everyone was very excited. The drivers were suited up and ready to roll and then the rains came and finally, at about 11:00, they cancelled out the morning session. They gave us a little garage area tour and then we left the track, trying to figure out when we might be able to fit another Dover trip into our schedule.

We headed over to our new favorite restaurant (shown in the slide show below) for lunch and decided before getting out of the car to head back to the track and see if we could talk our way into the afternoon session. Thankfully, they decided they could fit in one more driver, so we were able to get in! The skies were still threatening, but Gary was first to drive, so he got in his run before it started raining again! It was a very exciting day. Gary successfully finished the race and had a great time. I enjoyed my exciting 14-passenger van ride around the track at what seemed like break-neck speed, although I checked the speedometer and it was only about 65!

A highly recommended experience!

Dillon's Job

Dillon's job is to keep all tables cleared. Here he is clearing the coffee table. All magazines must go.

NYC Revisited

We went back to New York at the end of June to visit with Gar. We had lots of fun and I think we walked about 400 miles. We stayed at the Helmsley Hotel in Manhattan. The highlights were the double-decker bus tours that Gary and I took while Gar studied, checking out the Today show on Sunday morning, and the Spamalot Broadway show. Spamalot was hilarious - I highly recommend it. Lowlight - getting drenched on Sunday at the Pride Parade and my cell phone getting ruined from being wet! We had some nice meals and lots of fun. I kept trying to get into one of the 4000 Ann Taylor Loft stores that we passed, but we were either busy on our way to somewhere or the stores were closed. I had two coupons for $25 off each that were about to expire!! As we were walking back to our hotel on Saturday night, the Loft store near the hotel was having some type of party and I got invited in (maybe because we were peeking in the window trying to figure out what was going on in there at 10:00 PM)! I didn't go because my invitation consisted of some dancing young guy in there dancing in our direction and waving us in. I would have preferred a more official invitation, so we just kept walking, but I thought it was really funny, especially since I had been trying to go shopping there all weekend. I finally did get to do some shopping at the Loft in Brooklyn on Sunday right before we left to go home. :-)

I have to publicly announce that I am now a Jenna Wolfe fan. I had previously not been crazy about Jenna (the Sunday co-host of the Today Show), but she turns out to be such a really nice, down-to-earth girl that I am now a fan. She stayed outside after the show, talking to people and posing for pictures until everyone that wanted to meet her had met her and gotten their pictures, autographs, etc... Lester Holt ran back inside immediately. He may have had someplace to get to right away, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but Jenna was nice. Also nice was Janice Huff, who always stays out and talks to people. I have seen her there before and she's always extremely friendly. Watching the Today Show from outside the studio is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. It's neat to see how the TV business really works.