Traveling with a Retired Math Teacher

 I am so glad that winter is just about over. I look forward to warmer temperatures so that I can take some more day trips. I don't do too much in the winter because I don't enjoy being out in cold temperatures for too long of a period so I have to find indoor activities. I would love to travel to warmer places if only I had more money to do that. as the saying goes... I plan to resume my day trips in April so now is the time to start planning. I love to plan trips. Planning is a big part of the fun in traveling for me. Today I start to plan out my trip to Maine with two main destinations of Portland and then Bar Harbor. This trip will be more like a 4 day trip. If you have ever been please leave me a comment with suggestions of places to go sightseeing and places to eat.  I believe the big reason I don't do much in the winter is that I love trips that involve being by the water and it is much to cold near the ocean in winter.  I'll be back again with my posts all about...

 Every year the city of Salem hosts its "So sweet chocolate and ice sculpture" festival on the weekend before Valentine's Day. This year was ne different. Unfortunately the temperatures were quite warm so there was a lot of melting going on, but I still enjoyed myself.  This was the first time I ever walked around Salem and I will definitely go again. I parked in the Witch City mall garage and only paid $1.25 per hour (even though the website says $1.50) There is also an MBTA parking garage and that is $5 for the day. As soon as I stepped out of the garage I was greeted by this ice sculpture. I took this day trip to Salem to view the 25 ice sculptures on display all within walking distance of each other.  I printed this map from the Salem website. but there were plenty of volunteers handing out maps as I walked around. There were also warming stations in case anyone was cold. This trip is a fun day. Along with the ice sculptures there are so many unique shops to go in and...

 I have been home from Disney for 7 weeks and I am going stir crazy. I really need another trip! Unfortunately I don't have anything planned until mid April when I plan to go to Bar Harbor Maine for a few days. If you have been there, I would love to hear from you. Leave me some comments on what to do, where to eat, and your suggestions for best place to stay. I was thinking of staying at Atlantic Oceanside Hotel.  Maybe before then I may have a chance to get in some day trips but that all depends on this winter weather. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear from you.

 When choosing restaurants at Disney, I could not afford to have all meals at a sit down restaurant so I ate several at quick service locations. I have mostly positive comments for everywhere I ate. At Magic Kingdom - Friar Nook in fantasy land had a wonderful breakfast sandwich on a multi grain croissant and tater tots for under $15 and it was delicious and quite filling. I also enjoyed my corn dog bites and fries at Casey's Corner. So much food that  couldn't finish it all. The meal was $12 and my soda was $5. At Epcot - When I was there it was festival of the holidays so each country had a stand with holiday food specials. While I was in china I had an eggroll order which was two large eggrolls for $5 which is cheaper than back home. They filled me up so much that the only other food I had in epcot was dessert of a mini funnel cake topped with peppermint ice cream, whipped cream, and candy cane pieces. That was delicious! and cost just under $10 Hollywood Studios - I ate an...

 I never thought I could get into the Christmas spirit with daytime temperatures in the 80's, but it happened. I recently spent 6 days at Disney World in Florida and was impressed with all the Holiday cheer that was everywhere. My resort, the Coronado Springs resort, had Christmas trees and wreaths everywhere! Of course, being Disney, everything is done on a large scale. and Christmas music played 24 hours a day all over the resort.  If you are interested in a trip to Disney during the Christmas season which officially kicked off November 11th this year, I will share some prices with you.  5 nights at Coroando Springs with a 4 day park hopper pass came with a price tag of $2700. Then I purchased a ticket to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party which was an additional $179. This party is at Magic Kingdom from 7pm to midnight. The party includes holiday shows on different stages in the park throughout the night, a Christmas parade that runs twice during the night and firewor...

 I decided to take a late fall trip to Chatham and see what is open after the summer season ends.  I am happy to report that I found quite a bit still open. My first stop was the Chatham chamber of commerce which is open year round and they have restrooms there. Always happy to find some restrooms that are open year round. Then I headed to Kate Gould Park to view the pumpkin people. Each year businesses around town put up a display in the park using pumpkins as heads. Then people can vote on their favorite. This is the first year I went to see this display. Here are a few of them... The next display was a little fun with the pumpkin word scramble. I am happy to report that I got all the Halloween words. My only complaint was that there weren't very many displays. I would love to see more businesses get involved.  After that I went to lunch at Macs Chatham Fish and Lobster for lunch. The food was delicious. Very tasty clam chowder and the fried clam strips were very good. ...

  My daughter and I took our annual trip to Chester, NH to find all the scarecrows around town. This is done as a fundraiser for the historical society of the town. People pay to get the head and wooden pole for the scarecrow and then they let their imagination take over. We managed to find about 150 and there were still plenty more but the day was getting late so we headed home. If you are interested in this trip you should visit their website  http://thevillagepeopleofchester.com/  on the site you can find an online map of the scarecrow locations. Our first stop of the day was at the gift shop called "Bittersweet Blessings" We always get our map of the scarecrow locations at this store and of course we always do some shopping. Every year we find something we like in this adorable store. and this is where we always find our first scarecrow. Next we go across the street and park at the post office (which is closed when we go) then get out and walk around this 4 way i...