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Here is a list of the places that we visited while back home for the holidays.  Click on one of the locations below to immediately access that travelogue or simply read these entries in order.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA:  December 20 - December 28, 1999 (entry immediately below)
NAPLES, FLORIDA, USA:  December 28 - January 3, 2000
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA:  January 3 - January 9, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, USA:  January 9 - January 12, 2000

 

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA:  CHRISTMAS WITH THE WILLIS FAMILY

Tuesday, December 28, 1999

Home Sweet Home....even if it is not our home.  We arrived back in the USA late in the evening of 20th.  Rich's brother, Donnie and his wife, Emily, were there to greet us as we exited the airplane.  When we arrived to Donnie and Emily's home, Rich's mother, Tessa, greeted us with open arms, cookies and her famous fried rice.  Emily gave us each a little care package filled with soap, shampoo, lotion, toothpaste and toothbrush.  We felt like we were in paradise.  Little did they all know, that we were so grateful for the opportunity to actually throw toilet paper in the toilet alone, that we did not need all of the extra frills.  However, we were very happy to except these fine surprises.  Sleeping that night was also a treat.  Emily had set up our room with nice clean sheets and a big fluffy down comforter.  I laid down in bed and turned on an actual television and watched one of my old time favorites, The Mary Tyler Moore show.  

We had a great relaxing Christmas.  Don, Rich's Dad had come into town a few days before, so the whole Willis family was together.  Everyone woke up late, and we just relaxed and had a delicious breakfast.  Emily was very excited to open gifts.  She had a lot of Christmas spirit, and that was wonderful.  So, after making Emily wait a little while longer, we eventually  sat by the tree and opened gifts.  Tessa made us a delicious turkey dinner and we watched some movies.

The next evening we went to a Thrasher's hockey game.  The Thrashers are the new hockey team in Atlanta.  We had season tickets for this year, but we had to sell them before we left, as we would not have much use for them in Nicaragua.  We had a great time.  The Philips Arena is brand new and very nice (almost too nice for a hockey arena), our seats were great (they better have been for the price...equal to about 7 hotel rooms in Guatemala..per ticket), and the Thrashers won!  The city was decorated for the holidays and it looked great.  

Our final day in Atlanta before leaving for Naples was spent fixing the computer and cleaning up after ourselves.  In the short time that we were at Donnie and Emily's, we managed to make a big mess.  We had taken everything out to organize.  When we leave for Asia in two weeks, we will not be returning for close to a year, so we have to be prepared.  We went out that night to look at the holiday lights with Mr. and Mrs. Willis.

So now we are on our way to Naples, Florida to spend New Years with the Brown Family, which will include my parents and brothers and sisters and their children.  I am working on the computer while Richie drives.  There is a lot of sun, so I have a big box over my head to keep out the glare.  It is kind of closter phobic, so I think I will have to terminate this project soon.

 

NAPLES, FLORIDA, U.S.A.

Monday, January 3, 2000

Hello!  I am back in the car, and we are headed back to Atlanta, Georgia.  We had a wonderful time in Naples with my family!  Present for the Big Brown Millennium Bash were (from young to youngest):

Barb and Tom Brown:  My parents
Rob, Kathy, Amanda, Brittany and Bobby Fredal:  My brother and his family.
Tracy, Frank, Shelby and Remy Houttekier:  My sister and her family.
Wendy, John and Mark Meurer:  My sister and her family.
Patti and Dave:  My sister and her new husband.
Carl and Isabella:  Dave's brother and his wife.

This does not even include all of the Brown Family.  My family is very large.  We have a great time together. 

When Rich and I arrived at the Brown Compound, the kids were running everywhere, excited to open their Christmas gifts.   Mrs. Clause, i.e. my mother, had managed to once again get the children everything they could possibly want....and more.  Mr. Clause, i.e. my father, managed to get all of the adults what they really wanted.......money.  I told my father that this would allow us to extend our trip.  He was excited to hear that he was now contributing to the dangerous follies of his own daughter.  But seriously, we do plan to save this money or invest it in the ever-rising stock market.

We had a great time in Florida, with the exception that My Dad got very sick very early into the vacation.  Just as my father began to recover, Rich became very sick.  The poor guy had a fever for three straight days in a row.  He could not even make it out of bed.  At first we were worried that he had perhaps contracted malaria in the jungles of Central America.  However, the tests that he had done at North Collier Hospital were negative.  In addition, once a few other members of the family began to also fall sick, we became more certain that it was just a very bad flue bug going around.   We affectionately dubbed this illness the "Y2K Bug".

New Years was a lot of fun.  My parents threw a big party for the family.  When my family gets together things get pretty crazy.  I was very happy to spend this memorable event with them.  Unfortunately, however, Rich was still very sick.  He managed to muster up enough strength to come out just before the countdown for the next millennium, which only comes around every 1000 years.  Even when he did come out, I could tell that he was miserable.  He later told me that he was in a big fog and it was strange to have all of these people around him laughing and carrying on.  

New Years Day was a lot of fun.  I was very happy that the Millennium went off around the world without a glitch.  I had watched a lot of celebrations around the world the day before and they were spectacular.  This has made me excited to get back on the road and actually experience these far away places first hand.  Once again, the Brown family congregated at my parent's home and we celebrated New Year's Day.  I was glued to the television during the Michigan State vs. Florida game.  After 4 nail biting quarters, MSU finally pulled it off in a game winning field goal during the last few seconds of the game.  I was very excited.  I really love my alma mater.  We also watched the University of Michigan vs. University of Alabama game later that night.  Although I failed to stay awake for the entire game which made it into overtime, I was excited to hear that U of M also managed to pull it off with an extra point field goal.  The Big Ten made a great showing in the bowl games this year, with the exception of Perdue being beat by University of Georgia.  I am a Georgia fan, so I was also pleased about that victory too.

Yesterday was a relaxing day by the Brown pool.  Later in the day, we went to the beach to meet the family and watch the sun set into the ocean.  It was a great sunset and a fitting end to a wonderful vacation and celebration.

 

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA:  GETTING READY AGAIN!

Friday, January 7, 1999

Well, here we go again.  Only 32 hours until our flight leaves for San Francisco, and we are trying to prepare for the next phase of 2 Go Global as well as for our absence.  We are lucky that Donnie and Emily take care of our finances for us while we are away.  However, we have to have everything prepared for them when we leave.  Additionally, there are so many other matters to take care of when you are going to be out of the country for several months.  For example, it is 12:00 midnight right now and I am exhausted, yet I am on hold with Compuserve to take care of a software issue. 

We are so glad that we came home.  It has been so great to spend time with family!  We were only able to spend a little time with our friends.  Our friends Bill and Ginger and Lou and Andrea were very kind to treat us to dinner.  We also were able to visit our offices.  It was great to see all of my buddies in the Gwinnett County courthouse!!   Although, I feel like I did not spend enough time with everyone.

I must say, however, that I am so excited to get back on the road where our biggest priority is learning about the places we are visiting and seeing the sites and meeting the people.  Our next stop will be San Francisco, California, and then we will fly to Tokyo, Japan and onto Singapore!

 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, USA:  THE CITY BY THE BAY

Wednesday, January 12, 2000

If you are happy with your life and your surroundings and you have never been to San Francisco, California, DO NOT GO.  You will want to pick-up immediately and move your permanent residence to this beautiful and colorful city by the bay.  I am in love with this city.  

Rich and I arrived in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon.  Rather than take the easy route into the city (taxi or shuttle), we chose do it like the locals and jump on the bus to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and ride into Union Square.  It did not take us long to find the Hostel at Union Square.  A member of Hostelling International, this well run, older hotel in a wonderful location of Union Square, had a lot to offer the young budget traveler at $17 per per person.  Although I was not thrilled by sharing a bathroom with several other people, I was pleased by the hostel.  After adjusting to the time change with a short nap, we ventured out into the city, exploring Chinatown, North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf by foot and cable car.   Just two buildings away from the hostel on Mason Street, we found the King George Hotel.  We had actually heard the name earlier when we were inquiring into hotels with a hotel brokering company.  They had quoted us a price of $50 per night plus tax, which was $25 less than the price we were quoted by the gentleman at the front desk.  Although this would end up being $20 more than the hostel, we felt it was well worth the extra money when we looked at the rooms.  So we made our decision to move into the King George Hotel the next morning.  I was looking forward to taking a shower in a clean bathroom and laying in the sheets, while falling asleep to the sounds of television.  I knew that this luxury would not be available once we landed in Asia and returned to the TRIP BUDGET.

Monday morning, we woke up and walked to Dottie's, a cafe named after the blue's singer, Dorothy Dandridge.  We had a delicious breakfast, large enough to get us through the day.   After moving into the King George, we jumped on a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf, where we were going to take a ferry to the famous prison of Alcatraz.  

Alcatraz (so named because it was inhabited by "Alcatraces", which is Spanish for pelican) is a little rocky island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, which sits only 1.5 miles away from the shores of the city.  For 30 years, from 1933 to 1963, Alcatraz was the "prison of the prison system" where the incorrigible, serious offenders were sent.  Al Capone spent 4 and 1/2 years on "the rock".   Following its closure in 1963, Alcatraz sat empty until Native Americans conducted a 3 year sit-in to demonstrate the poor treatment that they had received by the white man.  Their movement gained a lot of support by everyone at the beginning, but soon became forgotten, and the government only had to remove a few remaining die-hards in 1971.

I was fascinated by the prison.  We strolled down the "A" block, a/k/a "Broadway" by the inmate population, which ended at the gun gallery and a clock which hung on the wall below the gallery, making this area known as "Time Square".  We also visited the cafeteria which was known to have served the best prison food in the system.  I also stood in a dark, isolated cell in the "D" block, which was used for solitary confinement when an inmate committed a serious violation.  After a view of the inside of the prison, Rich and I went out to the recreational yard, which was a privilege granted to those that respected the rules of the prison.   We ended our tour with an interesting film about the history of the island of Alcatraz.

 

 

 

The "D" block was visited often by Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz" who loved to stir up trouble.

 

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed the way the audio tour was presented.  They did not represent it as a terrible place where every prisoner was tortured, yet they also did not portray it to be a prison country club.  It was narrated by former inmates and correctional officers, thereby giving the views of both the hosts and the guests.  

After serving our time on Alcatraz (I know...very original), we returned to the mainland where we walked up to the Cable Car Museum and enjoyed magnificent views from the top of the 210 foot Coit Tower in North Beach.  The tower was built in 1934 with the money bequeathed by Lillie Hitchcock Coit, an eccentric woman ahead of her time who, as a child, rode atop of the fire trucks with the firemen to the scene of many blazes and, as an adult, dressed in men's clothing so that she could sneak into poker games.  Lillie Coit donated the money to give back to the city she loved so dearly.  For lunch that afternoon, we shared a thick and juicy Focaccio burger at Mo's Burgers on Grant Avenue.  

Much later that evening, after an exciting day of exploring and a relaxing time in our room at the King George, we ventured back out into Chinatown and had our best meal yet at Nanking Restaurant, where we enjoyed pot stickers, shrimp fried rice and chicken, Nanking style.

Our final day in San Francisco was a wet one.  However, we were not going to let the rain spoil our plans to walk up into the Haight-Ashbury, Castro and Pacific Heights districts.  We were so wet that you could see Rich's boxer shorts through his katke pants.  Still, we could not help but have a great time, since the sights were great, and we had fun thinking of songs about sunshine and warm tropical places and playing a game where you had to create an object out of the umbrella, such as a baton or a sword.  One of the more humorous moments of the day was when we walked into a bank and requested 100 single dollar bills in exchange for a $100 traveler's check.  The teller was confused at first, and Rich joked that she could also give her a hundred $100 bills if she liked.  All I could think about was the woman backing away nervously thinking that Rich was conducting a hold-up.  Luckily, she either did not hear or did not get Rich's joke, because we were able to leave the bank without a police escort to the tank.

 

 

 

Now I know what Mark Twain was talking about when he said that the coldest winter that he ever spent was the summer he spent in San Francisco.

 

 

 

 

 

Our last dinner in the United States of America for a while was enjoyed at the Golden Spike in North Beach, which is home to hundreds of Italian restaurants.  The meal was fine, but not great.  Next time, we will go to the Stinking Rose, as was recommended by our San Franciscan friends, Mike and Linda, who are still traveling the globe.  

As I sit on the airplane, headed for Tokyo, Japan, I reflect upon our visit to San Francisco with a smile of delight.  I am very glad that we were able to make a stop at the world famous city by the bay.

 

PRESS HERE TO CONTINUE MY TRAVELOGUE AS WE JOURNEY THROUGH ASIA.


 

 

 

 

 

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