To Connecticut

We were really dreading the trip to Connecticut. Less than a week before we were to take off, the British had theoretically foiled an alleged plot by terrorists to blow-up planes using liquid that they were supposed to carry on board. As we have since learned, this was not the case, but it created mass hysteria. LAX is a mess under the best of circumstances, and these were hardly the best of circumstances.. We decided to arrive at the airport 3 hours before our plane would take off. It turns out that we needed almost all of that time. Ty, my son-in-law, has a friend with a limousine business, so he arranged to pick us up early in the morning. The limo was great. It made for a far less stressful start to the voyage.

It turns out that the limo wasn't that much more than taking a taxis (we have had experience with a cab not showing up when we went to Madrid). The limo totally rocked, and Sally didn't feel sick by the time we arrived at the airport. Overall, I have to say that a limo is the way to go if you're travelling with more than 2 people.

It took us three hours to get through LAX security. The main reason was because they kept putting people with early flights in front of us. The leason that we learned was, don't bother to show up early. If you show up late you get to go to the front of the line, anyway. On the other hand, we didn't have to rush, and we had a little bit of time to grab some food.

Friends

Saturday night I hooked up with a bunch of my old high school friends. We all met at Mark's home, where he barbecued up a nice dinner. Both Paul and Terry drove several hours from their home towns to meet us, which was very kind of them.. It was great to see eveyone.

Larry's Family

I try to see my dad at least one a year, but the main reason for this year's trip was for my dad and Sally's mom to meet their great-granddaughter. My main reason for this trip was to get together four generations of Helmerichs and four generations of Splains. All of my great-grandparents had died before I was born,so it was very important for me to make sure that my dad got to see his great-granddaughter.

On our first night together my dad suggested that we have lunch at a restaurant called "Madison's" which was near our hotel. My dad wanted to show off his great daughter to some of his friends so we went to visit Mrs. Kondratovich, our old neighbor. Her son, Al, got off work early, so I also got to see a friend that I have known for as long as I can remember.

My dad had an oven that only had one burner working so I went out and helped him buy a new oven one day. They seem to be happy with the new oven.

On our last night we all had pizza. Sally's brother and his girl friend joined us.

Sally's Family

Sally spent several days with her family including her mom and her brothers Steven and Matt and her sister Sandy. It's not every day that you can have four generations together. There's a possibility that the four generations will be published in the Cheshire Herald. Sally's mother is well-known in Cheshire and her sister in law is contributing the photo to the local paper.

Madison

Madison was great to travel with. What a trooper! She laughed, smiled and was very easy to handle. She's a very friendly baby. . I took a number of photos of her. As one can see, she gets more beautiful every day.

New York

I managed to go to New York on Sunday while Sally spent the day with her family. On Monday Randy and Ty went to New York.

I went to the Met, the Guggenheim, The Frick and MOMA. I had basically decided to concentrate on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, otherwise I would have ended up spending the entire day at the Met.

Sally took me to the train station in Bridgeport early in the morning and I took the train to Grand Central Station. I then took the subway to the Met.My only disappointment was that the gallery at the Met that contained all of the Sisley paintings was closed. I then headed fro the Guggenheim which has a small Impressionist collection. I also checked out the Kandinsky collection, but ingnored the rest.Terry had suggested going to the Frick. The Frick really didn't have much in the way of impressionist art, but it did have one Monet that was worth the trip (and the building is beautiful). The next time I'm in New York I will take Sally to the Frick. By the time I got out of the Frick, it was getting late so I took a cab to MOMA. Again, I concentrated on the post-Impressionist collection and the surrealist collection. MOMA has Dali's Persistence of Memory which I don't remember seeing on past visits. I was surprised at how small it was.

I think took a quick tour of New York. I went walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral then over to Rockefeller Center, by the Chrysler builder, past the New York Public Library and down to the Emprire State Builder. By then it was time to head on home

New Haven

I was planning on spending Tuesday with Sally's family, but at the last minute Randy decided that she wanted a "Girls only day". Ty decided to spend the day at the hotel to get over a cold he caught the previous day. I decided to go to the Yale New Haven Art Museum. I had visited the museum 3 years ago, but it was undergoing rennovations, so much of its Impressionist collection was out on loan. When I arrived at the museum, I discovered that the museum was still undergoing rennovations and that all of its Impressionist collection was out on loan.

Fortunately, the museum's American collection was still there. They have a magnificent Metcalf that I really enjoyed. They also had several Hoppers that weren't there on my previous visit.

The Hotel

We stayed at the AmeriSuites, the same hotel that we had stayed at the previous year. This time we had one of the TCB suites that is meant for the business traveller. The TCB suites have a large desk which is better for the businessman, but lacks the sofa that is better for the vacation traveller. We enjoyed our stay there and will probably return next year.

Coming Home

On our return we had a flight from Hartford to New York. The flight was on a small prop plane. I think that the plane could carry 20 people. Sally hated the flight because the plane was so cold. We had a 3 hour layover in New York which was quite boring, but otherwise we didn't have any problems on our return flight. JFK is really a lame airport to be stuck in. Not even a Dunkin Donuts in our terminal! Fortunately, there was a Starbucks, so Sally didn't whine too much. The travel agent for this trip (Sally) has been since fired.

The limo picked us up at LAX so it was a very pleasant ride back home.