Good Day Folks
Cannot believe that I have not posted on the blog for almost
three weeks, since its inception this has been the longest time I have been
offline. It has also probably been the longest time that I haven’t rolled a
die, lifted a paint brush or even thought about the hobby. It has also been a
well-deserved break from work and other real life issues.
For the last three weeks we have been travelling in the
States – a long weekend in New York followed by a hot sabbatical in Florida. It
was great fun, and we saw so much.
This blog post will just try to encapsulate some of the
highlights of the trip.
Perhaps the most memorable and certainly the most emotional
was the trip to the 9/11 memorial in New York. That day a few years back will
always be etched in my memory. The trip to the memorial brought all these
thoughts and emotions flooding back. The museum was a great testament to the
heroes of the day the NYPD and the Fire Department and serves the victims of
the terror attack in both a sensitive and thought provoking fashion. Both my
children were very small at the time but the museum and memorial brought both
teenagers to a near tearful state as they were brought back to that horror that
unfolded on that awful morning.
Central New York is a fabulous city, its bright, loud, and
delivers a sustained assault on all the senses. From the vistas at the top of
the Empire State building through to the waterside views of the Statue of
Liberty this is one place that will always stay alive in my memories. O
ther
highlights included our visit to one of the wharfside piers where we caught up
with the second world war carrier the USS Intrepid – the ship is vast
!
Situated on one end of the deck under a permanent display we confronted
our first space shuttle of the trip – the Enterprise. I hadn’t realised that
NASA only commissioned six of these and of these only five ever made it
into space. The New York version is the test one they used for test landings
and training.
From New York we headed south to Florida – we had promised
the kids that one day we would take them to the parks. The first four days were
dedicated to Seaworld and Universal. These were all good fun and despite the
inclement seasonal stormy weather a good time was had by all.
From Orlando we picked up a hire car and headed west for
some sun and sand in the resort of Clearwater. The only highlight I can report
on this part of the trip was discovering that there was a Michael’s in one of
the many shopping malls nearby.
For some years I have read all about Michael’s
on various US based blogs – this a chain of craft stores. The particular one I
visited was vast – think Tesco just filled with stuff for craftmaking. God only
knows how they can make any money but if you wanted picture frames, dry flowers
or beads you would not be disappointed. From a hobby perspective there were
loads of bits that could be useful. Sadly I was lacking inspiration at the time
and left empty handed. However I did pop into the pet store next door and found
the ‘find’ of the holiday – a massive resin aquatic greek temple – this was so
big I had to bring it back as hand luggage and at $40 (£25) was a bargain worth
having.
The temple is about 12 inches wide - 18 inches long and 15inches tall - the grey figure shown in a couple of the shots is 28mm
The temple itself needs some work (namely a repaint and a
new base) but it will form a fantastic backdrop to a Jason and the Argonauts
game I am planning with Legatus for 2016. More on this in a future post.
 |
| A Gator at Lake Kissimme - this is small at around 5ft - they can be as big as fifteen |
Six days later we left Clearwater and headed back to Orlando
for the final five days of our vacation. Yet more parks and rollercoasters this
time in the Disney venues but in addition we went out on a swamp boat tour on
lake Kissimee (great fun) and visited Cape Kennedy. This is a must for any space nut.
The highlights being the Atlantis shuttle, the Rocket Garden and the enormous Saturn Rocket used for the moon landings...
 |
| The Atlantis looks much more beaten up than the Enterprise |
 |
| The Rocket Garden |
 |
| one end of the Moon Rocket |
All in all a fantastic (albeit very expensive trip) - thank you America for welcoming us...
Back to the real world now...
Part 3 of the Scales of Anubis kicks off Monday !!
