I took the photos (with perhaps one or two exceptions) with the Canon EOS 7D. I did the editing with Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate, aided by Image Cropper – a nice shareware utility for cropping 4:3 images to 16:9 size. This was a good introduction to video editing. The number of decisions involved was nearly overwhelming, and I could easily have spent the rest of the year tweaking and improving it. But you’ve got to stop somewhere.

I hope you enjoy it and that it makes you want to visit these wonderful parks.

Start address: Bryce Canyon Lodge 63 Bryce Canyon National Pk Bryce Canyon, 84764
End address: Grand Canyon Lodge Grand Canyon North Rim, AZ 84720

Start at: Bryce Canyon Lodge 63 Bryce Canyon National Pk Bryce Canyon, 84764

1. Head northeast on UT-63 N toward N Camp Ground Rd – 3.8 mi
2. Turn left at UT-12 W – 13.6 mi
3. Turn left at US-89 S – 60.3 mi
4. Continue straight onto S 100 E – 0.7 mi
5. Continue onto US-89 Alt S  Entering Arizona – 36.2 mi
6. Turn right at Grand Canyon Hwy – 95 ft
7. Take the 1st left to stay on Grand Canyon Hwy – 0.1 mi
8. Turn right at AZ-67 S/Grand Canyon Hwy – 4.6 mi
9. Turn right toward Forest Service Rd 317 – 0.2 mi
10. Continue straight onto Forest Service Rd 317 – 1.9 mi
11. Continue onto Forest Service Rd 217 – 2.2 mi
12. Turn left – 0.4 mi
13. Turn right – 118 ft
14. Turn left – 0.3 mi
15. Turn right – 2.9 mi
16. Turn right toward Forest Service Rd 282 – 0.8 mi
17. Turn right at Forest Service Rd 282 – 1.0 mi
18. Turn left at Forest Service Rd 758 – 3.2 mi
19. Continue onto Forest Service Rd 462 – 5.5 mi
20. Continue onto Forest Service Rd 641 – 1.1 mi
21. Continue onto Forest Service Rd 462 – 3.6 mi
22. Turn left – 36 ft
23. Turn right – 3.2 mi
24. Turn left toward AZ-67 S – 2.9 mi
25. Turn right at AZ-67 S – 0.5 mi
26. Turn right toward Point Sublime Trail – 10.2 mi
27. Turn left at Point Sublime Trail – 5.8 mi
28. Continue onto Point Sublime – 2.5 mi
29. Continue onto Point Sublime Trail – 2.5 mi
30. Turn right toward AZ-67 S – 0.9 mi
31. Turn right at AZ-67 S  This road may be seasonally closed – 2.6 mi

Arrive at: Grand Canyon Lodge Grand Canyon North Rim, AZ 84720

Estimated time: 6 hours, 32 minutes.

I knew from the Park Service web site that all that Forest Service Road stuff was crap. I tried to adjust the route to stay on AZ-67, but I couldn’t get Google to go along. So I tried Bing instead. Their directions were slightly simpler.

1. Depart SR-63 4.5 mi

2. Turn left onto SR-12 13.6 mi 18 min

3. Turn left onto US-89 60.8 mi 1 hr 4 min

4. Keep straight onto US-89 Alt / SR-11 / 100 St E / S 100 E 36.7 mi 41 min

5. Turn right onto SR-67 / Grand Canyon Hwy 43.6 mi 55 min

Seasonal closure of road

6. Turn left onto road 0.1 mi

Seasonal closure of road

7. Arrive at Grand Canyon Lodge

Estimated time: 3 hours, 7 minutes.

The difference between the two mapping tools was that Bing correctly deduced that I was a grownup and could figure out that I shouldn’t drive on a road that’s closed for the winter. Google was so concerned about the possible road closure that it advised me to travel instead on Forest Service roads – which I’m betting are closed to private vehicles anyway. Google got so spooked about Route 67, in fact, that when I asked it to take me to North Rim, AZ, rather than to the lodge, it told me to take US 89 Alt South all the way from Jacob Lake to AZ Route 64 in Cameron.

The only thing I’ll say in Google’s defense is that they make their turn-by-turn directions a whole lot easier to paste into a blog.

Recommendation: next time you plan a drive, try Bing as well as Google. You may find your allegiances shifting.

If there were no traffic, taking this detour would increase the travel time from 29 to to 48 minutes. But the tie-ups getting onto the Pike from I-84 can easily exceed 20 minutes, and the psychological benefits of avoiding the stop-and-go are immeasurable.

Flying: Think hard about your itinerary. We were originally booked on a 8:00 pm nonstop from Boston to Dublin, but Aer Lingus cancelled that flight and put us instead on a flight that stopped in Shannon on the way. That turned out to be a big bummer. The flight to Shannon left at 7:00 pm and arrived 5 hours later, at 5:00 am GMT / midnight EDT. The combination of the relatively early departure, the shortness of the flight, and the commotions involved with meal service and in-flight announcements meant that I got only 90 minutes or so of sleep. At Shannon we had a tumultuous and confusing change of planes and gates, not helped by the lack of signage or directions from Aer Lingus staff. We had an hour-plus wait between flights as well. (The flight from Dublin to Shannon itself lasts only about 35 minutes.) When we finally landed in Dublin our internal time clocks were completely off, not only from the time change but also from the lack of sleep. It took at least 36 hours for us to adjust, and several naps were required. This is a long way of saying that you don’t really gain a day of vacation by flying overnight. Although we arrived bright and early on a Saturday morning, we lost a lot of that first day to sleep and sluggishness. Next time I fly to Europe I’ll try for a morning departure instead.

Hydrate well before you go through security. Even if you buy a drink after the first security check, you may have to consume it before you go through a second security checkpoint at the gate.

Driving: I had imagined that the hardest thing about driving in Ireland would be remembering to drive on the left. As it turns out that was the easiest part by far. There are only a handful of real highways in Ireland, and these are designated with the letter “M.” Everything else should only be described as a road, including most of the numbered routes that connect cities and towns. The “N” roads are shown in color on maps, while the “R” roads are in white. The difference between them is that on the N roads, cars passing one another in opposite directions get about six inches of clearance between side-view mirrors, whereas on the R roads you get maybe one to three inches. And that’s where you’re lucky enough to get two lanes. A lot of driving in Ireland is a state-sponsored game of chicken. It’s no wonder that the collision damage insurance that normally comes free with a credit-card-paid rental does not apply in Ireland. We paid not only the the standard insurance but also extra to lower the deductible on liability (regardless of fault) from 1500 Euros to 100. Fortunately we didn’t need it, but it felt that fortune was really responsible rather than skill or care. We also paid extra for automatic transmission and GPX and, all those extras add up. We paid about $1,000 dollars for a Toyota Corolla for a week.

You need a belt-and-suspenders approach to navigation. Get both a detailed road atlas AND a GPS. You’ll need the atlas to understand where things are in relation to each other and the GPS to figure out where you are and how to find your way back to where you actually want to be. Then you’ll need the atlas again to fix the occasional mess that the GPS creates. The GPS that came with a rental car was a Garmin Nuvi. Halfway through the trip we named her Bambi, because she was kind of a ditz. She didn’t know that the M8 had opened so she kept telling us to turn onto the N8 instead – even as we were traveling 120 km/hr with no exits in sight. She also had a bias against U-turns, so if we missed a turn she was apt to have us take a turn at the next intersection – even if that intersection was 2 km down the road. And most annoyingly (and dangerously) she didn’t seem to know about one-way streets and “no right turn” signs, so we had to make some very quick last-minute overrides of her instructions.

Speed limit signs apparently indicate the maximum velocity attainable before one flies off the roadway. It was not uncommon for us to drive 40-60 km/hr in a 100 km/hr zone. And the Irish seem to take pleasure in posting 100 km/hr signs about 5 meters before a 90-degree bend in the road. I did get a kick out of the messages painted in the road that said “SLOW … SLOW … SLOWER.” It’s as if the road knows you’re not paying sufficient attention.

Finally, if you happen to have reserved a car on line through Malone, when you get to Dublin Airport don’t bother looking for a sign that says Malone. Just go to the Dollar/Thrifty counter. Trust me.

Boating: The ferry across the River Shannon between Tarbert and Killimer runs only once an hour (on the half-hour going north). Before planning a drive from County Kerry to County Clare, check the schedule at http://shannonferries.com. And note that they don’t take credit cards (although the crew will probably take pity on you and accept dollars in a pinch).

Eating and Drinking: The food was generally better than expected. It’s not all lamb stew and braised cabbage. Just be aware that in many establishments they won’t come to your table at the end to take your money. You have to go up to the cashier or bar to settle up. I followed the guidebooks’ advice on tipping (10%). Astonishingly, most of the credit card machines that restaurants use do not allow you to add a tip, so if you want to tip, make sure you have some coins.

We had hoped to spend a few evenings at the pub taking in the local music along with the local residents. This proved harder than anticipated. At a pub near our guest house in Dublin, the patrons were local but the entertainment was “Britain’s Got Talent” on TV. At a small pub with a good Gaelic name in Kinsale, music was provided by a lone guitarist and only tourists were listening, so no one was singing along. (They might have been singing along at the place next door, but that’s because the guy over there was doing a lot of Elvis covers.) We finally found what seemed like the real thing in Ennis, but only a tiny fraction of the seats there had a good view of the musicians and the sound didn’t carry very well to the back of the house. In hindsight, I wished we’d asked our hosts for specific pub recommendations rather than relying on the guidebooks for advice.

In the warm months, don’t rely on the sun to tell you when it’s time for dinner. In late May the sun didn’t set until after 10:00 pm, and many restaurants stop serving at 9:00.

Sleeping: Do as much map-studying as possible when selecting hotels or B&Bs. Place names seem to be relative terms and a hotel and B&B that is “in” a particular city or village may be quite removed from the center of town. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you have your heart set on walking to a particular destination for dinner or drinks you’ll need to check the feasibility of such an adventure in advance.

Walking: It’s not fair to characterize an entire climate based on six days, but if I had to, I’d say that days in Ireland are either (a) cloudy and rainy or (b) sunny AND cloudy and rainy. We had a memorable 90-minute walking tour in Kinsale, during which it changed several times between pouring rain and bright sunshine and the temperature rose and fell between what felt like 45 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit. ALWAYS bring long sleeves wherever you go, and you’ll never be sorry you brought a fleece jacket with you.

Talking: In Ireland, the English word for Gaelic is apparently “Irish.” The Irish/Gaelic word for Irish/Gaelic is “Gailige.” It’s not clear if the Irish ever think it’s proper to say “Gaelic.” Also, Gaelic is one of the most “different” languages I’ve ever encountered. After a week I still couldn’t pronounce anything I read. Irish accents, on the other hand, are not a problem (especially if you’re visiting from Boston). If you want to have some fun with an Irishman, ask him to say “That’s true, they threw the tray through the three trees.”

Golfing: If you’re going to play a links course, your 14th club should be a sickle. If you can’t still see the ball at rest following your shot, you’d better play another. The tall grass will have completely digested it by the time you walk up to take a look. And if you hit what looks like a good shot that disappears over a hill, hit another one because chances are that’s not fairway on the other side.

Working: Don’t go to Home Depot and ask them what you need to use your electronic equipment over there. They might sell you a $20 kit that includes a voltage transformer and multiple adapters for non-grounded appliances, when in fact what you need could be a simple adapter to convert a three-prong North American cable to a three-prong UK/Irish cable. (Modern American appliances like laptops and phone/camera battery chargers will work fine on the European voltage.) The part you need costs only 8 Euros, and if you don’t bring one with you, you can pick it up when you arrive.

Spending: No need to withdraw a lot of US dollars before you get there with the intention of converting them to Euros. Just find an ATM once you get there. The exchange rate and fees will be at least as favorable that way. But do plan on having some paper money with you because you’ll find some places that don’t take plastic, including restaurants, ferries, and even B&Bs. And do take advantage of ATMs when you find them. We found ourselves low on cash in the village of Kilfenora and learned that the nearest ATM was in Ennistymon, about 5 miles away (that’s 15 minutes; see “Driving” above).

Summary: Don’t let any of the above dissuade you from a vacation in Ireland. The land is beautiful, the people are friendly, and you can have a broad variety of experiences without traveling great distance. Knowing what to expect will make your trip that much better.

• St. Croix is a lot larger than I thought it would be. Although perhaps it only seems bigger than it really is because of the total lack of anything we would call a highway.
• If you’re planning to play golf on your vacation, try not to break your ribs the week before. You’ll be sorely disappointed — literally. The Carambola golf course looks like it would have been very nice, though, and quite a bargain in the off-season at $34 walking.
• Whatever that thing is up ahead on the side of the road, don’t look too carefully as you pass it. You probably don’t want to know what it is (or was).
• To the owners of the “Wright Home” wireless network at the condo complex, thanks for leaving it unsecured. It saved us a lot of time driving to a real Wi-Fi hotspot.
• $7.99 for a quart of Starbucks ice cream????
• We sampled the following beaches: Carambola (at the beach resort), Cane Bay, Buck Island, and Sand Castle. If I had to go back to any of them, it would be Carambola. It was the only one that had a nice place to sit AND a little bit of snorkeling AND a place to eat AND a place to go to the bathroom. Buck Island would have been great if it hadn’t cost $50 per person to get to. All of the beaches were nearly deserted on weekdays in August, which was nice.
• If you think the street signs in Massachusetts are bad ….
• I tried the raspberry flavored Cruzan rum and I liked it. Does that make me less of a man?
• First thing to do when arriving at your room in St. Croix: find out what kind of flashlights they have provided. Second thing: get more batteries for them, just in case. The power may go out even when you don’t have a tropical storm nearby.
• That being said, our brush with Hurricane Dean could have been much, much worse.
• We didn’t go to any restaurants worth writing about, but I would recommend going to the places actually mentioned in the guide books rather than any place you happen to stumble upon.
• The movie theater itself is about as far away from the movie theater sign in the mall parking lot as it could possibly be. It’s way back in the corner. Keep going. Further. Further. Trust me, it’s back there. We don’t need no stinkin’ signs.
• Rhoda poses for photos a lot more demurely than I do.
• 

On the whole … nothing really wrong with St. Croix (it certainly beats working), but we’re unlikely to be back real soon. There are other Caribbean destinations that have more of whatever it is that you looking for, whether that’s pretty beaches, peace and quiet, water sports, nightlife, good food, historical sites, or even a combination of all of the above. Maybe I’d feel differently if we were scuba divers; that seems to be one of the major attractions.

My primary mission was accomplished. I did in fact have plenty of leg room, even without sticking my right leg into the aisle. I did get special treatment from the flight attendants, who helped me store my crutch and carry-on bags. I was able to board and depart the aircrafts first, which minimized the amount of time I had to spend standing in line. Other than that … feh.

My memories of first class included cloth napkins, real china and glassware, food worth eating, and whatever luxury items the plane could physically accommodate. What I got on each of the + / – 2 hour flights was:

• a free drink in a plastic cup on a paper napkin
• as much food as I wanted, as long as I all I wanted was potato chips, pretzels, granola bars, cashews and sesame sticks, or biscuits (two of the flights coincided with regular meal times; on the flight from Philadelphia to New Orleans, at least the bums in coach had the opportunity to buy some fruit, cheese, and crackers)
• a blanket and pillow
• access to the first class bathroom

No hot food, no free headset, no special magazines, no deck of cards, no visit to the cockpit (OK, I wasn’t really expecting that). I’m just happy I didn’t pay cash for these seats. If I had, a copy of this would have gone directly to the CEO of US Airways. Flyer beware.