OC Domer Alaskan Cruise Report

Last summer it was the East Coast College Tour. This summer the OC Domer family went on a cruise to Alaska. It’s not like there has been any clamor for an explanation of the lack of posting from July 29^th through August 8^th, but that’s why OC Domer was pretty quiet for a couple of weeks. We went with my wife’s family (her mom, her brother and his family, her sister and her family, and the four of us), a total of eleven people in the group. We all flew to Vancouver on Tuesday, July 29^th with the seven day cruise scheduled to depart for Anchorage, Alaska on Wednesday, July 30^th.

Vancouver. The trip got off to a very exciting start. Just as we landed in Vancouver the cell phones started ringing with the news that a 5.8 earthquake had hit in Chino Hills, which isn’t very far from OC Domer HQ in Tustin. With visions of Northridge dancing in our heads, we all made calls to friends and neighbors to see how bad it was. Amazingly, very little damage was being reported anywhere, let alone in Tustin. So we all breathed a big sigh of relief and resumed our vacation, hoping against hope that a disaster wasn’t waiting for us when we walked back into our houses in eleven days.

We had reservations at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside, which put us in the heart of Vancouver along the water and pretty close to the cruise ship terminal at Canada Place. Vancouver is a great, cosmopolitan city, and I have very much enjoyed the short time I have been able to spend there. But it has one quirk that baffles me. Essentially there are no freeways in (or through) Vancouver, which means that after arrival at the airport there you are faced with a long, jerky cab ride along surface streets to your hotel downtown, or maybe a loooooong ride through the whole city on surface streets in your rental car if you are heading to destinations north of the city. There is no quick way into, through, or around Vancouver. Gives it character, I guess.

After check-in we wanted to do a little sight-seeing and enjoy the city. Having watched the weather forecasts closely, we weren’t surprised when we got soaked in the rain while walking around (in the jackets that we THOUGHT were waterproof and that we were counting on to keep us dry through a rainy week in Alaska). We walked toward the historic Gastown area, checking out the shops. There is a lot of merchandise on display for the 2010 Winter Olympics that are being held in Vancouver and Whistler, BC. I was surprised by a shop selling Cuban cigars, and just had to get one. After talking to the salesperson and being assured that I could take a Cuban cigar onto the ship in Vancouver as long as I didn’t take if off the ship in Alaska, I paid $18 for a Romeo & Julieta. I know almost nothing about cigars, and have only smoked a handful in my life. But forbidden fruit and all that. When I finally smoked it later during the cruise, I honestly didn’t think it was any different than any other cigar I’ve had. But then, I can’t tell good wine from bad (although I can usually detect bad beer!). We finished up the day with a big dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory on Water Street. Not fancy, but they had a table for eleven, fresh baked bread and good beer.

The next morning my son went for a long run along the waterfront and around Stanley Park with his uncle, and my wife and I got out and took a nice long walk to Stanley Park as well. We had a few sprinkles in the morning and a threat of rain, but the weather held. Then it was time to get packed up and head for the ship. We were sailing aboard the Carnival Spirit, boarding anytime after 12:30 and heading out to sea around 5:00 p.m. The check-in procedure was surprisingly fast and easy, even with the security procedures, so were all aboard by 1:30, and our bags had made it to our cabins by 2:30.

The Cruise. I have been thinking about it a lot, and I think the best way to review the cruise is to write on the one hand about the shipboard experience on Carnival Spirit, and to write separately about Alaska itself on the other. I’ll start briefly with some thoughts on our ship.

The Carnival Spirit is a really big ship designed to carry (house, feed, entertain) over 2,000 passengers and nearly 1,000 crew members. The ship really does resemble a Las Vegas hotel. Rooms are very functional, but not spectacular. Food is abundant and diverse but not great. Décor that is tastefully tacky. Entertainment is more Fremont Street than Las Vegas Boulevard. I don’t want to be critical of the ship, but I would rate the overall ship experience as a solid “good.” Not “very good” and certainly not “great.” The cabins (I can’t bring myself to call them “staterooms”) are small, but ours didn’t seem nearly as small as the cabin we had on a Disney cruise several years ago. Also, the cabins seemed to have a much better design, with plenty of storage for all our clothes and miscellaneous stuff. We made sure that everyone in our group had balconies, since so much of the Alaskan cruise experience is watching the scenery and wildlife while underway. Our cabin stewards were very good, and very unobtrusive. When we did run into them they were always very friendly, but they generally worked under the radar. They kept our cabin immaculate (including straightening and organizing all the junk that was scattered about each day), realized very early on that we go through a lot of towels, and never tapped on our door with the dreaded “housekeeping” chant when we were trying to sleep. The televisions in the cabins actually had real T.V. programming from home, although there was no ESPN (only available in the sports bar) and there was a puzzling line-up of local channels from Denver. But CNN and Fox News were both there.

The dining room experience was the source of some disappointment. We did get the “early” dinner seating we asked for (6:00 p.m.), but we were not all at the same table, instead sitting at two tables that were very close to one another. The tables are fixed to the floor and cannot be moved together. I went to the Maitre D’ on the first day to see if we could be moved to a single large table for eleven, but he was unable to help us unless we wanted to switch to the late dinner seating (8:00). This was frustrating since there were other large groups sitting at single tables all around us, and it wasn’t clear why we got hosed. So the Maitre D’ didn’t get any tip from the OC Domer group at the end of the week. The menus for dinner were good, featuring many fine choices, but short on dishes that many of the kids in our group were very eager to eat. They tried different things, but were rarely truly happy with the offerings at dinner. The quality of the food in the dining room was uneven. “Good” most of the time but never “great.” I think it compares well with the dinner you might get at a wedding reception for 1,000 people or at a pretty decent college dining hall. A recurring theme was food that wasn’t hot.

Breakfast and lunch were buffet style on the Lido deck. Lots of variety available, fair quality. And it was usually hot! The staff at the buffet was very friendly and genuinely eager to make sure that you got what you wanted. The issue at breakfast and lunch was the crowd. Everyone on board is eating at the same time, and seating was somewhat limited by the weather. On a normal warm weather cruise, a lot of passengers are going to sit out on the pool decks or other areas of the Lido deck for breakfast and lunch. In Alaska, where it is much cooler, more folks want to sit inside to eat and the indoor seating is really at a premium. Finding a table inside for a large group at breakfast or lunch was a problem we never really solved. We usually bundled up and had breakfast near the indoor pool and tried to ignore the chlorine smell.

The slate of scheduled activities on the cruise seems to have been pared back from a typical Caribbean cruise, as the primary activity (even on days “at sea”) is sight-seeing, including looking out for whales and other wildlife. I did manage to bring home the trophy for winning the sports trivia contest, which almost made up for the money I lost in the poker and blackjack tournaments. The ship had a pretty good casino, although it is clear that the purpose of the casino is to generate revenue for Carnival, not provide entertainment for the passengers. Heck, even the BINGO games were giving out paltry prize money compared to the revenue they were generating from selling the cards.

As I alluded to above, I really compare the shipboard experience with spending an entire week at the Luxor Las Vegas. It’s very new and exciting for a few days, but by the end of the cruise you’ve seen all there is to see, you’ve eaten all the free ice cream you want, and you’re ready to get off.

ALASKA! Of course the whole reason we were on the Carnival Spirit was to see Alaska. Although I had some ambivalence about being on a ship for a week, I’m not sure if there is a better way to see Alaska. It is such a big state, so spread out and in places very inaccessible, that the cruise is just about the best way to do it. The scenery along the inside passage is breathtakingly beautiful, and watching it glide by either from your own cabin balcony or from the rail on one of the upper decks is a wonderful way to pass the time. Despite our worries about the weather, we were blessed with the best weather Alaskans had seen all summer. Those sunny days rather than rainy, cloudy skies allowed us to see more of the scenery, and showed it off to its best advantage.

Our itinerary consisted of a cruise along the inside passage, with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Sitka, before crossing the Gulf of Alaska, entering Prince William Sound and spending several hours on the last day of the cruise in spectacular College Fjord. In my mind, I pair up Ketchikan and Juneau on one hand, and Skagway and Sitka on the other. The first two cities are larger and actually have an economy and industry extending beyond cruise ship tourism. Ketchikan is a fishing town. Juneau is the state capital and is thus a government town. Both welcome the tourists and have a build-up of typical tourist shops near the cruise ship dock, but beyond the tacky touristy area is a normal town that gives one some feel for “authentic” Alaska.

Skagway and Sitka are much smaller towns, and I got the feeling that if the cruise ships stopped coming, the towns would close up shop entirely. Each of these towns has a very quaint “downtown” area (two or three blocks long) that has shops in historic buildings catering to the cruise ship crowd, some residential areas nearby housing the folks working the tourist industry, and not much else. But each of these towns is very interesting to visit because of its unique history. Skagway was ground zero for fortune seekers during the Klondike gold rush. Sitka was the capital of Alaska when it was a Russian territory.

I mentioned above that a cruise ship is probably the best way to see Alaska. One of the reasons is that the towns are too small to handle the tourists any other way. As big as Alaska is, each of the towns we visited clings to the shoreline seemingly fearful of being shoved into the ocean by the mountains that loom over them. It’s ironic, but land is at a premium in these coastal towns that sit wedged in between mountains and the sea. The towns have very few hotel rooms and very few restaurants, yet they are inundated daily with anywhere from 5,000 to 12,000 cruise passengers. If all those folks wanted to spend the night in town (or indeed, just have lunch in town) there would be no way to accommodate them.

The towns are cute, but the fun begins when you get away from town and into the wilderness. The mountains, rivers, trees, and wildlife are the greatest show on earth, and the vast scale of the landscape is hard to comprehend. The only other place where I felt that the scale of the landscape was so intimidating was on a trip to the Canadian Rockies when we visited Banff.

In Ketchikan my son spent the day with his uncle and cousin on a couple of excursions. The first was a cruise aboard the Aleutian Ballad, a crabbing boat once featured on the Deadliest Catch television show but now rigged to show tourists what it’s like to work these boats in the waters off Alaska. In the afternoon they hopped aboard a floatplane and went looking for bears. The plane actually flies back into the wilderness near Ketchikan, lands near a popular bear fishing hole, and they hike in to get a look at the bears feeding on migrating salmon. The salmon weren’t really running yet, so our crew only saw one bear that day. Meanwhile, my brother-in-law, his son, and I went sea-kayaking near the Tatoosh islands. We rode a van about 30 miles north of Ketchikan, then took an inflatable boat another twenty minutes out to the islands, where we were fitted out for splash gear, life vests, and kayaks. Once we were all set our guide led the group on a 90-minute paddle all around these pristine islands. It was a lot of fun, the scenery was amazing, and it was so quiet. The stillness was so surprising. My biggest regret from our trip was that I purposely didn’t take my camera on the kayak excursion, since I have a history of flipping small water craft and didn’t want to risk losing or ruining my camera. I have always wanted to sea kayak in the great northwest and finally getting a chance to do it exceeded my expectations. According to our guide we covered about four miles during our paddling excursion.

In Juneau the big excursions was a “float trip” down the Mendenhall River. The big attraction near Juneau is the Mendenhall glacier, which is about 20 or 30 minutes from town. Our trip consisted of a short van ride out to Mendenhall Lake, where we were all fitted for splash gear and life vests, then assigned a guide and a raft. After pushing off from the shore of Mendenhall Lake, we were treated to amazing views of the glacier as it worked its way down the mountainside and into the lake. From the lake we entered Mendenhall river which we rode for about 90 minutes back towards town, watching foe eagles and salmon along the way. As a raft trip this excursion was pretty tame, since it features only a short stretch of class III rapids, and since the guide did all the rowing. But as a way to get out into the countryside and see the glacier and experience the outdoors of Alaska it was a lot of fun. It was also one of the more reasonably priced excursions available in Juneau.

Skagway was a lot of fun. Our excursion that day featured a train ride on the historic White Pass & Yukon Route from Skagway (sea level), over the White Pass (approx. 2,800 feet), and into Fraser, Canada. From Fraser a short van ride took us back to the White Pass summit, where we all boarded mountain bikes (from the folks at Sockeye Cycle Co.) for a speedy downhill ride all the way back into Skagway. The scenery from the train was (you guessed it) amazing, and everyone had a lot of fun on the bike ride back to town.

In Sitka we had a more low-key day, checking out the historic sites of the town, before heading back to the ship for our voyage across the Gulf of Alaska. Because of the glorious weather, our crossing was smooth as glass. According to members of the ship’s crew, the southbound voyage one week before our cruise featured bad weather, rough seas, and a lot of miserable passengers. So we were very fortunate.

The last day of the cruise featured a Prince William Sound and several hours in College Fjord, which boasts more than a dozen glaciers, five of which actually reach the waters of College Fjord. The Harvard glacier sits at the head of the fjord and is over 1.5 miles long where it enters the water. We actually docked in Whittier, Alaska, late that night (midnight) less than an hour after sunset. As you get farther north, Alaska really is the land of the midnight sun. The next morning they kicked us off the ship there in Whittier, which really isn’t very close to Anchorage at all. But using Whittier as the turnaround point saves Carnival probably a full day of sailing the long way around all the way to Anchorage. That’s a lot of time and fuel saved. Plus, by docking in Whittier Carnival can rake in about $75 per passenger for the bus ride to Anchorage. That’s $150,000 in “transfer fees” per cruise.

But we opted instead to pick up rental cars at Avis (the only game in town – book ahead!) so that we could take a side trip to visit my wife’s cousin who lives with her family in Soldotna, Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula. Our two days in Soldotna were a lot of fun. The cousin lives in a beautiful home on the shore of one of the many lakes in the area. Their floatplane is docked just a few yards from their front door. The plane is fitted for floats in the summer and skis in the winter. Those that wanted to got a chance to take a spin in the Piper Super Cub, which was a real kick. The kids paddled the canoe around the lake, rode the ATV out into moose country, and got to shoot pistol, rifle, and shotgun. For dinner we had halibut enchiladas on the first night, and moose stroganoff the second night. (I’m not sure that’s the real name of the dish, but it tasted like beef stroganoff with moose meat instead of beef. It was great!). We got to see a bear on the Russian River and see how sled dogs are raised. It was great to get away from the touristy Alaska and get a feel for how folks there really live. One thing that is hard to get used to is how late the sun stays up in the summer. You end up having dinner at 10:00 at night as the sun approaches the horizon because that’s when it “feels” like dinnertime.

After seeing Soldotna we drove to Anchorage (which is nearby in Alaskan terms, but which was a three hour drive in perfect conditions). We dropped our rental cars at the airport ($100 drop fee per car) and flew home to Orange County, utterly exhausted from our vacation. Once we got home we were very happy to learn that the earthquake hadn’t caused too much damage. A Little League trophy fell off a shelf and broke, a Lladro figurine fell off the mantel, some picture frames fell off the wall. We were very lucky and very grateful.

It was a great trip, and I’m so glad we all got the chance to see such a wonderful place. Although I didn’t take my camera kayaking, I did take it everywhere else. I took over 1,500 digital photos during our trip. I have culled through all of them and compiled by Best of Alaska 2008 slideshow which is embedded below. If you click on any of the pictures, it will take you to the online gallery where you can see larger versions of the images and flip through them faster (or slower) if you like. I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out, and I hope you enjoy them.

This post is way too long, but I really left a lot out. If you are interested in Alaska or have any questions about our experience, please leave a comment below or e-mail me (click on my “profile” link to the right for e-mail address).

I Flew 2000 Miles for That? (USC Review)

As I mentioned in my hastily-written USC preview post, I took my family back to South Bend for the USC game. We don't get back there very often to see Irish home games, but we were offered tickets, and the timing worked out pretty well since we wanted the OC Daughter to see the campus again before she starts filling out college applications a year from now. So we took a red-eye out of LAX to Chicago (via Atlanta), grabbed a rental car, and made it to Notre Dame by mid-afternoon on on a cool, gray Friday. First stop was the bookstore, then the rest of campus. We watched the Band rehearse their step-off, and sat in on the Glee Club's Friday afternoon practice, which was really neat. Then we visited the grotto and walked around St. Mary's Lake to my old dorm, Carroll Hall. By then it was getting late, we were really tired, it was getting cool out and we were starving. So we called it a night and went to dinner. As we were walking back to our car, a gentleman approached me somewhat tentatively. I was pretty sure he wanted to ask me a question, but he seemed a bit reluctant. Finally he asked "Are you OC Domer?" I wasn't sure how to react. "Yes I am. How did you know that?" He told me that he reads the blog regularly and that he recognized my kids from the pictures I have posted here! What an amazing memory he has. He was very nice and complimented the blog, and I thanked him for reading. How weird was that! If you're still reading after Saturday, friend, it was great to meet you!

The next day dawned gloriously. Bright blue skies and a perfect autumn day. I, of course, had been promoting my theory that the key to an Irish victory was heavy snow. Thus, my theory was not going to be put to the test. Instead Notre Dame and USC fans alike were to be treated to the most perfect day you could imagine for a college football game. We headed back to campus around 1:00. We wandered for a bit enjoying the sights and taking some pictures, eventually making it over the the Knights of Columbus Hall where we bought our steak sandwiches for lunch. Then we listened to the Band concert on the steps of the Architecture building and finally followed the band as they stepped off for the stadium. I took over 500 pictures in two days, and have selected the best of the bunch for a slide show which is embedded below. Click on any of the pictures to open a new window that will let you see the entire album in full size.

As you can see from the photos, it was a fantastic weekend to be at Notre Dame for a football game (or for anything else).

Unfortunately, the football game did not live up to its setting. I felt, going into the game, that the Irish actually had a chance against a banged up Trojan squad playing behind a second-string quarterback. That theory pretty much fell by the wayside when it turned out that many of the key USC players who had been nursing injuries felt just fine on Saturday. In particular, the Irish were really hurt by the fact that Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing seemed to be at full strength. As you know, I was at the game, and haven't seen any recordings of it, so I don't have any benefit of instant replays or announcers' analyses. All I can relay to you are some of my impressions from being present in the stadium.

A couple of things are clear at the outset. First, USC should never have lost to Stanford. They are much too talented for that. Second, this Notre Dame football team is getting emotionally fragile. They play hard as long as they still feel they are in the game, but once a few breaks go against them you can sense (from the crowd as well as the team) the "here we go again" fears creeping in. In my estimation, Notre Dame (especially the defense) was mentally and emotionally in this game until late in the second quarter. Down 14-0 and starting a "drive" with 1:57 left in the half, the Irish were faced with a 3rd-and-1 situation at our own 23 yard line. A poorly thrown ball to Kamara fell incomplete and the air went out of the balloon. We punted and USC went on a 70 yard drive in 1:30, capped by a field goal with 11 second left in the half. At 17-0 it was "Game Over."

Evan Sharpley was definitely NOT Evan Spark-ley. He looked exactly like Jimmy Clausen, holding onto the ball too long, unable to make the decisions on where to throw it. Looking at my photos today, I don't think we can lay it all on the O-line. While Sharpley certainly didn't have the time and space that Mark Sanchez had, and while he was frequently under pressure, he also had numerous plays where the protection was sufficient to complete a pass. The problem in many cases seemed to be that (1) nobody was open, or (2) receivers were open, sometimes wide open, but Sharpley never saw them. There were also accuracy and hands issues. All-in-all, anything that CAN go wrong with the passing game DID go wrong.

Although the defense clearly broke down in the second half, it was once again the futility of the offense that was the major culprit. Our defense is not good enough to win games all by itself, but it is good enough to win games if the offense can help just a little bit. But the offense has been utterly unable to provide that help.

I'm not going to break down the numbers in this post, but rest assured that they tell largely the same story we have seen all season - Notre Dame's offense cannot do anything. They can't sustain drives by converting third downs and moving the chains, and they can't score with the big play. Against USC the Irish only moved the ball late in each half. At the end of the first half USC was playing a very soft prevent defense, and Sharpley completed a few balls underneath. At the end of the game, USC had it's reserves in the game and we moved the ball down to the USC 25 before the drive sputtered out. How absolutely miserable it was to stand in Notre Dame Stadium and hope that Notre Dame could score a touchdown in the final seconds of the game so that they could avoid a shut-out and only lose 38-7 instead of 38-0. Humiliating.

I don't have any answers. I only have questions. How is it that we can't move the ball at all? We can't reliably execute an off-tackle run, or a toss sweep. We can't throw and catch a quick slant, a ten-yard out pattern or a seven-yard crossing route. We still can't get a single yard when faced with a crucial 3rd-and-1. How can it have gotten this bad?

Right now I am only clinging to one hope: We can't be as bad as we have looked. We've played an extraordinarily tough schedule against Top-25 teams. We aren't a Top-25 team right now, so we're 1-7. But we aren't the 90th best team in the country either, and we'll do fine over the last month of the schedule. Wins over Navy, Air Force, Stanford, and Duke will bring the Irish faithful back in off the window ledges and we'll start looking forward to next year, when all the pain of this season will bear fruit. I hope.

East Coast College Tour Trip Report

And we're back. Jet lagged and sore of foot, the OC Domer family has returned home safely after a busy week of playing tourist and looking at some colleges in the East that might be a good fit for the OC Daughter when she wraps up high school. The best way to organize this is just to "take it one day at a time." (That's an all-purpose cliche if there ever was one!) (All pictures in this post are clickable for much larger versions.)

Day1. Travel Day. Flew from LAX to JFK in NYC, landing after 12:30 a.m. Taxi into downtown Manhattan and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square for the bargain basement rate of $299 per night. Ouch. The only noteworthy thing about the travel day was that it went off glitch-free. Hotel actually was a good deal, relatively speaking, being so close to Times Square. Decent room, free wireless Internet, good air conditioning, comfortable beds.

Day 2. NYC. The family slept in a little, having arrived so late. Started the day with a long touristy walk. Down 42nd Street through Times Square to Fifth Avenue. Saw the New York Public Library, which had on display one of Thomas Jefferson's first handwritten drafts of the Declaration of Independence. Very cool. Checked out St. Patrick's Cathedral. Walked up Fifth to Rockefeller Center, had lunch there, checked out the NBC Studio store. My son loved the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company products and the Seinfeld stuff. After lunch continued up Fifth to FAO Schwarz toy store and then Central Park. Wandered through Central Park for a while, then took the subway to Columbia University.

We spent just a little time a Columbia. None of us (including our daughter) really cared for the urban campus as a place to go to school. But it was neat to see it. Then we found Tom's Restaurant so we could get a picture of the kids under the sign from the Seinfeld TV show. Hopped the subway back to our hotel, and cleaned up for the 7:00 p.m. performance of Wicked at the Gershwin Theater. Did I mention that it is just the slightest bit warm and humid in New York City in late July? Hot and sweaty we were. But we cleaned up nicely and headed out for the show, never thinking we ought to bring jackets. Wicked was a lot of fun. Clever story, well presented. Even our 13 year old son admitted that it was better than he thought it would be. But the air conditioning was brutal! All of us, but especially the OC Wife and the OC Daughter, were freezing throughout the entire show. After the show we ended up at the TGI Friday's on Times Square for a late dinner, then back to the hotel.

Day 3. More NYC. My son and I had to be up early because we were going to visit the Statue of Liberty and in the morning while my wife and daughter were going to do some shopping in SoHoTribeca.

It is with great sadness that I report that security forces in New York City have kidnapped the Statute of Liberty and are holding her hostage. The kidnappers' demands are unclear at this time, but no one is permitted to visit the hostage without first being subjected to a physically and emotionally intense security screening process, the main purposes of which seem to be (a) discouraging the citizenry from even trying to make contact with Lady Liberty, and (b) deterring those who persist from ever returning to Liberty Island once the ordeal is over. You think I jest? I had planned ahead and bought tickets on the first ferry boat in the morning to Liberty island, hoping to get in and out before the crowds and the lines became unbearable. This boat was scheduled to depart the dock at 8:45 a.m. Ticket holders were advised to arrive two hours before their scheduled departures, but only needed to arrive 45 minutes early if they were on the 8:45 boat.

My son and I got up early and hopped the subway train down to Battery Park. We arrived at about 7:40, where we took our place in the first line of the day, outside Castle Clinton waiting for the doors to open. The doors opened shortly after 8:00, and we proceeded to the will call window where we waited in line for just a few minutes to pick up our pre-purchased tickets. Then the fun began. We took our tickets and proceeded to the security screening line that we had to pass through before being allowed onto the boat. We waited in that line until at least 8:45 a.m. when they finally opened the doors to BEGIN screening passengers for the 8:45 boat. We worked our way through that line (removing belts, wallets, etc., but thankfully not shoes) and passed through the scanning machine at which time were were permitted to get onto the boat. We successfully boarded the first boat, which left the dock no earlier than 9:15, and zipped over to Liberty Island. Once at the Island, we quickly left the boat and headed straight for the tours of the museum and the base of the monument itself, which we were entitled to visit by virtue of holding one of the limited passes available only by advance booking. Those without the special passes had to be content enjoying the views of Miss Liberty while walking around the perimeter of the island, since they would not be permitted to the inner sanctum.

But hold on cowboy, where do you think you're going? Nobody goes on a tour without first going through security. Before being admitted to the statue and museum, we had to stand in another line awaiting yet another security screening. But, for some inexplicable reason, the security screening hadn't started yet. So we waited. And we waited. Finally, about 20 minutes later, after being told to get rid of our water bottles and our backpacks (lockers are available for a nominal fee!), we were admitted into the security screening tent (shade!), where we waited again for our turn to be admitted into the special room where the magical security machines are kept. After passing through these machines and putting our belts back on and all our stuff back into our pockets, we were permitted to actually walk into the base of the statute and join a tour, which would begin in ten minutes (at 10:00 a.m.). The tour consisted of a very short ranger talk and an escort into the museum. You wander through the museum, which leads to a stairwell taking you up 156 steps to the observation deck at the top of the statue's pedestal (not into the actual statue itself). Once you've observed all you want from the observation deck, you can head back down to the museum and/or visit the rest of the island. Wait! Did I say you could head back down to the museum? My mistake. What they don't tell you when you enter the museum is that it's a one-way ride. Once you head up the stairs to the observation deck, there is no returning to the museum - you instead have to exit the monument whether you want to or not. Had the kidnappers mentioned that little detail, we would have spent more time in the museum on the first pass rather than race up the stairs to see the view.

Hot and exhausted from our ordeal, my son and I limped back to the dock, where we waited in line for the first boat back to civilization. Depending on how you count, we had to stand on our feet in the hot sun in five different lines and endure two different airport-level security screenings over the course of course of approximately two hours before being admitted to the Statute of Liberty. And we had advance reservations on the FIRST boat of the day. Although we persisted in our dogged determination to visit the hostage personally, I must admit that we will think long and hard before ever undertaking such a foolish adventure again.

Free Lady Liberty! Loose her chains! Give her back to the People!

Once back in Manhattan, my son and I walked over the the World Trade Center to see the site, and then went to see Wall Street and the NYSE. I took his picture next to the big bull. We then hopped the subway to meet the wife and daughter for lunch. Flipping through one of our handy-dandy guide books, we decided that Katz's Deli would be perfect - supposedly the oldest deli in NYC. It was quite a hike down Houston Street, but when we got there it looked great. Lots of character and charm, an authentic New York experience for the kids. I ordered the roast beef sandwich. What they brought me appeared to be the still-beating heart of a recently slaughtered calf, on a bun, with blood dripping out of it and pooling all over my plate. Eventually I got the waiter's attention and explained that the "roast" beef was a little rare for my taste. He happily swapped it out for some hot dogs at no charge. Once lunch was over we all decided that our feet had seen enough sidewalk for one day, so we cabbed it back to the hotel to rest up for a bit and get ready for the Yankees game.

Hot and sweaty is one thing. But hot, sweaty, and trapped below ground aboard the #4 train heading for Yankee Stadium is another thing entirely. It was a mob scene boarding the train at Grand Central and it's really surprising nobody got hurt. Or more accurately, that more people weren't hurt. The train could charitably be described as "standing room only" once we jammed ourselves onto it. I don't know what you would call it after more people miraculously squeezed their way on at each successive stop. It was tight, and hot, and tense. My wife was especially miserable since she tends toward a little claustrophobia anyway. Finally we arrived at the stadium. The crowd was excited because A-Rod was sitting on 499 homers and everyone was hoping to see #500. I sent the wife and kids to the seats, while I went for drinks and snacks. I was about fifth in line at the concession stand, and only had to wait two innings to get my bottles of water, Diet Cokes, peanuts and Cracker Jack. Two freakin' innings. Slowest concession workers on the planet. I was sure A-Rod would hit #500 while I waited in line as the lady puzzled through the difficult task of retrieving a hot dog for the guy in front of me.

Yankee Stadium is impressive because it is big, and because I know some of it's history. But as a place to go see a ballgame it has little to recommend it. It's old and outdated. "Dump" may be too harsh, but not by much. We were sitting just above and beyond the top of the left field foul pole. It was hot and sticky, and the insects swarming around the stadium lights above our heads would occasionally buzz us. We had no problems with any of the fans, but then I wasn't wearing my Angels' cap either. For all the tradition and class that is the Yankees' legacy, I chuckled at the fact that they have all the same cheesy entertainment and promotions at Yankee Stadium as anywhere else. The animated "freeway car race" of Anaheim Stadium is replaced by a "subway train race", but the rest is the same. I was hoping to see monument park, but that closes down two hours before the game. I wanted to see the old Yankee Stadium before they tore it down. Mission accomplished, we stayed through four A-Rod at-bats, then left in the seventh inning to avoid a repeat of the subway scene we faced on the way to the game.

Day 4. Princeton and Lehigh. We left NYC early in the morning, taking a NJ Transit commuter train (cheap!) from Penn Station to the Metropark station in Iselin, New Jersey. We picked up a rental car and drove down to Princeton to catch the 9:45 campus tour. We were visiting Princeton mostly because I had heard so many glowing things about it that I just had to see it, even though it is just about the toughest school in the country to get into. The campus is just gorgeous! It reminds me very much of a certain University in Northwestern Indiana. In fact, the resemblance is so striking that I couldn't help but wonder if Princeton's campus didn't serve as some of the inspiration for the designers and architects of Notre Dame's campus. The small town adjacent to campus is also very quaint. The whole package was very impressive. If Princeton had a better football team it would be perfect. The tour itself was pretty standard fare. I had to laugh because our student guide used the word "amazing" about a thousand times during our hour together. She needs to buy some more adjectives. Princeton's commitment to undergraduate teaching and education is impressive. Certainly if you have student who can get into Princeton you'd have to think long and hard before deciding not to enroll there.

After lunch at a pizza joint across from campus, we hopped into our rented Dodge Charger (big trunk) and drove to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where we planned to attend a 2:30 information session followed by a campus tour. I don't know exactly what we expected from Lehigh, but our expectations were exceeded. Bethlehem is regarded as a great small city to live in. The University sits on a hillside just above the city. The campus is green and lush with lots of grass and mature trees. The architecture is similar to Notre Dame's in style and color. Of the schools we visited, Lehigh's information session was by far the best. From it we got a real sense of Lehigh's philosophy of undergraduate education, the programs it offers, and why they consider themselves to be an excellent blend of University resources with a small college feel. The campus tour was pretty normal, except that we got to see a dormitory and the main dining hall on campus. Boring? I think not. I was very surprised that most of the tours we took did not include a look at a typical dorm and dining hall. As a parent (or prospective student) I care much more about where my child is going to live and have dinner than I do about the new physics lab. Yet all the tours typically include (a) historic campus buildings (administration building and possibly a church), (b) library, (c) classroom, (d) student center, and (e) fancy new departmental building endowed by generous alumni. All in all, I think we came away feeling like Lehigh would be a very nice place to go to school if "Plan A" doesn't work out. While it wasn't #1 on the list of any of our family members, I think several of us had it as #2. After finishing up at Lehigh, we drove to Lewisburg, PA where we spent the night in anticipation of seeing Bucknell University in the morning.

Day 5. Bucknell and Cornell. It was a very short drive from the Country Cupboard Inn to the campus of Bucknell University, where we had made a reservation to attend the 9:00 information session (followed by campus tour). Interesting that Bucknell was the only school that required a reservation for the info session. When I called to make the reservation, they asked for my daughter's name and other information. Then they mailed us a reserved parking pass and mailed my daughter a nice letter and some Bucknell pamphlets. They also asked her to send back an information card so they could keep in touch with her. Since my daughter is just a junior in high school and only beginning the college search process, she was impressed by the personal attention. The information session was okay. More anecdotal, less organized than Lehigh's, but most of the information came through anyway. Bucknell's campus is beautiful. It is all red brick and white trim and seems to me that it ought to be in Virginia or Georgia. The tour of Bucknell, like Lehigh's, included a dorm and dining hall. Overall impression was that Lehigh and Bucknell are very similar. They differ in architectural style. Bucknell's facilities seemed to be a bit newer than Lehigh's. The dorms there have air conditioning, while Lehigh's don't. Bucknell is definitely smaller (and feels smaller) than Lehigh. Lewisburg also feels a little farther off the beaten track than Bethlehem. Although Bucknell felt a bit too small for my wife and I, it was the favorite school of our son (age 13), who asked questions on the tour and happily bought a Bucknell lacrosse t-shirt at the bookstore. We bought some sandwiches in the cafeteria and headed North for Ithaca, where we hoped to catch the 3:00 tour at Cornell University.

The drive to Ithaca was beautiful, and we were treated to some dramatic electrical storms off in the distance as we approached the town. Of course, once we arrived in the town we found ourselves in the middle of those thunderstorms. Added to the storms was the fact that Ithaca is a horrible town to drive in. Lots of curvy streets without any road signs to navigate by. So we got a little lost before finally finding Cornell. The huge parking garage that we had to park in was our first clue that Cornell is much bigger than the other schools we had visited. As with finding the campus, navigating from the garage to the tour site in the rain was also a challenge and we arrived there pretty well soaked, barely on time, and out of breath. Quite a start. I think both my wife and I felt that it was not a good start and could only portend an equally disappointing tour. But the rain stopped just as our tour group stepped outside, and our daughter loved Cornell. It was her favorite school of the trip. The campus is beautiful, perched high on a hill overlooking Cayuga Lake. Traditional Ivy-league architecture. I think my wife and I both felt that Cornell is too big for us, but our daughter loved it and at the end of the day what we want for her is that she go to an excellent school that she loves. If she can get into an Ivy-league school and wants to go there, it would be hard for us to object.

After the tour, we had dinner at a student hangout near campus, then drove to our hotel in Ithaca (which took too long to find) and actually did laundry that night. The heat and humidity of the East had us going through clothing much more rapidly than we do while at home.

Day 6. To Boston. This was a long day on the road. Drove from Ithaca back to Iselin, New Jersey to return the rental car and hopped the Amtrak train to Boston. It was a four hour drive followed by a five hour train ride, but the five hour train ride was much better than a five hour flight. Train time seems to pass more quickly than plane time. More room to move around, more to see out the windows. Actually very relaxing, although the ride is just bumpy enough that you can't really work on the computer very well. Arrived in Boston's South Station at 7:30 p.m., and checked into the Doubletree Hotel on Washington Street, just a few blocks from Boston Common. Took an evening stroll down Washington Street to Faneuil Hall, where we had a late dinner at Durgin-Park. My wife had never been to Boston and absolutely fell in love with it.

Day 7. Freedom Trail. This was our sightseeing day in Beantown, and the Freedom Trail was the main attraction. We started at Boston Common and walked the entire thing, including a stop at Faneuil Hall for lunch and just a little shopping. The Trail ends at the Bunker Hill Monument, where we climbed 294 steps (whew!) all the way to the top for some great views of the city. Once again hot, sweaty and tired we took a cab back to the hotel and ordered some pizza.

You can't help but compare Boston to New York. NYC is superlative in every way. Bigger, glitzier, grittier, faster, more expensive. It's an exciting city to visit and there is so much to see and do. But it wears on you. Boston comes at a much more manageable scale and pace. It wears better. Boston felt more comfortable to us, easier to really enjoy. It feels a lot like San Francisco, minus most of the weirdos. It is also very interesting to note the differences in visiting the historical sites. I wrote at length, above, about how difficult it is to see the Statute of Liberty. On the Freedom Trail we walked right into the Old State House, the Old South Meeting House, the Old North Church, and the Bunker Hill Monument with almost no wait at any of them, and no security screenings either. It made for a much more enjoyable day.

Day 8. Plymouth and the Vineyard. On this day we rented a car and drove down to Plymouth to see the Mayflower II, Plymouth Rock, and the Plimoth Plantation. Plymouth itself was a very pleasant surprise. It was a very "cute" seaside village with gorgeous homes and a very attractive downtown. Of the attractions, we all liked the Mayflower the best. It was very fun to see an authentic re-creation of such an old (and sturdy) ship. There were costumed characters on board who told about life on the journey and in New England at the time. Very fun. The Rock was pretty much just a rock, but it was still neat to see it. Plimoth Plantation was a bit underwhelming. We didn't spend very long there. Good to see it, but I think we expected to see more activity in the English village, and in reality it was almost deserted. And hot.

We then drove down to Woods Hole on Cape Cod to catch the Steamship Authority ferry over to Martha's Vineyard. We got all the way down to Woods Hole to where the ferry departs, only to find that Woods Hole is very, very small and there is absolutely no parking available there. This was a problem because we planned to walk onto the ferry rather than take our car over. Eventually I was told I needed to drive four miles back the way I had come to the Steamship Authority parking lot. Once I got there, I was told the lot was full and was directed to yet another lot over 2 miles farther back up the road. Before it was all said and done I had to park nearly seven miles from the ferry launch itself. It would have been nice if the glossy ferry brochures had mentioned that little factoid. Fortunately, there were plenty of shuttle buses available and we made it onto the next ferry without incident.

The ferry ride over was windy, and the sky was becoming overcast. We had all brought our swimsuits in the hopes of taking a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, but it was beginning to look like the weather might not cooperate. The ferry dropped us in Oak Bluffs. We strolled around there for a bit, and had a nice lunch. Then we took the VTA bus to Vineyard Haven to see what it looked like. Moments after getting off the bus, the sky opened up and we were hit with a serious thunderstorm. We took shelter on the porch of the ferry building and enjoyed the thunder, lightning, and heavy rain - hoping it would blow over soon. After about twenty minutes there was no sign it was going to let up, so we took the bus back to Oak Bluffs and caught the next ferry back to Woods Hole. All in all, we weren't real impressed with Martha's Vineyard. Some quaint houses to take pictures of and a nice nautical feel. But we were there on a Monday afternoon and it was still crowded with too many tourists, and Oak Bluffs had a tacky tourist-trap feel to it. I'm sure it's a terrific place to relax if you're staying at a nice home on one of the secluded beaches, or in one of the nice resorts. But until I get that invitation I don't see any reason to go back. We drove back to Boston, stopping in Plymouth for dinner along the way.

Day 9. BC and Fenway. This was the last day of our trip. The big item on the agenda was to be the 10:30 "Eagle Eye" information session followed by the campus tour. We took the "T" from Boston Common out to the Boston College Campus. The "T" is nice, but it seems to stop every 50 feet, so it took a lot longer than expected to get out to BC. The line ends at BC and we hopped off and found our way onto campus and to the information session. Boston College was a little bit of a disappointment. I really expected it to have much more of a Notre Dame look and feel than it did. Parts of the campus are beautiful, but the campus has a disjointed feel. It doesn't all fit together nicely, and the architecture is more of a mixture than other schools we looked at. Most freshman live on a separate "campus" that is a mile-and-a-half shuttle ride away from the main campus. From the tour and info session, Boston College ends up feeling more "big school" than it needs to. Students have to apply for admission to specific colleges. Taking classes outside your major or transferring between colleges is a hassle. They kick juniors off campus for housing, then let them back on as seniors. It just felt more like a big state school than it's 9,000 undergrads seemed to warrant. Of course, no dorms or dining halls on the tour. We were really hoping that BC would knock our socks off. It's a Jesuit school of about the right size, located in a great city, with many of the elements we are looking for. But it ended up falling flat.

After visiting BC we had a few hours before we needed to go to the airport, so we took the "T" over toward Fenway Park and took a tour. The tour wasn't that great (no press box, no club house, no dugout, no trip to the field) but we still had a lot of fun. The highlight was visiting the top of the Green Monster. I had always wanted to see Fenway and I wasn't at all disappointed. Unlike Yankee Stadium, Fenway really does have some charm to it apart from it's history.

After the tour we took a taxi back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and headed for the airport. After a short delay, we were on our way home, pulling into our own driveway a little after midnight. Thankfully I had already called my boss and asked for an additional day off to recover from the trip, because I was beat!

Conclusion. What a great trip! We got to see and do so much. My son had never been to NYC. I was the only one who had ever been to Boston (very briefly). And we got to see some very good colleges. The whole purpose of the trip had been to (hopefully) open my daughter's mind to the possibility that there are great colleges out there for her besides Notre Dame, in case "Plan A" falls through. I believe we accomplished that. She very much liked most of the schools we saw, and was very favorably impressed by Cornell. Now, when we look at schools she will be able to do so with an open mind and hopefully find several that she would be very happy attending. Of course, we still have ahead of us the challenge of finding the best "Plan B" school for her. Princeton and Cornell, being even harder to get into than Notre Dame, don't really answer the call as "Plan B" choices. A surprise bonus was how interested our son was in the college visits. We thought he would be tortured by being dragged on all these tours, but he was very much into it, and we hope he will be motivated to really excel in school with the goal of getting into a great college himself.

I know this has been the longest post in the history of the OC Domer, and it is way off-topic. God bless you if you read the whole thing. But I had a lot of thoughts swirling in my head, and I had to do something with them. I now return you to your regularly scheduled season of Fighting Irish football ....