Queen Mary 2 Has Just Completed Her 150th Transatlantic Crossing!

Many hundreds of passengers were up  and out on deck to watch the our passage, with feet to spare, under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge this morning at 4:45.  We've made our way through the harbor now, passed the Statue of Liberty are are just about docked at the pier at Red Hook.   I'll post this then I have to pack up and be off the ship by 9:30 or so.   I'll have lots more to post in the coming days, so stay tuned!

Now, that was yesterday, by the time I got back to the cabin to post it, Cunard, ever efficient they are, had already turned off the internet!    So now here I am safely back home.  Spent a fun day in New York City yesterday, that I will report on, and caught a 5:30 pm flight home to Denver, on trusty Frontier Airlines.   Frontier is Denver's homegrown airline and a local favorite.  We like the animals on the tails, and perhaps more importantly, most anywhere you fly, from Denver it will be a nonstop.    Getting to La Guardia Airport in New York by public transit (MTA) is a breeze and costs all of $2.25.   From lower Manhattan, where I was, you just take the 4 or 5 train uptown to 125th and catch M60 cross town bus which is marked La Guardia.  Couldn't be simpler, and took 50 minutes. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The Denver experience, however, is different.  First off, there's no bus even marked Downtown, I don't know how you would know, if you were a visitor, that the bus marked Cold Spring is the only one that even goes there.    I had to wait 50 minutes, pay $10 to go a circuitous route to the downtown station, then wait in the freezing rain (worst by far weather of the trip) for the free shuttle uptown to the Sheraton where I was turned down by two taxi drivers because it would only be a $6.00 fare. The third was really nice and tried to cheer me up, and he did, but all in all it was an annoying experience. All told it took 2 hours.  I was already grousing on the RTD bus into town, and a fellow passenger agreed, and noted that in convention planning, the transpo from DIA is found to be lacking.    The good news is that ground has been broken for a rail link from the terminal to Union Station.  So in five years the story will be different.    

Also what is good news, is that on the home front everything is fine, the sun is shining this morning, no nasty surprises in the mail, the plants are watered, the fortifications against the pigeons have held.   All is good, I'm mostly unpacked and ready to get back to work, finishing wood work around the house.  I'll be posting photos of and commentary on the cities that I visited in the last three weeks- it was a great trip!    Cheers!