March 9th: London

My flight from Washington Dulles leaves at 9PM Friday and arrives at 9:30AM Saturday. I take the tube to Oxford Circus, and find the hostel on Noel St. My friend Seth (traveling the world with one week in London) is already there and asleep. I wander east on Oxford St. to find the location of the nearest internet cafe and some bookstores on Charing Cross Rd. I stop in Soho square to read for a while.

When I get back, Seth’s up and we head over to a cafe on Poland Street and get sandwiches, then go to easyEverything, the cheapest internet cafe. Email (for him) taken care of and Paul McCartney tickets purchased (for me), we hit Sainsbury’s next door for some food, then wander down Charing Cross Rd. We hit Trafalgar Square and keep on going, taking a right at Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. At Buckingham Palace, the guards aren’t doing much, so we take another right and head back to the hostel through Green Park. Once there, we lie down to rest briefly, falling asleep for a couple hours. Hungry, we head out to Moon and Sixpence, a J.D. Wetherspoon’s chain pub two blocks east of the hostel. After a couple of burgers (and a couple of pints), we go to the theatre district, which has street musicians and lots of people. After one more pint at a pub near Chinatown, we go crash.

[Originally published at GoHither.Net]

Robbie Schaefer & Jon Carroll at Jammin’ Java

Let me preface this by saying I really like Jammin’ Java. It’s a little coffee shop with a nice, intimate performance space in back (the lady at the door said there were 108 chairs). The setlist spells it out more, but it was Jon and Robbie switching vocal duties (and sometimes leaving the stage). I kind of expected Mike to be one of the “special guests”, and was happy to see Eddie show up as well.

Robbie’s new songs were great (especially Independence, Indiana), but my favorite part of the set was when they asked Julie to come up. Jon sang lead on “Get Closer”, but she sang “Quick” and a smoking version of “Love Me Like A Man”. Robbie confirmed the Wolf Trap show and said that Jon would be joining them at the Birchmere shows and possibly the Wolf Trap one. Bill Danoff (used to be in the Starland Vocal Band with Jon) sang lead on a couple, too (I had no idea he co-wrote Take Me Home, Country Roads).

[Originally published through the edheads email list]

eddie from ohio at the Rams Head Tavern

Setlist

We were treated to Mike’s obsession with the “Bob the soundman” jingle (maybe he’ll be over that by spring), some lovely chestnuts from Actually Not, great impressions by Mike and Julie of the Rudolph Christmas special, and Robbie referring to the far side of the room as “Havre de Grace” (Maryland joke). The most moving part was at the end as a visibly emotional Julie gave thanks to the band for helping her live her dream.

[Originally published through the edheads email list]

Civil War in Herndon

I don’t know if this interests anyone, but this Saturday, to celebrate the grand opening of the Herndon Museum and Visitors’ Center in the town depot, Civil War re-enactors are planning to stage Confederate Capt. John Singleton Mosby’s only known raid in Herndon during the Civil War. On March 17, 1863, Mosby and his Rangers stormed to the Herndon Station, now the town depot, to capture Union soldiers assembled around the train station.

The raid is 12:30 – 1:15, so I’m leaving my house around noon. If you’re interested in coming, you’re welcome to park at my house and walk over with me. More info can be found at: http://www.mosbysrangers.com/herndon/

October 28th: Cairns to DC

Our long day started at 4am. We were at the airport by 5 for a 6am flight. The flight was a 747 on its final leg from Tokyo to Sydney, and was only about a quarter full. Unfortunately, the omelet was awful and the movie was L.A. Story, which I didn’t care to watch again. After a four hour layover, we got on the flight to L.A., tried to sleep a little. Due to crossing the international date line, it was still morning when we arrived. Only an hour layover in L.A., then finally to Washington, 28 hours after we started. And straight to bed.

[Originally published at GoHither.Net]

October 27th: Cairns

With nothing special planned, we took a bus to Trinity Beach. The beach was deserted, which we thought was a good thing. It turns out that the beach was closed the previous week due to the sighting of a salt-water crocodile (which will apparently eat anything). Add in the jellyfish who have twenty feet tendrils and a lethal sting, and the only people going in the water were the tourists, like us. After I had sunburned myself nicely, we had lunch at Blue Waters On The Beach Bistro, where I had fish (actually shark) and chips. Later, a little more shopping, I traded the books I’d brought and read for more, another visit to the Night Markets, and we were done.

[Originally published at GoHither.Net]

October 26th: Great Barrier Reef/Cairns

I slept through the first morning dive, but did the second one with Manfred, a German who spoke pretty good English. I saw an oyster, and we went to the “Tunnel Of Love” and back. I could have dived again, but I elected to snorkel so I could take pictures with the underwater camera Sharon had brought. We returned to Cairns, where we were both pretty happy to be on dry land. The Great Northern had no more twins, so they booked us into a suite for the next two nights for no extra charge. We relaxed, then went and had some supper at the food court in the Night Markets. There were several Asian fill-your-plate places; we each tried one. Next, we went to the big mall and saw Shaft.

[Originally published at GoHither.Net]

October 25th: Great Barrier Reef

The day broke, overcast and ominous. We rode in a minivan to Down Under Dive. We were on their little boat, the Scuba Roo, by 10. As we departed, the skies opened, but we were under cover. After about an hour, we passed out from under the clouds and we stopped to snorkel at a reef. We returned to the boat and it was another hour before we arrived at Hastings Reef and the Atlantic Clipper. We went aboard and put our stuff in our cabin. We had a small lunch, then got ready to dive. The first dive was guided by Jonno, the divemaster. He took us down and around the reef. Being right next to the colorful coral and fish feels like you’re in another world.

When we returned, the Clipper moved to Norman Reef. The motion was making Sharon queasy, and she was eager to leave the boat for our next dive. We went down and followed some of the coral canyons until we were at half air, then turned around. When we reached the end of the coral, I stopped because I saw a very big shark in the distance. We swam left around the coral to avoid him (glimpsing a much smaller reef shark in the coral), then swam to the ship and surfaced. Sharon was unable to finish dinner, and retired to the cabin for the night. We were planning on staying two nights, but we changed it to one so we could leave as soon as possible. I went down too far on my second dive, and wasn’t able to do the night dive. I was disappointed until I went on deck. On the starboard side, about fifteen feet from the dive platform, a school of fish had gathered where a light shown in the water. Around them, five of the seven-foot long reef sharks were circling, attacking the fish and occasionally each other. Watching that, I was not interested in diving again that night.

[Originally published at GoHither.Net]

October 24th: Sydney to Cairns

Woke up and got a shuttle to the airport, bought a 3 topping sandwich (I chose turkey, lettuce, and guacamole), and boarded the flight. The lunch they served was actually tasty, although the movie (The Match) was a standard come from behind sports movie. We landed in Cairns and got a taxi to our hotel, The Great Northern (yes, I chose it because of the Twin Peaks reference). We headed out to the shops; I didn’t find much, but Sharon did. We went to the Red Ochre Grill, where I had crocodile, prawns, and yabbies (an Australian crawfish). We finished with some toasted focaccia. I think this place ties with Philip’s Foote for my favorite meals in Australia. After a little more shopping, I watched the Aria (Australian only) music awards.

[Originally published at GoHither.Net]

October 23rd: Sydney

Last day in Sydney, which meant shopping. In my case, lots of book and record stores. One unusual thing about streets in Sydney, is that the numbers on one side of the street don’t correspond; it could be 311 on one side and 364 on the other, with 312 several blocks away. Anyway, I hit 9 or 10 stores, then headed to Bondi Junction. I bought a Burgersaurus (veggie burger) at Macro, sort of a mini Fresh Fields. I went to a couple more shops before I headed back. I recommend Revolution CD, with several locations. They had a lot of good titles, and their prices were reasonable.

Dinner was chicken in garlic from Tum Tum’s Thai Takeaway, then back to Hodern Pavilion for No Doubt. Opener Area-7 was very similar to Goldfinger, and the crowd was into it, but they were waiting for No Doubt. Their set was heavy on material from Return To Saturn, but they played all the hits from Tragic Kingdom, as well as “Trapped In A Box” from their debut. Gwen was very enthusiastic all night, turning cartwheels at one point. Watching the news while packing later, I learned that the Yankees had defeated the Mets in game 2 of the series. That destroyed any enthusiasm I had to actually watch the game, which they showed next.

[Originally published at GoHither.Net]