Rosewitch, England was definitely one of my favorite places I have ever visited. My folks took me there when I was 14, and I remember bits and pieces the Crown jewels, walking amongst the Stonehenge stones (roped off now, vandalism), Stratford upon Avon. Time for me to take my own 14YO. Im trying to think how I can get over there for a whole summer, LOL. Dlynn, I could have worked so much more. I didnt really look at night time stuff and there was loads to do. Greece: cant help you, but shoot Yasou a line, she went a few years ago. LOL Annie! Teresa, well go together. I wanted to explore more cooking and food shops/stores but didnt get to. Terri, here is more a link to Pictures of England, a website pointed out to me by Denise. I started it on Bourton on the Water, where we stayed for a few days. Thanks Sharon, I was actually thinking how can I even come close to posting her quality of travel guides, I dont do the pictures she does LOL. We might have sat at the same table in the Cheshire Cheeses dining room! Sawdust still there, but we didnt make it to the cellar. I missed a lot of the British Museum. It has changed.check out the new atrium. I couldnt keep up with DH and DS16. Afternoons, when I planned museums, I crashed. Next time! Pam, lots of people did more than we did per day! Theater every night, more attractions, I cant imagine. Gina heh heh yeah I need another vacation like a hole in my head. Speaking of whichDH has another week off in August. Nooooooooo! Kathleen, DH says he took an average of 200 pictures a day. Yup. Me, I just buy the post cards or Google the images, same thing (DARFC from the photo bugs here) Cathy, thanks for giving me the War and Peace moniker heh heh. Next time I go with CF friends! LindaC, I know. Im still exhausted. Speaking of the V&A, did you know there was a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entrance room?

They were good shows and i've heard Oprah make comments many times over the years about Gai; not cooking,and Gail herself admits it. I told dh oprah has never forgotten her roots,she grew up poor,and when your poor,living in the country you learn how to do a lot of thing!! Yes her and stedman are still together,he called her while she was there camping,and we heard her end of the conversation.She even said after the fishing trip that she thinks she may go along with stedman and his friends when they go fishing. I've always liked Oprah and all she does,she's a very caring woman. Oprah didn't look as bad in the morning as she did when she came to san diego a few years ago to run in a marathon.At that time if they hadn't said it was her i would have never believed it. I wish her the best in her new ventures. Kathi

Hi Missymoo, Our beachhouse is in southern Maine, near Portsmouth , Oqunquit and Kennebunkport. Portsmouth is a fine place to have a bite for lunch and walk around a bit ... but no. 5 small town in the world? Sorry not even close. To me, there are several towns like this in NE ,, small towns on the water with cobblestone streets, a few ice cream shops and restaurants, galleries and boutiques. A harbor. Nothing particularly special about Portsmouth IMHO. I like their Flatbread Co. pizza and Anju noodle bar. It may already be too late for hotel reservations at places most in demand, I'd guess. Also brace yourself for traffic, esp. on weekends. Don't know if you are renting or buying a car, but we really like having a convertible up there ... it makes getting stuck in a bit of traffic along a scenic road or in a cute town relatively pleasant. I don't find any of the shopping compelling, but then I don't like modern so called "outlets" because it is so fake. There is now more sq footage of "outlet" retail space in the US then "normal" retail space. And a lot of what is sold in outlets is produced only for outlets. But I digress... We discovered the area where our beachhouse is when we drove back from Canada on vacation a few years ago. I am trying to recall our itinerary. We did stop in BarHarbor, lovely if crowded and wall to wall t-shirt shops. Maybe because it was toward the end of our trip and we had seen so much scenery already, but I admit I did not see why people adore Acadia. And bring insect repellant. We took a ferry from Rockland to the tiny quaint island of Vinalhaven (sp?) and stayed in a lighthouse we had to ourselves (great fun if a tad rustic) called Goose Rocks lighthouse. Portland is a pleasant town, and we liked taking a ferry to nearby (15 min) Peaks Island for the day, then riding bikes or renting a golf cart. Portland has super restaurants. Central Provisions is one of my favorites. Duckfat is fab too. There are many great places to eat (and I am allergic to shellfish) in Maine. I find Opentable and Chowhoud more reliable then TripAdvisor, which I feel overrates a lot of popular but not particularly good restaurants. Book tables ahead! One of my favorite spots is the walk along the Marginal Way in Oqunquit, a lovely meandering paved path. You can pick it up at tiny quaint Perkins Cove (where they might ask you to push the button to open the wooden bridge up for an incoming sailboat). From there it goes right along the coast, great scenery, and ends pretty much with a grand huge vista of sandy beach and then winds back into the cute downtown. Better to go in the morning or dusk when crowds are less. MC Perkins in Perkins cove is delicious. In Kennebunkport, another town I think is far cuter than Portsmouth, they have great Mexican food at Pedro's and a fun atmosphere. Also be sure to try Earth at Hidden Pond, very cool atmosphere and wonderful food!

As someone else said, many are afraid to fly ... but not worried about driving to the airport. While for 100,000 miles per person travel, there are many more deaths in a car than flying. When someone is killed in a car crash, there may be a small write-up in a local paper/TV/radio. When there's a plane crash, usually there's a substantial number killed and it makes a fairly major news splash, over a fairly wide area. When I was about three or four, about a dozen neighbours had gathered at our larger than average for the neighbourhood farm to help get our wheat threshed, and several of the wives were helping Mom get meals ready in the house, which was about 300 feet along a gravelled country road from a paved provincial highway. The threshing machine was at a barn about 500 feet away and one of the neighbours told Dad, who was arranging straw on the strawstack, that there was a kid on the highway that could well be his. Dad took a look at the situation, saw Mom heading at rather high speed down the gravel road, and said that he figured that the situation was being taken care of. I think that Mom found a small sapling and gave me a tuning up around the legs on the trip back to the house. That was about 1932-3 when, shortly after 1929, the year of the crash in the stock market, and my birth, (and wasn't that the year that the Model "A" Ford was introduced?) there was not much money floating around during the depression and there weren't a large number of slower-moving cars on the road and people drove quite carefully (mostly). I was 10 when World War II started, the hired hands went to war, so for several years of caring for crops, milking and beef cows, horses, pigs and chickens ... what Dad, this young lad and a couple of younger brothers got done ... got done ... and the rest didn't. So I learned early about choosing priorities, hard work, etc. ... and increasing responsibilities was part of the game. Mom was hospitalized from when I was just under 6 and Dad didn't ride hard herd on me ... but when I did stupid stuff - I heard about it! When my two were small, we lived in a small town or village in rural areas. Our kids played with others, and if I recall correctly were allowed at that age to go alone to a friend's house, and I think that we seldom called to see whether s/he'd arrived: often, in good weather, we'd soon see them near the neighbour's house (if we looked). And by age six walked alone, or with friends, but not in a pre-arranged fashion, a couple of blocks along a village street to school. Granted - things are somewhat different now, but I think less so than sometimes we worry about. The new generation is going to have to be more self-reliant than people were just a few years ago, as long-term employment is becoming much scarcer ... and I heard the other day that within about 15? years, we can well find that about 40% of current jobs are likely to disappear. But a substantial percentage of the post-secondary education crowd currently suffer from anxiety, even depression ... with a few taking their own lives. It's tough being a parent, but it is crucially important that we encourage, support and require that our offspring learn in a step by step fashion to become independent. ole joyful ... who has no grandkids