Boston Globe Travel Show

Linda, Mary, and I went to the Boston Globe Travel Show today. It was fun! We entered to win at least six or seven free trips. Got a lot of reading materials…saw a presentation by my man Arthur Frommer and his daughter Pauline. Tasted just about every free sample at the Gypsy Wind Jam booth…jam made by “Wild Maine Women.”

And then. All of the excitement happened in the last ten minutes we were there. As we were making our way to the exit, we walked by the Aruba area. And lo and behold, there was my friend Eddy Croes. Well, not really my friend. If I lived in Aruba, I bet we would be friends. I went to Aruba for my 31st birthday, and the highlight was taking a daylong tour of the island with Eddy. He runs a sightseeing business. He is a native of Aruba, and co-founded the national park there—Arikok National Park. If I hadn’t taken that tour, I would have thought Aruba was just a bunch of resorts on the beach. But he took me, and a couple with their teenage son, to the national park, the residential areas…off the beaten path basically. I got my photo taken with Eddy so I could be entered into a drawing for a free trip.

After leaving Eddy, we came across another free photo opp. We weren’t sure what was going on, but the photo was free and there were props. Mary and Linda donned leis and I strummed a ukelele for the photo. I think this company, Polite in Public, sells some kind of portable instant photo machine thing.

I am currently listening to a mix tape…I think it is circa 1996. It’s a lurrvve mix. Goo Goo Dolls, Journey, U2, Depeche Mode, R.E.M. Makes me feel like a college kid again. Oops, time to flip the tape. Is that the correct phrase? Switch the tape?