Hi Everyone, hope you are having a great summer so far. Our membership has now grown to 148 members.

Sally Patane and Rebecca Meador had some great activities for the month of June. Ceramics, a dolphin cruise, shopping in Pawleys Island, Waccamaw River tour, mini golf and ending the month with the Surfside Beach Festival and lunch at Burgata. Highlights and pictures of these events will be on the Facebook Page.

Annie Laurie Lehman and Sally Hucks have planned some great activities for the month of July starting off with a 4^TH of July Picnic at Sally Hucks home in North Myrtle Beach including walking to the beach for Fireworks. There is also the Casino Boat in Little River, live music and dinner at LaBelle Amie Vineyard, Jazz and Art at Sunset River Art Gallery, Fleetwood Mac tribute at North Myrtle Beach Sports Complex, ending the month with Happy Hour and Game Night at 810 Bowling Alley in North Myrtle Beach. For more details on these events please check out the events page on the website. Also please be sure to register for these amazing events.

The July Monthly Meeting will be at the Myrtle Beach State Park on July 9^th at 6 pm. This month we will be at shelter 3B. Make sure you register ahead of time, so we have enough food for everyone. The club will provide food and the members are to provide their own beverages (no glass containers). I look forward to seeing everyone there.

It has been brought to my attention that the Book Club has gotten so large that starting another chapter of Book Club could be an option. If anyone is interested or has suggestions, please let me know and we will discuss at the July meeting.

Also, a reminder to members traveling to Italy, the final payment is due July 22^nd. Checks need to be made payable to Coastal Ski Club (CSOC). If you are adding the trip insurance, it is a separate check made out to Holidaze Tours.

Have a great month and I hope to see you at the great events that are scheduled.

Your President

Judy Ombrello

704-796-3643

jaombrello@yahoo.com

As told by our resident trip reporter Gene Young 

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New Awlins Memories (that's New Orleans for you Yankees)...

The trip theme song: "get on the bus Gus...don't make a fuss Gus...we throw you under the bus Gus if you make a big fuss"...

With that in mind, 32 hardy souls boarded the bus for New Orleans for five days...with instructions from the Trip Leader John Schwartz about the coming trip, details that remind the travelers of what they already had in the printed itinerary he had previously made available... you know, like when potty stops would be made, etc. Some happy organizer had also passed out "Pod Lists". Everyone was sorted into a "Pod"...like peas, no more than 5 "peas in the pod", so that when we made stops, no one got lost or left behind because they hadn’t been accounted for in the return to the bus.  Oh, and a rubber clucking chicken was presented.  When squeezed, it made this honking sound with this "O" shaped mouth that someone kept sticking things into.  Ms. Patty Van took possession of "clucking" chicken, treating it like it was some ‘Nawlins Honkey Tonk visitor award.  

So, OK..."let’s play Bingo" says Bus Games Director Karen Schwartz....fun game...losers whining about not winning the prizes of long or short koozies...(you know, those foam liners you put around drink cans...) all of them with New Orleans designs...beautiful actually.

So, we then turned the loser cards over and made a list of one to ten...then tried to guess answers to movie questions, all kinds of stuff we have absolutely no clue about judging by the number of winners with more than 3 right.  Good thing I had won 3 of the first 5 Bingo games (being threatened to be thrown off the bus), because I didn't have a clue about some the reverse games questions.

After a routine break at a Love Truck stop, we continued on to the Motel in Alabama, the overnight stop on the way. More Bingo games...more hooting and hollering and laughter... Hear those bus tires humming in G flat major New Orleans style Jazz...

Aahhh, the skyline of ‘Nawlins rolls into view...Laissez le bon temps rouler......The Big Easy?....nope, you be wrong about that. I was too. It means "let the good times roll"...the New Orleans slogan. It was one of the questions on the back of the Bingo card. Games Director then announced that we would have a gift exchange on the way home. If you wished to play, you could buy a $5.00 or less gift and we'd exchange them on the way home. We discovered it's a challenge to find a gift for $5.00. She also announced a Dollar game. Write your name on a dollar bill...the winner to be drawn out of somebody's hat.

No sooner off the bus in the French Quarter and "let the buying begin" sign is out. Hats, shirts, you name it, we bought it.  Then on to a restaurant by the name of Landry's, a nice upscale place. Second floor deck a nice place to have a pre-dinner drink, served this margarita with a flower name. Can’t remember it now, but oh my, should have had 3 or 4....call me in the morning ...uummm good...

Post-dinner, 18 of us went on to the Preservation Hall...7256 St Peter St....home of New Orleans Jazz musicians for over 50 years. It has four rows of bench seats...standing room only...maybe 50/60 at most. I was thinking maybe it was a concert hall, but it’s just a Jazz hole-in-the-wall place. A fun night with great New Orleans Jazz and a female vocal number that is stunning.

Wed...bus tour of New Orleans. Tour guide is a funny woman, fourth generation New Orleans family member who speaks fluent French. As you would guess, she has a deep history of New Orleans...first the French, then Spanish acquisition, then French again....going back to the middle to late 17th Century....finally sold to President Andrew Jackson by Napoleon. By then the territory reached from New Orleans all the way to Canada. It sold for about the sum of four or five McDonalds' franchises or maybe a New York liquor license. We also stopped at one of the many cemeteries in New Orleans. All burials are done in above-ground vaults. One in particular struck me, a $650,000 vault built for a millionaire/billionaire oil widow. She didn't like when it was done. Didn’t look like a Texas oil derrick maybe. By the way, don't call a French Creole a Cajun. They take offense. 

Afternoon brought a visit to the WW II Museum...a HUGE four building complex. We had two hours to tour what would take two days to see it all. As a Veteran walking around, I was reminded of the horror of war and the memories therein. Memorial Day was coming, and it seemed timely to be there. The 58,476 or so names on a piece of Black Granite in Washington, D.C. would likely stand up and salute those men and women featured in this museum if they could to honor their sacrifices for this Great Country called America.

Dinner at a place called Picadilly. How'd that happen in a French /Spanish city?

Thurs...the Mardi Gras Museum...a highlight of the trip in my opinion...all those Mardi Gras Parade figurines on the floats over the past 165 years...started in 1857....an amazing collection. Be sure to see the pictures on our website from this trip...especially that Museum. They even have a robot creating new figurines for corporate floats for next year, robot figurines too expensive for ordinary clubs. And they do have clubs formed just for the express purpose of building Mardi Gras floats... They have it all... naked women, ugly /scary characters, Hollywood folk, cartoon characters, a football helmet costing $25,000 for the Super Bowl when some obscure, weak-armed, too short Purdue Quarterback won the Super Bowl for this city. They also had figurines where you could stick your face into the blank space in the head for your picture...Yeah, I did it as did many others.

On then in the afternoon to the Creole Queen paddle wheel Mississippi River cruise...up river to the sight of the war of 1812 battle ground memorial.....on the way back to the docks, a telling of the Hurricane Catrina disaster of August of 2005...how the government , both local and Federal got in the way of rescue efforts until some Military General came in and started yelling at people and opened the city to rescue and recovery....a sad, sad story of Government malfeasance and political arrogance.

Off then to the Holiday Inn for dinner and dancing....and my, did we dance. We danced and we danced some more.  Taught another Diamond Tour group sharing the same dining room how to sing "Sweet Caroline...touching me, touching you". Oh, what a night....so much love and laughter and happy feet. Given the chance, me thinks our group could teach America how to be kind again ...maybe. Well, you know… we do know how to love and care for one another.

Friday....the journey home…  We stopped at one of the oldest and largest Louisiana plantations owned by a family by the name of Destrehan. A tour of the grounds included a room holding the picture of President Andrew Jackson, with the framed original deed for the Louisiana Purchase document next to his picture....and as usual, the story of a female black slave who was purchased from another Louisiana plantation owner with her two children and died on the property, bearing four more children while enslaved there.

Bus ride home another experience of more Bingo games with more whining and complaining of losers, and shouts of yippee from winners with short and long koozies for prizes. Then on the back, another list of ten questions about movies...wherein I won a beautiful wine glass wrangled by Games Director Karen Schwartz from the manager of the Olive Garden restaurant where we dined on Friday night along with a Gift Card for same as one of the game prizes.  Then riders on one side of the bus competed against the opposite side riders in games involving paper clips and something else inconsequential along with accusations of cheating by losers. I mean, we're competing for backpack stickers...who wouldn't cheat for some of those?

The gift exchange then comes...decks of New Orleans cards, voodoo dolls, ink prints, colored art prints, shot glasses, you name it, we bought it, including a box of the famous Beignets from Cafe DuMond where we stopped and sampled same in one of our first stops in the French Quarter upon arrival on Tuesday afternoon. Lots of laughter, give and take-it-back swaps and happy faces in the event. Then another dollar bill game won by old geezer Gene. You guess right and you win another pair of stickers.

Great week with four days of beautiful weather with great friends...and as always, another masterful job of planning and management of glitches/adjustments-on-the-fly by our masterful King of Travel, one John Schwartz, accompanied by side kick and Games Director Extraordinaire Karen Schwartz. You are the Best!!  And our gratitude is always beyond measure!

In September 2023, several members of the club went to Scotland and Ireland …. 

It's 3:30 PM Myrtle Beach sun time....my Dick Tracy watch says so. I tap my Roy Rogers decoding ring and it flashes green...time to board. Magic trip planner John Schwartz reminds everyone: Don't forget your passport! Somebody's bag is a "few pounds overweight" ... Too many pairs of shoes? Already?... wonder who that is?...  it’s a club secret already. Off to New Jersey... first trip to the aircraft bathroom, built for 115 lb. midgets who are able to back in. Long wait in Jersey. Finally, board for Edinburgh....Arrive Edinburgh approximately noon on Thurs the 14th... bused to the terminal... it's raining slightly... or maybe I just imagined it… did I mention the forecast is for rain?...

Local baggage handlers haul our luggage to the wrong international terminal. How many do they have? Too many, apparently... an hour and a half later, our bags start circulating on the luggage claim... and guess what, we can't find our bus…  It's a quarter mile down the road. No parking Nazi's in Edinburgh because you can't just drive up to the terminal with a bus... well, maybe just a ten-minute walk in the rain to the bus. Did I mention there's rain in the forecast?

Short ride to the Hilton Carlton hotel... easy check in procedure... as always, great hotel facilities... As usual, Patty needs to show Gene how to work the elevators…can't just push the button... have to scan your card... we go up and down three times before I figure it out   … Are we having fun yet?

A bit of a walkabout in downtown Edinburgh...lots of street performers, bagpipers with drummers, a magician, a young woman singing Ave Maria… dinner at a place called The Filling Station... good food.

Friday… half day bus tour of Edinburgh… lessons on John Knox, one of the historic Fathers of Scotland... University of Edinburgh, one of the original Engineering Schools in the world, if not the first… discovered the Theory of Evolution began here in Edinburgh. Of course tours of the Churches... visit the End of The World Pub… so named because it cost a penny to get in and if you didn't have the penny entrance fee (1600's) it was the "end of your world".           Also visited (but did not enter) a Brothel, titled "Cock and Trumpet" Pub... figure it out.        Visited the cemetery where the term "Graveyard Shift"  originated.  Grave robbers were common in the 1600-1700's, so a guard would be hired to guard the cemeteries and work Midnight to 6:00 AM… ergo, the "graveyard shift" … I have worked more than a few of those in the US Army... Visited the gardens of the Holyrood Palace, home of Queen Victoria.... took pictures of her outhouse where she bathed twice a year... surprising that she had 9 children... well, you understand....

In the afternoon, several of us did the Hop on / Hop off bus tour. Everyone did what they wished otherwise. Edinburgh was the capital of Scotland for 900 years.  The English ruled for most of their years ending in the 13th century when Robert The Bruce won a battle to end their rule.

Saturday… A walking day on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh...a mile between Edinburgh Castle on one end and the Holyrood Palace at the other end of the street... did I mention it rained? Like all Castles (for the most part) it sits on a hill overlooking the city and is guarded by a number of canons. One is so big that, when hauled to battle, many Castle defenders would run away because a single shell would collapse one whole wall of any given castle. The gun powder needed to fire the shell (about two ft across in diameter) was the size and weight of a ten-year-old child...

Sunday ... up at 4:00 AM to catch a plane to Dublin, Ireland. It's two-and-a-half hours late... meanwhile, the remaining Ireland travelers are on their way from Myrtle Beach only to arrive and find us not present... did I mention if was raining? I learned some new words describing their waiting time... we drove to Limerick, Ireland to our hotel. The George Hotel was another great facility, though those of us with twin- bed rooms discovered that, if you rolled over a foot too far, you fell against the wall...

Our bus driver for the 8 days there was a short round man by the name of Phillip, a lifelong bachelor with a great sense of humor...e.g. "women are to be loved, not understood" … what's that howling in the back of the bus?     "Arguing your own case in court is like buying a dog and doing your own barking"..."! hate driving the 504 (the circle highway around Dublin) … they all drive like their tail's on fire?".... His father used to say to him: "yesterday is history, today is a miracle, and tomorrow is mystery". Discovered that electricity didn't come to rural Ireland until1974 because the rural folk couldn't afford it. That's a long time from the 11th century when the Vikings settled the area. They suffered under English rule until 1922 when they declared a State of Separation (for 800 years Irish were not allowed to own property or practice their Catholic religion …just a few of the oppressive rules the English forced on the Irish, and any rebellions were met with public hangings) ... Ireland became a Republic in 1929.

Monday…  we visited the Celtic Visitor Crystal Center where we met and watched a 30-year crystal employee cut a piece of crystal glass to be sold in their shop. Later in the afternoon we visited Galway, an 18th century Irish town with a number of traditional Irish pubs… did I mention the weather forecast is rain?... though on several days, we had warm weather after rain in the morning. We also stopped in Adare, one of the unique 13th century Villages of Ireland that is symbolic of the Irish thatched homes, many occupied by what Phillip called "The Travelers" They are what many US folk would call Gypsies. Also visited Killarney, and the Muckrose House and Gardens....lots of flowers....

Tuesday…  one of my favorite days... a visit to the Cliffs of Moher standing 700 ft above sea level and stretching for five miles along the Irish coast of the Atlantic. It's a climb of some quarter of a mile uphill … It's a really windy day and the sea is so rough… you walk through a spray of water on your way to the top as the sea washes up over the cliffs with the incoming waves. You can ride golf carts up and down if you wish, but most of us walked the paved paths.

That evening we enjoyed a Medieval Banquet at the 15th Century Castle of Bunratty... starting with a glass of Meade, a honey whiskey drink that was known to be offered at all weddings. The newly married couple were encouraged to drink a glass of Meade once a day for a month, which came to be known as the "honeymoon" ...didn't know that either...Our very own Magic Trip planner John Schwartz and wife Karen were crowned King and Queen for the evening with their very own crowns ...whereupon John chose a dinner scoundrel to be sent to the dungeon to be executed or tortured, or both... a hearty meal was served with no eating utensils...everything to be eaten with your fingers...(well, one was an exception due to allergy issues and was given a fork)....a wonderful evening with music and celebration of King John and Queen Karen's ruling commands.

Thursday… we set out from Limerick to Dublin... visiting the Kilkenny Castle... how many have we seen now? ... like Churches, maybe too many... This one was discovered under a Cathedral that had collapsed in part by an attack from Vikings.  When they sought to re-build it, it was discovered to have been built over a Castle... a 12th Century Castle that was home to the first Christian Irish King baptized in 1002 by the Irish Patron Saint, St Patrick. We end up at our hotel, the Camden Court Hotel in mid-town Dublin. As usual, a beautiful hotel with twin beds the size of an Army Cot, though I heard on the elevator (which Patty again had to demonstrate how to operate for me) that some had a suite with refrigerator, sitting room, etc.... Was it something I said that disqualified me?.....too old, too ugly likely.

Saturday... a full day of bus tour of Dublin...visits to many places … the General Post Office where the Irish Rebellion started that led to Republic status in 1929… bullet holes are still visible in the Public Square statues memorializing those rebellion days…a visit to Trinity College with its "Long Room" library of a million of books… then to St Patrick's Cathedral with its gazillion stained-glass Panels, Phoenix Park, the largest public park in Ireland with the President of Ireland's residence and the American Ambassador's residence… and, happily, the visit to the Guinness Storehouse, a 65-acre tract with Guinness beer production done in a seven-story warehouse that generates 4 million pints of Guinness beer daily… started in 1759 by one Arthur Guinness who originally leased 9 acres for 9,000 years... no, that's not a misprint! He and his wife Olivia bore 21 children, 11 of whom died early (an average child’s life was just 7 years) while ten survived. Magician trip-planner John Schwartz and I shared a pint on the seventh floor as promised a year before when he said we would be going to Ireland. The Guinness tour began on the first floor with a small, two-ounce Guinness sample and we were told "do not put the glass in your pocket".  If someone has one, you know they stole it …. easy to do as the entrance lobby was crowded with only three staff people supervising.  I had already bought a half-pint Guinness glass at the bar in our hotel for 5 Euros...

Saturday… we visited Wicklow, Ireland, home of the Garden of Ireland, … and then the Powerscourt Garden Estate, originally a 12,000-acre estate with the gardens and grounds developed over 20 years, completed in 1880...  did I mention it rained? Stopped long enough to stroll around the immediate House and close gardens, but unable to visit the longest waterfall in Ireland because of the rain, and then on to the small town of Avoca where we visited the original Hand Weaving Mill in Ireland started by two sisters in 1723. The original weaving loom is still there with, of course, a gift shop with lots of Cashmere coats, scarves, blankets to be bought. The progressive engineering of weaving looms out of Germany and imported to Avoca was fascinating to see, especially the addition of colored thread to the weaving process and the speed of weaving threads together on a machine something like 15/20 times a second if I recall it correctly (no, my note-taker is not sure).  lt was especially interesting to me as I was raised in a small burg in Indiana (Edna Mills) where the local small grocery store had a widowed woman and her unmarried daughter living.  The daughter had a weaving loom similar to the one in Avoca, and she wove cloth kitchen rugs and colored yarn sweaters. I would very often go watch her on Saturday mornings.

The Irish stew and clam chowder in the Irish restaurants were excellent as was most of the food we enjoyed in the many restaurants/bars/pubs while there. The Scottish and Irish people treated us well everywhere we went. I am not aware of a single incident that was unpleasant in dealing with locals in either Scotland or Ireland. And, by the way, did I mention that the weather forecast is rain?

Sunday… the last night in Ireland, bus driver Phillip had arranged a night at the oldest performing music hall in Ireland, The Taylors Cabaret and Irish Night performance theatre. Dinner and dancing with the Irish dancing champion (youngest ever} along with six of his dancing companions...regaled musically by some really talented folks. The male lead singer had just returned from London after performing the lead in the 25^th anniversary performance of “Les Miserables".  The moment of the night, after the four-course meal, was our own Joe Calabretta's performance of "I'm not the pheasant feather plucker, but the pheasant feather plucker’s son, and I'm only plucking pheasant feathers until the pheasant feather plucker comes"…. He was asked to sing it rapidly three times in a row, and somehow it came out wrong… lt was a beautiful night of music and dancing enjoyed by those in attendance from our group.  A wonderful finish for a great journey in Scotland for 20 of us, and in Ireland for the entire group of 40.

The trip home was expedited by the fact that Dublin is the only airport in Europe that allows passengers to clear US customs at their airport. Arriving back in New Jersey, we were not forced to pass through Customs controls again before boarding a plane back to Myrtle Beach....

Thanks again to John and Karen Schwartz who cooperate with all of the club members in planning the journey, handling all the money, booking the airlines making sure everyone is present at every stop, figuring out who to call when a bus driver doesn't show up…and on and on it goes with John handling all the details and Karen helping keep track of it all. We are all indebted to your love and care of the Ski Club Travelers!

Submitted by Gene Young