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St. Mary's Abbey
Dublin and Paris--Summer 2014
With my wife and youngest daughter, I visited Dublin for the first time and really enjoyed it. We discovered some great pubs and restaurants, and the people were friendly and welcoming.
Highlights of the trip included a visit to Trinity College Dublin, long walks around Dublin City, and side trips by train to Howth (the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey are pictured at right) and down the coast as far as Greystones in County Wicklow.
One of the first things we did in Dublin was go to Toners Pub for a pint (Guinness for me, Smithwick's for my wife). Toners is "one of Dublin's oldest and most famous Pubs" and well worth a visit. The dining standouts included Searsons Bar in Dublin and The Oar House in Howth.
With my wife and youngest daughter, I visited Dublin for the first time and really enjoyed it. We discovered some great pubs and restaurants, and the people were friendly and welcoming.
Highlights of the trip included a visit to Trinity College Dublin, long walks around Dublin City, and side trips by train to Howth (the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey are pictured at right) and down the coast as far as Greystones in County Wicklow.
One of the first things we did in Dublin was go to Toners Pub for a pint (Guinness for me, Smithwick's for my wife). Toners is "one of Dublin's oldest and most famous Pubs" and well worth a visit. The dining standouts included Searsons Bar in Dublin and The Oar House in Howth.
Shakespeare and Co.
Dublin was followed by a return visit to Paris--we think it's impossible to get too much of Paris!
We rented an apartment in Le Marais this time, on rue Saint-Antoine, which worked out very well as it was easy to walk to Ile de la Cité and The Latin Quarter. It was a longer, but very doable, walk to such attractions as the Centre Pompidou, the Louvre, and the Palais Garnier, also know as l’Opéra de Paris or simply l'Opéra. As is true everywhere in Paris, there was a Metro station near our apartment, which made it relatively easy to get to the Eiffel Tower and Sacré Coeur, or anywhere in Paris too far to walk.
A major advantage of staying in an apartment rather than a hotel was the ability to cook breakfasts and some dinners. We really enjoyed shopping with the locals and experimenting with ingredients that would be difficult--or impossible--to find at home. That said, we had some wonderful dining experiences while in Paris, especially our dinner at one of our old favorites from previous trips, Pizza Flora, and at a new discovery in the Marais, Chez Janou.
We rented an apartment in Le Marais this time, on rue Saint-Antoine, which worked out very well as it was easy to walk to Ile de la Cité and The Latin Quarter. It was a longer, but very doable, walk to such attractions as the Centre Pompidou, the Louvre, and the Palais Garnier, also know as l’Opéra de Paris or simply l'Opéra. As is true everywhere in Paris, there was a Metro station near our apartment, which made it relatively easy to get to the Eiffel Tower and Sacré Coeur, or anywhere in Paris too far to walk.
A major advantage of staying in an apartment rather than a hotel was the ability to cook breakfasts and some dinners. We really enjoyed shopping with the locals and experimenting with ingredients that would be difficult--or impossible--to find at home. That said, we had some wonderful dining experiences while in Paris, especially our dinner at one of our old favorites from previous trips, Pizza Flora, and at a new discovery in the Marais, Chez Janou.
W6DVS Main HF Station
My amateur radio call sign is W6DVS. I hold an Amateur Extra Class license, and my main areas of interest are DX and contesting.
The principal radios in my station are a venerable Kenwood TS-940SAT and a recent addition, a Yaesu FTDX-1200. I have a Kenwood TL-922A linear amplifier that I occasionally use with the TS-940, but most operation is low power (100 watts or less). A Yaesu FT-857D serves as a backup and is set up as the digital modes station at this point.
For CW (Morse code) operation I usually use Bencher BY-2 iambic paddles into a homebrew keyer, but I also have old Brown Bros. BTL-A paddles that I still enjoy using. For SSB (voice) my first choice is a Heil headset with DX element; when I don't want to use a headset, I use a Heil HM-10 mic on a boom. Digital modes are handled by Ham Radio Deluxe DM780 and a homebrew interface.
Antennas are a Butternut HF6V multiband vertical and an inverted-V for 80 meters, with a Cushcraft A3S on a short tower (hopefully) coming soon.
Click here for current propagation and solar data.
The principal radios in my station are a venerable Kenwood TS-940SAT and a recent addition, a Yaesu FTDX-1200. I have a Kenwood TL-922A linear amplifier that I occasionally use with the TS-940, but most operation is low power (100 watts or less). A Yaesu FT-857D serves as a backup and is set up as the digital modes station at this point.
For CW (Morse code) operation I usually use Bencher BY-2 iambic paddles into a homebrew keyer, but I also have old Brown Bros. BTL-A paddles that I still enjoy using. For SSB (voice) my first choice is a Heil headset with DX element; when I don't want to use a headset, I use a Heil HM-10 mic on a boom. Digital modes are handled by Ham Radio Deluxe DM780 and a homebrew interface.
Antennas are a Butternut HF6V multiband vertical and an inverted-V for 80 meters, with a Cushcraft A3S on a short tower (hopefully) coming soon.
Click here for current propagation and solar data.
Most of my sailing in the last few years has been on other people's boats. I owned a 1977 Columbia T-26, but when Hurricane Irene visited in September 2011 the outboard, which was in my shop for repair and maintenance, went under water when my shop was flooded. I re-powered her in 2016, but then along came Hurricane Florence in 2018. She went aground, and I gave her up as a salvage to a young man interested in trying to restore her..JPG)
Most of my fishing takes place from the pier pictured here. This is actually the neighbor's pier; our pier was mostly destroyed in Hurricane Irene and has not been rebuilt yet.
Speckled Seatrout
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Southern Flounder
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Red Drum
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Pictured above are the three fish species that I catch most in the Neuse River. There are also blue crabs most of the summer, and oysters during the late fall and winter months.
Blue Crab
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NC Oysters
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