Keeping A Stiff Upper Lip

This seems to be a good time to quote a statistic I heard while watching the History Channel. "You would need to fly at least one U.S. flight aboard a commercial aircraft every day for more than 100 years before being involved in a crash." Now that's a statistic I can enjoy being a part of!

Here's a link to a photo of a Tu-154. I'm almost certain it's not the "missing" plane.

A Ghost From Russian Aviation

This is the very jet (a Tupolev 134) that crashed south of Moscow yesterday.The photo was taken just a couple months ago. Here's a link to the photo info page on airliners.net. Fox News posted this AP photo of the registration numbers on one of the engines from the crashed Tupolev Tu-134. The plane is equivalant in size to a Boeing 717 or a Bombardier CRJ900 (Regional Jet), seating 70-90 people. Tupolev's are remarkable aircraft in that they mimick almost every major aircraft from the western world (intentionally or not). The other plane (Tu-154), the one that is "missing", looks almost identical to a 727.

It's a bone chilling thing to see a plane on both ends of the spectrum. It's like
seeing a ghost. I'm grateful to be removed from the horror of the situation. It's been a fascinating educational experience to research these planes. As I learn more about plane crashes and commercial airliners in genereal, I become less nervous about flying. As long as our TSA can keep thier heads above... well... flying will continue to be a fascinating experience.

Talk about after burners!

Captains log to maintenance: Engine 1 running hot, please check.

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Afterword

Well, our run for the boarder is officially in the bag with the completion of the official vaction video. That's one of the best parts to me, being able to appreciate all the cool pictures and quick memories. Praise be to the digital camera and windows based video editor (I can't afford a G5).

Yes, my father made it back from Boston with only a few hours delay and a voucher for future travel in his pocket after giving up his priority seat and taking a later flight. Hannah didn't have it quite as easy. She waited through 7 or 8 flights before catching a connection through Cincinatti. Oh the joys of non-revenue travel. She made it home though, just as Zack and I were finishing up the last big dance of the summer.

I figured I'd close off the trip with one last link to a Montreal Web Cam. At the time I'm making this post, it's a beautiful nightime view of the city.

Hilltop Steakhouse Home Page

Hilltop Steakhouse Home Page

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Day 8

This has been one of those travel days that will live in infamy for years and years. I suppose it's not quite proper to make a log for the day when the day's not up and only half of the family is home, but there's a story to tell so I'm gonna tell it.

We started the day off after only few hours sleep and initially things were going well. But Logan Airport, being the beast it is, was overcrowded and caused us some slowdowns and setbacks. As dad tried to compensate by dropping us off and returning the car on his own, we fought the lines, the baggage and Hannah fought just to get on a plane. In the end, Judy and I made it on the plane, but Hannah didn't and dad barely made it to the airport.

So now I'm home, dad's in DFW waiting for a connection and Hannah's still in BOS waiting for some flight to open up. Here's hoping. Pictured here is a 757 just like the one we were on, lifting off from Logan Airport.

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Day 7

We bade farwell ot Montreal today and proceeded to cross the boarder back into The States. The trunk was packed as tight was could manage and we were packed in the car almost as tightly. The trip was smooth (though rain drenched). A dash across Lake Champlain on this leg gave us a ride through New York en route to Vermont, through New Hampshire and back to Boston, MA making a total of four states, and two countries crossed on this trip.

The Hill Top Steak House was wating for us upon our return to Boston and we throughrally enjoyed Ribeye, Prime Rib and Shrimp. Afterward we returned to our room to catch the end of the Opening Ceremonies from Athens and catch a few short hours sleep before catching our plane the next morning.

Penguin fascination. Do you want to see the penguins too?

Emma tries desperatly to play with the penguins.

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Day 6

A busy day as we try to squeeze in all of Montreal we can before leaving tomorrow. We returned to Mount Royal for some last minute geocahing and while driving there, saw Bill Clinton standing near his limo with video cameras running. Hannah jumped from the car in an attempt to get an autograph. As she neard the scene though, she discovered that the former president didn't look like himself, in fact, he didn't really look much like the former president. Rather he was a look-a-like filming a commercial.

Later we returned to the Parc du Olympique to check out the Bio-Dome. Housed in the former bicycling arena was a multi-climate home to the major ecosystems of the americas. Emma was especially taken by the penguins.

The evening was finished by the closing banquet soireee. We knew we were in for it when dinner started, not with salad, but with hour d'orves, venison patte to be exact. After getting over the initial shock, the rest of the meal proceeded smoothly. A midinight run to Wendy's can fix a lot of problems.

A view of Montreal

An Overview - Montreal WebCam Network Here's a window on Montreal that's pretty comprehensive.

The JeepCruzer in the Sky Box after an Expos game.

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Day 5

Take me out to the ball game was the cry today. We were part of a contingency who treked out to Parc Olympique (we learned the summer games were held here in '76) to watch the Expos play the Diamondbacks coutesey of some of the vendors. We were expecting to catch the game from the cheap seats, which would have been neat enough, but instead we were treated to a SkyBox and catered dinner of Pizza, Hot Dogs, Chicken Stips and more.

All this came after we'd started the day with a trip through the exhibits to see all the vendors, a drive to the South end of town to grab groceries and lunch and a trip back to Mount Roayl. This time we made our first international geocache find. Glad we rested yesterday.

The flags of Canada, Quebec, and Montreal in tandem at Victoria Square.

I see this building from our room at 16 stories up.

The Montreal Conference Center

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Day 4

A slow day. Took Emma for her first swim downstairs in the hotel pool. Took a nap, realxed, took some pictures, etc. The evening was hopping though at the manufacturer's appreciation dinner. We dined on petite sandwiches and hour d'overs whilst enjoying a impressionist who specializes in immitating musical aritists. The evening was a roaring success and Emmas was the delight of the evening everywhere we went.

Kinda like a Disco Theque I guess.

Mmm Plastic Cows

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Day 3

After sleeping the morning away in a desperate attempt to reclaim lost rest, we hit the town and tried to immerse ourselves in Montreal. As I wanted to do some geocaching, we went to the focus of the city, Monut Roayl Park. We stopped at an observation deck on the side of the mountain to see the cityscape and snapped a few pictures. After that we picked up the padre and made out way to dinner.

While driving around earlier we passed a restraunt called Le Biftheque that had large plastic cows out front. My dad and I hypothesized that any restraunt with pastic cows in front had to have a good steak. We were right, great steak, ribs and even good shrimp. Check out the photos!

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Day 2

Road Trip was the theme of the day as we started off through the New England country side en route to Montreal. Our run for the border was delayed only slightly by some poor navigation on my part and my GPSR said we had an overall average spped of 60 some odd miles and hour, not bad for the number of stops we made. Emma bore the trip quite well. As you can see from the picture, she was rarin' to get on the road and get the trip started.

The Vermont and New Hampshire countrysides were beautiful, but repetitious however and the move into Canada was a complete geogaphical shift from the granite outcroppings in Vermont to the flat corn fields of Southern Quebec Province. It reminded me of my ol' Indiana days.

The only real trouble we had all day was finding the Hotel. Montreal is a bear of a place to drive and our maps were rudimentry at best. It was a fascinating look at the town though as we seeked our lodgings. This town has a pulse, very vibrant with lots of people walking the streets and shopping in the uptown district. Even as we made out way to the downtown business district where out hotel is, there was still plenty of life in the town.

The icing on the day was the trip to our hotel room. Wow it's nice, this is a four star hotel and we're in a four star room. It's a corner suite with a great view of the town, lots of extra space and an insanely huge bathroom.

The Great Ingram Adventure - Montreal: Day 1

The Great Ingram Adventure continues with our trip to Montreal, Quebec, Canada this week. We'll keep you updated here as the trip progresses. Today we flew from SLC to BOS in preperation for a drive to Canada. Emma handled her first flight quite well and we ate dinner at the Hill Top Steak House promptly upon our arrival. We bought some vacation items at ol' Wal-Mart later, and Emma was plumb worn out. Grandma created a makeshift bed in the cart for the worn out little girl.