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A while ago, The Shaw Brothers took two different types of cruises within about a month's time. Each was special in its own right and we'd like to share some of our experiences with you.

In the month of October, we took a riverboat cruise on the mighty Columbia River. We flew out to Portland, Oregon, a few days early, then caught a connection to North Bend for a visit with our old friend and associate, Fred Corbett. Fred was a member of the original Brandywine Singers which we formed while undergrads at the University of New Hampshire in the early '60's. Besides having an outstanding tenor voice, Fred plays great mandolin, guitar, banjo and bass. He continues to perform in the blues and bluegrass genres.

 Fred and his wife Margaret took us on a tour of the magnificent Oregon coast in the North Bend/Coos Bay area. One memorable site we visited with them was the Applegate Homestead, built in the mid 1800's and listed as a national historic site. Stepping onto the property was like stepping back in time. The property has been preserved much as it was when it was built. We were given a private tour of the house by a member of the original owner's family.  It was a moving experience to have her show us the old family portraits hanging on the walls and the muzzle-loader in pride-of-place over the mantelpiece. She pointed out two rectangular pieces of tin which had been pierced by bullet holes outlining the profiles of Abraham Lincoln and Uncle Sam, explaining that the piercing had been done with the same rifle from 50 yards away. That's some kind of shooting! The house also contained everyday items used by the original family, including clothing and correspondence. It was as if the family had just stepped out for a while and would soon return.The Applegate Trail was a major offshoot of the main Oregon Trail and went southwest toward the coast.

Fred and Margaret drove us back to Portland (a four-hour drive)) to spend a night at the Embassy Suites with our fellow cruisers before embarkation. While there, a frat brother from UNH, Art Griffin, traveled down from his home in Seattle to visit. Getting to see these old friends was an extra bonus of this west coast trip.

The next day, we joined our cruising buddies and set off for the docks to meet the Queen of the West, a majestic stern-wheeler that would be our gracious hostess and cozy home as we navigated the Columbia, Snake, and Willamette Rivers in the days and nights to come. We found this cruise to be a great bonding experience as we spent a lot of time together and all our land tours were done as a group. We had a land trip nearly every day of the cruise and our bus driver/guide, Jody, was a real character and great storyteller.

The cruise took us through deep gorges and wild canyons. One especially interesting site was a tall pillar of stone that turned out to be the core of an extinct volcano mentioned ion the journals of Lewis and Clark as a place where they had camped during their historic expedition. We also had a tour of the Pendleton Mills in, where else, Pendleton, OR. Pendleton was the main terminus of the Oregon Trail. The town had a section called Pendleton Underground. It really was underground! It was where Chinese laborers lived and worked, segregated from the rest of the population.

We had an opportunity to visit Mt. St. Helens, where the ash from the big eruption of may 18, 1980, is 400 feet deep. We were told that the force of the eruption was equal to one Hiroshima bomb going off every second for 7 1/2 minutes. If you had been within 5 miles of the eruption and not looking at the mountain, you would have died never knowing what had hit you as the blast traveled faster than the speed of sound. It produced millions of tons of ash and 230 square miles of devastation. (Amazing, huh?) The area has regenerated now and is pretty much green again. One interesting fact we learned was that the trees which had been blown down by the blast were, for some odd reason, lying with their tops pointing back toward the volcano instead of away as would seem logical. It was determined that this was because the initial force of the blast had bent them downhill, but then they had sprung back, snapping off with their tops aligned in the direction from which the blast had come. The volcano is still active and is growing inside and will surely blow its top again.

Another of our land tours involved a visit to a Paiute Indian reservation. In the visitor center were many fascinating displays and artifacts of the old wild west. It's nice to see our Native American history being preserved for future generations to appreciate and marvel at.

Port Astoria (OR), near the mouth of the Columbia River, was one of our last stops.  It was here that Lewis and Clark constructed Fort Clatsop in which they would spend a long and bitter winter before embarking upon their return from their historic Voyage of Discovery. A replica of the fort now occupies the site. The town itself was named for John Jacob Astor, whose fur trading company set up shop there in 1810, just a few years after the visit of Lewis and Clark.

While on the Queen of the West, we gave two private performances for our group, the first being in the paddlewheel lounge where we were nearly drowned out by the noise of the huge paddlewheel. We persevered, however, and all had a good time. The second was in the Main Showroom, where the acoustics were much better, and an informal third show (which turned into a sing-along and to which the other passengers were welcomed) on the cold top deck on the last day of the cruise.

Arriving back in New Hampshire, we played a couple of shows at the Gateway in Somersworth, and then it was off to the Caribbean for for a transatlantic jaunt as part of a "Great Music at Sea" cruise. This time, we flew from Boston to New York, to St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles where we boarded the HMS Balmoral, a somewhat small cruise ship carrying about 2000 people, including passengers and crew. From there we sailed to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands and spent a day in that paradise of mountains and beautiful beaches. Then we were at sea in earnest! Our stateroom was in the prow of the ship, so, when the seas were running high they crashed against our walls. It was a six day crossing to Ponta Delgada in the Portuguese Azores, where we were able to regain our land legs while enjoying a little sightseeing in this charming and historic  port-of-call.

From the Azores, we sailed to our ultimate destination, Dover, England, another 5 or 6 days at sea. During the cruise, we did four shows as The Shaw Brothers and one with our dear friend and fellow Hillside Singer, Lori Hafer, who, accompanied by her talented husband Mike on keyboards and son Paul on bass, was the featured singer for the "Great Music at Sea" tours.

We were late arriving in Dover, so we caught a bus to Heathrow (instead of nearby Gatwick), rented a car and headed south toward Amesbury, where we spent our first night on the Sceptered Isle. En route, we traveled across Salisbury Plain as the sun set low on the horizon. Then we saw it...the spectacular, powerfully emotional sight of Stonehenge silhouetted against the red sky as it has been every night for thousands of years. We'd been to Stonehenge before, but this was the first time at sunset. Unforgettable!

We spent the night at the 500-year-old George Hotel and the next morning called our old friend Noel Harrison who lives in Ashburton on the edge of Dartmoor. We met him and his daughter Cathryn for lunch at a favorite neighborhood pub. (Cathryn is following in her father's and grandfather Rex's footsteps as a talented Shakespearian actor. She is also well-known for her performances on the BBC.) After lunch, we went to Noel's home and spent some time with him and his wife, Lori. We had a great day.

From Ashburton, we drove to Glastonbury, site of the great Glastonbury Abbey which was destroyed by King Henry VIII. The town has grown a lot since we were last there and it has become more modern. There is a marker in Glastonbury Abbey which identifies a spot where the supposed remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were exhumed during medieval times in the presence of King Edward and Queen Eleanore and reinterred in a black marble sarcophagus amidst great fanfare.  There they remained until lost when the abbey was destroyed during the Dissolution.

After a good night's sleep, we spent the next morning touring ancient historical sites like the Glastonbury Tor with its imposing St. Michael's Tower. This site is well remembered for a previous visit when Rick and his camera took a "head over heels" tumble down the hill after he stepped in a slippery byproduct of grazing sheep (sheep dip?).

Our next stop was further north in Wells, with its famous cathedral and Bishop's Palace. The latter is a massive old stone and heavy timber structure, complete with moat and swans. (Wells is the smallest officially designated city in England.) From there we headed to Winchester. The trip was through beautiful rolling countryside with picturesque villages and stone walls - very like New England. However, driving on the "wrong" side of the road was a constant challenge.

Winchester, the capital of England before London, is a historic and beautiful city, combining ancient and modern architecture, with a prestigious university of its own. After some searching, we managed to find an inn, the Westgate, at which to spend the night. Fortuitously, it had a tavern that was particularly welcoming and warm once we'd each quaffed a couple of pints of bitter with our fish and chips.

The next morning we visited the site of what once was Winchester Castle. Today, only the Great Hall remains, but it is truly magnificent in itself. Here is displayed a table purported to be Arthur's roundtable. Built of heavy oak, the table hangs high on one wall and is divided into pie-shaped sections, each bearing the name of a knight of the roundtable, and at the head of the table appears a portrait of the king. It has hung there since at least 1463, according to town history.

We spent a second night at the Westgate (so called because it is situated at the west gate of the old walled city). Then, before dawn the following morning we were off to Gatwick...during rush hour...in the dark...a nail-biting experience when you are driving on the left hand side of the road! A flight from Gatwick to Detroit, a connection to Boston, a limo from Boston to Portsmouth and we were home. The jet lag is almost worn off!!!