Your Host, James Ellis's Page

I stitched together a series of photos to create some panoramas. I loaded them into Flickr so you can download them as nice big images. Enjoy!

Casino exit to Yankee Candle Factory. The place is like Disneyland for the candle set. Without the rides.

Someone (possibly me) was late getting on the bus (possibly because I was waiting in the wrong place... yes, this place is that big) but it only meant we missed the brief rain storm before hitting the train station.

This train was a longer ride over two trellises (one was very high) and at our stop, we had to wait 30 minutes for a frieght train (carrying salt, spools of wire and a lot of… Continue

On a steam train on a rainy day to a three-story river boat. Saw the remains of a castle that Sherlock Holmes built and a rotating bridge. Our conductor, train car and train station were all in the last Indiana Jones movie, but they didn't seem like the type to make a big deal about it.

Train back to the bus and a quick ride to the casino. Depending on how you feel about casinos, you would have either loved or hated the Foxwoods casinos. I lost $40 in 5 minutes. Then I lost another 50 cents in… Continue

We're all settling in today. I didn't even break out the camera yet. But that will all change tomorrow.

Today's excitement was getting thisclose to landing the plane in Boston and then pulling up because the pilot saw another plane on the runway. Not crashing is good. Lurching and circling around again is less good.

Dinner, those of us who went anyway, was nice, though clearly they were not prepared for 11 people at one table (despite the table's size).

I've been awake since before 4:00am, so… Continue

Folks,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am James Ellis, Web Director for the Wisconsin Alumni Association. I will be your tour host next on our Rails and Sails trip through New England.

This is my first time as tour host, so some of you may actually know what I should be doing better than I. However, I'm going to give it my best shot. If you have any questions, feel free to email me here or call my work number (608-265-8770) next week before we meet in O'Hare on Thursday.

As you can see, I am… Continue