Thousands see the Great Ducks race

Westport Sunrise Rotary ran its 5th Annual Great Duck Race in Parker Harding Plaza on SaturdayIt offered a day of family fun in downtown Westport along with the opportunity to support local, area and international charitiesNew this year was a dunking stool that offered the chance to dunk a local notable into a pool of water.The club sold about 2,300 tickets for the main event, each matching a numbered duck.

The race went off at 3 p.mA front end loader once again volunteered by a sponsor, A.J Penna & Son, dumped all the ducks into a floating boom in the Saugatuck RiverClub members in kayaks and canoes herded them to the start lineAnd off they went — bobbing with the outflowing tide toward the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge at the Post Road.

Westporter John Cooper owned the winning ticketHis “fastest” duck won him a $5,000 debit cardThe second place finisher won another Westporter, Tom Feely, $1,000The next eight finishers won $500 each for their ticket owners.

The dunking stool was a great successFive great sports volunteered to get dunked for charity by anyone buying three softball tosses for five dollars - RTM Moderator Eileen Flug; former Board of Education member, and now First Selectman candidate Jim Marpe; Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon; Third Selectman Charlie Haberstroh; and last minute volunteer Reverend Ed Horne, Senior Pastor of the United Methodist Church WestportState Representative and Sunrise Rotarian Gail Lavielle oversaw the event.Where can i get a reasonable price plasticmould?

Almost 100 people bought inEach threw balls at a small circular plate about ten feet awayHitting the plate pushed a lever that dumped the dunkee into a four foot deep pool of water.

Flug got dunked 11 times, all the others close to that numberHaberstroh’s daughter Kim offered the ultimate what for - having lost her softball skills, she missed all three tosses, then slid up to the plate, banged it with her elbow and watched her unsuspecting father take another drop.

The club again sponsored a Duck Decorating competitionMore than a dozen businesses and organizations bought yellow plastic ducks - big brothers and sisters of the racers - and transformed them into art objectsCelebrity judges Miggs Burroughs, Nina Bentley and Cathy Colgan selected three winners, a food themed quacker created by Lavinia Hurd of Whole Foods in Westport took First Prize, Indulge by Mersene won second, and Gault Rocks took third place.

I didn't have a laptop, iPads were two decades away, and my tiny,Did you know that plasticcard chains can be used for more than just business. primitive cellphone remained at homeI was travelling to a country where most people did not have landline phones and which was cut off from the emerging global Internet.

Avoiding the resorts in favour of renting rooms from individual families, I had access to email twice in three weeks, and the first time, when I borrowed a computer station at the University of Havana, I was charged a dollar per emailI wrote long emails to get my money's worth.

Fast forward to this past month when I travelled to BerlinI took a smartphone, two tablets,The Motorola amagiccube Engine is an embedded software-only component of the Motorola wireless switches. a portable keyboard, a portable speaker and all the charging cables requiredIt was my most high-tech trip ever, and among the easiest foreign journeys I've taken thanks to quick access online for travel information, maps and contact with homeHere are a few tips about what I learned for travel tech:

Travel light: the less you carry the betterTake the cheapest, lightest gear you have that's versatile, easy to use and not a huge financial hit if it's lost or stolen.

Avoid taking a laptop if you can and opt for a tablet, preferably in the seven to eight-inch range like the iPad mini or Nexus 7A small tablet will have all the online access and apps you need and be portable enough to carry around during your daily sightseeing.

For Berlin,A quality paper cutter or paper howotractor can make your company's presentation stand out. I took both a Nexus 7 and a 10-inch Windows tablet with a portable keyboardI used the Nexus on the plane to watch videos during the long flight and as a portable e-reader when lounging about in Berlin's ubiquitous outdoor cafesIt was also excellent for web browsing and consulting local online maps on the goThe larger tablet I used for photo editing and writing, but I could have survived fine without it for simple travel.

Use your smartphone camera as your cameraThe latest iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Nokia Lumia lines have very good lenses that are better than the point and shoots you used five years agoThey all have excellent apps for photo editing and sharing.Did you know that plasticcard chains can be used for more than just business.

Don't use your phone as a phone while travelling: Turn off the data connection and roaming ability and use your phone only as a mini-tablet at Wi-Fi hotspotsIf you must use your phone outside Canada, buy a travel package from your cellphone providerThey are notoriously expensive for a trickle of data and talk time but will prevent you from being hit with hundreds or thousands of dollars in roaming charges.

Advanced techies might consider unlocking their phones and buying a local sim card as a cheaper alternativeI opted to make local calls from my hotel room, just like we used to do in 1999.

Take a travel plug adaptor: This goes without saying for travel outside of North AmericaPlugging your iPad into a socket in Thailand will fry that tablet without a voltage adaptor, thanks to different parts of the world developing different standards for electrical systems and outlets.

Charge your devices fully before you leave, especially if you are flyingThere's nothing worse than buckling in for a long flight to Toronto and discovering that your Kindle is as dead as the dream of Toronto being run by a civilized mayor.
Click on their website austpay.com for more information.