Lynn – Page 22 – Lynn's Travel Adventures

Catching Up

August 2021

Ok…so when I last posted in March 2020 we were heading home from Aruba and looking forward to our summer trip on the Queen Mary 2 followed by 5 weeks in the UK. Obviously that trip didn’t happen. Like everyone else in the world we stayed home for what seemed like an eternity before we started getting out a little bit during the summer.

Here’s a summary of what we’ve been up to in the last 18 months.

We attended my niece’s high school graduation in May 2020. It was a drive-by and each graduate was allowed 2 cars. After the 30-second ceremony we went back to the house for pizza and a socially distant celebration.

Then in August we had an addition to our family. Our granddaughter, Deanna, had a beautiful little girl they named Kimberly. When she was about 3 weeks old Grandpa and I babysat so Deanna could run a few errands. We watched not only Kimmy, but her two older siblings who were attending school via Zoom. We were only alone with the kids for about 30 minutes so we did okay. Thank god the diapers are marked with “front” and “back” or we might have had a bit of trouble when it came time for a diaper change.

Kimmy is now a year old. Happy birthday cutie.

We stayed in Chicago for our 5th wedding anniversary and while it wasn’t the celebration in London we’d planned, being together on our special day was enough. We spent the night at the Waldorf Astoria in Chicago and enjoyed a delicious meal at a local Italian restaurant. Of course we could only eat outside but the weather was beautiful so it was a great anniversary.

Anniversary breakfast in Minooka September 4, 2020.

And then in early October when the forecast for Chicago was in the low 30s, we decided we couldn’t take another Chicago winter and made the big move to Arizona. We’d been looking for our perfect retirement place for several years and after our month in Glendale AZ in 2019 we knew we wanted to be in the Phoenix area. So, we got in touch with realtors on both ends and within 10 days we sold our house in Minooka, bought a house in Eloy AZ and were back home packing for our retirement move.

While our original plan had been to live in the Mesa AZ area, we ended up at Robson Ranch in Eloy AZ, about half way between Phoenix and Tucson. Click the link to view a video of the community. https://www.robson.com/communities/robson-ranch-arizona/

The community is in the middle of nowhere, about 45 minutes from the closest Target in Chandler. We stayed here when we were house hunting as a part of their guest program. We paid $110 for a 3-night stay in a 2 bedroom house. For that price we also got 18 holes of golf and a free dinner at the onsite restaurant. We had absolutely no desire to live here because it was so far from Phoenix but fell in love with the 5-star resort atmosphere and the friendly people. It would have taken 6-9 months to build a new home but luckily we found a resale that we loved. It was built in 2018 but had only been lived in for about 9 weeks. So, it was basically brand new. We closed in AZ on Monday of Thanksgiving week followed on Tuesday by the sale of Minooka. It was a whirlwind 5 weeks but we couldn’t be happier. Our home is just over 1700 square feet and has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and a den for Peter. It’s significantly smaller than our Minooka house (3500 square feet with the finished basement) but we don’t miss the space. We gave most of our furniture to the grandkids and bought a few new things here. It’s a perfect size for us and we love the community.

Before leaving Chicago we did a couple of “last” things.

Last trip to Museum of Science and Industry to see Coleen Moore’s Fairy Tale Castle

Last lunch with LincolnWay Area Chorale friends.

Since moving in to our new house we painted the walls a beautiful soft grey, added ceiling fans throughout the house and the patio, installed under and over cabinet lighting in the kitchen, installed a customized master closet, added storage cabinets and epoxy flooring in the garage and did some amazing hardscaping in the backyard. The landscaping had already been done but we added the paver patio, pergola, outdoor kitchen (with Peter’s pizza oven), fire pit and fountain. We also bought a golf cart so we are officially old people in a retirement community.

Right after the movers left our forever home. This is the dining area; we now have a beautiful light above the table and a gorgeous backsplash that Peter selected in the kitchen.

The garage turned out great with the epoxy floors and cabinets.

We live in an active adult 55+ community which has a ton of amenities and activities. The community has a very nice golf course so we play quite a bit. I’m now the VP of the Lady Lynx, a 9-hole women’s golf league. It’s a fun group of women and after we play we gather for drinks and a bite to eat at our onsite grill. I’ve also learned to play pickleball (graduated out of the Novice group in April and now play with the “big kids”), have taken up stained glass, participate in water aerobics and take an occasional Tai Chi class. Peter works out at the onsite fitness center and swims a ton of laps almost every day. We also played in the summer corn hole league. Neither of us had played before so we’re not very good but we won a few games. Most importantly, though, we had a lot of fun and met some great people. Peter met a guy who went to the same high school. Talk about a small world.

After completing my beginner stained glass project, this is my first solo project. I had a lot of help from the club president…thanks Cynthia.

This was my second big project. I filled the vase I bought in Tubac with flowers, a couple of butterflies and a whimsical dragonfly. It was a lot of work but I think it looks great. Thanks again to Cynthia for helping not only with the stained glass but with the arrangement.

We went to a Cubs Spring Training game in Mesa.

The game was only about 20% capacity so it looks pretty empty. Sloan Park is a very nice venue and we had a great time. It’s only about an hour from home so it’s very convenient.

We’ve been trying to see some of the local sites . Even though we’re in the middle of the desert, there’s quite a bit to do/see within a few hours’ drive.

Night out in North Phoenix for a string quartet concert. They played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. We had a delicious dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant (Pomo) before the concert.

Our Lady of the Sierras Shrine outside Sierra Vista AZ. We drove down to check out the Arizona wine country (who knew???) and found this. It was a beautiful little chapel.

In Bisbee we took a tour of the Copper Queen Mine

We took a quick peek at the Lavender Pit in Bisbee. This is the area that was mined for copper.

We visited Saguaro National Park then headed down to Tubac for the afternoon. Tubac is a tiny town that’s an artist colony. There are lots of pottery shops and restaurants.

We had a delicious Mexican lunch at this cute restaurant in Tubac.

We spent a few hours at Biosphere 2, an earth systems science research facility in Oracle AZ. You may remember in the early 90s when 8 scientists were “locked” in the facility for 2 years doing research. Our tour was self-guided and only took about 90 minutes but it was very interesting.

We spent 3 days in the White Mountains about 3 1/2 hours north east of us. This was the little cabin we rented.

Peter fishing from the pontoon boat we rented at Rainbow Lake in the mountains.

Our cabin was only a short walk from the lake.

We also rented a kayak at Fool Hallow Lake Recreation Area in Show Low. We took this trip in the mountains during the week the temp at home was 118. While it was cooler in the mountains, it was still in the upper 90s and the cabin didn’t have AC. So it was a bit warm but we had a great time.

We passed the Telegraph Wildfire on our way to Show Low.

In addition to day trips, we’ve enjoyed some entertainment in our community. We attended quite a few concerts including groups covering the Everly Brothers (one of Peter’s favorite groups) a British Rock and Roll cover band and a Journey cover band. We also attended a Christmas concert, a cover of Carole King and a cover of female artists like Whitney Houston and Ella Fitzgerald. We thoroughly enjoyed each concert.

Here are a couple of YouTube video links.

https://youtu.be/RKtVMx3aA8I British Rock and Roll cover band.

https://youtu.be/cT7zy-onji8 Journey cover band

We took a trip up to Mt. Lemon with one of the community groups – The Roving Ranchers. We drove up the mountain in our own cars and met for lunch. This was our first trip with the group and we look forward to doing more.

Lunch at the Sawmill Run Restaurant on Mt. Lemon with the Roving Ranchers. It was a lot of fun.

The community had pool parties for both Memorial Day and 4th of July. Several hundred people collected at the pool for music, food and drink.

Here is a short video of our community 4th of July celebration by the pool. https://youtu.be/5vN8jjI3eF8

Peter and our friend Stephanie at the 4th of July celebration.

Speaking of the heat, the high desert temps really aren’t that bad because of the super low humidity. We’ve played golf with the temp as high as the low hundreds. We can play 18 holes as long as we start no later than 7:00. If the temp is going to be too high, we get out early or only play 9 holes. Between playing golf and going to the pool several times a week, I’ve gone through about a gallon of sun screen. Peter has a crazy dark tan and has lost about 25 pounds. Between getting a lot of exercise and not being in the house to snack, the weight has been falling off of him. He’s looking and feeling great!

In late June my nephew Mike visited with his family. They hung out with us for the day and were our first overnight visitors. It was great to spend time with them.

At the kiddie pool with the Estes family.

In mid-July the Cubs were in town to play the Diamondbacks. We went to games on both Friday and Saturday nights. Since it’s about an hour to Chase Field we stayed in Phoenix Friday night. We had a great time and our beloved Cubbies won both games. Of course this was before the Trade Deadline Massacre when our core players were traded. It was fun to see Riz, KB and Javy for the last time in Cubbie Blue. Thanks guys….we’ll miss you! 😢

Then in August my sister, Amy, and her daughters Gina and Madison paid us a visit. It was a first plane ride for the girls. Luckily, the weather was great, so it was a smooth flight. They spent a couple of days here playing pickleball, enjoying the pool and doing a small stained-glass project.

Pickleball with the girls. I guess Gina didn’t get the memo about wearing an orange shirt.

Amy working on her stained glass project.

Girls with their finished projects. They did a great job!

Then we headed to San Diego for 5 days. There we enjoyed the beautiful San Diego Zoo, Old Town, Sea World, Balboa Park, the USS Midway and Mission Beach.

Quick trip to one of my duty stations. I taught at the Hospital Corpsman School from Nov 85-Aug 88. That school has moved to San Antonio TX and this building is now Surface Warfare training.

Gina insisted on sitting in the front row at the Orca show. We got SOAKED!!

At Mission Beach. Amy and Gina took a dip in the very cold water.

After 5 days in San Diego the girls flew home. We had a wonderful time and it was great to see them. Hopefully they can come back again sometime soon.

As I write this it’s Wednesday August 25th and we’re packing for our next adventure. Tomorrow we leave for 2 1/2 weeks in the mountains. We’re heading to Sedona AZ, the north rim of the Grand Canyon and Colorado. We’ll spend our anniversary in the Colorado Springs area before checking out Rocky Mountain National Park. On our way home we’ll spend a couple of days in Sante Fe. It will be great to be on the road again. I’ll post pictures from our adventure so keep checking the blog.

Talk with you soon. Love to all from Lynn and Peter

Short Respite from Winter

We took a week off from winter to enjoy the sun and sand in Aruba. It’s a place we both wanted to visit so we exchanged some of our Hilton Grand Vacation points for a week at the Divvy Golf and Beach club. It was a beautiful resort and we had a great corner condo. According to one of the workers, it was one of the best units on the property. It was only a studio but was very large and had two balconies. We also had a private patio on the 3rd floor with a BBQ and hot tub. We didn’t use the BBQ and only went into the hot tub once as the water was actually pretty cold. Here is a video Peter took of the condo. https://youtu.be/5CV6nZgSF1E

The resort was quite large with several pools and restaurants. Our condo was adjacent to the large infinity pool with a swim up bar. We enjoyed happy hour every day but since people tend to “reserve” their pool chairs all day (don’t get me started) we most often took our drinks back up to our room and drank them on one of our two balconies overlooking the pool, lagoon and golf course. Here are a couple of videos Peter took of the pool area at sunset. It was beautiful

Resort Part 1 https://youtu.be/CUaeseOVOyE

Resort Part 2 https://youtu.be/HBx1m_uxctg

Our condo was the second floor; the third floor was our private terrace with BBQ and hot (actually…cool) tub.

At our private cool tub. We only used it once.

View from one of our balconies at sunset.

The resort had an optional all-inclusive package but for $270/day we took a pass. We had a full kitchen, so we went grocery shopping and got food to last the week. Groceries are crazy expensive ($10/pound for grapes). Even though we found some off-brand items we still spent about $150 for groceries. In Mexico last December those same groceries were about half the cost. We ate out a few times but mostly packed sandwiches for lunch and ate breakfast and dinner at home on the balcony.

At the Seabreez Restuarant our first night. We were tired from traveling and didn’t feel like cooking. The food was actually pretty good.

Sunday (3/1) was our first full day so we hung at the beach all day. Even though there were signs posted about not saving chairs and pulapas, of course just about every chair under an umbrella had a towel on it when we got to the beach at about 9am. It was pretty frustrating as that’s one of my biggest pet peeves with resorts and cruise ships. We finally found one, though, and staked our claim for the day. We had lunch at the beach bar and went back again for happy hour later in the day.

Here’s a video I took at the beach. https://youtu.be/hACczJ-C-Uo

Peter has never been one to turn down a freebee so of course we had to attend the 90-minute presentation and in return we received a $100 gift card to a local seafood restaurant and a $50 gift card to one of the restaurants at the resort. We also got a free lunch as part of the presentation, so it really wasn’t a bad deal. During lunch our sales guy learned that we already had 2 Hilton Grand Vacation properties and a 5-year membership to a vacation club in the Caribbean. Since he knew we had zero interest in buying anything else he skipped the entire presentation. We went to lunch, toured the property (it was lovely), got our gift cards and left. We never even had to sit through the financial part. I guess he figured to cut his losses and try his luck with someone who might actually buy. So, we got about $200 worth of food for 2 hours of our time…not a bad deal.

These rest of Monday afternoon was spent in Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba. We took a local bus for $2.50 each and spent some time looking in shops around town. The town is quite small and doesn’t offer much but it was fun to walk around a little. There were no cruise ships in port so we had the town pretty much to ourselves.

Orangestad is known for its colorful buildings.

On Tuesday (3/2) we rented a car to check out the rest of the island. There isn’t too much there but we stopped at the lighthouse and visited the Natural Bridge. Once outside of the resort area much of the island is fairly desolate. It’s a desert island so the landscape is not very lush. But the desert also keeps the humidity down so I guess it’s a tradeoff. The houses range from beautiful mansions by the beach to shanties in some of the poorer areas.

California Lighthouse on the norther most tip of the island.

Natural Bridge; we got here just before two large tourist buses arrived. A few minutes later this place was crawling with people.

We stopped to snorkel a couple of times but compared to other places we’ve been (Hawaii, Costa Rica and Key West) the snorkeling wasn’t much. Of course we only went out as far as we could go from the beach but we were close to where the catamarans were so we think we were in the right spots. But, it was fun to be in the water which was cool but not uncomfortably cold once you got used to it.

That evening we used our gift card at the Driftwood Restaurant in Oranjestad. It was a lovely dinner and we splurged on appetizer, entrée, drinks AND a dessert. Since we only spent about $10 over our gift card it was a pretty great deal.

The rest of the week was spent by the pool. Peter played golf a few times but I couldn’t play as I had just gotten out of a splint from having surgery on my right thumb to get rid of the arthritis. For those of you keeping score, that’s 5 surgeries in 16 months. But (knock on wood) this should be the last of them for awhile. Since I have no strength yet in that thumb, golf was a non-starter. But Peter enjoyed playing a couple of rounds on the adjacent 9-hole course. I, on the other hand, enjoyed happy hour by the pool and a short trip to the Palm Beach area to check out the shops. Not much was open as this area is mostly for nightlife and most of the shops don’t open until 5pm.

Beach across the street. All beaches in Aruba are public beaches but the chairs and pulapas are owned by specific resorts and you must be a guest to use one free of charge. Eagle beach has chairs and umbrellas to rent. We went past it on the bus but didn’t stop.

Aruba is crazy windy all the time but it’s protected from hurricanes so it’s a primo retirement spot for expats who want to live in the Caribbean. After visiting several spots including Mexico, Costa Rica and now Aruba, we don’t think the Caribbean is a good fit for us. While we enjoy hanging at the beach and pool, one week of that is enough. We enjoy sightseeing, going to museums, etc., and there’s just not that much to do in any of these places. We talked to people who winter in Aruba every year and they sit by the pool and/or beach all day, every day, all winter. We’d be bored out of our minds so while we may go back to visit and still want to visit other tropical places (Panama is next on our list) we couldn’t live there for any length of time.

So, that about covers it. It was a wonderful week filled with sun, sand, surf and cocktails but now it’s back to reality. I’m on my way to Occupational Therapy in about 30 minutes to start getting some strength back in my thumb and Peter is finishing up the basement after our summer flood.

Next up is our big European trip, unless of course all of Europe shuts down because of the Covid-19 virus. As of now, Cunard ships are still sailing Europe so our trip is a go…at least for now. Only time will tell what is going to happen but our fingers are crossed that this little bug burns itself out before our trip that begins on 7/29 with 2 days in NYC before our cruise. Till then, thanks for traveling with us and we’ll talk again soon.

Here is a link to the cruise we’re planning to take to Southhampton. We can’t wait!! https://www.cunard.com/en-us/find-a-cruise/M024/M024

Lynn and Peter

June to December 2019

Hello Faithful Followers. Life has been pretty busy since returning from Italy in June. About a week before we got home, we got a call from my niece who was housesitting that we’d had a sump pump failure in our basement during a big June storm. Unfortunately, since there’s no reason for her to go into the basement, she didn’t discover it for about a week. Once she did, she and her dad (my brother) got rid of the standing water and changed the sump pump. By the time we got home, though, the damage had been done. The laminate flooring was trashed, there was green mold on the floor trim, the wet bar cabinets were ruined, and the water had “wicked” up the walls. Very long story short we had an absolute mess in our basement. It took about a week to demolish everything and as I write this (mid-December) we’re still putting it back together. We had to wait to be sure the 2x4s were dry before we could start rebuilding. It will be very nice when it’s finished but it’s been a lot of work for Peter since he’s doing most of it himself.

In between phases of the rebuild, we’ve managed to travel quite a bit. We drove to Niagara Falls for our 4th anniversary in September, of course stopping at as many National Parks as possible along the way. We stayed on the Canadian side of the river so we could see all 3 falls from our hotel. We had a lovely dinner at the restaurant on the top floor of the Hilton with a beautiful view of Horseshoe Falls which is the Canadian Falls.

On the way home we drove along the southern edge of Lake Eire stopping at the Theodore Roosevelt first Inaugural Site and the Lucy and Desi museum in Lucy’s hometown of Janesville NY. We also caught the First Ladies Historical Site and James Garfield Site in Ohio.

Wright Brothers Plane; Wright Brothers National Historical site, Dayton Ohio

Horseshoe Falls, Niagara Falls Ontario Canada

Happy 4th Anniversary! Sep 4, 2019. Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada

Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural site after assignation of President McKinley. Sept 14, 1901; Buffalo NY.

Then just a few weeks later we drove to Indianapolis for the Symphony Ball which is the opening of the symphony season. We had gone to the Chicago Symphony Ball in 2018 and had a great time. The reason we went to Indy this year was two-fold. First, we wouldn’t be in Chicago for the CSO ball but more importantly, Alma Deutscher was performing. Alma is a music prodigy who composed her first piano sonata at age 6 and composed an opera at age 7. She is now 14 and moved from England to live full time in Vienna. Peter has watched many of her YouTube videos so he really wanted to see her in person. The concert was amazing! They played several of Alma’s compositions and watching her perform was incredible. One of the things she’s famous for is “instant composing”. Someone draws 4-5 random notes out of a hat and Alma composes a piece that highlights those notes. She did this at the concert and it was unbelievable. The conductor actually looked at the notes, pulling the hardest ones he could find to make it more difficult for her. After about 2 minutes, she played a 5 minute piece that she had just made up. It was absolutely incredible. Here a link to a YouTube where she demonstrated this on 60 Minutes. This was filmed several years ago so she was even younger.

Later as we were walking to the restaurant for dinner, we saw Alma going into the reception that was being held in her honor. After dinner we went on a carriage ride around the downtown area. It was a very nice evening and we were glad we made the 3-hour trek to Indy.

Symphony Ball, Indianapolis IN September 2019; we sure do clean up good!!

We were only home from Indiana for 5 days before leaving on our fact-finding mission to Phoenix. We’ve spent the last several years looking for places to retire that are out of the cold and humidity. We spent time in Costa Rica in 2018 but crossed that off the list. It’s beautiful but we thought we’d be bored after about a month. Beside, it’s crazy humid down there even in the winter. Peter likes Florida and has family in the Clearwater area but again, the humidity is a problem for my arthritis. In 2017 we spent time in Henderson NV (outside of Las Vegas) and Green Valley AZ (just south of Tucson). We enjoyed both but while Henderson has very low property taxes, the housing is about 10% more expensive than in AZ. Green Valley is cheaper but it’s in the middle of nowhere. The big thing to do there on Friday night is to go to WalMart. The closest nice mall is 2 hours north in Phoenix and we’re afraid we’d feel too isolated.

So, this year we decided to check out Phoenix. We left on September 20th and took 10 days to drive so we could see as much as possible on the trip. Our first stop was St. Joseph MO where we visited the Pony Express museum and saw the house where Jesse James was shot. We didn’t go into the house but it was cool to see the outside.

In Independence we visited Harry Truman’s house, but unfortunately, the library was closed for renovation. Peter was pretty disappointed so we’ll have to be sure to go down again next year once it’s reopened. On Saturday (9/21) we visited Fort Osage National Historical Site before separating for awhile. Peter visited the WWI museum while I had a lunch with my dear friend Themum.

No pictures were allowed in Harry’s house but there was a museum in his cousin’s house across the street.

Themum and Lynn at lunch, Kansas City MO

WWI Museum. I dropped Peter off and went to lunch.

Day 3 we headed to Topeka, KS where we stopped on the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historical Site. The first floor of the school is a civil rights museum and it was very interesting. Then it was on to Tall Grass National Prairie and Ft. Larned.

Stopped by the state capitol building after visiting Brown vs.BOE

I won’t bore you with a day-by-day list but suffice to say we worked our way west stopping at every National Park, Monument and Historical Site we could find including: Sand Creek Massacre, Bent’s Old Fort, Great Sand Dunes, Flourissant National Monument, Chimney Rock, Mesa Verde, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Navajo National Monument, Tuzigoot and Montazuma National Monuments. Along the way we also spent 2 days in Colorado Springs visiting Pike’s Peak, Cripple Creek, and the Air Force Academy. The weather was beautiful so we also managed to get in a round of golf at the academy. We didn’t play very well (at least I didn’t) but the setting was gorgeous so it was a fun afternoon anyway.

Bridge over Royal Gorge; changed a lot since I was there in 1965; can only get to bridge and gorge now if you want to pay $20 per person for the privilege….we didn’t so this was as close as we got; Cortez, CO.

US Air Force Academy Chapel; unfortunately it was closed for repair so we couldn’t go inside.

Northern New Mexico; beautiful countryside

Mesa Verde National Monument, CO; Sep 2019

Four Corners: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah

Natural Bridges, Lake Powell UT, Sept 2019

Dinosaur footprint; Navajo National Monument; Sept 2019

We also stopped in Prescott and finally Sedona before arriving in Phoenix on Oct 31st. We stayed in a small 1 BR condo in Glendale, on the west side of Phoenix. We were there for a month and really enjoyed our time. Just a few days after we arrived we went to San Diego for a wedding. Peter’s brother lives there and his son, Ross, got married. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding and it was nice to see Peter’s family. We hung out for the weekend and stopped at Joshua Tree and Lake Havasu on the way back to Phoenix.

In front of the London Bridge at Lake Havasu, AZ. Oct 2019

While in Phoenix we played a lot of golf, looked at a lot of 55+ housing communities, went to the State Fair and the Symphony (they played music while we watched Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back…it was very cool), danced tango, and met some fellow Italian lovers at an Italian meetup group. We also went to a fall league ball game at the Cubs spring training facility, visited Tonto National Park and Lake Pleasant. Several of our friends live in the Phoenix area so we enjoyed dinner with Mary, Tom and Ben as well as Leona and Jerry. A couple we met in Green Valley in 2017 come to Phoenix to meet us for lunch so it was fun to catch up with them as well.

At the state fair on veterans appreciation day; got in for free!!

The main reason for going to Phoenix was to see if it was a place we could enjoy retirement and so far it’s on the top of the list. We decided that we’d need to be on the east side of the city instead of the west as all of the things we enjoy doing are on that side of the valley. And while the traffic isn’t quite as bad as Chicago, it’s not pleasant so we definitely want to decrease the amount of commuting to our favorite activities as much as possible. Housing prices are very high right now, though, so if we sell our house we may travel for a bit or rent a place before we make the commitment to buy our forever home.

After a month in Phoenix we headed back home just in time for winter. We took another 9 days to get back stopping at more national parks (Painted Desert/Petrified Forest, Hubble Trading Post, El Morro, Petroglyph, Bandelier, Los Alamos, Ft. Union, Oklahoma City Memorial, Pecos Monument, Washita Battlefield and finally, Grant’s Farm). After spending Halloween night in Albuquerque where every child in town was trick or treating in the Old Town we headed to Santa Fe for the night. We also stumbled into the Will Rogers Museum outside of Tulsa OK. It was Will’s birthday so there was no admission charge. We visited Peter’s family in Springfield and Mountain View MO and our last stop was visiting with my niece in the St. Louis area before finally getting home on November 8th. We were gone over 6 weeks and put more than 15,000 miles on the car. We had a great time, though, and think we found where we want to live after we leave Chicago.

Pecos National Historical Park; NM; Nov 2019

Petroglyph National Park; NM; Nov 2019; Petroglyphs are rock paintings done by ancient Indians; we saw a lot of them on our trip.

Peter with friends Robert Oppenheimer and General Groves of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, NM. Nov 2019

Street market in Sante Fe NM; we would love to go back for a day or two.

Washita National Battlefield, OK; Another battle for Custer; came out on top this time but not so lucky 4 years later; Nov 2019

Oklahoma City Memorial; Survivor’s Tree; Nov 2019

One of the office clocks that stopped at the exact moment of the bombing.

Wall of Remembrance; the museum was very well done. The child in the middle picture on the pillar is the one in the famous photo below.

Will Rogers Memorial Museum; Tulsa OK; one of his saddles. Nov 2019

With niece Rachel; Springfield MO; Nov 2019

As if traveling and renovating the basement weren’t enough, we also did a lot of work in our kitchen, putting in new countertops, backsplash and appliances. We plan to put the house on the market in the spring so we’re working on getting it in shape to sell. We changed the flooring in the kitchen last year so the only thing left from the “original” kitchen are the cabinets. Those were too expensive to change so we just swapped out the hardware. The kitchen looks great and should be a nice selling feature.

After a wonderful Thanksgiving with my brother and his family, we took one more trip….we spent a week in a resort in San Jose del Cabo in Mexico. We got it as a gift for attending a time share presentation. We had no desire to buy yet another timeshare (already have 2 with Hilton Grand Vacations) but we wanted the free week someplace warm so it was worth the 90 minutes we spent at the presentation. Neither one of us had been to Cabo before so we were excited to go. It was especially nice since it was 20 degrees in Chicago when we left and 80 degrees when we arrived in Mexico.

We stayed at the Park Royal Homestay in San Jose del Cabo about 20 minutes north of Cabo San Lucas. It was a small resort but the condo was a nice 1 bedroom with a full kitchen and a balcony overlooking the golf course. There was a pool but the water was too cold to swim comfortably so we just hung out on the sunbeds and drank delicious margaritas.

Our kitchen and living room; bedroom is down the hall.

View of the golf course from our balcony.

The pool in our resort; there’s a swim up baron the right side. Water was too cold to swim but you could walk down the stairs and get to the bar that way.

We scored a free round of golf at one of the fancy resorts just north of here. It was all inclusive so every 3 holes we stopped for margaritas and tacos. We didn’t play well but it was a gorgeous course and we had margaritas, so who cares!!

Golf Course at Puerto Los Cabos. Absolutely gorgeous course.

We went to Cabo for a half-day kayak and snorkeling trip to the arch. It was a beautiful day and the water was heavenly. The arch is the point where the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez come together.

Kayaking to the arch; this is on the Sea of Cortez side.

We parked our kayak and walked on the beach to the Pacific Ocean side.

When we got back to the resort, we walked to “downtown” San Jose del Cabo. There wasn’t much there but we enjoyed the walk and had a nice lunch. Then it was back to the resort for more pool time.

Unfortunately, that’s when my vacation ended as I woke up on Wednesday morning with a slight touch of the stomach flu. I know what you’re thinking…yeah right….the flu. Honest, I hadn’t had any alcohol to drink since Monday and we only drank bottled water. I had a slight fever, chills, and generally felt like garbage. We had planned a rest day anyway so Peter hung out at the pool while I slept through the day. Thursday I felt a little better but didn’t stray too far from bed. By Friday I felt human again but was a little afraid to wander too far from home so Peter played golf at our course while I hung out by the pool (no margaritas….just Sprite). The only thing we had planned to do that got cancelled was taking the bus down to Cabo. We passed through the town on our way to our kayak trip on Monday but didn’t get to see much so we had planned to go back. I guess we’ll just have to return again some day soon.

As I write this we’re waiting for the car to pick us up to take us back to the airport for our trip home. Even with my being sick we still had a great time. But it’s time to get ready for the holiday and plan our next adventure…which begins exactly 10 weeks from today when we go to Aruba for a week. I am super excited about that trip as I’ve always wanted to go to Aruba. We used points from our Hilton Grand Vacation membership and are staying at a nice golf resort. Here’s the link to their website. https://www.diviresorts.com/divi-village-golf-beach-resort-aruba.htm

Well…happy holidays everyone and have a great 2020. We’ll talk again from Aruba!!

Love to all.

Peter and Lynn

Last Day of the Adventure

June 25

Our country house in Castel Madama. We had the upper floor.

We left our Country House just before 8am as we wanted to get to our first stop at 0830 when it opened to (a) beat the tour busses and (b) beat the heat. We succeeded on both counts. We were the first ones at the Villa d’Este which is a 16th century villa in Tivoli. The villa was beautiful but it is most famous for its Italian Renaissance garden. This is the 3rd Italian garden we’ve seen and while there are some flowers, the garden is mostly terraced evergreens. Very different from an English garden which is loaded with flowers.

The villa is an Italian State Museum and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was first commissioned in the early 16th century by a local cardinal (Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este) who was a patron of the arts. The villa is gigantic but only 7 or 8 rooms are open to the public. Every square inch of the walls and ceiling are covered in frescos which, given that they are 450 years old, are in amazing condition.

Here’s also a video I took of this last room.

https://youtu.be/uYWB6LCcjwM Villa

After touring the villa, we went out to the gardens. It is terraced on 4 or 5 levels and has a beautiful view of the surrounding area.

The garden includes fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins. It is fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps. Not all of the fountains and spouts are working but there was still a lot of water flying around. Here are a few pictures but the best way to experience it is through video. So, I did several of those as well.

https://youtu.be/PFt3Y4qzKiY Garden Part 1

https://youtu.be/VjVUJeqBCvo Garden Part 2

https://youtu.be/i38MLc_8zxE Garden Part 3

https://youtu.be/0bJkhzkTPaI Garden Part 4

https://youtu.be/t1OnJ7pqatg Garden Part 5

These apartments are outside the walls of the garden but overlook the area. Can you imagine how beautiful it must be to sit on your balcony and see this everyday…very cool.

We had the garden to ourselves for a good portion of our visit before 2 other couples who showed up after about 20 minutes. Once we were heading back up the terraces to leave, the tour groups had started to arrive so we were glad we had come early.

Then it was a 20-minute drive to Villa Adriana or Hadrian’s Villa in English. The villa was constructed over 10-20 years in the 2nd Century AD by Emperor Hadrian as a summer palace. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. While a little more crowded than the Villa d’Este, it was a huge area so it wasn’t bad at all.

The ruins are in amazing condition, especially the area around the pool.

https://youtu.be/6C5S6f-0ouk Model of the Villa Adriana; it must have been amazing.

We didn’t actually see the entire area as we were getting tired and it was very hot, almost 90 at around noon. So we slowly walked back to the car for the 50-minute drive to the Hilton Garden Inn at Fiumicino airport. We dropped off the bags then dropped of the car. It was a bit frustrating as we had trouble finding gas at the airport, but we finally got the tank filled and turned the car in.

We originally planned to go into Rome for the rest of the afternoon for a final dinner and gelato but we decided against it. It would have cost about $70 round trip on the train but the bigger reason was that by mid afternoon it was in the upper 90s and we just didn’t feel like dealing with the crowds in Rome in that heat. So….we ate lunch at the airport but couldn’t find any gelato. But, we had some delicious gelato on Sunday in Volterra so that’s okay. For dinner we’ll just have something at the hotel. We’re hot and tired so it will be nice to just relax tonight. We have a long day tomorrow, including a 10 1/2 hour flight, so an early night is in order.

So….our 2nd Italian Adventure is pretty much over. We covered a lot of territory, putting over 5600 km (3400 miles) on the car. Here’s the route we traveled but I couldn’t get it all on one map. The route mostly includes the places we stopped for the night. The route is a lot bigger if you add all the stops and day trips.

From Rome to Gaeta to Paestum to Messina to Mondello to Trapani to Licata to Catania and finally back to Messina.

After crossing the Straits at Messina, we went to Matera, then Lecce (via Taranto), then Trani, then 3 days at the beach in Martinsicuro, then Assisi, Bologna, and Florence.

Finally it was Florence to the Tuscan countryside (via Volterra) all the way down to Castel Madama and finally back to the airport.

Including the 18,000 steps we walked today, our total step count is about 600,000 with our biggest day being Day 1 in Rome (when we were totally jet lagged and my ankle was killing me) with just under 25,000 steps. What does this mean in miles….254 miles. To put that in perspective, we walked from Chicago to Louisville KY on this trip which is a 5-hour drive. And for the last 3 weeks we’ve been walking in 90 degree temperatures so that made it even more difficult.

Alberobello gets my vote as the coolest town we visited.

Even though this trip was physically a little harder on both of us, we did very well. I didn’t have to buy a cane and or call ahead to make an ortho appointment so we’re way ahead of last year. While we didn’t see everything we planned (Malta was too expensive, about $750 for 3 days, so that got crossed off the list fairly early in the trip) but neither of us is disappointed. We met some wonderful people including an Australian couple who are now Peter’s friends on Facebook and another Aussie couple today who are on day 7 of a 14-week trip. Yikes!!

Just one of the many delicious meals we had.

And of course there were the wonderful Italian people, the food and the gorgeous country. We found several places that we’d like to stay for a while including Lecce, Florence and the lake we saw yesterday. But, just like our other adventures, the absolute best part was experiencing it together. While being joined at the hip for such a long time can have its challenges, for the most part we did very well.

So what’s next? We have a mini-adventure coming up in the fall when we go to Arizona for a month. Of course we’ll stop at as many National Parks as humanly possible….gotta fill up my book with stamps. Our next European adventure is planned for August/September of 2020. This one is super-special as it is our 5th wedding anniversary trip and we’re headed to the UK for a month and then back to France and the Benelux countries for another month. Not quite time to start planning but that will come soon enough.

Thanks again to all our faithful followers for continuing to share in our adventures. It’s great to have you travel with us. Love to you all. Arrivederci, alla prossima volta.

Under the Tuscan Sun

June 24

We were in 4 different regions today. We started in Tuscany and when we got to Cortona we were on the border between Tuscany and Umbria but I guess “Under the Umbrian Sun” didn’t have the same ring to it. We were in Perugia when we were at the lake, we drove through Umbria again after leaving the lake and finally tonight were in Lazio.

Yesterday (Sunday) was pretty quiet. After sitting by the pool for a couple of hours we went back to Volterra for lunch. But that was pretty much it.

Today started out with a trip to the northern suburbs of Florence to mail home a box. It was the closest Mail Box Etc., and was only about 10 minutes out of our way. We wanted to mail the alabaster lamp as we (well really me) was paranoid about trying to get it on the plane. I didn’t want to deal with security rejecting it so I thought the best thing to do was mail it back. As long as we were mailing a box we sent our jackets (which we haven’t used in 4 weeks) and other things we bought. So our two carry-on sized bags are almost 16 pounds lighter. Yeah!

Then it was on to our last Airbnb home in Castel Madama, near Tivoli. But since we our route took us within 25 km (about 15 miles) of Cortona (the town from the movie Under the Tuscan Sun), we decided to take a detour. We’re so glad we did as it was a really cute town. It seemed like an artist colony as we saw quite a few galleries and workshops. The town is on a hill and was beautiful from a distance but we couldn’t find anyplace to pull over to take a picture. Here are a few from town.

Delicious looking gelato; we didn’t have any because we were full from lunch. The presentation is always so beautiful.

Main town squ;are with the town hall. This was the square where the movie producers added a fountain for a couple of scenes. It’s not there any longer.

Ate at the restaurant just through the arch.

Tuscany is famous for sunflowers; this was so pretty.

The side streets are so beautiful. This one looks like a post card. This was actually a pretty steep hill.

As I said, there were a lot of artist workshops and we found one shop we really liked. The art was almost abstract, which neither one of us like, but they were so different they were actually very pretty. We bought a couple of very small pieces that easily fit into our suitcase.

Posing with the artist. You can see some of his work in the background. We liked the ones in neutral tones rather than the full color.

After lunch we started back on the road south, but detoured once again to Lake Trasimeno, only about 25 minutes south of Cortona. It was a beautiful drive and the lake looked amazing. We wouldn’t mind staying for a few weeks someday. It’s on our list, but as you know, our list is pretty long so who knows when we’ll actually get there again.

Have no idea what town this was but thought the building was pretty cool.

Beautiful Tuscan countryside. That’s a different lake in the background but don’t remember the name.

Once we stopped detouring it was only about another 90 minutes to our country house in Castel Madama. The house is very nice and our host was amazing. She drove us to pick up a few groceries as she didn’t want us to drive into town. Now that we’ve been there we understand. It’s a typical hilltop town with streets barely wide enough for a horse cart let alone a car. We were very appreciative of the ride.

Tomorrow, we’re seeing our last few sites….Hadrian’s Villa and Villa d’Este both of which are only about 15 minutes from here. Then it’s back to the airport to drop our stuff at the Hilton before taking the car back. It will be a busy day.

Lazy Day at the Beach

June 22

We drove about 45 minutes northwest of the resort to the beaches in Pisa. We rented an umbrella and chairs for 15 euro for as long as we want them. The water is pretty cold, about the same as the pool at the beach resort on the Adriatic but it was still fun.

We’re in a protected cove which is good because the current is pretty bad here.

When we leave here we’ll go hang by the pool until it’s time to make dinner. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow; maybe just hang by the pool all day. It’s our last day to relax as we have about 4 hours of driving on Monday then on Tuesday we have to take the car back and get ready to fly home on Wednesday. So resting tomorrow sounds like a great idea.

Delightful Dinner in Tuscan Countryside

June 21

Without GPS we would have never found the restaurant as it was down a hill and on an unpaved road. Even once we arrived I thought we were in the wrong place. We weren’t and ended up having a wonderful dinner. We sat with 2 other couples staying at the resort. The first 5 days they were in Italy the took a Vespa tour around Tuscany. That’s not something on our list of things to do but they loved it.

Dinner was a traditional Italian 4-course meal beginning with the Antipasta.

Starting at 12:00: Procuitto crudo (smoked ham); bruschetta with sausage (actually quite good); empty bowl that held olives (Peter took them off my plate immediately; I hate olives); typical bruschetta; pecorino cheese and I can’t remember the name of the salad but it contained barley and other things.

Then it was on to the prima patti which is a pasta dish. This time it was pasta with a simple ragu sauce like the kind we learned to make at our Italian cooking class in 2016.

By this time I was pretty full but we still had two more courses to go. The next was the secondi patti, which is the second plate, and could be meat or fish. We had very thinly sliced roast pork with roasted potatoes. This is a typical Tuscan secondi patti that we also made in our cooking class.

Only ate half of this as I needed to save room for dolce.

Finally it was time for the last course, the dolce. There were about 10 to pick from so it was a tough choice. Both were delicious.

My dessert was hazelnut cream topped with chocolate and pistachio.

Peter’s was custard, cream, strawberries topped with dark chocolate.

Then of course there was wine and Peter finished his dinner off with coffee American which turned into an expresso. Dinner last 2 1/2 hours which is the only way you can eat so much food at one time. Roberta, our street food tour guide in Bologna, said it is rare for Italians to eat a full meal like this. She said they usually have either a prima patti or a secondi patti but not both. A full meal is saved for special occasions. Peter and I had talked about doing this before we left and since this dinner was arranged by the resort with other guests, we thought it was a great time to do it. We’re so glad we did. It was a lot of food late in the evening but it was a ton of fun.

Ancient City of Volterra

June 21

Happy Summer everyone!! Although we’ve had very hot weather (at least 90 every day) for the last two weeks, today it’s officially summer. As you can see from the map, we went a little out of our way today but we couldn’t check into the resort until 4pm and it was too far to go, so we decided to visit Volterra before coming to the resort. We are so glad we did. What a cool town!!

Volterra has its origins in the 8th century BC and has been home to both the Etruscans and the Romans. There are still quite a few structures left from those olden days.

We went to the Etruscan Museum and there were lots of examples of funeral urns as well as the usual pottery, coins, jewelry, etc. Here are some examples.

Can you believe this is about 2500 years old. What great condition!

This tile floor is also in amazing condition.

Volterra is famous for its alabaster. It is a mined stone and is only found in this area. The most abundant is white alabaster and the brown is much more rare and, therefore, expensive. We found just about everything you can think of in the stone….jewelry (was tempted but I resisted), bath items like soap dishes and toothbrush holders, picture frames, wine glasses, vases small and large, chandeliers, bowls, etc. Peter found a small lamp that he loved so we got that. It cost more to ship than it did to purchase so I’ll figure out how we’re going to get it home. It’s mostly white but has a little brown in it. We saw one in another shop that had a lot more brown and even though it was the same size as ours, it cost more than double. Guess the brown is more expensive.

Peaked inside a workshop; the large rocks haven’t yet been cut into anything.

One of the larger shops; these items were beautiful.

Of course there was also lunch. Peter had pizza and I took a walk on the wild side and had a calzone…very delicious.

Here are a few pictures from the town.

After leaving Volterra, it was a short 30-minute ride to the Hilton Grand Vacation Resort in the Tuscan countryside. It’s in the middle of nowhere but that’s not a problem with the car. After getting settled we headed down to the pool. The water was lovely, cool and refreshing but not cold. That’s a nice switch.

Tonight we’re going to an authentic Tuscan dinner in town. It was arranged by the resort and it’s a traditional 4 course meal. We had an early lunch so we’re hungry. Have a great night.

Day of di’Medici

June 20

We spent the bulk of today touring the Pitti Palace, the Palatine Gallery and the Boboli Gardens. We took a tour which was wonderful. If you ever go to Florence (and it should be on everyone’s bucket list) we recommend checking out florencepass.com. The is a tour company, not the 24 hour pass of the same name. Even though we bought the tour on Viator, the tour was organized by the tour company. Our guide, Roberta, was incredibly knowledgeable but the best part was that we didn’t have to follow a flag. In fact, since all of their tours are limited to no more than 12 people, they don’t ever use flags. The first part of the tour, which included the Palace and Gallery, had 9 participants. But the second part where we toured the garden only had four.

The middle section of the front of Pitti Palace; the place is gigantic and contains 8 museums.

The Pitti Palace was first built in 1458. The Pitti family were rivals of the de’Medici family and built the palace to demonstrate their wealth. Unfortunately, once they built the palace they didn’t have their wealth any more so they had to sell. Of course, the only family with enough money to buy it was the di’Medici family who, throughout the years, enlarged it. It is now the largest museum complex in Florence.

The first place we toured was several rooms of the actual palace.

Room filled with 16th century tapestries.

Ceiling and part of a wall froom the white room which was a waiting room for guests.

Then it was on to the Palatine Gallery. This was the di’Medicis’ private gallery. Every painting, table, stature and vase is in the exact spot that it was when the di’Medici lived there. There are over 1800 paintings in the gallery, 90% of which the di’Medici bought. Only 10% were actually commissioned by the family. There was so much to look at it was almost sensory overload but Roberta pointed out the most important pieces. Here are a few of my favorites.

Sandro Boticelli was a good friend of Lorenzo the Magnificent (grandson of Cosimo the Elder) and benefited from the patronage of the family. We saw many of his paintings but this was the only one I took a picture of.

There was an entire room dedicated to Raphael.

This frame was commissioned specifically for this painting.

This is a portrait of Raphael’s fiancée.

And then there was Rubens.

Self portrait; Rubens is the man on the far left.

There were incredible ceilings.

And a 16th century floor.

Looks like a wall but it’s actually the floor.

And a door.

Every room was floor to ceiling art work.

There were magnificent tables hand made of marble and semi-precious stones. There are master craftsmen who still make tables the way they did 400 years ago. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to own something so amazing!

Can you believe this is a 400 year old table top?

The Palace was taken over by the Hapsburgs in the early 18th century when the last male descendant of Cosimo I (a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent who took over the rule when the last of Lorenzo’s family died out) died without heirs. Why the Hapsburgs (Austria) you ask? Well….the eldest son of Cosimo I married one of the Hapsburg, so they took over the rule of Florence. In the late 18th century, Napoleon made the Palace his headquarters.

Napoleon’s bathroom; the tub is made from a solid piece of Carrera marble.

After the tour of the Palace and Gallery, we took a short break before heading out to the Boboli Gardens. The land is adjacent to the Palace and was bought from the Boboli family so Cosimo the First’s wife (Eleonora) could have a garden.

One of the lakes had an island filled with lemon and orange trees as well as rose bushes.

This was a gigantic roman bath and an Egyptian obelisk.

Lemon House where they store the fruit trees during the winter.

There was a beautiful view of the Dome from the garden.

There was also an amazing grotto carved into the rock.

The tour ended about 1:45 by which time we were hot, tired and starving so off to lunch we went. After lunch we slowly made our way back to the train station passing by many of the unique sites of Florence.

Ponte Vecchio from the inside; as always it was crazy crowded. It’s lined with dozens of jewelry shops and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Florence.

Palazzo Vecchio (tower on left) was the town house of the di’Medici.

Given that we were here less than 48 hours, we packed in quite a bit. We knew we weren’t going to stay long but I’ll take any opportunity to visit Florence, even if it’s only for a few hours. What an amazing city!

Tomorrow we’re off to the Hilton Resort in the Tuscan countryside. It will be a nice place to relax for a few days.

My Favorite City in the World

June 19

Before we get to our two days in Florence, let’s finish with Bologna. Before we left town, we drove to the Sanctuary of San Luca which sits high above the city. A church as existed on this site for a thousand years but the present church was constructed fairly recently in the early 18th century. Of course we managed to get there just in time for Mass but since we’d driven for 30 minutes up a very windy road, we decided to stay until Mass was over so we could get a better look at the beautiful church. We could have walked up the 100 stairs to the top of the dome (and paid 5 euro each for the privilege) but as you might guess we took a pass.

Beautiful carving at one of the side chapels.

It’s about a 15 minute walk to the tram and a 10-15 minute ride to the Central train station; not as cool as last time when we lived right in the city center but with a car it was the best we could do; parking is impossible in the historic center.

Then it was time to head back down the hill towards Florence. This is the 4th time I’ve been here and am excited that I can see different things this time as Peter has done all the “must see” attractions.

By the time we got settled into the flat (which is in the suburbs; the only way with a car) and we made our way to the tram and into the city center, it was after 1pm so the first thing we did was find something to eat. After lunch we headed towards the Casa Buonarroti, which is one of the homes of Michaelangelo (did you know his last name was Buonarroti??) here in Florence. It is now a very nice museum that includes some of the artist’s work.

After the museum it was a 2-block walk to the Basilica of Santa Croce which is the largest Franciscan church in the world. It was built in the late 13th century and legend has it that it was founded by St. Francis.

Think this is part of a cloak worn by St. Francis

I took a zillion pictures but here are just a few.

One of the 16 side alters; Crucifix was carved by Donatello

Oldest painting in the church; dates back to 13th century.

The Basilica is also known as the Temple of Italian Glories as there are many Italian greats buried here.

Composer Rossini (William Tell Overture)

Galileo; was only buried here 80 years after his death as he had been excommunicated.

Dante is not actually buried here as he was exhiled from Florence; this is a memorial to him.

For some reason there is also a memorial to Florence Nightingale.

The outside courtyard was just as beautiful as the inside.

By the time we finished touring the church, which took well over an hour, we were hot (90s again today), tired and in desperate need of gelato. Luckily, there was a cafeteria with gelato right on the corner.

Peter’s (on left) was chocolate chip; mine was my favorite combination…wild cherry and strawberry

On our way back to the train station to catch the tram home, we wandered through the Central Market. This is several blocks of stalls selling all the usual stuff….leather goods, tee-shirts, scarves, etc. We’ll go back tomorrow when we’re not quite as tired.

It’s almost 9pm and I’m too tired to proofread so hopefully there aren’t too many mistakes. Tomorrow we get to follow the flag as we’re signed up for a day trip to the Pitti Palace. We’ll let you know how it goes.