Today we were never further than a mile from the flat and we still walked over 16,000 steps. And that was with taking the bus across Tower Bridge towards our first stop of Tower of London. Had we walked we would have added at least another 2,000 steps.
Anyway, we were first in line at the Tower but of course by the time we got in lots of people got ahead of us (we don’t walk very quickly) at the Crown Jewels exhibition. It wasn’t a problem, though, as the exhibit holds a lot of people so there was no wait to get in. A couple of hours later there was a massive “snake” line outside the building.
Tower of London
The Jewels are amazing but, unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures. To follow up on yesterday’s post about the weight of the Coronation Dress and Robe, when adding the State Imperial Crown, the Orb and Staff, Elizabeth had an extra 30 pounds on her. The Beefeater at the exhibit told us that the Queen doesn’t usually wear the Crown for longer than 15 minutes because of its weight.
After the Crown Jewels we visited the Fusilier Museum.
Fusilier MuseumThere were about a dozen display cases with the different types of medals. This one is a Victoria Cross which is the equivalent of our Medal of Honor. This is the pack for a modern Fusilier. It was only 1/4 the normal weight and I couldn’t move it off the table. The soldier’s pack normally weighs 80 kg (almost 160 pounds).
After the museum we wandered the grounds. We skipped the Bloody Tower as it has a very narrow, spiral staircase without a handrail. Not having a handrail to drag ourselves up the stairs is a deal-breaker so we took a pass. We also skipped the White Tower and its 206 stairs. But, we saw the rest of the complex plus the pretty Chapel Royal of St. Peter and Vincula.
The ChapelBaptismal Font.
In several of the Towers we saw carvings done by the prisoners.
In addition to the prison, we saw the medieval palace built by Henry III his son Edward I. The Palace is made up of three towers – St. Thomas, Wakefield and Lanthorn.
Replica of Edward I bedroom.Throne of Henry III
Finally, we learned about the Ravens of the Tower. Their presence is said to protect the monarchy. At one time, the King ordered their destruction only to be told that if the ravens left the Tower, the White Tower would fall and a great disaster befall the Kingdom. Sensibly the King changed his mind and decreed that at least six ravens should be kept at the Tower at all times to prevent disaster. The Beefeater who told us the story said, there are currently 8 ravens. They like to have a spare just in case.
One of the Ravens of the Tower
After finishing at the Tower, we headed to Tower Bridge. It was still fairly early (about noon) so the line wasn’t too long. Once again, we skipped the 206 stairs and took the lift to the top.
Tower Bridge from the east walkway.
When we got back down the other side, we discovered that the bridge was going up in just a few minutes so we hung out to watch. It was very cool…up and down in less than 3 minutes.
Looking up at Tower Bridge.
We decided to head to the HMS Belfast, a WWII light cruiser that’s docked in the Thames. I thought it was part of our London Pass but it turns out it’s not. It would have cost about $60 to tour, which we didn’t mind, but we weren’t sure if Peter would be able to make it up and down the ladders, so we decided to skip it. We’ve seen the aircraft carrier, USS Midway, in San Diego as well as the Battleship Missouri in Hawaii, so didn’t feel we were missing too much.
HMS Belfast
For lunch we went to Borough Market, which is a gigantic open air-market filled with street food stalls. We’d never seen that many ethnic foods in one spot before. But it was crazy crowded and even if we had found something we wanted to eat, we would have had no place to sit so we decided to find a restaurant instead.
One very small part of the Borough Market.
After lunch we walked a few blocks to Southward Cathedral but found it was closed until late afternoon due to a graduation that was taking place in the church. Since it was only about 2:30 we skipped that too, and headed for our last stop of the day…the Shard.
Our tickets for top weren’t until 4pm but since there was nowhere for us to sit while we waited the guards let us go up early. While not the Sears Tower, the view was still quite impressive. Today was the first day we’d had sun all day so it was a perfect day to visit the top.
The Shard from the opposite side of the Thames.St. Paul’s Cathedral from the Shard.Cuz I didn’t already have 50 pictures of the Tower Bridge.We enjoyed a beverage while at the top. It was a very relaxing visit.
By the time we left the Shard our feet were tired, and we were ready for a relaxing evening. It was only a 15-minute walk home, but it seemed like forever before we were in our flat.
Tomorrow we’ve got a full day at Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster. We’re really looking forward to it. Have a great evening.
Today was an absolutely amazing day. We had a very pleasant one-hour train ride from Waterloo station to Windsor. The ride was so smooth that you almost couldn’t feel it move.
The London Eye from the Waterloo Station.
As we exited the train and looked to the left, we could see that amazing castle. It is right in the middle of the town. Even for us it was only 10-minute walk to the road leading to the entrance. Our London Pass got us in without standing in the ticket line so that was even better.
Photo in the ticket hall. Don’t you just love the little one holding the famous purse!
Here are some pictures of the grounds.
The flag was on the standard which means the Queen was home. I wonder which of the over 1000 rooms she was in. The Castle has almost 500,000 square feet.CourtyardThink I have enough stuff hanging from my neck? No wonder my back hurts by the end of the day.
We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the Castle but here is a link to the Royal Collection Trust website which has photos of the State Apartments. They were incredible.
We’re very fortunate that the special exhibit for the Platinum Jubilee was still open. We saw about a dozen of the brooches she likes to wear, the necklace and earrings she wore to the coronation (the diamonds are so big they look fake…they’re not) as well as the coronation gown and robe. It was a stunning exhibition!
Maple Leaf Brooch. One of the many brooches we saw. Coronation Gown; the detail was amazing!The coronation robe is over 21 feet long and weight 15 pounds. And the Imperial Crown (we’ll see that Friday) weights almost 3 pounds. She’s only 5’3″; how did she walk in all of this?
One of the other cool things we saw at the Castle was the bullet that killed Lord Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805. The bullet went through the epaulet on his uniform and the gold threads are still visible on the bullet. Amazing!
After the Castle we visited St. George’s Chapel. While much smaller than St. Paul’s Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, it bigger than any chapel I’ve ever seen. This is where Harry and Meghan were married.
Inside the Chapel we saw the graves of Queen Elizabeth II family (but not Prince Philip; he’s in the Royal Vault which we didn’t see), Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, King George V and his wife Queen Mary (Elizabeth’s grandparents) plus lots more.
St. George’s ChapelGuard near one of the gates.
We spent over 3 hours touring the two building and the grounds. It was actually a little emotional. Thinking about all the history, past and current, that has taken place in that Castle since it was built by William the Conqueror in 1070 was almost overwhelming. It was well worth the train ride.
The town of Windsor is very pretty. We didn’t hang out long, just long enough to have a delicious lunch at the Carpenter’s Arms Pub before heading back to the train.
Does this look like a British pub or what?
We had a delicious lunch of fish and chips.
Here you go Cynthia. Enjoying my Pimm’s with lemonade. Pimm’s is a gin-based liqueur. It was sweet and delicious.Walking street we saw on our way back to the train station.
Today was another tiring but terrific day. Still didn’t get to any of the museums Peter wants to see (British and Imperial War) but we’ll get to them eventually. Tomorrow it’s Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. These are very close to flat so we shouldn’t be walking too much. Famous last words! I’ll let you know.
Today got off to a rough start when we stood on a street corner for 90 minutes waiting for the hop on/hop off bus to show up. There were multiple busses from the other companies but the only one from our company drove past without stopping. There’s a one-day train strike so we weren’t sure what was happening with the Tube and since our feet were already tired from standing, we decided on a taxi.
We got to the Abbey about an hour later than we wanted but the line wasn’t too long and we made it just in time for the 10:30 guided tour. I’ve been to the Abbey several times but it’s the first time I did the tour and was glad we spent the extra money. The guide was very knowledgeable, and even though he threatened to charge me with treason (I asked where QE II wanted to be buried; apparently, it’s treason to refer to the death of a current monarch) we enjoyed the tour.
The Abbey got very crowded so it was virtually impossible to get pictures without a ton of people in them but I did the best I could. Enjoy.
I think this was the west entrance.There is no more room to bury bodies, but ashes can still be buried. Stephan Hawking was the latest burial.Churchill didn’t want to be buried in the Abbey so they laid this memorial marker instead. This is adjacent to the Tomb of the Warrior (which we couldn’t get close to because of the crowds).Coronation Chair. It’s pretty beat up because one of the Kings many years ago allowed the public to sit in the chair. Since 1308 every monarch has been crowned in this chair except for three. Peter was the only one in our group that remembers watching QEII coronation on television.QuireAltar Screen with altar used for everyday services.Geoffrey Chaucer’s crypt in Poet’s CornerCrypts of QEI and Queen Mary (she’s buried beneath QEI).Green area from one of the exit corridors.
It was after 12:30 before we finished in the Abbey so we stopped for a sandwich in St. James Park. We still had 2 things to do (Churchill War Rooms and Imperial War Museum) but knew we only had time for one. Since I’d already seen both I let Peter decide. It came as no surprise that he picked the War Rooms which was great as it was only a 5-minute walk.
I’d visited here in 2002 when I was in London with my mom but now it’s very different. The first time I was there it was a guided tour by people dressed in WWII uniforms and talking as if it were during the war (“this is where we have lunch”). It was a very cool tour and only about an hour. Now it’s a self-guided tour with audio guides. In 2005 they opened a gigantic Churchill Museum so by the time we did both, it was after 3:30. Since the War Museum closes at 5:00 and our feet were very tired, we decided to call it a day and head home. Being a military buff, Peter needs to see the Imperial War Museum, but I’ll figure out how to make it happen.
I didn’t take too many pictures in the museum as it was quite dark and I couldn’t use a flash, but here are a couple. They’re a little blurry but was the best I could do without a flash.
Cabinet RoomChurchill’s OfficeMap RoomChurchill is the only Prime Minister to have worn a uniform.Flag that covered Churchill’s coffin at his funeral in 1965.
A relatable story about Winston Churchill. He was in New York City in 1931 and was almost killed when he was hit by a car because he looked the wrong way when crossing the street. We can totally relate to that as we’ve been looking the wrong way since we got here. In spite of the corner’s painted with reminders to “look right” it’s still just automatic to look left first.
Tomorrow we’re off to Windsor. We were planning to spend the day, but I think we might just visit the Castle and St. George Chapel. Maybe that will give us enough time to visit the War Museum back in London. It depends on how much walking we do in Windsor. Talk with you tomorrow.
Note to self – Don’t plan as many things in a day as you did in 2019. We’re three years older and slower.
Our poor feet wore out after only 10000 steps today so we didn’t visit a few things we thought we’d get to today but we still had a full day. We started the day by walking to London Bridge station (about 15 minutes) to get the bus to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was only 9:30 when we arrived to it was relatively empty. It’s a beautiful church designed by Sir Christopher Wren and replaced the church destroyed in the Great London Fire of 1666. We visited the main church and the crypt but took a pass on climbing the 528 steps to the dome.
St. Paul’s Cathedral is the only domed church in London.From the front of the Cathedral.Monument to WellingtonCathedral DomeI think I’m might try this for my next stained glass project. Choir boxes.Wellington’s CryptNelson’s Crypt
After visiting the Cathedral, we picked up the Golden Tours Hop On/Hop Off bus. Both this bus and the Big Bus were included in our London Pass but this one came first so we hopped on. We were headed to Royal Albert Hall which is only about 4 miles as the crow flies but we were in a tourist bus so the route wasn’t the most direct. Also, traffic was horrible so it took over 90 minutes to get there. It was a relaxing drive, though, and we passed through several areas that we may, or may not, get back to so we’re glad we made the trip.
We got to the Royal Albert Hall just in time for the 12:30 tour and it was terrific. The Hall celebrated its 150th anniversary last year but because of the pandemic they didn’t have the celebration they had originally planned. There are over 400 performances per year, which is more than one per day.
In front of the Royal Albert Hall.From the gallery which is the upper most (5th) level. These are standing tickets although people bring their yoga mats and lay on the floor. The “mushrooms” handing from the ceiling are to help with the acoustics.Royal Box. When not in use by a member of the Royal Family, anyone who works for the Firm (could be a gardener in Winsor Castle) can request to use the box. The only caveat is that they have to dress in formal attire and pay 5 pounds which is donated to charity. Pretty cool deal.Stairway the Royal Family uses to get to the box. There is a lift if the Queen needs it. If she takes the lift, special drapes are used to cover the walls.
Across the street from the Theater is the Albert Monument. It took over 10 years to construct and cost about 120,000 pounds (about 13,000,000 pounds in 2022). They spent so much on the monument they didn’t have anything left to build the theater. They raised money by selling boxes to the wealthy patrons. Each box seat was 100 pounds which, when adjusted for inflation, is just over 13,000 pounds. The boxes either had 5 or 12 seats so a family buying an entire box was investing a lot of money. For their 100 pounds, they had use of the seat for every performance for 999 years. Quite the deal!
Albert Monument. Made with real gold and has precious jewels embedded. No wonder it cost so much. The monument is directly across the street from the Hall.
Behind the Monument is Hyde Park. We wanted to see the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain but took a wrong turn and ended up back at the Albert Monument, which is where we started. Since we were getting tired, we decided to pass on the fountain. Maybe we’ll see it another time.
Hyde Park
We were going to walk to Hyde Park corner where Wellington’s Arch is located but ran out of steam about half way there. We were right across the street from the Knightsbridge tube station but we would have had to transfer at least once and decided it was too much trouble. So, we jumped in a cab. With traffic, it still took over 30 minutes to get to the other side of the city so it was almost 4pm before we finally got home.
While tiring, it was a great day and we look forward to visiting Westminster Abbey, Churchill’s War Rooms and the Imperial War Museum tomorrow. That should be enough for one day.
The great news is that internet is finally up and running! Apparently there was an outage in the entire area. Hopefully it will work for the rest of our stay. The blog is so much easier to write when I can use all my fingers to type.
Before taking the Uber Boat to Greenwich we found an EE store and got new SIM cards for our phones. They’re good for 30 days but, unlike ones we’ve gotten in the past, we can just top these off instead of having to purchase new SIM cards. With these new cards, the only way to reach us is either by email (lynnspeaks1955@gmail.com) or WhatsApp. Our new cards are already coming in handy as the internet in the flat still isn’t working. I have a feeling I’ll be writing the blog on my phone the entire time we’re in London.
Greenwich was very nice. Our first stop was Pizza Express for lunch. My sister was here a few years ago and raved about the pizza. While not real Italian pizza it was still quite good. I could happily eat at another one during our travels. Ok Cynthia, here are your first two food pictures.
This is their version of brushetta. Instead of small slices of bread, they use a mini focaccia. It was very good although I could have lived without the raw onions. Our Margherita pizza with a very thin, crispy crust…yummy!
After lunch we headed to the Royal Observatory where we visited the museum and straddled the prime meridian. We went to the observatory itself but didn’t see the telescope as we choose not to climb a very narrow, windy staircase.
Peter at zero longitude.
The pictures from the museum are on my camera not my phone so I won’t be able to upload any of them until I have a Wifi connection. Sorry.
Our final stop in Greenwich was the Cutty Sark, a Victorian age clipper ship. It’s been a museum since 1957 and was very interesting.
Cutty SarkPeter at the wheel. It’s the only thing he’ll be driving on this trip. The lower deck.
After taking the boat back to the Tower Bridge stop, we walked back to the flat which is a few blocks the other side of the bridge. On the way to the EE store this morning we walked across the London Bridge so this afternoon we came home over Tower Bridge.
Didn’t actually get a picture of the bridge itself…oops.On our way to the Uber Boat.From the bridge.Monument dedicated to WWI.
Once home, I went out for a few groceries and to get Peter some walking sticks. He used his cane all day but was hurting his back leaning so much to one side. So I found a sporting goods store and bought a pair of the ski pole type. I’m not sure how we’re going to get them on a plane because they’re too big for the suitcase. But maybe we can tape them together and check them as a separate piece of luggage. That’s a problem for another day.
Tomorrow we planned to do a bike ride but decided against it. More than half of it was on the streets and, of course, traffic is insane. We decided we’re not stready enough on a bike to ride in the street with all that traffic so we called and cancelled. We’ll do a hop on hop off bus instead. We get a one-day pass on the Big Bus as part of our London Pass so we’ll take that one. We’ll start the day at St. Paul’s Cathedral and pick up the bus there.
After just over 20,000 steps today I’m exhausted but happy that we had a great day. Peter is already in bed but it’s only a little 8pm so I need to stay awake at least another hour. Wish me luck.
It’s about 7:30pm on Sunday and I’m desperately trying to stay awake. Peter’s been asleep for over an hour but if I go to bed too early, I’ll be awake in the middle of the night.
Our flight was quite nice. The plane was virtually empty; there couldn’t have been more than 50-60 passengers. Our section had 78 seats but there were only 9 of us so we got to spread out. I was in a row of 4 seats so manage to stretch out and get a little sleep. Peter curled up in another row.
Just landed
In spite of all the horror stories we heard about Heathrow, our experience was quite the opposite. We got through immigrations and customs in about 30 minutes. There was a glitch in the car service so we had to wait about 45 minutes but that was no big deal.
We arrived at our flat around 2:30, and while small, it’s clean and comfy so I think it will fine for our 9-day stay. I’m having trouble connecting to the WiFi so I’m writing this from my phone, which is still on Verizon. The host is working on the internet so hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.
After a quick freshen up, we headed to Trafalgar Square for dinner. It should have been a 25 minute bus ride but after 25 minutes we realized we were nowhere close. I think we got on the wrong bus. We found a pub on the corner and has a nice dinner there instead. We’ll save Trafalgar Square for another day. As soon as I get WiFi up and running I’ll upload the few pictures I took.
Tomorrow we’re off to Greenwich. It should be a great day.
It’s only 7:47 so I still have more time to kill. Maybe I’ll unpack the backpacks.
Note: This post summarizes what we’ve been doing since we got back from Puerta Vallarta in November. If you already know or don’t care, feel free to stop reading. The next post will start our 4-month EPIC ADVENTURE beginning in London.
Thanksgiving weekend I went to Tucson with some friends to see Hamilton. It was my first time seeing the show and it was amazing! It was so great to finally see it live after watching it on Disney Plus about 50 times. It was weird, though, to hear the parts sung in different voices than the original cast. I’d see it again in a heartbeat.
Hamilton Opening Set
Peter and I went to several concerts at Symphony Hall including a wonderful Holiday Pops show.
There was also a very nice Christmas concert here at the Ranch.
We had a holiday block party in our garage to meet as many neighbors as possible. We had about 20 people attend so it was a great time. We were hoping it would start a monthly roving happy hour but nothing so far. Oh well, we tried.
The day after the happy hour I had surgery on my shoulder to take care of a bone spur that was keeping me from participating in my activities. It had gotten to the point that I couldn’t play pickleball or golf and even stained glass was difficult. So, I decided to have the arthroscopic surgery and take care of the problem. Surgery went well and I started PT just a few days later. Within a month I was allowed to play pickleball with my left hand and, while not easy, at least I was able to get on the court. Everything is back to normal now and my shoulder is doing great.
A few days after my surgery we took a drive up to the Phoenix Zoo. Compared to San Diego Zoo, Brookfield and the Omaha Zoo it wasn’t much. But it was a nice day, and it was fun to be out.
There was a nice display area set up for the Christmas season.
In January I saw the Temptations and Four Tops in concert. Peter was a bit under the weather, so our friend Stephanie joined me, Jim and Kathie for a wonderful evening. In each group, the only surviving founding member still sings.
Duke Fakir of the Four Tops is 86 years old and while his voice wasn’t what it used to be; it was incredible watching him perform. For the most part he sat on a stool but every once he’d get up and join the other guys.
Duke is on the far rightThe guy 2nd from the left is Lawrence Payton Jr, the son of one of the other founding members.
When the Temptations came out there were only 4 of them and we were worried that founding member Otis Williams (80 years old) wasn’t singing. It turns out that they had a brand-new member who had only been with them a couple of months. He joined them for the last song. The keyboard player joined the guys on vocals which gave them the sound for which they were famous.
Otis is 2nd from the left. He can still move.The newest member and lead singer, Tony Grant, joined the guys for the last number.
In February Peter’s sister, Mary Beth, visited for a week. She was here for Peter’s birthday on the 1st, so we celebrated by driving to Tucson to see Wicked (their first time, my fourth). It was a wonderful production and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
We also went to Tubac for an afternoon of good Mexican food and shopping for outside wall art.
Lunch at Elvira Mexican restaurant in Tubac.
Mary Beth had a great time learning to play pickleball and then on her last day, we went to opening day of the Renaissance Faire in Gold Canyon AZ. It’s just over an hour away up the back roads through the desert. Mary Beth goes to the Faire in Kansas City with her family every year and was very impressed with the layout. It was a beautiful day and, other than an hour-long wait to get in, we had a great time.
Opening day was crowded but the fairgrounds are very large, so it wasn’t too bad.
One of the many skits.
King and Queen of the Renaissance Fair
We were in Las Vegas for Super Bowl Weekend. Peter spent most of the weekend hanging with his vending buddies who meet in Vegas for the weekend every year. They hadn’t gone for the last couple of years, so it was fun for them to get together. I was there to help with the driving as it’s only 5 1/2 hours so, if you consider how early he’d have to get to the airport, it’s just as fast to drive as it is to fly. Peter and I did spend time together Friday night when we went to see Mat Franco’s show. Mat won America’s Got Talent in 2014 and is an amazing magician. Here is one of his performances from AGT.
Peter and I were sitting on the aisle about 3/4 of the way up the relatively small theater. At one point Mat disappeared from the stage and a split second later was standing next to Peter in the aisle. How did he do that? It was an incredible show, and we were so glad we went. If you ever get to Vegas, check it out. He announced that the Linq Hotel and Casino just signed him for another 5 years. Congrats Mat!!
On February 19th we went back to the Valley to see Andrea Bocelli in concert. To say it was amazing is an understatement. The seats on the main floor were $700 per ticket so we opted for seats in the upper level which were still $169 each but worth every penny. The concert started 30 minutes late (Italians have a very loose definition of time) but once it started it was mesmerizing. The first half was all operatic numbers and, while I would rather have my eyes scratched out than listen to opera, it was truly incredible.
After a 20-minute intermission, the second half was all pop numbers. There were several guest performers including 2 of his children. First, his 9-year-old daughter, Virginia, sang Hallelujah.
At our concert, Virginia suddenly stopped singing one of the verses, starting back up again at the chorus. At the end of the song, Andrea admitted that he messed up the lyrics and, since she didn’t know what he was doing, she just stopped. She was quite poised for such a young girl singing in front of 20,000 people.
Here are a couple of short videos I took.
Time to Say GoodbyeOf course, Nessun Dorma
As a final encore (there were 3) Andrea and his son Matteo sang Ed Sheeran’s Perfect Symphony. It was amazing. There is certainly a lot of talent in that family.
In early March my niece, Christina, visited from southern Illinois. She’s a high school special ed teacher and was only able to come for a long weekend but it was fun to see her.
In our backyard.
I wanted to get a nice camera for our upcoming trips, and since, in addition to being a teacher, Christina is also a professional photographer, she helped me pick one. She learned photography on a Canon Rebel, so I bought the Canon T7 which is the latest version of that camera. It’s better than a point and shoot but not so sophisticated that I can’t use it. She used it to take some nice pictures of me and Peter.
In front of our house.On our photo shoot.
Just a few days after Christina left, my sister Sue came for a visit. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time. She watched me play a few games of pickleball and also went out with us to play golf at our Lady Lynx St. Patrick’s Day Scramble. It was a lot of fun.
Dressed up for St. Paddy’s Day.
Sue wanted to learn how to do stained glass, so she made a cute Christmas tree ornament.
We also took a trip up to Scottsdale to have lunch with dear friends after which we went to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit. Sue had been wanting to see it but didn’t make it when it was in Chicago. Luckily it was extended in Scottsdale so she was finally able to attend.
Clockwise from back: Sue, Lynn, Leona and MaryImmersive Van Gogh
We drove down to Tucson to see Jersey Boys. Since we all grew up with the music of the Four Seasons, we thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Our friends Kathie and Jim came over for pizza one night. Peter has been working hard perfecting his crust and it was delicious. Sue was here for 10 fun days, and it was wonderful to have her visit.
Since then, we’ve gotten back to our full schedule of activities…Peter swimming and working out at the gym 5-6 days/week. I started lap swimming for the first time since I retired from the Navy in 98. The first few times were pretty rough but I’m getting back into the “swim” of it. I also am back to pickleball twice a week and the shoulder is holding up pretty well. At least it was until I fell hitting a low shot. I was off balance and my momentum took me right into the net, which kept me from face planting on the court but hyperextended my back and my right shoulder. I was stiff and sore for a few weeks but then I was back on the court.
I’m still working hard in the stained-glass studio. Here are some of my latest projects.
Prickly Pear Cactus Hummingbird and flowersSunflower I made for Christina.Southwestern sunset is one of my favorites and, surprisingly, it only took about 3 weeks to do.Hot air balloon. I gave it to Chrysta, one of Peter’s granddaughters. She now lives in Scottsdale and visited us one afternoon. Kokopelli – a southwestern fertility deity3D hummingbird I made for my friend Mary
In April we went to a spring training game at Sloan Park, the Cubs winter home. We played the White Sox, and it was a real pitchers’ duel….Cubs won 15-9. Our seats were great, 3 rows behind the Cubs dugout. At Wrigley these are $400 seats; we paid $69. We had tickets to see a game while Sue was visiting but the lockout canceled that game.
Spring Training Game April 4th
The following video is the dugout celebration after a 3-run homer by the good guys.
While we enjoyed the game, it was weird to see the team with so many new faces. After the trade deadline massacre in July of last year the team looks totally different so it will take a while to become familiar with all the new players.
Then in May we went to Chase Field to watch the Cubs beat the Diamondbacks. We went with a large group from Robson and had a great time. It was nice to be on the bus so we didn’t have to worry about driving and parking.
We were in the All You Can Eat section but since I don’t eat hot dogs or drink soda, I would have preferred seats a little closer to the action.
We went to a few more concerts including Chicago and Brian Wilson and Al Jardine from the Beach Boys. All of these guys are pushing 80 years old, and the voices aren’t what they used to be, but it was a fun concert.
Chicago
Brian Wilson at piano and Al Jardine just to the right in the blue shirt.Kathie and Jim enjoyed the concert with us.
We also attended a concert where a string quartet played the music of Queen. It was absolutely beautiful. Who knew Brian May’s guitar would translate to violin, viola and cello? Here’s the one video we were able to take.
We are the Champions
We went to several pool parties in the community, played bunco every month with the Democratic Club (I actually did quite well at some of our bunco nights), went to several movies at our Dive in Movie nights at the pool and hung out by the pool several days a week. Peter is addicted to jigsaw puzzles, so he spends a lot of time in the community library putting those together.
When it’s cool enough in the evening we’ll sit on our patio in our beautiful backyard listening to the fountain. We continuously have to pinch ourselves to make sure it’s all real. We are living the dream and absolutely love being retired! We have many friends here and are so glad we made the movie.
Today is 4th of July and we only have 18 days and a wake up before the start of our next trip. On July 23rd we’re heading off to London for the beginning of our first European adventure in 3 years; and what an adventure it will be!!
We’re in our room waiting for our private transport to the airport. We had a wonderful time in Puerto Vallarta but are ready to go home. It’s beautiful and the resort is amazing but we’re not “pool sitters” even if someone is bringing us delicious, fruity drinks whenever we want. We prefer to be out and about. There were other day trips we could have done but the ones that don’t involve “adventure” activities are basically the same trip we did last week but to different destinations.
DCIM\100GOPRO\G0723444.JPGKayaking in the Pacific.
Yesterday was a repeat of Sunday….hang by the pool, swim and try as many different drinks as possible. Well, I was the one who did the latter; Peter stayed with his Pina Colada. After doing quite a bit of testing, my favorites were the Blue Hawaii and the Miami Vice (I wonder what time the bar opens. Maybe I can squeeze in just one more before the car comes to get us at 10:30.) Over the last week we’ve met many nice people including quite a few Canadians. The ones here were from Vancouver and Calgary as Canadians from the middle and east of the country go to Florida.
We had a delicious dinner last night at the French restaurant…Bordeaux. Peter didn’t bring long pants and this restaurant has a dress code. But, luckily, they have loaner pants so we were able to enjoy a romantic dinner on our last night. I had duck confit and Peter had beef bourguignon and both were delicious.
At the Bordeaux restaurant.
Last night was casino night in the lobby but it didn’t start until 9pm and we were ready to head back to the room to pack by 8 so we didn’t hang around for it.
Casino night at Secrets.
We had a lovely time here and highly recommend the resort to anyone considering a vacation in PV. The accommodations were very nice, the resort is lovely and the staff is amazing. The food in the buffet style restaurants was good but the food in the specialty restaurants was delicious. All in all, a wonderful way to spend a week away from home.
We thought about checking out Tulum Mexico in the spring but decided to save all our travel dollars for our next trip to Europe, which we’re calling our Epic European Adventure. The plan is to leave for London (the only place we can get to Europe from Phoenix nonstop) on July 23. We will spend 8 weeks in the UK before flying to Paris. We’ll spend 7-8 weeks in France, Belgium and the Netherlands before flying to Bologna Italy for 2 1/2 weeks. After spending a few days in Rome, we’ll head to Civitavecchia where we’ll pick up a 16-day repositioning cruise on 11/27. We loved the one we did in 2016 so we’re looking forward to this one. Here’s a link to the cruise on the NCL website. Hopefully it will be in English as most websites are translating everything into Spanish…very irritating. If it does come up in Spanish, the price is probably Mexican Peso. We are not spending $49,000 pp for this cruise. :0
The cruise ends on 12/13 in NYC. We’ll spend one night there and fly home on the 14th. This will be our longest trip ever but we have plenty of time built in to rest so it should be a leisurely trip. We’ve already started making reservations (so far just the trip to London and the Airbnb for our 9 nights in London) so we can spread the cost over the next 9 months. It’s going to be an amazing trip.
But that’s a trip for another blog so I’ll sign off for now. Thanks again for taking the time to follow us on our Mexican adventure. We’ll talk with you again in July. Have a great holiday season. Love from us to you. Lynn and Peter
It’s Monday morning and we had a very quiet weekend. Saturday we hung out at the pool all morning and, after a light lunch at the pool, we took a walk back to the boardwalk. Even with stopping for ice cream along the way, it was only about a 40-minute walk. But since it was getting very hot, we decided to take a cab home.
After resting for a few hours in our room, we headed to the seafood restaurant for a leisurely dinner. The staff here is amazing. Our server, Jocelyn, not only remembered us from dinner on Wednesday, she remembered our drink order. Given how many people she sees in a day that’s pretty impressive.
After dinner we strolled around the pool area listening to the music from another wedding at the gazebo. We hung out in the Dreams lobby for about 90 minutes waiting for the evening’s entertainment to start. The group was the Three Tenors of Vallarta and they were very good. It was a little irritating because they performed in the lobby and there were a few large groups who were more interested in making noise than listening to the music. But, we enjoyed the concert anyway. Here are a couple of videos of their performance.
Sunday morning we slept crazy late, not getting up until almost 8:30!! Peter still got in a few laps before a very late breakfast. Then we did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day until it was time to go to dinner. Well, I shouldn’t say absolutely nothing as I did water aerobics at noon. It was a pretty easy workout (unlike Lois at Robson Ranch who runs a killer session) but at least I was moving.
After a quick clean up we went to the Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was our first time there and we enjoyed it. Peter had fajitas and I had the Mahi Mahi with Pastor sauce. I don’t know what was in the sauce but it was delicious. After an after-dinner walk around the pool areas, it was back to the room for the night.
The Mexican Restaurant – Tamarindo.The margaritas were delicious.
This morning we started the day by getting our rapid Covid tests on site. It only took a few minutes to get our negative results. So, we’re all set to head home tomorrow. This is our last day at this beautiful resort and I expect that today will be a repeat of yesterday. Not sure where we’ll go to dinner tonight as it’s Peter’s turn to pick. But every place we’ve tried has been very good so no matter what he picks we’ll have a good dinner.
Here are a few pics from the inside of the resort.
A back lobby where there are a few shops. Main lobby with bar on the left.There’s quite a bit of indoor/outdoor seating in the lobby area.
Guess that’s it for now. It’s almost 9am but the pool area is still pretty quiet. Peter may get in a few laps before the crowd starts to arrive. Talk soon.
