Showing posts with label US. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US. Show all posts

Monday, April 3, 2023

Cherry Blossoms!

Washington, DC, 2023... 

Final approach to National

Vicki had the window seat



At the MLK monument

Us, there, on a very bright day




Quiet moment between acts

Today's inflencess

Prime bloom; before the storms came

In the FDR monument...so many great thoughts now forgotten...
temporarily, hopefully...

Jefferson, too

Pagoda that came with the 1854 gift of cherry trees;
eternal friendship, except for that 1941-1945 hiatus

Among some of the really old trees

Even the oldest burls blossom

Great day, great visit


Sunday, April 2, 2023

Myrtle Beach

Our 4-day visit to Myrtle Beach provided us with some time with our favorite grand-daughter and also gave her a bit of a spring break from her studies and many other activities. The weather was quite mixed, the culture, not so much. We concluded that Myrtle Beach was South Carolina's answer to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, and that it was, for us, a once-in-a-lifetime visit. Eleven-year-old Penelope loved it, although she didn't get as much water-time as she might have liked.

View north from our balcony

But westward look...a sunset

Testing the waters

Boogie-boarding

Our hotel, a Hilton property

Water slide at the indoor water park


On the river

Special treats

Breakfast inventiveness (after the proteins)


Among several amusement parks; and more mini-
golf sites than we have ever noticed

Scene of Grandpa's 76th birthday Captain's Plate


Interim Update #1,275

And so it came to pass that after only three days and two hotel nights in transit (March 19-21; Queenstown to Dunedin/Dunedin to Auckland/Auckland to San Francisco and then Raleigh/Durham), we are back in the States. Just 10k miles, give or take. We spent a few days visiting daughter Rebecca and family in Cary, plus dental appointments and a couple trips to our eastern US storage unit, and then taking  grand-daughter Penelope for a 4 day vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC. Also celebrating our 75th and 76th birthdays. After another day or two in Cary we moved on to DC, visiting daughter Rachel for a few days. I'll do a couple posts forthwith, one from Myrtle Beach, one from DC. And then, April 5th, we're off on our spring Barcelona/Amsterdam/Paris/eastern France campaign. 

Departing for Myrtle Beach


Saturday, September 3, 2022

Interim Update #1,270

In the course of selling and unloading Le Sport, we managed to pack also for our two-month trip back to Europe, which will include three 3-week-long stays in Berlin, then Prague, and then Vienna. It helped that we are really into a minimalist mode for travel, 2 small backpacks and two roller-boards. Period. Anyhow, we are now in our central Berlin apartment, a studio, jet-lagged, but happy to be back.

Coincidentally, our departure occurred on the 14th anniversary of our original retirement departure, from Missoula, August 31st, 2008. A day later, we were en route from San Francisco to Tokyo and then Beijing. 5,110 days on the road now as we arrived in Berlin. We were a bit better organized and prepared this time.

BTW, this is our third visit to Berlin since retiring...for our 2009 and 2012 posts, just enter "Berlin" in the search box at the right.

Traditional departure shot

Departing from Nerk

































Our Berlin apartment, pretty central, walkable to most of the
things we like

Deep Creek, 2; and Cary

More tubing pix follow, and then the scene shifts to Cary, NC, a suburb of Raleigh, where Rebecca, Jeremy, and Penelope have relocated. Part of the California diaspora. Daughter Rachel took the Amtrak down from her home in DC for a five day family reunion. It all got more complicated, as will be explained in due course, but we had a good time getting back together in Rebecca's new digs.

Helping Grandma get unstuck

"Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily..."




Headed back for another run



We showed her our video from running the Lochsa way back in
the late 90s, Vicki, Rebecca, Rachel, and I, on a big guided raft
run; 24 class IVs in 23 miles...just for perspective



White water!

Deep Creek, BTW, is an excellent NPS campground,
especially for smaller units; even has wifi (Bryson
City is just a couple miles away)

Now in Raleigh, examining/documenting the rent car; artsy shot

Dinner at Catalan Tapas in Cary with daughter Rachel, just arrived
from DC



Rachel, Penelope, Rebecca



On a hike in one of Cary's natural reserves
Another day, Rachel at Cary's huge"Lazy Daze" arts and crafts fair 

Lady on stilts; something I'll never understand; nor do

Moi, weathering the 90+ degree heat and humidity

Our new storage unit in Cary; in addition to the 
20-some bins and boxes from California, it contains
all our stuff from Le Sport, which we sold on 
August 29th; long story short is that our travels
planned for the next year did not involve it for more
than two months,; and our desire to downsize
generally...farewell, Le Sport, it was great these
six years...