Happy Holidays from the Walls

Every year we say it was the best holiday ever but this year definitely ranks right up there. It was the first time in two years that all of us were together. To celebrate, we took a family photo (reminiscent of our days at Lake Bonavista every November when I put the kids through the dreaded "Christmas picture ordeal"). I don't regret those days because now we display almost 20 years of Christmas memories with those photos.

The kids started to arrive the 19th and most stayed until the 27th. Darcy and I felt our age This year when we couldn't stay up past 1:30 am. It was non-stop fun with games, beer, food and playing in the pool. Many tears were shed when they left for the airport. It was the best Christmas ever.

I was going to try and make cards this holiday but it just didn't happen. Then I realized that instead of a Christmas letter, anyone who wanted to know what we did this year, could read our blog. We had another great year of travel including stops in New Orleans, San Antonio, San Francisco, Kelowna, the Oregon coast, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama Canal, Columbia, Grand Cayman, Charleston, New York, Phoenix and now Palm Springs.

2011 was a great year for us and we still get itchy feet when we stay in one place too long. We will see what happens in 2012.

Our best wishes for a happy and healthy 2012 to all our family and friends.

We love Arizona

After two driving days through Montana, Idaho and Utah and two days in Las Vegas, where we think we broke even and, for us, that is the best we can expect, we arrived at Dan and Terri's beautiful home in Mesa, AZ. With a south exposure and sun all day, we have been enjoying hot days by the pool. For our anniversary I arranged a private trail ride just north of Phoenix. Barry, our cowboy guide, met us in Cave Creek and, knowing I am a real novice rider, he brought Bubblegum for me to ride. Darcy, having a little more experience than me, rode Durango. For two hours Barry led us through beautiful mountain desert trails. It was fantastic but my butt hurt for 3 days. There are so many Canadian friends here, Darcy is getting lots of rounds of golf. The days he doesn't play, he is hitting balls at the range. Maybe the senior tour is in his future. We try to hike every other day and have found some great mountain hikes in the area. My pictures just don't do the scenery justice. Right now we are getting ready for the kids to come for the holidays and we can't wait to see them.

Autumn in Kelowna

It always seems to happen as we are packing the van getting ready to get back on the road, we can't believe how fast time seems to go by. Our three weeks in Kelowna have quickly come to end. It has been beautiful here in the Okanagan Valley, warm weather, gorgeous fall colors and lots to do. This time we took advantage of some events in Kelowna. We saw the local WHL hockey team, the Kelowna Rockets, a production of A Streetcar Named Desire and the Kelowna Symphony Orchestra. It is very civilized here where one can, if they so desire, enjoy a glass of an Okanagan wine while watching any of these events. Nothing says Kelowna than sipping on a red wine while young hockey players beat each other up. Darcy has been either practicing or playing a round of golf most days and I think he is anxious to get to Phoenix to continue his regime. We spent some time looking at real estate and are thinking this is where we finally want to settle. We will spend 6 months here next year to really get a feel for the area but for now we are still having the time of our lives just being nomads. Friday we start heading to Phoenix with a stop in Las Vegas on Halloween.

New York Adventure

Our Panama Canal cruise ended in New York so we took the opportunity to spend a few days there before heading back to San Francisco to get the minivan. NYC is in our Top Five list of favorite cities. Trevor and Brenda found a wonderful hotel, The Carlton, on Madison Avenue. We were able to either walk or take the subway wherever we needed to go. This was a chance for us to do some of the things we didn't have a chance to do our last trip like go up the Empire State Building. Even before you get to the top you have to stop and notice the architecture of the lobby. After 90 minutes we finally go to the top. The view is outstanding and worth the wait. Our first night we celebrated Brenda's birthday with some of their Toronto friends at Keene's, probably the best short ribs I have ever had but I don't think you can get a bad dinner in New York. Saturday morning we took the subway to Battery Park and caught a ferry which took us by the Statue of Liberty and then to Ellis Island. Like we usually do, we got the audio tour and took our time exploring that National Park. You really get an appreciation for what thousands of immigrants went through. We didn't realize that you need tickets to see the new World Trade Centre monument but we got as close as could. The accountant in Darcy really needed to walk through Wall Street and see NYSE but unfortunately it isn't open to the public so he just had to breath in the money vibe from the street. Then we headed back up to Macy's and Time Square to meet Brenda's sister, Vonne. They have closed some of it to vehicular traffic so it is much more pedestrian friendly. If we had had time and a kid with us, we would have ridden the ferriswheel in Toys 'R Us. That night we had another wonderful dinner with Vonne at Chez Josephine, a french restaurant near Time Square named after Josephine Baker, the American expatriate singer and dancer who became famous after moving to Paris in the 20's and 30's. Our last day in NYC started with breakfast at Ellen's Stardust Diner where we were entertained by our waiter, Shawn, and his co-workers, all aspiring Broadway actors. Then it was off to the Museum of Modern Art. We couldn't believe how lucky we were that we were able to see Van Gough's Starry Nights and Monet's Waterlilies. It was the chance of a lifetime! Then we were off to Broadway to see Spiderman at the Foxwood Theatre. How surprised where we to find out that Trevor and Brenda had organized box seats for us. We had our own box in the first balcony right beside the stage. Spiderman and his nemesis, The Green Goblin, flew right over top of us! We knew that this show was having problems with the safety of the actors flying over the audience and you could see why especially when Spiderman and The Green Goblin had their big fight scene suspended by cables right above us. It was outstanding and by the end everyone was on their feet cheering. That show and then another wonderful dinner at Tony's were the perfect end to a perfect trip. The next morning we piled into a taxi and headed to Newark to go our separate ways. I have to give special thanks to Trev. He bailed me out by letting me copy his pictures after I accidentally erased my camera card. Thanks, Trev! We are now planning our next trip hopefully to Tuscany. Next stop Kelowna, BC.

Panama Canal Cruise

After about a week driving down the coastal highway enjoying links golf in Tacoma, the Lewis and Clark National Park and haystacks in Oregon, the redwood trees in California and many seafood dinners all along the way, we arrived in Walnut Creek, CA. How lucky are we that Elizabeth lives near San Francisco. We were able to leave our minivan with her and head to The Huntington Hotel on Nob Hill. We had a day and a half to do all the tourist things in San Francisco, ride the cable car, go to Fisherman's Wharf, see fortune cookies being made in Chinatown and ride the top of the doubledecker tour bus across the Golden Gate Bridge (where we just about froze to death). September 9 we left the San Francisco harbor aboard the beautiful Oceania Regatta. We were happy to have 2 days at sea before our first stop to get rested up and unpack the suitcases. There were 600 guests and probably that many staff so we were pampered for the next 21 days. The food and service were outstanding. We knew it was going to get hotter the further south we went but I'm not sure we realized it was going to be in the 90 degree range with humidity to the point that our glasses fogged up when we went out. We tried to stay hydrated with many cervasas. Our Mexican stops included Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Huatulco and Puerto Chiapas. Then it was on to Puntarenas, Costa Rica. There we boarded a bus and went into the mountains where we got to walk on suspension bridges above the rain forest. It is a beautiful country and we would definitely go back. After another sea day we reached Panama City and the entrance to the Panama Canal at 8:00 in the morning. We were lucky enough to meet a couple who had a suite on the front of the ship and invited us to watch the canal crossing. It was a wonderful experience made even better by a lecture before from a retired coast guard commander and running commentary throughout the day. It was 4:30 pm by the time we got through the 3 sets of locks and Gatun Lake. The next day we arrived in Cartagena, Columbia. We had arranged to take a walking tour of historic Cartagena but the tour had to be cut short because of a torrential rain and thunder storm. Georgetown, Grand Cayman was our last Caribbean stop. Knowing that Georgetown is a financial centre, we thought there would be a bank on every corner and were disappointed to find that is not the case. Our last stop was Charleston, SC. We were lucky enough to spend a week there last year and the Greens have also been there before. It is one of our favorite places and we were glad to have 2 days at this port. We rented a car and organized our own tour. Because we didn't have a chance to see a plantation last time, we visited Middleton Place, a rice plantation once owned by a very prominent Charleston family. Then we spent time in the historic part of Charleston touring the Edmondston Alston House, one of the many historic homes, and revisiting many of the places Pat Conroy mentions in his novels including the Citadel. We always like to see the bookstore when we visit a campus but at the Citadel we noticed some merchandise not usually sold at U of C, anything a student would need to keep his shoes polished to a mirror shine. When it comes to food in Charleston they believe that "if in ain't fried, it ain't cooked" so, of course, we had to have Jestine's chicken and fried green tomatoes with pecan pie to go. At Jestine's I also learned that mac 'n cheese is considered to be a vegetable. Then we headed to our final destination, New York City. I will leave that for the next blog entry. Are you asleep yet?

Back on the road

You probably thought we were tired of the travel and decided to settle down. Not quite yet. It was a very busy summer in Calgary helping to take care of Darcy's mom while he did some client work. We did manage toget out and enjoy some hot days in Calgary and take in some baseball games. We left Calgary on August 28 and after a few days in Oliver to visit Aunt Florence, we were off to Vancouver to pick up our wonderful Toronto friends Trevor and Brenda, and head south. We spent our 40th wedding anniversary in Newport, OR. Unfortunately the only thing we could see from our hotel room was fog. That didn't dampen our spirits. We were so happy to be able to spend our anniversary with Trevor and Brenda who were with us on our wedding day. We are on our way now to San Francisco to start our cruise through the Panama Canal. Hopefully the pictures will be better that this shot of the fog in Oregon.

A Day In Our Life

I just realized that it has been almost 2 months since my last post. This is the time of the year when not too much is happening. April 30 D headed to Palm Springs for the annual Dinkman Tournament while I drove the van to Kelowna. We rented the same little house we have had before and love. After a terrific month there, we headed to White Rock. We have rented a house just a block from Crescent Beach and we are getting ready for some of the kids to visit. With the pictures I have posted you can kind of get the idea of what our lives are like this time of year. You can see where a lot of heavy duty thinking takes place in the office D has set up. I have set up my table and am having fun getting messy with all my paints and art journals. So our days are taken up with D doing some work, me doing some painting and then walking in the afternoon. There are lots of walking and hiking trails all through White Rock. So we are getting our exercise. We usually arrive back at the house just in time for happy hour and the start of the Blue Jays game. Life is wonderful.

We're Not In Florida Anymore!

What is wrong with this picture? First we drove through rain/snow from Antioch, CA to Vancouver to Oliver and finally to Calgary. Then we had 2 snow storms the first 2 weeks back in Calgary. We don't even own a snow scraper anymore! We survived and Darcy is now up to his eyeballs in tax returns with the end of April in site. What is holding him together is the thought that he will be on a plane to Palm Springs April 30 for a week of golf with the Dinkman boys. I have been busy keeping Rose company the last few weeks. We have been having lots of fun together. There is not much more to report. We have reserved houses in Kelowna and White Rock for the months of May and June but the weather in BC has not been much better than here (except for the snow thing). After a trip to Shawnigan Lake to see the last of the Rentz girls graduate, we will head back to Calgary for July and August. Right now we are looking forward to

Spring's late arrival hopefully this weekend.

Mardi Gras Madness

Even though we had so much fun with Brenda and Trevor and were sad to leave Fort Myers, we are always happy to be back on the road again. We were lucky to be traveling ahead of the tornadoes and bad weather they had in the Florida Panhandle and Louisiana. After an overnight in Tallahassee, we arrived in New Orleans. We thought we would be there before the Mardi Gras madness began only to discover they start celebrating in January. There were parades every night and Bourbon Street was in full swing. On Brenda and Trevor's suggestion, we stayed at the Cornstalk Hotel, an historic house in the French Quarter just a block off Bourbon Street. We walked all through the French Quarter stopping to listen to music and visiting some of the Voodoo shops. The buses and trams were easy to navigate so we saw the Cemetery District with miles of above ground burials, the beautiful historic houses in the Garden District and heard some fantastic contemporary jazz in the Warehouse District. New Orleans is just as much about the food as it is about Mardi Gras and jazz. We were only there 3 days but managed to eat as many of the local specialities as we could - beignets and cafe au lait or the best eggs benedict we have ever had for breakfast, creole shrimp po-boys and muffaletta sandwiches for lunch, crawfish etoufee, seafood gumbo, cajun crawfish pie and bread pudding for dinner. We did show some restraint and only drank beer and not the New Orleans drink specialities like the Hurricane or the Hand Grenade. Exhausted and about 10 pounds heavier, we headed west across Texas to Phoenix to see Dan and Terri, to Las Vegas to see Elvis and finally to Palm Springs to see Bruce and spend some time resting by the pool while the boys play golf. At the end of the week we will head toward to San Francisco to spend a few days with Liz.

Saying Goodbye To Florida

We can't believe we have come to the end of our 3 month stay in Fort Myers. We don't know where the time goes but looking back on my January/February calendar, we were doing something every day. It would put you to sleep if I went into detail about everything we have done in Florida. Here is a brief list so you can get an idea of how we have spent our time here. Kathy was able to join us for a week. The weather was on the cool side but we still managed to have lots of fun. At the end of January I went to Los Angeles to the Craft and Hobby Association trade show. This is the second time I have been lucky enough to join my friend, Sharon, at this show. It is a dream come true for me and I hope to make it an annual event. When I got back we drove to Key West. The Keys have a margaritaville atmosphere full of bars, restaurants and galleries. We went back through downtown Miami and saw some of the beautiful art deco architecture. The Capitals were playing the Panthers that night so we stayed for the game. It was a chance to see Ovechkin play. On the drive back we stopped at the Everglades National Park and got some great pictures. One of the highlights was our jetski tour in Estero Bay. We were able to get close to some dolphins. The boys would probably say the highlight was getting the machines up to 45 mph and getting lots of air. It was great fun. One Sunday afternoon we watched a trick waterski club at a small lake near an outlet mall. They were a very talented group and it gave us a chance to experiment with our cameras. Our last night in Fort Myers we spent at the opening game for the Minnesota Twins spring league season. Is there anything better than having a beer on a beautiful warm night while you watch baseball? The weather the last few weeks has been fantastic with temperatures in the 80's (high 20's in C)every day. So we have spent lots of time at the beach, reading and collecting shells. Darcy and Trevor played golf at least 3 times a week while Brenda and I took lots of exercise classes. We decided to see as many of the Academy Awards nominated movies and found the best theatre ever in Naples. First you get a glass of wine or a beer and then enjoy the movie while sitting in seats that look like Lazy Boys. Is there anything more civilized? Are you asleep yet? I hope I didn't bore you. It is just that we have been having such a great time and much of that is because of our friends, Trevor and Brenda. All of us have had so much fun, we are planning a Panama Canal cruise with them in September. Tomorrow we will be in New Orleans and are hoping to eat lots of good food and hear some good music. Then, after stops in San Antonio, El Paso, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, San Fransisco, Vancouver and Oliver, we will back in Calgary on March 27 so Darcy can get to work on tax returns.

Yes, We Are Still Alive!

I know you are saying, "How could a couple of retired people be that busy?" But that is our excuse for not posting on the blog in over a month. We arrived at Fort Myers the first of December. The condo we have rented is in a gated golf community and Darcy has unlimited golf. You can imagine he is in heaven. The month of December was the coldest in recorded history for Florida so we spent most of the month getting ready for the kids to arrive for Christmas. Liz, Pat, Meg and Pam arrived just before Christmas and stayed for a week. Every year we say, "This is the best Christmas ever." Having Chris and Brooke here is the only thing that would have made it better. The cold weather didn't really interfere with game playing, Meg's trivia, cooking, air boat riding, mini golf, hanging out at the pool and the occasional libation. It was a sad day when they all left but we didn't have much time to feel sorry for ourselves because our good friends, Trevor and Brenda Green, arrived from Toronto. It has been a whirlwind since they arrived. The boys have been playing lots of golf. The four of us have been touring all over South Florida going to the beach and attending art shows. Friday nights we cook and watch movies. We took a trip to Key West for a few days and stopped overnight in Miami so we could see the Panthers play Ovechkin and the Capitals. We took the long way back so we could some great pictures of alligators and Florida birds. I have also attached a picture I took from our back door. The sunsets here are spectacular. I am going to Los Angeles the end of the month to meet my friend, Sharon, at the Craft and Hobby Association trade show. I can't wait. So I guess things for the next month are going to be just as busy and the blog will probably be at the bottom of the "to do" list.