Hi all With Ginnie's departure to Argentina, my good friend Andy came over from Bristol to spend a couple of weeks with me whilst Ginnie was away visiting family, so Rowe Tours was back in business. We spent a great couple of weeks, doing a bit of sightseeing and Andy doing a lot of chilling out by the pool! High on Andy's list this year was a visit to the Grand Canyon. We didn't make it last year when he came over as we had only just been with visitors and Andy didn't want to 'drag us back up there again!' [View Full Entry]

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After 4 years it was time to visit my first home! El Bolson, Rio Negro, Argentina. "La hermosa Patagonia" So I left Dave and Maverick behind for 2 1/2 weeks on April 14th. I arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche on the 15th in the afternoon and my welcoming committee was my Dad Carlos, sister Maria and my adorable nephew Julian. As those of you who know me well you can imagine it was an emotional reunion specially as I had not seen my Dad in 4 years. After the hugs and the tears stopped I was straight back into Argentine [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, Well Rosie's visit (Ginnie's mum) has come and gone and Ginnie is now en route to Argentina for a visit with her family. As I write she is in the air on her way to Dallas, to connect through to Buenos Aires. Her flight was delayed leaving PHX, so we're hoping she has time to make her connection - hopefully she'll have about 30 mins, she was meant to have 90 mins! Anyway, Ginnie is away until May 1st and I'm sure she will post some pics and a blog from Patagonia when she gets back. In the meantime, [View Full Entry]

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Hello! A few people have asked to see pics of the new house, so this seemed a good place to put them up! It's a bit of a public forum, but what the hell! Our first visitors have arrived - Nicola was here for a couple of days after working in San Diego for a week, she left yesterday and Rosie, Ginnie's mum, arrived on Tuesday for a couple of weeks. So the guest bedrooms are already in good use! And the pool has had it's first use too, even though the water is a refreshing 74f! Hope to see some [View Full Entry]

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Hi all Most of you know by now that we have a dog who has adopted us! Maverick is a 9 month old long haired pure-bred German Shepherd puppy that we got from a rescue. He spent the first 7 months of his life doing precisely what he wanted when he wanted - he was left outside and was not trained to do anything! We have had him a month now and before he came to us he had never been walked on a lead, taken to a park or experienced anything of city life! He didn't respond to his name [View Full Entry]

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Hurray! The promised winter storm arrived at last! Snow Day! Snow Day! Snow Day! We don't have to go to work or school! (Nothing new there then!) It started snowing briefly on Sunday evening for an hour or so and then stopped; but it started again over night at some point and hasn't stopped since! It's now about 2pm on Monday and I'd guess that we've had about 6-8 inches of powdery snow in total. Forecasters suggest it will ease off this afternoon, but we will have to see! More is forecast up here tomorrow night... Being desert dwellers (and big [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2008! Christmas has come and gone; we had a nice day spent with Sheila & Al and Clare & Matt at the house before we started to pack it up for the move. Turkey and all the trimmings! Even crackers with party hats! Boxing Day we started to pack up the house; we've put all our stuff in storage as we have come up to the mountains for 3/4 weeks whilst we wait for the mortgage deal on our new house to close. So 5 days were spent packing, cleaning and moving furniture! We hired [View Full Entry]

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Well the 'holidays' are upon us and we have a visitor for a few days. Nicola (Rupert's wife) has been staying with us since Tuesday. Nic came over to work in California for a few days and flew in to see us for 4 days. She flies home to England this Saturday. So whilst Nic has been here we took a trip up to Sedona and went for a hike. The weather was perfect, about 70f/21c, and beautiful blue skies. For regular readers of this blog, I don't have to talk too much about Sedona as we have been up there [View Full Entry]

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For those of you (especially in New Zealand!) who weren't at Aim'ee & Marc's wedding I've attached some photos for you to see the events of the day! A poor weather forecast and a wet morning didn't bode well, but even though we arrived at the church in a light drizzle, by the time the bride and groom emerged as a married couple the sky had cleared. There were some photos outside the church and in the back of the old Model T Ford that then whisked them away to the reception at the Marriott in Bristol! A little traffic hampered [View Full Entry]

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With the excuse of my eldest niece's wedding we decided to take 3 weeks out of the Arizona Summer heat and head back to Blighty! A chance to catch up with friends and family not seen since we left in August last year. It would also give us an opportunity to remind ourselves of what we had been missing this last year! Leaving AZ on the evening of 10th Sept in 106f/42c heat, we landed at Heathrow 9hrs (and one day) later in a refreshing 70f/21c! The sun was shining and it was nice to leave the terminal and have the [View Full Entry]

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