Advertisement
Published: January 5th 2014
Edit Blog Post
JJ & Dad
White Sands National Monument in New Mexico has the largest gypsum sand dunes in the world YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT, THEN GO BACK TO THE BLOG OR GO THROUGH THE PHOTOS (25 TOTAL - CLICK ON THE NUMBERS AT THE BOTTOM OR ARROWS IN TOP CORNERS) IN THAT ENLARGED FORMAT. I PUT LOTS OF INFORMATION IN THE PHOTO CAPTIONS SO YOU CAN SKIP THE NARRATIVE, JUST LOOK AT THE ENLARGED PHOTOS AND CAPTIONS AND YOU'LL STILL GET MORE INFORMATION THAT YOU EVER WANTED. TO RETURN TO THE BLOG ENTRY, JUST CLICK YOUR BACK BUTTON OR ON THE NAME OF THE BLOG, BELOW THE NUMBERS ON THE LEFT.
Happy New Year!!
To all you dear, wonderful people,
We hope this finds you enjoying the beginning of 2014, in good health and having had an enjoyable 2013.
We started 2013 in
India where we attended the wedding of
Gale, the daughter of dear friends (
Alice & John), and
Arjun, Punjabi born, in Chandigarh, Punjab. We spent two weeks before the wedding with a car and driver exploring Rajasthan (Jaipur, Jodhpur, several tiger reservers). We did a side trip into Uttar Pradesh to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Our travel
blog entry on this site has some outrageous photos:
http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=772506 - India Wedding and
http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=766822 - India
In February good friend and Bernard’s colleague at the German Red Cross,
Heike, came for a visit. She and Bernard taught together at the Air Force Academy in
Colorado Springs. We’d planned to take Heike to Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado and the Grand Canyon, Arizona, but a severe snow storm forced us south to
Sante Fe, New Mexico instead and then back to Arizona.
In March we flew back to Asia to participate in an international humanitarian law moot court competition, Pictet. Bernard has been participating in this competition for six years as a judge/juror and this will be the third I’ve worked with the administration. This year (2013) it was in
Kanchanaburi, Thailand (think Bridge Over the River Kwai):
http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=777365 After the competition we visited Norwegian friends
Anne, Anders and son Herman, who live in
Bangkok, for a long weekend. Our favorite day was spent biking through villages on the outskirts of Bangkok, along canals with Anne and a friend. 2014 Pictet is in
Sintra, Portugal and we are once
Bernie & Kathy
2013 started for us in India. Here we are at the Taj Mahal - no that isn't just a pretend backdrop again participating. (FYI: 2012 Pictet was in South Africa.)
For Easter daughter
Christina & grandson
Evan came from California, daughter
JJ flew down from Alaska and a niece,
Colleen, and daughter,
Jonna, flew to us from North Carolina. We had a houseful, but it was such a blast.
Later in April friend
Karen Russell came for a few, but fun days. Karen had finished the Lava (Wo)Man Triathlon in Hawaii and was feeling quite chuffed. Right after Karen left Bernard flew to
Frankfurt Oder, Germany to teach for 3 days. In May Bernard took to the air again, this time to
Lima, Peru to lecture there for 3 days.
In June we headed out of Arizona easterly bound to visit with Bernard’s family, all of whom are east of the Mississippi River. We had a fabulous summer and saw so many friends and family. We visited
29 states, three Canadian provinces and five *European countries. See our entry on that trip:
http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=810550 *Bernard taught in the German Red Cross Summer School in
Berlin again in August; he has done this
Anne, Anders & Herman
Norwegian friends who now live in Bangkok and with whom we visited after Pictet - here at Herman's Int'l School's international day celebration for at least eight years. We flew from New Jersey to Germany. After a week in Berlin we borrowed a friend’s (Heike’s) car and drove into
France (cathedrals in Reims, Amiens & Chartres); by ferry to
Jersey & Guernsey in the Channel Islands (UK); back to France, through
Belgium; into the
Netherlands to visit friends (
Henk & Mäcki); back to Berlin to fly home. (For photos, see travel blog entry cited above.)
We’d left our van with Bernard’s sister, Claudia, in New Jersey, so once back in the states we continued our visitations. After spending Labor Day with Bernie’s brother *
Tom and wife Janet in Massachusetts, we headed west to
Chicago to visit Bernard’s Polish family, and then headed home, arriving in Tucson 9/11.
*Tom has Multiple Systems Atrophy, a form of Parkinson’s. He has had this debilitating disease for many years and did amazingly well because he was in such good physical shape. However, he is now in a long-term care facility because his abilities to do things on his own have been declining and Janet is not strong enough to assist. In fact Janet has a broken wrist
B Biking in Bangkok - in Buddha Pose
The int'l humanitarian law moot court competition Pictet took place in Thailand this year. now and chronic hip problems.
In October Bernie once again took flight, this time to
Bogota, Colombia to lecture for 3 days. Then my cousin
Holly, husband
Kevin, daughter
Kate and boyfriend
Joe came for a short but fun visit. What a nice young lady Kate is!! We enjoyed her very much and Joe is a delight. We’d seen Holly in NJ this summer, but missed Kevin as he was camping. He is a very personable man - Kevin and Bernard get along well.
Soon after Holly, et al., left friends from Alaska,
Jack and Sherri came for a visit. We went camping in the
Chiricahua Mountains a few hours from Tucson. We had lovely weather and great hiking.
JJ arrived a few days before Thanksgiving and was with us through the new year.
Just before Christmas we all drove to
White Sands National Monument, New Mexico to visit my cousin
Sue and husband
John in Alamogordo, New Mexico; to
Carlsbad Caverns, also in New Mexico; then to
El Paso, Texas to spend Christmas with friends
Mara & Larry and their great
Heike in Tucson
Heike w/the ruins of the cathedral at Tumacacori mission in the background kids,
Alicia & Josh.
Shortly after Christmas we drove to
Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico (friends
Stuart & Susan from
Seattle have a house on the beach) for the New Year’s celebration. It was a lovely three days alternately soaking up the sun and walking in the “marine layer,” aka fog, which as it turned out, was fun. Of course the food was amazing, both at the villa and the many wonderful restaurant that Susan and Stuart have “discovered.”
After that we delivered JJ to the
San Diego airport for her flight to
San Francisco. She leaves for
Cambodia the 1st of February, so she’ll visit friends and sister Christina in
California and
Oregon before making her way to
Seattle to fly to Cambodia (she’ll be working in a resort taking people kayaking, snorkeling, etc.). JJ started her own kayaking excursion company in Anchorage last summer. Her plan is to expand the kayaking in Alaska in the summers and work in Asia in the winters.
Christina, Mark and Evan continue well in
California. Evan turned eight a few weeks ago, loves school and is a nice,
Easter in Tucson
Bernard, niece Colleen, Kathy, Jonna, Christina and JJ, w/Evan in front well-adjusted young man - his teachers love him. They are not coming to us for the holidays. Mark took a new job (Hewlett-Packard) a few months ago, so as new kid on the block, he is on call over the holidays.
We wish you continued good health, good cheer and a prosperous new year. Love, Kathy & Bernie
DON'T FORGET TO LOOK AT THE PHOTOS BELOW (VERY BOTTOM, BELOW: THE AD, OUR PROFILE, THE BLOG OPTIONS, NORTH AMERICA, TRVELBLOG AWARDS, TOP PHOTOS - YES, RIDICULOUS!!) AND GO TO THE OTHER PAGES (CLICK ON 'NEXT' AT BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE) AS THERE ARE MORE PHOTOS (25 TOTAL) AT THE BOTTOMS OF THE PAGES. GO TO THE NEXT PAGE EVEN IF IT LOOKS LIKE THERE ARE NO MORE PHOTOS (LIKE ON PAGE 2), AS THERE PROBABLY ARE.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.201s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.1498s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Peggy Kugel
non-member comment
Fabulous Blog
As always, your blog is fascinating, inspiring, and fun to read.