Who knew that Arizona could be so wet and cold? We flew into Phoenix on Thursday January 18th, as the national board meeting for Lutheran Marriage Encounter started that evening. But first…. After renting the car (a very low slung Corolla) we drove to Mesa for lunch at a Chihuahuan Mexican restaurant we’d seen described on 3Ds show. We passed on the trip and cow cheek tacos, but the calabazas tacos were amazing, David’s 2 varieties of pork and another very yummy, and the street corn the best we’ve ever had (haven’t had many, admittedly). Then drove maybe another 20 mins to the Gilbert Riparian Reserve, where we observed just under 40 species of birds. It was lovely weather, sunny, and in fact too hot for me in my jeans and long sleeved turtleneck. We had ... read more

Rumor has it that today’s steps numbered 16500 (David did more, going up and down to the car just now). Boy, my tootsies need a rest. So we left Brigitte’s lovely little ski place around 9 am (oh yes, he did climbing up and down those steps more than I did too – but then he’s a golfer and is used to it!). We headed to Lac Simon, half way to Ottawa, as that was touted as a birding site. It was drizzling when we arrived, but the walk was sheltered in large pines and oaks. Just saw some hooded mergansers (everything looks quite different out of breeding colors, but it was an amazing place – obviously a very popular camping place. The end of the lake, as with so many in Quebec, is sandy, with ... read more

We were away from our lovely spacious Montreal flat by 8:15, fortunately heading away from the main flow of traffic. Within 30 mins we were out of the city and into the calmer countryside. As we drove northwest towards the national park, we realized that we were indeed late for the leaves, but the tamaracks were still brilliant. Kent Ohio has some of these artic wonders – deciduous but with needles. A local told us that the recent rains and winds made everything fall a bit early. Once at the park we dutifully paid our entrance, even though no one was there. The roads were sometimes paved, sometimes not, but were a lot better than the state parks in upper Michigan where we go looking for petosky stones. We were soon rewarded by seeing a Rough ... read more

Boy, there’s no rest for the wicked OR the weary in this house. The bed was very comfy but David awoke naturally at 6 instead of 7’s alarm, so up and at ‘em we were, having breakfast before driving the expected 3 hours to Quebec City. Why? Because it’s due to rain in Montreal all day, but less so in Q.C., and more there on Sunday. So the GPS took us south out of the city across the St. Lawrence thru a tunnel. LOTS of road construction but eventually we were driving in the countryside. Actually this southern route highway was probably a new road, usually paralleling existing roads between small towns. This highway is now full of industry and buildings, but we still saw lots of farms and one field of giant Charleroi cattle. By ... read more

Well, all good things have to come to an end. All bad things do too, but we won’t worry about that. Today was a magnificent THREE hour snorkel at Two-step, which really has such a wide-ranging variety of environments that even today we picked up two NEW FISH. Plus, with our new Scuba Fish Hawaii app, we’ve been realizing that some taken in the past need renaming. So we are concluding that we have found 20 new fish. (and because we found the parrots this afternoon, 10 new birds). After that 3 hours, we had a lovely hour chatting to friend Pam again, and a new friend who also was traveling alone. We all enjoyed the ice creams sold on the corner, and had a few rambutans for lunch. We “saved” a few families from killing ... read more