2012 Recap in Photos (Mostly)

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January 13th 2013

Published: January 14th 2013

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Kathy Bernie

San Francisco, California

Daughter Christina, grandson Evan, daughter JJ and friend Kelly at the botanical gardens, January 2012

Dougherty 2012 Recap

January. The first trip of the year was with me (Kathy) going to San Francisco to join Christina & Evan, JJ & Kelly (JJ’s then girlfriend) for a long weekend. JJ & Kelly arranged to have time in San Francisco on their way to Thailand & Cambodiawhere they were spending a month.

Bernard started teaching a 3-month long (one day a week) class, Introduction to International Criminal Law, in the OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) program at the University of Arizona. It was a class for adults and he had some students aged 90+. He LOVED it and especially his older students as they were bright, engaged, and had knowledge of the world. Bernard also took several classes himself at OLLI.

I started working as a mentor with the Junior Docent program at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where I’ve been a docent since 2009. I am working with high school students who train to be docent/guides. Their training isn’t as extensive as regular docents, so they are teamed with a docent/mentor when they are on-grounds. What great kids!! They are smart, committed and personable.

February. I met a

Kathy w/Junior Docent Marina

Kathy mentoring Jr. Docent Marina in snake handling - Marina is holding a tightly curled gopher snake - he is actually over 4 ft. long (1.2 meters)

friend, Almarene, in Maui, Hawaii for 10 days where she had rented a condo for a month. It was right on a beach, so had great beach walks every day and went to sleep every night to the sound of waves breaking - magical. Also visited a high school friend of JJ’s, Rebecca, and her family who had just moved to Maui. They’ve bought themselves a little piece of paradise - lovely home, 5 acres, banana, avocado and other fruit trees and a view overlooking the ocean.

As soon as I got back from Hawaii (Bernard had to teach and that is why he didn’t accompany me), we were off to Santa Fe, New Mexico to meet up with friends Mara & Larry Cohn from El Paso. We rented a 2-bedroom condo and spent a long weekend touring, eating, shopping, but mostly talking. We became friends with the Cohn family in the Netherlands in 2001 and have stayed good friends, seeing them usually twice a year.

From Santa Fe Bernard & I drove to Colorado Spring, Colorado where Bernard was lecturing at the Air Force Academy. We were put up in luxurious and huge

Maui, Hawaii

View from our condo - that is the beach we walked every morning

accommodations on base. Had lunch in the dining hall with the cadets one afternoon - wow, that was a trip! It is evidently the largest common eating room in the USA.

March took us to Philadelphia for the wedding of David Simon, son of good friends Stuart & Susan from Seattle. They are Jewish, so it was a ceremony that was new to us - VERY nice. We loved Philly; stayed right downtown and walked everywhere. We met for lunch with my cousin Holly and husband Kevin and had a marvelous time.

From Philly we drove to Massachusetts to visit Bernard’s brother, Tom, and his wife, Janet. Tom has a particularly virulent form of Parkinson’s, Multiple-system Atrophy (MSA). They recently moved into a smaller, one-level town home and we hadn’t seen them in a while. They’ve made a lovely home for themselves in an active community and it was great to spend some time, albeit short, with them.

April found us winging our way to the Drakensburg Mountains in South Africa to work with the Pictet Moot Court Competition. Bernie has been a judge/juror (sponsored/paid for by the German Red Cross)

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Larry & Mara with Bernie in Santa Fe - it was cold, but clear and beautiful

in the competition for 5 years now and in 2012 I worked in administration; we are both doing it again in Thailand in March 2013.

Friends Stuart & Susan from Seattle joined us after Pictet and we went to Kruger National Park for a week. That week included a 3-day trek on foot with park rangers into rhino country. We saw over 30 rhinos. Yes, we were on foot. Yes, they are huge. Yes, it was scary at times.

After Kruger we stayed for a few days in Pretoria with good friends Peter & Sue whom we became friends with when we lived in Pretoria 2005 - 2006.

May we flew from South Africa on May 1st in different directions: me back to Tucson and Bernard to Germany to teach for a week at a German university. He continues to be asked by the German Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross and various universities to teach around the world. He’ll be teaching in 2013 at that same German university in April, as well as at the German Red Cross summer school in Berlin in August.

Cathedral Peak Hotel

Drakensburg Mountains, South Africa

On his return from Germany, Bernard had one night at home before he had to get back on a plane and fly to Lima, Peru to teach for the ICRC - he has done that for quite a few years now.

June. My sister Donna was having some medical consults (she has MS) in Seattle and was staying with my other sister, Mary Jean, and her husband, Buzz, in Gig Harbor, Washington. I decided to fly up and spend my birthday with them. It was only a long weekend, but my sisters made it a special time for me. I also got to see both of Buzz and Mary Jean’s boys, Matt and Dan, and Dan’s wife Sally.

July. To get out of the heat of Arizona, we spent three weeks in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho - rented an apartment right on a bike trail. We rode every day. Mary Jean & Buzz came over for a weekend and we rode the Route of the Hiawatha, which was AWESOME.

NOTE: I had my gall bladder taken out in Idaho. I had a bad attack and it had been bothering me for years,

Pictet Participants Group Shot

There was some money left over so the students were given helicopter rides, the first one of which our photographer took

so when the doc said it should come out, I asked, how soon can you do it? I have NEVER felt better in my life.

From Idaho we drove back to Arizona rather quickly because Bernard had to fly to Germany on the 28th. He taught at the German Red Cross summer school in Berlin for a week.

August. Bernie returned from Germany on the second and on the ninth we drove to Colorado. First we picked up my cousin BJ in Sierra Vista, Arizona and then we drove to Red River, New Mexico where her daughter and son-in-law, Sue & John, had their RV for the summer. We stayed a few days in this wonderful, high part of New Mexico where the weather was delightfully cool.

One day we drove to Taos and toured the Indian pueblo there. It had been many years since we’d been there - it hadn’t changed much!! It was still delightful and very interesting.

Denver, Colorado was our next stop. We had rented a house there for a week. Again we were in a wonderful biking area and near many tourist attractions,

B w/Pictet Colleagues

Bernard in the middle of his jury panel - fellow judge/jurors. They worked as a team the whole week

so we hardly ever drove.

The next week we spent in Rocky Mountain National Park camping and hiking. Most of our hikes were at over 10,000 feet (3,048 meters); we hiked every day; it was glorious.

Back to the low-lands (relatively anyway) to Ft. Collins, Colorado where we’d rented an apartment. Ft. Collins is totally bike-friendly so again we drove very little and enjoyed the coolness of the front range area. Mary Jean’s oldest, Dan, got a new job in Denver, so was there looking for an apartment while wife Sally stayed home in Seattle to pack - yes it was sudden. We drove from Ft. Collins to Denver and had a fabulous dinner and evening with Dan.

September. We drove from Ft. Collins to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, still in Colorado, where we camped a few days. We had views of the dunes from our campsite, but also drove and walked around the park.

From the dunes we drove to Taos, New Mexico where we’d arranged to pick up my cousin BJ; Sue & John drove her into town so we didn’t have to make

On safari in Kruger Nat'l Park

Notice the rangers' guns. The rangers were vigilant at all times, especially when we were near rhinos, which was OFTEN

the climb to Red River again. We had a fun Mexican lunch with everyone before heading back to Arizona to drop BJ in Sierra Vista before we returned to Tucson.

October. The only trip we took was to Phoenix to visit friends, other than that we stayed in Tucson where I had started back at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum doing my regular docent duties and continuing to work with the Jr. Docents.

November. Friends Mara & Larry from El Paso (the ones we’d been with in Santa Fe earlier in the year) and their two kids came for Thanksgiving. They stayed with us but we had dinner at Mara’s cousin’s house where many of her family and friends were gathering. It was a lively, fun group. Christina and JJ couldn’t make it here for Thanksgiving, which was disappointing, but couldn’t be helped.

December. Our second big trip of the year (after South Africa) was to India (Dec. 8 - Jan. 2) for the wedding of the daughter, Gale, of friends, Alice & John, to Arjun in Chandigarh, Punjab. We went two weeks early, hired a car and driver and toured in

Rhinos in Kruger

We saw more than 30 while on foot - this is NOT a telephoto shot, we were that close

Rajasthan. Drove back to Delhi for a day and then to Chandigarh for the week-long wedding celebration.

The travels and wedding were amazing and I’ll be doing a blog with much more information. So I’ll just include a couple of photos now.

In addition to all the travels, Bernard still walks or runs every day; I go to the gym 5 days a week. I’m at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum twice a week. I continue to enjoy my book group; Bernie has a men’s group he meets with for lunch once a month. They always have a speaker; he was asked and did a presentation on international law for one of the meetings.

Spring time is particularly busy for us here in Tucson as we have many visitors. In early February Bernard is lecturing at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs again and his colleague from Germany, Heike, is joining him there. After that we’ll take her to the Grand Canyon, etc., and back to Tucson with us before she returns to Berlin.

The end of February we fly to Thailand for two

Peter & Sue Poole

We stayed with dear friends Peter & Sue in their lovely new home

weeks to work with the Pictet Moot Court Competition in international law. We’ve added a few days to see Bangkok again - it has been years since we’ve been there - and visit with Norwegian friends, Anne Gry & Anders, who moved there right after we visited them in Oslo in 2010.

The end of March into April brings niece Colleen and her daughter Jonna for 10 days. Christina just confirmed that she and Evan will be here then too, and we are hoping that JJ makes it as well. JJ is spending the month of February in Cambodia again, so getting more time off will be a challenge - one we hope she is up to.

It starts to get warm here in May, so by mid-June we are pretty ready to be out of the heat. This year we plan to drive around the USA visiting family and friends - from the West Coast to the East Coast, south to north (but not as far as Alaska). We don’t have a route figured out yet, but don’t be surprised if we show up on your door step.