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Published: December 12th 2016
Happy Holidays
Whichever holiday you are celebrating this time of year, we hope it is filled with family, love, friendship and peaceFirst order of business: The UPS store where we have gotten our mail for about 22 years is closing and we've had to arrange for another PMB (private mail box). Below is our new mailing address:
7739 E. Broadway Blvd., PMB 246, Tucson, AZ 85710
YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT, THEN GO BACK TO THE BLOG OR GO THROUGH THE PHOTOS (56 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 THAN 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.
As you have probably figured out, these travel blogs are a way for Bernard and me to keep track of our adventures. I can't tell you how many times we've referred back to one of our over 60 travel blogs looking for various details, maps, dates, etc. That said, feel free to enjoy the photos and just skim the text.
Happy Holidays to One and All,
While Christmas and Hanukah often fall close together, this year Hanukah begins on December 24 and ends on January 1. We'll be in Arizona for Christmas, but will celebrating Hanukah and New Years in Rosarita, Mexico with friends Stuart & Susan and Mark & Donna.
By way of clarifying
why I say "Happy Holidays" and not just "Merry Christmas:" Kwanzaa is Dec. 26 - January 1, so Happy Kwanzaa!! Yesterday was the celebration of Mawlid an Nabi (Islam; Dec. 11) so Happy Holidays to all of our Muslim friends. Dec. 26 is Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathustra) for our Zarathothian friends - hope it is fun celebration for you.
Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again during the holidays.
January. Since 'winter' in Arizona is fabulous, we spent the month here. Good friends,
Sue and Peter from South Africa, and their son,
Rick, visited us for a week. Peter & Rick golfed almost every day while we took Sue touring. There were a few days Rick had to work (from his computer), so we took Sue & Peter to Nogales, Mexico for lunch & shopping one day and the other day we hiked in Sabino Canyon. They visited the Grand Canyon after leaving us as they were flying out of Phoenix. It was a pleasure to host Sue and Peter after all the times they have taken care of us in South Africa - what kind, generous and gracious people.
February. Bernard lectured again at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs early
Rick, Sue & Peter in Tucson
Rick is Sue & Peter's younger son who lives near Philadelphia now. Their other son, Gavin, and his family live in Birmingham, Alabama, so Sue & Peter bought a second home there. Sue & Peter's primary home remains in Pretoria, South Africa in the month and was still there when
JJ arrived from Alaska. JJ tries to get out of Alaska on her birthday, so swung down here for a week. I picked her up from the airport and we went straight to a spa for foot massages and pedicures. The rest of the visit (Bernie got him the next day) continued that way - eating, pampering, JJ at the pool.
Later in the month we drove with friends from Alaska who winter in Tucson,
Tim & Linda, to Mexico - first to Guaymas, then Alamos, and finally San Carlos. We hired a bird guide in Alamos and spent a wonderful day bird watching; Tim & Linda's first birding trip.
March.
Bernie participated in the American Red Cross's international humanitarian law competition (Clara Barton) in Seattle early in March. Soon after he returned to AZ we headed out to another such law competition,
Jean-Pictet, held in Evian, France this year. Bernard was made a member of the Pictet Board this year (he is also on the Clara Barton board), so he has been busier than usual.
After the competition in Evian, long-time friends
Louis & Maryse picked us up and took us to their home in
Massongy (Douvaine), not too far from Evian where we had a lovely visit. We borrowed their car for several days and drove into
Switzerland to visit long-time friends
Emil and Renate in Schwellbrunn (Appenzell mountain area). April. We returned from Europe on April 2nd and on the 9th we flew to Ft. Lauderdale and a
Caribbean cruise with four of our five exchange student daughters (only one missing was Marysia from Poland), families and JJ. We had a fun
six-day cruise to Grand Cayman, Jamaica & Haiti. The end of April Bernard flew to
Germany to teach at a university in Frankfurt (Oder) on the Polish boarder. I have accompanied him to F/O several times, but since we planned to be in Germany in August, I didn't go this time. He lectures in International Criminal Law in a graduate program. He also supervises theses, so this job keeps him active throughout the year.
May and most of June were spent in and around Tucson. Not only is it beautiful in May, but we had a trip to South
Pictet Colleagues
Bernard with his colleagues in Evian, France at the annual Jean-Pictet International Humanitarian Law competition. B is a juror (judge) and I do admin work, so these I my 'peeps' too Africa coming up at the end of June and lots of planning to do.
June. & July. On June 28 we flew from Tucson to Atlanta and picked up our 16+ hour flight to
Johannesburg, South Africa. JJ flew from Alaska via New York and we met at the airport in Jo'burg. (See soon-to-be-published travel blog entry: Africa 2016 for details).
We stayed two nights at our friends, Peter & Sue's, home in
Pretoria. They were at their second home in Alabama, so had arranged for their employee,
Ian, to pick us up and take care of us while we were in Pretoria.
I'm not going to be detailed here about Africa because I'm doing a separate blog on that trip. In a nutshell: JJ and we drove to
Kruger National Park for five days; then to
Pilanesberg Reserve where we connected with friends from Alaska,
Tim & Linda, for four days; to Jo'burg airport to drop JJ off; another night at Sue & Peter's in Pretoria. Rented a car (we'd been using Sue & Peter's car this whole time) and with Linda & Tim drove south:
Mountain Zebra National Park; Kathy in Evian, France
Evian is on Lake Geneva, so across the water is Switzerland Addo Elephant National Park, Tsitsikamma National Park; Stellenbosch; Camps Bay/Cape Town; flew out of Cape Town 7/23 back to AZ. While in Cape Town we got together with Peter's younger brother,
Doug and wife Joanie, whom we've gotten to know well over the years - grand time; lots of laughs.
August. We weren't home very long before (August 5) we loaded up our VW camper van and headed east. We had planned to **camp as we headed east, but it was so hot we ended up in motels until our first stop to see South African friends,
Sue & Peter, in their new home just outside of
Birmingham, Alabama - BEAUTIFUL area. They are happy there; went together with their older son and his family on a lake condo where we spent a few days. Life is good.
**We did camp off and on throughout the summer, mostly after we returned from Europe and the weather had cooled down.
Next stop was in
Jacksonville, Florida to visit long-time friends from Alaska,
Karen & Don. Their lovely home is right on the St. Johns river - wonderful location and fun visit.
Schwellbrunn, Switzerland
Emil & Renate on the deck of their home Charleston, South Carolina was our next stop to visit
Ernie & Kaye - they are the couple who accompanied us on our first 3+ month camping trip in southern Africa in 2006. Yep, still friends; still adore this great couple. Their home on James Island is not only gorgeous, but has one of the most amazing views - Clark Sound out to the ocean and also marsh areas.
Unfortunately we had some time constraints because we were flying out of Newark, New Jersey on August 20 for Bernie to lecture at the German Red Cross Summer School in Berlin. Bernie's sister, Claudia, was in North Carolina, so we had her cute apartment in Highlands all to ourselves.
Niece Denise was in town and took good care of us, as did neighbors and very long-time friends of Claudia's & ours,
Maureen & Bobbie.
While at Claudia's we drove to
Princeton to see
niece McKayla who was doing a few summer courses before her freshman year began in September.
Nephew Luke also attends Princeton, but he hadn't arrived yet. McKayla has a full academic scholarship to Princeton - we are very proud of her,
Massongy, France
Luis & Maryse (on the right) have a big, beautiful home in a picturesque village. Neighbors Jean-Pierre and Cathrine are also friends - had a wonderful birthday (both Bernard's and Luis's) meal together as we are of Luke - Princeton isn't a 'safety' school!!
Denise drove us to the airport and we flew into
Dusseldorf where friend
Heike picked us up and we drove back to her home in
Bochum (less than an hour's drive). We napped since we'd flown overnight and in the early afternoon Heike, Sofie (Heike's intern in Berlin) and we hit the autobahn to
Berlin. We wanted a car in Berlin because after the summer school we were going with Heike to Italy. The week-long summer school went smoothly; saw many old friends/colleagues. Had time to take in some museums, historical cemeteries, visit old haunts - Berlin is wonderful.
On August 28 Heike and we drove to
Montespertoli, Italy in Tuscany where she had rented a villa for two weeks. We stayed one week visiting many of the charming old towns in Tuscany and eating way too much - yeah, pretty fabulous. We then flew from Florence back to Dusseldorf to pick up Heike's other car and drive to
The Netherlands to visit good friend
Mäcki (I met her at the International Center in Leiden in 2001) in Oegstgeest for several days, then
Hike into the Appenzell mountains
I was getting over a bad virus, but that didn't stop Emil & Renate from hiking us up a mountain. Thank goodness there was a restaurant at the top!! to
The Hague to visit
Marcel & Vera; Marcel was a classmate of Bernard's at the University of Leiden in 2001 - 2002. As you know we love the Netherlands and our Dutch friends - the lifestyle is very much to our liking.
On the 10th of
September we drove from the Netherlands back to
Dusseldorf to fly back to
Newark. This time
Claudia was home so we had a nice visit. We finally had to leave beautiful Highlands, which is only a 10-minute drive from Sandy Hook with its gorgeous beaches and bike trails.
Our next stop was to visit Bernie's cousin and his wife,
Frank and Dottie, in Pawling, New York. Always a pleasure to spend time with this lovely couple.
The next day we drove to
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts to visit
Janet, Bernie's sister-in-law, and his brother, Tom, who is in a full-care facility because of his Multiple Systems Atrophy, related to Parkinson's. It is always wonderful to spend time with Tom & Janet, but sad also.
While in Massachusetts we took the opportunity to visit a Holy Cross College classmate of Bernie's, one he hadn't
Caribbean Cruise
Ft. Lauderdale: The Argentine twins Vicky & Marcela w/Cal, Marcela's son; Tim, Marcela's husband; JJ; Camie (Brazil); Bia, Camie's daughter; Bernard; Gui, Camie's son; Jackie (Guatemala); Kathy; in front of Jackie is her sister Mercedes and to Mercedes's left is Felipe, Camie's son seen since college.
Tom & Candy have a beautiful old home in
Newton they've renovated and Candy has filled with exquisite hand-made quilts. We went into Boston one day and visited many historic places. Bean Town is super.
From Massachusetts we headed to the D.C. area, specifically to niece
Regina's (& Tim's) home in Potomac. Tim was out of town on business, but two kids were there:
Mairin who is just out of college and looking for a job as a sports broadcaster. In the meantime she had about seven small jobs, including one working behind the scenes at a local TV station. A go-getter for sure. The youngest son,
Owen, was home too - he is still in high school. The aforementioned
Luke was by this time at Princeton starting his sophomore year. Oldest son
Patrick works in D.C. and we had lunch with him, and his cousin
Drew who we know well. In fact Regina didn't tell Drew we were coming and she didn't tell us she'd invited Drew, so it was a mutual and fun surprise.
Next stop was with niece
Adrienne and family in Richmond. Actually, three of Tom &
Foreign Daughters & JJ
Marcela (Argentina), Camie (Brazil), Mercedes (Guatemala), JJ, Jackie (Guatemala) & Vicky (Argentina) Janet's children live in the Richmond area now. Adrienne's husband, Rob, is from Richmond and that she how she got there.
David, the surgeon, came with wife
Deb and their three kids after he'd finished all his medical training - about five years ago(?), and recently
Tom, wife
Holly and their two kids moved to the area from Bronxville, NY. We loved it because we got to see so many special nephews, a niece, their spouses and numerous grand-nieces and nephews at one time.
Our next visit with friends was in
Asheville, North Carolina. Friends from Alaska
, William & Pamela, moved there a few years ago. Of course we love Asheville and William & Pamela have a great old home near the center. Always fun to catchup with Wm. & Pamela, who trained as a chef - the food was amazing.
From Asheville we drove a short distance to
Taylorsville where niece
Colleen, husband Dean and daughter Jonna, plus Dean's entire family, were hosting the 10th annual "Tents on the Hill" weekend. Everybody brings food and drink, pitches a tent and it is basically a weekend of over-eating, over-drinking and enjoying the company of
The Gang (minus kids)
Back: Camie, Mercedes, Jackie, Marcela, Tim. Front: Bernardo, JJ, Kathy & Vicky friends and family, many of whom you haven't seen since the year before. This was our first 'Tents on the Hill' and we'll definitely return if invited.
October. After North Carolina our plans got messed up with the arrival of Hurricane Matthew. From Taylorsville, North Carolina we drove to
Savannah, Georgia. We hadn't visited that old city in many years, so spent two great days walking around that park-intense city. Every park had a monument and informative historical plaque and most had a corner church.
It isn't a long ride from Savannah to
Anastasia State Park, Florida where we spent a few days enjoying the beach and exploring
St. Augustine, Florida. The plan was to then drive to
Boca Raton, Florida to visit with
Marcela, Tim & Cal. Long story short, we had to evacuate the state park (we were right on the beach) and while we had hoped to drive to Boca, the powers-that-be were advising against it. The Miami/St. Lauderdale/Boca area was supposed to get a direct hit from
Hurricane Matthew. As you know, that didn't happen - Jacksonville and St. Augustine where we'd been, got hit harder. But by the time
Felipe & Cal
Our day in Haiti was spent at a private beach, which was great for the kids as I don't think they were out of the water except to eat we knew the storm had given Miami a pass, we were well on our way back to AZ. We were worried about getting caught in bad evacuation traffic. That didn't happen and we had a uneventful trip home. My heart was broken though because we didn't get to visit Marcela. She totally understood and with a pilot husband, knew that 'safety first' was paramount, but it was still a terrible disappointment to all.
We arrived in Tucson on October 7th, about a week ahead of schedule. While we were still sad about not seeing Marcela and family in Boca, have to admit we were happy to be home after so long on the road.
It was a good thing we'd gotten home when we did (to make sure there were fresh sheets on the guest bed, bathroom cleaned, etc.) because my good friend
Mara from El Paso came for a visit October 12.
November brings Thanksgiving and this year was fun. My nephew
Tom and his family live in
Peoria (suburb of Phoenix). Months earlier Tom and we set up a surprise for his parents (
my brother Cliff and wife Terri).
B & K w/Camie & Family
Bernard, Camie, Kathy w/Gui behind her, Bia, and in front, Felipe Tom flew them down from Washington state for Thanksgiving and told them we were traveling so couldn't join them. Good friends,
Mary & Leo, had moved to Scottsdale (also a suburb of Phoenix) from Tucson over the summer. On Wednesday we drove up and stayed with Leo & Mary. On Thanksgiving they celebrated with their family and B and I drove to Tom's. Tom had invited many of his friends for dinner, so there was lots of traffic and when we showed up my brother at first didn't register who we were. What a hoot. Terri on the other hand was pretty sure we were the 'surprise guests' Tom had mentioned because 8-year-old granddaughter Payton and asked when making name signs for the table how to spell "Aunt Kathy." Too funny.
We then spent Thanksgiving night with
Leo and Mary and had planned to stay two more days to get our 'fix' since we were desperately missing our old friends. Best laid plans and all: I could hardly talk on Thanksgiving because of laryngitis setting in and by Friday I couldn't talk and was feeling horrible, so we cut our time in the Phoenix area short and
Black-throated Magpie Jay
One of the amazing birds we saw while birding in Alamos, Mexico drove back to Tucson.
December 1-5 we spent in
Puerto Peñasco, Mexico with Tim & Linda. It is about a 5 /12 hour drive from Tucson, but we went early so we could stop and picnic in
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It was, as usual, a beautiful day and we hadn't been to Organ Pipe in years, so enjoyed it very much.
We had a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo at a big
beach resort, Las Palomas - 3 swimming pools, restaurants, right on the beach, beautiful views from the condo. It was a fun visit - ate fish or shrimp (this is a HUGE shrimping areas) every meal, walked beautiful beaches, collected lots of shells. Very relaxing. Both Linda and I were getting over colds, so we had some great napping too.
On the way home we stopped at
Pinacate Biosphere Reserve on the MX side of the border. This is a vast volcanic area - very interesting.
We'll be in
Mexico again or New Years with friends
Stuart and Susan who own several condos in Rosarito, MX (just below Tijuana). Another couple,
Mark & Donna are coming
Bernie & JJ in Kruger NP, South Africa
It was nippy in the a.m. in SA (it was winter), but warmed up nicely during the day; from fleeces to shorts by noon too. Mark, Bernie & Stuart were all in law school together. Should be a fun visit.
The only trips we have planned so far are:
Bernard to CO to lecture at the Air Force Academy in February. March we have the
Clara Barton International Humanitarian Law (IHL) competition in D.C. Directly from there we'll fly to
Tbilisi, Georgia to work with the other competition we do annually, the
Jean-Pictet IHL competition. We'll spend about a week more and do some touring of the area; back in Tucson early April.
Just another reminder, our new mailing address is:
7739 E. Broadway Blvd., PMB 246, Tucson, AZ 85710
We hope you have your decorations up, your shopping done and can enjoy a calm, stress-free, fun-filled holiday season. I know, who am I kidding, just be careful out there; shopping can be dangerous!!
Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. - Peg Bracken
May peace, love and prosperity follow you always.
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 - 3 TOTAL - (CLICK ON 'NEXT' AT BOTTOM OF EACH JJ & Kathy in South Africa
Just outside Kruger is a beautiful mountain area. Blyde Canyon behind us PAGE).
THERE ARE MORE PHOTOS (56 TOTAL) AT THE BOTTOMS OF THE PAGES AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, AT THE VERY END ARE PHOTOS OF GRANDSON EVAN AND DAUGHTER CHRISTINA
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Carlos
non-member comment
GREAT PHOTOS :)
Thank you for sharing :) Have a great 2017.- Besos