CATCHING UP!!!

 

Well, it has been too long since I updated my blog so here goes.  Seems I left off before President Obama was re-elected!  Yay!  Good for him, good for our country!!  Since Jack and I were going out of the country for Christmas we did a road trip with Dakota to Florida in November. Spent Thanksgiving with my soon-to-be 91 year-old Father in Gainesville. My brother, Steve, and his family treated us to dinner at their country club. From there we headed south to the Keys for a few days of visiting with Donald and Alina – and the beagles. Unfortunately, the pictures of the doggies playing together are on my I-Pad and I don’t know how – yet – to get them to this blog????? After the Keys we stopped in Cocoa beach to visit Holly and our godchildren and got to catch up with cruising friends who live on their boat in Merritt Island, Tammy and Doug on Gypsies in the Palace.  Christmas found us winging our way across the Atlantic to Geneva, then on the train to the magical little village of Zermatt.  It was our 5th time there and each time we are reminded of why we keep coming back!  Unfortunately, a knee injury for me sent us home early but not before great food, great skiing and great apres ski. Just not many pictures – sorry! The MRI revealed some damage but nothing requiring anything other than 6 weeks of rest. Now, ask me how much I hated that! But, I was a good patient and followed orders. We love our winters in Ohio with a fire in the fireplace every night and lots of winter hiking and bird-watching with trips downtown to our favorite restaurants, the Westside Market – which just celebrated it’s 100th anniversary -  to our museums and wonderful orchestra!  I took a trip  in February to Asheville, NC to celebrate my friend Susan’s birthday. She and I have been friends since college!  We visited the Biltmore and took in funky downtown Asheville. Loved it there and loved seeing her and Celeste. We just returned from another trip to Las Vegas for a reunion of Jack’s Air Force pilot training class!  It has been 40 years!! We were treated to a VIP tour of Nellis Air Force Base, a strenuous hike in Red Rock Canyon and lots of drinks, happy hours, dinners and friendship renewals. Some new friends, too – as some of the guys had different wives!!

 

Daddy and his favorite grand daughters!

Jack and I with Daddy and my brother, Steve

That’s Alina dressed up for winter in the Keys!

Sunset in the beautiful Florida Keys

Sunrise from our hotel room in Cocoa Beach

Sunrise over the Matterhorn. This is the view from our room!!  Like I said – magical!!

Alina’s coolee cup went to Switzerland!

The weather and the snow were perfect!  As our landlord told us – “magnifique”!! That is sort of in interesting story in itself. We always stay in the same condo and the first year we stayed there our landlord, Mr. Perren had two darling little twin girls. That was in 1988. Now those two little twin girls run the place and Mr. Perren is retired!  Life marches on.

Back in Ohio – hiking Buckeye Woods

Swans and Canadian geese.  BRRRRR

A pileated woodpecker on my suet feeder

The bluebirds love suet, too. And mealy worms. But I haven’t gotten the courage to have worms crawling around my feeders – yet!

Susan and I at the Biltmore in Asheville!  LOVE you guys! 

And OH, I forgot to mention this!  Jack has a new hobby! Making wine!  We have quite a cellar going. Here is the Old Vine Zin just after bottling! 

And now, Las Vegas!

Sunrise over the strip from our hotel room

Thunderbird hangar

These few pictures are from the Threat Facility where our enemies equipment is stored. Jack remembers when it was a top-secret place. Not anymore!!

An Mi Hind, a big Russian helicopter. That’s Bob, Jack’s best friend from pilot training and his wife, Jacki!

Triple A gun – I think!

MIG 29, a Russian fighter

A drive down the flight line in the desert revealed all kinds of aircraft. Some we were allowed to take pictures of – others NOT!

Hiking the Calico Trail at Red Rock Canyon!  Beautiful!!!

 

And last but not least – I know you won’t believe me - and the pictures are awful – BUT – we have black squirrels here!!!  Can you see how dark the one on the right is compared to the 2 gray squirrels on the left?

Here he is running across the roof of the gazebo. Unlike the grays and the reds the blacks are very skittish and hard to photograph.

PRESIDENT OBAMA!!

I had the privilege of attending a rally in Cleveland for our president.  It was held on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport right on the shores of Lake Erie.  I took 2 trains and a trolley to get there and waited nearly 4 hours.  The wait was worth every minute for all 12,000 of us!  The smaller air Force One, a 757, landed right in front of us and pulled to a stop close enough for me to almost touch!  What a thrill to see him walk out of the plane and come down the ramp shaking our hands and then giving a rousing speech!  To me, the most important words he spoke were that “this election is about trust’. That says it all.  But no matter the party of the man coming out of the plane, Democrat or Republican, it was such a thrill to participate!

Awaiting his arrival

Sun setting over Lake Erie

HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY, BRENDA!!

Jack and I just home from a visit out West. We enjoyed a dinner with our handsome nephew, Matthew, who is a fireman/paramedic in Las Vegas.  Sweet as he is he picked a restaurant with lots of vegan options for his Aunt Susan! We took a day trip out to Hoover Dam and the amazing new bridge over the Colorado!!  Took our breath away!  And the highlight was surprising our friend Brenda on her special birthday. Her husband, Todd, brought her to Las Vegas from Missouri to celebrate her 50th!  She had no idea that “extras” would be there! We gathered around the hotel pool for the reunion and talked about all the fun times we had boating together in the Exumas.  Todd and Brenda spent 5 1/2 years on their boat, Life’s Too Short and like us are now back on land.   ROY’S restaurant served us a perfect birthday meal! The rest of the group was staying in Vegas for a few days. Jack and I headed North to Utah for a visit to Zion National Park and a few days volunteering at Best Friends, a 3700 acre animal sanctuary.  It is an amazing place doing great work with about 1,200-to 1,500 animals at any given time (dogs, cats, birds, horses, pigs, goats and bunnies). They are most famous for taking 25 of the Michael Vick dogs, 18 of which have been adopted!! Jack and I worked with dogs and birds, loving every minute!  It was hard not to bring home a friend with so many animals needing homes. We didn’t take a lot of pictures at the sanctuary. Too busy working! 

 

Oh, I forgot!  The day before we left a 75 foot hickory fell on our house!  We were lucky. No one was hurt and the roof (new, one month ago!!) had only minimal damage.

The Callaghan/Tillman Bridge, an architectural wonder!! It was built to relieve the congestion over the dam.

One side of the bridge is Nevada, the other side, Arizona!

Scary as it was we took the walkway across the bridge!

Hoover Dam from the bridge.  It’s hard to tell how big it is unless you are there but you can look and see how small the people are! That’s the Colorado River flowing into Lake Mead.

The bridge!

Spillway

Lake Mead

Gathered around the pool. Todd is taking the picture and that’s Lila and Everett, friends from Missouri who also surprised Brenda!

Dinner at Roy’s.

Happy, happy birthday!!

Lots had changed since we were last in Vegas! The Eifel Tower moved there!!

Fountain at Caesar’s Palace

Glass ceiling in the Bellagio by Chihuly. I would like to have just one piece of his work but a WHOILE ceiling!!

If you have been to the Bellagio you know they have an atrium always decorated for the season.  Autumn and Halloween when we were there!

Flower art – all framed!

A view down the strip!

Fountains percolating at the Bellagio!

Choreographed to music!

Dancing to an etude!

Fountains even more beautiful at night!

 

 

 

Heading through the pass to Utah.

Starting to see the formations of Zion National Park

Beautiful Zion!

Autumn colors

View from our hotel

Arriving at the sanctuary

Meet Bella! She is half boxer, half German short-haired pointer and a sweet beauty!  We took her on a long hike in the mountains to a cave with a hidden lake and then home with us for the night.  They call it a socialization sleep-over.  Of course they hope you will fall in love!  And we did!

She didn’t need any encouragement to hop up on the bed for a nap!

These are the gates to the pet cemetery.

A peaceful place with over 1,100 wind chimes.

Our neighbors in Ohio volunteer here often and have buried their pets here. We visited the graves of their Dakota, Seymour and Houston.

We will be back, Best Friends!!