2019

I was looking for some sunshine when I headed to California and Arizona in February and left Seattle just ahead of our first snowstorm.  However, when I arrived in Long Beach it was raining.  After a few days I went to Laguna Beach and it rained and then to Pasadena and it rained.  Not exactly the winter get-away I had hoped for but always fun to spend time with friends and family.

I decided to have my friend Jan, who lives in Tempe, meet me in Las Vegas and we spent a couple of really cold days seeing the sights most notably of which was Cirque du Soleil’s “Love”, a tribute to The Beatles, which was fantastic.  When we came out of the performance at 9:30 at night it was SNOWING so we jumped in the car, drove all night back to Tempe and just ahead of the snow that closed all the roads for a couple of days.

Not to be deterred the following day we decided to go south but when we got to Tucson it was snowing there too and finally closed the roads by the time we got to Tombstone. Needless to say I am thinking of going much further south to find sunshine next year.

I love spring and summer in Seattle so no need to travel.

However, by August I had decided to go to Michigan to spend some time with my friend Joyce.  She was staying on the beautiful campus of Cranbrook University and we had a great week together exploring the beautiful campus with its lake, gardens and water features.  

One day we went to the Henry Ford Museum which was super interesting. They had several Presidential Limousines including the limo in which JFK was assassinated. There was a section on the inventions over the years and of course the history of the Ford automobiles and another on the civil rights movement including the bus Rosa Parks rode in and the story of how she wouldn´t give up her seat for a white man. 

 

The next couple of days we did her favorite thing which was to go to Estate Sales as she loves hunting for bargains.  They were in some beautiful homes so great to see the elegant parts of Detroit. Another day we went downtown where we rode around the city on the People Mover and I walked along the Riverfront walk which is beautiful and you can see right across the river to Windsor, Canada.

My last day we drove to a cute little German Town called Frankenmuth which was like Leavenworth. It is probably more Bavarian than Bavaria. It was nice to get out in the countryside and see more of ´Pure Michigan´.

Next day we set out pretty early in the morning to be sure I would make it to the train on time. We got to downtown Detroit in good time, took the tunnel under the river to Canada and found the Windsor train station for my train to Toronto.  I spent the day with my friend Michael whom I met in 1988 on a cruise to China and we have kept in touch over the years.  It was great to see him again, get caught up on our lives and spend time together again.

He drove me to Waterloo where my friends Rowena and Dave live and I spent the next few days with them. Rowena and I grew up together in Winnipeg and our parents were best friends.

From there I rented a car and drove about five hours to Cardinal, Ontario, where my mom was born. It was a beautiful drive along the St. Lawrence River and the 1000 Islands. Just before I left home a man came up in my DNA and I found out I had a ´new´ cousin in Ottawa, Art Barnhardt. Through our correspondence he decided to come and meet me in Cardinal. We met up at the Cardinal library and spent time with Margaret Ann, the librarian I had been corresponding with. She pulled old maps and photos for us and drove us around town to see where my mom´s house had been and the grocery store her dad and uncle had owned. We all stayed overnight and next day spent some time at the genealogical society searching through their records.

Art (Barney) and his wife Charmaine are really great and invited me to stay with them in Ottawa for a couple of days so I could see some of Canada’s Capital.

Then I drove back to Toronto and since I was half way across Canada I thought it was a good opportunity to go to Iceland, so I flew there for ten days. Iceland is a beautiful country with fantastic waterfalls, glaciers and so many different types of landscapes. 

My first tour was to the Ice Cave beneath the Langjokull Glacier.  The Glacier is 31 miles across and 13 miles long.  After donning special waterproof jackets and boots to put over our shoes we climbed into an all-terrain, eight-wheel drive monster truck for our trip across the crevices to the ice cave.

As we entered the tunnel, which is 550 meters or 1804 feet long and reaches 30 meters or 100 feet down into the glacier we had to stop to put on crampons and then continue our hour long tour. We explored the various tunnels and rooms that have been carved into the glacier and learned about the catastrophic effects of global warming.  At the current rate of warming studies show that this glacier which is the second largest in the country will all be gone in 65 years. 

It turns out I have a cousin in Keflavik which is about a half hour from Reykjavik so I contacted him and saw him a couple of times.  Bill and Elizabeth took me for dinner and toured me around to places I wouldn’t have found on my own which was great.  

The Golden Circle tour took in the Thingvellir National Park, the site of the tectonic plates where the separation of the continents took place 10,000 years ago. It is amazing to walk along the path at the foot of the high walls and imagine that years ago the continents were actually joined. 

From there we went to the geothermal area to see the most active Strokkur Geyser. As you walk the trail the earth is bubbling all around you.  There are signs posted that the temperature of the earth beside the trail is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. You follow the path with the steaming earth around you to the big cordoned off area where everyone waits with their cameras poised for the big eruption which happens about every 7 to 10 minutes sending blasts of steam to a height of between 50 and 60 feet.

The third spectacle of the day was the fantastic Gullfoss waterfall.  It actually consists of two waterfalls one 36 feet and the other 65 feet cascading down in a three step staircase before plunging over the two stages of waterfalls. The power and drama of Nature is incredible.

Next day we headed for more glaciers, the Black Sand Beach with its massive basalt columns, and finally to the fabulous Skogafoss Waterfall, one of the tallest waterfalls, and the Seljalandsfoss waterfall where the cliffs behind the falls have a wide cavern along the rocks and a path that allows you to walk behind the wall of water.

Also at night the tour included the northern lights which were really amazing. 

Another day I took a trip to the Glacier Lagoon where we boarded a boat cruising past huge pieces of ice as the icebergs floated by. The various shapes and colors show only 1/10^th of what lies below the surface of the water. 

And I didn’t want to miss the famous Icelandic Horses so I went horseback riding through the lava fields one afternoon. 

And of course spent some time in the warm geothermal waters floating around the beautiful Blue Lagoon.

 

This fall I went to Whistler with my former roommates for our girls’ get-a-way.

I made a trip to Winnipeg in November for the celebration of life for my cousin’s husband which was a wonderful tribute to a man well-loved and well-lived.  Being back in my home town with the snow blowing, the temperature at -9 and being out on the Prairies with the wind cutting through you just reminds me of how glad I am to be living in Seattle.  It is always fun to see everyone but nice to have landed on the West Coast.

My little friends aren’t very little anymore.  Robert is 15 and learning to drive and Ana Lilia is 12 and busy with her love of jumping horses.  Robert wants to train horses so both of them are very fortunate that they have an aunt with a place in the country and two horses so they go there at every opportunity. 

So I think that pretty much brings you up to date on what I have been up to.  I hope this past year has been a good one for you and that you and your family and friends enjoy the holiday season and all the best for the New Year.