Donna held a birthday bash for Charlie (age 90) & Barb (age 85) on Dec. 11 at our home and invited her brothers and sister, as well as several cousins from Cincinnati & Washington DC. We also had a couple of Charlie & Barb’s friends from church at the party. The relatives stayed for a week, arriving several days before the event and staying a couple days after it.
I traveled with my daughter Audrey and grandson Drew, and my friend Doug Borrett to Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia to visit the area, ride on trains and experience the Balkan lifestyle. This was an 11-day trip which Audrey planned for the rest of us. A great trip highlighted by numerous tours, visits to fortresses, rides on several passenger trains and a narrow-gauge track train, and we all had fun. Audrey’s friend Rhianna Pruit also joined us for most of the trip.
We took the dogs for a short walk at the Chamizal National Memorial on the border of Texas and Mexico. Nice day for a Sunday morning stroll in the park.
I drove to Alamogordo to visit their train museum. They gave me a private tour of the building and I took a lot of pictures. I learned more about different types of model trains and enjoyed seeing their various layouts.
We took the camper and the dogs and drove to Big Sky, MT where we rented a large home for the week to house 26 members of Donna’s family. We hiked, did white water rafting, went on a ski lift and had a wonderful time socializing with each other. We parked the camper in the driveway and slept there while the others stayed in the home.
Donna’s brother Steve and his wife Cheryl came to visit Charlie & Barb (and us). Donna took Steve to Jarden Milagros to help volunteer at the farm for a couple hours. Later in the week we drove to the Pink Store in Palomas, Mexico (just south of Columbus, New Mexico) where we shopped and had lunch. The following week I drove to Columbus again and stopped to visit Pancho Villa State Park.
I drove to PA to help celebrate Steve (my son) 50th birthday party as well as granddaughter Julia’s 17th birthday. Stopped at Carol & Dave’s house along the way and made several stops (going and coming back) at National Park/Monument, etc sites. The trip lasted two weeks and I traveled over 5,500 miles. I also visited my Aunt Janice and Uncle Jim, Steve & Cheryl, Kevin & kids, Keith & family, and Audrey & Avery. Great trip.
Donna & Jan went with Carole & LuAnn to Carole’s timeshare resort in Puerto Vallarta for 4 days. This was a girls only trip and it required them to be tested for COVID before returning to the US. Looks like they had a great time together.
Carey’s daughter Audrey stopped in for a visit and stayed for a week. We played 3 gams of Trekking National Parks, hiked the Franklin Mts, and drove to see the Aydan Crater in southern New Mexico. Good visit.
Donna & I flew to Costa Rica for a 10 day tour of the country, We rented a car in San Jose, then drove to LaFortuna to hike to the Arenal Volcano, then a couple days in Monteverde to zip line and walk on hanging bridges. From there we traveled to Tamarindo and stayed at a luxury resort on the beach, taking a few days to hike national parks, bath in hot springs and mud baths; see a Giant Pacific Sea turtle lay eggs in its nesting areas and do a sunset cruise on a catamaran. On our last day in Costa Rica we stayed at the Xaneri Resort in San Jose and hiked to waterfalls and relaxed in a hot tub before flying home the next day.
