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| Oregon Symphony fundraiser |
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| Over six (6) weeks in this--even in bed! |
Kathy had cataract surgeries on both eyes and now sees better than ever. She also had a leaking cyst on her foot removed for the third time, but under general anesthesia--no more leaks! (In the interest of good taste, I won't publish a photo of her splayed out foot that her surgeon sent me.) I had rotator cuff surgery in early January. The surgeon also removed some bone, making it a long and painful recovery without much sleep at night. But I am finally getting some mobility back, resumed practicing my drums, and hope to ride my bike soon.
So, as I recuperate, we are finally experiencing what retirement looks like when not traveling as much as we did last year. So far, so good. We took advantage of our forced domestication to read more books, host dinner parties, and go to concerts, fundraisers, social events, wineries, spend more time with Kathy's mom, and organize slide shows (see bottom of this page for links to them).
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| Van Duzer Winery--one of several we visited |
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| Our quest to make the perfect ramen |
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| Lots of walks |
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| How I spent my November |
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| A great way to put our trip into perspective |
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| Guest "celebrity" servers for a Capital Manor fundraiser |
So where are we off to next?
In June we're pulling our Airstream to Banff, then across Canada to Quebec. Then south to Becket in the Berkshires of NW Massachusetts, where we'll stay for a week with Skyler and Spencer and go to the Tanglewood Festival.
We'll drive back through the northern US, home for the first week of August before we leave for two walking safaris in Tanzania with friends we met in 2006 in Slovenia on a bicycling trip. From Tanzania we fly directly to Lisbon, Portugal. We'll spend a week there before starting to walk part of the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, returning home in late September.
With our new upgrades in place, we are optimistic that this could be yet another vintage year.
As promised, here some links to travel photos that we've presented at the Dallas Retirement Village and the Willamette Valley Travel Club. Sit back with your favorite beverage in front of a larger-than-cell-phone screen and enjoy!
Camino de Santiago. Rather than a chronology, these photos are organized around themes: Scenes from the trail; Cities and Villages; Accommodations; Food; and Cathedrals and Monuments. You can catch our daily narrative of the trip on our Tumblr web site, which we posted into from cell phones while on the Camino.
Exploring Southern Japan. We traveled independently for about 10 days last May before joining a Sierra Club hiking trip entitled "Hiking the Ancient Buddhist Trails." It's more or less chronological, with some intermissions about trains, food, and toilets. We published three posts at this site. Simply go to the month of May to the right of this page.
A Brief Road Trip Through Scotland. This was for the Willamette Valley Travel Club,and you can easily find a good narrative to it by clicking on our blogs from last July. (Note: The link will take you to a Powerpoint file shared on Google Drive. You'll probably need to download it.)
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| New Year's Day before surgery |
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| Returned Peace Corps Volunteer dinner |
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| Enjoying the blossoms with Kathy's mom |
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| First Citizen Banquet |
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| A very wet April Airstream rally near Oakridge |
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| A February visit to Cannon Beach with brother Neal |
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| We're not fans of the Willamette Valley fog, but we do enjoy views like these of Minto Brown wildlife refuge from our deck during the winter. |
I'm glad to see you've both gotten overhauls and have plans to head out on more adventures. I look forward to checking out your photo collections! However, I think the shots you just posted of Cannon Beach and Willamette Valley fog look as gorgeous as anywhere else you've traveled!
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