Ron and Kathy's Mid Life Adventures: To the UK, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt

Hazel, our UK magnet and
connoisseur of ice cream.

We’ve been in Oregon since June 24. That’s a record for us over the past few years. We’ve been happily enjoying friends, events, and all that the Willamette Valley and Oregon have to offer. But a grandchild north of London beckons, so we’re off to St. Albans, where our daughter, son-in-law-and grandchild Hazel live in their “new” 84-year old home north of London.

On Saturday, we’re cooking a belated non-traditional vegetarian Thanksgiving for Shanti, Alan, Hazel and nine other friends who hail from the States, Russia, Poland, and China. Then it’s 11 days of doing things with Hazel before we start our tour of the Middle East. We return to London on Christmas Eve, and it will be the first Christmas we have celebrated with a young child in over 35 years. We’re so excited! We’ll be back home in early January.

Happy new homeowners

The back of their 16-foot wide, three
story renovated townhome

We’re checking Egypt and Jordan off our bucket list, and the tour with Road Scholar also includes Israel, a bonus thrown into the 15-day mix. Normally we travel independently, but we don’t speak or read Arabic, and there is so much culture, context, and history that we’ll get with an organized tour. Not to mention worry-free logistics and a level of safety.

Several fiends have asked, “Isn’t that part of the world dangerous?” Having traveled to 36 countries and lived in a developing one for over two years, our answer is “Not any more than just living in the States.” Riding my bike 2.5 miles on Mission Street to the gym three times a week, going to a grocery store, or even an elementary school has just as much random risk in the States as visiting any country. We’re cautious, but not afraid.

Taking Doris on an outing to pick up our wine
at Stoller Winery

One of our worries, however, is Kathy's almost 98-year old mother. She lives in a retirement community in Dallas, OR, but she is becoming frail and is rapidly declining mentally. Fortunately, Kathy's brother Steve in the Portland area is stepping up, but with his business he can't help her as easily or frequently as we do. It's interesting to see how both Hazel and Doris are changing exponentially, but in opposite directions.

As I said, it was a good summer. Some of what we did was mentioned in our most recent August 26 post. And the photos below briefly touch on a very nice autumn. Now that I have a new travel computer, I’ll try to post more regularly, especially when there is a story to tell and photos to share. More frequent photo updates can be found on my Facebook and Instagram pages.