Here's To Life!

Today started out as a windy, rainy day. I was glad I had nowhere I needed to be. Leaves fell more today then they have for the past few weeks. But, while today started out rainy it didn’t stay that way. We have had some marvelous, beautiful fall days and the colors of the leaves has been glorious. Our fall adventures have enabled us to see some great colorful trees from the Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin border area to the Chicago area and southern Wisconsin. We have enjoyed many fall days out and about. We really did get to appreciate fall this year. We went to Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL two different days to experience some color. Augustana College in Rock Island, IL is always at its most beautiful in the fall - and we were fortunate to have a great day for a visit. We took a day trip to Lake Geneva, WI where we wandered a bit around the lake. We had a couple of days in the Galena, IL area where we visited Mississippi Palisades State Park and drove into Wisconsin to overlook the Missi...

  Had an end of the summer trip to Pennsylvania - in the Delaware Water Gap area and finishing up by visiting Gettysburg. It was a pleasant week for the most part, though we felt some of the remnants from Hurricane Ida in the area. It rained all of one day and we ended up losing power in the resort we were staying in for about 12 hours. But we were able to enjoy some wine tasting, both in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and in Ohio on the way home. We enjoyed the outdoor pool and exploring the area. We saw some of the results of all the rain - mostly in high river banks, standing water and some closed roads. We started our trip visiting Mildred, PA and the cemetery there where several Coleman ancestors are buried. We then headed to Shawnee on Delaware, PA for our stay. One of our bucket list items we decided on recently is to visit a winery in as many states as possible. On Monday we had a delightful visit at a winery in New Jersey where we tasted several wines and wine slushies and me...

A visit to Leelaunau Peninsula   Northport Lighthouse A little wine tasting Our hosts for the weekend! The must have Michigan sunset photo!

June 2021 - Our trip to Colorado and New Mexico!   Pictures from our trip! Our western jaunt this June was a trip over various parts of terrain through southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Our main destinations were Pagosa Springs, CO and Taos and Santa Fe, NM.   We drove through Lawrence, Kansas and our first historical site was Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in LaJunta, CO. Bent’s Old Fort is an adobe fort, built to trade with Plains Indians and trappers and located on the Santa Fe Trail. A hot day but an interesting fort showing how the traders lived and worked. After visiting the fort, we headed to Pagosa Springs but made a stop at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. We did not attempt to walk on the dunes but did take pictures. From there we drove through the mountain pass to Pagosa Springs and our home for the next few days. We wandered in downtown Pagosa Springs but did not try the hot springs. We explored the area, driving to Durango one day to t...

Our trip to South Carolina in April was wonderful. The weather was lovely and we were there for the peak blooms of azaleas. It was relaxing, we visited new sites, ate some great food and had a good time. Wonderful to be near the ocean. We traveled through Kentucky on our way and visited a Buffalo Trace Distillery. As the weather warmed as we went south, we could also see the trees budding out and flowering. A great sign of spring. Our first stop in South Carolina was Edisto Beach. It is almost like an island -surrounded by the ocean and the South Edisto River. We wandered on the beach and drove among trees laden with Spanish moss. We visited the Charleston Tea plantation and drove through nature preserves. We spent a day at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens where we saw lovely flowers, lots of wildlife, and experienced a bit of history. We spent a few days in Charleston where we made a trip to Fort Sumter, took a carriage ride, visited the Slave Mart Museum and had some great meals. Then...

Spring has sprung! And the time to travel has begun.  Retirement is great because we have time to do the things we want to do, including traveling as the weather warms up. Of course we are traveling safely, wearing masks and not making contact with too many people. This March we drove out to the Cape to visit my mother. I have been going to the Cape in March for a number of years, though I never made it last year. Paul was able to go with me this time. The weather was decent - at least no rain - so we tried to spend some time outdoors. When I go to the Cape I always want to "find the water" and eat fish and chips. This time we found the water at Dowses Beach, the National Seashore, Plymouth Harbor and the Sandwich boardwalk. We had fish and chips from Bobby Byrne's Restaurant and Seafood Sam's.  Finding the Water We had a nice visit - drove out to Provincetown one day, stopping to see the water in various places. We drove to Plymouth to visit the harbor, see Plymouth ...

What a winter it has been so far. We have had some extremely cold weather - though not as bad as some years - and now we have over a foot and a half of snow on the ground. We are so thankful for our neighbor who has a snowblower and does our sidewalks! Enjoy the  little bit of snow!

Never so happy as to see the end of a year. 2020 held a lot of promise in the beginning. There were many good things that we had planned. Many of them happened under completely different circumstances but happily the best of what was to be in 2020 was there. I so look forward to being able to spend more time with family this year, hoping without masks. I want to be able to celebrate happy things - Kristin and Scott's wedding celebration as they had originally planned, the engagement of my niece, Anna, to Jim. I want to be able to spend more time with my granddaughter, Xochitl, at the zoo or the park or anywhere we might be able to go. Now that we are both retired, we both want to be able to travel, to explore old and new places. We want to see the United States. We want to be able to visit with people who live far away from us. We want to be able to eat out - breakfast, lunch or dinner - when we feel like it.  Here's to the new year! Let's hope it is better than the last on...