Catching Up for Dec, Jan, Feb

Wow, it’s so hard to write a blog when it’s been so long since the last one.. I will try to catch you up since my last post…

December..

I had alot of bridges to cross..the first being  Kevin’s birthday, it happens to be the same day as our granddaughter Kailyn’s, so I planned a nice family vacation to Disney. We had a blast.

Kailyn, Kevin, Chris and Jen

When my son and family headed back to New Hampshire, I drove to St Pete to visit friends.  Glad I was there to celebrate my bff  ‘s birthday..

Patti and Arlene..

Kite festival at the beach..

Even got to have a nice visit with RV friends , Dee and Jim, Anna and Gale and Lessie and Bill. It was the first time to meet Lessie from our chat room. How fun.

Dee, Lessie, Jim, Ed ,Gale, Anna, Arlene 

 

Two of my grandsons took part in the Flags Across America with their cub scout group. They laid wreaths on the graves at Houston National Cemetary, after a very nice ceremony..

Placing the wreath on grampy’s  grave..

I got through Christmas, thanks to the  kids.

I  even pushed myself to decorate a small tree..

January

Then on to my wedding anniversary, which was the hardest by far. I drove to the cemetary, parked and blasted our song “Colour My World” and visited for awhile…

With help from above,  and that of friends and family, I got through it.

I was getting itchy to travel.. The Tampa RV show was coming up, so I headed to Florida and stayed with close friends  for several days.

Gunnar, Don, Katherine, Shannery, Patti, Don

Plans had been made to attend the show and have a meet up with RV Dreamers that were in town. That we did and it was so good to see them all. 

Donna, Arlene, Nancy, Elaine

 

February..

The superbowl here at my daughter’s, is always a big deal. For years, the guys usually golf either the day before or after. This year they started the 1st Annual Sully Invitational..It was hosted by my son in law Joe, my son Kevin and our good friend Don from Florida. It was held the day before the superbowl.

 

Then the annual superbowl party…

Arlene, Sherry and Patti (kitchen help)

  Game on inside

And out

 

With that behind us, I was getting itchy to travel again. RV Dreams was having a rally in the desert in Quartzite Az. Hmmm, I really wanted to attend but I didn’t have an rv.  The search started for a rental. And found one, with pickup in Las Vegas…

This would prove to be a good chance to see if I would want to invest in an RV again. Alot different traveling alone.  But I did it, and loved being out there again..

 

So much fun being with Dreamers again..

Howard and Linda

 

The solo cafe girls… serving up breakfast

and drinks

We had a fun filled week with lots of food, seminars, cocktail hours, campfires every night and beautiful sunsets…Not to mention new friendships.

 

Gina, DJ, Kyra, Arlene

After a fun filled week in the desert boondocking, I was off to Yuma.  A friend from Florida, flew in to meet me. We parked ourselves next to Bob and Molly, who took good care of us.. Susan and I spent quite a few days going back and forth to Mexico for dental work. The results were good..We managed to have a day out with Phyllis…

Arlene, Phyllis, Susan

I returned the RV  to Vegas and flew back to Houston in time to have a gathering with more RV friends that happened to be in the area.  Mac and Nette are gate guarding in Huntsville, about an hour from here.  We all headed to their place for fun, food and laughter…

Nette, Barb, Kathy

 

  Roger, Mac, John, Chuck, Nette

The girls…Arlene, Deb, Lynette, Bridget, Kathy, Barb

It sure has been a busy few months and I love keeping busy.. There were  lots of other things in between. birthday celebrations, lunches out and searching for that perfect RV…

More to come~~~

Thanksgiving Week in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Several weeks ago, my daughter Kim, who is a flight attendant for United Airlines, asked me if I would be interested in going with her to Amsterdam, while she worked the trip. Of course I said yes, and thought it may be a good thing to spend Thanksgiving in a different setting, since this was the first year without Kevin. So last Monday we had a 3:30 take off.  I didn’t manage to get a business first seat, but I did get three seats to myself, which was great with me. The flight was almost 10 hrs but honestly it didn’t seem that long. I had a selection of many movies to watch, and I watched five of them. I was lavished with wine and had an okay dinner. When we arrived it was 8am Tuesday morning.  We got to the hotel and had a nice nap.

Late afternoon, we headed out to walk around a bit, bought ourselves a trolley pass at Central Station

and rode to the other side of town to a fabulous restaurant that Kim has been to before. They specialize in the filet steak covered in butter sauce and the fries in Amsterdam are terrific..

When we were done, we hopped back on the trolley and headed back.  We strolled around looking at the sights, which if you don’t know about Amsterdam are VERY interesting.  The streets are lined up with coffee houses, with menus for every kind of marijuana.. It is legal!  And shops that sell every kind of drug paraphernalia. Just walking the streets you get the aroma, drifting through the air. 

 

And then there is the Red Light district with girls posing in the windows looking for you know what, clad in underwear or longerie. I could not take pictures of that.  Very interesting!!!  We headed back to the hotel and got a good night sleep.

Wednesday morning, we were up and out. We walked several blocks to the Ann Frank House. We had time for breakfast next door before taking the tour. 

We chose the tickets with the half hour introduction before heading into the house.  As you can see the front is an office building ,and the annex where they hid, is attached and cannot be seen from the front. This was an amazing tour. For those that aren’t familiar with the story, you really should read The Diary of Ann Frank. It has been many years for me, but it is something that made an impact on me and it was very special to experience this.

We did some more walking…

 

We ended up in the flower market….

Sure wish it were tulip season… It must be beautiful…

I wanted to see St Nicholas Catholic Church, so we hopped back on a trolley. Unfortunately the gates where closed, as they were doing work inside. It is a beautiful structure and I have read the inside is as well.

 

We were getting thirsty so we went into a pub, where Kim had a beer and I had the best hot chocolate..

Then on to a canal cruise….

where we passed some different looking structures..

the architecture is just beautiful…

looking through here you can see through seven bridges…

and the bike garage, that has parking for 5000 bicycles…

even houseboats…

and decorated buildings…

As you can see the main mode of transportation is bikes…. You really have to be careful where you walk, as they come from all directions…

Back at the hotel and after a short rest, we met some of the crew in the bar downstairs..we all made our plans for dinner, all going in different directions..we opted for ribs with another crew member. We took a cab to the restaurant and had the best feast on ribs. Sorry I didn’t get a picture. After dinner we went to a bar/club to listen to some live music…We never thought to look at the time until we got back to the hotel and it was 5am!!!!  Imagine an all niter for me?!

That did us in for the rest of the day. I took a short walk late afternoon as it was getting dark.

Back at the hotel we had plans to meet a few of Kim’s friends for dinner in the hotel restaurant. They had prepared a turkey dinner in honor of the Americans in house. It was tasty but not exactly like our turkey day dinner at home.  We made this an early night.

We had an early departure Friday morning.  I lucked out and got business first for the 11.5 hr trip home. So comfortable and roomy.  They fed us quite well. Started out with drinks and nuts, followed by 2 appetizers, tenderloin of beef dinner, cheese and crackers, ice cream sundae’s. A bit later  cookie and milk, and before landing a sandwich….Whew, that took up a bit of time, lol…

We arrived home Friday afternoon…..What a great trip and such a beautiful city!