Recently in Travel Category

We are home again, and reliving our trip in our thoughts and through hundreds of photographs that we took along the way.  Each place we visited had something unique to remember it by, and the people that we visited added so much to our trip that I don't think we will ever forget the wonderful experience of a trip across the pond!

Now it is back to my real life, and all the daily routines and chores that I had left behind ~ it's funny how fast one can slip back into the ordinary life, and for that I am very thankful for!   Certainly it is enough to have the memories of our trip of a lifetime to process through for many years to come!

We leave for Europe tomorrow!  Gloria will take us to the airport for our 12:25 pm flight to Atlanta, and from there to Copenhagen by Thursday morning.   It is so exciting to think about all of the new places we will see and the friends we will visit!

I am planning to take a picture or two.....    :)

I am working on the list of "things to do" before we leave on our trip this Wednesday.  I know I will be heading out the door to the airport at about 10 that morning, ready or not!!!!

Getting pretty excited about all the people and places we will visit!

....whether you're having fun or not.  And I have been having fun!  My trip up to Minnesota for my mother's 80th birthday started out the week.  I met the rest of my family at the Chanhassen Inn and in the evening we all went to dinner and the show "Always, Patsy Cline".  Very entertaining!  The next day we went to The Galleria for lunch at The Good Earth, then parted ways for home.  I went to New Ulm and enjoyed a few days at my folks.  Barbara came to spent a day too and we got in on a fabulous meal of lake sunfish that my dad had caught and prepared with his secret batter.  Fantastic!!  The next weekend I headed back to the cities to visit my high school friend Rob and his partner Wim at their cottage on Orchard Lake.  What a blast to catch on the past 15 years!!  Then Saturday I drove on up to Pine City for my 40th high school reunion.  I enjoyed that so much - some of the people there I had known since 1st grade, 50 years of friendship is something quite special.  Sunday morning I left Pine City and drove back here to Indianapolis - 750 miles but I am pretty used to going distances like that in one day.  The week really flew by, and I am so thankful I was able to get to all of those doings!!

We headed Up North last weekend to visit with Steve's folks.  Delaney and Ella were with us, and they had a wonderful visit with their great-grandparents.  Both of them have been well taught how important family ties are, and they appreciated so very much getting to go on this trip.   They love Minnesota!  I try to teach them how to "talk Minnesotan" as much as possible and it is really funny to hear them try to pronounce simple words like "now" and "cow" and "how"' in the flat  Minnesota way as opposed to their normal "nee-ow", "cee-ow" and ""hee-ow" ways.  (slight exageration!!)

They are already asking when the next trip to the land of sky blue waters will be!!

At the end of this week we are flying up to Minnesota with Delaney and Ella in tow and will spend the weekend visiting Steve's folks.  The girls are mighty excited - both are thrilled that our flight leaves at 7:30 am, meaning we will need to get the the airport by about 6 am. 

I can't get over how much they both like to travel and hopefully in the years to come there will be many more opportunities for that kind of adventure!  There are so many places I still want to see in my lifetime, and having them along as travel companions will add so much to my enjoyment.  I may have to get a job to finance the trips, though - travel has become so expensive!!

I'm driving up to Minnesota tomorrow for the annual Cherrington gathering.  For the first time in 11 years the entire clan will be in attendance - 28 of us!  It has been quite a science fair from our end, figuring out everyone's travel and lodging plans but in the end we will be very thankful that we were able to go.  My van is loaded to the gills!  Matthew and Davie are driving up and first visiting  Gr & Gr Hatfield in the cities.  Taylor, Melissa and girls are headed straight to New Ulm and will go to the cities on their way home.  Steve is flying up on Friday.  Can't wait to have my whole family with me to a reunion for once!!

Our trip to the great Northwest was very nice - Steve was busy with his UPA conference every day, so Delaney and I found plenty to do.  We visited the the Chinese Classical Gardens, the Japanese Gardens, the Portland Rose Gardens and lots of other city sites.  When Steve was finished with the conference we drove over to the ocean for a day - wonderful!!   Delaney was truly in her element and enjoyed the tide pools and the huge expanses of sand - she even found a jelly fish to use with her sand and sea shell creation!  Another fun thing was to see our nephew Samuel and his girlfriend Debbie when they were in Portland!!!  We all love to travel, and Delaney especially at her young age.  She is quite helpful and the long plane ride was absolutely no problem for her!  I think she would travel all summer long if she could.

Last week was packed with activity!  I returned from Minnesota on Sunday night.  Monday I spent all day doing laundry, buying some groceries and just generally getting back on track. 

Tuesday I picked up Delaney and Ella - when I arrived they were at the door, coats on, suitcases in hand ready for our Spring Break trip to Turkey Run!!  That evening  was my Poetry Plus group, so Delaney came with me to hear our guest presenter speak about saints.  She has over 40 statues of saints, and can tell something about each one.  It was quite fascinating and thought provoking and also a reminder of how God can choose to work miracles. 

The next day we left around noon for Turkey Run - what a fabulous time we had!  Hiking, bird watching, wild flowers to identify, swimming (indoor pool!), and just hanging out in the wonderful lounge.  In the evening the huge fireplace was lit - so cozy.  We started and finished a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle, played checkers, Battleship and Connect Four.  We ate in the nice dining room, all good homemade food. (We all love the fried biscuits and apple butter!) On our way home Friday we stopped at the dime store in Rockville like we did last year - what a fun place, full of old fashioned items that can't be found in Target or Walmart!  We got back to Indy around 2 pm, and Taylor picked up the girls on his way home from work later on.  They were two tired vacationers!!

In the evening we went to Good Friday church, a very solemn service indeed ~ but so meaningful.

I drove home today, started out with a spring snowstorm and arrived here with buckets of rain falling and flooding the streets and yards.  Quite a variation for an 11 hour drive!