Back from SoCal

The visit with our best friends in SoCal was so marvelous - all wonderful. We went 1st to a hotel in TJ, next day to the dentist, who fixed Manfred's teeth, no charge. Now they are beautiful again. He finished about 1:30, the driver took us to the border to walk across, because there was nobody lined up. We crossed quickly and got on the slow, bumpy tram to San Diego, then took a slow, bumpy Coaster to the little town of Oceanside.

It was so nice to be able to call Chuck, on my new phone, and tell him where we were. So, he was waiting at the station to take us to the WorldMark condo when we arrived, about 7:30. 

The WorldMark Oceanside condo was very nice, as expected. We had fun cooking and watching movies and talking story. Diane brought her crockpot and cooked some great soup.  Turns out that a crockpot is a good thing to have at a WorldMark condo. 

 

We walked over to the harbor to check out the restaurants and shops, which were very nice. Diane and I used the hot tub and pool, which were wonderful. The next day, when we left, we went to a harbor restaurant for fish and chips. It was sooo good. 

Then we drove to their house in Encinitas, and stayed for 4 more days, cooking, talking, watching movies, playing with iPads. It was great!

Chuck and Manfred had fun making shrimp fettuccine, tortillas, and such.

We flew back to Seattle on Feb 10.
What a wonderful trip this was!

Going for a week in SoCal

We leave tomorrow, Feb 3 and return Feb 10. We go first to the dentist in Tijuana, for Manfred to get his broken teeth fixed. Then we get to visit our best buds, Charles & Diane Fitzgerald, for a week. They have taken a WorldMark condo in Oceanside for a few days, so we will join them there, then proceed to their house in Encinitas on Feb 7. It will be so nice to see them again. And to stay in another WM condo.

We fly non-stop on AlaskaAir to San Diego. The flight is 2 hours 35 minutes. 

It takes us 3½ hours to get from our house to the airplane, allowing 2 hours for security and boarding. I prefer to allow 1½ hours max, but we take a bus that does not give us that choice. 

The dentist's car will meet us at the airport and take us to cross the border, then to the dentist's office. Afterwards they drive us to a hotel for the night, and we get to eat some real Mexican food. Yum! 

Next day we see the dentist again. When we are done, they drive us to the border. We have to do that awful long line, on foot, to cross into the US, where we take a poky, bumpy American train to Oceanside. 

I'm putting all this in for my own reference -- after a month or 2, I forget the details, especially how much time things take. 

A phone, finally

Now I finally got a real, proper cell phone. Not one of those pre-pay junk ones that can't text and are always out of minutes. This is sooo coool!!  Finally, I can phone people, receive calls, and text, just like regular people. And it even has a keyboard! And all thanks to my so-wonderful #1 daughter-in-law. I put the Chihuly w/Space needle pic as home screen.

The kids came visiting

Richard and Karen just left after a wonderful (for us, anyway) 2-week visit. We stayed home, we went places, we ate in, we ate out. It was all so great. And Robin was able to come and spend the night, the weekend when Seahawks won the NFC championship.

They got WorldMark apartments in the Hotel Camlin in Seattle, where we stayed 4 nights. We visited the Space Needle and I was finally able to see the Chihuly Garden and Glass and to actually go up the needle, their treat. Among many, many generous, thoughtful treats and gifts.

  

 

Back in Port Orchard..

Tomorrow we go to SeaTac to meet the planes of #1 son Richard and #1 daughter Karen. They will be staying with us for 2 weeks. This is a wonderful treat, for us. We hope that #2 son Robin will be able to come for a weekend. 

Leavenworth in ice

We, Manfred & I & Bill Jones, are having a fantastic stay in the WorldMark condo in Leavenworth. Fantastic because there was a freezing rain and all the trees, branches, leaves and needles are neatly encased in ice. It is so beautiful, and enhances the Christmas lights.

 

Number 1 coming...

Number 1 Son, Richard, and Number 1 Daughter-in-Law, Karen, will be visiting us here in weird WA, the land of water and mountains, Super Bowl champs Seahawks, and legal marihuana. It will be sooo nice.

Travel dates booked

These are the travel dates we have booked. 

January 4 to 8 -- drive to Leavenworth WA, stay in a WorldMark resort condo, w/Bill Jones. 

Bill is already staying with us for Christmas and New Years. 

We need to go see some snow. 

 

February 3 to 10 -- fly to San Diego, visit Fitz, do dentist in TJ. 

Manfred broke some teeth in his permanently implanted denture. 

Good excuse to visit our dear friends in SoCal. 

Other than those, we will be here in Port Orchard WA. 

We are hoping for family visits, any time. 

More to come

We are still in Port Orchard, doing our usual thing. I put a new post or two here, but they are not here. So I have to redo them.

We went to Tacoma Mall to replace the Zagg cover on my iPad and to get some training at the Apple Store. I bought some salt scrub in a mall kiosk because we had both tried it in Disney and like it.

Joel came to buy our older MacBook computer and helped us with some stuff on the newer MacBook Air. We found it was infected with malware, adware actually.  !!??!!  I don't know how it got there, I went to the Apple Store to get it fixed. 

He put the lighted Apple logo from a laptop into a suitcase.  It is definitely outstanding. 

  

We can't have a proper Thanksgiving this year, because Bill Jones said he would come, then changed his mind when it's too late to make other provisions. We will just go to a restaurant by ourselves. 

Back in Port Orchard

We arrived home just around midnight on Nov. 6.

It was a dark and stormy night. And very cold.
And the house was cold. But we made it.

We had wonderful visit with Karen and Richard, in the beautiful condo in Orlando. I was like another vacation. On Nov 5, they drove us to Ft Lauderdale to catch the 6:30 AlaskaAir non-stop flight to Seattle. After 6 ½ hours' flight we landed and took a bus for 1 hour and then a taxi to the house.

Now we have been catching up, on banking, bills, mail, getting groceries, washing, getting out heaters and cold weather clothes, and such. I had to get a new pair of glasses, because I lost mine on the ship coming home. Our cat won't associate with us, but she eats, so we got more food.

I was finally able to upgrade my system on my iPad to iOS 8.1, at a time I could go to the Apple Store and get some pointers on it. Its way of handling photos has changed, and I can't really go with it because it is so tied in with iCloud Drive and all other devices, and our other devices are too old. I'll have to wait for the upgrades. But I am using the editing tools on Photos.

Anyway, I got the Zagg cover replaced, so it feels good again. No more black marks from Sharpie permanent marker. FYI - dry erase marker does not remove permanent marker ink from a Zagg cover, in fact, it scuffs it. 

The typing on the new version is very strange. It offers 3 words to choose from as soon as I type the 1st letter. Sometimes even before the 1st letter. And they are so often correct. I have not tried dictation yet.  My Siri doesn't understand me, dictation probably won't, too. 

October 31 - Halloween - Our Anniversary

Today we met up with our friends from Victoria,

Chas and Heather Martin, and they treated us to a 33rd anniversary dinner and dessert at Chilli's near Disney World.  Yum!

This is only our 2nd time here.  Chas comes 2 or 3 times a year, but Heather has not been here for a couple of years. We just happened to luck out, all being here, in Orlando, at the same time. 🎃

It was much fun. Unfortunately, they didn't get to meet Karen and Richard, who were coming from Jacksonville. 

Back in USA

.We're not home, yet, but getting closer.

We got off our big, beautiful ship, Oasis of the Seas, yesterday and stayed in the Best Western.  Karen picked us up this morning and drove us to Orlando to stay a week in a big, beautiful World Mark condo. It's 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, bigger than our house. We will be here for a week. This is the fountain in the lobby. And the grand piano.

It is very near Disney World. Here are more photos.

Cruising home on Oasis

We went back across the pond with the same ship, the Oasis of the Seas. It had dry docked and changed a few things. Some things didn't work as well as b4, like the TV/computer system, but we still loved it, and had a great time.

I had developed sciatica and it was getting worse each day, very difficult to walk. Manfred was having similar pains. So we took a series of acupuncture treatments, which was so convenient. No need to drive somewhere, find parking place, etc. -- just go down the elevator. My sciatica went away. Manfred didn't see that much difference. It was expensive. 

We totally enjoyed the boat, in spite of some bad weather. We especially liked the food. We used the Solarium a lot, this time, and the hot tubs. The big show was Cats -- fabulous. We saw other great shows, too. 

Maria Alm RCI resort was great

 We had such a good time, having breakfast in our kitchen, having coffee on our balcony, swimming in our pool, driving around the beautiful countryside, visiting cute little villages, eating great food.

 

On October 11th & 12th we return to St.Gipgen. On the 13th we turn in our car in Salzburg and take trains to Frankfurt. On the 14th we proceed by train to Rotterdam. There we will board the same boat we came on, the Oasis of the Seas, to go back "across the pond" to Florida. 

RCI resort in Maria Alm, Austria

We are spending a week here at the Marco Polo Alpina hotel in a beautiful ski resort town in the alps. We love the hotel, which leaves that Italian one for dead. Our apartment is so nice -- living room, kitchen, balcony with beautiful view. There's a nice indoor pool, a restaurant and a bistro. The surrounding area is also very nice. The only problem is that the Internet connection is terrible.

Having a wonderful time in St.Gilgen

We are staying in the best guesthouse in the world. We have the most beautiful views in the world. We get to drive around to beautiful lakes and cute villages and eat wonderful food. We get fresh baked rolls and fresh milk every morning.  We get to get together with friends to talk story. We can video chat with friends in America.

For Manfred's big 8-0 birthday, our friends took us to a little lake where we walked about a kilometer to a little restaurant on the water's edge. There was no road there, no cars, no car sounds, no motor sounds whatsoever. The food was wonderful.

Yesterday we drove to Hallstatt, most enjoyable.

Today, we drove to Salzburg to reserve our train tickets for the trip to Rotterdam to catch the boat. We are going 1st class on high-speed trains, so reservations are important. Last time we didn't reserve and we had to travel 2nd class (Yuk!).  The countryside was rainy and foggy, misty and mysterious, quite lovely. 

Sept 27 - St.Gilgen

Today we went to Runi's place for lunch. She made true Wiener Schnitzel (with veal) and mashed potatoes, and salad. For desert, she made a polenta that looked like cake, with chocolate frosting and whipped cream. I liked it, Manfred was not so sure. 

There was a little craft fair going on, so we went, Manfred sat and I walked through it. Lots of felt things, hats, purses, capes, slpers, cat beds, etc. Pretty pottery, clever jewelry, wooden things, soaps and such. 

We are now sitting on our balcony, admiring the lake and the mountains and watching hang-gliders gliding around and coming down. There are some sailboats on the lake, and of it is all so very peaceful. This I took just now:

 

Sept 26 - St. Gilgen

Here is the view from our balcony. 

 It's what I've been waiting for. 

We were supposed to go to Munich today, to look for Cross pen nibs for #1 son, and to see Oktoberfest, but Manfred wasn't feeling well, so we didn't go. We might not need to look for the nibs, and we've been to Oktoberfest b4. Anyway, we stayed in our lovely apartment. 

Sept 24-25 - St. Gilgen - Salzburg Marionette Theater

9/24/14 - St.Gilgen

We had bread and jam and met w/Runi @ 10:30 to go in her car to Salzburg to meet Reingard at the fair. We walked through the fair, bought a pretzel and had coffee at an outdoor table. The weather was warm and sunny.  We got sandwiches for lunch and some snitzel to take home for dinner and had another coffee on my fav roof-top cafe overlooking the City.  

Runi & Reingart bought tickets for us to go to the marionettes performance of Die Zauberflöte tomorrow, 9/25, "for our birthday presents."  What a wonderful present!  I have always wanted to see that, ever since I first heard of it, many years ago, when I first met Runi.

We got back at about 4 and went to our lovely place for a rest.

9/25/14 - St.Gilgen und Salzburg Marionettentheatre 

This is the day we go to Salzburg on our own to see Die Zauberflöte in the Marionettentheatre. Runi made knüdle for us, it was sooo gooood. She spent much time showing Manfred how to get to the parking garage across from the theater. We used the GPS, sort of, and drove right straight there. We allowed an hour and a half, it took only half an hour. So we strolled in the Mirabelle Garden for a bit, then went into the theater. The performance was so cute and charming, a wonderful way to put on an opera, especially this one. It was ausgezeichnet. We got back b4 10:30.

The car is rather strange. Whenever it stops, the engine dies. It's supposed to!  Then, when you take your foot off the brake, it starts again. There are too many little lights inside at night. It tries to help you park. The built-in GPS is TomTom, but not at all like ours - I don't like it at all. I would never want a built-in GPS.  

Sept 23 - St. Gilgen, finally!

9/23/14 - Innsbruk to Salzburg to St.Gilgen

I woke up at 4:30 am, because of going to bed so early, so I did some updating of blog, etc. the wifi here is the best we have had since we left home. The place is called Pension Stoi, a short walk from the Innsbruk train station. The room is large, on the ground floor, sink in the room, toilet & shower ensuite, wardrobe, table & chairs but no easy chair. Tiny tube TV. Everything looks new and sparkling clean. There are other toilets and showers in the hall, so some rooms might not have them ensuite. 

We went out to get the SIM card, and I was shocked to find that Manfred wanted it for the stupid old dumb phone he bought in Europe on another trip. I assumed it was going to be for the iPhone. This is ridiculous. By the next trip, the iPhone will probably be too old for anything. He called Runi from the store, to make sure he knew how to use it. She called back, and he didn't recognize the ringtone. heehee☺️. 

We had coffee and toast in a nearby cafe. It was very good. We sat in the McDonalds in the bahnhoff, because we just missed one train and had to wait 1:15 for the next one. They had nice seats and good coffee. On our devices, we keep getting wifi bars but no access to Internet, in restaurants, train station, train car, etc. I keep accepting the rules, but it still doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?

The train, very smooth, finally in 1st class, watching the über-green fields and blue mountains and cute villages whisk by. It mostly went only 130km/hr, which is just under 80mph, which was the speed limit on the highways in Italy. After getting into Salzburg hbf after 7pm, then we looked for a rental car. Got

  Avis gave us a biggish car for 930€ / $1,200 for 3 weeks. The built-in GPS was a bit strange, but Manfred was able to drive  to St.Gilgen ok, but finding the house was harder. We finally

 got there and Runi had cake and coffee waiting for us. After a good long chat, we went to our new place, the top floor of the Hausa Stadler -- it is totally fantastic, with my fav view.