Wonder Years with Chris and Wendy

 Chris and I got to spend a day and a half in New York City in October, with the highlight being a Sting concert. At 73 years old, he gave a wonderful concert and we enjoyed some of our favorite songs with a great crowd. Due to a lucky break, we had seats close to the stage and had a great time vibing with the band and with Sting.  While in New York, we also got to see our nephew John (forgot to take pictures) and our niece Britt who are both living and working in New York right now. It was a delight to spend time with each of these young people.  October was also the month of the D'Arezzo reunion. All six of the siblings (Rick, Dan, Jim, Chris, Diane and Tom) and their partners were able to get together for a weekend and reminisce about past reunions and family fun times. This was the first siblings only reunion and the first time we were all together in several years.  Here's the whole group, first being serious and then being goofy. You decide which looks more nat...

 Late in August we headed out for a 3200 mile Road Trip, traveling from NC to Michigan, across Canada to Maine and Massachusetts and then home to NC. We visited friends, saw new places and enjoyed our time in the car. One thing we did while stacking up the miles was listen to a book by Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist who was once a foreign correspondent. It was a memoir his youth and his time as a correspondent. The audio book,  Chasing Hope,  was 17 hours long, so we didn't hear it all in the car, but it's definitely worth the read (or the listen).  Our first stop on this journey was to see our niece Evelyn and her family, including almost 1 year old, Paul. He might be the cutest baby in the whole state of Michigan, and we had a great time playing with him, going for walks and babysitting when Brian and Evelyn were busy. It was a wonderful weekend!   Our next stop was to visit with friends Marcy and Bill in Midland, then on together to Mackinac Is...

 Our first visitor in August was our wonderful grandson Wesley. We had a great time going to the beach, staying on an airbnb boat, visiting the NC Zoo and playing in our local pool! It was a super week, even if he did beat our pants off in Monopoly!      Later in August, we had a super visit from Laila and her two girls, Katie and Livvy. We visited the children's museum in Burlington, a great place for families, went to our local parks and played in the pool. We also made pizzas together and had a wonderful visit to Dinner Bell Farm where Katie got to hold a chicken! And finally, we had a welcome visit from our friend Joanne. We found a new historical museum, nestled into a woodsy area in a somewhat rundown Victorian house, we learned more about the history of our county. We had to share Joanne's visit with our other Peace Corps friend, Bobbi and her fiancé Rod. We also got to meet, for the first time as adults, two of Bobbi's daughters and one granddaughter. Altoget...

 We have been mostly home since mid-May, not counting a quick trip up to Baltimore to celebrate Lily's birthday (somehow, we did not get any pictures of her birthday celebration, except this one of us after our successful "Breakout" from the Submarine Escape Room in Towson.)   We also had a successful visit with good friends Laila, Katie and Livvy at the Waverly Library, visited with Margarita and her two wonderful kids and had a delicious Indian dinner with Leah and Anthony just before they headed north to a new adventure in Newport, RI.  Chris has been working for a few hours a week at a friend's organic farm. They plant seedlings, weed the gardens and now have been harvesting many, many, many vegetables. Of all the food we have had the privilege to share, we love the tomatoes best. Here is Farmer John with some nice fresh potatoes. Also pictured here are some Korean folk singers and dancers helping to celebrate the veterans of the Korean War as well as the strength...

 On Wednesday, April 10th, after celebrating Wesley's 13th birthday & Evelyn's 91st and 10 days of traveling together, Wendy was more than ready to drop me off at BWI. My 10:30 flight got me non-stop to Denver around noon Mountain Time. My forever pal, Bill Veazie, picked me up and we were off to his home in Parker, CO, about a 45 minute drive from DEN. That afternoon we did two cycles on the Parker Incline, a set of 150 tall steps up a hill maybe 10 minutes from home. Just the way to shake off the forced confinement of a plane. And also a beginning to my acclimatization to Rocky Mountain altitude. That day we also visited one of Parker's great public rec centers...the one with a set of pools! I'd brought my Medicare Silver Sneaker's ID and was able to get a permanent ID which entitled me use all the services in town. That first evening we met Bill's camping/hiking friend Gordon for dinner near Denver University. Thursday I got out to swim laps and then used...

In May Wendy went on her first ever Viking cruise. When telling people about the forthcoming cruise, several times, she was understood to say a Biking cruise. 14 days of biking up and down the shores of the Rhine, maybe that would be the vacation Chris would take! On the Viking Cruise, the ship did all the hard work! Wendy went with her former colleague and still friend, Kathy from Baltimore. Also on the cruise were two friends of Kathy's. A good time was had by all.  We started our trip in Paris, so we had to get a few shots of the icons of Paris.                We made a pilgrimage to Normandy, a heartbreaking visit to a place of glory and horror. Here we overlook the landing place at Omaha Beach and below is a fraction of the crosses at the American cemetery near the beaches.  And finally, we were on our way to the ship and off for our Viking adventure!     Most of our stops were in Germany. Here are a fe...