I really wish I had started this blog when Conrad first retired so we could keep up with our travels! Our memories just aren't as sharp as they used to be!! Some of our major trips have been to San Diego in April 2005 with side trips to visit Aunt Dorothy in Loma Linda, CA, cousin Bob in Phelan, CA, cousin Suzi in Banning, CA, Aunt Laura in Blythe, CA and Aunt Mamie in Yuma, AZ. We are glad we visited those aunts as they are all gone now. These were Conrad's aunt and my cousin Suzi. Then in August 2005, it was back to California for our son Brent's wedding. His wife, Jackie, is from the Los Angeles area and they were married on the beach in San Clemente. We stayed a week and did some of the tourist things too.
In September 2006 we headed west for a week at the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce National Parks. It was a great trip and the scenery was absolutely beautiful.
We spent 3 weeks in Europe in June/July 2007. When I was in 4th grade, my family had an exchange student, Jens, from Denmark. The following year we had a girl, Anne, from the Netherlands. We've stayed in touch all these years. In 2003, Jens and Ester were in the U.S. for a visit and we had such a good time, we decided to go visit. So, we spent a week near Amsterdam with Anne and two weeks traveling through Germany and Denmark with Jens and Ester. It was a wonderful experience. Just ask if you want to see pictures!
In September 2007, we went to South Fork, Colorado with Conrad's brother and sister-in-law and were gone about 10 days. That was a fun trip and our first visit to Colorado and the Rocky Mountains. I had a lot of trouble with the altitude but was doing better towards the end of the trip.
In March 2008, we spent a few days in San Antonio for a friend's wedding. From there we went to visit a college friend who lived between San Antonio and Houston for a couple days.
From March 2009 until March 2010, we had a wonderful job of keeping Macey, our precious granddaughter for a year so she wouldn't have to go to daycare. We did manage a family vacation to Gulf Shores in August 2009. Brent and Jackie joined us there and they got to see their niece for the second time. It was a lot of fun and it was our first time back to the beach in about 12 years or so.
May 2010 found us in the Florida Keys for a week. We flew to Ft Lauderdale and rented a car. It was so much fun and the weather was great! We spent two nights in Key Largo and snorkeled one time there. Then we moved to Key West for two nights. It was very commercialized but interesting and we did a lot of walking - didn't move the car while we were there. Then we spent the last two nights at Piney Key. We snorkeled again there and also rented a double kayak for a few hours and paddled around the ocean and through the mangroves. We were able to spend about 3 hours at the Everglades before heading back to Ft Lauderdale to catch our flight back home.
In November 2010 we drove to Natchez, MS and spent two nights before heading out on the Natchez Trace Parkway. The weather was great most of the time and we just took our time, stopping at almost all the pull-outs to check out the sites. There is so much history there and so easy to imagine how tough those people were to travel that trail. In fact, the three days we spent on the actual parkway, we didn't turn the radio on once. We just thought about life back then and I had a lot of questions that Conrad couldn't answer! We drove almost to Nashville, TN then headed back west and toured Shiloh Battlefield before heading back home.
The next trip was our month long trip to New York City in October 2011. You can read about that trip here.
We went to Bartlesville, OK in November 2010 for the wedding of a college friend's daughter and then back again in September 2011 for their son's wedding. We have also done a few camping trips with them - one at Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma one, at the Crater of Diamonds State Park to dig for diamonds in Murfreesboro, Arkansas and a couple other fun trips to Hot Springs and Beaver Lake.
We've also done some camping for a couple nights each several times and plan to keep on with that. We finally bought a light-weight aluminum pop-up camper so we don't have to sleep on the ground anymore. It makes it a little easier on us. We've made a couple trips to Iowa, to Tulsa, Branson, Tunica, MS and several weekend trips around Arkansas.
Our latest quest is making a trip out west in September 2012. We will fly to Seattle and rent a car. We plan to spend about 6 days exploring the Olympic Peninsula and then drive down Highway 101, the coast highway through Oregon and end up in San Francisco to visit our son Brent and daughter-in-law Jackie for a few days. I'm sure we'll make lots of stops along the way to check out stuff.
So, check this site and keep up with what we're doing. One of our goals in life was to retire early and travel while we were physically able to do it. So, that's what we're doing and loving every minute of it.
