Greetings from Belgium!

I know it's been a while...  my last post talked about Christmas!  We are now just a few days away from our 35th Anniversary.  We arrived in Amsterdam yesterday morning and took multiple trains to Brugge, Belgium.  We'll be here until Sunday when we join our Boat and Bike Tour.  We got our rental bikes this morning.   Here's to our next adventure!

What Happened to May and June?

It seems like at least once a year I take a break from blogging.  It's never planned, I just get busy with enjoying life and don't write about it!  I still have a draft post about our trip to the San Diego Zoo for my birthday, maybe I'll get it posted this week or maybe not!  I don't get paid to blog, so when I lack motivation, I just let it go.

 

Let me try to catch up!  We didn't do much in May.  Les had one trip for work.  We celebrated our 33rd anniversary on May 25th.  We took Amtrak to Santa Barbara and enjoyed a lovely day, with very few pictures.

I found these cute mugs on Amazon and they were the perfect anniversary gift!

Our church celebrated Sis. White's 70th birthday on May 26th.  We love her so much!

Elder Tom Johnson made her a special guitar.  Now we're all waiting to hear her play it!

Early June saw wonderful running weather with lots of cool mornings.

I don't mind seeing snakes, as long as they're dead like this one!

We spent 10 days in Tennessee in June.  Our plan was to be there for Father's Day.  When we found out Les' sister, Lisa, and her family were going to Utah for vacation, we decided to stay a little longer.  Pops is still very independent, but it gives our family peace of mind to have someone close by.  We enjoyed Lisa's home, including early mornings on the back porch.

We visited the cemetery.  This was the first time we had seen Dolly's marker.

Father's Day at church:

And lunch at Crawdaddy's afterwards!

We both enjoyed riding in the Tennessee hills.  It is tough, though!  The hills aren't super steep, but they never stop.  The heat and humidity were both high as well.

I also did some running.  At the end of the Wearing's street is quite a collection of farm animals.  As soon as the goats see me, they come running!

The ponies also decided to come meet me!

While we were in Tennessee, we filled our social calendar.  On Monday night Les had dinner with a friend he has known since elementary school.  On Tuesday, our dear friends, Doug and Lori Long, came and spent the day with us.  You know you're having the best time when you don't take a single picture together!  We never run out of things to talk about!  Lance came down from Indiana and on Thursday, cousin Jonathan came over!

We came home to more heat, but that's what air conditioning and our swimming pool are for.  Next up - Fourth of July - I'll be making homemade ice cream and we've got ribs to throw on the grill.

65 Years

Today is my Mom and Dad's Anniversary. If they were still living they would be celebrating their 65th!  They were quite young when they tied the knot - Dad was 20 and Mom was 18!

I'm so glad they loved each other...


And their kids...


And they were thrilled to become grandparents!




We never had to wonder if Dad was going to take his paycheck and spend it before he made it home. Or if Mom was going to disappear while we were all at school.



No, our home wasn't perfect, but it was a safe place. Filled with laughter and some tough times, but through it all, we loved each other.




I'm so thankful for my wonderful parents!

Anniversary Dinner and Bagpipes (Day 10, Part 2 of 2)

 

 

Our 32nd anniversary was on Thursday, May 25th.  That was the day we spent in Belfast and at the Giant's Causeway.  We decided to go to one of the specialty restaurants on the ship on Friday, May 26th.  We chose Sabatini's Italian Trattoria.  When we celebrated our 20th anniversary on the Carnival Magic we visited Cucina del Capitano.  When we celebrated our 25th anniversary on Royal's Jewel of the Seas we visited Giovanni's Table.  An Italian dinner on a cruise ship for our anniversary seems to be our thing!

Our meal was absolutely fantastic!  The best meal we've ever had on any cruise.  Although, the only pictures we took during dinner was of our dessert!  We both ordered the Hazelnut Rocher described as a blend of chocolate, pralines, and hazelnut ice cream sealed in milk chocolate.  This thing was huge!  Normally desserts on a cruise ship are just the right size.  This was so big and rich that neither of us came to close to finishing it.

We wandered around the piazza for a while and listened to the "Sisters Duo" play.  They are two sisters from the Ukraine who both play the violin.  Watching them play is so interesting as they communicate only with their eyes.

We then were "treated" to bagpipe music by Pipe Major, David McRobert.  Let's just say two minutes of this is plenty and he played for 15!

Lunch and the Irish Countryside

On our way to the Giant's Causeway Richard had passed a lunch menu around the bus.  This was optional, but after our exploration, we were definitely ready to eat. The Fullerton Arms in Ballintoy did not disappoint!  We both ordered burgers, the meat was locally sourced and these were the tastiest burgers either of us had ever had!  Richard even helped bring the food out.

Prior to lunch there was a discussion on the bus about which way we would return to Belfast.  There was an option of visiting a Guinness brewery or taking a more scenic route back.  There were a few people loudly cheering for Guinness.  Of course Les and I weren't interested in that.  Fortunately, Richard took a vote and the majority preferred the scenic route.  Cheers for the silent majority!  Instead we got one more stop - the Portaneevy Viewing Point.

 

From here we could see Rathlin Island:

 

This little one is Sheep Island.

The views were spectacular!

On a day that included some very dark history, we were rewarded with amazing weather and unbelievable views.  I can almost understand why someone would want to take over this land - it's just beautiful!

Would you believe that the only time we got any rain was on this day?  We got just a few sprinkles while we were in the bus!

We got back to the ship around 5:00 p.m.  It was a fun, full day.  We were definitely too full for dinner, but had a surprise in our cabin - chocolate covered strawberries courtesy of our travel agent, Paula!  We eventually split a personal size pizza at Alfredo's and finished the night with gelato.

 

Even our stateroom cabin celebrated our anniversary!