We left DC in late afternoon heading to Dulles where we would catch an overnight flight to Dublin.  We were driving in really heavy rain but were thankful that we would be able to leave the States ahead of the predicted winter storm scheduled to hit most of the country the next day. This was the first time Bob has traveled with his walker, and we were impressed when we were met with a wheelchair for him the minute we got to the United check in desk.  It took a bit of time for the clerks to figure out how to check his walker through but with Patrick’s help the walker was wrapped and c ..read more

We were so very excited to be able to travel out of the US again. And as I mentioned in the last post we chose to go back to Nova Scotia even though we had been there several times before. This time our home was in the Hydrostone neighborhood of Halifax but just like in most areas of the city we weren’t far from the water and I loved the blasts from the ships’ horns communicating with each other as they came in and out of port. The first night we were there the fog rolled in giving it an eerie sort of feel. There was a marker next to our Airbnb describing an orphanage that stood there until D ..read more

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I always seem to be attacted to locations on the water. Maybe this is the result of growing up in a beach town on the shore of Lake Michigan. As kids, the beach was the center of our lives from early summer to the end of September. I remember many years heading to the beach after the parade on a warm Decoration Day only to realize that 58 degree water was way too frigid to swim in. During the summer, there were lazy days on the beach, walks on the pier, trips to the amusement park followed by picnics on the beach. (Bob’s first summer job was making cotton c ..read more

For those of you who are following my blog, my apologies. I realize my last post was more than eight months ago. Late last summer our family was challenged by a major illness and just before Christmas, Bob and I headed to the DC area to help out with grandkids. I am happy to report everything turned out fine! Now we’re back on the road. As soon as I knew we were going to DC for an extended period of time I began searching high and low for a reasonably priced stay. I finally came up with one. Bob and I generally prefer cities to suburbs but in this case we wanted to be close enough to the kids ..read more

After spending a month on the road it feels nice to stay put for a bit. I recently read a blog that described various types of travelers. Destination travelers was the first group listed. I think those are the ones we most often encounter and until we retired I think we fell into this category. We generally aimed for a destination and then checked out all we could see in that area. When the kids were little we camped a lot. This was definitely the most economical way to go but also the kids had chances to explore and make new friends on their own in a way they never could have if we had been i ..read more

As I mentioned at the end of part 1, when I think of North Dakota, I think of flat plains and endless winters and not much of interest besides hockey. But Theodore Roosevelt National Park was a new find for us and that became our next destination. While Theodore Roosevelt was not the first president to establish a national park, he spent a lot of time hunting bison in this part of the country and that along with his commitment to conservation, is the reason for its existence. This is the only national park named for a president and although it has been around since 1978, we had never heard of ..read more

We’ve spent the past five months in the West: Texas, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, the longest we’ve ever stayed in one region of the country. It’s the end of June and our next reservation is just north of DC in Maryland but we don’t check in there until August 2. So we’re ready to leave Seattle with no definite plan for the month. This is something we never do. I usually try to plan five or six months out. But Covid has created quite the challenge for us this year. We had hoped that by the end of June, the Canadian border would be open and we could return east via the big cities of Canad ..read more

It’s a short drive from Portland to Seattle, less than three hours. It was a pretty day and not too warm so we decided to drive through Olympia, have some lunch and check out the capitol. The capitol building is traditional and nicely landscaped. Driving into Seattle we are immediately reminded that a major drawback to this metropolitan area is the awful traffic. As pretty as the skyline of Seattle is, it seems like no matter what direction you’re headed I5 is the major road to get you there. As a result we generally asked Google to route us off highways. It usually didn’t take us much longe ..read more

Driving into Portland the profusion of color was beyond belief! It’s as though the earth had burst open with color! Never had we seen so many rhododendrons in such variety of colors! We weren’t sure we’d meet our host but she was just getting ready to leave as we pulled up. She showed us through the house and the lovely back patio and garden area, a perfect place for a glass of wine and a game of cribbage in the afternoon. In addition the home came with a friendly squirrel that provided us entertainment with his maneuvers on the bird feeder! After five days of what seemed like endless driving ..read more

Since we began our travels seven years ago, we’ve rarely taken the most direct route. Instead we tend to see what there is to see between where we are and where we are heading and then zigzag among the sights! Ah, the luxury of having all the time in the world. We have reservations for the month of May in Portland followed by June in Seattle so our detour to Minnesota from southern New Mexico was going to add a few miles. Next question was what’s to see in between? The landscape continues to change as we head north, leaving the desert and moving into the high country. New Mexico is a really in ..read more