I’m not sure why it is taking me so long to finish posting about our VBT bike trip. I can’t use a bad wifi connection as an excuse, nor can I blame the tediousness of blogging via ipad. It could just be those lazy, hazy days of summer have made me even lazier and hazier than usual.
This bike trip was far more than just peddling my bony butt through Italy. It was far, FAR more–it was a trip of self discovery. (Voyage of self discovery SOUNDS so much better, but alas–you don’t “voyage” on a bike. At least not intentionally. )
Here’s the big insight: I learned, much to my chagrin (an SAT word that I so rarely get to use) , that I am easy. I THOUGHT I might have moved on up to easy/moderate, but one very long trek up a very steep hill brought me to my senses. In fact, I got brought to my senses a whole lot faster than I got to the top of that damn hill (which in my mind, and probably my mind alone, was more of a mini mountain).
The true beauty of VBT however is that you are able to design the trip that YOU want to take. So, in keeping with my new philosophy of “if it’s not fun, I ain’t doing it”, whenever I encountered a steep hill I shifted — not gears, but from 2 wheels to 4. I was humming that Lionel Ritchie song “That’s why I’m easy, e-e-ZEEE like Sunday mo-oo-r-nING”, while waving to my sweating friends as we zipped on by them, en route to the pool.
So, the biking photos you will see are all of flat lands, yet still lovely in their own special way.
The pine forestOn our way to lunch
Yet another beautiful hilltop town
Here’s Angelo, on “granny” duty. Okay, so technically, I’m NOT a grandmother–I just ride like one. And yes, I am smiling, because of my recent self discovery, happy in the knowledge that I have nothing to prove and that the van will be there when I need it.
Yet another great feature of VBT trips was no matter what your skill level, there was always SOMEONE you could ride with. For me, on THIS trip it was my BBBB (that’s my “Best Biking Buddy, Beth” in text talk). Last trip it was sweet Victoria. Here we are, ready to toss down some wine before lunch, after biking all morning.
Beth’s daughter, Susan (the baby of the group) was a biking superstar, going the distance every day. She and Diane paired up and truly earned those serious biker outfits!
In addition to the biking, there are always special events. One day we visited an olive farm, where we had a tour, snorted extra virgin olive oil and then had a fantastic lunch, cooked by the owner. Best pasta EVER, fresh vegetables, beans–delicious!
The tour was called “Tuscany by the Sea”, so of course, there were more beaches to visit. The last beach had the “school locker” type changing rooms. THIS one had bushes. And driftwood. But the water was great–and the beach was not rocky.
I’m not positive what the sign meant, but I wasn’t going to mess with “waters not sured for unsafety service”! But hey, their English is far better than my Italian, or Spanish for that matter, so I’m not poking fun. I’m just reporting what I saw.
Our evening in Orbetello was great fun. First,a stop for what Franco insisted was the best gelato anywhere. And it was indeed quite amazing. The best part is you can get three different flavors at no additional charge So, of course I did. The next time you are in Orbetello, stop in at Le Logde and see for yourself!
Next, we experienced what the brochure described as a “romantic” cruise…see for yourself…are we not what you envision when you think of “romance”?
Finally, a whirl around the city then dinner at Tony’s on the waterfront, where we enjoyed great food and a beautiful sunset.
Orbetello FortressOrbetello’s squareTony’s restaurant at sunsetSun, slowly sinking over the waterOne more sunset photo
There’s something about towers that I find irresistible. And Orvieto’s was no exception, so Diane and I decided late in the day was the perfect time to climb it. Seen from this angle, it didn’t look all that high.
Inside had a bit of a different feel to it.
The view was well worth every one of those 250 steps.
I would have had to hang off the side to get a better shot of the front of the Duomo, but this gives you an idea of the size of that building.
We knew Torre del Moro was a clock tower, but we were not prepared for how loud the bell sounded when it is only a few feet away. By the way, it doesn’t only BOINNNNG on the hour. That sucker was sounding off every 15 minutes. We didn’t linger more than a half an hour–two ear drum piercing tolls were enough for us!
And now for some random memories of Orvieto:
Sally and I found a little wine shop that gave us a private wine tasting. After trying three local reds and four whites, we decided that this label was our favorite. Although, after all that wine, she could have poured us rat pee and we would have thought it was quite refreshing. (we don’t taste and spit…we are far too ladylike for that. Besides, why waste good wine?)
A favorite wine of ours
We managed to catch a couple of weddings on Saturday, and my favorite shot was this one. Bad news, little girls. If you think the sandals are uncomfortable, wait till you graduate to big girl shoes–platform stilettos.
Sister, let’s get these shoes off. My doggies are KILLING me!
Wild boar is considered quite the delicacy here in Tuscany. And yes, I DID try cingale, twice. Even after I saw this guy’s head outside of the restaurant.
Cingale, anyone?
Saturday night a group from Michigan State performed a trumpet concerto in one of the squares, so we sat in a little cafe, drank wine and enjoyed the music. Sally figured that since she lives in Florida and they were from Michigan, these guys were practically neighbors she should introduce herself, so she did.
Trumpet concert
The courtyard of Hotel Duomo was our favorite gathering spot for our evening wine, cheese and fruit party.
Courtyard outside our hotel.Susan, relaxing in the courtyard
Everywhere we looked we saw something beautiful.
Typical door in Orvieto
The city expanded beyond its walls and at the base of the hill.
Orvieto’s museums are small and are clustered around the Duomo. Friday afternoon was the perfect time to wander through all four. We quickly learned that weekdays are relatively quiet in Orvieto, but that changes on Saturday. Seems that even hilltop towns also have their weekend warriors.
The C. Faina museum is a three story palace facing the Duomo. In addition to the Etruscan vases and a stone coffin, it has a room chock full of ancient coins, with the modern convenience of trays that move when you press a button. If my cute boy had been by my side, I know he absolutely would have spent a fair amount of time in this room.
Ancient coin collection at Museo C. Faina
I have been more than slightly spoiled by NYC museums, so have already seen similar artifacts. What fascinated ME was the actual building itself. I wish I were more skilled at holding the camera correctly so that I could have better captured this ceiling. (I know Photoshop can work wonders but, as we say here in Italy “Io sono pigro”. Or that’s I would say if I knew how to speak Italian). But enough about my shortcomings, back to the museum tour.
One of many beautiful ceilings in C. Faina
Next stop, the Palazzi Papali which has been recycled into an archaeological museum. The nuns never mentioned that the popes owned quite a bit of real estate outside of the Vatican. Or if the dear sisters did, it was on one of the many days that I wasn’t listening, so finding Papal Palaces scattered throughout Europe has been a revelation to me.
This museum contained all the usual jewelry and vases, plus everything you needed to conduct your standard rape, pillage and plunder. But once again, I was completely entranced by the building. While I sat in a corner of the room, in the chair reserved for the guard who was out on the patio flirting with a sweet young thing, I was thinking deep thoughts. Let me share a couple of them:
“Man, I’m sure glad I was born in the 20th century”!
“Some of my friends have better houses than your standard 15th century Pope.”
Ancient coin collection at C. Fana
THe Duomo Museum only had frescoes, either copies or originals, I guess they had to be one or the other since most museums don’t intentionally display fakes, but I really didn’t care one way or the other. 10 minutes later I was out the door.
The Emilio Greco Museum was my very favorite. His ability to make a few ink marks on paper into something beautiful kept me mesmerized for quite some time.
The museum was only one room. The beautiful sculptures we plopped amid a whole lot of stuff: a piano, chairs, a spiral staircase. Still, the drawings and sculptures made you forget the cluttered space around them.
Emilio Greco Museum
Emilio also designed the Duomo’s huge green doors. Let me tell you, those doors have a whole lot of entwined bodies on them.
And since we are now back at the Duomo, here’s the story about how a little hilltop town got such a grand cathedral.
Back in the late 1400’s, one of the priests couldn’t quite wrap his head around the host literally being the body of Christ, until one day, while saying Mass, the host started to bleed. Fortunately, they didn’t have paper towels back then, so he quickly grabbed a linen cloth to tidy up. As mentioned earlier, popes were frequent visitors, and the Vicar of Rome just happened to be in town that weekend. He quickly decided that the cloth was “church worthy” and that a new cathedral would be ideal as a display case. And so the bloody cloth remains, up to this very day, in the little side chapel on the left of the main altar. No photos are allowed, but if the truth be told, I really wasn’t able to see the cloth anyway. I just had faith that it was there.
On to the next topic: Dinners in Orvieto are a magnificent thing, and the one we had at Restaurante Ancora was particularly grand. Diane and I discovered it while stumbling around town, looking for a bathroom. It looked interesting and Trip Advisor enlightened us further as to the merits of this particular establishment. We wisely allowed Carlo, the owner, to choose for us and it was fabulous. Delicious pizza bread, an amazing eggplant appetizer, a lasagna, a ravioli, veal with a delicious sauce, vegetables and dessert, plus wine–all for less than 35 Euros per person. Wow. What a way to end the evening.
I’ll never be rich (at least not in monetary terms) or famous, but for the next two weeks, I’ll be living as if I were.
Our villa in Lucca is exquisite. Because of bed type and bathroom preferences among the other villa mates, I ended up with this fantastic room. I’m so glad Sandy is joining me here on July 4th, to share this amazing experience with me. Get ready, everyone–once little sister arrives, the blog will likely become much more exciting (or maybe not, so it can keep its PG rating.)
Half of our roomThe rest of our room
Check out that terrace, right outside our room.
The terrace on the 2nd floorThe view from the terraceOur bathroom
I’m quite proud of myself. I actually figured out how to use the shower on my own. Usually Mike does all the hard stuff. This shower has knobs galore to control overhead, side and hand sprays. The door reminds me of Star Trek, except it has a seat, so you can be comfy while being beamed up?
Ours is the only shared bathroom, (with the “twin bed” room) but there is also a bathroom on the first floor. The three other bedrooms (two on the third floor) have their own, equally magnificent bathrooms. So, five bedrooms in total, and five baths.
The kitchen
There is also a large, shady terrace on the first floor.
Terrace dining roomLiving room, as seen from dining roomThird floor living roomThe pool, viewed from the second floorThe pool, yet again
Yesterday we said goodbye to our wonderful VBT companions. As with our last VBT trip, we were fortunate to travel with a delightful group, who made a great trip even more enjoyable.
As you can see from the photo, we were quite thrilled with our biscotti success. Best part was we got to keep both our glorious creations AND the aprons.
And now for the close ups. Deb, Bud and Ruth
Mike and I travel with our dear friend, Augusta frequently enough for him to be dubbed “the man who travels with two wives”. Well, on this trip, Eric and Dean could have been known as the men who traveled with THREE wives!
Becky,Nisa, Debbie and Dale
Nina, Nancy, Barbara and Eric
We didn’t want David to feel bad about traveling with only one woman, so we created an honorary harem, just for him.
Diane, Becky, David, Janet and Beth
During the early part of the trip, Susan rode with us but then moved on up to pedal with the REAL bikers.
Susan, Beth, Sally and Shelley
Our terrific tour guides kept us entertained, well fed and safe.
Angelo and Franco
Here are two versions of our farewell shot:one with Nina running to join the group, and the other with Nina in place.
I love this shot of Sally and Becky.
After the fond farewells, Sally, Karen, Diane and I made our way to Lucca. We briefly stopped in the city before making our way to our home for the next two weeks. Diane and Karen were in Lucca ten years ago. They are clearly delighted to be back!
Orvieto was wonderful; its wi-fi connection was not. So we will save the narrative and photos for that leg of our journey until uploading is not so arduous.
Those on the tour that were not doing the Orvieto pretrip arrived on Saturday night. Becky, who came from California, arrived minus her luggage. She and the thunder storms hit the east coast around the same time, so her journey was by far the most exciting, although Bud and Ruth also had a story to tell about their flight from Philadelphia. Seasoned travelers all, they took their adventures in stride. I, on the other hand, was quite glad to have been spared the experience.
We stopped on our way out of Orvieto for a photo-op.
Lunch was in the little fortress town of Pitigliano, and offered yet another departure photo-op.
Next stop, our beautiful 4 star resort, Antica Fattoria La Parrina. This “farm” produces its own wine, cheese, yogurt, vegetables, oil, balsamic vinegar, organic pasta, jams and sauces which we would soon be sampling.
We were greeted by Astrid, who served us wine and cheese while our luggage was being deposited in our rooms. I’m not normally a white wine fan, but their’s is delicious. So is their red, so I drank both.
Check out my gorgeous room.
I’m a little mystified by the table and chairs in the bathroom. Am I supposed to invite my two best friends in for tea while I take a bubble bath?
We met our team leaders, Franco and Angelo for a safety briefing. After they finished telling us about the fast moving traffic, I looked at Beth to see if she was as terrified as I was. When they said fast moving traffic, I visualized NYC, but fortunately their definition of traffic is quite different from ours.
There are 20 of us bikers, and as with our last VBT trip, it didn’t take long for us to feel like we had been friends for years. Getting lost is a particularly bonding experience. Plus the wine helps.
We had a short introductory ride to get used to our bikes. Well, short for some, longer for those that are directionally challenged. Can you guess which group I fit in?
Dinner was a typical Italian event that lasted for hours with glorious food, lots of wine, great company. This could be habit forming!
Today’s ride took us through the Tuscan countryside. This is postcard worthy scenery.
Those hills are beautiful, but they are a bit of a challenge for some of us.
I don’t know whether it was yesterday’s back to back yoga sessions or the glasses of red wine, maybe both, but all of the normal air travel irritants fazed me not one bit. I would just “breathe into it, take another sip” and contemplate how mellow I was feeling as I floated across the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe I’m finally getting the hang of this traveling thing.
It took us a while to reach our hotel today and a bit longer to get into our rooms. I was definitely “runnin’ on empty” by the time I collapsed onto my bed for a one hour nap.
My room is lovely, on the first floor, which, by the way, us Yankees would consider the 2nd floor. It’s in an old building with all of the conveniences: air conditioning, little refrigerator, or as I like to think of it “wine cooler”, a bidet, located within spitting distance of the cathedral (the hotel, not the bidet–although technically, i suppose it is both). Not that I would ever spit. But if I did, I could probably score a bull’s eye.
W
Okay. It is official. My connection with the Internet is a lot like my high school dating experiences–on, again, off again. So, I will quickly get some photos up before the Internet breaks up with me.
The Duomo
No, that was not the interior of the Duomo. You can’t take pictures inside. Well, you aren’t supposed to, but i noticed some tourists boldly ignoring the rules. Didn’t they see that fresco of Jesus passing judgement? Didn’t they see what happens to the rule breakers? I did. And let me tell you, I wasn’t taking any chances.
The second photo is actually the staircase in one of Orvieto’s little shops. If I had 120 euros that I didn’t know what do do with, I would definitely have bought one of their Miss Piggy tee shirts. I may return, just to take a photo of one of those suckers–they are quite unique! Something to anticipate in future posts.
I wandered around town by myself, then later with Sally, while we waited for our fellow companions to awaken and for the restaurants to start serving dinner. 7:30 is the earliest, and is an accommodation to those of us from across the pond. Italians dine later.
This is such a lovely little town, full of interesting alleys, with shops, restaurants, wine stores, museums. Sally and I ducked into a wine store and had our own private tasting. We determined that white was the way to go, after tasting three reds, en chose our favorite from among four whites. Time to weave our way back to join the others for a fantastic dinner and a good night’s sleep.
Being still in the learning phase of blogging, I was surprised and grateful to get an email from my newly acquired blogging buddy Marion, informing me that she had nominated me for the Versatile Blogger award. At the time, I was getting ready for my cross-country road trip, so was way behind on my electronic media: the blogs I follow, Facebook etc. I was honored, delighted, pleased, flattered–but clueless, in that I thought there was another step after nomination. What, was I confusing this with the academy awards, thinking there was an election process? Hey, I already admitted to being clueless.
I have since had the time to recover from the last trip, catch up, and read Marion’s nominating post. Thank you, sweet Marion, for the kind words. Although a little late, I now know what I am supposed to do.
1. Add the picture of the award to this post .
2. Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post. (See above–click on the blue “Marion”)
3. Share 7 things about yourself.
I love, love, love traveling–going to new places, learning about the culture, the geography, the history, the people, the food, the wine (oh yes, the wine…)
I have no sense of direction, which makes traveling with me even more of an adventure, especially when I am driving–or navigating–either is sometimes harrowing. Probability would suggest that, when presented with a left and a right, 50% of the time, I’d choose the right option. Probability theory, in my case, would be dead wrong.
the best thing I have ever done in my life is give birth to my son. He continues to delight us on a regular basis. (Considering he didn’t sleep through the night till he was 18 months old, he damn well should! Kid, you still owe us. )
Even after 36 years, I still think my husband is the most interesting man I know. (Cute too, and very patient, at least most of the time. Work on that, will ya, cute boy? )
If my sisters (including mi hermana preferida) and my cousins weren’t related to me, I’d choose them as friends. They are all very different, and all very wonderful, in unique and special ways. Marion is correct. Initially my blog was created so that my family could be a part of my travels. I didn’t think any one else would be interested, so I’m delighted that others are following and commenting.
I’m passionate about reading–and am convinced the greatest gift you can give any child is instilling in them a love for books. I’ll admit, however, that now that I’ve become a member of the blog-o-sphere, I’m spending more time reading blogs, which has somewhat reduced my book time.
I have a very casual relationship with calendars. Now that I’m retired and no longer have Microsoft office reminding me of the date and time, I’ve gotten even less in tune with the days of the week. (These days, it always feels like Saturday!)
4. Pass the award along to your 15 favorite bloggers.
One of the nice things about this step is I was able to discover several bloggers from Marion’s list that I am now enjoying (Senile Denial, sharansblog.) I won’t repeat her list, but will share other bloggers that I find interesting, inspiring, fun.
Photography
I love looking at beautiful photos. I have accepted the fact that I will never be as good as any of the following photographers, but even if I can pick up one tenth of their techniques and skill, I will greatly improve my picture-taking abilities.
Mazzarella Photo Chris takes awe-inspiring photos of wildlife. His narrative about the various shots is always interesting.
Jeffrey’s most recent photos of eagles on his Photo Nature Blog are truly incredible. How did he manage to get those shots?
David, a fellow retiree, can make the ordinary look special.
I don’t know anything about this young blogger, other than I really like her compositions.
Travel
I hope to get to Asia some day. in the meantime, I can visit and dream by clicking on Ken Pham’s blog.
Retirement
As Marion indicated,there are loads of blogs on retirement that are actually financial advisor sites, but finding blogs about retiree life is a bit harder. Here are two (in addition to Marion’s list) that I discovered.
Bob is a prolific blogger, plus his site is a great source for other retirement bloggers. It was through his site that I found Barb‘s blog. I love her positive attitude, insights and creativity.
Inspiration
I “met” Michelle through Global Volunteers. She had served on St. Lucia’s “Team One” and was kind enough to spend time on the phone with me prior to my joining “Team Two”. She will be returning to St. Lucia in November (would that be Team Five?), so I can look forward to joining her vicariously via her blog “A Well Lived Day”.
In 2008, I discovered the wonderful book “Your Money or Your Life by Joe Domingues and Vicki Robin. It changed the way I thought about money, financial security and retirement. Definitely a book worth reading, especially during these challenging economic times. Vicki is now blogging about sustainability, farming, food, Brazil, community issues.
Although Eva could fit under the photography heading, I’m putting her under “inspiring” for her work with Alzheimer’s patients. I particularly love the photos of her son.
Young Women in a Category All Their Own
Elena’s photos are gorgeous (both the ones she takes and the photos taken of her), her adventures are exciting and her writing is beautiful. I love her spirit of adventure!
Crazy train to Tinky Town is another one that is hard to categorize. It is funny, has great photos, is a travel blog–yet another young woman with a wonderful spirit of adventure! 5. Contact the chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.
I assume the way that is done is to comment on their blog, so off I go to finish the job.
Okay, so you may have figured out that I am moving faster than my blog. In fact, I arrived home on Wednesday, June 6th, at midnight. While on the road, I was having internet issue, it is true. What is also true is that I was having so bloody much fun, I didn’t have a lot of time or energy to mess with my iPad. Blogging on the road just isn’t easy–so I must say that I’m totally impressed by my fellow bloggers that do it so well. (Marion, you know who I’m talking about.)
Guess who got a window seat for the ride home? Of course, I had a window seat on the way there too. The view was spectacular for most of the Albuquerque to Denver flight. I won’t bore you with the many other photos that I took of the terrain. I found it fascinating, but realize that not everyone else would be as easily entertained as I am.
It kept getting better and better. I scored an upgrade for the Denver to Newark segment. Oh, I’m so going to miss my “elite” status when it goes away next year. Without all those business trips to get me points, I’ll be back in steerage with the rest of the regular folks. (On balance, I’d say it’s the better deal–free time vs elite status–no contest.)
First class also was a window seat, but I was quite busy during this segment. Ruby slippers didn’t get me home, but some ruby colored liquid sure made that yellow brick road roll along more smoothly. (Can you tell The Wizard of Oz is an all time favorite of mine?) It was just as well, because we were heading into darkness. Sure did look pretty with all the lights, though. By the time I took this shot of Newark at night, the photo wasn’t the only thing that was fuzzy and out of focus!
For anyone wondering what happened between the road trip and the plane trip, the rest of the blog is for you.
Once we hit Albuquerque, our road trip was finished. The one hour drive to Santa Fe was nothing after the 2,000+ miles we had logged during the prior 8 days.
Our last “on the road” breakfast at the Nativo Hotel was truly memorable because brought me back to my post college days. Back then, I was working for Harper & Row, covering parts of the Midwest as a “college traveler”, which meant I spent my days talking to professors about textbooks. In the late 70’s there weren’t many women in sales, especially in jobs requiring overnight travel, so I was frequently the only woman eating breakfast in a crowded hotel restaurant. How weird that it was happening again, almost 35 years later, but with a few major differences. Back then, the men were in the 30-50 age range, wearing business suits, and felt it was their right (and duty) to stare at any unaccompanied female, which, I can assure you, felt quite uncomfortable. One of the greatest advantages to getting older is that no one ogles me any more, so that wasn’t the difference. It was the men’s ages and attire . They looked like escapees from the nearest nursing home. Except few nursing homes have a 30 to 1 male to female ratio. More the other way around. This place was a little old lady’s dream…sort of.
Here’s the reality. The night before I happened to catch a couple of the guys out of their civvies, in their full regalia, waist ropes, cowls and all.
Yup, we had managed to stumble into a hotel hosting a conference for Friars (or were they brothers? I forget the correct terminology.) It sure made for a quiet, peaceful stay!
But I digressed. Back to the trip. We couldn’t get into Greg’s apartment until 4PM, so we decided to make the most of our time in Albuquerque, by visiting the Botanical Garden and Aquarium.
I just couldn’t get enough of those blooming cacti. (I just knew two years of Latin would be put to use one of these days ).
I wish the bee had been more cooperative, but she refused to pose for me. Just when I thought she was perfectly framed, she moved faster than my shutter finger. Oh well. I was surprised to find so many water lilies in a desert botanical garden.
If I could only choose one, which shot would be preferable-the close up or wider angle? I’m trying to be more discriminating in my shots, so would appreciate opinions — and I know there are lots of great photographers among my fellow bloggers. I’ve seen the magic you create. Plus I never tried out poll daddy before and am curious to see how it works.
The garden was not without wildlife. These fish were almost domesticated, gathering at the pond’s edge when they sensed a human was nearby. They came close to leaping out of the water to get food, and their size attested to their success.
More wildlife. Mom was close by, but I cropped her out.
As the late, great Harry Truman once said “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the garden and visit the aquarium”, or something to that effect. So we did.
I wasn’t sure my Panasonic Lumix would be able to capture the jellyfish, given the low light, but hey, with digital, it doesn’t cost anything to give it a try. So I did.
I loved the colors of this creature.
It ain’t snorkeling, but it almost as thrilling, wandering among the tanks of tropical fish.
For the next couple of days, Greg and I hung out together, enjoying Santa Fe and his really cool apartment until I met up with my dear friend, Shirley. How lucky that Greg got an internship in New Mexico, close to one of my favorite people to visit. Not only did I experience 10 memorable days with my son, but I also got a mini vacation with a great pal. Her husband was out-of-town, so staying at her gorgeous home was like having a girl’s weekend at a five-star resort, with a very talented and creative activity director. Two of the visit’s highlights were the Petroglyph National Monument and Ojo Caliente Spa.
The park ranger suggested that we experience the more difficult trail. She said “you girls will have no problem making that climb.” I don’t know what tickled us more–her confidence in our athletic abilities (that assessment proved to be accurate), or calling us “girls” (which clearly was not).
There are hundreds of these in the hills surrounding Albuquerque. Here are a couple that I particularly liked.
The view alone was worth the climb.
Can you stand another poll? What do you think–which shot is better?
“Us girl’s”, successfully recruited a fellow hiker to take our photo. I think he was more skilled with a camera than my Oklahoma friend, Charles, don’t you?
Next day was the Ojo Caliente Spa. Who knew that sitting in a pool of arsenic was supposed to be good for your digestion? If that particular pool doesn’t grab you, not to worry. You can also go to the iron pool, the mud bath pool, the soda pool or a few others that we didn’t sample.
The surroundings were lovely, the treatments were heavenly. I could quite easily become addicted to the spa life. Only my lack of funds (plus other priorities) keeps me from a life of facials, mud baths and massages. But it sure was a great finale for an amazing trip.
A couple more photos of New Mexico, taken from a moving car. Why don’t all highways look like this? Let’s hear it for the artists that make all our lives more beautiful!
Only 11 days till the next adventure–bike trip in Italy. Thanks for visiting, and please come along for the ride through Tuscany!
What better way to celebrate the completion of five months of retirement than with a Cinco de Mayo (5/5) celebration with five of your favorite relatives. And since we are on a roll with fives–after we all got together, it took my sisters, cousins and me approximately five minutes to get into the party mode. For one weekend, we were carefree–no husbands, kids, grandchildren, parents to take care of, no work or responsibilities. To paraphrase Cyndi Lauper, we were girls that “just want to have fu-un”.
Although my sisters and I have always been close, we cousins recently rediscovered how much we enjoy each others company. I’m sure Grammy was looking down at her six granddaughters, watching us raise our glasses of Bloody Marys in a toast to her, the original “Proud Mary”, and wishing she was there with her flask of blackberry brandy.
The Wyndham Resort in Hancock, Ma. was the perfect setting for our weekend together. It had it all–beautiful scenery, two bathrooms, not too many other guests, and just the right level of activities. We managed to take full advantage of everything the resort had to offer: Pool, sauna, hot tub, karaoke, exercise room.
But the activity that was the most fun, or at least produced the most laughs, was the duct tape wallet caper.
Even after seeing the craft room, and the bemused looks on the faces of the two (age appropriate) little boys in the class, we were NOT dissuaded.
The instructor, on the other hand, felt we should move to a larger table (and to larger chairs). Was it because my sister laughed hysterically at the sight of me sitting with my knees touching my ears or was the instructor worried that SHE might have to extract me from that seat?
Once we stopped laughing, we became intensely focused on the task at hand. Who knew duct tape came in so many varieties? This was clearly an educational weekend.
We were rightfully proud of our finished products! What’s next? Duct tape evening gowns? Duct tape sombreros?? Duct tape canoes??? The possibilities are endless. Whether the folks back home will be equally impressed is questionable…
Not content to depend solely on the resort for activities, Lissy and Lindy created their own. I don’t think the Wyndham expected pinatas to be suspended from their balcony. Fortunately, we had that area all to ourselves.
You can see from the blur, that Lindy gave the pinata a mighty bash, but it STILL held together. Doesn’t she remind you of Luke Skywalker wielding the light sword (or whatever it was called)?
But wait. Look at Sue and Sandy in the photo below. Could there have been some cheating going on? I count two hands on that pinata stick…and one hand belongs to someone who is NOT wearing a blindfold!
“The Sombrero Sisters”, as we were affectionately dubbed by Paul, the Karaoke master, had worked up a powerful hunger with all that activity, so off we went to the local restaurant. Looks like the seating plan was blondes (Lindy, Kristy and Sue) on the left, brunettes (Lissy, me and Sandy) on the right.
Time for me to bid my sisters a fond farewell, as the Massachusetts contingent heads home on Sunday morning. (How did Lindy manage to escape this photo-op?)
The Jersey girls were determined to make the most of what was left of the day, starting with a visit to a local winery, which was also a cider mill and an apple farm.
What goes with wine? Why ice cream, of course. Sundaes, to be exact, from Gardiner’s Ice Cream stand, coffee shop, miniature golf course and driving range. Places in the Hancock area appear to be multifunctional.
They didn’t have the kind of nuts that Lis wanted so our new friend made up for it with extra toppings. Yikes.
The Hancock area is truly beautiful, and we were fortunate enough to have wonderful weather. On a day like that, even dandelions looked amazing!
Kristy, the “baby” of the group, and mother of three, returned home, leaving me and Lis to experience one last activity–a property walk up the ski slopes with Paul, the karaoke master and snow board instructor. Like the businesses, the people are also multifunctional up here.
What’s left to say, except:
What about you? What do you do to reconnect with family and your childhood?
Destination NOW 