Archive for the ‘Adventures’ Category

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Southwest Utah RV Tour, 2022

Friday, September 30th, 2022

After a spring and summer of almost monthly 4-5 day RV trips, the opportunity to take a longer tour kicked off with Liz’s “Class of 70 Turns 70” COVID-delayed reunion. Camping at Dad’s gave us the opportunity to check out his organic garden and do our traditional morning hike on the beach. On Sunday morning, we waved goodbye and headed east to explore the national parks and monuments of Southwestern Utah we’d missed on previous trips. We learned that every national park in the region has its own distinct flavor of awesome that really must be seen in person to be appreciated fully. That said, here are the photo albums attempting to share our experience.

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COVID Summer Road Trip 2020

Thursday, August 27th, 2020

Mountain portrait, Dan/Liz

Glacier Lake in the Beartooth Mountains

The natives were restless after spending 6 months in home quarantine against the COVID-19 pandemic. When Zephyr Adventures announced their safety-adjusted Beartooth Hiking Adventure based in Red Lodge, Montana in August, we immediately signed up, and started planning a road trip to and from the location. Dan mapped out outbound and return routes that included two days in Yellowstone National Park and a first-time look at the incredible Leslie Gulch in Oregon. We wore masks around other people for the entire 2 weeks.

We returned to a lightning-struck California on fire amidst a severe heat wave and drought. With smoky skies forcing us to keep indoors and windows tight shut, it seemed like end times had arrived!

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Japan Photo Albums 2020

Saturday, February 15th, 2020

Dan had a dream, to ski the famous bottomless dry powder of northern Japan, known as “JaPow”! So he signed us up with a company called “Savour the Journey,” specializing in both skiing and food.

Liz dreamed of being able to communicate with the natives, so she immediately started working through the Duolingo Japanese lessons in order to master the basics: “Hello, thank you, where are the toilets? English menu please.”

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Happy Holidays! (2019)

Sunday, December 1st, 2019

Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year!

From Liz, Dan and Don

Click here to jump below our card.


(more…)

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Iceland Photo Albums 2019

Tuesday, August 27th, 2019

Storurdh, eastern Iceland

Storurdh, formed by volcanic activity in eastern Iceland

Dan and Liz spent two weeks in Iceland, the first with Kim and Rich (daughter and son-in-law), and the second week with Zephyr Adventures. The large number of albums below reflects how much gorgeous scenery we saw there! Iceland is truly a nature lover’s paradise.

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Photos: 5-week Winter Vacation in Chile

Saturday, October 13th, 2018

At the time of our August/September 2018 visit to Chile, we were on the verge of retirement. The goal of this trip was to explore living in Santiago for the skiing in the Andes, and get a taste of everyday life in a foreign-language country. Unfortunately, climate change, ski logistics and the language barrier put an end to the future expats plan. As you can see by the list below, many excursions helped us make the most of our visit:

  1. Santiago’s Providencia, El Centro and Bella Vista
  2. Skiing at Valle Nevado in the Andes
  3. Active Lifestyles in Santiago
  4. Vina del Mar, Valparaiso and Casablanca
  5. Santa Cruz Wine Region
  6. Santa Cruz Winery Tour in Valle de Apalta
  7. Atacama: San Pedro de Atacama and Casa Sorbac
  8. Atacama: Valle de la Luna + Laguna Cejar + Ojos del Salar
  9. Atacama: Geiser Tatio + Trekking de Guatín + Termas de Puritama
  10. Atacama: Pucara + Baltinache + Cordillera de Sal + Mirador
  11. Atacama: Laguna Miscanti  + Laguna Chaxa + Toconao
  12. Independence Day Fiestas

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Stepping Into Routines

Friday, August 24th, 2018

Santiago Gym

our Santiago gym

We have joined a gym, go out daily for long walks and groceries, go up and down the apartment stairwell to warm up, sit with our Kindles in a nearby coffee shop, and still we have too much spare time here. Like real retirement? 😉

Dan and I are sometimes “hermited” in our bedroom. When Julia occasionally hosts a lady friend in the living room, we are looking at our phones, catching up on news, politics and Facebook. That said, she spends most of her time in the guest bedroom, into which she has moved so that we could have the master for ourselves.

We take turns using the miniscule kitchen, and sometimes we three share dinner cooked by Dan. Ella es muy simpatica, pero no habla Ingles. Sometimes we are all at our phones taking Duolingo lessons, Julia included.

The apartment is kept quite chilly. Since we’d read about this trend before leaving home, we are prepared and are always in multiple layers of clothing.

    Dan at ValleNevado

We went skiing last Tuesday. It was pretty much a 12-hour day when you added up the commute times to and from. We had the skiing almost all to ourselves, and the groomed runs were fine. But that was a lot of time and effort for the 5 hours of skiing we got.

We considered a return trip to the same place today to ski the fresh new inches of snow, but this front is extremely cold, and we now know there’s no place on the mountain to shelter, so we decided to wait a couple more days.

Dan wondered last night if it would cost too much to fly home early. He is disappointed by the skiing options. I said let’s stick it out with other activities!! He is now researching excursions to the Atacama desert, a wine tasting day trip package and another one to a coastal city.

Today, we are planning a long walk to a park and museum with large Chilean sculptures as soon as it warms up. I downloaded Google Fit– I will be getting my 10 thousand steps again today!

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Photos: Our People-to-People Tour in Cuba

Thursday, July 27th, 2017

Dan and Liz joined old and new friends on a Zephyr Adventures tour of Cuba in December 2017. Here are links to the photo albums. Scroll down the album splash pages to browse our photos, or click one to see an up close view and read captions where added.

Update June 14, 2019: Perfect happy ending to my career as an inline skating professional? I just shipped almost my entire Get Rolling inline skate school inventory to Cuba; first journey is by train to Jose M Bordas who runs Miami’s Skate Cuba. Every November he visits his homeland bearing donated inline skates and all things related. I sent him my old helmets, scads of wheels — mostly used, several sets of bearings, a couple of unused brakes (and lots of used ones), various skate hardware bits, my extra protective pads, plus chalk and cones for obstacle courses. I am delighted to have this chance to help folks in Cuba Get Rolling!

My Get Rolling skate school inventory all ready to go by train to Cuba via a contact in Miami

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Ecuador! Amazon Rainforest & Galapagos

Thursday, December 8th, 2016

Flamingos

Flamingos

What a great experience! From touring Spanish colonial architecture, the farmland of indigenous people and Inca ruins — to hiking in the Andes and bird watching in the jungle — to snorkeling and hiking in the Galapagos — we reaped the rich diversity of an Ecuador vacation in November 2016. And it’s so easy there: the same electrical outlets and the same money, US dollars.

These are the photo albums that tell the story of our visit.

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Dan’s 50th Class Reunion and Gorge Hiking

Sunday, August 7th, 2016

P1020830

Here are photos from the week-long trip we took to Le Roy and upstate New York in July of 2016:

  1. of 3: Reunion Weekend, New York
  2. of 3: Kiddy Demolition Derby!
  3. of 3: Gorgeous Gorges of the Finger Lakes

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