Monday, June 30 and Snoozing

It is already the end of June, and now we begin the second half of 2008. Why do these years go so fast???? My brother Maurice is 72 today and a very happy birthday to him and many more celebrations for sure!!!!

Last night we went to a World Youth Symphony Orchestra concert with Kim, Chuck, and their two boys ages 4 and 6. They played a brief Stravinsky number called the Symphonies of Wind instruments, and I approved of the brevity of the piece. Then on to Beethoven's No. 2 Symphony which was well-done and played at a slightly faster tempo, but the best part was the third piece, Candide by Leonard Bernstein which was played at a breathless pace and just lovely. How these young musicians managed to maintain this fast tempo is beyond me, but they earned their standing ovation. Christian, our four year old grandson, managed to fall asleep during this rousing Candide interpretation. Oh, to be young and have the excuse of youth needing more sleep.

I can fall asleep during the evening news cast on television. My kids call it, "Dad's snooze and news hour". I love afternoon naps, and if on a bus, with other tourists I tend to get very groggy. When someone else is driving, I get sleepy, except on airplanes where the pilots need my help throughout the flight. So, like Christian, apparently I can fall asleep when I need to. Is this what the cycle of life is all about? I fervently hope that diapers and whiny crying are not in my future!

Tonight - The Youth World Symphony

Tonight the Youth World Symphony will play a concert here. Kim tells us that these high school students are incredibly talented and when they play, you are hearing a world class symphony playing. She can get tickets as part of her job and we hope to be able to go hear them. The program includes Beethoven and Stravinsky among others, so should be good.

As if that wasn't enough, there is an art fair downtown today. Next weekend is their annual cherry festival and this area produces more cherries that the rest of the world combined, so this is a big thing. Yesterday we bought a bag of chocolate covered cherries and although the bag is getting quickly emptied, we were somehow full. I had so many cherries that there was little room for dinner last night. I wonder how chocolate covered cherries would be for breakfast. This blog may have to wait while I experiment...........

Reveille - A Great Start to A Morning

This seems to be my 300th Blog! I got out of the normal routine while we were on our trip, but if I get up early enough, there is time to get back to my writing. This morning I stepped out of the motor home to the sounds of Reveille being played near the boys dorm to get them started for the day. What a lovely sound, if you don't have to get up. As we walk with Jonny and Christian through the school or camp grounds to their activities, we hear many students practicing in little buildings all over campus. The music is wonderful and seems to float through the trees.

The boys go to "Minniacs" each morning which is mostly singing and some group dancing led by a very cheerful teacher. Then they get swimming lessons, lunch with mom, and home for stories and rest time. This gives us time for rest, and I have enjoyed my naps, every day.

Last night they all came over for hamburgers, which we enjoyed at our picnic table, then showers and a movie before going home to bed. Tonight their daddy comes up after his work, and they are hoping he will bring fishing rods with him and looking forward to fishing with dad. He may bring their kayaks as well, and that should prove to be fun for all. He gets the next two weeks off, a required vacation, at his GM work. We look forward to having his around. He is about to have his 40th birthday, too. Lets celebrate!!!!!!!

Monday - Tuesday

On Monday we had our first chance to be with the boys. We thought we would have them for the morning and again in the afternoon, but Kim's practice session for her concert on Wednesday night went well so she was finished by noon. We got some games, homework, and reading done and were thinking about lunch, when we were relieved of duty. Kim took Jon to the urgent care and got medicine for his ear infection, which we found out when we came back by later to treat all to ice cream. Finally, we watched Star Wars IV, since we had heard that some of the films might have been made in Cappadoccia, Turkey. This one was not ,so much further research is necessary.

Tuesday arrived, and today would be our first complete day with the boys (9-6). We started by playing a rollicking game of Dominoes which requires some math skills unbeknown to the boys. Then school work in their practice books. Then we walked with a neighbor and two of her kids to a play session for children of Interlochen teachers. Kim met us, and we had lunch together, and we then walked home, read with the boys followed by quiet time, which resulted in naps for two little boys and one big one. HW2 blogged doing a thumbnail sketch of our trip and comments on taking care of the boys. After the naps we took the boys to a nearby playground, and now they are playing with neighborhood kids while HW2 gets dinner for them. Then it is home for us and Star Wars V.

Sunday morning

We woke up in the middle of the night to our car making beeping noises. To stop the noise, I finally opened the locks on the doors, and quiet ensued. I wondered at the time if the car was lonely or just had been pushed or brushed against. I will never know.

We had Kim, Chuck, and boys over for Cornell chicken, potato salad, green beans, and finished the cherry pie, last night. The time went very quickly, and we of course talked the whole time trying to catch up with their trip to Alaska and our trip to Greece and Turkey. The boys ended the evening watching Ratatouille and when they went home for an early night to put the boys in bed, we finished watching that cute movie.

It is so quiet here in the morning. I treasure the peace. We do seem to have a young chipmunk living nearby who is really not a bit afraid of us. I can hear the birds sing and wonder which ones. This is a place where we saw a Pileated Woodpecker four years ago. What a treat! I think that I saw a bald eagle on the way here and maybe will get to see one fishing the lakes.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Can you have fires?

You can have fires here. Each camp site is provided with a fire pit, and if you purchase some wood, you can sit around the camp fire and enjoy the ambiance and tell ghost stories or swat mosquitoes.

In the late afternoon, yesterday, Kim, the boys, and both dogs arrived, and we went over to help them unpack. Jon didn't recognize us in our new car and the look on his face was delightful when he finally realized who it was. Christian announced that they had fly smashers and promptly demonstrated his abilities. We rearranged the cabin and the unpacking continued as HW2 put together supper of pizza, salad and cherry pie.

When we got home we could hear some young musician playing his trumpet, and we hope for more sounds like that during our six week stay here.

This morning I was greeted by the sounds of doves and just met a chipmunk outside the front door. Yesterday we unpacked our bikes and rode them over by the lake, checked out the beach (water seemed to be warm), camp store, and the south side of the park where they are making a movie, maybe called Youth in Rebellion???? It did not sound too promising a title to us, but, I may have it wrong.

Later this morning we think that we will go to breakfast with Chuck and the boys while Kim gets oriented to her duties for the summer. Should be fun!

The day dawns in the woods

We are here in Interlocken after a longish two day trip from Omaha. Flooding forced us to travel south to Missouri and to cross the Mississippi River at Hannibal. We stopped the first night in Illinois. We saw extensive flooding all along the way. We feel for the farmers that had their corn or other crops under water as it killed the crop. You could see large fields of mud but nothing growing. This is a huge loss in the mid-west. There was flooding of homes too. As one person put it, "Katrina was George Bush's fault and this must be too." Somehow, no matter how important a president might be, it seems a long stretch to make an act of God or mother nature, his fault.

Gas and diesel prices are awful and we hated to stop to fill up the motor home, knowing that it would be so expensive. This is likely to put a serious damper on future travel for us. We did not see many motor homes on our way up to Michigan.

We arrived about five o'clock yesterday, unloaded the car and trailer and got parked. At that point we were quite tired so treated ourselves to a dinner out which turned out to be very good. We are parked in a Michigan State Park which is located directly across the road from the Interlocken Music Camp. You do literally hear music drifting through these woods. We have electric hookup but no water or sewer. Fortunately HW2 reserved us a location very close to the bathrooms. We stayed here about four years ago and know the routine of camping here.

Kim and boys should arrive in the afternoon today. They have a cabin on the grounds of the music camp and it is within walking distance of this state park. This morning we will get haircuts done, car washed and some grocery buying so that we will be ready when they get here. It is lovely to see them. Their dad will drive up for the weekend after work. Yeah!!!!!

So, we are parked in the woods about 100 feet from a small lake and can bike or walk. If there is any drawback, it is the ever present misquitoes (Locals call them the Michigan Airforce). We must use repellant every time we leave to go outside. This seems a small price to pay to camp in such lovely surroundings. It is good to be able to be back on line and maybe blog on a regular basis.

Onward, Once Again

See ahappywanderertwo.blogspot.com , or just click on Judy's blog to the right for beginning details on the ltest trip! More later....

Home Again

We left Ankora, Turkey, early in the morning and four hours later found us deplaned in London, having a bite to eat with our traveling buddies Phyllis and Pat. Then a second flight to New York found us disoriented but happy to be back. Phyllis and Pat left for their home in Conn., and we got a cab to our motel. Imagine our delight to discover that our driver was from Turkey! He got lost on the way to the motel, but our conversation was non-stop, and the error was quickly rectified. He is heading home to Turkey in about a week and very pleased that we had visited the city where he comes from.

The next morning we took our packed bags down to the front to get the motel limo back to the airport. We waited for him to arrive, and imagine our surprise when others barged in front of us to the extent that we were unable to find room on the limo and had to arrange another cab ride back to the airport. We had misread the tickets and thought our plane was to depart at the time it actually arrived in Chicago, but several attendants really helped us, and by running, we actually made it to the plane and embarked to Chicago. A brief layover there and we flew onward to Omaha. We could see evidence of the serious flooding in western Iowa, and the Missouri river is at the top of its banks, as well.

Kristy and the kids met us at the airport, where we learned from them that one of the Boy Scouts killed by tornadoes in western Iowa had played with James on his baseball and basketball team, and was also a member of their mutual home-school choir. They were very sad and upset. Another boy from church was also at this Boy Scout camp and finally found alive by his father, wandering in the nearby woods. The rains and subsequent tornadoes had been in the area for about a week with over 30 tornadoes touching down in the Omaha and western Iowa area. Later, when we went for groceries, we could see roofs damaged. We were glad to be home and to find our motor home and car still here. It was good to be home.

Stray Thoughts

When we visited Crete and other Greek islands and the mainland of this country, we noticed that there was so much grafitti and actually witnessed a fight where three boys attacked a fourth boy. There is apparently unemployment among young people who can be finished with school at age 15. Not all complete a full high school education, and it seems that this age might be doing the grafitti. When asked, the locals seem to be in denial that there is a problem. We wondered?????

The Aegean Sea is a beautiful blue, and the harbors of these small islands have scenery that is breath taking. It is a delight to see the colorful houses, crowded together and built up the hill sides. Many views of the villages and sea are afforded to anyone who is willing to hike about.

The Greek people are very friendly and helpful, especially if you try to speak their language. Beer is pronounced bier. So, I did just fine. You hear the legends or Greek mythological stories, and they seem to come alive in these islands.

Turkey is much cleaner with little grafitti and very friendly people who frequently speak some English. Apparently English is taught in school, and lots of kids go by on field trips and say hi or hello and love to have their pictures taken and shake your hand. Our few words of Turkish are appreciated, and the smiles we receive in return either mean that we horribly mispronounced, or that they were pleased that we tried, or more likely both.

We find the Turkish are trying to balance religion and keep their current government secular. We have learned much about Muslim customs and how the religion is practiced since our guide is himself Muslim. He has increased our understanding exponentially.

The Greek Islands

For several days we traveled by ship and visited the island of Symi, which was the center of the sponge trade in earlier times but now caters to tourists. We zigzagged across the Aegean Sea to visit Bodrum, Turkey, where we explored a medieval Castle of St. Peter built by the Knights of St. John in the 15th century and another Wonder of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, which is where we get our word for tomb or mausoleum.

Onward we traveled to the Island of Chios where we learned about mastic which is used in making fragrances and gum. In fact, we learned more about this than we really wanted to know. This island was the birthplace of the poet, Homer.

We visited the islands of Kos and Patmos. Kos is famous for Hippocrates and his place of healing, and a tree that was reputed to have exhisted in his time remains vibrant to this day. Patmos is famous as the place where St. John was incarcerated, although he had the run of the entire island. We visited his cave, where he is said to have written the book of Revelations and maybe the gospels of St John as well. To stand in this cave and touch the place where he put his hand to stand up and overlook the island is breathtaking and mind boggling.

We disembarked from our lovely ship at Kudasi, Turkey. Here we visited a Basilica of St. John where his tomb was located, as well as another Wonder of the Ancient World, The Temple of Artimis.

Our ship, The Arethusa accomodates about 50 travelers, and we had most of our meals on this very new ship. It was only on its sixth voyage. It even smelled new. Meals were magnificant, and the service provided made us truly feel cosseted. I highly recommend such travel if you really want to relax and be taken care of all of the time.

Athens

Our pre trip was over and we flew back to Athens and were met and taken to the Electra Palace Hotel. This hotel was in the old part of the city called the Plaka district. From the top of our hotel you could see the Acropolis (which means the top of the city) and the beautiful Parthenon. The following morning we took a tour to the Acropolis and viewed the Parthenon up close. It is such a magnificant building which is currently being restored enough to prevent furthur losses. There are two other temples in fairly good condition in the same area.

After touring the Acropolis we visited the Benake Museum which has a great collection of ancient to modern Greek artifacts, jewelry and some Egyptian artifacts. We had lunch on the roof of the museum, which was delightful.

The next day we took an optional trip to Corinth and Mycenae. Corinth is the site of a canal that separates the mainland from the Peloponnesian peninsula. Nero, a Roman emperor suggested such a canal, but it was not completed until 1893. It is only wide enough to accomodate one ship in each direction at a time.

St. Paul visited Corinth three times, staying there 1 1/2 years on the Jews and Gentiles. He is still remembered fondly and with reverence to this day in this area. It almost gave me goose bumps to stand and think about Paul preaching in this very spot.

We then went on to visit Mycenae, home of King Agamemnon, who Homer said started the Trojan war over beautiful Helen, who was taken by Paris to Troy. This war lasted ten years and finally ended with the Greeks bringing the Trojan Horse as a gift to Troy with solders hidden inside. At nightfall the hidden Greeks climbed out of the horse and opened the gates to the Greek soldiers, thus ending the Trojan war. In Mycenae we visited the tomb of Agamemnon, which was huge and built in a bee hive shape.

We left Athens by flying to the Island of Rhodes and where we saw the origins of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which was built in 305 BC. This statue only lasted 56 years when it was felled by an earthquake, and the pieces transported to Syria about 800 years later. They did this because the pieces were covered in bronze. In the afternoon we boarded a wonderful ship, The Arethusa, for a seven day excursion through the Greek Dodecanese Islands.