Panama City Girls Weekend Out: Carol, Megan and Panama

Carol invited Megan and Panama to a weekend in Panama City, Florida where

I used to work at Berg Pipe occasionally.  From the pictures that they shared

with me, it looks like they had a great time.  I cannot remember what I did

while they were gone.... oh wait, I painted the laundry room!  

Schooners - the last beach bar - was our favorite margarita joint when

we frequented together.  If you order the large, you get your cocktail

in a large plastic souvenir mug - great for taking home when you feel like

just having "one drink".

Panama happened to show an interest in this large fish as the fishing 

boat docked.  One of the fisherman asked if she wanted to hold one - 

probably thinking that she would not - not sure what kind of fish.

Panama happened upon three of her softball teammates while in Panama City.

What a small world beginning at a young age!

Great Lunch at the Torrey Pines Lodge

Doug still struggling to get into the air - his ground handling paragliding skills suck!

It is however, despite the ground handling problems, a great place to hang out.  

Lebanon is hot and humid, Torrey is Coastal beautiful, cool and windy.

We took a bit of time out to cross the Torrey Pines Golf Course off the bucket list.

(Doug has a nice golf shirt to prove that we went and had a nice lunch there.)

You can see the North and South Course Tees from this angle - both go

toward the ocean.  Half of the golfers appear to be bucket listers, the

other half are locals that are out for their $40 weekly round.

Beautiful hotel lobby as you might expect for a $350/night lodge fee.

The Heart of Rock and Roll: Inspired by Huey Lewis Music

 

The six of us went to the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park for a musical called the Heart of Rock and Roll.  Huey Lewis was in the audience sitting right in front of Mark and Joel.  We all agreed the musical was high energy and good - who knows, it may go from the Globe to Broadway like the most recent Margaritaville did.  (Jimmy Buffett inspired obviously.)

Some of these buildings were built in the early 1900's for a Worlds Fair and have been maintained for the benefit of generations. Balboa is a very cool park...  many years ago, Carol and I brought the kids to the zoo in the park.  Steve says that we stayed in the Seven Seas Hotel...  we could not remember that detail.

Doug and Carol, Steve and Patty: San Diego

Carol and I went to San Diego to see Steve and Patty and to paraglide.  The paragliding was not as good as the last visit in July but the company was great!  We visited the Hotel Del, the picture of the San Diego skyline above was taken on our way back to the ferry.  We had a great time and the weather was beautiful - just a bit warm on the way there, bit cooler on the way back.  Perfect day!

This is a picture of a picture of one of my flights from July on my Air Design Eazy Paraglider.  Torrey Pines is a great place to learn to fly.  The scenery is marvelous, golf course on the right side as you fly north and Pacific Ocean on the left.  Just below, of course is Black's Beach.

Two old friends together visiting the Hotel Del on Coronado Island.

South Korean K-Pop Video

2018 Family Visit to Sydney

2018 Family Trip to Cairnes, Australia

Redfield, South Dakota - Pheasant Capital of the World!

I was born in Redfield, South Dakota on November 14, 1951!

I can remember many, many things about my life there.  However, 

for the sake of brevity I will not comment.  If you want to know more

details, let me know and I will fill you in.  As a tribute to my birth city,

I bought two coffee cups the last time we visited.  One for me, one for

my dad.  (He said that he would like one too.)

 I would love to have this safe in my basement.  It is now a safe

remnant of a bank in the back room of a restaurant.  Oh me, oh my,

in its heyday I wonder what kind of treasures it held?

Ok, in absence of the other one, I would take this one.

How much more excitement can you have?  We go for a short afternoon 

road trip and we run into a small out-of-control-in--our-minds-at-least fire

of major proportions.  Oh wait, that farmer just threw a match.  

The thing that I remember about this trip from Brady to Redfield was Loyd 

telling me which power lines had specific voltages.  I am an engineer, I am impressed

with my father.  Alway have been.  "He is a wonderful people person."  

I actually have no idea.  I am working in Gwangyang, Korea, and have no idea of where we

took this picture.   It is a very traditional, very friendly, very typical, 

family picture.  However, Carol has historically taken the high road to make all

it work and I appreciate it.  I have flaws and she has an eraser she attempted to use "often".

I have no idea how this picture of little Addy ended up in this grouping.

However, I am not going to delete her!  She is a wonderful, special little granddaughter.

She told Carol the other day that she thinks that she has the most loving family

that she knows of.  Now that is a pretty special comment!  She is wearing, by the way,

special magnification glasses that a coin collector needs to evaluate high value

coins.  The only thing missing in Papa's collection of coins is the "high value" part

of that collection!  (In other words, I will sell you one of my collectable half dollars

for 51 cents.  Text me, e-mail me, I will let Addy know you want to buy!)

Seoul, Korea Visit - Carol & Doug - 2016

Our first weekend together in Seoul after Carol arrived for a visit.  We had a full couple

of weeks of touring planned.... Seoul, Jeju, Suncheon, Gwangyang, Sapporo, Japan and then

Baltimore, Maryland.      Quick!  Lets catch that next bus to Olney!

Ok, back to the immediate picture.  Several girls (women?  Yes, of course...) 

having a day out together in Korean period dress at one of the most beautiful restored

temples of Korea in Seoul.  (To emphasize that they were younger than their dresses,

they were all wearing Nike, or perhaps New Balance, tennis shoes.) 

 Every time I see a youngster running around having fun, I think of my wonderful

grandchildren in Tennessee and Maryland.  God bless children worldwide!

Carol, have I told you lately that I love you!

You are my favorite travel partner...

Sorry about the sense of humor... not sure which DNA it came from.

However, I have to tell you that I like it.  It has given me much fun times

over the years!  Cannot remember the first time I recognized it but it has

been there for a heck of a long time.  (I know you love it too... ok to not say so though.) 

Cheonjiyeon Falls, Jeju, South Korea - 2016

 On our visit to Jeju Island, located in the southern end of Korea, we

visited the Cheonjiyeon Falls.  Now as a husband of 42 years, I have learned

to sometimes "not say too much".  (Mostly I do not follow this 42 year advice... hmmm)

Carol decided to park about 1/2 mile uphill of this tourist spot, even as I said that

I think we could park closer.  (Usually, in the Safeway Parking Lot, she parks closer

than I want to so as to save walking steps to the front door.)  So we hike downhill about

10-miles (actually 1/2 mile) and we get to the Falls that we want to visit.

The Falls and the other sites at the site are excellent - well worth the stop and the

half mile walk up the 69% grade back to the car parking lot.   

Our Visit to the Interesting Country of Turkey

Carol and I often talk about the fact that we lived in Germany during the time

that it was safe and without many refugee issues.  Without any reference to the political

aspects of all of that, we just consider ourselves very lucky!  We were there at the best times.

Thanks Erica & Michael and ITI for the opportunity!

We have been given Work & Family opportunity for these wonderful travel opportunities.

We visited Istanbul shortly after the German Tourist Bomb Tragedy but well before

any of the other Terrorist activities.  It is such a different city than we had ever experienced

before, starting with the Bazaar, which you might call bizzaro!  Carol handled the dickering

much better than I did.  She struck bargains that I could not get.  I walked away, mostly upset

because I "thought" we struck a deal until the register rang up and then the price was higher.

One day in the bazar that I will remember:  Carol dickering and Peter calling me for an almost

immediate job in Greece starting with a PPM with my old boss.  It was a fun day even

though I am sure that I was disappointed with my dickering skills.  Just one random

rememberance:  Carol was buying many silk scarves as potential gifts and I

saw one that spelled out Istanbul with different tourist sites highlighted in the patterns. 

I told Carol, "I think that this one will be the scarf that all your friends want."  We 

even went back the next week to buy more of them.  Guess what?  That

has been the most popular with the 1/2 of the American population that Carol has

gifted with either a scarf or a pillow case from Istanbul.  Doug rules!

We went to the same restaurant almost every nite and we each ordered a full meal as we

knew that we would run into a person/family that was in need of a meal on our way back

to the hotel.  This was a sad reality when we were there and is no doubt as bad now or worse.

This picture was maybe a year ago!  I just realized that I had hair on the top of my head

twice as thick as I do today.  I hereby say that 63, 64 & 65 is the beginning of the end

for Papa's head of hair!  (I have had a cocktail... it is Saturday nite in Gwangyang, Korea...)

I had a dream last nite of a testing lab worker at OSM by the name of Bill H.  He used to 

call me Rabbi because of the bald spot on the back of my head.  He was quite a bit older

than I was and I sensed that everyone got nervous every time he did it because I was the head

of the department.  However, in my dream last nite, I got the clear sense that he was

not doing it to demean me but rather he was giving me the respect that a congregation

had for their Rabbi.  A silly thing to reference publicly I guess but one of the benefits

of having a blog - you can pretty much say anything stupid that you want to.

Working in Bremen, Germany - Nice Place to Work Indeed

If you spend any significant time in Bremen, you will determine

that all the fun stuff is down at the City Center - namely the Square and

the surrounding 6 or 8 block radius.  The riverfront is developed with public

walkways, there is restaurant row next to the river and the Square is about

2-3 blocks away.  The Cathedral is one anchor of the Square with Restaurants 

and beautiful public government buildings surrounding.  I am sitting above

in one of the outdoor restaurants, in the background is the Cathedral.

Not sure why there is a very neat windmill built very close to the

Square surrounded by a park, but there is.  It is a great picturesque site

and is usually very crowded with tourists as well as locals using the

park as a shortcut to wherever they happen to be going.

Bremen, Germany - Where I met Captain Frank!

I went to Bremen, Germany for a job and stayed at an Air BNB owned by

Frank.  He is a very friendly old ship Captain that started out his boating

career by being the equivalent of a German Navy Seal and then a professional

industrial diver.  As he got older and "worn out physically" as he described it,

he got involved in shipping and eventually became a boat Captain.  His small

apartment was full of souvenirs that he obtained from his travels all over the 

world.  He was a German breath of fresh air, I enjoyed his company.

He is struggling physically and wants so bad to spend his last days living in a

beach bungalow on an island somewhere "hot & humid & cheap."  I have a

feeling that he will make that happen as he is arranging now for all of his

estate to be transferred to his daughter & family.  Frank will very frank

about his life and how it will end hopefully.  He is looking for someone

to help him make the beach happen - perhaps he will find someone.  In

the meantime, he has a great life and friends in Bremen.

Carol and Doug - Island of Jeju, Korea - Summer 2016

After my work with POSCO was over, Carol came to South Korea to visit.

We went to the Island of Jeju, on the southern end of Korea and really

enjoyed the beautiful sites.  We visited the Island of the Island connected

by a beautiful bridge.  It was very small island but typical of how Korea

does things.  They had a very functional network of wooden paths that

wound in all directions over the extent of the Island.  They also had

a very pretty lighthouse which we went to the top of in an elevator.

We visited the Volcano on the island - it had a great walkway all the

way to the top.  Once on top, there was gallery type seating where families

could picnic or just sit in the sunshine next to a magnificent view of the

volcano top.  The climb was rigorous but senior doable for sure.  I came

down and bought an icey and I think Carol bought a Starbucks cup

as I recall.  It was a great adventure.

No pictures but after we went to the Volcano, we drove back to the main

island town of Jeju.  (We were flying back to Korea the next morning.) 

We stopped on the way at a Lava Cave.  It was very well presented to the

public, as are all their tourist sites.  I like Korea and how they organize

and present in a very user friendly fashion.

Went to Check Out Suncheon - Great Place for Strolling & Sightseeing

Took the very comfortable, clean & inexpensive bus approximately 45 minutes from 

Gwangyang to a neighboring city called Suncheon.  I wanted to see if this would be a 

good sightseeing place for Carol & I on an available weekend off.

I found my first information center with an English speaking person.  There were 2 young

ladies in there and as soon as I said "hello", they called another lady in that spoke excellent

English.  She gave me maps, directions for the 3-major sightseeing locations and which

buses going in which directions to take.  I was most appreciative of her help. 

The first thing that I noticed when I arrived at the Bus Terminal was the names of the

surrounding hotels.  There was the Mercedes Hotel, the Brown Hotel and the BMW Hotel.

The Car Hotels even used the Car Logos on their Hotel signs.  BTW, they both looked

somewhat outdated.  The Brown Hotel looked the best!  A river passes through the

city and they have a wonderful walking trails next to the river - see above.

Under one of the bridges next to the river there was a gathering of drums & cymbals!  Old

and young started beating & banging and marching around in circles - it was hilarious

and also most entertaining.  If I had my granddaughters with me, we would have gotten

in the circle and had fun with them.   We could have just clapped our hands and fit right in! 

What a wonderful surprise to experience the Drum & Cymbal Party.

While walking back to the Bus Terminal, I noted the above sunset behind

the clouds.  It was inspiring... a beautiful moment that immediately confirmed

why I like to travel.  It was lovely being there at that moment!  Of course, I was wishing 

my favorite travel partner was there as well.