Thursday, November 14, 2024

Our Atlanta Trip 2024

 
So swiftly fly the years!

Once again, it's the schedule/routine we've grown to love:  one week with daughter Amy, a week at the cabin, followed by a week with son Mark.

1:  At Amy's, October 17-24.

First and foremost, we met her new cat, Nacho, her lover-boy!

And then reacquainted ourselves with her neighborhood on our daily walks
at this fun time of year, with Halloween and Thanksgiving just around the corner.

That first weekend we rendezvoused with Mark and g'son Nicholas for Mexican,
celebrating all our birthdays in one swell foop.

[photo credit:  Astrid]
And then Amy and I voted.  [More on that at the end.]

Even Nacho wanted to vote:  "Please, oh, pretty please???"
I think Kamala wanted to let him!

As we had done in 2015 with Dennis and Nicholas, we decided to go back to Six Feet Under,
the restaurant across the street from the Oakland Cemetery, with just the 3 of us.

Oakland Cemetery is Atlanta's oldest "public park," worth seeing over and over again,
which I'm sure we'll do maybe even next year...again.

But what was new for us this year was Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground.
It's one of Georgia's best-kept secrets I never knew!



And we saw only part of the 300+ acres!

[photo credit:  Astrid]

2.  At the Cabin in the North Georgia Mountains near Blue Ridge, October 24-28.

It was a new cabin this year and, even before opening the door, I took this pano iPhone pic
and immediately said to g'son Nicholas, "This is the one!"

[photo credit:  Astrid]
4 bedrooms, 4 full baths, 1 powder room, for 8 people (but only 6 of us).
A kitchen for Amy (the cook) to die for, great walking access, and a view for the soul.

Absolutely nothing to complain about; everything to praise!

And we finally got to meet Mark's girlfriend, Melissa!
Sorry for the duplicate image but what a joy it was to meet her
and to see them both happy and in love with each other.
[right-middle image is from Mark's house the next week]

Speaking of good walking access, Astrid and I got back inside just before the only rain of the stay.
And, yes, that's actually a rainbow in that top-middle image.

One day Mark drove Astrid and me to the nearby Stanley Rapids off the Toccoa River.
[Melissa had to go back home early--long story--and wasn't with us, sadly.]

Lots of Swoop (new card game), movies, football, and GOOD FOOD,
thanks to Amy who loves orchestrating the breakfast and dinner meals.
All I did was bake Mark's all-bran  muffin mix each morning and wash the breakfast dishes!

3:  At Mark's, October 28-November 5.

First order of business once down the mountain at Mark's house
was getting reacquainted with Piper, his cat of 14 years.

As Nacho is to Amy, Piper is to Mark!  She's very loyal to him.

Besides lazing around and playing lots of Five Crowns, the 3 of us took 2 trips.
The first was to the quaint city of Dahlonega for lunch, 33 miles away,
followed by a visit to Amicalola Falls another 20 miles further.
Both were past memories I wanted Astrid to see.

The second trip was to the Cherokee Bluffs Park less than 5 miles from Mark's house
and a new place for all of us, which we will definitely want to visit each year
for the exercise and the therapeutic, soulful beauty.

We had one last chance to see Melissa, who came over for a game night,
while grieving the loss of her dog of 10 years, Watson, who had to be put down
because of terminal cancer (which was the reason why she had to leave the cabin earlier).

All that plus movies in Mark's newly-upgraded home theater, plus one evening of football
for GEORGIA (Mark) and OREGON (Nicholas) and MICHIGAN (moi).

The grand finale with Mark, 3 years in a row now, was his Dungeon's & Dragons potluck,
where Mark cooked a brisket on his pellet grill.  Enough food to sink a ship!

Needless to say, we left for home with full tummies and hearts and souls.

* * * * * * * * * *

That was the 5th, Tuesday, Election Day for America's Presidential Election.  We arrived home in the Netherlands the next day, finding out soon thereafter that Trump was to become our next President.

This is the only story I can tell right now, a week+ later, following the initial gut-punch:

Kamala Harris did NOT lose.  
She ran one of the greatest campaigns in American history FOR the middle class.

Trump did NOT win.
Sadly, it won't be long before Americans and the world find out why.

DISINFORMATION won!
And it's happening all over the world, including here in the Netherlands.
Can we figure out how to counter it?  I sure hope so!

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Gorinchem's Citadel Walk with Hailey

 
First of all, when we babysit granddaughter Hailey, who is now 6 years old, it's usually on a Wednesday afternoon (a Dutch universal school break till age 12) when we take her to our Knitting Club and Astrid works on a crafty project with her.  The ladies absolutely love her...and she them.  They've all become g'mas to her.

This time (this past Wednesday), however, was a Teachers Day, giving the students the entire day off, and because Papa wasn't able to be home with her, we got to have her the full day for our first time ever.

And to make sure we took care of her energy factor (!), we made sure to take her outside for a Gorinchem citadel walk before lunch that morning.  We assumed we would NOT do the entire 3-mile walk, not because we/she couldn't do it but because we'd be stopping all along the way at every whip-stitch.  And we were right!

We had a blast:  

Most of you already know that we start the walk just a few feet from our back door.
In fact, that's one of our city's parking garages across the street from us. 

We always start with the war bunkers (from even Napoleonic times).
And as we guessed, Hailey had to climb up and down them all!

That little girl has no fear whatsoever.  A total dare-devil.
But, as Astrid says, she has learned to be cautious, calculating everything she can or can't do.

Right then, at the beginning of our walk, was the first of 3 cannons.
Hailey always knows a good photo-op when she sees one.

After the first bunkers is one of my favorite parts of the walk, under the humongous sycamore trees.


And yes, eagle-eye Hailey noticed the birdhouses on her own!

After the sycamores, we cross the street to a next set of bunkers by the outer harbor.
See the little, round brass medallion on the bricks?  That's a citadel marker for Gorinchem.

At this point, we're at the second cannon of our walk, atop a bunker
and pointing out to the Merwede river not far away.

See what I mean about our little dare-devil!

This is Gorinchem's outer harbor, beyond which is the Merwede river...

to which we're walking, but wait...another cannon!  
Can you see it in red, dead center?  Squint!

Our third and last cannon of the walk...in sight of the Merwede river!

Way out beyond the harbor (if you squint again) is one of the barges on the Merwede,
traveling either to Germany (left) or Rotterdam (right).

Since Astrid and Hailey were ahead of me, Astrid said "Let's wait here for Oma Ginnie."
To which Hailey said, "That's a good idea because I have tired legs."

Off we went again, of course, when Astrid noticed Hailey's snotty nose.
Each time Hailey blew, Astrid said, nog een keer (= again), to which Hailey counted with her fingers.
Don't you just love it!

As though anyone needed to be told, yes, here's another photo/foto-op,
this time of the Toll House from 1598.

It was exactly there that Hailey spontaneously said we needed to make a selfie.
As you'd guess, this girl lives and breathes photos being taken all the time, her entire life!

On that note, it was time to head home, halfway around the citadel.
But not before Oma Astrid treated us all to ice cream at the water port on the Merwede river!

Time now to head home past the inner harbor...

through town...

with a final "last-hurrah" of selfies.

Home to eat lunch and then Knitting Club.  HA!
Are we tired yet or what!

So, yes, it was only half the citadel, but as ex-Bill often said,
"Half a loaf is better than no vacation at all."


[Photo credit:  While most of these photos are from me, many are also from Astrid, all from our iPhone 15 Pro Max cameras.]



Our Atlanta Trip 2024

  So swiftly fly the years! Once again, it's the schedule/routine we've grown to love:  one week with daughter Amy, a week at the ca...