AMERICA 2017: The Facebook Overview with Ted and Jane in CT

There and back again!  Don't you wonder how these annual trips--the pegs on which we hang the year--come and go so quickly.  Sliding right down into the New Year....

But I digress.

Our 3-week trip to America this year has 3 distinct parts, of which the one week at the beginning, with friends Ted and Jane, is the first.

It's actually a short story of how we met.  In my past life, Donica and I took a quick trip to Prague from Hannover, Germany, in May 2005, during which time we did a dinner cruise.  Back then, 12 years ago, I was just beginning to use a camera and had just started blogging here at In Soul!  (If you wanted, you could go back to my archives on the left sidebar to find those posts.)

During that cruise, we met Ted and Jane from Connecticut (but alas, no photos of them).

And because Ted is an avid photographer, we've stayed in touch all these years.
He is the very one, from Today's Photo, who often comments here on my blog!

It's a small world after all!

Here they are!
After Ted and Jane picked us up at the Bradley Int'l Airport near Hartford, CT,

we stopped to eat Reuben and pastrami sandwiches at one of their favorite Jewish cafes.

We were counting on this proposition for weeks, if not months, after Jane first suggested it! 

Every day on FB that week both Astrid and I showed photos of what we saw.

Ted knew we'd be interested in the Congregational churches dotting the CT landscape.

What was educational for me, however, was finding out how these churches,

dating back to the 1700-1800s, trace their origin to the Puritan settlers of colonial New England.

[And yes, we went inside a handful of these churches, which I hope to show later.]

All these vanes are from the Congregational churches we visited.

Don't you wonder if there's a "congregational code" for how similar they are?

Makes me want to know more....

You know I was excited also to see the other vanes during the week.  OMG.
The Dutch aren't the only ones, of course, who love their vanes.

We were in CT from October 11-18 and saw the beginning of the fall colors.

Can you imagine living there?

Another thing we planned before arriving was one of Ted's slide talks on his Brass Valley book.

Lucky for us, he was able to arrange a talk at the Warren library, 8 miles from home. 

With degrees in architecture and literature, he taught for 40 years in Connecticut's Northwest Hills.
We finally got to see/hear him in action!  A true teacher at heart.

Not to be outdone, we even had the chance to see/hear Jane rehearsing with bagpipers.

Funerals, weddings, graduations, celebrations...you name it and she'll be there, if you book her.

She also was a teacher before retiring.  What a talented couple!

It so happens that Ted and Jane were both sick when we arrived,

having caught something from friends while in Toronto earlier.

I caught it from them but, thankfully, Astrid was spared.

So off she went on her own walks without us...and shared her own photos on FB.

I did go on a couple walks with her, so you know I wasn't totally incapacitated.

The Shepaug River runs along the road near the house.

By that river Astrid captured some fabulous images, reminding me why I fell in love with her.

She even made her own rock pillar/shrine, adding it to the collection already there

[surely more on that later].

So, does that give you a taste of our first week?

Ted and Jane were fabulous hosts and made us feel like queens (which we are, of course).

And what's really special, I like them more NOW than what I remembered from back in 2005.

Don't you just love when this kind of serendipity happens!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

As an FYI, neither Astrid nor I took our laptops to America this time...only our iPads.
It meant that all our images had to be processed apart from our Photoshop and Paintshop tools.
We managed well enough with the LiveCollage app and will continue to not travel with our laptops.
The things we learn along the way!