Our Second 2022 Trip to America: Atlanta

 

Yes, so soon after we were there in September for our Maine and New York trip, we went back again for our annual visit with the kids in Atlanta.  Barring an unforeseen emergency, we don't expect that to happen again, especially at our age!  But we're happy it was possible.

This trip was a 3-week stint in 3 stages:  first with Amy at her home, then the cabin, followed by with Mark at his home.  And if all you read is this, it was one of our best trips ever, if not THE best!

1.  At Amy's in Roswell, GA, November 11-17:

Of course, first we waited at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam before flying on Friday, November 11.

The Dutch don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so it was Christmas already.

Amy treated us to lunch that Saturday at her favorite Saturday hangout.

Happy Campers!

The next day, Sunday, Nicholas (and Mark) joined us for lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

And thus started an almost endless time of Five-Crowns playing the rest of our visit.  HA!

Astrid and I both love walking Amy's neighborhood, which we did several times.

[Astrid's collage]

The flowers always surprise me at this time of the year, which was colder than usual.

We even met up for lunch with Glenna (who goes back to 1987 for me) and her partner.

Lots of water under the bridge since then!

And Astrid brought her new fisherman's sweater to work on in down-times.

2.  The Cabin in the North Georgia Mountains, November 17-22:

Even though it's still Autumn, we were there a month later than usual, so not as much color.

[Astrid's collage]

But it was still wonderful!

Just the 5 of us again:  Amy, Nicholas, Mark, Astrid and moi, picking up from last year,

even though at a new cabin we tried out, giving Mark his own bedroom.

Football, of course, with a MICHIGAN win for me...always a highlight!

Our traditional s'mores!

Plus the jigsaw puzzle Amy always brings for us.

This year it was the LinkedIn photo Mercedes-Benz chose for their June's Pride Month,

which Amy made into a puzzle.  Very sweet of her.

[Astrid's collage]

As usual, Astrid walked more than I did, so she has more photos.

[Astrid's collage]

[Astrid's photos]

Now you see why they're also called the Blue Ridge Mountains!

[Astrid's collage]

At the end of our cabin time, we always drive down the mountain to Waffle House,

one of our favorite traditions of them all!

3.  At Mark's in Flowery Branch, November 22-December 1:

I LOVED seeing Mark reconnect with his Piper after those 5 days away.

He took the entire time off from work for 15 days (which included the cabin)!

So, besides everything else, we played this new game as well as lots of Five Crowns, which he loved.

The day before Thanksgiving, he drove us to his alma mater, University of Georgia,

to walk the campus there in Athens, from which he graduated in 1997.

[Mark's photos]

It was as though it were my first time there for me.  I loved seeing it again.

On Thanksgiving, November 24th, we drove back to Amy's to spend the day there.

You have no idea how awed I was to sit and watch my kids prepare that meal,

including Nicholas mashing the potatoes and helping Astrid clean up.

All I did, besides eat, was clean up the turkey carcass!

That next Saturday we watched MICHIGAN win their game against Ohio State,

giving them 1st place in the Big Ten.  YAY.

And then on Sunday we watched one of Mark's Dungeons & Dragons campaigns,

meeting at his house, with a potluck meal beforehand.
Talk about educational!  A first for Astrid and me.

That next week, Mark and I both voted early in the Georgia Run-off Election for our US Senate seat.

Officer Lee (top-left) was the one who called all those over 75 to join him in another line,

which reduced our wait from 3 hours to only 1.5 hours.  Hard to ever forget that!

[And just this past Tuesday, our choice, Warnock, beat Walker.  My vote counted!]

[Astrid's collage]

Several walks, of course, in Mark's neighborhood!

One last hurrah before returning home was our drive to Old Car City USA in White, GA.

OMG!  Talk about a photographer's paradise, which is a separate post altogether.

[Astrid's collage]

Though cooler than our normal October visits,

it couldn't have been better weather for all our adventures.

Like I said, most of the leaves and color were gone, except for the stragglers.

But when you come down to it, it's the food we all share together that thrills us the most.

In this case, it's Amy's...who LOVES to cook.

And Mark's, which usually centers around what he cooks on his pellet grill.

Are we the Lucky Ones or what!

Three weeks packed full of Family Fun and Fellowship!

It'll last for a long time...at least until next year.  :)

Daughter Amy in the Netherlands, 2022

 

Similar to her first trip in 2019, when she visited us in-between 2 jobs, daughter Amy this time had a business trip to Stuttgart, Germany, for her Mercedes-Benz company, after which she stopped off on her way back to Atlanta for a few days with us here in Gorinchem.

Last time, it was a Friday-Wednesday visit, when we packed in all kinds of trips out-n-about, even to Antwerp, Belgium.  THIS time it was a Friday-Thursday trip with only a one-trip outing, and the rest of the time just sitting around, playing games, eating and BEING.  

These are the highlights:

Friday's Amsterdam Airport Pickup and Happy Hour,  October 21:

Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam is only a one-hour drive from Gorinchem.  Easy-peasy.

A business friend with her husband arrived at the same time and went on their own way.

Then we, too, headed our own way home for lunch...

...and made it in time for our Lindeborg Happy Hour that afternoon.

Just like in 2019, we enjoyed a Dutch favorite of mine, Frikandel Speciaal.

Amy is such a good sport!

Saturday's Eat Fest with Jeannette and Femke, October 22:  

This is what J&F love to do...fixing good food and sharing it with friends, like they did back in 2019.

Even Prince Finn, the ragdoll cat, got Amy's attention, again!  It just might be a tradition.

Sunday's Get-Together with Extended Family Here in Gorinchem, October 23:

First of all, it's finally sinking in that my children, Amy and Mark, are step-siblings of Astrid's son Jeroen!  So I made a special point of getting a photo of Amy and Jeroen together:

Who says there can't be 16 years between them, right?!

And you have no idea how much they have in common, seriously.  Don't you love it!

[collage credit:  Astrid]

Amy was a huge hit with Hailey and Sem.

(Sem, a month older than Hailey, is the child of Marissa, Jeroen's girlfriend.)

[collage credit:  Astrid]

Look at how much Hailey loved being with Amy, trying on her glasses even.

[collage credit:  Astrid]

All 8 of us just BEING and eating together, including Astrid's ex-husband Jaap!

Jeroen loves putting this kind of happy-hour spread together.

[collage credit:  Astrid]

And guess what Hailey now can pinpoint with her finger on the world-wide map!

Yup.  Atlanta GA, where Amy lives and from where Oma Ginnie comes!

That weekend was enough excitement to last Amy's entire trip, but, WAIT, there's more.

Monday's Outing to Amsterdam, October 24:

It had been planned and all arranged (and paid for!) that the 3 of us would have a 1.5-hour personal cruise of the Amsterdam canals, with lunch and drinks included.  It would be similar to something Donica and I did for her back in 2007, many moons ago.

After a nice koffie/tea break while we waited, since we were early, we found out

that the skipper had been double-booked and missed OUR appointment with him.

The good news (along with a total refund and a free voucher for the next time Amy visits), is that

we made the best of the day walking around the floating-market area and eating at Wagamama.

No complaints after all was said and done.  There will be a next time!

The rest of our time, before taking Amy back to Amsterdam on Thursday morning for her 1:15 p.m. flight back to Atlanta, was "Us Time" here at the apartment, playing games/cards (Carcassonne, Qwirkle and Five Crowns)...and eating, of course.  Our last night we even drove to nearby Leerdam for a nice dinner out on the Linge river.

Astrid was fighting one of her worst sinus infections ever throughout all of this,

which made staying at home a good choice.  But none of us gave a hoot.

It was a great memory!

And now, believe it or not, a week from tomorrow we make our annual trip back to Atlanta to spend our usual time, first at Amy's, then at the cabin in the North Georgia Mountains, followed by our time at Mark's, before returning home on December 2.  This will be my first Thanksgiving in America since I moved in 2009.  Astrid and I are so excited...like little kids!

In the meantime, we're still basking in Amy's time with us HERE where WE live.  It doesn't happen very often!

Our First 2022 Trip to America: The Cooperstown, NY, Wedding

Following the Part I post in Maine with sister, Ruth, and her Don, here's Part II covering the 3 days we were in Cooperstown, NY, for the wedding of our niece, Jennifer, on September 4th.

It's actually a pretty amazing story that gets more amazing the more I think about it!  And I have permission to share it!

Back in Pasadena, CA, when husband Bill and I were living there in 1981 with Amy and Mark, ages 9 and 6, my sister, Nancy, in Michigan was getting ready to birth a baby she was giving up for adoption.  The short version of the story is that in our Pasadena church we knew a couple, Georgia and Jonathan, who wanted to adopt a baby and who, when I connected them with Nancy, said YES!  They even flew to Michigan on the 5th day after the birth to receive the girl they named Jennifer, straight from Nancy's arms.

That was almost 41 years ago:  She was born on December 1, 1981. 

When Jennifer turned 18, Nancy was able to have "legal" contact with her, which she has had ever since, of course, connecting her to her larger Hart family.  In fact, in 2009, at Ruth's daughter's wedding, Jennifer, age 28, was there for this lineup of the 4 Hart sisters with their daughters:

SUSAN-Shari; GINNIE-Amy; RUTH-Lesley; NANCY-Jennifer.

Each of us sisters just happened to have one daughter each.  What a coinkydink!

Now, fast forward to September 2022 when said Jennifer gets married to Josh and when both biological and adoptive families get together for the celebration.

How's this for the venue:  The Barn on Hyder Creek!

[photo credit:  Nancy's DIL, Kathy]

Out in the middle of nowhere.  Don't you love it!

[photo credit:  Nancy's DIL, Kathy]

The wedding was on Sunday but we had access to the barn on Saturday to start the decorating.

Did I mention that that (the decorating) was Nancy's wedding gift to her daughter?!

But there was no way she could do it all by herself, so Ruth, Don, Astrid and I helped her all day,

Saturday and Sunday.  Wait till you see what her mind envisioned and then created!

(Nancy, btw, is the one in black, one year my junior.)

By late morning others of the Michigan family started arriving and checked us out.

(Our drive from Searsport, ME, was 450 miles on Friday; Michiganders had more like 640 miles!)

[photo credit:  Nancy's DIL, Kathy]

My main task on Saturday and Sunday, after the centers of the 10 tables were decorated, was to 

set all the 87 plates on the tables, according to the seating charts, with their adorable favors on top,

 created by Nancy.  The caterers would finish the table-setting before the 4:30 wedding on Sunday.

Before the 4:30 ceremony on Sunday, we gathered outside on the back porch,

and again afterwards, we did the same, with a fabulous spread of hors-d'oeuvres and drinks.

(Jonathan, the father, is center-right; Georgia, the mother, is bottom row in blue.)

[photo credit:  Astrid]

It was also a good time to hang our wishes for the couple on the Wish Tree inside.

Astrid's and my wish was the Dutch saying:  "A day not laughed is a day not lived."

The ceremony was "closed" to photography except for the official photographer,

but here's what it looked like beforehand.  When Nancy was walked to her seat up front, 

after which Georgia was seated next to her, I almost lost it.  How often does that happen...

the biological and adoptive mothers sitting next to each other at their daughter's wedding?!

My eyes brim with tears as I remember it!

After the ceremony and hors-d'oeuvres, we sat down at our designated tables for the meal.

In the same spot Jennifer and Josh had spoken their vows, they sat at their own special table.

And ate.  And danced.  And cut their cake.

[photo credit:  Nancy's DIL, Kathy, top and bottom-center; Paul Hart, nephew, bottom-left]

And we, too, ate.  And Watched.  And enjoyed the Hart Clan.

There were 18 of us from the Hart side of the family, filling 2 of the 10 tables.

Five of our 7 living sibs, with spouses, were present!  

Standing top-left is brother, Nelson, and top-right is brother, Jim.

Part of the Hart clan, btw, was Eric and Kathy,

Nancy's second son and daughter-in-law.

[photo credit:  Astrid]

And Jennifer is their half-sister!

[photo credit:  Astrid]

What a day, from beginning to end!

[video credit:  Ruth]

And YES, Astrid and I also danced!

And like so many others did, we sat on the wedding love-seat for our own photo.

The morning after, Monday, Don, Ruth, Astrid and I helped Nancy tear down the barn.

It took only 1.5 hours to do the major work, leaving the rest for Nancy and hubby Juan.

[photo credit:  Astrid]

Do you think Nancy was ready to crash?????

She's done many weddings in her decorating life but this was obviously her grandest.

Ruth and I, as 2 of her sisters, were so privileged and glad we could help.

[photo credit:  Astrid]

By 10:30 a.m., brother, Nelson, and his Elizabeth, came to depart with us back to Maine.

We rode with Don and Ruth until we stopped outside Portland to say good-bye.

From then till our flight back home on Wednesday, we stayed with N & E in Portland.

But it's the memory of Nancy and hubby Juan

as we left, on a rainy day, that stays with me.

Well done, dear sister.

(And now I'm tearing up again!)