Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2013 Having just returned from 20 days of cruising in the Caribbean, we did not have time to get a Christmas letter prepared and sent, so this is a New Year greeting. Since most holiday letters are a synopsis of what has transpired during the year, perhaps this genre is more appropriate. Thank you everyone who sent us a greeting already; we appreciate it that you remember us and want to share your news and experiences with us. Throughout the year we do a lot of that with friends on Facebook, although we do not post as often as others. It enables us to keep up with family, RV friends, and cruise friends. So, if you would like to be a “friend” on Facebook, send a friend request to Mary Lane. There are lots of Mary Lanes, so look for the one with a picture of both me and Elaine. Additionally, I try to post periodically to a blog online, especially when we have returned from a long trip. So far I haven’t managed to get one done about this last cruise, but it will be there in the next week. If you would like to check it out, (and it often has pictures), go to www.cannellane.blogspot.com. As always, our year has been filled with travel. We just don’t know when an unexpected “left turn” in the road is coming, so we are doing everything we want to do, and still are able to do, now. January found us enjoying our RV friends and groups in the desert near Quartzsite, AZ. In Feb. we camped with the Boomers near Lake Havasu City for the annual Winterblast, a spectacular week of fireworks displays, and more socializing. Luckily, we usually do a lot of walking while we are in these areas, to work off the Happy Hour calories! Then we started our year-long trek around the USA. Visits with family and friends in Tucson, Las Cruces and El Paso were followed by a stay a the Hondo SKP park in TX. San Antonio was delightful, then Corpus Christi. Had a long stay at SKP headquarters in Livingston, TX to get our fridge repaired, visit some family and friends, and pack. On April 14 we flew to New Orleans for a 31 day transatlantic cruise first to Barcelona, then through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal to Dubai. After 3 very interesting days there, we flew back, picked up our rig and continued East. After a visit with friends in LA, we drove the Natchez trace, which was an old trail used by riverboat people who had to walk back up to the north after floating cargo down the Mississippi River. This ended in Nashville, TN, where we saw the Grand Ole Opry. Our journey continued to Asheville, NC to see friends, and tour the Biltmore Estate. RV friends hosted us in Greensboro, NC, and in the Outer Banks. Continuing north, we stayed in Lancaster, PA with family for the 4th of July. This was followed by a nephew’s wedding in Gettysburg. Had a great visit with RV friends in PA and Vermont before hitting Maine for a lobster fest. First we had a reunion with several RV friends at their home. Lobster was so plentiful it was $3.79/lb directly from the fishermen, so we cooked and ate LOTS of it! Working our way west again, we greatly enjoyed the Women’s Rights National Park in Seneca Falls, NY, and the Erie Canal in Lockport. In Michigan and Joliet, IL we visited more friends. Then the intense family time started because we parked our rig on the old Cannell family farm, now the Daly family farm, near Rockford, IL. Lots of family still lives here and we saw all of them. Left the rig there while we flew to Copenhagen in early Sept. First we stayed three days in an apartment, then we did a 5 day cruise in the Norwegian fjords. Changing ships, we did a 13 day transatlantic cruise from Copenhagen to NJ, stopping at the Shetland Islands, and Reykjavik, Iceland. We missed stops in the Faroe Islands and St. John’s, Newfoundland due to Hurricane Leslie. Our 2 days in Iceland were magical, since we did the Golden Circle tour, which visited glaciers, waterfalls, and thermal features, and we also spent a day at the Blue Lagoon. Returning to the farm in IL, all 5 of Elaine’s older sisters came and it was a great reunion. Oct. we started the sprint back to CA, stopping in Denver to see my twin, Marsha, and her family. My daughter, Laura lives in Sparks, NV so we stopped there to help her and her partner, Dennis, celebrate her 40th BD. Tarra, Elaine’s daughter had her birthday next, and we celebrated with her and Alonzo & family in Fremont, and my son Thomas came from SF to join us. All the kids are doing well. Back at Park Sierra in Oct., we had medical appointments, cleaned and fixed the RV, and made more travel plans. Nov. we headed south again and stayed at Jojoba SKP park, then shared Thanksgiving with Elaine’s son, Darran, his wife Marielle, and her family in San Diego. Wanting to avoid cold weather, we drove to Phoenix and left our rig there while we flew to NJ on Dec. 3 and did the previously mentioned Caribbean cruises with friends. Our plan worked, we had warm weather and fun times. Christmas found us back in our RV and in Yuma, where we are staying at the home of Ron & Carol Leonard, and enjoying social times with many friends here in the Foothills. Sometime in January we will relocate to Quartzsite for the annual RV events there. In 2013 we have made plans for a Feb & March land trip to Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and Singapore. April we will do a transatlantic cruise from New Orleans to Rome, and stay for some sightseeing and hiking. Summer we will be RVing on the West coast and Pacific northwest. We want to send a special thank you to everyone who either hosted us last year or who made the effort to socialize with us on our travels. Thanks also to all who have kept in touch, and shared the events of your lives with us. It is the caring of friends and family which enriches our lives the most. If you see on Facebook, or by e-mail that we are going to be in your area, and you would like a visit with us, please contact us – we would LOVE that! As always, we are sending big hugs and hoping that this finds you all happy and healthy, and that you have a rewarding and satisfying year in 2013. Love, Mary & Elaine

Happy Holidays

12/26/12 We have now safely returned from our Caribbean cruises, have picked up our RV from the Tempe Elks, and driven to Yuma. We arrived here early on Christmas Eve and quickly set up at Ron & Carol Leonard's lot so we could join them at a Happy Hour party at Jim & Diane FisherBaker's. 5 couples were there and a good time was had by all. Yesterday we all shared a delicious potluck Christmas dinner here at Ron & Carol's. As soon as I have time, I will post some pictures, and also information about our cruises. In the meantime, we wanted to wish all of you Happy Holidays, and we hope that you all had a healthy and happy Christmas.

Thanksgiving Fun & Desert Travels

Nov. 29, 2012 Hello from Phoenix. Our upcoming trip to New Jersey to catch the Explorer of the Seas and do 20 days of cruising in the Caribbean starts this coming Sunday. So we are in the throes of packing and organizing for that, as well as getting the RV ready to put in storage at the Tempe Elks Lodge. This will probably be the only blog update until we get back from that trip. Hopefully you all had a delightful Thanksgiving. Our son, Darran, arranged for us to stay at Campland on the Bay for 2 days, a very pricey campground right on Mission Bay in San Diego (and he paid for it!!), because it is only a mile from their apartment.

It has been quite a while since we stayed in a commercial campground, not just because they are expensive and have services which we don’t really need because of our solar panels, etc., but also because they always cram so many people into such a small space that RV’s are located virtually only 2 feet from each other once everyone puts their slides out. Here is our rig and car at our site (although our car is actually parked on the next site which was vacant)

Happily there were many vacant sites in the area where they placed us. Here is a picture of a different area, and you can see how crowded this was:

Another factor was that this is a very attractive place for families because there are so many amenities especially for kids, and this was the beginning of a holiday period, so the place was overrun with them. Although the biggest attraction is the park location near Mission Bay, very few sites actually overlook the water, but there is a nice marina, and beach area, which we avoided during the day but walked there in the evening: (005) One of the features we especially like about staying in this area is that there are so many parks with walking and biking trails between them, and it is possible to do a very long walk without being on the streets. Right next to Campland there is a big marsh area which is habitat for birds:

Also on our walks, we always admire all the beautiful flowers which thrive here, especially the Bird of Paradise:

Old friends Kathy & Sally also live in San Diego, so we met them for lunch one day and caught up on all their events.

One of their big events is that they are moving to Gilroy, in order to be closer to Sally’s daughter and grandkids. So this will probably be the last time we see them in this locale. This is something we have been noticing with our RV friends as well – many are gradually settling down into stick and brick houses, often near their children. So far, we are resisting this trend! We prefer to VISIT our kids and then keep moving on! After 2 days in Campland, we parked our rig in front of Ben & Meg Chapion’s house, about 5 miles from Darran’s. Meg is Marielle’s sister. Meg & Ben have a 17 month old son named Charlie, and here is that happy family:

Meg & Marielle’s parents, Bill and Ann Gomez, had already flown out from Long Island, NY to complete the family gathering for the holiday.

This was a fun time to visit Darran & Marielle because in anticipation of the holidays, they had arranged for some extra time off. They hustled over to help us get set up at our new location and here they are with their 2 Moms:

In this family, the biggest star is Charlie, of course, because he is the only grandchild (to date). Marielle spends a lot of time practicing to have her own, by holding him:

We all contributed to the food throughout the 2 days we were there, but Bill, Ann, Meg & Ben did the most work, of course. More family, the West Coast branch, arrived on Thanksgiving day, having driven down from San Francisco. Other friends showed up as well. So there were 2 tables for the dinner; the upper table for the matriarchs and patriarchs, for us, Bill & Ann, and Dennis, Ben’s Dad, and his partner, Chris.

The lower table held everyone else:

The food was delicious and the wine was flowing, so a good time was had by all. Later on, Darran made his famous hot apple pies with crumb topping (which he learned from my sister, Myrna) and we ended the evening with VERY full tummies. Friday we hugged everyone goodbye and drove to Anza Borrego Desert State Park to be with our friends, Lee & Susie Blattner, who were camped there for Thanksgiving with the Boondockers.

Haven’t seen them for a while but happily, they will be with us Dec. 13 to 23rd on our Caribbean cruise in order to celebrate their 50th anniversary. While we were with this group, Marie and Larry also celebrated their 50th anniversary, so Dwayne and Toni joined all of us and we went to a very good restaurant located at the airport near the actual town of Anza Borrego.

The surprising thing was that this is an Italian restaurant named Asseago, which is owned and run by a Korean family. The menu was quite extensive, the food was delicious, they have a huge and outstanding wine list, and the cost was moderate. Such a pleasant surprise for a rather remote place. One of the attractions of camping out on the desert is that unlike Campland, and other RV parks, there is lots of space and quiet. Everyday we went for a walk with Susie, out into the desert:

You can see that besides the desert, there are very colorful mountains in the background which weren’t far from our campsite. One day about 10 people took a hike to a nearby slot canyon led by Butch, one of the regulars who is quite knowledgeable about the area, and about desert geology and plants as well. At the top of the trail, there was an informational board about the calcite mine nearby. It was discovered shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was used in gun sights and anti-aircraft weaponry during WWII. The mine was sold to the Polaroid Corporation, which mined it extensively until 1945 when an artificial substitute for calcite was invented. We hiked down the dusty, rutted road about a mile and then entered the area for the slot canyon. Here is a picture of part of our group at the entrance:

The trail went through quite a variety of terrain and impediments, including this big rock which had fallen over the trail:

We had to climb under it to keep going.

There were several varieties of wildflowers along the way, and Butch knew about all of them:

In some areas the rocks were very smooth and sculpted by water, and we had to work our way up. Having strong people along to push or pull us up was a big help.

In some parts, the “slot” parts, the walls narrowed quite a bit. Here is Susie in one of the narrowest parts:

In these narrow parts, not much sun made it in to bother us. By now it was midday and hot out in the direct sun, so the shade was appreciated. Here is a picture of one of the prettiest areas of the slot:

And in some parts, the rock walls had swirly patterns in the sandstone. This one resembles a T. Rex face – can you see it?

Trish & Don rock climbed up past the end of the trail, and saw this unique cactus:

Everyday there was a group social hour at 3PM and here is a picture of part of it. I wanted you to see some of the reasons we enjoy camping on the desert. Notice how widely scattered the RV’s are, and the wide open spaces where we have room to roam.

Elaine, Susie and Trish are enjoying Happy Hour:

Now that we are in Phoenix, we have had the chance to visit some RV friends who are now settled full time in a home near here. This is Al & Donna Ellis, friends who are very active in pursuing equal rights for LGBT people.

Tuesday we visited them at their home and today we had lunch with them at a Thai buffet place. Besides enjoying their company, we had some lively discussions about political issues, particularly those that affect people like us. If only all our friends were as fair-minded, inclusive, and active in defending the rights of everyone, this world would be a much better place. Keep up the good work, Donna & Al!

Southern California Visit

11/17/12 Hi From the SKP park near Temecula called Jojoba Hills. We have been here since last Sunday and have been enjoying some quiet time, in between social times with friends. Before we left Park Sierra, our good friends Ken & Carolyn Kimpton returned to the park, so we managed to have some social time with them. Here they are with Elaine when we had them over for dinner for Carolyn's birthday:

A few days later, we went down to their place to be with Democratic friends on Election night. First we had a Happy Hour with friends on Ken & Carolyn's deck:

From the left are Verna, Elaine, Ken, Mary & Dave Fountain, and Fay & Stan, some new park members. After everyone else left, we hung out with Ken & Carolyn until Obama was declared the winner and then we went home. What a great election! We were very happy about the addition of more women to the Congress, as well as the Gay marriage issues which passed, in addition to Obama's reelection. Boomer friends, Carole and Dick Schneider, and Terry & Vicky Webb have lots here. They came over the other night for a shrimp pad thai dinner:

From the left you see Dick, me, Terry, Vicky & Carole. Of course, Carole has had us over several times which is always a delight because she is a gourmet cook. Last Tuesday we had an unexpected treat, Boomer friends Tom & Nancy Vineski called to say they were at their lot in Glen Eden, and did we want to get together for lunch at an Indian Restaurant? You bet!!! So we met them at Mantra, in Temecula, which turned out to have really delicious food, and since it was a buffet, we got to try lots of different dishes. All were excellent, and the cost for lunch was only $8 per person. Carole & Dick Schneider went with us too. Here is the well-fed group after we finished lunch:

Friday we went to the weekly Happy Hour at the Friendship Hall at Jojoba and had a great time meeting some new people and schmoozing with old friends. Here are a couple of pictures: In this one you can see Elaine with Carole and Zoe Macon in the middle (Kathleen & Mike & Joe, new friends, are the other people)

From right to left are John Macon, Dick Schneider, and Carolyn & Bill Weir:

Today we left Jojoba and drove to San Diego where we are now parked in Campland on the Bay, a pricey RV park about 1 mile from Darran & Marielle's apartment, and right on Mission Bay. Darran is paying for us to stay here for 2 nights, and then we will move up to Marielle's sister's house, where the Thanksgiving event will take place, and we can park in front of their house. Marielle's parents have already arrived from Long Island. It was sunny and warm here today, with more sun scheduled for tomorrow - hooray. We did a fairly long walk today and will try for a longer walk tomorrow. Friday we will leave and head for Anza Borrego to camp for a few days in the desert with Lee & Susie Blattner. As soon as the San Diego visit is over, I will post some pictures of the festivities and also Darran & Marielle, the cuties.

Fall at Park Sierra

Tuesday Oct. 30 Hello from Park Sierra. I have not written any posts because we have mostly been doing "housekeeping" type chores and I know you aren't interested in that. We have washed and waxed both the car and RV, steam cleaned the RV carpet, cleaned up our lot, and had lots of doctor appointments, lab tests, etc. We are both doing very well, physically, and are grateful for that, when we see people here at our park who are sidelined from traveling because of poor health. Of course, there have also been numerous social events and interactions in which we have been eager participants. We enjoy the Friday social hour held at the clubhouse every week, and have reconnected with many Park Sierra friends. Other friends took us out for a delicious Mexican lunch at El Cid Restaurant in Oakhurst for our 4th wedding anniversary which was Oct. 25.

On this side of the table are Curt & Viv Rogers, Elaine and our nearest neighbor, Jeanne Taylor.

Opposite them are other neighbors, Mary & Rich Baughman, me, and Rodger Lyman. And here is the happy couple:

Former members of Park Sierra, Janice & Ken Ryder, have moved to a house in Coarsegold. They contacted us and told us that their daughter and granddaughter were both performing in a musical at the Golden Chain Theater in Oakhurst, so we went to see it. It was the best performance in a local theater we had ever seen. Here is a picture of Jennifer and her daughter Karah, both of whom did an excellent job!

A few days later we were invited to Happy Hour at Ken & Janice's home. Here they are:

We brought a crab dip to share, but it was outclassed by the pear gallette which Janice had made:

Then we played with the automatic picture taking feature of our camera, so we could have a picture of all of us together:

Sunday we had an impromptu Happy Hour at our lot and lots of friends showed up with snacks and drinks:

No doubt there will be more social events before we leave the park possibly sometime next week. We want to spend some time at Jojoba Hills SKP Park near Temecula, before going to Darran & Marielle's in San Diego to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Dashing Cross Country Visiting Family & Friends

10/12/12 Once again, I can't seem to get the pictures to line up correctly with the dialogue, so you will have to figure it out yourself as you read along!!! We have been back on our RV lot at Park Sierra since Tuesday night, and have so many necessary chores backed up that I can barely find time for this update. Considering that we left the family farm in Illinois only 10 days before arriving here, I think we made it in record time. Especially when you consider the visits we did on the way. First we stopped in Denver to see my twin sister, Marsha. Here is a picture of us together:

As you can tell, we aren't identical twins! She is a retired nurse who eventually worked for an organ transplant company so she coordinated 5 hospitals in the Denver area. Now she is retired and has started her own "fun" business. Here is the sign on the side of her truck:

She sells her cookies online and also at a local farmer's market every Sunday. Her cookies are SO GOOD that people keep coming back every week for them and are upset if she ever takes any time off! Here is the sign she puts out at the market - you can see she makes lots of yummy ones.

And here is the sign that is on the other side of her truck:

While we were there, she fixed us a yummy chicken and shrimp pad thai dinner which was awesome. Her partner, Debbie, is still working, but she came home for dinner and here is a picture of the 2 of them:

Marsha has 2 grown sons, but Debbie and Marsha's youngest still lives at home. His name is Joseph and he is 15. It was great to see him again and wow, has he grown a lot since the last time we saw him!

The next day we were leaving, but managed to join Barry & Jan Kessler, and Carole Schneider (she was also flying out that same day), for an awesome breakfast at a restaurant called Snooze. They had the most innovative menu items and delicious food; no wonder they were rated #1 online when Jan checked for good restaurants. Try it if you are ever in Denver.

We continued to shoot across the country, stopping next in Sparks (near Reno) to see my daughter, Laura. She was 6 when Elaine and I first got together, and now she has celebrated her 40th birthday yesterday. Here is a picture of her with her 2 Moms:

We have had delightful social times with Laura and one of her work friends, Nanette, in our previous visits to Reno. So Nanette took the time to come over to see us while we were at Laura's the first night, and it is always fun to be with her:

Laura and her fiance', Dennis, cooked us a delicious and healthful meal the first night, but I neglected to get a picture of it. The next night they came over to our rig for Happy Hour:

Then we took them out to Campos, a new restaurant right on the Truckee River in downtown Reno to celebrate Laura's birthday.

It was a good meal and great to have time with them before we had to sprint for California the next day. Couldn't drive through the Sacramento area without stopping to see our good friends, Ron & Carol Leonard, who have a lovely and spacious property where they graciously allow us to park our RV when we need to be in that area. After checking out some of our rentals in the area, we enjoyed a delightful social gathering with 3 Boomer couples, and also other friends of the Leonard's. Here is a picture of the group:

The Boomer couples are Ron & Carol Leonard:

Jim & Diane FisherBaker:

Laurie Brown & Odel King:

Laurie & Odel have recently purchased a home up in the foothills area north of Sacramento and are adjusting to being part time RVers now. The next day we again forged ahead and stopped at the Fremont Elks for the night. Elaine's daughter, Tarra, and her family live there, and we also needed to check the rental houses we have in the Bay Area. Here is a picture of Elaine and Tarra:

Tarra will be celebrating her 37th birthday on Oct. 20th. Her husband is Alonzo, and here is that happy couple:

Almost as soon as we got set up, they whisked us off the a softball field in Newark where two of their daughters, Analy and Alia, were playing softball. We had to go back and forth between fields to watch them bat, run the bases, etc. They are both very good players, as is Ari, the oldest daughter who wasn't playing that day. Here is a picture of Elaine and Tarra with Analy, who is 10, and wearing her very classy uniform:

After the games, we picked up my son, Thomas, who lives in San Francisco and who took BART down to Fremont to join us for dinner. Thomas' partner, Robert,wasn't feeling well enough to join us, unfortunately. Here is the proud Mom and son:

Then we all went over to a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant for a meal which was entertaining and delicious.

Alonzo's three girls dressed up for the occasion, and don't they look great?!

A lot of the fun of the meal is the antics of the chef, who is making a lot of flame and smoke in this picture. Isn't the look on Analy's face a hoot??!!

The next day we pressed on to Fresno, where Tuesday we had set up a lot of appointments. In one day we got 6 new RV tires installed, a new windshield on the car, a trip to Kaiser for mammograms and flu shots, a lots of shopping to restock our fridge and pantry. Now that we are back at Park Sierra for about a month, we have tons of projects to do. The rig needs some repairs and LOTS of cleaning, as does the car. I think we snagged about 1/2 the bugs living in the midwest on the front of our rig!!! Of course, we also have more planning and arranging to do for future travels. So the next post will be about Park Sierra activities and socializing, and after that, the traveling begins again!!!