So, just rambling . . .. . .
Blog Redesign
I was getting tired of the old format, so here is the new one – functionally the same but in a simpler design. I like it. For now at least. Feel free to disagree and comment.
Next Trip
We’ll be hitting the air/road just over two weeks from today. We are heading back to the UK for four weeks. If you’ve followed our other UK trips, there won’t be much new. We fly into and out of Heathrow, and once again we will pick up a Peugeot at the airport. We will revisit Craster in Northumberland for seven nights, staying in the same cottage overlooking the North Sea for our third year in a row. Elaine and her friend Dorothy will be doing daily walks to Dunstanburgh Castle. Then it’s on to Cromer in Norfolkshire, a new area for us, where will stay in a lighthouse cottage for seven nights during the UK’s annual school break. Then it is back for a week in Whitby – we loved it last year. We stayed in a lighthouse cottage a couple of miles outside of town. This year we’ll be in a condominium on the West Cliff with a great view and short walks to restaurants and pubs. Finally we return to Oxford for three nights after having stayed for two nights last year. There’s more to see! Oxford is only an hour’s drive to Heathrow, so it makes for a convenient final stop.
What IS new on this trip is how we are getting there. Normally we overnight in Boston and then fly the following night on a red-eye to the UK. This time we will overnight at JFK in New York and take a morning flight from JFK to Heathrow arriving in the evening. We’ll spend a night at a Marriott at Heathrow before picking up our car and heading to Craster. The blog will be active during our trip, but the plan is to update every other day rather than every day.
Most of you know that I am no longer on evil Facebook. I deleted my account in protest over their privacy transgressions. While I miss interactions with friends, I do not miss the advertisements, Facebook’s constant (misguided) suggestions about new friends, and the overwhelming depressing posts about how much people love/hate you know who or how much they love their right to own assault weapons or anti-aircraft guns. #deletefacebook #damntheNRA #guncontrol
Dingle Christmas Again
Surprise! We liked our Dingle (Ireland) Christmas and New Year’s last year, we are doing it again this coming Christmas. Same apartment, same general time frame except we will stay two extra days. While we enjoyed our four unexpected snow days in Boston at the end of last year’s trip, we will skip that possibility (and added expense) this year. Instead of an overnight in Boston at each end of the trip, we are taking British Air from Phoenix non-stop to London (Heathrow) with a short connecting flight to Dublin. We’ll spend a night in Dublin at each end of the trip.
Dingle Yet Again
“Enough of Dingle”, you say? Well, no! Although not yet booked, we plan to go back once again at the end of April 2019 for a six week stay. Same apartment. Hopefully by then I will be an Irish citizen for real. (I’m applied based on my grandparent’s Irish birth and await government approval. Why? Because I can. Oh, and no, I am not giving up my American citizenship. #dualcitizenship)
Before Dingle
Oh, after the UK and before Christmas, we will be doing a road trip. Well, mostly road. We’ll fly to Portland, Oregon where will spend a week at the beginning and another week at the end of the trip in our favorite condo in Depoe Bay. Between those two weeks we will drive east to visit Glacier National Park (Montana) and Couer d’Alene (Idaho) and then west again for a week in the Seattle Area. 35 days in all.