The GMTs Invade Europe: Plymouth 2015

#6 Seven Sisters, Green Pond, NJ

I am rapidly falling behind on my travel blog. It's been 12 days since I left home, and except for an occasional email or the daily InstaBookTweet, I have been pretty quiet out here on the Internet. If anyone is interested in the nitty gritty, I am happy to forward on my lovely traveling companion's missives home. Aunt Karen is recording it all for posterity, and I am admittedly too lazy to duplicate the process. 

A.K. at Brown's Hotel bar

It took me a while to ease into the vacation, as I spent the first 7 days trying to squeeze in some relaxation between finishing up three different projects. My stay at Green Pond was wonderful, and yet I think I got a record-low 15 minutes in the water, plus one paddle board ride to the cove. The only other time I get so little pond time is in the winter! But it was great to see everyone and watch the fireworks from the boat flotilla (thanks, Eric and Maggie for letting me tag along). And thanks mom and dad for taking such good care of me while I stared at my computer screen and completely ignored you!

The first sighting of our superstar

Mom and Dad dropped us off at Newark Airport, where we breezed through check-in and security and got on our flight without a hitch. The flight was over all too soon. I barely had enough time to get any work done or catch any zzzz's before it was time to land. In addition to only having 15 minutes in the water, I was getting maybe 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night plus a whopping 45 minutes on the plane. So by the time we landed in lovely London, I was a bit of a zombie. But Karen had excellent details on how to get exactly where we needed to be, so I just followed along behind her.

Great Niece and Great Aunt

We had a delicious but crazy expensive breakfast at the Brown's Hotel and then wandered the streets of London to see what we could see. I accidentally sent a Sudanese woman in absolutely the wrong direction to the Sudanese Embassy. That'll teach her to ask Americans for directions in London. It'll also teach me to learn how to read the Google Maps on my phone. We found Buckingham Palace and fought like salmon to get away from the place. Apparently the changing of the guards was rapidly approaching, and every tourist in the country was making his or her way down the street to get a view of the fuzzy-hatted men.

PIC at the Mayflower Steps performing for BBC

As we fought our way back to Brown's, we saw a small group of people standing on the side of the road, staring at St. James Palace. So we joined the crowd to see what would happen. To our surprise, it was where the guards emerge to go change with the guards at Buckingham. So we got to see some of the hoopla without all the crowds. It was like our own private Changing of the Guards!

The Plymouth Pilgrims

We then dragged our bags up and down stairs, through Tubes, along cobblestone streets, down alleys, past crowds, all the way to Paddington Station, which sadly was under construction, so we couldn't get the full feel of the look of the place. We also didn't see the little bear anyway, so I guess he is off on an adventure of his own. We had barely made it out of the station before I fell asleep. I missed the entire first half of the train ride. Apparently I missed a series of pastoral scenes of thatched-roof homes, estates on hillsides, and miles and miles of sheep and horses and pigs in hedgerow-divided fields. But luckily, for the second half I got to see a series of pastoral scenes of thatched-roof homes, estates on hillsides, and miles and miles of sheep and horses and pigs in hedgerow-divided fields. So that was nice!

Waiting outside while Megan sings for the Lord Mayor

I have been watching way too much BBC lately and reading too many English novels, as everywhere I looked I could imagine a crusty old detective chief superintendent and his young sidekick sergeant, driving through the narrow lanes to solve the latest murder; or an English lady walking through the fields and over stiles; or a small-town doctor dashing through the cobblestoned streets to get to her next patient.

Loitering on the steps of the Lord Mayor's neighbor

Plymouth turned out to be a surprise of a town. We didn't really research what to do here, as we were mainly focused on Megan and her performance. But we have had a never-ending list of things to do, including just wandering the Barbican and Hoe, discovering the Elizabethan Gardens, stumbling upon the Merchant's House, enjoying delicious meals (yes, in England), loitering outside the Lord Mayor's home, riding trains/steam trains/passenger ferries/steamboats, rambling through the moors, trying to find a pub to enjoy a pint while waiting for a train, meeting up with one of the many other PIC families, talking with locals, learning all sorts of history, touring the fascinating and tasty Plymouth Gin Distillery, or sipping coffee as we watched a naval cruiser being pulled through the narrow sound into port.

Just a little tapas for dinner

And of course being here for Megan was fantastic. We got to watch her learn to play netball (where she did a fantastic job of fielding the ball to other players) and cricket (where she got some pretty good hits!) during a typical English school field day. We heard her and the fantastic chorus sing twice at the lovely guildhall. We fed her healthy meals of cheese and butter sandwiches and ice cream and fruit. We explored the moors of Dartmoor and did some shopping with her in the old market town of Tavistock. And most of all we watched her be such a grown-up, poised, but fun-loving girl--a fabulous representative of her school, family, home and self. What a special time. We definitely miss her smiling face already.
We are now sitting in The Imperial Hotel bar, catching up on our missives home petting Charlie the dog, and deciding what to do for our last (drizzly) day in Plymouth.

Overlooking the Tinsdale Lido

[Note: The photos on this page are mainly from our first day here. I'll set up a Picasa album as well for anyone who is interested.]

Kai

I've been putting this off for three months now. (Procrastination? Who me? Oh, what a surprise.)

I can't believe it's been three months, almost to the day.

Exactly three months ago tonight, we were having one of the best pre-wakes a dog has ever had. Many of Kai's friends stopped by to give him a hug, feed him a treat, sit by him with love, and just smile with him. He was ecstatic.

What a long way he had come.

When we first got Kai, he was completely distrustful of anyone and everyone, even us. He jumped a 6-foot fence two days after getting fixed, just to get away from us. But he didn't run too far, and maybe he'd already learned to like us enough that he wasn't too unwilling to come home with us. Or maybe it was the food we were bribing him with.

That was the day we started to learn that he really didn't like being alone. Even though he was scared of us, he was more scared of being alone, where loud noises could occur at any time and make him practically jump out of his skin. So we brought him inside and sat with him and pet him and cooed at him and did all the things we never thought we'd do for a dog, just to get him to love us ... or at least to trust us.

But he wasn't just a dog, was he? As many new pet owners before and since have learned, those four-legged beasts become a part of the family as soon as we set eyes on them. And they become embedded in our heart faster than seems possible. Mark and I knew Kai was "ours" from the first second we met him. It just took him a while to figure out that we were completely his. But not too long of a while.

In fact, in just a month, Kai was going on walks with us off leash, playing "whack-a-gopher" in the fields, chasing ducks down the creek, and prancing along the trails as if he were born to it. Which he was, actually. He had just had the bad luck of having that natural exuberance frightened, and perhaps beaten, out of him for his first 18 months of life.

But for his next 10.5 years of life, he grew back into his natural state. Sure, he was still petrified of loud sounds -- fireworks, cars bottoming out on the road, thunder, a knife whacking a little too hard on the cutting board. And he still barked at strangers. But he was no vicious attack dog (unless you happened to be the poor Fed Ex guy ... sorry about your pants, sir). And all he wanted was love and attention and as much food as we were willing to dole out to him.

Our friends who knew him so well in Colorado wouldn't have recognized the social pooch he had become here in Boise. He no longer hid upstairs in a corner when we had friends over. In fact, he usually sat himself on his bed right next to the table, reveling (as much as Kai could revel) in the good times .... and in any food that "dropped" his way.

And that's why his last few days on this Earth were just so right (or as right as they could be). He was surrounded by love and food and friends and laughter and more food ... right until his last peaceful breath.

We miss you, Kai. We miss your scaredy-cat-ness. We miss your hunting of night creatures in the yard. We miss your abhorrence of cuddling with us (unless we were on a road trip). We miss having you chase after us on our cruisers. We miss the sound of your nails on the floor. We miss your many episodes of "squeak-i-cide." We miss you chasing planes across the backyard. We miss you jumping up on us when we walk in the door. We miss your fascination with the pond. We miss feeding you the tops of green peppers and tomatoes when we cook. We miss watching you "hunt grass" on the river bank. We miss having you on our road trips. We miss your love of the indestructible squeaky toy. We miss how rockin' you looked in your winter raincoat.

We miss your handsome face.

Rest in peace, Kai-Bo-Licious! I will see you in my dreams!

MIA

Yes, we have been seriously missing in action for quite a while. I have not been in the blog-updating mood. It's not that nothing happened over the past many months, I just wasn't feeling witty and creative and write-y (not that my writing is all that witty or creative). Since our fabulous trip to Morocco/Spain/Portugal (just writing that makes me want to go back), we have been keeping ourselves busy.

On the train in Portugal

Mark got home long enough to unpack and repack, before heading off to Costa Rica for a week. As soon as he returned from that mini-adventure, he started an even bigger adventure, working as the Warehouse Operations Manager (aka the Director of GSD ... which stands for Get "Stuff" Done [I'm keeping this rated G]) for Spidertech Kinesiology Tape. If your wondering what that all means, just know that it's magic tape that makes your aches and pains go away. (Sorry to confuse you with all my high-tech scientific talk!) If you want to know more about it, ask my dad. He loves it. Or you could ask Mark, as he would be able to explain it more professionally than I apparently can.

The bright blue stuff on the arms and legs of this
creepy black mannequin is SpiderTech tape.

Our summer was filled with barbecues, hikes, bikes, and even a raft trip or two ... and for me, a too-quick, but very fun, trip back to New Jersey/Connecticut/Massachusetts to see the family (during the big hurricane, of course).

Ella and Sabrina watching the storm roll in
Plymouth, MA

Then in the fall, it was back to Costa Rica for what had to be one of the most difficult-to-put-on World Rafting Championships ever. I won't bore you with the details, but the "highlights" include two weeks of soggy, ant-infested tents, mildewy laundry, monster-sized moths and bugs in the bathrooms, cold showers, slippery-slope hikes down to the river, and a bunch of unappreciative athletes (not all of them, but the vocal minority were really annoying). But we survived, and now, after 10-plus years, Mark is officially retired from the International Rafting Federation. And it is their very serious loss.

Did I mention our camera died at the end of the Portugal trip.
This is one of four photos I took in Costa Rica, using my camera phone.

Thanksgiving, my folks came out for a fabulous visit. We ate delicious food, tasted some incredible local wines, and had lots of laughs. I wish they (and the rest of our families) lived closer, so we could spend more quality time like that together.

Family fun at Bitner Winery

Winter was very mild here. We did make it up to Sun Valley for a yurt trip for our 10-year (holy cow!) anniversary. But other than that, we've been hanging out in Boise, working on the house and having fun with friends.

No photos of the yurt trip. The camera was kaput, and our phone batteries died due to the cold. The few photos I did have (courtesy of our good friend Daphne Muehle, who just moved to Idaho), I proceeded to delete from my computer ... along with ALL of the rest of my photos. Oops!

Now spring is coming fast, and the rivers are rising. We already have two river trips planned for the summer, and possibly even a trip at the end of this month (brrrr!!). We also hope to get out to the East Coast and then to Australia. Unfortunately, this real job gig of Mark's is getting in the way of our usual fun travel times. It's tough being a grown-up!

The first blooms in our garden

We hope all is well with all of you and that we get to see a bunch of you sometime this year (come visit! Boise is wonderful!). And maybe we'll even write again sooner rather than later with another update (lucky you!).