Merry Christmas,
This letter comes early this year as we are traveling between Thanksgiving and Christmas, arriving back in Phoenix on December 21st, so decided to mail these before we left.
We had always planned a trip to visit Julianna in Dubai sometime between November and January. But didn’t make a decision on the exact nature of the trip until late September, just before the Middle East started to boil. But by that time we had our tickets and plans. We had decided to extend the trip and take in India and Saudi Arabia while we were there. They are a short flight from Dubai, so it seemed ideal.
So when you read this letter, we will be either in Dubai, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (with Julianna), India, or maybe back home, if you have had a very busy season.
This has been a somewhat busy year with traveling. After being home with Covid for so long, it was good to be back fighting the air travel and luggage.
In March I crossed off one of my bucket list items. Hugh and I went to see and photograph the Northern Lights in Alaska. It was cold photograph tour but we had four nights with amazing auroras. I’m happy to have seen and photographed them, but it isn’t something I need to repeat! Hugh got great photos, but I still don’t have copies for the website, although mine are up.
My friend Pat called me in early February and asked me what I thought of Vermeer. Well after a few seconds, I remembered one of his painting, but that was it. She informed me there was a terrific show exhibiting most of his painting going on in Amsterdam, and would I like to go. Now I might not know much about Vermeer, but I know lots about tulip time in and around Amsterdam. After proposing it to Hugh, he discovered there was also an special von Gogh exhibit going at the same time in Amsterdam. So we were going! Not so fast, Vermeer was sold out, but there was a hint of the website of more tickets being offered, so I diligently checked. One morning in mid-March I woke up at 3 am and decided check the museum’s website, well tickets were released and so I bought 3. I decided not to wake everyone up, but to surprise them at a more reasonable hour.
So in early May, Pat met us at SkyHarbor and we took off for London. In the excitement of capturing the Vermeer tickets, we booked our flights to London for May 4th continuing on to Amsterdam by train on May 5th. After all tickets had been secured, I realized that was coronation weekend! I was slightly stressed that getting into London to catch the train, but it went off without a incident.
We spent several days in Amsterdam and from there we went to Keukenhof Gardens, to see the tulip display, Delft, to see the Vermeer museum, to den Hague, to see Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, then back to Amsterdam to see the Vermeer exhibit and then on to Maastricht, and Bruges. Pat left us in Bruges to return home and Hugh and I then visited Hoorn, Groningen and the island of Texel.
The museum in Delft, which didn’t have any of Vermeer’s original works, was my favorite. We didn’t just do museums, but stayed on a farm outside Maastricht with fresh breakfasts catered in daily, we had a photography tour and a chocolate class in Burger and, I can now recognize more Vermeer and van Gogh paintings.
For some unknown reason we stayed in Phoenix all summer, so we could experience the longest run of consecutive days over 110, I guess. What were we thinking! But I kept busy taking sewing classes on-line and Hugh keeps working at his drawing. But after enduring the summer, we decided it was time to escape and see some of this country.
We did a road trip to the Grand Tetons (where we honeymooned) Yellowstone and Zion. We had great photography in the Tetons and Yellowstone and mostly had the parks to ourselves. We only spent a couple of days in Zion and that park was packed with tourists. But again, we found time for some photography.
So for about the last decade, I have worked off and on a website.The idea started after climbing Kilimanjaro when so many people wanted to see my photos. A website seemed the “easy” answer. Well it was anything but easy. I did get something up but it was horrible! But the desire to have a place to write a story of our trips was born. I realized someday traveling or traveling broadly might not be possible, and it would be nice to have a digital scrapbook of all our trips.
I have tried different programs, different web addresses, different themes within programs, I finally hired someone to help me and still I stumbled. This year, my web designer suggested a different theme. Well I started working with that, and finally I feel this is possible. The only downside to changing themes was that everything I have done for the last decade, needed to be redone. Slowly I am working my way through what was done, and trying to do the current trips as we go. This year… it has mostly worked! So now to see if I can keep up while in Dubai.
I do hope to stay more current with our website, for those interested the website is www.travellightphotos.com.
As many of you remember from last year’s holiday letter, Julianna’s adopted a pregnant cat last summer which had kittens in September 2022 – Louis, Lottie and Lizzie. Well the decision was made that Lottie and Louis needed an American home. Ours. After much drama about how to import 2 kittens into the US, the ever determined Julianna figured it out and Lottie and Louis showed up in February. Now we already had 3 cats, which were anything but pleased to have 2 new “cousins”. After months of being pestered by two playful teenagers, two of the three adjusted. Squeak decided it was time to exit the world after 17 years. I don’t think it was the kittens, I think she got sick, but she might have been tired from her Dubai cousins. But still, we miss her terribly as she was the loveliest of cats. We have had a few in our 46 years of marriage but Squeak was our GOAT. Tears still flow when I think about her.
Now that we have had all the vaccines and recommend immunizations needed to go to Saudi Arabia and India, we need to make the most of the shots. So next year looks like another heavy travel year — it should be fun filled, if not exhausting!
Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and happy New Year.