Peaks departure and onwards

We all got on the 10:45 am ferry to go back to Portland. It was sad to say goodbye to Jackie and also to Clay. However, we did possibly manage to convince Jackie to start using a cane - look out wider public! She sees it as a weapon and a prop to twirl round and surprise people with!

It was a gorgeous day and the colors from the ferry were incredibly vibrant.  We were met on the Portland side by dear Kara (who of course used to live with us when we went to UCSB together, and then the year that I went to Leeds, she continued to live with the fam, so it was a very happy reunion).

We spent a couple of hours in Portland walking around, having lunch, and then a quick trip to Trader Joe's as part of Cat's educational experience. Then we dropped Cat at the bus station so she could journey home to start her new job on Monday as a French & Spanish teacher, and the rest of us drove to Keene, New Hampshire to get ready for Ryan's wedding tomorrow.

Island happiness

After the special boat trip, we 'kids' spent a couple of hours tooling around in the golf cart. We went swimming and exploring

.. and we also popped into the Umbrella Cover Museum for just a little too long. In other words, we got a bit trapped. Cat came in to rescue Eric and I by making some excuse about needing to get back to the house before the meat defrosted. Nancy 3, the curator of the museum, then started a new line of questioning about what kind of meat and what sort of recipe. Cat was out of her league and we all got roped into a round of theme tune singing before we could gracefully exit. We sure did laugh about it later, though!

For dinner, Jackie had secured 8 fresh local lobsters to be delivered to the door and we feasted! She taught us how to eat them and we had a grand ol' meal out on her deck.

It's been a wonderful trip to Peaks Island and we sure don't want to leave tomorrow.

Special trip on the water

Today would have been Aunt Carol's 83rd birthday and we honored her by going out on the ocean to spread her ashes. It was a carefully orchestrated event and one of the gentlemen from Peaks offered up his 'yacht' which he had freshly painted for the occasion.

Loading onto the yacht

Spreading ashes and waving to Jackie's relatives who were on the cliff near the lighthouse

 Jackie's nieces and their children were all up by the Portland Lighthouse and wearing bright red clothing so we could see them all clustered together waving to us. That was the carefully orchestrated part!

 We toured in the yacht around the far side of the island and just talked amongst ourselves. It was wonderful and special.

Me, Karen, Clay, Mom, Eric, Will, Jackie and Val

Carol's memorial

Today was Carol's memorial for the Islanders from 3-5 pm at Jerry and Jack's house at the end of the road.  We kicked off the day with a lovely breakfast of oatmeal and ice cream on the front porch!

Then we drove the golf cart around so Cat could practice driving in case she needs to drive people around later today.
 

 It was a little tense as the hour approached because a lot of people were arriving on the 2:45 ferry and then Clay was arriving on the 3:45 ferry. But it all went to plan and it was absolutely wonderful. Many locals and friends from the mainland were here to commemorate Carol. Karen spoke a bit, Michelle (from Jackie's all female jazz band a few years ago) played 'A Closer Walk with Thee' on the trumpet, and then Clay read a poem that he wrote about Carol. It was really special.

 Then we went back to the house for a bit of a happy hour

We met up with Karen and Clay for dinner and heard some great stories about the days of Clay and Carol dancing together as part of the Theatre Dance Trio, then called it a day.

Peaks Island to ourselves

Today was our first full day here on the island and we had a lovely start this morning with a walk down to the beach and along the road. We found out later that this was the furthest that Jackie had walked in a long time.

We went out to breakfast to Lisa's Cafe near the jetty, then ran a few errands and went back home. Today ended up being quite a lovely day all around as we just relaxed and enjoyed each others company.

 Later in the afternoon, Cat and I went for a swim over at Sandy Beach and then called into one of the establishments to have some nachos, sweet potato fries and a couple of cheeky glasses of rose.

 Jackie played her sax for us in the late afternoon and then a bit later we all went for dinner at the Cockeyed Gull. As we were dining, we were treated to a most spectacular sunset (no special filters applied to the photo below!).

Journey to Peaks

Cat picked me up at 1:15 and we headed to Gatwick for our 4:15 flight which ended up being delayed by 1 hour. We tried to sit together but were not able to in the end and we both had middle seats, so... not ideal but we survived the flight. When we landed in Boston at 7:45pm, I thought we could still make the 8:35 pm bus to Portland, but the immigration queue was soooooo, soooo long it was ridiculous! Cat and I got separated since we have different passports and it was her first time to the USA.
As I was inching along in the immigration queue, I was starting to realize that we were probably going to miss the bus we needed to be able to catch the last ferry, which meant that we would need to find a hotel in Portland... uh oh!  Fortunately there was free wifi in the queue so I did some hotel searching until I got a text at 8:33 pm from Cat saying that she had my suitcase and was through to the arrivals!

That is when I took drastic action:  I flagged down a security guard guy and asked if I could possibly jump the queue because I was traveling with someone else who was already through and we were trying to catch the last bus. He paused and then said, 'Sounds like you need to come with me' and lifted the cord so I could go underneath and jump to the very front. I found Cat and we ran through the airport to the bus stop and discovered that the bus hadn't arrived yet! Crisis averted by a sympathetic security guard - that NEVER happens! We made it onto the bus when it did arrive, and then rode for 2+ hours up to Portland where we took a taxi to the ferry. We had time to have a quick beverage before the last ferry at 11:30 pm and found the Subaru that Val had left for us to drive to Jackie's house. What a journey!

A short week at home

We landed on Sunday morning at 7am after a pretty good flight, and we drove home and went straight to bed for a few hours. That was nice! We spent the afternoon unpacking and settling in. It is always nice to come home.  The rest of the week was spent back at work and getting caught up with stuff we had missed. We got to catch up with our friends and enjoy some cool weather.
Tomorrow I'm off to Carol's memorial on Peaks Island, Maine and then Ryan's wedding somewhere in New Hampshire. 

Long lost dear Marah and the close of our trip

We drove from Saratoga over the Snowy Range scenic highway (which was indeed beautiful), then down into Colorado until we finally got to my long lost friend Marah's house.

I hadn't seen her in 12 years and so much has happened in both our lives. Although we stayed in touch over the years, it was pretty amazing to see each other in person and to meet each other's families.

Her partner Steve is an interesting and friendly guy and the kids got on really well together - Maddox (6 yrs) is big into Lego, so he and Tryfan had that in common; Maia (2 yrs) was initially shy and reluctant but then soon warmed to Rhiannon.

 We had a great night together at their house and in the morning we had a lovely breakfast, then walked down the road to the Lafayette Peach Festival.

Now we are off to the Denver airport where we will fly at 2:35 pm back to Gatwick on Norwegian Airlines. It's been an amazing three weeks and we are so grateful for everything.

Saratoga

After driving all afternoon following the cutting event with Uncle Joe, we pulled into Saratoga around 5:30 pm and stopped at the Hotel Wolf to check if they had availability. They did except they only had 2 rooms left, each with one bed, so we took rooms 14 & 15 which were opposite each other at the end of the corridor. Perfect! We changed into our swimsuits and headed to the 'Hobo' hot springs which turned out to be walking distance from the hotel. Perfect again! This lovely hot spring turned out to be free, open 24/7, and already populated with about 20 people. Sounds like a lot, but actually there were two pools and they were pretty big, so it didn't feel crowded. We met a few people who were on a big adventure trip organized by Northern Illinois University and we spent about 30 minutes soaking and chatting. Bliss!

Then we walked back to the hotel, changed clothes for dinner, had a quick game of pool (w/ beers for Rhods and me) and then walked up the road to dine at Bella's Bistro.

Uncle Joe had spoken highly of this place so we figured we would give it a go. What a fabulous meal we all had! We sat out in the warm summer air on the fairy lit terrace and made the most of this 'grand finale' meal.

Uncle Joe and the Cutting event

We found out before leaving the ranch that Uncle Joe was going to be competing in Big Piney on this day in a Cutting Event!

We made sure to leave ourselves plenty of time to get there from Jackson, and indeed we did get there in just 1 hr 30 min. Turns out this is a real small place and the people attending the event were pretty much just the competitors themselves. It was so cool to watch him ride his horse Jethro!  They spent a long time riding around in circles getting warmed up/ calmed down, and finally it was their turn to compete.

Here is a video of Joe and Jethro performing...

After they finished we said goodbye and hit the road. Miles still to go today! But we were all so glad that we got to be here to watch a real live cutting event!

[We're going to] Jackson!

This famous Johnny Cash song has been ringing in all our ears since we first decided to stay in Jackson for a couple of nights. Now we are here and making the most of our one big day!
Last night was pretty good though - we just basically checked in and went straight upstairs to the bar/ restaurant for dinner.



This morning we walked into town and had a fabulous breakfast at the Jackson Coffee Roasters, then walked back to the hotel to regroup and head for the hills.

 We drove 30 min to Teton Village and then took the 'tram' up to the top of the mountain. We went for a short little hike ('Top of the world' tour) and then continued on the newly reopened 'Cirque Trail' which took us down and across to the top of the Bridger Gondola station. It was beautiful and with a perfect temperature.; only downside was that it was a bit smokey.

After lunch we took the gondola back down the mountain and did some shopping, then drove back to the hotel for a swim and to relax. It was pretty hot and we were lucky to snatch some loungers in the shade on the grass.

When we were ready for dinner, we walked back into town and decided to have sushi at a Japanese restaurant.

We walked around until we found a place for ice cream, and we saw some interesting outfits as we passed some shop windows.

Then we got back to the hotel to find out that something was wrong with the TV connection throughout the whole building so we couldn't watch telly! Major bummer because after this busy and fantastic day we were looking forward to laying like vegetables and watching telly. Oh well, could have been worse. We have another full day tomorrow.

Hello Wyoming!

Big day today: Yellowstone National Park from top to bottom, weaving around the Grand Loop to catch the Lamar Valley with lots of wildlife, then the west side with the geyser basins.

We got a good early start (though not as early as I was pushing for!) at 6:30 am and said farewell to Judy and Joe, then drove to Red Lodge for breakfast.  Stumbled upon 'Red Lodge Roasters' which turned out to be an excellent choice with great coffee and breakfast sandwiches.  Then we continued on to the Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge over into the park at Silver Gate. The kids fed chipmunks by hand using some seeds another visitor had given them.

 The best part was the northern part of the park with the gorgeous mountains, huge sweeping Lamar Valley and the wildlife within it. 

 We stopped at Norris Geyser Basin, then Old Faithful, as well as plenty of little roadside pull outs so we could admire the Park. I had bought the 'Roadside Geology of Yellowstone Country' ahead of our trip out here, so finally today was the day we got to use it. It was great to be able to read the descriptions and explanations about what we were seeing from a geological and also historical point of view.

 We all got a little bit giddy towards the end of the day after seeing Old Faithful erupt.

The end of the day got a little tiresome for Rhods as he had been driving for the better part of 13 hours, but finally we made it to Jackson and the Snow King Resort where we had booked to stay two nights. Pretty exciting to pull up to a fancy looking place and know that we got to stay two nights!