We visited Chorlton (Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, to be exact), a suburb south of Manchester, to try our hand at a dog sit to see how we'd like it. We found Chorlton a charming place and the dog we cared for, Floki (any Vikings watchers out there?), absolutely adorable. The accommodations were a great change from the typical...
We generally visit a city's botanical garden when we're there and Rome was no exception. Late spring seemed like an ideal time for seeing new blooms. While it was nice and definitely worth the trip, I think we were a bit spoiled by what we experienced in New Zealand and Australia; admittedly hard to live up to. Below...
Our time in the US wouldn't be complete without a visit to Amarillo to see our female offspring unit. The timing was good as she was moving to her new apartment and could use some help. I had planned to hire someone to move her stuff from point A to point B, but as usual, we decided it wasn't that much and we could do...
We spent way too much time eating out (weight gain), but had a great time catching up with everyone. We even managed a side trip down to see my aunt in Tennessee. Here are some highlights. Spending time with family (also see the total eclipse page) Melissa and our nephew ...and niece ...and sister with new shirts My...
Back in our old stomping grounds - Orlando, Florida. We're gonna miss Oceania, we really liked it down under, but we got to see our son, Colin, and meet his new (to us) girlfriend, Kate. She's wonderful and we adore her. They're good together. We even spent a day at Leu Gardens with them. Of course, Melissa's first...
Christchurch Street Art Christchurch, New Zealand September-October 2023 “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls” ~Pablo Picasso The earthquakes of September 4, 2010 (7.1 magnitude) and February 22, 2011 (6.3 magnitude) left the city of Christchurch (ChCh) in near complete devastation. The...
We stopped in Timaru for the evening on our way back from Dunedin to Christchurch. After dinner, we walked through a small park to the harbor, where little blue penguins were rumored to nest. After having no luck in Omaru and Dunedin, our expectations were kinda low. It didn't help that the temperatures were in the...
Our first stop out of the states included a brief stop in Vancouver, Canada. We love Canada and this gave us a chance to help Melissa calm her travel jitters before putting too much distance between her safe spaces and the great unknown. The Capilano Suspension Bridge Park and Sea Wall walk deserve their own pages, but...
We said goodbye to St. Louis and headed off to Amarillo, TX to see our "peanut" (Brenna). We drove south from Missouri through Oklahoma to get to Texas. This page captures some of the interesting things we encountered along the way. We stopped at Redmon's Candy Factory because Melissa was jonesing for some popcorn, and...