Happy New Year -- (Was Merry Christmas 2014)

From Lake Wobegon-by-the-Atlantic Lake ~~  Merry Christmas and Happy 2015

Well, this has definitely been a different year for us.  If you don't want to plow through this entire post, be sure to skip to the last couple of paragraphs for some big news.

As noted in last year's post, we were planning two vacations for the beginning of the year, and those two did happen, and were delightful.

In mid-January we did go to Aruba.  It was a bit dicey getting there because of a big blizzard here in the Northeast that shut down the airports for a couple of days and backed up all the flights.  Jet Blue cancelled our flight and couldn't get us out for 4 days after we were supposed to leave.  They were totally unhelpful, so we called American Airlines and they got us out the next morning.  In addition Jet Blue refused to help us with the additional expenses we incurred because of their cancellation.  We will never fly that airline again that is for sure.

 Where we went swimming some of the mornings

 Shopping, found a great fascinator

Great lighthouse

We had never been to Aruba, and we really enjoyed it.  Swimming in the ocean every morning was so awesome, we ate some great food especially great local seafood, and had some great rounds of golf, as well as an wonderful day at a spa for both of us.  It was a perfect vacation once we got there.

The other beach that we enjoyed -- this one is called Baby Beach.

 One of our favorite places to eat is a literal hole in the wall called Zee Rover.  Don't miss it if you go to Aruba. The seafood is so fresh it is literally just off the boat.

Golf "of course" on a beautifully challenging track.

After returning to Salem we did a lot of things, such as taking Bella to dog training classes, photographing our Rotary Club's Polar Plunge, and attending the Salem Film Fest yet again.  This time we went to 21 movies (all documentaries) in 8 days, and still went to work.

January in the Atlantic -- glad I was on "this" side of the camera.  This was the Polar Plunge to raise money to help wipe out polio from the face of this earth.

In late March we flew to Madrid for a week and had the BEST time there -- touring the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, eating wonderful Spanish foods, seeing the sights in Madrid, and going to Segovia.  We had such fun enjoying the company of our good friends Jean and Randy Johnson, who were the best hosts ever!

Eating olives and drinking sherry, pre-dinner at Botin, which is according to several sources, the oldest continually operating restaurant in the world.

We adored the Mercado San Miguel -- went there twice!

Then we flew to Paris where we stayed for a few days while touring the Palace of Versailles, and enjoying the Museum Marmottan to see a show of the Impressionists works that had never been shown in public before -- about 100 pieces that had been in private collections and were brought together just for this show.  It was amazing.  That same day we went to Giverny, and the gardens were spectatular.  We got so lucky because the museum there was showing the American Impressionists and that show was also terrific.

Segovia has this ancient Roman aqueduct that is in great shape still today -- all built by hand.

The Restaurant "Jose Maria" in Segovia is fabulous.  Some of the best food we have ever eaten.

Beautiful architecture in Segovia.

Our hosts in Spain, Jean and Randy Johnson

Fab "tapas" at the Mercado San Miguel

The Restaurant Botin in Madrid, purportedly the oldest restaurant in the world.

A lovely Italian restaurant in the neighborhood where Jean and Randy live, close to the Prado Museum.

After Spain we were off to Paris and Reims and Gerardmer in France.  All great places for sure!

Walt in the courtyard at Versailles

The gardens at Giverny

Giverny

Monet's living room, at Giverny.  These are reproductions but still so awe-inspiring for Walt and I since we love the worlds of the Impressionists.

Champagne tasting at Pommery in Reims, France

The map of the caves at one of the Champagne cellars we visited.  You could get seriously lost down there.

One of the gorgeous linen shops we visited in Gerardmer.  And YES, we did bring some home.

A fabulous shop in Paris near where we were staying.   The bread and pastries here are amazing. 

Tasting Champagne at a small farmhouse in Champagne -- the proprietress spoke no English, so my high school French got a good workout.  And we did buy some pink champagne here to take home.

Some beautiful furniture and stained glass at the Museum of the School of Nancy.   This bed is morning and nighttime butterflies.  A wonderful museum, not to be missed, in the city of Nancy, France.  The School of Nancy

We enjoyed our last summer in New England, and part of that enjoyment was showing our friend, Connie Thornton a good "New England Experience" including a day trip up to my favorite place in Maine -- Kennebunkport, and a really nice trip into Boston to eat at 23 Park.  Connie is a foodie like we are.

Lobster Rolls at the Clam Shack are the stuff of legends .

During the summer my cousin Michael came for a kind of working vacation.  He painted most of the inside of our house over the three weeks that he stayed here.  He also helped inspire us toward decluttering.  We had a great time together.  Here is the dining room that he painted some different colors that just glow!

And here we are fooling around.  I had just painted the mirror frame for the upstairs bathroom and Michael was going to put it back together for me, but we stopped for a photo op.

At about the same time two friends decided to get married, and I offered to bake their wedding cake as their wedding gift.  One of their two "flavor" selections was carrot cake, which I filled with salted caramel filling.

 The cake was iced with cream cheese icing and covered with white chocolate curls, and then carefully transported to Connecticut for the wedding.

 While we were in Connecticut for a few days we went to the Florence Griswold Museum which we adored.  It is the home of the American Impressionists art movement.  These photos below are of that visit.  Their gardens are also lovely.

 We love the fact that some of the artists in residence painted right on the panels of the house, and they have been able to preserve them just that way.

Speaking of painting, I went to another "Paint Night"  -- this one at the Hawthorne Hotel, and the painting on the easel in the front of the room was what we painted.

 This is my version:

During the summer, on July 27, we also went to the Pilgrim/Roy Quilt Exhibit at the MFA in Boston.    It was amazing.  If you have a chance, don't miss it.

 This is a photo I took in my neighborhood this summer:

This is the other Paint Night I went to this year.  We painted the Boston skyline. 

This was the sample painting:

This was my version -- I didn't like doing the sail boats so I only did one.

Over Labor Day Weekend we took two of our dogs to Camp Unleashed -- a camp for dogs and their owners -- in Becket, MA which is deep in the heart of the Berkshires.  This camp took place for four days and three nights, and it was one of the best experiences we ever did.  We had such a good time, it is hard to describe.  They had activities from 7 am to 10 pm all day and you could choose any of them you wanted, or opt out wherever you felt like you wanted to -- we loved the fact that they offered agility training, and you can see that Dexter really sparked to that.  The food (for us) there was amazing as well.

Dexter is already feeling at home on the first afternoon "mixer" while Walt tries to get some photos.

Bella ran herself ragged.  This was at "Yappy Hour" in the morning.

The Bark-o-Lounge where we could stop in for beverages and snacks any time of the day or evening, and where people Happy Hour happened each evening.

Bella and Dexter became great buddies on this trip.  They went back to their territorial ways when we got back home.

Dexter at the agility course.

In February I gave my notice to the owner of the Hawthorne Hotel.  I gave a bit more than a one-year notice, and we announced my leaving to our team and the greater "public" in October.  Our plan is to move back to California in or around April/May of 2015.  We will start out in Woodland, CA with my cousin, Michael Sanna.  He has a big house with room for us and our four dogs -- in fact he has two of them there now.

We flew Dewey and JayJay out there in early November, and had an early Thanksgiving with my daughter, Diana, her husband Steve, their children and her brother and his family, as well as cousin Michael.  It was so nice!

JayJay and Dewey are staying with Michael until we drive out there, which is how we plan to get Dexter and Bella there.

From there I will look for a new adventure in the working world, and Walt will support me by being a retired house-husband.  From there we will see where we land.

We decided to do this because all of our family is now on the West Coast, and we are lonesome for "family" so this seemed like a good solution.

The staff here at the hotel, and people in Salem and the organizations I am involved with were all astounded at the news.  It will be 16 years pretty much to the day when we leave here, so this is the longest we have stayed in any one place in our lives.

Off to the next phase!

There is more I could share, but this post is way too long as it is.  If you have made it all the way here, thanks for reading.  Have a very healthy and happy 2015.

Love and hugs,

Juli and Walt and the dogs

P.S. After reading through all of this I am exhausted!  No wonder we feel like the year flew by.  We were certainly busy in a great way.