baby shower

OK I didn't get to attend . . . but it seems like the baby shower for Dharma (held on 18 November 2018) turned out as nicely as one might expect given all the work that went into it!  Here are some photos  . . .

Virginia visit (October 4-8, 2018)

Mae was all grown up since our last visit!

Visit #2 to Virginia for 2018; this one quite delightful but seemed way too short.

Some highlights - dinner (and big news) at Lyon Hall on arrival night; traveling to Mike's and Ally's new-ish home in Maryland for dinner on October 5 with Charlie, Beth and Mark there (and of course Palmer); a couple breweries, including Atlas; travels to the seafood area; seeing Mae all grown up since the last visit; and back to the Boo-tique at Target.

But mostly - we like hanging around the house with Kerry & Luis (OK also walking over to Westover Market).  We feel entirely at-home there.  Cards, chatting, etc.  We'll look forward to the next time.

Atlas brewery was quite fine.

Visiting Ally & Mike & Palmer ( plus Charlie & Beth & Mark)

We ran into Steve, Carrie, Piper - and Mortimer Moose - at Target, of course.

Flagstaff (Lockett's Meadow) (September 27-30, 2018)

Flagstaff remains perhaps our single favorite destination - PJ and I much enjoy just wandering around - we always stay at the same hotel, wander the same streets, find interesting meals, often including a lovely hike.

As I've written elsewhere - we've been hiking Lockett's Meadow since 1989 - it remains as lovely as ever (even if we arrived a week or two before peak color). 

We had great luck dining at Tinderbox and Brix.  Not to mention the customary pre-hike blowout breakfast at Martanne's.   And plenty of other treats along the way.

Criollo!

We know who did this (a few years back)

Canada trip (September 8-16, 2018)

Upon arrival in Magog

It's been seven years since PJ and I visited Quebec (province) - the last time is described here - so we decided it was time to return.  As much as we liked our previous itinerary, we made a change - spent the first three nights in the "eastern townships" (for this visit, centered in the town of Magog), then three nights in Quebec (city) and two nights in Montreal.

Manoir Hovey overlooks a lake in North Hatley

First of two visits to Manoir Hovey

I predict we'll return before too long, and probably stick pretty closely to this revised itinerary.

Kind of interesting to think
how life would be with
this kind of schedule

Magog hotel was "just OK" in terms of the room, but "just what we prefer" in terms of location - easy walk to the street where all the restaurants and shops are concentrated.  We find that we do tend to enjoy the smaller towns more as the years go by.  Magog with a lovely lake.  We find our way to Manoir Hovey in very-nearby North Hatley (incredible lakeside setting with even better food); we visit an actual monastery in a lovely setting (Abbaye De St-Benoit-Du-Lac (St. Benedict's Abbey)) and have the opportunity to hear Gregorian chant; we find an amazing dinner at Tavern 1855.  Some of these spots not using a lot of English (though Magog is definitely a tourist-driven town at this point); for our best restaurant meal there (Tavern 1855) we relied on Google translate app to figure out food.  Weather good though a bit chilly on first arrival plus a bit of rain; perfect weather thereafter.

St. Benedict's Abbey

I won't write much about the Quebec and Montreal portions of the trip because we repeated the things we loved on prior trips - lots of walking, lots of visiting lovely churches, lots of fine dining.  Things that stood out on this trip:  (1) the weather was amazing; (2) we did a good job of getting out and walking in lovely late afternoon - sundown settings - this was particularly compelling while wandering around Quebec city; (3) we had an unprecedentedly high hit rate for truly remarkable meals - normally if we hit one or two great meals over a trip of this length, we're pretty pleased - but it's easy to count at least seven that were amazing.  Clocher Penche and L'Echaude in Quebec (two meals at each); Garde Manger in Montreal, for example.

At Montmorency Falls

A new stop was Montmorency Falls (enroute to Isle d'Orleans) - we liked it.

And PJ is quite an excellent traveling companion!  We'll look forward to returning.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal

inside Notre Dame Cathedral

St. Patrick's (Montreal - a favorite)

A lovely evening in Quebec city - looking out toward Isle d'Orleans - this is where the townspeople
in Cather's Shadows on the Rock would have looked for the ships arriving from France . . .

Clocher Penche, Quebec

portrait of a master tinkerer

Charlie shared this photo from his recent visit to St. Joe.  I love how it captures EMG utilizing his >40-year-old pickup as something of a mobile shop.  And in the background - the shed on the hill farm - where he essentially ran his shop for decades.  (After building that same shed.)

At very front/bottom left of the photo is a simple rectangular toolbox - its contents are splayed across the rest of the endgate - this is the basic toolbox that was carried on shelling jobs, and elsewhere, in my 1960s-70s memories.  It was backed over by trucks several times - no problem, EMG just hammered it back into shape.

The gauge at top left sits atop an ancient air compressor - an item fired up every morning before we went off to clean out corn cribs or grain bins - aging truck tires needed to be filled, after all.

I see a couple items that didn't exist in the '70s (or at least we didn't have 'em) - witness the weed whacker, for example.  And we didn't use much plastic then - right behind that old toolbox at bottom/front left is a plastic container that I'm pretty sure doesn't contain maple syrup.

It might look a little disorganized, but I'll wager that some thought went into the placement of each item in the pickup bed.

On he goes, a classic shade tree mechanic.

peak flight

At the Modern Times brewery in San Diego - on Saturday 18 August (day after the Stone festival) - I ran into or constructed what I'm pretty sure is the finest beer flight I've ever had.  Perfect composition:  small servings of intense, complementary styles of which ordinarily I'd be reluctant to order a full pint.  Exactly what I'm looking for in tasters!

Not only that, don't they look rather amazing?

L-R:
--"Sea of Tranquility" (Fruited Super Berliner) (Special Release) 6.5% ABV
--"Nectarnomicon" (Raspberry & Guava) 3.6% ABV
--"Factory Cathedral" (Super Gose) 8.5%
--"Suggestion of Mass" (Imperial Stout) 11.3%

Stone - San Diego

PJ, CPG and I drove over to San Diego on Friday 17 August; met up with PJr, NRG, and Romie (who were spending the week in SD); then Michael C joined.  From there - drove up to the Stone tasting event - our fifth time (PJr's sixth).  Beer, food, weather, company all delightful.  This continues to be a fine event.  Smaller group nice but we missed some of the energy of the bigger group! 

On Saturday morning we three met up with PJr/NRG/Romie at Broadway Pier for coffee and donuts and fun (including scooter test runs).  After lunch we went to the Modern Times brewery and found it highly acceptable.  Back downtown; met up with Naseem; we eight walk to the D'backs-Padres game (thanks POC for lining up tickets).  All good there other than final score.

Easy return drive on Sunday except a little more freon, or whatever automobile A/C systems use these days, would have been a plus.

K's August visit

this guy seemed happy to see K

K visited us here in AZ between 9 and 14 August!  We visited a few restaurants; had a meal at each of the Phoenix-resident-family homes; celebrated Paul Jr's #31 on Friday 10 August; mostly enjoyed being together.  Spontaneous road trip to Tucson on Saturday 11 August - it was a bit of a nostalgia tour for K; visited U of A campus and the Pi Phi house; also wandered around the downtown area and enjoyed pretty amazing weather (dinner at Penca).  Played 5 Crowns and sampled some of the local breweries as we roamed.  Overnight at the local Best Western.  Fun and highly random trip!  We of course were sorry to see K leave on Tuesday 14 August.

sampling of our restaurant/brewery gatherings in Phoenix, Gilbert, Tucson (Borderlands my Tucson favorite)

Nice experience at Pi Phi - the girl on duty took the time to show K around - including seeing
her old room (upper R); K stands in just about the same spot in lower R when moving into that same room
15 years plus one day earlier (with orange doggie guarding her goods).  

one of K's Pi Phi pals designed the street-facing sign here . . . 

yes it was fun wandering around Tucson with this group (plus photographer-NOC)

dual citizens

I can scarcely believe it.  On 10 August 2018 we return from a trip to Arizona Wilderness to discover in our mailbox the envelope with Luxembourg citizenship designations for Nicole, Patrick and me!!  (And there still is time for others to join in!)


Practical value appears nil.  But the process was easy thanks to Carol et al.  Quite a few other family members are completing the process (including the fine group mentioned here).  And the symbolic value is entirely excellent - my mom and Claude Lanners must be smiling down at us with our little dual citizenship achievement here.  I like having that connection even more than I had anticipated.

Due to some administrative changes we were not required to travel to Luxembourg for the in-person interview.  Which is convenient.  But we are disappointed not to have that focal point for a visit.  (To be sure we shall find other reasons to visit, hopefully sooner than later.)

Next:  EU passports.

inaugural baseball game

Courtesy of our customary tickets-via-POC, Romie attended his first in-person baseball game on 4 August.

It was delightful to have him along but perhaps we didn't pick the best game.  The team was honoring its 20th anniversary team - meaning a lengthy battery of ex-player introductions accompanied by concussive scoreboard eruptions and raucous cheers from an immense crowd (38,000+).  That's a rather challenging introduction for a rookie.  But a fine time was had by all, even if the rook only made it through a couple innings.  You have to start somewhere.

For those of us that stuck around:  D'backs beat Giants!

All is good pregame as we buy H2O from our customary vendor.

Host-POC explains the situation to The Rookie.  Etc.

watching watching

Among other charms, I find it endlessly interesting just to watch Roman watching things.

Here's an example.  He's pretty fascinated by dogs (in this case, Pumbaa).  But what's he actually thinking?

It's a favorite photo.

monsoon > palo verde trees

Pretty powerful monsoon system up in our area on the evening of 30 July.  We haven't had much luck keeping palo verde trees on the west side of our house - magnificent shade for a few years - now we have to figure out next steps (if any).

Hard to believe those trees were planted in 2008 (per this link).

trees look pretty remarkable from any angle (this is the tree toppled 30 July 2018)

toppled 5 July 2018

install date for these same two trees - 11 August 2008

MN-IA visit

Had just been in MN-IA in March; had been planning to return this fall; received word that Caroline Bormann had been moved back to the farm for hospice care so of course we moved up our trip by a couple months.  It was a delightful visit, here's what happened (TY to PJ for photo and video, click to enlarge):

Thursday 19 July - our travels were not quite as easy as usual (kids in row behind us on plane including a queasy one; rental car line) but nothing that affected our schedule.  We grab lunch and then head over to Mark & Therese's home - they are great company and in addition to talking with them it's interesting to see progress on the home and its furnishings (esp. Mark-created items), very nice.  Including a couple interesting beers.

our hosts, hanging out on front porch

We proceed to a restaurant a few blocks away - Groveland Tap - excellent choice - we four are joined by Steve & Cecilia and Jeremy & Margaret so this makes a very fine evening.  Then we make our way up to the House house in New Brighton for further chatting before bedtime.

a fine crew at Groveland Tap

Friday 20 July - back in March we much enjoyed the little breakfast joint inside Byerly's grocery store, so we repeated the experience - the four of us were joined by Angie, Liam, and Tillie, this was quite excellent.  After - we drive down to St. Joe - I-35 road construction costs an hour but otherwise quite easy going.  PJ goes to Algona grocery store to stock up as EMG stores have run down, plus she wanted to make lasagna and chicken/barley soup and brownies, all of which turned out pretty amazing and held us in good stead the entire visit (and some nice leftovers for EMG after we depart).

Friday's breakfast club

EMG and I head up to the hill farm where we look over some things, don't ever quite get around to working on mowing or trimming, and enjoy pretty amazing weather - cool/NNW winds which prevailed our entire visit, nice. Something I notice:  EMG seems more agile than last year, not sure how to account for this.  We look over a small trailer he designed for pulling the Farmall C mower behind his pickup (fabricated by Capesius bros and featuring mostly scrap or items purchased on farm sales years ago) - to my untutored eye the design looks simple/elegant and apparently it works.  Nice.  We (actually EMG on F-20) push around a few items (a couple old planters and an old manure spreader, each worthy of extended discussion which is the best part of all this anyway) to clear a path for the mower, and he even uses the F-20 (my 89yo dad operating tractor purchased by his dad 78 years ago) to lift up an old combine for the same basic purpose.  Later:  Twins baseball, chatting, dinner, a really fine evening.

man and tractor have been an effective working team since circa 1940

planter, and proprietor, looking good

Saturday 21 July - we get off to a marvelously slow start.  At this wedding a few months ago, we ran into some Luxembourg-heritage folks with western Iowa connections; I had mentioned this to EMG in a phone conversation shortly after; he thought they linked to Alton (a parish for which he has the history book courtesy Rev. David Hogan); we confirmed all this and sent around some information to the folks involved.  It was an interesting chain of connections, and rather fun.  Lunch, chatting, naps for some of us.

me trying to soak up some knowledge

Around 5p we visited Caroline at the farm.  These are pretty amazing experiences.  Yes, she's slipping. Yes, she has been an important part of my growing-up years and our (PJ, our kids, me) St. Joe experiences ever since - in both cases for as long as we remember (and of course including

with Caroline; ach

Clarence). We have the most excellent memories of our little games of 500 (PJ and Caroline v. Clarence and me) and accompanying refreshments.  Yes it's sad and difficult to see the inevitable even if she has reached 95yo.  It's quite fine that her children are making this effort to see that she's taken care of at the farm (and doing most of it themselves, Ellen and her daughter Carolyn in this case, nice to catch up with them).  We spend about 90 minutes and are very-very grateful to have had this opportunity.

Back to St. Joe; the three of us swing by the cemetery and visit the family gravesites on an utterly lovely evening, this was nice.  A bit later PJ and I head over to visit Mark & Sue Bormann - their farm looks great - we much enjoyed catching up with them, nice to have a chance to visit.  Back to St. Joe again for late dinner, chatting with EMG, watching a bit of baseball, etc.

early evening with my dad at St. Joe cemetery (Mom's gravestone was installed just a few days later); for 
these Iowa farmers, the rows-of-crops seem to continue into the rows-of-gravestones . . .

much enjoyed catching up with these folks

Sunday 22 July - the three of us attend 10:30am Mass in Livermore; discussions after with Eugene Mertz and Tom Berte.

Eugene Mertz (and EMG) are much unchanged . . .

. . . by comparison this has taken a turn for the worse, even since our March visit

Then EMG drives us around a bit, starting with the place where I grew up - significant deterioration of the house; we check out some of the equipment in the machine shed, drive around the grove a bit.  Then some driving around the area - Spring Valley; Kohlhaas-Bormann lands; south from the West Bend blacktop on the half-mile road that overlooks St. Joe and always seems rather lovely.

Discussing many things, including the F-12 tractor (it's hidden behind the Super M;
F-12 was purchased 1936, horses were still used for many tasks thereafter).

Below: driving that half-mile road just west of St. Joe (with lovely views) while EMG explains some of the changes - 

via GIPHY

Lazy afternoon; we watch end of British Open and some baseball, rest a bit.  Timing didn't work out for a Cullen visit, but at least we had the chance for a fine phone chat with Dolores.  In the evening we three go to Algona to meet up with Mary Lou, Daryl & Kathy, also Sue Baker who was in town - very enjoyable to have a chance to catch up with these folks.  Back to St. Joe for dinner and chatting and 10pm news etc.

pleasant Sunday evening get-together

Monday 23 July - the three of us attend 8am Mass in St. Joe, Fr. Kollasch presiding and a nice crowd in attendance; the usual enjoyable conversations after in the back of church.  We have an hour or so to discuss various and then EMG leaves for a doctor appointment and we head out moments later.  Caught up with Steve & Liz for lunch in Mason City, they had been traveling over the weekend so we were happy they could work this in.  We even got a tour of their new lakeside home - with fellow new homeowners Nick & Maeve (with Beau and Jude) swinging by (well, it's a very short distance).  This was quite fun.  Easy trip up to the Twin Cities; we meet Cecilia at a TGI Friday's near the airport - this ended up working out perfectly for our purposes, we have a chance for more chatting.  Then an easy flight home

 I kind of love this photo actually.  Unfortunately missing SEG.

We had a lot to think about and to be grateful for as we returned home - Caroline's situation; all of the folks who were able to make themselves available; all the continuing interesting conversations with EMG; even simple things like the chance to see rural Iowa in perfect summer weather conditions; all of it was quite lovely.
________________________

We had put together some photos for Caroline: