Cancun

Our last trip of 2010 has come to an end.  We took my mom ("Mimi") to Cancun for 6 days as her 90th birthday present.  It is just amazing how well she gets around for her age.  She has always hated flying but has never let that fear get in her way of going places.  We did take her walker with us - she uses it when she has a lot of walking to do - and man did we walk.  I could've used one! 

We stayed at the Royal Mayan Resort, a timeshare through Interval International.  Our Marriott timeshare ownerships give us membership to Interval where we can trade our weeks for any of 2,500 other choices around the world..  We love having that flexibility.  And for some reason whenever we use Interval they end up sending us a certificate for another free week anywhere.  We received that last week and are now considering a week in Belize for our 40th anniversary in April. 

The majority of our week was spent at the resort at the pool.  We did take a bus trip to Playa Del Carmen to look at another Royal timeshare opportunity but thankfully we've learned to say no, despite the high pressure sales pitch. 

We got the biggest kick out of Mimi.  We would find her sitting on our 8th floor balcony overlooking the entire property before six every morning, binoculars and camera at her side.  She would stay out there until almost 10:00 every night, and any time we were in the room during the day.  She has always loved "people watching" and it didn't get any better than that for her.  She also enjoyed seeing the sunsets, sunrises and passing cruise ships, especially at night.   We were all on the balcony one morning at 5:00 watching 2 large cruise ships going by.  After doing pretty much nothing for 6 days Rich and I were ready to come home.  We're used to renting a car and sightseeing.  But I think she would have stayed forever!  A birthday she will never forget.  We are very thankful that we were in the position to do that for her. 

Now that we are home I can concentrate on the upcoming holidays.  Not working will make the preparations much easier.  Yesterday I made the appointment to have knee replacement surgery on January 3.  It's scary thinking about it but I am tired of living everyday in pain and want to get moving without hurting. 

Halloween

Well today is the day after Halloween 2010.  I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween.  I love seeing all the kids dressed in their costumes (especially my grand kids).  I love the decorations and the cool weather (50-50 chance of that in Texas) but I hate dressing in costume.  I loved it as a kid but not any more. 

We spent the afternoon on a back country road overlooking Alliance Airport in north Ft. Worth watching their yearly air show.  It was a beautiful fall day in Texas, about 80 degrees.  We met a few nice people sharing the gravel parking area with us.  One who could have tried out for the Beverly Hillbillies show who amused us all.    We were there mainly to watch the Blue Angels and they didn't disappoint us.  Taking pictures with a digital camera of planes going that fast and being so close is not easy but I think I did pretty good. 

From there we went to Jennifer's house to see the grand kids dressed in their Halloween finery.  They were all just adorable.  Lacie was princess Jasmine, Gabby was JoJo the clown, Grant was a pirate, Georgia was a butterfly and Daphne was Piglet.  Dressing an 8-year old, 3 4-year olds and a 1-year old is not an easy feat.  Jenn said they spent about 2 hours trick or treating and had a great time.  Daphne was worn out and for once this week slept all night.  Gabbie on the other hand pulled a prank on Lacie at 3:00 am. which was not very amusing to her parents.  That will be fodder for another blog about grandchild antics!  You will have to just keep reading future blogs - it will be worth it. 

Please follow me on Facebook (Lynn Lindblad) for more pictures. 

Road Trip to Williamsburg, VA

Three weeks ago we started off on a 3,400 mile road trip to Williamsburg, VA.  We spent the first night in Nashville, an 11 hour ride.  We arrived at our Marriott Timeshare in Williamsburg after a 10 hour ride the second day.  The 2 bedroom 2 bath condo was just beautiful, as we expected it would be.  We had great weather for almost the whole week we were there.  Sunday was spent relaxing and exploring the grounds and facilities.  Lots of activities - I took an afternoon candy making class. 



Yorktown



 On Monday we drove to Virginia Beach, walked on the boardwalk and had lunch.  Tuesday we ventured to Yorktown and toured the colonial villiage, having a great lunch in a restaurant on the York River.  It was quite a lot of walking but luckily there was a tour bus that made stops in various places throughout the village.  



Williamsburg



Wednesday was spent in Colonial Williamsburg.  Luckily the day was cooler and my knees didn't hurt too bad.  It was a one mile walk through the main street, which I was able to do without too much trouble.  Rich and I had been there 30 years ago and not much changed.  We even ate lunch in the same place where we ate back then.

Thursday was a rainy day spent doing the local shops.  My kind of day!  Found The Yankee Candle Flagship Store - the only one besides the original in Massachusetts.  Fabulous!

Friday we went to Jamestown.  It was very cool and windy.  Rich did most of the touring since I had worn my knees out on Wednesday.  He took a tour of all the excavating that is going on. 

Saturday we sadly packed up and left Williamsburg.  We made our way to Elizabeth City, North Carolina where we spent the night.  Rich has always wanted to see Kitty Hawk since his whole career was in the aviation business.  He was quite impressed.   Since we were so close we also drove past my cousin's beach house on the Outer Banks.  I had been there years ago for a family reunion but he had never seen it.  What made my day was finding my favorite snack of all times!  I grew up eating Wise Cheez Waffies in New Jersey but they are only sold on the East Coast.  After stopping in many grocery and convenience stores we finally found them in NC.  There are only a few of the 10 bags left (I did give some away).  From there on Sunday we went to Columbia SC for the night before heading to Atlanta for the National Business Aircraft Convention.  Rich met a lot of former coleagues and made many new contacts for his consulting business.  Wednesday we left for Ruston LA for the night then finally home on Thursday. 

We had a great trip but two weeks on the road was a little long.  Lots of driving for Rich and navigating for me.  Downsizing from the timeshare to another week in various hotels was a little rough.  I think we are spoiled with our timeshares.  I am new at blogging so I hope I haven't bored anyone.  I am mainly doing this so I can have a record of our retirement years (in case I forget where we have been LOL). 

Learning New Tricks

They say you "can't teach an old dog new tricks".  Well I beg to differ.  I am 60 years old and this is my first ever blog.  I have no idea what I will write about or even if I can write but I guess I will find out.  I love the computer and all my other toys (IPhone, Kindle, IPod, etc.) so how hard can this be.  I know a lot of people my age who don't ever go near a computer so I am already ahead of the game.

I will be writing a lot about my family, manily the 5 grandkids, crafts and our travels. I have one 8 year old grandaughter, 4 year old grandtriplets (2 girls and a boy) and a 1 year old grandaughter. Oh yes, those from 2 grown daughters. Rich and I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in April. We both retired from our jobs in June and are loving every minute of retirement.  We plan to do a lot of travelling and will be posting a lot of pictures. 

I have been crafting for as long as I can remember and have items for sale on Etsy.com.  My store name is Lindy 71.  Depending on my mood the items will vary from jewelry to photography, to canvas art and vintage items.  Please check out my items. 

Since September Rich and I have been to New Jersey for the wedding of my best friend's son and just finished a 2-week 3400 mile road trip to Williamsburg, VA to Atlanta, GA and back.  As soon as I can figure out how I will post some pictures. 

I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog some come back frequently to see new posts.