FAMILY TIME in NYC, BALTIMORE AND DC Nov. 25-Dec 1, 2017

We arrived back in NYC on Saturday evening after a 14 hour flight from Belgrade, Serbia. Our stay for the next two days was in an AirBnB in Brooklyn near Prospect Park. A lovely location and a perfect studio apartment, quiet and comfy. It's always wonderful to be in a neighborhood with small cafes, restaurants and corner grocery stores.  

Sunday morning we walked down the street for a morning coffee and the best little breakfast of pancakes with fruit, then stopped at the local farmer's market. I picked up a large bundle of eucalyptus to take with us, we were meeting our niece Heather and Sam for a brunch later that morning.

 Wonderful to have another couple of hours visiting before PK and I caught the subway to NYC and an afternoon matinee to see Anastasia.

 As we walked towards Times Square to find the Trump billboard, I was stunned to see these huge concrete blockades at every corner to protect walkers. It had been long time since we'd been to the city, and with all that has happened in the world over these years, I guess this is now the norm.

With an extra hour before the show began, we went looking for the Impeach Trump billboard in Times Square.  It took a little bit of time to find it, but once it cycled through on this wall, it was pretty awesome. The number of individuals who have joined the movement kept increasing just in the fifteen minutes we were there. Thank you, Tom Steyer.

Our afternoon was delightful, a fun musical and story. It was terribly cold and windy when we got out of the show, so a quick walk to the subway and back to our cozy apartment.



Monday morning we had a quick breakfast at the little deli/cafe then called Uber for our ride into NYC.  We had decided to give the Mega Bus a try rather than a flight from JFK to Baltimore. A great decision!! The bus has a central location not far from Penn Station. An Uber ride to the bus location and boarding about 45 minutes later we were on the bus and heading to Baltimore. Wonderfully inexpensive, comfortable, wifi and within three hours we were unloading at the Baltimore location. It's so much easier and faster than the hassle of flying.

Again, another Uber ride taking us to spend the next few days with our Baltimore family. Our  nephew, Wes, and his family were retuning the next day from Thanksgiving in Minneapolis. We arrived Monday afternoon to spend two days with my sister in law, Peggy and her sister, Patty with visits to the waterfront and walking on a fantastically beautiful day.

Late Tuesday evening, Wes and Alena  and their two sweet little guys arrived back home.. but they were really sick with the flu.

The boys seemed to be fine, so we enjoyed the next morning with them before deciding we better save out visit with Wesley and Alena for anther time. With more travel plans ahead for us, we needed to stay healthy.

Harvey with is beautiful smile.

Loudon tucked into the doggie's bed.

We did get a short little visit with Wes before saying good bye about noon.

Plus, we needed to spend the afternoon at the Apple Store nearby since I had bought a new laptop on line and it was ready for pickup. I'd found a fabulous deal on the Apple website with a "refurbished" MacBook Air.  With our experience earlier in Denver where I'd returned a larger laptop, we'd learned that once the package has been opened it can no longer be resold in the store. It goes to some Apple location for a complete check then it's resold on the website. Lucky me! I now have a brand new smaller and lighter laptop that has fantastic capability, and it was definitely time to retire our 2009 oldie.

After four hours at the store transferring files and learning some new things we found a hotel nearby for the night. Then it was time to make a new plan for the next two days so we chose to drive over near Annapolis where I found a perfect AirBnB at Cape St Claire. The beautiful apartment was above the garage and very private. We checked in and then a late lunch at the darling River Bay Roadhouse Grill. That took care of both lunch and dinner.

I was up early the next morning to take a walk out to the front of the house for a morning sunrise over the Chesapeake Bay. 

We spent the rest of the morning visiting and walking all around Annapolis. A lovely city with a pretty waterfront historic neighborhood.

This statue is of Thurgood Marshall, a native of Maryland and Supreme Court Justice from 1967 to 1991.

The Annapolis State House

By mid afternoon it was time to drive another hour or so to visit our nephew, Lars, in Arlington, VA. Lars works for NPR and had recently moved from Dallas to Arlington and with our flight leaving from Washington early the next morning, we had an evening to spend catching up with his new life there.

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He loves Korean BBQ so we met up with him and enjoyed a delightful evening of food and talk.

Just the table setting for the dinner is a feast to see! We laughed and talked and even stopped for a nightcap before saying goodnight.

Our 8AM flight the next morning took us to our next destination; San Miguel de Allende and another pet and housesitting experience. 

LAKE BLED, SLOVENIA.

 After a very gray and chilly day in Ljubljana on Thursday we woke to this lovely view from our hotel room early Friday morning.  On the top of the hill is Bled Castle, the symbol of Bled and Slovenia and over one thousand years old. Our hotel, Park Hotel was at lakeside so the evening before we bundled up and walked to a nearby restaurant with wonderful mushroom soup, perfect for a chilly night. We had no idea we would have this lovely view the next morning.

We took a brisk walk Friday morning into and around the little village of Bled before joining the group to tour Bled Castle.  Such amazing views of the lake and the church on the island in the middle of the lake.  The medieval castle is the oldest Slovenian castle and one of the most visited tourist attractions in Slovenia; how lucky we were. We walked the rooms surrounding the two courtyards, my favorite was the chapel built in the 16th century with these beautiful frescoes and this stunning statue. The castle even had a drawbridge over a moat. 

The beauty of the day and this view was spectacular. 

 On the lower level of the castle was the ancient printing shop where I printed a bookmark from one of the print blocks.

 From the castle we returned to the lake where these traditional gondolas, known as plentas, were waiting to take us across the lake to small island and the Church of the Assumption.  The plenta boats date back to the late 1500s, a quiet and fun way to cross the water to the island. I didn't get a photo of our gondolier, but he was 70 years old, rowing about 15 of us across the lake.  He stood at the back of the plenta, one foot forward and remained in that position just pulling the oars across. We couldn't have had a better day, no wind, no rain, just a stunning view in every direction.

 Along the shore we also saw this sign for a Dali exhibit though we never did find out where it was being held.

 The Julian Alps are in the background here; they stretch from northeastern Italy to Slovenia. Yes, it was cold.

The boats dropped us on the island at the bottom of the 100 steps to the Gothic church.  There is a tradition for couples marrying on the island; the groom carries his bride-to-be up the one hundred steps. Not easy just to walk up, let along carry someone yet we were told the tradition continues even today. According to legend, while she is carried the bride must stay completely silent or bad luck will come to the marriage. The steps are very steep and grooms often spend several months training in a gym before the wedding day. It would have been amazing to actually see this tradition in action!

 The church and bell tower with a great view once we climbed to the top!

 From Lake Bled we drove about an hour to a small forested area along Lake Bohinjsko; beautiful traditional homes and barns with a lovely walk along the lake.

 The reflections of the lake with a tiny glimpse of the Alps in the background.

Returning to this little village we stopped for a coffee and walk, so very quiet with few tourists, though the winter ski season was drawing near and all that would change.

Back at our hotel, we. had our usual afternoon beverages; a beer for me and cappuccino for PK.

The hotel had been decorated while we were gone that day, so a perfect Christmas photo for us.

Since this was our final night of the tour Gate 1 hosted a wonderful traditional Slovenian dinner in a nearby hotel. 

A beautiful presentation, and tasty food, finishing with the traditional Slovenian dessert, Cremeschitte, layers of puff pastry, fresh cream and sweet icing on top. Way too large a serving and too sweet for me, but so delicious. 

And, a group photo to finish our holiday. 

I must say for this being our first trip with Gate 1, we absolutely loved it.  Our guide, Djuka, was so professional and knowledgeable, excellent hotels, perfect itinerary in every way and all at an amazing price. Of course, having the best weather for ten days made the whole trip perfect!