1992

This was a relatively quiet routine year, farming for Dick, and a lot of genealogy for me.     It was my last year of trying MLM, and I actually had enough success with Nikken to win an all paid trip to Japan.     There were delegates from all around the world, and some 40 of us from the US.     The whole experience was incredible and I came away really impressed.    Although there was something somewhat robotic in the service people.     Service in the stores, hotels, tourist venues, etc. was incredible.     At the hotels, if the bell boys weren't working, they stood at attention around the lobby waiting to be called.     In the stores, the clerks lined up at the end of their respective counters and stayed there unless they were tending a customer.    

We Americans started to be a little self-conscious after a while (although not enough to change).    We noticed that when we were taken to the various tourist spots, there would be one tourist guide after another with their entourage of tourists following behind them.     The orientals would line up obediently behind the guide, stop when they did and continue on when they did.     Our poor tour guides were constantly trying to keep us together and working us like a collie does a herd of sheep, most of the time with little result.

Nikken itself treated us royally, and the reception given to us the first night was something to be experienced.    It was held at the company headquarters.     The Geisha girls were beautiful:

We were put up in 5-star hotels and I have never seen lobbies like they had, before or since:

This was the one at the Osaka Royal Hotel.

Every day we were taken to the local tourist spots:

Kyoto, which was the former Imperial Capital

Temple of the 1001 images

Todaiji Temple

These were just a few of the places we saw.    We saw a Buddist statue that was two stories tall, one delightful shrine with over 1000 statues of children, a beautiful deer park where the same line of deer had lived for thousands of years.     Little shrines were everywhere and people would stop for a few moments to reflect as they conducted their every day lives.    

At the end of the trip we took the bullet train to Tokyo.     The train travels at 400mps!     And when they say it runs on time, they mean it runs precisely on time.     There was something robotic about this too, one felt that things would collapse if anything went out of kilter for one second.

The bullet train passed Mt. Fuji and although it wasn't as clear as this picture the day we went, we did seem the snow capped peak.

Tokyo was an education!     When you think of the population of this huge city and how the residents live in little cublicles of apartments, the mass of humanity and activity is incredible and YET, even though it seemed that 85% of the Japanese smoked, you never saw a single cigarette butt or piece of paper on the ground.     We had a lady from New York City with us and she suddenly exclaimed "where's the noise?".     No honking of horns, no shouting.     We noticed that if one car had to wait for another at an intersection, they would actually bow to each other as they passed.     There were coin operated machines along the main streets, selling soft drinks, candy and tea.     They were never broken into.     My roommate and I walked the streets late one evening and window shopped and felt perfectly safe - and all this in the heart of the city!   

This was 20 years ago, I don't know if it is that way anymore, but it was pretty impressive to all of us.

We went to the Nakamis Shopping Center, apparently it is busy like this all the time.     We got held up here for a while as Gorbachev was in town (actually stayed in the same hotel we did, the Imperial Hotel, right across the road from the Imperial Palace), and I did catch a glimpse of him as he walked by.

Alltogether, this was an experience not to be forgotten and I am very grateful I got to do it.    

The rest of the exciting 1991.....

Before we took our European trip, we had a trip to Cancun, Mexico - the first time we had been on that coast.     We took a side trip to the Mayan Ruins and found it fascinating.

Louise gave us two parties that year, one was a Mexican lunch out with friends and family to celebrate Dick's 60th birthday, and then another one at the time of our anniversary itself.

This one was in our back yard, and Louise did a great job of decorating.

My Heavens!     Were we ever that young?

I had another month long visit from relatives from the U.K.     This time it was my cousin Mary, her husband Peter and their son Jason.     Among many trips we went up to Vancouver Island to spend time with Irene.

Irene lived in Duncan which is known as the City of Totems.

Our trip there had to include the Buchart Gardens of course - this has to be on everybody's bucket list.

Peter took some great photos of our house and I thought I would include a couple.     It might bring back memories of ten great Christmas' and Thanksgivings we had here

1991 Christmas was no exception, and for Dick and I we had the added happiness of our first great-grandchild there............Jessica

This has always been one of my favorite photos of Katrina, (taken this Christmas).

Our 'animal family' was still Duke, Lady, Callie and Lena.     Had to throw the following picture in - it always amazes me to be reminded just how big Duke was!

We wrap up our trip....

Leaving Switzerland, en route to southern Germany, we stopped by the principality of Liechtenstein.    The whole country is only 62 square miles and sits between Switzerland and Austria.    This photo of Dick shows the old and the new.

In Germany, we passed the road leading to Auschwitz.     We considered going to see the site and museum there, but to be honest this trip had been such a joyous event, I knew that visiting this shrine would put a major dampner on my spirits, so we took a pass.    But I distinctly remember at the age of 12, our class was taken to see a film of the British troops arrival at a concentration camp after the war and the conditions there and the survivors.     It is something I shall never forget, and even though horrifying, I still believe that every young person should be shown these films so that they know the horror of the holocaust and understand why war IS necessary sometimes and why we always need to be our brother's keeper.

On to Munich where we spent the last few days before flying home.    These next two photos are of the Residenzmuseum in Munich.    I have never seen anything like this place before or since.    The sheer beauty of some of these rooms and some of the artifacts made me cry.

I had always heard of the Glockenspiel, so of course we had to go see this famous one and waited for the turn of the hour when the figurines appear and go around in a circle.    I would have liked to have been a bird so I could have seen them closer!

We toured the Olympic Park.    Those of you old enough will remember that this was the Olympics where the eleven members of the Israeli's team were taken hostage and subsequently murdered by the Palestinians.     Dick's old high school football coach attended these Olympics.

Our last major tourist spot was the Nymphenberg Castle.    Another splendid place inside, but it's main beauty was the gardens.

And so on to home.    This was the highlight of this year, but the next log will tell about the other exciting happenings in the same year.

Switzerland

Pictures can never do justice to the beauty of Switzerland.     It was totally awesome and not only the natural beauty of the landscape, but everything is so neat and clean.     It seemed that everyone had enormous pride in their homes, yards and even streets and roads.     We never saw a piece of trash on any highway.

Our first stop was Lake Geneva and we stayed in a delightful place right on the lake.    We drove from there to Interlaken and stayed a couple of days in this delightful spot, taking a drive around that lake the first day.

The following day was a real adventure.     We decided to go the top of Schiltorn (I believe either the second or third highest peak in the area).     For any of you that are James Bond fans, one of the earliest movies with Sean Connery was partly filmed on top of Schiltorn, I think it was called something like "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".     You might recognize it from the brochure picture following, what you see was blown up in the movie.

In order to get to the top, one had to take a series of cable cars.     The first leg took you to 4,000 to the village of Gimmelwald.

The next leg went to Murken (pictured above) at 5,500 feet, then another cable car to 9,000 feet Berg, and a fourth leg to the summit of 10,000 Shilthorn.

The views were beyond belief and I wish I could have enjoyed them more than I did.     I have to be honest and tell you that I have a height problem, and on top of that am terrified of things like Cable Cars.     I clung to a pole in the center of each car and was barely able to look straight out at the surrounding mountains.    All the other brave people were up against the windows taking it all in!

Once at the top, I was able to take it all in.     I spent probably an hour or more just walking around, watching the skiers take off from that height and head down the hills and generally enjoyed the whole experience.     There was a small, but interesting, museum up there and a coffee house.     Unfortunately, it was here that we realized for the first time that Dick had a problem.     He just couldn't take the altitude, and was not able to walk around and see anything, spending his whole time just sitting at a table and waiting for me.
It was hard to leave Switzerland, I would love to go back and see a lot more of this gorgeous country, but time and money was running out, so we left and headed towards Germany........

 

1991

1991 was an incredibly exciting year, the highlight of which was our 25th anniversary.     To celebrate it, we went to Europe for a two week visit, doing it our way, instead of the usual organized tours.     All together we visited seven countries, dealt with a variety of languages and currencies and had a wonderful time.

We flew into Munich, Germany, rented a car and drove to Salzburg, Austria the first day.    We had made very few reservations for this trip and made the decision to find 'out of town' locations when possible and 'non-American-oriented'.        We found a delightful inn just outside Salzburg with help that could speak a little English.    Breakfast the next morning suited me - basketful of a wonderful assortment of breads and crusty rolls, served with plenty of butter and a variety of jams and jellies, and an assortment of cheeses.     This was the daily breakfast fare for the rest of the trip, which wasn't actually the favorite for Dick, who kept thinking longingly of bacon and eggs!   

We spent a delightful day in Salzburg,  hiring a horse and carriage to take us around the city, visiting the first of many magnificent cathedrals and eating in local restaurants.     I have a fair knowledge of French and it came in handy on this trip when it came to looking at menus.     The French, German and Italian words for things like beef, pork, chicken, fish, etc. all have enough similarities that knowing the French word made it possible for me to recognize it on the German and Italian menus.     That was about the extent of the help though as we never knew how the particular dish was going to be prepared, with the result we ate some great meals, and a few not so great.     Since I did not drink wine, and Dick didn't like it very much, we ordered water with most meals.     It was always bottled water and we had to make it clear whether we wanted it 'with gas' or 'no gas'.     With my limited language knowledge, we didn't always get what we wanted.     Dick actually spent much of his time sitting on benches or outside cafes while I toured the various sights.     I went to where Mozart was born and loved that.

The next day we set off south for Northern Italy, driving through the Austrian Alps.     I used to joke that one literally drove THROUGH the Alps, for once one reached a certain altitude the autobahn leveled off and you spent most of your time driving through immense tunnels, coming into the daylight and having a brief view of some scenery (usually from a high bridge) before you entered the next tunnel.     What we did see was magnificent, but I would have preferred to have seen the countryside more and the inside of a tunnel less.     We did pass the small village of Arnsdorf where 'Silent Night' was composed.

We stopped that night in a small 'motel' a few miles outside Venice.  

The next day was spent touring Venice.     I had done some reading on traveling before we left and followed the advise of some by not doing the conventional things which ended up costing a fortune, but doing things the way a local would.     Case in point, was Venice.     Instead of hiring someone to take us through the canals, we boarded the public transport (with a day pass) and traveled throughout Venice, getting on and off as we saw things we wanted to see closer.

I had heard that Venice would not be a good experience, people complaining about smells, refuse, etc. but we didn't find it this way.     It might have had something to do with traveling in April before the crowds and heat came, but to me it was a magical experience.     I toured the Doge's Palace while Dick watched the people go by.   The wealth and magnificence of these cathedrals and palaces are beyond belief.     Growing up in Britain, I was used to visiting VERY old buildings, but obviously Britain did not have the wealth of Europe.
From Venice, we drove west across Northern Italy to Milan.     This was the one time we had a reservation and stayed two nights in a small hotel in downtown Milan.    I had done this as I understood that hotels in Milan were incredibly expensive and I had found this one which was more reasonable.    The big shock came when we found that it had no parking area, and parking was not allowed on the street.    We were required to park the car in a nearby parking facility which ended up costing almost as much as our room.     We found things incredibly expensive in Italy, and were thankful to the advice given us by Danielle who had visited us last year.     She had explained the difference in how restaurants were referred.    There were four levels of restaurants and as she said, the top two were for the rich tourists, the third was for the wealthy locals and the last, known as Pizzerias, were where the locals ate.     So that's where we ate.     It was still pretty amazing to have to pay $5 for a coke though!!

Highlight of my touring the next day was El Duomo - the Cathedral of Milan.    All of Milan is designed to 'radiate' from the cathedral (rather like the layout of Salt Lake City and its Mormon Temple).    

Before leaving Milan the next morning I fulfilled a long time ambition to visit the church where the "Last Supper" was painted on its inside wall.    It was being renovated when I was there so it was somewhat spoiled with scaffolding in one area, but nevertheless I stood in awe taking it all in (including the door that had been cut into the lower center) and crying.     We continued west leaving Italy and driving into France.     Another shocker on this trip (money wise) was the cost to drive on the Autobahn (and its equivalent names in Italy and France).     The tolls (which pop up frequently along the way) were quite high, and we figured it was costing us as much for the tolls as it was for the gas!     The lack of speed limits was a culture shock too - amazing to have cars literally zoom past us as were doing 80mph.

We drove along the Mediterranean coast, a quick visit to the Principality of Monaco, and continued on stopping in Nice.     As Dick said, Nice was nice.     It reminded me of Llandudno where I grew up with its Victorian old charm, lovely gardens and of course the Sea air.

We had an experience at the motel here which might be difficult to explain, but we parked on the water side of the motel and went into the lobby to register.     It was quite a tall motel but we did notice that it had an elevator, so weren't concerned.    There appeared to be two check-in places, so I went to one of them and they spoke English so I requested that we would be no higher than the second floor.    This was no problem, so we checked in and paid for the night.     Two surprizes followed!     First, this was actually TWO hotels, one on top of the other.     One could access the ground floor of the upper one from the street behind but not by car.     We had the second floor alright, on the 'top' hotel.

Second shock came when we found that the elevator didn't work!!!    We got our exercise in during that stay, especially lugging our luggage up and down. 

The next day we left the coast and started north driving through the Rhone Valley of France - its main agricultural valley.     The fields of mustard (drove past Dijon) were in full bloom, and we of course were really interested in seeing the vast acreage of vineyards.

We ended up in Lyons and stayed in a small hotel just outside the city for a couple of nights, touring the ancient city the next day.     There is an old Roman ampitheater there and having heard about how great the acoustics were in these arenas, I walked down to the bottom and spoke in a normal voice and Dick heard every word clearly at the top.

Leaving Lyons, we turned east and headed towards Switzerland, but took a side trip along the way to one of the oldest existing villages in Europe called Perouges.    It is still inhabited and the locals have to park outside the town and walk into their homes.     It dates back to the early 13th century and it was fascinating to walk its streets.   I have a vivid imagination on visits like this.     Loving history as much as I do and having read so much about the various times, it was easy for me to envision what this must have been like in those times.

We continued on that day and ended up in Montreaux, Switzerland on Lake Geneva.     Our Swiss experience deserves a blog of its own, so I'll continue later.....................

1990

Overall, 1990 was a fun year with a wedding in our back yard, another visitor from Britain and my trip with them, and then Irene spending the Christmas holidays with us.     But before that, we had the sad happening at the start of the year in losing my brother Gordon.

This photo was taken a couple of months before his death when Dick and I went up to Duncan on Victoria Island, BC, Canada.    

I often share with people who are going through a bad time that it helps me to compare it to the worst thing I ever experienced.     If it doesn't stack up to that, then it's not such a big deal and I got through the worst one, so can get through this one.     I point out that everyone has that one time in their life that is their worst.     Mine was the last week I spent with Gordon in May of this year helping Irene before he died.     He was dying of colon cancer that had spread and he weighed less than 50lb.    No time in my life since then has compared in the enormity of the emotions I shared with Irene.

But to better times.    

We gussied up our back yard with flowers and an arch for Becky's wedding.

She was a beautiful bride.     Unfortunately the marriage didn't last, but from that marriage we have our first great-grandchild in Jessica.

My nephew Ian and his girl friend Danielle visited us and I took a trip up to Canada with them

Danielle was born in Milan, Italy and even though I think she enjoyed her trip overall, I do believe she was disappointed in our San Joaquine Valley - I learned later that she thought all of California would look like the Santa Monica beach!

It was Irene's first Christmas without Gordon so we persuaded her to spend it with us.     We had a good time and this photo is of myself, Irene and Louise all dressed up to go somewhere.     The funny thing is that I haven't a clue where we went!!!

This last photo was taken around the same time, and a favortie of mine.   It really shows the size of Duke!    That's Lady with them and you can see Lena on the back of the chair.

1989 continued

While we were in Florida with the TCP program, I did get to take a couple of trips.     One back to California where my sister-in-law Kitty had come in from England.     I had a great few days with her showing off my favorite California places, including Santa Barbara:

and San Francisco

I also made a flying visit to England to attend my niece's wedding.     That was an experience - I arrived in London and was met by my nephew Ian who was then going to drive me to Tavistock in Devonshire.   This was on the Thursday.    BUT, no luggage!     We had to continue on to Tavistock, but the airline assured me that I would get the luggage in time for the wedding.     Friday came and went and no luggage, Saturday morning saw me frantically running around the small town of Tavistock trying to find something to wear for the wedding.     By this time I was on my fourth day of wearing a sports outfit!     I had left Florida on the Wednesday, arrived in London on the Thursday and here it was Saturday.     I could find nothing that worked so finally decided I would show up in the only thing I had and try to explain to those who would wonder if this was the wedding outfits people wore in the US!!     But British Airways saved the day and my luggage arrived less than one hour before we had to leave for the church.     It was a lovely wedding and since Sarah married a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, the exit from the church was quite spectacular:

We had a good year farming that year

but had some very sad times too.     

Mom Topper died and even though we had lost her to Altzheimers for a number of years, it was still so sad to say our last goodbyes.     She truly was a good woman who lived her life for her family and for her Lord.

We also lost Buddy and Taffy this year.     Both were heartbreaks.     We had had both since they were very small puppies and Taffy was 17 and Buddy was 15 when we had to lay them to rest under my favorite plant that lined the driveway, and separated it from the vineyard. 

But we did add two more to our family.     Lady (a golden retriever) came by way of Julie, a lady we had hired to take care of our house and animals while we were in Florida.     Lady was abandoned by Julie's daughter and husband and was found raiding garbage cans to eat.     We took her in and adopted her, little knowing that she came with some luggage of her own - very pregnant!    We would have taken her anyway, even if we had known.    

Then Dick arrived home with Duke - a 150 lb. Great Pyrennes.     He apparently had been abandoned in Caruthers and had gone from place to place until Dick looked into his eyes one day, and a bond was made.