Discovering More U.S. History

On our road trips to Arizona, we always take the opportunity to learn more about U.S. history and culture. This time we drove through Springfield, MO, and visited the flagship Bass Pro Shop, billed the grandaddy of all outdoor stores. It’s huge and includes the National Museum of Archery, the NRA Sporting Arms Museum, Bass Pro Museum, a Motorsport museum, and Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium, plus education and conference centers, and housing!!

Then on to Ft Smith, AR, via Branson. Fort Smith, a National Historic Site on the Arkansas River, was first built to keep peace between the native Osage and newly arriving Cherokees. The Trail of Tears ended here. Beyond was Indian territory. 

Kiwi Country

We are nearing the end of our month in NZ but still discovering new and exciting places. Huka Falls at Taupo thunders through a narrow chasm and drops only 35 feet, but it supplies 50% of the North Island’s required power. 

At New Plymouth we hiked to the Te Rewa Rewa bridge, constructed to frame the Taranaki volcano. 

Also in New Plymouth is the Govett Brewster Art Gallery and Len Lye Center. The building is a stunning architectural drama of glass and steel twisted towers. Reflected here is a huge clock tower across the street. 

Len Lye is a New Zealand artist acclaimed for his Modernism and kinetic art works. He created the Wind Wand along the coastal walkway. It sways with the wind. 

We are currently on the north end of the North Island at the Coromandel Peninsula where we hiked to Cathedral Cove, a beautiful beach with a huge stone arch. 

Tomorrow we head toward Auckland where we will depart on December 1st.  But not before a couple more rounds of golf. We are not looking forward to cold Wisconsin weather. Dare I say that it has almost been too warm for us here. 

Moving Northward

We finished off New Zealand’s South Island in Blenheim, wine country, Had a wonderful day of tastings at six different wineries, plus a stop at a chocolatier to finish it off deliciously. In this part of the country, vineyards now out number sheep ranches. 

And just to remind you what spring looks like......,..

Luckily we had a smooth crossing from Picton to Wellington on the North Island. The boat is a car ferry, but you can’t take a rental car from one island to the other. So you drop off the car on one side and pick up a different one on the other side. Both of our cars have been Holdens—Australian made. 

We drove to the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington and stayed in Paraparaumu where we golfed and visited Kapiti Island which is a nature reserve. Saw and heard many birds while climbing 1700 feet to the island summit. Here’s  friendly Weka just waiting to steal your lunch. 

Then on to Napier which is known for its Art Deco architecture. After a big earthquake and fire in 1931, the entire city was rebuilt in the favored style of the 1930’s. They hold a huge Art Deco weekend every February and everyone dresses in period pieces and there are Gatsby parties. We took a tour in a vintage auto to see the buildings. 

We also golfed at Cape Kidnappers, one of the premier courses in the world. And it really was spectacular. 

We are now in “Gizzy”—Gisborne where we rode on the only Railbike operation in the world. Rode about 8 miles on the actual train tracks. 

A few more stops before we get to Auckland and head home. The Kiwis have been so welcoming and fun. 

New Zealand Adventure

We’ve been in New Zealand just a week, but we’ve already seen much of the South Island. We started outside Christchurch at Windwhistle where the wind was really whistling as we golfed along the Rakaia Gorge. 

Next south to Dunedin where we visited the lovely old railway station. Lime electric scooters are pervasive in NZ as well, here in front of First Church. 

Its spring here and the flowers are lovely, especially the rhododendrons. 

Then even further south to Invercargill, the most southern city, home of Burt Munro, famous for setting many motorcycle land speed records. The movie The World’s Fastest Indian is about him—it’s a great film. 

Our weather has not been as nice as we expected, but we’ve golfed 3 times and has two good hikes. Unfortunately, our Siberia Experience was cancelled because of weather. The cloud cover was too low to fly us in to the drop off point for the hike. But we have no real complaints after reading about the Milwaukee weather!!

Wild Weather

Having a great time in Colorado. Spent a day with brother John and family before three days of golf under sunny skies. 

This is Wednesday—79 degrees and on the course in shorts and short sleeve shirts.

Then this is Thursday in Golden—21 degrees and about 4” of snow. Almost a 60 degree drop!!  So glad we brought our long underwear.  It could go down to 10 degrees tonight and set a record. Should be nice by the weekend, however. 

Arctic Adventures

Our Arctic cruise has surely been a lesson in geography—both physical and political. After leaving Greenland, we headed to northern parts of Canada. We certainly were aware of the 10 provinces, but we were not aware that there are three Canandian territories—the Northern Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut. Nunavut? It was formed in 1999 when the Northern Territories were divided in two. Nunavut is huge. Administered by the Inuits. 

We have kayaked in the arctic, seen musk ox, walruses and polar bears. As an expedition ship we have learned about the geology, flora, fauna, birds, culture, etc. and we are getting very adept at scrambling in and out of Zodiacs. With poor internet access, I’m only including one photo of Kangaamuit, Greenland. 

35 Years and 250+ Books

Our book club celebrated 35 years of reading and friendship with a wonderful trip to London. We had an literary focus, but visited other beautiful sites. 

Chihuly art added to the beauty of Kew Gardens. 

Persephone Books on Lamb’s Conduit is a publisher/bookseller of out-of-print female writers. Here we all are pictured with the owner. 

We were fortunate to be in London for the Chelsea Flower Show. Not only were the flowers in the show magnificent, but many shops along King Street were also decorated with flowers. 

We visited both the Charles Dickens home as well as the Sherlock Holmes Museum. You come away feeling that Sherlock was almost a real person!

It’s going to be hard to top this for our fortieth!!

English Foot Trails

Just finished our 7 day walk (62 miles) in the English countryside. And not a single raindrop fell while we were on the trail!!

So many lovely stone cottages with thatched roofs. 

The routes took us through woods, across fields, along tracks, into charming villages, and offered beautiful vistas. 

And, indeed, this is an accurate display of our average speed per hour each day. 

There was always time for a pint (or two) at the end of each day. 

Now on to London!

Western Spirit-Scottsdale

We had a sole day in Scottsdale before returning to MKE. A visit to the Western Spirit, Scottsdale’s Museum of the West was perfect. The current exhibit was photographs taken by Barry Goldwater of native Americans, long before he got into politics and served as Senator. In his youth he has a chance encounter with Ansel Adams who praised his work. 

There many collections of spurs, saddles, halters, chaos, guns, and all things western. 

The bronze sculptures by John Coleman were outstanding. 

And we got into the Western spirit too!