2025 was a good year for us from a travel perspective. We stayed home, so to speak, and limited our wandering to Hawaii, the Southwest, and New England. Now we have the itch to go abroad again. We’ve chosen three areas known for their beauty, culture, wild areas— and relative safety: Costa Rica, Scotland, and Bali.
First up: Costa Rica. We took the above photo when we were in a small plane flying back and forth across the country on a tour in the 90s. This year we will be renting an SUV with high clearance and driving ourselves. The country roads can be challenging— even in the dry season! Peggy and I will be going there for the month of March. Our son Tony and his family will join us for a week in Monteverde.Next up, we will be visiting Bali. I visited in 1976 as part of a six month tour of the South Pacific. I’d lost my camera in Fiji, so I don’t have any Bali photos. I brought a painting home instead. The region is known for its colorful art. This one depicts a rice harvest. The woman on top is making an offering. It’s important to keep the gods happy. We will be there in May. Our grandson Ethan will join us for a week.We met this fellow in Scotland when we were doing family genealogical research in 2014. He had positioned himself in the middle of the narrow road we were driving on for about 10 minutes before finally moving over to the grass. Peggy and my families were Lowland Scotch so we were in the southern part of the country. This year we are visiting the highlands, coastal regions and islands of the north in late June and July. We will be checking out castles and looking for Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. Our grandson Cody will be joining us for two weeks. We are planning to hop over to Northern Ireland after Scotland.
Naturally, we will be blogging about our journeys. But there is more, as they always say on late night TV ads. Or at least they used to. Peggy and I don’t stay up that late and most of our TV time is streaming without ads. I am continuing our focus series over the next two months and beyond. “Oh Deer” is my next one. I’ll be featuring the herd that lived in our backyard in Oregon and liked to stare at us through the windows.
A not unusual sight!
And finally, I’ll be offering a new series I’m calling “Ut-Oh” where I will be pulling together posts that I have included on my blog over the past 15 years plus new material featuring my more serious/humorous misadventures in my life. I’ll do an introduction to it next week.
The question here is why should such an innocent looking child be kicked out of the first grade for a year. My first post will answer the question plus relate how a caterpillar I was using to cut a road fell off a cliff— with me on it.
This all looks like good times and good stories ahead. Your travels will be marvelous and I can hardly wait to hear about them. Ever since our super expensive NZ trip, and my quick trip to England right after, we have been keeping our travel at home. Pedro is still really worried about continued employment in the medical research field as long as Dump is calling shots, so to save on expenses, we are seeing more of the US this year. We are travelling to Disneyland in March. In May we will have a fun trip into El Paso and then across the border into southern NM. I’ve been wanting to do that trip for decades. Every year is an adventure for people like us. 🙂
Looking forward to this new year’s adventures folks! I love that you have family that join you and I can only imagine how they must enjoy it also! Here in Olympia…at this moment…10:30 am…the wind has picked up and we see the possibility of a little snow. The mountains are receiving much needed snow and skiers are pleased.
Wandering through Time and Place 
Look forward to hearing about your travels and more.
This all looks like good times and good stories ahead. Your travels will be marvelous and I can hardly wait to hear about them. Ever since our super expensive NZ trip, and my quick trip to England right after, we have been keeping our travel at home. Pedro is still really worried about continued employment in the medical research field as long as Dump is calling shots, so to save on expenses, we are seeing more of the US this year. We are travelling to Disneyland in March. In May we will have a fun trip into El Paso and then across the border into southern NM. I’ve been wanting to do that trip for decades. Every year is an adventure for people like us. 🙂
Looking forward to this new year’s adventures folks! I love that you have family that join you and I can only imagine how they must enjoy it also! Here in Olympia…at this moment…10:30 am…the wind has picked up and we see the possibility of a little snow. The mountains are receiving much needed snow and skiers are pleased.
Love to you both! Wendy