Catching up, Again!

This is the third time I have tired to catch up with this blog!! Either the connection was bad or I did something wrong but it just wasn't working.

As usual the summer flew by. We had two baby showers and one wedding shower plus the wedding in Sept. Of course we were gone for the last five weeks of it. In August we went to Europe. First few weeks we were in Italy with my family. We did all the must see spots. Roma, Pisa, Venice, Milan and I really enjoyed Lake Como.
We also visited the smaller towns in Italy where the real people live, not the tourist traps. One highlight of the trip was a dinner we had at Banfi Winery. The food was awesome!! This restaurant inspired Cornell to open Banfi's at the university in Ithaca. Bruce and I then flew to London were we met our friends Dick and Sara. We had a great time and also saw the must see places. Big Ben, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Trafalger Square,Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards. We went up in the Eye of London at night, for a beautiful view of the city. London is a great city and it was easy to get around using their public transportation. One day and of course one of many, we decided we needed a beer. So we walked into this bar and I noticed everyone in there was a guy. It didn't cross my mind until the bartender brought it to our attention that it was a gay bar. We said it doesn't bother us, can we still get a beer? He said yes and we sat outside on the patio. LOL!!! After spending a week in London we flew to Ireland for a week. Dick wanted to find his roots. We rented a car and drove up to Derry where Dick did his research. We then drove the Giants Causeway to Belfast, across the country to Galway to see the Cliff's of Moher, Kylemore Abby, and then headed back to Dublin. Along the way we stopped at smaller towns to explore. We spent about three days in Dublin, in the Temple Bar area. I had visited Dublin in 2004 when Keith was in the Special Olympics. We got back to NY on Sept.7 th.

Bruce and I are now on the road again in our motorhome. Our first major destination was Albuquerque NM, where we went to the Balloon Fiesta. We met our friends there and she decided it would enhance the experience if we were part of a chase team, instead of just watching the balloons go up, so we signed on as crew. This meant getting up at the crack of dawn or before and hurrying up to wait. It was worth it because I got a ride in Sarah the Witch hot air balloon. I am afraid of heights but was not about to pass up this experience. It was so beautiful, peaceful and quiet. The view was awesome over the Rio Grande River!! Seeing tons of balloons below me all blown up and ready for flight was quite the sight, and then seeing balloons floating around us was pretty cool. Before the landing the pilot instructed us( another 14 yr old girl also came along)to keep our knees bent and to put my camera away, because it will not be a soft landing and that we would bounce along for a bit until someone on the chase crew could grab us. When we landed we both went hysterical laughing. The landing was easier then I had thought. We had a very experienced pilot who has been doing this for years. As part of the crew we were invited to the gatherings after the morning launch. These included lunch with margaritas, champagne, pina colladas and beer. We then had to be ready for the evening launch and helping to ready the balloons. It isn't easy and takes a lot of crew to get a balloon up.

Bruce and I are now in Utah visiting the national parks. We are staying as far north as we dare until the weather changes and then we'll head to Tucson for the winter. We really enjoyed the Rincon Country West Resort that we stayed at last winter so are going back for five months.

On Dec. 5th we are going on a two week cruise through the Panama Canal and ending in FT Lauderdale FL. We'll drive up to Palm Bay and spend Christmas with my parents.

There I did it!! Hopefully I won't neglect this blog anymore.