We Visit Boys in Utah and California

In late May and early June, we traveled to Wanship, Utah to visit Stephen and Barbara at their great ranch.  Douglas, Veronica, and Emilia flew in from their home in Westminster, CA so we had a much larger family gathering.

Stephen decided it was time for all of us to see their new home area from a "loftier" site - so he drove us all to the top of Two Peaks in his truck.  The route up was, at best, a cow path, and, at worse, a questionable path.  Nonetheless, Stephen navigated it quite well and we all enjoyed a marvelous view of the country that Barbara and he love.When weren't eating or watching Emi dance in the shower from a water hose, we also had the opportunity to see Stephen actively working with his tractor.  We also had the chance to meet their new dog, Nola.

Following our Utah visit, we flew to Long Beach, hence to Westminster to visit Veronica, Douglas, and Emilia's new home.

While there, we helped Douglas erect his new camping tent.  Janet repeated her oft-used phrase that she thought it was very nice for them but definitely not for her.

We visited the Huntington Gardens and were enthralled by the beautiful gardens, especially the Japanese (or was it a Chinese) tea house.

We also had a chance to go to the Long Beach Aquarium.  Emi enjoyed paddling in the water where the rays swam and looking a diver in the large pool in the center of the building.

We flew back home via Salt Lake City where we met Barbara and Stephen for dinner.

It was a really fun trip and, surprisingly, the flights, though many in number, were pleasantly uneventful.

Photos of the trip are available by clicking here.  

FOLA Honors Janet and Ralph

During the annual Community Christmas Celebration program on December 13, the members of the FOLA (Friends of Ludlow Auditorium) Board (minus its chairman), awarded a special trophy to Janet and Ralph Pace.  It was a very pleasant surprise to both of us.

Wonderful Family Christmas Sojourn in Utah

Janet and I, joined by Douglas, Veronica, and Emilia, journeyed to Stephen and Barbara's lovely new home in Wanship, Utah for a fantastic Christmas week.  Due to work commitments, Jeffrey was unable to join us.

Stephen and Barbara's new home (more like a ranch) is a beautiful log structure with space galore.  It also features a lovely guest house (where Douglas and Veronica stayed with Emi) plus a barn (the home of Stephen's new tractor) and several out-buildings for farm animals (that allegedly may be forth coming in the future).

We enjoyed a great time celebrating the holiday.  Stephen introduced me to TJ Max (where we did most of our Christmas shopping).  Janet, Barbara, and Veronica decorated the tree.  Emi had a ball in the snow (even had a snowman named Herman).  We all enjoyed the company of Anyo, Stephen and Barbara's dog.

Under Barbara's and Stephen's guidance, we enjoyed several dinners in Park City.

Some photos of the ranch and our time in Wanship are available by clicking HERE.

Pace, Bakers, & Bolands Gather in Springfield

Members of the Pace-Baker-Boland clans gathered at the home of Barbara and Jim Boland in Springfield on Sunday, November 10, 2013.   The Boland "kids" put together a fantastic dinner (with some "health juice" beforehand) and the old seniors had a chance to swap tales of their latest incursions into medical history.

It was great to have the older timers in the same place.  

The night be for, Janet and I had a chance to meet Marge and Cathy Baker at the Fort Restaurant in downtown Springfield for a great German dinner served by a '77 Tech graduate!

A Trip to the Eastern Townships of Quebec

Janet with John and Joan Brownlie revisiting the site of past pleasures at Owl's Head

In October, just about at peak foliage time, we met the Brownlies in Magog, Quebec, located at the northern head of Lake Memphremagog.  Joan had arranged for a fantastic condo overlooking the lake.

We toured much of the Eastern Townships, including Magog, Mansonville, Owl's Head, and North Hatley.  The North Hatley excursion enabled us to revisit several of the sites we enjoyed seeing with the Strykers in 2000, including the pub located along side the river that emptied into the lake.

The foliage was probably the best we've seen in many years, the area was lovely to visit, and the food was great.

Photos of the visit are available by clicking here.

A Visit To Huntington Beach

Emi is all smiles with Grandpa

We visited Douglas, Veronica, and Emilia in their apartment in Huntington Beach, CA in September.  It was wonderful to see our granddaughter again and witness how she is growing!

In addition to touring the lovely area in and around Huntington Beach (the surf capital of

mainland USA), we were able to attend a USC football game (USC beat Utah State) and, of special interest to us, participate in a USC version of a tailgate party before the game.

We had expected that tailgating would mean standing in a parking lot eating (and drinking) from the back of a Ford 350 truck.  As it turned out, USC is "above" that approach.  The tailgating was at the university itself with all kinds of delectable food items available, the USC marching band playing, and a good selection of wines.  It was a lot of fun.

As for Emilia (Emi as she's called), she is growing and becoming very talkative.

We also had a chance to tour Douglas' lab at the Long Beach State University of California, visit Emilia's daycare center (also at the university)

Some photos of our trip may be seen by clicking here.

Stephen and Barbara Help Utah Fire Victims

Stephen Pace and Barbara Ohm recently purchased a "ranch" outside of Park City, Utah in the town of Wanship.  Their location was near the recent fires in Utah.  When Stephen realized that a number of neighbors had lost their homes in the fire, he and Barbara opened their home to the victims as well as their animals.  Below is a link to a video from an area TV station covering the event:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=26438459

Journey Through the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park

In late June and early July, we journeyed on a tour of the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park in Montana.  The tour was operated by Caravan and was, in our opinion, the best way to see the Rockies with a knowledgeable and friendly tour guide plus a fantastic bus driver (when you take the train, you still end up on a bus to see the sights plus the train tours have essentially stopped operations).

The our began and ended in Calgary which was just recovering for a devastating flood of the Bow River.  The trip began with a tour of Waterton National Park in southern Alberta.  That park was linked to Glacier National Park in Montana (passports were required to reenter the USA and return to Canada.

From here we journeyed to Banff and Lake Louise.  The Banff mountain area was great but Banff, the town, was a tourist trap.  We did, nonetheless, help Canadians celebrate Canada Day (July 1) with a parade in Banff that included bands participating in the Calgary Stampede and members of RCMP in formal uniform (made me think of Bullwinkle cartoons).

After Banff we did Lake Louise, also heavily touristy.  We did go to a lake above Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, which was simply idyllic (see photo below).

In Banff, we also took a rafting tour of the Bow River.

Following Banff, we went to Jasper National Park.  The town of Jasper is much smaller than Banff and far more delightful to be in.  We stayed in 'cabin bungalows' that were very pleasant.

Our final touring distination was the Columbia Icefields.  Here we travelled by a specially-designed six-wheel drive vehicle to the lower glaciers of the icefields.

I think our favorite sites were Waterton National Park in Alberta and Glacier National Park in Montana (here we had the fun of travelling in the 1930's style red coaches - see photo at end of this post - on the "highway to the sun" and Logan Pass).  The photo at the beginning of this post is a picture of Spirit Island in St. Mary's Lake in Glacier.

Our tour ended back in Calgary just as the Stampede was opening.  For more uneditted photos of our trip, click here.

 

 

Ralph Allegedly a Super Senior

Ralph, pictured above with Joe Carroll of WCAX-TV

Somebody (actually, Frank Heald, the Town Manager) decided to ask a friend, Joe Carroll of WCAX-TV, to do a brief thing on me.  The results is below:

http://www.wcax.com/story/22409987/super-senior-ralph-pace

FOLA Follies of 2013 is Big Hit

Thanks to the efforts of a large group of local thespians, FOLA (Friends of Ludlow Auditorium) show cased its first annual musical revue on March 23, 2013 before an audience of over 125.  To view the entire program on YouTube, click HERE.

While conceived by Ralph, the basic production was the work of Tesha Buss and a group of hard working area singers.  Take a look at the numbers and credits below (double click the image for better view).

Ralph is pictured above at the cast party after the event with a poster signed by all the people involved in the project.

Belatedly . . . the Christmas Snow Arrives

Well, we didn't have it while the family was here for the Christmas celebration but, the day they left, the snow decided to fall.  So, in the waning days of December, we've managed to accumulate a litle over a foot of the white stuff.

Family Christmas in Ludlow

While we had the barest of snow coverage for Christmas, our spirits were still very high as Barbara and Stephen, Veronica and Douglas and Emilia, Jeffrey, and Janet and I gathered in Ludlow for the this annual celebration.

Of course, Emilia was the center of attention as she encountered her first taste of snowy weather.

Stephen and Douglas managed to handle the cooking chores for the Christmas Eve feast after we enjoyed our allegedly reduced-size stocking gifts.  Christmas found us tackling an also allegedly reduced-size present opening sitting around our tree (a real one!).

Emilia took her first ride in the snow - and appeared to thoroughly enjoy it.

It was a great event when we had a chance to be with all the family.

Pictures are available by clicking here.

Thanksgiving in Athens GA - 2012

 

We flew to Atlanta for a week-long Thanksgiving visit with Douglas, Veronica, and, of course, Emilia.   We enjoy a fantastic time playing with (and spoiling) Emilia and enjoying the wonderful company of Veronica and Douglas.  In addition to trips to the local playground where Emilia showed off her gymnastic capabilities, we enjoyed a tour of the new Atlanta Aquarium.  Veronica's cooking was great.  Douglas and I "enjoyed" some football - although watching Notre Dame defeat USC was not in the plans.

 

But it was Emilia, now very ambulatory, who occupied most of our attention.  It was fascinating to listen to her initial efforts at speaking; while we didn't have the foggiest idea what she was saying, she said it with great vigor and determination!

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and look forward to Christmas when all the guys will be with us in Ludlow.  A few pictures of our adventure may be found by clicking here.

 



Great Weekend in the City

Continuing a tradition that goes back to 2002, the Almonds, Kneebones, and Paces (the Thomson's couldn't make it) journeyed to New York for a long weekend.

Probably the highlight of the trip was attending the Broadway show, "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and also taking in Andrea Marcovicci's "Smile" cabaret show at the Cafe Carlyle. 
the show was far better than expected (how can anything with the music of the Gershwins not be great!).  And I thoroughly enjoyed Andrea's cabaret performance.

Naturally we had to eat!  Lusardis on the Eastside was a tremendous joy (including my truffles) followed by dinner at the Brasserie.

The ladies even had time to spend shopping at Sak's.

We ended with a more casual dinner at "The Man of Kent" to return back to normalcy in Vermont.  Photos of the trip may be seen by clicking here.

After the Peepers Leave . . .

With the seemingly unending presences of our visiting peepers, we decided it was time to get in the car and take a little drive around the countryside to do some peeping ourselves.  Due to the past wind and rain storms, much of the foliage was off the trees - but it still was a lovely view.  Janet had time to stop and get some decorations for the season.

Our Bucket List Gets Reduced by 1

It has taken over 15 years but today we did what we've been talking of doing all that time:  we drove up to the top of Mt. Equinox in Manchester, VT.  Considering the various steep pitches, multiple hairpin turns, and the silent concern about the driver's capability to handle this task, it was a pleasant 15 minutes up - 20 minutes down.  When we reached the peak Janet was concerned that the car smelled strangely.  We determined that everything up there smell strangely - the parking area had just been freshly retarred.  Anyway, it was great to do something we've talked about doing for years.  Just a few photos are available by clicking here. 

Douglas, Veronica, & Emilia Visit Ludlow in July

Douglas and Veronica flew up with Emilia for a long weekend.  It was our first exposure to Emilia walking - and boy, can she walk!  We had a great time attending a Gypsy Reel concert at Jackson-Gore, introducing Emilia to the Almonds and Kneebones, swimming and picnicking at Plymouth State Park, and a lunch at Long Trail Brewery - among other activities.

Emilia had a chance to try out a "new" old chair Janet had gotten for her.  She also had time to play with our pre-Devi "dog", Kibby.

Veronica cooked us a fantastic dinner and Douglas, with Jeffrey's help, started to powerwash some of the siding of the house.

We even had time to discuss what our holiday activities will be in November and December.  Still not definitely decided but we've at least started planning.

Some more photos of the great weekend are available by clicking here.

Paces and Kuntzs See VSO at Jay Peak

The Pace's and the Kuntz's decided to spend some time at Jay Peak on June 30-July 1 to enjoy the Fourth of July concert by the VSO.  Kevin was kind enough to drive us up to the Stowe area where we stopped to checkout the von Trapp Inn (huge place) and then have a great lunch beneath the Stowe trails.

While we had no problems with our room in the new Jay Hotel, Patsy and Kevin did and were forced to move to a new room in a separate hotel, closer to the area where the VSO concert audience would be.

It was a very good thing that happened.

At intermission, after some great numbers by the VSO, the heavans decided to open up.  We simply left all our "Tanglewood-type" picnic stuff outside and ran for the Kuntz's room which overlooked the concert area.  We spent the rest of the concert on the Kuntz's balcony.

All in all, it was a fun time, great company, good music, and a lovely trip.  We only took a few photos which can be seen by clicking here.

It Must Be Spring-First Hummingbird Appears

While I haven't had the chance to get a photo of him (or her), both Janet and I separately saw hummingbirds feeding at our bachelor buttons and one of the three feeders that were placed out yesterday.  So it must be Spring!  Photos to follow (hopefully).

The "Boys" Remember Mama

Stephen, Jeffrey, and Douglas remembered Mother's Day by sending a lovely bouquet of flowers to Janet.  While the bouquet will end up on our kitchen table, tonight it will occupy the center of the dining room as we enjoy the beautiful arrangement at dinner.  They are really great guys!  (with a pretty wonderful Mother!)!