I took a look at my Day Planner for 2024 and my phone calendar and made a list in Notes of What Happened in 2024. I was surprised at all the events from the year. Sometimes in my mind I think “I never do anything!”, but this proved me wrong. There were lunches and dinners out with friends, two trips to New York other than our yearly Christmas shopping spree, and three week long vacations!
I’m looking forward to this new year of adventures!
In August of 2019, we took our sixth and final week long motorcycle trip. We traveled to upstate New York. Among the places we visited, our final stop was Storm King Art Center in New Windsor New York.
Wavefield
It’s a 500 acre park with over 100 outdoor sculptures and this is one of “the sculptures”!
It’s called Wavefield and it was created by Maya Lin, the sculptor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The medium is earth and grass – but you probably figured that out!
There are many impressive sculptures in the park and it was fun to wander around the grounds looking at the sculptures. Some move around and one is a giant swing that you can sit on.
I’d love to go back there and walk through the fields!
We took a Danube River cruise in October 2018 and we had a great time except…. There was sort of a pre-excursion part of the cruise where we stayed at a resort for 2 nights and were bused back to Munich for an excursion and only had an hour at an Oktoberfest. Once we boarded our boat in Passau we cruised forward for the night but then had to be bused to Regensberg and another excursion because the water levels were low and Viking took our spot in Regensberg. It created very long bus rides, shortened excursions, and cranky passengers (not us!).
We decided to cancel all our non-included excursions and woke Sunday morning to the notification that breakfast was ending in five minutes!
We got up, took our showers and headed out to find someplace for breakfast – in a country where we could barely speak the language (ok, we couldn’t at all).
Passau Germany 2018
We found this lovely passage and wandered around a bit until we found a cute little restaurant so we sat down and helped ourselves to the buffet being served. then realized the restaurant was part of a hotel!
They were very gracious and let us have our meal – thank God because we were starved!
The trip improved from there and we enjoyed ourselves traveling down the Danube.
In July 2016, five people and three bikes took off from Wallingford, Connecticut, for a cruise around Pennsylvania. The trip was inspired by our 2012 trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway through Gettysburg. My head was on a swivel as we went through the middle of town coming home from that trip and I knew I wanted to go back some day!
We prepared for the trip in February by checking out the state on a map looking for sites and hotels and planning our route.
I took so many pictures during our trip and one of the sites I couldn’t get enough of was Fallingwater.
This home was designed in the mid-1930s by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann who met him through their son Edgar jr. The home is cantilevered over the falls of Bear Run!
The family, through Edgar jr., continued to own the house through the early 1960s, when he turned over the home and 1,500 acres to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. It’s a beautiful home in a gorgeous location and the ride on the motorcycles to it was filled with rolling hills, forest, and farmland.
Have you ever been to any of these locations? Tell me in the comments!
Six years ago today, my husband and I set off on our first significant vacation – a Danube River Cruise. We left on October 2nd at 6pm, had a stop in Dublin, and a short flight to Munich. It was a great trip and we met some really great people on the first evening.
Corridor at Melk Abbey, Melk Austria
We stayed 2 nights at a resort before we boarded our boat (could have done without those), and the low water levels messed with our time in Regensburg (that really annoyed me!), but once we started really sailing it was great!
One of our tours was of Melk Abbey and it was so beautiful but photography was not allowed in the rooms.
Town of Melk
Bonus Hump Day photo because I loved the colors of the town. These are real colors – no filter but it sure looks like one! I have quite a few photos of the town!
Have you ever taken a Danube River cruise? If you have, what was your favorite destination?
Going back to my first trip to Paris in 2007. I was with my sister, her daughter, and their neighbor.
This was from our trip to Notre Dame. We were staying just over the river in the Marais District so we spent a good amount of time in this area.
I remember we took a tour of the church on Tuesday and while we were waiting in line to go into the bell tower we met some college girls who told us the best time to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower was in the evening. They were right! It was beautiful.
We had already visited Montmartre the day before and I love that I had it in the background. The gargoyles were so much fun and I have so many pictures of them! I wonder if they are ok?
There’s nothing like “seeing the colors” on an October weekend in New England!
Our motorcycle gang of 4 people, 3 bikes took off for Vermont on a Friday morning in October of 2015. We stayed at the Grey Ghost Inn in West Dover. On Saturday, we took a ride to Mount Equinox and had an amazing 360 degree view of mountains and valleys.
Of course when you’re on a motorcycle, you take a very circuitous route there and back so I’m sure we spent the entire day riding to a place that is a 2 hour round trip! Of course, there’s stops for snacks, lunch, more snacks, candy…..
Along the way we passed through 2 covered bridges and this beautiful steel bridge. This was taken as we were motoring by and there are 3 or 4 pictures I took leading up to it because I’m always hoping for at least one spectacular shot. I think I succeeded here!
What’s your favorite part of fall? Do you have changing colors where you live? Let me know in the comments!
Today’s Hump Day photo comes from the first week long motorcycle trip we took in 2013. We traveled with another couple and 2 single guys from Connecticut, down the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park, and along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee North Carolina and back.
Brendan, Chris, and Mark Harley Davidson Factory York PA
This picture was taken in the parking lot of the Harley Davidson factory in York Pennsylvania. It was on the last day of our trip. Because of a rain delay the day before we were running behind. We stayed overnight in York, but I think there either was no Saturday tour or we couldn’t swing the time because we were still a good 6 hours away from home.
About the trip –
We took off in early June and it was cold and rainy. The views were amazing on the Skyline Drive but for much of the ride on the parkway it was cold and foggy! Lesson learned #1 – we need to travel in the summer!
There was one other rider, who is still a good friend. He led the way and the focus was getting in a lot of hours on the bike. Amy, the other female, and I wanted to see sights! Lesson Learned #2 – plan the trip!
We rode on the Tail of the Dragon in Deals Gap, NC and went nice and slow! We went to the top of Chimney Rock and could see Lake Lure where they filmed Dirty Dancing. We stayed in Floyd Virginia and absolutely fell in love with it! We got caught in a monstrous rain storm on the highway and stopped for the day and overnight in Natural Bridge Virginia at this little motel where we pulled the bikes under the overhang and walked to the nearby diner for our meals.
After this trip, we continued to go on day trips, weekend trips, and week long trips with Brendan and Amy and Chris. We all got along so well and enjoyed some really great trips.
This picture reflects the start of those wonderful friendships.
Is there anything worse on vacation than opening the Friday on a pill case? I can’t think of one!
Our last day at Lake Winnipesauke was spent on the boat with my sister and her husband who drove over from their home in Maine. We tried to dock in Wolfesboro for lunch again but everyone had the same idea so we headed over to Weirs Beach instead. We’ve been there many times by motorcycle for Laconia Bike Week in June so this was a whole different view! We saw buildings usually blocked by big white vendor tents and the arcades were in full swing. We had lunch at Dox and headed back out to drift on the lake.
It was a great week of boating, hiking, and shopping! The early part of the week was sunny but by Wednesday the smoke from the Canadian fires made its way to us and it was hazy sun. We knew rain was coming on Thursday so we headed to Conway for shopping – but we didn’t think to bring our umbrellas so ended up buying new ones!
Packing up on Saturday and saying goodbye to our little home was sad as I was finally sleeping past 6am but it was time to go. I’m hoping to rent for 10 days next year at the same location.
Our one bedroom cottage among 4 rentals on the property
Today it’s rainy in Connecticut which is perfect weather to get laundry done, open the mail, and get ready for our family’s Fantasy Football draft tonight!
I’m on vacation this week which I’ve told you about in previous posts.
So why not share a picture from today!
Early evening on the water
We had our friends over for a day on the boat and lunch in Wolfeboro. It was still very warm after they left so we went back out to anchor somewhere and spend some time reading.
The smoke from the Canadian fires made the skies very hazy and strange!
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 