life – Page 6 – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

2024, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

11/13/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on November 13, 2024 by nancyb422

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).

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.

2024, family, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

11/6/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on November 7, 2024 by nancyb422

Let’s pretend today is Wednesday! Unless you had such a horrible Wednesday, you’d rather forget it….

This was taken in October 2013. It was another fun travel trip with my sister, Janice, and her daughter Julie. We shared driving duties from Connecticut to Las Vegas, and then Jan and I would hop on planes and fly home.

We planned the trip to allow us to see a little of the area along the way. We timed our day right to stop at this site mid-morning and enjoy the grounds and the view from the TOP.

Do you know where we were? Have you been there?

2023, 2024, family, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

10/30/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 30, 2024 by nancyb422

On our trip to California last year, we planned a day at Hearst Castle in San Simeon. We went on the Grand Rooms tour in the morning and the Upstairs Suites tour in the afternoon. Both tours included a stop at this outdoor pool – I didn’t care because the weather was gorgeous and so was the pool!

I can picture William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies hosting parties with Cary Grant and Jean Harlow and Clark Gable lounging along side the pool or playing tennis.

It was a really enjoyable day!

2024, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel, Writing

10/23/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 23, 2024 by nancyb422

I shared a picture from a trip to Paris I took in 2008 here and today, I’m sharing another!

Poor Saint Denis! He was the first bishop of Paris back in the 3rd century when Paris was still ruled by the Romans. At that time, Romans were not the Christians we know of today and they weren’t very happy with the number of conversions to Christianity that Denis was accomplishing.

So they took him to the Montmartre area of Paris and beheaded him. It was said that immediately after he was killed, he picked up his head and walked six kilometers north before he finally died.

This statue is in the Place Suzanne Buisson, a lovely park in Montmartre. We came upon the statue as we were heading down the winding streets of Montmatre after visiting Sacre Couer.

We would see Saint Denis again above a door of Notre Dame and again inside the cathedral.

2024, family, hobbies, leisure time, life, photography, relaxing, Travel

10/16/24 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 16, 2024 by nancyb422

Greetings from our nation’s capital! My husband and I are here for 3 full days to explore Washington and Alexandria. Two days are in the books and both have been great.

Day one we took the metro into the city and visited a bunch of monuments around the mall and went to the Holocaust Museum. Today we went to Mount Vernon and the spent a few hours in Old Town Alexandria. Tomorrow we’ll be back to DC for the White House, Capitol building, the museum of the American Indian, and on the way back we’ll stop at Arlington Cemetery.

If you’ve been here, what’s your favorite place to go?

friends, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, This Old House, Travel

10/9/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 9, 2024 by nancyb422

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.

We headed out on July 12th and had a wonderful time. We saw sites including the Colton Point State Park gorge, known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, Kinzua Bridge State Park, the Flight 93 National Memorial, and the piece de resistance of the trip, three nights and 2 full days in Gettysburg.

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!

2024, Goals, life, thoughts, Writing

Too Hard to Start

Posted on October 8, 2024 by nancyb422

What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

To work on myself….to understand myself….to learn self-love and practice it….to break my co-dependent nature.

I haven’t succeeded because it’s too difficult to start. To start means to move away from the person I know into the unknown.

2024, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, photography

10/2/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 2, 2024 by nancyb422

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.

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.

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?

2024, hobbies, life, thoughts, Writing

9/25/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on September 25, 2024 by nancyb422

Today is Hump Day and today I’m posting a picture of something I see on my Monday through Friday travels from my house to my garage workout room.

Some days it’s easy to get there and some days it’s tough. Today I wasn’t excited about it! I went to bed early (fell asleep reading my book!), and I woke up at 1:30 and what felt like every hour after that. Of course I woke up groggy when the alarm went off at 5:30 and I thought about staying in bed. But my brain told me I had Day 2 of Rebecca Kennedy’s 3-Day Split waiting for me and I couldn’t give up on my leg workout. So off I went!

When I round the corner and see this sight, I feel energized. This time of year, it’s chilly in the morning but not chilly enough that I don’t want to linger to take in the view. My phone probably has 100+ photos of this same view throughout the year because every one is different. It’s what keeps me going.

2024, life, Memories, Writing

Put a Lid on That!

Posted on September 23, 2024 by nancyb422

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

Picture this –

I’m standing at the kitchen counter in my pretty pink Izod polo shirt with the alligator and a popped collar (hey, it was the ‘80s!) and I am blending broccoli, something, and something else, hoping it will turn into a tasty broccoli soup.

Unfortunately, I failed to make sure the lid was on tight enough! The top flies off and green liquid is flying everywhere – and it’s HOT!

After I freak out and regain my senses, I turn off the blender and begin cleaning up in my pretty pink Izod polo shirt that is now covered in broccoli soup.

Epic Cooking Fail!