Walt Disney World

Last year, we went to Walt Disney World with Margaret, Matt, Anthony, and Michael.  We are just now back from WDW with Cecilia, Maggie, and Ingrid.

Our first Disney meal, at Columbia Harbour House in Magic Kingdom.

On the monorail. The first 2 days were rainy.

Dinner at the Coral Reef restaurant at Epcot in the Seas pavilion.

The girls LOVED Spaceship Earth (aka the golf ball).

Nap time.

At Magic Kingdom.

 In a teacup.

Toy Story Mania ride at the Hollywood Studio Park. Richard's favorite.

Sorting dinosaur bones at the Animal Kingdom Park.

The girls enjoyed the pool at our resort, Disney Pop Century Resort.

Dancing the polka at the Biergarten restaurant in the German pavilion.

Group photo at EPCOT.

At our resort, waiting for the Disney bus back to the Orlando airport.

Disney World trip

Our room at the Disney All Star Movie Resort - with mouse towel art in the foreground.

Our first dinner was at the Grand Floridian Resort.  Here is the lobby.

The next day we were at Animal Kingdom.

Then on to EPCOT.

In England.

Mulan, in China.

Italy.  My flat feet gave out and this rented scooter helped a lot.

Sleeping beauty.

Then we lost our camera.  But, amazingly, Disney lost and found returned it it us.  But, then, we forgot to take it with us on the last few days of Disney.

Richard made a trip to Tampa to see his brother and his family.

Morocco Trip

We took a 2 week trip to Morocco with Odysseys Unlimited from Feb 1 to Mar 16.  Here are a few of the many pictures we took.  We left our car with Emily in Charlotte and flew USAir from there to JFK, where we got our Royal Air Maroc flight to Casablanca.

We arrived Casablanca very early morning, and were met by our tour guide Mohamed Dahouas.  We took our bus straight away to Rabat, our first stop.  Here we are at the mausoleum of a former king.

Now, in Fez.  The decor behind us is widespread.

Also Fez, in front of gates to one of the royal palaces (there are a lot of them).

Near Erfoud, we took a camel ride to this spot in the Sahara, where we watched the sun set.

 One morning, we took a carriage ride in Marrakech to see some sights.

Finally, back in Casablanca, we had a dinner in Rick's Cafe, which was created by a former US Diplomat to be reminiscent of the cafe in the old movie Casablanca.

Then, we flew back to JFK, to find that our continuing flight to Charlotte was cancelled, and the next available flight was two days later.  We took a cab to Penn station, an Amtrak train to DC, and were picked up by Jane's sister and brother-in-law Lee and Jim.  We spent 2 nights at their house, and then were able to fly from DC to Charlotte, where we drove home to a yard full of snow.

Our hotels were beyond compare.  Our guide was great.  Our fellow tourists were very congenial and very well travelled.

Trip South

After a brief stop in Charlotte, our next stop was at Matthew and Lindsay's near Savannah.  You've already seen pictures of the projects we did.  Here is some fun we had taking a carriage ride behind Lindsay's two miniature horses.

Then on to Margaret and Matt's place in Florida.  Here is Anthony hanging upside down from the bar swing.

Margaret's college class had an outing.  Here they inspect what was trapped in the last two days.

Our one day at the beach.  Flags were up, so no swimming, but big sandcastles were constructed.

Now, back to Emily and Miran's.  The old master bedroom will be Miran's office and the bird room.  This transformation required a number of projects.  The three gray walls were repainted.  A track was put across the ceiling (not in picture) for a curtain to separate the two areas.  A new stand for the birdcage was assembled and installed.

The 8 dining room chairs were to have their seat fabric replaced (black going to white).  This proved harder than imagined, and only one was finished.

We rewarded ourselves by going out to dinner at our favorite Italian place.  We have a better picture of Miran, but it is worse of Emily.

Visit to Windy Point Camp

Here is the camp on Upper Saranac Lake, NY, where I spent my summers in the 1950's.  It was owned by my Aunt Catherine, and was called Windy Point.  Today it is called Three Trees and is owned by the three Crane siblings.  The Crane's, and the current renters the Simons' were gracious enough to allow me and my entourage to walk through the camp relating stories from my days here.  Lisa (Crane) Percival and her husband Dean even drove over from their home in VT to be with us.

The main house looks the same.

The main porch.  One of the large swings has been moved to make a conversation group at one end.

 Three views of the main living room.  Notice that much of the old furniture is still there.

The northeast corner of the living room, where we used to play bridge, is still used for that purpose and to play other games.

 The porch of Aunt Catherine's cabin, which is largely unchanged.

The dog pen and dog house are gone, as is part of the old woodshed.  The remainder is now the shop and the freezer room is still on the back.

The wash room still contains the old clothes wringer that I remember mainly crushed buttons.

Most amazingly, the dinner bell still exists, and when the owners are in camp, the youngest child gets to ring it for meals, similar to what we did 50-60 years ago!

The kitchen has been extensively remodeled.  This is now the eating area, and the kitchen is where the children's dining room used to be, off to the right.  A bedroom was discovered above the kitchen, thus the spiral staircase.

The main dining room is now a ping pong room.

 Living room of the tower house.

The duplex, where Pop and the cook stayed, has burned down.  The building in the background was the shop, and now is an additional bedroom.

Donald's cabin is still there.

The old generator house is now a bedroom.  Power now comes from the grid.

A parting shot with the big rock in the background.

Ar Donnelly's ice cream store, on our way back to Saranac Lake from the camp.  I remember having ice cream here as a child.