OUR GREEN VALLEY
DREAMCATCHER
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OUR GREEN VALLEY |
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Spring in the Sonoran Desert To be eventually replaced with something Pennsylvanian |
California Poppy with Insect |
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Night-Blooming Cactus
Torch Cactus
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HAL Alaska Arctic Circle Solstice HAL Adriatic Gems and Malta & Mediteranean Romance HAL Grand Australia & New Zealand (January 3 - March 15, 2024) Israel: The Holy Land and Timeless Cultures (January 21 - February 11, 2023)
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In this section we will try to keep you up-to-date with what's happening with timely comments and links to other areas of the Web page.
What a lot has changed since the last update - over a year ago! We successfully did a HAL cruise in the Adriatic and to Malta, and around the Mediterranean, ending with a few days in Barcelona. That was in August and September of 2024 (Web pages still in process!). The planned December and January trip to Singapore, Bangkok, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Cairns and Darwin in Australia was cancelled after Gale fell off her bike on December 7 and fractured her elbow. That event caused us to decide to make the big move we had been talking about to a CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community). Gale had investigated a CCRC in the Philadelphia area and since she really wanted to move back "home" to be near family and friends, we decided to do it! Between December and June, we got the house ready and put it on the market, packed up the possessions, hired a moving company, and moved everything to Shannondell, a CCRC in Audubon, PA - just a mile north of Valley Forge National Park. The moving van picked up the household in Green Valley on June 1, Gale went to Philly on June 3 for an orientation to the new place, the furniture was delivered on June 6, and on June 7 we flew to Seattle to board Holland America's MS Westerdam for a 28-day cruise to Alaska to the Arctic Circle and to experience the summer solstice (both of which we have done before, but the ship called at four new ports). It was a great cruise (someday it, too, will make it to these Web pages). We returned to Seattle on July 6, flew to Tucson, spent a couple days finishing tasks around the house (still hasn't sold - really bad market timing!), and began our drive to Philadelphia on July 9. Four and one half days (41-hours) and 2,314 miles later, we arrived to an apartment full of furniture and 250 boxes! Two months later we are nearly done moving in - just a few more pictures to put up.
Trips on the Web page - lots still in process:
Israel is still in process but eventually it will appear - have faith!
The HAL Australia & New Zealand cruise was interrupted on March 15, in northern New Zealand (Waitangi), when Gale suffered chest pains and we were disembarked from the ship. She was transported by ambulance to Wharangei (about 45 miles south) and Marge followed later, by transit van. After 5 days in the hospital, an angiogram (no stent inserted), and an echocardiogram (normal enough), she was discharged. We made our way to Auckland and flew home on March 21. Subsequent MD visits and tests have declared her to be good-to-go. No damage or lasting concerns. Hooray! That trip and all the trips since are unfinished. Now that the house is in order, I will be able to get back to work on them!
Dreamcatcher
We named our Estes Park house and property Dreamcatcher, not so much because of the Indian legend explained below, as because the house and its location represented a "dream come true" for our retirement. Our move to Arizona represents a dream of a slightly different sort, but just as appropriate, so I believe we will call this new home our Green Valley Dreamcatcher. We hope the Dream Catchers in our home will catch and keep the good dreams.
Indian Dream Catcher Legend
The Plains Indians believe Dream Catchers catch all dreams, good and bad. Good dreams, knowing the way, travel through the hole in the center, rest on the feather like a dew drop, and evaporate to the Great Spirit in the morning sun. Bad dreams, not knowing the way, get entangled in the web. The prayer beads on the Dream Catcher trap all the bad dreams that are left on the web. The prayer beads then burn them up.
