2025
January 1st and after a few too many jello shots we are trying to clean up the mess from our NY Eve party at Penny and Ted's in St Augustine.
Rarity - it snowed in SE Georgia. Of course lots of power outages - our trees are not used to all that ice weight and crazy drivers that don't understand how to drive on ice or snow. I didn't drive anywhere until it had melted -- I'm not stupid. (Even though I was raised in the north).
In March we had our annual West Marigold Dog Parade where we raised almost $ 7000 for Glynn CountyNo Kill. It is always so much fun. Viva Paws Vegas was our theme this year.
Polish Easter dinner with Laurie, Stacy and Laurie's mom, Lovey.
Salem House
It was time. I bought the house in 2017- it was in a perfect location - right at the entrance to SAW ( Salem Art Works ) where Zac works. Bonus I'd get to see Zac at least once a day. Classes to take (I took 4 - 2 glass blowing, 1 blacksmithing and 1 pottery) and lots of artists activities to observe. SAW actually helped me buy the house - because Gary, one of the local artist mechanic and teacher at the sculpture park rented part of the house from me and lived in it all year long so no need to winterize or worry about my house every year. This year SAW was having some financial problems so they could no longer subsidize Gary's rental. I rented it to 2 younger people with 2 dogs and I could tell that they were not crazy about an old lady coming every summer to stay 2 months in the downstairs bedroom. So.... it was time to sell....... We have a plan to fix up one section of Zac's Salem house for me to use. The summers were cool and full of interesting activities. I hope I can continue to spend part of my summers in that beautiful area. Hopefully it will work out the way I am imagining and my summer visits will continue.
I spent about month cleaning, painting, simplifying, packing moving my possessions with the help of Zac and Fox. Luckily the house was under contract within a week of our listing. I got close to my asking price and a great 'vibe' from the mom and her sons who bought it. Definitely gave me conflicting emotions. It was a good 8 years.
Not as many participants this year due to the SAW slow down but Friday night horseshoes at the top of Cary Hill continued on and was fun as usual. Yes I even made a ringer or two. Lots of beer, dogs and music.
Yes, we even play in the rain.
Back home and back to my part-time work at JICC (convention center) but I intend to turn in my notice soon (I did the same a few years prior but it didn't stick).
Liz my boss at our staff party.
Even though this was my official last day - they didn't let me hand in my keys. I am still on the books ( I've only been called in once). Besides packing and doing chores I have been putting off for too long..... I seemed to have been picked up a lot of pet sitting and computer help jobs which seems to keep me with some extra cash.
2025 BIG ADVENTURE
In 2024 I joined Paula and Bob for a partial Holland America world cruise tour. We all flew to Singapore and had a great 2 days before we boarded the Zuiderdam. Second SHIP day we took one of HA tours. On the tour Paula fell - broke her shoulder and got a slight concussion and they flew home. I stayed aboard and continued the cruise. Thank goodness I met some really nice people I could hang around with. The only glitch in the trip was that due to the problems in the Suez canal. The HA company decided to change the itinerary and skip the canal and the Mediterranean. A refund CREDIT was given and that is how I ended signing up for this cruise.
Basically we start in Athens Greece, stop in Croatia, Italy, Albania, Sardinia, France and end in Barcelona Spain.
Beth, one of the wonderful people I met on the 2024 cruise, is my traveling companion for this trip. She flew to Brunswick to meet me for a few days and see our "Golden Isles". She said our airport was adorable! Her welcome package was a t-shirt and meal from Willies Weenee Wagon -- I go all out don't I? We also cramed in a Jekyll Island Museum tour and Driftwood beach inbetween the rain we had for the two days she was there.
From our "Adorable BQK" we flew to Atlanta with a 3 hour layover. Flight to Athens was 10 hours in the full Economy section. Sore butt, two movies, and no sleep but we arrived with all our luggage and an easy entry into Greece. We caught a pleasent taxi ride to a luggage storage area near the port. The luggage store was a do-it-yourself place with no attendant. The worrysome thing is that my 28" bag is now stored right next door to a busy sex shop. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
We walked across the street and went into the port area after a couple of questions we finally found the correct area to wait to catch our hydrofoil "Areo 1" to our pre- boarding small adventure that was recommended to Beth. She did all the arranging and found us a nice AirBnB on the island of Hydra (or Irdra - pronounced eedra). Her research had gotten us the apt address and the recommendation to take a water taxi to the smaller village of Kaminia. On Hydra there are not many street signs and no house numbers. All the roads are cobblestones and with many many many steps. This flatlander had a major problem dragging my backpack and smaller bag up the hills. after texting the agent a few times we decided to trust Google maps. It led us to a building at the top of a long set of stairs where we accidently entered the home of an elderly person. One of her NICE neighbors spoke English and helped us by calling the owner and agent. If this sounds confusing - it really was. Please remember we had both been without sleep for more than 24 hours. Beth roamed around (she had taken pity on me - she is younger ) as I collapsed on one of the rock walls. After a few minutes she found the correct place and let me know we were home..... It is much smaller than it appeared in the ad but very adequate.
We had a nice early dinner back down at the small harbor area. Climbing back to the apt was so much easier without luggage and crashed. I slept for about 10 hours.
First night we had beer, and split an order of lamb and Greek salad. So much we took home the rest for lunch the next day - still yummy.
Tuesday -Next morning I walked back to the main Hydra harbor - again lots of ups and down. Beth had picked up a little cold from the plane so she was hunkering down for the morning. I went to the local museum and shopped a little. Walked back to Kaminia by noon where we had our yummy leftovers from last night's dinner up on the pation on the roof. Both of us caught a couple of nice naps up there to.
Leonard Cohn Memorial (he used to live here) - Bird on a Wire and Everybody Knows fame -- sort of like a Bob Dylan type
On the walk to Hydra the main town
Loved the name of the drinks
Lots of artifacts from the Greek Revolution of 1821, guns, swords, uniforms and paintings - some women's period clothing
looking up the sides of the hills sheltering the harbor - lots of sailoats water taxis
Donkeys that carry mostly suitcases and cargo to the hotels
(sometimes people too)
And by the way they have donkey milk face cream for sale in some of the shops - no I didn't try it.
Dinner at the same restuarant by our little harbor. They treated us so nice and helped us find our accommedations the first night - we just kept coming back.
Wednesday - Beth is finally feeling a little better so we decided to see if we could find the pharmacy that I saw a sign for but could never find. We up lots of hills again and followed the 'iffy' google maps (there is no way that little google car drove around here documenting the area) and this time it worked! After getting the drugs we went into town and got some bakery items and cookies. Walked home and took a nap.
lots of cats everywhere
I decided I wanted to see the old Quarter of Kiafa and Beth was game, so back to climbing up many stairs. Definitely the oldest part of the town. Lots of arches, narrow streets and old buildings in need of repair. We picked up some good looking plums for breakfast tomorrow morning and headed back home. I worked on the roof patio with a Coke Zero - (always hard to find the diet ones) to finish up the blog for this part of the trip.
Village is very high up but you can still see the harbor
and repeat over and over....
Our garden in our courtyard - Lemon, Lime, and Rosemary plus herbs.
view from our rooftop
Pomagranites next door
yes they have horses too - it is parked outside the owners boat making shop - Another taxi boat is being built
We are headed to bed to get ready for another day of travel back to Athens. We will stay 3 nights in another AirBnB that Beth booked. Hopefully we will be able to find it easier than this one. BUT we would still recommend it - just hopefully their directions will be "upgraded ".
