FOTO FRIDAY - 6/28/13

Dear Family and Friends,

Last Friday, I posted a picture of our Thai friend, Noi feeding a monk outside her home.  Click here.

These Friday's photos are a continuation of this story.

Here is Chuck and Noi.  Noi is showing Chuck how to do a Thai dance.

A few months later, this photo was taken when Noi, and her husband, Veera, visited us in Washington state.

Love,
Nancy

FOTO FRIDAY - 6/21/13

Dear Family and Friends,

In 2005, Chuck and I lived one week in Chaing Mai, Thailand with the Rungkaew family.  On Saturday morning we were having breakfast and a bell tinkled outside.  Noi jumped up and said I must go feed the monk.

The monk comes to Noi's house every Saturday morning.  She puts some food (fruit, bread) in his bowl.  She explained to me that the monk does not have money to buy food, he is required to "beg."

She signed up to be on his Saturday morning route.  So actually the monk does not have to beg, but go on his daily routes to be fed.

I was intrigued.

Love,
Nancy

FOTO FRIDAY - 6/14/13

Dear Family and Friends,

Here is a picture of a South American glacier when we sailed through the Chilean fjords in 2007.

If you love cursing Alaska, I highly recommend that you try a cruise around the tip of South America.   These cruises go from Argentina to Chile or Chile to Argentina.

Love,
Nancy

New Face

Dear Family and Friends,

Yes, you are in the right place.  I decided to change how this blog looks.

We are so happy to be back in Cuenca.  We came home to a beautifully groomed garden thanks to our friend, Charlie.

Thanks a million Charlie.

You are such a good friend!

Love,

Nancy and Chuck

FOTO FRIDAY - 6/7/13

Dear Family and Friends,

Are you old enough to remember when we could buy little turtles like these in the U.S.? Some had pictures painted on their shells.  I also remember that at Easter season you could also buy little chicks that had been dyed pastel colors.

I never had a turtle, but the little chick I had grew up and molted its feathers everywhere.  What a mess!  Had to give it to a friend who raised chickens.  Sad day for me.

When we were in Japan I saw these little fellows for sale and childhood memories flooded back.

At the time this photo was taken (2005) the U.S. dollar equaled 100 Japanese Yen making these little guys about $8 each.

Love,
Nancy

Goodbye Facebook

Dear Family and Friends,

I have decided to leave Facebook. 

This is not an easy decision to make. 

The decision is hard because I can see all the pictures my kids post of themselves and the grand kids on a regular basis.  I know what is going on in their lives.  Now it will back to email....just not the same.

Another reason it is hard is that I have connected with high school friends that I have not seen or talked with in almost 50 years.  It is tough to give that up, especially since we all graduated in 1964 and next year will be the 50th anniversary.  I plan to attend next year, but without Facebook how will I find out? 

Keeping up with my old working buddies and other family and friends has been wonderful.  Especially since I am so far away.

The main way I stayed connected on Facebook was by linking our blog with networked blogs.  Each time I would post it would show up on my timeline.

If you read this blog because you find it on Facebook, and if you want to keep up with me, all you have to do is put your email address in the top right hand corner of this blog and you will receive an email notification each time I publish a post.

So why am I leaving?  I am leaving Facebook because of this:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/malware-that-drains-your-bank-account-thriving-on-facebook/?smid=fb-share

I checked it out on Snopes.com and found that it is true.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/facebook/ramnit.asp


It appears that people using Windows are most vulnerable.  Nothing bad has happened to me yet, but I think that it is just a matter of time.  Just don't want to risk having things stolen from us.  Cyber crime is getting more sophisticated and it is harder and harder for the Cyber police to keep up.  Gotta protect myself.

Chuck, because he uses another operating system, is staying on Facebook.  He, of course, will share pictures from the kids with me.

Love,
Nancy

IN-N-OUT Experience

Dear Family and Friends,

IN-N-OUT is a regional hamburger chain located in five western states.  It was started in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California. We have seen shirts with the IN-N-OUT logo.  Of course, this peeked our curiosity about such a hamburger chain, but had never actually been to the restaurant.

While we were visiting Kylie and Bryce in Dublin, California, I told her I had never been to an IN-N-OUT.  She fixed that....we went to feast on a hamburger.

The first thing we noticed was that when people use the drive thru, they give their order to a human.  Yes, a real human, not a box that talks to you. 

We went inside and this is the simple menu above the counter.

However, Kylie told us about their "not so secret" menu.  Before leaving her house, she went online and showed us what else we could order.

not so secret menu

I ordered the "Protein Style" burger and Chuck chose the "Animal Style" burger.

After placing our order, we were able to see all the staff working in the kitchen.  I liked that.

This is another persons order but just seeing their order took my expectations sky high.  Those looked like real hamburgers. Much better than what we expected.

Here is my double "protein style" burger...no bun, just wrapped in crisp lettuce.  It was delicious.

And here is Chuck's "animal style" bad boy burger.

And here are Kylie and Bryce who introduced us to our first IN-N-OUT experience.

Thanks a bunch.

Love,
Nancy

Last but Best Leg of our Trip.

Dear Family and Friends,

After our train adventure with Matt, we rented another car in Seattle, and we returned to Richland, WA for just one night.

Our son Michael, and his family, met us for breakfast at 6:15 am before we headed out of town.  We had a wonderful visit together. They were so sweet to get up at the crack of dawn to see us off.

Here we all are at Shari's restaurant.

 
Here are pictures of Heidi and Cannon.  You couldn't ask for sweeter grandchildren.

 

Our next stop on our way back to Cuenca was to visit our daughter, Kylie and grandson Bryce in Dublin, California.

We spent a long weekend with them.  Kylie took us to Danville to the farmers market on Saturday morning.

Here she is showing off some nice basil.

Here is our handsome, sweet grandson, Bryce.

Kylie had a cookout on Sunday and invited her neighbors and friends over.  What a great bunch of folks.  We had steak and beer and just about any food you can think of to go with.

After leaving Dublin we headed north to Santa Rosa to visit with Audrey (Chuck's sister) and her husband, Jim.  We had a great time there.  When we see them next, Audrey will be retired and they will be living in their new home in Cle Elum, Washington.

After a couple of days in Santa Rosa we headed south to Las Vegas, NV.  We spent a couple of days there doing last minute shopping and "you know what."

On Tuesday morning we boarded a plane in Las Vegas at 5:00am for our trip home.  We flew to Panama City, Panama and changed planes before continuing on to Quito.  We arrived in Quito around 5:30pm, just in time to buy tickets on the last Tame flight to Cuenca.  We were in Cuenca by 8:00pm.  We were exhausted, but we were home.

You can see by the look on Chuck's face that he was glad to be heading south.

One last thing, while we were in California Chuck and I had our first "IN-N-OUT" experience.  I will share with you about that next time.

Love,
Nancy