Our 2017 Review

     OUR 2017 REVIEW

WE WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2018

Well, hello everyone. I looked at the blog and couldn't believe I've only made two posts this year.  I have really not been in the writing mode for a long while, so sorry about that.

This year started with us finishing our camphosting at Santee Lakes at the end of January.  We do not know when or if we will return to San Diego, so we said our goodbyes and promised to let them know if we ever wanted to return.  We enjoyed our time there but there is a lot still for us to see and explore.

We headed East toward Jacksonville, Florida where Ryan, Christina and Trystan were moving to. We had an additional passenger.  Peace, their dog accompanied us, as it helped them not having to worry about her.  Traveling over 2,000 miles with a one year old and a dog is not fun, and so we were happy we could help in a small way. 

Peace looking at Donnie & Marie on the Las Vegas Strip!!!

We stopped at Bryan's moms for a couple of days on the way and she met Christina & Trystan for the first time.  It was great seeing her and having the kids stop by as well.

We all arrived safe and sound in Jacksonville and helped them get settled into their new home.

Brenda, John, LeeAnn and Aimee came to visit in March, and it was so good having everyone together.  

LeeAnn, Aimee & Trystan at Jax Zoo

All of us, yay!!

I'm still hoping to have a meeting of all the kids together at some time.  Ian & Brenda have never met and logistically it's a nightmare trying to get everyone in the same place when they're in different places and different continents. Oh well, maybe one day!!!

We spent Easter helping Trystan paint eggs for the first time. 

After Easter we took two weeks to do some lighthouse searching and a coastal drive back toward Louisiana and Mom's.  We visited quite a few more lighthouses to add to our list on the way.

This one was Cape St. George Light, on St. George Island, near Apalachicola, (which was a small town that we loved).  In fact we like this whole coastline.

View from the top

At  St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge we saw an alligator and Bald Eagle and were lucky enough to get pictures of them. 

Our main project at moms was to redo her path to the house. It took a while waiting for the weather to cooperate, and then letting Bryan's back and knees have a rest between stages, but he did it and was happy that he could help.

Before

After

At the beginning of June we headed back to Jacksonville, stopping for a while at Blue Angel, our favorite RV park in Pensacola.

RV Park at Pensacola 

RV Park Beach at Pensacola

Back in Jacksonville, the summer was hot, and we continued with follow ups for medical issues. Bryan got his VA Disability claim approved and I had a spot removed above my upper lip that was cancerous but they managed to get it all.

We managed a couple of trips to St. Augustine and Jacksonville Zoo.  Which were both fun days out. We like the Jacksonville Zoo, unlike San Diego it's not too hilly.  The tiger enclosure is quite well planned and they have space to roam.

We stayed at our favorite campground on base at Mayport, where we can watch the ships coming and going, the dolphins, and pelicans.

There were some lovely sunsets

Our first submarine sighting

The aircraft carrier USS George H W Bush came into port to get passengers for a tiger cruise home to Norfolk.  A tiger cruise is where family members of sailors get to be along side of their sailor and see what he does.  These sailors had been deployed and were finally on they way home.  It was quite interesting watching them maneuver to get the ship out of Mayport's docks.

Families on the deck

We watched Hurricane Irma carefully and on September 7th we had to evacuate from Pelican Roost RV Park in Mayport.  We had been tracking the hurricane and decided the best direction to go was West and back to Blue Angel in Pensacola.  It was a difficult few days as no one really knew which direction Irma would go, but ultimately we made the right decision and had very little wind and rain in Pensacola.  The RV Parks in Jacksonville had some damage and were closed for a while.  

We had reservations at the campground at Disneyworld for Trystan's 2nd birthday on September 13th but Disney closed down and then due to damage in the campground it didn't open for another week.

We got a refund from Disney for the campsite but couldn't get a refund for the tickets to the park.

We did wear our special t shirts on the day though.

We stayed in Pensacola for 2 weeks before deciding to head back and used that time for an overnight visit to mom's to say "Hi".

This butterfly visited her porch while we were there

Bryan had an appointment for hearing aids in Gainesville, so we headed that way on our way back to Jacksonville.

We decided to delay our trip to the UK which we were going to start on September 26th, but with the hurricane and medical appointments we delayed for 2 weeks.  I had to have a cyst removed that had developed inside my mouth from the surgery. We also found out that we couldn't get a refund on our Disneyworld park tickets and they expired in the middle of December, so we booked the campground again for 5 nights.  It was a hectic month to say the least!!!!

At the beginning of October we went to Disneyworld and had a good but exhausting 5 days.  We used the fast pass system to book the rides we wanted to go on and then just relaxed as much as possible between rides. You can't help but enjoy yourselves at Disney.

Arriving at Disney world

Avatar

Epcot

Epcot at night

Epcot Fireworks

Tom Sawyer Island

Resting in rocking chairs on Tom Sawyer Island

Minnie

Turkey in our campground 

Animal Kingdom

We returned to Jacksonville on October 6th and prepared to leave for the UK on the 10th.

Our trip to the UK via Rota, Spain:

We decided we would try a military space available plane trip to the UK.  We managed to get a flight from Jacksonville to Norfolk, Va.  On arrival at Norfolk we discovered the plane to Rota, Spain had been delayed 24 hours and so we paired up with another couple and booked two rooms at the hotel on base for the night.
The next day we hung around the hotel for most of the day before getting a taxi back to the terminal.  On the way there I realized that I had lost my military id, without this I wouldn't be able to fly on the plane.  We searched bags for it when we reached the base and got soaked doing it as there was torrential rain.  We had to head back to the hotel in the hopes that someone had found it.  I called them and thankfully they told me they had it. So all was well and we headed back to the terminal after collecting it. Phew!!!
We still weren't sure whether we would get on the plane or not, so were relieved when our names were called and we were set to go.  I have to give a shout out to our new friends during this, they were extremely helpful and had also called the hotel for us to ask about the ID.  Thanks Bev & Jack for making this part of our trip so much better, and for sharing in the agony & stress of those 24 hours!!

We reached Rota and the meal we had on the plane was one of the best I've had on any commercial flight.  We had booked a room on base at Rota to give us time to rest and see if a flight was going to Mildenhall in England.  We found out there wasn't much likelihood of a flight to the UK in the next week and so started to research commercial flights to UK and ended up getting one from Jerez to Heathrow a week later for a reasonable price.

Unfortunately, we both became sick probably due to getting soaked in the rain.  Even the clothes in our bags were wet, so it was pretty bad.  The nearest place to get food on base was a two mile walk and after doing this a couple of times and buying some snacks in the nearby shoppette, we were really miserable.  We decided to move into a hotel, Hostal Macavi, in Rota that would be near restaurants and had a breakfast offered.  The room wasn't bad and at least we had a continental style breakfast.  It was close to the seafront and we went for walks along the front and to the old town to do some exploring.  A lot of places were closed for winter though.  We wanted to get a ferry to Cadiz and explore there but neither of us had the energy or really felt like going far, which was a shame.

Exercising while watching the beach and ocean waves.  Great idea!!

Old & New Lighthouse in Rota, Spain

Bryan having an ice cream

We ordered a taxi to go to Jerez airport to catch our flight to Heathrow via Madrid.  The plane for our flight was late arriving which meant we were late taking off.  Consequently we missed our connection in Madrid.  We actually made the gate in Madrid in time, but our luggage didn't and we couldn't fly on the plane without our luggage.  We did manage to get on another flight shortly after, but were so rushed that I ended up having to borrow a flight attendants phone, as we were taxiing to take off, to send Ian a message that we had missed the first flight and would be arriving later!!  As he was meeting us I just hoped he would receive the message and understand the very short note.  Thankfully he did and was waiting for us.  I've never been happier to see someone.  A friendly face in the crowd after another traumatic journey.  It was quite late by now and pouring with rain all the way to Wales, so I felt sorry for Ian as it's quite a long journey after a day at work as well.  We were very thankful for him though I have to say.

I think it took us at least a week to recuperate and start to feel better.

We went to a fair one weekend and to the fireworks on Guy Fawkes day, at the nearby Coity Castle.

My brother Ray & Julie came to visit for a weekend and we went to Porthcawl, had fish and chips, and chatted a lot.

Playing cricket on the beach, scoring a run.

Walking on the beach

We took up three benches to eat our fish and chips!!

 We stayed with Ian, Kris and the boys for about three weeks and then decided to rent a car for a month and do some sightseeing and visit family and friends.

We focused on visiting air museums on a tour stopping at

Bristol:

Walton Park Hotel

Sunset at hotel

Bristol Aerospace Museum

Yeovil:

Naval Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton

Cheddar Gorge

 We stayed at a B&B called the Fat Pigeon.  It was part of a huge estate called Brympton House.  If you are ever anywhere near this area,we highly recommend you book a room here.  It is quirky, but amazing.  So, so friendly.  Lady Mary served us breakfast and we were highly encouraged to explore everywhere.  We spent a long, long time walking the grounds, house and church.

Brympton House

Back of the house by the lake

A little history about the building we stayed in

A Knight from the crusade dating from about 1270 in Brympton Church

Here's some video's that I took: Brympton House Grounds and Fat Pigeon B&B,
                                                   Brympton House Walled Garden,
                                                   Brympton House Lake

Stockbridge:

We stayed at Highfield Country Guest House.  It was a nice house and awesome breakfast, but we don't really enjoy sharing a house with people we don't know, although we had some great conversations with the other guests.

On the way to Stockbridge we stopped at Stonehenge.  We had passed this on previous trips but neither of us had visited.

We did a trip to Portsmouth and went up the Spinnaker Tower

Spinnaker Tower

View from Spinnaker Tower

While at the top of the tower we saw a lighthouse in the distance so we went to find it.  It was interesting as it was built into Southsea Castle walls.

Sue having a rest

Then we went to Winchester

Sir Arthur's Statue

 Winchester Water Mill

View from above the water mill

Here's a VIDEO I took of the Water Mill.

There was a lot in Winchester we didn't see.  It was our second time of driving through here as we had stopped here on our first trip away together, on our way to Jersey.  Memories!!!!

We visited the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection.  It was a small but very interesting place where a lot of plane renovations are going on.  We spent quite a while talking to people there about the different restorations and you could watch them while they were working.

We watched a couple planes being taken out to fly and brought in after.

Another day we went to the Museum of Army Flying

Model of Upper Heyford F-111

Exhibition of Victorian Cross Medals

and stopped at Ludgershall Castle ruins.  This castle was started in the 12th century.  King Henry III gave the castle to his wife Eleanor on their wedding in 1236.

We stayed at Thorpe Bay and visited Kathy, a friend of our family from Chestnut, before traveling to RAF Mildenhall, an American base, where we stayed and had Thanksgiving lunch with those stationed there.

The view from our room at Mildenhall

We decided to revisit Duxford Air Museum as there issue much to see there.  Our last visit here was with Ryan & Christina in 2014.

Revisiting the F111 from RAF Upper Heyford

Inside one of the Concorde prototypes.

Next stop was Bletchley and a long awaited visit to my cousin Janice, who was my partner in crime back in our teens, and her husband Howard. We hadn't seen each other for at least 40 years and so had a lot of catching up to do and reminiscing.  It was a good visit and thanks for the lovely dinner as well.  

While in Bletchley we also visited Bletchley Park, home of the WWII Codebreakers.

Inside a codebreaker hut

Here's a VIDEO showing how the Turing Bombe was created to help break the codes.

Next, was a visit with Shelagh & Dave.  It was nice to stay with them for a couple of days, something we haven't done before. We caught up with our lives and relived some memories.  Thanks for putting up with us and Bryan's birthday meal. 

While in Kettering we had lunch with Caroline & Shaun.  I met Caroline at the Mothers & Toddlers Group when Ian was a baby and it was good to catch up with them as well.

Next stop was RAF Croughton, another American air base where we stopped in their lodging.  

From there we were hoping to catch up with someone from the Heritage Center, but unfortunately we had to leave a day before we were both available.

We did drive through what used to be the base and took a picture of approximately where we met 30 years ago on December 4th. 

Approx. where we met 30 years ago at a party

This grass field is where the club used to be where we spent our first  New Years Eve together.

We also went to Sturdys Castle, also known as the potato pub back in our day.  I had one of the famous potatoes.  It was still good although a little smaller than I remembered.  

On our way back to Bridgend we saw signs for Bibury and as it is one of my favorite villages we did a small detour. 

Arlington Row

The Old Swan

The Old Swan from another angle

We then saw Chepstow Castle and decided to stop there.  From the front it didn't look as though it would take us long but we found out it was larger than we thought.

Finally were back at Bridgend, it was an interesting and enjoyable three weeks but we were glad to stop living out of our suitcase for a while.

It was time to get into the Christmas spirit. The boys made Gingerbread Houses with a little help from mum and we put the tree up and the decorations on.

The finished product

We went to watch both boys in their Christmas plays.  I got quite emotional as they both involved the nativity scenes and had songs that I remember as a child.  It was refreshing to see the story of Jesus being told in schools at Christmas time.  Something that hasn't been happening in the USA as far as I'm aware.

Santa came to visit on a parade through the housing development where we were. 

Waiting for Santa

Here he comes, sorry a bit blurry but you get the idea, ha!!ha!!

We went to see Santa in his grotto at Cardiff Rugby Club.

One of my favorite pictures

Christmas Day arrived and Santa had been!!!

It was a different type of year for us and we are sooo happy that we got to see all our kids & grandkids in person during the year.  Something that's not easy to do.  Thanks to everyone for helping make this happen and putting up with us old fogies!!!!

Well, that's about it.  I'm not sure how many of you will get to the end of this rather long newsletter but I needed to tell it all as there were no blogs!!!  Hope at least that some of you persevered. 

Happy New Year

Love Bryan & Sue xxxxx