2007 October 11-18 San Francisco and the Napa Valley

The Ripon College Alumni Association sponsored a tour to San Francisco and the Napa Valley and asked Bill to host it. I went along for the ride, and we had a lovely trip seeing new sites and revisiting places associated with family. Bill’s mother grew up in Marin County across the Bay from San Francisco and his parents lived in San Francisco as newlyweds. More recently, Steve and Maria lived in Napa for three years and Kate was born there.

We were on a Collette Vacations Smithsonian tour with Ripon Alums Greg and Kathy Dunn, whose daughter Jennifer was a Ripon Alpha Delta Pi during one of my terms as chapter advisor. This was only a six day tour, but we saw a lot. We did a walking tour of Chinatown in pouring rain, a bus tour of the city in bright sunshine,

and a trip across the Golden Gate in complete fog.

Napa showed us the same variety of weather conditions, but our luncheon trip on the Wine Train happened on a glorious fall day. We thought of little Anna as we rode by Taylor's Refresher, her favorite restaurant.

Among the highlights of the trip were visits to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco; the Ma-Tsu Temple of America in Chinatown;

a tour and barrel tasting at Silverado Vinyards;

various art galleries, including several in Yountville and the museum and gallery at Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts; dinner at the Culinary Institute of America; several classes--dim sum cooking in Chinatown, and food and wine pairings and blending and bottling our own wine at Copia;

drinks at the Pacific Union Club and dinner at a tiny French restaurant on Nob Hill as guests of Ripon College alumni Guy and Susan Henshaw (Left to Right: Greg, Kathy, Bill, Jean, Guy, Susan);

lunch at John’s Grill (opened in 1908) and a backstage tour of the San Francisco Opera with my Colorado University friend Meg Franklin, who also got us opening night tickets to the Magic Flute;

and my birthday dinner on the 46th floor of the San Francisco Hilton.

No trip seems complete these days without an airline story. We got a whole extra day of vacation courtesy of Northwest Airlines, since it took 27 hours to make the trip home. Time on the tarmac, time in a holding pattern, rescheduled flights taking us to extra cities, and a night on mats in the Minneapolis airport still failed to dampen our spirits about a trip that was altogether good fun with fifteen great travel companions and an outstanding tour manager.

2007 08 25 Our Italian Adventure

We took an Insight tour of Italy from August 25-September 8. We got a good overview of the history and culture of the country, saw a variety of sights, and climbed a lot of hills to partially offset our daily consumption of gelato, the luscious Italian ice cream that is readily available. Our 27 traveling companions from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the US were pleasant, compatible, and fun.

The map shows the general scope of the tour and our base locations for one to three nights, but we took many excursions to other places as well. Follow the arrows, starting and ending in Rome. It was a country roads tour, so most of the ride was on narrow mountain roads with steep drop-offs and hairpin curves. Our driver, Dino, handled them beautifully. The hill towns were our favorite places, but we’re glad to have spent some time in Rome, Venice, and Florence as well. I’ve chosen a few representative pictures to show the variety of our activities. Bill will follow up later with a more complete set of reflections, which will be posted on our website.

This is the Commonwealth Cemetery at Cassino, one of several cemeteries honoring the allied dead from the World War II Battle of Monte Cassino.

We were in the Abbey of Monte Casino during Sunday mass. At the time I took this picture we were listening to Gregorian chants. The building is a reconstruction as the Allies bombed the entire monastery to bits during the war, thinking that German troops were hiding in it. St. Benedict’s original room is still intact down below, and we were able to see it. The original abbey was founded by St. Benedict about 529 on the remnants of a pre-existing Roman fortification.

We visited Pompeii on a hot afternoon—45 degrees Celsius or over 100 Fahrenheit. People who were sensitive to heat had a tough time of it. We were warned to bring umbrellas to use for shade. The heat didn’t bother me, and I thought the tour was fascinating. That’s Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

This is the Sorrento Coast, one of the many lovely views we enjoyed along the coast.

Just outside our hotel in Sorrento a village festival was going on. This one happened to be the festival celebrating the eggplant. Following the parade there was singing and general merriment that went on into the night

One of my favorite lunches was at the ancient farm of Rosa and Maria, where we ate and drank only what had been produced at the farm. Rosa greeted us and explained how they make the wine and then she interpreted while Maria, who spoke no English, made mozzarella before our very eyes. We ate fresh caprese salad and drank limoncello on a patio in a shady arbor.

Our friends Norm and Sue Loomer, newly retired and celebrating, accompanied us on the trip. On a night of poking round Sorrento with them, Bill found Ristorante Bagni Delfino (thanks to the Rick Steves guidebook) on the waterfront and we had a delicious seafood dinner.

We visited Santa Maria degli Angeli, which is built around St Francis’ original church that still sits intact in the middle. St Francis worshipped and died here, so it’s a very big attraction for pilgrims. A congregation from Sicily, complete with their church banner, were chanting and doing a sort of circular line dance at several holy sites we visited that day.

This street in Assisi is typical of the streets in the many hill towns we visited, though it’s wider than most and the light is better. Our hill town street pictures are generally pretty dark.

Our tour director, Anna Targett from Birmingham, UK, did an excellent job of giving historical and cultural background information as well as being very capable of keeping us happy and attending to details. In addition to Anna, we had local guides in most of the places we stopped. This is Giovanni, our Cortona guide, explaining some Etruscan ruins.

Cortona was “put on the map” by Frances Mayes in Under the Tuscan Sun. This is the home where she and her husband still live.

The pigeons in St. Mark’s Square in Venice are cute, but heaven help us if avian flu ever hits here.

It had to be done. Doesn’t every tourist in Pisa have to stand for a picture in front of the campanile? That’s Norm and Sue with us. We are still sporting happy smiles because the thunder, lightning, heavy wind, and sheets of rain hadn’t hit yet. Minutes after this picture was taken we sought refuge in the Composanto, the cloister-like building that houses the tombs.

Is this gorgeous or what? It’s a view over Tuscany from outside San Gimignano.

Bagno Di Vignolo is a spa, with a spring bubbling into a huge pool at 55 degrees Celsius—that’s hot. The run-off down a rocky channel is a good place to stick your feet in the thermal mineral water after it cools off a bit. While we were relaxing here, Anna and Dino, our tour director and driver, were laying out our picnic feast of local meats, cheeses, and wines they’d picked up at the grocery store.

At Tarquinia we entered Etruscan tombs, excavations, and museum. This is a family tomb that contains frescoes and places for both cremated and uncremated remains.

Back in Rome at the end of the trip we did the usual sites—Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Vatican, Coliseum, Catacombs—that just have to be done in Rome. I’m glad I did it, but I don’t need to do it again. The crowds in the Vatican were downright oppressive. It was body to body in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve all seen pictures of those other places, so I’m including the Baths of Caracalla here.

We plan a return visit to Tuscany the first week of June 2008 with all our children and grandchildren. We've rented a 500-year-old vila with eight bedrooms and three bathrooms for fourteen people. Now that we've done the overview, we're ready for some time to savor the beauty of Tuscany.

2007 August 4-13 Family Reunion

All four of our adult children and their families came together for a weekend. Mindy, Pamela, and Maria managed to include a few more days so that the cousins could have additional time together. Amanda did quite well in her efforts to keep up with the big kids--Anna, Kate, and Henry--and Sophie enjoyed watching the fun. The time was packed with events, including Cookie Daze, jazz concerts on the village green (pictured), the county fair, and birthday parties for Pamela, Bill, and Anna. Pamela left on August 13 and we got to keep Henry until August 23, when we will fly home with him.

2007 July 29-August 3-American Suzuki Institute (Violin Camp)

Maria and I moved into Hansen Hall at UW-Stevens Point on July 29 for our week of violin camp with Kate and Anna. It was Anna's second year and it was as successful as the first in terms of fun, friends, skills, and growing confidence. Kate longed to participate last year, so she was READY. They had three lessons a day for five days: private, group, and large group. The kids and adults made friends with other participants and had fun outside of class as well. It brought back happy memories of taking Steve there for five summers when he was growing up. One picture shows Anna's large group. In this activity they each put one shoe in the middle. As Mr. Jim tapped them, they went in and put it back on--all while playing Twinkle Variation A. What a neat way to get them to play it many times!

Kate had her private lesson with Alexsandor. The picture shows them as they end their lesson in the same way it began, with a bow.

2007 July 23-26: Dan and Cary Visit Ripon

Brother and sister-in-law, Dan and Cary, were in Milwaukee for a big reunion of the Elks Club Band, in which Cary played sax during late high school and college years. Following the reunion they joined us in Ripon for four days. It just happened to be the week of the annual EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) convention, so we spent a day in Oshkosh seeing all kinds of interesting planes and meeting folks that come faithfully every year to this huge event. During the last week in July, Oshkosh becomes the busiest airport in the world! The area hotels and the dorms at UW-Oshkosh and Ripon College are always full. People rent their homes and take in borders. And then there are the hundreds of campers. That could be an RV, a tent, or a pop-up pitched beside an airplane in an open field among hundreds of others. This was the first time Bill and I have actually paid admission and attended the event, though we participate in a sense each year because the landing pattern includes the water tower on the hill behind our house. It's so good to have visitors from out of town so we can see the local sights ourselves. Here's the C5A cargo plane just after it landed. The big planes were opened for visitors to go inside.

On Wednesday we went to the Horicon Marsh, one of the largest wetland preserves in the country. From Blue Heron Landing we took a guided pontoon boat tour and saw turtles, a mink, many great blue herons, cormorants, a muskrat swimming with a lily pad in its mouth, gulls, green herons, and all sorts of smaller birds.

Thursday we spent the day in Ripon, visiting the Little White Schoolhouse that was the birthplace of the Republican Party, the Ripon Historical Society, Ripon College, and the walking/driving tour of the residences in the National Historic District. Bill has been very involved in the restoration of the Little White Schoolhouse and we both spend a lot of volunteer hours on Historical Society work.

Dan and Cary left Thursday afternoon in order to eat at Cary's high school favorite restaurant in Milwaukee, Mama Mia's. Cary's memories of Mama's butter-soaked garlic bread sticks have become larger than life. Cary phoned, with butter dripping down her arm, to say that the bread sticks continue to live up to the fantasy. The flight back to Dan and Cary's summer home in Colorado was early Friday morning.

2007 July 14-21: Beaver Creek with Woolleys and Blacks

How we appreciate an easy two-day trip from Wisconsin to Colorado...no more counting vacation days and driving all night. Retirement does have its benefits. This week was a true Rocky Mountain High, spent with good friends from my CU days, Mimi and Virg Black. We are now related by way of the marriage of their son, Eric, and our daughter, Jennifer. The days were warm but not hot and the nights were cool. The few thundershowers in the afternoons didn't interfere with our fun as we walked and hiked in Beaver Creek, Vail, and Leadville.

We hosted a reunion for CU friends in the Denver area. The picture shows Marilu Duty, Donna Conroy, Mary Alice McDougal, Nancye Nelson, Joni Snodgrass, Jean Woolley, and Mimi Black. Bill Woolley, Virg Black, Don Snodgrass, and Tom McDougal were there, too.

We had a "cousins' night" where we introduced our cousins, Michelle, Brent, and Jasper, to Blacks' cousins, Brad, Cary, and Emma. It turns out they are practically neighbors in Eagle! From the picture you can see that Jasper and Emma became instant friends. We enjoyed seeing homes in the mountain community of Cordillera that architect Brent designed and custom homes under construction at the Village Walk in Beaver Creek for which Brad is a project manager.

Virg and I went wild playing with our digital cameras, while Mimi hunted wild flowers for us to photograph.


Since we have taken lifts often as skiers, the rides on the gondola at Vail and chair lift at Beaver Creek were a chance for Bill, Virg, and me to enjoy the wonderful scenery. For Mimi, who hasn't skied since the T-bar days of college and who isn't fond of heights, the rides were a major accomplishment. It took a lot of courage to laugh off the fear, make jokes, have fun, and come back for a second trip.