Summer 2019 with Charlie

Summer in the City

Having spent most of the Spring in San Miguel, we fortunately timed our return back in Denver in time to experience Field Day with Charlie at his school, Edison Elementary.

What a fun day--watching all of that energy and comradery.











His best mate--at least for the First Grade, is Oscar.

They had a great time together and we so enjoyed watching them and cheering them on in the various competitions--like running relays, high jumping, sack racing and skipping rope (a skill still to be mastered by most 7 year boys).

We enjoyed a Red Rocks concert with Bryn & Joel to see Pink Martini--one of our favorite bands--thanks guys for indulging the parents! Great Birthday treat! 

                                                                                                              

One of our favorite places in Denver is the Botanic Gardens--one of the best urban gardens ever!

We like to visit each season, often letting Charlie be our official guide and photographer.

Invariably a treat for all ages and every visit lets us see and experience new sights.

This summer we visited in early June and the irises were beautiful and came in so many varied colors.

A new experience for all of us was attending a Rockies Baseball game.  

It was a balmy summer evening.

The Rockies were in good form, winning the game--there were six home runs between the two teams.

Charlie helped Opa celebrate his 71st birthday, with a beautiful floral arrangement compliments of Erin.



This posing poster is next door to Charlie's favorite restaurant, Maggiano's--he loves their lasagna.



The wading fountain at Union Station is always a big  hit on a hot summer's day; then stopping in for a frappacino.

Hiking along Cherry Creek & the South Platte River brings opportunities for new discoveries.




Our angel posing with some impressive wings.

A public art project has provided a lot of murals along the river, enlivening the retaining wall and giving opportunities to local artists.

Best buds--Oma & Charlie--both enjoying their Blow Pops.

And probably Charlie's favorite activity this summer--wading in the water at Confluence Park (where South Platte River and Cherry Creek merge).

Hope your summer was as much fun as ours.

The Bahamas: A New Adventure for Us

Beautiful Bahamian Water

The Bahamas, a new adventure for us.  Erin, who is still with the US State Department, was recently posted there for a three year assignment. It has only been three months, but she and Diego, her beloved Mexican street rescue cat, love it.

Upon leaving San Miguel de Allende we decided to visit with Erin and Diego for a couple of weeks before returning to Denver.

There is so much to do, mostly involving the sea and sun, but for the first few days we simply relaxed on her screened-in back porch.  Yoga Nidra is a great hammock based, restorative activity.

When we tired of that we put on our bathing suits and walked a few feet to her swimming pool--which she shares with her condo complex neighbors, but we often had it to ourselves.

It was a vacation for us, but Erin had to work much of the time we were there, including a three day trip to another island, Abaco, with the Chief of Mission. (The US currently has no ambassador, so the Chief of Mission leads the delegation there.)  Erin says the trip was fascinating and educational, but a tiring one.  Abaco is very different from the touristic atmosphere of Nassau--much more an agricultural and fishing community.                                                                     

On one of Erin's free days we all boarded a local ferry for a three hour trip to the island of Eleuthera and the town of Harbour Island. There are over 700 islands and cays in the Bahamas, although many are unoccupied and many others have only a small population.

Pink Sand Beach on Harbour Island

Erin and Larry in front of the "Snack Shack"

Harbour Island was one of the earliest settlements in the Bahamas and an active shipping and fishing port, but today it is known for its beautiful pink sand beaches.  

Golf carts greatly outnumber cars and trucks. We enjoyed our short visit to this pretty, quiet island.

Perhaps our favorite outing was an afternoon snorkeling with Captain Basel. Just a few minutes motoring from Nassau harbor, we anchored off a small cay that offered an hour of the best snorkeling we have ever experienced.

That was followed by the opportunity to swim with some sea turtles--early May just happens to be the breeding season and the little cove where we anchored seemed to be a favorite resting spot for a number of green sea turtles--that's one in the picture to the left.

    If you approach them from behind, you can get pretty close, but once they become aware of you they can quickly swim away from you, trailing their resident sucker fish behind them. We were all thrilled with the experience as well as the kindness and gentility of our skipper, Basel.

On our way back to port, we passed by Gilligan's Island--probably not the site for the well-know TV series, but a place often used for music videos and other shows.

Erin has had the good fortune to be posted to a place that she has come to love in just a few short months.  

She is extremely busy but feels she is doing important work...and she gets to live in a place that seems perfectly suited for her--no cold weather and home to a great yoga Ashram.

We so enjoyed our first visit, but we know we will be back for many more!

Leaving Nassau's sun and 84 degrees, we arrived back in Denver, just in time for a late spring snow...but these storms don't last too long.

Today it is 70 degrees and delightful.  So who can complain.  

And we get to be with our Charlie and his Mom, Bryn; that's a great treat for us. 

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

 Parroquia and El Jardin

For the past few years we have chosen to spend a few months in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  Some have asked why?

More than anything, the city fits who we are and how we enjoy living.


Situated in the high desert about three hours northwest of Mexico City, SMA is a medium sized city that we can enjoy as a small town with lots of big city amenities, like cultural events, entertainment, and a wide range of good restaurants.

Parroquia at night

During our second visit and first long term stay in 2014, we found a little apartment on AIRBNB in Centro, the historic heart of the city, just a block and a half from the main plaza, El Jardin.  It is called El Jardin, or The Garden, because of its French design.  It is a tree shaded oasis in the middle of the cobble streeted downtown.

Often thronged by locals and visitors, alike, it can also be a quiet place for reading and contemplation.

Dinner at our apartment

  Maria Luisa, our landlady, is a wonderful host and  makes sure to invite us to her country home for gatherings that always end with several of her friends bringing out their guitars and singing  traditional Mexican songs and ballads.

Our Mexican friends seem to know all of the words to all of the songs, and we are learning some of them as well.  This year we invited Maria Luisa and some of her friends to our apartment.  After dinner the guitars came out and we were treated to beautiful music once again—so much fun !

Night view from our rooftop patio

Our street, Mesones, and really our  block, have just about everything you need for a comfortable existence.

Next door there is a green grocer; and since he seems to supply restaurants and other stores throughout the town, his produce is always fresh, inexpensive and abundant.

Sue, Maria Luisa and Chelo on our patio

Sue, Larry and Bob on our patio

Two doors up from the green grocer is a dry goods store, Bonanza, that in many ways caters to the expat and tourist community by carrying things like Thai, Chinese, and Indian spices as well as good cheeses and olive oil. Next door to that is our favorite carnitas or roast pork store.

Mesones, our block, at dusk

At the end of the block is a great butcher and just around the corner is a little liquor store run by one of favorite local merchants, Senor Mario.

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t visit one or all of these stores to stock our home larder.

We love being in the middle of the city where we can walk or taxi to almost anything we want to do—concerts and other musical events, favorite eateries, or visits with friends, both old and new.

Media Luna, our favorite band 

You cannot call SMA a typical Mexican town; it is far richer than the norm and full of expats and visitors, both Mexican and foreign. Except for holidays and fiestas, though, it is usually fairly quiet during the workweek.

The streets and sidewalks are full of car and pedestrian traffic throughout the day, but  by early evening the streets are often quiet and at times seemingly deserted.

An Outdoor Concert

Centro, where we live, is full of restaurants, hotels, and shops, many of them high-end.

All are dependent on tourists, both foreign and Mexican.

Walking on the streets, you pass many non-Mexicans and many of them look a lot like us—white, older, and seemingly in retirement.

Some wag once said that San Miguel is Disney World for seniors, and that is as apt a description as you might want.

Even in the short time we have been regular visitors, the number of expats, primarily US and Canadian, but seemingly from all over the word, have increased sharply.  High end real estate development is visible everywhere.

Seems a lot of us want to get in on the Mexican Dream. Renting works for us, but  even if we wanted to buy, the market is now priced way beyond our means.

One of many lovely plazas in town 

That doesn’t stop us from enjoying our time here.

Each Friday, we buy the weekly bi-lingual newspaper, La Atencion, that lists all of what’s going on in town: films, lectures, music, live performance, lessons, and get-togethers.

Often there is far more to do than we can actually manage.

Carole and Sue at the hot springs, La Gruta 

This week we went to:

—an HD  broadcast of the NY Mettropolitan Opera,

— a concert by a young local musician,

— ate out at several restaurants, including breakfast, lunch and dinner,

— visited a hot springs just outside of town,


—dined al fresco along with a good friend of ours and her family  at a lovely "campestre,” or restaurant/park

Mary with Grandkids, Wyatt & Maeve, teasing Sue 

— and capped the week off with  walking tour of  El Charco, a beautiful botanic garden and nature reserve.

Cactus in the Botanic Garden 

Flowering Cactus

Lake at Botanic Garden

One more cactus 

Then there are Spanish classes for both of us, duplicate Bridge for Larry, sketching for Sue, and just strolling thru San Miguel’s charming and eclectic streets.

We hope that this will encourage some of you to visit this wonderful city along with us in the future.

Sorrento & Positano

After our time in the Naples area, we were all excited to visit the Amalfi Coast, which proved as beautiful as we had imagined.


Our apartment, in a secluded little neighborhood, looked out to Li Gilli, small islands that were once the secluded hideaway home of Rudolf Nureyev.

Our neighborhood was quiet and serene, but once you left our little enclave, you soon encountered what for us makes the area less appealing—far too many tourists and cars.

Driving is a nightmare, given the number of cars and the paucity of roads.

We made the wise decision to hire a car and driver, making it possible for all of us to enjoy the scenery and interesting Amalfi Coast towns of Positano, Amalfi and Ravello.

Our driver, Antonio, picked us up at our doorstep and chauffeured us to our destinations with skill and a caring demeanor.

He made the trip that could have been exhausting and nerve racking, worthwhile and enjoyable.

His knowledge of the area and advice enabled us to see and do things which would have been impossible on our own.

Our first stop was Positano.

On Bonnie's bucket list, she and John thoroughly enjoyed the town and the shopping and people watching it provides.

We, on the other hand, like the town's  beauty and charm, but found the crowds quite challenging and off putting.

We all had thought that October would be less busy and crowded, and it was, but there were still an incredible number of people thronging the streets and choking the shops and restuarants.

Antonio suggested that we next visit Ravello, once the home of the American writer and bon vivant,  Gore Vidal.

We were not disappointed.

Sitting high above the sea, it offers magnificent views, fewer tourists, and the opportunity to walk about its lovely main piazza with fewer distractions.

Our lunch was delicious and the views from the restaurant were spectacular.

We finished our day in Amalfi. Once a Mediterranean Sea power to rival Venice and Genoa, ...

... it is now a sleepy little tourist town with a beautiful renaissance church dedicated to St. Andrew, the local patron, and a quaint harbor and central plaza.

We all agreed that our Amalfi Coast adventure was was fun and enjoyable.  As the day ended and we made our way slowly back to our apartment, it was nice to be a passenger and to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Mediterranean.