GREETINGS JANUARY 2020
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In last year's newsletter...oops, we actually did not get that one out the door last year, but you can still have a quick look. Greetings from Santa Fe! 2019 was a year full of great travel, and plenty of other events. Here goes: In January, we joined our friends Walter and Margaret to a jazz festival in Havana, Cuba. It was a wonderful group of people, many of them old friends of Walter's from college or even before that. There were multiple venues that featured a number of jazz artists from all over the world. One of the most memorable shows included the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, who were accompanied with some pretty fabulous local musicians and they were swinging! No Dixieland there, just great jazz. Of course Omara Portuondo made more than one appearance. There were three shows a day, at 6:00, 9:00 and 11:00 (PM!). We didn't make all of the late shows because of the tour bus arriving early in the morning to take us on day trips to see various sights: the Ernest Hemingway house, the old town historic tour, Fusterlandia (a Gaudi-esque village outside of Havana), the state music conservatory, a cigar factory and a tobacco plantation.
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But the most meaningful place we visited, on our own and in a 1956 Chevy taxi,
was Sloppy Joe's Bar. Deb's mother, Lorene Pollard, had visited there
exactly 70 years prior and had her picture taken at the bar with her
travel companion. The bar was closed after the revolution in 1959 but
restored and reopened in 2013. We brought a copy of the picture with us
to give them.
The barman placed the photo in a glass case near photos of Hemingway.
Sloppy Joe's was apparently one of his favorite hangouts in Havana.
Hubert took a picture of Deb at the same spot at the bar as Lorene's
was taken, a flower in her hair.
Lorene is on the right. Anyone know the guy?
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In April, Deb retired after a career that spanned 40 years and work in a
variety of settings with literally all ages of clients, birth to geriatric.
Cousin Linda Saurage, who also lives in Santa Fe, put on a fantastic
retirement party at her house, which was enjoyable for everyone.
with colleagues Ingrid and Lynette | |
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We took the month of April to travel to the South and then up the East
coast, visiting friends and family along the way. Stops included Florence
TX (Jennifer and family on their ranch), Baton Rouge (family reunion at
Cousin Janie's new house and a visit to Cousin
Donna's), Sissy in Abita Springs
and New Orleans (visiting Jim and Jolie and catching part of the French Quarter
Festival), Clarksdale MS (visiting niece Paige Hayes and family and checking
out the Juke Joint Blues Festival in the pouring rain), Savannah GA
(beautiful), Charleston SC (Mike and Jo Anne Marcel), Newport News VA
(Marie Boer), New York City (
Lindsey Willis, a longtime friend from CERN
days as well as
Judith and Daniel Zwanzinger, new friends we met during
our trip to Crete in 2016). In Boston we stayed with Diana and Hanne Kooij
(friends that date back to our student days in Holland and Syracuse),
and visited with Peer Hofstra.
On our way back West we spent time with Gaye Goodness, and last but
certainly not least, we stayed a few days with Lou and
Marian Buda in Syracuse in the same house we
lived in back in the 80's. And then across the eastern US to the St. Louis
arch and most of the state of Oklahoma. This part of the trip made it
perfectly obvious how much flooding the eastern half of the US received
this year. We put on almost 5000 miles on the odometer this trip!
In July, Niels and his spouse, Tyko, moved to Denver so that he could start a new programming job at the Denver Dept. of Health. Tyko is teaching yoga and has become even stronger and fitter than ever. | |
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At about this same time, we traveled to Chile to enjoy a
total eclipse
of the sun. These are truly magical events - we were bitten by the eclpise
bug during the 2017 event in Wyoming. In Chile, we spent time in Santiago, and
enjoyed the beauty of the high Atacama Desert (12-15,000 ft.),
with giant, steaming geysers and salt flats where flamingos thrive. It is
the driest desert in the world, receiving an average of 15 millimeters of
precipitation per year!
Hubert traveled with his standard eclipse equipment consisting of binoculars (for projection), a tripod and a colander, plus some cardboard and paper.
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From there, we took a side trip to Easter Island
(aka Rapa Nui), and we were amazed at the contrasts. Rapa Nui is lush
and green and we were greeted with leis. The trip out to Rapa Nui is 5
hours by plane and there is literally nothing out in that part of the
Pacific but Rapa Nui, which isn't visible until the very end of the flight.
How anyone ever found that island is a mystery. The giant moai statues,
the famous stone carved human figures used to mark graves of patriarchs,
are to be found in many locations and are spectacular. The flight home took
many hours: 5 hours to Santiago, 11 hours from Santiago to Los Angeles,
and 3 hours to Albuquerque. We needed a few days to recover!
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In September, our daughter Saskia's dear friend, Anna Vavruska, got married
in Colorado in a weekend ceremony at Avalanche Ranch. Guests stayed the
weekend in cabins and could enjoy the hiking, hot springs, fly fishing and
cool
mountain air. Saskia was an attendant, just as Anna had been in Saskia's
wedding. We are pleased in Anna's choice of life partners and happy for
her parents, John and Laura.
Deb, Saskia and Andrew on the left (photo by John Vavruska) | |
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A few days later, Deb had surgery for double knee replacements. This
entailed 3 days' stay in the hospital, 10 days in inpatient rehab
and then, back in Santa Fe, outpatient therapy with her good friend,
Gretchen Johnson, PT extraordinaire.
PT is ongoing and will probably continue to the end of January.
There's a trail of discarded medical equipment, the last of which
will be stowed away in the next few weeks. Prolonged sitting or walking is
still problematic, and navigating stairs is downright uncomfortable. Deb
still uses a cane out in the community, mostly to help with steps and to
warn people with unruly dogs or children to keep their distance!
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Early December found us in Natchez MS for our great-niece Olivia Hayes'
wedding in an historic basilica with a reception in an antebellum home.
It was lovely, but a reminder of how much more strength Deb needs to attain
before being able to resume traveling. Hats off to Southwest Airlines and
their kind staff, who help those with physical limitations board and select
their seats first!
< With Paige, the mother of the bride What else? Hubert is still active at the Maker Space, and in the schools doing science outreach. He still goes up to Los Alamos one day a week. Saskia and Andrew are still in Tucson, probably for another year. She will get her Master's (as a bilingual Speech and Language Pathologist) and join the workforce in May of 2020. Andrew has another year to go on his doctoral dissertation, and Deb will resume water aerobics as soon as her orthopedist gives her the green light. | |
| Christmas will be spent in Santa Fe with Saskia, Andrew and their friend Rachel, with Sinterklaas surprises and poems. Because of the knees, we have made few plans as yet for travel in 2020. Subject to change at any moment, as we're now moving toward 4 months post-surgery. | |
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Wishing you health and happiness in the next year, | ||
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