It seems like our biggest activity the past few years has
been traveling, and 2019 was no exception. We started out in January with a
trip to Tucson, AZ. The 2-day train trip on Amtrak’s Texas Eagle took us south to San Antonio, TX and then across to
Arizona. We intended to do some hiking in the Saguaro National Park, but the
park was closed due to a government shutdown. So we found other ways to
entertain ourselves, including eating Mexican tamales and attending a Led
Zeppelin tribute concert.
In February, I headed off to San Diego for my annual
snowbird adventure. I rented a condo in an area called Little Italy, which was conveniently located near all the popular
tourist attractions. Every day I would either walk up the hill to Balboa Park
or hop on the trolley to one of the beaches. One of the best activities was
meeting up with their local urban sketching group, and of course soaking up
their 60° weather
(especially when it was in the teens back home).
In March my niece added another member to our extended
family. Hazel Grace Taylor was born on March 27, just 9 days after Violet’s 6th
birthday and 1 month before my 66th. Hazel is the happiest baby I’ve
ever seen, but you probably need to have a sense of humor when you live in a
house with 2 older siblings, 2 dogs, and a dad who’s got a 5-car garage devoted
to power tools.
In April, I worked the robotics & engineering display in
the Vernier booth at the Science Teacher’s Convention. Since the conference was
in St Louis, I also took a group of Chinese teachers on a tour of 2 local high
schools. It was certainly a unique experience when I discovered that most of
the teachers did not speak English.
I planned to do a lot of bike riding in May, since I got
such a nice bike rack for Christmas, but this was the year that the Missouri,
Meramec, and Mississippi Rivers all decided to flood at once submerging most of
the local bike trails under water. At the end of May, I went to my annual
Consultants’ Meeting in Portland. I don’t think I get the information out of it
that my boss intends, because instead of coming home with ideas for new
sensors, I came home and bought a new robot that a worker in their shipping
department told me about.
June was a whirlwind of travel with trips to KC, Chicago,
Tampa, and Philadelphia. My trip to KC was for the funeral of my old flower
girl’s mother. Hard to believe how quickly time flies, but my flower girl is
now a grandmother. Chicago was for the Urban Sketchers’ Symposium. Courtney and
I attended “together,” though our classes were on different days. My favorite
workshop was titled Urban Uglies,
because I love painting rusted and weathered things. It’s much easier than
painting bright shiny objects. Tampa was for the Engineering Educators’
Conference. This conference was unique (and a bit intimidating), because they had
a live crocodile on display in the convention hall. I got to hold the baby; its
mother was MUCH bigger. Since I had only 2 days between this conference and the
next, I took another Amtrak train to Philadelphia rather than fly back home. I
have to admit that east coast train travel is not nearly as picturesque as travel
through the western states. Philadelphia was for the Technology Education
Conference. I’ve wanted to work this conference for years, because all the
major players (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Lego, etc) come to display their
cutting-edge products. Of course, I came back with several new items on my wish
list.
In July, I took a break from traveling and stuck around
home. I went on some sketch outings with the Urban Sketchers, went to the Muny
to see Cinderella, and celebrated the
50th anniversary of the moon landing.
But in August, it was back on the road (or rather water) for
us as we set off on a double cruise. We started off on Holland America with a
trip up to Iceland, Greenland, and the Arctic Circle; then headed back down the
west coast of Norway to the Netherlands. It was all breathtaking, but I think
Bergen, Norway was my favorite stop (probably due to all the whimsical trolls).
In September, we transferred to a river cruise down the
Rhine from Amsterdam to Budapest. And if that weren’t enough, we extended the
vacation with a bus tour to Prague. Lots of gorgeous scenery, amazing
architecture, and, of course, tasty beer (I love German beer).
In October, I did another whirlwind swing from Chicago to
Columbia, Illinois to Seattle to Portland. Chicago and Seattle were just to see
the kids – I missed them. Columbia was an art retreat with the Watercolor
Society Urban Sketchers. In Portland, I made the decision to formally retire. Running
across the country from conference to conference is becoming exhausting, so I
decided to call it quits. I donated most of my demo equipment to a local high
school, but I admit to keeping back a few gadgets (because my tinkering days
aren’t really over).
In November, most of my traveling was to Wentzville to
referee robotics tournaments. Even though Wentzville is technically a suburb of
St Louis, it was a 76-mile round trip drive. With 10 different tournaments to
ref, I got really good at dancing the Cotton-Eyed
Joe (our filler activity while we waited for the final judging). But at the
end of November, it was back on a plane to Chicago for Thanksgiving. This year
was a bit unique, because my sister came, too, and we spent Thanksgiving Eve
hitting the pre-Black Friday sales.
My last trips of the year (at least of this writing) were to
KC and Washington, MO. In December, my sister celebrated her 65th
birthday with a surprise birthday party at Harrah’s. It was worth the quickie
1-day road trip for me, because I got to see some of my relatives that I
usually only get to see at funerals. A week later, I got a rare day off, so
used it to drive out to Washington, MO to have lunch with a friend. It was a
good thing I went when I did, because we got a major snowstorm just a few days
later.
I don’t know how many total
miles I traveled this past year, but I’m thinking it might be time to take a
break. Right this particular instant (which happens to be 8 o’clock at night),
walking out to my front porch sounds like as far as I’d like to travel in 2020.
But give it time. I’m sure when morning rolls around I’ll be back on Google
Maps planning my next big adventure.
