New Decade, New Chapter, New Hampshire

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Tuesday Treasures #22 - Family

Gathering the family for a photo. Despite our efforts not all made the final photo.

A treasure for sure.

Joining Tuesday Treasure

Sunday, August 14, 2016

A Great Spot for a Family Reunion

Last Sunday my extended family gathered for three nights at the Three Otters Eco Retreat in Great Cacapon, West Virginia. There were 20 adults ranging in age from 20 something to 70s, and 10 children ranging in age from 4 weeks to 7 years.

Three Otters has a wide range of accommodations from a three bedroom cabin to a flying tent. It's "glamour camping" because they provide the sheets and beds. We brought our own towels and food.

This is the tent Dan and I stayed in. We had a futon mattress to sleep on and lots of room.

Three Otters has a yurt with a queen bed, a cottage tent with lots of single beds, three vintage trailers and three pop up trailers. There are other tent choices including one that is strung in the trees - flying! Youll' have to go to their website for photos of those accommodations. I neglected to photograph them.

There were three kitchens to use: one in the cabin; another in the river kitchen where there was seating; and a third called the grill kitchen where a large screened dining room gave us enough room for everyone.

Here's breakfast prep in the river kitchen and below Dan awaits breakfast there.

Here are my oldest brother and sister in law after dinner in the grill kitchen screened dining room.

Bathrooms? In the cabin, in the river kitchen and four in the bathhouse on stilts.

Activities? The Potomac River was the primary draw and favorite spot to hang out, swim, kayak, or tube.

There was hiking on the property or across the river on the C & O Canal tow path.

There were games in the grill kitchen dining room.

Here Matt is assembling a structure in the river kitchen.

There was a large field for outdoor games.

And a spot for campfires which we had every night.

Four of my five siblings were there. All of us had some members of our families not in attendance. The hope is that we have restarted the tradition of getting together that our parents had. Plans for next year are already in the works.

As I said a great spot for a family reunion.

Three Otters Eco Retreat

Postscript:

My daughter took a photo of the vintage trailer they stayed in. There were two more of these.

Friday, August 12, 2016

European Vacation - Part XV

This is the absolutely last post with this title!

I have other photos but they will have other titles when I post them.

A brief synopsis: June 1st we flew to Helsinki, Finland arriving June 2nd. We spent three nights there then flew to Budapest, Hungary on the 5th and connected with an AmaWaterways river cruise on Monday the 6th. The river cruise had stops in Bratislava, Vienna, Durnstein, Linz, Passau, and ended in Vilshofen. (Countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany with a side trip to Czech Republic by bus.)

Once we disembarked we took a train to Munich, stowed our luggage at the train station and walked around the Marienplatz. We caught a westbound train to Kaufering, 1/2 hour away, where we had rented a cottage for three nights. We headed home on June 16th.

Here are photos from Munich and Landsberg, a nearby historic town.

First, where we stayed. The taxi from the Kaufering Station had trouble finding this small side street.

The cottage is there on the right.

Read more about the cottage here: Kaufering Cottage.

This is the lovely Lech River.

Dan and I walked to Landsberg on our last full day in Germany. It was reminiscent of our walking tour of the Cotswolds in 2014. It was over an hour walk on a beautiful day. We took the train back to Kaufering, 10 minute trip, and then the bus to the stop closest to the cottage. Nice not to depend upon a car.