Category Archives: Travel

Puzzle Me World Cup

Josh and Laura gifted me this puzzle on their last visit and it was a fun one to put together during World Cup Fever here in the USA/Canada/Mexico and the world!

The World Cup posters for each city hosting games are so clever.

Seattle

Boston

Atlanta

Miami

Vancouver

Houston

Dallas

Los Angeles and more…Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterey, Toronto, Philadelphia, Kansas City, San Francisco, and New Jersey.

The USA played Australia yesterday in Seattle and Josh and Laura were able to be there and enjoy all the glory of World Cup Fever with a 2-0 win for the USA. From the fan excitement in the stadium, the patriotic clothes and costumes worn (Uncle Sam, Eagles, Lincoln etc.), 60,000 people singing the National Anthem the cheering was deafening. And then when the game was over the whole stadium sang ‘Country Roads, Take Me Home’. It was a blast of energy that was so refreshing to see and hear!

What a joy to vicariously enjoy being at the game with these two!

Hope all is well in your corner of World Cup Soccer and that your team is performing well!

Cambridge – Tuesday March 10th

Our travel journal of our time in Cambridge continues here from March 2026.

It was nice to enjoy our French press coffee on this morning before we headed out for breakfast at The Copper Kettle on King’s Parade in Cambridge.

It was a lovely morning and I took some photos along the way to breakfast.

We would sign up for a tour of Trinity College later in the week.

Looking out the window of the Copper Kettle.

I’ve never met a scone I didn’t like.

Greg went for the full English.

The Views from breakfast were lovely. This is the college and especially the chapel that would be part of our tour on this day.

This cafe was used in some of the filming for Grantchester. (Possibly as a tea-room?)

After breakfast we met up with our alumni tour guide and group for a 2 hour tour that would include King’s Chapel.

St Bene’t’s church on Bene’t’s street was one of our stops.

St Bene’t’s has been a place of Christian prayer and worship for nearly a thousand years. The exact date is in dispute; estimates vary between the tenth century and the reign of Edward the Confessor, but there are good grounds for placing it in the reign of King Canute about the year 1020. More history at this link.

St. Catharine’s College.

We continued on Silver Street to Queen’s college where the famous Mathematical Bridge spans the River Cam. I was chuckling here as I remembered the new quirky Ludwig murder series filmed in Cambridge. One of the episodes featured the bridge, the building on the left which is part of Queen’s college and a chapel. Have you watched the series. I highly recommend it.

The bridge was designed in 1748 by William Etheridge (1709–76), and was built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722–84). It has subsequently been repaired in 1866 and rebuilt to the same design in 1905. More info here.

We continued on Silver Street to Queen Street on ‘the backs’ with some nice views of King’s College Chapel.

This is Trinity College Bridge.

St. John’s with the clock tower without an actual clock.

This bridge might be the Kitchen Bridge.

Working our way back to the King’s Parade to King’s College where our tour began and would end except for those of us who paid extra to go into King’s College to be able to visit King’s College Chapel.

The Chapel deserves a post of it’s own and that will come on another day.

World Cup Fever Hodgepodge

Ole Ole Ole, it’s time for World Cup and for Wednesday Hodgepodge! Thank you, Joyce.

1. June 17th, 1994 was the day of the infamous O.J. Simpson car chase. What were you doing in 1994? I’m guessing somebody is going to tell me they weren’t born yet but that’s part of the fun of the Hodgepodge. Lots of generations are represented here. 

In June of 1994 we traveled to Southern California to stay with family and take in all we could of the World Cup. I’m sure we were on the same freeways O.J. was on during our time in L.A., the Santa Ana freeway and the 405!  I know we watched it on TV.

Back to the more important reason we were in the greater LA area. Our boys and I found the USA World cup training center and met some of the players. Then we found the hotel the team was staying in and our sons worked hard to get signatures on the team poster our oldest son bought. They managed to get every signature of the people in the poster except for one trainer/coach who wasn’t in Southern California.

If I remember correctly Josh got a 3 or 4 game package deal and Dan got 1. The prices were very reasonable compared to today.

2. What’s your favorite summer salad that isn’t the traditional tossed green lettuce kind of salad? 
Click below to see the recipe.
Do you like fresh fruit in a salad (other than in a fruit salad of course)?
I enjoy strawberries or pears in a green salad with the right dressing and cheese to compliment and roasted walnuts or shaved almonds…
3. Is chivalry dead? Should it be? 
~
No and no. It is always a pleasure to enjoy chivalry or witness it.
~
4. Would you rather spend a week of your summer vacation in Hawaii or Alaska?
I’ll say Hawaii because there are fewer bugs.
Have you ever been to either?
We have been to Hawaii but not Alaska.
Are they two places you really would like to see?
No
How do you feel about ‘Hawaiian pizza’ aka pineapple on a pizza?
Nyet, No, Nine
Have you ever eaten Baked Alaska?
I think I have but I couldn’t tell you where or when.
~
 5. World Cup play is happening now…are you interested?
Very interested. And for the record I’m interested in soccer all the time not just for World Cup.
Watching any matches?
I’ve watched them all to one degree or another. Some I’ve watched every minute others I watched parts of .
Did you or your children play soccer/futbol?
All three of our children played. Our sons played for their school varsity teams and on traveling teams, too. Our sons also worked as referees for our community leagues and for indoor games, too.
And now, our Grands are playing soccer.

There are eleven US cities hosting matches-

–Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York with the stadium in NJ, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle
 along with  three cities in Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey)
and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver)-

You get free tickets to one of these matches. Which city do you choose? Tell us why. 

Seattle, because it would be the easiest stadium for us to reach.

Our son and daughter-in-love are attending the USA v. Australia game this Friday in Seattle!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Dan’s ticket that he purchased from his soccer coach was for a game in Stanford. Dan and I traveled from the LA area up to Stanford for the game. The game was on June 24, 1994. And yes, we traveled those same freeways O.J. did. 🙂

I’m behind and the way things are going it will be a while for me to get my mojo back.

I hope to get around to see y’all.

Busy Days Behind Us

June 7th through the 9th was filled with family activities and gatherings.

Josh and Laura started the drive across the mountains early on the 7th to make it to JJ’s Taekwondo exhibition at Town and Country days in Kettle Falls.

The sun heated up those mats and they had to make the presentations fast so the soles of their feet wouldn’t burn!

Yep the mats were hot. I’m pretty sure there will be discussions for next year to have the presentations from our group and the gymnastics group for performing on the stage instead of in front of the stage!

A snow cone and ice cream made things better.

From Town and Country Days we all gathered at our country bungalow for a Taco Salad meal. After dinner we all made our way back to the Woodland Theater in Kettle Falls for The Haran Dancers recital.

Addy performed beautifully.

On Sunday after church Josh and Laura traveled back home.

They won’t be back for Father’s Day so Laura took an early Father’s Day photo.

On Father’s day weekend I’ll share the very thoughtful gift our kids and grands gave their dad/gramps.

Very early on this same Sunday morning (2:00 am) our Niece, her hubby and our grand niece found their way to our home from Boise, Idaho where they had attended a wedding. They let themselves in and found their guest rooms without waking us up. They slept in on Sunday and we managed to get ready for church and leave without waking them up. We left them at Bedside Baptist and returned from church in time to make them fresh coffee.

Sunday afternoon we were at the Woodland Theater again with this new crew who wanted to see Addy perform with the Irish Dance group.

It was a great matinee performance and once again we all headed to our country bungalow for a meal.

Pulled pork sandwiches with homemade coleslaw and not home made beans. There were homemade desserts.

Fun and goofy times.

The fun continued on Monday at Bayles Mountain.

Cousins once removed making memories.

The California crew left about noon on Tuesday June 9th after enjoying Uncle Greg’s famous Swedish pancakes. They headed for Josh and Laura’s home for another week in the Pacific Northwest.

And while the westside crew were on the Olympic Peninsula we were back in Kettle Falls at JJ’s Taekwondo Promotion.

We also participated in a community garage sale on Thursday and Friday. We were happy to get rid of some large items that were getting in the way around here. So thrilled we didn’t have to haul them back home.

I’m watching World Cup Soccer games while I work on posts and visiting blogs. It’s no secret that I’m a soccer fan. It’s been an exciting start in the group stage. It’s been fun following fans that have traveled from around the world and who are soaking up the food and experiences unique to the USA!

Thankfully we have a relatively quiet week ahead of us. We need that. Have a good week y’all.

Cambridge~ Monday March 9th

I’m working on finishing off my posts about our days in Cambridge. These posts are from Monday March 9th.

I’ve already posted about our early morning walk and seeing the famous clock here.

And I also posted about our lunch at The Eagle and all about it’s history here.

On this same day we visited the beautiful Wren Library.

From the Wren Library we continued on enjoying ‘the backs’. ‘The Backs’ is an area to the east of Queen’s Road in the city of Cambridge, England, where several colleges of the University of Cambridge back on to the River Cam with their grounds covering both banks of the river.

St. John’s College

1776 & 1779 William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson begin their studies at St John’s. Joining forces in 1787, they will spend the rest of their lives leading the campaign to abolish the slave trade and slavery

1787 William Wordsworth arrives as a 17-year-old Cumbrian undergraduate.  With his sympathy for the common man and love of nature, he becomes a central figure in shaping English Romanticism and perhaps our most famed alumnus

This is a photo of the back of the building where the Wren Library is housed.

Punting along the river Cam which is a major tourist draw. We did not choose to take a ride.

Signs like this were all along the sidewalk along Queen’s Road.

We made our way along the road for our destination for refreshment and along the way we saw many signs of the promise of Spring.

We were beat by the time we found the Pickerel Inn which is now a traditional public house established in 1608.

After our treat we walked back to our lodgings just a short .3 miles from the Pickerel.

The dish towels in our kitchenette had this saying on them.

The door signs made us chuckle, too.

We stayed in for this evening after it seemed we were walking all the day long.

We were looking forward to being able to make our own coffee in our room on Tuesday morning since we purchased a French Press and coffee while out and about this day.

The Other College Town

We have had some great visits to Oxford in the past so we decided this time around to visit the ‘other’ college town, Cambridge. When our river cruise was over on Sunday March 8th, we flew from Budapest to London. From Heathrow Airport we boarded a National Bus at the central bus terminal that is located outside terminal 3. We had reserved seats on the bus.

I was still being careful about my right foot, elevating it as much as possible while we waited for our bus. I wanted to be able to walk about Cambridge for the next 6 days without pain and swelling.

We were dropped off in central Cambridge and found the best walking route to The Wilde where we had reservations for the next 6 nights.

The lobby was a very nice welcoming space. We settled in and headed out to The Baron of Beef for a meal.

We had breakfast at the Budapest airport and were ready for a good meal this evening.

We were back in the land of Sticky Toffee Pudding, Meat pies, and Fish and Chips.

Satisfied we headed back to the Wilde to get some rest for Monday March 9th, our first full day in Cambridge.

 

Living Vicariously

Four of ours were able to travel to Kalispell to meet up with many of their cousins over Memorial Day Weekend. There was a special wedding that six of our people were attending on Saturday so the annual ‘Arizona Cousin’s Memorial Weekend’ was moved to Kalispell this year. It was a great accommodation to make.

Their VRBO was on Foys lake close to Kalispell.

Our niece Debbee turned 50 in the middle of May and our DIL Laura was inspired to order a special t-shirt for each of the ‘cousins’ with a special moment in their life with their cousin Debbee. The photo above shows the original cousins with Babushka and Dzeda all together back then and then this photo below of the now.

A re-enactment…

Laura found special photos for all these peeps!

It was a wonderful way to celebrate Deb Deb’s birthday.

It was time for these six to leave for the wedding.

These 6 enjoyed a meal out while the others were at the wedding.

Sunday was a full day for all to be together.

 

 

On Memorial Day it was decided that a trip to Glacier National Park and a hike was in order. Donning their Memorial day t-shirts and coats they set out at 5:30 am!

Another meaningful, encouraging and rewarding Cousin Memorial Weekend in the books!

Ellen with an E, Hodgepodge

Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for our weekly Hodgepodge questions.

1. Do you like your name?s

I have grown into it. I do not have a middle name on my birth certificate.

Are you named after someone (grandparent, etc)?

No. After my older sisters got the more traditional Russian names, my mother decided I’d get a name none of her friends would choose for their children. Ellen is not a typical Russian name.

In Russian, the name Ellen translates to Эллен (pronounced EL-len) when used for an English name.
However, because Ellen is a variant of the name Helen, the traditional Russian equivalent is Елена (pronounced yeh-LYEH-nah), which is often shortened to the nickname Лена (pronounced LYEH-nah)
Лена is what I was called by our Russian family and friends.
Ellen, Ellen, Watermelon. That is something I remember some classmates in elementary school repeating to try to irritate me. 🙂
I also had to correct people over and over again when they tried to call me Helen. I’d say, NO, Ellen with an E.

If you have children how did you choose their names? 

For our sons we chose strong Biblical names, Joshua and Daniel. For our daughter we chose a name from Greg’s heritage and also a strong name, Katherine.

2.  A piece of red velvet cake, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a slice of blueberry pie? You can only have one…which will you choose?

I’ll go with red velvet cake.

If you could pick any red, white, or blue dessert other than those listed here, what would you choose? 

Fourth Festivities3

I love a good patriotic berry trifle.

3.  What’s a job you’d like to try for just one day? 

I’d like to try being a detective and solving a murder.

4. Any patriotic decor in your home currently or coming up this summer? 

Yes! And I’m on the lookout for more since this is the 250th year of freedom!

5. It’s the end of May, so let’s exercise our brains. Sum up your month with an acrostic using the word MAY. We can do it!!

M emorials beginning and ending the merry month of May with

A wakening buds and weeds displaying a springtime

Y ard that needs attending to!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Memorial weekend scattered many of our family to Texas and Montana, far south and far north! The travelers originated from California or Washington State.

Kathy is our oldest sister and turning 80 over Memorial weekend she deserved a celebration all her own. She was in Texas on her day so our sister, Lana, threw a birthday party for her. Our youngest sister, Lana, lives in Texas.  Both my older sisters (Kathy and Vera) were in Texas to attend our youngest niece’s graduation from high school. The graduation ceremony was on Friday. Our youngest niece is the daughter of our youngest brother who also lives in Texas. Are you following? Anyhoo, hats off to Lana for giving Kathy a very special celebration.

In Texas our friend, Heidi, sat in for me for this ‘sister’ photo above since I couldn’t be in Texas for the events this past weekend. Lana, Heidi, Vera and Kathy on Kathy’s 80th birthday.

Kathy’s kids and grands were all in Montana for a wedding. Our kids and Vera’s kids were in Montana, too, for the annual ‘cousins memorial day weekend’. This group of cousins sent their mom, nana, auntie a special photo greeting for her 80th. There was some face timing, too.

Meanwhile back in Texas…

Our niece, Hope’s graduation ceremony.

Graduations, weddings, cousin’s annual gathering, it was a full weekend! Why were we absent? We enjoyed taking care of our Grands while their parents had fun with the cousins in Montana!

Each of these loved ones got a t-shirt with a photo of a special moment in their history with their cousin Debbee. She turned 50 in May and our DIL Laura was inspired to celebrate her at cousins weekend in this special way.

The original ‘band of cousins’.

Whew! That was a very busy weekend. Our Colville kids made it back Monday evening and our ‘sitting’ duty was over. We shared our time watching over our Grands with our DIL Jamie’s dear mom. She got the evening/overnight duty while and we got the daytime duty. I’m sure our Grands had stories to tell about their caretakers and didn’t hesitate to throw us ‘under the bus’. 🙂

And just like that, May is almost over!

Last Day on the Danube

We had our night time shots of the Parliament Building in Budapest and now sailing in during the day time hours we took more photos.

After traveling all night from Vienna we sailed into Budapest on the morning of March 7th, a Saturday.

The Liberty Statue that overlooks Budapest. It is hard to miss.

  • The Monument: The bronze female figure holds a large palm leaf of peace overhead. The statue itself is 14 meters (46 feet) tall, standing on a 26-meter (85-foot) pedestal.
  • History: It was erected in 1947 to commemorate the Soviet Red Army’s liberation of Hungary from Nazi occupation during World War II.
  • Rededication: Following the fall of communism, the Soviet inscriptions and statues around the base were removed. The monument was rededicated to all those who sacrificed their lives for the independence and freedom of Hungary.

On this day we were signed up for an excursion to the Fisherman’s Bastion and Castle but my right foot swelled up and was painful so we opted to stay on the boat with my feet elevated. We thought that I might have a stress fracture. With ice and elevation the swelling went down.

On this evening we enjoyed Hungarian Folklore performances on board.

Our shuttle to the airport in Budapest for our flight to London left the boat at 8am Sunday March 8th. A shout out to the Amawaterways added service to the airport. Our luggage was handled for us. The agent who went with us on the bus guided us to the correct check-in desk and then showed us the way to go for security. We were thankful for this service. These extras in service really mean a lot when you are traveling in foreign countries.

Our flight to Heathrow airport was smooth and easy. My next travel posts will be about our days in Cambridge, England.

Back to the Beach

Staying in Huntington Beach with my sister, Vera, gives us the best chance to see the Pacific Ocean again. It had been a while since we enjoyed the sea air and the waves. Vera dropped us off at the pier and went on to an appointment and would pick us up afterwards. She lives about 5 miles from the ocean.

Classic morning June gloom even though this was May.

The surfers and the fishermen were gathered next to the pier and on the pier. Only experienced surfers were closer to the pier pilings or that is what the loud speaker on the pier announced with forcefulness!

There is some construction on the pier. A new restaurant is going in about midway on the pier.

Watching wave after wave never gets old.

Looking north toward Newport Beach.

Looking south toward Bolsa Chica.

It was breezy but we didn’t need a coat.

Duke Kahanamoku, three time Olympic gold medalist swimmer, public servant, goodwill ambassador of the State of Hawaii, and considered by many to be the father of modern surfing. In the early 1920’s, the Duke surfed under Huntington’s Pier. In his 70’s, he returned to Huntington Beach to help promote the U.S. Surfboard Championships. For many years the championships were dedicated in honor of Duke’s contributions to the sport of surfing. He will long be remembered for his principles of fair play, good sportsmanship and his gracious aloha spirit.

Main Street in Huntington Beach ends (or begins) at Pacific Coast Highway. We crossed the highway and wandered down Main street checking out some shops. I remembered Vera’s son in law mentioned a new doughnut shop we shouldn’t miss on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). We walked back to the statue and turned left and found Parlor Doughnuts.

 

This is a franchise and if you are in Huntington Beach or another location where they have a shop, we recommend this treat to you. The dough was lovely and the flavors good.

Vera found us on Main street and she parked the car and we decided to have breakfast together on Main Street at the Sugar Shack Cafe before heading back home.

I’m adding my photos of the Pacific from our plane ride home here, too.

Micah 7:18-19

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of your inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.