Meluza fish plus a great pasta dish.
Our traveling partners!
In just two weeks, two families that have know each other since 1967 will be starting a four week adventure in Italy together. Ed and Pat Hammett asked us to be their guides through Italy several years ago. But “things”, mostly medical, have gotten in the way. Now it is going to happen! Here is the plan:
Oct 4-11: Rome, staying in an apartment on Via Famagosta near the Vatican. There is so much to see here that a week isn’t quite enough. But we will get all we can in. Includes a 47th Anniversary Dinner for the McGirrs.
Oct 11-18: Venice, staying in a really lovely apartment in San Boldo that the McGirrs have used twice before (2002 and 2005). All the sights of Venice, plus a day long inland canal trip to Padua that will pass and stop at several Palladian villas.
Oct 18-25: Tuscany, staying in a two-story villa in Pergine Valdarno near Sienna. This villa comes with a cooking lesson one night in your own villa, Tuscany winery tours, visits to Florence, Sienna, San Gimignano, Cortona, and more. Includes a 69th Birthday Dinner for Gerri at the Locanda del Amorosa (Village of Love), where we stayed with Diana Nichols Simpson in 1997!
Oct 25-30: Sorrento, staying in a lovely hotel on the marina. Visiting Capri, Pompeii, Naples, Positano, Amalfi, and more.
We will be posting a weekly addition to this blog from Italy, so please look us up at dmcgirr48.wordpress.com every week for pictures and fun stories. See you in October from Italy!!!!
Hello Friends:
Well, we have been home in Cincinnati since the evening of March 31. The time zone adjustment was finally complete by April 6, so we are all three here just going through the process of re-entering life in the US. For Gerri and I, that means a lot of dental and medical appointments. All results good so far. Rose is staying with us here until Keven and April Schillig come down for Easter Weekend to see us and Madison, and they will take her home to Marlboro on April 20.
We left off on March 26, which is the day we left Valencia for good and drove to Madrid to spend our last five days in Spain with friends there. We lived with Vicky’s parents as usual, Luis and Tolas. But we had other visits as well, as you will see.
With Vicky’s two children, Inez (3) and Luis (1), life is always exciting. Lots of play time and, now, conversations with Inez. So, here are pictures of our time with that family:
Gerri and Rose went with Luis to pick up Inez at her school.
Then, they were also with Luis “Siete”, which is what they have taken to calling Vicky’s son Luis. He has so many “Luis’s” (father, both grandfathers, uncles, and more) that they are using this name.
On Wednesday, we had a great lunch at the home of the Marti family. Javier spent some time with us in Cincinnati in the summer of 2011.
Jose Enrique, Javier, Ana, Dale, and Rose. Really fun conversation all afternoon, until it was time for business appointments for people and we went back with Tolas to their house.
On Thursday, we had another great lunch at a restaurant near the major university with Gonzalo Barona and his girlfriend, Silvia. When we had lunch with them and Gonzalo’s parents in February, Silvia mentioned she wanted to spend some weeks this summer in America. So, we offered her our home if needed. She accepted over the phone in mid-March, and we spent most of the lunch getting through Gerri’s “interview” of Silvia about food, activities, shopping and the like concerning her visit. She is also going to be with us during the week in August when we are spending time with friends in a rented home in Charlevoix, MI.
Then, we spent a lot of time in the afternoons, with Vicky’s kids.
Luis Siete was getting very close to walking on his own!
Inez giving a special kiss to her American Great-Grandma!
This seat was like the “Porche” of baby walkers and went nearly as fast!
Looking good!
Uncle Javier has special games he plays with both kids! Some involve very convincing sounds of animals and a dragon!
Ever seen a better “Grandpa Grin”?
On Saturday, another great lunch with our friends Jaime and Adelaide, who lived in Cincinnati for several years. Jaime worked with Gerri at Children’s Hospital.
On Sunday, the day before we were flying home, there was a special lunch for us at the Vazquez-Pena home. It starting with slicing the special cured ham off the “hoof”. Javier is the family expert for this task.
So, he gave some lessons to Rose.
The champagne was flowing, the lunch was perfect, the company was fantastic, and the day was very special.
As the day ended and Vicky was getting the kids ready to go home, something quite special happened. We were getting our good-bye kisses from Inez, like many times over the five days before, and we told her that we were going to the United States the next day. So, we couldn’t play with her again for a while but we hoped we could play together very soon. Inez got quiet and a little sad because she was used to playing with us in the afternoons. Very sweet.
So, the update on my wrist. We went to an appointment the first day back, that I had made from Spain, with the Orthopedic Surgeon I know that takes care of all the Bearcat athletes. He said it was a nasty set of fractures that he just wants to protect, rest, and let heal for 8-10 weeks. So, they took out the staples, ditched the old-fashioned cast, and put me in this high-tech splint:
It is adjustable, comes off to rest the skin, and really lightweight. Much easier to manage and to sleep with.
One last event seems worth mentioning. On April 7, we went to the special Touring Exhibition at the Museum Center on the life and work of Diana – Princess of Wales. Very well done. Here are Rose and I at the entrance.
So, that’s it for 2014! Hope you all enjoyed our blog. See you next time!
Love,
Gerri, Rose, and Dale
So, this last blog was supposed to be written last Thursday, March 20. Well, that’s the day I went to just check on the progress of a bruised wrist and found out I had a severly BROKEN wrist. I was admitted immediately and had wrist surgery on March 21. So, in photo terms, I went from this ….
To this ….
I was released on March 22, checked out on March 25 in the morning by the surgeon, and we are now in Madrid as planned with the Vazquez-Pena family until our plane leaves for home on March 31. My prognosis is good for a full recovery of a normal wrist after a couple of months of healing and therapy. So, now we can back up and take things in order.
There was this great party on Saturday, March 15! It was at the Escorpion Golf Club outside Valencia and hosted by Linda and Vicente Casanova for their son Santi and his new bride Lauren (who hails from Columbus, Ohio). We were very excited about this day, because our friends Luis and Tolas Vazquez-Penia were coming from Madrid for this party and staying with us at our apartment.
We had a great lunch at home, took our siestas, and off we went to the party at 8:30. Good food (all creative snacks brought to the tables), old friends from 40 and 50 years ago visiting, dancing, and fun. Pics:
The happy couple. They live in the Canary Islands where Santi is the therapist for a professional sailing team. This couple will spend a year starting in October going around the world with the sailing team for the World Sailing Racing Tour! Now, THAT,S a honeymoon!
Luis and Tolas met old friends before they even got to the main door. And many more friends waited for them inside. They lived in Valencia for five years ending about 40 years ago.
The Americans!
Linda and Vicente looking good!
Gerri and Vicente, and yes, I danced with Gerri too!
At the end of the night, there was this bag in our car with a present for the wedding couple. It needed to get into the trunk of Linda’s car, so I took her keys and went to move the bag. I never made it. I missed a step at the entrance door, fell, and you’ve seen the results already. The only things to add is a guard was right there to help me, and the party was full of doctors to patch up my head scratch. I wasn’t able to drive and my wrist hurt. But we thought it was a giant sprain.
Las Fallas was starting and Sunday was very nice weather. So, that meant having a Sunday paella on the beach.
The view from our table.
That evening, we drove 30 minutes south to the beach community of Marengy Blau to the beach apartment of the Martinez-Canales family, which had been renovated beautifully since we were here last year. New kitchen and baths are wonderful, as well as other improvements. From that visit, Cristina is the star:
With mama….
With Grandpa!
We tried a driving tour of some of the best Fallas, but traffic was awful so we watched them on TV,
On Monday and Tuesday, there was the Ofrenda, where over 10,000 people from the neighborhoods and surrounding towns march in two parades over two days to offer flowers to the Virgin Mary behind the Cathedral. They all wear these beautiful, traditional costumes. You will see the stunning results shortly.
Each group has its own band. They not only play during the march to the Virgin, but they play all day and all night around their neighborhood.
Alfredo and Carmen’s 7-yr. old daughter always marches in the Ofrenda, so we planned a meeting to see her in costume. Earlier that same afternoon, we took Rose to see the 210-yr. old Botanical Gardens that we discovered and loved last year.
On to Lucia!
With Rose.
With Gerri.
With Carmen.
With Alfredo.
After Fallas is over, the flower Virgin is left up, and this is when we went to see her. Early in the morning of March 20:
They fill this in from a wood frame with the flowers offered by the people as they march by her. It is beautiful to watch and very emotional for the people who participate.
Each community also brings a flower arrangement for the Virgin and they put them all around the plaza,
Going to see this plaza after Las Fallas is over is one of our favorite things in Valencia!
Three hours later, I went to the ER to check out my wrist, and you already know that history!
S0, that is IT from Spain for this year. We will be home soon and look forward to seeing many of you soon.
Love to all,
Rose, Gerri, and Dale ( your one-handed blogger!)
Living in Valencia 