2015 Year in Review

Our year started with major projects preparing our house to sell. In April, Barbara underwent extensive spinal fusion surgery and Bill helped during her recovery. By summer, we resumed most activity and enjoyed special times with family and friends. For most of the fall, we joined the caregiver team helping Barbara's mom. She passed away December 11th of Alzheimer's or a related disease and we will have a memorial service for her December 27th in Vero Beach FL. She's sadly missed.

Barbara & Bill at Chesterfield Gorge, Mass.

Carrie, Bill, and Kate at Pemaquid Point, Maine

Barbara at Monhegan Island, Maine

Bill with Al & Miriam Tillman at McKee Botanical Garden, Vero Beach, FL, Oct 13

Kate's transitioning from living on her own to living with her sister next year. She's serving at a fine Italian restaurant, Il Casale. She enjoys martial arts, church, running barefoot in the woods, fine cuisine, and meeting new people. Kate and Bill backpacked in the White Mountains and we all had a glorious time together in Maine at some of our favorite places.

Kate at Pemaquid Point, Maine

Kate doing a handstand

Kate backpacking in the White Mountains

Kate at a friend's wedding

Carrie, our world traveler, used both her Spanish and French while continuing her Economics studies at Boston College. During the summer she studied Spanish in Peru and interned in Bolivia. Then she took classes this fall in Paris and traveled around Europe whenever she had free time. She experienced Inca ruins, French cuisine, an alpine village, magnificent architecture, acclaimed art museums, romantic castles, and so much more.

Carrie at Machu Picchu, Cusco, Peru

Carrie at the Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Carrie in Barcelona, Spain

Carrie in Lyon, France

Well, we didn't move in 2015, but plan to in 2016.

In Remembrance of Barbara's Mom, Miriam Tillman

Miriam Evelyn Tillman, died peacefully at her home on December 11, 2015. She was born in Orange, NJ on June 21, 1933 to William and Cecelia (Conlon) Hedden. She grew up in Millburn, NJ and the Vailsburg section of Newark with her brothers James and William. On February 20, 1960 Miriam married Alfred J. Tillman, and they remained devoted to each other for 55 wonderful years.  

Miriam graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Douglas College (now Rutgers) in 1955. She taught at Vernon L. Davey Junior High School in East Orange, NJ.

Following their wedding, she and Al moved to Mt. Tabor, NJ where she continued teaching until she paused to raise children. She became president of both the Women's and Garden Clubs of Mt. Tabor and co-founded the Mt. Tabor Nursery School. She and Al built a vacation home at Beebe Pond in Vermont. In 1974 the family moved to North Granby, CT where Miriam remained active teaching. Then in 1977 the family moved to Orchard Park, NY where she focused her career on early childhood education. The family moved to Temple Terrace, FL in 1984 where she became a pre-school director. Upon retiring, she and Al sold their home and bought an RV, in which they lived full-time for six and a half years, traveling extensively throughout the country until finally settling in Vero Beach, FL in 2003. 

Miriam loved skiing, hiking, boating, birding, and traveling and was particularly adept at developing travel itineraries, including a summer-long excursion with friends through Europe in 1956. Her artistic flair was revealed in gardening, flower arranging, cooking, sewing, quilting, and photography. She served in the various roles in the churches she attended and later participated in Community Bible Study. But most of all, Miriam was filled with love for her best friend, Al, and the rest of her family and friends.  

She's survived by her husband Alfred Tillman, her daughter Barbara Ruh and husband Bill, her son Edward, and her other son Ronald and wife Sue. In addition she leaves behind four grandchildren—Kate and Carrie Ruh, and Sean and Ashley Tillman—and also her brother Jim. A private memorial service will be held for her on December 27, 2015.

Massachusetts - Crane Beach

Wanting a place to hike with no snow or mud, we chose to go to Crane Beach in Ipswich MA.

Twenty-two years ago we walked this beach on a windy day in April.

Barbara April 1993

Barbara April 2015

Not as windy this time.

We ate our lunch on the boardwalk.

We've gone to Crane Beach many times, but were interested to learn about the adjacent land managed by the same land conservation group.  Here is a little video about the Crane Estate at Castle Hill: Crane Estate video.

The thing that probably surprised us the most was how Richard T Crane Jr built an Italian Renaissance-style villa, but his wife didn't like it.  He told her to give it ten years and if she still didn't like it he'd tear it down and build a different mansion.  And that's what happened.

Connecticut - Logee's Greenhouse

Last week Barbara and her friends letterboxed at a greenhouse in Danielson, Connecticut – an unassuming place at first glance called Logee's.

[Image from the web. There was a little less snow when we visited.]

It's the type of place you might just drive by without giving it much notice.  In fact, the town we live in has a number of greenhouses and used to be known as one of the largest carnation-growing towns.  So we are used to driving by greenhouses or just making a quick stop for garden supplies, but this greenhouse is more than a garden shop.  It is what they call "a destination greenhouse."

The clues to the letterboxes take you on a tour of the facility with an opportunity to learn about some plants along the way.  Gardenias, Jasmines, Bougainvilleas… and so much more.  Common plants and some very unusual plants.  Interesting herbs and beautiful fragrant flowers.  This particular greenhouse is known for its tropical potted plants.  Here is a Bird-of-Paradise.

They have a Lemon Tree over 100 years old that still bears fruit and a Washington Navel Tree that actually bears 10 different types of fruit.  Imagine having one tree where you can pick grapefruit, oranges, kumquats, tangerines, and limes from the same tree!

The letterboxes were fun, too.  We were sorry the one in the "hobbit hole" was missing, but liked the display.

All in all, it was a fun outing and an interesting place to explore.

Cape Cod MA – "From Sea to Shining Sea"

Excited to have a 50-degree day in December, we headed to the Cape to explore the area.

We found a letterbox at a nice little park overlooking the Cape Cod Canal.  Then we went to Buzzards Bay Recreation Area where we saw the Cape Cod Canal railroad bridge

and Bill began the 7-mile bike ride along the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal Bikeway.

If you look carefully at the picture above you can see Bill in neon green heading to the canal bikeway. Here is a sign that shows the bike paths.

He biked under the two bridges to Cape Cod and then we met at Scusset Beach State Reservation.

 

We actually took a similar picture at the Pacific.

We then headed to Falmouth where Bill bicycled the Shining Sea Bikeway from North Falmouth to Woods Hole and then back to meet Barbara for a total of about 13 miles.  The bikeway goes past cranberry bogs

and the ocean.

 

Barbara found a few letterboxes: one near the grave of Katherine Lee Bates, author of America the Beautiful.  The Shining Sea Bikeway got its name from a line from America the Beautiful.  Given our cross country travels, we love that line "from sea to shining sea."

Bill also hiked to the Punch Bowl, a pretty pond in Beebe Woods. This land and other tracts are owned by the 300 Committee, a Falmouth land trust founded in 1986 on the 300th anniversary of the Town of Falmouth. 

2014 Year in Review

As many of you know... after much research and planning we ordered a 19' Escape Travel Trailer made in British Columbia, drove across the country to pick it up, and then spent two months traveling in the Pacific Northwest.  Our previous blog post sums up the trip and the June - August posts chronicle our daily activities. We thoroughly enjoyed the adventure!

Bill & Barbara (1) Olympic National Park (2) Washington Pass (3) our trailer in Ohio

Earlier in the year we saw the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC en route to Barbara's parents' place in Florida.  We saw a few other relatives on that trip.

Kate lives in a house in Lexington MA with some other young women.  She perfected her coffee barista skills at several coffee shops, but then grabbed an opportunity to serve at a restaurant in a newly opened inn.  Check out innathastingspark.com to see where she currently works; it's part of an elite group of inns. She's also studying business part-time at Northeastern University and attends the young adults group at church.

Kate (1) dog-sitting with Maggie (2) with Carrie (3) coffee barista

Carrie's on her second year at Boston College.  Her Presidential Scholar Program included a spring break trip to Italy, a summer program on social justice in Boston, and an upcoming Christmas break trip to Nicaragua.  On top of that she spent the rest of the summer working with a microfinance organization in Uganda.  Among other projects, she created a video highlighting a Ugandan loan recipient.  She is now interning this academic year with a non-profit called Accion which gives small business loans.

Carrie (1) Bologna, Italy (2) Arua, Uganda (3) Gloucester, MA

Bill delved into many projects including three weeks in Ohio helping his parents after his mom's ankle surgery.  We also spent some time in Florida with Barbara's parents.  After over 4 years, Barbara transitioned out of her role as Teaching Director of the North Shore class of Community Bible Study this November.  Barbara so appreciated her time serving in that role and will miss it greatly, but looks forward to the next chapter.

Speaking of the next chapter, with us both in retirement mode – we plan to move in 2015, but have yet to work on getting the house ready to sell and narrowing down where to move.  Stay tuned to see where we end up next and what the next trip will be.

Pacific Northwest Trip Summary

We've been home over 3 months, but are now writing a final trip summary. Here are all the states and provinces that we drove through or visited:

Distance traveled: 11,231 miles

Time away: 65 days

Where we slept: 2 nights hotels, 3 nights tent, 1 night yurt, 2 nights 4Runner, and 56 nights trailer.

 

[Click on any picture to enlarge.]

We hiked and hiked and hiked.  Bill liked 10-mile hikes that challenged him, while Barbara felt a gradual 3-mile trail was her limit. We hiked together, but sometimes we’d start out together and then Bill would continue on and occasionally we would go on separate trails. One time Bill hiked up a mountain, while Barbara drove to the top. Another time we hiked together until we saw this sign.

Since the remainder of the “trail” was a jumble of boulders, Barbara turned around, but Bill kept going and was able to reach a glacier-fed lake.

Bill's favorite hike was the Highline Trail at Glacier National Park; Barbara's was Hurricane Hill in Olympic National Park.

We saw lots of cool stuff when we hiked, like snowcapped mountains, beaches, waterfalls, big trees, glaciers, alpine meadows, rainforests, cliffs, sand dunes, and seastacks. Trails took us behind waterfalls, in a cave, and through the devastation caused by the eruption of Mt St Helens. 

And then there were the moments when we spotted something moving and said, "Oh, look!  There's a ______!"

We saw so much wildlife!

Barbara letterboxed some on the trip, adding the pink places to her list of places she found boxes.

 

Her letterboxing highlights included boxing with Judy and finding some very special boxes in Washington.

We drove over beautiful highways like the Sea to Sky Highway in British Columbia, Chuckanut Drive in Washington, Washington Pass in the North Cascades, the Historic Columbia River Highway in Oregon, Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park, and across the vast country. 

Most of our trip focused on natural scenic places. We didn't explore cities much, but explored some beautiful gardens and parks, like the Butchart Gardens near Victoria, British Columbia.  

We enjoyed various tours and ranger-led talks. How cool it was to see Theodore Roosevelt's cabin and then watch the PBS Roosevelt series when we got home. We saw 1^st Order Fresnel Lenses in lighthouses and then saw one close up in a museum when we got home.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and we are thankful for a beautiful country and the opportunity to travel, see sights, and even see a few special people along the way! 

We know a number of you followed us along on our trip as we blogged.  It seemed like our readers were right there with us.

Who's that peeking along with Bill from behind that tree? (Edited by Barbara's dad)