Bonne année 2020!

We spent a lot of time visiting family this year. Brenda visited her mom Beth in Spokane three times (and I went too in May). Beth was the only finisher in the over 90 age group (among 45,000 race entrants) in this year’s Bloomsday 12k Road Race. We’re proud of her ability to continue living independently. Brenda and I finished the race too, though we weren’t near the top of our class. During our visits to Spokane we did lots of yard work and other things to help out. We visited friends in Poulsbo during our May trip and spent a few days graciously hosted by Randi Strong Petersen and Dick Soderstrom. In April we were in Poulsbo for Brenna Berquam’s law school graduation party at Kiana Lodge. That event earns party of the year.

I went back to Peoria, IL, for my 50th reunion, but on the way I resolved to visit my nieces and my nephew, who are spread throughout the midwest. So I started by traveling to Leavenworth, KS, to visit my niece Tanya, husband Dan, and their son Caedan – 5 months old at the time. In addition, I visited the Army Post at Fort Leavenworth, studied the history of how the American West was developed, and had a great time.

Then I traveled to Rossford, OH to see my niece Tiffany with son Wulff (5) and daughter Alexis (almost 2). One day we went walking on a raised trail over a restored portion of the Great Black Swamp, which once extended hundreds of miles from the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio into central Indiana. It was a joy to see how the kids enjoyed playing outside and learning about the world.

On my return I stopped for the night near the Ohio border at cousin John von Allmen’s. He and wife Cathy hosted dinner for my cousins Mark and Nova, Amy and Chip, and also Mark’s daughter Abigail.

Then I visited my nephew Alex in Madison, Wisconsin. Alex works as a software engineer for Epic Systems, a medical software company somehow not located in Silicone Valley. Chances are your nearest major medical center uses their software. Alex took me on a tour of their campus, which was a fantasy world in itself. For me that was quite a treat.

I traveled to Pekin, IL, to visit my niece Tasha, husband Dustin, their daughter Emma (4), and son Jordan (9 months). Along the way I stopped by the former homes and graves of my grandparents in Davenport, IA, and my parents in Peoria. Tasha and Dustin took me to my first Morton Pumpkin Festival, where I had as much fun as the kids.

My 50th high school reunion was wonderful. On the one hand, there were many whom I’d hoped to see who didn’t show. On the other hand, it was great no matter. All credit to Debbie Dew for persevering to hold everything together. Peoria is where I grew up with the same group of kids all through school, an experience dear to me. It still feels like home.

We traveled elsewhere this year, starting with our February trip to Egypt with our French friends Cat and Jacques. Also in April we spent a weekend in London with Cat and Jacques. In July we went to Portugal, first some days in Porto with our Australian friends Dean and Alison, whom we were meeting for our fifth vacation together in Europe. Then on to Tavira in the south of Portugal where we met our friends Kelly and Linda, whom we had first met in Poulsbo, but who had retired to Portugal after living for years in New Mexico. Tavira had a small town atmosphere – everybody seemed to know everybody in the neighborhood.

In August we spent a week in Nice, our 3rd year in a row staying in a friend’s apartment in the heart of the city. It’s our way of joining the many Parisians who leave the city during “le grand départ”.

In October we met our friend Martha in beautiful Vienna for a few days, then took the train with her to Berlin. Martha was on her quest to see all the worldly works of Pieter Bruegel, so we visited numerous museums in both cities. I had studied Carl Schorske’s Fin de Siècle Vienna to learn about the fascinating politics and culture in Vienna at the turn of the 20th Century. In Berlin we saw how most of the redevelopment since Germany’s reunification was in the eastern part. We met friends of Martha who told us about the isolation and sense of community that was in the old West Berlin during the Cold War. They told us of once being trapped in East Germany after breaking their car’s fan belt on their drive home from Denmark. They finally found someone to make a temporary fan belt using a nylon stocking to allow their return to West Berlin. Martha took us to see Rigoletto at the Berlin Opera, which was wonderful. I’ve barely touched on all that we saw in each of these cities.

We saw numerous visitors passing through Paris. We met our friend Niké Panta with her mother and sister visiting from Hungary at Notre Dame in the afternoon of the April day when the cathedral burned, though we only learned of the fire upon our return home. Seattle friend Laurie Grieg stayed with us for a few days in June, and Mary McAlhany visited while I was in the US in September. We also saw Steve and Linda Ingram, Brian Young, Dennis and Peggy Paige, Jennifer and Joe Bencharsky, Ann Randall, and no doubt some others whom I’ve failed to mention.

There’s always lots to do in Paris – to name a few of the events we experienced: the orchid show at Jardin des Plantes, Nuit Blanche (parade with museums open all night – we went to the Picasso Museum), a tour of the French Sénat, Salon d’agriculture, Salon du Chocolate, the impressionist collection of the British entrepreneur and art patron Samuel Courtauld at Fondation Louis Vuitton (which hadn’t been shown in Paris for 60 years), the Van Gogh exhibit at Ateliers des Lumieres, Fête de la Musique (first day of summer), a 4th of July picnic with American friends by the Seine, Bastille Day Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower, Journées du Patrimoine where I toured the Banque de France, the Leonardo De Vinci Exhibit at the Louvre, Maison de Balzac (newly reopened) and several residences designed by Le Courbusier, lighting of the Holiday decorations on the Champs Elysées, and a Christmas chorale and bell concert at the American Church. We’ve tried doing more historical walks both inside Paris and on day trips outside to places like Giverny, Poissy, and Créteil. Brenda has a whole host of other activities she has pursued with friends, including Adrian Leeds, Fran Michalek, Kate Miller, and Anne Daignault.

We celebrated Thanksgiving twice, first with American friends on Thanksgiving, then with French friends a couple weeks later. We’ve gone to the movies and dinner most Sundays throughout the year with our friends Cat and Jacques, who also invited us into their home for Christmas and other occasions with their family. We’ve also enjoyed spending time with other friends in Paris, including Anna Cooper, Eric and Carole Taieb, Pascale Velleine, Betty Brohan, Danielle Robert, and Alex Ultrabright.

Our Poulsbo friend Barb has been visiting over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, and despite the transit strike and protests that have somewhat crippled transportation in France this year, we were able to slip away for an overnight in Strasbourg to see the Christmas markets.

We were supposed to spend New Year’s eve at a party of French friends in Vincennes, east of Paris. The Paris transport strike closed most metro stations, so we set out at about 6:30pm to walk about 2km to the nearest open station, Frankllin Roosevelt. However, it was New Year’s Eve and 100,000 police had been deployed to control the huge crowd expected to celebrate on the Champs Élysées. There was a police barrier and they sent us away, telling us to walk around the Grand Palais to the station Champs-Élysées-Clemenceau, probably another 1km. Before arriving there, we came to another barrier where the police directed us to the next station, Concord, another 2km. Traffic was backed up everywhere. Taking a taxi or Uber was out of the question. We arrived at Concord, and, after venturing to 4 different entry points, we concluded it was closed too. We called our friends and said there was no way we could get to Vincennes. Then we trudged home with our cheesecake, now properly chilled, and our champagne. In all we walked about 10km in 2 hours in uncomfortable shoes. We celebrated at home by having some pasta with some cheesecake and some port, then settled in to watch a classic French film called the Rules of the Game (La règle de jeu), a parody of corrupt French society of the late 1930’s. Suddenly it was midnight.

My New Year’s resolution: to produce more posts to this blog through reduced research, less reflexion, and probably more errors. We’ll see how that goes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! Here is something to ring in the new year.