It’s been a while since I did something other than grouse about my injuries here. I am still in physical therapy getting over all of the various secondary issues I created for myself by breaking my elbow. Next on the hit parade: at long last physical therapy for my back! Oh, and this blog and another blog I maintain were hacked. Luckily I had the content backed up but have lost all images and all of the theme customization the old sites had. Ah well, life goes on, as does this update.

I haven’t done any international traveling since I broke my elbow. Chuck went to Valencia, Spain for a medical conference so he has me beat. We have done some domestic travel: we went to New Mexico for the balloon festival in Oct 2023, then the Bahamas in Dec 2023 and went to see the total eclipse in PA in Apr 2024. Other than that, it’s been pretty quiet. I’ve missed the international travel but feel good that we have paid off the trips we took after I retired (we went a little crazy). And I’ve had a chance to focus on recovery.

The balloon festival was lots of fun and we accidentally were there for the annular eclipse. I mean, we just stood in our friends’ driveway to see it. It was really amazing – we took many photos and decided that it would be fun to go see the total eclipse in Apr 2024. We have been to New Mexico a few times but the balloon festival was a first and lived up to the hype – watching the balloons launch was incredible. Spending time with good friends just made it that much more special. While there, we also went to Los Alamos and visited the Bradbury Science Museum. Then we took a longer drive and went to Carlsbad Caverns which is pretty out of the way but was well worth the journey. Photos here.

We went to Harbour Island in the Bahamas for a week in Dec 2023 with my sister and brother-in-law. It’s best known for its pink sand beaches (the pink color comes from crushed conch shells). It’s a charming place where you have no choice but to slow down and take it easy. Getting there was the most stressful part: we flew to Miami then caught another flight to North Eleuthera Island then caught a small boat to Harbour Island.I took a few days to settle into the “take it easy” thing. The house we stayed at had a beautiful ocean view and it was a super short walk to the beach. It was a bit old but was clearly a well-loved home. We enjoyed walks along the beach, ate at some great restaurants and toured the island in a golf cart (that didn’t take long as it’s a small island). My sister and brother-in-law had visited years ago so it was a trip down memory lane for them. Photos here.

We headed to PA for the total eclipse after consulting the map of the eclipse path and deciding that Erie PA was the place to be (it was also only about an hour and a half from my sister’s). We actually watched the eclipse at Edinboro University as the traffic was getting a bit crazy. Turns out lots of people had the same idea we did! Still, we had a great time. The campus radio station was broadcasting songs about space and stars which was a hoot and they had an astronomer on hand to share info. The weather was looking bad right up until about half an hour before totality then the clouds parted and the sun came out. It was a really magical experience and has inspired us to chase the 2026 eclipse to Spain. Chuck took a bunch of photos but we haven’t posted them anywhere yet.