Sitting out the Covid-19 in the USA

In mid April we decided it best to return to the USA due to the corona virus pandemic.  It had been six years since we had been in the US together.  Susan has been to see her sisters, but I had stayed in Bali.  

We flew on empty planes from Bali to South Korea, Detroit then to RDU in NC.  We had booked an AirBNB house in Carrboro and we stayed, more or less in quarantine for two weeks.  At least it was familiar, but at the same time, very strange.  Some people were going about as if the world had never had a pandemic.  Landscaping and construction seemed to being going full speed ahead.  On the other hand, no students were around, bars were closed and a few restaurants were offering takeout and/or delivery.  We got groceries delivered from Whole Foods and Lowe's Food.  Both worked well.  

Eventually we hired a Avis car.  They offered me the one I had booked but it had NY plates which was not acceptable since we planned to go to Flordia (that had special tracking etc for people from NY and other Democrat governed states in the northeast.  I asked to change and he gave me a car with TN plates...a dark grey Lincoln Continental.  I feel like Florida mafia driving around in this thing.  Avis's parking lot was full of cars.  The only person working there told me that he had only seen cars come in, none going out except for mine.  

The guest house,101 Clay Street, Green Cove Springs, FL

We drove to Green Cove Springs, FL.  This is the town where our mail has been handled for at least ten years; however, we had never been there before.  We hired a very comfortable, furnished house on a month to month basis.  It is on the St. John's river.  The the owners have a big house and two guest houses on about 7 acres.  There are beautiful live oaks, magnolias, owls, pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus), sea eagles and many song birds.  Their boat dock is on a pier going out 900 feet into the river.  Susan swims from the dock almost daily.  It is a beautiful setting. 

The dock on the St. John's river

At this point we are taking the wait and see attitude.  Many things are hard to predict, especially the future.

Antarctica and sub-antarctic islands - January and February, 2020

This was a big adventure for us!  We departed Bluff harbor (south tip of New Zealand's south island) and spent 29 nights about the motor vessel Spirit of Enderby.  There were 48 guests on-board along with a expedition staff of lecturers, guides and chefs of about 8; plus, 22 ships crew from Russia.  The vessel was chartered by Heritage Expedition, an operation our of Christchurch, NZ.  The southern most destination was the Ross Ice Shelf near the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station.

Full details of this expedition can be found HERE.
Handbook of the Southern Ocean related to this trip is HERE.
Expedition Log of this trip is HERE.
A collection of our photos are found HERE.

It is a long way to the part of Antarctica south of New Zealand, but the travel was conveniently broken up with stops at the sub-antarctic islands, The Snares, Auckland Island, Macquarie Island and Campbell Island.  These were each unique in terms of geography, fauna and flora.  Expecially noticeable was that each had its own unique colonies of penguins and albatrosses.

Our first stop on the Antarctic continent was at Cape Adare where Cartsten Borchgrevink's hut from 1899 remains.  Several days later, on Ross Island, we were able to visit the huts left by explorers who were seeking the south pole.  Two (Cape Hut and Cape Evans) were used on separate occasions by Robert Falcon Scott.  Our last vist was to Sir Ernest Shackelton's Cape Royds hut.

Spirit of Enderby/Professor Kromov

Emperor Penguin & Spirit of Enderby

Royal Penguins on Macquarie Island (Australia)

Campbell Island (New Zealand) Albatross

Susan, Shackleton's Hut in background

Mt. Erebus (second highest volcano in Antartica)

Lyttelton (Christchurch), New Zealand - January 2020

We spent a delightful week in an original small Lyttelton Harbor house (Airbnb).  It is a great option for seeing the local sights.  We had an opportunity to visit with and dine with David and Jackie Peers (SV Brigadoon) in Lyttleton as well as Steve (fibrinogen) and Jane Brennan in Christchurch.  The weathe was a bit cool, but great for walking. 

In addition to some walking with Steve and Jane we had a Sunday sail with Dave on-board SV Brigadoon. 

All our south island photos can be found HERE.

Lyttelton, New Zealand 

Jane, Susan and Steve

View of harbor from Airbnb bedroom

Dave and Susan

Kerikeri New Zealand - December 2019

We traveled to north island New Zealand for Christmas and New Year's Eve joining Meillia and Peter Kee (of SV Per Ardua) family in the hometown of Meillia's parents (Vivienne and Malcolm Sexton) and brother John.  We had a small, comfortable Airbnb cottage about 8 minutes from the Sextons.

Besides Christmas dinner and New Year's Eve celebrations one highlight of our visit was to sail in the Bay of Islands on-board Malcolm's Davidson 34.  It was a beautiful day with nice wind.  There were other day trips touring important sights around Kerikeri as such as the memorial to the Rainbow Warrior.

All our north island photos can be found HERE.

Christmas dinner 

Susan and Meillia

Preparing to sail in the Bay of Islands

Orange orchard where our Airbnb was located

Greece - October 2019

We had our first visit to Greece.  October was a very good month to be there.  The weather was superb and the number of tourists was manageable.  The Greek people were delightful and excellent hosts.  Athens is a clean, functional city with excellent restaurants and easy for walking tourists.

We were joined in Greece by Claes and Karin Hojenberg from Uppsala, Sweden and John "Bull" Manfredi and Christine Klein.  We had a huge Airbnb apartment in Athens that overlooked the Olympic Stadium, a small two apartment house in Delphi and a huge, modern villa in Crete.  Needless to say, a good time was had by all. 

All of our photos from Greece can be seen HERE. 

Athens

Delphi

Crete

Stockholm - September 2019

We had a great two weeks in Stockholm while staying in a very nice Airbnb apartment on Swedenborgsgatan near the south station.  We had lived for 14 years nearby on Bellmansgatan.  The weather was not very cooperative.  It was very cool and wet.  Just the opposite of last year. 

We walked as much as weather permitted and even had a lot of experience with our new rain gear which worked amazingly well.  We did a fair amount of museum visiting too.  For the first time, we viewed the areas open to the public in Drottingholm Slottet.  Quite impressive.  Photography is now permitted and was a real plus.  However, more impressive is the newly remodeled National Museum in Stockholm.  The renovation was done very tastefully and brought the artwork close to the visitors.  Photography was allowed there too.  There was so much to see that we visited twice. 

All our photos from Sweden can be seen HERE.

View from our apartment on Swedenborggatan, Stockholm

Library, Drottingholm Slottet outside of Stockholm

View from the National Museum

Uppsala, Sweden - September 2019

We traveled from Leiden to Uppsala, Sweden where we were house guests of Claes and Karin Hojenberg.  It was a bit cool, but as we needed to buy some winter clothes that was not a problem.
As usual, we had a good time seeing Uppsala and the environs.  Claes continues to excel in the kitchen and prove that a day job is highly over-rated.

All photos of our trip to Sweden can be found HERE.

Tegelgatan neighborhood, Uppsala, Sweden

Claes

Karin and Susan

Susan and Uppsala Slottet