holiday time

holiday time is here again and the neighborhood we drive through on the way to the airport has a fierce competition going for which household can spend the most for their electric bill this month!

we went to visit friends John & Barb tonight and found their place inundated with Santas and elves and all kinds of holiday decorations.  Years ago I did a give away of all my holiday decorations.  I held it at the office in one of our conference rooms- the deal was that anyone could take whatever they wanted and if they felt moved to donate into a basket that would be great! I let them know that whatever was donated I would match and it would go to charity- and we raised more than $500 (my office mates were first rate givers!)

so we no longer have any holiday decorations and Phil & I have long had a tradition of traveling over the holidays and returning on Christmas Day when the flights were virtually empty.  Admittedly we have sometimes had some mediocre hotel based Christmas Day meals (except in Paris where you can eat 24/7/365 at Au Pied de Cochon near Les Halles where you can have oysters and French Onion soup, along with the pig's feet, to celebrate the day!)

But I digress- the reason I am posting this is because we have completed our holiday letter and here it is for all who have any interest in the year being recapped (perhaps you have missed one or two of the more than 125 posts of 2017) LOL

so here it is-

Season’s Greetings! 2017

We hope this holiday letter finds you well!  2016 ended for us with a trip to Cartagena with friends Barb & John for four days which was a “getaway” midweek “long weekend” that we enjoyed very much.  Our 2017 was somewhat different from our usual year of travel and social plans because we spent the bulk of the summer in Chicago with family and friends visiting our new place there.

Victoria did a fair amount of traveling in the spring with trips to Uzbekistan and her annual road trip with friend Tom (this year to Delaware and Maryland.) Phil did his Clearwater Festival in June with son Jeremy. We both got away for an end of June music tour of Western Ireland and a fall trip to Georgia (the country- not the state) more on those later…  but the photos below are from Samarkand, Uzbekistan (1) and Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia (2).

2017 started off with us in residence at our winter home in the Sarasota/Bradenton area for the seventh winter.  We had a number of guests this year, including friends Mike; Jean; Victoria’s cousin, Cathy; and several days with dear friends Poul & Lene, who visited from Denmark.  We also had visits from Neil and from Barry & Ellen.

Victoria took a class on Asian mysteries and Phil was fully into his sessions with his personal trainer Erika.  We went to lectures and concerts (too numerous to recite but all detailed at http://blog.semifreelife.com/ )

We celebrated friend Barbara’s 99^th birthday as de-facto family (we call her “Mom”) in early January. Later that month, we made a quick trip to Chicago to have dinner at our favorite ORIOLE, see friends Kevin & Shari, and handle some business.  In February we had a great time visiting Angela & Lee in North Carolina. The highlight of that trip was brunch, with crepes made by Lee and a fabulous chocolate cake Angela made to celebrate my birthday!

We attended two film festivals – one before the trip to Uzbekistan and one after. We saw some really great films at both the Jewish Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival and will return again this coming year.  Our winter was filled with symphony and ballet, in addition to theater and concerts.  As we mentioned in last year’s letter, we do the same things in Florida that we do in Chicago, just in different seasons – so our entire year has included lots of theater- lots of concerts and many, many, amazing meals.  We tried many new restaurants this year, most reviewed on the blog (link above) which includes further details. 

Before Victoria’s return to Chicago, she and her road trip buddy Tom, did a DART (Disappearing America Road Trip) to Maryland and Delaware. The highlight of that trip would have to be Antietam (surgeon’s tools below), but Winterthur and the grounds ran a close second. 

In the midst of returning to Chicago we had our first visitors there when Steve & Suzanne came for several days at the very end of April.  We went to many favorite places for much eating and drinking LOL. May brought a trip to NYC to see son Jeremy, and friends Laure & Arno and daughter, Alix (who would be joined by new baby brother Hugo at the very end of July!) June brought visits from Matt & Ann; and our Cousin Michele; then Phil went to NY for the Clearwater Festival with son Jeremy and our friends Ron & Mary.  

Shortly after his return we headed to Ireland for a music tour with johnsmith.  We had mostly good weather and some good meals and music every night (Phil was voted “most enthusiastic audience member” by the trip leaders.  They were pretty sure he knew EVERY song!)

In late July we had a visit from Al & Carol. (Al had lived in Chicago decades ago and was not a fan but we reframed his memories of the winter he spent here.) We had sunny days and plenty of time at or near the Lakefront including the obligatory boat tour from the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  I think Carol was favorably impressed by the city which she had never visited before. 

We headed toward center line totality for the solar eclipse in August, stopping in St Louis, on the way to and from our rural Missouri destination, for two dinners with Phil’s mom and other family members, including brothers Larry and Sandy, and nephew Jeff.

The summer flew by and soon we were on pins & needles watching the TV coverage of Hurricane Irma (heading right for our town!) We “dodged a bullet” when the path turned after hitting Naples and went inland instead of directly up the coast as predicted.  We had only a small amount of damage to our screening over the courtyard but there was a lot of downed vegetation and landscaping. Despite the “miss,” our condo complex had $25K in cleanup and repair costs.  And unfortunately, brother Larry had to cancel a trip to visit in Chicago, when flights were canceled and after he evacuated to Orlando from Miami.

Also in September, we went to Portland, OR to visit with now “empty nesters” Steve & Suzanne for a long weekend of wine tasting and tasting menus!  Cousin Michele drove down from Seattle to join us.  We had a great time and the four days flew by with stops at ten wineries and numerous fab restaurants.

Then in October, we were off for our big journey for the year- the republic of Georgia!  It was to be an epicurean tour, focusing on the food and wine of Georgia. It was epic for sure.  They started pouring wines around ten each morning and each day had two three hour multi-course meals.  There wasn’t a spit bucket in the whole country.  When we finally made it to our hotel rooms, (generally 9-12 o’clock each night) we were exhausted LOL.  The original fifteen members dwindled over time as broken bones took a toll on the group (along with no spit buckets, there are also no handrails in the country.)

We survived, but I doubt we will be returning to Georgia any time soon.  The infrastructure is not ready for western touring.  We had some nice hotels, but the roads were terrible and the time between destinations lengthy and arduous.  This was despite the whole country being roughly the size of North Carolina.  We were so over filled with food and drink that when we got home we had to cancel our first dinner plans, as we just couldn’t face any more drinking or eating. LOL Yes, we know that sounds impossible!

The remainder of October was spent dining with friends and doing our usual rounds of favorite restaurants before we leave town.  Victoria went south to open up the condo and clean up the courtyard and porch after Irma.  Luckily everything is stored in the garage except the umbrella base and larger outdoor tables, so we weren’t worried about damage, just a lot of cleaning to be done.  She and Lucy (cat) arrived the first Sunday in November followed by Phil two days later.  So we were all settled in by the third week of November.  Brother Larry came up from Miami for Thanksgiving weekend and we are headed there for Christmas weekend. 

Right now our travel plans for the upcoming year are somewhat unsettled.  Angela & Lee have a wedding coming up in June with the ceremony in NYC in early June, and a reception in North Carolina in late June.  We have confirmed plans for an Africa trip to see the Great Migration in the first half of August.  

Sometime in the Fall we are off to Jutland in Denmark, to visit our friend Aase on the 40^th anniversary of Phil and Aase meeting.  And since Angela & Lee are moving to London, we will undoubtedly combine the trips and hopefully wrap in a visit with Cousin Iddo and his partner Nicola (who live in Exeter in England.) If we get really lucky, maybe friend Irina will be visiting her daughter and grandchildren in Warwick at the same time.  Now there’s a plan for an EPIC trip in October 2018!!!

We hope this finds you and your families happy and healthy.  As the year closes, we still count our blessings. We send to each of you our very best wishes for health, wealth, happiness, peace, prosperity, abundance, and good luck in 2018! 

PS Please note we both have moved our email addresses to gmail accounts so we now can be reached at:

philwino@gmail.com

toriaj254@gmail.com

From a climate change lecture we attended this year J

So there it is- the holiday letter for 2017... December is fairly busy already so I am happy to have this part handled in plenty of time..LOL (even though it seems from the decorating we have seen, we are behind the curve...) But stay tuned for more...

HOLIDAY GREETINGS!!!

So I have finished our holiday greetings for 2015 and here it is -

LOL- if you follow the blog you already know all the minute details so nothing new here - but....

Season’s Greetings! 2015

We hope this holiday letter finds you well!  This is the time of year when we find out two things- plans are just plans… the reality often differs… and that January was either a long time ago or yesterday depending upon whether you are trying to actually remember it or having the feeling it was “just last month” LOL.  When we last wrote, we had ideas for both spring and fall destinations for extended travel, but our eventual trips were completely different.

2015 started off with us in residence at our home in the Sarasota/Bradenton area for the second winter.  We had fewer guests this year – perhaps the novelty wears off.  Our first time visitors included Kathy & John Delia and Ron & Mary Lewis. 

As we mentioned in last year’s letter, we do the same things in Florida that we do in Chicago, just in different seasons – so our entire year has included lots of theater- multiple plays at theaters including Lifeline, Time Line, Northlight, Asolo, Lookingglass, Steppenwolf, Remy Bumppo, Theater Wit, and Dead Writers.  Favorites included The Watson Intelligence (Wit); Ernie (Traverse City Playhouse); Funnyman (Northlight); and Bad Jews (Wit).  We attended a fabulous lecture on Pinter by Julian Sands and a closed circuit broadcast (a first for us) of the National Theater Live (from London) of Skylight- a terrific and timely play from the Thatcher era in the UK.  So many more that I don’t have space to mention – with more than two dozen plays and only one that got a “WTF?” review… Each play is reviewed on the blog, so feel free to delve into our two “seasons” of theater by reading further details there.

As for performances on film – we did the Sarasota Film Festival with seven films for Phil and twenty-one for Victoria. Georgia B made it down for the Finale and a lovely film starring Blythe Danner. This coming SFF will be an occasion for a visit from son Jeremy who is quite the film buff.

We also go to concerts in both locales – and this year was no different.  We found a new venue we really love for a variety of music at Fogartyville – a small local club. In between, Phil went to many concerts at WFMT studios and Barb & John West, friends made in one of Victoria’s Florida classes, joined him for many, since we share seasonal locales – winter in SRQ and summers in ORD… a happy coincidence! We heard Janiva Magness twice (Florida at the Blues Fest and Chicago at SPACE)and Itzhak Perlman, Full Set, Roy Book Binder, Tim Grimm at a house concert, and Jake Shimabukuro (Centre East)… among others…

We also spend a lot of time exploring the restaurant scenes in both of our home towns… therefore we can’t fail to mention several of the winners in that realm as well as a few “also ran” places.  Again, all the details made the blog, along with lots of food photos. In the number one slot again, we would have to put 42 grams (which got TWO Michelin stars again this year!) Chris & Nina Nugent’s goosefoot  is a very close second! We also had season tickets to the next menus of: France: Bistro, Tapas  and Terroir.  Our favorite this year was definitely Terroir but Tapas followed right behind.  For our out-of-town meals, among the highlights were Comme Chez Soi in Brussels, Bord’Eau and Vermeer in Amsterdam, Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland, along with Juni in NYC, and we had an amazing meal at Thornton’s in Dublin as well.  As I mentioned, all the minute details are on the blog J along with tons of mouth-watering photos of the food!

So given that as context – let’s get back to our year – in which we did some traveling.  No change there, especially since both of us are fully retired!

We started off with the Forks & Corks wine weekend with CBGB – enjoying one of the wine dinners as well as the Grand Tasting (tickets sold out in less than 2 minutes- LOL- this is a BIG DEAL around these parts of the Gulf Coast.) We also met up in Miami, with daughter Angela & Lee (her partner) and dined with the two of them; our niece and nephew, Lauren & Jeffrey; brother, Larry; and our cousin Michele; making it quite the family weekend. Victoria took two interesting classes at the local college (the Sarasota Arts class where she met John & Barb West) and a maritime history class. Phil got tickets for two spring training games to start off his baseball season. And seven plays at our local theater helped keep us off the streets…LOL  We also did the annual Wine Walk to Ca’ d’Zan (the Ringling Mansion), which we had liked so much the last two years. 

When we returned north at the very end of April, we headed to St. Louis to visit Mother/Sue and again saw nephew Jeffrey, along with his dad Sandy, for a few nights while we caught up with Sue. Then it was off to Brussels and Amsterdam for a lot of terrific meals and great works of art…

We stopped in NYC on the way over and found the last leg of the Highline had opened – so that was a treat.  Our friend Laure made a wonderful dinner for us and we spent the evening catching up with her and our favorite little friend, her daughter, the beautiful and extremely smart Alix (now four!) The following night we had dinner at Racine’s NY so we could see her dad Arno, but that was about all we did – he was extremely busy with customers. (Racine’s is doing very well!)

In Amsterdam we had the good fortune to have a drink with an old school buddy from Victoria’s days at University of Santa Monica. Steve Kowalski and his partner, George, were also in Amsterdam the same week we were! It had been 25 years since “Tor” and “T.V.” had seen each other! And speaking of reunions – Phil’s Salzburg gang from 1970 also had a mini-reunion here in Florida when Barry & Ellen (STL), Liesi & Tim (NY state), Pam & Glenn (TPA) and the two of us (SRQ) spent a day together in St Pete Beach and had a lovely dinner before parting – with plans to do it again in February 2016!

When we returned to the states from the May Europe trip, June was here and so Phil joined Jeremy & Angela at the Clearwater Folk festival in Croton, NY.  In July, on 7/3 we went to friends Richard & Irene’s (a seven year tradition) and then we had a get together on 7/4 with wine buddies of many years at Mark & Laura & Livvie’s mansion in the sky overlooking the Lakefront and Grant Park.  Less than a week later, we headed off on a ROAD TRIP!  We had been talking for years about going to PNC Park and Fallingwater (the Wright masterpiece in southwestern Pennsylvania.) We combined that with a two night stop in Detroit where we did the Motown Museum and had Buddy’s Pizza with Fred Lee, and another night in Cleveland, where we made another stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then it was on to Pittsburgh for a Cardinals game, the tour of the Kaufman house (Fallingwater) and then a swing by Toledo Art Museum on the way back to Chicago….

It was a quick week and we had people to see and places to go- so we did laundry and packed for Ireland. But before we left we had a visit from Steve & Suzanne, Phil’s brother and his wonderful wife (yes, she IS our favorite sister-in-law!)  It was a fast weekend – spent in a food-coma-inducing whirlwind of high end eating- including 42 grams and Alinea…  Then it was off to Dublin, where we met up with our favorite boy cousin, Iddo (our favorite girl cousin being Michele, of course) and his mom Sarah.  We visited various historical sights – the most famous being the Kilmainham Gaol.  We also had a number of terrific meals. 

Finally back in Chicago for more than just a few days, we jumped into action and headed to visit CBGB in Traverse City area, where they spend their summers.  It was a really quick trip because soon Victoria was off on her annual DART road trip with friend Tom.  This year it was New Hampshire and trains… lots of photos on the DART website if you want to see them… https://northcountryny.shutterfly.com/

Or for that matter – if you want to see any of the other trips –they can be found here- https://victoriasterlingspics.shutterfly.com/

Then we took the last weeks of September through mid-October to head to Eastern Europe – Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Transdneistria (and Odessa.)  We had a terrific time learning about these countries and seeing many UNESCO World Heritage sites during our three weeks of travel. 

The highlight of the trip “hands-down” was our reunion with our dear friend Iryna from Lviv, Ukraine.  She traveled all the way to Odessa to meet up with us and we spent three days catching up on each other’s lives while touring one of the world’s loveliest cities.  It was a year of great moments and lots of making memories but seeing Iryna again after nine years had to be right at the top of our list of “heart-swelling” events.

When we returned to the U.S. we squeezed in a few more dinners with friends and got to try another new place in Chicago, Intro, with friends Mon & Beth. (We shared a lot of great meals with them last summer- Schwa, Duck Inn, and Claudia, to mention a few of many.) Then two nights before we headed south we made our final dinner out at goosefoot. We start and end our Chicago season there for a reason: the food of course, but also the welcome of friends… it makes it just the right place to bookend our northern summers.    

We are so lucky to have our winter retreat (and our cats Lucy & Penny LOVE getting away, for the warm weather  and geckos, as well!) Thanksgiving brought our first seasonal visitors; brother Larry, up from Miami, along with cousin Michele, and Angela & Lee down from North Carolina, where they have relocated for his transfer to a new Google office and project.  Since Thanksgiving we have been busy with concerts and friends. Our last concert of the year was a superb evening with John McCutcheon at Craftsman House.  

The end of this week we leave for Cuba returning just before Christmas. We already have a lot of plans for 2016…  Phil is going back to Ireland on a music tour. We are returning to Russia, Scandinavia and the Baltics in August. We hope to sell our Chicago house and buy a Chicago condo, facilitating the “lock and leave” lifestyle we have adopted. So we may have to take some time out of our travels to pack and move… but we’re sure we’ll catch up!  Tom and Tor will do a DART trip when Phil is in Ireland gallivanting pub to pub… and where that will take them has yet to be decided.  Life is so good – we are blessed by great friends, good health and especially by having each other to enjoy things together and to support each other when the challenges arrive.

If you have any desire, at all, for details that can’t fit in the holiday letter, you can visit the blog: http://blog.semifreelife.com/

Somehow it is now again December, and we write each year at this time, hoping your year has gone well and that this finds you and your families happy and healthy.  As the year closes, we count our blessings and send to each of you our very best wishes for health, wealth, happiness, peace, prosperity, abundance, and good luck in 2016! 

Happy Holidays - our card/letter

Happy Holidays - our card/letter is winging its way through cyberspace to various recipients- and here it is for all blog readers as well!

Season’s Greetings! 2014

We hope this holiday letter finds you well!  When we last wrote, we had just spent Christmas holidays split between Miami and our Florida home with brothers Larry & Steve and sister Suzanne; we were headed into the wine dinner and theater season here in Florida; and Georgia Bavol and I were about to head off to Morocco. 

Winter of 2013/2014 started off with us in residence at our new home in the Sarasota/Bradenton area.  It is a two bedroom two bath condo, so we were able to host a number of refugees from “Chiberia” as Chicago became known last winter.  Friends visited from various places across the country.  We hosted Jennifer & Dave from Denver, Matt & Ann from Atlanta, Lynn from Chicago, and daughter Angela with her boyfriend Lee from NYC, along with the family visit, mentioned above, for the holidays.

We do the same things in Florida that we do in Chicago, just in different seasons – so our year has included lots of theater- nineteen plays at theaters including Lifeline, Time Line, Northlight, Asolo, Lookingglass, Steppenwolf, Remy Bumppo, Profiles and Dead Writers.  Each play is reviewed on the blog, so feel free to delve into our two “seasons” of theater by reading further. 

We also go to concerts in both locales – and this year was no different.  We heard the Haifa Symphony, Joshua Bell with Academy of St Martins in the Field, Lang Lang, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Sting & Paul Simon Together in Concert, before heading north.  We did a Jackson Browne concert with CBGB in July at Interlochen, and James Taylor, again with CBGB mid-November in Florida.  In between, Phil went to many concerts at WFMT studios, including Tom Chapin and a tribute to Blue (it’s 40!).   We saw Marc Cohn together and also loved the Central Time Tour with Pokey LaFarge and the Cincinnati-based Tillers. To my mind the winners of the “arts” season were:  “Our Class” in the theater category; Joshua Bell in the classical music category; and J. T. in the pop. And in the category of “new to us” artists – The Tillers!

We also spend a lot of time exploring the restaurant scenes in both of our home towns… therefore we can’t fail to mention several of the winners in that realm as well as a few “also ran” places.  Again, all the details made the blog, along with lots of food photos. In the number one slot of new places we would have to recommend 42 grams (which got TWO Michelin stars in its first year!) Chris & Nina Nugent had recommended it to us (you may recall they own our perennial favorite- goosefoot) and we fell in love with the incredible food at 42 grams.  After having met the owners of 42 grams (Jake Bickelhaupt & Alexa Welsh) we got a further recommendation from them for Senza (run by Noah & Cara Sandoval) another winner! We also had several outings to El Ideas, which were impressive as well.   Others, new to us, included A10 and Yusho as well as Michael’s on East in Florida, where we had several amazing wine dinners along the way.  We also scored tickets to the next menus of: Chinese Modern and Trio 2004.  The first we loved and the second we found severely disappointing. For our out-of-town meals, among the highlights were Stories in Halifax, Juni in NYC and Buddy’s Pizza in Hamtramck, MI.  As I mentioned, all details are on the blog.

So given that as context – let’s get back to our year – in which we did some traveling.  No change there, except that this year, it became easier, as both of us are now 100% retired!

In January we did the Forks & Corks wine weekend with CBGB – enjoying one of the afore-mentioned wine dinners as well as the Grand Tasting (tickets sold out in 8 minutes- LOL- this is a BIG DEAL around these parts of the Gulf Coast.) In February – right after I turned 60, GA and I did our Morocco trip. We toured in the desert and mountains as well the medinas and souks of Fez and Marrakech (yes, we rode camels- LOL) and took many colorful photos. 

In February, we scheduled the first of Phil’s retirement dinners when he transferred the property management of all but the last two buildings to a new manager. That dinner was held at Bern’s in Tampa and sponsored by two of Phil’s long time real estate partners.  We had some amazing vintage wines that evening. (LOL- details on blog) We also got over to the second annual Wine Walk to Ca’ d’Zan (the Ringling Mansion), which we had liked so much in 2013.  To finish off the Phil retirement celebrations in one part of the holiday letter, we had a celebration at Restaurant Michael in Winnetka, on the day he actually retired completely (August 15^th) – and, he had a full blown retirement party at Oceanique in September, with a dozen wines – mostly Burgundies – from the 1978 vintage and older! The wines were all donated for the celebration by longtime friend, and partner in wine, Neil.

Back to spring: In early April, Phil returned north and I stayed south for the weather and the Sarasota Film Festival.  In mid to late April we met up in NYC for the opening of Racine’s NY (a venture of our dear friend Arno, ex-Chicago, now NYC based.) When I got back to Florida and headed north with the cats, Chicago was cold and dreary for several weeks, but we made it through because we had plans for a mid-May France trip. We headed to Paris in the second week of May and met up with CBGB, who had come from a week in Barcelona.  Then the four of us took a barge trip through Burgundy on the Adrienne with our friend Captain Anna (who we had met nine years earlier on a similar trip on the Espirit).  To say that it was paradise would not be far off… perfect weather – super deluxe accommodations – gourmet food for every meal – including two cheese lessons a day and superb wines at lunch and dinner! The barge traveled roughly 10 miles a day so we could walk faster than the boat… really a very highly recommended vacation – extremely relaxing with a bit of sightseeing, some winery visits and lots of time to just hang out with a good book and a beverage of your choice!  And we got a chance to catch up with Anna and her partner Aurelien as a bonus! After we parted with CBGB, we headed off to Lyon for a several days. The acknowledged food capital of France, Lyon offered us extraordinary meals at restaurants of all levels. 

When we returned to the states in June, we headed to Cincinnati to celebrate my Aunt Phyllis’ 80^th birthday. Later in the month Phil joined Jeremy and Angela & Lee at the Clearwater Folk festival in Croton, NY for a celebration of the life and work of Pete Seeger (who died earlier in the year.) In July, on the 3^rd we went to friends Richard & Irene’s (a six year tradition) and then we had a get together at our place on the 4^th with wine buddies of many years.  Less than a week later, we headed off on a ROAD TRIP (new concept for us)! We had been talking for years about going to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI.  So with the bankruptcy of Detroit, and the threat to the collection at the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) we made a decision to “go now!”  We wrapped the trip on either side with other goodies… the Jackson Browne concert with CBGB at Interlochen, MI and a trip to the Toledo Museum of Art (another well regarded collection that gets little fanfare.) Then the following week we headed to Portland, OR for a celebration of Al Lubarsky’s 80^th birthday. (He’s our kinda-sorta-father-in-law, we don’t have any, with my dad being gone and Phil’s dad being “gone”;  Al, already being Steve’s father-in-law, is our choice for a stand-in.)  While there, we did a bit of touring in wine country, caught up with all the Steve Friedmans and with friends Craig & Terry and their triplets.

August found me on the road with buddy Tom Beckett for a Circle Tour of Lake Superior (highlights- the High Energy Physics Lab in Soudan, MN and the Finnish pancake breakfast at Hoito in Thunder Bay, Ontario) Then Phil and I took the last weeks of August to head to the Maritime Provinces in Canada for some seafood and Acadian culture and history.  We spent a week in New Brunswick and another in Nova Scotia.  It’s a lovely and out of the way part of Canada, we can recommend for lobster, scallops and very high tides!

Our fall trip took us to Trieste, Venice and Bologna in Italy – the first time in Trieste, second in Bologna and fifth in Venice… lots of good food and photos (on the blog- LOL) We were so incredibly lucky that our trip coincided with a Venice trip our dear friend Aase (of Aalborg, Denmark) was planning with a friend, so we had the extra pleasure of time with Aase as well as a return to Venice! And our luck continued when we got to Bologna and found the Mortadella Festival! LOL

We were lucky enough this year, to have visits from Mac, our dear friend from Chandigarh, India and our cousin Iddo from Tel Aviv.  We also made a stop in Frankfurt, Germany on our way home from our October Italy trip to see our friends Claus & Evi.  So we were able to catch up with a number of those folks that we don’t get to see all that often.  And more in the friend category, we spent a number of fabulous evenings with new friends Mon & Beth at many different locales in the Chicago area, including an amazing dinner at their home, recounted in the blog, where Mon prepared suckling pig.  Some of these evenings also included friends Mark & Mirella (Mon & Beth introduced us to them.)  Chris & Nina had introduced us to Mon & Beth in mid-2013, but, with busy schedules all around, we didn’t really get to spend much time together last winter before we left for the south. 

We are so lucky to have this winter retreat (and our cats Lucy & Penny LOVE getting away for the warmer weather – and geckos – as well!) We expect a number of visits over the winter from friends… we have a calendar we keep for the guest room! Thanksgiving brings our first visitor, brother Larry up from Miami.  We had hoped to see cousin Michele as well, but work schedule keeps her in Miami for the holiday.  We will see her when we meet up there with Angela & Lee in Miami in mid-January.

We are working on plans for travel in 2015 (2015?!?!?!) Right now we have in the hopper – northern Spain, Taiwan, Brittany, a return to Prague… who knows?  We do know we will be doing another road trip in July, to Cleveland (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) and Pittsburgh (Falling Water and a Pirates vs Cardinals game) with a pit-stop in Detroit for Buddy’s pizza and a reprise of the Toledo Museum of Art.

I have blogged almost endlessly about all the things we do. So if you have any desire, at all, for details that I can’t fit in the holiday letter, you can visit the blog: http://semifreelife.blogspot.com  

In October (by the fourth anniversary of beginning the blog) I went over 41,500 post views – so someone is reading it… LOL!   Since the last holiday letter, I also have many new photos posted on my website at: www.victoriasterlingspics.shutterfly.com  including China (October 2013) Louisiana (December 2013) Morocco (February 2014) France (May 2014) Canada (August 2014) Italy (October 2014) - along with my DART trip with Tom (Lake Superior Circle Tour in August 2014)!

Somehow it is now again December, and we write each year at this time, hoping your year has gone well and that this finds you and your families happy and healthy.  As the year closes, we count our blessings and send to each of you our very best wishes for health, wealth, happiness, peace, prosperity, good luck and abundance in 2015!