Betsy's Blog

                                      Is this your favorite holiday of the year? It is mine. I have so many memories of choosing the perfect tree, decorating the house and listening to holiday music. 📝 I have enjoyed Christmas days around the world.  🍨 I have stayed up until midnight wrapping presents 🎁 on Christmas Eve.🎄 I have watched my children 🌄 excitedly open their gifts and stockings until they went off to college. 🍬 🎁  It is quieter now. Our children have their own homes and families. My husband and I still decorate our house, put up a tree and hang the stockings if we're home. Luckily, we have three grandchildren who live only four hours away. Sometimes they visit us for Christmas or we go there. We are creating new holiday traditions. ✈️ Many years we travel alone over Christmas and then call our children on the holiday. ☎️  We have watched our grandchildren...

  What is it like to live year round in Las Vegas? My husband and I moved here over three years ago during the Pandemic.  The world was in turmoil and it seemed like a unique place to live. We don't gamble, but do enjoy the Casino shows, concerts, restaurants and people watching. Anything goes in Vegas! People walk down the Strip in costumes and  bikinis. The city never sleeps and is full of 24 hour restaurants, stores and casinos. We have gone to amazing concerts and plays in local theatres too. The Strip Malls have small theaters and live music bars. There are many aspiring musicians, dancers and actors performing on Fremont Street. It is a city that never sleeps and is full of talent!      I talked my husband into going to the IMAX theater to see Taylor Swift's new movie. Her music sounded amazing with the walls of speakers. My husband was content watching a football game on his phone in a comfortable recliner while the audience sang along and danced in ...

  Surprise! I discovered that I have two newly discovered sisters! I just met them for the first time in New York State. New sibling connections are becoming more common with the help of Ancestry.com.  Let me tell you how this miracle came to be! It started a couple of years ago when my niece searched for relatives on Ancestry.com.  The results showed that I have two new sisters. What a double surprise! However, my new sisters didn't know about each other either.  The State of New York opened up their adoption papers a few years ago. One of the new sisters got her original birth certificate which led to her to discover her new sister. Then it led to an exchange of letters, next to phone calls and finally they met for the first time. It really is amazing! So what is my connection? Ancestry.com confirmed that my biological sister has a connection to our two new sisters. Double Fun! So my sister started writing them letters, then emails and finally phone calls.  Th...

                                The final stop of our backpacking adventure! We began and ended the trip in Los Angeles, California. We are happy to see again our two children and three grandchildren that live here. Our visit started with a little bit of drama!☺ Our son's house smelled like gas upon arrival. It filled the kitchen and seemed to come from the refrigerator. First, he called the repair man who said it was fine and suggested calling the hot water heater repairman next. Then he arrived and said it was fine and suggested calling an exterminator. Mystery solved! A coyote probably chased a skunk under the house and it still smells days later. At least the mystery was solved!  Meanwhile, we're having fun with our three LA grandchildren. They keep us busy with after school activities. They are fun to talk to and like to share school stories. Today I went to the middle school orientation for our ol...

  Welcome to  Germany ‼️🇩🇪 Upon arrival in Dusseldorf, this golden German car was on display at the airport!😲 We are so excited to visit our son's family. David and his Dutch wife Marcha both work in this historic, but modern city. Their nine year old son Jimmy helped me write this Blog. He plays the trumpet🎺 and soccer at his international school where David is a teacher. ❤️  Dusseldorf is a beautiful city with a mixture of historic and modern buildings. 'Dorf' means village in German. However, Dusseldorf is hardly a village. It is the seventh largest city in Germany with over 600,000 people. We walked through the historic and modern neighborhoods. The main street Konigsallee is located near the luxury shopping and the historic town square. 🛒🛍️ We enjoyed Jimmy's favorite Maritime Museum on the Rhine River. The museum was built to resemble a wooden ship full of boat models from Roman to modern times. 🛶🚢  Jimmy wants you to know that, "Dusseldorf is a reall...

Wow and double Wow!! We walked by this photo shoot early this morning on a stone bridge in Venice. What a beautiful Italian city! It has 118 islands with 400 bridges connecting them. It is picturesque with brick stones and outdoor markets. The center of the city is Piazza San Marco that sits on the waterfront .🚣 You can take a $100 gondola boat ride or a $5 water taxi through the canals. It is like a time tunnel into the past. 🍝 The history of this unique city began in 420 B.C. when it was a muddy swamp. It has always been a trading center with its access to the waterways. Silk, tea and coffee were popular items to trade long ago. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 🌎 Venice was conquered by Napoleon in 1797. It is still difficult to get goods in and the rubbish out of the city. It is also an expensive city to live in. 🇮🇹      Morning coffee is a treat in the tiny cafes that open at 6 am. We watched  groups of men come into the coffee bar drinking espresso o...

  Slovenia is a beautiful Mediterranean country full of history, seafood and ancient buildings. Every city is built around a town square with a church, tiny shops and restaurants. Visitors roam around the historic cities sightseeing. 🇸🇮 There are many guided tours and buses available in this scenic, historic country. 🚢 We are visiting old friends who grew up near the capital city of Lubijana. Katja was our babysitter many years ago when we lived in Holland and England. She is now a successful business woman with a wonderful husband Marco and two adult sons. Time flies by and it was so special to see them again. 🥰 Lubijana is a Mediterranean city with rich history. In 1991, Slovenija became independent from Yugoslavia and is now a member of the European Union and NATO. 🇸🇮 We visited many local wineries in the hilly countryside. The Owners have their own vats and wine bottles. This winery also makes and sells rock wine holders and keychains. The local owner proudly showed us ar...