The Magic of Friendship

One of our greatest joys in life is the relationships we have with family and friends. When we had the opportunity to meet up with two dear friends, Melissa and Alex, in England, we jumped at the chance.  Alex is from England, and to be able to see the area he grew up in through his eyes was simply amazing.  We had the best time with them!  As Eric says, we got to meet old friends in a new place.  What we didn't expect was to make new friends on this adventure.  Chris and Rebecca, Alex's friends, graciously invited us to stay in their home in London.  They are a lot of fun and we enjoyed relaxing in their beautiful garden.  Eric took the picture of the foxes while peering into their neighbor's backyard.  To put it nicely, the neighbor's yard is overgrown, and a family of foxes has moved in.  These are two of the cubs that are romping around that yard.  We want to give a great big thank you to Melissa and Alex for our incredible time in Quernmore, and to Chris and Rebecca for opening up their home to us and befriending us along the way.  We will hold onto memories of watching YouTube videos of fell racing and cheese chasing with fondness.  Looking forward to another time in the future when the six of us can hang out together again.. perhaps in New Zealand??? :)

Losing Track of Time in Dubrovnik

This is Jenny, trying to blog from my phone on a spotty wi-fi connection. We actually spent some time uploading pictures on a computer, but then couldn't connect to the Internet! Sorry, no pictures for now. :( Dubrovnik is breath-taking, fun, relaxing. We are staying on a little bay called Lapad and it is beautiful! The water is crystal clear. There are fish that swim up to us, but dart away when we try to touch them. We spend our days on the beach, using the calm sea to keep cool in the heat. Dubrovnik is very hot right now, but it's pleasant in the shade. In the evenings, we go for walks along the coast and then take a bus into Old Town. I cannot put into words how awe-struck I am by Old Town. In some ways it reminds me of El Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico, except the entire town is inside walls. These walls were actually indestructible during the war in the 90's. The town itself sustained a lot of damage, but not the walls. Last night, we joined the locals in cheering Croatia on in the Eurocup. Sadly, Croatia lost, but it was fun to share this experience with the locals. Our experience has been that the Croatians are very friendly, they are proud if their heritage and their history, and they stand by their football team. A few if the locals that we've spoken with have been surprised that we are Americans, because they don't get a lot of American tourists. In fact, in Zagreb, we were asked if we were in Croatia for work. But so far, we've loved it here and would come again! This morning, we took a kayak tour around the walls of Old Town, around an island and to a large cave, where we swam in the beautiful water. It was a lot of fun and a different way to view the area. We hope to post those pictures one of these days. Hope everyone is doing well!

Dubrovnik (Eric)

This is from my phone, so it is going to be brief. There are places in this world that Jenny and I have been where we talk about being able to bottle the feeling of serenity we get from spending time there and save it for those stressful moments during the school year. If I could bottle the feeling from this amazing place, it would be more addictive than any drug. Words do not do this coastal town justice. We will try to post pictures at some point, but I invite you to do a google search of the name Dubrovnik and see before then. I am going to post this for now. Take care everyone.