It's been a really fun and busy summer. This week my friend Fran from Washington state spent a couple nights with us. I met her in 1968 and we moved to Los Angeles together with another friend for a couple years just to have fun! It was during the Kent state stuff, the student protests, Charles Manson, Watts riots, flower children and whatnot but we survived it all.
Touring our cities this week I took Fran and our friend Beth to the Hmongtown Marketplace in St. Paul which has the largest Hmong population in the USA. This was just one booth of cosmetics and it was very interesting to say the least. We passed up the pork bellies, intestines and sausages and stuck with fried rice and egg rolls and it was very good - AND CHEAP.
We took their word for it and did not touch the sharp knives nor did we pull them out of the case nor did Fran buy one to take on the plane in her carryon!
Hard to see but we got these cute little headband hats for 50 cents in the market out of a cardboard box - one of at least 50 cardboard boxes filled with all kinds of inexpensive good stuff.
Next stop of course is Minnehaha Falls. With the billions of gallons of rain we have had this season it is always full and rushing and there are warnings about the care to take to prevent being "washed away"
Back to 9/11 when Lucy and Alex spent the night. Our annual trip a block away to visit the rock memorial to Thomas Burnett Jr. who attended the church at this spot with his family and they always have lots of flags - "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends". He was on the United flight that went down in Shanksville Pennsylvania after being diverted from the White House with his help. I agree as do Alex and Lucy.
We sent this text photo to Chris and Amy - there is no problem with Italian ice and gourmet donuts for breakfast, right? Goes with "What happens at Grammy's stays at Grammy's"!!!
Wierd Alex - at 11 years old and starting middle school he is hilarious especially after they were testing out all my barrettes, hair clips etc just to see how many would fit.
Next up - our LOFT (Ladies of Fun and Travel) group who went to Italy together in April of 2015 and were all able to get together at our house for a brunch. It's really hard to believe how busy we all are and very nice to get caught up. Three of us and a couple others from New Hampshire will be going to Lisbon, Portugal next April and it should be the usual fun and chatter with a little wine:)
A year ago 5 of us got together and it appears I only have Target striped shirts and my same capris.
The hilltop over Toffia, Italy. There are endless silly and great memories about all we did.
As it goes it seems we miss a lot of catastrophes that overtake places we have been. A couple weeks ago a big article said 133 people were rescued from cable cars on Mont Blanc/Chamonix in France. We were there in 2013 in a snowstorm but apparently this time the cables got wound up and people had to be rescued by helicopter by holding on to a rope to get down......hmmmmmm. I guess I could hang on tight if I had to.
Overlooking the town from the 1st cable car stop.
So...fall is here and the plans are in place for Peru and Bolivia next month. We finally got the money back from the ship that exploded, burned and sank which we were supposed to take on a 3 night cruise on the Amazon. Not much info to be found on that event on the internet!
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