#1 Why did we go to Myanmar and Vietnam

I decided to wait until we returned from our trip to Myanmar, Vietnam and Hawaii before I blogged about it. 

I knew I couldn’t do the trip justice if I tried to post day-by-day as we went along. I will be putting up posts about it every few days for a while. I will try to keep each post reasonably short so as to not burn out on writing them (nor burn you out reading them 🙂).  Hopefully this also encourages you readers to come back for more. I hope you will enjoy following along and sharing the adventure.

Of all the places in the world to travel to for a winter vacation, why did we choose these three? Craig and I love living full time in an RV, because although we enjoy travel to new places, we don't enjoy 

• flying on airplanes, 
• living out of suitcases, 
• eating every meal in restaurants, or 
• checking into and out of hotels. 

So why did we leave our Alfa parked while we went off to Southeast Asia?

Because we wanted to visit our son, Gil, who has been teaching English in Yangon, Myanmar for the last five years. 

My son the poster boy

Merikay and Gil in front of another poster advertising the school he works for.

During our first few years of full time RVing, we didn’t want to put the Alfa in storage and had no real alternative as to where to park her. When we found Jojoba Hills, we knew it was a perfect place to leave her for a month or more without worry. 

I wanted to add Thailand to our itinerary, but Gil has been there many times and suggested we all go to Vietnam for a week instead. So we did.

One of the great things about being retired is that you don't have to go home to go back to work. If you want to travel for one week, two weeks, a month, it doesn’t matter. You have no time clock to punch, and the only limit is your own endurance and budget. Both of which we stretched to the limit on this trip!

Then, when thinking about the return flights to San Diego from Hanoi, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to visit the last state on our RV travel map - Hawaii.

   

Many RVers have these maps and have different personal rules for earning a state sticker. Some say they have to actually camp in a state; we may have counted one or two that we have just driven through. Hawaii is a special case. The Alfa doesn’t float, so she had to stay at Jojoba Hills, but we count this trip as our 50th state anyway. 

Joko and Craig

Our son was named Gil after my father. When he was in high school, he went to Indonesia as an exchange student. His Indonesian family and friends had a hard time with the "G" in his name, so he took "Joko" as his nickname.

He now goes by Joko MacKenna to his friends in Southeast Asia, and as I continue this story I will call him by that name too. 

Coming Soon:
# 2-Sights in the streets of Yangon, Myanmar 

Last Post for Summer of 2018 - Grand Canyon - North Rim

Only one in ten people who see the Grand Canyon do so from the North Rim. Hopefully, this post will inspire you to be one of the ten percent in the future. It was easy to get to, and we had no problems going there with our 35' motor home. There were also lots of cabins and the rustic lodge looked delightful.

But before I include pictures of the canyon,  I have to include a couple of wildlife shots.

I know there are deer everywhere, but this gal, who was resting with a few other does near our camp site, had such big ears I felt like smiling when I looked at her.

Craig likes the picture of her friend:

Ravens are also common birds in campgrounds. They are so smart. If you look closely at his eye you can see the reflection of the ground and just a hint of the picnic table I was sitting at. I wish I had gotten a bit more background above his head, but this is an excellent example of what my Sony RX10iii can do. 

These first two pictures of the canyon were taken from the Bright Angel Point overlook near the Lodge on Wednesday afternoon.

I wasn't sure if it was going to stay clear.

I've been to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon a couple of times and am always overwhelmed by it. Not much needs to be said, except I am amazed at how big it is.

This following is the one of the most South-Rim-like images that we saw from the North Rim.  (The actual South Rim is visible in the upper left.)

The North Rim Lodge has a wonderful viewing room with big plexiglass windows.  Of course, what you see may differ each time you're there.

The following pictures were taken on Friday when we drove out to several overlooks, including Cape Royal and Point Imperial.

That day the air had been washed clean by the rain and the day was incredibly beautiful.

We are very old fashioned. We take pictures of each other instead of taking selfies.

The following image suggests that some of what's now rock was once liquid and swirly like ice cream.

The 19th century folks who named features of the Grand Canyon called many of them "Temples".  This view may have contributed to the name:

The line in the middle of this image was probably a dead tree.  Or perhaps something left behind by extraterrestrial aliens when they came to visit.

The track in the lower part of this image is a tributary of the Colorado River, a bend of which is visible further away.

Tourists above Angels' Window, through which you can see the Colorado again.

It may be hard to see that this scene includes two rock towers, between which you can see a similar rock wall further away.





















Final Words:

We have been back at Jojoba Hills for almost two weeks already. The next two months will be busy with Craig getting his cataracts removed, and visits with friends and family for the pre-holiday times.

On Christmas Day we will be leaving on a three or four week trip to visit our son in Myanmar (Burma) and some additional travel in the region. 

Keep an eye open for posts about that trip and our return to the RV travel life in Spring.

Until then, thank you all for following this blog and for leaving so many encouraging comments.  

Hugs ... 

Craig is getting skinny

Craig has been very supportive of my "healthy" food choices this Spring, and has been eating all of the same dinners as I have, with the addition of extra bread.  I may have one thin slice, he usually has several. The rest of the day he is on his own and has not really cut back on higher calorie foods.  


We each get our own breakfasts, I eat a high fiber cereal, and he usually has ham and rolls, or some  frozen packaged dish.  He likes Chile Rellenos from Trader Joe's. 


He usually snacks at night, but isn't buying things that would  tempt me.  We used to share ice cream and/or English Toffee on a regular basis, but not any more. 


As I look over at him right now, he is eating a bowl of one of his favorite sweets. Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk. It's almost like liquid white chocolate!  I never could just eat it like he does, straight from the can. 

On a recent shopping trip he bought chocolates and cookies.








He also continues to drink a couple of glasses of wine almost every evening.  That IS a temptation for me, but it is my choice to not indulge.  (In the last couple of weeks I have slipped a few times.)   And just because I shouldn't have any doesn't mean he can't.

BUT, what urks me is he has lost weight!   He is getting skinny!  


It seems that if I lose one pound, he loses two. 


His doctor did tell him he should lose ten or so pounds, but he has dropped more than that. I think he is close to his weight when he was in his 20's!


 Why is it so easy for him and so hard for me?


He doesn't even exercise and I walk on the treadmill every day!


Not fair!    His hair isn't turning gray either!


I AM happy with my own progress.  I'm down 29 pounds, with a long term goal of losing 15 more to get to where the charts say is best for my height and age. If I don't, I'm OK. I feel very good right now.

Craig snacks

This post should not be confused with my wife Merikay's recent posts about home cooking for healthy eating.  I decided to guest-blog on her site about some snacks that I really like, weeks before she met her new doctor who talked her into losing weight via a healthier lifestyle.  I'm eating better along with her, but there's no way that such concerns will make me totally reject the three great snacks below.  All three are available from food chains that are pretty widespread.

The first is Safeway's White Chocolate Blueberry, a fairly thin bar of white chocolate that includes what the ingredient list calls "blueberry granules’.  I've always loved white chocolate, but in this case Safeway (actually Lindt) has outdone any other candy I've ever had.  The bar size and foil wrapping are identical to those on Lindt-branded chocolate bars.  What's magical about the granules is that they have little or no water content but bear all of the goodness that people love about blueberries.  They may also cost less than similar Lindt-branded bars (my lousy memory makes me waffle about this claim).

My second heavenly snack is Archer Farms Dill Pickle naturally flavored Cashews, available at Target stores.  At first mention you might think this is a joke or total novelty, but the flavor scientists of the world have been busy creating what I think of as "synthesized flavors".  Frito-Lay and other snack makers have been introducing interesting and sometimes strange flavors of classic snacks for years now, but most of them are (to my taste) overstated and tend to overwhelm the taste of the basic product that people have come to love.

Not so with these cashews.  The dill pickle taste is unmistakably good, but is subtle enough that the wonderful flavor of cashews comes shining right through.  OBTW, please ignore this whole recommendation if you don't like both dill pickles and cashew nuts...

Merikay tells me that my third recommendation has already been introduced to the RV blog world by Rick & Paulette's RV Travels.  Trader Joe's sells these amazing Scallops Wrapped in Uncured Bacon with Brown Sugar Glaze.

Like many things that include scallops, they're a bit pricey but to my taste they're worth every cent.  The word "succulent" definitely applies, also "sweet", "juicy", plus if you leave them in the oven a little too long, "carbonized".

Finally, I really have to praise Merikay's new wonder bread.  It's a shame that that Holsum Foods spread this name so widely when we were little, because she really has hit upon a terrific-tasting recipe for healthy bread that deserves the name.  Those of you who were put off by several unfamilar ingredients or "we don't have a bread machine" are really missing the best-tasting bread in the world!

Bon appetit,
Craig MacKenna

It NEVER Rains ...

It never rains in California in June. 

 Except when it does!


Craig had to go out this morning and clean out parts of the rain gutters that were clogged with needles from the fir trees.  We have screens on them but that only does 75% of the job.


Ten years ago I would have been at a local art show trying to keep dry and hoping my work wouldn't get ruined!  Sure glad that part of my life is over!


Seems like most of the US has had bad wether this year.  


May we all have dry feet and cool brows this coming summer!

On the Lighter Side!

He puts a little butter in the egg.

A few weeks ago Craig had one of his favorite breakfasts.  Soft boiled eggs.


Of course he had to use his little chicky egg cup.  I don't know where it came from, but I do know we have had it forever, and it will come with us!

Exercise Goal:
1000 miles on the treadmill, 

2 miles Thursday

Total walked = 322 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles in National Parks!

Death Valley

Once a Cheesehead always a Cheesehead

I'm Glad I live in a HOUSE Today

Like many of you we spent a very pleasant Christmas with our family.

While we were in San Diego we also had the pleasure of meeting ,
 Kevin and Evelyn for lunch.  It was fun to see them "in person."  Although I feel a connection with most of the bloggers I follow, an in person meeting makes it that much more real! I hope there will be many more meetings in the future.

Today, New Year's Day, was very foggy. These pictures were taken at about noon.  It never did clear. It wasn't cold, and it didn't rain.  Actually it was a bit magical which was why I decided to go out and snap a few pictures.  

After working on a house project for a few hours, Craig watched the Rose Bowl on my laptop.  Yes he is awake.

(The poor squashed penguin is the pillow pet I gave him for his birthday.)

It's been a good year.  We are healthy and working toward a dream together.

Maybe tomorrow the sun will shine, but for today I'm glad I live in a house!