Our year started out celebrating our 36th anniversary in
beautiful Costa Rica. We re-visited 2
lodges we had previously stayed at in 2008 (Savegre and Rancho Naturalista) and
tried a new lodge (Esquinas).
We saw beautiful birds, dolphins, and other amazing
critters. We had a great time and met
some really fun folks.
Spotted Dolphin.
Our guide and Mark - having fun with "fruit" makeup.
Spectacled Caimen
We spent the rest of January hanging around Kerrville and
relaxing.
February:
February found us checking out pictographs in Seminole
Canyon State Park with friends Rick and Sharon and visiting a few other parks
in Texas.
March:
We went on our first factory tour of the year to the
Toyota Texas factory in San Antonio, Texas.
Toyota Tundra. Only made in Texas.
April:
We started our 5-week journey to Maine, where we spent
our second summer in a row. On the way
we stayed in ten different states and drove through a few more. We had a great time going on factory tours
(Tabasco, rice, Coca Cola, chocolate, cookies, chips), visiting tourist
attractions (petroleum museum, science museum, etc.), playing disc golf,
kayaking, etc.
This was our route from Texas to Maine:
This was our route from Texas to Maine:
The "Business End" of the Saturn V Rocket
We found many beautiful disc golf courses.
May
We arrived at Green Lake National Fish Hatchery on May
11th. We celebrated Mark’s birthday on
the 18th and made a few trips to the Atlantic Ocean. We also started our volunteer jobs at the
hatchery.
Our site for the summer.
Atlantic Ocean.
June
In June we went on our first boat trip to see Puffins. Fish
wrangling and other fun jobs were in full swing at the hatchery. We were even able to find a couple more
chocolate factory tours to visit. We had some beautiful hikes along the Gulf of
Maine and spent a little time kayaking.
July
In July we visited a couple other Refuges in Maine. Both of which we had visited on our first
trip to Maine in 2011 (Craig Brook NFH and Moosehorn NWR).
It was my birthday month so we headed to Canada for a
week. We visited several museums and
other tourist attractions (chocolate, soap, grist mill), saw some amazing
views, played disc golf, and even saw a few birds and other critters.
Nova Scotia, 2019
August
This was our route through Canada:
We still had plenty projects left to complete in
August. Building and setting out more bluebird
houses, re-coating and painting raceways, fish splitting, etc.
More disc golf, aquariums, museums, hiking and a couple of tours kept us busy.
Baby lobster.
US Bells.
September
We saw a lot of green paint in September. We had great success with our pollinator
gardens. Our little fish grew up and
were ready to be graded and released. A whale
trip saw Finback and Minke whales and we picked apples for the first time.
Grading fish.
Not a shade of green you see very often.
We had great success with Monarchs.
Time to roll.
This was our route back to Texas:
October
The first 3 weeks of October found us on the road. Maine, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and finally Texas.
Mark played a lot of disc golf and we found a few tours.
Kentucky
Pennsylvania
Ohio
November
After a couple of weeks in Medina, Texas, we arrived at our
winter volunteer site. South Llano River
State Park in Junction, Texas.
We had a bird feeding station set up outside our RV where Mark was able to get many "out my window" pictures.
We learned how to use an Atlatl while at the park (The Atlatl is a spear thrower used by the Comanche Indians). My spear went about 5 feet and I decided one throw was enough. Mark threw several times and was pretty good at it.
We were only at S. Llano River three weeks before Mark had an old back injury flare up. With back surgery scheduled for Mark and another eye
surgery scheduled for me, we decided to leave the park and return home.
Mark had successful back surgery on December 4th. With six weeks of no bending, twisting or lifting, we had a pretty laid-back month. Physical therapy started right before Christmas and he is feeling much better.
We had a bird feeding station set up outside our RV where Mark was able to get many "out my window" pictures.
We learned how to use an Atlatl while at the park (The Atlatl is a spear thrower used by the Comanche Indians). My spear went about 5 feet and I decided one throw was enough. Mark threw several times and was pretty good at it.
In November I had cataract surgery as a precursor to
vitrectomy surgery scheduled for January 2020.
December
Mark had successful back surgery on December 4th. With six weeks of no bending, twisting or lifting, we had a pretty laid-back month. Physical therapy started right before Christmas and he is feeling much better.
2020
2020 is going to be a busy year for us. Lots of celebrating, trips, and a new summer volunteer adventure. Stay tuned!
