On The Go 2015 Jan thru Jun

07/22/2018

     

ON THE GO 2016 January thru June

We saw three of our five "children": Eric, Amy and Karla over the recent holidays. Eric and his family returned to Canton, CT on the 29th of December, Karla and family have a house here at the lake but returned to West Hartford, CT on the morning of January 2 and will pick up Erin who has spent a week at a Horse Camp in NH on their way south.  Amy and family left for West Hartford, CT at 4:30 pm on January 2.  We return to Naples, FL on Monday January 4.  It will be very quiet, tomorrow, January 3 !

On Wednesday January 6 we went to the Cohen's (Dave & Lois) at Wyndemere CC here in Naples, FL to celebrate Sandra Earl's 80th birthday.

Mary Sondergeld  Sandra Earl   Mary Maatan         Lois Cohen                 Steve Earl             Jackie Driscoll

             Sandy's sister  Hilda and her husband Joe                                                 Hilda                 Don

On Sunday January 10 we had a lovely, pricey dinner at Verandah E in Naples at the corner of 5th Ave & 3rd St.

    

On Monday January 24, 2016 we took Karen to Fred's Bar for Dinner & Jazz.  See slide show.

On Monday January 11, 2016 Don had a total shoulder replacement of is right shoulder.  Dr Michael Havig had replaced Don's left shoulder on October 30. 2006 and Mary's right knee about five years ago.  Don was in the Physicians Regional Hospital in Naples one ntie, as opposed to two nites 9.5years ago. He is not looking forward to the many months of PT required.  Here he is, a week after the operation.

    

On Sunday January 24 we had brunch at Lexington Cc in Ft Myers with Doris Bell and  then visited Doris in her apartment.

Monday January 25 we took Karen to Fred's Bar for great jazz.  See the pictures.

Tuesday January 26 we had lunch with Karen at the Turtle Club.  Then dinner at  La Playa with Karen's friend Jen..

Saturday February 6, 2016 we took a three hour Swamp Buggy tour of Corkscrew Swamp on WETLANDS DAY.  We learned about "tactile feeding wading birds".  The Wood Stork is a tactile feeder, capturing food by feel.  Although this bird can feed visually, tactile feeding allows it to forage in wetlands with concentrated prey, as well as in murky waters, without depending on sight. If there is an increase in water depth, fish are dispersed over a larger area and the wood stork will not build a nest for two and breed.  This is apparently true of other tactile feeders such as the ibis and and spoonbill. Breeding efforts generally cease when the rainy season begins. At that time of year in the Everglades, aquatic prey become scattered and exposure to the elements is harder to endure.

On the first weekend in February, David and Karen skied Tahoe.  Here are pics at Heavenly Valley.

              Kyle and David                             Kyle   David & Kit   Duncan & Karen

On Sunday February 14, 2016 we had lunch and watched the dancing at the Greek Festival on Airport Road.  We sat with an architect/builder from South Africa who has lived 18 years in Naples with his wife and two sons.

Same day, February 14, was Valentine's Day.  See David's proposal to Kit by the Pacific Ocean across from his house.

On Tuesday February 23 Mary needed an eye exam and new reading glasses and sun glasses.  Don was her driver and skipped bridge.  So at 10:30 we visited Paul Arsenault's new gallery on 3rd Street, bought a 16x20 print of "Gordon Pass Fish Camp" and had lunch at Campiello's next door on 3rd Street.

On Sunday February 28, 2016 we drove the Turner River Road and then had lunch at the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades City. The water is high and we did not see a lot of wildlife, we saw this cute but not cuddly Water Moccasin below.  See a few birds in the slide show.

On Sunday March 13, 2016 we had lunch with Dave Wakely at Marina Jack's in Sarasota, then had dinner with Eric and family on Anna Maria Island, and spent the night with them.  The next day we played OH Hell, had lunch at the Sage Biscuit in Bradenton, and returned to Naples.

On Friday March 18, 2016 the Bridge Marathon  Awards Luncheon was held at Kensington CC.  Here they are, with Mary and Janet Adams each winning the $100 first prize.

Amy Tom and Aleksey arrived on Monday March 21 and headed back to CT on Friday the 25th.  Here they are at dinner at Michelbob's and here is Aleksey at lunch at the Turtle Club.

 

                   Aleksey on an Airboat.                                               Amy and Aleksey kayaking at the Isle of Capri.

On Sunday April 3, 2016 we had Brunch at noon at the Lexington CC in Ft Myers with Don's cousin Doris Bell and her friend Mark.  We then played bridge.  Back in Naples by 6 pm.

On Friday April 15, 2016 we had a going away dinner party for John and Adams at La Playa.  Mary and Janet are bridge partners.  John plays with Don and Chuck Morris.  Betty Morris was along for the ride.

              Don                          Mary                  Betty            Chuck                        John                     Janet

On Thursday April 21, 2016 Mary's brother John and sister in law Connie Towne, arrived in Naples to spend four days with us.  Also an article appeared in the Waterville Sentinel about their son Nathan Towne and his new job.  Click here.  Below we are on Fifth Avenue to see the hilarious comedy at the Sugden, titled "Dixie Swim Club".

April 24, 2016 we visited the 48 new Pickleball courts in East Naples where the Nationals will be held this week. We then toured the Naples Botanical Gardens.  See Slide Show.

Also on Sunday the 24th we had dinner with John & Connie and Steve & Sandy Earl at Bayside.

On Thursday April 28, 2016 we flew to Hartford, CT, picked up our car which Helena Fine drove to the airport.  We spent three nights at Amy's in West Hartford, CT.  On Friday we saw Erin in Right Field playing for Hall High JVs against Conard.  The next morning Don and Aleksey toured the Mark Twain House.  That evening we went to Eric's 54th birthday party at Karla's.  The next evening we had dinner at Eric's and attended a concert  at St Joseph College where Alexei was a first violin.

Mark Twain:  1) I smoke in moderation," he said. "Only one cigar at a time."  2) "Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”  3) "Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody."

Daffodils at Beebe Pond on May 12, 2015:   Please click here. 

John Sullivan, one of my bridge partners in Naples, dropped by for an hour and a half of conversation on his way from Wallingford, VT to Middlebury, VT.  Here we are on Friday May 20, 2016 below:

On May 25, 2016 we drove to the airport in Montreal, dropping our car at a Holiday Inn and flew to Vancouver to see our grandson, Owen Sondergeld graduate from the University of British Columbia.  We spent 6 nights at the Hyatt Regency in beautiful downtown Vancouver, then 4 days traveling by train (VIA Rail) across Canada to Montreal and one night at the Holiday Inn in Dorval.  We visited the gardens in Vancouver we like (Van Deusen, Elizabeth Park with its Bloedel Conservancy and lunch at the Seasons, Sun Yat Sen Gardens, Stanley Park, and a quick peek at the UBC Botanical Garden on Graduation Day with part of the family on Monday May 31.

 

 

 

We spent one day on a Hop On and Hop Off trolley tour of Vancouver.  We especially enjoyed four dinners: one with Don Francis (who lives in West Vancouver) on Granville Island, one at the top of a revolving restaurant with son David and his fiancee Kit Neal, one on the top of Grouse Mountain with David, Kit, grandsons Owen and Kyle and Owen's girlfriend Kaya de Wolf, and one at the Keg, a great steakhouse in Point Clair on Montreal Island.

Our train trip back to Montreal took us across Canada with beautiful mountains in British Columbia and Alberta, the flat lands of Saskatchewan, Manitoba's many lakes, and the huge province of Ontario. We had a 1.5 hour stop in Winnipeg, a 2 hour train connection in Toronto followed by a 5 hour trip thru Quebec to Dorval Station near Montreal's Pierre Trudeau Airport.

Mary will be 82 tomorrow, June 11 and still is as nice as the view below.

On Saturday June 11, 2016 we drove to CT for an evening to celebrate Zach Principe's graduation from High School and also Mary's 82nd birthday..

 In the afternoon, the gang, except for Mary, Amy, Tom, and Karen visited the beautiful Hillstead Museum in Farmington.  We stayed at Amy's but the festivities were at Karla's attended by Amy and her family, Karla and her family, Katie Principe, and David's aunt and uncle from North Carolina.  As Karen was in Boston on business, she drove down for the celebrations and spent the night at Karla's.

 

   

 

The next day we stopped at two nurseries in MA, the fantastic Bay State Perennial Farm in N Hatfield just south of Exit 23 of I-91 on  Rt 5.

We had a late lunch at Whetstone Station, a pub beside the Connecticut River by the bridge between Brattleboro, VT and Hinsdale, NH.

On Wednesday June 15, 2016 we met Stan & Harriet Joseph for a two hour lunch at the Long Trail Lodge across from Pico Ski Area in Vermont.  Pico is where we met the Josephs many years ago.

In mid June, Keith Barker had the four granite "S" cemetery plot corner markers  placed around the four corners of the 16 cemetery plots at Pleasant View Cemetery in Hubbardton VT.  The Gs to the north of the 16 Sondergeld Plots are for a Gibbs Family.

 

                  .

    See Map of Plots and Dates of Purchase.  Deeds to 16 Plots are on file in the Hubbardton Town Clerk's Office.

 

     

This site was last updated 04/24/17