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Happy New Year 2020

By on January 1, 2020 in The Pearl

“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written.” —Melody Beattie

Happy New Year…I hope 2020 brings happiness, health and adventure to all of you. It’s hard to believe we’re starting the third decade of this century…wasn’t it just yesterday we were waiting for the new millennium to arrive? The last 20 years have brought a lot of changes and blessings to our life and the beginning of a new year is the perfect time for us to reflect on the past and the future. We’re spending our life doing what we love, with the people we love…who could ask for anything more. The past is full of wonderful memories and the future is full of hope…every year seems to get better. 

Looking Back at 2019

By on December 30, 2019 in The Pearl

“My best memories are the ones we make together.” ―Margaret Atwood

The highlight of January was taking our second trip to Costa Rica to enjoy a little relaxation and adventure. We spent two weeks on the west coast exploring Quepos, Dominical and Uvita.

February and March were slow months…mostly cold and wet, but we enjoyed hanging out with our Texas grands and visiting with friends.
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Merry Christmas

By on December 21, 2019 in The Pearl

“the best keeps getting better all the time” -Allan Jackson 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the crew of The Pearl…2019 was wonderful, busy year. We really enjoy the life we have at the moment. This was our third season in Ithaca, New York. We miss cruising, but we really love this part of NY. It gives us a chance to be close to our Pennsylvania family half the year and home in Texas the other six months. In both places we get to enjoy being on the water and the company of our family. 

Highlights of our year…a second trip to Costa Rica, spending a week in Eleuthera with our whole family, entertaining cruising friends in Ithaca, finding new places and wineries around us to explore, a road trip to Nova Scotia…that turned into a wonderful trip to New Brunswick and the arrival of a new granddaughter in PA.

But the true highlight of our year is the time we spend with our family and especially the time we spend playing with our four (now five) wonderful grandchildren. They’re each growing into such special, amazing little people, they bring a lot of joy and love to our life and we feel fortunate for the time we get to spend with them

We wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a healthy happy New Year. We look forward to more adventures in the coming year.

Fall Foliage

By on October 23, 2019 in The Pearl

“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall…” -Oscar Wilde

The fall colors are taking over in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. It truly is a beautiful time of year. Our trees in Texas change color, but we don’t get the colors you find further north. Do you know why? Here is an explanation…Although temperature and rainfall influence the colors, the onset of longer nights is the most important factor in leaf color change. The day light hours in the south stay more consistent so we have less color.

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Road Trip Lighthouses

By on October 3, 2019 in The Pearl

“He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.” – Chinese proverb

New Brunswick is one of Canada’s Maritime provinces, we had hoped to visit the other two, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, on our trip this fall, but circumstances kept us in New Brunswick. The three Maritime provinces are full of lighthouses…almost 300 and most look very similar. We enjoy finding lighthouses on our travels, we seldom go too far out of our way to find them, but we do visit and take pictures when we we find them. This trip we found 18 and I’m sure we would have seen many more if we could have gotten to Nova Scotia. Click the following links to see our lighthouse map and lighthouse photos.
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Finger Lake Wineries (Part VI)

By on September 30, 2019 in The Pearl

The Finger Lake region has wine trails, beer trails and cheese trails. All these places do tastings and many offer entertainment on weekends, so it’s fun to explore different places. But after spending three seasons in the Finger Lakes we have our favorite wineries we like to visit to enjoy a picnic and a bottle of wine. It’s getting hard to find time to check out new places. Here are a few we found this summer.
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Fall’s in the Air

By on September 26, 2019 in The Pearl
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” —Albert Camus

What an amazing few weeks we’ve had in upstate New York. Fall has rolled in, but summer isn’t gone. This is definitely the kind of weather we could enjoy for months. Lows in the upper 40s and highs in the mid 70s….and lots and lots of wonderful sunshine. The weather has been wonderful, but spending a lot of time with our family and friends the past two weeks has truly been the best part. Here are a few of the things we did while enjoying the weather and watching the colors change.

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Sept. 10 – Campobello Island, NB

By on September 18, 2019 in The Pearl
Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, ‘It can’t be done.’” -Eleanor Roosevelt

Today we decided to take a ferry to Deer Island and then to Campobello Island. Both islands are part of the Fundy Isles. They sit at the entrance to Passamaquoddy Bay and were first settled by colonists around 1770. Deer Island is the smallest inhabited island among the Fundy Isles, and is lined with many herring, lobster and salmon fishing villages. Popular activities on Deer Island include beach combing, bird watching, fishing, nature walks and sea kayaking.

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Sept. 9 – St. Andrews, NB

By on September 15, 2019 in The Pearl
“The cure for anything is salt water…sweat, tears or the sea.” ―Isak Dinesen

Today we headed south and back to the sea. Everyone we visited with told us we should check out the little town of Saint Andrews. The town is also known as St. Andrews by-the-Sea and is one of the prettiest resort towns in North America,. It’s one of New Brunswick’s premier vacation destinations. The seaside resort town took hold as a retreat for stressed-out urbanites in the late 1880s. With its iconic Algonquin Hotel, colorful main street, slow pace and natural splendors, it serves the same purpose today. The town sits on the southern tip of a peninsula that juts into Passamaquoddy Bay and is across the St. Croix River from the United States. 

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Sept. 8 – The Acadian Coast

By on September 13, 2019 in The Pearl
“Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” – Drake

Our travels today took us further west along the Acadian Coast. We stopped to visit small harbors to look at the boats, we watched the wild surf and took pictures of a few lighthouses. Everyone knows we love to beach comb…it’s one of my favorite pastimes. We’ve found sea glass, shells, arrow heads, shark teeth, lucky stones, sponges and lobster buoys, but today we found the ultimate treasure…LOBSTERS! At one of the beaches we stopped at we spotted people picking things up on the beach, so I asked them what they were looking for. They told me lobsters wash ashore during strong storms and they were there picking them up. I wish we had a place to cook them, because we found four in just a few minutes.

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