Life's a Stitch

(Feb. 22)

Part one – seating strategy

Travelling with Mack and Rika, our partners from our Egypt/Jordan trip and numerous camping experiences, began with two flights, 9.5 and 8.5hours each. Vancouver to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Nairobi.

As we are not getting any younger, it was time for a photo safari in Kenya and Tanzania. I emphasize photo because someone asked if we would be eating what we hunted.

Pre-trip planning included a consult with the travel clinic and updated typhoid and cholera vaccines and a prescription for anti-malarials. 

This was not a must do on my travel list, but again, the bargain hunter I am found an offer we couldn’t refuse. 

We met at YVR to begin the journey. 

The flights were surprisingly easy due to seating configuration, always a risk with economy tickets. Lufthansa lets you reserve a seat in advance for a fee with the warning that the actual booked seat isn’t guaranteed. Upon selecting a paid seat you are only assured of one in the same category area. Despite being a frequent flyer, this kind of policy was new to me. The alternative is letting them assign you a seat and paying for any change at check-in.

Given the length of the flights we elected to book ahead. The first plane had my favourite seating configuration in economy: two, four, two across. We booked the aisle/window seats together and were happy when nothing was changed.

Second flight – we played seat roulette in the more traditional three, four three set up. We reserved an aisle and a window hoping nobody would be placed between us. This has backfired in the past, but is optimal if it works – the free middle seat available for under seat storage and the freedom of nobody next to you. We strategically chose closer to the back, in the middle of the cabin, not too near the bathrooms, where there appeared to be many available choices. Now the nerve wracking part: having boarded and waiting for the roll of your seating dice. It was a packed flight and I wasn’t optimistic. This time we won and all went well.

Note to self: we have been loyal Westjet flyers, but increasingly it’s become an unpleasant experience. The staff seem stressed from check-in to onboard, the food is less than adequate, the cabin space has shrunk. This experience with Lufthansa was a refreshing change on all counts. 

Up next: free days in Nairobi

I don’t know how many out there stop by still hoping for some yarn content, but just in case, here’s some. 

I reported for my volunteer shift at the Art Society’s fall show and the woman whose shift I was replacing was wearing a colourful work of yarn art. I asked if she crocheted it and she happily shared the pattern link for the Double Crochet All The Way Cardigan. 

It was my vacation project which presented a dilemma: I hadn’t quite finished it in time for our flight home and it was too bulky for my baggage. So I wore it anyway, still in need of front and neck bands and cuff ribbing. I figured it was OK and hopefully nobody noticed the markers holding my stitches in place until another skein of Sirdar Jewelspun arrives from the UK.

Didn’t want to order it while we were in the US and have to pay their blasted tariffs. We noticed many things more expensive than in Canada because after all, who pays for the tariff? The consumer.

I use Instagram solely for the promotion of my art business and rarely do I post the same item here. Today will be an exception. 

I just had the pleasure of painting these beautiful kitties when SIL Ellen commissioned the portrait for a dear friend.

As has happened recently when I’ve put paintings in the mail, it was delayed due to severe weather. There’s always a bit of trepidation handing that package to the post office. Where possible I insure them, but the thought of having to repeat the portrait is intimidating as they are impossible to duplicate. It will look different. 

I have paintings in seven countries and when mailing to some, tracking and insurance is exorbitant. It was explained that some countries have a higher chance of missing parcels, hence the pricing. I’ve only had one wayward painting, in the US, never to be seen again. That was before I insured my North American deliveries.

Back to these sweet painting subjects, their owner commented “you have captured the souls of both cats perfectly.” I am happy to be part of illustrating Murray’s personality while preserving the memory of Marvin.

There is no universal scale of trail ratings. What’s considered moderate in one guide is easy in another. It’s totally subjective. I sorted through all the “easy” ones in the book “140 Great Hikes in and near Palm Springs,” and am generally finding them underrated. 

Recently we hiked the Bear Creek Canyon/Boo Hoff Loop Trail, rated easy: 4.5 miles, 2 hours, elevation gain of only 400 ft (123 meters). Piece of cake, right? Maybe, if you remembered your hiking poles.

We started out on even ground and quickly came to the realization that the trail was too flat. 

We looked up to see the ridge where we should have been. We always add in “lost time” so we were on schedule. Not far back we had missed the turn, but in all fairness there were no trail markers; we were following written directions from the guide. Actually there were three more instances of questioning our location. Luckily each time a hiker approached from the opposite direction to reassure us.

It was unusually green given the recent strong rains that hit the desert.

It’s when you hit an inclined surface like this that you seriously consider your lack of poles:

Elevation has all to do the trail’s surface, this one being rocky shale. Up we went anyway. It was good for the adrenaline especially when combined with thoughts of the possibility of insufficient water and rescue helicopters. 

The trail wrapped around the mountain as promised and right on schedule we saw the view of La Quinta again.

We were back in the parking lot in reasonable time for lunch at Stuft Pizza. Total time: a reasonable 2hrs 40 minutes including lost time.

A few more photos from Bryant and Sammy’s Las Vegas ceremony. They want to reiterate, as they assured us, that this was purely a legal ceremony and the real wedding is yet to come, one where they can say their own vows in front of friends and family. 

Thanks to all of you who responded to the news. I wanted a creative way to share your good wishes. Consulting with Elina, who is good at such things, we came up with origami hearts containing a strip of paper with each of your messages.

It reminded me of fortune cookies. Rhinestones were the finishing touch, perfect for Sammy.

They were presented in a bag we found Daiso: clear with tiny red hearts, and “Full of hearts” printed on the front. Perfect! There’s room for more as we hear from additional people.

Samantha Wilson and Bryant Boesen 

Married January 3rd, 2026

A Little White Wedding Chapel

Las Vegas, Nevada

We look forward to a larger celebration next year.

Sammy and Bryant have formally entered the Wilboe clan. All three of our Boesen children have married a Williams or Wilsons.

Geocaching was introduced to me 19.5 years ago on the weekend of my first daughter’s wedding. Flying in for the celebrations BIL Greg read about it in an airline magazine, and considering my love of walking in the woods, thought I would like it. We bought a gps that evening and immediately started geocaching. 

I’ve cached in 36 countries, 18 US states, 6 Canadian provinces and every continent except Antarctica. It’s a wonderful way to learn interesting, sometimes offbeat facts about the places you visit.

My favourites include one in Tenerife where the coordinates took us to the middle of a large fountain with the advice not to get wet. Turns out the cache was underground, in a museum beneath the fountain.

Another was with my sister and kids in NH. The coordinates took us to a large boulder. Inspecting every hollow at the bottom edge of it, we were surprised to have a porcupine staring back at us.

On this late December day our hike on the Indio Badlands Trail started with an unexpected treat – seeing a group of maybe 50 beautiful Lusitano or Andalusian horses riding by.

The geocache registered as being 1.5k away, but that was as the crow flies. 

Up we went. I wasn’t pleased that the cache appeared to be considerably more off the trail than described (as a couple of feet away). I was grateful for Bryant’s scouting, determining the safest approach. 

Success:

It was challenging, but parts of our Portuguese hike were worse.

We celebrated with a visit to Handel’s Ice Cream, which has been around since 1945.

Mari with her brownie dough cone and KC’s two scoop: strawberry cheesecake and Buckeye – peanut butter ice cream,  fudge ripple and buckeye candy pieces(chocolate-covered peanut butter) that looked like Reese’s pieces. 

The rest of us had NY Cheesecake, coconut/pineapple and orange/pineapple. Have I given you the ice cream version of an ear worm?

We had a nice California visit with all three kids and two partners until the week prior to Christmas. E went home to be with her family and the actual day was shared with M&KC, B&S. 

Gifts were fun. This is what happens when both the purchaser and Amazon make a mistake:

4lbs of giant Reese’s peanut butter cups.

B&S spoiled me with a glimmery set of Iuile watercolours. 

We had been watching the weather after the state was hit with torrential rain, planning a picnic brunch for Christmas Day. The morning’s weather report:

What it actually looked like:

Alas, it burned off by late morning and off to the lake we went.

Dinner was turkey and a veggie Wellington made by S. Poor girl cooked her own vegetarian main course, but there were plenty of sides and we all were suitably impressed by her effort.

It was a full and enjoyable day.

Docking at Falmouth, Jamaica, evidence of the devastating hurricane was apparent. Blue tarped roofs and uprooted trees showed the damage.  Our ship was one of the first back to a town that depends on tourism.

We walked into town where some shops were closed permanently, unable to survive the four months without  business. A grocery store was still being powered by generator. 

We went to a craft market and I bought my nativity animal 🦒. Although a bit large, it came with the vendor’s story of hurricane survival, injury and determination.

Greg accompanied me geocaching. As there were no physical caches in the area, we completed an earth cache that could be accomplished from the 19th floor of the ship. It required reading background info on a geological formation, in this case a tombolo: a bar of sand or shingle joining an island to the mainland. 

We were required to answer questions proving we understood the concept and had observed the subject. Mission accomplished. And yet  one more country cashed in.

Two sea days were on the agenda before docking at our ultimate destination in Galveston, Texas. It was easy settling back into the shipboard routine, but this time I added my at home habit of walking at sunrise. 

Afterwards was knitting group, trivia and origami. Being progressive origami, each subject is more difficult and this day’s was a cat. The white one is the teacher’s, mine is the orange, showing signs of overfolding. Ellen’s, the black one, had an unfortunate ending being squashed in a fit of frustration. The next day was better for our turtles.

One of the best onboard eating places was the Food Hall, where there were a variety of small international food kitchens. The Indian food was the best and we were given a demonstration of baking naan on the wall of the tandoor.

We quarantined C to the cabin when he developed a hacking cough, sounding like many other passengers. That’s the problem with travelling with a few thousand people in a confined space. I’m not fond of these large ships. In the end, three of us caught the same cold despite meticulous handwashing. Just can’t control airborne disease. At least tested negative for Covid. 

We’re back in North America and are fully recovered.

There will be more posts for our holiday adventures.

It’s been 30 years since we were in the Dominican. The kids were 5, 10 and 12. Lots of good memories there.

The first day in the Dominican in the oppressive heat we walked from the port, past three baseball fields, over a bridge and into the town of La Romana.

It was a large city with a population of 250,000 in the greater metropolitan area. It reminded me a lot of urban Bali: the dichotomy of strong tourism with poor infrastructure and poverty. 

We accomplished a geocache despite being stopped by the police. I explained what we were doing, showing him the app and he gave us a thumbs up to continue. I think that’s the 33rd country in which I’ve geocached.

The next day we docked at Cabo Rojo at an amusement park built by the cruise lines. We stopped at a wonky village, like an outdoor funhouse, that was so disorienting I turned around. It looked so normal it took me by surprise. 

We headed past the $80 per person beach club to the free public beach about a 15 minute walk for a refreshing dip in the ocean.

There was a gift shop that only carried items made in the Dominican where I was able to find a tiny turtle to add to our nativity. We try to buy a little animal or angel from the countries we’ve visited. This trip I also bought a wee metal rooster while in Portugal.

Heading back to the ship we went by  the ATV track, a lazy river ride, a Ferris wheel and carousel not knowing they were all free or we might have given them a try and our priority was a swim. There were no lines so we figure there was an assumption that they would be as high priced as the beach club.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Jamaica.