We did quite a bit of traveling this year, both in the U.S. and abroad. Karen made several trips to California to see family and help her parents move to an assisted living community. We both enjoyed a trip to Boston in May to celebrate our nephew Tyler McCullough’s graduation from Tufts University. It was great fun to be there with him! This trip also gave Karen the opportunity to hang out with Harvard friends Janet Besser, Dan Seibert, Lynn Wolfsfeld and Franklin Reynolds.

Terry with nephew Tyler.

Celebrating Tyler’s graduation with Karen’s sister Sallie and mother.

After the festivities, Karen’s sister Sallie joined us for a short trip to southern Maine and New Hampshire. We enjoyed hiking and birding (even though it was cold and rainy) and had some good meals in Portland and in the White Mountains.

Common Eider

Karen and Sallie on top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire.

Dinner at Stickney’s Restaurant, in the historic hotel where the Bretton Woods economic agreements were signed after World War II.

In September, we went to Washington DC for the wedding of our niece Julie Walz and Dan Bliss. They met as students at Georgetown and are both pursuing careers in DC, so the wedding was in the Georgetown Chapel and the reception in the historic Carnegie Institution for Science. It was lovely! Both trips included many of our other family members too, so they had the added benefit of time to catch up with everyone, not to mention interesting sight-seeing and delicious dinners at great restaurants.

The Walz family with Julie and Dan in the Georgetown Chapel. Photo by Deb Lindsay Photography.

With Julie and Dan at Sunday brunch.

Enjoying a sidewalk dinner at Lincoln Restaurant in Washington DC.

The other big US adventure was a trip to witness the solar eclipse. Our friends Paul and Michele Weirich invited us to their home in Columbia MO, directly in the path of totality. In the days before the eclipse, the four of us enjoyed time with Marilyn Dawson McCarthy and Frank McCarthy. Then Barbara and Dan Williams drove down from Chicago to be with us for the actual eclipse, which was a pretty amazing sight! At the end of the trip, we spent a few days in Kansas City where we connected with Terry’s sister Nancy, their cousin Debbie Miles and her husband Johnny (the first time in 30+ years!), and good friends Steve and Marti Chinn, Ivan and Carol Katzer, and Barbara Parness.

Totality!

Celebrating afterwards with eclipse glasses and caipirinhas.

Terry and sister Nancy enjoy dinner with Debbie Miles, a cousin they’d not seen in decades.