Raffle for a Museum

[gillumhouse]

I donated one of Himself's paintings to an excellent local Military Museum. They are raffling it with my total blessing as a fundraiser. They have printed 50 tickets, for a $100 donation each ticket. A local TV station did a feature on it today. I hope it makes a lot more people aware that this Museum exists. It is colored pencil, matted and in a 24 x 36 frame ready to hang. I have also offered to help sell tickets using the invoice option of SQUARE.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Youre a local celebrity! What a great donation!

 

[Happy Harpie]

You are indeed a God Send and a kind heart. When are you going to come and visit. We owe you.

 

[gillumhouse]

You are indeed a God Send and a kind heart. When are you going to come and visit. We owe you.

My passport expired during the BS and I was NOT going to send it to DC to get tossed in a bin somewhere (or stolen). Will get it renewed eventually. When are you coming back? Have missed you!

 

[Arks]

My passport expired during the BS and I was NOT going to send it to DC to get tossed in a bin somewhere (or stolen). Will get it renewed eventually. When are you coming back? Have missed you!

We're planning a trip to Italy and Croatia next June. We had reserved a 7-night Croatia cruise for June 2020, visiting all the islands along the Croatian coast. Didn't get to go, of course, so they rescheduled it for June, 2021. Didn't get to go, of course, so they rescheduled it for June 2020, but back in January when we had to commit, we were afraid we'd get over there, test positive, and couldn't get back into the USA. So we rescheduled again for next June.

My old passport expires next month, so back in March I mailed it to the passport office in New Orleans, along with the renewal forms I printed from the state department website.

FOUR MONTHS LATER I finally received an email saying the new passport was on the way, by PRIORITY MAIL.

SIX WEEKS LATER it finally arrived! Priority Mail indeed.

 

[gillumhouse]

We're planning a trip to Italy and Croatia next June. We had reserved a 7-night Croatia cruise for June 2020, visiting all the islands along the Croatian coast. Didn't get to go, of course, so they rescheduled it for June, 2021. Didn't get to go, of course, so they rescheduled it for June 2020, but back in January when we had to commit, we were afraid we'd get over there, test positive, and couldn't get back into the USA. So we rescheduled again for next June.

My old passport expires next month, so back in March I mailed it to the passport office in New Orleans, along with the renewal forms I printed from the state department website.

FOUR MONTHS LATER I finally received an email saying the new passport was on the way, by PRIORITY MAIL.

SIX WEEKS LATER it finally arrived! Priority Mail indeed.

That is what I am afraid of - it getting lost in the shuffle. Mine is supposed to go to DC. I will wait a bit longer. Need to save up a bit more to go to Finland anyway. Besides, I have a VERY hard time carving out a few days to go anywhere in the USA, if I am going to Europe, I want weeks. Canada - I have several friends I want to visit but my very best friends are just in NC - and I cannot get time to go there even!

 

[dumitru]

We're planning a trip to Italy and Croatia next June.

Any specific part of Italy? First time?

 

[Happy Harpie]

My passport expired during the BS and I was NOT going to send it to DC to get tossed in a bin somewhere (or stolen). Will get it renewed eventually. When are you coming back? Have missed you!

We will be departing Victoria Harbour on the 19 or 20 Nov by car. Heading to Florida to take a cruise and visit some friends. If all falls into place will drop by and take you out to dinner.

 

[Arks]

Any specific part of Italy? First time?

This will the the fourth time to Italy. My first trip to Italy was in the late 1990's and all done by train. Flew into Zurich, took a train through the Alps and into Italy, started with 3 nights in Venice, but left after 2 because it was so expensive! So we added Pisa to our itinerary and were glad we did. We passed right by Firenze because at the time I didn't know that's Italian for Florence!! From there spent a few days in Rome, then train to Brindisi and ferry on to Greece.

Second trip we rented a car in Rome and spent 3 weeks visiting Umbria and Tuscany. It was our favorite trip ever. Orvieto, Spello, Assisi, Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, Siena, Florence, Volterra, Luca, Pisa, Riomaggorie, and the amazing Civita di Bagnoregio.

Third trip I went alone and just spent a week in the tiny walled village of Monticchiello, a place near Pienza that we happened onto by accident on the previous trip, and I loved it so much I was determined to spend more time there. I did day drives in the countryside, looking for more unknown great places, but never found a place I liked as much as Monticchiello.

This time we're mainly going for the 7 night Croatia cruise, but we're going with friends who haven't been to Italy, so we're spending a couple of days in Rome, then train to Ancona on the east coast, where we'll get a car and spend a week at an agriturismo seeing eastern Italy, which I've not visited before. We can do day trips from there to see parts of Umbria I liked. Then we'll catch the ferry from Ancona to Split and start our Croatia cruise. So nice to be able to travel again!!

 

[dumitru]

Pienza is very charming. It's one of our favorite places in Tuscany. My wife and I were surprised to see the same cheese shop that we went to featured in the second season of "Master of None" (Aziz Ansari).
Did you go to Cortona? It's also beautiful!

Your current trip sounds like a blast too!

 

[Arks]

Pienza is very charming. It's one of our favorite places in Tuscany. My wife and I were surprised to see the same cheese shop that we went to featured in the second season of "Master of None" (Aziz Ansari).
Did you go to Cortona? It's also beautiful!

Your current trip sounds like a blast too!

Went to Cortona, could not find a place to park outside the city walls. Somehow we missed the big public parking lot with an elevator up to the town. Language barrier, of course.

So we drove on to nearby Montepulciano. Found a parking spot and walked up into town. Saw a barricade and a man said, "Sorry, the town is closed today."

What? The town is closed? Turns out they were filming one of the Twilight movies there that day. There were "extras" dressed in red robes walking all over the place. So we missed that town too!

Here's the scene that made it into the movie...