Our morning walk this morning.We nearly ran into this little family. If you look closely you can see one of the kittens in the background.
Although still in the hundreds in the day it drops to the mid sixties in the mornings and evenings which makes things very pleasant.
We are so very excited to have our new windows installed. I paid for them back in April and it’s taken this long for them to be made and installed. Installation took less than three hours. In the future I will order the windows myself and have my regular worker install them as that will be much more affordable and faster.
We had the windows custom made for our needed sizes and wanted our indoor and outdoor frame colors to be different (tan insided, brown outside). There’s a gas between the panes which tints them when the sun hits them theoretically will reduce the temperature inside the old ones were so bad that this is a massive upgrade for us. We only did 3 yesterday and we’ve got a lot more to do.
As much as we would love a new washing machine the old one works really well so it’s hard to justify purchase of a new machine. In this case the shocks had gone out and so I paid $15 in labor to repair it.
We spray pretty religiously to prevent these guys showing up in the house . However, we don’t spray inside the sheds and last night I was stung once again on my left hand . This is my third sting. First time was on my back and the second two now have been on my hand. The hand is far worse in that it radiates down the entire arm and makes it feel like it’s on fire. Today my entire arm is numb, which is better than what it felt like last night.
I spent last week in Scottsdale for a work-related conference. We stayed at the Westin which was pretty phenomenal.
AE puts this event together and provides everything – including hand-rolled cigars and whiskey bar that I quite liked.
And it was HOT for this time of year!
Our washing machine died this week… and we have lots of wash to do. So we found a laundromat in town to get that done while we await repair or replacement. The last time we did t this was the first month of marriage.
I have some stevia I’ve been growing in a pot for the last few months outdoors. I’m not too sure how it’s going to handle the heat this summer, so I propogated a few plants in water to see how that does. I am hoping to make some extract to use as sugar alternative.
We arrived to the Dubrovnik airport, rather late, and somehow ended up being the last through a very long customs line. We arranged for a driver to meet us there to take us south to Montenegro. He took us through a smaller border crossing so as to avoid any possible lines. Getting pulled over by the police for speeding was a highlight. Our driver was neighbors with the officer, so that worked out.
We arrived in the dark so really couldn’t see much. We rented a house in Orahovac, which is a small village on the sea between Kotor and Perast. When we woke, we found ourselves in a beautiful area, surrounded on one side by a high and steep mountain range, and the sea on the other.
We rented a small house – single bathroom on the first floor was a challenge.
Most of our time in Montenegro was cool and wet…very much unlike home. Montenegro is not in the EU and only obtained independence 8 years ago, so it’s a bit under developed. The people are somewhat friendly, but for an economy entirely dependent upon tourism, they have a ways to go.
The old town is pretty – but packed with thousands of people from the cruise ships.
Kim brought her heavy camera (as did I), so we’re hoping for some spectacular photos.
Both Kotor and Perast are amazing cities, but small. Two days would have been sufficient, so our four days was a bit excessive. The food was ok, but nothing I would want again. It is mostly overpriced seafood. In the end, we were all pretty eager to move on to Croatia.
While in Perast, Kim got a head full of bird shit which was pretty hilarious:
We toured around various places yesterday….a lot of walking. 13,000 steps, or 6 miles. We started the day at Regency Cafe next to our apartment for what was probably the largest breakfast I’ve ever had. I normally don’t eat breakfast.
That was a lot of fun – it was a local place and quite popular.
We made our way to the tube, which turns out to be a pretty great way to get around. I have no idea what it costs as you just swipe your card to get on and get off.
Kim has been our tour guide as we’ve only been here once briefly and she’s been many times and is familiar. We started the day at this fun market – sensory overload. A lot of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, etc. We bought some spectacular cheese from a cheese shop. The lavender infused lemonade was phenomenal. We have lavender at home…I want to make that.
Found an amazing whiskey shop (that had everything else).
The 1974 was one of the most affordable! But we didn’t get it!
We toured around the streets, stopping in to various pubs and restaurants. Despite the rain, it was a fun day.
We arrived to London yesterday afternoon from a direct flight from Phoenix. It was a pretty uncomfortable flight, but it was pretty far, so that worked out. Chad and Bailey offered us to park at their house and they drove us to the airport which was very kind.
London was a bit cooler than I had anticipated. We didn’t bring much by way of warm clothes. Fortunately we have a washing machine.
We flew through customs on arrival so had hours before we could check into our apartment in Westminster. We took the tube to Paddington station and then walked south through Hyde park. That is a beautiful and relaxing place.
We to a nice break on the grass and soaked it all in.
We later found our way to a pub for fish and chips and a point of Guiness. So good!
After lunch we met Kim at the apartment we rented. She arrived a day before us. She was wise enough to insist we not nap, so we went out and toured a few sights. Later we went out for some Korean food and then made our way back for a solid night of rest.
