Vagabonding sucks when you're sick. You can't go home, put on your favorite worn out pajamas, and climb into your own bed.

The intention was to spend two weeks - mostly for David to see the London sites, since he'd never been there. I had been a few times, but was more than happy to make the rounds again with him. We arranged a stay in a Victorian flat outside London. But as the gremlins would have it, I got knocked out with Covid. We ended up leaving the flat early for a hotel to give the owners a buffer of time between Typhoid Mary leaving (that's me) and their return. Then David joined me with Covid. Most of our London days were spent coughing, sneezing, whining, and resting. Ugh.

We'll just have to come back.

--PJ

Not sure if it was cousin Jackie or cousin Jennifer who instigated it. Clearly, it was Jackie who enforced the rule set: be nice and no politics. Not sure how she did it, but she got all the Dukes to play nice. No small feat. Even Skip. (I couldn't help but wondering, "Is Jackie a witch?")

The setting was incredibly beautiful. The food too good. The stories were superb, and mostly true. Far as I know.

Best Dog Ever Maddie had her last weekend with us. May she always have a ball to retrieve from the lake in dog heaven.

Onto Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for a couple days. Walked the Falls, and enjoyed a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river.

This trip was planned long before we sold the Oceanside house. It turned out that we flew to Hawaii the day after we closed on Timneh, so this was our first trip being “homeless“. We felt giddy, but admittedly our heads were spinning after dispensing with most all our personal stuff and the super quick escrow. The Pilgrims had a layover with a friend in LA before meeting us in Kaua’i - long flights from Maine! Fabulous time with Laura, Jesse, and Gabby. We absolutely love Kaua’i.

Family time with Liz, Max, Ollie & Theo in PG. And a jaunt to Esalen for PJ (from her bucket list).

Our 12-year-old grandson, Ollie, has been diligently studying French, so for his spring break we took him to Paris for his first big trip away from Mom and Dad. We used Home Exchange club points to stay in a residential neighborhood in the 14th arrondissement. We felt less like tourists, and after enjoying the must see sites, went back to our apartment to enjoy everyday Parisian life.

We had an absolutely wonderful trip. Ollie was a terrific travel companion and a tremendous help getting us around, reading signs, figuring things out, and putting all that French to good use. It was such fun watching him gain confidence in a place where he could use what he’d been learning.

Two weeks staying put, chillin after much travel. We used our Home Exchange club credits to hole up at the getaway home of a couple of writers. Felt like an escape. So relaxing.

Family time in Sonoma County, California is always about as sweet as life gets. Redwoods. Vineyards. Dylan and Mike are investing heavily in their orchard, bringing in young trees and incredible variety of fruits and vegetables. Max, Liz, and the boys weathered San Francisco traffic to drive up from Pacific Grove. Dylan and Mike are fabulous cooks— we always eat and drink very well at their place. My favorite guest room is the tree house, nestled in a fairy ring of redwood trees. No electricity, so quiet, so magical.

We always wanted to have a walk through Fern Canyon near Eureka, California. We had the happiest of accidents, running into the after party for the annual Kinetic Grand Championship, an annual race of kinetic sculptures built to roll, float, and survive the 50-mile, three day course. Wacky and wonderful vehicles. Wacky and wonderful characters.

We stopped for a couple weeks to catch up. Susan is PJ’s former sister-in-law. (PJ got Susan in the divorce.) Scott is her talented artist/engineer of a husband. Was wonderful to spend so much time together. What absolutely beautiful people. They live from their hearts with such integrity and care. We left feeling we really wanted to connect with them more often. And honestly, it was a little hard to leave.

We bounced around the greater Seattle area for a couple of weeks. We explored the various neighborhoods around Seattle with the question on our minds, "Could we live here?" The answer for the city of Seattle proper is, "nope." Although, the smaller towns nearby were fabulous. Langley/Whidbey Island and Port Townsend, captivated and were both a definite "absolutely".

What beautiful waterways, lush greenery and lovely community feel. People were more and more friendly the farther north we drove... Hmmm. We took ferries across water as often as we used to hop on the freeway in SoCal. Some people complain about them, but we enjoyed the rides and the scenery. Apparently PJ is a ferry nerd, as well as a train nerd.

Onward to exploring Victoria, Vancouver Island, and tooling around the Vancouver area. Incredibly beautiful natural scenery. Friendly, helpful people. Kindness galore. We were surprised to experience just how friendly and kind Canadians are. They lack the "othering" lenses Americans have been trained to use. They are genuinely eager to welcome, help, inform, explain... Americans, heads up and take a lesson from our Northern neighbors.

We headed toward the mountains, and checked out Whistler, Kamloops and Kelowna. All unique areas with their own strengths. British Columbia is absolutely gorgeous and varied. Many parallels with California. We continued to ask, "Could we live here?" Based on the beauty and kindness, we were at "absolutely" pretty much this whole leg. Though, the kids and grands would be farther away, which is a tough hurdle for us. Decisions, decisions....

The Canadian Rocky Mountains are absolutely breathtaking. We stopped in Revelstoke, then on to Banff National Park, drove the Icefields Parkway on the way to Jasper National Park. Jaw dropping view after jaw dropping view. Some of the prettiest natural scenery we've ever experienced. David did manage to sleep in one of the Teslas for a few nights. Though he tells me his camping days are over.

We enjoyed the peaceful, sprawling prairies. Ran into some weather. PJ was pulled over for speeding, but drove away after a warning without a ticket. Canadians are nice.

Visiting cousin Linda and husband Ward on their acreage near Saskatoon was always a must-stop stop. So great to spend time and catch up.

We expected long days of driving to cross Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, so relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. And many have asked us if we had any trouble charging our Teslas. Nope. We were always able to charge. But we did have to take PJ's Tesla into the shop for an alignment after hitting a giant pothole.

We zipped up the western side of Michigan to visit Pam and Rick Jones. Pam and PJ were besties back in their high school days, and kept in casual touch through the decades of careers and raising kids. They had recently moved back up to Michigan from Texas. Just like that <snap!> our friendship was back in place, as it always was, which is a sign of a true friendship, says PJ.

We popped down to the western shore at the southern end of Lake Michigan to spend some sweet time with Amy. Her place is relaxing and gorgeous. She seems to effortlessly juggle responsibilities – between family, her clinical practice, and her podcast etc. Somewhat like a human energizer bunny.

Onto PJ's hometown of Rochester, NY. We bopped in and out a few times visiting family and friends. Great to be with loved ones and not in a rush.

We started our month in Africa in vibrant, colorful, energetic, and dangerous Johannesburg to experience a medicinal journey with an ancient root. For anyone who wants to know more, reach out. We had an incredible experience.

Full disclosure: Africa was David's bucket list trip. PJ was willing to go along, sure. But in the end, PJ had fallen head over heels in love with all of Africa - its sand and dust, color, music, crime, magical animal life, kindness, heat, joyfulness, bugs, generosity, gourmet food, traffic jams. All of it.

From Joburg we headed to Pretoria to lay low for a few days, and basically process our experience.

Then on to Mongena Lodge in the Dinokeng private game reserve, where we experienced our first game drives. What fabulous luck we had seeing lions, elephants, zebras, impalas, kudu, hippos, rhinos, crocs and so many brilliant African birds. Each day we enjoyed a pre-dawn game drive and a sunset drive, at times when the animals were most active.

Little did we know at Mongena we were just getting warmed up with African animals!

From Zimbabwe we headed to Muchenje Lodge in Chobe National Park, Botswana. Then onto two additional camps in the Okavango Delta.

The rhythm of early morning and sunset game drives continued. With fabulous meals between. Fair warning... this is a very long post. But stay with us because these animals are incredible!

Next we headed to Mma Dinare lodge in the Okavango Delta on a bush plane. Mma Dinare means mother water buffalo in the Setswana language. Much more water and greener brush in the Delta vs at our previous stop in Chobe National Park. There was elephant dung on the runway when we landed. Luckily, no elephants. We learned the safari guides who picked us up would clear the runways of animals before clearing the pilot to land via a radio left alongside the airstrip.

Next we headed to Tubu Tree lodge even further into the Okavango Delta toward the northwest. By this time we had seen every animal we had hoped. Could it possibly get any better??

Spoiler alert... yes, friends, it did. Herds were bigger and this area felt even more wild. We watched animals – elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelope – right off our balcony. Plus we were the only guests at the lodge during our stay so we were spoiled rotten.

After our safaris, we were pooped, dirty and ready for some downtime so we spent a few days mostly relaxing in Cape Town and Hermanus.

We had a driver take us to the Cape of Good Hope and on to Hermanus, where we watched whales from the shore.