Mom's Website

Sam and Dan spent the weekend AHRMA motorcycle racing. They thought it was incredible fun. No one crashed and burned. They had a great time.

Beth and I walked around Salt Lake City on Friday. Then we took pictures of the guys racing.

The weather if cool, and now it is sunny. Tomorrow we'll go to Moab and see Arches National Park. We have Internet tonight for a change.

We spent yesterday with Hans-Joachim and Lydia in Berlin. We went there by the very fast, smooth, and expensive ICE train. We had a good time with them and saw their current apartment where Lydia fixed us a delicious lunch of salad with fruit and sauteed turkey. Her office is also in that building.

We went to the new memorial for murdered Jews. I looked up my grandparents' and uncle's names and were able to find them and print out the information right there. It is the same information I copied from books on a previous trips that includes when they were deported to Lodz, but not the death dates because they were never found. Keep them in your hearts.

We are back in Langenhagen at Christina and Helmut's lovely house. We have visited Ilona here and at her apartment. Erik and Jenina came by. Today Lea finished a 430 km "pony trek" from the North Sea back to Hannover, riding horseback four to ten hours a day, often in the rain.

Two days worth of pictures are on Flickr now. Keep checking in and sign up.

Christina, Helmut, Sam and Ellen spent a semi-sunny scenic day between Flam and Sogndal in Norway today. In the morning we took the steepest train ride between Flam and Myrdal, 20 km, 20 tunnels, and almost an hour each way. We took photos from the train and also from the platform by the waterfall.

In the evening we took a two hour ferry through the Narrowfjord and Sognefjord to Kaupanger. This was a dream fjord trip. We got very lucky with the weather. We had a little rain and wind, but we also had some sun and mostly fair weather. We viewed the fjords from the open top deck. We saw lots of rainbows over the mountains.

Many of the calendar pages here have links in the description. If you click on the links, you can see the websites of the places we are visiting in Scandinavia. Today's hotel in Vinstra, for example, has a very nice website with pictures.

We are in a lovely hotel by a river in Vinstra. We had a beautiful drive along the Lustrafjord today and photographed glaciers along the way. We were lucky with the weather. Now it's clouding up and beginning to rain, but we are ready to be lazy anyway.

We haven't put any pictures on the web because we haven't had our own Internet access that worked correctly very often. We've also had long busy days on trains, ferries, and long and winding mountainside roads. There are thousands of photos to sort through, though, and then we'll put the best on. Maybe we can do that when we get back to Christina's and Helmut's Saturday evening. Actually, for anyone who has time, you can see the details on the Google calendar on my website. If you look at the listings for Flam you can see the hotel, the train, and the ferry.

We have just arrived in Bergen, Norway. We'll be here for two nights. I can go on and get my e-mail in the lobby for the first time in a few days.
 
We've been to Oslo and we drove around the Handgarfjord today. Some of the world's most beautiful scenery.
 
Thanks for the news. I can answer more tomorrow.
 
Check the website for where we are.
--ellen@samnellen.com www.samnellen.com

We drove from Sweden to Oslo, yesterday, and immediately toured three ship museums: Viking, KonTiki, and Fram. One was more amazing than the next. We saw preserved Viking ships, Thor Heyerdahl's KonTiki, Ra II, and Tigress, and then the polar explorer Fram. (More details with pictures to come. Internet time is hard to come by at some hotels.)
 
Today we drive into the magnificent Norwegian countryside toward Bergen. We'll stay in Geilo.
 
--ellen@samnellen.com www.samnellen.com

Stockholm is even more spectacular than either one of us imagined. The architecture and the beautiful lake and Baltic Sea inspire.
After a great breakfast on our ship/hotel, we took a two hour boat tour of the city. We bought a lunch in a huge deli store with every kind of food and ate it in a park.
Then we went to the Vasa Museum to see the ship that sank after a few minutes over three hundred years ago. We took another boat back to Glama Stan and ate an Italian dinner. Then we had Swedish beers in a Glen Fiddetch bar.
Yesterday we walked through Glama Stan,which has endless old narrow streets. We took a subway and ate at a beerhall, where we waited far longer than we should have. Ulla and Wolfgang, Christina and Helmut's friends, lead us on all these adventures. Pictures will be available shortly.

Today it is raining in Vaxjo, Sweden, and we are going to glass factories. There is a fest here in this town celebrating the author Wilhelm Moberg who wrote the Karl-Oskar series of books about Swedish immigrants. He was from near here.
 
We were in Copenhagen. Yesterday we drove across the new Oresond bridge to Malmo, Sweden, where we saw the twisty tower building. Then we drove on to here. We went to the Swedish Emigrant Museum yesterday and then ate at a lovely cafe and walked around the street fest.
 
This hotel First Cardinal is lovely and has a marvelous breakfast included. After breakfast tomorrow, we leave for Stockholm for two days. We will meet Ulla and Wolfgang there.

Here are some recent pictures.

Signing up for Flickr is free, and takes less than a
minute. Just click here:

http://www.flickr.com/welcome/1948702/539381/

The highlight of Tuesday was our sunset cruise on the Freedom Won. We had a wonderful time on this beautiful boat with our Captain Jay and First Mate Kay. We stayed out into the nighttime and all got a turn at the helm. There are some great pictures and information at http://www.freedomcharters.net/ Check that out. You can even book an entire week on this gorgeous sailboat with all the food provided.

We are sitting at the gazebo where the wi-fi signal is strong. We are on the ocean between the Casa Marina and Louie's Backyard in Key West.

We got here Saturday night. Sunday we read under the seagrape tree, between the ocean and the pool most of the day. At night we went to Mallory for the sunset. Monday we picked did the pool thing, then we picked up Elmo, who came in on a casino boat from Ft. Myers. Then we ate at our favorite Blue Heaven. Afterwards, we toured the Hemmingway House and then shopped for groceries.

Today the main plan is a sunset cruise on the Freedom One. They only take six people total.

On May 26, 2006, Ellen officially retired after 27 years at Eustis Middle
School and more than 30 years of teaching
(keyboarding, middle school language arts, high school language arts, and even
3 years of kindergarten. A celebration including many friends and family
members was held the next day. Robin and Bo, Adam and William, Al and Uschi,
and Gayle and Jenni attended from out of town.

What a great spot for coffee, books, and music. Ruth always has something going on. But the website is down right now.

Wondering what to do this week? Check out the weblinks at right for our favorite places. All these sites have calendars so you can find out what's going on. We're enjoying supporting all the wonderful music going on around Lake County these days. And thanks to you, Bill, Ruth, Marylee, Jason, and T.Scott for bringing it all right to us in Eustis and Mt.Dora.

We've had so much fun dining and dancing with our friends so close to home. Come join us, soon.

It's almost as good as a Buffett concert, but it's right here in our own back yard. Put on your colorful shirts and get ready to dance. Fins Up!

In the mood for Mt.Dora Buffett music? Check out T.Scott's calendar. The Buffett Buffs are in the audience.

Check out the great live music of all kinds. If you're looking for us, we're probably here. Come join us. This is also a terrific spot for Sunday Brunch 10:00-2.

I’m having trouble putting photos on the website that
last couple days.  I have loaded several albums on href="http://www.snapfish.com/">www.snapfish.com. You have to sign on there
to view the pictures, but I hope you do.  Try this link:

Our travel plans include a tour of Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. We'll be traveling from Colorado with Dan and Beth. The guys hope to do some serious motorcycling. We leave Florida on June 7. On June 18 we fly to California to spend some time with Robin and Bo. We also plan to go up the Pacific Coast Highway and through the incredible redwoods, again. We return to Florida on the redeye early June 27th. I'm taking the computer and the cameras. I hope to get some things posted as we go along. You should be able to reach us at our regular e-mail whenever we have Internet

We had a safe and interesting flight from Denver to Oakland. 
Some interesting tales to tell about the coffee pot in the room and the food at
the Bennigans in Denver. 
I took pictures out the plane window of the wonderful snow-capped mountains
below.  Too bad the first plane had a dirty window.

We are back in Colorado after our wonderful Wyoming trek. We experienced snow, sun, rain, (even a little hail). We saw deer, moose, pronghorns, elk, coyote, and even distant bears.  Sam and Dan rode on their motorcycles, and I rode with Beth in their pickup pulling a camper.
 
We haven't had cell signal or Internet the whole time.  We have thousands of pictures. I anticipate putting some on this site in a few days, so check back.
 
Saturday we leave for California and Robin and Bo's. We've had a great vacation so far with Dan and Beth. 

Thank you for your birthday wishes!  We made it safely to Colorado and have been staying at Dan and Beth's house in Granby overlooking the valley and the Rocky Mountains. 
 
Their children Matt and Danielle leave today for a week in Costa Rica with their classmates.  Lucky kids!
 
We adults leave today for Jackson, Wyoming, the Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone National Park.  We are packing the camper and truck this morning and will leave soon.
 
Yesterday for my birthday Sam and I went shopping and I got hiking shoes and a very nice Columbia jacket with a removable lining (half price).  In the evening we went to dinner at Devils Thumb Ranch.  I will post a picture or two from there soon.  You will be able to see the "thumb" in the mountains. It was a great day.

Our corner of the world: wild, warm, and wonderful. That's the aptly named
Sunrise at Lake Joanna. Spring with the windows open brings some unusual
sounds beside the usual crow cawing, Magic meowing, and some distant barking
of this Sunday sunrise. We've been treated recently to the ratatat of
Woody's pecking and to the "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?" of the
barred owl. The prehistoric screams of the sandhill cranes fill the air.

The barking is coming from the Park Place homes across the canal. The dog is
frenzied by the sheep out for their morning tour of their pasture that lies

Check
out the article “Retired pilot takes a flier on Ferran’s” in
Sunday’s Sentinel.