Spring Forward 2020 with the Ratliffs
Well, what a difference a year makes. Hopefully this finds all of you “coping with COVID”. We were headed to Jordan and Israel beginning March 6 and got word on March 5 that the tour operator for Israel (beginning March 13) was canceling the trip (we organized the Jordan pre-trip on our own to see Alan’s sixth Wonder of the World, Petra…oh well, another time). It was a tough decision to skip the first trip, but we did, and we’re glad.
But looking back at the rest of our year (April 2019 to March 2020), we remember fun and more normal times. Hope the photos and videos we took this last year help you remember some good times as well. This year’s video is broken into four parts, Travel, Family Fun, Sharks and Daytona 500. The video can be watched combined or just its separate parts.
Travel
In May we did National Geographic’s new combined Machu Picchu / Galapagos Islands trip – only 9 days for both plus travel time (its previously almost twice as long). MP, in Peru, was Alan’s 5th Wonder of the World but the trip was one that Tricia had really been wanting to go on. And it lived up to her expectations – the ancient civilization was remarkable, the local culture warm and welcoming, and the scenery was breathtaking. We arrived early to take in sites and flavors of Lima, and we stayed extra days after the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador to visit good friends – and former Houston neighbors and church friends – the Bruton’s who live in Ecuador now. We did the Galapagos by boat and every day was a different island with different species and flora – from warm weather penguins to pink flamingos, sharks to sea lions, giant iguana to giant tortoises. Just amazing. One of the last photos in that group is the Christian coffee shop we support in Ecuador.
In June Alan’s company had its 15th annual summer firm meeting in Quebec. Another beautiful, historical city with wilderness, castles, gardens and waterfalls. Speaking of waterfalls, we were in Hawaii twice last year, Oahu for the Army colonel’s promotion ceremony of Raj Daniels aboard the Battleship Missouri in Pearl Harbor (Alan officiated Raj’s wedding several years ago – he is the brother of close friends and one of Alan’s colleagues) and in Maui for New Year’s eve and our anniversary (including a Scottish bagpipe sunset at Mick Fleetwood’s restaurant there). We enjoyed another great All-Star band concert benefiting the Maui Food Bank.
Then we enjoyed a mini-class reunion for Alan as St. Louis childhood school friends Teri and CJ asked him to officiate their wedding in Charlotte, NC, after they reconnected nearly 40 years after graduation and fell in love. We took a side trip in advance to see the Biltmore with former St. Louis then Arkansas friends Kelley and Lyle.
We added to our U.S. state count visits in 2019 as well (Alan’s up to 45 states now), going to Alaska to see Baylor play basketball (what an incredible season including a 21-game win streak and both the men and women finishing in the Top 5 – but what could have been if the Big Dance wasn’t canceled due to CORVID!), but with a side trip via helicopter to a Glacier. As you will see at the end, the weather got bad quickly the return ride was in low visibility. We saw moose, bear, elk, Caribu, wolves, fox and on and on.
And we traveled to the Bahamas around Labor Day, only to feel the effects of Hurricane Dorian swirling just north of us (Nassau) in Freeport. We stayed through it and got a few good days before and after (including a coral reef snorkel and a fun day at the Atlantis water park including the shark tank). Later in the video you will see that Alan went back (with Lyle) and did the open water shark dive. Amazing!
Family Fun
Another great sports season for our Bears, second best football season ever including ESPN gameday in Waco, a conference championship game at Cowboys stadium, and a Sugar Bowl appearance in New Orleans. We also attended some fun musical and theatre events, including a concert followed by a reunion of sorts for Alan with Broadway legend Bernadette Peters (Alan met her on a cultural exchange trip to India in 2007, and we hosted friends at a charitable meet and greet with her after the concert), a jazz concert featuring actor Jeff Goldblum’s band (turns out he’s a gifted pianist), and a film event featuring the movie Say Anything attended by the lead actor, John Cusack, one of our favorites (Grosse Pointe Blank!). Other photos include Alan with DeAndre Hopkins, former All Pro WR of the Texans inexplicably traded away to the Cardinals, and Alan with former VP Joe Biden. The fun finishes out with niece Vivian and Ant T on a girls trip in the summer and a visit to Houston where they met up with nephew Jack at Candytopia! The last few photos include Tricia with Chinquapin students at the Houston high school musical awards (the Tommy Tunes), Tricia with Skyler Daniels on our visit to Hawaii, and our old cat Hip Hop.
Sharks
Alan and Lyle took a short scuba trip to Nassau the week after Lyle retired from a 25+ year career as an IT executive at Tyson Foods in Springdale, AR (congrats Lyle!). But with kids and grandkids living nearby, beekeeping duties, and living a bit off the grid, I’m not sure he is any less busy. We enjoyed an afternoon shark-feeding dive which you will see had us up close and personal a half dozen shark breeds, and a half day wreck dive including the sunken ships from James Bond movies Dr. No and Thunderball.
Daytona 500
As most of you know, we have a condo in Daytona and we finally attended our first Daytona 500 as a guest of racing legend Jimmie Johnson. Apart from a meet and greet, we got to ride in the pace car, hang out in pit row before and during the race, and watch from the VIP zone on the first turn, where the President’s motorcade entered from (and with a good view of Airforce 1 arriving). This is a spectacle of an event with literally thousands of RV’s parked on the grounds all week long as NASCAR fans enjoy the qualifying laps and some exhibition races leading up to the race.
Enjoy the video, keep in touch, and come visit when you can.
Alan & Tricia
Spring Forward 2020 with the Ratliffs!