Day 12: June 19,2026 Amsterdam to Johannesburg, South Africa

We had about three hours in Amsterdam. Not enough to really do much of anything besides have a little snack and stretch our legs. But, we definitely got Netherlands vibe with tulips and lots of art everywhere. We were sad to hear that the fantastic art museum, the Rijks Museum, which often has displays at the airport, didn’t have anything currently. So mostly we just hung out in the airport getting ready for the next long flight.

When we got on board are very large airplane, we were relieved that indeed we did have seats next to each other. The next 10 hours we spent snoozing and reading. Watch the second Wicked movie well Patti watched Song Sung Blue about a Neil Diamond tribute band. And, mostly we just tried to get through the hours. Getting a little sleep as we could.

We were both surprised at the number of people traveling with small children, including babies and toddlers. A South African vacation or safari seemed an unlikely choice to us for such small children, but there were lots of them on our plane.

We landed without incident and spent about 40 minutes going through passport control. We felt very welcomed to South Africa. 

Then we believed we were following directions to get to the place to catch the shuttle bus for our hotel.  However, with some help from the workers at the airport, it quickly became clear our hotel did not have a airport shuttle. And we confirmed that with the hotel. So then the nice guy at the airport helped us find an Uber driver, Gabriel. He drove us a half an hour to the hotel, where they were expecting us. And they said our tour host had called, hoping that we had checked in. Maybe they were there to meet us with signs at the airport, which we didn’t see. Anyway, the hotel was counting on us being there. There was a rainbow colored rhino greeting us in the lobby.

And we got to our room unpacked, and then found one of the light switches was broken and it was stuck on. After some help problem-solving this to no avail,  we finally threw her stuff back in the bags and moved across the hall in a couple rooms down where the light switch was working. Then we fell into bed around midnight happy to at least have arrived in South Africa. 

Day 11: June 18,2026 Rochester MN, to to Minneapolis/ St Paul Airport, approaching Amsterdam Netherlands

The 18th was the final push with getting everything ready and getting up to the airport to takeoff for the Africa trip. There was a run to the grocery for some snacks, a final load of laundry done, and one less bowl of Mom’s chicken soup.

We managed to get everything for the next two weeks in two day packs and two suitcases.  

Our friend Randy generously offered to pick us up and drive us to the airport about 80 miles away. We were so glad to use that time talking about our upcoming trip and hearing about the trip Randy just returned from where he went with a group to Scotland. Travelers’s always like to have time to talk with other travelers. The time went so quickly, and we settled in at the airport and eventually hopped on our plane headed to Amsterdam.

While waiting for our flight, Patti managed to hop on a video call from her Work back in California. Some important transitions are happening that involve her agency merging with another which she has been involved in for quite some time. But, the rollout is actually happening so she sat in the airport and listened to the CEO of the new organization and other leadership welcome us aboard.  Exciting changes will be in the works by the time Patti gets back towards the end of July.

Our flight was delayed about an hour, and we found to our dismay although we thought we had selected seats together last month, each of us were in middle seats near each other. That was disappointing, but we made the best of it.

The flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam was 8.5 hours and was a long time. We both tried our best to catch some sleep and read or listen to music. As it turns out South Africa is a long ways from home. As the time changed, we were arriving in Amsterdam, at least at the airport just after midnight Minnesota time and after 7:00 in Netherlands. We were ready for the next part of the journey. 

Day nine and ten: June 16 and 17, 2026 Rochester, Minnesota

 

A quieter day again today. Patti went to go meet her friend Ann for lunch. They’ve been friends since the late 1980s and always love when they can catch time together.

Dick was able to hop on his family Zoom call and catch up a little bit on what was going on with sister Marti and dear friend,  Gere. Then, Patti’s brother Perry took Dick out to lunch at a favorite local pub. It was nice of them to get some nice time together.

We took some afternoon time with Patti’s mom, a nice dinner of homemade chicken soup and then walked by the dog with Perry and Jodie and watching the Indiana Fever women’s basketball and the Minnesota Twins baseball games. Both our teams won, which makes it more fun.

A little bit of just quiet resting time before we move into getting ready for Africa in a more serious manner tomorrow. It’s been really nice to have this time in Rochester.

The 17th included doing a lot of laundry and then spreading all of our belongings on the ping pong table in Joan’s basement. We both were ruthless in leaving things at home that “we might need. “ 

Dinner included going to Patti’s mom favorite restaurant, Grandma’s Cafe. Joan, and Patti’s brother and sister-in-law, Jodie. The three of them eat there every Wednesday night. We all had good old-fashioned comfort food for dinner. We figure we won’t be eating this food for a couple of weeks.

Off to bed and getting excited, tomorrow we go to Africa

Day eight: June 15, 2026 Rochester, Minnesota

So a nice day to sleep in. We follow the progress of Patti's sister, Peggy, and her daughter, son and daughter-in-law as they found their way back to Dallas and over to Miami. They had flights canceled yesterday. We’re glad everybody made it to their destination safely.

Dick and Patti were able to sleep in a bit and have a little nice time first thing in the morning with Patti’s mom and brother Perry.

Then it was time to drive 45 miles up the road to Cannon Falls, Minnesota. There we were meeting with dear friends, Dennis and Kathryn. We all knew each other when we all lived in the Twin Cities more than 35 years ago. But, then Patti and Dick moved to California and Dennis and Kathryn moved to Boston. We don’t get to see each other that often but we keep in touch via Zoom. It just so happened that they were also in Minnesota visiting family while at the same time Patti and Dick, too, were in Minnesota with family. We were able to drive to and meet at an authentic Mexican restaurant in Cannon Falls.

What a lovely time to eat good food and catch up on the happenings that we had all been having, including news of family. The food was great and wonderful company. Then we took a little walk through the neighborhood, including going in a tunnel underneath the freeway. Just enjoying the beautiful day and each other’s company. When you can do it, it is such a joy to be together with friends.

Heading South towards Rochester we stopped in Zambrota to see the only covered bridge in Minnesota. It had been restored and moved 1000 feet to a more central location next to a park in the center of town.  Lovely!

Then, back to Patti‘s mom‘s house. We took a little nap and then had one last visit from our niece Anna, who was headed back to Berkeley tomorrow morning, and Patti‘s sister Paula, who will be headed off to her cabin in Wisconsin sometime tomorrow. We had a great chance to hear a little bit more about Anna‘s plans following her graduation from her PhD program last month.

Paula and Anna had ridden a tandem bike yesterday for over 20 miles and today's ride was 36 miles. The bike trails in Minnesota are great versions of "rails to trails." This ride today was the most Paula had ever ridden. Anna is an amazing athlete and riding on a tandem with her means you move along really fast. It was fun to hear about their adventures. Paula had just purchased a new tandem bike rack which we admired when she still had it on the car when they visited.

Joan's yard is a haven for wildlife. There are always squirrels and birds visiting the feeders. Often there is a bunny munching on the grass. While Dick was watching a bunny, Joan was looking at a photo book of her mother. Patti and Dick had produced it many years ago.

Then Patti‘s brother Perry brought us a wonderful dinner of bratwurst, potato salad and Summer fruit.

After dinner we had time to work on the last of the photos to upload to the Google drive before watching a WNBA game. The evening ended with the last innings of a Twins victory in baseball. Joan is a serious sports fan and always knows what teams are playing.

We are now starting to put our attention towards our trip to Africa, which is only a few days away. It seemed so far out, but now here we are. We will be looking at our final packing list to see if we are missing anything before the final packing will begin,

Day seven: June 14, 2026 Rochester, Minnesota

So the day after the wedding would be kind of a kickback day. At Patti‘s mom‘s house we all slept till nine or 9:30 and then had a leisurely time. Patti sister Peggy‘s family had lots of chaos with their afternoon flight out of Minneapolis being canceled due to bad weather in Dallas. They ended up having to rebook on three different flights. But, after checking out of their hotel and having their flights booked, they then came over to Patti‘s mom‘s house and we hung out for a while. It was nice just to have a little more conversation. We will be seeing all of them in Maui for our niece Amanda‘s wedding in August. Nice to know we would see them in the not so distant future.

Then, Patti‘s brother Perry and his wife Jodi stopped by, along with the groom, Matt. They had finished cleaning up at the wedding venue and Matt had his car packed up and ready to head on home to Wisconsin. It was really fun to have a quick debrief from their perspective. They all felt the wedding went really spectacularly well. And we’re all very, very tired.

After that, Patti‘s other sister Paula and one of her daughters Maria came over and we had a little wedding recap time. Then Maria needed to head to Austin, Minnesota, where she’ll be at her summer internship at the Hormel meat company. She is studying accounting, one of the common family interests with two cousins already being accountants. Just nice to have a little visit with them. We’ll catch up with Paula in the next couple of days.

Patti’s mom Joan watched the Minnesota Twins and Patti and Dick worked on the nearly 400 photos from the wedding. The photos were all uploaded to a Google drive accessible to the whole family. The family has come to count on us at taking a bunch of good photos and we’re happy to do that. These are special special photos that we know are hard to replicate when people live scattered across the country.

Dinner was Joan, Patti and Dick quickly running over to Culver’s, local fast food place with a great combo meal that included an ice cream sundae. We’ve been eating so much the last couple of days there was no need for a huge meal. Then Jodie and Perry brought their dog over for one more walk in the park. The dog has been a great excuse to get out for another walk.

And so we made it through this beautiful wedding time. And we know the joy of being able to gather for a really happy occasion. Too often these days to gatherings are because we’ve lost a family member. What a blessing when we can celebrate for happy time.

Day six: June 13, 2026 Rochester, Minnesota

So there’s something about an event that you’ve had on the calendar for nearly a year, and then the date finally arrives. The extended family spread around town slept in late, went for walks, downloaded photos and enjoyed ourselves. 

Patti’s sister, Paula, and her daughter and son and daughter-in-law, rode their tandem bikes across town to come and visit. Not every family has not just two tandem bikes, but they have three or four tandem bikes between in the city and at their lake cabin. All of them very much love riding bikes.

Once we reached mid afternoon and it was time to get dressed up and head out to the countryside, wedding venue, about 25 minutes from Patti‘s mom‘s house. We had all anxiously watched the weather forecast the last couple of weeks and it varied from 90°, to raining most of the day, to raining quite a bit in the night before, to what we got. It was a beautiful day in the upper 70s sunny with a little bit of wind. The outdoor wedding was in a beautiful location and we all gathered.

It was so fun to see people we hadn’t seen in a while, included Patti’s aunt and uncle Jim & Len. Patti’s mom, Joan, was especially glad to see her brother.

Everyone gathered and grabbed photos in this beautiful picture setting. It seems to be the current custom, we were asked to put away our phones during the ceremony and allow the professional photographers to do their job while we were present. We followed that rule.

The wedding itself was just lovely. It was personal and filled with special touches. We are especially enjoyed the unity ceremony, where they each brought a jar of water from their home communities and then poured them into a larger jar signaling a deeper life together. This next chapter after having been together for seven years would be very sweet.

Following the ceremony, there were more beautiful photos in all different kinds of configurations. And then we headed up into a beautiful outdoor patio for drinks and hors d’oeuvres. It was so nice to see people and have even more time to catch up.

Then we all went inside for a dinner. The food was good and the company was great

A highlight was when Patti‘s brother, Perry, father of the groom, gave a really touching and actually very funny speech. He did a beautiful job. And his words delighted the bride and groom.

Then Matt two best friends, and Sofie’s two best friends each also gave beautiful speeches. we were struck by the excellent quality of long-term friendship that each of them had. That seems to be a very good sign.

Following the dinner and speeches, Patti and Dick took her mom home, having spent four hours at this big event, which was a long time for her. When she got home, she put on her pajamas and watched the final NBA finals game. She cheered on New York in their win.

Dick and Patti did not stay with her, immediately driving back to the venue where we had a chance to do some dancing, watch the young people in their 20s do a lot of dancing  and singing all the words to songs we’ve never heard of. Or, words to songs that we had heard of and couldn’t believe that they actually knew those old songs.

The dancing was fun, and we grabbed a little more visiting time with various family members. We knew the next day people would scatter around the country, and so really wanted to soak in this opportunity to be together.

Both of us looked a little at photos when we got back at about 1130 and then promptly fell right asleep. It was a great day where we all affirmed Matt and Sofie making this new commitment to each other,