After completing our last season as managers at the Beaver Island Lodge, we were exactly back where we were 10 years ago when I wrote the story “Wide Open Spaces Ahead of Us”. Our first …
Our transatlantic Princess cruise 2025 intentionally ended in Southampton UK, as it was about a two hour drive from my long awaited dream of visiting Seaton Village in the UK. Caught a taxi to the …
This offseason had to be scheduled a bit different since TJ needed some facial skin procedures as a result of cancerous spots. Since we did not know the length of the recovery process we decided …
Remembering the good times we had during our first winter on Beaver Island during Covid, and the fact that we have made deep friendships with some other “islanders”, combined again with the fact that it …
Our Pacific cruise was over and more sick than ever, and ungodly early in the morning, we slouched ourselves to LAX for a flight back to Nashville, where our car was parked with friends Ric …
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After completing our last season as managers at the Beaver Island Lodge, we were exactly back where we were 10 years ago when I wrote the story “Wide Open Spaces Ahead of Us”. Our first trip then was also to Nashville, where Han’s oldest friend in the US had moved to. Sadly Ric passed away a couple of years ago, so now we visited Kay his widow in Brentwood TN, a suburb of Nashville, for almost a month in Dec/Jan of 2026. This is also our last trip south in our trusty Nissan Murano which we purchased exactly 10 years ago. And the end of this trip she goes to another dear friend, while we take a transatlantic cruise over to Europe for an extended stay. But first some travel impressions from this last north-south trip.
There are so many amazing restaurants near her home, that we did not have to venture far to experience something new and delicious.
Our transatlantic Princess cruise 2025 intentionally ended in Southampton UK, as it was about a two hour drive from my long awaited dream of visiting Seaton Village in the UK.
Caught a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car, which I was not on board about but Han really wanted the car. Literally to make a long horrific scary story short, unless you are extremely familiar with driving on the left, dealing with UK traffic, huge roundabouts, teeny tiny country roads or enjoy arguing with your mate…leave the rental car and take any other means of transportation. We visited Seaton for a week and I never got back in, until we had to return the car. It will try the best of relationships.
The staff was very nice and said I was the first “Seaton” that they could remember ever staying there. Close to town, a large grocery store “Tesco” next door, a rocky beach with massive boardwalk was just across the street, unique restaurants within a short walk and charming homes for as far as you could see. The hotel has a restaurant attached, but they were forever running out of multiple menu items.
Totally frowned upon the fact that you have to pay for parking and wifi at the hotel, which was very pricey.
Hotel is nothing fancy, but it met our needs and was fairly quiet. All in all, it was an enjoyable and comfortable stay.
For being off-season there were many stores and restaurants open, but then again the weather was unusually pleasant for the time of year.
We strolled through a few cemeteries because history fascinates me, but I was also hoping to glimpse some Seaton family graves, however we did not locate any. I did purchase my share of “Seaton” tourist goodies however.
The resale stores there are surprisingly easy on the wallet. It has many cute parks for people/dog watching. One feels very at home almost immediately.
Our friends David and Glenda with whom we met in Portugal Jan. of 2020 lived close by. We had a wonderful opportunity to spend more quality time with them. They drove us to neighboring towns of Beer and Sidmouth the day after our arrival. I sat in the back seat and covered my eyes a lot. Just when you think a road cannot get any skinnier, they do.
We had the largest most fantastic breakfast EVER at unassuming Beer Head Bistro. It is located on the Jurassic Coastline and set in a caravan vacation park. We needed nothing else until dinnertime, better yet, we were full.. The inside decor of the restaurant is beyond charming. This was my first experience eating a “full English breakfast” with many more in my future.
Next stop was Sidmouth. I had more energy than the other three, so I set off to do a bit of shopping, beach rock/boardwalk inspections, take photos and revel in the architecture. Sidmouth has a lot of sights to offer and I could have spent at least a week here also. Joined the rest of the crew to have some espresso, people watch and admire all the doggies parading in the sunshine. People in the UK have a lot of dogs and majority of stores welcome them along with their owners.
After a long wait we're almost there...
not much room to play with
Activity overload promised
Seaton - an Ancestry Away?
Glenda in anticipation of English Breakfast
David, English oak at its very best
As you want it interior decorations
Shopping street in town
Walking the waterfront, everyone's favorite pastime
Faulkner Hotel to the left!
Seaton downtown intersection
England's sense of colorful living. You've got to love it.
Seaton has a tramway from the olden days that still runs through the wetlands and stops in some small villages to the north. It was one of the highlights of our stay in Seaton. With it being off season, quite a few places were closed in each village, but still enough open and architecture to enjoy. Had a sweet treat and coffee in a locals restaurant. The vibe was very chill and welcoming, with everyone chatting to each other and a cute dog relaxing underneath one of the tables.
Dogs are also welcome in most restaurants in the UK. They have figured out that dogs are less problematic and cleaner than many humans.
There is so much history and information about the tram, that I suggest youclick on the link to see it all. Wear comfortable walking shoes and use a walking stick or cane if you have trouble traversing hills.
David and Glenda came by again to be our driver and tour guides of beautiful, fascinating Lyme Regis.
So very thankful for their friendship. Also for driving.
Regis, a World Heritage Site, is by far the steepest small town I have experienced. Today on the menu was Swim Restaurant for breakfast. Beautiful location on the water, extremely nice staff, high reviews and so forth, but we were all underwhelmed with the breakfast. I could not help but compare it to my first experience of the English breakfast in Beer (see above picture). Personally it was one and done for me. However, all four of us felt similar about it.
Back to checking out Regis… As Han, David and Glenda decided to relax on the seafront boardwalk having coffee, I had the bright idea of climbing the stairs from the boardwalk to the top of the village. I admit when I am wrong and I was out of my mind wrong about this. I lost count of the stair steps or even how many times I had to catch my breath. At first it is a zig-zag walkable incline, then steps that shoot up into the wild blue yonder. Just when you think you are at the top: nope, you have a very steep zig-zag path to continue the workout. Thanking whoever put random benches to rest before continuing. Once you are at the top, the world feels like it unfurls at your feet and I couldn’t believe I made it without calling for medical assistance. This is no exaggeration either. Then I started my descent to find the rest of the crew. I felt like I had run a marathon by the time I found them relaxing on a bench like smart people.
cemeteries and graveyards; where history becomes heavy
A church hiding among houses
Religeous color schemes
A Typical English Waterfront Look
Some strangely disturbing door ornaments
Any room can serve a great afternoon tea
Spend a day in the book/record store
British humor: tempus fugit amor manet
A scene in Devon on the Water
A great Chinese Restaurant in Seaton Village
All roads lead to Rome?
Life used to be so simple
The horse does not agree with the sign
Life portrays colorful in this part of the world
With the choice to drive back to Southampton on Sunday or Monday, we decided to drive at ease on Sunday, rather than in Monday morning workweek traffic. Why put yourself under pressure? The trip back to Southampton was not as horrifying but we were very glad to turn the car in. Of course that was until they tried to rip us off, and tell us we stole the boot out of the back that covers the luggage area. We were not even aware there was not one originally in the car. They were just trying to find a sucker to blame it on. It didn’t fly and we were not charged. Besides that, we had purchased insurance. Also the car rental airport crew are completely lacking in manners. Not to go into details, but we were not the only ones who the process started off negatively.
Note: Don’t rent from Avis or Budget, they are in same building with same workers.
This offseason had to be scheduled a bit different since TJ needed some facial skin procedures as a result of cancerous spots. Since we did not know the length of the recovery process we decided to have the procedure done early in November in Petoskey, so that everything could properly heal prior to traveling. Less than a couple of weeks later we started our off season travels.
Our travel down from Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan is pretty much a given, since the youngest daughter and her adorable family lives in the city of Holland/Michigan. Here is where we usually stay a week or longer before the Christmas Holidays, to spend some fun days and have our car maintained. Our Murano is from 2007 and spend her first ten years short tripping the sunny Florida climate. Since 2016 she has primarily done the long journeys east-west and north-south. This year she is going to get a heavy make-over engine wise and new tires. She’s worth it. If you ever need a great travel car, the Nissan Murano definitely qualifies.
As soon as the car has received dealer approval for the trip south, we get on the road direction Nashville/Brentwood Tennessee for a Christmas visit with Kay who, just a year earlier, had lost her longtime husband Rich had also been Han’s oldest friend in the USA. A week of good food, great restaurants, some fancy nail work and visiting other old friends is on the usual menu, as well as a good amount of Mexican Train games.
After about a week of rest it’s time for our next trip stops bringing us back ‘Home” to Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach, about 30 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida. Here we usually stay a week to ten days with old friends Jack and Sharon, who provide absolute hospitality heaven, one block from the beach. We lived in Fernandina Beach for almost 10 years, operated a B&B on the beach there, had a very popular website and still have tons of friends there. So never a quiet moment when we’re on island.
Early January we say goodbye and leave for two weeks in a Hilton Head condo. Now Hilton Head is chosen because it has a nice swimming pool in the open public area, 4 floors up enveloped by condos. Han is in his element and swims daily between 75 and 100 laps. The hot whirlpool is an extra luxury for his knees. In the weekend son Drew and his wife Jessica, both work for supermarket giant Publix and live in Savannah, come for a visit and we all are having a great time thrift shopping, discovering the town and having dinner in several restaurants.
After the two weeks in Hilton Head we’re on the road again and via well established cities in Georgia such as university town Athens and Atlanta suburb of Marietta we drove back to Tennessee’s eastern mountain range and settled in a wonderful old Airbnb in Allard near Jamestown with a great mom-and-pop grocery store called Burnette’s Suprette less than 500 yards away from the AirBnB. We used the week to cook dinner for TJ’s oldest Maranda, who owns a horse farm on the Cumberland Plateau and we rested that week, reading, eating and sleeping.
When the week was over, we were ready for the “exhaustion” of another transatlantic cruise.
We drove back 2-1/2 hours to Brentwood/Nashville where we left our car with dear friend Kay and flew Delta (yep we get points) to Ft.Lauderdale. (Of course via Atlanta…) An airport taxi later and we checked into a nice Airbnb owned by a fellow Caribbean brother, with whom we had a long and animated conversation about politics and cultural differences. The next morning we took off to the cruise ship port in search of the Sky Princess. which was supposedly going to take us from Ft. Lauderdale transatlantic to Madeira/Tenerife/Casablanca/Santiago de Compostela/La Coruna to Southampton in England.
This time we were ready to explore England and TJ’s ancestry with Southampton as our starting point.
Remembering the good times we had during our first winter on Beaver Island during Covid, and the fact that we have made deep friendships with some other “islanders”, combined again with the fact that it had been an exhausting vacation season at the Beaver Island Lodge, AND the fresh memory of our disastrous Pacific cruise, we early on in the year made the decision to spend the winter on island.
You have to understand that during the summer season, which roughly runs from Memorial Day in May to a couple of weeks past Labor Day, we work 7 days a week and socialize with friends maybe twice, if our respective stars align. It’s the time you make your money for the year, so all focus is on planning for a perfect execution.
2023 was a rough season for hospitality on Beaver Island. After the flare up of Covid 19, the island had witnessed an increase in visitors, that now had been replaced by guests that demanded their entitlements to be met. On a 55 Square mile island with a population of some 600 people that is at the best of times hard to accomplish. The hospitality infrastructure is simply not available. So it was a hard season and we wanted peace and tranquility and we lazied through the winter of 2023/24 with just a short April 2024 trip to see the kids and grandkids in Holland, Michigan.
Brian and Han making music
Dinner nights with friends, game nights (in particular Mexican Train and some card games) and music nights were on a loosely drawn up schedule. With our “besties” Brian and Maria, who own and operate the Beaver Island Retreat Glamping, we worked up a calendar and enjoyed a soft winter. Early in the new year we ventured out on some island boodles, to check on beaches, forests and new developments. For those of you unaware, an Island Boodle is a Beaver Island creation that involves a car or truck with a load bed , some loose chairs, a table, booze in a cooler, covers or blankets to stay warm and a cranked up radio and off you go for hours through the forests and past the beaches of an island that offers 9 miles of paved road and 97 miles of gravel and sand roads.
It’s fun.
Before we left the island again later that year, we told the owners of the Lodge that 2025 would be our 7th and last year to manage the operation, as we would be retiring.
Our Pacific cruise was over and more sick than ever, and ungodly early in the morning, we slouched ourselves to LAX for a flight back to Nashville, where our car was parked with friends Ric and Kay. It was going to be a long road back up to Beaver Island and another season of managing the Beaver Island Lodge.
It was the first time (and definitely the last time) we sailed on the Crown Princess, which in a deeper study of events, had been prone to serious illness events from the day she was launched. We had taken Delta Airlines from Nashville to LAX the day before the Crown sailed, took a cab from the airport and stayed in a San Pedro hotel that was known for catering to cruise ship guests. The advantage of that approach is that these people offer free shuttle service, know the perfect departure times and have experience in getting your luggage to the ship on time. The night before the cruise we had dinner in a little Mexican Pollo restaurant a block up the street from the hotel, which was excellent.
The cruise ship port of Los Angeles is much smaller that Ft. Lauderdale and probably because of that a bit more chaotic. The check in lines were long and tiring, but once on the ship we went on a search for a smoking area and that became a nuisance because the smoking area on this ship is a cramped and covered area next to a bar on deck 16 with no open air flow.
The problem with this cruise was less the floorpan of the ship or even the small indoor smokers area with little to no ventilation. No, the problem was that the entire cruise was doomed by sickness and a ship hospital that was not prepared, or even equipped, to handle a daily onslaught of patients getting sicker and sicker.
We went on a handful occasions at least to find medicine like cold and flu, Vicks, Nyquil or Dayquil, nose spray, but there was simply nothing available. We checked the stores on the ship for any cough or tight chest relief. Nada. Every port of call became a quest for medicine, but nothing really worked.
Then we heard from crew members that their nickname for the ship was the Death Boat. Turned out that ambulances waiting at our ports of call was for guests, who could not be helped on board anymore. At some ports we detected 3 to 4 ambulances on the pavement, waiting for passengers to be transferred.
It became so bad that fatalities were reported, at least 4 guests died from various causes such as drowning and heart attacks. What’s worse is that the Crown Princess medical staff was not up to facing this situation and when they ran out of medication they closed the hospital wing.
Eventually we made it back to San Pedro, took a tax to LAX and were back in Nashville by late afternoon. We did not want to get our friends sick with this ugly illness so we decided to check into what was a backwater Holiday Inn and drove the next morning to Berea, Kentucky where we stayed for 5 nights in a motel we’d been before. Since TJ was still not getting any better we went to an emergency clinic, where she got a steroid shot and antibiotics. The nurse made a mistake and administered a 15mg shot instead of a 6.5mg shot, so poison control was on our schedule that day, together with the doctor’s sincere apologies. But…the shot worked, because after almost 20 days of coughing and wheezing, she was better the next day,
The most important advice we can pass on after this trip is, to stock up on medications as much as you can. You know there are clothes you’re going to pack for your trip, that you will never wear. Use the space for medications.
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