February 26, 2019 - Cary, NC

Hi everyone.
Today we drove to Cary North Carolina to see an old friend (previously student) that we haven't seen in decades.  It was fun to catch up with goings on, what's new in Newport, and just sharing.

 With only a while in the city to walk and talk, we went to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.  It was a warm day and the gardens have already made progress in coming alive for the season.

In case anyone is interested in renewing their marriage vows after almost 25 years...this would be the place.

Colors are well on their way.

The waterfowl viewing area didn't disappoint.

This really doesn't look like much, until you look at the newly fallen petals on the ground.

Grammie enjoyed her walk around the gardens.

For more information about the gardens, visit Sarah P. Duke Gardens

Thanks to Don and Patti for sharing this wonderful place with us...and taking the pictures.

February 25, 2019 - Virginia Beach, VA

Hi everyone.  One of the things in the planning is to stay a couple of days in one place when traveling.  That way the grind of driving a large portion of the day, getting dinner, and getting back up to do it again another day doesn't get too old.  It works well especially if there is a golf course across the street.  Can't complain about the person that does all the travel planning.

February is Virginia is for Lovers month with different events taking place during the month.  The sun was shining today although it was a little windy.  We went down to the beach area and had dinner at Waterman's Surfside Grill.  They have an outdoor room that is heated, but with the wind and all, we decided on an inside booth. 

Today's feature photograph...yup, it's Grammie.

Tomorrow, back on the road again.  North Carolina here we come.

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie.

February 23, 2019 - Dover, DE

Good evening all,
We are slowly making our way to warmer areas.  Last night we dined at the very busy Captain Daniel Packer Inne.  We were personally invited by Captain Dan (wink) who we spent the evening with. 
Today we have hopefully seen the last of the snow on this trip, what we saw was a little bit that was left on the side of the road by a plow.  As we headed into Delaware, there was a woman riding in her car with the top down but it was hard to tell if she minded at all as she was pretty bundled up.  It was only just under 50 degrees.  Must have been a Mainer, don't you think?

Grammie was seen down near the water so it was good to get her smiling face.

Later this afternoon we arrived at Dover AFB and spend the evening and a fresh start in the morning headed across the 17 mile bridge.  Almost $30 for 2 bridges in 2 days...Bob Marley would have fun with that one.
Have a peaceful day everyone and tomorrow, we hope to feature Grammie.....waving goodbye to her chummy on the way to the golf course.

February 21, 2019 - On the road again

Hi everyone.
We finally shut down the wood boiler, packed the bags...and golf clubs and headed out of town for a while.  On the way through Augusta, Tom decided that he would look up a friend in town.  After a short walk from a typically crowded parking lot, we happened to find his office. Thank goodness that he was free for a bit. 

After that we headed to our usual stopping place while passing through Massachusetts.  Tom's sister's place.  This night we got to visit the local Polish Club that didn't have any empty seats.  The clubs is one of the largest in the area.  With close to 1700 members, it is no wonder that the place was busy.  Tomorrow, further south and hopefully warmer still, not shorts weather yet, but working on it.  Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie.

June 30, 2019 - July 1, 2019 - Bielin, Poland, a family gathering.

On this day, we drove up to Bielin where Wanda grew up. This just happened to be the day that an annual family gathering was taking place and there were dozens more of family to be met.
Tom was ready, notepad and camera at the ready.

The church where many Sunday mornings were spent.  Quiet and peaceful. An old church with wide walls about 18 inches thick.

And all of a sudden, dozens of people began showing up.  Notepad wasn't going to do any good here.  Take pictures and get names later.

We spent the rest of the day and evening at this wonderful resort out in the country.  It is a quiet part of the country of Poland where people go to just get away.  They have stables there where one can go do some horseback riding.  It would be a wonderful venue for an outdoor wedding, with a banquet hall also. 

 Later on in the day we spent time outside with relatives.  Fortunately, there were several who spoke English very well.

The next morning, we went to the local lake with the view of the town in the background. 

On the way back to Poznan, we were led by Bronek to some places nearby that brought back memories.


Today our plans were to get back to Krakow to catch the plane on a reverse trip from Posnan to Warsaw, to Krakow.  Little did we know that when we arrived in Warsaw from Poznan, late at night, we missed the last plane out.  I guess what happened to us happens often.  A lengthy walk to the place where we get new reservations for the morning flight happened after midnight.  Fortunately, the place where we had rooms waiting for us was just across the street. In the morning, we had a 7:30 flight to Krakow where we arrived plenty early enough to catch our flight to Zurich, and then home to Boston. 

A truly wonderful trip, a great time meeting relatives, plenty of food, great hospitality from those who were so happy to meet people from America...and memories of a lifetime.

June 27, 28, and 29, 2018, Poznan, Poland

Today, we took a couple of short plane rides from Krakow, to Warsaw, to Jarocin where we met up with Tom's maternal relatives.  We spent these 3 days in Jarocin...did we mention that our interpreter finished his time with us... sharing family information, pictures and having an experience with navigating Google Translate. Poznan is where Maciej, who was our first contact with someone from Poland lived.  Poznan is a city of over 500,000 people however we focused on the reason of the trip, relatives.

We spent a lot of the time just focusing on who's who.  Fortunately, Bronek and Joan were able to communicate somewhat, especially with pictures of relatives that were labeled. 

We did take a little tour of the city and drove by the school where Tom's 2nd cousins went to school .

There is nothing like a wonderful surprise.  Tom's 70th birthday was while we were in Poznan and what made it even more special was that Happy Birthday was sung to Tom in Polish.

June 26, 2018 - Krakow, the Old City

 First of all, apologies for waiting so long to finish this journey in the blog.

Hi everyone, after spending an intense, but enjoyable time visiting never before seen relatives, we headed back to Krakow and after a settled rest, we headed out to see the Old City.

We had a full day to explore but we were content to wander around. Old Town is for tourists – it is busy, fun, had a little bit for everyone – we started off in the open market – settled on breakfast of Americano coffee and a huge cinnamon roll. A long strip of dough wrapped on something like a curling iron – rolled in cinnamon sugar and heated until cooked. It was delicious. 

 After our breakfast, we took to our feet and explored the city.  Starting in the Main Square, the building in the center features Polish paintings.

 There were plenty of resources to do a tour however we chose to walk.  The Old City is a tourist attraction and there is no urgent need to be concerned about communicating.  We met a couple from Texas and the conversation went from where are you from to him saying we have been to Maine.  Of course we asked where,  and expecting Kennebunk, he replied Gull Cottage.  The lighthouse keepers cottage at Prospect Harbor.

 There are several side streets leading int the Main square, and we stayed in a 2nd floor apartment.

You won't have to wait too long for the next Mass.

Then off to explore the shops, walk the streets, through the park the surrounded the city and ended up joining a 3 hour walking tour. 
This location reminded me of the Fanueil Hall Marketplace and the 3 historic market buildings.

 After the breakfast...a tour of The Old City. The historic St Mary’s Church in the square with the 13^th century steeple and the bell ringer who was shot by an arrow, the yellowed stone around the periphery hold graves of old; the site of the Battle of Warsaw area; museum of Art which houses a Davinci photo; the protected pigeons; Grave of Polish poet named Adam; Tower Town Hall; University of Krakow where John Paul II studied: the existing walls of Old Town and ended with the Wawell Castle overlooking the town and bordering the river.

Breakfast, lunch or dinner...and healthy choices.

Along the outer wall of The Old City, there is a lot of wonderful Art available.  Don't worry, they ship worldwide.

John Paul II

 It started with the historic St Mary’s Church in the square with the 13^th century steeple and the bell ringer who was shot by an arrow, the yellowed stone around the periphery hold graves of old; the site of the Battle of Warsaw area; museum of Art which houses a Davinci photo; the protected pigeons; Grave of Polish poet named Adam; Tower Town Hall; University of Krakow where John Paul ll studied: the existing walls of Old Town and ended with the Wawell Castle overlooking the town and bordering the river.

Exhausted and hungry at the end of the tour – we found a tiny Polish restaurant serving only pierogi – we tried three different types – delicious, and filling. Not quite time for bed so we grabbed a table outside a restaurant in the square, ordered drinks and watched all the activity –

Tomorrow we head north aiming to reach Jarocin before dark. Our trek will include a flight  from Krakow to Warsaw, then a puddle hopper to Poznan where we will rent a car for the trip to Jarocin – home of Tom's 1st cousin once removed.

June 25th 2018. Back to Tom's paternal grandmother's side to meet more relatives.

On the way back to where we were on the 23rd, we stopped by a church where they attend.

 On an outside wall, there is a memorial of those that served in WWII.

 Almost there...another picture to help tell our story.  This particular road was a main route between 2 nations at war.  Not a good place to be in the middle.

 These next 2 pictures, are next to each other.  This first one we visited on the 23rd, and came back today.

This home, although not the original one, is on Tom's great grandfather's property.

 Great Grampy was a blacksmith, and his anvil is still on the property.

This home in between is where Tom's grandmother's sister lived for her remaining days. 

 These last 2 pics are some of Tom's 1st cousins once removed.

On this day, we did go to another cemetery to see where many relatives lay, but it is also an opportunity to record some from-to dates in search of more ancestors.  After 3 days of hugs from many people, we were still sleep deprived.

After 3 days of meeting people, all set up by our wonderful geneaologist Daniel, it was time to take a break.  He drove us back to Krakow where we said farewell to him and thanked him for great planning.  For the next part of the trip, we would be on our own.  Wait.....he was out interpreter too!

June 24, 2018 - A visit with paternal relatives

After a much needed several hours of sleep...and a hot breakfast, we headed back to near where we were yesterday.  This time the other set of relatives on Tom's paternal grandparents (Michal's) side.  To no real great surprise, the 2 locations were about 7 miles from each other.  We often had wondered if Michal and Julia had known each other before they came to America.  Evidence suggests that they did.  Today's location was more outside of town.  Although we had been only 3 of 4 doors down from the place where we visited another dozen or more relatives, we did manage to see where Tom's Grampy Mike had lived.  We even had a friendly greeting.

 We found that the soil was not the best quality for farming.  The home was often near the road and the farm fields ran for many yards away from the road.

We had a wonderful visit with family, some who had traveled well over 300 km to see us.
Part of the day was spent visiting a cemetery to see where they were laid to rest. Being able to visit a cemetery would be an easier time for a geneaologist  because accurate dates of birth are the best source for identifying a relative.  What is also nice is that many tombstones have a picture of the deceased engraved on it.

 After a tour of Tom's grandfather's property, we went back to learn more about family. 

Of course it was easy to learn about their families as there were at least 2 of them that spoke very good English.  You can see that Chatty Kathy got them going as everyone was paying attention.

At the end of the day we had met another dozen or more people who were happy to see more people from America...although they had met Dan and Mary last year.  It was another great day meeting people...and although we had never met each other before this day,  we could feel they were family