Taos, Bandelier, Rio Grande New Mexico

October was a great time for my Sister Betsy (Akron, OH) and I to spend some Brother & Sister time together on a vacation in New Mexico. We split our time between Albuquerque and the Santa Fe area. From Santa Fe we took scenic day trips and one was to Taos to see a "Pueblos" Native American Indian village with Adobe houses built more than a thousand years ago. We also drove across Rt. 64 and the Rio Grande Bridge.

On another day we toured Bandelier National Monument for a self guided tour of extensive ancestral pueblos ruins.

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

A spectacular 2 hour ride from Santa Fe to Chama NM, brought us to the southern terminus of the 'The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad" which runs steam trains along narrow-gauge tracks through Alpine back country to Antonito Colorado. At a mid-way stop, a delicious luncheon was enjoyed at a special track side location. (Betsy and I both had the Turkey Special) The train ride was especially beautiful because the first fall snow had dusted much of the track side terrain and covered many mountain caps in the distance.

Albuquerque Balloon Festival October 2008

The Albuquerque Balloon Festival is a 10 day Festival which draws thousands of visitors each day. Betsy and I enjoyed a special Hot Air Balloon flight early one morning. Watching the Balloons inflate is almost as exciting as soaring thought the sky and being guided by the wind. I found it fascinating as we drifted above houses and awoke every dog within our path.

Rob & Sherri

Rob & Sherri Lammerding live in Kenosha, WI and both have career's in the Navy. I was thrilled to visit Rob & Sherri in their beautiful home this past September while on business in Chicago. Rob & Sherri have a lovely home and enjoy decorating both the inside and outside together. Their Dog Zoe is a beautiful and loving animal and apparently loves to model her assorted Holiday outfits. This year for Halloween, be on the look out for a cute little dogie dressed as a Bumble Bee. If it should rain...have no fear, the one in the yellow slicker with the long tail would be Zoe.

Mike & Andrea

Mike (Lammerding) Brother Bill's youngest son and Andrea (Grazioso) were engaged early in 2008 and a Wedding date is TBD. Mike and Andrea currently live in Doylestown, PA. On a beautiful summers evening in August, we met in New Hope PA for an enjoyable dinner at the Logan Inn. New Hope has always been a special place for me to visit ever since performing at The Buck's County Theater during High School and so it's fitting for me to rendezvous with such special people as Mike and Andrea in one of my favorite places from years ago.

Dave Celebrates 25 Years at Brother

Dave joined Brother on August 1st 1983 and during the first week of August 2008 celebrated his 25th Anniversary in great style. Tadashi (President of Brother) Ishiguro awarded Dave gifts and a company pin with blue sapphire stones to commemorate 25 years of service. All employees were invited to enjoy cake and coffee to help celebrate the occasion.

Stockholm, Sweden

To enjoy these photo's of our Baltic Cruise vacation. Start with the Amsterdam entry and work your way up to this Stockholm entry.

Stockholm was the end of or 7 day Baltic cruise and we enjoyed two additional nights "on our own" in this beautiful city. In Stockholm we did pretty much what we did in all of our cities, shopped, toured and took a sightseeing boat ride but there was something special we really enjoyed about this city.

A good Hotel in Europe is expensive with a Euro costing $1.60 so we saved about $800 a night by using some of Dave's Hilton points and staying at the centrally located Hilton Slussen Hotel where we were treated wonderfully. We wondered around the cobble stone streets of Stockholm and crossed dozens of bridges and even enjoyed some local night life on Saturday & Sunday evenings. Frank seemed to especially enjoy our Baltic adventure as tall, blue eyed, blonde's seem to be prevalent throughout all of Scandinavia... who knew!

Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki was our last port call and we were stating to tire from our busy week of Baltic Capital sightseeing. In Helsinki we toured the city first by coach and then by boat. The white with green dome is a Lutheran cathedral in Senate Square. We enjoyed shopping a local market where we bought cuff links and a Christmas ornament from local Finnish artisans which are two things we collect from our travels around the world.

Our harbor boat cruise through the magnificent archipelago was a great experience and a relaxing way to see more of the capital of Finland.