The Year in Review

The year 2023 whizzed by like so many pints at the Alma Pub in Harwich, Essex on a Friday evening. Technically speaking, the whizzing started back in the middle of 2022 when we first entertained the option of perhaps picking up and moving to the UK. One daughter graduated from university and started medical school. Our son started his senior year at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Our oldest daughter settled into her job in Madison, Wisconsin. We sold our house and cars. Sent the dog to Wisconsin to live with our daughter. Packed up our belongings and moved them across the USA and put them in storage. My wife finished her MBA, finished teaching a college class, got promoted, and we hopped on a plane on New Years Eve and landed in a new year and in a new country.

So, what is the first thing one does when you move to a new country? Immediately leave it.

Thats right. 8 days into our adventure, I hopped on a plane with my son and we flew to Dublin. Even at the source of the most majestic beer in the world, the revered pint of Guinness, I couldn’t get my then 21 year old son to “like” it. Oh well. Someday he will appreciate that he got to learn to pull the perfect pint in Dublin itself.

Two weeks later, I was back in Dublin for another weekend. This time my wife came along at her insistence. Music, pints, art, literature. We jumped straight into Dublin. Ireland was comfortable and welcoming, like putting on a favorite old sweatshirt.

Flowers in Keukenhof Botanical Gardens were so flowery.

Copenhagen was also photogenically fantastic.

The following months were just as adventurous. Lisse, Netherlands, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Faroe Islands, Azores, Lisbon, Cork, Mainz, Frankfurt, Rotherberg ob der Tauber, Zurich, Liectenstein, Zematt, Luxembourg, Verdun, Chateau-Thierry, Amiens, Amsterdam, Brighton, Canterbury, Norfolk coast, Nottingham, Chicago, Madison, Quetico Provincial Park, Baltimore, and of course, many weekends in London. I’m sure Im leaving a few off of the list. We had visits by many friends and family members. Visited the Colchester Zoo, saw the Cubs play a 2 game series in London, saw the Baltimore Ravens win in London, Made new friends and sadly lost some old friends. We wrapped up the year with a visit back to Chicago to see our family for the holidays.

The upcoming year is also starting to fill up the old schedules. Future adventures are being planned. Many hijinks. Much ridiculousness. So much fun! So please follow along with our adventure here and I will do my best to go back and revisit 2023 while bringing you up to date with all the excitement in store in 2024.

Cheers!