Host Family Visit

On Thursday afternoon, Hailey's host family invited us for supper.  All of us went except Glen who was coming down with a cold and not feeling well.  The 20 minute Uber ride cost us a whole $3.00!

She is in a safe neighborhood, off a main street.  The houses are huddled up next to each other, with no yards and tall walls across the front entrance. Heidi had bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers on our way back from lunch for the host family.  Price was only $8.00!

 Hailey pointed out that it was the house on the left after we went through the gate that was actually part of a garage door.  She needed her key to get through the gate.  The family is comprised of a grandmother, a mother and one grandson who is 18.

 We were thankful that she was in such a secure place, especially now with the unrest in the country.

We climbed up to the third floor where Hailey has her own bedroom and own private bath.  We now call her the Princess since her family does all of her laundry, cleans her bathroom and won't even let her clear the plates off the table!  So, to offset some of the royalty treatment there, we made sure she did the dishes while we were at the condo!

 The whole house was filled with this type of furniture.  I was a bit surprised and not at all like I had envisioned.

 If you look closely, the walls are filled with paintings that the grandmother has done.  She is quite a gifted artist. We were offered tea or coffee, a type of native tomato juice and sandwiches.

 I had Lolita, the host grandmother, stand in front of the gorgeous picture she painted of the Quito church domes.  The detail was amazing!

After supper, we browsed around the side room that was stacked with her arts and crafts.  Both Heidi and I found things that we bought from her and she gave us each a picture as a gift.  Below is a photo of Carlos, the grandson, Lolita his Abuela (grandmother) and Hailey.  The host mother was still in the hospital with a respiratory ailment.  Lolita couldn't even get to see her daughter that day because the police had taken over the hospital after the protesters tried to get in.

Hailey served as our interpreter since the grandmother only speaks Spanish.  We did pick up a few words along the way that we knew, but not enough to grasp fully what she was talking about.

Friday morning and the Marketplace

It was our last day here and we had yet to buy anything except groceries.  I didn’t want to go home without at least a t -shirt and a magnet for our refrigerator.  I also didn’t want to get these at the airport since they are way over priced and there is not much of a selection.  Hailey knew of a marketplace about a mile away where we could find everything that we wanted at fair prices.  We even did some bargaining in the process.  The guys were NOT interested.  Can you imagine that?

Hailey, Heidi and I decided to hoof it.  We needed the exercise anyway.  Off we went.

After about an hour of shopping and browsing in the various stalls, we came back with shirts, magnets, caps for Don and Glen, a purse for Hailey, a shawl for me and bars of Ecuadorian chocolate.

 They even had chocolate that tasted like a rose!  So many choices.

This part of Quito had quite a lot of buildings with murals on the walls.  We enjoyed all the various colors and graffiti covered walls.  We also noticed that there weren't many people walking on the sidewalks or driving in the streets.

Not far from the building above was a hostel painted in various colors with tall gates for protection.

As we walked back, a police helicopter was flying nearby, and motorcycle police were blocking off the road beside us.  Then hundreds and hundreds of taxi drivers passed by, all honking their horns and some waving flags.  Our walk turned into a brisk one. It was a bit disconcerting.

 Back safe in the condo, we looked out the window and there was another group of taxis, along with trucks carrying protesters.  Boy, were we ever glad we had made arrangements to be taken back to the airport in a personal van!

If you look closely, you can see people hanging out the windows and waving flags.

Last Day in Quito

Friday morning.  Time for the last pictures before Hailey took an Uber back to her host family and we prepared to leave for the airport.  We were all smiles.

Last hugs for Mom and daughter until December.

It was only 2 P.M. and our driver was taking us back to the airport even though our flight didn't leave until midnight.  Do you think we were a bit anxious?  Both the road and the airport were open, so we prayed that our flight wouldn't be cancelled.  As we drove past there were people waving flags to support the protesters in different areas of the road.  There still was a feeling of unrest in the air.

How do you spend 10 hours at the airport?  Don figured it out!  He took a cat nap and used the suitcases as an armrest!  The seats were not that comfortable, trust me! 

We did find more comfortable seats in the terminal across the way.  Plus Don and Glen had Kentucky Fried Chicken for supper!  They both were happy campers (more or less....probably less at this point in time).

Goodbye Ecuador!  I wish we had gotten to know you better.  For a better understanding of the protests, here is a link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Ecuadorian_protests

  Epilogue: Our plan and God's plan coincided!  We requested prayers that we would get out on Friday as planned, and we did.  On Saturday, as we got off the plane in Dallas we found out that the flights in Quito both had been cancelled.  Ditto for Sunday.

Birthday Boy, Part III

The last celebration was in combination with the Cousin's Reunion in Parker, Colorado.  It included the important 4 F's:  Food, Family, Friends and Fun!  What more could you want?! Our nephew Greg, and son Bret take time to figure out how to solve the problems of the world over food and beer.

 While others relaxed on the back porch.

Some of us had to be held back in our celebrating......

Cheers to 80 years!

Hugs from granddaughters and hugs from friends!

Of course, the younger generation had surprises in store for Don and the rest of us "oldies" as we were referred to!  We even had our own different colored shirts so we wouldn't be mistaken for one of the younger kids.  It's hard not to laugh when you are trying to shake the ping pong balls out of a Kleenex box that's hanging off your backside.....

In another game it was the ladies against the gents and the competition was vicious..... thank goodness I had Sandy and Doris cheering me on as I tried to knock over the water bottles!

You could see the younger generations were having fun just laughing at us!

The food finally arrived.  BBQ and all the fixings, except the most important thing: BBQ sauce!  We had to wait another hour for it since Dickies forgot to pack it!  Good grief!

And of course, we had to have another birthday cake!

Lisa, Kim and Ella cut and served the cake for us.  Thank goodness for professional help!

Birthday Boy, Part Two

Eighty years and one day:  party number two!

This was a moving party, not a stationary one!  And it was awesome!  It didn't take long after boarding the bus for the wine to start flowing!  Bret came fully prepared with both red and white wine, plus water for rehydration purposes. Bret, Kim,  Tammy and Phil Prellwitz, Patty and Ron Schorr, and Bret's co-worker, Carlos and his wife Debbie climbed on the bus in Windsor with us.  We all were ready for a good time.

Our first stop was at Hale and Bradford Distillery in Berthoud, Colorado.  It's located on the second floor of an old Oddfellows building there.  This is where we met up with Ken and Lisa.

 Don, Patty and Ron look over the menu and try to decide what they want to try.

Don and Carlos enjoyed a game of shuffleboard while Debbie and Patty chatted.

Next stop: Longtucky Spirits in Longmont, Colorado.

One of the favorite drinks here was the cherry bomb which consisted of a ball of frozen dark cherry juice with whisky poured over it.  I heard it became better as the cherry juice melted and mixed in with the whisky.  I opted for a Horchata drink that contained no liquor.  Don enjoyed whatever was bought for him!

By this time, Don was "hangry" and wanted food.  We skipped one drinking stop and went straight for our evening meal without passing Go and collecting $200.....

BBQ it is!

Hmm, what should we order?  How about two huge platters of various smoked meat and sausage, plus some burnt ends?  Bring on the meat sweats!  LOL

 Here's to Don's 80th birthday!  It's a proven fact that people who have more birthdays live longer!