An Old Friend

I met her on my ninth birthday.

It was actually my mom who introduced us. Having heard about the girl from others, I think she thought we'd have something in common. And she was right.

She and I went through a lot of life together. Girlhood, our teenage years, college, engagement, and even through marriage and early motherhood. She was always with me, sharing similar experiences and offering perspective on life through her honesty, winsomeness, imagination and delight in people and life.

A year after Dave and I were married, we camped our way through England for a week's vacation in August.  We ended up in Cambridge one rainy afternoon. After wandering for a bit, we ducked into a bookstore to pass the time while we waited for the rain to clear.

I remember so vividly, being down one aisle of that quaint British bookstore when I saw her.

I couldn't believe it!

It'd been ages since I'd seen her, but she looked exactly the same as I remembered her.

But even better, as we became reacquainted, I was shocked to find out I didn't know everything about her. I learned so much that afternoon.

In fact, I found out that two more whole books had been written about her.

Oh...I never told you her name. You know, come to think of it, you might know my friend too. Have you met Anne Shirley Blythe??

Yes, I'm talking about "Anne" from the Anne of Green Gables series!

Along with millions of others, Anne has been a "friend" of mine for years. I've read LM Montgomery's series of books countless times, too numerous to recall.

Seriously, that day in England when I discovered two more books in the series, it was like the greatest gift - like getting a really good "catch up" letter from a childhood friend.

(The original series of hard back books that my mom gave me over numerous birthdays and Christmases didn't include those two books, for some reason).

Imagine my shock when just yesterday, while doing a random search on the internet for something else, I found out there was YET ANOTHER book, the ninth and final book, published just in 2009!!!!

"Rilla of Ingleside", the eighth book, was published in 1921. It 'only' took 88 years for the final book to be published in its original form.

Covering Anne's life from ages 40-75, "The Blythes are Quoted" is actually not like the other books, but rather a compilation of short stories, poems and vignettes of Anne's life as she grew to be a grandmother.

Quoting Wikipedia:

An abridged version of this book, which shortened and reorganized the stories (dropping one story entirely) and omitted all the vignettes and all but one of the poems, was published as a collection of short stories called The Road to Yesterday in 1974, more than 30 years after the original work had been submitted. A complete edition of The Blythes Are Quoted, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre, was finally published in its entirety by Viking Canada in October 2009, more than 67 years after it was composed. A paperback edition appeared in October 2010.

So...I have Anne for one last season of life!

Though I've read reviews that say this book has a different tone, it will be like gaining one last glimpse of my old friend, to see how she transitioned into new seasons of her life as she, I'm sure, gracefully aged.

I can hardly believe it. As I move into this next season of my own life, I've still got my friend, Anne, walking through yet another season with me.

For some reason, that's really comforting.

Catching a Flight

Yesterday found us at the Brač Airport, taking our friend to catch his flight.

Sounds like a normal, average, everyday sort of activity doesn't it?

Delightfully not!

As best as we know, at this airport seemingly in the middle of nowhere, there are only two regularly scheduled flights out each week. Since Sunday is not one of those days, it was like going to a ghost-town yesterday!

No lines at check-in, not a soul in the entire terminal. I even had to turn on the lights in the bathroom (and turn them off again, of course!). It was odd, and so cool!

It's a gorgeous airport, as airports go. It looks newly built, though the website says it's been an airport since 1993. I'm pretty sure this part of it is more recent.

Yes, we even brought Kaylee in there (no signs saying we couldn't!).

Our friend was trying something for the first time - working a deal with a private pilot to fly him to Zagreb. From the island, traveling to the capitol would normally take all day and involve taxis, a ferry, and a long bus ride. 

Instead, he got to be the only person going through security. Imagine that!

We were literally giggling, it was just too funny to see such a sight after years of international travel through all sorts of much more complicated conditions.

After saying goodbye, we headed out to watch his plane prepare for take-off. 

And chatted with the only other people we saw the entire time we were there! Ironically, the woman was Czech so we had a nice chat with her as we watched together.

When I asked her why they were there (I mean...seriously, there is not a lot going on at this place so I wanted to know!) she said they were on vacation, but that her companion likes airplanes and airports so they'd come up to see what this one was like. Good enough reason!

Within ten minutes, his plane was ready for take-off, taxiing past the only other three planes there.

And just a few minutes later, it was airborne! Can you see the little speck of an airplane in the top part of the fence?

Off to Zagreb they go!

Our friend wrote later to let us know he'd arrived safely saying, "That was the coolest thing I have done in a long time. Brač to Zagreb in less than two hours. Very cool!"

And a very cool, fun thing for us to do together on a Sunday afternoon!

I Had a Dream

I'm not sure when I first started having this dream. Maybe it was back when we started camping in Croatia.

While we saw beautiful parts of the country, those in the "know" would always ask, "But have you been to Dubrovnik?"

I guess that's when I started dreaming.

It's not an easy place to get to. All the way at the southern end of the country, it's not only a long drive from where we live, but you have to pass through Bosnia-Herzegovina to get there, on small roads that often don't let you go much faster than 30-35 mph.

But there's another way! And it's the way we've always talked about, but never been able to do.

Until now.

You can also get there by boat. Which is what we decided to do on this trip.

Thankfully that day was the calmest of all, and we made it down there in three hours from Korcula.

Coming in by boat was absolutely spectacular. I didn't know what to expect, so had my breath taken away as we came up to the fortress surrounding the old city.

If you've ever heard of Dubrovnik, maybe it's for the cruise ships that go in there. Thousands of passengers fill the city every day from those ships.

But here's the thing...there is actually no harbor for them right there at the city! The port of Dubrovnik is six kilometers away, and then you have to take a bus in to see the city.

Not us! Here's where a little boat definitely comes in handy. See us parked there, in between those other two little boats?! That totally made my day getting to come in and dock there for a few hours!

To get the overview we headed up to one of the fortresses overlooking the city and saw that view above. Wow. WOW!!! I was nearly giddy with delight at seeing that site!! Isn't it gorgeous?

We headed into the city from there - again, with no expectation so every bit of it was a delight!

Here is THE coolest thing about the city: its walls! They run almost 2 km (1.24 mi) around the city, and are from four to six metres thick on the landward side (think, HUGE!) but much thinner on the seaward side.

And the best part: you can walk them! This is taken from the wall, overlooking the main harbor (but not the one where they ships can dock though you can kind of see them out there in the distance).

 The view from these walls is truly magnificent. Definitely lived up to people's description!

The Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and rightly so!! I'm glad it's protected now. It endured significant damage in the war of 1991.

You can't imagine how many people were up there, even though my pictures don't show it! But everyone was trying to get a "couples" shot if they were there as a couple. We did too!

Every few feet it's a photo op!

From one side of the wall, you could look out to sea, which was equally spectacular! Dave captured it well.

Then you turn around and there's another gorgeous shot. Seriously...never-ending beauty!

We could even look down on the little harbor where our boat was docked. What an amazing spot that was, all tucked away back in there.

We'd already done a lot of walking earlier that day, and combined with what we did in Dubrovnik, we figured we'd walked about 10 km. And Kaylee had walked about 10 km! At one point she just sat down and didn't want to go any further.

Good thing I had a big purse to scoop her up into!

Back down into the city for a few last glances. Oh how we wanted to linger! But since there wasn't a good place for us to moor the boat for the night, we knew we couldn't stay. It was about an hour boat ride to the place where we could spend the night, and we needed to get there while it was still light.

Our four hours there was quite literally like a dream! It'd been my dream to go there, and then those hours passed by so quickly that it felt like a dream being there. I still have to pinch myself  (and look at the photos!) to remember that we really got to see it, even if for just a few hours.

It's definitely on my list of places to go back to now!

Jelsa and St. Ivan's

When we started camping on Hvar years ago, Jelsa was our "go to" city.

Forty minutes from the campground, we made big grocery runs there, found internet cafes before they had it at the campground, the kids bought birthday presents for me, we wrote postcards, went for at least one evening of ice cream on the square each vacation, and even watched our boys "busk" with their guitars and a drum box...and they made money at it!

It's a quieter town, even with tourists. When you're there you feel like you can almost blend in with the locals, enjoying coffee on the square as if it was in their living room.

We weren't planning to stay in Jelsa on this boat trip. But because of wind, we didn't make it to our other destination and ended up there instead. Which was fine with me because it not only has that "hometown" feel about it, but holds lots of sweet family and friend memories.

The place where we used to get ice cream has expanded into a full restaurant now, so we had an awesome breakfast there the next morning, with the largest lattes of the trip - whoohoo!!

Afterward we set off through the little streets to explore a bit.

It's a bit like when you're in your own town and you get into your routines and just go to all the same places rather than explore it for quaint, unusual or delightful sites that you'd have to search for. Since we'd never really gone anywhere but the main square and the markets, we decided to wander and see what else was in Jelsa.

It's definitely not short on cute, quaint, tiny passageways. I found myself wanting to linger and soak it all in, letting my imagination come up with the stories of different ones who have passed over those worn stones.

One passageway led to another and before we knew it, we'd landed on what we'd find out later was called "St. Ivan's Square".

.

I barely had time to take the photo below when Dave called out to me, "You've got to come in here". (For a better view of the little square you can take a look HERE.)

It wasn't what was in the church that was impressive.

In fact, as you can see there is some sort renovation, or something, going on inside.

There were two things that made it unique and delightful.

One was the cross at the front. I wish I knew the story behind the items that are nailed there. We stood for a while looking at them, trying to imagine what the story could possibly be. Any creative ideas?

**My sister-in-law just posted a comment with the answer! How did we miss that?? Thank you Kristi! Each item most likely represents each of the twelve disciples!

The other delight of the tiny church was the acoustics. What it lacked in beauty, it made up for in sound. Oh. So. Beautiful!!

I'm sure many voices have rung out from there over the centuries, singing praise to Jesus.

And we added our own, singing "Praise God from whom all blessings flow". It was a "good for the soul" moment that will linger in my heart for days, I'm sure!

Mirror of Life

For those of you who've been following our boat adventures of the past week, we're safely back to our house on Brac.

But of course, not without just a little more excitement to round out the week!

The wind finally settled down enough for us to leave from Bol around 11 AM, Wednesday morning. We headed to the boat, which was moored just a bit precariously from the standpoint of getting on...but safely, otherwise.  That's us, just off the end of that tiny platform.

Dave inched out onto it and got in the boat to start it, while Kaylee and I waited on the rocks as the boat bobbed up and down in the sea. By this time, I knew better than to get on a rocking boat...it honestly makes me a bit seasick even as I type.

With the wind and the waves as my background, I couldn't hear well so didn't know that the puzzled look on Dave's face was because the boat wouldn't start...again.

After numerous attempts, with no success, he sent Kaylee and I off to the promenade to wait on a bench in the shade, while he tried to figure out what was wrong. 

Good thing she's such a flexible dog! I guess some would say I'm flexible too...ha ha!

When he came back about an hour later, there was such a look of satisfaction on his face.

"I know what's wrong!" he joyfully exclaimed to me". "It's the fuel pump...it's not getting fuel to the carburetor."

I smiled at his excitement but asked, "Can you fix it?"

"Not without getting the part, which I doubt is here. But I've got one trick that may just get us home. Wait here and I'll text you to come if it works".

And off he went, like a kid in a candy store! Honestly...solving these kinds of problems is what Dave loves BEST!

Sure enough, about a half hour later I got a text: "You can come!"

A little ingenuity, a small hose and a spare gas can solved the problem. Well, temporarily. But at least the engine had started, and off we went - finally headed home!

It was quite a bumpy ride as we'd again missed the window of opportunity for traveling with low wind. But at that point I didn't mind. I knew we'd be home soon.

We made it, and are once again safely tucked in at this house.

As I type, Dave's making a call to Split, across on the mainland, to see if they have the fuel pump. Until then, we won't be going anywhere in it soon.

While this trip was full of unexpected setbacks and difficulties, I honestly loved our time on the boat. What happened was such a mirror of life.

We endured trials and worked through hard things.

But we were also blessed by unbelievable beauty, joy in discovering new things, delights and surprises, as well as the goodness of experiencing it together.

The two - the hard and the good - went hand in hand.

As they do in life.

Rich, exciting, adventurous lives, require that. And that's the life that I want, even if it means enduring some bumps along the way!

What Love Looks Like

It may not look like it, but this is what love looks like to me. 

Our trip continues to be adventure on top of adventure!

We woke up yesterday morning in Jelsa to a boat that wouldn't start. Oh but that was after a wonderful breakfast on the delightful square there, and a sweet surprise that I'll write about another day.

It took Dave three hours, literally toiling in the beating sun, as he worked on the electrical connections which had corroded (that's what salty water does for ya!). 

We missed our window of good traveling weather back over to the house we are staying at on Brac, but were able to slowly make our way, through wind and waves, to the town of Bol on that island.

Getting to the house we are staying at on this island wasn't as easy.

Since this town has the only marina on the whole trip that requires you to pay to stay in it, Dave moored the boat out on a buoy farther away, and swam into town where we enjoyed dinner and a nice walk on the long promenade.

Finally by 7 PM it seemed the wind had died down enough for us to make the trip back to our house, just a half hour boat ride away.

In good weather, that is.

After swimming out to get the boat again (all a great adventure to Dave, I might add!), he picked Kaylee and I up at a dock and we headed out. 

The sunset was truly one of the most magnificent I have ever seen in my life. It just went on and on, deeper and deeper in color as the minutes ticked by. Glory if I've ever seen it.

But also, the waves got bigger and bigger the farther we went down the coast.

I don't mind telling you that I was afraid. It's so strange to be completely captivated by beauty, and afraid all at the same time. There's got to be a lesson in that somewhere, but that's for another day.

We pressed on for fifty minutes, all the while the waves were getting bigger and bigger, and it was getting darker and darker.

My heart was in my throat, as I sat quietly holding Kaylee while Dave fought through those waves. The lyrics "...and when the oceans rage, I don't have to be afraid. Because I know that you love me and your love never fails" passed through my mind over and over.

Finally it was clear. Fight the waves and lose, or turn around and go with them, back to safety. Again, more lessons to write on another day.

Riding the waves with the wind, we were back in Bol within fifteen minutes. Just minutes before it had seemed we were all alone in the depths of the ocean!

We moored in the very wavy marina and waited to see if the wind died down so we could spend the night in the boat. Dave got me off while we waited, and treated me to two scoops of "the best ice cream in Bol" (that's what the sign said!) right in front of where we were tied up on the riva. And they were right! Gelato never tasted so good. But then again, on the heels of what we had just been through, anything probably would've tasted good.

By 10 PM, it was apparent we (or rather, I) would not make it spending the night in the rocking boat. Without even asking, Dave set off to see if there was "room in the Inn" for us somewhere.

Twenty minutes later, we were in a room. Nothing more than two beds and a sink. But it was cheap and the beds were not going to be rocking and rolling in the night. 

And nothing could have said "I love you" more than that room and those two beds! Dave's a good man who definitely loves his wife.

Dave went off to moor the boat again outside the marina - no point in paying for a room AND a spot at the marina. What a guy! He was even up in the night going out to check on the boat when he woke up hearing the wind howl. I never heard him. Was sleeping like...well, a happy, content wife!

It's morning now. We slept long, have been for a walk, had coffee and breakfast at yet another delightful outdoor cafe. And we are still waiting for the wind to die down.

But I am feeling loved, cared for, safe and protected. 

It's a very good day.

Not Short on Adventure

After spending the night in a cove on Peljesac with free moorings (free that is, if you eat at their restaurant, which, thankfully turned out to be awesome. Best meal of the trip!), we left at 6 AM to head back up the coast to the house we're staying at, hoping to be there by evening.

But, those were our plans! It didn't quite turn out like we thought.

Wind was, once again, a factor and we were delayed not just once, but twice today because of it.

The first time we found a town on Mljet where we were able to wait it out for a few hours at a great cafe.

The second time we had to seek shelter in this rather deserted looking cove.

After a half hour of bobbing around there, we did see a guy, so it wasn't quite as deserted as we thought. But it kind of felt like we were in the middle of nowhere!

Dave is a pro now at checking the website that tells about the wind in this corner of the world, and believe it or not, had wifi in this crazy spot where we were waiting! He had known the wind was coming, but was hoping we'd beat it. 

We didn't. But waiting in this cove for an hour and a half turned out to be a very peaceful part of our day.

  

Sometimes I wish I knew what was going through our dog's mind! Not once has she gotten up on the backseat of the boat by herself, even though it's been completely accessible to her this whole trip. And believe me, there's not a whole lot of space on the boat so it would've made sense that she would have by now.

But it wasn't until we were in that cove, just waiting, that she finally did. Glad I snapped this on my phone, even though I was laughing and could hardly keep the phone still to take the picture (see below).

What was she thinking at that moment?!

I'm writing this blog post on my phone, in the dark, from the harbor of Jelsa where we finally made it to this evening. It's calm, quiet, and pleasant to be here - especially because this is a town we are familiar with from previous vacations. So it almost feels like we're home! 

Hopefully we will make it to the other place we are calling "home" tomorrow!

We are definitely not short on adventure these days!