Blog entry 4: Bees, Boulder, & BeyondSat. 8/7: A late night was cause for a late start today. There was time for the boys to spend with Wella (short for Abuella) and Grandpa Charlie whom they hadn’t seen for a couple (2) of years. It was even longer since they had seen Tia Kathleen and Uncle Mark.



A lot of catching up led to the conversation of honey, honeybees, beehives, & touring the bee hives in Mark & Kathleen’s backyard. Before the afternoon was over both Josh & Seth had worn the beekeeper “uniform” and inspected the two hives for honey production.


Sun. 8/8: The road along the foothills from Golden to Boulder is panoramic and contains entries to beautiful canyons, such as Elderado Canyon. This was, and is, a “laid back” climbing mecca that I frequented 35 years ago. It does not appear that much has changed!!!!! Memories of climbs in the canyon and the “Flatirons” made for a lot of conversation. The rest of the day was spent wandering the Pearl St. mall in Boulder.







Mon. 8/9: The “light rail” to downtown Denver dropped us off in the city-center on the 16th St. mall. Much looking, little buying, a few games of pool, and a lot of walking got us to the largest REI store I have ever shopped at and some of the coolest river and housing development I have seen in a large city. We finished the day off eating Mexican at the Morrison Inn and climbing into the Red Rocks Amphitheater with Mark and Kathleen. Unfortunately a concert wasn’t on that night but just to be up in the foothills and look out from this incredible rock formation to view Denver in the alpenglow was worth it.

Tues. 8/10: More goodbyes as we dropped off Josh and Seth at DIA but these were easier as they were really “see you soon”. Christmas will be the next time we see them but as we reflect on it, we recognized that Muskegon is not the boy’s home. Whether it is Kalamazoo or Salt Lake, Josh and Seth have created “homes” for themselves, regardless of where we may be. What we all have agreed is that “true home” is not dictated by location. That is why it was so important to have four days together with them. This time we were “ home” in Denver, next time will be in Sarajevo. The full support by both Josh and Seth was critical in this adventure we are less than a day from beginning.

Wed. 8/11: Packing, weighing, repacking; the cycle seems to never stop!! Nine bags, 450 lbs., Charlie’s van is full, amen for “stow and go” seats. It is finally time!! As much as we have enjoyed the past two weeks, l AM READY and so is Susan. We received a “bon voyage” call from Nick Kitto, a friend from Sarajevo, and man did that cause me to ponder I AM GOING TO BE FLYING TO BOSNIA TOMORROW.

Thurs. 8/12: Don’t ever let anyone convince you that getting to the airport early is a bad thing, especially flying overseas with nine bags!! Fran and Charlie dropped us off at 9:15 for a 12:40 flight. LAST GOODBYE, now it is all HELLOS!! A busy United counter with a very professional agent and TSA (Josh has a name for them, which I won’t repeat!) and it was 11 before we got to the gate.

Much more enjoyable than the people who showed up 10 min. after they closed the cabin doors of the flight just before us; DOOMED TO STANDBY!!! We got out on time and it looks like we’ll get to Chicago early. We’re on a 777 at 36000 ft. going 596 mph and we just covered the state of Iowa as I wrote this entry. Time to land!!!

Well, we just flew over Newfoundland, it is 4:41 am in Sarajevo and I should be sleeping. I have had a great time talking with Marija, my seat neighbor. She is going to visit her family in Serbia and she was of great help as I take baby steps to learn the
Serbo-Croation language.



8/13: Woke up 39,000 ft above London, England and in no time we were descending into Munich. It was rainy and cool and we had to run for our flight but when we landed in Sarjaevo it was warm and clear. As I write this, I can see our QSI greeting party, time to see our new home!!!!!!