Ray Whyde – The Chicken Scratches

2024 First Annual Singapore Book Club Alumni Meeting (Oct)

by Ray WhydeOctober 27, 2024December 1, 20241

When we lived in Singapore (2014-2016), we joined the Friends of the Museums’ Couples Book Club. In October seven couples from that book club gathered together in Istanbul for another meeting. The couples: Susan and Woody (US), Pat and Ray (US), Gloverson and Annelise (US/Brazil), Gulcin and Phil (Australia), Jenni and Eric (US), Jane and Sunder (SG), and Elise and Renato (US). The idea for meeting in Istanbul came about because a few of us wanted to meet Gulcin and Phil in the city where Gulcin was born. Once we decide on dates (11-18 October 2024), other couples gladly decided …

Alaska (July 2024)

by Ray WhydeJuly 31, 2024August 17, 20242

Our friends, Annelise and Gloverson Moro, needed to visit one more state to have been to all 50 U.S. states – Alaska! They invited us to go along. We met the Moros, when we lived in Singapore, and have been friends ever since. From Singapore, they moved to the U.S.A. and are now returning to Brazil. We don’t know many Americans who have been to all 50 states – in fact, Pat and I have not been to all of them. What an accomplishment! The Moros drove to Salt Lake City and we all flew to Anchorage, Alaska where we …

Europe 2023: Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius

by Ray WhydeSeptember 25, 2023November 14, 20233

Pat and I decided to visit the Baltic countries this year, with stops in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. After these, we extended our vacation into Poland and Slovakia (covered in another post). We planned the trip for the full month of September. We left Salt Lake City on September 1st and returned on September 30th. Helsinki, Finland (2-6 Sept) We arrived in Heksinki about 5:30 PM, after a 5 hour layover in the Amsterdam airport. We bought HSL 72-hour, public transport tickets (covering buses, trams, local trains and a ferry to Suomenlinna) at a convenience store before catching a …

Dublin, Ireland (29 Nov-7 Dec 2022)

by Ray WhydeDecember 17, 2022November 9, 20232

This year, for my birthday and Christmas, Pat asked where I’d like to go. Dublin, Ireland, was my immediate response. We had planned a trip to Ireland, with one night in Dublin, before Covid-19 played havoc with everyone’s plans. That trip was to be with David, Michelle and Claire, with everyone flying into Dublin, but immediately heading to the West Coast. Only Pat and I were to stay one night in Dublin. As usual, we flew Delta, through Boston. When we arrived at the Dublin Airport (DUB), we stopped at a SPAR (convenient store) and purchased two 7-day Leap Visitor …

Hops around Park City (2022)

by Ray WhydeOctober 15, 2022November 9, 20230

The Summit Land Conservancy and Park City’s Wasatch Brew Pub teamed up to harvest wild hops around Park City, Utah, in August, culminating with a party in October to sample the beer made from these wild hops. On August 18, a group met to look for hops between Park City and the Judge mine to the south. This particular hike was a recon hike to check for hop, which would be harvested in a couple of weeks. Along the way, starting at the top of Prospect Avenue (which was one steep road!), on the Prospect Trail, we passed several old …

Europe (July 2022)

by Ray WhydeAugust 23, 2022November 9, 20231

We left Oslo, Norway, on 2 July heading to Copenhagen and then on to Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Brussels and London. This is the first time we have done a European trip without renting a car – we are using trains between cities. During planning, we picked Eurail as the supplier of our various tickets. Unfortunately, they were swamped with pent-up demand from all the people who were getting back to travel after Covid. We were part of that demand. However, Eurail was not prepared and didn’t have sufficient support staff available to answer questions and fix problems. It didn’t …

Sweden-Norway (June 2022)

by Ray WhydeAugust 17, 2022November 14, 20231

Finally travel has opened back up after 2 years of Covid. Planning for this trip began in February, 2020, when I saw information about Sweden’s Inlandsbanan and Hurtigruten Classic Voyage South, on one of my many travel feeds. I then contacted Fifty Degrees North, the travel company I had read about, and we began planning the trip. That year, I received an email asking when we might want to schedule the trip, I responded that September might be a good time. Turns out Covid got in the way. In the 2 years since that initial contact, our travel group (Etarae …

Golden Spike National Historic Site (23 January 2021)

by Ray WhydeJanuary 25, 2021October 6, 2022

Since moving to Salt Lake City, this is one of the places I wanted to visit. Sometime, over the last 10 years, I read Stephen E. Ambrose’s Nothing Like It In The World, about building the transcontinental railroad between 1863 and 1869. This year, we decide to drive the 1.5 hours for a visit. Even with the bad weather on the way and the cold, blustery winds at the site, it was well worth the trip. We will go back in better weather, but this time we almost had the entire site to ourselves. The Golden Spike National Historic Site …

Nevada-Utah (July 2019)

by Ray WhydeJuly 24, 2019September 10, 2022

We got the call – I’ve got to go! It’s kind of what we do. Jenny had an extra ticket for the Penn & Teller show at the Rio in Las Vegas and didn’t want to waste it (Tom had to leave because of filming in Chicago). Lucky me! I immediately booked a flight to Las Vegas for the next day. The plan was to stay in Las Vegas for a few days, then drive to Utah, with a destination east of Park City. Saturday, July 13 I arrived at the Luxor Las Vegas Hotel. After checking in, I met …

Singapore 2018

by Ray WhydeDecember 6, 2018September 10, 2022

A lot has changed since the previous post (Costa Rica 2018): we moved to Florida at the end of October, visited The Hunters on Saint Simon Island, GA on our way down and added an new granddaughter, Evelyn, on my birthday (making 11 – grandchildren, not birthdays). In addition, we had visitors to our new home – friends whom were part of our Singapore book club, now living in Minneapolis and visiting their son at university in Florida. At the end of November, my son-in-law, Tom, had to go to Singapore to teach a seminar on film making and asked …