2022 – The Chicken Scratches

2025 – 2nd Annual Singapore Book Club Meeting

by Ray WhydeDecember 18, 2025December 18, 20252

At our 1st Singapore Bookclub Meeting in Istanbul in 2024, we chose to go back to Singapore for the 2nd meeting. The meeting was hosted by Jane and Sunder, before they leave Singapore for London. What a great get-together those of us able to attend enjoyed. Pat and I arrived on November 7, after a week in South Korea with Annelise and Gloverson. Gulcin and Phil were already at our hotel, Citadines Balestier. With Jane and Sunder, the attending members were all in SG. Unfortunately Susan & Woody, Jenni & Eric, and Elise & Renato, were unable to join us. …

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 …

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 …