2013 Year in Review

 2013 Year in Review

• Highlights

• In February-March I travelled to Juba, South Sudan and Khartoum, Sudan for OIG Inspections of our wmbassies in Juba and Khartoum respectively.  Our only non-working excursion in Juba was out to the SABMiller brewery on the White Nile River where I earned my nickname the "White Bull"; or "El Toro Blanco".     

                                                   

• For my birthday, March 19th, we went to Beaufort and stayed at our favorite hotel the Rhett House Inn and ate pepper steak at Emily's. We also went kayaking the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto (ACE Basin) rivers with Kim and Dave.

Kayaking the ACE Basin

Rhett House Inn

• In early April, before leaving D.C. to Moscow for that inspection I had lunch at Pot Belly’s, near the Department and GW campus, with former FMO colleagues (Tom Quinzio, Richard Boohaker and Ismail Asmal), who all served at FSC/Bangkok at one time. I had worked with Tom at FSI and with Richard and his wife Tacla, at FSC/Paris. Each of us had retired but came back to work in the Department as Retired Annuitants (REAs) or PSCs (Personal Service Contractors). In fact Tom just left OBO as an Area Manager and was looking for work. Richard was working with CGFS and following, Tacla who was in Rome. Ismail was waiting for his wife to be confirmed as Ambassador to Ghana before they could leave.

• Doris joined me in Moscow the last few of weeks which gave us a chance for sightseeing to visit the Kremlin, Convent Gardens and the Novodevichy Cemetary. Most every night we would take walks down Old Arbat street with many shops, restaurants and street performers.  We had hired a guide to take us to St. Petersburg and took advantage of all the sights to visit like the Hermitage Museum, Peterhof Palace, Curch of the Spilled Blood, Catherine Palace, and the Peter and Paul fortress.  We travelled by train back to Moscow from St. Petersburg.  

With the OIG Team in Red Square in front 
of St. Basil's Cathedral

At Peterhof Palace

For more Photos and narrative see: 

Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog - Moscow; Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog - St. Petersburg

• In July we spent a couple of weeks in Paris over Bastille Day (Independence Day) and took in the festivities. Highlights included Eugene Bodin exhibit at Musee Jacqamart Andre, performance of Mozart's Requiem at the Eglise Madeleine; High Masakela at Parc Floral Jazz Festival and Lee Ritinour and Dave Grusin and New Morning Jazz club. and, visited Moret-sur-Loing, home of painter Alfred Sisley, 12th Century Notre Dame Church and along the river to St. Mammes.

Moret-sur-Loing

July 14 Bastille Day 

                

         

For more photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog Paris 2013

• In August we attended a live auction for Special Olympics which yielded us a one week stay at a cabin in the mountains in Brevard, North Carolina. We visited Dupont State Forest, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina Arboretum and kayaked the French Broad River.                                                                                                                                   

Looking Glass Falls, Pisgah National Forest

For more photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog: North Carolina Mountains


• In September Survey work at the Department's Global Financial Services office here for OIG fall inspections of Bridgetown, Havana, Sofia and Budapest.

• We also went to Georgetown, SC with the Low Country Explorers and took a tour on Captain Rod's boat out to a barrier island previously owned by Tom Yawkey, owner of the Boston Red Sox. The Yawkey family donated 20,000 acres of land and shoreline in Georgetown county to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Capt. Rod's Boat

• Later in September we visited Meehan cousins, John and Liz Froud, in Norwich, U.K. and toured sites in London.

London Bridge in the Background

John and Liz

        

• We then embarked on a 12-day Oceania cruise to from Southhampton London to Barcelona with stops in Bruges, Belgium; Honfleur, Saint-Malo, Concarneau, Pont-Aven, Bordeaux, France; San Sebastian, Bilbao, Coruna, Seville, Spain; Porto and Lisbon, Portugal before arriving in Barcelona. Highlights in London included Churchill's War Room, Tower of London and Harrods. On the cruise highlights included Saint-Malo, famous for the location of the book “All the Light You Can Not See”; Vineyards in Bordeaux Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao; excursion to Santiago de Compostela from the port in Coruna; Alcazar of Seville; Port wine in Porto; and, in Barcelona La Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí's renowned unfinished church, started in the 1880s and La Rambla.

For more photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog Timeslide, Norwich, London 2013 and London to Barcelona Cruise

• In October we participated in the annual Susan Komen "Race for the Cure" and in November the annual Turkey Day Run.

• October 26 we attended the "World of BEBOP" Charleston Jazz performance at the Charleston Music Hall featuring music of Dizzy, Bird, Monk amd more.

• December 9 we attended the opening of the exclusive Charleston Jazz House for a preview party. Doris and I have been annual contributors to Charleston Jazz for several years.

• December 12 we caught the Joe Clark Big Band at the Prohibition to celebrate Frank Sinatra's Birthday.