First half of 2026

We had a great 2025 Christmas which we shared for the first time with our new little dog, Bandit....Marlene got this shirt in his honor

Marlene started baking sourdough bread for the first time this year and the results looked  good and were delicious.

In early March we had a little getaway to Lincoln City.  We brought Bandit and tried out his new stroller at the Lincoln City Mall

He wasn't crazy about the ocean or the beach however,  so we didn't spend much time there.

In mid March we took our 11th Keeping The Blues Alive at Sea cruise.  As is usually the case we started out with a couple days in Miami.  On the first night there we discovered a great Italian Restaurant called II Gabbiano, with great food and views of Biscayne Bay.

The next day we spent time wandering around downtown Miami... We didn't go to South Beach this year, since we have been there so often. We spent a lot of time in the Bayside Marketplace where we saw this giant Banyan tree. and a visit to Bubba Gump's.

Our first stop on the cruise was at Key West where we found another great restaurant called Two Friends Patio Restaurant.  We had a huge amazing breakfast there.

 

And of course you can't help but see chickens in Key West.  This one was in a store.

 

Our Second stop of the Cruise was Nassau in the Bahamas, where we had lunch in and Irish pub on a patio overlooking a store called Little Switzerland!   Of course the real reasons for going on these cruises is the non stop music and Joe Bonamassa

A couple of weeks after we returned from our cruise, Marlene went into have surgery on her foot.  She had been in a boot for a stress fracture for over a year but it wasn't healing, so the surgeon put in a plate to hold it together.  She had to spend the next 3 months or so in a cast and use a knee scooter to get around, but finally by late June she was all healed and starting to walk again in shoes. We've been waiting patiently for this time so we can start taking our morning walks again  together...but now Martins hip is acting up...boy getting old is fun.

Well that sums up the major events for the first half of 2026, except for our least favorite holiday, the Fourth of July, where bandit spent the night hiding behind the laundry room door wearing his new "Thunder Shirt". which didn't help much.