My friend Susanne challenged me to tell all about the year 1994. This was a great year! I don't exactly remember what was going on at the beginning of 1994. Probably was working full time and Bill was teaching and coaching the girl's basketball team. I think his team was getting pretty good by the Feb. 1994 timeframe, but the good stuff for his team wasn't until the next year.
In the summer of 1994 Bill and I took the trip of a lifetime. We had friends, Doug and Carol that now lived in Singapore. They invited us to come and visit. We decided that this was a perfect time. We had been settled into the new house for over a year now. No kids yet, everything moving along quite smoothly. We had a lot of fun planning for our trip. We first planned to do it in the summer. This way Bill would not have to take any time off of work. Summer was also my slower time of the year at work. It took a lot of time to plan where we were going to go. Lots of money to pay for it, but it was just so darn exciting.
We tried to plan the trip to not be too difficult with all the time changes and long airline flights. To start with, we spent three nights in Hawaii. This was 6 hours difference from Florida and 6 hours difference from Japan. It really did help to get somewhat acclamated. We had gone to Hawaii for our honeymoon in 1990 so we decided to stay at a really nice resort on the north shore of Oahu. It was called Turtle Bay.
After our three day layover in Hawaii, it was off to Tokyo. Japan was not easy to negotiate. We had been wrongly informed that many of the young people could speak English. NOT true!
We managed to make our stay more difficult by planning a trip that would have us staying in a different city each night. We had to then take our luggage with us everywhere we went. Some hotels that we had previous reservations in let us at least check our luggage for storage so we didn't have to drag it with us. We visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima. We bought Japan Rail passes and traveled all over the country. Japan was clean, safe and pretty. I was tired of chicken and rice by the time we left. Ordering food at restaurants was always a challenge or an adventure depending on how you looked at it that day. Our favorite and most effective things to do was to take the waiter outside and point to the representative plastic food in the window. We managed to see so many temples that they started to look the same. We got on the wrong bus one day and ended up at the end of the line and it was nowhere near where we wanted to be. The busdriver was so sweet and took us all the way back to another stop and talked to another busdriver to make sure we got off at the right stop.
We then went to Hong Kong. I will never forget that airplane landing! Our flight had many altitude drops along the way and I really HATE those turbulents. BUT the incredible landing through the city between buildings so close to the buildings that you might just pull some laundry off the clothes line was too much for me. They have since built a new airport several miles away. Hong Kong was much easier to negotiate. First of all, it was British at the time we were there. Since then China has regained the rule. It is so much easier when you can talk to people. We enjoyed exploring Hong Kong and stayed at the YMCA while there. We did not have to drag our luggage everywhere.
Our next stop was Singapore. We finally were able to see our friends Doug and Carol. They lived in an absolutely AMAZING apartment. It was huge and every surface was covered with marble. The floors, the walls, the ceiling. Beautiful. We were able to see so much of Singapore. Rested up quite a bit. Ate wonderful foods, saw shows, went to a really cool place called Sentosa Island. Doug had to make a quick overnight trip to Bangkok. Bill and I decided to join him. We hopped on a plane and Doug hooked us up in an amazing hotel. One of those 5 star world class hotels. We had a room butler that Bill swore would wipe your butt when you went to the bathroom if you asked him to. They put fresh (strange) fruits in our room every time we left and came back. Got to ride in a tuk-tuk (scary little taxi thing), go to the center of the city where they had this walled area with the most beautiful wats. They are the temples with gold and jewels. So, so pretty. They didn't like me wearing shorts, so I had to leave my passport to get a 'rented' skirt.
We went back to Singapore and then flew back home the next day. Had a layover in Tokyo and then arrived in the US in Chicago. Nancy was in Evanston at the time so we go to visit with her a the airport between flights.
Even though this was an amazing trip, the best part of 1994 was the fact that we found out that I was pregnant with Sarah right before we left for our Asia trip. I was so blessed to not have morning sickness on the trip. I was a bit tired and had to watch what I ate. No raw food or fish and if the sanitation was questionable, I was to drink bottled water. I only got sick one time on the entire trip. We didn't tell anyone about the pregnancy until we returned from our trip.
The rest of 1994 was spent preparing for our new little one.
Here is Sarah's tap costume. She was in a number called Zip-a-de- doo- dah. The girls had a very difficult tap routine, complete with a kick line and a big revolving circle.
Bill and I got to see Paul Potts in concert last night. For those that don't know, Paul Potts is the inner of last year's Britain's got Talent. I wish I had taken photos of the beautiful Tampa Theater. The place was amazing. I can't believe that I have essentially lived in the Tampa Bay area my whole life and I had never stepped foot inside. I understand that it is on the historical register and I hope to take a tour of it in the near future.
Here it is! The log cabin quilt. Sarah and Grandma made this quilt together. Sarah had picked out this pattern awhile ago and wanted to make it a purple log cabin. Grandma talked her out of the purple because she thought that it might just be a passing pre-teen phase. Sarah agreed to use a more traditional color palate and it came out beautifully. They made it fit a full sized mattress. Sarah helped sew some blocks. After Grandma got the quilt top completed we met Grandma at a lady's house that was going to quilt the top to the bottom. Sarah got to see the process and the huge sewing machine. It was hooked up to a computer with lots of design software. Sarah chose a star and heart pattern and variegated red, white and blue thread. Sarah is proud of her quilt and she should be. It is beautiful!
