From Buenos Aires to Sundance - Home

The View from our Room

We made it home after a refreshing but epic journey. Buenos Aires was what you might expect, a large and expansive city in South America. In the midst of Summer, it was not all that cool, making our arrival in Sundance to snow and sub-freezing temperatures all that more enjoyable. It is nice to be home, if but only for a few days!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

We have found ourselves inundated and snowed in on more than one occasion; it is good to be home.

As for our future schedule/itinerary, we are catching Jack's baseball game this Saturday in Ladera, then off to the Court's for Spring Training the following week for a couple of days, and then staying put in Sundance for the rest of March. Although, it looks like Elliott and I are thinking about an around the world run (China, Indonesia and Dubai) at the end of the month before the Indy Parker's head to Houston for the Horn farewell (pre-Tulsa) trip. We are heading to Indy during the later part of April while Elliott and Ginger head off to Oxford to see Julianne. We can't wait to spend a week in Carmel. At the end of May its off to the Baltic, Norway and England to see Julianne; Sundance in June and back to the UK for Degree Day in July to witness the awarding of Julianne's Master's Degree. So much for slowing down.

With the suspension of Mitt's campaign, we are helping to organize a think tank on religious intolerance and bigotry; it should be interesting. Otherwise its grandkids, Tucanos, Yodigity and Fund Development with Elliott.

For Audrey - Making a saddle in the Pampas!

In the Pampas, they build saddles from the materials they use while out on the pampas. They build saddles while on the range (pampas) because when running a herd of horses, the saddle has to go on any one of the horses they choose to ride. Here is the sequence.

La Fortuna Estancia, Pampas, Argentina

Welcoming us to La Fortuna

Today we drove 3 hours out of Buenos Aires to visit an Estancia (Ranch). It was very beautiful, peaceful and the food was tremendous. Here are some interesting photos. Tomorrow we will blog how they create a saddle that can go on any horse and also how they saddle the horses for Audrey.

Pa took a ride on Paloma for Audrey

Traditional Dancers

An "old" Gaucho and the lead Gaucho at La Fortuna

Here he is as we were saying farewell

Up Close and Personal (He was a cool looking gaucho, just what you would expect)

They lined up to wave adios!

Montevideo, Uruguay

We spent the morning walking through the Independence Plaza in Montevideo and purchased a license plate; very exciting.

We did find a bit home, reminding us of Julianne and the unique characteristics of college life back at Oxford.

Independence Plaza

Proof of Uruguay

Falkland Islands (UK) (Malvinas Islands)

This little Gentoo Penguin took a nibble out of Bama’s leg and so she told him to be nice.

Pa acting like a penguin.

The penguin colony at Sparrow Cove, Falkland Islands.

This new little penguin is moulting so he can take to the sea in the winter.

Cape Horn

Circumnavigated by Sir Francis Drake, Cape Horn was very calm on our trip. It was very unusual as the seas can become quite treacherous. In fact, the previous ship had to take an alternate route, the weather was so bad.

Sunrise at Cape Horn

The Horns at Cape Horn

The Chilean military outpost at the southern most point of Cape Horn.

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego (Argentina)

Today we spent time in “fin del mundo”, the end of the world. An amazing place, and 70,000 people live here!

The view from the port
Some of the valleys and mountains on Tierra del Fuego

For the Grandkids, Here is our ship and stateroom

Parker was interested in our ship and stateroom, so we thought we would post it for all of the grandkids to see. We are thinking Alaska 2009? We will post about Tierra del Fuego in the morning.

The Star Princess

Our Stateroom (where we sleep)

Antarctica - NO; Patagonia - YES

Today started bright and early and with all things in Antarctica, we waited for weather to determine our journey. The fog and ceiling were too low thus negating our flight. Only 20% of all flights to Antarctica actually land in Antarctica. We were diverted to Patagonia and saw some spectacular scenery; so much for 7 continents. Penguins will have to wait for a few more days.

In transit to Punta Arena.

Here are some pictures from today in Chile’s Patagonia, although the pictures don’t really do it justice!

A hosteleria where we had lunch today.

The amazing mountain range we visited.

A Guanaco, a member of the camel family.

The Horns of Patagonia Chile.

Southern Chile - Puerto Montt en route to Antarctica

We landed in Puerto Montt on Saturday after a day at sea, and these are a few things that we saw:

We saw Ostrich-like Emu and Llama.

We saw some amazing scenery.

Someone brought mom’s car to Chile. And then, it was off to Punta Arenas and Antarctica.

And So It Began...

We spent the first two days of our latest adventure in Santiago, Chile. It was a very long, uncomfortable flight in coach (!!) to get here through Dallas. The airport was a chaotic scene as about four or five cruises are all leaving out of Valparaiso tomorrow. Our hotel is very lovely and we can take nice walks around the city. Close to us is a gondola ride where you would have a view like this picture if only it weren't so smoggy! The people are very friendly and we had a nice driver take us to the temple only to find that it was closed for maintenance. Here is a picture of it anyway. We are planning to visit the temple in Buenos Aires and/or Montevideo and hopefully will have better luck! On to the Star Princess tomorrow.

Snowed In!

It is hard to leave Sundance when the roads are closed. We were snowed in today, with avalanches on the road into Sundance. Here are some random shots around the house.



We have been on a tear lately with Mitt's Campaign, and catching up the grandkids. Even so, it has been fun! Julianne is doing well in Oxford and it was fun being with her at Buckland. Given Mitt's victories in Michigan and Nevada while we were in England, we think that we should stay abroad. We have been to see Mabel, Oliver and Stella in Arizona, Audrey, Parker and Miles in Houston, and Annie, Jack and Max in California. We missed being in Indiana but were grateful to see Andrew, Ethan, Emma and Sophie over the New Year in Sundance. Of course, its great being will all of the our kids as well. They each make us proud! We have missed Mom and Dad, but will see them soon, we hope! Surely, we will be back in socal in February.


The campaign has been interesting and Mitt is well positioned for Tuesday. He is tied in the latest Rasmussen National Poll with McCain and is currently leading the polls in California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, Massachusetts and is very competitive elsewhere. Tuesday will be an interesting day. It won't be over or decided on Tuesday, as both Mitt and McCain will be competitive in the delegate race. Even so, the conservative base of the Republican Party have coalesced behind Mitt and a surge is underway. I have begun posting on the Political Scene 2008 blog if you have a further interest.