Merry Christmas

We’ve had a wonderful, healthy and fun-filled 2011.  So many new adventures & pictures to share with you at:   www.clukey.com  just click on “Photo Albums”.  Since last Christmas, we added Tunisia, Panama, and India to our world map.  India photos coming in January.

Click here to read our Christmas 2011 letter.

We hope that 2011 was wonderful for you.  Here’s wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Pete & Mary (and the critters too!)

Bolo took 1st place in the trick contest at the Top Dogs Pet Boutique Paw Festival in Kennesaw.

Taking Bolo to theses types of events is a bit like wearing a sparkling evening gown into a department store… he gets noticed. 

We have been invited to do an obedience demo at an event in October and I thought that this would give us a nice opportunity to practice with the distractions of loud-speaker announcements and dogs of all shapes and sizes. 

Bolo is such a pleasure to take to these types of events.  He demonstrates a stable temperament, sound body, and willingness to work under just about any condition asked of him.  It is so nice to show the average person what a German Shepherd Dog is supposed to look like and act like.  Most people there asked me what he was mixed with; as they are familiar only with the washed out, over angulated, and often with poor temperament version bred most often here in the US.  I explain to anyone who asks and everyone who will listen about the requirements of the breed survey… most are simply amazed that a dog would be required to do so much… I tell them that a GSD should be a working dog first!

Busy Saturday

Started the day at my vets office, talking to to him about potentially breeding Bolo.  Got a call from a lady who is very interested in his pedigree… lots to do & consider before this is finalized (if it ever is).

Then spent the rest of the day working on a “house” project. The area behind my van was getting washed out and worn down from loading and unloading the dogs.  Pete started the project last week and today I worked on it some more.  Now it is filled in with pea gravel and topped off with rubberized mulch.  That should help with the dogs aging joints jumping in and out of the back of the van.

Panama 2011 photo’s have been uploaded

Here is the link for the Panama photo’s: www.clukey.phanfare.com/5193802

Enjoy!

Dinner inspired by our world travels

Publix, our grocery store, had tuna buy-one-get-one this week and that reminded me of our trip to Tunisia.  Canned tuna was a staple there, it seemed.  So, I searched the web and found a recipe for a Tunisian Tuna and Egg Brik, an item that we had while we were in Tunisia… and we enjoyed it there… lets see if I can make it here.

This is the recipe that I used:  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/BRIK-TUNISIAN-TUNA-AND-EGG-TURNOVER-1203968

  Brik (Tunisian Tuna and Egg Turnover)

Brik, pronounced “Breek”, is somewhat like a delicious turnover, but like a soufflé, it must be served immediately. A Tunisian brik always has an egg in it, but it can have tuna, potatoes, capers and parsley. The casing, malsouka, is a cross between phyllo dough and a spring roll sheet. A brik is deep fried, olive oil is best, then drained on a paper towel. The trick is to hold the triangular brik with the point up while biting into it and not let the egg run down your chin. 4 servings Submitted by pacnw1 July 7, 2005 1 small onion (optional) 1 six-ounce can of tuna 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan 4 eggroll or spring roll wrappers 4 small eggs Olive oil for frying Lemon wedges   Mix together tuna, parsley, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Spoon about one fourth of the filling onto one half of each wrapper, making a  well to hold most of the egg. Break an egg into each well and fold wrapping into triangle shape to cover the mixture and the egg. Seal both sides of the wrapping together. Fry in one half inch of hot olive oil (vegetable oil can be used, but olive oil works best). When brown on one side, flip over to continue frying. A couple minutes on each side is enough if the oil is hot enough. Serve sprinkled with lemon juice.

They came out pretty good.  Even though, the store had no eggroll or spring roll wrappers, and I had to substitute phyllo dough.  My first time ever using phyllo dough.

Here are the photos of the process and finished product:

Reflecting on our days in Bocos del Toro, Panama

The end of our vacation was spent relaxing a few days with a friend who retired, escaped the rat race in the USA, and now lives near Bocas del Toro, Panama.  I am not sure if he & his wife got their inspiration from a Jimmy Buffett song or not but the lyrics of “The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful” keeps playing through my head as I reflect on my days spent in this delightful little community… just substitute “Atlanta” for “New York” and ”Ken & Vonne” for “Billy Clyde”.

“He’s going back to New York pack it up and let everyone know.  It was something that he should have done such a long time ago. Still time to start a new life in the palm trees.  Billy Clyde wasn’t insane.  And it doesn’t work out there’ll never be any doubt that the pleasure was worth all the pain”

We’re back from Panama… here are a few photos.

We just spent over a week in the country of Panama.  The first part of our vacation we were on a tour with Caravan Tours, the final few days of our vacation we spent with a friend who Pete use to work with but he now has retired and moved to Panama full-time.  This blog will address the Caravan Tour.  I couldn’t be more happy with the tour.  It was exactly what I wanted.  We visited the locks several times and even went through some of them in a small ship.  The hotels were great, the food was good, and we learned a thing or two along the way.  Here are some pictures highlighting the tour:

Our photos from the Gulf Coast weekend are up online

Finally, we have edited all of the photos from our Easter weekend trip; including dinner at Jimmy Buffett’s crazy sisters place, LuLu’s and a nights stay at the Margaritaville Beach Hotel in Pensacola Florida.  Click here to see the photos.

Tasha earned a few letters to add to the end of her name today

We attended a French Ring trial and Tasha earned a CSAU. OK, what the heck is that you’re asking? Here is a description: http://www.ringsport.org/the_csau.htm. We had a fun time. And we got to watch some highly trained dogs earn their ring titles. The club members of the Atlanta Working Dog Club made us feel welcomed. It was a good day.

Gulf Coast 2011

I’ve been busily working on editing the photos from our Easter trip to the Gulf Coast… they are not quite done yet. But a few friends have been asking for a trip report and some teaser photos, so here it goes:

April 22, 2011
We started our visit in Mobile, Alabama at the USS Alabama battleship; where Mary had Pete finally tied down with battleship chains. After thoroughly exploring the ship and marveling at it’s open gunnery room, we ventured through aircraft pavilion. Aircraft on display included a few historic Lockheed planes and a very special SR-71 Blackbird; which Pete was able to park his Mustang right next to for a unique photo op. Also on display there is the USS Drum submarine and a mock up of the civil war submarine the Hunley. The Drum is open for visitors and we took our time exploring its many displays.

We spent the night at the Drury Hotel in Mobile. The Drury offers a few unusual amenities, including a snack and beverage service from 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm. Tonight’s snacks included: hot dogs, nachos with lots of toppings, baked potatoes, and tossed salad. We ate enough snacks that we didn’t have to go out for dinner. Each adult in the room is offered 3 adult beverages and there is a coke self-service drink fountain that we didn’t see get locked up after 7:00 pm.

April 23, 2011
Waking up at the Drury with its included hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, French toast, waffles, fruit and yogurt starts the day in a very pleasant way.

We had a short stop at the Guitar Center, where Pete bought a souvenir amplifier. Then we were on to the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center to watch an roaming animal show that was in town for the weekend.

Next we were off in the general direction of Florida. We stopped for lunch of shrimp po’boys at a riverside restaurant. The view was great, the food OK, the service… well, nothing to write about.

After lunch Pete’s car got to experience something new; a ferry. Our destination for this afternoon is Fort Morgan and to get there we have to take a ferry. On the way across the intercoastal waterway, we pass nearby an oil rig. Kind of interesting, when considering what this area went through last year with the BP disaster.

We just barely made it to the Fort Morgan museum before it closed. Sure glad that we made it, there is a lot of history at this fort that just wouldn’t be understood without spending sometime in the museum, before wandering the grounds of the fort. This fort had some very large guns, seeing the video in the museum and then standing in the fort where the guns use to be was very impressive.

Hunger drives us to our next destination, dinner at LuLu’s (Jimmy Buffett’s sister’s restaurant). We are met at the driveway by staff informing us that there is an 1 ½ hour wait, but that if there is only two of us we may have luck at the bar; and we do. We rush right up to the bar and find two open spots. Wow, LuLu’s is amazing. Imagine the craziest beach party and you probably still can’t imagine LuLu’s. We did not “budget” enough time here. There is so much going on; hair braiding, a rope obstacle course; beach volley ball… live music… and more. The food was decent, not spectacular, but good. The atmosphere was awesome… we didn’t want to leave, but we have reservations at Jimmy’s place, the Margaritaville Beach Hotel, which is still an hour away in Pensacola Florida.                        

We arrive at the Margaritaville Beach Hotel well after dark. And fall in love with the room; very nice shower, comfy bed, nice amenities, including two Landshark beers at the bar. So, we go to the beach bar with our free drink coupons in hand. Uh Oh, this place is pretty dead. The band playing just isn’t exciting the crowd or us much at all. We should’ve stayed at LuLu’s. We have a few more drinks, but nothing much is going on in here. So, we go check out the beach at night and then head back to our room.

April 24, 2011
Have work tomorrow and there is 8+ hours of road between here and home… so we gotta go. But first, we explore the Margaritaville Beach Hotel a little more. The gift store is having an Easter promotion, find an egg and get the discount that is contained in the little plastic egg. We find an egg with 20% off and Pete buys a few more souvenirs. The restaurant is busy this morning, but that’s about it. This hotel feels deserted. We go to the beach and check out the bar area in the daylight. We are the only ones out and about on this side of the resort. It’s not that early (9-ish). The bar area has a lot of neat tables, benches, games, and a “fire pit”. We took lots of pictures of the hotel and beach.

Our first stop on the way home was for breakfast at McDonalds. We looked for a Denny’s or something close to the hotel, but there was not much around. Pete drove and drove and drove. Finally, it was lunch time… there is a lot of nothing where we were, so at the first signs of civilization we stopped for some steak and cheese sandwiches. Pete drove to the next rest area on the highway, a short distance away, then Mary took over; and drove and drove and drove… and then we finally made it home.

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Here are some pics of the weekend:

On board the USS Alabama

Pete’s tied down with battleship chains

Pete couldn’t pass up this photo op

Pete in the Guitar Center, Mobile Alabama

Animal exhibit at the Gulf Coast Exploreum

Fooling around at the Gulf Coast Exploreum

Fooling around at the Gulf Coast Exploreum

Oil rig platform

Pelicans

Fort Morgan, Alabama

Fort Morgan, Alabama

Entertainment at LuLu’s at Homeport Marina, Gulf Shores Alabama

Hanging out at LuLu’s at Homeport Marina, Gulf Shores Alabama

Hanging out at the Margaritaville Beach Hotel

Margaritaville Beach Hotel