Life on the Vine

Last night while I was downloading photos from our most recent trip...we went to Belgium for five days for Tom's birthday...I was laughing at all the pictures of Tom and me with food and beverages.  You know the sayings...an army travels on its stomach...the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, etc., I guess you could say the Dalrymples travel on their stomachs too.  I joked with Tom that I was going to do a blog just with all the pictures of us eating and drinking our way across Europe.  I thought that might actually be a fun post.  So, here we go.      Belgium is known for its mussels, chocolate and beer and we happily tried them all.  We also drank our fair share of coffee.  Now don't get alarmed at all the pictures of us with beer.  We were at no time during any of these trips inebriated and we usually only had a beer a day...okay, maybe two a day. Tom's Birthday Dinner in Brugge, Belgium Fish, mussels and beer...good stuff! The "Brugse Z

This is probably a blog I should do in two posts but I'm going to try and do it in one.  I'll try to minimize my words and let the photos tell the story. Over World War II's D-Day anniversary, Tom and I traveled to Normandy on a 3-day USO tour.  It was a whirlwind, jam-packed trip that maximized every moment of what were 13 to 14 hour-long days.  I had been looking forward to the trip for months and believe that visiting that historic site during the anniversary is a trip of a lifetime.   In two-and-a-half days we visited three of the D-Day invasion beaches (Gold, Omaha and Utah); visited the American and the German cemeteries; visited Point du Hoc and Saint-Mere-Eglise; went to the Airborne Museum (although we didn't stay long because of the crowds) and the Museum of the Battle of Normandy (which is a VERY good museum); we saw the Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery and concluded the visit at Pegasus Bridge.  If you've ever seen the movie "The Longest Day" it