And then came Sam

 While Bill and Barb were with us, they were in touch with Sam, who wanted to join them.  Unfortunately, he couldn't join us while they were here, so he joined them while they were in Rome.  He asked us if he could visit after his grandparents had to go.  Of course we said yes.  Who wouldn't?

Meanwhile, life went on.  On September 14 we went to Celje to pick up the sisters, who had been doing a service project - gathering up potatoes from the field of an elderly member.  We love spending time with the young missionaries - they are just a supercharging station.  The sisters had gone to Celje by bus, but after working all day, they asked for a ride home so they could get home in time for missionary lights out.  We waited at the farm house, and looked at the out-buildings.

I love they way they use bricks to provide ventilation on their barns, and how decorative it is.

This is made of two hay-drying racks, with a roof over all, and a loft added.

September 18

Sam arrived at the Ljubljana airport, so we took him directly to Lake Bled.

Here we are on a Pletna again, with the castle and the big church in the background.  The island is at the other end of the lake.

I decided to go up the stairs on the island this time, because my knee has not been strained lately, and I haven't been up there in quite a while.  It was good.  I don't know why I didn't take more photos, but again, we were just here a week before.

I did take a photo of this doorway.  It goes into the base of the bell tower and you can look up through a steel grate to the bells at the top.  These are bigger, louder bells than the one you ring inside the chapel (for a price, of course.)  These are used to call people to mass on those occasions when they hold a mass out here.  Anyway, I loved this doorway for its deeply pointed arch, and the worn stones on the threshold.  Sam and I went in and looked up.  Sam was amazed at the small steps, consisting of wooden planks set into the masonry, and no guard rail.  He is such a nice young man - it has been a pleasure to have him.

After we got back to the car, we drove up to Lake Bohinj, which is a larger, and more unspoiled alpine scenic lake compared to Bled's commercial development.  When we arrived, we walked across the bridge, looking at the trout lined up at the edge of where the water flowing out of the lake speeds up as it enters the river that goes down the hill.

Sam decided to take a dip in the clear water flowing under the bridge.  I imagine it was a might chilly, but he said it was refreshing.  He swam out past the kayaking class on the water, to the other side of the lake, and back.  He had to ride home slightly wet, but never a complaint from him!

On the 21st, Liz and I had to drive to Ptui to get an estimate for repairing some damage from minor encounters with immovable objects.  The odd thing is that the repair shop is in such a small town.  We got our estimate, and made an appointment for Oct. 11 to get it repaired.  We also got a promise of a loaner car.

On the way back, we drove by this yard with sunflowers that have so many petals they obscure the dark center of the flower.  I didn't know such a thing exists, but Liz said she planted some, one time in our past.

On the 24th we had some slack time so we took Sam on a two-day visit to the Istrian Peninsula and Hreljin.  In Istria we visited  Rovinj and Pula.

Here we are with the town of Rovinj across the bay.  Sam went up to the church and climbed the church tower, from where he could see Venice, Italy across the Adriatic Sea.  

Rovinj is a city that was built by the Italians in the days when they had a vast shipping/trading fleet.  The tour book said that you can wander around the entire city in about 20 minutes, but Liz and I took a bit longer than that.

Here is Sam, looking at his phone instead of the scenery, with Rovinj in the background.  The church is at the top of a hill that has sheer cliffs on the far side, so you can see almost the entire city in this photo.  Liz and Sam both took photos of the little alleys stretching back from the main streets.  The streets are reasonably wide by European standards, but the alleys are often only 3-6 feet wide, with one building running into the next, and laundry lines stretching across from one side of the alley to the other.  

Next we visited Pula, specifically the Roman amphitheater, the best preserved amphitheater to be found.  We went inside and Sam was delighted by it.  It is sobering to think of what happened in this place.  Many people died here in contests to the death, fights with wild animals, and sheer slaughter of Christians and other people Rome thought were dangerous.

This is a Panorama photo where I rotated almost all the way around.  What looks like a bulge in the left third of it is actually the part of the wall closest to where I was standing.

Liz is resting in the ruins of one of the rooms where contestants and animals waited their turn  to enter the arena.

This is one of the four stairways going from the entrance to the top level and all points between.  The wooden stairs are long gone, but the supporting structure remains.  If you enter any of today's football, baseball, soccer, or entertainment stadiums, you will find the same thing.

From Pula, we drove over to where we had reserved a room at a little hotel  at the edge of Rijeka.  To get there, we had to drive through part of Opatija, and about 100 yards into Rijeka, but this place is right on the beach, which was nice.  So Sam got another nice place for a refreshing dip.

The next day, we went to Hreljin.  We visited the house where Liz's father was born, Sam's great-grandfather.  The couple who have the house attached to the old one where Liz's Dad was born have been visited by us so often that now they recognize us and welcome us.  Sam got a good visit.

Next we drove to the cemetery, where Liz and Sam walked among the gravestones looking for familiar names from their genealogy.  We hiked down to the Dravi Grad (old city) Hreljin with its castle ruins.  And then we had to go back home.

September 29.  Sam borrowed my Nikon camera and we spent a half hour going over how to operate it and take good photos   Then he and Liz drove up to the Heart Road.  It was a much more satisfying visit than when we tried to take Bill and Barbara there a couple weeks ago.  These are some of the photos Liz and Sam took.

September 4-7 Bill and Barbara come to visit us!

Liz has always had a very special place in her heart for her older brother, Bill, and Bill is equally excited about her.  We spent a couple of months with a date for his visit to Slovenia on our tentative calendar.  As time went by it was set in sand.  Then events tightened up and it became set in gravel.  And finally solid stone.  The date of their arrival was September 4.

They arrived early in the morning and we met them at the Ljubljana airport.  Of course, they were jet-lagged, but we drug them along as we did some missionary apartment inspections.  We also planned to take them to the "Heart Road", only 26 km north of Maribor.  They are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and what could be better than to visit this road.

This is an internet photo.  I will tell you why I didn't take one with them in it..

Getting to the heart road is a little bit challenging because it is only by driving through miles of narrow, winding roads in farming country that you arrive at the lookout with this view.  In fact, our first visit had us driving up the heart road to the observation point and we were surprised to find we had already seen it.  Of course, from down on the road it is nothing special - just a lane through the vineyard.

We had hoped that visiting it would a romantic event for them.  Little did we know that there was a regional wine-tasting event going on.   After battling unbelievable crowds of people we got to the lookout point to find it chained, and a matron was busy shooing intrepid hikers away.  So Bill and Barb had to settle for a photo like the above.

After that we took them to our apartment and got them settled into our spare room.  They had a nap and then we looked around for a suitable dinner location.  There is a highly rated restaurant in Maribor that we have never visited, and we had hoped to take them there.  However, it was closed.  So we went over to the City Hotel next door to our apartment.

The hotel has a restaurant on the river side of their building, so you dine while enjoying the view of the river.  It is a wonderful place to enjoy a fine meal.

This is the view from the cafe:  the river flowing peacefully, the setting sun, and the mountains in the background.

We had a nice meal with seafood and steaks, each to his own taste.  This photo is the desserts.  Two are "plain" ice cream, one is chocolate lava cake, and other is ???  I don't remember, some kind of caramel concoction.  But wonderful presentation.

They seem pleased.

We had worried while preparing for their trip that such World Travelers would not be impressed with our little country of Slovenia, but this was a good start.  

The next day was Sunday.  We took them with us to Fast and Testimony meeting, and Bill followed his sister's request to bear his testimony.  Afterwards, we visited the World's oldest grape vine, which is near our former apartment where the sisters live now.  The vine is at least 400 years old, and is carefully pruned and fertilized to provide a bounteous harvest.

The grapes hanging on the vine, almost ready for picking.

And here they are in front of the old, craggy trunk of the Old Vine.  The fence is to prevent people from damaging it.

We then changed into casual clothes and drove to Lake Bled, that wonderous fairytale location.  First, we went to Vila Bled, the former summer palace of Yugoslavia's long-time dictator, Tito.  It is now owned by the country and is run as a hotel.  We were consciously trying to impress Bill and Barbara, and the hotel, lake, castle, island, and church did the trick.

We had reserved a suite in the hotel for Bill and Barb, and a smaller room for us.  But when we got there, it turned out that the suite had a view of the mountains, while the smaller room had a balcony with a view out across the lake.  We told them they could have whichever they desired, and they chose the small room with the view.

This is the view from the top floor of the hotel down to the parking area.  As you can see, the landscaping is first class.

There is a conference/banquet room with a very long mural of patriotic communist events.   I was impressed that in the mural are German mauser rifles like they used in WWII, as well as Russian Mosin-Nagants, and even a Schmeisser machine pistol.

After we got settled in to our rooms, we took a leisurely stroll down the lake to the town, where we found a restaurant right on the water and had our dinner.   My feet were not the only ones that were sore, so we took a taxi back to the hotel.

In the morning we went downstairs to the terrace of the hotel, where we ate breakfast in three courses.  It was marvelous, to say the least.   I told Bill that if they were not impressed by the views from the terrace, we were never going to impress them - this was our best shot.

After breakfast, we took a ride on a Pletna boat for a visit to the island and the church at the island's summit.

The Pletna is powered by a single oarsman, rowed while standing with an oar in each hand.  This job is held by grant to certain families who live here.  A few of them make the boats, although this guy told us our boat was almost 100 years old.  It looked perfect.

Between Bill and Barb is Vila Bled up on the shore.

Here we are approaching the little island.  The long stair goes from the boat landing all the way up to the church.  The tradition is that if a prospective groom can carry his bride all the way to the top of the stairs, the marriage will be long and happy.  

Here Bill is up just a few steps while waiting on everybody else.  The small building is a shrine, the larger building is a restaurant and gift shop.  The church is farther along and can't really be seen from here.

My knee was still sore from the previous evening's stroll, so I declined to mount the stairs.  Instead, I circumnavigated the island on a little path and took some interesting photos.

Here is a happy couple in a rowboat - how romantic.  Beyond them is the the inlet end of the lake and a large campground.  Some people from the campground swim out to the island instead of paying to rent a boat or Pletna, but only in hot weather.

This view is from the other side of the island, toward the City of Bled.  Just above the rowboat is a Pletna coming out.

On this side of the island, trees overhang the shore and the side of the island is a sheer cliff.  It is impossible to tell (in such clear water) how deep the fish are.  I couldn't see the bottom at all.

A nice man from our boat passed me and remarked at my impressive set of straps.  I call it my tourist badge.  The straps are for the camera, the camera backpack, my man-bag, and Liz's large purse which she didn't want to carry up the stairs.  He offered to take my photo, which was nice of him.  As he was doing this, I noticed clouds of bubbles, rhythmically rising in the water.  It was almost certainly a scuba diver, but I never saw him/her.

From there, we headed to Zadar, Croatia.  As we neared the Croatian border, we decided to stop for lunch at the next restaurant we saw.  Considering that it was a random choice, we did amazingly well.

The pizza was excellent, the veges were fresh and cooked just right, and the view was perfect.  The thing we love best (out of many things) about Slovenia is the little villages nestled in small valleys with fields and vineyards growing up the slopes of the hills and mountains.  It was a perfect break from driving.

It is interesting how the climate and environment changes as soon as we crossed into Croatia.  The border is at the base of the mountains and thus in a rain shadow.  With less rain, the trees became smaller and the grass drier.  Soon we were driving through a land with fields of rocks, rock walls around fields, rock buildings, and rocky mountains.

Zadar is a seaside town with a harbor.  Recently they had a contest for an architect to build something artistic and rare for the outside edge of the harbor.  The winner built a sea, or wave, organ, and a tribute to our star, the sun.

The holes in the sidewalk are where the notes from the wave organ come out.  The people are sitting on steps that go down into the water.  On the step risers there are large holes that allow the waves to rush inside, pushing air ahead of them.  The air goes through organ pipes and then into large sound chambers under the sidewalk, and hence up through the holes.  It doesn't make music, but  they play different notes in rhythm to the waves.  It is very pleasant to listen to.

The people were gathered here to watch the sun set.  At the moment the sun can no longer be seen everyone claps and cheers.

Here is our little party.  Next to Bill and Barb is Sister Lamb who we arranged to meet here, so Bill could advise her on setting up a non-profit to help Croatian people set up businesses.  Elder Lamb is sitting behind Sister Lamb, and Liz is beside her.

    If you look at the wall behind them, you might notice that it is painted like piano keys.  On the edges of the top of the wall are inscribed the dates of Catholic Holy days

After the sun went down, the crowds meandered over to the end of the wave organ.  There is a 20 meter circle of glass there, with solar cells under the glass.  The glass is thick enough to walk on.  All day the solar cells charge batteries, and after it gets dark, the batteries power a light show.

I tried to insert video here, but no luck.  Try pasting these links into a browser to see them:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cnCYK1DXFY9KvHLLA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hzyvQbxptMDnrCoB8

This large circle of glass and light represents the sun, and extending back towards the wave organ there are smaller circles representing all the planets, in proportional sizes and distances to the sun.

Bill liked this whole thing very much and was excited that we came this great distance to see it.

We were pretty tired by this point and we walked to a restaurant just past this old Templar church.

The templars were big on building round churches.

Then we went to our VRBO apartment for the night.  We were lucky the Lambs stuck with us, because it was down a dark alley and we might not have found it without their help.  Once inside, we found a beautiful apartment that looked like a lighting store showroom.  There were lights on the floor, around the edges of the room, plus chandeliers, and flavors of can lights, hanging lights, suspended lights, and under-counter lights.  But overall, it was a very comfortable to spend the night.

Next morning we met the missionaries at an outdoor restaurant by the sea.  Another over-the-top breakfast made us mellow, as we enjoyed the sea breeze and a killer view.

After stuffing ourselves, we drove over to Hreljin, where Liz's father was born.  We visited the very house where he was born, and we searched for the house where the Benac family lived, but we had too little information.  So we went to the Hreljin cemetery.  There Bill and Liz visited graves of their ancestors, and had a spiritually enriching experience.

We also visited the Hreljin church in the middle of town.

We  only had three days with Bill and Barb, and they were packed chock full of  fun things to do.  Their flight was due to leave early the next morning - very early.  So we drove back across Croatia to Zagreb, where we spent the night at a hotel near the airport.  They had an early - early wake-up call and caught a shuttle to the airport, and we drove home.

Winding up the Senior Conference - August 17 - 21

 The Senior Conference did not start well.   One senior couple, and President Field's family did not arrive until an hour and a half after the appointed time.  President Field was still upset with us, and we had organized the Conference and were conducting it (truthfully, Liz was doing all that.)   I don't know if that had to do with why they would be so late - their explanation was that they had to drop one of their sons off before they could come, but that wasn't in the plan and they didn't call to let us know.  Even after they arrived, they didn't really participate.  

    We spent some time letting everybody tell a little bit about ourselves, so we could get to know each other better.  We had mostly not met each other, although we had seen each other via Zoom on the Senior Conference call every other week, and occasional other events.  

    President and Sister Field were supposed to be the first speakers, but they stood up in front of us for a few minutes and told jokes.  Well, at least that helped get our schedule closer to the plan, because they took 5 minutes instead of the scheduled 45.

    We were next, and Liz had asked me to let her use the entire allotted time.  She had prepared an excellent presentation using Google Slides (similar to Powerpoint) and it was impressive.  The disturbing thing to me was that during all this time, President Field would not make eye contact with either of us.  On the other hand, he didn't send us home in disgrace, so it could have been worse.

   For the next speaker, we had arranged to have Jeff Hein, from Plano, TX, speak to us via Zoom.  He served his mission in Germany and Austria, and he did a great job addressing missionary issues and expressing his love.  That was the end of our active participation, except for starting and stopping each session.

   We had arranged for refreshments to be served by the hotel, and they did very well.  The fruit platters were good, but we weren't in the mood for the meat and cheese platter.  It was hot that day and we mostly grabbed up the drinks.  They had bottles of apricot juice, which was very popular with the group.  Other favorites were Coke and water.

  The second day, we had speakers from the ranks of the senior missionaries, and then we had the afternoon to seek entertainment on our own.  One group formed who took a hike along the river that flows down out of the Julian Alps.  I volunteered to drive some of the hikers up to the trailhead, after which I had a most-delicious nap.

    Liz went with a group who were going on a spectacular zip line.  It was a guided event, and their guide met them at a place close to the hotel.  They went to the zip location in a big, ex-army, 6X6 truck.  It took them up a very rugged road to the top of the first zip line in a series of 6.  Each of the 6 ziplines were approximately 1,000 feet long, and they went from one side of a big gorge to the other, then down a little bit to the next one to zip back to the first side.  Everyone raved about how fun it was, and what an amazing view they had.  What they hadn't realized was that they had to scramble down the rocky mountain over an unimproved trail between the ziplines, and it was extremely steep.  Liz slipped at one point and slid down a large rock, skinning her knee in the process.

The final day was more relaxed and more spiritual, if possible.  We all took turns telling what great things had happened as a result of our missions.  We took a group photo, which was awesome.  And look at the mountains in the background:

I just couldn't resist taking photos of the clouds hugging the mountains.

This is all of us.  The photo was taken at the same spot as my photo of the mountains, above.   Looking this direction the mountains are not so majestic, but they are equally rugged.

Being older, we senior missionaries are able to make our own decisions, and we had already decided that we wanted to gather again at Lake Bled.  So we jumped in our cars and headed across the big mountains to where Lake Bled is located.  We might have been the only ones who chose to go the longer route around the mountains.  At least most of the rest went up and over the mountains, for which there are two routes:  the steep route, and the extremely steep route (we took that one last spring while exploring this location.)  Amazingly, we all arrived at Lake Bled at about the same time.

On the way to Lake Bled we passed this house.  Considering that this is a stone house, that is an amazing archway in the corner.  But what impressed us was the pleasant addition a little white paint makes when artistically applied.

This is a close-up of the windows.  They are simple flush windows.  The framing is paint, and the windowsill is paint.

By the time we got to Lake Bled it was evening, but we had arranged to meet the other seniors at a restaurant where they have great lamb chops.  Not everybody likes lamb, of course, but we certainly do, and the others found menu items equally good.

Spending more time with the other senior missionaries was certainly a rewarding experience.  We have so much in common and we all feel like long-lost siblings.  It was a sad thought that we will not see most of them again, unless it is at a mission reunion way down the road.

The next morning we had breakfast and then said goodbye to the other seniors.  We had one more task.  Liz's brother, Bill and his wife were coming to visit the next week and we wanted to give them a good view of Slovenia.   We have been intrigued by Villa Bled, which used to be Tito's summer palace back in the Yugoslavia days.  So we drove there to see if it would work to impress Bill and Barbara, international travelers that they are.

This is the entrance.  The red carpet is symbolic of what was inside, sheer opulence.  We went inside and spoke with the registration clerk and made reservations for our stay with Bill and Barb.  The price is high, but not excessive.

This is the view from the side of the hotel.  The church on the island is one of the iconic things around Lake Bled.   On the left of the photo are some tables, where guests enjoy breakfast while soaking up the view.

I love the flowers.  The steel grate at the right side is also impressive.  We decided that Villa Bled will do for our guests.

This is a roadside.  We stopped to take a photo because the flowers were so pretty.

Here are some photos other seniors took, of the missionaries, and rivers and gorges nearby.

This is Liz with the zipline bunch.

So, that was it.  We loved the senior conference.  We are only sad that this is the first one we've been able to enjoy while on our mission.  It should have been the fourth, if not for COVID.

And here are some photos we took in the days following our return from our long auditing & Senior Conference trip.  When we came on our mission, the auditing department encouraged us a get an extra large passport book, so that we'd have plenty of room for all the border crossing stamps.  Then we didn't get to travel due to COVID.  But, now we have a goodly number of stamps in our passports and we feel much better about it.

This larger panel is above the doorway of the cafe.

All the above photos of painted flowers, are at the cafe in THE City Park.  They are above all the windows there.  We have been there several times, but this was the first time we noticed these.

We see beautiful doors quite often.  This one in Maribor's Center is particularly ornate.  It is clearly an older door.  The building is now used by the Maribor Sport Authority.