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A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Gallery (page 8 of 11)

Three Day Vacation in Budapest, Hungary

June 28, 2017 / / 43 Comments

Every couple of years, our business partner for The Wirie goes on a vacation with his family. Since he is responsible for the assembly and distribution of our product, we usually put a notice on the website that new orders will not get shipped until a certain date, when he is back a week or two later. Mark, who is responsible (among many other things) for customer support, continues work, wherever we are. That’s what happens when the product is your “baby”, you are extremely responsible, you want customers to be happy and you hate catching up on all the piled-up emails and phone calls afterwards. That’s why Mark and I never go on a holiday. Luckily, our lifestyle as house and pet sitters is diverse and exciting enough as we move locations a lot and enjoy the weekends as mini-vacations.

My favorite view of the new-to-us city

This spring, however, we had the greatest of ideas! We did not take a full vacation as Tim set out with his family to Italy, but we added a few lines to the notice on the website, the automatic email response and our Wirie answering machine. It said: “The Wirie crew is on vacation from May 18th through June 4th, 2017. No orders will be shipped during this period and customer support might be delayed. Requests by email have a quicker response rate than by phone. Back orders will start to go out on June 5th and customer support returns to normal then as well. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

Chain Bridge seen from above

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Two Full Days in Yosemite NP

April 19, 2017 / / 48 Comments

Yosemite NP is one of the most impressive national parks in the United States, if not the world. Mark and I visited Yosemite Valley once before with my parents, in 2005, but we had mostly forgotten about its allure. That being said, when we returned to California in mid-October, the park regained a spot on our mental “things-to-do” list. We considered a weekend getaway there during our three-month house sit in Rocklin, but winter was upon us and the dog we were taking care of did not get along well with others, so we pushed Yosemite into a corner of our brains. That was until my cousin Griet and her husband Wim decided to fly in from Belgium for a 10-day vacation in Northern California. They generously treated us and Lola to a weekend in Yosemite.

The family at Tunnel View

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A Week of Sightseeing with Visitors – Sonoma, Marin and San Francisco Counties

April 12, 2017 / / 50 Comments

On March 24th, Mark, Lola and I picked up my cousin Griet and her husband at SFO, the airport of San Francisco. While visiting us many times on Irie, in the Caribbean and the South Pacific (they also helped us transit the Panama Canal in January 2013), it was the first time they came to the United States. Customs and Immigration procedures took a while, as expected, but once we found each other, their 10-day vacation could start…

The heavy rains paused for about an hour and a half, in which we brought them to a viewpoint over San Francisco and to Fort Funston, an awesome off-leash dog park. Lola had been very patient in the car during the two-hour drive in rain and traffic and the one hour wait at the airport. She loved her reward in nature, our guests enjoyed their first impressions of the city and Mark and I appreciated stretching our legs during a break in the rain.

Rainy day to pick up our guests in the city – wet drive over the Golden Gate Bridge
First stop
The view over the city was better than we expected
San Francisco
Fort Funston
Funny sign at the viewpoint

On Saturday, we revisited Armstrong Redwoods, still as impressive as the first time we came with Lola. Continue reading

WW – Spring is in the Air

March 15, 2017 / / 37 Comments

It has been a while since I created a Wordless Wednesday post. Spring is arriving at our current two-month house sit in Sebastopol, Northern California and I am loving it. The blue sky, the warmer temperatures, the sweet blossoms and the colorful flowers… I never realized I loved the visual appearance of spring this much. Must be because we lived in the tropics, void of seasons, for a decade and, really, are not too fond of winter. Which is why we “moved” to California this fall. Compared to last year, when I posted a similar blog  in June and left for Belgium to experience spring, we have no complaints about the change of seasons this year! 🙂

Stillwater Cove Regional Park
Magnolia tree in the front yard
Lola smelling the flowers
Pinnacle Gulch Trail
Wildflowers along the trail

Has spring sprung yet where you live?

Discoveries around Costa Mesa, CA – 10 Things to See and Do

February 17, 2017 / / 27 Comments

For three weeks, Mark and I took care of a cute 7-month-old dog named Jaxx and a small apartment in Costa Mesa, California. I report on that sit here. We had never visited this area before and gladly drove the eight hours down from Northern California for some warmer, and hopefully sunnier, weather. Well, the weather was wishy-washy, but on the weekends and some late afternoons, we did our best to explore a few sites with our “happy go lucky” temporary pet. And, three times, the sun gloriously accompanied us with 70-degree weather (21°C). Here are the discoveries we made…

My personal discovery of one of Southern California’s missions

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Laguna Beach, CA – On a Shoestring

February 10, 2017 / / 41 Comments

One of the reasons Mark and I have been house sitting for over a year is so we can live “for free”, taking care of people’s home and pets, while they are away. For us, it is a perfect exchange, with quite a few perks, one of which is the variety of places we get to live in. We don’t seek out super desirable locations and make the destination our highlight as many other sitters do, but prefer longer term sits and weekend explorations in each area we find ourselves in. The United States has interesting parks, beaches and cities everywhere!

On the most beautiful day during our three-week sit in Costa Mesa, Southern California, we put on shorts and flip-flops and headed for the beach; Laguna Beach to be precise. Continue reading

Fairfax, CA: January 14th – January 21st, 2017

January 27, 2017 / / 23 Comments

Since this was a short house sit, I am writing our experiences as a “Completed House Sit” post.

A couple of months ago, Mark and I came across this one-week house sit in Fairfax while living in Rocklin, CA. While the assignment was much shorter than we prefer, Fairfax is an attractive, up-scale town about an hour north of San Francisco, there were a cute dog and chickens involved and the owners happily selected us as their sitters. Then, about a month later, we received the devastating news that 10-year-old dog Xander had unexpectedly passed away (from the same symptoms as our dog Darwin in 2010). We were shocked about the sad event, but considered the impact and how we would feel if this had happened on our watch. It is the nightmare of every pet sitter! The owners still preferred our involvement, to take care of their seven chickens and have a presence in the house. We obliged.

These chickens are pretty and soft!

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Things to See in the Northern Gold Country

January 16, 2017 / / 28 Comments

When Mark and I stayed in Rocklin, California for a three-month house and pet sit assignment, we took advantage of the nice weekends to explore the region a bit. Located in the northern part of the Central Valley, Rocklin lies in close proximity to California’s northern gold country, an area that became famous during the 1849 gold rush. Waves of immigrants, now known as the 49ers, were attracted by the rich soils, containing gold and other minerals, and moved to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to work in the gold mines. Appropriately named State Route 49 is the primary north-south highway through Gold Country, along which many historic mining communities can be visited.

Nevada City street scene

Auburn

Barely a half an hour drive from us, Auburn was easily accessible for a visit. The main attractions in town are Old Town, the Gold Rush Museum and Placer County Courthouse, which also contains the Historical Museum. After a quick glimpse of town, we preferred the excellent hiking opportunities in Auburn State Recreation Park.

Community garden for veterans

Grass Valley Continue reading

Mark and Liesbet’s 2016

December 31, 2016 / / 29 Comments

2016 has passed in a jiffy. The older you get, the faster time flies. I am a firm believer of that “theory”.

In October 2015, Mark and I started our life in the United States. We applied for my green card (for the 2nd time in ten years; the 1st one, obtained in 2008, was “returned”), which I received five months later. The process for that took a tad longer than writing these two sentences! We began house sitting, expanded The Wirie business and I decided to write a book. A month later, I created this blog and an initial outline for said book. In December, we escaped to Florida for warmer weather.

2016 is our first full year of house and pet sitting in the US. The business has been successful and much easier to “handle” than from a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. I worked hard on my blog, trying to keep up a schedule of three posts a week. In April, for the A to Z Blogging Challenge, this became one a day! I worked on my memoir, which I will write more about on Wednesday, and we took care of a bunch of sweet, entertaining and smart animals. Continue reading

Then and Now – Christmas

December 27, 2016 / / 22 Comments

Here is another topic for my “Then and Now” series. This festive time of the year has been different for us, over the years, as my article “Caribbean Christmas Afloat” in All At Sea magazine partly depicts. Underneath is a glimpse into our Christmases then (mostly during the time we lived and sailed on Irie) and now, at our current house sit.

2008 – Culebra, Puerto Rico

Mark, Darwin, Kali and I were ready to explore the real Caribbean in our 35′ sailboat. Unfortunately, the day after Christmas, our sweet girl Kali passed away and nothing would ever be the same anymore.

A special breakfast with bacon grease for Kali and Darwin

2009 – St. Pierre, Martinique

One of the most beautiful anchorages in the Caribbean was our location on Christmas in 2009. It was just the three of us enjoying a quiet day of giving Darwin a bath and exploring the town.

A bath for Darwin

2010 – Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Continue reading

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