John was still moving a bit slowly and still in his full leg brace on our next adventure with Roger and Peg. In December we went as far to the south as we could without leaving US territory by going to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Recall that there were still somewhat scary quarantine restrictions on getting back into the US in December 2021.

In June, we extended the reach of our travels by heading out west to San Francisco with Roger and Peg and planned to then go hiking on the California Coast trail and in Mendocino wine country with Danielle who flew up from San Diego. Things did not go entirely as planned.

The first few days in San Francisco were great. We walked 10-12 miles each day on the hills of San Francisco and on Alcatraz Island. We also got to see John’s California cousin Kathy and her husband Roy.

But apparently, we had a bit too much fun and exercise for folks our age. On day 3 John fell on a step and significantly injured his right leg. Not realizing the extent of the damage and thinking it might be just a muscle pull, we continued the trip with John hobbling around but not keeping up very well. Danielle drove us up to Mendocino and John was able to take some great pictures. It wasn’t until we got back home that it was discovered that John had severed three quadriceps tendons and needed a quadriceps rebuild, which was delayed until August due to a Covid code black emergency at Orlando hospitals. Other than that it was a pretty good trip.

After 12 months of relative isolation, we got our vaccinations in January and felt safe enough to venture out in late February on our first non-family travel venture since Covid began. We drove to Key West to meet Roger and Peg, stopping on the way to see Lee and Bill at their place in Rotunda West. We stayed at a quaint boutique hotel right on Duval Street and did a lot of walking around the town, viewing sunsets and visiting sights like the Hemingway House, Truman’s Little White House, a butterfly encounter, a lighthouse and a rum distillery that had converted its process to make hand sanitizer to overcome a shortage during the pandemic. Seems that there is a lot of similarity between rum and hand sanitizer!