In mid-August we travelled to Japan for meetings, spending one week in the Himeji/Takasago area and another week in Kyoto, the ancient imperial capital.

Here we are at Himeji Castle, the largest and one of the oldest traditional castles in Japan, and the site of the filming of some scenes from the movie Shogun.

At Takasago we posed with a steam turbine rotor in the ‘retired machinery garden”.We visited Tenryu-ji Temple, the head temple of the Tenryū branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism in the foothills of the mountains surrounding Kyoto.  It was established in 1339 and is known for views of the surrounding mountains from its gardens.  ……………. and had traditional vegetarian temple food seated on the tatami.  We participated in a traditional “Maiko” dinner with traditional entertainment.  We visited Kinkaku-ji temple, a Zen Buddhist temple dating from 1397.  The garden complex is an excellent example of Muromachi Period garden  design, considered to be a classical age of Japanese garden design.  The temple itself sits in the middle of a pond and is known as the “Golden Pavilion”.At Kinkaku-ji they also had weird ice cream flavors.  John had black sesame ice cream and Paula had green tea ice cream.We celebrated Paula’s XXth birthday at a restaurant on Kyoto’s Kamogawa River with 130 of our closest friends from all over the World.  And Paula was a leading participant in our annual encounter with Karaoke.  Here with the girls from Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.And here with the guys from Ireland, Spain, Egypt, Japan, Singapore, England, India and ???

Sometimes we get a chance to take a side-trip that is not business-related.  This year we went to Bali following the Conference in Surabaya.  Bali is a very laid-back island with a mainly Hindu culture as contrasted with the mainly Muslim culture of the rest of Indonesia.

We visited a coffee plantation and ground some coffee beans.

We visited  the caldera of the Batur volcano, one of Bali’s most active volcanoes.

We had several romantic, candle-lit dinners.

We even took a class in Indonesian cooking.  And there was the sea-salt and turmeric massage for which we have no pictures. 

We had dinner on a cliff overlooking the breakers coming in off the Indian Ocean at the Tanah Lot Temple.

In June and September we visited Surabaya, Indonesia to prepare for and conduct a Conference.  Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia and is an industrial center with a lot of oil and petrochemical businesses.  It is located just South of the Equator so the weather is tropical and doesn’t change much year-round.

We had the opportunity to enjoy the local culture with our friends.

We also had the opportunity to inspect a large power plant. 

We visited Singapore in June to conduct a Conference.  We had been there several times before, and it is always a nice place to visit.

Singapore is quite prosperous and each time we visit we find a new attraction has opened.  This time we visited the newly completed Gardens by the Bay, which includes several Conservatories, each highlighting a different climatic zone.  Here we are above the world’s tallest indoor waterfall in the Cloud Forest Conservatory.

The Gardens by the Bay has groves of “Supertrees”.  These are a concrete core with steel trunk, planting panels and canopies.  Various plant species are growing on the planting panels, and most have canopies embedded with environmentally sustainable functions such as photovoltaic power generation, rainwater capture and air exhausts.

We had lots of opportunities to relax with our friends, in this picture from Turkey and Japan.

Here we are at the Merlion, symbol of Singapore. 

Here are Paula and her “soldiers”. 

Here is the view of downtown Singapore from the Singapore Flyer, the world’s tallest Ferris Wheel 

Karaoke is a tradition at these Conferences and Paula is an active participant.  This song has participants from Malaysia, England, United States, Japan, Thailand and India.

This song has participants from  India, Japan, United States, Vietnam, Spain and The Netherlands.

Here we are relaxing on the Dragon Boat harbor cruise with friends from Ireland and New Zealand. 

We visited Japan in June for meetings and preparation for upcoming Users’ Conferences.  While there we had a chance to visit old friends in Tokyo.

We also seem to have a new culinary experience each time we visit Japan.  This time it was little sand crabs, served at the Takasago canteen.  This was something new for our Japanese hosts, too.

In early May, we travelled to Bermuda for Scott and Brenna’s wedding.  It was our first visit to that little island sitting in the middle of the Atlantic in the path of the Gulf Stream.

The wedding party:

The golfers: 

The Pittsburgh family:

In October we went to Washington DC for Alex’s christening and to check up on Matt, Hannah,  Sara, Shelley, Scott, Sandy, Garth, James and Brenna.  We met Stephanie for the first time and we met Brenna’s family for the first time.  We also got our Fall Foliage fix.

Hannah, Sandy and Alex

Alex, Scott, Hannah, Sara

Priscilla, Brett, Sandy, Alex, Brenna, ScottOur Family in attendance

Brenna’s Family in attendance

Paula, Danielle and Matt with funny looking colored leaves they have up North

In 2012 we returned to Las Vegas for the Steam Turbine Users’ Annual Meeting.  We stayed at the Vdara Hotel in the new City Center developed by MGM.  The view of Paula’s favorite Las Vegas attraction, the Bellagio Fountains, was spectacular from our room.

We also did some R&R or Teambuilding with our friends amongst the sights of Las Vegas.

In late August and early September we spent 10 days in Boston organizing and conducting a Conference.  For the first time ever, we actually stayed downtown — in the Quincy Market area on the Freedom Trail and near the harborfront.  We had the opportunity to do all the touristy things, including the North End, the Union Oyster House, a harbor cruise on a chartered yacht, drinks at the Original Cheers, a Duck Boat tour, a private tour of Fenway Park, breakfast on Beacon Hill, pizza at the famous Lynwood Cafe and private tours of two famous power plants.  To finish off the week, we spent several days with Paula’s family in the Boston area.

Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market from our hotel room

Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) and Bunker Hill Monument from harbor

With the Green Monster at Fenway Park

At famous Cabot’s Ice Cream shop

Barbara with light dessert

In 2012 we finally got the opportunity to visit Paula’s (and to a lesser extent John’s) ancestral homeland — Ireland.  Most of Paula’s ancestors were from County Kerry and John’s Irish ancestors were from County Waterford.  Many came to the US around the potato famine years of 1844-1848.

We visited Dublin in February for several days and in July for a week.  On the July visit we also toured around Ireland for another week.

The people and the sights were great.  The weather was lousy — it rained every single day.  Our adventures in Ireland are highlighted below:We visited Trinity College in Dublin, founded by charter of Queen Elizabeth in 1592.  It is home to the Old Library and it’s Long Room that houses around 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books.
The Old Library also contains a Treasury for the display of Irish medieval gospel manuscripts, principally the Book of Kells, the Book of Armagh and the Book of Darrow. Here are some pages from the Book of Kells, thought to be produced by Monks from the island of Iona, who fled to Kells in AD 806 after a Viking raid. In the Wicklow Mountains just south of Dublin is Glendalough, a monastery established by St. Kevin in the 6th Century.  It was sacked time and again by the Vikings but nevertheess flourished for over 600 years.  Decline set in only after English forces partially razed the site in 1398, though it functioned as a monastic centre until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539.  Most of the buildings date from the 10th to 12th Centuries.
We drove down the Southeast Coast to County Wexford and County Waterford,
staying a couple of days in Dunmore East which is a cute fishing village perched
on the hillside overlooking the Celtic Sea.  In the view from our hotel room note the hardy Irish swimmers, determined to enjoy their Summer beach vacation on this
windy, 50 degree F day.
We took the ferry to the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford (crossing at Passage East from Crook to Hook, source of the saying “by hook or by crook” related to Oliver Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland in 1649-1650.  On the Hook Peninsula we visited Europe’s oldest working lighthouse at Hook Head dating from 1172 and the Tintern Abbey , a 13th Century Cistercian monastery. We visited Waterford, touring among other things the Waterford Crystal factory and Reginald’s Tower on the quayside, the oldest civic urban building in Ireland, built by the Anglo-Normans in 1185 on the site of a similar fortification built by the Vikings in 914.
We visited Cobh, the deepwater port in the harbor of Cork, from where most of the Irish emigrants to the US departed, including we assume our ancestors.  It was also the last port of call of the Titanic before it left for New York.  Below is the statue of Annie Moore and her two young brothers who left Cobh in 1891 to join their parents who had already arrived in the US.  On the first of January 1892 she was the first person to be processed at the brand new facility just opened on Ellis Island.

In County Kerry on the Southwest Coast is the Dingle Peninsula, which contains fascinating antiquities ranging from Iron Age stone forts to inscribed stones, early Christian oratories and beehive huts.  Parts of the peninsula are still Gaelic speaking, so many road signs are written only in Irish.  We went over the Conor Pass, the highest mountain pass in Ireland, on a narrow twisting one-lane road (with two-way traffic).
Below you can see the farms on the Dingle Peninsula with stone fences running right to edge of the cliffs over the rugged coastline and the Gallarus Oratory built in 6th-7th Century and the best preserved early Christian church in Ireland.

In Tralee, Paula found and we visited the Sullivan family relatives that her parents had visited some years ago based on information provided by Sister Aloysius.

In Tipperary the Rock of Cashel towers over the plain and was the fortress seat of the Kings of Munster from the 4th or 5th Century until they turned it over to the Church in 1101.  Most of the remaining structures date from the 12th and 13th Centuries

The carving on St. Patrick’s Cross is said to be of St. Patrick, who visited Cashel in 450 AD.  The 92-ft round tower, the oldest and tallest building on the rock, enabled Cashel’s inhabitants to scour the surrounding plain for potential attackers.

The Cliffs of Moher are said to be the most dramatic stretches of Ireland’s west coast, rising to a height of 690 ft out of the sea.  At least that is what they said at the Cliffs of Moher Experience Visitor Center.  We got a very brief glimpse of them when the fog lifted for about a minute.

Continuing up the west coast, we arrived in Galway where we spent two days.  Galway is the centre for the Irish-speaking regions in the West and a lively university city.  Below are a Galway Hooker traditional wooden sailing boat sailing on the River Corrib by the old quays and the Spanish Arch, built in 1584 to protect the harbor.  Shop Street is in the center of the very walkable “Latin Quarter”.

From Galway we returned to Dublin and stayed for a week at the historic Clontarf Castle Hotel, built on the site of the 1014 Battle of Clontarf where High King Brian Boru led the Munster Irish victory that broke Viking power in Ireland.  There has been a castle on the site since 1172.

In Dublin we were back at work.
And hanging out with our friends.

We celebrated our 42nd Anniversary at Johnny Fox’s, the highest pub in Ireland, atop the Dublin mountains.