The Jet Set Betties

It’s true, a bit out of the blue we find ourselves in the heart of New York City. But that’s just a teaser – hang on, we’ll get there.

And speaking of getting there: In a future post, we’ll catch you up on what’s happened since NYC up to today. Currently we are near Bar Harbor, ME, about to embark on a full week of activities in Acadia NP. Adventures of the last month have included three spots in upstate NY, a week in Boston / Cape Cod, and four nights holed up in a central New Hampshire AirBnB so we could catch our breath from a remarkable 7-week run of camping and events. More on all that later … let’s start by going back to June 22-July 2.

Our route til now.

That dark blue line is following our 2026 route: starting in Glenn, MI, down to the bottom of the vee in Georgia and about halfway up the other side to our days at Red Wing music festival (all discussed in previous posts).

It was just a short hop from the festival to Shenandoah National Park, and for Matthew’s folks, it’s just a skip and a jump to that same place from their home on the Bay, so we all met up for a few nights. The highlight of the visit was taking Jim and Tammy’s ragtop VW Bug and touring the Skyline Drive. Top speed limit 35 mph!

But then, yes, it was time to head to New York City. It turns out that Kayla’s coworkers at On-Ramps (a New York City based company) were going to have an office cocktail party at a rooftop bar. And wouldn’t you know it, we could make it there, too! Kayla’s brother Kevin lives outside Philadelphia and right next to an Amtrak train line. We could dash up from Shenandoah, stash our camper in Paoli, then the next day catch a 2.5 hour train into NYC and make it to the party by cocktail hour!

We spent three days and nights in the city and walk about 20 total miles. It was during the World Cup, and that energy permeated the town. So many people in team jerseys, so many little nooks and big public spaces showing the games. It really raised the energy level!

After these fun-filled days, we head back to Paoli, where all the talk is of record high temperatures and Heat Domes. Rather than rush out into the un-conditioned wilderness, we hang back with Kristi and Kevin for a few days. In addition to enjoying a/c, catching up on work projects, and several nice evenings of hanging out with K&K, we get a special tour of the Wharton Esherick Museum, where Kristi is a docent. Wharton sure was a creative guy — what an interesting place!

Next in line for storytelling: two weeks in upstate NY! Stay tuned.

Here we are again: The Betties haven’t posted in months, and now have too many memories and pictures to share. What happens? Life, I guess. We’ve been excited for our next road trip, and getting there has meant getting a lot of other obligations out of the way to clear the path. And once we hit the road, wow have our days been full!

One thing that has struck Matthew on this trip is the pride folks have of their communities. We draw some attention with our camper and our Alaska license plates, and that can strike up some great conversations. We always try to ask what folks think is special about their town, and so many times that question just lights them up!

Another new element to our journey this round is that we’ve given in and bought a Starlink – that little device that can give us streaming-level internet anywhere that we can find open sky, and helps fuel Elon Musk’s dream to one day rule the world. It has been a remarkable tool, especially for Kayla’s work. It has also allowed us to catch the occasional baseball game as we keep track of our Phillies. What a hoot.

Pre-Road Trip

Straight from Alaska we flew to Matthew’s parents in Virginia. It was a nice week of sharing meals, doing some landscaping, and enjoying some nice warm weather. We even had the opportunity to see “one of the premier ‘Rhythm And Beach’ bands in South Carolina!

The audience was as old as the band.

The second day after we returned to Glenn (to Kayla’s sister’s sweet little cottage by the lake) this happened:

And so after that this happened:

Turns out some plumbing had an outburst, and so the kitchen ceiling was torn down. Meanwhile, Matthew and Kayla were busy finishing the painting job they had started last fall. We had some help from nephew Jonathan, who came for a three week visit.

We also spent a week in Storm Lake, IA for Kayla’s dad’s funeral, which of course was an intensely wonderful, bittersweet time. Lloyd was the last of his family of six; we were honored to have his last living in-law – Rev. Ed Maas – presiding over Dad’s services. And, to further honor this generation and our family heritage, we hosted a cousins reunion at our family homestead. What a joyous time we had, even in the midst of missing our dad and his siblings.

On the road

June 6-7

Painting done, camper packed, and we’re off! This is a planned four-month expedition to primarily explore the northeast US, but our first destinations are southward.

First stop General Butler State Park in Carrollton, Kentucky, part of our “we need to learn more about Kentucky” initiative. The park itself features remarkably un-level sites strewn about the grounds. Whatever, we’re tired.

The next day we head out for supplies, and surprise ourselves by finding a distillery along the way (who would have expected this in KY!?). This is a “contract” distillery, essentially for hire to folks that want their own whiskey brand, but not the trouble of their own whiskey distillery. Their most recognizable client is Jefferson’s Ocean. They’ll even let you mix your own whiskey (minimum 50 bottles) and put whatever label you want on it. This is now a thing for wedding gifts and the like. We are looking forward to being invited to a Kentucky wedding as a result.

They also quietly make their own stuff. We enjoy many samples of many whiskeys as the sole guests in their tasting room, walk away with two rare bottles of the stuff, and are well prepared for our journey through Costco.

June 8-10

A meandering road trip to Chattanooga and Harrison Bay State Park. The park is just a short drive from downtown Chattanooga, and we have a lovely wooded site near a lake. Matthew has some work to do to finish the first draft of a report he’s working on for the AK Legislature, and Kayla has plenty of work of her own, so we spend the heat of the day at the downtown library, and then explore the town. And what a fun town it is! It has a unique vibe and plenty going for it. There are plenty of public spaces, wide sidewalks, and shade. Shops, restaurants, and bars aren’t compressed in one area, but kind of spread out through the compact city, with the downtown and the old railroad/warehouse district having plenty of places worth visiting. The city runs a free electric shuttle bus that connects these two areas. While enjoying lunch at a funky hotel-based brewpub, we watched folks dressed for work, tourists, and people with fishing poles over their shoulder all mingle on the bustling sidewalks. Examples of some of the great city art included below.

June 11-12

We head to Red Top Mountain State Park in Georgia, not far north of Atlanta. Matthew has fond memories of floating the Etowah river, so we spend a hot lazy day doing just that. It is getting hot down here. Time to start heading north.

June 13

We stay the night in an odd little campsite in Whittier North Carolina just off the highway 441. The next day we begin our journey up the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRPW).

June 14-15

Gaining some elevation really helps with the heat. We reach 6000 ft at one point, and breathe air for the first time in a while that doesn’t feel laden with humidity. After driving about 180 miles of the BRPW, we exit along Tater Hill Road, and meander to a Hipcamp called Loafer’s Joy to do some quality loafing for a couple of days.

June 16

Back on the Parkway and on up to Virginia. The speed limit along the entirety of the Parkway is 45 mph. It’s great to just meander along, enjoy the scenery, and not feel the need to pass or be passed. We stay the night at an odd little campground just off the BRPW called Don’s Camp Inn. Clearly this is a mountain biker’s destination, with lots of trails and a beer garden open on the weekends.

June 17

An easy meander to Devil’s Backbone Base Camp. Devil’s Backbone is a brewery of note, and they’ve established a remarkable outpost here. The Appalachian Trail follows a similar route as the Parkway, and for those hikers willing to come down from the mountain, the Base Camp provides a space for their tiny tents and showers for their stinking bodies. They also have lovely sites for us trailer folk. Of course they also offer a beer garden and some decent food.

June 18-21

We finish our journey along the length of the parkway. We can’t congratulate ourselves for driving the complete route, as there is a portion that is closed for repairs, but golly we sure covered most of it. Off the Parkway, we travel back roads to Mt. Solon, a wee little town tucked into the hills outside of Harrisonburg, VA for the Red Wing Roots Music Festival.

What a marvelous four days. It was one of those things that we know we will remember for years to come. There is a conscientious effort by the festival to encourage everyone there to just be nice to everyone else, and it works! Even as we are pulling into our camping spot our neighbors are welcoming us and inviting us over. There’s a real emphasis on family and kids as well, with special youth programming throughout the week, but also in just everyone from babies, tweens, teens, and us older folk enjoying the shows. The vibe has a real impact on the artists. So many of the acts remark on what fun they are having up on stage along with us. Oh, plus the music was AMAZING. Almost 50 bands in 3 days – we didn’t see them all but we tried our best!

We’ll leave this post here, but stay tuned for tales of our next adventures: camping with Matthew’s parents, visiting Kayla’s brother, and tales of New York ranging from Lake Ontario to mid-town Manhattan!

“Whoosh” is the sound of the last four months. Or maybe it’s the sound of time in general? I dunno, but all of a sudden it’s almost May, our brief stint in Sitka has come and gone, and we’re trying to pull all of life’s pieces together to make the most of 2026 and beyond. Today seems like a perfect moment to pause and reflect on the past few months before more time and events whoosh past us! Highlights described below: moving back into our Sitka house; friends, community, a shed remodel, so much snow in Sitka; quick trip to SoCal; and the passing of Kayla’s dad.

Sweet Snowy Sitka

These past few months have confirmed that even though we’ve been loving our nomadic life, we also still love Sitka. First things first when we landed there on January 10: move all our stuff out of storage and back into our little purple house!

We enjoyed reconnecting with our friends over dinner and pinball and afternoon walks. It was great to plug back into community events, and do things like subscribe to the local newspaper and pick up some regular radio shows again. We had hoped for some nice spring porch weather, but wow did it SNOW! Sitka normally receives about 33 inches of snow per year …. this year it snowed 32 inches in March alone (and 104 inches total for the winter).

And, because we can’t seem to go anywhere without diving in to some big construction project, Matthew made a goal to repair and re-side the utility shed that sits between our two houses. The cold/snowy weather + the challenges of getting construction materials in Sitka delayed this project until April, so once again we had to push against the deadline of our April 20th departure date.

Winter Travels

We snuck away from Sitka a couple of times – once to Juneau…

… and once to southern California. The SoCal trip was extra-special because we got to celebrate Kayla’s sister Iris being honored as Medical Director of the Year for the Foundation for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine! Plus we had a few days in one of our favorite spots: San Diego!

Lloyd Boettcher: 1931-2026

The biggest event of the last four months was the passing of Kayla’s dear dad. At 94 years old and experiencing both heart and lung issues, reaching his final days was certainly not shocking, and fortunately things progressed quickly so he didn’t spend much time suffering in discomfort. But even though we were prepared for it, it’s still such a big change in the world as we know it.

We are all so grateful for the time we spent with him last year, specifically focused on helping him distribute his things to new homes and his home to a new owner and sharing photos and stories and card games and laughter. We are planning a very special few days in Storm Lake May 3-5 to celebrate his life with our immediate family and many cousins and friends. I expect those days will include hymns, polkas, and the family choir; card games and maybe shooting some pool; lots of hugs, stories, and laughter/tears; and menus to include pickled herring, pork tenderloins & brats, beer and stingers, and a good steak at Zimmy’s. You can read his obituary here (special side note: he actually “wrote” most of this himself, dictating his thoughts to Iris late one night while hospitalized in late February). Please join us in a toast to this fine fella.

What’s Next?

We plan to spend most of May back in Glenn, Michigan, finishing the painting and other loose ends on Iris’ lake house project, doing a little work on our camper, and enjoying spring in West Michigan. And then we’ll hit the road for one more 4-month road/camping trip! Our plans include driving the Blue Ridge Parkway from south to north; spending Solstice at the Red Wing Roots Music Festival near Charlottesville VA; at least a week each in the Boston/Cape Cod area and Acadia National Park; visiting friends in western MA and *maybe NYC; several weeks exploring upstate NY, VT, NH, ME, and the Maritime Provinces. Our big circle will bring us back to Philadelphia by the third week in September, when we’ll spend a week with family and friends, soaking up history and culture by day and Phillies games by night. Be sure to let us know if/where we can meet up with you along the way!

Happy mid-holidays, friends! We hope you have had safe travels, festive times, and lots of holiday cheer. As we type this, we’re both wrapped in blankets watching a winter storm bluster across Lake Michigan and attempt to topple our construction-site outhouse. Good thing we have one working toilet in the house! More on that in a moment….

Speaking of wind, the last five months have been full and breezy, and it’s remarkable to take this moment to catch our breath and reflect on it all a bit. But we can’t relax too long because this week we need to pack our stuff and return semi-permanently to Sitka! That’s right – if all goes to plan, on January 10 we’ll arrive in Sitka and move back into our house! Prepare yourselves, Alaska friends!

But enough forward-looking, this is a time of reflection, so let’s catch up on the Betties’ antics of the last few months.

Lake House Construction

If you’ve been following our story this year, you know that one of the through-lines is our involvement with the remodel of Kayla’s sister’s cottage on Lake Michigan. We’ve spent a lot of time in this house over the last four years. It’s become our home base in the Lower 48 in-between our other wanderings.

During this time, Iris decided she wanted to turn this summer cottage into a year-round home, and – because we’re suckers for a good house project – we happily agreed to help. Her vision included a small addition to create a better entryway plus one more main floor bathroom; remodel the existing bathroom; install new insulated windows; upgrade all systems (plumbing, electrical, HVAC); and give a facelift to the adorable little guest cabin that sits separately from the main house.

Matthew helped locate a fantastic local building company to help with the big stuff, and they moved on-site in mid-September. Prior to their work and continuing in tandem with the professional crew, Matthew has been the on-site liaison for Iris while also taking on several of the “smaller” projects (like building interior window trim for all 16 new windows and tiling the shower in the guest cabin). We’ve also accepted painting duty, so we’re spending these two weeks painting as many new surfaces as we can before we head to Alaska. The professional crew won’t finish their work until mid-January (tiling and cabinetry are the big remaining items), so we plan to return here in late April to put finishing touches on whatever needs it.

The power was turned off for at least 6 weeks, and prior to Dec 12 there was no running water or functional toilet in the house (hence the port-a-john on the property that’s now being threatened by winter winds). By mid-December, just before the professional crew moved out for their 2-week break, hot water was restored, one toilet on the 2nd floor is functional, and a shower was hooked up in the main bathroom. Here are a few photos from this process; scroll down for headlines from the other adventures we’ve had since August.

AUGUST

Kayla and her sisters went to Chicago to see niece Kristina in an opera. Then Kristina came to visit us in Michigan for a week.

Meanwhile, a new part-time job swept Matthew to Anchorage for 48 hours in August. The Legislature has created a Joint Legislative Task Force on Education Funding, and hired Matthew to shepherd the process and write the final report. This turns out to be kind of a big deal. The Task Force will meet regularly for the next year, with the final report due just in time for a new legislature and a new governor to get things going in January 2027. If he does a decent job, Matthew will know a whole lot about the AK Ed Funding landscape, which we hope will land him an interesting job in-state to occupy his waning useful years.

In late August, after rearranging all the furniture in the lake house as final prep for construction, we took off for two weeks in Minneapolis and northwest Iowa.

September

The main event of our midwest trip was a full Boettcher family gathering in Kayla’s hometown of Storm Lake, Iowa. You may recall that her dad has been in the process of finding new homes for his things, and ultimately finding a new owner for his home – the house he and Kayla’s mom built from scratch when they retired from farming in 1996. Over Labor Day weekend, all 14 members of Kayla’s family came together in Storm Lake for a “house-cooling” event, complete with digitizing 60+ years of family photos (and enjoying stories and slideshows as evening entertainment!), clearing out the last of the household items, sharing conversation and the view from the front porch, and walking through the house together room-by-room to share memories and celebrations of the life lived in that house. What a blessing to have Dad present and fully participating in this process! Plus, we’re happy to report that after 3 months on the market, sale on the house closed just before Christmas – a perfect Christmas gift!

After this, we took a few days to leisurely return to Michigan, making a stop in Ankeny, IA (to visit Kayla’s dear high school friend Bridget), and camping along the Hennepin Canal Parkway in Northern Illinois (a 19th-century attempt at connecting Chicago with the Mississippi River).

After about 10 days back in Michigan (where Kayla managed to get involved with some garden harvesting / canning), we pointed east and took off again. Our destination was eastern Virginia, but we opted for a new route across Michigan to Port Huron (north of Detroit), across Ontario to Niagara Falls, then south through central Pennsylvania and the northern part of Shenandoah National Park.

We arrived at Matthew’s parents’ house in Mathews County on Sept 22 and spent a couple of nights there before heading into Richmond. We had secured a sweet housesitting gig in the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond for three weeks, which gave us proximity and time with Matthew’s parents, who live about an hour east of Richmond. Church Hill is full of fun little restaurants and bars, and is great for long walks with a good dog. We loved having niece Hannah visit for a few days; we also went to a couple of live music shows (Neko Case and Pokey Lafarge) and spent time with friends who live in the area as well as with Matthew’s family. Everything was fantastic, except for the adventurous chickens who kept escaping their coop!

October

We wrapped up our time in Virginia on October 17 and made our way back to Michigan. Although we would have loved to return at a more leisurely pace, we were feeling some urgency around house construction projects back in Glenn, plus we already had our next round of travel planned for October 29. We had read a little about Blackwater Falls State Park in eastern West Virginia, which is about 5.5 hours from Matthew’s parents’ place, so we made that our first stop. Unfortunately, the state park campground was full but we managed to get a spot at a sweet little private campground called Rest Rite just outside of Davis WV. This whole area is pretty intriguing – hiking, biking, fun small town action – so we’ve added this to our “must-return” list. On 10/18 we wound our way through the WV mountains and just kept going all the way across Ohio. The weather forecast called for really soggy conditions that night, and we were pretty tired, so we drove all the way to Adrian, MI before we stopped and grabbed a hotel room.

Back in Iris’ orbit (but without running water or electricity out at the lake), we moved into the guest room at her house near Grand Rapids. On October 29, Matthew flew to Alaska for two weeks of meetings and Kayla flew to Minneapolis for another 10 days in the midwest, including back to Storm Lake to celebrate Dad’s 94th birthday on Halloween.

November

After a few days in Storm Lake with her dad and sisters, Kayla spent a week in / around Des Moines – first with dear friend Bridget, and then on her own retreat in downtown Des Moines – while Matthew, with unfortunate hair (see below) talked education and visited friends in AK.

Coming back together in Michigan in mid-November, we took a quick spin to see Jeff Daniels perform an acoustic music show in Owosso, we had a fun Thanksgiving with Iris and her good friend David, and we spent a weekend in Traverse City with our pals Ed and David.

December

And that brings us to December, which has kept us solidly in West Michigan, and for the last 10 days we’ve been living back at the lake full-time, chipping away at house projects and personal goals (like catching up on our blog!), with a brief detour back to Grand Rapids to join Iris for a lovely Christmas Eve of carols and good food. Somehow we need to pull ourselves out from beneath these blankets and figure out what to bring back to Alaska and how to get it there, but for now it’s nice to watch the storm squalls cross over the lake and testify that this house is now certainly more than a summer cottage.

And then what?

Yes, we will be establishing our residence back in Sitka, but we aren’t done road-tripping. While things are up-in-the-air with Matthew’s job through 2026, we hope to sneak back to the Lower 48 for a few months to do a Northeast America road trip – there are still a few places on our map that need more lines! We’ve also got a summer solstice music festival planned in VA, maybe a Philly’s game in Philly … who knows what other fun and adventure is in store?! Maybe we can plan some shenanigans with you!

July 10-16

Yes, we’re still catching up on stories from four months ago. Good grief. But it’s fun to go back and revisit these fun memories!

Our draw to Lillehammer is Kayla’s college roommate, Emily, who moved there around 2010 when her husband Erik landed a job and they could launch an ex-pat life in beautiful Norway. It was truly delightful to spend 6 days with Emily and get better acquainted with their whole family (including their fun and brilliant children, Greta and Henrik, and gorgeous doggo, Lotta).

And just like that it was time to head back to Michigan! In Reykjavik we remembered we had a bunch of Euros, and wound up spending it all on some questionable candy. They are wild about the licorice in Iceland, and even go so far as to put it in their chocolate. Hmmm. If you ever want to try it, I’m sure we’ll still have some hidden in a cupboard somewhere.

Getting back to Glenn, Matthew jumped back into housing projects, Kayla jumped back in to On-Ramps, and we enjoyed about three weeks of relatively routine midwest summer days.

Coming up in our next post: Matthew gets a phone call, Kristina comes for a visit, and we head to Storm Lake via Minneapolis on a short but action-filled road trip!

July 6-10

In case you missed the last chapter, our heroes just finished a week in northern Germany and traveled by train to Berlin. What a city! We had four days jam-packed with history, culture, art, delicious food, and delightful conversation. We were so happy that niece Sophia could join us – ’twas such fun to explore and learn things with her!

We asked our friend Roald to pick some favorite parts of the city to visit. He describes Berlin not so much as a particular place, but as an overall experience. Well put. Everywhere there are beautiful parks, plus crazy good (and inexpensive) restaurants with tables on the sidewalk to watch the steady stream of people all going somewhere. There is art and architecture and delicious pastries and quiet places and lovely walks.

We had a fine hotel near Alexanderplatz very near train and bus stations, so getting around the city was pretty slick. Here’s a glance at the ground we covered: the blue line is a bike tour route we took; all the black circles with white stars show places we visited.

A great way to see the city and learn a lot in a short amount of time is to take a bike tour. In 3.5 hours we biked close to 20 km (12.4 miles) and saw fifteen or more notable Berlin sites: Museum Island, Konzerthaus Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie, Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg Gate, Tiergarten & Victory Column, Reichstag, and Berlin Wall Memorial, plus more! Our guide was terrific – super informative and prepared with maps and photos.

We invested two afternoons into some heavy museum visits: the Stasi Museum and the Jewish Museum. The Stasi Museum is located in the former headquarters of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of East Germany from 1960-1989. Since 1990 and the reunification of Germany, the Stasi Museum has been used to inform visitors about the Stasi and its activities as a “protection and security organ” during the SED dictatorship. It was chilling to see the ways Erich Mielke (MfS) manipulated surveillance systems to support Head of State Erich Honecker as leader and primary decider across all aspects of East Germany: head of party and state, secretariat of the Central Committee and Politburo (where all political, economic, and other basic decisions were made), Chairman of the State Council and National Defense Council. We also saw the propaganda that was fed to the people in an attempt to build loyalty for the state and suppress any concerns that the SED had stolen their freedoms and right to choose their leaders. No one knew who might be working for the Stasi (one of the largest secret police agencies in the world): at it’s largest, it employed 91,000 people. Spouses, family members, best friends — no one knew who they could trust anymore, and we saw examples of the information collected by Stasi on their friends and neighbors. It was grim, I tell ya.

The Jewish Museum is also incredible. Tracing the Jewish people all the way back to BC and how the diaspora spread around the world after encountering persecution after persecution, through the ~15 years of the Weimar Republic where Jews enjoyed a short stint of cultural flourishing before the Nazis took all that away, and of course the exhibitions about the 1930s-1940s were horrific. While not detailing the Holocaust specifically, the museum does an incredible job of showcasing the increasing discriminations and deportations that led up to trains filled with people shipped to concentration camps. How could this happen? How can this hatred and dehumanization still be happening today? Very, very disturbing perspective on humanity.

*whew* After both of these museum experiences we had to find beers and sunshine. We also enjoyed lots of other delicious food and drink across the City!

An icon of Berlin is the Ampelmännchen (“little traffic light man”) in all the crosswalk signs. East and West Berlin had different traffic signals – Amelmann came from the East and stuck around.

We’ll wrap up this post with a few more sights from Berlin. Next post – our last stop in Europe: Lillehammer Norway!

(this entry will cover the end of June to the beginning of July)

Hello hello! We’re still here! Wow, the last six weeks have been pretty wild. Last weekend we realized we hadn’t been in the same state for two consecutive Sundays since Aug 17! In order: Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia. We’re rewinding the clock more than two months for today’s post, but before we dive into that, here are a few headlines of our shenanigans since returning from Europe in late July:

+ Kayla and her sisters had a few days in Chicago to see niece Kristina in an opera performance
+ Then Kristina came to Michigan for a week
+ LOTS of projects at the lake house in Glenn, MI
+ Matthew landed a new part-time job in Alaska government, which took him to Anchorage for 48 hours
+ Several days in Minneapolis visiting family & friends
+ Eight days in Iowa with Kayla’s whole family, cleaning out the rest of Dad’s house and celebrating his years there (fortunately, with Dad participating!)
+ High school football game with friends (the highlight being their daughter as cheerleader / marching band)
+ Making garden preserves with Iris
+ Road trip from West Michigan across Ontario to Niagara Falls, then south to Virginia
+ Settling into a 3-week housesitting gig in Richmond, VA, which also gives us time with the Turner family
+ Weekend with niece Hannah in Richmond

Stories on all that coming later! But for now, let’s time travel back to late June, starting with the amazing week we spent in Northern Germany — in Hamburg and the Boettcher family homeland in the Altes Land.

Brief Boettcher History

For context: what makes this all so special is that somehow the Boettcher family has managed to maintain ties to relatives in Germany, dating all the way back to the late-1800s during the Prussian war when Kayla’s great-grandfather Ernst immigrated to the US with four of his six brothers. His eldest brother, Johann, stayed behind to continue farming, and Ernst’s youngest brother Heinrich was still too young to leave home. Eventually, though, after their mother died, Heinrich also came to the US along with their father, who is now buried in Zion Lutheran cemetery less than a mile from where Kayla’s dad was born in northwest Iowa.

For over a century and across 4 generations, the descendants of these brothers found ways to keep in touch, and today Kayla’s family has strong ties to Eike, who is Kayla’s 3rd cousin, the great-granddaughter of eldest brother Johann. Eike and her children (Tjerk and Insa) have all visited their US relatives (including an epic week where Eike and Insa came to visit us in Sitka!), and Kayla has been to Germany twice before. It definitely helps that Eike and her family are completely delightful and great fun to spend time with. So as we planned our trip to Europe, it was pretty obvious that we needed to go visit them.

June 27 – 30: Hamburg

We started by flying from Edinburgh to Hamburg, where we were greeted by cousin Tjerk. He and his family instantly welcomed us into their home in the city, and we spent a few days exploring the sites.

July 1-5: Altes Land

On July 1, Kayla’s niece Sophia flew to Hamburg from Minneapolis to join us for the next 10 days in Germany. Eike came in from her village to pick us up at Tjerk’s, we all went to the airport to grab Sophia, and then we pointed toward the Altes Land with a quick visit at Ballinstadt Emigration Museum.

“Altes Land” translates as “old country” but the original term was “Olland,” referring to the Holland origins of the land: initially, Dutch settlers reclaimed the land from the sea with a complex system of dykes, resulting in rich lowlands perfect for agriculture. Eike and Insa live near each other in the village of Moorende, on the banks of the Este River just north of Buxtehude.

Matthew, Kayla, and Sophia shared a lovely apartment just down the road. Eike and her neighbor loaned us some bikes, and we spent most of these four days bicycling between Moorende and Buxtehude, enjoying time with Eike and Insa and all the beauty of Lower Saxony. We also had the treat of a professional tour guide, as Eike works part-time for the local tourism board, so we had official tours of Buxtehude and the stretch of Altes Land between there and Stade.

But the most special of all experiences was a quick tour of Boettcher homelands and a “cousins lunch,” where we had the chance to meet Eike’s sister and several next generation cousins from their branch of the family.

This was truly a lovely few days, and it was over too soon. We’re so grateful to Eike, Insa, and Tjerk for hosting us, and for all the laughter, music, delightful conversation, and delicious food we shared. Hopefully we can find a way to be together again soon!

Coming Up Next…

Kayla, Matthew, and Sophia head to Berlin!

Editor’s Note: Did our last post show up in your inbox truncated or with messy text? There were a lot of photos … we might have blown up the internet. You can always (re)read our posts direct on our website: jetsetbetties.com

June 17-27 – we visited five Scottish islands (Mull, Staff, Iona, Islay, and Arran) plus one sweet river town (Peebles). Come along with us to relive the fun!

MULL, STAFFA, IONA
While we were in Oban, we took a 10-hour, 3-island day trip via boat and bus. Highlights were visiting Fingal’s Cave on Staffa (inspiration for Mendelssohn’s “The Hebrides” overture) and the Iona Monastery.

ISLAY
Our favorite island of the five we visited was Islay, where we had a charming beach house, perfect weather, and plenty of peaty whisky!

ARRAN
After a thoroughly delightful 11 days together, we parted ways with Tom and Sarah after Islay and hopped another ferry to Arran.

PEEBLES
When we told people we were going to Peebles, most of them said “WHY??” We had a hunch, and we were right – it’s a charming little town along the River Tweed, about 25 miles south of Edinburgh.

COMING UP NEXT:
Stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll take to to Germany!

We are excited to share tales of our European adventures! It’s impossible to believe it’s already been 2 months since we embarked on this journey, and also pretty wild that we’ve already been back in Michigan for three weeks. How do the days disappear so quickly!?

We had SUCH a wonderful time for the entirety of our trip, but especially in Scotland. We loved Scotland so much, in fact, that we’re going to split those stories into two posts. Today we’ll cover June 10-18, our time in Edinburgh, Pitlochry, and part of Oban.

Edinburgh

After a couple of long flights and being too tired to read local maps well (we took a couple of wrong turns while trying to find our apartment), we finally stumbled into our dear friends Tom and Sarah, just as they were coming out of our place! Thank goodness, because they had rested up enough to help us haul our bags and instruments up the 5 flights of stairs! We dropped our stuff, took much-needed showers, and then immediately went out for a fun and delicious evening.

But a true highlight of Edinburgh was the music tour we took. We hired a guide (“an actual Edinburgh musician!”) to take us to three music bars and tell us about the local music scene. In the tour description he mentioned that there could be opportunities for us to join the jams, so we brought our instruments along. And whaddya know, we played in two Edinburgh pubs!

PITLOCHRY

On June 13 we said goodbye to Edinburgh, and hopped in the car that Tom & Sarah rented (and Tom generously offered to drive!). Tom rewired his brain pretty quickly to drive on the left and we headed north. We stopped in Aberdour for a nice cafe lunch and walkabout the city, then on to Pitlochry, a beautiful little river town about 70 miles north of Edinburgh.

Within hours of arriving in Pitlochry, we were exploring the town and putting together a little garden picnic for later. As we were looking for a bottle of wine (or maybe whisky?) we were chatting with the shopkeeper at Robertson’s and revealed that we’re musicians. She practically begged us to come and play in the shop that evening — they were hosting an open house / tasting event and she hadn’t booked any music. We accepted! She paid us with a bottle of wine, and we played for an hour or so, mostly to an empty room (except for the shopkeeper who was VERY appreciative and enjoyed the music). It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes that people started to come in, but unfortunately we had to move on to get dinner before all the restaurants closed. (Note to future Scotland travelers: most restaurants close up by 9:00. Even in Edinburgh!)

The next couple of days were fairly rainy, and we were happy to take a slower pace. Matthew and I went on a nice long hike one day, and we found a couple other gems in the town. Very sweet!

TO OBAN, VIA KINGUSSIE

Our next stop was Oban, but we decided to take a meandering route to see a little of the highlands. Beautiful! We drove as far north as Kingussie, where we found a farmer’s market in action, a wonderful cheese shop, a very odd antiques/oddities store, and a scrummy lunch. All day we were on the quest for “hairy coos” (long-haired Shetland cows); lo-and-behold, there they were, near the Ruthven Barracks!

After saying goodbye to the hairy coos, we continued on to Oban, a nice seaside town. We rented a house less than a mile from downtown and enjoyed a couple of days exploring the area: Dunollie Castle, Fingal’s Dogstone, and McCaig Tower to name a few, plus Oban distillery of course! We also took a day trip to three neighboring islands, but I’m going to save that story for the next post.

OK, there’s some pictures and words to tide you over until our next post, wherein our heroes travel by sea, auto, and bus to some far off islands and to many more adventures.

Hello dear friends. We jumped right from our trip to Europe and back into our lives in Glenn, Michigan. Matthew is deep in some home improvement work for Iris’ house here, and Kayla is back into the daily grind of her job at On-Ramps. We have great intention to start posting some stories of our time abroad, but in the meantime…

Remember our trip through Kentucky back in April, and our meet-up with the Bluegrass Chapter of the Tearjerkers? Remember how we (and quite a few other folks) were gushing because “The Guy from Camp and Camera” was there? As he does, Mike interviewed folks around the campground about their trailers, and we were part of that. He wasn’t sure if the sound was OK when he toured our camper, and we didn’t see a video on his channel in the weeks following the gathering, so we assumed it didn’t make the cut.

We were wrong! Here’s the video! (We highly recommend watching the whole video – you’ll get a feel for these Tearjerker gatherings and tour one other camper. But if you don’t have time for the full video, our part starts at 14:59.)