My stepdad, Stan, turned 85 this June. He's a WWII veteran, and believe it or not his first car was a Model A Ford. He was born in 1924: the year IBM was founded and Wheaties was introduced.
A uniquely Northwest "yech". What to do when there is a slug in the way of your golf shot? Can I get a ruling here?!
We called this trip an eating vacation with a sailing problem! Here's Mike with a double dinner order of stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbages (just like his Croatian Mom used to make :) Lunch on the sailboat - we didn't do too badly rustling up the grub! Typical meal ANY time of the day was gelato (italian ice cream). P.S. Check out Mike's Croatian head shave, I mean haircut. The gal who cut his hair spoke NO English.
The marsh frogs were in the mood for mating, and put on quite a show with their loud croaking. Do you know how a frog croaks? Much like humans, they fill up their lungs with air and then blow it across their larynx. The hollow chamber on the side that they fill up with air acts as a resonator, much like the hollow wood of the guitar amplifies the sound of the strings. That allows the frog to make the sound audible over long distances, sometimes a mile or more. This has got to be one of the coolest places for a frog to live, ever.
Not too many national parks let you swim in their waterfalls - this one had designated areas where you were invited to take a dip. Lots of cascading waterfalls with lengthy boardwalk trails. Look at the trout holding their own against the current about to rush over the waterfall.
The sun is back and all is forgiven...we saw a pod of dolphins who followed us for a while, some swans with their babies (cygnets?), and went hiking with some burros!
Isn't it lovely? There are 1,185 islands in Croatia and about 47 of them are inhabited. We visited more of the southern islands: Hvar, Milna, Vis, Rogoznica, Skradin, Piskera, Telascica, Vodice. (I'm sure we butchered the pronunciation on a regular basis.)
Here is our "yacht" so to speak, rented for 2 weeks from Sunsail. If you look closely, I'm hanging our laundry on the railing with clothespins. 47.3 ft. long, 6 people sleeping on board, galley, dinghy. Pretty cushy, but not much elbow room in the 3 tiny toilet/shower combos on board (bathrooms the size of a phone booth). We did a lot of stern tie-ups on this trip, which necessitated perfecting the art of walking-the-plank. Difficult at first, but it was a breeze after a couple of days.
OK guys, did you know that you can thank 17th century Croats for popularizing the necktie? After the 30 years war in 1618-1648, Croatian mercinaries fought in the French Service. Voila, the Parisians liked that part of the uniform, and it became all the rage in Europe. The combination of the Croatia word for Croatia "Hrvati" and the French word for Croatia "Croates" linguistically evolved to become "cravat", which is the actual name of the knot that you guys tie with your dress ties. Huh!
Quick, say Ljubljana 3 times fast! (Hint: the J sounds like Y). This is the capital of Slovenia, and a beautiful arty youthful city. It housese the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and each year there are over 10,000 cultural events - last year there were ten international festivals of music, theater and art. The centerpiece is the historic St. Nicholas cathedral rebuilt in the 1700s, which had these amazing 10 ft. tall bronze doors - this is a closeup of the "handle" worn shiny from thousands of worshipers. The dragon is one of 4 that flock the corners of the Dragon bridge, cast in 1900 when the city was part of Austria-Hungary. The last photo was of a pre-school group who were acting out a play with "fisherman and his wife" marionettes. 
Postojnska Jama is the largest limestone cave in Europe - and the largest we've ever been in. 20 kilometers! It's so huge that they take you on a train ride through the first part of it - it felt very Disneyesque, like we were about to pitch downhill or have something jump out at us. The stalagtites and stalagmites were good, if not well preserved. Remember, the mites crawl up and the tites come down :) 
