COUNTRIES VISITED BY BILL AND MARY

GREECE

POLAND

SPAIN

FRANCE

So, Bill and Mary have been almost EVERYWHERE, no?

When I first started these groupings my thought was to NOT have any overlap. I wanted four groups that were exclusive… Russ, and only Russ went to UAE, Azerbaijan, and Mozambique. For a while I was trying to build a group based on Jay. He was born in Kenya and as recently as a few years ago went to South Africa for his sister’s wedding. Michaela and Jay had plans to go to Scotland this summer (that changed) but when they were planning it I thought of using the FOURTH option for Jay and trying to find out more on where else Russ may have visited.

I alone went to Singapore and Australia… and I alone (maybe) went to Denmark and Sweden – (but wait, have Bill and Mary visited those countries as well?). I had Catherine pretty much nailed down in the exclusive grouping of New Zealand, Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Switzerland. And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling (I mean TRAVELING) kids Bill and Mary! I realized a while back that Bill and Mary probably had been to the Czech Republic but then Catherine went to Norway so I thought I’d swap that in yielding New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland for her group. Things were looking good, but then in a matter of a few months this summer Bill and Mary visited Switzerland AND the Netherlands! And not only that, they took OTHERS with them to the Netherlands. So much for exclusivity.

Bill and Mary are great about sharing photos of themselves while traveling. I have an assortment of images of them in various locations around the globe. But, I decided that for this posting I’d use an image taken much closer to home (in Newport) but the photo looks like they have traveled in time. The photo was created using an early photographic technique, the tintype. A visiting artist at the Newport Art Museum took the photo.

Happy travels everyone!

I have to say, I think this is week 42 of these puzzles and this particular one underwent more edits and revisions than any other. At one point, I completely flipped my approach and tried looking at things from the perspective placing the people in groups and then identifying where they had visited (vs the current countries in groups and who visited them). I need a really good Venn diagram generator. Bottom line: lots-o-travel happening with Bill and Mary ticking off the most countries visited (by far).

While I was gathering info/thinking on all of this I had some thoughts: Canada, who’s been? Where? (eastern, western, middle?). I’ve been to Canada, ever so briefly, in the east. I know Bob has as well because I remember a conversation about Thetford Mines in Quebec. It seems that independent of each other (at completely different times), we both ended up there, amazed by the expansiveness of the operation. I’ve also been to British Columbia for a short trip with Catherine when she was in school in Seattle. I know Bill and Mary viewed the 2024 eclipse in Canada (Quebec?) and Mary had eye surgery in BC(?) when they were living in Seattle. Karen and Lou honeymooned in Canada. I remember Russ and Annette had a family vacation to Canada. Michaela recently attended a knitting event in Canada and I think she may have gone skiing a few times in Canada (because it was so much cheaper than NE, I think).

Mexico? I think the only family members to visit there are Mary and Lou. Mary and Lou? Yup. Maybe Mary and Bill went once too but I know Mary and Lou went. Iceland? Well, Bill and Mary lived there. I believe Eva, Mike, and Ellie visited Iceland as did Brian and Beata?

The UK? This one sort of surprised me when I started to think on it. Yes, Bill and Mary lived there as well. I went to London once on a business trip, Jim came with me. Bill and Mary met us in London and we went to the theater (italics to indicate you must read it with some level of snobbery). Bill and Mary recently went to Northern Ireland. Michaela has been to the England for her knitting retreat twice now and her and I went to Scotland (I also went to Scotland a few years back) and this opens up the whole UK/Great Britain/England thing that confuses us dumb Americans so much.

UK: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland

Great Britain: England, Scotland, Wales

England: Well, England, is just England. I think people erroneously use England and UK interchangeably.

Feel free to correct me if I have continued to be a dumb American with this delineation.

Anyway, who else has been to the UK?

I know there’s many other locations family members have visited which I haven’t listed (Bermuda, Japan, Thailand, etc) – feel free to comment.