Judy REVELLE Hopkins:  

Life and Adventures of Judy Revelle Hopkins Married (since 1974) with cats. Met husband at Pleasant Hill Bowling Alley where I spent my wonder years. Worked 25+ yrs at Wilmington Public Library. What an experience that was. Domestic Goddess since Dec. 1999 & don't plan on re-joining the workforce. Had 31+ operations (& countin') NONE FOR COSMETIC REASONS!! but life has still been good. Started traveling the world by land & sea when turned 18 & have visited many countries, some more than once. LOVE to cruise - taken over 30. Prone to SEVERE seasickness but have survived. (Altho one trip thru the Bermuda Triangle was iffy!) I've visited: most of the Caribbean, Grand Cayman & Virgin Islands numerous times & Hawaiian Islands several times, HELL, a town in Grand Cayman, TWICE, will take up permanent residence in the OTHER Hell once I DIE...Costa Rica, Panama, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, Mexico, South America, Canada, Nova Scotia, Alaska, Newfoundland, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, the Holy Lands, Turkey, Crete, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Cyprus, Crete, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania (I HAD to go to Transylvania!), Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, French Polynesia (Tahiti, Bora-Bora, Huahine, Riataaha, Moorea, and a private Motu), Japan, China, Spain, Portugal, Gibralter, Canary Islands, Morocco, Switzerland, the land down under=Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, Ukraine & Russia. OZ, the Middle Kingdom, a Magic Kingdom & a lot of the good old USA where the best place to be is still HOME. 7/08 = just returned from tour of Eastern Europe. Poland was unforgettable tour of Auschwitz, Birkenau & other concentration camps - not your typical VAC, huh? Then off to Hungary, Slavakia, Bratislava and the Czech Republic. Prague was beautiful with its old architecture. So many stories - 1st trip at 18 had shipboard romance with one of the entertainers; paid $3 for a can of coke & $5 for teeniest jar of peanut butter I've ever seen in Papeete in 1983, the warmth of the black sand beach & smell of breadfruit cooking over an open fire by natives, feeling the tingly exhilaration of standing IN a rainbow in Tahiti, circling the most beautiful, clear, aqua colored water around Bora Bora in an outrigger canoe paddled by natives, the mosquitoes on a private motu (island), the fear & feel of the sleek skin of a HUGE stingray brushing against me while only waist high in water; being surrounded by gendarmes in Paris airport while trying to bring back a Cuckoo clock in carryon luggage - seems the pine cone pendulums appeared to be HAND GRENADES & this was shortly after 9/11; body searched by weapons carrying Israeli's at border, placed message (near Hillary Clintons) in crevice of Wailing Wall & knocked out a few-BY ACCIDENT, had to wait for President Clinton's helicopter to leave before allowed to enter house where Virgin MARY died, Had picnic lunch in Carpathian Mountains...with Romany gypsies. I can still see/smell/feel the Lg stone that JESUS is believed to have been placed after being crucified, was pissed my camera wouldn't work when I was touching the Manger in the Church of the Nativity, slipping on the stone floor & saying a REALLY bad word at Jesus Tomb (I'm sure I will rot in HELL for eternity for this one!); dining in a palace in Egypt, riding a camel named Moses led by Abu, hyperventilating in a queen's tomb under a pyramid, the sight of the Spinx, Nile, Suez Canal, hieroglyphics, sarcophagus, scarab beetles, hot air balloon ride over NILE and Valley of the Kings at sunrise with a "HARD" landing according to the flight man and CRASH landing according to those of us tossed about the basket holding on for dear life while sideways no less, and to the very angry farmer and his neighbors running at us with sycks and pointy spears all the while screaming something in Egyptian as the balloon plowed through their crops. Money crossing hands allowed us to live. The feeling of stepping back in time in Cairo & their horrible horn honkin' drivers in cars-on donkeys-horses-bikes-camels-goats-yaks-YIKES! Exercising in Hawaii (in an M&M shirt) with Richard Simmons & telling him to drop Howard Stern cos Howard wasn't his real friend-soon after-he did. I KNOW that Richard Chamberlain's maid doesn't like you eating choc. chip cookies in his bedroom & that's ALL I'm saying about that. I think I've seen the Loch Ness monster. While visiting the Rock of Gibraltar, an APE, Barbary - not my husband, sat down on the wall next to me, reached over and held my hand for the longest time. He was smitten, me even more so. We just sat enjoying the view, watched the other apes steal from people's pockets, coo'd over the baby Barbary apes climbing the rocks; vines; tour busses and riding on the bigger apes bodies. Not only was this a "Kodak moment", but an experience I'll always treasure. Besides, it's not often life just hands you the chance to catch BARBARY APE COOTIES. I've eaten in castles, palaces, a Kibbutz, homes of Beethoven, Mozart & places where GEORGE Washington slept. I know where the Pope-mobile is/was kept. I've been in room 600 where the war trials were held in Nuremburg, seen the Hague, OJ courthouse. Watched/heard glaciers calve & fell in love with WHALES in Juneau. I've ridden a bicycle down a volcano (Haleakala) in Hawaii. Have had sun poisoning many times. Ship doctor hollered at me for being outside (in the shade) while transiting Panama Canal. Had my face nearly sun burnt off in Scotland, of all places. I HATE Jamaica. Jamaican braided my hair, another offered to bash my head in & on my second climb up Dunns River Falls-I had to be carried out & up 800 ft. of the waterfalls after completely severing my ACL. I LOVE the Christmas Markets in Germany & Austria. They make the best hot choc "miff" whipped cream, bakeries/pastry shops are delickity. Rode the old, rickety ferris wheel from the picture "The Third Man". Salzburg is stunning covered in snow. The Danube is NOT blue. AHH, MEMORIES. No matter where you go, there's a story to tell. 2nd week in Beijing I could barely breath from all the air pollution and was literally sick in the ER of a slow boat in China on the Yangtze River. I was hooked up to 3 I.V. and given 2 RX's--all written in Chinese. Dr. told me to stay on ship next day cos a lot of pollution at that port stop. So I got off cos I didn't come all the way to Asia to sit. When I returned to ship, Doctor was waiting for me on the pier, where HE was smoking, (said he could hear me coughing all the way down the mountain). Back to laying on a gurney in the clinic, hooked up to 3 more I.V. bottles and this time my wonderful husband took my name badge and put it on me like a "Toe Tag". I guess all my doctors at home were right when they told me not to go to Tibet because I would get altitude sickness from the high elevation. My lungs are bad even tho I've never smoked. I was amazed at how friendly the Chinese are. It was an incredible 3 wks. Watched the non-stop building for the Olympic Games, rode in a rickshaw, saw the Terracotta Warriors, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Sq., Mao's tomb, Hutongs, Forbidden City, Stillwell's Flying Tiger base, Shanghai lights at night are not to be missed, walked Great Wall of China...best part was losing 10 pounds cos I don't like Chinese Food! Not even rice, unless it's covered in chocolate and called a Nestles Crunch. 12/24/09 We returned from a 2 week cruise of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand. Pre-cruise stay in Sydney & post cruise in Auckland so we were gone for most of December. I am sorry I missed all the snow here at home--I love snow. Had our usual adventures--bomb threat of our ship in Melbourne, rough seas closed all outside decks, wind so strong one night the ship had to lean starboard in order to stay upright, security out the wazoo. Fell in love with koalas (all over again), kangaroos & joeys, penguins, opossums, sheep, platypus, Tasmanian devil babies are irrestibable and the older ones just run around and BITE, wombats and wallabies. I even found NEMO! I've discovered the KIWI (bird) is adorable and made it my mission to help save them, according to my husband. (They're endangered) I donated money, bought everything with a Kiwi on it...be it paper, wood, pottery, keychains, magnets, pictures, cloth, plastic & on a 5 million year old stone. I was blown away (down actually!) by the wind in Milford Sound & still have bruises to prove it. Fjordland Nat. Park is just as beautiful as Li River in Guilhin, China but not as pretty as Moorea & Bora Bora in French Polynesia. I could live in Dunedin. New Zealand was amazing...landscape, wildlife. Discovered a wonderful Irish Pub called "Danny Doonan's" at the harbor in Auckland and hung out with the locals there each night. Great sunsets. Dec. 2010 we did a Christmas Markets riverboat cruise down the Rhine river. We started in Basel, Switzerland, had many stops in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and then we stayed a few days in Brussels, Belgium. Our luggage was lost the first 4 days...all we had was what we had on...had to get laundered every nite. Will always have spare outfit in carryon from here on out. Loved the medieval cities, xmas decorations are not to be believed, absolutely fantastic, and the lights...magical. I got my SNOW!!! Not nearly enough, but, got a really BEAUTIFUL snowfall in Rudesheim, Germany. It was nighttime and coming down fast & furious but silent. I had to be dragged inside a restaurant to eat. Had a sh-tty experience in Cologne, Germany. We were out on a walking tour and I was trying to take a picture under a tunnel/bridge, when I slipped and went BOOM down on my right side and nearly slid into the Rhine River. Then I couldn't get up because it was so slippery. I thought it was from the ice/slush/snow. But, I learned, as did the entire group, from ...Expand for more