1969
Besides getting busy with patients, I started with an extra job, preparations for Carl’s visit. That was for a long time his dream. I even went once to Washington D.C. to the Rumanian embassy to inquire whether that would be possible. I was told that that would not be difficult and I got information what I had to do. At the immigration office in New York I received forms which I had to fill out. I had to write to the Rumanian authorities also, give them information of all kinds. It was a long-drawn job, but we were finally successful, about a year later.
At about the end of 1968 we went again to Salt Lake City.
Marvin, Johanna, and Nancy had become enthusiastic skiers and we went with them to the Alta Ski mountains, one of the best and most famous in the U.S., where we stayed in a lodge with Lauren, while the others were out skiing. All the doctors there in the hospital went skiing on weekends, including Dr. Wint robe.
We come now to 1969. In May of that year we went on a one-week trip to Bermuda, where we stayed in the elegant Princess Hotel, went once on an outing by boat, and I also once on a deep-sea fishing trip.
In the summer of that year, Marvin’s connection with the hospital in Salt Lake City came to an end. He had now to prepare himself for service in the army for 2 years, since he was drafted 2 years before. They had to pack and had to go to an army hospital in Tacoma in the State of Washington. Marvin had bought a new Volvo-Station-Wagon. But before going to Tacoma, he had to go for 2 months for basic training to San Antonio in Texas. Most of their things were packed and shipped to Tacoma, but their personal things they packed into the Volvo and went off to San Antonio.
But Nancy did not like it at all there. It was very hot and although they had a swimming pool, there was nothing for her to do. So, we had her, solo again, come to New York and went with her on a trip to the Caribbean area, starting on July 14th,1969. The first stop was Fort of Spain on the island Trinidad, where we stayed in a fine hotel with a big swimming pool for 5 days. Francis and Vicki were there the year before and we followed their advice and went by cab to the Europa Restaurant, where we got Wiener Schnitzel, and the area there was also very good for butterfly hunting. They also told us about a Mr. Barcant, who was a butterfly collector, and we called him up and went to his house, where he showed us his fantastic butterfly collection, containing all the butterflies of that island in show cases. He had written a book about the butterflies of Trinidad, which I later got from Francis. We also went to the beach at Maracas with a hired car. Two of the five days in Trinidad were rainy days.
We then flew over to nearby Tobago for two days, had there the most pleasant swim of our lives in crystal-clear, warm, calm water. Back to Trinidad and from there to Barbados for 3 days, to St. Lucia for half a day, and to Martinique for 2 days, a French island, where I rented a car and went to a rain forest, getting close to Mount Pelee, a volcano. In its last eruption in 1902, 40.000 people lost their lives and the city of Saint-Pierre, through which we drove, was completely destroyed, later partially rebuilt. Martinique is the island, from which Josephine Beauharnais came, whom Napoleon Bonaparte married in 1796 and later divorced in 1809, to marry Marie Louise. After a short stop in Guadeloupe and then in Haiti, we went for one week to Miami Beach, Florida. It was summer and very hot there, but we stayed in the Hotel Fountainbleau, which was air-conditioned throughout and pleasantly cool, and the beach there was also pleasant. Then back to New York on August 3rd.