I remember a fishing opener where I went out to Black Bay wearing my parka and long underwear. Last week was pretty amazing with temps in the high 80s. I spent the week with my brotherin- law laying tile in Mom’s kitchen and bathroom. I like to lay tile, but I don’t think it’s for me anymore — back hurts, knees hurt, hands hurt and then when I’m almost done I start to make mistakes… ugh.

Two years ago I went to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. I wanted to see Christ the Redeemer, which I did and it was amazing. It is one of the wonders of the world. However, I read about the Selaron Steps. A Chilean artist, Jorge Selaron, had moved to Rio and decided to renovate the dilapidated steps outside his residence. He chose to use ceramic tiles in the color of the Brazilian flag — yellow, blue, green. In the beginning he was mocked by his neighbors, but he continued with his project. What began as a simple project turned into something much bigger. He tiled 215 steps that are approximately 135 yards long. They are covered by over 2,000 tiles collected from over 60 countries. In the beginning, the tiles were scavenged from construction sites and then as visitors began to see the project they would send him tiles. Jorge died in 2013 when he was found on the steps that he created.

During my project, I thought of my time in Rio and how amazing this man’s project was. I’d strongly recommend it if visiting Rio. During my time there, I also took a cable car to Sugar Loaf Mountain which had amazing views of the Harbor in Rio, which is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The harbor is the largest bay in the world based on volume of water. It was a spectacular sight to see from the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Those were a few of the amazing places I saw, but Brazil is a soccer country and while I was there there was a big game. The beaches were full at night with fans of both teams. I didn’t understand what they were saying, but enjoyed watching them celebrate until I noticed that there was a big bus and all of a sudden it seemed like over 100 policemen exited it in full riot gear with ARs or AKs. I decided that was a sign to head back to the hotel.

The beaches were beautiful, the sights were amazing, people were friendly, but I learned one block in the wrong direction could be dangerous — outside of that I had a great time. Actually, my favorite thing was to go hang gliding over the Harbor — it was breathtaking.