Here's To Life!

A Little January Fun The best way to spend a week in January is not in the Chicago area. We took a 10 day trip south driving to Destin, FL and New Orleans, LA. We drove through Birmingham and Montgomery, AL on the way and  stopped at some of the civil rights memorials. One of the most meaningful one was the National Memorial for Peace and Justice which highlights the many lynchings (4400) that took place in this country between the years of 1877 and 1950. We spent 2 1/2 days in Destin, enjoying walking on the beach and using the pool at the resort as well as trying different restaurants. Drove to New Orleans, stopping in Biloxi, MS to visit the last home of Jefferson Davis. Activities in New Orleans included exploring the French Quarter, taking a 2 hour cruise on the Natchez steam boat, and sipping coffee and eating beignets at Cafe Du Mond.   The next day we visited a few plantations along Plantation Row - the Whitney Planta...

Christmas, 2019 Dear Family and Friends, Our tree is up, cookie baking has started and it is time to reflect on this year and share our happenings with you. We celebrated 40 years of marriage on May 12. We took the whole family to dinner and then at the end of June we took them all to Hawaii for a week. Our kids arranged for a photoshoot while we were there (hence the Hawaii pictures on our card) and we all had a great time seeing the sights, enjoying the sun, sand and surf. Dolphin watching and snorkeling was a highlight. We did a fair amount of traveling this year - 28,000 miles or so. Besides Hawaii, we took a trip to Greece with our church friends following in the footsteps of the apostle Paul. Amazing to think we walked in the same places in Corinth, Ephesus and Athens. The trip ended with a four day cruise on the Aegean Sea. We drove to Cape Cod with John, Sasha and Xochitl and spent a week there. We started the year with a trip to West Virginia and in Apri...