Here's To Life!

A visit to Leelaunau Peninsula   Northport Lighthouse A little wine tasting Our hosts for the weekend! The must have Michigan sunset photo!

June 2021 - Our trip to Colorado and New Mexico!   Pictures from our trip! Our western jaunt this June was a trip over various parts of terrain through southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Our main destinations were Pagosa Springs, CO and Taos and Santa Fe, NM.   We drove through Lawrence, Kansas and our first historical site was Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in LaJunta, CO. Bent’s Old Fort is an adobe fort, built to trade with Plains Indians and trappers and located on the Santa Fe Trail. A hot day but an interesting fort showing how the traders lived and worked. After visiting the fort, we headed to Pagosa Springs but made a stop at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. We did not attempt to walk on the dunes but did take pictures. From there we drove through the mountain pass to Pagosa Springs and our home for the next few days. We wandered in downtown Pagosa Springs but did not try the hot springs. We explored the area, driving to Durango one day to t...

Our trip to South Carolina in April was wonderful. The weather was lovely and we were there for the peak blooms of azaleas. It was relaxing, we visited new sites, ate some great food and had a good time. Wonderful to be near the ocean. We traveled through Kentucky on our way and visited a Buffalo Trace Distillery. As the weather warmed as we went south, we could also see the trees budding out and flowering. A great sign of spring. Our first stop in South Carolina was Edisto Beach. It is almost like an island -surrounded by the ocean and the South Edisto River. We wandered on the beach and drove among trees laden with Spanish moss. We visited the Charleston Tea plantation and drove through nature preserves. We spent a day at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens where we saw lovely flowers, lots of wildlife, and experienced a bit of history. We spent a few days in Charleston where we made a trip to Fort Sumter, took a carriage ride, visited the Slave Mart Museum and had some great meals. Then...

Spring has sprung! And the time to travel has begun.  Retirement is great because we have time to do the things we want to do, including traveling as the weather warms up. Of course we are traveling safely, wearing masks and not making contact with too many people. This March we drove out to the Cape to visit my mother. I have been going to the Cape in March for a number of years, though I never made it last year. Paul was able to go with me this time. The weather was decent - at least no rain - so we tried to spend some time outdoors. When I go to the Cape I always want to "find the water" and eat fish and chips. This time we found the water at Dowses Beach, the National Seashore, Plymouth Harbor and the Sandwich boardwalk. We had fish and chips from Bobby Byrne's Restaurant and Seafood Sam's.  Finding the Water We had a nice visit - drove out to Provincetown one day, stopping to see the water in various places. We drove to Plymouth to visit the harbor, see Plymouth ...

What a winter it has been so far. We have had some extremely cold weather - though not as bad as some years - and now we have over a foot and a half of snow on the ground. We are so thankful for our neighbor who has a snowblower and does our sidewalks! Enjoy the  little bit of snow!

Never so happy as to see the end of a year. 2020 held a lot of promise in the beginning. There were many good things that we had planned. Many of them happened under completely different circumstances but happily the best of what was to be in 2020 was there. I so look forward to being able to spend more time with family this year, hoping without masks. I want to be able to celebrate happy things - Kristin and Scott's wedding celebration as they had originally planned, the engagement of my niece, Anna, to Jim. I want to be able to spend more time with my granddaughter, Xochitl, at the zoo or the park or anywhere we might be able to go. Now that we are both retired, we both want to be able to travel, to explore old and new places. We want to see the United States. We want to be able to visit with people who live far away from us. We want to be able to eat out - breakfast, lunch or dinner - when we feel like it.  Here's to the new year! Let's hope it is better than the last on...

The Christmas tree is decorated, and there are even presents under it.   A wreath hangs on the door. The nativity set is out. The holiday season is here even though it feels different. What a year this has been! We had a couple of big events planned for this year — events which still happened though not in the way we had originally thought.   Paul planned his retirement for this year — in July he celebrated 35 years being with Mayer Brown LLP and decided that he was ready for retirement at the end of that month. He was asked to stay on a few more months and so retired at the end of September. He started working from home in March when everything was shut down and never went back into his office. He hasn’t missed working though he missed seeing his colleagues in person before he retired. He has spent his time since continuing to work in the yard, work on his genealogy and writing up family histories. Gail’s mother celebrated her 90th birthday in July. A big birthday celebration...