We left beautiful La Paz at the beginning of June and headed off for what turned out to be a busy and wonderful summer. After a very brief stop in La Conner to rest the dog, and check on our house and some of ourfriends, we were off to Anchorage for a couple of months. We had a wonderful time with our three sons, two wonderful daughters in law and five grandchildren. The weather gods were with us. While it was rainy and cold in the Northwest, it was warm and sunny in Anchorage. Most nights found us eating on our back deck enjoying the long days and our flowers.
Of course the price of playing in Mexico for months was the pile of paper work waiting on our dining room table to welcome me home. You play, you pay! Eventually I got serious about tackling it and my study, but not until several weeks of guilt had past. Someday I will learn that it is better just to do something unpleasant and get it over with.
Meanwhile Earl kept himself busy upgrading our kitchen with a new stove etc. One thing lead to another, and we now have new fabric on the sofas in the adjoining room. It was a pretty expensive visit and Earl, who loves nothing better than spending money, was in heaven. The results are wonderful, but NO MAS!
Early August we took off for La Conner for a special family reunion. The cause was our grandson Justin’s wedding to a wonderful girl, Courtney Becker. We are all thrilled with this addition to our family and had a great time seeing so many of our children and grandchildren. The grandchildren, and even the greatgrand children, are all so grown up that it makes us realize time has been passing very quickly.
Then Earl and I were off to the East, stopping in Massachusetts to see family and catch up on the remodeling job from hell in Stockbridge, and then off to Finland to ‘visit the graves of the ancestors’. Earl’s grandfather Arvo Kari left Finland as a young man in 1905 - apparently after a fight with his father, He left behind eight younger brothers, and an older half brother and sister. (Then, as now, at least in our part of the family, the Karis had a hard time producing more than one girl per family. ) Earl had stayed somewhat in contact with a couple of the cousins who had visited the Northwest in the 1940’s and they met us at the airport. What a treat was in store for us! We found a large family of relatives who gave us an incredibly warm reception and took us under their wings. Armed with a family tree, I did my best to keep track of which cousins were descended from which brother. It was a novelty to see so many people that looked like Earl, many with same large ears, apparently a gift from his great grandmother Elizabeth. While everything was wonderful, especially meeting our cousins, perhaps one of the most memorable days was our trip to a beautiful cemetery in Hamina, near the Russian border, where Earl’s great grandmother and many of his great uncles are buried. We left our cousins with all the family addresses and invitations to all to come and visit. We hope that at least some of them will come.
We added a day trip to Estonia and a few days each in St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen and New York before heading home to La Conner to recover. We love our house there and have many delightful companions to enjoy it with. But the Serenity was calling, so we are now in Mexico and off at last from the dock and into the Sea of Cortez We are planning on going north, hopefully as far as Bahia de los Angeles in the north. We will be lucky to have company much of the time, but today t is only the three of us heading for Espiritu Santo to anchor. It is hot and Daisy is collapsed on her rug. Earl is putting out the fishing lines.
Of course the price of playing in Mexico for months was the pile of paper work waiting on our dining room table to welcome me home. You play, you pay! Eventually I got serious about tackling it and my study, but not until several weeks of guilt had past. Someday I will learn that it is better just to do something unpleasant and get it over with.
Meanwhile Earl kept himself busy upgrading our kitchen with a new stove etc. One thing lead to another, and we now have new fabric on the sofas in the adjoining room. It was a pretty expensive visit and Earl, who loves nothing better than spending money, was in heaven. The results are wonderful, but NO MAS!
Early August we took off for La Conner for a special family reunion. The cause was our grandson Justin’s wedding to a wonderful girl, Courtney Becker. We are all thrilled with this addition to our family and had a great time seeing so many of our children and grandchildren. The grandchildren are all so grown up that it makes us realize time has been passing very quickly.
Then Earl and I were off to the East, stopping in Massachusetts to see family and catch up on the remodeling job from hell in Stockbridge, and then off to Finland to ‘visit the graves of the ancestors’. Earl’s grandfather Arvo Kari left Finland as a young man in 1905 - apparently after a fight with his father, He left behind eight younger brothers, and an older half brother and sister. (Then, as now, at least in our part of the family, the Karis had a hard time producing more than one girl per family. ) Earl had stayed somewhat in contact with a couple of the cousins who had visited the Northwest in the 1940’s and they met us at the airport. What a treat was in store for us! We found a large family of relatives who gave us an incredibly warm reception and took us under their wings. Armed with a family tree, I did my best to keep track of which cousins were descended from which brother. It was a novelty to see so many people that looked like Earl, many with same large ears, apparently a gift from his great grandmother Elizabeth. While everything was wonderful, especially meeting our cousins, perhaps one of the most memorable days was our trip to a beautiful cemetery in Hamina, near the Russian border, where Earl’s great grandmother and many of his great uncles are buried. We left our cousins with all the family addresses and invitations to all to come and visit. We hope that at least some of them will come.
We added a day trip to Estonia and a few days each in St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen and New York before heading home to La Conner to recover. We love our house there and have many delightful companions to enjoy it with. But the Serenity was calling, so we are now in Mexico and off at last from the dock and into the Sea of Cortez We are planning on going north, hopefully as far as Bahia de los Angeles in the north. We will be lucky to have company much of the time, but today t is only the three of us heading for Espiritu Santo to anchor. It is hot and Daisy is collapsed on her rug. Earl is putting out the fishing lines.
The water is 86 degrees and it is gorgeous!
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