December 12, 2019
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
We’ve had a very full year…lots of wonderful memories, and a few more bucket items crossed off.
Hugh and I are now both fully enjoying a complete retirement. I quit my job in mid-June and haven’t felt the urge to go back. Hugh continues to teach very part-time at the medical school. He enjoys interacting with the students and other retired medical professionals. I’m very happy to leave tax law and the IRS in my past. I did however start a small bookkeeping practice with a limit of 11 clients, and that includes family tax returns, so it isn’t very time consuming either.
Julianna continues her very full life in Dubai as an international attorney. She seems to travel every month or so to exotic and not-so-exotic places. I keep up with her travels through her Facebook posts. She did take time to fly to Austin in February and we met her there for a few days.
We met up again in the summer on our trip to Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein and southern Germany. When we were in Salzburg, Austria she flew into Munich and I drove up to meet her at the airport and we had a lovely drive back to Salzburg going through small towns as the car’s GPS system directed us off the freeway because of construction. It was a lovely time. We took in two concerts in Austria which, as you can image were lovely. One of the venues ( Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna ) was a place where Kennedy and Khrushchev met for their peace summit in the 1960s. And, around the corner from that concert in the same palace, was where Mozart played for the Royal Habsburg family for the first time. Hugh and I so enjoy all the local history of places we visit.
I arrived home in time to take a flat pattern design class at a local community college. It has been years since I have made garments and the class was not only a great reintroduction to sewing but also a lesson on how patterns are constructed. I had so much fun in the class I took it a second time this fall, and plan to retake it again in January. (The impetus to take the class was Julianna saw a pair of pants she liked in Portugal in Summer, 18. I confidently said, “I can make those for you”. Well it has been two classes and a new sewing machine later, and I still don’t have the pants done.)
The fall class was interrupted by a fall tour of WW II sites in Poland with my friend Deb. Hugh sat that trip out. We started in Krakow and ended up in Gdansk. My favorite part was Gdansk and the history of the Solidarity movement. The Solidarity Museum was outstanding. Deb and I had to layover in Munich, so this time I got to stay near the Marienplatz and got to spend time photographing it. We took a 3-hour Segway tour of the city and did a beer tour, of course!
A few days after my return from Poland, Hugh and his brother, Chuck headed out to Seattle and Portland to explore the area. One highlight was a seaplane ride. Chuck got his private pilot’s license this year and has always enjoyed flying – so the flight museums, etc were on the trip.
Tim has a new job within Safeway which is full time and one he enjoys. He is an assistant administrator. The best part is that everyone likes and respects him. It is nice to see him so happy. He took time off this fall to accompany us to Korea and Japan. (that took some arm twisting- NOT)
What a trip…it made me realize just how little history I know and how comfortable all of us are in foreign cities. Tim guided us on the Tokyo subway like he had been riding it since he was three. As all of us had previously been to Japan; Korea probably stands out more. I learned so much about Korea and have such a respect for the Korean people. The contrast between modern and early 20th century is everywhere. It made the photography exciting. We went to Seoul and Busan and I think we would all agree that Busan was our favorite.
I started testing the idea of writing a blog on that trip, to try to capture the memories when they are fresh. I hope to continue this process on future trips. The website is in its infancy and I have much to learn, but if you would like to see, it the address is www.travellightphotos.com, and there is a place to sign up to receive updates of the blog, if you have any interest. It has been mostly done for Hugh’s and my benefit, as a way to remember our travels. My goal with all of the photography workshops was to learn to take good quality photographs which I could use to “tell the story” of our trips. I wanted a way to remember the trips when Hugh and I are in a nursing home. I tried albums but I kept thinking about how small the nursing home rooms were. A website seemed a logical answer. But how to do it became the big question, so this year I started. Hopefully I have a few years before we will be in the nursing home, so I can somewhat master the website. In the meantime, it seemed like a nice way to share our travels with a few family and friends.
Our travel schedule next year is slowing down…we need a gap year. I’m going to Dubai to see Julianna in January and then we are going to Portugal in May. We might expand that trip to include another country… or not. Most likely we will layover in London for a few days and visit familiar and favorite spots.
We are looking forward to Christmas. This will be the first one where both of us are retired and can take time to do things we have always wanted to. We are testing some new cookie recipes later this week and start the decorating. We will have my sister, Mary and nephew Roger and niece Karen over for the day. I’m still working on the menu – the desserts and candy have been written in cement. Those are always the easiest to decide.
As we celebrate this lovely holiday with our family, we hope you will all be doing the same with yours.
Wishing you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest and healthiest of New Year’s ever.