Whoo hoo! Another great year of retirement in
2011 – we re-connected with friends we hadn’t seen for years,
started square dancing again, and managed to squeeze in three big
trips.
A surprise tax refund gave us the
impetus to escape the gloomy winter weather with a trip to Israel.
C.J. and I joined a very small group of experienced folks going to
paraglide above such biblical sites as the Sea of Galilee and Mt.
Tabor. We also did the pre-dawn hike up Snake Path to the top of
Masada and spent a day in the Old City of Jerusalem. Who would
have thought that Israel would jump to the top of the list of
places we’d like to re-visit?
Closer to home, we made two big road
trips. In May we drove
down to northern Arizona via Death Valley. The weather was chilly
at night (except in DVNP), but dry – just right for tent camping.
We left the trailer at home because we had booked time at two
resorts to use up time-share points that were otherwise going to
expire. We stayed in Pinetop where we hiked some fabulous trails
starting at 7000 ft. Then we moved to Flagstaff for a few days,
where we made a quick trip up to the Grand Canyon and also visited
The Craters (a flying site), Walnut Canyon and Lowell Observatory.
We camped with some Arizona pilots at Mingus Mountain, which
offered up an outstanding flight on Memorial Day. Our Golden
Access Card enticed us to pop into several more of the SW parks
and monuments, including driving the scenic Cottonwood Road
through Grand Staircase-Escalante.
We were traveling 18 days on our SW
trek; our Fall Color trip (code name Leaf Peepers) lasted 45 days
and 10,000 miles! This time we took the trailer expecting the
weather in September and October to be less than optimum, but we
lucked out with only five days with any rain at all. You’ll have
to check out our blogs if you want the full story but, briefly, we
had five glorious days of hiking and touring in Rocky Mt. NP,
followed by several equally glorious days in Michigan, mostly on
the Upper Peninsula. We visited friends in CO, NY, VT, NH, and NC
and family in DE, VA, and IN. We made it to Kitty Hawk in time for
the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Wilbur's
soaring flight. We hit the golden aspens, red maples and most of
the rest of the fall color just about spot on, and visiting with
friends we hadn’t seen in decades, and family that we never see
often enough, really made the trip special. Returning through
Wyoming on Halloween we ran into a widespread snowstorm and were
glad to be able to get over the last high passes safely.
When we weren't off traveling, we
did lots of hiking, skiing and snowshoeing in our "home"
mountains, got back to “plus level” square dancing, kept up our
Village Theatre subscription, and continued to fly our gliders.
C.J. participated in her ninth Rat Race at Woodrat Mountain and we
had a fun flight with Wally when he and Ginny were up here for an
overnight trip up Lake Chelan to Stehekin. C.J. has been keeping
busy with her scrapbooking, mostly on line. I’ve done a few woodworking
projects but nothing major.
Our latest excursion was to Victoria
BC to celebrate our 35th anniversary on Thanksgiving.
We stayed for a week in one of our time-share condos, had High Tea
at the Empress (a real splurge), toured the city, the Royal BC
Museum and the Parliament, and did a couple of hikes outside the
city. Even though we missed having a turkey feast (and all the
Black Friday deals), it was a great way to celebrate.
If
you are really interested in the details about any of our trips or
other activities, check out C.J.’s digital scrapbook at http://sturtevantcj.blogspot.com
and/or George’s travel blog at http://sturtevantg.blogspot.com.
We hope
you and your loved ones are healthy and happy. Merry Christmas,
Happy Holidays! Write and tell us about your 2011. You can reach
us both at georges@nwlink.com. |
| C.J. and G on Snow Lake trail, Feb 2011 |
Love,
C.J. and George
BTW, the photos on the Christmas card above are from (clockwise from the large one with flowers), Arsuf (Israel), Colorado Rockies, Crater Lake, Jerusalem, and Crater Lake.
