Holiday Letter - 2019

Dear Friends and Family,

Just by receiving this you know that we are still alive and kicking. C.J. is finally retired retired – not even doing any part-time editing. She resigned from USHPA Pilot magazine effective this December at the same time her well-liked editor turned in his resignation. George is on something like his thirteenth year of retirement, so nothing new there.

We’ve had a few fun trips this year starting with a couple of weeks paragliding in Colombia with our favorite guides, Passion Paragliding. This time it was safari-style as we traveled from Medellin to

 On our chiva on the way to launch

Jerico, La Pintada, Merced, La Union (near Roldanillo), and finally to Piedechinche near Cali. We got in a lot of flying, as well as visits to local sights (and sites), plus lots of good food. We returned to the US just in time for a big snowstorm that had us shoveling the driveway for days as the storm continued. It was exciting to watch the big slabs of snow avalanche off our roof – until one slab ripped off our north gutter, and another slab took off the south gutter. Eventually we replaced them with new ones that have a “gutter helmet” to prevent leaves filling them up. Seems to be working so far. While the snow lasted I got to do a fair amount of cross-country skiing; C.J., unfortunately, was suffering from a cough that would not go away and she could not tolerate the cold, dry air. Over a period of several weeks she ended up seeing several specialists, had a CT scan and tried a bunch of drugs including inhalers until the cough kind of faded away.

We’re still flying, just not as much as we did in the early years of our addiction. April was a good month for hang gliding (C.J.) at Dog Mountain. We also joined the locals in planting trees to keep the landowners happy thus keeping our access open to the landing zone. We also flew our paragliders at Saddle Mtn., Blanchard, Baldy Butte, and our local site, Tiger Mtn.

Our tandem sea kayak got some use when we spent a week on Orcas Island at Dee
r Harbor in May
with Ginny and Wally. The paddle around the tree-covered islands on the way to Yellow Island was a highlight, but we also did several short, but fun hikes to Turtle Mountain and Obstruction Pass, as well as in Moran State Park.

We added to our toys in Jun and July when we bought electric bikes. George got a Rattan through Amazon and C.J., after some searching through a couple of Seattle bike shops, found a foldable 20-inch-wheel bike from Leitner, a brand popular in Australia. We’ve done a number of rides mostly on bike trails and old RR grades. Fortunately, one of them, the Snoqualmie Valley Trail passes within a block of our house. 

The other big trip of the year was a Viking river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow with the Goldmans. It started right after our annual Woodrat Mountain paragliding competition in southern Oregon. In fact, we had to skip the last day so we could get home and do laundry before leaving early for the long flight to Russia. We had a really affordable deal with Viking because they gave us almost half of our fare back for the Danube cruise last year because of the low water level that interfered with some of the planned itinerary. We really like the river cruise concept where most of the excursions are included in the base fare. Thus, we got tours of St. Petersburg, visits to The Hermitage and Catherine’s Palace, and paid only for a Cossack entertainment complete with vodka, and a canal cruise we booked ourselves at a rate much below that of an official excursion. The trip along the Baltic Waterway (including a stretch of the Volga River) had several interesting stops before we reached Moscow. Again, there was a walking tour that started with a subway ride to several palatial stations, then visits to a new Orthodox cathedral, Red Square, GUM department store (now filled with luxury international shops) and St. Basil’s Cathedral. One evening we enjoyed a musical performance at a local venue, and another night we took a night tour of Moscow which included a canal tour. One more walking tour took us through the Kremlin with its museums and cathedrals. This trip certainly changed our Cold War impressions of Russia.

The rest of the summer and fall were anticlimactic after that, but we got away for a week to

WorldMark McCall in central Idaho. We had planned for lots of hiking, paddling on Payette Lake, and e-biking on the many trails, but the weather turned wintery just as soon as we left home and we were left with hiking in the snow and touring along the Warren Wagon Road by car to a more than 100-year old gold mining town. Ginny and Wally were able to join us for a couple of days on their way to an eagle-banding adventure in Montana.

Recently we had a setback when a tree landed on our 2012 Kia. Bummer (!), but we sent the car off to the body shop and continued with our trip to Vidanta on the Riviera Maya south of Cancun expecting it would be repaired by the time we got back. We had our usual good time exploring the resort, enjoying the poolside drinks and snacks and walking on the beach (now protected from the sargassum plants by a fence/net just offshore). However, on the day we returned, while we were still at

the airport, an email from USAA informed us that that our car had been declared a total loss! We were in shock. Fortunately our pinochle buddies (we’ve been playing nearly once a week for at least a year) were able to give us rides until George could get into town, rent a car and start looking for a replacement vehicle. Anyway, we got a new-to-us 2016 Kia so we’re on the road once again.

It’s been an overall good year, we’re both more healthy than not, and we’re thankful for that. We hope you are doing well and looking forward to the new year. Please let us know what’s going on with you; we love holiday letters.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

George and C.J.