January Wrap Up (with a bit of Christmas)

We spent the holidays at our family Cabin in Twain Harte, Ca. engaged in a battle of Christmas light supremacy with the neighbors across the street.  I’m sad to say that despite my best efforts, they were just a bit more tactical in their approach.  By saving the last upgrades for the day before Christmas, they clearly vaulted ahead of our efforts.  Lessons learned.  Perhaps we will prevail next year?

Christmas

Christopher has been staying with us for awhile now.  So, the three of us were thrilled to be joined by Patrick and Kelsey for a few days of touring, golf, and holiday fun leading up to Christmas.  It’s a very rare occasion these days when we can gather the entire family in one place.  This was a special Christmas.

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Projects & Touring

The beginning of January was spent working on Cabin projects and a few days touring the region.  Twain Harte is right in the middle of what was the center of the California Gold Rush territory.  Lots of history around here, but we haven’t found much gold!

Colorado

More recently, Deb and I visited our friends Gibb and Tory Kane in Colorado for a few days.  No skiing due to lack of snow, but we had plenty of fun catching up,m playing with drones, and being tourists.

Gibb and I have sailed together for over 30 years now.  We are used to running into each other on sailboats, so the shift to cold and snow as a nice change of pace.  Still, I hope we see each other in warm Caribbean waters next season!!

Wedding Planning

Most recently, we spent a long weekend down in San Luis Obispo, working with Patrick and the Marquez’s (Kelsey, Mike, Yonni) on some of the many details that need to come together for their wedding.

We managed to stay busy for two days visiting florists, caterers, wedding planners, the wedding site, and numerous vineyards!  We also were able to meet several of Kelsey’s extended family members.  If the weekend was any indication, the wedding is going to be great!!

Deb and I are surprised by the number of decisions that go into planning an event like this.  I guess we were not paying attention when we got married??

So amazed in fact, that after the weekend was over one of the first things she did was call her parents and say thank you once again for the effort that they clearly put into our wedding 30+ years ago!

Bad Stuff Happens

Unfortunately, a great weekend ended badly for us when on the way home a spare tire from another car was bouncing around the freeway and hit the front right corner of our car.  While we were lucky that the tire was not airborne, the impact was still serious enough to take our our tire and destroy the radiator.

We spent a less than wonderful two hours by the side of the road before a flatbed tow truck arrived (thank you AAA!) and towed us to a San Jose dealership that could take care of the repairs.

However, our luck did not totally desert us.  Kelsey’s parents Mike and Yonni live just a few minutes away from the dealership!!  They met us when we arrived, took us on a late night run to In and Out Burger, and gave us a bed to sleep in that night!!

Looking Ahead

Ok, that’s it.  A busy January seems to have set the bar for the remainder of what looks to be a very very busy 2018.

Just hitting the highlights we have much to look forward to.

• Jim is off to help Deb’s brother Dan sail his boat to the South Pacific in Feb/April
• Patrick and Kelsey get married in July
• My niece Kaitlyn Humphrey is getting married in September
• And hopefully the third time is a charm and we will finally sail Morpheus from the Mediterranean across the Atlantic to the Caribbean in December.

Our plans have a way of changing so let’s review all of this in a year and see what really happened!!