2023 Holiday Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hi All!

Travel Highlights

This was a busy travel year for us:

• December, 2022: Maui, HI
• January: Charlotte, Hickory, Greenville and Stokes, NC
• March: Seattle, WA
• April: Bay Area Sightseeing with Two German Girls
• May: Maui, HI with the Girls
• June: Jeju Island, South Korea
• August: Vancouver, Canada
• September: Auburn, CA
• October: North Carolina, Georgia and Florida
• December: Maui, HI

Maui with Wayne and Rosie

Our good friend Eileen was going to join us in Maui last December. Unfortunately, a few family issues came up and she had to cancel. As luck would have it, my brother Wayne and his girlfriend Rosie were interested in taking her place.

North Carolina

In January, we went to a memorial service for Helen's cousin, Joan Marr Thurber in Charlotte. The memorial service was organized by Joan's brother and sister-in-law, John and Ginger. After the memorial, there was a get togther at John and Ginger's home where family and friends gathered to remember Joan and to catch-up with family. It was a wonderful time and we really appreciate the effort John and Ginger went to organizing the memorial.

While in North Carolina, we had time to visit, for a week, with Helen's son, David, daughter-in-law, Karen, grand daughter, Helena and grand daughter Rae. We also drove to Greenville and Stokes to visit with cousins David and Rae Nobles and Cousins Ginger and Monica.

Seattle, Washington

Seattle was a fun trip. After the JEDEC meeting, we spent a day with our former neighbors, Judy and Gary. They took us all over Seattle showing us the sights. We even ate lunch at my favorite restaurant, Ivar's Salmon House. Ivar's has many locations in the area, but my favorite is the one at 401 NE Northlake Way, near downtown Seattle.

Also, while in Seattle, we visited Geocaching Headquarters. Geocaching is a game using "multi-billion dollar government satellites to find trinkets in the woods". Essentially, it is an outdoor treasure hunting game. Some call it a scavenger hunt. Geocaching.com has apps for both the iPhone and Android operating systems. In the old days, circa 2000 till about 2018, you had to use a portable GPS device to find the caches. Once the apps for phones became available, it has opened the game up to a lot more people. As a result, there are a lot more caches to be found. There are more than 3 million active geocaches worldwide, as of 2023. Within a half-mile of my house, there are at least a dozen caches. When Charles introduces the game to friends, he can usually find a cache within a block or two from where they live.

Many geocaches are located in unique areas that even locals are unaware of. For example, we have found a geocache on Maui that was on a high bluff where the old Lahaina highway used to pass over. The view from there of the pacific ocean was fabulous. One time, the hunt took us to a beach unknown to most people. It was a perfect spot for peace and quiet. While not all geocaches take you to such magical places, it is special when one does.

Bay Area Sightseeing with Benita and Frederika ("The Girls")

Four years ago, a former, German co-worker of mine asked if his daughter, Benita, and her friend, Frederika, could stay with us for 3 months. They were both in college studying to be English teachers. One of their course requirements was to stay in an English speaking country for 3 months. They were scheduled to arrive in April of 2020. Before they could come, the COVID 19 pandemic struck. The US government shut down the borders and their school dropped the requirement. Of course, we were all disappointed.

Jump ahead to 2022 and the US borders were open to those persons that were vaccinated. The two girls had never given up their dream of spending time in the USA, even though both had been on the East Coast before. Neither had been out West. In November, 2022, they called and asked if the invitation was still open, though this time for only 6 weeks. We said "Of course", so the planning began. They were both graduating with Master's degrees in English with a minor in sports, so they no longer needed the visit to graduate. This was just for fun!

They arrived in April, 2023, and we took the girls all over the Bay Area sightseeing. In San Francisco, we took them on the following 3 mile walking tour. Enter the name of each location into Google maps and you can follow the same tour (besure to click on the "walk" icon):

• Embarcadero BART station
• San Francisco Railway museum
• Ferry Plaza
• Ferry Building (Upscale shopping and many restaurants)
• Levi’s plaza/museum (Nice park with flowing water)
• Greenwich Street Steps (to Coit tower)
• Coit Tower
• Lombard St & Telegraph Hill BL (Beautiful overlook of San Francisco Bay)
• Jack Early Park (the smallest park in San Francisco with GREAT views)
• Pier 39 (Lots of shopping and a hang out for wild sea lions)
• Musée Mécanique museum (Free museum with orchestrions, coin operated pianos, antique slot machines, and animations)
• Fisherman’s wharf sign
• Powell & Hyde Cable Car turnabout (Cable car to Powell street BART station)
• To get back to BART, take the cable car ($8.00 cash in 2023) to the Powell street BART station. Ask the drive to announce it or follow on your mobile phone.

On another day, we sent the girls, on their own, on the following 3 mile walking tour of San Francisco:

• Powell St BART station
• Union Square (Popular upscale shopping area)
• Grant Ave & Bush St (Dragon Gate entrance to Chinatown)
• Golden Gate fortune Cookie Factory
• Cable car museum
• Leavenworth St & Lombard St (Top of the Crookedest Street in the World)
• Lombard St & Hyde St (Bottom of the Crookedest Street in the World)
• Ghiradelli Square (Ghiradelli Chocolate ice cream shop)
• Hyde Street Pier (National Maritime Museum)
• Scoma's (an Italian Seafood restaurant. Treat yourself & ask your server if the Pasta Diplomatica is available. Even though it is an off-menu item, it is still one of my favorites! This pasta dish has scallops, shrimp, clams, mushrooms, onions and linguini covered with a cream sauce (a tomato sauce can be substituted for the cream sauce). It will excite your taste buds and become one of your favorites. In 2023, the price was around $50)
• 2801 Jones St (Beach & Jones F-line street car stop)
• To get back to BART, get on the F line street car on Jones Street between Jefferson & Beach. The street car only goes in one direction here, from Jefferson toward Beach street. Stand near the covered stop. Get off at the Embarcadero BART station ($3.00 cash or clipper card). Ask the driver to announce it or follow on your mobile phone.

On another day, we dropped the girls off on the East end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Helen and Charles drove to the West end, and waited for the Girls to walk across the bridge. Next we went into Sausalito to "A Taste of Rome" for very tasty lunch. After lunch, Charles got lost and ended up at Rodeo Cove which is a nice beach. Charles finally found his way to one of his staples when giving a tour, Hawk Hill for beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge standing majestically in front of San Francisco.

The reason Charles got lost on the way to Hawk Hill, is they changed a portion of the main road leading up to Hawk Hill from being two-way to one-way in order to make more room for a bicycle lane. Since Charles was unaware of this change, he had to wander around trying to figure out how to get to the top of Hawk Hill. Eventually, he found he had to go through a one lane tunnel, where we had to wait for 10 minutes while traffic passed through it in the opposite direction, then make a left turn, which he missed, to go up the backside of the hill to the road that leads to Hawk Hill. Fortunately, he eventually found his way.

Muir Woods National Monument is fun place to go to see giant Redwood trees. We sent the girls on a hike that was too much of a challenge for Helen and Charles. Meanwhile, we went on a shorter hike. After the hike, miraculously, we all met up at the gift shop at the same time! After the expedition through the woods, we had lunch at the Pelican Inn before heading to Muir Beach to relax by the ocean.

Back in Silcon Valley, the girls hiked to the top of Mission Peak, twice! Other hiking included Sneath Lane to the top of the Sweeny Ridge where Gaspar de Portolá discovered San Francisco Bay. For over 200 years, sailors had been sailing past the Golden Gate without realizing it was the entrance to a great bay. We toured the Google headquarters complex, stopped by the Apple visitor's center, wondered through Stanford University where we watched swimming practice and shopped at the campus store. Having just gradutated from University, the girls were interested in seeing what campuses in the US looked like, so on another day, we took BART to the University of California's Berkeley campus for a tour given by University docents. Oh, I almost forgot, on another day, we had our pictures taken in front of the Facebook sign aka Meta.

Maui, HI with the Girls

During the planning process, the girls asked if it would be possible to go to Hawaii. We said "SURE!" and chose Maui as we are very familiar with this island and know how to get all the good deals. They were really excited to hear this as it is hard to get to Hawaii from Europe without a long stop over in the continental USA. The flight time is close to 20 hours due to having to having to change planes once or twice.

The girls were really excited to be going to Hawaii. As usual, our first stop was the Maui Costco to stock up on food for the 10 days. Then it was off the condo to settle in for the afternoon. Over the 10 days, we went snokeling multiple times, hiked into the Haleakala volcano (extinct since the 1890s), hiked around La Peruse Bay, survived the twisty and winding road to Hana and saw many turtles on multiple beaches. It was a great trip and one they will remember for the rest of their lives!

On a Sunday night we went to the drum circle on Poolenalena Beach. Just after it got dark, the fire dancers came out and put on a show. This is a weekly occurance.

Swimming with sea turtles

Yes, there are sharks in Maui! You may need to scroll up a little to see the shark as it zooms by.

Benita's Parents and Frederika's Mom Come to the USA

In May, the US government fully opened the borders, even to those without vaccinations. Benita's mother cannot take the vaccine due to the preservatives in it. With the restrictions lifted, her parents could now come for a visit. It took them only a week to plan the trip and arrive in the USA.

Peter and Beatrix (Benita's parents) arrived in the USA five days before Helen and Charles were scheduled to leave for South Korea. Frederika's mom, Susanne, arrived the day after we left for South Korea. Their plan was to spend 2.5 weeks at our house, which worked out great. It also worked out for the girls as part of the plan was to visit Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, we had scheduled the trip in April and Yosemite was flooded due to the heavy rains and snowfall this year, so it was closed. However, by the time the parents arrived, it was open again. So, they rented a car and toured from Columbia, CA (a historic gold mining town turned into a state park) all the way South to Kings Canyon National Park. They had a GREAT time!

Jeju Island, South Korea

We had a JEDEC meeting on Jeju Island in South Korea. Helen and Charles were both excited to visit. Charles has been in Seoul several times, but this was his first time to Jeju Island. The island is a popular honeymoon location for couples all over Asia. Even my Korean handyman in California had his honeymoon on the island! The island is marketed as the "Hawaii of Asia" as it is very warm during July, which is the high season. The rest of the year, it can be cold and rainy.

Getting to Jeju is not for the faint of heart. It started with a 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Incheon international airport in Seoul. By the time you reach Seoul, you are dead tired, however, you must now change airports to the domestic airport, Gimpo, which is about a 45 minute train ride from Incheon. To do this, you need to figure out how to get to the train and then how to buy tickets. Once on the train, you can relax till you get to Gimpo. At Gimpo, you now have to figure out what level you need to be on to get to the tunnel that leads to the terminal building. Once we found the entrance to the tunnel, we got lucky. Since we look old, an employee driving a golf cart, picked us up and we didn't have to walk the mile through the tunnel...YEA!!!! Fortunately for us, the plane had been delayed, so we had plenty of time to check our bags, go through security (pre-check isn't available in Korea) and find our gate. If we had missed our flight, it wouldn't have been a problem as there are flights every half-hour to Jeju Island. Once we arrived on Jeju Island, Charles had to find the remote car rental location. I bet it took us 45 minutes just to find the bus to take us there. Keep in mind, we have now been up for over 24 hours! Getting the rental car was no problem, but getting out of the car rental lot was a problem as there was lots of construction going on and it was around 9 PM, so it was dark. Charles finally had to follow an employee, who had just gotten off of work, through the maze to get to the main road. Once on the road, our navigation system (fortunately, Charles had asked a rental car worker to change it to English) directed us to our hotel. Boy, that was a long trip from San Francisco to our hotel on Jeju Island!!!

Vancouver, Canada

The Vancouver JEDEC trip was a short one. We arrived on a Saturday and left the following Friday. We wanted to keep this trip short as we had been there many times and we had a wedding to go to in a couple of weeks (see Auburn below).

Since we arrived around noon on Saturday, we had all afternoon to hit our favorite spots. First on the list was Cadero's restaurant, on the waterfront, for their delicious roasted sable fish. The real name is Alaskan black cod. Helen and Charles first had the roasted sable fish at this restaurant when we were in Vancouver in 2019. We had been dreaming of having it again since then and we weren't disappointed! In 2019, the sable fish was the special of the day. I guess it was really popular, as it is now a regular menu item. It is a delicate white fish found in the cold Alaskan waters.

The second item on our "must do" list was a bicycle ride around Stanley Park. We rented bikes at our hotel (in 2019 the bikes were free) and spent 2 hours riding the shore trail around the peninsula. It was a warm sunny day and we thoroughly enjoyed the bike ride.

Third on our list was to stop in at the Safeway on Robson Street. We wanted to get some famous Canadian Maple Creme Cookies. Most places that sell them charge tourist prices, but the Safeway has them at normal pricing. We bought a few bags. One was to eat during the week and the rest were for friends and for us to eat at home.

Funny story... Even though we had looked for Maple Cream cookies in the Bay Area before, we had never found any. After getting back from Vancouver, we went to Costco and guess what? They had a GIANT box of them!!! This box contained 5 smaller 10.6 oz packages inside. Of course we bought one, but now I'm thinking we should have bought two! They are the Dare Maple Sandwich Creme Cookies. UPC: 055653-102953; Costco item number 1653345. Cost in 2023 was $7.00 for the box. The are made by the Dare Foods of Spartanburg, SC.

The famous Gastown steam clock playing it's tune.

Auburn, California

In September, Ashley and Justin were married. Ashley is the granddaughter of Dee & Jeff and the daughter of Brian & Dawn. They were married in the quaint California gold mining town of Auburn. Since Auburn is only a 2 hour drive from the Bay Area, we drove up on a Friday evening and spent the weekend in Auburn.

Our arrival in Auburn was less than exciting. When we exited the I-80 freeway, Charles turned right, then he had less then a hundred feet to decide whether to go left or right to our hotel at the intersection. Google maps was not cooperating and told me too late to turn left, so he went straight thinking he could pull over and turn around. Nope! That was not to be. He ended up on a bridge which is 730 feet tall. The Foresthill Bridge is the fourth tallest bridge in the United States. Opened in 1973, this structure was built as part of the Auburn Dam Project. If completed, the dam would have filled the canyon below, submerging the roadway that connected the town of Foresthill to the outside world. After crossing the bridge, there still was no where to turn around. Charles ended up turning onto a road which wandered down to the canyon below. Still, there was no where to turn around. Charles ended up on a 20 minute loop that took us through the canyon and up the other side! He won't make that mistake again!

The wedding was held on Saturday evening on the property of one of Brian's college buddies. The reception was in amongst the many trees on the property next to a lake. It was very romantic as they had strung many lights through the trees which provided a soft glow of light. It was a lot of fun meeting up with old friends, especially seeing Jenny (from Oklahoma) and her daughter, Katlyn, and Skeeter (Jenny and Dawn's mom). It has many years since the last time we saw them.

On Sunday, Helen and Charles followed the old US40 highway through the mountains. Since this road has been replaced by Interstate 80, it was a challenge to follow the old highway as it crisscrossed I-80. The road took us through many interesting old towns that, in the past, had had huge populations but were now a vestige of the past. One of these towns, Dutch Flat, kept many of the old buildings on main street in good repair. The Golden Drift Museum, on Main street, preserves the history of Dutch Flat, Alta, Gold Run and the surrounding area in Placer County, California.

We walked up to the museum and were greeted by several docents. One of whom gave us an hour long tour of the museum. This was interesting as you can go through the museum in less than 10 minutes, but she had stories to tell about many of the former residents of the town as well as the history of the town and its beginnings. It was extremely interesting!

On Sunday afternoon, Dee Dee and Jeff served a pork rib dinner with pork ribs cooked for many hours on a low heat. The meat on the ribs was falling off of the bones. It was delicious!

At the dinner were many, many old friends and relatives of Dee Dee and Jeff, many of whom we hadn't seen in years. It was fun catching up with everyone.

On the drive home, we stopped in the state capital, Sacramento. Originally, we wanted to go to the railroad museum, however we spent so much time touring the capital building and walking through Old Town, that we didn't have enough time for the museum. Next time we get to Sacramento, we'll definitely do the museum.

Road Trip: North Carolina, Georgia and Florida

• Greenville, NC (David, Rae, Ginger, Monica, Helen's parents gravesites)
• Hickory, NC (David, Karen, Helena, Shelbea)
• Clarkesville, GA (Wayne, Rosie, Margie)
• Savannah, GA (Sightseeing)
• Jacksonville, FL (Sightseeing, Charles' parents gravesite)
• Gainesville, FL (Robert, Jenny, Jack, Harold)
• Ocala, FL (Mark, Janice)
• Vero Beach, FL (Wayne, Carol, Eddie)
• Orlando, FL (Flying home)

Greenville, NC

In October, we spent three weeks on the East Coast. We flew into Raleigh, NC, arriving around 6 PM. Since this was only 3 PM, West Coast time, we decided to drive to Greenville, North Carolina before eating dinner. This turned out to be a mistake. We arrived in Greenville around 8 PM, which those of us from big metropolitan areas, is pretty early, especially on a Saturday evening. Well Greenville is not a big metropolitan area. Most restaurants are closed by 8 PM! Who would have thought about this? Of course, all of the fast food places were open, but we wanted a dinner, not fast food. Fortunately, we were able to find Mission Barbecue that stayed open till 9 PM. Whew! We were able to eat dinner.

Over the next two days, we had a wondeful visit with Rae and David, Ginger and her sister Monica. During the visit with David, Charles asked him to take us to the old cemetary on his land.

The latitude and longitude of the cemetary are: 35.711475, -77.335160.

Here are some pictures we took of the grave stones from the early 1900s.

Also, while in Greenville, we visited Helen's parent's gavesite. We had lots of difficulty finding it as it has been a few years since we have been there. For future reference, it is at 35.606280, -77.340380

Hickory, NC

Next, we drove to Hickory, NC to visit with Helen's son, Dave, daughter-in-law, Karen and granddaughters Helena and Shelbea. The week long visit passed quickly going to Helena's ballet class and her soccer game. Interesting story about the soccer game, it was the first one of the season and it was a riot watching the 7 year olds trying to play the game. Since they were all beginners, score was not kept and it was a good thing too. It seems in the mind of the kids, the object was to kick the ball. It didn't matter which direction they kicked it in, as long as they kicked it! Several times, the team's kicked the ball into the opposing team's net.

We wanted to visit with Karen's parents, Dave and Janet. However, they were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in the Poconos mountains of New York. They were celebrating for two weeks and, of course, one of those weeks was when we were in the area. Congratulations on the anniversary!

Clarkesville, GA

Our next stop was Clarkesville, Georgia to visit my brother Wayne, his girlfriend Rosie and our cousin Margie. Margie lives in Atlanta, about an hour and a half away. She drove down and stayed in the town of Helen, Georgia which is modeled after Swiss villages with many chalets. It had been several years since we had seen Margie and it was fun to catch up with her.

After one day in Clarkesville, Wayne drove us to Savannah, Georgia. During the 5 hour drive, we listened to the audio book "A Princess Dairist" by Carrie Fisher. It was about Carrie Fisher's portrayal of Princess Leia Organa in the Starwars movie. At the time, this was a low-budget film and all of the actors were not paid very much. Carrie had even signed-away her likeness so she didn't receive any royalties on the merchandising. The book was a very interesting read as Carrie is a good story teller. She details all the issues she had with being known to the world as Princess Leia. The most surprising thing she said was when asked if she had it all to do over again, would she take the part? Her answer was a resounding "NO!". This surprised me as she came from a family of stars. Her father was Eddie Fisher, who was a well known singer in his day. Her mother was Debbie Reynolds, a well known actor. So, one would have thought she would be well aquainted with stardom.

Savannah, GA

Savannah was just a stopping over point on the way the Jacksonville and Gainesville, Florida. However, since neither Helen or Charles had been to this historical city, we decided to spend a day sightseeing. We took a 90 minute old-time trolley tour (a bus with no windows) of downtown Savannah, visiting many historic sites. We also took a 2 hour river boat cruise on the Savannah river. Since the city of Savannah had a free ferry service from one side of the river to an island in the middle of the river, we jumped aboard for another 10 minute ride ;-) All were a lot of fun and we learned much about the history of the city.

As we were walking back to the car from the river boat tour, we happened upon a movie being filmed. The working title was "The Green Fairy". It appeared to be a horror film as the scenes we saw had a disembodied head dripping with blood and steam or smoke was coming out of it. It was fasinating watching the film as we had, luckily, a good seat above the action. We spent about 2 hours watching the many takes of several scenes.

Update (November, 2024): The release date for this movie is still unknown. The title has changed to "Vampires of the Velvet Lounge" and it is listed as a "comedy, horror" movie. A quick synopsys of the movie: "As they are locked in a battle with a deadly foe in this twisted fairy tale, a coven of vampires struggles to come to terms with the modern world and their own mortality."

• Director: Adam Sherman
• Writer: Adam Sherman
• Stars:
• Mena Suvari, Dichen Lachman
• Co-stars:
• Stephen Dorff, Rosa Salazar, Lochlyn Munro, India Eisley, Sarah Dumont, Mark Boone Jr., Tom Berenger, Timothy V. Murphy, Sherman Augustus, Tyrese Gibson

Jacksonville, FL

The next day, we drove to the Jacksonville National Cemetary to visit Charles' and Wayne's parents gravesite. For future reference, it is at: 30.545260, -81.720580

After spending about an hour at the cemetary, we visited the USS Orleck, a World War II destroyer. Wayne, Helen and Charles have been members of this ship for about 5 years. We became members as we wanted to visit other historic naval ships around the country and not have to pay an entrance fee. The USS Orleck had the cheapest membership of all the ships associated with the Historic Naval Ships Association. If you are a member of one of the ships in the association, then you can visit any of the other ships in the association.

The USS Orleck was a museum ship in the Lake Charles, LA area. However, the museum staff could not find decent dock space. The ship was run down and about to be scrapped. Fortunately, around this time, the Jacksonville Naval Museum was looking for a ship to put on display. In 2021, they purchased the ship and made her seaworthy enough to be towed to Jacksonville, FL.

Wayne, Helen and Charles were curious to see what the ship looked like as we had all visited the ship in its run down condition in Lake Charles, LA. We were happy to see she was looking like a smart naval vessel again. She had a new paint job and there were several volunteers on board making her an even better museum. We were quite pleased with the work that had been done on her.

After touring the ship, we headed to Jacksonville Beach to find Golfair trailer park where Wayne and Charles lived for two years from 1961 to 1963. The address was 1300 Shetter Av, Jacksonville Beach, FL. The trailer park has been turned into an upscale apartment complex.

Next we visited the elementary school we went to, Seabreeze Elementary School at 1400 Seabreeze Av. Charles and Wayne were part of the first classes at the school as it opened on March 11, 1963. We also looked for the first elementary school we went to, Beaches Elementary School, but since it was torn down, we didn't find it.

Gainesville, FL

After reminiscing in Jacksonville, we drove to Gainesville, FL to visit Helen's brothers, Harold and Robert and Helen's sister-in-law, Jenny and Helen's nephew, Jack. We arrived at our hotel about 9 PM and even though it was late, Robert drove to the hotel to greet us! Robert, Jenny and Jack had a party in our honor. Helen's nephew, Jack, is a professional gourmet chef who is normally the head chef at swanky restaurants in the Caribbean catering to the rich and famous visiting the islands on their multi-million dollar yachts.

Jack is currently waiting for a new restaurant to open and decided to take a break from island living. So, he is in Gainesville working at one of the top sororities at the University of Florida. The girls absolutely LOVE his cooking! All of the girls are from well-to-do families and they know good food. They are enjoying his food so much, that on his birthday, all 200 members sang happy birthday to him. He is loving all the attention he is receiving for his cooking. In most restaurants, the chef doesn't hear much feedback, but here, they are going out of their way to give him compliments. Jack is blowing them away with his food! He'll be there till the Summer of 2024, by then, the new restaurant in the Caribbean will be open, so he'll move back to St. Martin or one of the neighboring islands.

While in Gainesville, Robert, Helen's brother, took us all round to see the old sights. One of the places he took us, was a hike on the La Chua trail. This trail wanders out into Paines Pararie and around a lake. There is a lot of wildlife to be seen, including lots of alligators! The trail holds a special meaning for brother Wayne and Charles as it was the last hike their Dad took them on before he passed away a few years later.

At Helen's brother Harold's house, we were given a tour of his yard. Like Helen, Harold has a very green thumb. He grows bananas, grapefruit, oranges, peaches, figs and blueberries. In the past, he used to have a watermelon patch in his front yead, but with all the new trees there is no longer any room for them!

We also met Harold's new girlfriend, Janet. She and Charles had a lot in common as she used to work at the college of engineering at the University of Florida. She was able to update Charles on the changes at the college.

It was fun visiting our old home town. When Charles' Dad retired from the U. S. Navy in 1969, his family moved to Gainesville. Charles went to Santa Fe Community College then transferred to the University of Florida, Go Gaters! Charles lived in Gainesville from 1969 to 1973 when he left for his first engineering job in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Brother Wayne also attended Santa Fe Community College and then transferred to the University of Florida. After graduation, he left and joined the U. S. Navy in the Fall of 1977. Charles and Wayne felt it was really interesting to see how much the city has changed. Areas that were swamps when we lived there, are now the site of apartment complexes. Charles and Wayne would have never believed it.

Ocala, FL

One day during our stay, we drove to Ocala to visit with JEDEC friends, Mark and Janice. They live in the On Top of the World retirement community. This community has a ton of fun activities for seniors. Including a very well provisioned carpenter shop, a huge area for radio controlled planes with a PAVED runway, a radio controlled race car track and many other dedicated spaces, such as a sewing and craft room.

Mark and Janice took us to a very nice restaurant on the property. Then they showed us the concert hall, theaters and community centers. We noticed they had many top name bands and performers playing at the concert hall and the ticket prices were really reasonable (less than $100, most around $50).

The community operates as if it were a large condominium. The home owners association owns up to the wallboard on the houses. They are responsible for the maintenance of the houses and the grounds. You are responsible for everything in the house.

It was fun visiting with Mark and Janice and I'm glad we had the chance to spend a few hours with them!

Vero Beach, FL

At this point, the trip was rapidly coming to an end. But, we had one fun visit in store for us. We drove down to Vero Beach to visit our good friends Wayne, Carol and Eddy. It has been many years since we have seen them. Wayne and Charles shared an office when we worked for MODCOMP computers in Fort Laudedale back in the late 1970s. Over the years we all went on several bareboat sailing trips in the Caribbean and even a two week trip on Wayne and Carol's boat, Island Girl, to the Bahamas. A decade ago, they sold their boat and bought a motorhome. Last year, the sold the motorhome and bought a travel trailer. It is a little bit larger than the one we have. They spend from May to October every year hiking and traveling in the mountains in the West to escape the heat of Florida. Helen and Charles have wanted to join them, but every year something comes up to hold us back. Maybe next year we can catch up to them.

Not too far from their house, they bought 5 acres of pasture land with a pond on it. At some point, a county official came out and discovered their pond was too close the property line. So, they had the fun task of moving the pond 5 feet! Fortunately, they had a neighbor with a backhoe that was able to slowly move it to the required set back. What a pain and it was still expensive to have it moved!

The property is so rural, that it doesn't have electricity. So, Wayne and Eddie put up some solar panels, added a few lithium batteries, installed a power inverter and now they can generate their own power. It's not a big system, but large enough for Eddy to have his motor home on the property and be able to run the airconditioning. Charles really enjoyed seeing the system and hearing Wayne's detailed explanation. It is very similar to the system Charles installed last year on our travel trailer, just much larger.

Orlando, FL

This three week trip came to an end when we drove to Orlando the night before our flight. We had one last steak dinner before heading home. The next morning, we got up early for a flight to San Francisco. The trip was a lot of fun and we enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you to all who contributed to the great time we had. We were sad to be heading home so soon.

Travel Trailer

Not much happening with the travel trailer this year. Charles did set up the solar panels a couple of times to charge the lithium battery. I'm soooo glad we have lithium batteries as we can let them discharge completely and not worry about harming them. Unlike lead-acid batteries, which can be damaged when the charge gets below 50%. Helen and Charles are hoping to do more camping next year. Keep your fingers crossed.

Helen's Garden

Helen had quite a garden this year. She had tomato plants, strawberries, squash and green beans. She had so many squash, we ended up giving many of them to the senior center, which they prepared for the lunches. Until they were used, they were put on display on the counter for the whole room to see. This made her very happy!

Age Well Center (A.K.A. Senior Center)

Our eating lunches at the senior center has increased this year. We started out only going 2 to 3 times per week. Now, we are going everyday it is open (Monday - Friday). It only takes us 5 minutes to get there. Usually, when we arrive, they are just starting to serve lunch. We can eat and be back home in less than an hour. AND... There are NO dishes to wash!!!

This year, we made a number of friends at the senior center. We have no trouble finding a table to sit at where we know people. As a matter of fact, one group of friends save us a couple of seats!

The center also has a puzzle table. Occassionally after lunch, Helen will spend a couple of hours working on one with our table-mates. Charles has no interest in the puzzles and usually heads home or does other errands.

Exercising

In July, 2022, we started running and continued running till it was too cold in the middle of January. This year, we didn't start till August and were finished by October, just before we left on our 3-week East Coast road trip. Charles doubts we'll start again till next July or August.

We hope your year was as eventful and as exciting as ours and...

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Charles & Helen