A grateful Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

As they say … the best laid plans…. beginning with no work on Abigail (our sailboat) this fall. The weather was too hot and we were really busy diving with the shop. Many friends came to visit and time just flew by. We wanted to take a dive vacation in the spring hopefully before the scheduling of Jim’s second hip replacement. So we began looking for an exchange that would work with our timeshare and timeframe. Ahhhh…old man time….little did we know.

We decided to spend Thanksgiving in San Carlos. It was different not spending the holiday with family. Especially for Becky since it was her first time away from the kids. Yet God puts people into our lives for a reason. This year Andy and Bev’s (our dear friends we caretake for in San Carlos) sister Claire and her family came down for Thanksgiving. Jim had certified their daughter Katherine last spring while she was attending a semester of high school in Mexico. She was such an amazing spirit that when they asked Jim to certify her younger brother Jake he gladly agreed. Like his sister Jake was a natural and we all had a great time. Jake even learned how to catch fish barehanded, unlike in Minnesota where they still use a rod and reel after cutting a hole in the ice. Jake's diving

They graciously treated us to a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. The turkey was an amazing 26 pounds. It seems that in years gone by turkeys have been hard to come by since the Mexicans don’t celebrate the holiday. But this year that changed in a “big” way. Turkeys were readily available for up to 4 times the cost per pound in the states. The bigger the turkey…..the bigger the profit. Who says they don’t understand marketing in Mexico at least when it comes to the gringos.

We made new lifelong friends and shared one of the most memorable Thanksgivings ever with them. It more than made up for being away from family.  You guys are awesome, vaya con Dios until we see you again.    

We left San Carlos around the 1^st week of December to head north for Christmas. We were excited to visit with the kids in Arizona and see our new grandson Jack. He was born Nov 3 and is named after his great grandfather. He is beautiful. Jim’s daughter Melanie and her guy Travis are wonderful parents and all 3 are doing great. Jack's 1st pictures

Joe and Stephanie are having a girl instead of a boy and she was due any day. We were hoping Daisy Annabelle Suzanne (try repeating that fast 3 times) would be born before we had to leave for Colorado, but she had her own ideas. Turns out she was born Christmas Eve! We now have a total of 10 beautiful grandchildren between us. Wow!

We got to Golden in time to see Christmas programs, basketball games and Christmas parades with Becky’s kids and grandkids. We even had time left over to bake cookies, enjoy a high tea and decorate the tree. It is always such a busy time when we go to Colorado to visit….. there is so much to catch up on and so many things to do. Grandparenting can be exhausting…..don’t know how we did it as parents let alone how our kids do it! It seemed especially hectic this time as we needed to leave right after Christmas to be back in San Carlos for New Years. Christmas in Golden

We drove south via Red River, NM. Judy (Jim’s sister) and Gil bought a townhouse down there in Sept and had much of the family up from Texas for a ski vacation.  That is a beautiful area of NM, north of Taos. We are going back when there isn’t any snow…we’ve heard it is really gorgeous in the fall. Red River 

We really lucked out with the weather and stayed just ahead of a major storm all the way back to the border. Even so there was snow in Phoenix… imagine that! It even snowed in Tucson and Nogales! Getting through Mexican customs was a breeze because no officials wanted to be outside in the cold. We got back to San Carlos in the afternoon on New Years Eve. Had a small bite to eat and made plans to paint the town later then decided a short nap would be in order.  Remember those best laid plans….we woke up from the “short” nap sometime close to midnight. Just in time to spank the baby and go back to bed.

We started New Year’s day off diving …..what else … with old friends and the day could not have been more spectacular! On the way to San Pedro Island we found ourselves in the middle of a pod of Orcas. That’s right, Orcas…. aka killer whales to some. But when you see them up close and personal, you forget all about the “killer”. There were at least 14, including 2 babies which made the experience extra special. They swam right up to the boat and put on quite a performance!  Shortly after that, we found ourselves being entertained by an even larger pod of dolphins. All in all a wonderful way to start the new year. Orcas

We finally got a call from the VA to schedule Jim’s hip replacement surgery. They wanted us in Denver Feb 28^th for pre-op tests with surgery scheduled for March 24^th. Re-enter old man time and the possibility for a dive vacation. Now, we understand that it’s hard for some to comprehend the concept of taking a vacation when your life is a vacation but it works for us. It seems that even if one is lucky enough to work at something they love…. for us diving… it can still become work. For Jim and I this was an opportunity to just dive together and enjoy someplace new and different. We decided on Aruba in mid January, not our first choice but in the ABC’s. For you non-divers that’s the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao off the northern coast of Venezuela.

Sadly this meant we would not be returning to San Carlos anytime soon. It was really hard saying good-bye to all our friends, knowing we won’t be back until the fall. Especially all our great friends at Ocean Sports; Sarah, Abraham, Chino, Oscar, Ernesto, Edgar and Junior. 

Ocean Sports

Tommy, sorry we can’t be there for your record setting dive. Remember it’s spelt Guinness as in book not beer.Tommy's dive blog

Rich and Barb, thank you so much for all the Guaymas tips and banana bread. Good luck with your rally. San Carlos rally  

We love you all like family and wish you the best. Thank you for being in our lives.

Next stop……Aruba