Finally Relaxing, Really at "Home!"

We are feeling like we are truly home and Mary in the office here was nice enough to put us in the same unit - #616 -for 3 weeks (2 weeks of our floats and one bonus week 53) and then our 2 fixed weeks will be in the same unit, as usual - #609. Fixed weeks check in on Saturdays and floating weeks on Sundays, so we'll have a day overlap, which we like since it makes it easier to move. This schedule makes it more relaxing too!

We have already connected with our friends, so that makes it even more like home!

It's unusually cold here so far -- the Flordia orange growers will be hurt -- but is supposed to warm up the for weeend. There is, however, a great indoor pool here so Joan is on her way!

Dec 25th Beautiful Travel day!

Temps are in the 70’s, driving across Florida on I-4, to go one of our favorite timeshares, Townhouses at St Augustine Beach and Tennis Club. We bought another floating week last November on eBay (for $1, no closing costs) and have already traded it and another week for Hawaii next December. But since we love staying here too, that is always an option for the future. This January, we’ll be here 5 weeks.

Had a little scare on the way over, starting up the van, it died every time we tried to move out of the parking lot. But, we kept it running for a while, and it was okay. Christmas Day, not a good time to have car problems.

Met our friends Nancy and Stu at wyndham Ocean Walk in Dayton Beach and together we pooled our food and fixed a great Christmas dinner!

Dec 24th Walking on the Beach on Christmas Eve

Ron fixed the printer problems, so we were “back in business.” Got things printed and mailed, made some online photo shows, then needed to begin packing for leaving on Saturday, but had time to walk on the beach. Not crowded! Peaceful! The birds did not even move when we walked by. Everything the beach could be!

Ron has said about this beach: You know, Hawaii beaches are not as big as this one!

Oops! Does that mean he prefers Florida!!??

Dec 21st A Printer “Snag”

Printing up Christmas cards and the printer suddenly decided not to print in Print Shop® on Joan’s laptop, reformatted into MS WORD, still did not print, or in any programs. Moved the file to Ron’s laptop, it printed once, then quit. Ron did a program FIX and tried printing again. It prints, but very slowly….

....more “wasted” time in Paradise?

December 20th Are We Funny, Odd, or Pitiful?

Here we are, in an oceanfront unit on the Gulf, and our main concern is finding an Office Depot (or such) to get more cardstock to print up more Christmas cards. Well, and walking on the beach and swimming laps in the pool later on when it warms up.

What a waste of a beachfront week, you might say. (We might say that, too!) But, two things make us this way. First of all, we are just “living” as any of you do, doing what is necessary and needing to get done those everyday things that we all need to do (yes, even doing the laundry regularly takes time away from the Beach!) As we said in the beginning, we are just living, but somewhere warm!

And also, secondly, it’s like a recovery time: we were so busy in Seattle, that it takes a few days to unwind and relax. Surely, it’s not what our son suggested: we are getting too tired! He said, “Traveling does take a toll on the body.” Surely not that!

Today we ran other errands besides the cardstock, which took up much of the day’s time. We came back for a late lunch and found the sun shining in, too. Beautiful view to the Gulf! We sat and luxuriated in the sun!

We're Here! In Florida!

We realxed as soon as we landed!

Now we have checked into Jamaican on the Gulf timeshare condo in Treasure Island, on the Gulf Coast. We have a surprisingly large 1 BD, all units are ocean front. We are just relaxing today.

December 18th We’re here…in FLORIDA! At last!

And as we landed, we started to relax. Amazing!

What does that mean? Does it mean that this is “HOME”?

We landed in Daytona Beach Wednesday afternoon and our friend, Buzz, who had kept our car, picked us up and we stayed with him a couple of days. We are in Treasure Island, FL this week on the Gulf side, just north of St Pete Beach at the Jamaican on the Gulf property, an RCI exchange. Very nice...small, homey, we have a 1 BD which is surprisingly large, all units ocean front.

We took a walk on the beach, which had a very interesting cloud cover.

December 12 RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN… = Seattle!

RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN… in the dark, driving in the Seattle traffic = NO FUN! It was bad enough to have the unusual snowstorm for Thanksgiving week, but then, we were already safely up in Oak Harbor with Joan’s dad, so we didn’t get stuck in the snowy roads as so people did, but for many days later, we had the normal 40’s degrees and rainy days which last pretty well from September through June, and Joan especially was pretty miserable.

It would be okay if we didn’t have to go out all the time in it.

We are anxious to get back to F L O R I D A!

5 Concerts in 4 Days? Yes!

Ron always wanted to be able go to lots of concerts and thought that when he retired he’d have more time to go. But… is there a limit to how many concerts? Apparently, no!

Being in Seattle during the Christmas season means the kids (of both generations) are playing concerts non-stop! Winnie plays in the Nutcracker pit orchestra and in past year’s has gotten us tickets, but this year, we were swamped with other family member concert participations. Our son, Andy, is in the Northwest Symphony and the Seattle Civic Band, and this year, Natalie joined him in those two groups as well as playing in the Junior Symphony, her school band, a special Christmas church band, and an additional invitation to play the trumpet part for Interlake High School Chamber Orchestra in Bellevue.

The Concerts We Went To

Thanksgiving weekend:
Friday noon, Junior Symphony (of the Seattle Youth Symphony), Seattle Center House (Natalie)
Saturday morning, Junior Symphony Rehearsal in North Seattle (Natalie)
Sunday afternoon, Federal Way Symphony (Clayton)
Monday noon, 8th grade band at Seattle Center House (Clayton and Natalie)
Monday evening, Bronn Journey concert, at Issaquah Theatre (a wonderful and funny harpist http://www.bronnjourney.com/)

The next weekend (they played more places, but these are only the ones we attended):
Friday night Christmas, special musical service at Eastridge Church in Issaquah (Andy, Clayton and Natalie)
Saturday night, Seattle Civic Band at the Greenwood Salvation Army church (Andy and Natalie)
Monday night, 8th grade band concert (Clayton and Natalie, including Jazz Band)
Tuesday night, Interlake High School in Bellevue (Natalie)
Trivia question: How many times did Natalie play the whinny for “Sleigh Ride” this year? WOW! Too many to count????

Clayton and Natalie wanted to go busking in downtown Seattle as many days as possible before Christmas (“busking” is playing music on the streets) like they did last year, but it rained all weekend. So they’ll need to wait until next weekend!

Other activities in Seattle for us to do!

Meanwhile, we also had the new (used) mini-van repaired, but also had to be towed by AAA one night, we cleaned condos, had another birthday dinner (Natalie), had a celebratory dinner for Clayton being hired by the Federal Way Symphony, completed two projects at Andy’s house (repaired a pocket door and stove hood), taught Faith – we had various projects, including a great interest in chicken bones! -- shopped and wrapped for Christmas, made the Christmas cards, had church activities (our church friends figured out that we get NO rest at all in Seattle), visited in Oak Harbor again, visited with Joan’s mother each day that we could, but the worse was….




…DRIVING IN THE RAIN!

DEC 3 TUG Summary Update

We planned on timesharing 2 years...but now? We don’t know. We are pretty well booked up through March, 2012 and still have places we want to go. Although, as I have said before, we keep going back to the same places we have been, we liked them so well.We do know we will eventually need a permanent retirement home, yes, but where???

We thought 2 years would be enough to decide, but we are still undecided. We like TOO many places!

Of course, family plans, issues, and concerns make things more complicated. With Joan's stepmother passing of last week and the "phone call" meant that we quickly changed our plans.. got on the best Delta flight we could and also found the best place to leave our vehicle for the extended period.....and that still leaves her mother at 91, her father at 93 and Ron's mother at 89. Couple that with grandchildren activities we would like to be a part of....no, we really do not go just wherever we want to! We do have the freedom to choose, of course....and have chosen to be with family and Ron's military reunions.

We have finally said that we must begin to seriously decide: so the question is, where does it feel most like “home?”