Postponement of the adventure to the Great White North

Well plans have totally changed, during the last part of July right before I was to leave on my Northern Adventure. My daughter, my grandson, 13 and granddaughter, 10 were going to move out of the house so I decided to sell my home of 27 years and move north. She really wanted and loved the family home so it was agreed she would buy the home and the transaction was a go without the house ever going on the market.

That changed my plans drastically.

I reviewed my future and decided to move up the relocation to the Pacific Northwest to be by my son, daughter-in-law, 3 YO grandson and the new addition that was due in a couple of weeks. Well, going on this travel adventure and relocating 1,000 miles (1,610 k) away within a couple of months was too much for me to handle. So the Adventure would have to wait a year.

Leaving the beginning of August I traveled north to stay with my son and family while waiting on the new little one to be born. I started looking for homes and exploring the area the day after I arrived.

My daughter-in-laws family wanted to go out with kayaks on Lacamas Lake the next day, so off we went. It was a wonderful morning paddling around on this 3-mile (4.8k) long lake.

 

Next up was a loop walk down to the Columbia River then exploring Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. I will cover this walk in my next post as it deserves it’s own post.

Fort Vancouver National Historic Park-12

BarraParade Grounds, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site

Later in the week I went for a pleasant morning 4-mile (6.4k) walk around Round Lake, a wonderful area with many hiking trails, trees, waterfalls and streams. I went home to relax and in the afternoon started looking at homes in the area.

 

One day out of the blue we visited this wonderful home located in a pocket of pines, I really loved this place and it reminded me of a cabin that I had once owned in Lake Arrowhead, CA. My son and daughter-in-law basically said I should put an offer in right away or they might buy it, LOL. The next day I put my offer in and after a little negotiating it was to be mine.

house

A few days later a beautiful baby boy was born.

 

What an exciting and unexpected time I had in those few weeks. Instead of  heading into the great white north after the birth of my grandson, the plans suddenly changed with the selling my home, exploring some beautiful areas, buying a new home and being there for my forth grandchild’s birth.

Well now to make the drive back south and start packing up for the move. That’s going to be a massive amount of work.

2017 in review quite a better year

2016 was just a total joke of a year and I was glad it was over, 2017 has been much better and full of adventures.

January started off recuperating from an sudden illness that happened in mid-December and during this time I started planning a trip up to Vancouver, WA the end of February to visit family and purchase my new adventure vehicle, a 2017 Subaru Outback.

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2016 a year in review.

Well 2016 I am not sorry to see you go, it has been a year of ups but with more downs for me. Looking forward to 2017 and what is ahead.The year started off as good as any of the last few years with travel plans and family visits and was looking to be a pretty good year shaping up.

Starting off, a wonderful trip to Walt Disney World for 9 full days with 8 split between the 4 parks and a rest day. It was wonderful but tiring for us. Jodi was a trooper as usual, she walked as much as possible for a couple of hours then she had to use the wheelchair for the rest of the day.

Back from the trip Jodi was tired but pushing along pretty well. A clinic visit went well in mid-March but then she had an incident and died on the 31st of March. This completely shattered me, she had a spark of life that I cold not explain. It just radiated from her.

Then I was able to get to 2 local events a Concourse Car Show and the Taste of Huntington Beach, both in HB Central Park, these two afternoons were just an amazing time out of the house.

Next up on the agenda was to get up north to see my grandson’s 1st birthday at the end of April. It was a wonderful time but sad for all of us adults at the same time.

Then a cruise to Alaska that was planned in 2015 with family and extended family in June. WIth 9 of us it was an exciting time and a very lovely trip.

Then in October it was another trip up north to visit my grandson with an overnight stop in the Redwoods for the night.

My daughter and the 2 grand kids moved back into the house the first  week of November to fill up the 4 bedroom house. Now it is a lively house again with non-stop activity.

Finally the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas have been happy but hollow with something very important missing in our lives.

So looking forward to planning new adventures for 2017, enjoying travel again and seeing new places. My Bucket List is long and constantly growing so we will see if I can visit these places in the time left.

Planning and preparing for the 2018 Alaska adventure will take a lot of 2017 and really be exciting.

Possible Alaska Journey

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2017 and your adventures all come true.

May the calm be widespread, may the sea be as the smooth surface of the greenstone, and may the rays of sunshine forever dance along your path” Maori Prayer.

 

Vancouver, WA trip, April 2016

This is a report of my short trip to Vancouver, WA to visit my son, daughter–in-law and grandson for my grandson’s 1-year birthday. This would be a car trip and to make it up there and back in the time I got off work would require a marathon drive, about 17 hours each way. Well off I went leaving about 5AM from SoCal to miss the traffic. Glad I did because I got all the way through LA doing at least the speed limit. The only stops along the way would be for food, gas and nature breaks.

One important stop would be at Redding, CA for the last In-N-Out burger stand in California where I picked up 2 double doubles and a chocolate shake. Please note one of the burgers went into the cooler to give to my son when I arrived as he misses In-N-Out so much since he moved to Washington.

I finally arrived at 9:45PM exhausted.  I unpacked only what I had to, talked a little while and fell into bed hoping to get some well deserved sleep.

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