Saturday, January 2, 2010

2009 - An Eventful Year

This is a look back on our 2009 - Happy New Year!

January – We welcomed in the New Year with the Taylors and Dan and Kathy Hanson at their home in Hood Canal. We made an outing to the Robinhood bar and grill where Kathy got most of us dancing and this lit a fire under all the patrons before we exited back to the house for games and to celebrate the coming of the New Year.

February – Mike and Mary (Anniversary 30) went to the Big Island for R&R. This included a trip to the East side of the island where we found lots of intriquing tidepools, ghost trees, a visit to Kilauea volcano and on our way back a kayak outing to the Captain Cook memorial where the snorkeling was fabulous.

March – The Zags made it through the first rounds of the NCAA tournament only to lose to Davidson in the round of sixteen. This loss was avenged at December’s Battle in Seattle.

April – Early in the month we were at Pacific City with Russ and Carol for the Birding and Blues Festival and volunteered to help with birding at the whale lookout. Late in the month we celebrated James’ birthday (26th) with a wine tasting weekend in the Yakima Valley. Saturday we met Mike Hogue who is famous in Washington wine lore for his connection to Hogue Cellars; Sunday Mike dropped the birthday cake, making a mess.


May – We met James and Ada at Snoqualmie Falls for a Mother’s day brunch. Memorial Day weekend we flew to Spokane to check-out wedding venues, and settled on Shenanigans for the rehearsal dinner. We stayed at the Davenport and spent time with Matt and Cara who were in Spokane doing wedding prep stuff too.

June – A predominant memory of June was our prodigious strawberry patch. I think we picked a million strawberries – clearly the best year ever in both size and volume. We are still eating them and will be well into the New Year. Mary had knee surgery and still picked strawberries. Our friends from Gaithersburg, the Gores visited. On Father’s Day we went to see the Mariners with James and Ada.

July – This was a busy month that started with a 2 night trip to Vancouver Island. We kayaked, drove to Port Renfrew and visited Butchart gardens; home July 3rd and then off to Hood Canal with James and Ada for Independence Day at the Hanson’s. Mid-month Mary travelled east to visit with her friends Ann Loveland and Jane Poston. Later, Mike flew to Knoxville and drove with Matt and Cara to meet Mary in Atlanta to celebrate Nancy Newman’s 80th, and Cara got to meet the Newman clan. We all returned to Knoxville and then Mike and Mary travelled to northern Michigan (not U.P.) to visit Ned and Nancy at their house on Little Traverse Bay. A day trip to Mackinac Island for bicycling and fudge provided a big water view of the Great Lakes.

August – Mike started yet another new role at Weyerhaeuser; the Technology group was reorganized. Mike continues to support Weyerhaeuser’s manufacturing operations. Late in the month Jay and Ada moved from Ellensburg to Redmond and James started school at Digipen.

September – Over the Labor Day weekend we visited Russ and Carol in Pacific City, recharging our PC batteries before getting into the fall routine. To that tune, Mary is back at school and Mike is travelling to Boise 2 times a month in his new job. On the way to PC we stopped at Apolloni to pick up some of the wine for the upcoming wedding.


October – The event of the year was Matt and Cara’s wedding celebration. Many fond memories including time spent with Cara’s family, breakfasts at Madeline’s, meeting Father Bruno, all the events and mostly having family and dear friends to share it all. The only regret was we did not find enough time to visit with everybody. Early in the month we met James and Ada to do the Brian Carter Wine Stomp.


November –A late summer/fall remodel project – new flooring, doors and some painting was wrapped up. We added new furnishings to the project including a new dining room table. The old table was gone before the new one arrived. On Thanksgiving our neighbors Fran, Jim and Maggie joined us for dinner at our make-shift tables. Fran and Jim are living in Richland but still own their house next door. Maggie is living there.

December – Parties and dinners with friends, a long-awaited wedding of two Faith-Sharing friends, a get away weekend in Seattle, early Christmas with James and Ada before they travelled to Peru, and Christmas with Matt and Cara.



Happy New Year 2010!

2009 Favorites:
Books: The Whistling Season Ivan Doig and The Guernsey Literary- Society by Mary Ann Schaffer (sp?)
Movies: Up, Gran Torino (we finally saw it), Brothers
Walks: Redondo Boardwalk
Bike Rides – The Foothills Trail – Orting to South Prairie