Busy summer

Well, we are finally back in Carlsbad for the rest of the summer.  Since the last post, we had Val's girls and grand children here for the 4th of July.  Six additional people puts a strain on our little two bedroom condo, but it worked out ok.  The young kids can sleep most anywhere! 

At the end of July we flew to Newark.  I had a meeting in Princeton, NJ and then we spent 4 days in NYC as we have the past couple of years.  There is always something new to do in New York and we really enjoy visiting.  

We flew from NY to Sugar Land and spent several days checking on the condo there and having doctor's appointments.  Val was able to go see her mom, who is now 95.  

A few day after returning to Carlsbad we flew to Seattle where we rented a car and drove around the Olympic peninsula.  It brought back a lot of memories of Sally and my stay in Seattle in the mid 60's.  The beaches and rain forests haven't changed except for more restrictions on things that you can do, like digging for razor clams.  We then drove around to see Jimmy and Teresa Goode (Sally's brother) in Port Ludlow. He sets crab traps there and so we had our fill of Dungeness crabs.  Jimmy introduced us to Pickleball which is a paddle tennis like game played on a small court with a plastic ball like a whiffle ball.  It is becoming very popular with the "mature" set. We plan to followup and learn to play in Carlsbad and Sugar Land.

We then took the ferry to Seattle to see my old friends Len and Alansa Bates.  They have recently moved to a retirement apartment in downtown Seattle.  We had a great time reminiscing and seeing the town again.

We returned to Carlsbad and then turned around for our next adventure. I flew to Colorado to meet John Shinol for a fishing trip.  We spent our time on private waters on the Fraser river and caught some really nice trout.  During this time, Val went back to Sugar Land and baby sat for her younger grandchildren.  

Right after our return we were visited by John Gerber, a long-time friend and colleague from my days at Vanderbilt and Univ. Colorado.  We went to Del Mar races to lose a little money.  I know why I couldn't become a compulsive gambler--I don't like to lose money and the wins are too far apart to compensate.

Tomorrow we will drive up to Orange to see several of my high school classmates for our annual get together.  It is always fun to see them and to look at the old town.

Well that is what I did with my summer.  Perhaps a little too hectic, but we need to do things while we still can.