Just a short end-of-the-summer summary of our life here and around Spokane, WA. We bought and oversaw the beginnings of the remodel of a small bungalow. It’s been hard work on everyone’s part but the payoff has been good for both of us.
Janice planted a garden and flowers around the house. She also oversaw the installation of a pond.. We enjoyed lots of fresh vegetables from her garden. Fresh blackberries and hot peppers made for a great jelly that Janice just canned this past week. Joel had his daily work out around the outside of the house and as Janice says; “Joel, you never have to worry about getting in trouble to much again. You have earned a lifetime of get-out-of-jail free cards.”
We are also both giving back to the community by volunteering in a few different areas. Joel has volunteered at "The Cop Shop", which is a neighborhood walk-in place where citizens can talk to trained volunteers that help them make minor complaints, make concerns known and then the volunteers can explain the system. Joel and Janice both have volunteered at the Civic Theatre by hosting and ushering for "Joseph and His Many Colored Dream Coat" and "Les Miserables". Joel and Janice also volunteer to help with races put on by The Bloomsday Road Runner's Club.
We took a 7 day cruise from Vancouver, BC to Seward, Alaska with Janice's brother Ken and sister-in-law Ruth. Janice's brother Phil and sister-in-law Charla were in an accident the day before and were unable to make it. They are continuing to heal and were missed.. We then took a 4 day train trip up to Fairbanks spending a couple of days in Denali. This trip will be very memorable to us both. Such a beautiful area in this world. We also went to Lake Chelan for a 3 day trip for wine tasting with some great friends. One more noteworthy trip was to Missoula, Montana for a marathon that Joel ran. We took 2 of our grandsons with us for the weekend and had a great adventure with them. Joel has decided after running this complete marathon, that it will be his last one. He has now retired from marathon running.
October 24, we will start our drive to Mazatlan. We are going down the California coast and will spend a couple of days in Santa Barbara, former city of where Janice lived for many years. We hope to arrive in Mazatlan on October 31. We plan is staying until the end of March. After years staying in Mazatlan, we are making this our last winter there. We both enjoy Mazatlan, but as we know we have only a certain number of years left, and we want to spend our winters exploring some new places. We are thinking about Arizona, Texas, Florida, California, Australia, Italy/Spain and New Zealand. I think we have decided on the beach in the Florida Panhandle in the winter of 2014-15. This will allow us to explore the deep south. Some places on our list are in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and New Orleans. The bottom line is that if you want to visit us in Mazatlan, plan for this winter, and we hope you will.
Hopefully this keeps everyone up to date on the adventures of the Whitakers.
