"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in
its net of wonder forever."—Jacques Cousteau

Looking Back at 2023

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” - Michael Altshuler

January was a month filled with family and friends. It seems tough to get together when we first get back to Texas, because of the holiday. We found lots of time to catch up with old and new friends in January, plus we took a trip to South Padre Island.
In February we took our first trip since Covid...we went back to Puerto Rico. We spent two weeks in the sun exploring new places and a few favorites.
March was windy...as usual but I had fun catching up with girl friends. Some from over forty years ago.
In April we started our migration north. We took a different route this year. Our first stop was in Iowa to see a rock painting friend at her beautiful Cabinland. Then we spent three days in Chicago.
In May we launched The Pearl and caught up with Kyle and his family. It felt nice to be back in New York.
In June we were back in full swing on the lake. We rented a nice home with Kyle, we played on the little runabout and we picnicked at wineries.
In July we celebrated our anniversary in Lake George and enjoyed visiting Clayton again. We love the 1000 Islands area. We also did a little hiking and waterfall chasing.
August brought another long weekend with Kyle's family, more hiking, more wineries and boating.
The highlight of our summer is having each of our PA grands come one at a time for a visit. Those visits are filled with laughter, boating, crafting and lots of their favorite foods.
In September we took a little getaway for Stan's birthday and explored a few things around our area we hadn't seen. Then we spent a week in Washington DC with family. We had a great time seeing the museums and monuments through the eyes of the kids.
Summer may have been over, but in October we were very busy exploring western New York and Central Pennsylvania...and taking in the beautiful changing of seasons.
In November we started our way south to enjoy time with family in Texas.
December was a pretty month in Texas. We had great weather and lots of family festivities to enjoy.

Merry Christmas

“Take a moment to reflect and look back - but only a moment because new possibilities are just over the horizon.” -Author Unknown

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our family and friends. We spent another wonderful year dividing our time between Rockport, TX and Ithaca in upstate New York. We took a trip to Puerto Rico and quite a few smaller trips this year...we seemed to find somewhere special to go almost every month. But our favorite thing to do is spend time with our family.

Our kids are doing well and our grandchildren are growing up way too fast. We don’t have any small ones left. It’s fun watching them grow and their unique personalities emerge. 2023 has been another good year and we are ready for new adventures to come our way in 2024.