Life in the Slow Lane (The Pearl): 2025

Looking Back at 2025

January is always a slow month spent mostly visiting with our Texas family and a few friends. It usually, as it did this year, includes a few days of frozen weather. Not a big problem for us since we are self contained....no water, not electricity...no problem. Luckily it doesn't last long.

February was spent enjoying the beach, beautiful sunsets and visits with friends. Even a few from out of state. Watching our Texas grand daughter and daughter in-law run in the Whooping Crane Strut was also fun.

In March we made our way back to Lewisburg. The weather was still a bit cool, but we truly love spending time with our family and that keeps us warm enough.

April brought better weather and lots of time to play outside. We enjoyed watching our yard come alive. Every day brought new flowers and a bit more spring to our lives.

May was full of graduations...Graham from elementary school and Hattie from Kindergarten. More time in the yard, the amusement park and we even found time to launch The Pearl.

June was about spending time on the water. We had a family vacation on Cayuga Lake and Cora got to spend some one on one time with us on the boat.

In July Hattie and Graham got to spend time on the boat and Stan and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. We spent a long weekend in southern Pennsylvania at the Inn at Whitewing Farm.

August was the best month of the summer. We spent an awesome week at a house on Keuka Lake. The weather, the water and the company was wonderful. We also celebrated Hattie's 6th birthday and her accomplishment at mastering the two wheeler. No more training wheels in our family.

September was a very busy month. Stan and I took a small vacation to the 1000 Islands and Montreal. On our way back we met up with the kids and spent a week in the Adirondacks.

We had some great photos taken of our family when we were in the Adirondack. Here are just a few of the ones I like.

October was a bit slower as we enjoyed the fall colors, fall festivals and more time with the family. October also means the end of the boating season in New York. Kind of hard to believe this was our ninth season in Ithaca.

November brought colder weather, shorter days and even a bit of snow. We could tell it was time to move south. Before we left we enjoyed some of the wonderful winter squashes the area provides. We had a slow trip south...we took our time and visited with my good friend Karen in Iowa.

We spent December enjoying our boat, our Texas grandkids and a Christmas trip to Belize.

Dec. 19 - Arrival in Paradise

“What a wonderful world this would be if people stopped looking for things that offended them and started looking for things that inspired them.” –Unknown

We enjoyed a slow quiet morning at the inn with breakfast on the porch. After breakfast we watched the kids play in the pool and took a walk before we took a taxi back to the airport. The airport was quiet and there were very few people waiting on flights. Unlike the zoo we saw on Saturday when we all headed home.

Just as we were boarding our plane to Placencia Kyle and his family were arriving at the airport in Belize City. Soon everyone will be together.

Troy and Arthur wanted Poppy to sit with them.

View from our little plane.

The Placencia Airport.

Leaving the Placencia dock.

Our first look at our private island...The Enclave.

The staff welcomed each new arrival with smiles, cool towels and a tropical drink.

Dixany was waiting with a cold welcome drink and was our bartender while we were on the inland.

Oscar was ready to make it an adult beverage with some local rum.

The entrance to the common area from the boat dock.

Looking at the common area from the beach.

The common area.

Bar, pool table and kitchen area.

The game room where the kids hung out when it rained.

Our bungalow was called Pelican, each bungalow had a bird's name.

The view from our patio.

Our amazing room.

Kyle and his family were the second group to arrive on the island.

We had 11 children...5 boys and 6 girls. Ages 2 1/2 to 11. They all entertained themselves very well.

Our first evening was spent catching up, exploring our little island and playing a few group games.

Our chef Alex and his sous chef Marvin. They kept us well fed.

Meals were a great time to enjoy great food and good conversations. It was fun being waited on.

The girl's table.

Our first sunset in paradise.

Dec. 18 - Belize City

“Life's a journey, not a destination.” -Aerosmith

We decided to fly into Belize a day ahead of when we were scheduled to arrive at the resort. A few others in our group did the same thing. Being retired gave us that option. Coming on Thursday instead of Friday also gave us more time to relax and saved us some money. The flight from Houston to Belize City was only two and a half hours and everything went smoothly, although customs were a bit more intense than other countries we’ve been to. We’ll fly down to Placencia tomorrow with Milly and her family and meet up with the rest of our group.

We spent our first night in Belize at a cute little B&B called Villa Boscardi. Located between the airport and Belize City. We were joined by Milly and her family. What a fun and relaxing evening we had catching up and enjoying a meal overlooking the water. Milly and our oldest son Kyle have been friends since they were in kindergarten. Milly’s like a daughter to us and now we have two bonus grandchildren.

Belize Immigrations checked our passports and embarkation information at three separate places...all within 30 yards of each other before we could exact the airport. Leaving the county was just as involved.