January: - Floods, wildlife and earthquakes

Retirement Cabin to close to Puget Sound...

The month started out cold but shortly after Kari, Charles, Travis & Wren headed back to Alaska, the weather started to warm up. We enjoyed spending time with Brett, Kasey and Cecilia before we were scheduled to head north. The day we left it decided to rain hard, melting the snow and causing record floods. We made it back to Hansville but within hours after we arrived home all roads between Vancouver and Seattle area were closed due to major floods. The roads remained closed for several days. Being retired we were not really inconvenienced but working people had lots of problems commuting. During this time we enjoyed seeing a lot of wildlife including many raccoons around the house.

Hood Canal with Olympics

We also discovered a Nature Conservancy beach just a mile from our house that looks out over Hood Canal to the Olympic range of mountains. We learned the locals call it sand dollar beach because of a large colony of sand dollars visible at low tide. Later in the month we noticed we had not been seeing many of the raccoons. A neighbor shared that somebody in the neighborhood had been trapping them and moving them to another community. He reportedly had moved 14 raccoons! We can’t help but wonder what the other community thinks of their raccoon population explosion. We ended the month with a 4.5 earthquake centered at Kingston, just 12 miles from us. Can you believe we slept through it?

Point No Point Lighthouse at Hansville

December - Winter storms and family gatherings

After mild weather all fall we were shocked to have very unseasonably cold winter storms most of the month. We used the wood stove some but decided it was easier to let the furnace keep the house warm using the thermostat. Usually Hansville is spared from much snow, but not this year!

Hansville / Vancouver...

As it came time to head south for the holidays we realized that weather related travel problems were a real possibility. We kept watching the weather systems and took our best shot which got us to Vancouver just before another big snowfall and record low temperatures. We were anticipating Kari, Charles, Travis and Wren coming from Alaska when we learned the Portland airport was closed. They were able to get a flight to Seattle and rented a car to drive south. Most of the family was able to get to Eugene for the traditional family gathering but we missed seeing Kate, Kurt, Jean, Michael and Denise who were homebound by the snow.

Great Grandma, Wren, Cecilia and Travis

Travis, Wren and Pancakes.

November - Road trips

Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park

During a beautiful fall day we traveled the 60 miles from Hansville to Port Angeles and enjoyed a nice picnic looking towards Victoria, BC. That afternoon we drove up to Hurricane Ridge to look over the Olympic Mountains. While there we could hear a herd of elk bugling but we never were able to spot them. It was a wonderful day and so close to home. Later in the month we started our road trip by going down the west side of the Hood Canal. We stopped at a rest area and chuckled at the huge sign proclaiming NO HUNTING! Then we were shocked to see a whole herd of elk in the rest area. Of course we stopped in Vancouver to visit with Brett, Kasey and Cecilia as well as Roy and Suzanne before going on to Eugene for my treatment and to help with projects at Ray’s Mom. Then we traveled on south to Modesto, California to visit with Nancy’s sister, Jan and family.

Diane Barr and Ed Hiramoto in Las Vegas

Jo Hiramoto feeding us well...

Our mini road trip then took us to Las Vegas and we enjoyed staying with Jo and Ed Hiramoto. Of course we were able to meet Kitti Schmitz but an added treat was seeing Diane Barr who drove up from Phoenix to make it a mini-DoDDS reunion of Mannheim people. After a wonderful four days it was time to reverse our trip. We enjoyed great weather the whole trip and while in Modesto we took advantage of the weather and fall colors to have niece Tara take some pictures. In Eugene we had a very nice family Thanksgiving dinner with Mom, Gary, Anne and Emily. Of course we again stopped in Vancouver to see Brett, Kasey and Cecilia as well as Roy and Suzanne. We returned to Hansville and got busy doing yard work and started planning for a busy December.

October - New adventures and visitors

Roy Suzanne and Pepper visit Hansville

Roy and Suzanne came up for a visit and we enjoyed exploring the town of Poulsbo which has a rich Norwegian history. It was a rather cool weekend but we enjoyed walking the docks as well as exploring the nearby historic downtown. We also explored some of Bainbridge Island and discovered the unique Central Market grocery store that features products from all around the world. Roy loved the meat and cheese area and made selections to create Reuben sandwiches which we enjoyed with sauerkraut.

Ted and Rosalie in Eugene

Of course my leukemia treatments continue and that means a trip to Eugene about once a month. During our time in Eugene this month we were able to take a fall walk to see the color with good friends Ted and Rosalie Hulbert. We also located a nice Honda Civic that will make a nice economical travel car for us. We continue to try and get our mail and accounts moved to Hansville. We are enjoying Hansville and learning more about the community as we get settled. Recently we were out along the Hood Canal not far from our house when we observed a Trident submarine being escorted towards the Bangor Submarine base. Now we know that they come in regularly and we look for them.

Carol and Lou at Hansville.

A couple of weeks later we were visited by old friends, Carol and Lou Brewer and had fun showing them around. Lou particularly wanted to find a seafood restaurant and have oysters. We heard that a good friend, Kitti Schmitz, was going to be in Las Vegas for a convention and our first thought was, darn we will miss her, then we realized “we are retired” so why not go. We started to make changes to our schedule and contacting people to make plans for a road trip.

September - Moving to Hansville...

Our older but trusty 1984 Toyota Van, sometimes referred to as the Silver Bullet, made several trips between Eugene and Hansville, a six hour drive. Brett and Kasey moved out of Hansville with the help of her parents and then we met the U-Haul truck and family in Vancouver to help them move in.

Then Nancy and I headed north on a Sunday late in September, to prepare for our big shipment to be delivered on Tuesday. For two days we were busy making sure all was ready for the delivery. We were shocked Tuesday morning when a huge 18 wheel semi arrived with our stuff. It was too big to get in the driveway so the six movers had to use hand trucks to get from the street to the house. They worked until after 8 PM but left us with beds set up and furniture in place, but lots of boxes of stuff that needed to be unpacked! Nancy and I keep busy unpacking and thinking about how we accumulated so much stuff! In the first couple of years after we were married we could put all we owned in a car and moved across country; now it takes a semi truck!…

August - Traveling, sorting and moving...

Overwhelmed...

With another trip to California and so many tasks to complete, like setting dates for the remaining shipment to be delivered we continued to be busy. We also were helping brother Roy and his wife Suzanne start moving to their new house. That involved lots of painting and remodeling. Brett and Kasey located a house to rent in Vancouver, Washington just across the river from Portland. As they started to get ready for their move Nancy and I traveled to Hansville to help get them prepare. We enjoyed watching Cecilia so repairs and projects could be worked on in preparation for us moving into the house next month.

Time for relaxing with family and DoDDS friends...

Nancy and Bertha - Mckenzie Pass / Susie and Jane in Bend, Oregon

July - Shipments and Celebrations.

Shipments arrive...

We were still working to organize all of the items transported to Eugene from California when the first shipment arrived. It was the storage shipment that contained items we had not seen in nearly 20 years. As we sorted through the boxes we sometimes did not recognize the items and sometimes wondered why we kept many things. Much was donated but some items, like Kari and Brett’s toys were set aside for them to examine.

Celebrating Cecilia's first birthday...

We also had a summer family gathering on the coast to celebrate Cecilia’s first birthday. Many trips were made to Hansville to deliver some items not needed in Eugene. We continued to look for the right car, but the economic conditions have made good used cars difficult to locate. We also located a doctor at the Willamette Valley Cancer Center and set it up with him to continue the maintenance therapy that had begun in Germany last year.