All is going well here in sunny Carpinteria. The holidays have come and gone. The Frary's had us for Thanksgiving then it was take off to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji for Marie and Carolyn. We had a wonderful 24 day trip. At the Great Barrier Reef we were fortunate to go to the farthest one. It took us about two hours to reach where we tied up to a floating barge. Carolyn really enjoyed the snorkeling while I enjoyed the glass bottom boat, another boat with port holes (like Disneyland only this was real) and watching the fish from an underwater auditorium on the barge. We did all the tourist things like visiting a Mori village, out-back cowboy ranch where we had a cattle demonstration and barbecue dinner, a park where we saw crocodiles, koala bears and kangaroos. Road the Sky Train through the rain forest, had a coffee cruise around Sydney harbor, visited the opera house, Carolyn walked the famous bridge in the rain, bought some opals. Then it was on to Christchurch, a beautiful clean town. We were fortunate to have our home stay in an architect's home which was on their Riviera. Even though it was their summer the home was decorated for Christmas. From there we had an all day bus trip to Queenstown. The day went quickly as the country was so green with wild lupines of all colors, sheep, cattle and red deer that are raised commercial. Carolyn spent at day at Milford Sound while I took a tour to see where The Lord of the Rings was filmed. She also took a jet boat ride and we both went on the Steamship across the lake to a sheep station where we got to be right out there with them. In Auckland we had a morning sail in the harbor. It was onto Fiji where we spent 3 days at a hotel resort. We went to a school performance, had lunch in a private home, snorkeling, glass bottom boat and Carolyn went horse back riding on the beach. To me the high light of the trip was the 3 night cruise around different islands in Fiji. We were taken to different beaches twice a day for snorkeling and swimming. The water is so warm and clear. It only rained at night or during lunch when we were on the boat. We were also taken to visit a school, dinner on an island with more entertainment. We both were glad we went and enjoyed the trip immensely.
We were home two nights when Kenny and Devin surprised us by arriving Christmas night. They just wanted to be with us on Christmas. We knew Devin, Karen, Nicklaus and Karen's Mother were coming the day after but the men decided Christmas Eve they wanted to be here earlier so that was a surprise. Kenny is getting a divorce so his new lady friend joined us too. Six house guests. We all went over to cousin Nelson's to see the birds, like when they were growing up, going to the beach, checking out the town, riding on all the ranch stuff, etc. We had 15 for dinner one night and they did it all. I just sat an relaxed as I was still tired but what a wonderful way to end Christmas. They went on to Disneyland.
Since then it has been back to the old grind. We do have house guests again. Our friends from Washington state that come every year. Carol goes to Mammoth with the ladies group. They use to live in Santa Barbara so have lots of friends. They just come and go. We will be going together to a Super Bowl party. In our Christmas letter we mentioned we were putting our place at Mammoth up for sale. The day after they received our papers we got a call from the realtor saying our neighbor's unit just went on the market for $35,000. less than we were asking. It made us mad so we canceled our contract. The unit sold right away and has closed. Carolyn, Dale, Jared and his friends were there last weekend. Dale had 4 days of handicap skiing and has really taken to it. Now we are in a quandary as to whether to sell or not. March 1st is when my ladies group goes up for 5 days. I will then be checking things out. We have not been up since the end of September.
We will be looking forward to reading the next issue of the blog. Melodee you did a wonderful job with the last one.
Our love to all,
Marie and Ange
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