Gail
and Denvy
50 Years and Counting
50 Years and Counting
Year
Fifty - 2019
We chose Costa Rica for this year's getaway. It's a new location for us, it's warm in a time when Oregon is cool, it's full of nature and it feels safe. Our first night was a transition site, a hotel in San Jose after a full day of flying and before adventuring into a country with no addresses and few route indicators.
The next four days were in a B and B at five minute walk from the Caribean and a thirty minute drive from Panama, a place called Cahuita. We tasted their cuisine, walked their walk and enjoyed a few new critters and birds in a variety of vegetation. The sloths, primarily in the rescue center, were slow, the monkeys and raccoons weren't bashful and the birds were colorful but without the desire, the skills and the binoculars were weren't any competition for the birders.
We thought the drive to the interior and volcanoes, they boast a hundred in their country, would be quicker than the first day but we were wrong. The next couple of overnights were in a treehouse, actually on steel stilts but with a great view, surrounded by manmade pools and spas. Sitting in the hot tub at 6 in the morning, listening to and watching the howler monkey and squalking parrots was restful, relaxing and downright peaceful.
In the interior we took a tram ride a short distance up and down the volcano through the tops of the jungle. We did watch others take the zipline down to the starting point. Some reported it was fun; others said they were scared. After an afternoon of winding through the countryside, a repose in a San Jose hotel, we flew home full of new energy.
There were a couple long
road trips this year, the first being to Mandan, North Dakota for the high school graduation of our granddaughter Payton on May 26. After graduation she secured a room, courses, books and a roommate at North Dakota State University in Fargo after which she changed her thinking and enrolled in a program at Bismarck Community College that would lead her to the nursing program at NDSU and it was much less expensive.It was 50 years ago to the day of our wedding day when we gathered with our immediate family, some extanded family and former students who are now family to celebrate on the coast of Oregon.
Darron and EMily from Alaska, Marc, Tina, Dominic and Riley from Waashington and Becky, Milan, Payton, Deona and Gabriel from North Dakota on Thursday for a family day on Friday. Brother George and Karen, nephew Jim, Lisa, Evan and Tegan, nieces Diane and Cindy and her daughters Aiyanna and Chenoa were the extended family. Weiwei, Rob, Anya and Zia, Angelmary and Bo and Jary played the roles of students whome we adopted as para-family.The weather was awesome, mild and calm. We rented several cabins at this place called Happy Camp. There we shared meals, sat around a outdoor fire, kayaked, dug for clams (successfully) and took a ride on a steam engine train just up the road. After everyone went home on Sunday, Darron and Emily joined us on the farm for an extra day.
The second road trip started by going to Gail's 50th class reunion at the University of Jamestown, formerly Jamestown College when we graduated. Three nursing students from the class were there along with three other classmates. From there we had lunch with Gail's niece Christy in Page, North Dakota, an overnight with Denvy's brother George in Fargo, an overnight with Gail's sister Marilyn near St Cloud, Minnesota, a day and a couple overnights with Gail's niece Patti near Green Bay, Wisconsin and finally an overnight with niece Heidi on the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio, before the three day drive back home.
During the visits we also saw Cam and Dan in Page, Mary and Karl in Fargo, Greg and Jerry by Marilyn's, David, Tanya, Matthew, Allan and Caleb at Patti's, Debbi and Mark and Stacey in Appleton, and Ken and Toni and Robin in Ohio. On the way home we stopped in Rock Springs for an hour with Tina's parents, Alan and Kathleen.
While visiting Davids he was in considerable pain which he said was from a cancerous tumor in his lower back pressing on nerves causing pain in his leg. He went to the University of Minnesota a couple days later for a biopsy with a DNA test to see if he was compatible with a new experiental drug to fight this cancer. The night after the biopsy while staying with his daughter near Minneapolis, he suffered a heart attack resulting in a trip to ER and the removal of a small blood clot before returning home a couple days later.