Travel calendar for first year of retirement:

Very busy year on the travel front thanks to Kathy's enthusiasm for trip planning.

• October (second week):  New York City.
• December (first week) :  Tulsa for Granny and Gary birthdays
• December 15 - 19:  John to SF to help Jim move to Veterans Home in Yountville.
• Christmas:  Whistler BC with Lauren
• Jan 26 - Feb 11 Honolulu and then Maui (with Lowell & Carol)
• Mar 12 - 22 London for Bookfair with Lauren!
• April 27/28  Ocean Shores with Ananda and Linda
• May 5 - 14 Sedona AZ with Lowell & Carol
• June 17 - 26   Albuquerque, Pagosa Springs with Gary & Cyndi Stacy, visit Don Woodlee in Mora, New Mexico
• Sept 22 - Oct 4  going to Maui with first visit to Hana on the east side.  Then we'll go to Lahaina for one night to stay in the old Best Western next to the banyan tree.  Then to the Mahana, our "old same place" that we love.  Lowell & Carol will be at the Westin Ocean Shores, as will John  Schilling with his niece Vera and her boyfriend.

I don't think we'll travel so much in 2018, but we've had a damn good time of it.  We do plan to stay focused on "big" travel the next few years while we're both reasonably fit and mobile....don't want to tarry and be caught by surprise by the "slow go" years as we age.

Parents Day at Amazon - on Friday, 9/15 we went to Lauren's building, "Doppler", to join her for Amazon's second "Parents Day".  It was quite the mob scene with all the proud parents being shown around by their high-achiever children.  We went to the 17th floor outdoor dog park (lots of dogs everywhere!), tried our hand at doing a 6 second video wearing silly hats (did not turn out very well!), walked up Westlake to visit an archive room in the building that contains their library, ate lunch at a ramen restaurant in the first level of Doppler, and played mini-golf in the hallways of another building near Mercer Street.  I was pretty impressed reading Amazon's leadship principles.  Weather was sunny and the visit with our girl was very pleasant and topped off by getting to meet her boss, Gabriella Page-Fort, and a new colleague, Liza.  Gaby was very complimentary about Lauren.

Ananda visit  -  Ananda came by Saturday afternoon, 9/16, to hang out and spend the night.  We had nice spaghetti dinner and then watched a very well done video of a Pink Floyd tribute band.  The music and the light show were incredible.  Sunday morning we had some pancakes and then he and I walked around Greenlake.  Our walk started under gray clouds with a hint of sprinkle and by the time we got round, the rain and wind had come on strongly.  About time we had some rain after a long, hot, smoky summer.  He identified the various duck species for me and we saw a great blue Heron at the Aqua Theatre waiting patiently for a fisherman to land a fish and toss it to him...gobbled right up! Ananda departed at 4 pm to collect Linda from SeaTac.  She was returning from visiting her Dad in Anchorage; he's 94 and having some health challenges.