Catching Up

It's been a little while since I have posted anything. Jeannette and I have been really busy trying to finish up stuff with the new house and get ready to take our vacation to Alaska. The house is coming together very nicely and the vacation was fantastic! For those that don't know, Jeannette and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year, and the Alaskan cruise and land tour was our present to ourselves to mark this milestone. I know, I have the exact same thoughts all the time - how has she put up with me for 25+ years? You would have to ask her :)

First, the house. It is coming together nicely, if not a little more slowly than we hoped. Some of that is caused by the new construction process, and some of it by the fact that we are the first home in the development and there are just details that have to get smoothed out. For example, our bank cannot do anything more with our loan, including the appraisal, until our brand-spanking new street address is registered with the national address registry. Never heard of it? Me either, but apparently it has to happen to be able to legally describe the property location. Why couldn't they have done that sooner? Good question. The county didn't approve the final plans for the development until about two weeks ago. Details, details. Having said that, we are very happy with the way the house has come together and our involvement in the process, and with the way the neighborhood has taken shape.

Progress to this point includes mostly finish work. We have flooring, doors, cabinets, counter-tops, sinks, fixtures, etc installed now. The cleaners were there yesterday starting the process of cleaning up construction dust and such. Landscaping is done in the front yard now, too. I noticed the gas service isn't hooked up, yet, and cleaning will take some time because the dust is everywhere! They even open up the vent ducts and clean those. Anyway, here is the latest view of the house in it's current state. I also included a picture of Silverdale waterfront park on a picture perfect Sunday morning to make you jealous. 100F where you live? No thanks, I am happy with my cloud-free 80F :)

I am ready to move in!

Silverdale waterfront park on a PERFECT Sunday morning!

Jeannette and I spent a week and a half on an Alaskan cruise and land tour with Princess cruise lines. I posted a few of my favorite pictures at this location. There were too many to include in this post! We boarded in Vancouver, BC. I particularly enjoyed my somewhat unique plans to get there. We didn't want to fly, and it was too far to get a ride from someone. We had a friend give us a ride to the ferry terminal, rode the ferry across to Edmonds, used the Amtrak train to ride up to Vancouver, and then used a taxi to get to the ferry terminal. The whole thing went off without a hitch and we got to see part of the state that was not familiar.

Port calls included Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway, and we also cruised through Glacier Bay national park and College Fjord before docking at Whittier. Princess gave us another train ride up to their wilderness lodge at Denali National Park. We spent one day there, one day at their lodge at McKinley and one night in Anchorage before flying home. It was a fantastic time with my best friend and I can't wait to do it again! I leave you with one picture of Denali (Mt McKinley) at sunrise. The locals say only 30% of the people who visit ever see the great mountain. We were lucky to see it at sunrise and sunset!

Denali (Mt McKinley) at sunrise.