Merry, Merry Christmas to One and All!!!
Mike and I in Skagway Alaska this Past August

Our year has been amazing…filled with love and loss and lots of travel. A new look into our future as “Fulltime RVers”…We have found that being a ”Fulltime RVer”, sometimes needs a little help along the way…

We traveled from the Alaska to the Beautiful Pacific North West to the Eastern Shores of Cape Kennedy Florida, and back to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada’s. What a thrill it was as we entered into each and every new state…The American Dream…that is what it is…so very wonderful…

We visited all of our kids…Tom, Suzanne and Kaley (12) in Astoria Oregon, Marilee, Dan & Isabelle(3) in Antelope, CA., Jennifer, Jerritt, Autumn (2) & Jackson (1), in Auburn, CA., Harmony, Aaron, Lukas (1), Alia & Nickole in Satellite Beach, FA., Suzanne, Louis, Seth (4), Bebe (3) & Niko (5)…It is so wonderful to have such a family, and to be able to see them was and is always fantastic.

We have had lots of Travel and some “stay-put-ed-ness”…right now we are in Pleasanton, CA…getting ready to make a move back to Menden Lake in the Yuba City, CA area…Mike has been working since the first of September and we now have a few weeks off…a least ‘till after the first of the year…so we will stay at Thousand Trails ‘till he gets back to work…don’t know where we will go then but wherever, we’ll love it…just as we have here…our life on the road has been great and we are looking forward to more and more travel and all the great folks we will meet…

This letter comes to you at this “Christmas Time” of the year to let you know that we love you all and are hoping and praying for a Blessed Christmas and a Bright and Prosperous New Year for you and yours…

Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

We love you all,

Mike and Charlie

Inside The Ship...

Lunch on the Ledo...Beautiful "Fish" Ice Sculpture...Oh yes and Mike too...
Live music to eat by...really nice...
More Lido at lunch time...

The Deck A Bench on the Deck
The Lights by the Elevators
The Stairs in the Atrium
The Hall by the Dinner House
The ship was Gorgeous!!!!!! This is one of the lounge areas...kind-of a quiet areaThis is another one...this one got kinda lively at night...I just loved the model of a ship...Chairs on the Ledo...Dolphins on the Ledo...Umbrellas on the Ledo...
Our State Room...

The train that Joe and Dianne went for a ride on and our ship...Cool picture, huh???

Our SHIP...

Wanted to show you the ship it is the MSS Zaandam of the

Holland America Line

On the smoke stack you can see their LOGO...This is a picture I took of the ship while we were stopped in Juno...It is truly a beautiful Ship... These are the Life boats...fortunately we had no need for them...

This is the Aft part oft he ship...also those windows on that you see in the middle part of the ship are the windows of the dinning room...
This is the front of the ship...the business end..."so-to-speak"!!!

This is the Ledo Deck Aft...a great place to spend time with good friends or meeting new ones or just watching the world sail by...

Such a beautiful place...
Our window was the middle one on the bottom row...

We loved it there...

Sail Day...08/08/07...Off to Alaska!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...here we are Sail Day...The views have been magnificent...The trip here from Chinook and the trip to Whistler and the getting on the ship and all have been really great...no hitches at all...just "smooth sailing"...We are, hoping and praying, at this point that that will be indicative of the remainder of our trip...

This the view from our room just before we left...the sun was shinning and all the misty clouds that we had experienced the two days before had dissipated...We didn't know it then,but that was just a peek at what was to come for the whole week that we would be on the "Zaandam", sailing through the waters of Northern Canada ands Alaska...
Joe and Dianne...leaving us...in their Taxi,on their way to the boarding dock...We had breakfast???at the hotel where we stayed...just a little hot breakfast...not much to write home about...but it was breakfast...
OUR SHIP...

OUR HOME FOR THE NEXT 7 DAYS

Here is another of Mike's "self portraits" ...I hate them but he seems to get them goin where ever we are...
We're sitting on the "Lido Deck, Aft" Where we would spend many delightful hours as we sailed from place to place...sometimes sipping a cocktail or two...sometimes just gazing at the beauty of the sights that each ands every moment provided...you will soon see just what I mean...Then there is the obligatory, emergency action drill...every on the whole ship has to get ready to board the lifeboats...doesn't Mike look cute...yep...he always looks cute... This picture was taken from our stateroom...I watched the planes and the watercraft for an hour or so once we were in our room...it was beautiful...The sea planes were amazing and there were so many of them...
Just another shot out our window...I loved our window...FIRST PARTY......"THE SAIL-AWAY" Lots'a people...Sailing away from the City, looking back at the terminal and a Carnival Lines ship...They were going the same places we were...I talked to lady that was part of a whole family that was vacationing together...
Here you see us sailing under the bridge...you know...the one that looks like the Golden Gate...it was pretty cool...there were even folks standing on the hills around waving to us as we passed by...it was really cool...This was Joe and Diane's State room Number

"3404"

I couldn't remember it so we just took a picture of it...

Yep, we were on the "Lido Deck, Aft" having a little fun before dinner...

September 8...w so soin Vancouver...and getting on the ship, the Zaandam...

Here is Vancouver...the last time we were here we celebrated our 5Th or 6Th anniversary,on the way...now we have been married for almost 32 so that was a little while ago...we were there with a "ministry team" that included about 2,000 teens...boy am I glad that I was younger then...I can't even imagine that today...It was so big...I didn't remember it being so big and busy,but it is big and buys...Unfortunately we were only gonna be there for the afternoon and evening before our ship sailed...I can't wait to go back and just be a tourist in that city...I vet you could spend a month there and just soak in the "stuff"...

These first two pictures are us entering the city through "China Town"...

I took this picture of the Kings Way sign because that is the street that we came to and the Kingsway Foursquare Church...




These next couple of pictures were taken from our hotel room window... Then from the Sears Tower on are just a couple of shots on our little "trip" (got home at midnight) to Whistler, BC for dinner...There was lots of road construction...now I can understand (our waitress at Baker's Square in Plesanton, CA went to college there and she was telling us all about it) all the construction all around that area...I guess that they are having the 2010 Winter Olympics in that area...what a beautiful place for an Olympic Event...or any event, for that matter...

The Views were so beautiful...the water in the rivers was turquoise...much like the water in the Gulf Coast...The bridge is quite similar to the Golden Gate in San Francisco...We will sail under it tomorrow evening...

Then there is the little town of "Whistler"...so quaint and so elegant...looks like Vale or Aspen, Colorado...little villages that could have been transported from little villages in Germany or Switzerland...

Here's the "Motley Crew...
We were ready for whatever the next week would bring, full of excitement and expectation of the Inside Passage of Alaska...But right now we were just plain hungry...so we are on the prowl for a good eatery...there are many, I am sure...but we were just "poppin-in" for dinner so we just popped into the first, no... second place that we saw...what a good dinner we ha...awesome atmosphere...sure wish I had taken pictures inside...from where I sat I could watch the salad maker make all the wonderful salads that they pump outta there...I think I had a Salmon Salad, they had great Iced Tea...All of the meals from that night on, were somewhat of a blurr...and I have no complaints on any of them...Next will be Sail Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!