26, 71 and 3

26 is a part of the title of this blog. It's a little unusual to most but not us, because on August 7th this year, Donna and I celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary. 

To say we are surprised as to where the time has gone would be an understatement because it seems only like yesterday, we were on our way to the altar together with all our wonderful kids, who are now adults, all but one of them married and with their own children.

The way time is passing us by is hard to get one's head around. It seems like only yesterday when we were young had the world at our feet. Now, we look down to ensure we don't trip over those feet. Huh! 

I clearly remember being stood in the Grand Hall of Calgary's Pioneer Lodge with a superb American Minister as we took our vows and entered into holy matrimony together.

The afternoon was MC'd by our good friend Marty Douglas who also lives fairly close to us on Vancouver Island - a 45-minute drive from here. 

I'm not sure what Marty did wrong, but I particularly remember as he was doing his part as the MC., welcoming everyone as our guests, the heavens opened. It turned almost jet black and down came the hail like there was no tomorrow. To say it was loud would be an understatement. One could not hear Marty or anyone else speaking for a short while. I looked up at the ceiling and thought, "Please let this be over" and, like everything in life, a little while later, it passed.

Some of the people who attended that wedding have unfortunately passed on. We think of them often. Those who survived are now 26 years older, 26 years whiter, some of us are greyer and some are 26 years wider (that would be me). They tell me, It's all a matter of genes - maybe. Maybe it's the food as well.

We can both say, we have thoroughly enjoyed every moment since the day we were married. From my point of view, I married a wonderful caring mother and woman but unfortunately, we could not celebrate in the normal way on our Anniversary as I was in a hospital bed at the time recovering from left knee replacement surgery which I had one day before, on Aug 6th.

We did celebrate our anniversary at home a couple of days before the surgery. We shared memories about what we have done and where we have been over the years. We enjoyed some steak and crab and a nice bottle of red wine together and chatted about friends, family and some overdue items on our bucket list that we still have not managed to complete. 

71 - is the next part of the post title.  

August 20 saw me arrive at the finish line for my seventy-first birthday. Wow! can someone please slow the world down a bit, it's going way too fast.

Now, after 6 years of enjoyable retirement, we are beginning to realize how quickly life flashes before our eyes as we grow older and how much more effort it takes to accomplish what would have been a breeze twenty years back. Even trying to stay awake until 8pm is becoming a challenge for yours truly. It's also a good job I have slip-on shoes and an extra-long shoehorn or I would be in trouble. 

3 - Hm! what could that mean? Well, I have just had surgery No 3 in the last eight months. First my was the hip replacement, then the removal of kidney stones and recently the knee replacement.  It won't be long before I can apply. for the job as the bionic man but, with me, I will have to take along, wonder woman as I could not be without her. After all, It would have been difficult having to go through all of this without the tower of strength of Donna behind me, always encouraging through the daily workups to the last surgery. More importantly, she's been through it herself ten years ago when the shoe was on the other foot and I was her carer.

So what's next. Hopefully not a lot of busy stuff until we are ready for it. We will just sit back and try to enjoy the summer and save for our next adventure vacation. 

We are contemplating spending three weeks in the Southeastern part of the US - somewhere neither of us has visited before. We will fly into Calgary for a short stay, then continue on to Savannah, Georgia, pick up a vehicle and drive around visiting Charleston, South Carolina and then visit places on the East coast like Myrtle Beach.  

We are also looking forward to Savannah Georgia and Charleston, SC. because we hear the properties down there are gorgeous - Very stately with large lots and beautifully finished homes. 

Then hopefully it will be on to Jacksonville, Florida, then South to West Palm Beach (where we have stayed before) and then cut across to the West coast of Florida to the Tampa area.  

The last time we were in Florida we drove to some of the other places on our bucket list like Disney World, Orlando, Kissimmee then, to the East Coast to Cape Canaveral - (a great place to visit whether you have kids in tow or otherwise).  We also visited Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale (which is gorgeous) and Miami. 

We then drove right out into the Atlantic Ocean to the Florida Keys via Key Largo, finishing at Key West, just 90 miles from Havana, Cuba. We stayed at the Bates Motel (or something that very closely resembled it), about five houses down from where the author Ernest Hemmingway used to live. It was my choice, but after that, I never got another opportunity to pick the accommodation. We stayed one night, then wonder woman insisted we move......... We moved.

If you have never experienced the drive out to Key West, I can only say it is spectacular, very exposed, but nontheless spectacular. To say Florida is beautiful is an understatement but driving out to Key Largo and Key West one realizes that there are very few two-story homes built out there.  We suspect, due to the threat of the Hurricanes and Tsunamis. The most recent of them Dorian, just missing Florida proper but causing such devastating damage and loss of life in the Bahamas.  

Donna was a little unnerved, to say the least, being so far out in the ocean and yet so far from either Key Largo or Key West especially when you can see the sea bottom immediately below through the crystal clear water. No kidding, it's that clear it's like looking into a glass of water.

Neither of us has ever been to Tampa or anywhere on the West Coast of Florida so it should be a fun trip. We did manage to get to the Everglades in the south of Florida, where we rode one of the airboats. We saw lots of crocodile and Manatee and there were many believe me.

One thing that stuck in my mind was when we were in Cape Canaveral, there were cayman or Crocodile crossing the road or lying in the drainage ditches. 
The public who live there just walked by them as if you would walk past a dog in the street in Canada. I'm not that squeamish but I was also very attentive during this period. Not really my cup of tea, but to each their own. As you can see from the photo below, the sunrise and sunsets in Florida are out of this world.

So there are our goals for the next winter season. I hope we can manage that trip. It looks like fun.

In closing, I missed out on the fishing this year what with personal issues to recover from but I am ready to go next fishing season - Why not? it's right on our doorstep.

In the meantime, we are looking forward to having a couple of visitors over the next few months. We have friends coming out from Calgary on Sunday - a husband and wife team of Realtors from Century 21 who have completed some incredible work for us in servicing friends, family and past clients of ours over the past couple of years back in Calgary.

We also look forward to having our former broker Patti who lives a couple of hours south of us in Saanich.

It's amazing, but we know of probably 15 former realtors, two of which were Past Presidents of the Calgary Real Estate Board and two clients from Calgary who have chosen to settle right here in the Comox Valley, many of them right in our district of Crown Isle.

Having said that, If any of you are even contemplating a move out to the Island and would be looking for a wonderful place to put down your roots to enjoy the warm dry summers and much warmer winters (rarely reaching minus figures as far as temperature goes), please, don't hesitate to contact either Donna or me as we have the connections here that would certainly do you proud if you ever consider coming out to look around.

So, that's our shorter than the normal update. We leave you with this photo of the harbour just a few minutes from our home.

Keep in touch and stay safe everyone.

Ken and Donna.