Max & Carol Williams

Here we are during a lunch break at Macayos Mexican restaurant on our last day in Arizona with Connie & Bill. The giraffe and zebra were watching us during the entire meal.

They took us out for a drive toward Scottsdale to see some of the sights and, particularly, the decorative walls along the freeway system.

Golf With Barb & Leonard

On Monday, January 29th I had the pleasure of reuniting with Barb & Leonard Keeler for a game of golf. They moved to Buckeye, Arizona (from Wenatchee) last summer and are loving it. We played at their local course, Sundance. Sundance is a very fun and, definitely, challenging golf course.

This was my first game since having back surgery and I was so pleased that my back did not give me any trouble at all. My game did have other "issues" but, in all honesty, I couldn't blame it on my back... unless a subconscious grimby was lurking in my brain, messing with my swing. Last year I kept a golf blog, logging each game throughout the season. This year I think I will just post games here on our regular blog.

According to Barb, Buckeye is the fast growing city in the state of Arizona. It is forecast to be the second largest city in Arizona within 5 years!

Visit with Connie and Bill

After leaving Lana and Rob's on Thursday, January 25th we headed directly to Sun City West, Arizona where Max's sister Connie and her husband, Bill live. We stayed there one week.

The first full day we were there, we all went to lunch at the museum. They have a room set up in the museum with nice table cloths and silverware. It was actually quite hoity toity. But, I don't think we embarrassed ourselves and they didn't tell us we couldn't come back. It was fun.

We didn't actually go through the museum, as everyone was ready for an afternoon nap, but I did take some pictures of the outside art work. I took two pictures of the bottom piece... a depiction of the apple tree in the Garden of Eden. The close-up reveals Satan innocently offering up the apple of sin.
Remember, you can click on any image to enlarge.
-Carol
Carol's Wenatchee Blog

Visit with Lana and Rob and girls

After a slippery, detoured, trip down I-5 we arrived at Lana and Rob's in San Juan Capistrano, CA at 4:30 in the morning of January 18th. This was one day later than we planned. We planned to be there the evening of the 17th, but the I-5 closure at the Grapevine (north of LA) due to snow, literally the freeway with truck and car accidents, required us to detour East of Bakersfield. We ended up getting a motel at Cajon Pass and driving in the next morning. We were both awake at 3:00 a/m. so decided to hit the road before the rush hour traffic. A sleepy Rob let us in the house at 4:30 and we ALL went back to bed.

Lana is working parttime at Borders Bookstore now so, with Rebecca and Michelle in school, we had quite a bit of time to ourselves during the day. Good thing too, because I had quite a bit going on with my work that needed tending to. Lana said when we left it was going to be quiet because my phone wouldn't be ringing all the time. I'm in the middle of about 7 pending transactions... so it takes a lot of coordination. Fortunately, I have Shelley and Perci back home taking care of a lot of the incessant details involved with each transaction.

I was so busy working when we were there I was remiss in taking pictures. The picture above is of their home, but doesn't do it justice. The house is a very rambling rambler and a bit difficult to take a picture of. The building to the left (that you can barely see) is the 3-car garage. We had a lovely suite while staying there, with a large bedroom, private bath and laundry and big closet. Besides our suite, there are 4 other bedrooms, family room, living room, kitchen, and large entry area. They are all coming over on the week-end of the 16th so we'll get some family pictures then. Rob said he'll try to arrange a golf game with the local Jaquar dealer during the week-end. Wouldn't that be something?

-Carol
Carol's Wenatchee Blog

YUM...

This morning Max & I were on our way to Borders book store, where Lana works part time. We were going to have some coffee and hot chocolate (for Max) and visit with Lana a bit.

We got side-tracked, though, when we saw a Krispy Kreme store. We did a U-turn and that's where we stopped for our morning coffee and hot chocolate. We've never actually been in a Krispy Kreme store before. We've eaten their doughnuts before, but never IN the store. They've always been delivered from some fundraiser in Wenatchee.

After our break, we were back on the road to our appointed destination. We did bring a dozen more doughnuts home to make points with the rest of the family.

My hectic schedule has finally slowed down enough to sit down at the computer and make a few blog entries. Whew! It's nice to be back.

Max & Carol: On The Road Again

Sorry it's been so long since the last report. After my back surgery I had to scramble big time to get everything organized for the trip south to warmer climates.

Between a full full full workload and getting packed for the trip, there wasn't time for anything else... literally.We did get on the road about 7:15 a/m. last Monday, January 15th. We stopped very briefly to see Clair & Beverly on our way down I-84 past Corbett.

Before reaching Clair & Beverly's we took a few minutes to stop at Multnomah Falls to take pictures of the icey conditions. If you click on the image, you may be able to see how much of the Falls is frozen. There are hundreds of falls to see coming down the gorge and they were all pretty well frozen.

Our trip was eventful, including freezing rain and icey roads coming out of Eugene the second day. Fortunately, our AWD Ford Five-Hundred moved right along without hesitation. The car seemed much more sure of itself than it's driver. Then the third day, I-5 at the Grapevine, was closed for the entire day due to an overnight snowstorm and a plethora of accidents. We took a long detour through and East of Bakersfield and back around and down to San Juan Capistrano.

We ended up finding a motel at Cajon Pass and came into Lana & Rob's (at San Juan Capistrano) early on the 4th day. We wanted to get on the road before the heavy LA freeway traffic. We were both awake in the middle of the night so we were in the car by 3:00 a/m. and here by 4:30 a.m. They were a little sleepy when we arrived, but glad we are safe.

-Carol
Carol Williams Wenatchee Real Estate Blog

Balloon Kyphoplasty

Hi everyone,
I haven't kept up very well with the blog lately. A lot going on in life. Work has been busy and I've been suffering from a fall on the ice and snow in early December. After much ado... x-rays, MRI, pre-op tests Balloon Kyphoplasty back surgery was performed yesterday by Dr. Ian Cunningham at the Wenatchee Valley Hospital (Wenatchee Valley Clinic).

Above is Max delivering a dozen red roses when he came to visit me in the hospital last night. The last time I received a dozen red roses was our 1st anniversary (over 23 years ago). It was a special occasion.

Here are our friends June & Roger Dorner, who entertained Max while I was in the hospital.

The surgery went very well and I was up and moving around 3 hours after the surgery. I had my wireless laptop and was answering e-mail from my hospital bed that evening. I plan to be playing golf in Palm Springs this time next month!

Hopefully, I won't be doing any more gynmastics on the ice and can avoid similar injuries in the future. I had a compression fracture which was repaired. The MRI also showed an old compression fracture which they couldn't do anything about. I found this link to more info on the procedure: www.kyphon.com There is even a link on the right side to view an actual surgery being performed... if you're into that kind of thing. I definitely want to watch it when I get a chance.






Here is the view I had from my room. Not bad, eh? Too bad I didn't get to really enjoy it!

-Carol Williams