Merry Christmas from the Droege's!
We are staying in Bremerton for the Holidays and have invited the neighbors to come for Christmas dinner. We will be playing with the hand bell choir at church for Christmas Eve Service.
Everyone likes to see the downtown Christmas lights. These are at Fountain Court by the ferry dock in downtown Bremerton. The weird things in front represent the sails of submarines and spout water in the summer.
This is the middle of downtown Seattle. Another favorite activity of ours is to visit downtown during the holidays. This is the downtown, official Christmas tree and the Macy's star.
Yes, this is R2D2 from Star Wars. He is made from gingerbread and candy and is part of the annual Gingerbread House charity exhibit hosted by the Seattle Sheraton Hotel. We hadn't been for a while and were expecting houses; not Star Wars scenes!
Summary of 2015
We went to Cancun, Mexico in January. We enjoyed the balmy weather away from Seattle, visited the Mayan ruins and the Mexican beaches.
On February 15 we went back to one of our favorite places for our 24th Anniversary. Long Beach, Washington is one of four or five places in the world which claim to have the longest beach on the planet.
Driving to Long Beach means you go through the Columbia Gorge. This is one of the views of the mighty Columbia River.
Alonda had some plants on her Patio Garden which came up nicely for March.
In June, we took the AMTRAK train down into Oregon to visit Jim's sister and her husband in Merrill. The entire trip was quite scenic. You can take it all the way down the Pacific coast to Los Angeles.
Jim and Kay at the train station.
Alonda's sister and a friend came up to visit in June. We took them to visit several of the scenic parts of Washington. This is Mt Rainier from Ft Warden State Park. The US Navy frigate is heading out to sea.
This is the beach at the park.
This is Mt Baker from the park. This place is almost equidistant between two volcanoes.
Early July, we went to Oregon to visit friends from Pakistan. We stopped in Portland to visit the Rose Garden.
These are the Lobo's. They are friends and colleagues from our years in Pakistan.
Also in July, Linda, a friend from Saudi Arabia, came through Seattle. You can imagine how the Saudis looked at her blonde hair.
This summer we put up a hummingbird feeder in the patio garden. We are still getting hummingbirds, even though it is the end of December!
In the summer, while we were visiting some of the parks and hiking in Kitsap County, we noticed how many bird watchers there are. They seem to have a lot of gear.
Our favorite hike of the year was going up Green Mountain. We can see it from our dining room window and is the second highest spot in the county. This is Mount Rainier from the top of Green Mountain.
Upper left of this photo is Seattle as seen from Green Mountain.
On another hike, we were at a place called Buck Lake. As you can see, at that time the lake was pretty low. We had a pretty severe drought this year. As of late December, we have caught up on our rainfall.
This is a hike at a place called Hansville. It feels like you are walking through Mirkwood in The Hobbit.
We visited the Kitsap Fair in August. This is a really cute alpaca (almost like a llama). They are really soft.
This is a decorated cake at the Kitsap Fair. Anyone can enter their craft exhibits.
In September, we were part of the "New Day Northwest" studio audience. This is a locally produced TV magazine show. The hostess was happy to have her picture taken with members of the audience.
At the end of September, Jim had an Esperanto conference in Victoria, B.C. This is the Inner Harbor where seaplanes, boats and ferries all come at the same time.
The night we came back was the Supermoon eclipse. We took our tripod and went over to the parking lot of the local middle school. Everyone else went there, too.
Our final trip of the year was to Puerto Rico. The three ladies are all members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The men are the HoDARs (Husbands of DAR).
As the year ends, we want to wish all of you a Happy New Year! We love hearing your comments and hearing about your adventures.
We are staying in Bremerton for the Holidays and have invited the neighbors to come for Christmas dinner. We will be playing with the hand bell choir at church for Christmas Eve Service.
Everyone likes to see the downtown Christmas lights. These are at Fountain Court by the ferry dock in downtown Bremerton. The weird things in front represent the sails of submarines and spout water in the summer.
This is the middle of downtown Seattle. Another favorite activity of ours is to visit downtown during the holidays. This is the downtown, official Christmas tree and the Macy's star.
Yes, this is R2D2 from Star Wars. He is made from gingerbread and candy and is part of the annual Gingerbread House charity exhibit hosted by the Seattle Sheraton Hotel. We hadn't been for a while and were expecting houses; not Star Wars scenes!
Summary of 2015
We went to Cancun, Mexico in January. We enjoyed the balmy weather away from Seattle, visited the Mayan ruins and the Mexican beaches.
On February 15 we went back to one of our favorite places for our 24th Anniversary. Long Beach, Washington is one of four or five places in the world which claim to have the longest beach on the planet.
Driving to Long Beach means you go through the Columbia Gorge. This is one of the views of the mighty Columbia River.
Alonda had some plants on her Patio Garden which came up nicely for March.
In June, we took the AMTRAK train down into Oregon to visit Jim's sister and her husband in Merrill. The entire trip was quite scenic. You can take it all the way down the Pacific coast to Los Angeles.
Jim and Kay at the train station.
Alonda's sister and a friend came up to visit in June. We took them to visit several of the scenic parts of Washington. This is Mt Rainier from Ft Warden State Park. The US Navy frigate is heading out to sea.
This is the beach at the park.
This is Mt Baker from the park. This place is almost equidistant between two volcanoes.
Early July, we went to Oregon to visit friends from Pakistan. We stopped in Portland to visit the Rose Garden.
These are the Lobo's. They are friends and colleagues from our years in Pakistan.
Also in July, Linda, a friend from Saudi Arabia, came through Seattle. You can imagine how the Saudis looked at her blonde hair.
This summer we put up a hummingbird feeder in the patio garden. We are still getting hummingbirds, even though it is the end of December!
In the summer, while we were visiting some of the parks and hiking in Kitsap County, we noticed how many bird watchers there are. They seem to have a lot of gear.
Our favorite hike of the year was going up Green Mountain. We can see it from our dining room window and is the second highest spot in the county. This is Mount Rainier from the top of Green Mountain.
Upper left of this photo is Seattle as seen from Green Mountain.
On another hike, we were at a place called Buck Lake. As you can see, at that time the lake was pretty low. We had a pretty severe drought this year. As of late December, we have caught up on our rainfall.
This is a hike at a place called Hansville. It feels like you are walking through Mirkwood in The Hobbit.
We visited the Kitsap Fair in August. This is a really cute alpaca (almost like a llama). They are really soft.
This is a decorated cake at the Kitsap Fair. Anyone can enter their craft exhibits.
In September, we were part of the "New Day Northwest" studio audience. This is a locally produced TV magazine show. The hostess was happy to have her picture taken with members of the audience.
At the end of September, Jim had an Esperanto conference in Victoria, B.C. This is the Inner Harbor where seaplanes, boats and ferries all come at the same time.
The night we came back was the Supermoon eclipse. We took our tripod and went over to the parking lot of the local middle school. Everyone else went there, too.
Our final trip of the year was to Puerto Rico. The three ladies are all members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The men are the HoDARs (Husbands of DAR).
As the year ends, we want to wish all of you a Happy New Year! We love hearing your comments and hearing about your adventures.
