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Hopkins 2025 Christmas Greetings

We are so grateful for another year of adventures and to our friends and family that made it possible!

We enjoy traveling, and removed one item from our bucket list this year!  In late July we joined Susan’s sister and brother-in-law, Louise and Bob, on a tour of the Canadian Rockies.  We boarded the Rocky Mountaineer train in Vancouver, BC and spent two days traveling to Jasper, with a stopover in Kamloops.   Along the way we enjoyed majestic mountain scenery viewable only by rail. The Jasper Park Lodge is beautiful, but completely surrounded by scars from the previous year’s forest fire.  We switched to a bus and traveled to Lake Louise passing multiple mountains covered with glaciers – known as the Icefields.  Our hotel room was right on the lake’s edge.  Then on to Banff, with more scenery along the route.  After rafting down the Bow River, we were bused to Calgary for our flight home.  We returned with wonderful memories & photos of amazing scenery!  The picture may last forever.  Our memories won't!

Late April, we spent several days with longtime friends Dan and Kathy Wickard in Knoxville.  We then hopped on a cruise ship tour down the Mississippi River from Memphis to New Orleans.  We were joined by 4 close friends from the Puget Sound area.  Heavy rains in the Midwest caused several of our ports to be at flood stage or above, preventing us from docking.  Instead, buses took us to the Vicksburg National Cemetery, Natches historical sites, Rosemount Plantation and Baton Rouge.  We spent a few extra days in the New Orleans’ French Quarter visiting markets, the WWII Museum and others that revealed the Cajun history and culture.  The warm weather had surprisingly lower than usual humidity—we were so lucky!

Each year, we like to escape Seattle’s wet and cold weather with a trip to Hawaii.  In February we spent 2 weeks north of Lahaina with Rich’s brother Ron, wife Mary Lee, cousin Susan and Murray.  The area is still recovering from a devastating fire in 2023 that killed many.  Downtown Lahaina is closed off, but we could see its famous banyan tree from a distance - a symbol of hope.  We exposed Ron and Mary Lee to Maui’s various landscapes and landmarks.   Later we joined friends Keith and Sandi, Linda and Randy, in Kihei for another week of sun, swimming, food, sunsets, and card games!

Rich’s youngest brother John passed away this past May at 64. It was unexpected, even though he had previous health issues.  We were shocked.  He is now next to his parents and Anderson grandparents.  The space next to him is reserved for us, should we choose to use it.

Other things that keep us busy include:

- Annual summer trip to Indiana to visit Susan’s family.  The time together is always filled with laughter, conversation, food and drink!  We will visit them again this Christmas.  We are blessed that almost everyone is in good health!

- A very brief gathering of Rich's cousins for breakfast. Many of his Baugh cousins arrived in Seattle to board a cruise ship to Alaska, creating a rare opportunity to get everyone together.

- A road trip to Richland to visit the Thorsons, then to Jerome, ID to visit Rich’s cousin Bob Parkinson and Linda.  It was the inaugural road trip for our new Toyota Crown Signia, replacing the station wagon we departed with late last year.

- Attending soccer matches to cheer our Seattle Sounders team.  They surprised us by winning the League’s Cup Championship.  They have now won all the possible Cups that a MLS team can win.  Next year the FIFA World cup will come to Seattle with 6 matches!

- Attending a couple Mariner baseball games.  Susan cheers them on from our sofa the rest of the time.  They almost made it to the World Series.  Maybe next year?

- Making lunches once a month for homeless men.  We buy supplies, prepare and package them at home, and deliver them to the local library where they are distributed by St. Vincent de Paul.

- Quarterly birthday lunches.  A group of 15 close Seattle friends gather at a Mexican restaurant to celebrate everyones survival of another year.  We take turns getting older.

- Theater performances.  5 times a year we join friends at a theater to see amazing actors perform entertaining plays.  The event is always preceeded by everyone gathering at a favorite restaurant for dinner.

- Every 6 weeks or so we gather with 2 or 3 of Rich’s cousins to have lunch, wine and play games - not always in that order.  Rich often wins.

- Susan attends a book club monthly.  She enjoys the friendships and discussions.

- Rich hovers over his computer strategizing financial guidance for his financial planning clients, and for us.

- We just identified a Real Estate agent to help us find a new, smaller home for our senior years.  The search starts next year.  Just maybe we will have a new address next year!  Maybe!

Next year may be even busier as we downsize in anticipation of a possible move, followed by preparing our home for sale, and trying to squeeze in yet more travel and local events.  We tried to get of these in this year, but it was just too much.

We continue to be blessed with good health, for which we are grateful, but suffer the increased aches and pains of aging.  We are doing very well, all things considering!

Wishing you a happy, healthy and safe 2026.

Rich and Susan