Holiday Newsletter 2024

Well, here we are again…another year has come and gone. Time seems to be flying by faster each year. 

January began sadly as Dale lost her best friend of 60 years, Jenn. A month later, Dale’s father passed away as well. He made it to his 95th birthday…five years short of his goal to live to be 100. They are both loved and missed.

Our annual trek to Tacoma, for the Yamane family dinner, was interrupted this year by the start of our busy travel schedule. Fortunately, Kelsey, Ben, Jason, Cari and the grandkids attended the dinner and represented the Fukura side of the family for us. Word is all had a good time.

In late May, we headed to the Netherlands, in preparation for a 14-day Norway cruise. On arrival in Amsterdam, we stayed for two nights on a houseboat…what a wonderful experience, and the owner was a very kind gentleman. 

After two days exploring Amsterdam, we took the train to Rotterdam for the start of our cruise. We wound through the scenic fjords to several small villages and had a wonderful time exploring each area. We definitely loved the smaller towns as opposed to the larger cities in Norway. We saw more waterfalls than we could possibly count. For the most part, the weather was wonderful…yes it rained some days, but we are from the Northwest so it didn’t really bother us.

On our return to Rotterdam, we went on a tour to Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was amazing to explore the windmills and learn about how the canals, pumping stations and windmills all work together. It was also interesting to see how tiny the quarters inside the windmill are and hear the stories of how families were able to fit in these small spaces.  

While we love traveling, coming home is always a welcome change. By the middle of June, we were flying back to Seattle…only to deal with the jet lag that seemed to last for several days.

Of course we didn’t bother to wait to recover completely…at the end of June, we headed out for a 5-city Major League Baseball stadium tour. We flew into Toronto, where we had a couple of days on our own to explore the city. This included booking a boat ride tour to Niagara Falls, which was an unforgettable experience. 

On July 2nd we met up with our baseball tour group. This trip involved visiting five baseball ballparks in five cities…Toronto, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Cincinnati and Detroit. We had amazing seats at each game, on the first level behind home plate. The only downside was the extremely hot and humid weather. On some days, we had free time to explore the city, before the game. So we made good use of our time by taking in the sites and sampling the city’s food. The CN Tower and $1 Loonie Dogs at Rogers Centre in Toronto, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Reds helmet chili in Cincinnati and Buddy's Pizza in Detroit were all very memorable experiences. We have now completed fifteen of the thirty MLB ballparks on our bucket list, with plans already in place for five more in 2025.

In August we stayed at Willows Lodge in Woodinville…kind of a mini staycation, as we had tickets to see Lake Street Dive (a favorite group of Glenn’s) at Ste. Michelle Winery. It was a great concert, coupled with the fact that we could just walk to the winery venue from our room.

The grandkids are growing rapidly…the twins are now 12½ and Hana just turned 10. They all love to build with Lego. The twins seem to be into cooking, while Hana enjoys helping in the garden…she loves flowers. The twins played baseball again this year, so we made a few trips to the Kitsap Peninsula to watch their games. Meanwhile, Hana has discovered a love of horses and began taking riding lessons.

At the end of September, Jason and Cari left the grandkids with us for two nights. Hana and Dale worked on a sewing project for one of her dolls, and the twins helped Glenn take apart an old outdoor table so he could salvage the wood. The three of them then built a stand for Dale’s Japanese pagoda, which turned out great. The grandkids played video games and we all played board games. We also took a long walk, stopping at Bothell High School to watch the young kids playing flag football. It was a great time having the grandkids with us.

​As usual, Glenn’s spare time was spent working on the house. However, this summer’s projects were cut short, by all our travels. He did manage to build a new tool shed and a storage area in the stairwell of our house. The myriad of projects he has continues to keep him very busy.

Dale continues to make quilt tops but has branched out to sewing table runners, which allows her to use some of her fat quarter fabric stash. She also has gotten into scrapbooking our past travels. Her book documenting our Alaska trip, from several years ago, turned out great.

Our adult kids are doing well...Jason and Cari, as noted, have three very active and wonderful children and two dogs – Uma and Natto.

Kelsey and Ben's careers create long hours and crazy schedules for both of them. But, in their free time, they’re able to explore the many wineries and breweries in our area. As such, we use them frequently as a reliable source for recommendations. While Ben has been traveling for work a lot, they did manage to take an extended vacation together to Iceland. After listening to their stories and viewing their photos, we could tell they had an amazing time.

We still enjoy getting together for family dinners, when everyone’s schedules allow. Jason and Cari hosted Thanksgiving again this year, with the twins making two pies for dessert. The food was delicious. 

Well that pretty much covers our lives this year. Please know that each of you is important to us and we love and miss all of you. We hope your holidays are merry and safe and that your New Year is filled with health and happiness.

Happy Holidays

Dale & Glenn