Thursday, December 11, 2014

2014 Year in Review


As many of you know... after much research and planning we ordered a 19' Escape Travel Trailer made in British Columbia, drove across the country to pick it up, and then spent two months traveling in the Pacific Northwest.  Our previous blog post sums up the trip and the June - August posts chronicle our daily activities. We thoroughly enjoyed the adventure!
Bill & Barbara (1) Olympic National Park (2) Washington Pass (3) our trailer in Ohio

Earlier in the year we saw the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC en route to Barbara's parents' place in Florida.  We saw a few other relatives on that trip.

Kate lives in a house in Lexington MA with some other young women.  She perfected her coffee barista skills at several coffee shops, but then grabbed an opportunity to serve at a restaurant in a newly opened inn.  Check out innathastingspark.com to see where she currently works; it's part of an elite group of inns. She's also studying business part-time at Northeastern University and attends the young adults group at church.
Kate (1) dog-sitting with Maggie (2) with Carrie (3) coffee barista

Carrie's on her second year at Boston College.  Her Presidential Scholar Program included a spring break trip to Italy, a summer program on social justice in Boston, and an upcoming Christmas break trip to Nicaragua.  On top of that she spent the rest of the summer working with a microfinance organization in Uganda.  Among other projects, she created a video highlighting a Ugandan loan recipient.  She is now interning this academic year with a non-profit called Accion which gives small business loans.
Carrie (1) Bologna, Italy (2) Arua, Uganda (3) Gloucester, MA

Bill delved into many projects including three weeks in Ohio helping his parents after his mom's ankle surgery.  We also spent some time in Florida with Barbara's parents.  After over 4 years, Barbara transitioned out of her role as Teaching Director of the North Shore class of Community Bible Study this November.  Barbara so appreciated her time serving in that role and will miss it greatly, but looks forward to the next chapter.

Speaking of the next chapter, with us both in retirement mode – we plan to move in 2015, but have yet to work on getting the house ready to sell and narrowing down where to move.  Stay tuned to see where we end up next and what the next trip will be.