Another year is drawing to a close and we are sharing with you from our Hawaii nest here in Waianae.

The world is a crazy place right now or maybe it just continues to be crazy. I think we all must share all the light and love we can muster while being true to ourselves, our values and history.

Our personal lives are calm and blessed. We thoroughly enjoy splitting our time between the mountains, Hawaii and the boat. Our goal is to do one, “bucket list” trip a year as long as we can. Last year we went to Norway to see Oslo and the Northern Lights, followed by Southern Italy and Sicily. In January we will head to India with quick stops on the way in Japan and Bangkok, then briefly visit Singapore on the way back to Seattle. Our True Love Adventure continues and we’ll be blogging on the journey so you can share our journey if you’re interested.

I was able to go to NYC this spring with my Mom for an amazing 4 day trip. We walked everywhere, saw two shows, shared meals with local friends and generally had a marvelous time together.

In early fall we visited Greg and Carolyn Call at Sea Ranch, shared more great meals and played pickleball & golf.

We also visited my parents in Foster City twice this year!

What a year for Washington Husky Football! Home games have been a blast and last month we flew down to Las Vegas to see the University of Washington play against Oregon in the last PAC 12 Championship Game. The Huskies won and earned the #2 seed in the College Football Playoffs. Heading into the game the 12-0 Huskies were 10 point underdogs. Let’s just say a lot of Husky fans made some money betting on the Dawgs against the odds. Our very dear friend Scott Crowell and another old college friend Chris Callahan even joined us and we had some great time reminiscing. And boy was it a fun game! We even saw Garth Brooks in concert the night before the football game. Garth put on quite a show and we highly recommend seeing him if you have the chance.

Las Vegas is as weird and crazy as usual. But Jim and I had some funny experiences there. I guess we’ve reached “that age” where people seem concerned about our well being and “want to help us”. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really appreciate it. It’s nice and certainly better than the alternative. But, people kept asking us if they could help us. For example, we were wandering inside Caesar’s Palace massive inside shopping mall/maze after the concert and a young woman with a fabulous voice stopped and asked us if we needed directions back to our hotel. OK we were lost at the time but not in distress and we were mostly laughing. Other people around us looked lost too. But we appreciated her help, retraced our route and eventually did find the main exit onto Las Vegas Boulevard where we knew the way back to our hotel (Paris).

One of our favorite hikes at Zion is Observation Point. The main trail to the top closed because of a rockslide 5 years ago, but the nearby trail to Weeping Rock stayed open. Unfortunately, there was another rockslide 4 days before we got there, so now the Weeping Rock trail is also closed and it appears it will be a very long time before either trail opens again. We are so glad we got to do the hike before Father Time and Mother Nature changed the terrain.

Although our main reason for heading to Las Vegas was the Huskies, we took opportunity after the big game to head to one of our favorite places in the world: Zion National Park for the second time this year. Flights home immediately after the game were very expensive, so instead we rented a car and drove 2 hours north into SW Utah and spent a few days in beautiful Zion NP.

On our way to Zion we stopped at The Valley of Fire to walk a bit with Scott and Chris in that unusual landscape before they headed back to LV and their homes Arizona.

Zion definitely fills our soul and inspires us. Jim was able to hike most of Angel’s Landing as well as several other hikes in the park. We didn’t do the very final “knifes edge” ascent to the very top of Angel’s Landing, but I don’t do that anyway, and Jim’s only done it once. I’ve taken many photos of Zion over the years, but I must say the sunset reflections on the Virgin River are some of my favorite Zion photos ever. Early December is a great time of year to visit the park. It’s uncrowded, hotels are inexpensive, the Shuttle Bus system has been closed for the season so you can drive yourself wherever you want to visit. Although the mornings are chilly, the afternoons warm up to the mid 60’s and you can take off most of your layers of clothing before the 5:30 PM sunset. Our favorite place to stay is the Desert Pearl next to the river. It has an amazing hot tub that is perfect to sooth sore muscles at the end of the day while watching the stars.

Next week, Jasmine, David and the grandkids will escape Seattle’s winter gloom (only 8 hours of daylight per day) and join us here in sunny, warm Hawaii for fun at the beach and New Years. Meanwhile, Saul has been traveling to Florida, Texas and California for business and then will be joining Shakira for some warmth and sun in Mexico.

Our family business continues to thrive under its “Gen-3” leadership, including opening another Dick’s Drive-In Restaurant (#9 in Federal Way). Our daily retired life is very pleasant and we feel blessed. We spend a lot of time exercising. Jim has committed to our yoga practice to keep him flexible and improve his balance. We continue to enjoy pickleball and golf and look forward to skiing in late February when we return to Seattle from India.

We spend a lot of time on our drives listening to podcasts. Our favorites are: Advisory Opinion, Honestly with Bari Weiss, Econ Talk with Russ Roberts, The Remnant, Common Sense and recently we’ve added the very thoughtful For Heaven’s Sake of the Shalom Harman Institute.

The last two episodes of Econ Talk really dove down into the history of Israel, including its biblical origins, the terrible pogrums against Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe in the mid-to-late 1800’s, and the refusal of most nations (including the US, Canada and England) to allow Jewish refugees permission to immigrate to a place of safety before WW2, the terrible Holocaust of Jews in WW2 who were not able to escape Europe, then Israel’s rebirth as a nation after WW2, and the many wars, conflicts and peace settlements with Jordan & Egypt (but not the Palestinians) that followed. We highly recommend them. Here is one of them https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/econtalk/id135066958?i=1000638932065.

It’s so hard to get straightforward, accurate news these days so we read a lot from a variety of sources, including the WSJ, Seattle Times, Times of Israel, Dispatch, Free Press, Atlantic, NYT and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. TV and streaming news is so shallow that it is rarely very helpful except for the visuals and showing you the PR release perspective of (hopefully) both sides. That being said the NYT is generally untrustworthy on Middle East reporting, especially for “breaking news.”

Our year in books: I’ve continued to devour the Maisse Dobbs series, as does my sister-in-law Julie. I almost never listen to Audible books, but we are reading a lot about India in preparation for our trip and “Covenant of Water” was very good on audible. I don’t think we would have gotten as much out of it by reading, because there are so many unusual Indian words. It’s beautifully narrated by the author, who is a physician at Stanford University. After the Hamas attack on Oct 7th, we needed to read something more hopeful for the future and we recommend: the Genius of Israel (by the same authors who wrote Start Up Nation). The People of the Book was excellent too. For laughs I love reading the Vinyl Cafe and a some of the free monthly books from Prime. At the beginning of 2023 I read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which was excellent. Wow that seems like a long time ago!

I continue to practice Ukulele and I’m getting better and less afraid to play in front of people. I’ve loved the musical journey and everything I’ve learned from my online lessons with Cynthia Lin and the 100 Days of Uke project. I get to play with my friend Lora occasionally, and that is awesome.

Our Curve Of Time Podcast 9-part series continues to gain listeners. We are over 3500 downloads so far and are hoping to create more episodes and even a movie someday if we can find the right partners.

As we close out this year, we think back on the birthdays, celebrations and gatherings. It’s hard to believe James is almost 11 and Robert is 8. We love celebrating milestones and life with friends and family!

We wish you all the best and send you our love. Life is all about connections, finding time for friends and family, doing good work, and of course, adventures of the True Love variety!

May the year ahead be full of adventure, growth, learning, laughter and love!

Love Always, Fawn & Jim