Happy 2008 to All! (I like the way "8" rhymes with GREAT!)
George and Cathy are having a wonderful time in St. George, Utah. (For those of you who are not sure, St. George is in the farthest Southwest corner of Utah, 90 minutes from Las Vegas, at elevation of about 2800 ft.) This is definitely the place to be in the winter. It’s clear and sunny nearly every day. Though we are surprised how cold the high desert gets in winter. (We knew about how hot it gets in the summer!) We have nights where it gets down in the teens and 20’s, and days where the high is only in the 30’s. But mostly it ranges between lows in the 30’s and highs in the 40’s to 50’s.
Between the activities scheduled at SunRiver (the active adult community in which we live), and those in beautiful St. George, our social calendar is bursting at the seams. We’re constantly juggling events. According to what we’ve read, the Town Fathers hope to make St. George an "art destination, like Carmel"! We believe it. It’s obvious from the many bronze sculptures around town, plus the beautiful architectural renovations, the new Town Square, all the creative water features, the plethora of art galleries, studios (and even an "Art Village"), all of the affordable theatre and dance productions, etc. that this is a special place for those who love all forms of art.
We are still amazed and grateful that we discovered St. George. Cathy’s discovered the many rock art sites around the area, so is especially excited to be out hiking among them. There are trails that go on forever in and near St. George, plus Zion National Park is just 45 minutes away. We never get tired of the scenery… beautiful contrasting sapphire-blue sky above the red cliffs, with the addition of the white of the snow-covered 10,000 foot Pine Valley Mountain looming over us all. During the summer, the whole valley is covered in green from the many trees, including the 100-plus year old mulberry trees that were planted in the mid-1880 by the Mormon pioneers to feed their silk worms. Brigham Young had planned a "silk mission" down here, which unfortunately failed. But we are still enjoying the trees. So, at least when it’s hot, we have the contrast of the cooling deep green of the trees against the brilliant red cliffs. It’s a visual feast every day of the year!
During 2007 we did a bit of traveling. In February, we took a cruise to the Mexican coast via San Diego and Catalina Island courtesy of the realtor who sold our Rocklin, CA house. In May, we visited Mom in England for three weeks, stopping on the way back in Massachusetts for a week-long family reunion with George’s relatives. (Even his brother and wife, plus George’s girls with their families flew out from California and Oregon.) We made three separate trips to California to see friends and relatives: Three weeks in July, ten days around Thanksgiving, and another three weeks in December. That’s a lot of driving!
Cathy is enjoying her time volunteering at a local elementary school helping kindergarten thru fifth graders with math and reading, and she is a sub at the county library as well. George is playing lots of softball. He has played for five years in the Senior World Games, which is an international Olympic-like event that is held for two weeks every October in St. George. (There were over 10,000 athletes competing in the ‘07 Games!) This past October, George played on three teams, so was playing every day, several games a day, for the whole two weeks. (With that, plus the tournaments before and after, he figured he played 35 games in four weeks!) We love visiting with all the folks who were on teams with whom he played in the past. He has played on teams in Washington State, Reno and California, and they come to St. George to play in the Senior Games, and to visit this wonderful area.