Our final week in Myrtle Beach was quiet as we celebrated Thanksgiving together and started the Christmas season with various light shows. We went out to eat twice, and Tammie cooked us a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner.

Week 3 began quietly but things got a little more exciting as the week progressed. First the weather was amazing. We began the week with high temperatures in the high 60s then progressing to high 70s and ended with a Saturday high temperature of 82 degrees. We spent a lot of time walking on the beach.

Since we do a variety of things each day at the beach, it is difficult to describe a typical day. But Monday of Week 3 is as close as you can get to typical. I started the day by waking up at 5:00 am, getting dressed, pouring a cup of coffee, and reading my Bible. Just before 6:00 am I walked down the steps from the 20th floor to the 3rd floor Fitness Center which opens at 6:00 am.

Our second week in Myrtle Beach was exciting because it was my 70th birthday. Our daughter joined us to help celebrate. On Monday evening, after our daughter arrived, we attended the Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show. This was our third time attending this show although it was slightly different with a Christmas theme.

Most of our travels during retirement have involved lots of travel and sight-seeing. A typical trip involves multiple days of car trips, hiking, more car travel, and multiple hotels. But at least once a year we do a slow travel trip.

Happy birthday to my beautiful wife. I first met Tammie when she was a 16-year-old freshman, and I was an 18-year-old sophomore at Bob Jones University. Over her four-year college career, we started as acquaintances, then became friends, then best friends, and finally fell in love. She has been an amazing wife, an outstanding mother, and the world’s best Gigi.

Just three weeks after our trip to Michigan to visit with Don’s mom, we loaded up the van for a trip to Texas to visit with Tammie’s mom. We normally make this 853 mile trip in 15-16 hours and do so in one long day. Usually, we start the day by leaving between 4 and 5 am (Eastern Time) and arriving in Pittsburg, TX around 6-7 pm (Central Time).

After returning from our trip to Michigan, we did some much needed maintenance on our house and our cars. We got in one last visit to the pool with my granddaughter, picked her up from school a few times and stopped for ice cream, and when on a quick trip to North Carolina to pick some apples.

Michigan was my home for the first 22 years of my life. All six of my brothers and sisters still live in Michigan. I’m the only sibling who moved away. My dad passed in November of 2022. My mom who is 89 lives in Lincoln Park, Michigan.

Our final national park of this trip was Mount Rainier National Park which was our 47th national park to visit together. It was stunning. Every pullout on the scenic road gave us amazing views of Mount Rainier. Our first stop was in the Longmire Historic District.

North Cascades National Park was our 45th park that we have visited together. North Cascades is about an hour northeast of Seattle. North Cascades is the 2nd least visited of the national parks in the US. It is the least visited of those parks in the 48 contiguous states.

We both woke up not feeling great but after a small breakfast we started our 2 1/2-hour drive to our 44th national park, Glacier National Park, in Montana. We saw mountains, glaciers, tunnels, waterfalls, lakes, and streams as we traveled the Going to the Sun Road on a cold (55 degrees), cloudy, and rainy day.

This day was about Wall Drug Store, Badlands National Park, and a half day car ride to North Dakota.

Today was a travel day to get us 400 miles from Cody, Wyoming to Rapid City, South Dakota. We started our day exercising in the fitness center then began our drive. I was able to drive 8o mph for the first time, legally.

We began this day by driving 1 1/2 hours to Yellowstone National Park which became our 40th national park that we have visited together. We started our day at Yellowstone with a brisk 45 degree viewing of Old Faithful Geyser. There was a good crowd, but we were able to get a front row viewing.

We had been planning a national park trip to the west and northwest United States for about a year. Our plan was to visit 7 states, 3 national monuments, and 9 national parks in just less that 3 weeks.

We spent a lot of time this summer with our daughter and our three grandchildren. Here were some of our favorite activities.

Did I mention my granddaughter loves to swim. I try to invite her over to our community pool at least once a week to swim. She is a fantastic swimmer and loves to jump, dive, and get tossed around in the pool. We have also been known to stop at Pink Mama’s for ice cream after swimming.

Throughout the month of May we made good use of our Summer Fun Pass at Topgolf. We went together, with our daughter, and with our grandsons. While I hit the ball farther, Tammie is more accurate and hits the closer targets. She beats me two out of every three games. So far, we are having a great time together.

It was our honor to attend the Bob Jones University Faculty and Staff Retiree Dinner hosted by students in the Culinary Arts major. The students did a fantastic job of cooking and hosting the dinner. It was nice to see the 94 faculty and staff retirees who attended.