We celebrated New Year in Vienna at the close of our fantastic family cruise on the Danube. Because of high water levels, there were several days where the ship had to move through a lock before it was shut down and we were then bussed to an unplanned port. But despite the rain and the schedule changes, we all had a wonderful time.
 In early January, Dave and I headed up to Canada to care for my Dad and ended up stuck in Buffalo overnight in a massive snow storm! We found Dad in good spirits but failing health. A few days after our arrival we triggered daily nursing visits and the nurses opened up the symptom relief kit that had been provided over a year ago for an “Expected Death in the Home”. The next few days are a blur before Dad passed away as he wanted, in his own house. He was four months shy of his 97th birthday and still doing Wordle and playing email chess until a week before he died. Not bad for someone who coped with ALS for over 20 years.
 While we were in Ontario Dave visited his father several times, but his Dad no longer recognized him. He also looked much thinner than previously, and was frail, also something new. He was in good spirits though.
 We drove home earlier than planned via Cleveland, to see Lisa and Justin, who were looking for new kittens. We met the kittens now known as Merry and Pippin and agreed that they were very friendly, if they were available. They were. Those two little kittens apparently have Maine Coon in them, so despite their hobbit names they have grown into hefty and furry (but still friendly) cats.
 In March we got a call from Dave’s sister saying that the Doctor wanted to move Dave’s Dad into hospice. His health had deteriorated rapidly in February. All of the things he’d been dealing with for years ganged up on him, and he didn’t have the strength to fight them off. He died the day after entering hospice. Jennifer joined Lisa and Justin and us for Dad’s celebration of life and internment. Brandon stayed home to take care of Owen and Emma – it didn’t seem fair to drag the little ones on a 12 hour drive. We spent time with the extended family pulling together a slide show and photo boards and reminiscing about the wonderful man he had been before Alzheimer’s diminished him. It’s a nasty ailment.
Dave has been teaching marquetry and veneering for the past few years and 2024 had more students and more different classes than previously. He taught in the Spring and again in the Fall, and plans to do it again in 2025.
We managed a couple of camping trips in our travel trailer in April, including a two night excursion with Owen. He wore him out the first day and he actually slept in later than us but reverted to his normal self and woke us up before the sun the following day.  
In May we returned to Ontario for Peter and Aelwen’s Celebration of Life – she had died in 2021 when large gatherings weren’t allowed. The entire Carling clan was present – all of the children and grandchildren, possibly for the first time ever. It was great to see everyone, and there were many reminiscences of the good times we had had together over the years.
    This was the first spring and early summer in several years when I wasn’t away for several weeks, so the garden was in much better shape in June than it has been. Weeding, mulching, planting and replanting all improved it. Dave decided that the deer were having too much fun eating the flowers and began making cages to go around deer delicacies. Over 400 linear feet of wire fencing later we had flowers we hadn’t seen in years, and shrubs and trees 5’ tall instead of 18” tall. Most of that fencing can be reused for 2025, but Dave is envisioning an even better plan.

      In mid July we flew to Marseilles, spent a week touring Provence, then did a river cruise up the Rhone to Lyon. We then spent another 5 days in Burgundy. We had a great time, met a bunch of nice people, ate wonderful food and drank some fine wine. They do know how to live.
     Dave finally finished the table and chairs that he has been working on for the past four years. It sounds absurd, but it really took that long, and he was so relieved when it was finally done. We met the customer in Pittsburgh and transferred the items to his van, which he drove back to Minneapolis. We then drove up to Ontario and packed up our and the kids portions of the furniture and stuff from my parents, which we had been divvying up with the other family members through spreadsheets. We visited Tracy and Dave’s Mum in Orangeville then drove to Cleveland. Lisa and Justin have a huge house there, so the desk Dave made for Peter and much other stuff, now lives there. We brought the rest back to Virginia where Jennifer took some and we fit the rest into our already full house.
     In November we went on safari in Tanzania. A group of colleagues from work had decided to go, and we joined the group. Since you have to go through somewhere to get to Tanzania, we went to Istanbul. We spent three days there adjusting to the time zone and seeing the sights of the Ottoman Empire and old Constantinople. It was great. We then flew to Kilimanjaro International airport, landing at 2 am, so we didn’t see the mountain. The rest of the group arrived later that day, and we then flew on a Cessna prop plane to Tarangire National Park to start our seven night safari. It was amazing. We slept in large luxurious tree houses for five nights , and a traditional hotel the other two nights. We saw elephants from our balcony, and heard snuffling at night, but nothing more exciting than that. We toured in six seater Toyota Land Cruisers, and we weren’t allowed to walk from our tents to the main areas without an escort, in case unfriendly animals were wandering through camp. Every day was different – the same animals doing different things, and different animals doing whatever. It was extraordinary.
When we were organizing this, it seemed crazy to fly all the way to East Africa and only stay a week, so we booked a Gorilla trekking expedition afterwards. We flew to Rwanda in a Cessna then drove 6 hours to Uganda to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We were ‘amazed out’ by the time we got there but it was still pretty amazing. We saw two gorilla families the first day (their Silverbacks are brothers, so they were travelling together), then a smaller family on the second day. The gorillas are habituated to humans – they see them almost every day, between the tourists and the trackers who find them each morning so that the tourists can be led to them. This was true of the animals in the National Parks in Tanzania as well – most were very aware of us but knew that we weren’t a danger, so they didn’t run away. Being three feet from elephants and lions is a humbling experience. A giraffe almost collided with our vehicle, scaring both him/her and us half to death.
The trip was truly amazing, and I look forward to going back in a couple of years. There are many places to go for safaris, and the places we went are quite different in the different seasons. Very cool. The only place that compares in awesomeness is the Galapagos, which was completely different but similar in terms of up-close animals, and plenty of them.
When we got home Dave got sick with a cold from the grandkids. We went to Lisa and Justin’s for Thanksgiving, and Jennifer, Brandon and the kids joined us. We are preparing for a quiet Christmas to recharge our batteries and plan to keep really busy again next year.

Take care, Elizabeth & Dave

Have a wonderful 2025 and we hope to see many of you this year.