January
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| Karen & Boomer |
The new year found us still grieving our losses from the burglary of our Fairbanks home 12/14/17, but our spirits were lifted throughout 2018 by our re-establishing old friendships as well as forming some new ones. We weren't far into the new year when we got a call from Tom and Nancy of Kenai, Alaska. Newly retired they had joined the flight of snowbirds south and were camped in an RV park not far from our Sun City abode. We met them at their campsite for a meal and a visit and we got to meet their recently adopted puppy, Boomer.
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| Tom, Nancy & Jack |
Toward the middle of the month we hosted Helen and Ray in Sun City. They were en route to Hawaii. Karen had visited them at their home in Massachusetts a couple of times since Helen left Alaska in the 80s, but Jack hadn't seen Helen in a long while and had never met Ray. We enjoyed a three-day reunion sharing stories and food and took one day to drive to Sedona and Flagstaff where we met Joe with whom Helen had kept in touch since he'd moved from Alaska to Arizona. We all enjoyed what Karen insists is "the world's best pizza" at Nimarco's in Flagstaff.
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| Ray, Helen, Joe, Karen & Jack |
February
In early February, Jack packed his bags and flew to Costa Rica. He'd decided the jet lag from 2017's trip to Thailand was too debilitating. Karen agreed.
Having read and enjoyed Ron Chernow's massive biography, Hamilton, Karen was thrilled to learn the traveling production, based on the book, would be at Arizona State University's Gammage Hall in February. She landed a ticket and attended the show shortly after Jack's departure.
Mid-month Karen boarded a flight for San Jose, Costa Rica where she spent 3 days revisiting that city while awaiting Robin and Ari who would join us for the week of Ari's February break from school in Hamilton, NY where she attended 4th grade. Hamilton is the community of Colgate University where Meg was in her 2nd year as visiting faculty.
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| Ari & Robin awaiting our rental car |
After taking a couple of hours getting through immigration and customs, Robin and Ari emerged from the airport to join Karen for the ride to Enterprise Car Rental. Once we had Robin's rental car, we collected groceries and Karen's belongings from Vida Tropical B & B and headed for Miramar in central Costa Rica.
Jack had traveled there by bus from Playas del Coco on the Pacific coast and was met by Seth and Jessie. Once we joined them, Seth, in his recently acquired vehicle, led Robin up into the cloud forest along the road that had been heavily damaged by rains and mudslides.
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| Jack gets a whiff of home grown & roasted coffee beans. |
Ari had brought her sketch book and spent time sketching with Jessie.
Ari and Robin were introduced to Seth & Jessie's neighbors, Pancho and Virgenia, and got to observe some of the old fashioned process of turning sugar cane to sugar. Robin took a turn at playing the role of oxen in that process as in photo at right where Jessie is collecting the cane syrup. Robin decided he'll stick with doing theoretical physics at Sandia National Labs. Below, Ari samples the syrup and deems it sweet.
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| Jessie, Seth, Virgenia & Pancho |
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| (Photo by Robin) |
One day we drove up to a high meadow from which we could look down on the village of Cedral and posed for a selfie of our group.
From Cedral we drove down to the Pacific coast to spend five nights in a 3-bedroom house with a small pool on the front patio.
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Our rental house in Playa Hermosa -- the "Abode to Joy". This is actually a duplex, and we had the half on the left side of the picture. (Photo and text by Robin)
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| Our patio pool |
After Robin, Ari, Seth & Jessie left, we took a cab to Tamarindo where we rented a small house. It's a surfer's paradise there and largely attracts young surfers. After 3 days Jack returned to Playas del Coco for another week and Karen bussed to San Jose to catch a flight back to Phoenix.
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| Billy Collins |
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| Lady Costa |
Back in Arizona, Karen drove down to the Tucson Book Festival. She attended sessions by her favorite poet, Billy Collins, hiked in the Sabino Canyon, and visited The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. A female Costa Hummingbird in the Hummingbird aviary kept flying within inches of where Karen sat to snatch fibers for her nest from a backpack resting on the bench.
March
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| Cousin Mary sketches at Lakeview |
Karen's cousin, Mary, visited. An artist, she carries her sketchbook wherever she goes. Lakeview's grounds within walking distance, provided sketching opportunities. Karen and Mary were born on the same day and spent many weekends as kids playing together at "417," Karen's grandpa's home where Mary's grandma lived upstairs. We appreciated sharing stories of those days while Jack wondered, in terms expressed often by Karen's dad, "Where does an alien go to register?"
We topped off Mary's visit with a drive to Sedona for Mary to meet up with people with whom she would ride to an event in New Mexico.
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| Grandma Kim & Bella |
March saw the birth of Jack's 3rd great grandchild. Annabelle Sophia, Grandson Brian's and Addie's daughter, has been a special blessing to Kim whose husband, Phil, was killed last year.
April
Still in Sun City until 12 April, we got dressed up for Easter Sunday and attended a brunch that didn't measure up to expectations based on our years of attending Sunday Brunch at Pike's in Fairbanks. Seems "there's no place like home" after all. So we packed up our luggage with attractively priced food that travels well and flew back to Alaska.
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| Happy Jack and recovered bear hide |
We had named our first Tozi bear "Buster." Jack had tanned the hide himself. Back there in June of '74 we dried, canned and salted most of the meat from Buster, developing bush living skills along with providing ourselves and our dogs with protein.
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| Buster's hide in '74 |
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| Karen drying bear jerky 6/74 |
May
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| We arrive on the Tozi 12 May 2018 |
After a month of catching up with our social life in Fairbanks, we arrived back home on the Tozi where our social life continued to thrive with visits from Tom, Nancy, & Boomer as well as Tozi neighbors, Russ & BJ and Tom F. At the end of the month Robin and one of our Fairbanks "kids," Trevor joined us for 9 days.
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| Jack, Boomer, Tom & Nancy relax in the Summer House |
Tom and Nancy flew in from Kenai for a 2-day visit almost exactly after their first and only other visit to us on the Tozi 32 years earlier. Oddly, neither they nor we could locate any photos from that trip. So we made sure to take plenty this time.
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| Boomer makes friends with Russ & BJ |
Russ and BJ made a quick trip by boat on the high water up to their place on the Tozi and were able to meet Tom, Nancy, & Boomer at our place.
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| Boomer, Jack, Nancy, Tom |
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| Karen, Nancy, Tom |
But we could look forward to another visit in July for which they'd bid on an Alaska Railroad trip to Fairbanks from Anchorage. After 32 years it was so cool to reunite with them in all three of our homes in one calendar year.
June
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Trevor and Robin are digging postholes with the new auger.
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The lumber pile at the end of spring 2018 -- almost 1400 board feet above and beyond what we made in 2017.
Trevor made two of these fantastic log dollies for hauling logs to be cut on the sawmill.
The four of us returned to Fairbanks 9 June, in time for Karen to pack and catch a flight to Santa Rosa, CA where she would spend four days reconnecting with Vivian who, in the course of the past year and a few months, had lost her husband, Jack, been evacuated from their home in Redwood Valley because of wildfire, and then experienced the inability to learn what effect Hurricane Maria had had on friends and relations in Puerto Rico as well as her house in Rincon, P.R.
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| Vivian stands by olive tree and bench on her land honoring her husband, Jack. |
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| Vivian's house was spared despite loss of utilities. |
On their last day together, Vivian drove Karen to Santa Rosa to catch a bus to San Francisco after lunch with Karen's friend Margie with whom Karen hadn't seen or had contact for almost 50 years! Margie and Karen were both members of a student project in Peru in '62.
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| Karen and Sijo |
At SFO Karen met up with Sijo and Mary for the second reason she planned this California trip -- Sijo's graduation from Stanford University. She enjoyed that and spending time with Sijo's parents, Eric and Mary, her brother, David, and her friend, Mark.
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| Tom and Jack |
Karen arrived back in Fairbanks in time to see Tozi-Tanana neighbor, Tom, off to visit his brother, John, and other family in Minnesota.
July
We were delighted to host Tom, Nancy, and Boomer for their visit to Fairbanks via The Alaska Railroad. We seem to never take advantage of Fairbanks' great tourist opportunities unless we are able to share them with visitors. Tom's desire to see the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum gave us the incentive we needed to familiarize ourselves with this gem. Sunny weather allowed us to share the outdoors on our patio, at HooDoo Brewery, and the Farmers' Market. |
| At the Antique Auto Museum |
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| At HooDoo Brewery |
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| On our patio |
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| At Farmers' Market |
August - September
Fall Tozi Time brought Robin and Ari to Fairbanks 14 August. We flew to the Tozi on the 16th, but before we left we fulfilled a promise Karen had made to herself several years ago -- to present a 1974 photo from our move to the Tozi to Bob Bursiel.
Bob, who, as chief pilot for Wright Air Service, flew the Fairbanks-Tozi charter and 4 shuttles between Tozi and the village of Tanana for our move from Fairbanks to Tozi 17 April 1974. After owning the air service and serving as its president for many years, Bob sold the company in 2017, but kept the Heliocouriers we depend on for Tozi transport and continues to fly for Wrights.
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| 2018 presentation of '74 photo to Bob |
Prior to our departure for Tozi on 16 August, we had Bob called into the charter office and made the presentation of the '74 slide that Robin had digitized and placed on canvas.
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| 17 April 1974 - Karen writes check for flights moving J & K to Tozi |
Ari, who was born 34 years to the day after that Tozi move entertained us with her viola on this Tozi trip. She also made the traditional cherry pie with Grandma, fished for grayling and pike with Grandpa, practiced shooting the air rifle of her dad's youth, hiked with her dad and grandma, assisted her dad in building the saw barn, and read a lot of books.
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| Completed Saw Barn |
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| Tom, Ari, Robin & Tom's dog, Spotty |
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| September 8 brought a light frost . . . |
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| . . . and low water |
We were back in Fairbanks in time for a brief visit with Seth before his departure for Costa Rica.
October
Once again we found ourselves rushing to pack in visits with Fairbanks friends as well as visitors from Tanana and Anchorage before our November 7 departure for Arizona. We also needed to find a house sitter for the five months we would be out of Alaska. Seth was helpful in suggesting a co-worker from Tulik Research Station. We contacted Collin, who happens to have grown up in Minnesota which is always a good recommendation for Karen! We arranged for him to move in the weekend before we were scheduled to fly.
We hosted Tom, Charlie and Ruth from Tanana toward the end of the month. Russ and BJ joined the five of us at Mayan Palace for a Tozi-Tanana dinner one evening.
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| Charlie, BJ, Russ, Jack, Karen, Tom, Ruth at Mayan Palace |
When we're in Fairbanks, we have a standing date with Trevor, Deanna, and their daughter, Roxy, to meet on Friday afternoons for a drink at either The Tap House or HooDoo Brewery. Much as we love them, we've been reluctant to attend their infamous annual Halloween Party where guests outdo themselves with costumes and the house is decorated so scary, it even frightens Deanna! This year we kinda dressed for it and dropped in for a short time.
Jack and Karen's "costumes" were pretty tame compared to Deanna and Trevor's. At least Roxy's wasn't scary. We're reminded of how Halloween is really an adult holiday in Fairbanks, celebrated with costume parties at local watering holes and private homes well later than "trick or treat" time. It's an aspect of Fairbanks culture with which we'd lost touch by living for so long on the Tozi.
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| Deanna? |
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| Roxy |
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| Trevor? |
November
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| Welcome "home" to Sun City, Jack |
We treated ourselves to dinner at a favorite Mexican restaurant. The telephone repair person arrived promptly the next morning and Jack had the fallen light fixture fixed by mid-November.
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| Randi & Karen share a dessert |
Meanwhile we settled back into playing Bridge weekly with Karen's college classmate, Deanne, and her husband, John. Karen resumed Saturday night dinner/movie dates with her grad school friend, Randi.
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| John Frederick and Mama Erin |
On 16 November we received a long awaited phone call from our "Montana Kids," Russ and Erin. Last spring we got a cryptic Trapline Chatter message from them saying they would have to buy 3 airplane tickets next summer when they visit us in Alaska. Since you don't have to buy a seat for a baby, when we were able to call them, we joked and asked if they'd got a puppy. We're looking forward to meeting young John Frederick (who is not a puppy) next summer.
Robin, Meg, and Ari scheduled Thanksgiving for their Albuquerque house. So we drove over and enjoyed family-time company, food, conversation, board and card games for a few days. We scheduled our drive back to Sun City with a stop in Flagstaff for pizza at NiMarco's.
Starting out on a walk, Robin and Karen stopped to appreciate the Sandia Mountains to the east of their house.
Returning from our walk, we happened upon a Ross store. Karen prevailed on Robin to let her check it out. She didn't find anything to buy, but Robin found a unicorn he knew Ari would love.
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| Robin walks Ari's surprise unicorn home. |
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| Daddy knows his girl. (Photo by Jack with Robin's camera) |
Karen left most of the Thanksgiving photography up to Robin. All of the following November photos are by Robin, which is why he's not in them.
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| Ari helps Mom with sweet potatoes |
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| Turducken is roasted. Now what? |
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| Grandma made mojitos every evening. |
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| Morning after Eggs Benedict by Grandma |
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| Fun & Games |
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| More Fun & Games |
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| There's a reason Contract Rummy is called "HATE" |
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| Grandma works on transcribing Tozi journal while helping finish up one of five pies |
December
Safely away from Alaska when the 30 November earthquake hit, we got on the phone the next morning and checked in with our Anchorage friends, all of whom were okay despite some house damage and weird experiences driving when the quake first hit. Some Fairbanks friends felt the shaking some 400 miles north of the epicenter. Anchorage friends, Mary and Eric were scheduled to depart Anchorage the day after the quake and meet up with us for dinner in Phoenix.
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| We had before dinner drinks with Eric and Mary at their AirB&B in Phoenix |
Robin, Meg and Ari spent their holiday time in Puerto Rico at the beach. So, our Xmas was pretty low key this year. We did our holiday cookie baking and candy making to share with neighbors.
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| Li'l ole candy maker prepares dipping chocolate |
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| Cookie baker/decorator |
Xmas Eve day we played Bridge at Deanne and John's and then went to a holiday buffet at their club.
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| J & K Xmas Eve with Deanne & John |
We hope all our friends and family enjoyed a Merry Christmas and are wishing all a Peaceful and Happy New year. If 2019 brings you to Arizona between January and March, we'd love to see you and share the winter sunshine. If you're in Alaska, we're there seeking more adventures April through October. Our email addresses are karen@tozikaket.com and jack@tozikaket.com. Our mobile phone numbers are 907-978-6925 (Karen) and 907-888-9503 (Jack).
