The passing of my beloved father in 2023 left an immense void in my heart. For months, I struggled to find meaning or motivation, wishing time would stand still though life pushed stubbornly on. But the photos and memories shared here remind me that even in our darkest moments, there is light and love to be found. Though I still grieve, I know my father would want me to embrace each new day. So I pick up where I left off last March on a trip to Germany, gathering with family to celebrate my mother’s birthday in the Ore Mountains. That vacation was a precious final gift with my dad before his death. This post honors the joy and laughter we shared, and the profound lessons his life taught me about cherishing every moment with our loved ones. For though 2023 brought profound sorrow, it also sparked a renewed commitment to live purposefully in a way that would make my father proud.

The Ore Mountains lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The region was the setting of the earliest stages of the early modern transformation of mining and metallurgy from a craft to a large-scale industry, a process that preceded and enabled the later Industrial Revolution. We visited many different towns with mining museums but also lots of history around wood carving and an extremely rare and complicated crochet craft called “Kloeppeln (“bobbin lace).

We visited a town called Seiffen which is the cradle of wooden toy carving, where you can watch expert carvers at work and buy a beautiful souvenir created in front of your eyes. The most loved attraction in Seiffen is the Toy Museum which traces the history of this folk art and displays amazing examples of wooden toys. Looking at my dad in this photos I wouldn’t have thought in a thousand years that his passing would come soon.

Another town we visited was Johangeorgenstadt which houses the biggest Schwibbogen in the World. The origin of the Schwibbogen is closely tied to German mining tradition in the Erzgebirge region, with the candles expressing the miners’ longing for light. Due to long shifts, miners rarely saw daylight during the long winter months and so used the Schwibbogen as a symbol of hope.

Below a variety of Schwibbögen I captured on my walk through Schwarzenberg, another small town we visited.

Schwarzenberg’s skyline is dominated by the ensemble of church and palace, the latter having been built on an old castle’s foundation walls. This former castle can be considered one of the town’s first fortified buildings. The St.-Georgen-Kirche (church) on the other hand is clearly newer, having been built only in the late 17th century. Here my mum and dad using the tiny little cable car that pulls us up the steep hill to the castle/church.

After visiting towns in the Ore Mountains, we made the quick drive over to the Czech Republic to visit the town of Karlsbad, where my parents had already been some 20 years ago but it was a first time for me.

Karlovy Vary/ Karlsbad, is a “spa city” Karlovy Vary region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It lies at the confluence of the rivers Ore. It is named after Charles IV, Holy roman Emperor and the King of Bohemia, who founded the city.

Karlovy Vary is the site of numerous hot springs (13 main springs, about 300 smaller springs, and the warm-water Teplá River), and is the most visited spa town in the Czech Republic. The historic city center with the spa cultural landscape is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation. It is the largest spa complex in Europe. In 2021, the city became part of the transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name ” Great Spa towns of Europe” because of its spas and architecture from the 18th through 20th centuries. In the below photo my mum is touching hot water that comes right there out of the ground.

Above mum and dad for my mums 76th birthday.

After all this sightseeing our vacation came to an abrupt stop when my mum fell down stairs in a Viewpoint tower in Karlsbad and broke her ankle. She had to have an emergency surgery that day and thankfully we had one of the best foot surgery hospitals right next to the hotel.

As I have written in the previous post, I drove mum and dad home after my mum left the hospital, settled them in, in their condo, left for the US, then my father became ill the very next day and was hospitalized. 11 days later he passed in the hospital with no real known cause. This is the very last photo taken with mum, dad and me a couple days prior to the Carlsbad trip (where my mum broke her foot)!

In between my dads passing and the funeral, my friend Christy got married to her long term German boyfriend Wolfgang. Looking back I don’t know exactly how I made it through the wedding, but Christy is my friend for over 25 years and I already bailed on her 50’s birthday because our dog had died, so I wasn’t going to bail on her most important day this time. It was a beautiful wedding and the two were so happy, a love story in your 50’s, who wouldn’t love that there is hope and love in all age categories. I also had cried now for a week and it was time to tackle life again.

Once back from Germany, not much happened until June, I just tried to keep it together and somehow was able to pick up back working. June brought nice weather and I finally could go riding again and we had visitors.

Just when Caroline left, Mikes friend Harry and Parmely came and visited us for a day and Parmely and I snuck in a visit to the China Bend Winery.

My friend Sam came as well as Mike’s friend Caroline. We harvested Rhubarb and made the best Rhubarb crumble I ever had. The moment it came out of the oven Caroline, Sam and I inhaled it (recipe below).

4th of July rolled around and our friends Bobby and Allison came to visit us. We are making this 4th of July get together now a yearly occurrence with the “Johnson/Lord”. Fishing, thrifting, exploring, casino visit, Northport fireworks, and chilling at the beach made it a perfect week off.

August was a lot of fun with my friend Christy visiting us and spending a day in Nelson. Right after that our friends Rosey, Ryan, Kayden and Kay came and visited us. We had fun at the beach and also attending the yearly Colville Country Fair.

September was a HUGE harvest month for us, we must have harvested 200 pounds of tomato’s as well as peppers and made 24 jars of now Mikes famous pasta sauce. Northport held its yearly Labor Day parade and Mike’s friend Len and Lisa came visiting us. Len also organizes the yearly Cabo fishing tournament and so we would see Lisa and Len again in October.

I got my food fix in during a business visit to Seattle in September and spent some quality time with my team and we ate lots of Vietnamese Food at “Bar”, dinner at Rays Boat House and Cocktail in Ballard. On the drive back from Spokane airport I stopped at the Chewelah Casino and won $650 – I would call that a successful trip!

Another bucket item off the list is now the Aurora Borealis, I got to see her right in front of our house on September 18th. My photos are not great, but I guess that’s how it “usually” is, you don’t see the Aurora really with your bare eyes. Only at the right time at the right place in a very rare moment you can see the Aurora with your bare eyes, usually you will need a good camera with a very long exposure to capture all the fun purple and green colors.

September is also Mike and my wedding anniversary and so we spend a lovely anniversary dinner at Gabriella’s in Rossland. The shrimp’s were absolutely outstanding.

We attended another wedding in fall and I got to take a picture with an Alpaca on the brides grandparents Alpaca farm.

October started off with our neighbors Harvest Festival. There must have been 150 people there this year and Em outdid herself with decorations, food (I think I ate 6 apple fritters) and fun for the kids.

Harvest is in full motion in October, we harvested everything we could out of our garden and of course attended the yearly Marcus Apple Cider Festival.

Mike and Gerry fixed up the roof to ensure we are all set for heavy winter snow.

Sam came by for a quick weekend visit and I took the opportunity to let my inner artist out by attending a painting class with Sam, we had a ton of fun.

Then it was time to pack up for our trip to Los Barilles and Cabo. We first stopped over in Spokane for a night and visited the Northern Quest Casino and then off to Los Barilles!

Once landed we waited for Sam who of course can’t miss on any of our birthdays and we went almost immediately to Punta Pescadore to celebrate Mike’s big 60 birthday! We sat at the exact same spot 10 years prior when we celebrated Mike’s 50’s birthday. That was a really special evening.

Mike enjoyed 4 days fishing and every day I got to eat the best sashimi courtesy of my hubbies bounty.

After a week of desperately need relaxation, we made it our way to Cabo and the long anticipated Cabo Tuna Shootout tournament that Mike was looking forward to.

We arrived October 31st and a huge Halloween party was going on in downtown which was really fun to watch.

The next morning we met up with Mike’s friends Kirby and Gina and spent a day “pool drinking” Pina Colada’s.

After a rough day of drinking, the boys made it on time for their big tournament and Gina and I decided to try out the “party boat” on 5:30 a.m. to support our hubbies during the tournament. The party boat is the “Cabo Wave” and actually takes on a very important role during the 2 day tournament: ALL boats need to check in with the Cabo Wave and line up behind it to be eligible to participate in the tournament. So we got to see all boats and their crews and some even put on costumes and the DJ of the Cabo Wave would play the “matching” music to the outfits, it was an absolute blast.

The boys weren’t too lucky the first day, they caught some fish but nothing that was qualifying. They were fishing for Dorado and they have to be over 30 pounds to qualify. The second day, Gina and I decided to go to “Milky Beach” and hand out there while the boys and Lisa were in the 2nd day of the tournament, when I get a text: “We hooked a monster”. Gina and I were so excited, we packed all our stuff and newly acquired items (there are sooooo many vendors walking up and down the beach you can only say 100 times no and eventually you do buy something), took the water taxi and hurried back to the marina.

The boys arrived shortly and we took seat at Captain Tony’s right next to the stage where all the fish would be weighted in. Mike’s team’s fish was one of the first fish that was on the scale and came it at a little bit over 33 pounds, so a qualifying fish. We were all cautious not celebrating and the later it got, it was very unlikely for more Dorado to come in.

The later fish are usually Tuna because the boats have to go further out to catch Tuna. So by 6:00 p.m. the tournament closes and when Mike’s team was still at 1st place and the tournament director started to count down the seconds, we really thought Mike’ and team won the $44k Dorado Jackpot. Just when we started celebrating Len told us that you “only” have to be in the harbor at 6:00 p.m. and not at the scale and sure shit, there was one last boat with one last Dorado that came in and it was a 47 pounder Dorado. The team was so extremely sad, that we just went home, showered had a quick and quiet dinner and went to bad. I felt so bad for the boys and Lisa, but what an accomplishment to have a qualifying fish and to feel like rock stars for 2 hours. It was the first time for Kirby, the second time for Mike and I think the 4th time for Len and last year that team didn’t catch a qualifying fish at all and one year I think they didn’t catch any fish, so coming in at 2nd place I think was awesome.

The exhilaration of victory still coursed through our veins as we departed sunny Cabo to return home to the bitter cold of a Northport winter. Though I had anticipated dislike for Cabo, the energy and camaraderie of the tournament won me over. “Until next year, Cabo!”

Stepping off the plane, we were met with a harsh minus degree chill and blankets of snow – a stark contrast to the balmy warmth we had just left behind. Nonetheless, the holidays were waiting, so I embraced the season by attending a delightful ornament painting class, decorating our tree, and baking traditional German Christmas cookies like Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) and Spritzgebäck (butter cookies) that were to die for.

My next adventure was a business trip to Las Vegas for the AWS re:Invent conference. It was wonderful to reconnect with former colleagues, current partners, and especially my dear friend Michelle. Though the Venetian’s Grand Canal glimmered as always, the Vegas strip had yet to don its Christmas finery. I tried my luck at the tables but Lady Luck was not on my side.

Back from Las Vegas, we got into birthday and holiday party mode and celebrated Gerry’s birthday in our favorite restaurant in Canada (The Flying Steamshovel).

After a very quiet Thanksgiving, another business trip to Seattle but this time for the first time ever I had nothing to do just enjoy a Christmas party and meeting my friend Allison for a night out in town eating the most amazing Sushi at Sushi Kappo (its spendy but absolutely worth it). I looked up Best Sushi Places in Seattle and Japonessa is #3 and Momoyi #4, I can say that Kappo is way better than both of them and Momoyi is way better than Japonessa (for those who might want to know where to eat Sushi in Seattle ;-). And the AWS marketing christmas party was actually a lot of fun, out of all places they chose a German Restaurant in Seattle called Das Rhein Haus and I have to say the food was pretty tasty, still Americanized but tasty.

Home again in time for Christmas, we hosted our annual Raclette party. Explaining this unique Swiss tradition to newcomers never gets old! You offer an eclectic smorgasbord and invite guests to craft tiny meals topped with melted cheese. It took a full evening for our novices to grasp the concept, but I think we converted them into Raclette enthusiasts for next time.

With 2023 drawing to a close, I got to attend one more painting class and my bestie Sam came to celebrate New Year’s Eve. We feasted on Mike’s famous biscuits and gravy, drunk our favorite Chelan wine (Mellisoni) and headed to our neighbor Sabrina’s for the annual neighborhood New Years bash.

2024 kicked off with yet another Seattle run. Though three days away is a drag, I do relish time with friends and the chance to indulge in favorites like the mouthwatering noodle bowls at Ba Bar.

Returning home, an arctic deep freeze settled in with temps plunging to -23F before wind-chill! Burst pipes are par for the course, so Mike spent three days fixing frozen lines. Keeping the animals warm with hot meals was a challenge too.

Then my birthday brought an onset of melancholy as I edged closer to 60. Aging is never easy, but somehow seems harsher for women. We are just considered old, unlike men who become seasoned and wise. But I tried to make the best of it! Mike took me to the elegant Historic Davenport Hotel in Spokane for a celebratory dinner, though I overindulged and had to call it a night early. Next time I’ll pace myself better to enjoy Spokane’s nightlife and shopping!

Going into 2024, I reflect on 2023 with lots of sorrow but also some gratitude. While losing my father left an irreplaceable void, the year also held profound lessons about living intentionally and the perspective on the fleeting gift of time shared with loved ones. I step into the new year with the intent of making this my last year in Corporate America to then spend more time with my loved ones. I am sure I will never say on my death bed: I wish I would have worked more but it is so easy to be caught up in the rat race of making enough money for the future and I learned there will never be enough money and never enough time, so we have to live with making the best out of the time and money we have.

Ok here now the Rhubarb Crisp Recipe I mentioned when our friends Sam and Caroline visited us. It was a total ad hoc recipe since we had rhubarb in the garden that desperately needed to be harvested. I like my crisps/pies a little bit on the tart side, so if you like it sweet you might want to add more sugar. I also wonder how this crisp would taste if you would mix in some strawberries, I bet that would be really good. I also used a big cast iron skillet, next time I will go with a little bit smaller one, that will make the crisp a little bit higher. It came out somewhat flat in this big pan, but it still tasted amazingly good!

Rhubarb Crisp Recipe

Ingredients

FOR THE FILLING

• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 4 1/2 c. sliced rhubarb (about 6 large stalks)
• 1/3 c. granulated sugar
• 1/4 c. packed brown sugar

FOR THE TOPPING

• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. rolled oats 
• 1/2 c. finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 6 tbsp. melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°. In a 10” skillet or in a square baking dish, toss rhubarb with filling ingredients until evenly incorporated. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, pecans, sugars, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Use your hands to incorporate melted butter into flour mixture until mixture has pea-sized clumps. 
3. Scatter topping over rhubarb mixture and bake until rhubarb is bubbling and topping is golden, about 45 minutes.
4. Serve with Ice Cream and/or homemade heavy whipping cream.

Guten Appetit!