17.04.15. Where do I begin?

Thanks again for the encouragement I received from friends to get my travel blog going again.  I am not ready to drop the "Mike and Denise - The Next Phase" title just now, and I am certain that Mike is with me, so I will forge on in this format until I am ready to change.   

Before getting in to the daily details in a future post, I will simply say that I arrived alone at South Carlsbad State Beach on December 30, knowing that this would be a perfect place for  me to be to digest the loss of Mike on December 4, and the preceding 2.5 years of awareness, concern, discovery and caregiving that accompanied his rare neurological disorder, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.  

So this post is dedicated to Mike, in memory of all the great years we had together.

Here we are on Christmas night 1981 at my parents house in Kalamazoo Michigan just before taking off to drive to California for the new jobs we had 

in San Francisco at Touche Ross and CO CPA's.  Pretty exciting!

The early years were spent in San Francisco from where we launched many trips to the mountains and enjoyed cross country skiing, hiking and backpacking.

Four years later we married in 1984

and moved to Stockton where 14 months later Eric arrived

then Curt, 2.5 years later.

We still loved loved trips to San Fransicso

and Mike advanced his career 

while being a devoted father.

He took us with him on business trips. 

 Here we are at the top of the twin towers in NYC in 1996

We started our motor home travels in 2001 with a trip to visit sister Chris in Austin Texas.

Here we are at the top of the Arch de Triumph in Paris after Eric graduated in 2004.

with my brother Jim in 2004

still strong and hiking in 2008 after leaving the corporate world.

Here he is at the beginning of our full-time motor home journey in Tillamook OR in 2013.

Here at Curt' and Sarah's wedding party in Sheffield, England in 2015

and sitting with brother Steve at Eric and Claudia's wedding party 

on Isla Holbox, Quintana Roo, Mexico in 2016

So many good pictures of him, but that's all for now except for this big thumbs up for the positive attitude he carried with him through his disease

Thank you very much, my love, for being such a good partner in life.  

You will be with me always as I carry on and enjoy the journey we started together.