Family Letter - January, 2002
This is our first family letter. We hope this will become a long tradition. Here are some details of what is going on with Lynn and Les.
We had our first anniversary October 1, 2001. Yes, we are still newlyweds. We have such a wonderful family, my two children, two grandchildren, and Lynn's four children and four grandchildren. Lynn and I bought an historic little Spanish bungalow (historic for California), built in 1929 as one of the original homes in San Clemente, California, when there was nothing between LA and San Diego. We are restoring it little by little. Currently, we are putting in a new cobalt blue kitchen sink and white and cobalt blue tiles to match. Also, we are putting in a Spanish courtyard in front to expand the usable space. In San Clemente, which is a little beach community, there is little room as all houses and apartments are crammed together. But we love being a block from the beach, and enjoying the greatest weather anywhere on earth, so we compromise. It has original wood floors, a nice back yard with a garden house, fruit trees and a Lily pond. Lynn made the yard to the side of the house into a Japanese sand garden. This is our cozy little home until we go cruising upon the oceans.
We plan on retiring as soon as possible and cruising on our boat "Cottonwood" all around the United States. Retirement time will depend on our savings plan but probably within two to three years. The plan is to cruise to different locations from one month to several months at a time, then returning home by train or plane to visit family in between. Hopefully, we can get family members to take time to smell the roses and join us on different legs of the cruises. We plan on starting with a trip to the Sacramento Delta, then back home. Then we are planning Seattle and Mexico trips and maybe Alaska, then back home. After that, we will probably start off on our long journey from San Clemente, California, down to Central America and through the Panama Canal, over to Florida, up the ICW, (Inter Coastal Waterway) then up the East Coast and begin the Great Loop. The Great Loop takes us up rivers and canals to the Great Lakes, through the lakes, down to Chicago, down the Illinois to the Mississippi and on to the Gulf of Mexico. There will be many legs of the trip where family members can join us and enjoy the adventure. We hope many of you will take the opportunity. Write us at llcottons@softhome.net and let us know your interest level. We will let you know about the trips. But we will also post notes on this website as well.
In the mean time, we are enjoying our combined families and trying not to work too hard. Life is so short not to make the best of it. I am so glad I found someone who wants to share life and its amazing things and not just complain about everything that is wrong. After September 11, it seems even more precious. We all should look for ways to appreciate everything we have, every day. In the United States, we are so blessed.
Love to all of you from Lynn and Les.
