2004 - The Year in Review
As we start 2005, the thought occurred to me that it might be fun to reminisce a little about the year 2004. I’ve pulled out the old marked-up calendar so that I can use it to jog my poor old memory. I know this will bore most (all?) of you but so what? I’m having fun! So, here are a few of the highlights of 2004:
January
The year’s biggest change for us started just after the first of the year when we took a ride to the beach and accidentally drove by a place for rent which looked sort of nice. We dialed the phone number on the sign and, amazingly, the landlord met us at the house, actually half of a duplex, in five minutes. From this house, where we now live, we have an easy walk to the beach and to all the shops, restaurants and other attractions of “Downtown” Encinitas, CA. We decided to sell our house where we had lived for over 16 years and after four days on the market we had four solid offers. We chose the best offer, closed escrow, and moved out, starting our “year at the beach” on February 1, 2004.
In the middle of January we went to Las Vegas to see my younger sister’s kid, Sean McHugh, play his last football game as a collegian in the “Las Vegas All American Classic College All Star Game”, a game in which Sean played tight end, his position as a pro, rather than fullback, which he played at Penn State. The game was sort of a letdown because it was small, not much of a crowd and Sean dropped a pass (he caught one too!), but it was great to see not only Sean, but Sean's girlfriend Ashlee and the rest of the McHugh side of the family as well as some of the Barratts, including Mary, the matriarch, whom Kevin McHugh married later in the year.
February
We took most of February moving and getting settled in our new neighborhood. We discovered “Martini Night” at the Meritage, one of the local restaurants, and started to get to know some of the “regulars”, whose ranks we would soon join.
We were visited mid-month by John and Janet Bartolomucci, friends we met at the Sportsmobile 4x4 rally in 2003 and whom we had visited at their home near Moab, Utah, on our last road trip.
March
After barely getting settled in our new house we flew to Williamsburg, Virginia, to visit with family and see the house that we bought, and in which my brother Bob now lives. We had a great time for three weeks, visiting, exploring and arranging for some improvements to be made to the house (new bathrooms, central heat and air and new windows). We saw my daughter Debbie and her family, husband Mike and kids Malarie and Jake. We saw Lauren McHugh and Elise (McHugh) Hammond, my brother’s daughters Lisy and Edna. We saw my older sister Mary’s family, her husband Tom and kids John, Steve and David, John’s wife Jennifer and her kid Solomon. Little did I know at the time but that was the last time I saw Mary alive. She passed away suddenly the night of August 22, 2004. More on that later.
April
The big event in April was the visit of Jon & Elise Hammond all the way from Cleveland, Ohio. Elise is the eldest child of my younger sister Jeannie (who died of ovarian cancer in February of 2002) and Kevin McHugh. We had a great time with them exploring more of our new neighborhood restaurants and bars and actually going to the beach! The weather was starting to warm up, still a little chilly for us, but for the Clevelanders, it was like summer. One day Jon even ventured a swim in the 58 degree water just so he could say that he went for a swim in the Pacific Ocean.
On Sunday, the 25th, I ran in the La Jolla Half-marathon and finished in less than two hours, which is not bad for an old martini-drinking cigar-smoking sort of guy.
During the last week of the month we took a short (for us) road trip up the coast to San Luis Obispo and back. We had some great, though warm, weather and enjoyed our camping at Refugio State Beach which is a few miles north of Santa Barbara. We stayed one night at Pismo Beach but were chased out by the mosquitoes!
May
Let me see… May 8th is Lorri’s birthday. She turned 39 (again).
On May 11th, thanks to our friends Mike & Debbie Butcher, we attended our first Padres game at the new downtown stadium, Petco Park. Mike’s seats are great, directly behind home plate in the club area which includes waitress service and access to the “Omni Lounge” overlooking the field along the third base line. What a way to see a game and what a great venue! We took the “Coaster” to and from the game. The Coaster is the commuter rail line that runs right by our house and stops a couple blocks away.
On the weekend of the 22nd, we took the van up to Glen Helen Regional Park for the annual Renaissance Faire. We spent two nights and two days there and met our friends and long-time Faire attendees, Jeff and Pam, on Sunday. Since we were there for two full days, we had an opportunity to see some of the sights and shows that are hard to get to see if you’re only there for one day. We dress up like Renaissance peasants and have a few hearty ales and get caught up in the atmosphere.
June
June at the beach in Southern California can be sort of depressing unless you like overcast days and fog most of the time. This June in Encinitas was one of those months. “June gloom” enveloped us day in and day out; no rain, just clouds. Ah, life at the beach can be tough at times, but hey, we made the most of it.
Some of the things we did in June: We went to the San Diego County Fair at Del Mar. We went to another Padres game, one of the only two mid-week day games scheduled this year. We had brunch at the Ritz-Carleton in Dana Point with the McGannons and Dru & Edith. We attended the Hunsaker & Associates Summer Picnic at San Dieguito Park and saw many of our old friends and co-workers. We went to a dinner concert at Humphreys by the Bay and saw Steve Earl and Joan Baez put on an excellent show. We visited briefly with Sean McHugh at La Costa Resort to give him his graduation present. He was there for the NFL Rookie Orientation meeting and didn’t have a lot of free time but we had a drink (he had a Coke – no drinking at NFL Rookie Orientation!) and we had a good chat. Sean was drafted out of college by the Tennessee Titans but ended up with the Green Bay Packers.
July
We got to go to another Padres game, this time with Dan & Carol Smith, who invited us to join them in the Hunsaker & Associates excellent seats just in front of the Omni Lounge on the Third base side.
Early in the month we took the van for a camping/hiking trip up Palomar Mountain where we stayed in the State Campground. The campground was virtually deserted because they had scheduled maintenance so nobody could make reservations, and then cancelled the maintenance at the last minute.
We continued to get acquainted with our new neighborhood. On the third Thursday of each month we strolled along the village area admiring all the vintage “Rods and Woodies”, an assemblage of old hot rods, classic cars and vintage woodies. On several Sunday afternoons we attended free concerts at Moonlight Beach, bringing with us our beach chairs, snacks and contraband beverages (no alcohol at the beach!). We became regulars at the Meritage on Thursday nights, so much so that as we walked toward the restaurant, our favorite bartender would spot us and have our cocktails ready for us at the bar when we walked in. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing…
On July 27, the Fillings showed up: my daughter Deb, son-in-law Mike, kids Malarie and Jacob and Mal’s friend Michelle. We had a houseful for 10 days but we had a great time. The kids took surfing lessons from Kahuna Bob and his minions. It looked like so much fun they were joined on subsequent days by Deb and Mike. Lorri and I resisted the temptation although the water temperature was unusually warm for here, around 72 – 73 degrees!
August
We took the Fillings and Michelle to a Padres game. Jake and Mike are big, big sports fans. We had a Hawaiian Luau complete with food from “Kelaini’s” our local Hawaiian food restaurant. We took the Coaster to Old Town San Diego and made a shopping excursion to La Jolla. They left on August 5th and Lorri and I took most of the rest of the month to recover.
Our reverie was interrupted by the sad news on August 23rd that my sister Mary had died suddenly the night before of a suspected brain aneurism. She was 56 years old and had been spending most of her time over the summer living on and enjoying the cabin cruiser she and her husband Tom had purchased in the Spring. To say that she was enjoying her time on the boat is an understatement.
We flew back to Northern Virginia the next day and spent the next few days there with family and friends paying our final respects to my sister Mary. Though it was nice to see everyone, we are all now left with a huge hole in our hearts and our lives where Mary used to be.
Sad though it is that she is gone, we know she would not have wanted us to sit around and feel bad but rather to celebrate her life by having fun and getting on with ours. So that’s what we’ve been trying to do.
September
No major events happened in September, just a few minor ones come to mind, thanks to the calendar. We attended Ron & Linda Grunow’s Italian Party. We spent a night in Laguna Beach where we met the McHughs, Kevin and Mary, for drinks and dinner. They were there from Cleveland on business. I’m still not quite sure what Kevin does, but whatever it is sure provides for some excellent expenses-paid travel opportunities. They stayed at the brand new $600/night “Montage Resort”. Lorri and I spent the night at the Motel Six down the road. We enjoyed H&A San Diego’s Chili Cook-off, the Encinitas Wave Crest Woodie Convention (hundreds of woodies from all over California). Jack continued his training regimen: running on the beach whenever possible and joining the regulars for Thursday night martinis at the Meritage.
October
October Second was “Encinitas Day” with bands and venders crowding Moonlight Beach and a 5K run up and down Neptune Street. Lorri and I both ran in the 5K.
On the Fifth, we took off for Maui where we joined our good friends Edith and Dru for a five-day stay on Maui and then five more on Kauai, also with Edith and Dru as well as our good friends Tom and Kelly McGannon. What an excellent vacation that was! The weather was perfect, the accommodations were free, we went kayaking, tubing, zip lining, beaching, aquarium viewing and managed to squeeze in a few nice lunches, dinners and several extended cocktail hours!
Jimmy Buffet was in town on the Twentieth so we packed up the van with plenty of cheeseburgers and margaritas and headed down to Coors Amphitheater in Chula Vista for an evening of music and fun. We found ourselves parked next to two couples from the Florida Panhandle who not only were Jimmy Buffet experts, him being from that neck of the woods and all, but had actually been to and participated in the Interstate Mullet Toss at the Flora-Bama. Lorri and I had some Bloody Mary’s at the Flora-Bama on one of our road trips but couldn’t hang around for the Mullet Toss. For those of you who are a little confused, a mullet is a fish, not a hair style, and they throw them for distance and style points from Florida to Alabama, or maybe vice-versa.
We spent the weekend of the 23rd in Palm Desert at the H&A retreat at Hidden Palms with our good friends Dave and Wendy Hammar. On Saturday afternoon we were joined by Dick and Regina Hunsaker and all watched the USC game on TV as they pounded another hapless opponent.
November
The weather was so nice on November Second that we decided to take the van and park it by the beach and have a picnic lunch. Lunch turned into a two-night stay at San Elijo State Beach.
Lorri’s high school buddy, and our good friend, Kathy Nichols invited us to join her for a weekend in Big Bear at her parents’ 3000 square foot Moonridge “cabin”, which we gladly accepted. While there we had dinner at Captain’s Anchorage, beers on the sunny deck overlooking Bear Mountain Ski Area, we walked past the zoo and around the block and did all the things we used to do when we owned our own cabin up there.
On the thirteenth we were invited to the La Jolla Playhouse at UCSD by our good friend Edith and saw the play “Jersey Boys”, the story of the rise and fall of the Four Seasons and Frankie Valli, a great play, soon headed for Broadway. The next day, I competed in and completed the Silver Strand Half Marathon. Again, I broke the old guy two-hour barrier and finished in 1:57:30 without any major damage.
At Thanksgiving time it was back to Williamsburg, Virginia, for a trip we had been planning since the summer. We flew to Richmond and rented a car and arrived late on the 17th in time to help by brother Bob celebrate his birthday the next day. Relatives started arriving from all over the East Coast. They came and went until we finally had to leave on December First. We had a great two weeks of visiting, partying, eating and drinking. From learning about the founding of our Country at Colonial Williamsburg to playing darts in the garage, we enjoyed the entire trip.
December
With the holidays fast approaching we realized we were totally unprepared. We watched the Encinitas Tree Lighting and Holiday Parade on Saturday, the Fourth. We went to the company Christmas parties on consecutive nights, Irvine on the Tenth and San Diego on the Eleventh, and saw many of our old friends and co-workers.
On the Sixteenth, Lorri’s mom and dad arrived from St. Louis. They stayed in a hotel around the corner from us for a few nights and then moved to a hotel around the corner from Lorri’s sister Lynn, in Escondido, for a few more nights. We had a very nice Christmastime, somehow managing to get all our shopping and shipping done on time. Lorri and I had Christmas Eve dinner out with mom and dad since Lorri’s sister’s family had to participate in their annual Christmas Eve Family Bacchanal at Steve’s sister’s house. We spent Christmas Day at Lynn’s. I think we had a good time. I remember smoking cigars in the spa after dinner but things are a little blurry after that.
For the first time in many years, Lorri and I ventured out on New Year’s Eve. We were invited to join our good friends Dave & Wendy at their house for a festive dinner with all of Dave’s current partners in the San Diego office of H&A, all of whom are also our friends and some of whom, like Dave, were my partners when I was with the company. It was a great way to end a great year. I am saddened by the loss of my sister but I’m happy for all the great family and friends that I have and for the opportunity to have done the many exciting and entertaining things that we did this year.
Here’s wishing anyone who reads this a happy, safe, healthy and prosperous 2005!
