Pam and Steve started the year with a Caribbean cruise in February with their regular cruising buddies. This was an effective way to get away after several months of cold and snow. This made more sense for their friends who still lived in Michigan than it did for Pam and Steve who now lived in Florida. They managed to have a good time catching up with their friends and enjoying the cruise.

Since our heroes had started new jobs last year, they had almost no vacation days to do all the traveling that they’d gotten used to. This meant that they had to take fewer trips. The trips that they did take were usually butted up against holiday weekends to get the biggest bang for their vacation buck.

On a blustery day in March, they drove up to Tampa to watch an exhibition game between the Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays. They went with Morgan, Beth and their family, Becky, and Megan. Pam and Steve felt a bit conflicted about who to root for because they had a connection to both Toronto and Tampa. Since it was an exhibition game, it didn’t matter.

In May, they went to Disney World with Morgan, Beth and company. A fun time was had by all.

In June, a friend of theirs passed away suddenly. They flew up to Michigan for his funeral.

They’d already had plans to visit Michigan at the end of that month so they were back again 3 weeks later. At least the reason for the visit was more pleasant. While in Michigan, they got to visit Corwin and see his patch of land.

On Labor Day weekend, they flew up on the Friday to Buffalo (they’ve resolved to never use Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson international airport ever again. No, really, it’s awful). They rented a car and spent a few hours at Niagara Falls since they were in the neighborhood. From there, they drove to Toronto where they had a great time catching up with their friends and Steve’s folks.

Around late summer/early fall, they found a few places with live entertainment where they could dance. This was the first opportunity for them to dance outside of a cruise ship in quite a while. They enjoyed the dancing and the people watching said very nice things about their dancing.

Mid November, Pam went to Vegas with some of the Michigan girls to see a Keith Urban show. Steve was told that they had a great time. Everything else stayed in Vegas.

Around this time, Pam was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her left foot. The treatment for this is to rest her foot and wear a boot/cast thingy. They’re hoping that her foot will recover by the time that they go cruising again in early January. Pam’s doctor is optimistic that this will happen.

Throughout the year, Pam and Steve had been meeting new friends among their neighbors. They go to a weekly trivia game with a team that varies from 5 to 14 members. The team usually does fairly well.

They also have a weekly get together on Fridays or Saturdays for food and games. If they do games, it’s often Mexican Train or some kind of card game.

As of 12/31/23, Pam’s foot is still in a boot/cast thingy, but the prognosis is still good for dancing on the cruise.
Fingers crossed

🤞