Dave and I spent a week in La Crosse, Wisconsin to spend time with his family there. We stayed with his parents, Rich and Jan, in their condo on the La Crosse River. Dave’s brother, sister-in-law, and nephew drove up from Golden as well, and we all had fun playing Scrabble, ping pong, sledding, and snow shoeing. Jan cooked up a feast complete with about 50 kinds of cookies for us to chow on for the week. We all drove to Madison from La Crosse on Christmas day to visit with extended family on Rich’s side, wonderful people that I was glad to get to know a bit, and they made me feel extremely welcome. Then Dave and I stayed a couple of nights with Kris and Leslie, the couple with whom we’ll be paddling around Baranof Island in the summer. All in all it was a great week.

Now we’re talking about the last few details of our upcoming SE Asia trip: deciding on bedding, whether the cook kit is necessary, sun protection for our face & neck while wearing a helmet. Most other details are set, and the bikes only need a wee bit of tinkering since Dave has already done most of the work.

We only have two weeks of winter left, then we’ll be in the sauna of Singapore and the beaches of Malaysia soon enough.