Summer 2000
Welcome back as we continue our journey up the west coast.
Before leaving Oregon, we spent a couple of nights at the RV Park of Portland, meeting with team members and attending a health seminar given by Dr. Sean Caesar entitled “Answers to Allergies”. One of the things we love about our business is the opportunity of learning so much about taking control of your health, and it’s a real blessing to help others do the same.
June was now well under way, and we thought it would be a great time of year to be visiting Washington State – wrong! It poured with rain most of the time. Similar to the summer that England is “enjoying” this year.
It was so good to be back in Centralia with our friends David & Kelli Pritchard and their eight children; in fact, this was the first time we had met little Sina, now 18 months old. Once again the church parking lot was our home for a few days and we enjoyed catching up on all the events of the past couple of years.
A few days later we were heading up to beautiful Gig Harbor to work with Betty Scavella and her group in Tacoma. We also celebrated my birthday at the gorgeous home of Phil & Sherrie Bradshaw, overlooking Puget Sound, together with English friends of theirs and a long-standing mutual friend, Ron Reznicki.
During this time, Betty arranged for us to meet once again with Dr. Carl Plonsky, a pediatrician who, having taken our nutritional products for the past two years, was interested in making them available to his patients. Dr. Carl and his wife invited us to join their family for the weekend of July 4th at Paradise Inn on Mt. Rainier. More about that later!
Soon we were heading back towards Centralia to see our friends, Don & Nelly Andrews, who had offered us parking space for the RV while we made a side trip to Colorado to attend the “Summer in the Rockies” bootcamp in Winter Park. This was to be a special weekend, as both our sons and our daughter-in-law would be joining us. Once again we rented a car and took our time driving in comfort through Idaho and Wyoming.
What a fabulous weekend! Not only great training and excellent presentations from a number of people, including Dr. Rick DuBois, but it was so good to be back in the Colorado Rockies. Sean Myers spoke about addressing our “FEAR” (False Evidence Appearing Real) and then took us up the mountain, encouraging each of us to come down “The Luge” just a little faster than our comfort level would allow – an exhilarating experience!
We spent Sunday rafting on the Colorado River, before saying goodbye to all our friends, and vowing to return next year. Jennifer, our daughter-in-law, gained so much from the weekend about taking control of your life, including making health a priority and eliminating stress, that she returned home and resigned from her job at the fire station! A few weeks later she was offered a position assisting a physician at the local Medical Center and now loves her work. You never know the impact these weekends may have on your life.
And so it was back to Washington and a very memorable weekend with the Plonsky family at Paradise Inn, a historic, rustic lodge in Mt. Rainier National Park. We had hiked in this area a couple of years ago but were totally unprepared for what lay ahead, as, although this was early July, most of the trails were still buried under several feet of snow! Still, we didn’t let this deter us, and on the Sunday morning, with borrowed ski poles, Mick and I set off up the mountain from a trailhead, assuming the trail was somewhere beneath our feet. What we discovered is that it’s a whole lot easier hiking up through snow than coming down.
A couple of hours later, I lost my footing, careened into Mick, sending him sliding 100 yards down the hill, which left me stranded and paralyzed with fear. “False Evidence Appearing (Very) Real!” Eventually we arrived back at the truck, relatively unscathed. All in all it was a great weekend and we arranged to meet again with Dr.Plonsky at his office the following day.
Two days later it was July 4th and we had been invited to join David and Kelli for a very special celebration with friends at their beach house in Westport. We spent most of the day on the beach, lighting a fire in the evening and letting off fireworks – very reminiscent of Guy Fawkes Night every November 5th in England. Lots of fun – and not only for the kids!
Soon it was time to leave the States behind for a while as our travels took us into Canada and then into Alaska for a week on a cruise ship. Want to join us? Then turn to the next chapter of my journal!
Happy Trails!
