I suspect this is our last Christmas letter laid on a background of sea and sand.  Bob and Sara moved from Hawaii to California in October. We hope to visit the Islands often, but our home is now in the Bay Area of San Francisco.

This will no doubt come as a surprise to many good friends. It was in some ways a surprise to us, too, and it was certainly difficult to go through all that was necessary to accomplish the task after 38 years living in the Aloha state. And getting settled here is no mean feat, either.

There were several reasons for the big move. Among them was the difficulty keeping up with the cost of living in Hawaii, the fact that son and daughter-in-law, David and Graciela also live in California, and that we managed to sell our house for a reasonable price before the real estate market fell.

We also wanted the challenge of living in a totally new area and the luxury of being able to drive more than 100 miles without ending up in the water.We plan to drive again to see many friends who were virtually inaccessible in previous years.

Our grandson, Harley, who lived in Honolulu for awhile in 2007, has now returned to Seattle to continue his college career -- in addition to his disk jockey activities, of course. We hope to see him again in the spring or summer.

Daughter Christina moved here along with us, and is helping us get started as new residents of the state. She expects to get another job soon and live not too far away. Robert, now a Job Corps graduate, has remained to begin his career in Honolulu.

Together with our dog, Keiki, and cat, Sasha, we are  currently occupying a small temporary rental apartment in Walnut Creek. As it happens, we have several friends who live in the general vicinity, and we are happy to be able to see them more often. 


 

We sold a ton of stuff before we left the Islands. Nearly all of the remaing goods and chattels remaining are now in storage, and will remain there until we manage to buy a house or condo, most likely in this area. The current digs have been furnished pretty much out of garage sales and Craig's List.

Besides the big move, we did some conventional traveling this year. As usual, most of it was in connection with Bob's travel articles. Some of this is documented on his web sites, robertbone.com and travelpieces.com.

Sara in Hanoi

This included three cruises, and Sara was able to go along on two of them -- one in Alaska and another in Asia. Bob also published a newspaper story, "Cunard and Me," which contrasted his shipboard experiences in 1957 with the Queen Mary 2 in 2007. (It is also carried on the internet on Linda Coffman's well-known cruisediva.com.)

Bob tries on a new hat.The Asia cruise included port calls in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and three ports in Vietnam. For Sara, it was her first time back in the country which provided an exciting time for us when we visited there in 1966 during what they call the "American War." (Bob had revisited Saigon in 2006 for a different travel article.)

The final port on the cruise was Singapore, and we remained there for a few days so Bob could research and write  two stories based on that city, one for newspapers and another for a time-share magazine.

Bob is now the editor of the annual cruise round-up column in Celebrated Living, the luxury magazine carried in the First Class section of American Airlines. We hope to do some more cruise writing in 2009.

FOND ALOHA TO ALL
AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM BOB AND SARA!