Chrissy, thank you for your good wishes. I definitely felt it was time to start retirement, and particularly to go on vacation!
Lori and Danielle, I believe you'll appreciate this. This morning, I started to get through a few boxes my sons left in the basement. In one of them were two bags of sand, a gold pan, and instructions. My family did an Alaskan cruise when the boys were young.
When we docked in Ketchikan, we were sucked into the nearest tourist shop. The boys immediately bought two bags of "gold ore" and a gold pan. It disappeared into our house for over 15 years until I discovered the bags today.
It's a cold and rainy day here in NYC, and I thought I would see if there was anything in the bags. As I stood with the pan in my hand, pouring water into it and swirling the pan around over the basement sink, I thought about how ridiculous I must look panning for gold in my NYC basement.
...but I got suckered in. I followed the instructions, and by the end I found two small gold flakes...Danielle, I am catching a flight to visit you tonight!
