2011 In Review - A Holiday Letter (Late again) from the Lerner's

Hello to everyone.

We hope that you had a wonderful year in 2011. We're not sure where the time has flown to, but we know that we were busy with this and that and time seems to just march on to it's own drummer.

Our Inn Caring Interim Innkeeping assignments only took us to two places in 2011. We worked for two months at the Patriot House B&B in Annville, PA. This is just a few miles away from Hershey, PA. The inn was only 4 rooms, but needed our help in re-organization and running the inn until we helped them find a new innkeeper to take over. We were fortunate that one of our former interim innkeeping students was ready for a long term move and is happy as their new innkeeper.

From June - Oct, we had a job share assignment at the Carr Manor Bed and Breakfast in Cripple Creek, CO. It worked out well for us as we were on from 11 - 14 days per month and then had the rest of the time off. We were able to enjoy the donkeys roaming through town (they really own the town) and the beautiful fall colors. We were hit with a huge Oct. snow storm that almost buried us.



We are ended up the year back at the B&B for a two week holiday assignment. It was cold and we have had snow. However, we love coming to this B&B as it is like returning home. We have been working on and off for Gary & Wini since they opened the doors in 2004.


As for the rest of the year, we seem to have kept busy. While we were in PA, we went to the Hershey Chocolate World when our niece and her family (Jill, Steve, Alex & Emily) came for a visit during the kids Spring Break. We had a lot of fun and bought lots of chocolate!



The kids even helped Howard in the kitchen.

This past summer Lynda turned the big "65". Now most of you have known that she has spelled her name as Lynda for over 30 years (even her driver's license and passport). However, on her social security and hence on her medicare it would have been spelled Linda. Knowing that this was going to cause major confusion, it took her 6 months and $200 and lots of paperwork going back and forth to finally get the name legally changed. So, she will now and forever more be known as Lynda in all official records. Yeah!!!!

To celebrate this big year for Lynda, we had a "Staycation" here in the Colorado Springs area. We did all sorts of things that we normally encourage guests to do in the area. We went to the Denver Natural History Museum for the Pirate Exhibition. We visited the Wolf Sanctuary in Divide and went horse back riding in Victor.

This was not your typical horseback ride. These were highly trained horses and we rode side by side with our guide over pastures and meadows, saw old abandon shacks and horses grazing.

We went to High Tea at the Glen Eyrie Castle with our friends Rebecca & Roland. We also hiked in the Garden of the Gods,and saw a herd of sheep at Glen Eyrie Castle.



We stood on the sidelines for the entire day at the Pro Cycling Challenge Time Trial here in Colorado Springs. We had a great vantage point at the bottom of the hill when the riders came out of the Garden of the Gods.



And went to an antique car show in Old Colorado Springs. Howard showed off his understanding of the various old models. Lynda had no idea he was such a car buff.


But the most fun we had was when we went Zip Lining out of the Canon City area. Talk about a rush.


Over the year, we taught eight classes for either interim innkeepers or those who want to own their own B&B. The classes were taught at the Patriot House, Eastholme in the Rockies, and Carr Manor. I think that this is the most classes which we have taught in one years time.

Health wise, we have both been fine. Howard did have some minor knee surgery in Feb with a meniscus tear and some arthritis in the knee cap. He is just getting old.

Townhouse wise, we finally got all of the walls and carpet in from last years mold problem in our basement. We got the house totally put back together (except for the basement wall unit) and then we were informed that the HOA was going to be roofing, residing, putting in new garage doors and putting in all new windows. Of course, all of this was going to be done during the time we were back East. We had to take off all window treatments, and move all furniture away from any windows before we left. We ending up putting up sheets to cover the windows while we were gone. Thank heavens for our friends Karla and Rex who came to our rescue and stayed at our place when the workmen were around to do the windows and garage door removing the sheets and putting them back up afterwards. When we returned, we had to put everything back in place including getting the wall unit back up in the basement. That is always an interesting proposition. The long and the short is that we have a great looking townhouse that I don't want to do anything to in the near future!

Our big news of the year is that we have a new baby granddaughter - Hannah was born in early June just a little bit early. We didn't make it out there for the birth, but were there soon afterwards. have enjoyed buying clothes for a little girl. We loving spoiling (as much as Laurie and Nic will allow) all three of the grandchildren.



We We made it back out to San Jose in October for our annual Halloween visit. Howard carved pumpkins with the boys (they wanted a shark pumpkin) and we had fun going Trick or Treating with them.




Josiah is now 7 and in the 2nd grade in school. Elijah is now 5 and is in Kindergarten. Both boys love their little sister who is now 7 months and sitting up all by herself. She will be crawling soon and we will see if the boys are still as happy with her when she gets into their things.




We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our adventures this past year. In 2012 we have plans to take on an assignment in Cape Cod for 5 1/2 months from mid May through the end of October. That should keep us busy.

We wish you all a happy new year. May your life be filled with health, wealth, happiness and wisdom.

All our love,

Lynda & Howard