Tom Hamilton:  

I moved to Juanita Bay, in Kirkland, again to a 'summer' cabin, this time on Lake Washington. I still continued with my architecture and as a side line worked at the Wooden Boat Shop on Lake Union. Had a wonderful 12 years there, but there is a 'disease' that goes along with living on the water: you get to think it is normal to have 6 boats, most all in various stages of construction/reconstruction or "improvements". (when I returned to Southern California, I only brought 1 with me, the electric canoe {which took me 5 more years to finish}). In December of 2005, I was working with my brother John at his architectural practice in Marina del Rey, (helping him out with some product types he wasn't familiar with) When it came time to head back to Seattle, I realized I didn't have any immediate job prospects to look forward to. John sez: 'check out the AIA adds'. So I went to interview with KTGY, 300 person firm down in my old stomping ground of Orange County. During my interview a guy sticks his head in the door and sez: "Hi Tom, remember me?" It was Hiro Kinoshita, the K in the KTGY who worked for ME as a designer in 1980. Needless to say, I got the job (Ha-ha). So they having grown so large, their construction administration was in chaos, They had me formed a new department for them for construction administration for their larger projects (read: you go out to the construction site and wave your arms around). I left there when we hit the depression of 2008. For a another year I held down the post of number 2 man at 15 person firm, then with the economy in really bad shape, it dawned on me: IT'S TIME FOR ME TO RETIRE" So, needless to say I still have the same old disease: my time is filled up with boat projects, but, I only have three to work on now (read: 3 too many). My son Tommy is 49. He got married late in life (read: in his 40's) to Britta a German gal They live on their sailboat across the way from me here in San Pedro, getting ready to take a round the world trip next year (read: they finally set a date after talking about it for a long time). My daughter, Wendy is teaching and lives in Manhattan Beach. Her boys, Jake, Chase and Luke are 16, 14 and 12 respectively. They are very accomplished and I am very proud of them. Jake is following in the steps of Yoyo Ma (read: trying to find him a station wagon to carry around his cello). I enjoy my return to Southern California but I miss the Pacific Northwest (Read: similar to Lake Arrowhead, something about the smell of the mountain air and wind moving through the trees). I've come to realize how formative an influence it was. Update; December 2014: a year ago Thanksgiving, I decided I'd had enough boating, sold my live-a-board and moved to Wyoming (yes, I did take 1 boat with me, my electric canoe "electra". But haven't found any.water big enough to float her on). Tommy and Britta have started on their around the world trip aboard their sailboat last month. They will be gone 2 to 4 years. Wendy has a new boyfriend and seams very happy. It's cold here in Wyoming, first big snow last night ... winter has started!