And where were we? In Hawaii. Not complaining mind you, but I am a little worried about the house. Big winds today and heavy wet snow means trees are down and power is out. We just don't know. At least we don't have to shovel. Absent photos of our cold, here's one of Tina enjoying the outdoors in her frigid neck of the woods.
And best to just be happy where we are. And, in fact, we are. Immensely. We arrived a week ago after stopping in Seattle for a few days to visit Foreign Service friends. We spent one night on Bainbridge Island and four on Capital Hill and took in many local sites and stops.
In Oahu we are staying with Peace Corps friends who are giving us a grand tour. All the places you've heard of but could never pronounce. Their house is a block from Kailua beach so you can imagine we've been spending much time there. The climate is wonderful, and they kind of live with one side of their house open to the outdoors.
We went down to Pearl Harbor on Sunday and before touring the museum there (quite sobering) we had coffee with Alden Kline Watts, her husband and two boys. (She's from the Kansas Shields side of the family.). He's a Captain in the Navy and they live on the base across the street from the museum. Alden was in the Peace Corps in Mauritania (gasp) and lived through the 2011 earthquake in Japan. We crammed in lots of stories with them.
Right now, we're on the big island, which I guess I had heard people talk about but never really understood. The last two nights we spent up in the volcano park.
The one word about this state is geography. Pretty spectacular forests, waterfalls, coastlines, mountains. Everything changes so dramatically, so quickly. Stunning.
Enough about us as there's a lot more news. First, Annie and Sankar have set their wedding dates. Hooray. Say it again, HOORAY. It's a three day affair from November 18-20. I'm so excited that I'm jumping the gun as Annie says the "save the dates" are in the mail. We're now focusing on plane tickets.
Next comes Kiernan's first birthday which also looked like it might have been a three day affair. Janet, Peter and Johanna were on hand to celebrate with Sean and Erin. Johanna was also celebrating a big promotion at work.
They did have some sad news as Dasha passed away. Very hard to lose a pet, especially one who was part of the family for so long.
Joe has finished up his assignment in Brazil, as he returned to take up his new job in DC, working on all things East Asia, meaning principally China. Leonor and the children will stay longer in Brazil so as not to move in the middle of school calendars. Sad time but also a new chapter to look forward to.
Across town, Margaret and Andrew are also trying to start a new chapter, one that has Simon reverting back to regular sleep patterns. Any ideas?
Out west, we see that Auden was taking part in a theater camp and enjoying it immensely Photo below
So, today is the Ides of March, and I think we're supposed to be are of something, but I can't for the life of me think of what this is. Something about staying away from Brutus. And snow shovels.
With that, wishing you all well. Love from way out here.
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