While we were away

A lot can happen in a week. Last week at this moment, we were on a bus, winding through the streets of Oakland to get to a theater to watch Inside with William Dafoe (recommended.) Over the weekend, we went up to Point Reyes with Annie and Sankhar for a hike and lunch, and then off to a thrilling come-from-behind Warriors game.  On Sunday we twisted Annie and Sankhar's arms to take up back to a Thai Temple for their weekly outdoor buffet brunch – fabulous. 

We squeezed in two lunches, one with our Peace Corps friends out there (Ethiopian) and the next day with Jay and Marianne Dean at their yacht club. So fun to catch up with them, after 40 years. Jay is doing a lot of extensive Ancestry genealogy work, and is still working as a tech coordinator for Walmart. Marianne has an idea for a start-up to help people our age connect with employers – kind of a Linked In for Seniors.

We got home on Monday, or should I say Tuesday morning? We flew into Hartford, and then made our way to long-term parking around midnight.  No problem we thought, since we'll still be on west coast time. Then our car wouldn't start. No problem we thought, we're still on west coast time. By the time we got home, around 3am, it had become a problem. Except if we thought we were still on Hawaii time.

It dawned on us when we got home that we are the ultimate moochers, when we travel.  Gone 25 days and only five of those in a hotel. More generously, though, we like to spend our vacations with people – family and friends – and even in the case of one place in Hawaii (Dragonfly) with strangers. We did do our share of sightseeing – volcanoes, beaches, history of Hawaii museums, but the highlights were hanging out with everyone.

One other thing we came across were a few heroes, or good Samaritans. One man rescued us after our kayak tipped over in the ocean, near the Captain Cook monument. He stabilized the kayak while we lumbered back in, and then dove down to retrieve a couple of lost items on the ocean floor(about 12 feet deep).  Another was the employee at the Bradley Airport parking lot who hustled over and jump-started our car. And then there were those who picked us up at airports.  Thank you Annie, Madi and Dale, along with those who put us up, and who put up with us, as we tried not to overstay our welcome.  Maholo.

And, a lot can also happen in a month.  Especially birthdays.  First was Daniel at the beginning of the month, then Lur a few days later. David had his big day, leading the way for the rest of us, and we were able to talk to him – they have phone service in Hawaii.  And then Simon, turned 3. His birthday was more like a birthweekend. Looked like he was having fun. Hard to believe, but when you see how fast Luisa and Kiernan have grown over the first year, it does move fast.  Ask Lur about how fast Daniel has grown!!

And, a lot happened here while we were gone. That snowstorm I wrote about last time really left its mark. Even if most of the snow had melted, the damage to the yard was evident – three trees down and our beautiful hydrangea tree lost multiple limbs due to the weight of the snow and the plow managed to push not just snow, but a whole lot of gravel. On the upside, awaiting us in the mail was a card from Annie and Sankhar – their save-the-date, which I suspect has come your way as well.  (Forgot to mention earlier, we spent one evening in Hawaii on our phones, buying our tickets to Chennai. Yippee.)

A lot happened down in Daytona as well. John and Marilyn played host to Colleen and Laura and then Kara and her family came down to get away from the north.  They went on a cruise in the Caribbean, and were joined at the last minute by Colleen and Laura.

So, we're happy to be back to our schedules, routines, diets, and activities. But, it was great to have a break, a memorable one at that!

And the good news is we'll play hosts here to Annie, Margaret, Andrew, Simon, and hopefully Joe in a week's time. Love from over here.