California Quotidian, II

So it's been nearly two months since I last posted--the Everest trek retrospective--and I thought I'd do an update. The interesting thing is that pageviews for the blog have gone way up since I last posted, more than 5000 a month. Maybe there's a message here....

Anyhow, we're due to leave soon for a 10 day trip to the Sandwich Islands, first Kauai--"Return to Rooster Island"--and then on to Maui, a place new to us. Then we'll be "home for the holidays."

Of course most of our quotidian is with grand-daughter

Penelope, now a lively 7-month-old; in our 4 months with her

she has learned to sit up, roll-over, crawl, pull herself up on

anything within her grasp, and cruise; she seems to enjoy

nothing so much as being walked around the apartment,

taking everything in; although she smiles abundantly and

squeals with delight, she has yet to laugh, except on the most

isolated and inexplicable occasions; I have tried everything...

Her first holiday season began with Halloween;

she is, I believe, a frog; here she is with her

Mom, dressed up as Minerva McGonagall

The Castilleja staff is really into Harry Poppins

We have been up to "the city" several times, for concerts of

the San Francisco Symphony and also a performance by the

San Francisco Opera of Carmen, a gift from Rebecca, which

I much enjoyed

The holidays continued with Bob and Beth's visit and

Thanksgiving dinner at Rebecca and Jeremy's

You wouldn't believe what a well-behaved little

pre-toddler she is, sitting through the lengthy

holiday meals with nothing but smiles

It helps that she and her mom are exponents of "baby-led

weaning" and she loves to sit at the big table and munch along

with the grown-ups; at this age, at least, she is quite fond of

broccoli; broccoli clumps have convenient handles for tiny

fingers...

Early in December Vicki's sister Marie and husband Norm

came to visit; one of our trips was down the coast from Half

Moon Bay to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz

And on down the Big Sur to Nepenthe

And, another day, the Stanford campus, and

the Hoover Tower, where I gained new

appreciation for Herbert Hoover; a man of

his compassion could never be a Republican

these days; but then neither could Abraham

Lincoln...nor Ronald Reagan, for that matter

One view from the Tower of the sprawling 8200 acre Stanford

campus

Looking north to "the city"; our little cottage is actually just a

few blocks from the tower center-right