An Epic Adventure Begins...

Sunday, Miami to Barcelona, and beyond...

No blog posts until May 10 or so

I Think I'm Quite Ready For Another Adventure

Our sentiments precisely

Fun With Carole And Jim And Lexi And Maisee And Cookie and Sophie

So we had a very fun and productive time with sister Carole and her family in Coral Springs. Photos will follow as soon as I can get them all to pose...

11th-grader Lexi broke her foot the day before we arrived;
not a happy camper; but she was back into action before long

Family portrait; the little Havanese never stopped moving

Maisee humping Sophie; it's a dominance thing, we were told

Return To South Florida, 2014

So on Tuesday, April 22nd, United whisked us from SFO to FLL for a few days' visit with my sister Carole and her husband Jim and daughter Lexi. Alas, poor teenage Lexi had just broken a bone in her foot and is hobbling around, but bearing up well, considering. We're planning on just visiting together, catching up, and taking it easy in their new house in Coral Springs. More as this developing story unfolds...

Airplane selfie

Holy/Birthday Week

So our last week in Middle California was pretty good for Penelope...the usual grand-parental indiscretions and indulgences, Easter egg hunts, and then, the beginning of her multi-day 3rd birthday celebrations...pretty excited little girl!

With Grandpa at the park

"Avast!"

Easter morning, P munches on the symbolic chocolate bunny

Later in the day, at neighbor Maggie's annual Easter egg hunt; P has already been
to a couple hunts in the neighborhood and at school, and she looks with concern 
at the older kids and adults at Maggie's hunt

But Maggie's hunt is age-specific (CA wines for the adults!), and P is the only
little person there...

Quite a haul!

Next day, after dinner at The Counter, opening presents at the
pre-birthday celebration with Grandma and Grandpa and Mama
and Daddy

Already changed into her Fiji dress, playing with new culinary presents (soup
tureen, spoon and spatula; crepes set)

Not so sure about the pirate side of the reversible pirate/princess dress 

Pretty sure about the princess side...

And then, the 3rd birthday piece de resistance, a doll house!

Thus

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sweet P!

Return To San Francisco, Again, 2014

Friday we made our usual trip to The City, mostly for Penelope to ride the CalTrain but also so I could return a rain jacket that had worn poorly to the Marmot store on Post Street. The estimable folks at Marmot exchanged the jacket cheerfully, as promised, and Penelope loved every minute of the train rides. And we had lunch at the Westfield Mall food court, as on previous occasions. It was a beautiful day in San Francisco.

Sweet P enjoying the ride

Always interesting SF

Thus

And thus

Sic transit, Gloria: once the Savings Union Bank of San
Francisco...

Dog walking on Market St.

P napping before the return ride home

Bye-bye, CalTrain

Menlo Scenes

Most of our two weeks in Menlo Park was spent with our grand-daughter Penelope while her mama and daddy took a couple trips. Time with Penelope is even better than traveling.

One day we took her to Mama's school for an exhibition of
edible literary art; here, Mama's entry, A Farewell to Arms

Much of the time was an on-going fashion show: here,
putting on a faerie dress Grandma bought her in Napier,
New Zealand

"The cold never bothered me anyway"; on
stage with the new faerie dress; not pictured:
the new red-and-black polka-dot Flamenco
dress  from Seville

Good new for Tyson's: Penelope likes dark meat; here posing
with a finished standard child's portion

Here, the piece de resistance, the wand, shoes and Snow
White dress...

Thus; very happy little girl

Smelling the roses

By a corner house on Bryant, near Embarcadero, in Palo
Alto; this is by no means our first spring here, and we have
never seen the roses more lush and plentiful

Thus

Return To Middle California, Again

Fiji Airways got us to LAX Sunday afternoon in fine order, all accounted for, even permitting a bit of sleep on the way. From Nadi, it's essentially a 10-hour red-eye. We had planned a six hour lay-over in LA--some loose coupling on longer-haul connections is generally a good idea--and an uncharacteristically three-hour late Southwest Airlines flight finally got us to SFO by midnight, where Jeremy picked us up and got us on to Menlo Park and Maggie's studio next to Rebecca's house. Grand-daughter Penelope was knocking on our door at 7:30 the next morning, beginning a two-week stay here with her and her mom and dad. So nice to be back.

Farewell, Nanuya

Sunday afternoon it was our turn to hear the farewell serenade, along with our Swedish friends, and to say good-bye and thank you...it was a very pleasant and relaxing little vacation...

We've never stayed anywhere like this where you get to know
the staff and everyone knows you by first same...I guess it's
just the Fiji way...

After lunch and the serenade, we continued the program of
relaxation, awaiting the arrival of the Yasawa Flyer

Thus

Waving good-bye to John and Jennifer, from Australia

And finally pulling away from beautiful Nanuya

For the incredibly scenic five-hour return cruise to Denarau;
picking up our big luggage at the Mercure, and then boarding
our Fiji Airways return to California...

Nanuya Snorkeling

Saturday it rained on and off all day--more reading and relaxation and thoughts of Somerset Maugham and Sadie Thompson--and then Sunday dawned warm and sunny, and we put our last few hours on Nanuya to good use, snorkeling again along the reef that fronts the resort. I have added the underwater shots Vicki took from our disposable sports camera.

Why I am not nearly so keen on snorkeling as some other people