Middle California, Winter, 2019

You'd think there would be more to show for four months somewhere, but, then, we weren't in travel mode, and I was thus not in photo mode, nor blog mode, and so, as we now prepare to return to all three, and Europe, I don't have much to show for the months we spent in Middle California, mostly house-sitting for Rebecca and family. Nonetheless...

In early January we took P camping down to Monterrey,
did some walks there, playgrounds, shopping; here she is
before the RL Stevenson house; Vicki claims that Robert
Louis is a distant relative, and thus P's distant relative; P's
mom taught for a time at Robert Louis Stevenson School
in Pebble Beach ("Bob Louie" in Californese); thus a
meaningful connection

Previously shown: it rained much of these four months and
was unusually cold, even for the Bay area

Departure photo of Jeremy, Rebecca, and Penelope,
heading for Fiji and New Zealand, in January

Among our achievements, principally Vicki's, was the
collection of life-time t-shirts for this quilt, which now
adorns the bed in Le Sport

Another of Vicki's achievements was completion of Rebecca's childhood (through
age 12) photo album; Rachel's will be completed next fall

My major achievement (not pictured) was in editing and copying and backing up
our 87 gazillion photos, videos, diaries, and other matters of historic documentation;
I also set two long streaks of Duolingo, in my heroic effort to learn enough French
not to make restaurant wait-staff laugh (hysterically, as in Lyon); this earned me
a case of de Querzain's synotenovitis (aka "gamer's thumb"), and the wearing of
a brace like that pictured above; life is so cruel; you'd think an effort to learn a
language, at my advanced age, would be rewarded, not punished

Another achievement, sort of, was having Le Sport de-oxidized; I removed most
of the decal work beforehand...

Up close, personal; we also had some plumbing work done, and the furnace...

On a visit to brother-in-law Bob's in Oceanside: tools that did not spark joy...

Toward the end we did go with Rebecca and Penelope to the Exploratorium in
San Francisco, interesting science education place with interesting connection
to the Oppenheimers...