Thanksgiving With Penelope

Our next travels took us to Menlo Park, CA, where we had already spent major bits of 2011-2013 helping out with grand-daughter Penelope, this time enabling her mom and dad to take a much-needed mini-vacation. Below are a variety of pix from our stay. Thanks, Rebecca and Jeremy, and again neighbor Maggie, who put us up.

Trainspotting at Menlo Park Station; "it's a south-bound
Baby Bullet!"

Ice cream treat later; grandparents are big on ice cream treats

Ice cream notwithstanding, this girl still likes her broccoli

Thanksgiving head-gear from her wonderful
pre-school

Positive reinforcement breakfast ice cream

Princess towel Grandma had procured years
ago...

Dressed up in Mommy's Wonder Woman outfit

Baking with Grandma

Testing great-grandma McCoy's pie crust cookie recipe 

Making pumpkin pie

Thanksgiving Day dinner; thanks, Marie Callander

And Thanksgiving Day tea party with Grandma; and with
pumpkin pie and scones and clotted cream

Riding the CalTrain to San Francisco

The Amazon Kindle store at San Francisco Centre; sic transit,
Gloria...

At the Oxymoron Shoppe

Chance encounter with a Santa Claus
re-enactor, who was trolling for clients;
P had a more formal photo opp with
another St. Nick later at Stanford Mall

Family Thanksgiving Dinner with parents and Poppy
at The Farm; thanks Rebecca and Jeremy for a great meal

And more ice cream!

Arrivaderci, Roma...Italia...Europa, 2013

So here we are, in our room at the Villa Rosita, a B&B perhaps a mile from Fiumicino. Today, Saturday, our European travels done for a bit, we'll jet back to the States on the friendly but greedy skies of Lufthansa, first to Menlo Park and grand-daughter Penelope and her parents for a couple weeks, then to DC and daughter Rachel and her husband Will for the balance of December and early January. Rebecca and Jeremy and Penelope will come to DC for Xmas too. As the astute reader will have noticed, we sold the Grey Wanderer to fellow Americans and world travelers Jan and Richard. They are experienced RVers and sailors and are no strangers to Europe, so we know they will have great times traveling here like we did. In January we'll fly to New Zealand for three months there, then back to Menlo Park, then on to Ft. Lauderdale with my sister Carole and her family, then a re-positioning cruise with Norm and Marie from Miami to Barcelona, then three months in an apartment in Paris, returning again to Menlo Park in August. After that we have no plans...but stay tuned.

Penelope, Grandma, and Grandpa enjoying their first tea
party together, back in Menlo Park

Roman Out-Takes, 2013

Just a few from the Eternal City...perhaps I'll add some more later...

Dorothy Parker would have loved it--always 5 o'clock here on
the Via Trieste

Tight fit

Just doesn't seem right...

Ancient Roman cell tower

What would Michaelangelo have thought?

"Fashion is that which is so reprehensibly
ugly that it needs to be changed every six
months"; or "Snot-green is the new [orange]
[lime] [teal] [whatever]"

Vicki said be sure to take a picture of a Roman pizzeria...

From our campsite at Prato Smeraldo...within Rome's city
limits

Richard and Jan, new owners of the Grey Wanderer 

St. John Lateran, 2013

We trudged on, determined to see St. John Lateran, which we had visited many years before. It is first among the Papal churches of Rome, the seat of the Bishop of Rome, dating from the mid 4th century. Alas, although huge, majestic, etc., it is no match, aesthetically, for St. Paul's or Santa Maria Maggiore. But still worth one more visit.

The usual obelisk, proclaiming victory over
the pagans

Interior view

Altar, dome, mosaic; mass is about to begin

Vault

Part of the half dome mosaic

OK, not us

Nave view

Out on the huge porch

Our Patron (Constantine); curious they never
made him a saint...

Facade of St. John Lateran

Left-over for next time: the Sacred Steps (to Pilate's Palace),
which Constantine's mom, St. Helen, brought back from
the Holy Land (also the True Cross, etc.); tired puppies,
we headed for the nearest metro and the ride home

Santa Maria Maggiore

We proceeded on, tired, museumed-out, but, hey, this was
possibly our last tourist day in Rome for a while; here we
are passing 1/4 of the Four Fountains, still in the Quirinal;
I think

Passing by the Allegory of the Bank of Italy (1921); a lot of water has passed
under that bridge...

We thought we might follow the brothers to McDonald's

Or even dinner at Diocletian's Baths; but we were too tired
for watered down wine

Walked past symphony hall and Nero...it was a 20,000 step day, but we were
determined

And ended up at Santa Maria Maggiore, another of the Papal churches Vicki
wanted to see, with its 5th century mosaics

Thus; darkly

Another great mosaic arch

Detail

Silver-covered Crib of Jesus down there, they say

Elevation and mosaics, looking astern

'Atta Girl, Mom

Barberini Palace and Gallery

So we walked from the Piazza del Populi

Walked down the Via del Corso, admiring the
pretty shops

Had lunch near Augustus' mausoleum

Crossed over some more swanky streets and then climbed
the Spanish Steps

And, at length, after more fountains under renovation, found
the Palazzo Barberini, a major national art museum

Dueling staircases: this one Bernini's

This one Boromini's

Boromini won

  

The Barberini has lots of paintings, mostly
by Bee-list painters, although there are a
couple Caravaggios and other biggies;
anyhow, the above is the Barberini's emblem
piece, so to speak, Raphael's Fornarina,
thought to be his mistress, Margherita Luti

Ceiling in the grand hall, thought to be the
largest frescoed ceiling in any non-religious
building

Lots of bees

Barberini Bees

Huge Domenichino Madonna con Bambino
with St. John the Evangelist and St. Petronius

And Corradini's nice La Velata; overall, we
gave the Barberini a B