Saturday, January 21, 2017

Buenos Aires Scenes, 1

Our last days in Menlo Park were a bit frenetic, especially with Vicki and Rebecca spending a long weekend in Las Vegas for a reunion with Marie and Stacey and Bob and Beth. On January 12, we departed, ready or not, for two months in South America, specifically in Argentina, Chile, and Peru. We are in Bariloche now, Argentina's lake district. The frenetic pace continues, but I am now within a week of catching up....

We spent the better part of four days in Buenos Aires and could have stayed longer but for previously made reservations. This city of 15 million is pretty much as advertised, as European as it is South American, lively, classy, enormous, and quite young. Mostly we walked around, visiting various sites, just enjoying the abundant ambiance. And ate...
We're still using mostly large-scale maps,
playing catch-up in our knowledge of the
place

Vicki doing the planning, as usual


Our apartment in this building on Rodriguez
Pena





































Happily, a Carrefours Express right across the street, just like
in Paris

Bench, these and similar all over Recoleta, where we are; not
so confortable, really, all concrete

Centralized AC not a thing here

More benches

Opera house

More weird southern hemisphere vegetation

Beautiful parks, monuments, statues, everywhere

Among the landmarks, the obelisk, which Napoleon brought
back from Egypt; wait, no...

In the gorgeous old Galeries Pacifico


In the Centro Cultural Borges, 4th floor, an
automated museum gift store; a first for us

Among the many art and photo exhibits in the Centro

Center of the Centro

The shopping center below

A giant mate bolle; an emerging theme of our
visit to Argentina

Yes, that Borges...

Among the murals there

1930s murals in the Galeries

Muy famoso

Gorgeous architecture everywhere, mostly
neo-classical, colonial, occasional art nuvo

On Florida street, the mile-long pedestrianized shopping area

More architecture

Friday, January 20, 2017

Fun In Middle California, December, 2016-January, 2017

Among many other things, a day with P at Home Depot and Ikea, then with J and P at Stanford's Cantor museum (R and V were in Las Vegas on another family reunion)...
If I had a hammer...


If I had a brush


Decals go on after the paint dries

Balloons are special fun in big boxes

Plus ice cream after a nutritious lunch

And a new friend

The Cantor

A David Napoleon

Thinker #127,891

Lots of Rodin

Penelope, by Paul Dalvaux


Last Judgment, "Circle" of Bosch; pretty good one, too

Rodin's little-known Burglars of Calais

And a Balzac


Fun, Old-Fashioned Family Christmas, 2016

We were blessed with another family Christmas in 2016. Rachel and Will flew out from DC and stayed nearby, and Rebecca and Jeremy hosted the events. We were parked in their driveway, as usual. The star of Christmas, of course, was five year old grand-daughter Penelope.
Decorating the tree















Santa examines P's Christmas list; best Santa
ever, Stanford mall



















At American Girl



















Much ballet this Xmas



















Working on my form



















Making Xmas cookies 















Xmas morning

































Some favorite presents





































And the new camera we'll be using in future
travels; thanks, girls!




















All the usual Xmas traditions; not pictured...
the fondue(s)




















At Pampas in Palo Alto, pre-celebrating my 70th














Family hike















Ditto, less Will; I'll post a few more pix later when I can find
them