Saturday, January 13, 2018

To New Zealand Via Fiji

Our flight January 11-12 took us from San Francisco to Nadi, Fiji, and then to Christchurch.
We had an enjoyable 4 hour lay-over in Nadi

At what is the nicest Priority Club lounge ever, so far


Staff completely up to the very high standard of service we have
experienced elsewhere in Fiji; friendly, first name-basis...

Boarding for Christchurch

Bula, Fiji

Passing over the south coast of the North Island, Cook Strait

Over the South Island now, Canterbury, on approach

Very Long White Cloud (Aotearoa, the Maori
name for New Zealand, means "Land of the
Long White Cloud")

Canterbury, with its gorgeous farm- and ranch-lands, and
vineyards, and mile upon mile of giant wind-breaks


We'll be flying Air New Zealand direct from Auckland to San
Francisco next April

After orientation and moving in, checking out
prices of the good stuff...

Did I mention I watched Dunkirk twice on the first leg of the
flight?

Xmas, 2017

Another fun old-fashioned family Christmas (Rachel was with the Sehestedts in Missoula this year)...
Making cookies with Grandma and Mama
Twas the night before...
Xmas morning...the subsequent several pix were a blur of excitement
Major grand-parental gift
With a back-story, of course
Molly
Rebecca's big gift from Vicki, a photo album of her early years
Assisting Daddy
And me
P has a robust sense of humor...here reading
from a joke book that came for Xmas
Rebecca
Jeremy
P's gift to Mama, a custom-decorated pillow case (with a little guidance from
Grandma)
And ditto for Daddy
P's Xmas ontology was evolving this year; at age six, I think
we got to see the last excitement and wonder of a Santa-
believer;  as things passed she grew equally excited about the
prospect of being part of the family tradition of giving; that's
part of what the pillow-cases were about; such a sweet girl
Vicki with The Road Goes Ever On, Volume IV (extremely
rare first edition)

Holiday Miscellany, 2017

A miscellany of pix from our stays with daughter Rachel and husband Will in November/December in DC and with Rebecca and husband Jeremy and grand-daughter Penelope in December/January in Middle California. Alas, it appears quite a few pix are temporarily missing--Rachel and Will, their menagerie, the herb farm, Sandee and Rhett, P with Samantha at the Christmas at the Savoy performance...but I'll find them eventually and post them here.
Fortunately, the really important stuff is still
intact...pix Rachel sent from Lebowski's in
Glasgow...


Menu...someone really know his/her TBL


"Hey, careful man, there's a beverage here!"


Now in our North American camper, Le Sport, in Rebecca's
driveway, our home for 3+ weeks; Vicki churning

Me, apparently practicing my selfie technique

Approaching Xmas, it's chilly, but the roses are
still blooming in Menlo Park; one of Maggie's
(she's in England)

One day P and I went to NASA's Ames
Research Center in Mountain View; here's P
examining a moon rock

Earth depiction

Real Mercury capsule

P ready to do an EVA

The Ames visitor center; small, but much of interest

At Stanford Mall

Baby-sitting with Junie (thanks Beth and Kelley)

P taking the Girl Scout oath at her new troop's investiture;
Rebecca is co-leader

New troop

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Going To The Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...The Smithsonian National Zoo

Megabus sped us to DC to stay with daughter Rachel and her husband Will, with whom we had a great if unconventional Thanksgiving dinner. A few days later Will and Rachel made it a long weekend in Scotland, and Vicki jetted to Chicago to visit Tawana and Wes and their new grand-daughter Elinor. I was left in solitude to care for the dog, Daphne, and the cats, Peter and Bianca. Not for the first time. After Vicki's return, we visited the National Zoo, another Washington site we had somehow missed on previous visits. Getting there and back is a snap via the Red line. And despite the cooler weather, the Zoo was fun, especially after our recent African experience.
Asian elephants; the one in the foreground kept pacing the same 30 foot circle,
over and over and over...reminding us that zoos are maybe not fun places for
animals (I note, however, that there are species surviving in zoos and nowhere
else, as the Smithsonian points out)

Mei Xiang dining on bamboo, the only thing pandas eat

In the panda research center

Now go do that kudu that you do so well...

Look alive!

After Kruger and Etosha, we've come to appreciate electrified fences

Because...

Day's worth of elephant turds

Above, the orangutang high-wire crossing

Thus

In the big cat area

Checking to see what the tiger is having for lunch

Checking us out for lunch

Sadly, there were no leopards, so we are still deficient in the (African) Big Five
department

Let's Go Bowlin', Dudes

We were the better part of a week in Knoxville with Marie and Norm and Stacey and the boys, James and Jason. Rather few pix, but some time for decompression for us and for family fun. Among the fun items were an afternoon bowling and a dinner at Blaze, whose pizzas, I swear, properly ordered, rival the better Italian pies. Thanks, once more, Norm and Marie, for the hospitality.
"So this was a valued, uh..." "Yeah, man, it really tied the room
together..." No one seemed to understand my rant...

Bowling one game was for me a wake-up call regarding loss of
arm strength, although I somehow managed to outscore the
rest; I passed on the second game...

At Blaze, photo by Norm; no, I am not seated: James is now 15
and 6'3""; Jason will be catching up soon; both very engaging
and able young men