From...who?

A few weeks ago, Nozomi & I returned home in the evening and saw this note on the door. I had been expecting a package from my mother, so the notice wasn't surprising. When Nozomi saw it, she laughed a bit, and then helped me read it. At the end of the blank spaces after "addressee" and "sender" there is a character that's a polite word for "Miss/Mr./Mrs." Apparently, the postman didn't want to copy full names onto the notice, so it literally says that I am "Mr. Robert" and my mother is "Mrs. foreign country".
Well, it made us laugh...

(We picked the package up at the post office later-thanks again for the fruitcake and gifts, Mom!)

America Trip 2013 Part Eight - Santa Cruz Beach

The contrast between mountains and ocean is almost always striking, and the change when travelling from the Redwood park to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is too.

We enjoyed a great time relaxing on the beach, walking along the ocean, playing more kubb, riding the famous Big Dipper roller coaster, and playing classic video games.

That looks like the end of another wonderful visit with family and friends ... see you all next time!

America Trip 2013 Part Seven - Santa Cruz Mountains and Redwoods

One of our favorite side trips when we visit San Jose is driving across the Santa Cruz Mountains on the way to the ocean and stopping at Henry Cowell Park to see the huge redwood trees. Even though I've visited the park a few times, I'm always amazed by the magnificent trees. Some of the oldest trees are about 2000 years old. Next to the park, there is a western-themed railroad stop and entertainment area called "Roaring Camp". After enjoying a picnic lunch in the park, we continued on to Santa Cruz and spent the afternoon on the beach; those pictures will be the next post.

I used a panorama camera effect, which distorts the photo a little, but helps to show the size of the trees.

Nozomi and Elaine (and trees!)

We thought about riding the train to the beach, but decided to save that for another time.

Old West themed camp and store

We did this the last time we visited, but it always makes me laugh.

America Trip 2013 Part Six - San Jose

The next part of our trip was spent in San Jose. Following the usual pattern, we played games, laughed, watched funny movies, laughed, ate delicious food, laughed, listened to music, laughed, talked and laughed.

Most mornings, we enjoyed breakfast on the patio with a view of the lemon tree, lavender, and hummingbirds. One morning I saw at least four, and sometimes they hovered over the yard and seemed to be watching me. As one hummingbird flew near the lemon tree, the early morning sun reflected in its iridescent feathers so brightly that it looked like a small flash of red light in the sky. It was truly beautiful.

We learned an outdoor game that was new to us. The name is "kubb" (click the link if you want to read more on Wikipedia). We played several games together throughout the week, at the Haggerty house, and also later at the beach during our Santa Cruz ocean trip.

Enjoying the back yard. You can see lemons on the tree behind the lavender.

Playing kubb together.

The Haggertys' backyard is just big enough for a kubb court.

America Trip 2013 Part Five - Casa de Fruta

After a wonderful family reunion in an amazingly beautiful place, we had to say goodbye to family members and Yosemite Park and traveled to our next destination, San Jose. Much of the trip between the two places crosses land that isn't really very interesting. There are many many miles of farms that grow many many different crops, but when you're traveling at highway speed, the scenery starts to look the same after a couple of hours.

One stop along the highway that WAS fun and nostalgic was the famous (infamous?) Casa de Fruta tourist trap attraction (if you want to know more, click the link to the Wikipedia article). I have many happy memories of stopping there during family vacations in the past when we were traveling between San Jose and Yosemite. We stayed there for a couple of hours, reminisced, ate a snack, and then continued our trip. The last picture was our dinner later when we arrived in San Jose, my favorite hamburgers: In-N-Out Burger.

Two very enthusiastic customers!

Everything at Casa de Fruta is Casa de...something, so the children's train ride becomes "Casa de Choo Choo"

A group picture as the Casa de Choo Choo Casa de Travels down the Casa de Track.

The sign that shows you how to go to Casa de.... somewhere...

Can you find the hummingbird resting in the tree? I had never seen one that wasn't flying.

All I can say is: yum yum yum yum yummy yum yum!

America Trip 2013 Part Four - Oregon

Returning to the start of the trip:
We arrived at PDX and had a short but fun visit with Edmund & Carol. We talked about current life and past teaching together and the students we know. As jet lag started to set in a bit, they graciously dropped us off at our hotel for a nap so we could recharge before the next activity: dinner at the Porter-Aguilar house. Thanks for a "sabroso" Mexican meal, but especially for a relaxing, encouraging time together!

The next day was filled with more good visits and more delicious food! Doran & Vineeta, thanks for the wonderful brunch, Janelle, thanks for the backyard teatime (Scott, sorry we mostly missed you) and Robertson clan, thanks for the great Gustav's get-together!

Activities in Springfield and Eugene included fun & games (as usual!) and even more delicious food. We were able to see all of the siblings in various combinations, locations, and eating arrangements-we had KFC and strawberry shortcake (a very early "Japanese Christmas" dinner) in Springfield and a great side trip to Salem for home-cooked BBQ. Thanks again to everyone for hosting and fitting lots of activities in a tight schedule.

Nozomi, Carol, Edmund

Visit with the Porter-Aguilar family

Family portrait in Salem (and one of the cheesiest smiles I've ever achieved)

Nozomi wore her yukata (summer kimono) one afternoon

The gazebo was used a lot during our visit

Hiking in the nature area behind Jane's house

Japanese crickets

Two nights ago, we heard insects chirping outside our front door. That's nothing new; we often hear cicadas, and sometimes they fly up to our sixth-floor apartment (and last week, a cicada landed on the railing outside my office window-THAT was loud). What WAS new, was being able to actually see the cricket while it was chirping. We saw two sitting on the fluorescent bulb just outside the apartment door, next to the elevator. I thought at first that they would run away if we got close, but I grabbed my phone, started to take a video, and it just kept singing! It was quite amazing to actually be able to see the wings vibrating to make the sound. The lighting is a bit strange (aiming a camera directly at a fluorescent light doesn't usually produce very good effects...), but you can see and hear the cricket.

America Trip 2013 Part Three - More Yosemite

A view from the valley floor. Half Dome is in the distance (and, oops! there's someone's arm... "no photo-shopping today")

The Merced River in Yosemite Valley-some of us cooled our feet, and other more adventurous people went swimming!

Yosemite Falls in the distance.

We visited the, uh, visitor center. If you're a visitor, it's good to visit the visitor center.
Seriously, the entire park has amazing views-I don't know many other places where you can simply look up from any spot (even the parking lots) and be surrounded by stunning vistas of mountains and trees in every direction.

America Trip 2013 Part Two - Sentinel Dome

As I said last time, these posts about the America trip aren't going to be in any special order. Today's pictures are from the short hike we took to Sentinel Dome near Glacier point in Yosemite. A group of about a dozen family members drove up the road out of Yosemite Valley. Sentinel Dome is known as an easy hike to a point with an amazing view. I agree with both parts of that description; the youngest family member in our group made it to the top, and the vista from the summit was fantastic!

Here's our group climbing, resting, and stepping off the path to let some horse riders pass by.

The group at the top, and the wonderful view we could see.

America Trip 2013 Part One

For about a month, I have been thinking about how to organize blog posts about our America trip in July. Too much thinking and not enough posting, so I'm just going to start posting pictures and some comments, and they might or might not be very organized...

First, here are some pictures that I took of the family reunion in Yosemite. If anyone wants larger/better resolution files (if you want to print any, for example) let me know, and I can email individual files to you (Most email companies put a cap on the total size of attachments you can receive at once, so it's often best to receive the picture files one by one.) I'm including multiple takes of the group shots so you can choose and avoid, "Hey! I'm not smiling in that one!"--refer to the pictures by the numbers in the captions. You can send me a message through this blog's comments, or send me an email directly:  waterfront_r@hotmail.com

Also, if you want to receive an automatic message to your email when this blog is updated in the future, enter your email address in the box on the right side of this page, click "submit", and then follow the instructions.

More soon...

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