Graduations Galore

Sean, Scott, Josh, Shira, Maya, Heather & Uzi at the Columbia graduation

The happy graduates, Daniel and Ariella

Our grandson Nick, new graduate from 
University of California, Merced!

Three of our grandchildren graduated from college this May! We were only able to attend 2 of them, both our oldest son Josh's, Daniel and Ariella "Cookie" from Columbia University. Zoë's son Nick graduated from University of California at Merced the week before but they couldn't get extra tickets so we watched the live feed. That really worked out well and we were able to see Nick get his diploma! 

Daniel with his friends, all new graduates at the party (Ariella had left to attend another party)

We flew from Vancouver to NYC and stayed three nights with Josh and Michal and all five of our grandchildren. Our youngest son Sean also joined us from Boston. The graduation took place over 2 days. The first was the ceremonies of individual schools within Columbia. Both Daniel and Cookie attended Columbia College. The second day was for the entire university where the President conferred the degrees. Daniel is heading to Oxford in the fall for Medical School. Cookie finished in only 3 years and is taking a year before starting medical school as well. 

Daniel and Sean

We lucked out on weather on our first day but the second was rainy. It didn't stop thousands cheering their sons and daughters! We had a big party at the apartment with lots of new graduates attending. Altogether a wonderful time. We're so proud of our grandchildren!!!

On Thursday we flew down to Raleigh, NC. Walt & Honoree picked us up. They have been keeping Junior and Baby for us for the last three months. We only had one night there before driving north to Washington DC to visit our son James and his family for Memorial Day weekend. It was a grueling 10 hour trip due to arriving in the city at rush hour! But the result is a lovely visit, which I'll cover in my next post.

The graduates filing into the ceremony on the first
day!

That's Shira and Michal center left. We got very
good seats on the second day but not all 
together, 

Sean was able to whip out his phone and take this photo of Daniel and Ariella on the big screen - amazing since it was only up for a brief time!

San Diego and San Francisco

 

Sandra, Scott, Heather, Brian, Pat and David

Our Uber driver dropped off at the wrong end of
the park so we walked the length of it to meet 
Pat and Brian. 

There are 16 museums in the Park which is on
1,200 acres.

We were excited to see our old friends in San Diego and it was all too short a visit. But we really had a chance to catch up on our lives and reminisce about our history together. Sandra Francour and I met in  the Philippines while we served in the Peace Corps. We were stationed not far apart from 1966 - 67 and have remained good friends since. David Wood and Brian & Pat Armstrong are all friends from 1969 onwards and were part of the infamous "ski group".  We've been out to San Diego several times to visit them and get to see David more often at his second home in Kingston, MA. 

We met at this fountain in front of the San Diego Museum of
Art.

The Botanical Building was recently
renovated.

The entrance to the Prado

We took an Uber up to Balboa Park to meet Pat and Brian and toured the Botanical Garden and San Diego Museum of Art together. We met the others for dinner at the elegant Prado Restaurant. But the fun was being with them and it was hard to say good-bye after only a few hours. 

We had spots on the top of the bus - lovely in the
city but freezing over the Golden Gate Bridge!!!

Union Park had a fun festival going on but we had
not time to get off and enjoy it. 

It was a short cruise from there to San Francisco and we woke the next morning tied to the dock. Our daughter Zoë and son-in-law George planned to meet us for lunch at 1:30 PM after their morning run. They meet every Saturday morning with a running group - both are long distance runners. So we took a Hop On Hop Off bus that was supposed to be 2.5 hours and we started at 11 AM. The bus broke down and we had to wait for a substitute and it ended up 3.5 hours long - very late for our lunch!

Haight Ashbury is another area we'd love to
explore. 

A damsel in distress?

But it was fun seeing them and we enjoyed a meal overlooking the bay. The time went by so quickly and suddenly it was 4 PM. And the all aboard time was 4:30!!! As always with Murphy's law one problem after another resulted in our running for the gangway and arriving just at 4:30 - pretty scared. It turns out they don't cut off entry right away and we watched at least 20 people board after us. But we'll never cut it that close again! And in the rush to make it to the boat - we forgot to get a picture of them!!!

Our bus crossed the Golden Gate bridge and 
here's a shot just before we got on to return.

A view of the city as our ship departed.

Our trip was coming to a close. We had one sea day left before our arrival in Victoria and the next day was our departure in Vancouver. More on that in my next post.

Crossing under the bridge - it looks like a close
call!

And farewell San Francisco!

L.A. Briefly

 

Our favorite shows in the evenings were  the Princess Dancers, Singers and Band. And one afternoon one of the featured soloists was given an opportunity to put on a Main Stage Show on his own. It was fantastic - he got a standing ovation and hopefully the chance to do it for Princess as a main stage artist. 

The head chef on my left is from my own
 Province in the Philippines! 

The five sea days from Honolulu went much faster and were more fun. We met two women from Vancouver who were bridge players and had regular games.  Another fun event was a presentation by  the Head Chef and Head Restaurant Manager that was really fun and interesting. It was followed by a tour of the kitchens - amazing! The weather was pretty good - we were able to sun bathe (not for long) on our balcony. And maybe we're just getting used to the routine! 

One of only 11 copies known of the Guttenberg
Bible

Blue Boy by Gainsborough

A modern version by Kehinde Wiley that 
was commissioned by the Library and 
hangs across from it. Such fun!

We didn't have much time in L.A. so we booked a cruise ship tour - the Huntington Library and Griffith Observatory.  Due to the limited time in port, our stays there were much too short. The Huntington Library is a complex including an extensive art collection, amazing rare books, and a botanical garden. We managed to see all of the European collection in the Mansion, which include "Blue Boy" by Thomas Gainsborough and "Pinkie" by Thomas Lawrence. 

The Mansion from the Library

Rows of Camillias and marble statues lined this
grassy avenue

The library contains some amazing books - just a few: a vellum copy of the Guttenberg Bible, Isaac Newton's personal copy of Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy with annotations in Newton's own hand and the first seven drafts of Thoreau's Walden. I loved the one page open in Audubon's Birds of America. We were only able to see a small amount of the extensive gardens, alas!

The view from the Griffith over the park to the Hollywood sign

And down through the park to the city

Our second stop was the Griffith Observatory. It is inside a beautiful park on the slope of Mount Hollywood. The land and money to build the observatory was donated by Griffith J. Griffith in 1896. The observatory's objective was to be accessible to the public, not restricted to scientists. It's a wonderful building with lots of exhibits and the great Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, which we were unable to use. 

Scott on the walkway around the Observatory

Our next stop is San Diego and we're going to see our old friends: Pat & Brian Armstrong, David Wood and Sandra Francoeur. More on that in my next post.

The Observatory from the front.

Florida to Fiji

 

We visited our first Bucky's in South Carolina
on our way north. You start seeing signs for the
next Bucky's hundreds of miles before you 
reach them!

We leapt from Florida to Fiji in just over a week! On the 22nd we left our Santa Rosa RV Resort and drove north - one night in Madison, GA and the next day we were with our old friends Walt & Honoree in Carthage, NC.  After two lovely nights with them, they drove us up to Raleigh for one night at the La Quinta Hotel. We got on the first shuttle in the morning at 4:30 AM! 

Dinner out one night at a fabulous restaurant with
Honoree & Walt. Baby is in their care until our
return in May. 

This was  the start of our challenging time changes and varying bedtime hours. The four nights with Zoë, George and Tommy gave us time to unwind and relax. We always enjoy a lot of easy walks around Palo Alto and one day enjoyed a Whale Watch out of Santa Cruz. We saw 3 whales, one strange Ocean Sunfish and an adorable sea otter - and of course, lots of birds. 

Scott and Zoë on our whale watch trip.

The very strange Ocean Sunfish!

Tommy, George and Zoë

A few days before our flight to Fiji on Fiji Airlines we received an offer to bid on an upgrade to Business Class. We bid the minimum - still a lot of money but the idea we might get some sleep on the 10 hour overnight flight was too tempting. And we got it. It was worth it. It was strange and kind of sad to not take advantage of all the free food and drink, but we knew it would affect our sleep so we abstained. It was particularly hard in the Air France lounge before our flight! We could have had a gourmet dinner with wine pairings but it was already late at night. The seats did recline to almost flat but it wasn't the separate cubicles that they sometimes have. No complaints though and we really enjoyed the breakfast the next morning!

Entry into Fiji was quick and our hotel, Crowne Plaza Nadi wasn't far away. We were checked in and shown to our beautiful room at 5 AM! We crossed the international date line on the flight so it was a full day later. It was great to catch a few more hours of sleep. And the huge buffet breakfast that morning welcomed us. Actually before we went down I heard this beautiful singing outside. The wait staff at the restaurant sing for any special occasion and they are very good. It sounds like a trained chorus. They sounded like hymns to me, all in Fijian, But more on our time in Fiji in my next post.

The view from our balcony.

Our first breakfast - it was hot and humid with clear skies for our stay until the last morning
when it rained. 

We enjoyed our first cocktails on the beach at sunset.

At 6:30 each evening there is a torch lighting along the beach.

The sunsets were beautiful.

December in Photos (California, Boston and Vermont)

 

Grandpa and Rowan in Boston for Scott's 
Birthday

I made a carrot cake for the celebration at Sean
and Will's in Boston. We had the Holiday Open
House at Sean & Will's on Sunday and didn't get
a single photo!!! But it was a lot of fun and brought
together so many old friends.

Rowan is 5 months old and as you can see,
adorable. We're in Boston still.

With Zoë in California for a week around
Thanksgiving at the start of December

James, Morgen and Kolya drove up from Washington DC for Christmas

Josh and all his family (7 total) came from Dallas
London and NYC Here he's helping Will with dinner 
prep.

Shira and Michal read to Rowan

Here's all seven of Josh's family ready for a day on the slopes: from left, Josh, Daniel (yes, he's that tall and 21 now), Maya, Shira, Cookie, Uzi and Michal. There was snow up at Killington but none at our house. I'm so busy at the holidays with a household of 15 that I didn't get many photos!

Rowan is quite a handful for Kolya!

Rowan is the happiest baby!

Kolya loves Astronomy and Oceanography.

Here it's Sean and Will who look happy!

Cousin Lisa came up for a night and 
met Kolya and Rowan for the first
time. 

Daniel on the slopes!

Uzi, Cookie, Daniel, Shira and Maya

Daniel's Birthday celebration - 21 year old!!!!