Bay Area Adventures

The original reason for planning this trip to the United States was to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday, which she decided to do in beautiful Santa Cruz, California. We rented a great house there with a view of the ocean from the living room/balcony. Shana and I picked up our nephews, Jeremy and Ethan in Berkeley, and drove with them to Santa Cruz, where we discovered this view only a block from the house.

The weather was beautiful the entire weekend, and we visited a nearby butterfly sanctuary. We were a bit too early in the year to see the Monarch butterflies, but did have a great walk among the trees where they will soon return.

Some of us sat on the beach, walked along the shore, and even tested the cold waters.

But, what we did most of all was play a new game called The Gang, which is a cooperative Texas Hold-'em game. If that sounds contradictary, I can assure you that that it was quickly addictive and we played many, many rounds trying to master the subleties.

On Mom's actual birthday, we had a lovely dinner at Shadow-Brook in nearby Capitola. The food and wine were fantastic, and we had a really good waiter, who made the whole experience exceptional.

After our Santa Cruz adventure, we spent a night at Karyn and Jim's place so we could see their totally new kitchen (sorry, no photo), enjoy more good wine and get even better at The Gang.

Returning to Walnut Creek, we spent an evening with our friends Peter and Jill where we drank even more good wine (sensing a theme here), and laughed late into the night. It is always good to spend time with them.

On our final day in the Bay Area, after hanging out with our friend Sacha, I went to play bridge with Mom at a weekly pairs event in the community where they live. Each team pays $2 (we paid $3 because I am an outsider) to enter  and plays four hands against each of five different teams. We played very well, and finished in 4th place winning $7! A fantastic result considering that we have rarely played togerher.

That evening, Mom dropped us at the BART where we began our long journey to our last stop, the Galapagos Islands. More on that soon.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Seattle Escapades

We started out a 3+ week trip with a visit to Seattle, arriving in late August to see family and friends. While we speak and/or video call with our families often, in person visits are always special. This time we met two new family members, Coco and Calvin, Shira’s newly adopted dogs.

It is ironic that Shira and Brent got dogs, as our dog Clyde had seemingly convinced them (before we left Seattle) that they weren’t dog people; now they might be crazier dog people than we ever were. 

We spent a lot of time hanging out at Shira’s place, including for a Labor Day BBQ and a family dinner for nephew Gavin’s 26th birthday. (We all missed having nephew David there, but luckily we had just seen him in San Sebastian.) It was good to catch up, play games, enjoy the dogs, cook together, and be goofy.

We also saw Jeff’s cousins Neil & Tracy, who, now that Neil has retired, hopefully will find the time to come visit.

We stopped to see our former neighbors, Greg & Jeff, but failed to get a picture this time. And our good friends from SoCal, Jeff & Lauren, were in Seattle to help their daughter Eliana move in with her boyfriend. We met them for brunch and a walk in Juanita Beach Park.

We especially enjoyed celebrating nephew Noah’s high school graduation with a kayaking adventure with Ballard Kayaks, which took us up and back through the Ballard Locks. It was a perfect day to be on the water. Adam & Gavin joined us, and Shira and friends watched us go through the locks from above.

While paddling, we saw seals, various sea birds, and salmon. The locks were built between 1911 and 1917. They link the Puget Sound (sea water) with Lake Washington (fresh water), and are quite the engineering feat that includes a fish ladder. They carry more boat traffic than any other lock in the US. We were the main attraction for the boaters and others watching from the pedestrian crossing as the locks rose and lowered.

It was probably the most unique kayaking trip we’ve ever done. The one thing we sadly could not do during our visit was take in a Mariners' game as they were on the road. It was great watching them and talking about their chance while there, which have significantly improved with their recent streak. 

After a week in Seattle, we headed to Northern California to celebrate Jeff’s Mom’s 80th birthday. More on that in our next post.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff