California

Well, our time in San Mateo has come to end for now. Tomorrow, 31 Aug., we take off for Tokyo, leaving Daniel as collateral with my parents. Oh my! Will Daniel survive or will my parents? Stay tuned.

We had lots of wonderful family and friends time here, visiting, eating, running errands in 6 days. Sayonara!!!

Here we are at Chrissy Field with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It was REALLY hot that day, about 90 degrees F.

At the Pacific Ocean near Santa Cruz, with my brother, Doug.

Dinner at Doug and Gwen's house with the Kaplans, my mother Rita, father Paul and my niece and nephew-in-law, the newlyweds Amy and Jonathan.

Daniel and Miles on a bike ride along San Francisco Bay.

Virginia

Here we are in beautiful Fairfax, VA visiting Miles' family staying with his sister Lorrie and her family. I haven't been here in about 9 years and I have forgotten how green and lush the vegetation is. I just love the green. There was a wonderful family get together courtesy of Aunt Janice and Uncle Herb which was a great way to see 35+ members of the clan.

A special highlight was an overnight on Bob Smith's (Miles' friend) yacht (yes, 48-foot YACHT) on the Chesapeake Bay. It was FANTASTIC. Daniel joined us, Bob and Patty, which made 5 plus Gail (the live-in cook and Jill-of-all-trades). I could really get used to having her around! The boat is docked at Edgewater, MD where Miles used to work at a water ski school and we went a ways out and anchored for the night. The shore is dotted with mega-homes. The next day we took the dinghy out and zoomed around the Bay. Miles and Daniel swam, while the rest of us just felt spoiled and relaxed on deck, reading and playing Bananagrams (thanks, Jude!) a new Scrabble-like game. Life is definitely good.

Back to Fairfax, more good visits with family and even squeezed in a nice hour and a half hike around Burke Lake--so very pretty and relaxing.

We also spent an afternoon at Great Falls National Park in Virginia with Miles' brother Gene. This is a beautiful park/gorge along the Potomac River that has white water rapids and falls and remnants of old canals and locks.
The rest of the day was spent at the Appleton pool (Miles' sister's place). You can see by the photos that there are Olympic champs in the making in the Belly Flop and Cannon Ball categories.

First Stop: Boca Raton, Florida

We spent a wonderful day at the Morikami Museum and Gardens in Boca Raton. Mr. Morikami came here in 1906 and joined a Japanese agricultural community. He subsequently bought up about 200 acres and right before he died in 1976, donated all his land for a museum and authentic Japanese garden, the 8th best garden (out of 300) outside of Japan. We strolled throughout the expansive gardens that included a bonsai collection, a small lake and nature trails.

Miles, Daniel, Ben (Miles' dad) and moi sitting in the Morikami garden.

We're off ! Want to keep track of where we are? Here's our itinerary more or less:

1. Aug. 16-19--Florida
2. Aug. 19-25--Washington, D.C.
   
3. Aug. 25-31--San Mateo, CA
   
4. Sept.-Oct.--Tokyo, Japan
   
5. Nov. 1-8--Sydney, Australia
   
6. Nov. 8-Jan. 19, 2010--Auckland, New Zealand
7. Jan. 19-21--Bangkok, Thailand
   
8. Jan. 21-31--Haifa
9. Feb. - May --Zurich, Switzerland
10. May 31-July 16--Trento, Italy
11. July 16-20--Paris, France
12. July 21-30--Haifa
13. July 31-Sept. 6--San Mateo
14. Sept. 7--BACK TO HAIFA-- PSS (Post Sabbatical Syndrome) sets in