Four Months In One: Time Compresses

June was the month to implement the Master Plan: three to four months working in New Zealand followed by a month or so stateside. After four+ months down-under, we returned back home. What became immediately clear was that we had to do four months worth of business and visiting in one month. It was a very busy, very intense time, also very necessary and worthwhile. What follows is a brief run-through of our time stateside.

Kimarra, Isaiah, and Papou

Daughter Sofia and family met us at the airport, and we had our first visit with them in their home in Lincoln, CA.I highly recommend the Papou (Grandpa) thing, especially when you have two great, fun grandkids.

They were actually entrusted to our care for a day as their parents went out of town on business. My heart warmed when I saw Sofia left two hand-written pages of instructions of how to do the job. As much as she denies it, she gets more like Fayne every day!

Then we went up north to Fort Bragg for a week of attending to details and touching bases with many dear friends.

Beach at Pudding Creek, Fort Bragg, CA

Dahlia from our trip to the Botanical Gardens with Linnea M.

Home is where the cat (Saturday) is.

We were able to squeeze in a baseball game, the first-place Oakland Athletics vs. retiring legend Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees.

It was time to drive down South: first stop Morro Bay to see old friends Kate and Lars. We loved it there, took a long walk along the shore watching the sea otters play, and enjoyed other local sights. But the best part was having a little time with our great hosts, the Larsons.

I was en route to the bottom of the state to see my father and his wife in San Diego. Overall, he is doing quite well in my opinion as he reluctantly approaches his tenth decade of life.

John Sr. and Ruth Wallace

Lobby at the Courtyard by Marriott in a lovely former bank.

No time to dawdle, we headed across the mountains and headed down to the desert floor and Rancho Mirage to see my brother Charles and his wife Pam. It was too brief a stay, but it was good to see them.

Lobby of the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa

A Pam Sandwich

View Coming Into Rancho Mirage/Palm Springs

Next stop on the SoCal route Anaheim and Disneyland for three fun and exhausting days with the Heards. We had been promising Kimarra a trip for two years, and it was also in celebration of Sofia's 24th birthday, as well as Marquise's earlier birthday and their upcoming fifth anniversary. (Lots to celebrate!) .

The Tower of Terror

Driving Papou on Autopia

Padowan Training

Disney Princess-Palooza

 

It was all centered around celebrating Sofia's birthday, in the morning and evening.

Finally we were back in the Bay Area for the last week of the month, where I attended an update in Internal Medicine at UCSF (at the expense of the South Canterbury District Health Board).

Model of the UCSF-Parnassus Campus (Note the Japanese Visitor on the Roof)

There was just enough time to have dinner with friend Karen (book-ending the month as we flew home from NZ with her) at her place with commanding view of the bay...

..and to check in with Haley and Nathan and their current SF lives..

Then it was back to SFO Friday night for the red-eye flight back to the Land of the Long White Cloud, Aotearoa.

Ta Da.! The End! Kimarra the Gold Medalist....

...and Isaiah, The Young Prince