Freemans' visit in October

Arabella, Andrew, Jasper and Jemima visited us in October/November.  This was mainly a "hanging out" visit - the kids spent a lot of time playing with Matthew, and mucking about around the house.  We managed one last swim in the pool, a few meals out and some trips to our favourite places.  We did one big trip down to Monterey to do whale watching (very bumpy but spectacular) and a trip to the aquarium (beautiful as ever).  They were also out here for Halloween - the English visitors joined in with trick or treating very sportingly - and for Alex competing in the San Francisco half marathon.

Here are a few photos:

More photos here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/102053381273068034374/1210FreemansVisit?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnQ-pSb2fLSqgE

Some photos from Jennie's visit

I have yet to upload some videos I took as well, but thought it better to share some than none :)


Here are some pictures from: Tiny Treks at Redwood Grove in Los Altos, a playdate in Palo Alto, the Cantor Art museum at Stanford, amazing Monterey Bay aquarium and beautiful Big Sur
https://picasaweb.google.com/102053381273068034374/1110JennieSVisit?authkey=Gv1sRgCKWH2KL3ueGWBw

Ruth and Jennie at snack time on Tiny Treks

I'm not quite sure this is what Rodin had in mind

Lunch at Monterey Bay aquarium

Bixby Bridge at the start of lovely Big Sur

Our gorgeous cabin where we stayed the night

Birthday weekend in Mendocino

https://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/117BirthdayWeekendInMendocino?authkey=Gv1sRgCPe_-obOlvrcFw

We flew up to Mendocino for the weekend - lovely quiet little town by the sea.  Not much to do but eat lovely food and mess about on the beach.  Perfect.

Trip to Colombia

Last weekend we flew to Colombia with our friends Tom and Rob.  Tom is also a pilot - in fact it was him who got use excited about flying in the US last year.  Colombia is a very cute goldrush town, all original wooden saloon bars and shops offering you the chance to pan for gold and so forth.  They also had a special even on called "Tent Town" where a bunch of fascinating individuals had set up a super-authentic goldrush town from the 1850s and were pretending to pan for gold.  The guys doing it had really got into character.  Anyway, all very photogenic, so why no photos?  Yes, I forgot to put the battery back into the camera.

Luckily, Rob had his iPhone to the ready for some photos of Alex, Ruth and I landing.

Also some great shots of formation flying.

We could see them from our plane too! (Ruth asleep in the foreground)

... and Alex took some video of the formation flying on his phone, which gives you a good feel for the countryside on a rather overcast day.

Florida

In April, we had a week's holiday in Marathon, Florida, which is about half-way down the Keys chain.  We hired a huge house with our friends Marc & Zoe (flying in from England) and Andy & Kate (from Toronto), with their little ones Ava (Ruth's age) and baby Molly.

Ruth and Ava looking for dolphins

We spent most of our time splashing about in the lovely pool, or hanging out on the balcony admiring the view and enjoying a beer over a board game or two.

Al fresco Dominion

Sundownders

We ate outside every night

We managed a few excursions, one morning Pippa went on a snorkelling trip with Marc and Zoe who were diving.  The water was warm and filled with huge bright fish who were very bold.  I was sad that I did not see the turtle that another couple spotted, but also happy that I missed the 10' hammerhead shark that swam below one of the other guys.

Another day, Pippa went fishing with Marc and Andy.  We caught 18 grunts and torros, all on the small side but collectively enough for dinner!

https://picasaweb.google.com/rickard.marc/20110426FloridaFishingTrip02?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnWw5yL8KDZeQ&feat=email#
Thanks to Marc, who took photos of the fishing trip.

... and on the last day, we hired a small motor boat and went put-putting around the key.  Under seven-mile bridge to Chiki Tiki for lunch.

More Florida photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/114Florida?authkey=Gv1sRgCOXm9c7hgbqzXg#

Thanks guys for a great trip.  We'll be back...

The 808 state

Back in February we made our first trip to Hawaii. Hopefully not the last. It was lovely.

We went as part of a Google jolly, so we were staying at the Sheraton Waikiki.  Any qualms I had about being a travelling sell-out soon faded in the beautiful warm patio, with nice people bringing drinks, watching Ruth happily playing in the pool complex.

Ready for the pool!

Waikiki was very touristy and busy, but the natural beauty of Hawaii still shone through.

We visited Pearl Harbour, which was really interesting.

Oil still escaping from the hull of the Arizona

Inside the Arizona memorial

The highlight of the trip was hiring a plane for the day and going on a tour of four of the islands - Molokai, Maui, Linae and Oahu.  The weather was a little overcast, but the islands were still spectacular.  We saw more than two dozen whales, frolicking in the water.  So cool.

More photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/gawley/112Hawaii?authkey=Gv1sRgCK3GxJjSrOGHcg#

San Andreas Fault

Today we went walking up in the hills outside Palo Alto in search of the San Andreas fault. Fortunately there is a self guided tour of part of the fault in Los Trancos Open Space Preserve so we were not disappointed.

You can see a map of our self short hike (much of which Ruth did all by herself) below. The fault runs South-East to North-West on this map (from the most Eastern part of our track up through the middle of the big loop. Sadly, you can't see a giant chasm in the Earth, but you can see lots of geological features that are indicative of a fault:

• Benches - flat road-like structures created when the crack in the fault fill with earth
• Sag ponds - depressions where the land is not getting the support it needs
• Strange ridges - ridges and valleys that run parallel to the contours rather than (more naturally) perpendicular to them

I'll post some pictures later. But for now, enjoy the map.