Christmas 2025!
A quarter of the way through the 21st century! Wait...What?! Slow down already! Take your time, Old Man Time. I want to enjoy this.
All right, freak out over.
It was an excellent year by all accounts. Well, not the savings account, but that’s just electrons on circuit boards someplace, so...who cares? We got some excellent trips in, our daughters are doing well, and the dog has managed to avoid the inevitable for now—all good!
Jenn and I disagree on which metaphor to refer to our current status in the parenting department. She prefers “Bird Launchers” (coined together with her friend, Lori) to put the emphasis on the offspring, rather than the more self-centered “empty nesters.” Good point. I like “Aircraft Carrier parents” for the vision of Emily and Claire bringing hellfire and destruction on an unsuspecting planet. That, and they can come back for refueling when they need to. Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe.
Claire graduated from UC, Irvine in June in Earth System Sciences and has submitted an article on the seasonal variability of data from satellites to measure evapotranspiration. Yeah, I know, we too are both proud and confused in equal measures. In news the rest of us can understand, she was promoted to a manager position at Savers but is also applying at grad schools who have ground water programs. She has so many great things ahead of her.
Emily completed United’s flight attendant training in August and is probably overhead right now. Please look up and wave. Her home base is Denver, and she rents a room in a house with other airline employees. Alaska, Florida, Canada, Mexico; you name a place in the Western Hemisphere and she’s been there, and it’s only been three months! She is both very excited and very happy.
Jenn and I have been enjoying Avalon on Catalina for years with its 1940’s charm: beachside pizza and drinks, decorative tiles all over the place and goofy shore excursions. So this year we decided to replace all those happy memories with those of an ordeal—a 40-mile hike in April from the east end of the island to the west. As you can imagine, it was in turns: glorious, summiting the tallest peak on the island with ocean views on both sides; exhausting, approaching the campground with heavy packs after ten hours of hiking; and dangerous, discovering the downhill section was no relief because of a 45 degree slope composed of gravel marbles (only fell once and was able to stand up again only 60 yards downslope). And the buffalo. No fence between us and him. He just gave us a blank and pitiless gaze, determined we were not edible, and moved on past us up the trail we had descended. Even the showers we took at Two Harbors were remarkable, refreshing and gross at the same time. Great trip! Can’t wait to go back and do parts again.
When it became clear that Emily would not be able to go to England with us because of her new job in the skies, we took both girls to Monterey for a long weekend. We stayed in an historic bed and breakfast, walking distance to the aquarium. We fell in love with the bay, the sand dunes and eclectic restaurants. The first time the Bear Flag flew over an independent California was at an adobe customs house at the wharf; still exists (and is remarkably humble about it). If you are planning a bike ride along the coast (we saw whales and seals on the 17-mile tour), our butts and quadriceps recommend you rent the electric bikes. We are all moving to Monterey when we grow up...and are inexplicably rich.
Jenn and I took our big vacation in Great Britain this year. Scotland was first, and most memorable was the tour of the Highlands. We summarized that particular day with the phrase “3 Fs—flat, flood, flock.” Our van got a flat ten minutes outside of Glasgow. After a van swap, we arrived at our first stop, standing stones in a field that were inaccessible unless we waded across a flooded stream. Wet feet for the rest of the day—very Scottish we were assured by the guide. The stones were moving and mysterious, chilling even. As we left the stones we traveled along a single-track lane. Of course we came upon a flock of sheep generally moving in our same direction, but it did not recognize our right to pass. They were somehow both cute and annoying. An old Highland village and castle ruins rounded out the day. That, and a whiskey or two; good for wet feet, said the guide.
Then we traveled by train to Bristol, where the two big events were a soccer match (featuring the Bristol Rovers in a 2-1 victory over Barrow) and a tour of the big Cathedral. Both Bristol and Glasgow made a lot of money during the colonial period in the slave trade. Glaswegians are more self-deprecating about it, while Bristol has more memorials directly confronting the past. It is interesting to see cities, and the personalities of the locals, shaped by the past. Then a short train trip to Bath. I can’t explain Bath’s beauty: go and see for yourself all its Jane Austen charm. There is a reason it is a world heritage site.
Finally, on to London. We attended a West Ham match in Olympic Stadium. They lost (of course) to Crystal Palace 2-1, but still a bucket list item. Buckingham Palace, Churchhill’s bunker, and the British Museum high-lighted our last two days. Those Brits stole stuff from all over the world.
We held our third annual “Excuse to Drink Beer” in mid October. Good friends enjoying German food and silly games sum up Oktoberfest. We kept the buzz going by attending a Las Vegas Raider game in November. It was Jenn’s first time seeing her favorite team play a regular season game—very fun.
On to Twenty twenty-six! We love you all!
