Sam's Dad's House ....

On day two at Sam's Dad's we had a really slow start. We all enjoyed a lovely breakfast of freshly laid eggs, collected the previous day by the children.We sat around the fire pit, enjoying, lovely fresh food in such a beautiful place. 

After breakfast we met up with Sam's Dad Ed - who kindly took us on a tour of his beautiful property. Ed is a retired Forester and is extremely knowledgeable about his land and surroundings.

Max especially enjoyed hunting for Frog's

During our tour, Ed introduced us to Huckleberries. These small berries are delicious.

Max didn't enjoy them as much as everyone else.

I do believe Ed lives in an exquisite part of the world.

After a quick trip down to the California Coast we returned to join Ed and Merry for a great evening of dinner, wine and conversation in their beautiful home.

The Koi pond is my favorite part of the house. At the end of the night we said our goodbyes - we had all bonded and again I felt close to Sam and Annie. This is the really strange part of a teaching exchange - we live in their home, sleep in their bed and holiday with their family - yet we have never met. But I feel like we know Sam and Annie so well?

Thank you Ed and Merry for your generosity and company. Our stay with you will be a wonderful memory.


P.S.  Ed - your art print will be in the mail - please not to the Chicken shed!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

A huge thank you to our dear friend Susan who organized free tickets for us to attend our first baseball game in Denver. (Thanks also to John and Nancy who arranged the tickets from the Rockies!) We had fantastic seats, a few rows back behind third base.

I can tick another box from the bucket list - a visit to Coors Field in Denver was a must.

The only downside to this experience was the almost unbearable heatwave - 106 degrees at 6pm was difficult to take, (41 degrees in centigrade)!

Maxie tried his best to catch a fly ball - even with his glove on the wrong hand.

Even with the heat, we still had a fantastic time cheering the Rockies home to victory.

We really enjoyed the night as a family and have vowed to go to at least one more game. Go Rockies!

This is for you Aunty Nic...

This is for you my sister - I am sorry about the delay! Here are a few to whet your appetite - more to follow this week - I promise.

Aunty Nic and Lara on the plane

The boys on the plane

My lovely nephew and beautiful niece in Vegas

I hope these are up to standard - love to the kids xxxx

The Ultimate Chicken Coop...

We enjoyed the drive along the Californian coastline on our way to Ed and Merry's house.

We stoped along the road and saw a large group of Sea Lions basking in the sun. The beaches are very different from home, no golden sand just grey sand and rocks. The weather was cool and we didn't see anyone swimming.

We arrived and were greeted warmly by Ed who immediately gave the kids a tour of the most amazing Chicken Coup I have ever seen. It reminded me of a Balinese Temple, and was even equipped with yellow eyes that lit up at night and a balcony.

Yas and Max were completely over excited by the Chickens. Ed was wonderful with the kids and showed them where and how to collect eggs - which they did and then took them to the wash room where Max very carefully washed and dried each egg.

After a chat with Ed and a tour of his lovely home filled with beautiful artworks, we jumped back into the car and followed Ed to another place on his property he refers to as Camp!

Camp consists of two lovely cabins fully equipped with bunks and even a fire. The area where you can prepare food was great, and include the best stocked cupboard I have come across. Even taps with running water were on hand...

The shower was a real treat - it is a lovely experience to shower outside.

Camp was a lovely place to be - Ed had all bases covered and we were certainly enjoying the beautiful property and wonderful facilities. Yas and Max found the swing, and spent hours playing.

We spent a great night together as a family around the fire pit listening to Yas tell ghost stories.

Pier 39...

We did enjoy the unique city of San Francisco - in particular our trip down to Pier 39 on the waterfront. Although very touristy, we did enjoy the sights.

I really liked the Image Arts poster shop. It was filled with loads of posters including many interesting posters featuring Cable Cars in San Fransisco.

We did the touristy thing and Garry and I both had Clam Chowder for lunch. Their were shops selling all kinds of seafood - I was daydreaming about cooking crabs in garlic butter - mmmmm! Wouldn't you like to cook these crabs up for dinner Dad?

Max particularly enjoyed the Sea Lions sleeping in the sun on the next Pier.

We wandered around exploring the waterfront with Alcatraz constantly in our views. Unfortunately, we didn't get to visit the famous jail as you needed to have booked tickets almost three weeks in advance. I will have to make do with watching a movie or documentary.

We walked the streets and admired some of the lovely homes, near the waterfront.

Definitely the highlight of the day was our cable car ride home. The ride up and down the streets, hanging from the side of the cable car was sooo much fun.

The following day we had the pleasure of driving across the famous Golden Gate Bridge as we left the city heading for our next destination - a visit with our exchanges father - Ed on his property in the Californian Redwoods.

"Do you have any spare change?"

We continued our travels and after a day in the car we landed in San Francisco. We found the hotel we were staying in online during a brief stop during the journey and all sounded good - it had excellent reviews and was a great price.

After a fantastic sleep we set out to explore the city. Walking towards the bus we realized very quickly that we were in the middle of what appeared to be the area where the homeless lived. Garry and I were both shocked to see so many people wandering, aimlessly, obviously with serious drug, alcohol and/or mental health issues. Yasemin became very distressed and was crying as she had never seen people eating out of trash cans before. It really did feel like we were in another world. We all felt really sad for all the people.

We did see a number of homeless people with dogs - you don't imagine that many people who live on the street have pets. I later discovered that a special program runs where the homeless are given a dog to love and care for and in return they receive free food for their pet and a small wage each week. This seemed like a really innovative and beneficial program.

San Francisco has almost 7,000 people sleeping on the street each night. We did not feel unsafe, however if I was honest I would admit that I was constantly in a hyper alert state. It is difficult, even as an adult to reconcile that so many people were once loved and adored babies, now living in such a harsh environment. It was also a reminder of what lovely lives we lead...