Final days of Feb

We landed with a thud this week and were straight back into work, school, life.
We made it through to the weekend, and celebrated Leap Day by opening our treasure box of letters from our former selves 4 years ago. They don't look very stoked in this photo below, but it was actually really entertaining to read these letters.

Then later in the evening, Rhods and I decided to up and go to the cinema to see Parasite just because we could! Just because we have kids who are trustworthy enough, and old enough, to leave for a few hours in the evening. So, all in all, it was a great finish to a great month.

Goodbye Goleta

So we left sunny beautiful family and friend filled California yesterday and arrived today back to cold gray rain in England. That's ok. It was such a wonderful trip and we are so grateful to have been able to spend quality time with Mom/ Grandma, Eric, Kristin and the boys, Phil, Judy, Libby, friends in the area and friends who traveled just to see us.


We all enjoyed it, but I feel especially loved up.

Reunion with Deanna and Mike

This afternoon Deanna and her family arrived to stay with us for the final hours in SB. We headed to the beach for a walk, which went a little bit wrong because in my excitement I forgot to wait for Eric. Whoops! Sorry Bro...

It was really great to see these guys. Tyler is Rhiannon's age, and it was pretty entertaining to observe the awkward teenage dynamics between them. We had a great time catching up with Deanna and Mike though, and actually we ended up leaving to drive back down south (us to LAX for our flight, and them back home to San Clemente) and seeing them on the freeway!

Farmers Market

I went to Farmers Market downtown today with Amy and her boyfriend Matt. It had rained during the night and the air was really crisp. Not many vendors today, but enough to make it fun to wander up and down the aisles of this long-standing Farmers market downdown.

 Then the 3 of us went for breakfast at a little taco stand type place.

Amy is a longtime friend of mine and it was really great to be able to see her in person, and to meet her boyfriend finally.

Goleta the good land on a Friday

Today we hung around the house a bit, went down to the creek, did projects with the cousins and that sort of thing.

 Then in the late afternoon we met Eric, Kristin and the boys up at La Cumbre Peak to enjoy the view. It was actually a little bit rainy but just spots of rain rather than real rain. And it was coooold up there! But looking down at the city, the ocean, the UCSB campus, the clouds with rays of sun poking through and doing it all with my brother and his family was unforgettable.

And finally in the late late afternoon we went to Denise's house for dinner and a bonfire.

It was so great to just be together with these guys. Rhiannon and Ava were like two old ladies giggling together behind the blanket.

And that was the end of this day. Just 1.5 days left before we start our journey home.

02/20/2020

To kick off this epic day, I went for a lovely run with Polly up the canyon and up to the end of Farren Road. It was a gorgeous morning and I felt so lucky to be with my old pal in our old stomping grounds.

Then we picked up some delicious picnic lunch options at Lazy Acres and continued on to visit SB City College and have lunch with Phil & Libby. There is a really cool mural painted on the wall of the Earth Science building which we admired before saying hi to old friend Bill Dinklage. That was fun to see him after all these years. 

Then we took our picnic lunches to a patch of grass overlooking the harbor, the beach, the palm trees and the city. We dined on our delicious Lazy Acres buffet bar lunches and soaked up the view and the good company.

Then we drove back through Hope Ranch and over to visit Godric Grove, where we got married nearly 21 years ago on the coldest April day on record for Santa Barbara.

We all had a little nap just laying on the benches in the dappled shade and it was beautiful.
Then we went to UCSB into the book store and bought some t-shirts and stuff. We took this photo at 2:20 on 02/20/2020 - how cool is that?!

Then we got to have dinner with the Kirkelies at Lure, a local fish restaurant which my Mom really loves. Rhiannon got to reunite with Wade, who is the same age as she is and hasn't seen for maaaany years. We tried not to make it too awkward!

It was a thoroughly wonderful day. We are so blessed.

State Street midweek

Yesterday (Tues) we spent the day in Ventura and Oxnard after kicking the day off with breakfast round the kitchen table.

Rhodri had been looking forward to this day because he really wanted to visit the Patagonia flagship store / HQ as well as visit REI and any other outdoor shop in the area. We did those things, went to those places, and it was a great day. I did start to feel quite twitchy in the mid-afternoon because I had some work hanging over my head. So in the end, we probably didn't spend quite enough time in those shops as Rhodri would have liked, but it was a good day.

Today (after my work thing finished in mid morn) we went downtown to visit Eric in his office and to see Chip, Georgia, Beth and the rest of the gang.  We had a funny moment when we tried to take the elevator up to the 8th floor of the Granada building and learned from a passerby that the law office had moved a few doors down State Street!

After saying hi and chatting for a bit, the 4 of us walked down State Street to do some shopping. Rhodri peeled off to go back and meet Eric for a bike ride in the afternoon, while the kids and I continued down State Street to have some quality 'Mama time'. What a gorgeous, happy memory this day will be in years to come. I got to be in my hometown on a beautiful Wednesday with my 2 precious kids and to just be allowed to enjoy the day with them. What a treat!

We had lunch at Longboards Bar & Grill, and then spent a couple of hours at the Sea Center. You know your kids are growing up when they order salad for lunch!

It was a truly wonderful afternoon. On our way home, we even stopped by the GVAC club for a quick workout, just because we could. 

Best pool in the world

We were fortunate enough to be invited to swim at the Birchim's pool next door, and we extended the invite to Denise and her kids. In years past (5 years ago and more), we shared this experience with them and it has been a magical memory to all of us. These neighbors had so carefully and lovingly designed the pool and the entire backyard space to be enchanting and irresistible to children with the big shallow end, the slide, diving board, deep end seats, fountain, jacuzzi, outside kitchen/ bar, shady lounge area, couch swing, BBQ pit, and welcoming hosts. Beautiful matriarch Tansy passed away a couple of years ago now and her absence is still palpable and raw, but the rest of the family keeps the warm welcoming vibe alive.

It is so fun to be with Denise, and for Rhiannon and Ava to reconnect, and for Tryfan, Liam and Lucas to happily play together. 5 years is a big gap when you are a child, and I'm so happy that our kids slotted in easily together.

Family brunch

After our tour round UCSB campus, we all converged at Phil & Libby's house for a fabulous and relaxing family brunch.

All the kids played on the trampoline and the rest of us sat around talking and enjoying the day until nearly mid-afternoon. Then we said goodbye to Suzi, Russ and Rio and headed our separate ways.

Sunday morning walk down memory lane

This morning Suzi and I led our families back to the UCSB campus where we reminisced about our time together on the UCSB rowing team.


We started in Isla Vista (IV) near the [now famous] Freebirds burrito place and walked onto campus from there. 
It was a beautiful sunny morning and the campus was very quiet. Amazing to see how much it has changed in the near 30 (!) years since we were there learning how to row on the lagoon, bustling between the library and the student center, living on campus in Anacapa dormitory, bicycling everywhere along with the other 18,000 students.

It was really fun to walk around reminiscing together with our respective families. I'm so grateful that Suzi was able to come up and make this happen.

Saturday in Santa Barbara

This morning we all woke a bit early but not too bad. I went for another walk with Aunt Judy around the canyon, and then Kristin and Rhodri and the kids and I headed off to Hendry's beach. They all played at the beach while I met my longtime homies Polly, Amy and Denise for brunch at the Boathouse (site of the former Brown Pelican).  It was amazing to catch up with them a little bit on this beautiful morning.

     The rest of the fam headed off back home and I got a lift with Denise, and in the afternoon we had the Great Sorting Tier 2. This meant that Eric and I, along with Egan and Ruby, went through Grandma Bucky's possessions that were laid out for the event and put our own stickers on the items that we wanted to claim. Since Will and Heidi, Wheeler and Molly, and also Annie and Jody were not there, we who were also made sure to stake some claims on their behalf. This all went pretty easily with no disputes that I was aware of.
     Later in the afternoon, my long lost friend Suzi and her family arrived! I haven't seen Suzi in 15 years so had never met her son Rio. They kindly drove up from San Diego to be able to spend the weekend with us since it had been just so long since we reunited, and we had been trying to make it happen for all this time.  The first thing we did was hop into cars and head off to Ellwood Beach Reserve in search of the Monarch butterfly grove. We walked through it but didn't see any butterflies. I guess they haven't arrived yet on their annual migration.

 We had a lovely walk on the mesa and went down to the beach to then loop around back to the car.

Walking and talking is a bit magical because it loosens people up and makes everything easier. So it was great to be out, and then we headed back to the house to get ready for a family BBQ dinner.

There were 16 of us in the house and it was so great to hang out and talk and eat good food. Fair play to Mom (Grandma Debi) for hosting this big crowd in the house. We had a fairly early night (at least it wasn't a late night) and slept well after this fabulous day.

Goleta the Good Land

After arriving on Thursday night, and relaxing with Eric, Kristin and Mom, we all slept well and woke to sunshine and a house full of noisy nephews.

We had coffee and a bit of breakfast, and then Aunt Judy came over. We went for a walk around the canyon while Rhi and Tryfs took Billy to the local park. Walking through the canyon felt so good; it has been nearly 5 years since we were last in Goleta. The sycamore trees still had some leaves on them and ripe oranges were dripping from the trees in the neighborhood. I was surprised at how prominent the rocky ledges of the Santa Ynez mountains stood out, even from the distance.

Stock image** of SB with the Santa Ynez mountains behind

Anyway, it was wonderful to walk with Aunt Judy and start the day off. Sometime around late morning, we all went to the Goleta Valley Athletic Club where my Mom had bought us all a 9 day pass. We did a short workout and the kids went swimming, then went to Trader Joes to do some shopping on the way home. In the afternoon we relaxed and then had dinner over at Grandma Bucky's house.

** From montecito-realestate.com