By the time we were ready to leave Marmaris late July, it was very hot. We flew home to more hot weather during our month stateside, but it didn't keep us from getting around! A week in Annapolis visiting our kitty (18 years old and still doing fine!); a week in Wilmington with Melanie and family; a week with Vivien and family in Los Alamos; then a week RVing and hiking in beautiful Sedona, Arizona. It was great seeing our three wee grandkiddies!

WILMINGTON PHOTOS

LOS ALAMOS PHOTOS

SEDONA PHOTOS

Then it was off to Ecuador for Burger's tenth stint at the Mission Clinic in Guadalupe. (Our 2011 Guadalupe photo report is on the Logs and Links list on the right side of this web page.) Burger especially loves doing ear surgery and cleft palate cases. How awesome to see a severely disfigured child transformed to normal! I helped out with patient data entry and even some assisting in the OR. Weekends we went hiking in the Andes Mountains, staying at our favorite Copalinga Ecolodge.

I'm now on the board of the U.S. Foundation that supports the Clinic with tax-deductible donations. While Burger solicits for medical supplies, I help fundraise and search for volunteers for our team, all online from wherever we are. We now have a FaceBook page for the Clinic (you don't have to be a FaceBooker to view it):

MISSION CLINIC GUADALUPE

We arrived back in Annapolis just in time to attend the last day of the Annapolis Boat Show, and see a bunch of friends there. Late October we got together with family and relatives for a big Family Reunion upstate New York, and celebrated Burger's birthday. All the little cousins had a blast at the apple picking farm!

FAMILY REUNION PHOTOS

On our way home from Kingston we stopped to visit my old college "roomie" Twink at her horse farm.

TWINK'S HORSE FARM PHOTOS

November was a nice quiet break from all our traveling. Friends Denis and Laure Seynhaeve, sv Escapade, kindly lent us their zippy little BMW when they left for the Caribbean, saving us the cost of renting a car. Vivien and Nik and the girls came for a short visit early December.

ANNAPOLIS PHOTOS

After Christmas in Wilmington with Melanie, Trey and 3 year old Ivey (photo), we returned to the boat in Marmaris, just in time to ring in the New Year together with friends old and new.