We flew back home to California the 1st of December. Virginia’s mother died that day. We had a very nice memorial service and laid her to rest alongside Virginia’s father. The nine siblings worked together to finalize the estate, including selling the family home. Tough time emotionally, but they get along so well that the process was smooth.

We had a nice 7-month respite from our cruising adventures and got in some quality time with family. We had given warning to our renters and were able to start moving back into our house Dec. 15. We had been able to tour the house regularly during the last four years, so we knew the house was being well cared for by the renters. But we wanted new flooring and had some painting to do. We had some delays with the new wood flooring we ordered and essentially camped out (sleeping on an air mattress and living in two chairs) in our own house for 3 months before we were able to move in our furniture. But oh how nice it was. When we weren’t installing new flooring, painting walls, and moving furniture, we focused on catching up with family.

Our first two weeks we stayed with Dennis’ mom in La Mirada. She is 94 and doing well. We got to spend quite a bit of time with her this trip, including an afternoon at the Pantages theater in LA to see Wicked, accompanying her to a Worth baby shower, and visiting at our remodeled home in Santa Barbara. It was convenient that we were in the LA area those first two weeks as we knew it was time to purchase another car (the Ford van had served so well but was not a comfortable travelling car and the BMW 2002 -Dennis’ project car, was not running; and most importantly, neither have seats to transport our granddaughters). After a brief search on the Internet we located a 2013 Toyota Camry Hybrid not far from La Mirada. We decided to go take a look at it and after driving it and comparing it to the Prius they also had on the lot we made a quick decision and drove it off the lot. Armed with a new ‘Grandma Car’ Virginia enjoyed helping Kathleen (the “other” grandma) with transporting Kira and Devin (our granddaughters) between school, home, and activities. When Darren and Carrie (our son and daughter-in-law) needed to travel to the east coast (twice, unfortunately for family funerals), Virginia stayed with the girls and dogs and enjoyed the time. We got to see most of our siblings, but that gets harder as each of our families grow larger and start to spread out across the state and beyond. We need some new traditions to make sure we get time together.

When in town we participated with our Rotary, Soroptimist, and boating clubs – catching up with those friends. We participated in a SEE International mission to Ceylaya, Mexico sponsored by Dennis’ Rotary club. Dennis had been before and knew what to expect and it was a very rewarding experience; providing vision to over 60 cataract patients. We fit in visits with a few close friends, but time sure went by quickly.

Our last two weeks in Santa Barbara we participated in some of our traditional Santa Barbara festivities. We took Dennis’ mom to the Summer Solstice parade. It always has a whimsical theme and thus is very colorful with many creative entries. Floats all have to be human powered. See the pictures in our gallery to enjoy the wonder of this event. On the 4th of July, we celebrated Independence Day watching fireworks with Darren and family.