I'm still slacking on the blog...either traveling or being entertained by our wonderful hosts but here is a quick update. The family reunion at Jan and Michael's house went very well and we were thrilled to see so many members of Shelley's family gathered in one place. The following day a crowd went out on Michael and Jan's cruising-sailboat (including baby August on his first sailing experience). It was a fun and fine day but the wind was so feeble that we were only able to sail for a short time, using their new, very light-weight drifter foresail.

Before leaving Washington State, we made an overnight trip to Seattle to visit Brian. We were encouraged to see that he was coping as well as could be expected with his sudden bereavement and that he was receiving excellent support from his sister and many of his and Sarah's friends and colleagues. Using www.mealtrain.com, a rotation of people had become organized to bring Brian meals every evening. Although his fridge was beginning to overflow with food, he was extremely grateful for such thoughtfulness and especially for the daily company of people who knew Sarah so well. Luckily, the weather was absolutely gorgeous in Seattle so we enjoyed a lovely walk around the Olympic Sculpture Park, just south of the Space Needle and overlooking Elliott Bay. We will not be able to attend the Celebration of Sarah's Life on October 13th (more information for which is at the end of the moving obituary for Sarah at:
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/sarah-reichard-beloved-for-her-brilliance-directed-uw-botanic-gardens/) but we were felt very appreciative that we could visit Brian at this difficult time of transition.

Once we left the Pacific Northwest: we learned about the devastating tsunami that hit Crescent City, CA, in 1964, killing 12 people; we walked through a coastal redwood forest in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park; spent a night on Tom and Karen's boat in Emerald Bay State Park on the beautiful Lake Tahoe (including a bracing swim in the crystal-clear water); we marveled at the monumental effort that was required to carve the heads of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt in the solid granite of a mountain in the Black Hill region of South Dakota between 1927 and 1939; we drove through the sharply eroded, multicolored layers of sedimentary rock in the dramatic steep canyons and towering spires of the South Dakota Badlands National Park; and we savored the beautiful yellow, orange, and red fall colors of the trees in Colorado and Minnesota.

Of course, in addition to admiring so much of America's beauty, we continued to enjoy visiting and revisiting many friends and members of our family, including Martha in San Jose, Heather, Kaeden, and Atleigh in Denver, and Shevy and Matt in Duluth, MN. We spent one weekend in San Luis Obispo, where Randall grew up, and attended two events related to his High School 50th Reunion. The second one was on my birthday and it was an unexpectedly fun way to celebrate, with good food, excellent 1960's music, and very lively dancing. Randall also had a wonderful time being reunited with many of his school-friends and many amusing stories were shared. Of course, the years had wrought a few changes on the High School students, so that after reading a person's name-badge, it sometimes took a few moments of peering at them to identify the teenager inside.

We still have many more places to go and people to see before we return to New Zealand on November 12th. Next we visit cousins of Randall's in Ohio, friends Doria and Dwight in Washington DC, and Wendy's parent's ranch in North Carolina, before returning to Florida for a few weeks. The weather is cooling in Minnesota, where we have enjoyed walking and playing with Shev and Matt's new puppy, but it is still hot in Florida. So we hope that conditions cool a little in the next couple of weeks before we return there, although we have little to complain about concerning the climate during our eight months in the northern hemisphere. Since we are returning to New Zealand for a second summer there, we seem to be living the dream of an endless summer.