Recreating photo albums

Our old photo albums are coming apart. Not only that, but the photos are discolored. Starting with a request from Claire several years ago, for photos from her childhood, I've been scanning the old photos. It was time to do the first album that dated from before the kids. That became two new printed albums and I've just finished compiling the third, which include the first few years of the children. I'll try to finish the others over the next few months, but it might take more time. I like the new albums, although maybe I should have chosen a smaller size.. The albums I've made from our more recent trips are A4 and these new albums are almost A3.
The project of scanning my mother's old letters has gotten side-tracked in the mean time.

On the way home

We're waiting at the airport for our plane to load. I didn't manage to see everyone I had on my list, but when we got to L.A. on Thursday, we went to the L.A. County Museum of Art for a short visit and Michael G. came with his friend L, so I got to meet her. I hadn't seen Michael since before his wife suddenly passed away. I had seen them both at the library for a movie night. I have become a fan of his books and have all four that have been published so far. I had originally planned to meet up with another high school mate in the evening, but she ended up with some appointments that made it too complicated. When we stopped for a night a San Simeon, on Tuesday, I had time for a nice long phone call with her, so that made up for not meeting her.
Yesterday, Friday, we went down to San Diego and went over to Terry and Roger's for the afternoon. Emma had dinner with a friend, but she was able to spend some time with us before she took off. It was a great visit and they treated me to a wonderful meal at a restaurant not far from their house, in Balboa Park before they took me back to the hotel.
Today, back to L.A. with a visit with the Giesbergs. I'm sorry Dan had had to go away on business but I got to see Dick, Carol, and Susan and her family. We had a fine afternoon.
Our flight is delayed an hour. I've had time to load up the last of my pictures. For some odd reason, I'm not able to upload one or two to this post. For those who know me, get in touch with me directly if you want the link to the album. I'm sure that by tomorrow, I'll have a decent connection.

A Full House

Oh dear, this is from the beginning of September! I just noticed it was still in "draft" mode and not published. So, sorry to interrupt the trip story, but here's some family stuff.
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Last weekend we had a full house. Friday evening we went out for our annual dinner with the Lebelles home for the summer from China. It was about time because P-F had to return on the Saturday overnight flight back and the rest of the family followed on Sunday. It's also become a bit of a tradition to have these dinners at Chez Clément, a chain that has nice spaces for parties of around 10. This time there were 9 of us at the table and Sacha parked nearby where we could all admire him. It's always great to catch up. The food is nothing to get excited about; we can count on it being decent; the profiteroles are good.
During the day, that Friday, I made some banana bread to get rid of some overripe bananas and froze it. I also made the birthday cake for Sunday and froze the two parts so that all I would have to do on Sunday was the frosting. I bought a lot of food at the market and there was no room in the refrigerator for anything more. I put the chicken into a bag with the marinade for Sunday.
On Saturday morning I made some tuna salad and some egg salad and put out some ham and cheese with a loaf of sandwich bread, something we hardly ever have around here. The invasion occurred at about 1:30 p.m. -- Geoff and Claire with Aurelia and Charlotte and Valérie with Noah and Daniel, although that's not how the kids were distributed in the cars. After having their sandwiches, they all went off on bikes to meet up with friends in the Bois de Vincennes and came back just in time to give the kids a bath and have dinner. The kids were exhausted and went to bed with no problem.
Sunday morning I had to go back to the market to get some more last-minute stuff and Louis, Gwen, and Sacha came before noon and Anne followed. I let the cake thaw and then made the frosting and frosted it. I managed to rearrange things in the refrigerator to put the cake in. Louis manned the barbecue and we were able to eat outside. The kids played in the yard and we managed to spend the whole afternoon outside. Emma and Gabriel arrived from Ginals, where they will be settling some time in the first half of 2013, just as we were finishing up lunch, before the cake, so with them, we had a full house until the Parisians left.
Monday morning, the English group left early to catch the shuttle. Emma accompanied Gabriel to the train station and it was back to just the two of us and a lot of laundry.

Yesterday, Paul and I got to babysit Sacha the whole day. I'll put up the August pictures on Picasa.

Short vacation in California

Most of you know this by now: Emma won a week-long trip to California some time ago and chose to go now, end of September-beginning of October and asked me to accompany her. It's a really short trip, with lots to do and people to see.

We arrived in San Francisco last Saturday afternoon and got to the Hotel Vertigo just as night was coming. Good thing because all we wanted to do was sleep. That meant we got up very early on Sunday morning and waited patiently until just after 6:30 and set out to find a bank ATM and breakfast. The hotel is on Sutter, Nob Hill, and we found Lori's diner open at Sutter and Powell, where we had breakfast. From there we continued over a block to Post and Union Square, quite deserted at 7:30 on a Sunday morning. Down Post to Market, Financial District. So we took Montgomery and then saw that it was a rather steep climb up Telegraph Hill, so we took Pine up to Grant and walked through a charming, sleeping Chinatown, so different from what you usually see with tourists swarming all over the place. Anyway, we continued on Grant all the way to Fisherman's Wharf and walked around there a bit until we walked back up Powell, with a slight detour at the end, to Sutter and back to the hotel. That was about 5.5 miles (8.7 km.) and it was just after 9!

Emma had a friend pick her up and at elevenish, Psylvia picked me up and took me, first, on a little hike to the beach and then on to her house. We talked and talked, and talked some more. And we walked. It's a beautiful walk, Tennessee Valley! And it was hot! She lives in Fairfax, up on the side of a hill (her vegetable garden looked like it was three flights of stairs below the deck!) on a two-way, one-lane winding road -- beautiful and shady. Although it was really hot out, the house was comfortable. Paula managed to come -- a four-hour drive in from Nevada, where she's been working on a voter-registration campaign! Rachel, unfortunately, was not able to come down from her place as she had hoped to. A baby decided it was time and a midwife can't ask the mother to put it on hold! She did manage to call when we were all together, so that was nice. It was all too short because just after 5, Psyl and Paula drove me over to catch a bus back to the city. Pablo, Psyl's husband sent me off with a supply of books. (Today, I finished the first one and traded it with a British lady at the pool at the hotel, who had just finished the book she was reading...). Pablo was very much like Paul in his patience with all the gabbing going and and took pictures of the three of us high school friends together.

I got back to the hotel just before 7 and Emma got back at about 7:30. She, too, had gone to the Pacific, a bit higher up on the peninsula! They drove through Fairfax on their way back. If only we had known, they could have picked me up! We went to a Thai restaurant, Lers Ros, that Psylvia had recommended and just a couple of blocks from the hotel. And it was well-recommended. There was quite a crowd, so we had to wait a bit for the second seating and it looked like there was going to be a third sitting when we saw the people waiting as we left.

On Monday, yesterday, we got up early again, but we had picked up some bagels, cream cheese and yogurt on our way back from the restaurant, so we had breakfast in the room and headed down to the Embarcadero and then to the rental car agency, where we had to wait forever. We finally got the car and picked up our bags at the hotel (by the way, it's a fine hotel, very comfortable and with a very friendly and helpful staff) and headed off for Monterey. We drove through the park, past the conservatory and I took a picture. This will go with the one I took in 1967! Scenic coastal CA 1 all the way to Monterey. We stopped for a light lunch at a taqueria -- excellent and cheap. I hiked to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which got top scores in the guide book we had. They do great work and you pay for it. There's got to be a better balance between research and entertainment. It costs a fortune to visit. I can't imagine a family visit. Emma hadn't been tempted and went on a walk on her own and found me at the exit of the aquarium. We walked back to the fisherman's wharf, where, you are told, you must try the clam chowder. Well, every restaurant was giving out samples of its clam chowder, so after a few samples, you've had dinner!

Today was the drive from Monterey to San Simeon. It's a beautiful drive. One minute you're along the ocean, the next in a redwood forest or a eucalyptus grove. It's a windy road, so, although, this is not where I would have chosen to stop (there's nothing but the Hearst Castle to visit), it's nice to have the time to relax by the pool, read, and now, do some blogging. We're going to go down to the next town for dinner, soon. I was going to see another high school mate in L.A., but she's not going to be able to meet me after all, so we had a nice chat while I was at the pool. That was good.