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For Laurie's second week on the job, she went to San Francisco for 5 days to teach a Windows 2000 class. What a lovely city! Her hotel was in Chinatown, and she spent the time after class exploring the shops and restaurants there, as well as the Museum of Modern Art and Union Square. Eric drove up to join her on Wednesday, and together we rode one of the old streetcars to Fisherman's Wharf. Yes, there really are advertisements for Rice-a-Roney on them! We walked around the wharf and Pier 39, where we saw the sea lions swimming, playing, and sleeping on floating platforms. On Thursday we had some awesome Dim-Sum in Chinatown, and then took a 49-mile driving tour of the city which provided us with some terrific views, including the Golden Gate Bridge, the crookedest street in the world, Candlestick Park, and Twin Peaks. We hope to return to San Francisco when we can see it during the day! |
| The weeks leading up to Christmas were busy as we settled into our apartment, shopping for furniture and other necessities. As Christmas grew near, however, we grew more and more homesick. |   |
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As we called our families that weekend before Christmas, we realized just how much we missed being with them for the holidays. It just didn't feel like Christmas without those family gatherings. The Christmas spirit finally came to us as we attended church for a Christmas
Eve service. The beautifully decorated sanctuary, friendly people, and
joyous music filled us with warmth and excitement for the holiday. So
when Christmas morning came, we opened our gifts with thankful hearts...and
then went for a dip in the hot tub! We decided this is going to become
a new Christmas tradition for us! It was a beautiful day with temperatures
in the mid-70's. We had Christmas dinner with Lisa, Colin, and other friends
in LA at Lisa's house that evening. |
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Mark
was our very first guest at the "Hotel Flenner." We picked him up
from LAX on Tuesday the 26th and he stayed through the New Year. While he was
here, we ventured into many of the touristy areas of LA, including Hollywood,
Venice Beach, the Santa Monica Pier, and Mulholland Drive. Our favorite experience
was the 2 days we spent on Catalina Island, off the coast of CA. We took a boat
over and spent the first day exploring the little town of Avalon which used
to be a kind of resort to the rich & famous. We went through a museum that
told us about the history of the island, and then found the campsite where we
would be staying for the night. Once we settled in there, we hiked through the
mountains on the island overlooking Avalon and went back into town for dinner
and drinks.
That
night at the campsite, we realized we had underestimated hold cold it would
get at night. We froze in our tent and didn't get much sleep that night, but
the specacular view of the stars made up for it- it was just like being in a
planetarium! On our second day we did some shopping, since a very thick fog
had rolled in and made it useless to try much of anything else. When the fog
did clear, we rented wetsuits and snorkelling equipment and had a wonderful
first-time experience snorkelling just off the shore of the island. The fish
and undersea plantlife were amazing to see in the very clear water. We could
see clear to the ocean floor (about 70 feet down)!
Pics of Marky's visit here!
More snorkelling pictures here!
