Off to the other coast and the trip home.

My Friend Masai

And my bay area home Berkeley

I always feel much smarter when I am hanging out in the halls a academia.

Pretty sweet spot to be hanging out - I love it! (In the Winter)

Just a few more stops left on this sojourn. Well, actually more than a few but I am close to beginning the homeward bound leg of this journey. I planned to bide my time in Berkeley for a few days then head to Atascadero, Ca and spend some time helping my brother and sis in law prepare for the wedding of their first born. I may just make the rest of this journal a photo essay, so here are the destinations and events left for me to journal.  Atascadero, hanging with my bro, San Louis Obispo, Jessica and Kyles wedding. San Jose with my brother and sister to visit Amalia a housekeeper/helper/nanny in our lives when we were young, then a marathon ride with Shay and friends returning from a two day Disneyland adventure, Time in Oregon with Shay and Rob and Family, then time in Seattle and Tacoma, leaving only a 7 hour drive for me to be back home in Idaho.

This is my brother Steve's house in Atescadero

Note the tree. That big half of the tree fell on the garage (didn't damage the garage) and Steven jacked it back, bolted it together.  Look at the next picture

Note, the added support going up through the roof down through the wall of the garage

My sister Kathy celebrated the big 7 ---0---

That's a lot of candles Kathy, you definitely need help with that!

 My bro, walking his daughter down the aisle. 

I remember that walk for me and when it was time to give my little girl away it was not easy.
note: Credit for these nice wedding pictures (5 below here) go to my Niece Sarah - Great Photographer!

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I really would love to hear my brothers last words of fatherly advice here.

It put a grin on Jessica's face

 The beautiful newlyweds  Kyle and Jessica

 You may kiss the bride!

And now it's time to PARTY!

 Left to right, me, Tenley, Shay, Jenica, and another Disneyland bound friend I've forgotten her name

Accursio, me, Corinne and the undisputed charmer of the event Alessandro

            

 Cash dancing with his mom

 I heard expression – dancing fools 

No offense Caslers but I think we gave new meaning to that expression 

See below

I won't name any names, and you will notice there's no pictures of me here

 Above the picture booth we built on a trial run (everybody sober)

Below (not so sober at the wedding party)

Left to right: Reese, Steve, Steve and Kathleen 

I don't think I explained yet, about the Disneyland trip that was planned in conjunction with the wedding. Shay had this planned a long time ago and her and a group of her lady friends and both her kids went down to Disneyland after the wedding this is them saying goodbye we're off to Disneyland!
They met up with one other lady at Disneyland and one other kid and had a great time.
After this they picked me up on the way north and we had a marathon drive back to Oregon.

This was a heart wrenching day. While and the kids were Disneyland me and my brother and three sisters drove up to San Jose to visit with Amalia. Amalia was like a nanny to us and we haven't seen her in many many years. 

It was sad for me because I realized that I missed my chance to reconnect with her while she was still cognisant and I won't get that time back.

Shay and Rob's house I'm Molalla Oregon now.

Tenley

Tenley flexing her "cute" muscles

 Shay, Jenica and Tenley (below)

 I'm always grateful for time I have with my family and I always find an excuse to celebrate. 

We had a faux Thanksgiving and it was great fun.

The guys did the cooking, and the kids set the table.  

Well, that's not exactly a turkey Rob is carving, but we pretended.

Jenica is playing basketball now so we were shooting some hoops together.

 Picture may be sideways – but it was a fair and square basket. Yeah Jenica!

Goodbye Oregon and hello Washington. I took the Amtrak train to Seattle got my car and then went down to Tacoma hangout with my other family.

Rhianna, Joshua, Kayla, and Egan.

 More playtime in Tacoma!

 Kayla and I had a date we went to McDonald's Playland together.

 It was a quick visit, I got a little bit of work done, and a lot of playing but I was Jonesing to be back home so I'm on the road to Idaho now

Snow on Snoqualmie Pass

Snow at Hyak too. A little point of pride here, that overhead reader (you can't read it) was put there by my son-in-law Joshua. I'm a proud daddy in law.

 He ran the electric crew on the pass for two or three summers when they were doing highway improvement.

The Longbridge - Getting close to home!

Nice sunset on the way out of the supermarket and heading on the last leg home!

Warren Island  (closer)

6 inches of brand-new snow welcoming me home!

The angel windvane is pointing South, I don't know is that a harbinger of trips to come. 

I'm glad to be home now. However I'll be heading out again in a few months.

I'm back home now, and writing this in postscript fashion. I have loved this journaling process and now I'm in that transition stage of being at home and not thinking about travel journaling. I'm thinking about playing music, producing my podcast, hooking up with friends and celebratingThanksgiving.
Speaking of celebrating, and Thanksgiving, that's something I think we should do every day of the year.

 Are you in?

Please stay in touch, I love hearing from you!