BumpaStuff

More Fambly Fotogs

2007-08-15T15:08:00.000-06:00

Sasha loved running around after Butter kitty (who was very tolerant of getting his fluffy tail pulled too hard).This little girl loves seeing photos on the blogs and especially funny videos...
She's a natural flower girl.
Happy times for Bumpa and Ali
And we all enjoyed Ali's lady friend, Ilka. She'll back now working long hours as a doc in ER at a hospital very near her home in Point St. Lucie, F. (She lives in the same area where Ali has his house.)
This flower, from the Ginger family, also grows in our back yard. (The shot of this one was taken at Zoo Ave, but we have a huge, glass vase at home bought precisely to hold these gems when they bloom.)

A Month of Family Adventures

2007-08-13T15:59:00.000-06:00

Sasha loved the tall flowers in the garden...and to hold Ela (who was more interested in eating fur)...
...and receiving lil' kisses
So, there has been so much happening over the past couple of months that it will be way too lengthy to describe. I'll let the following fotogs suffice to bring you all up to date on the Costa Rican family reunion.
First to arrive was Aria and her daughter, Sasha, followed by Colin, Britt and the boys, then Ali and his lady friend, Ilka. Everybody packed up their stuff and we caravaned down to our favorite Pacific Beach community of Manual Antonio, where we hung out for the weekend.

Unfortunately, Lisa, Eddie and Mariana and Anisa couldn't be here, but we'll include some pictures of them as if they had... (also, Ilka arrived later then Ali, and some folks had already left by then...)
Here's a shot of the first get-together... (This is a rare occasion for sure!)

Then, when Ilka arrived, and Britt and the boys were still here, we had a great visit at the Waterfall Gardens
Here's Isaiah with a handfull of flutterbys!
Isaiah was so sweet and gentle with the babies. Here's lil' Ela and Sasha getting all his attention.
Ali speculating on a morpho

Anniversary (continued)

2007-07-23T19:52:00.001-06:00

After checking out all the details of our cottage we broke open our special anniversary gift basket which David and Gianni had prepared for us. It contained some sparkling cider (as close as we want to get to champaign), some great cheezes and a box of delicious chocolates. There were also some fragrant candles which we placed by our porch jacuzzi bath after dinner.

So nice to just relax and have nothing in particular to do but enjoy each other's exclusive company!In front of the fireplace just before dinner...
and the luxurious dining area!The next morning we enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast and being surrounded by all sorts of birds and early morning clouds over the primary forest below.

Check out the new Bird Sanctuary:

There's a whole new display of flutterbys,moths,and weird bugs just outside the new bird sanctuary

Then we investigated the pool area which is open only to the Peace Lodge guests. Here's one of hundreds of artificial stone structures found around the area.And you can choose either hot or cold pools. This is one of the hot onesOf course Julie enjoys the snap of the cold one. Me? No way!!
More to come...

Thirtieth Wedding Anniversary!

2007-07-20T21:30:00.000-06:00

Sorry again for all of you who are continually checkin up on the blog and seeing nada!

I've been up to my neck in home inspection work (thank God for that!) plus we're moving all the tools out of the old shop area to a brand new bodega (our old location for the compost shed). So there are workers all over the place and practically the whole family arriving over the next few days as well, which means a lot of preparation for that.

So, them's my eggscuces for the lag in updates.

But I can't hold off any longer in sharing the latest McKinney celebration: our 30th wedding anniversary! We decided to do another once-in-a-lifetime thing and spend a night and a day at our favorite Costa Rican spot, the Waterfall Garden's Peace Lodge. We watched it go up over the years 'til it's now 18 units (in 5 buildings) and always wondered what it would be like to live is sheer luxury for a day! This is the first installment of photos--more to come later...
The lady and I (at home still):
Here's the type of building we were in. (Just to show the outside style and the stonework.)Here's our personalized room. Check out our own sign!The canopy bed and the rocking love seat in front of the fireplace:
Julie loved the stonework, woodwork and metal work everywhere. Each room is named after a particular flutterby. Ours was the Heliconius Erata (see some in the glass case on the mantle). The hand-painted sinks with gold plated hardware, stained glass, wood galore!Here's the entry door to the waterfall shower stall. (You can have hot water pour down over you by the falls or switch to a regular shower nozzle.) "You takes yo pick and pays yo price"
It's way past bedtime and we have a big day tomorrow. I'll post again when I can.

Aria and Sasha Arrive for a Visit

2007-07-14T18:06:00.000-06:00

The first of the family has begun to arrive. Aria and Sasha have been here for a few days while James is off on a great adventure with his Boston College class exploring some caves in Mexico.

Of course Mima is in Grandma heaven again with both Sasha and Ela so close!

Here's lil' Sashita having a terrific time harassing Butter Kitty.

... enjoying the early crisp early morning air on the tree swing...
Lil' Sasha Two Shoes! Ain't she Keeeuyuute!Check out this little video clip of Sasha and Mima listening to a great singing group we just discovered.

They're called Natural 7 (in this case they are accompanying Sarah Connors on her great song "Music is the Key"

Sons and Grand Daughters...

2007-07-08T17:06:00.000-06:00

David and Ela come over practically every morning to sun themselves out on the porch (while Mom, Gianni, sleeps in). Here's a shot of the two.

Ela's really starting to get a little chubby and more alert every day. She's only a little over one month old.

Visitors Keep Streaming Through...

2007-07-01T11:49:00.000-06:00

A few months ago Jenn Scharf was living with us in the apartment downstairs while studying at the nearby University for Peace. Then, while we were traveling around the States, she went home to Canada. Now she's back again to finish up her thesis (in Peace Education) and spent a few days visiting us. She's moved to another part of town now to house sit.

It was great having her back!

Here's a couple of shots with Jaleh, the new pumpy, Barney, and Sassy the kitty:

We also enjoyed a surprise visit from Karen (previously Thurber), her adopted daughter, Alicia, and her husband, John Hines. This is a first for John, who is on vacation from his teaching job in Utah.
Alicia is Costa Rican and was adopted when she was a tiny baby. She left with the Thurbers (we knew Karen, who worked for awhile in the Continental Office with Counselor, Ruth Pringle, and Kingsly when he was working with Jimmy Seals as a recording guru) when she was only one year old! So, the purpose of this visit to CR was to see if it might be possible to find Alicia's biological family, which she has always been promised would be attempted.

The first day here they were amazed to discover that the 17 year old records were still neatly filed away at the Patronato (Child Welfare) office in Alajuela, plus people working in the office actually knew the wherabouts of Alicia's family who live nearby. So, there was a tearful, but joyous, meeting of her mother and half-sister and others very soon after they got here.

Now, they're off to visit more family members in the northern part of the country and to have a couple of days at the beach. Then they all return to Utah.
We hope that Alicia will return sometime soon and hang out with us as well as to polish up her very weak Spanish! Thanks for the visit, guys!

They're Off For Great Adventures!

2007-07-01T11:34:00.000-06:00

We had a happy goodbye dinner at our newest restaurant find, El Aguacate. This place is on the old road to Piedades (used to the be main highway from Santa Ana before the "Pista" was built).

The dinner was in honor of Dick and Brenda's journey to visit family in Texas (that would be South America--get it?) during Dick's school vacation time. Plus to wish Anne and Parviz Ighani a farewell too. They are on their way to Uganda to help Linda Godwin with her annual International Service Project. The trip will take them to Dubai enroute, where they'll spend the night in one of those fancy world-renown hotels (without the outrageous expense--they got a deal).

We'll be waiting to hear from both families about their adventures on their return...

Youth at the Feast

2007-07-01T11:14:00.000-06:00

We want to show the world our great team of Baha'i youth! This is part of the gang at our house for the last 19 Day Feast celebration. We had a great consultation with these kids about their plans to organize and work in groups with music (hand-made instruments such as the Digeridoo and bongos, etc.) and art based themes. They're really fired up!

On the left with the dreads is Dorian, his brother, Ferisdani Morales, Ronny Matamoros, Geremy and Charloth Morales, Diego "Hoopa" Cascante, and Gerald Morales. (Margie Diaz is with her back to the camera.)

Settling in at Home at Last

2007-06-17T18:39:00.001-06:00

What a real joy it is to watch a new family unfold and the old family expand!

Here's tiny Ela getting to know Bumpa and Mima...and visa versa.

Surprise...We Have a New Grandson!

2007-06-14T14:04:00.000-06:00

Yep, here he is, Barney McKinney the second! We just got him this morning. He's an auburn-colored purebred Labrador. (The color's not too evident, but he's rare.) So, we decided to name him after our first and favorite, Barney. Hopefully, with careful training, he'll be as fun as old Barney was. (Fearless, great watchdog, smart and obedient.) He has a nice pink tongue and bad breath and when you pick him up he grunts, like all healthy pumpies...

The other folks, of course, are Gianni, with lil' Ela, and Mima Grandma...

Last Leg of the Trip-Albuquerque!

2007-06-14T14:02:00.000-06:00

After an overnight by train from LA to Albuquerque, Aria and Sasha met us at the station and we drove to her house. As you can see, Mima is in Grandma heaven!
We were anxious to see how Julie's typical Costa Rican dresses would fit on Mariana and Anisa. They were perfect! These girls, (especially Mariana--see video below) love to show off.
Here's Mariani showing us some of her latest moves. (She's taking ballet lessons, of course).
...and more moves. This girl never stops. What energy!
Daddy James, showing off some of Sasha's adventures on the camera video feature.

We took many walks around the Pyburn's neighborhood. (Now the house is for sale and they've moved to Boston!)
The Mirkoviches and Caldwells all showed up at Aria and James' place so we captured them all in a rare photo. (That's Glenda in the middle of the couch with her little Felipe. They are visiting Violeta and Philip for a month or so from Honduras.)
James' mom, Patti, comes over a lot to hang out. Now that James, Aria and Sasha are in Boston she and her husband, Pat, are trying to work out a travel plan to visit.We bounced back and forth from family to family all during our stay. Here, with Glenda, Felipe and Violeta (with James in the background). Anisa was getting a hand slurp from Felipe, with Lisa looking on...Mari grins with her pink cheeks and Tia (auntie):
Another couch gang. This time at Philip and Violeta's place.Anisa and Mariana with little cousin, Celeste, on their new bunk beds
The three of them were showing off their Halloween finery:And I'm glad I was able to catch this little scene of Mariana's coquetry...she's something!

This is a shot taken at a Baha'i celebration at the Baha'i Center in Albuquerque. On the left is Patrik Nkoaga (from Cameroon--Carolina's husband), and a new friend, Jim Warrior, who just moved to ABQ.

Another LA Connection

2007-06-12T09:12:00.000-06:00

Besides our fun day touring Julie's old digs in the City, Tony Schmitz and I were able to tour Andy DelCampo's jet engine parts factory near LA. Andy is an Aerospace Engineer who has a cushy job which he loves, and he invited us to see all the amazing equipment which makes reality out of the Blueprint designs he works on. This is high precision stuff--and massive!

The day we were able to go was a day off for the workers, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to make the tour. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any photos because some of the jet engine parts are on order from the U.S. Government.

We were amazed to see huge ovens which heat up the Tungsten steel ingots to thousands of degrees, and giant hydraulic presses which apply 8000 tons of force to punch the steel into flared conical shapes. Some of these parts are about a meter across when they're finished.

We donned hard hats and toured even the bilge areas beneath the machines to view the hydraulic systems and giant pumps, pipes and electronic controls. Thanks, Andy, for a great and interesting tour!

Then, on our last day in the area, we had a few hours to visit our friends, Kathleen and Grant Neie, who came down to CR to visit a few months ago. Kathleen (previously Stone) used to live in CR and is close to Kitty and Tony Schmitz. We just met Grant recently (see CR post on his great Boogie Board). He's been a surfer most of his life and is also a collector of cars.

Here's Julie being greeted by one of their doggies:and Kathleen making us some tea...
And Grant's neat toys: The oldie is a 1927 Buick! The sportster is one of the original Mini (Morris) Coopers which are now being built by BMW. Grant noted that I'm a car fan and let me drive the Mini around town for awhile. Cool machine! He also offered to let me drive the old Buick, but I remember my 1931 Model-A Ford and suspect that this jobbie would be even a bit more difficult to drive that that one. It has a hand-operated spark advance and gravity-fed fuel tank, etc. Thanks Grant for the great tour! Kathleen and Grant were great hosts. (I even got a Reiki treatment from Grant, who is a nurse by profession.)

New Post is below (Out of order)

2007-06-12T09:10:00.000-06:00

Note that the post on our LA visit appears below (scroll down) because I had been working on it much earlier and had saved it as draft, so when I finally posted it it showed up out of order.

Back to the California History

2007-06-04T18:11:00.000-06:00

Backing up a bit (I had to order up my photos which are into the hundreds now!) we spent a very important family day with the Lerner family who live just South of San Francisco.

Ken and Leslie are precious friends and they were able to organize a family get-together in our honor. Ken's wife, Lauri, and his son, Aaron, were there, plus their lively mom, Shirley, their sister, Carol, along with Carol's son Daniel. (Daniel came to visit us in Costa Rica a couple of years ago.)

Here's Mom, Shirley, with Leslie working on the stove.
Ken and his son, Aaron are unforgettable characters. If you need comedians, they're at your disposition...
Not to forget, Quincy, Ken's constant companion on his daily health walks (he's the pooch receiving the smooch).
Julie and Daniel in a moment of dialog...
All at dinner. (Lauri is next to Ken and Carol next to her.)
A man of endless talent, Ken entertained on the piano (he plays guitar also--both completely by ear--he sometimes uses his fingers as well)...While the Bumpa and Mima enjoyed the peacefull melodies...

Back in Costa Rica

2007-06-03T07:48:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone...

I know you're wondering what's up with the posts! Sorry, about that. As soon as we arrived home we flashed over to David and Gianni's to see Ela in real time! From there we've been unloading --not only the stuff from our suitcases but from our saturated brains from such a full and adventuresome journey for almost two months!

Then fixing broken lights, leaky showers, changing burned out bulbs and fixing roof leaks, and generally getting back in the groove of life around here.

Plus we've had a number of treasured guests who want to hear all the details of our adventures.

Now I'm off to the Sunday devotional gathering this morning. I'll get the pictures organized and bring the blog up to date as soon as possible, so please hang in there with patience!

Angels Near the City

2007-05-29T19:07:00.000-06:00

Kitty and Tony Schmitz, who were once our nearby neighbors in Costa Rica are now living in Manhattan Beach, Cal. We stayed a couple of days with them on the next-to-last leg of our journey. Kitty's mom, "Babs", bought this house ages ago and now the area is super exclusive.

Tony is your magnificent Cajun cook, and can whip up a Gumbo like you've never enjoyed!
They invited a bunch of old friends over including Lua and Andy DelCampo, whom we've known since they were little, from Costa Rica, a friend of Tony's from work (as an agricultural inspector for Immigration at the airport) and Nick and Emily Brown (we know Nick's parents also from Costa Rica days).
Later, Barbara Marino showed up after a long drive to join us for dinner. She's sitting next to Lua and me. It was great seeing all these people who we've been out of touch with for so many years.Kitty and Babs offered to take us into LA to see if we could trace Julie's old digs there. We didn't expect to find much after a forty year absence, but we were surprised! Here we're enjoying coffee and doughnuts on the way.We saw some famous landmarks: Julie was delighted to find the theater where she used to sell tickets as a teenager!And even her old Highschool was intact:She's a big girl now. Can't you just imagine her carrying her books to school?An even greater surprise for her was to discover that her old house in LA was still intact! The pretty front lawns have been paved over for parking and the trees gone, but it's the same house.
After Julie had her time of nostalgia, locating her girlfriend's place across the street, etc. we went out to a Mexican Food place for lunch. Right across the street was this pink building with a very cool T-Bird parked in front.On the way back home we wanted to stop by to see the LA Baha'i Center.Inside the Center we toured the theater area and offices and meeting halls and finally the library. We also met a Costa Rican fellow who is Gonzalo Moreno's brother. He's been there working as a maintenance person and handyman/guard for a number of years.

Last Northern Cal. Visit and Heading South

2007-05-29T08:58:00.000-06:00

We were able to squeeze in a short visit with my dear friends, Anne and John Lewis, who live very near my sister Flinn's place. Anne is Susie Hunolt's sister and we've known each other since the 60's.

We got a kick out of the talking tree in their front yard!
Another favorite spot on the California Coast is Big Sur. We decided to continue driving down the Coast highway as far as Carmel in order to see where I lived when my father and mother were still married. I must have been about 5, but clearly remember the wonders of this area. Just above Big Sur we happened to see some sculpture that I recognized as being the work of Tom Hunolt's brother, Jim, so we stopped in at the studio. It turned out that this place just exhibits his stuff. He lives nearby, but wasn't at home, unfortunately.We were attracted by some wooden items there (not Jim's work...I'm not sure which things were his, except for a sculpture in marble outdoors). Check out this burl carving!And Julie loved this music box which had a very nice tone when struck with the stick.I had to snap a shot of a seal which someone had taken a picture of and framed:And here's a view of the Sur Coast. Every time I smell the kind of sage that grows here it brings back those early memories. We picked some sprigs of it and have dried it for the trip home.If you zoom in you can spot the seal lions on the rocks below......or, check them out by the hundreds on the beach which we came to later on! These guys have been protected for so many years that now they are abundant all up and down this part of the Coast.We stopped in Carmel-By-The-Sea to eat our packed snacks, and found this very nice sculpture on a bench nearby.

At Flinn and John's

2007-05-26T12:40:00.000-06:00

At last we pulled into Novato, Cal. to visit my sister, Flinn, and husband, John. Flinn's great at organizing get-togethers, but we messed up a few with all our travel date changes. In spite of that she succeeded in rounding up a bunch of the Moores for dinner. Present was her daddy, Dick; brother, Tony with his daughter, Kirsten; brother Aaron and wife, Denise. Flinn and John's son, Dan, and his two children, Demetrius and Genevieve, were there in the afternoon hanging out.
Here's Kirsten with John.Dick Moore, is my step-daddy as well. Here with John checking out the ingredients of something that looks like salad lotion. OK then, dressing.Julie was going over some educational material with "Genebee" & "Demitri"
Here's Dan, her daddy.
He's a Yoga instructor who really gets a workout from his daughter!
We went out to the wetland marsh area for a walk with Flinn on a crisp morning....being very careful to avoid the Poison Oak!! (It was everywhere along the trail.)
Julie got another dose of fabulous flowers on this trip....and got to squeeze some Redwood bark. Such a delightful tree!Then, we had an afternoon to hang out with Daddy Dick at a retirement home, which is in much demand, called The Redwoods. (Hey, kids, you can send me there anytime--what a cool place!)

Actually, there's a huge waiting list to get in...

Duncan's Mills

2007-05-26T09:34:00.000-06:00

After Stillwater, we drove along the Russian River to another of my childhood homes, Duncan's Mills. In the late 40's the population was 20. Interestingly, the old DeCarly's General Store is still the same as it was in those days! The only significant difference is that there used to be one of those old gravity-feed gas pumps out front. I remember how the gallons were indicated on the clear glass bottle at the top and you had to hand-pump it up with a long lever and then feed the hose to your car.

The little kids in town used to hang out in front of the store for the arrival of the Potato Chip truck (always hoping that the driver would find a broken bag which he would share with us all--amazingly, there was almost always a broken bag found inside the truck!).Even the inside of the store is pretty much the same, except they had large barrels of fruits, grains and a peanut butter bin. Check the old floor boards!
The original road wound around past an apple orchard where we lived. I used to catch grasshoppers and crawfish babies to sell to the passing fishermen for bait. Now the road is blocked off with a fence.
This is likely the house we used to live in!And this is definitely the one-room school I went to in the first grade. I even remember my teacher, Mrs. Wolfe, who I thought was very old since she had white hair, but she was very sweet and used to invite me on the weekend to her home in Jenner.

Stillwater Cove

2007-05-26T09:15:00.000-06:00

After sadly leaving the Hunolts, we continued down my favorite part of the Coast, from Pt. Arena to Jenner-by-the Sea.

When I was about 11-12 years old I attended a ranch school called Stillwater Cove, which is very near the historic Russian Ft. Ross. The classes were held in small groups by grade, with 45 minutes on and 45 minutes off. During the off hours we had chores like stocking up on firewood for the large fireplaces, milking cows and tending to the horses, keeping the dorms clean, etc. On the weekends we were free to explore the large property or hike up the creek to fish for trout. It was truly a great place for a kid to grow up.

Now this property is operating as an Inn, apparently. We weren't able to find anyone to speak with, so we just wandered around the front and took photos. Here's what used to serve as the main bunkhouse and dining hall/kitchen building:On closer inspection I noticed that the peacocks we used to know are still around. They must have evolved into a huge family after all these years. They are wild and are all over the place. I'll never forget the loud calls they make during the day, plus the beautiful displays the males fan out for the females. We used to pick up dozens of feathers during molting season and decorated the rooms with them.Check it out on the video:

More California Friends

2007-05-25T18:11:00.001-06:00

On our drive down from Arcata Julie wanted to see the famous Highway 1, coastal route, so we took off toward our friend's place at Irish Beach, which is just below Point Arena.

The friends, Tom and Sue Hunolt, I've known since high school days and have maintained a connection with them over all these years. I've been to their place two or three times, the last being a couple of years ago. They were anxious to meet Julie whom they've been hearing about but never seen before now.
This is their kitty, who's name I've forgotten...
This is another kitty I spotted through the kitchen window while we were talking--a Bobcat!
As soon as I zeroed in on him with my camera he caught something large in the grass, probably a gopher.
As far back as I can remember Tom has been a car fanatic. I was too, back in our school days, and we had many a story to recount from those times. Now he's realized his dream--to have a Shelby Cobra! (Check it out on the Net, the car's pretty famous!) This one was build from a kit. Tom offered to give Julie a ride up the coast. (I got to drive it last visit. What a machine!)
See the following video to find out what happened:

Arcata Adventures

2007-05-25T16:29:00.001-06:00

Finally we arrived at Leslie Lerner's little house which is blessed with a huge Redwood tree next to it.
Leslie and Julie met many years ago near San Francisco and she's been in Arcata for a long time studying and now practicing as a phychologist here.We've been hearing about Brian from Leslie for ages. He almost came to visit us in Costa Rica, but wasn't able at the last moment. This guy is a real gem who radiates health and spirituality! We had some lovely conversations both at Leslie's and at her close friend, Chris', place the next day.
Leslie made us a great Salmon dinner, another yummy experience for us.
This is a shot of Leslie's friends, Chris and Rob who live in nearby Eureka. They spend some years in Thailand and brought back many household treasures from there over many trips.One such is this carving which was at first reluctantly sold to Rob by the carver. This is used for special ceremonies in the Buddhist temples, I understand.
We really connected with Chis. She's another real treasure! She has a great job; she's an organizer. She will put your whole house, or your closet, or your office in order based on her conversations and understandings of your needs. Come on down, Chris, my office is just waiting for your touch!They invited a huge bunch of friends over for a potluck in our honor. It wasn't easy to converse with everyone, but we did have a great time.

This is Lauri, (I think) who is a fellow phychologist and friend of Leslie's.
And, in the middle of the couch, Kit Dols, whom we knew from San Francisco in the 60's. Her husband is to her right, and on the far end is Adam Ruhf and his girlfriend, Emily. Adam came to stay with us about 14 years ago, so it was great to reconnect with him. (Poor guy was nailed by a car while he was walking down the street, so he's carrying a cane while he recovers.)This little wood stove kept everybody nice and toadsty warm on the crisp evening. The little fan on the top is a neat invention; it's powered by the heat from the stove, and speeds up as it gets hotter, pushing the heat around the room.More guests:
We stayed with Chris and Rob, since Leslie's place is way too small. Thank you so much for your hospitality. Please, guys, come to visit us in CR, OK?

Redwoods Tour

2007-05-25T15:12:00.001-06:00

Barb and Dave suggested that on our drive south we should take the short Redwood Forest detour off of the main highway. It would take us through a wonderful park with lots of trails off into the woods. Shortly after entering the park we parked the car and took some short walks through these Redwood giants. This is an area of Northern California which is truly breathtaking! The forest is so silent and we felt so reverent that we scarcely made a sound walking up the trail.
There was a large redwood burl right next to the trail which was almost like a painting in the bark.

Walking quietly was almost like a prayer. After a while we got back in the car and continued on.
Shortly after we saw a sign mentioning something about an Elk pasture nearby. I'm thinking, "sure, what are the chances of actually seeing an Elk where they say they are?" But as soon as the clearing opened up to view there was a whole herd of them!
And further up the entry road to this area there were more, and very close...
Across from this pasture was an old farmhouse and right there in the tall grass was a large Coyote hunting mice:We discovered that this road continued all the way to the beach, so we continued. Julie just wanted to walk along the beach for a little while. Someone had placed a few driftwood sticks in a pattern along the path:and she found a "Philosopher's Stone"; a bit heavy, but we're taking it home with us.
An artful arrangement made by God:

First California Stop

2007-05-23T15:01:00.000-06:00

When we let our California friend, Leslie Lerner, know that we had changed plans again and were now driving down she knew that we'd be arriving pretty late so she made arrangements for us to stay with some friends of hers about an hour's drive North. This was like a dream for us since they operate a fabulous inn right on the Klamath River!

These now new friends, Dave and Barbara Gross, are owners of a beautiful place called the Requa Inn. This place, originally founded in 1880 and later rebuilt in the early 1900's, has redwood walls and woodwork throughout, but has modern facilities. It's really like a grand old house, and we noted that all the guests acted like family there.

Barbara greeted us like we were old friends (she obviously loves Leslie like we do!) and was the most gracious host you can imagine. We slept heavenly under the softest sheets in the world (no labels--Barb, where did you get these?) and were greeted in the morning with a home-made pancake-and-eggs breakfast.
They have great old photos on the walls showing the Inn in the early days, plus so many scenes of fishermen and boats and such. This shot shows the second dining area with an old piano, guitar and mandolin, ready for any musicians who might stay here.Julie and I took a brisk hike up the road past the inn and looked out to sea. The Klamath River runs into it just past their place.Dave was so busy with the chores that I didn't get a picture of him, but we did get a chance to talk about our mutual interest in dealing with bats. He built two sets of bat houses which are fixed at either end of the building to try to keep them from roosting in the attic area. (One set can be seen in the photo above on the top right side of the building.)

Below is a picture I snapped of a poster they have at the inn. I hope that any of you who are reading this can find a way to stay there!

Heading South Toward California

2007-05-23T10:07:00.000-06:00

We discovered in Oregon that the train heading down to Redding, Cal. did not have any luggage facility in that small station so it would be impossible for us to carry all our bags. That led to the decision to get another rental car and drive down. The least expensive per-day plan was to drop it off in San Jose, Cal. Mysteriously, to drop it in San Francisco cost almost twice as much. That meant that we'd be driving from Salem, Oregon to San Jose. Because of that little divine intervention we were able to stop in Eugene, Oregon to meet Jay Sayer, the person who deepened Julie in the Faith more than 40 years ago in LA.

I've been hearing from Julie about Jay and Connie Sayer for years. She was working as a model in the clothing industry when she became a Baha'i and the Sayers lived near her home, so she used to hang out at their house whenever she was free. She hasn't seen them in all these years but found out they were living in Eugene from another friend we met in Amherst, Carol Rutstein. (We found out later from Jay that the lovely Baha'i we stayed with in Swartz Bay, Carolyn Ornatz, had learned about the faith from the Sayers when they lived in Australia. This world is verrrry small, no?)

We made a surprise call to Jay on our way down to Eugene and he immediately recognized Julie's voice. As it turns out, Connie has the start of Alzheimer's disease now and apparently didn't want her dear friend, Julie, to see her in that state, so we ended up meeting Jay nearby for coffee.

I was delighted to meet him at last, and overheard a conversation between the two for a couple of hours. I heard all about mutual friends and old times, but most importantly heard later from Julie that she felt that she had been able to touch his heart in some needy areas (before, it was the other way around).
Jay is a veteran from the entertainment industry, a communications expert, and Connie a light opera singer. I'm a bit sad that I didn't get to meet her, but he showed us some wonderful old photos of the two when they were in their heyday.

Back on the Train-Washington to Oregon

2007-05-22T17:44:00.000-06:00

We left Aunt Trudy's place by taxi, after having previously returned the rental car, and started our next-to-last train ride--this time to Oregon.

Tom Solan met us in Salem and we drove about a hour up to their home in McMinnville. Along the way I snapped a couple of shots of the scenery while we were speeding along. Here are some fields with Spring plants blooming away:
Very near their home is this very interesting Aircraft Museum which I was later able to visit on my own. It houses the famous "Spruce Goose" built by Howard Hughes and fabricated during WWII entirely out of wood. The building below was build specifically to house this monster airplane.
Here's a shot of the Solan home on a corner lot.
And Tom's work truck.
The day before we arrived Tom just finished a new patio deck roof and here's the fancy structure and fan:
Jerrible bearable, Tommer Bomber and Julie on the new patio:That evening Tom cranked up Jerri's birthday present to him, a BB-Q cooker. We had the first steaks we've eaten in ages. Go Tom--they were delicious!Shawny showed up just in time, and brought little Matias along too (see him below on the couch after he woke up from his nap).I had to have a copy of this framed photo of Tom and Matias totally zonked.
Just before we took off to continue our journey South I took a couple of hours to check out the nearby Air Museum. Here's the famous Spruce Goose. It's so large that there's no way to get the entire thing into one photo!Inside the thing is an astonishing array of unbelievable features. Since it was wartime when this craft was being built, Hughes was prohibited from using steel or rubber or aluminum due to the wartime rationing, so he made everything out of Birch! (Actually, this was apparently more flexible and lighter for such a project, so the only Spruce used was for the points where the wings attach to the fuselage.

There are an amazing number of innovations which Hughes came up with, some of which are still being incorporated in modern aircraft. One such is a complete system of fire control. The extinguishers, shown in the tail view below, are connected to all 6 engines and to virtually every part of the airplane and are controlled by valves, hoses and pipes and distributed to all critical areas.The picture below is of a nearby model showing the structure of the fuselage and application of the Birch siding.Here's another model of the complete design. For those of you who saw the movie, "Aviator", which is about Hughes' life, we saw this plane in flight (taken from actual movies from the time). I learned, however, at this show that after he made the initial taxi maneuvers with the reporters on board, he returned to the dock, dropped them off and picked up his full flight crew. They were supposed to only do some more taxiing tests, but at the last minute, as they approached the 90 mph taxi speed, Hughes instructed his hydraulics specialist (a full system of hydraulics was invented to move the rudder, ailerons and wing flaps on this plane) to drop the flaps and prepare for takeoff! To the astonishment of the spectators and film crews in nearby boats the plane took to the air and maintained a level of flight for about 1/2 mile and 25 feet off the water. When asked by reporters afterwards about the purpose of this surprise, Hughes just commented that he likes to do the unexpected.There were many other aircraft exhibited at this show. I'm including some shots below.This is the wonderfully crafted wood structure used on early planes. Check out the spring-loaded shocks on the landing gear in the next picture! This aluminum-sheeted plane was built for the Ford company and is called the Ford Tri-Motor. I got a real kick out of the beautiful wood-lined interior.This is a model, built in modern times, of Leonardo DaVinci's mechanical bird. The wings actually flap with a twisting motion like he observed real birds doing! The two ropes, connected to rings are for pulling the wings up and down.And, to my great gusto, they had a display of the operation of the crankshaft and connecting rods for a radial engine. I was always puzzled by this and dying to find out how they accomplished seven to nine pistons all running in a circle. The rods are connected to a ring which is attached to the crank-shaft lobe, with a counter-balance to offset the thrust.

Catching up with Estif!

2007-05-22T16:49:00.000-06:00

That would be pronounced "esteef". It is the way our Costa Rican friends pronounce Steve Tuell's name. Steve was the first person to turn me onto computers, and I think we were the first to exchange emails back in the 80's in Costa Rica.

He lived there for a number of years and taught some of our kids at the Country Day School.

Truly fine fellow!

Here's the front of Steve's house in Tacoma.
And catching up on a bunch of years since we last saw him.
We loved the fabulous colors of the flowers here and around Wash. State.
We enjoyed lunch in an unusual university student hangout near where he lives. They had live jazz musicians.
Then Steve took us on a tour of the area around where he lives (he grew up here as well). This is a nice suspension bridge with a second one under construction right next to it.
The boat harbor nearby was really a treat and we just hung out there in the warm sun for the afternoon before returning to my Aunt Trudy's place.Great to see you, guy!

Washington State

2007-05-22T16:09:00.000-06:00

After saying goodbye to Franny in Bellingham we rented another car so that we'd have wheels for our subsequent visits.
It was pretty sobering to see the price of gas in these parts! (I hope some of you got wind of the gas protest on May 15th. We joined in it and avoided buying any gas that day.)
The first stop was to visit my long-lost Auntie, Trudy Pemberton, on Mercer Island, WA. I was told that the last time we saw each other was in 1946! What a lovely lady she is! We were both amazed at her zeal and spunky spirit in spite of her 87 years. She lives alone, but has an aid come during the week to help out around the house. She still does all the cooking (yum!) and keeps up with her traditional daily activities (Julie was delighted to share the NY Times with her in the morning over coffee).

We viewed walls full of photographs of all the McKinney-Pemberton family and admired some heirloom furniture from the 1800's, and caught up on my ancestors. Plus, we were amazed to listen to Aunt Trudy play the grand piano in the living room!
Here's Julie and Auntie in her kitchen with a view of the photo-lined hallway:
We got a tour of the wonderful woodsy gardens below the deck, with a view of Lake Washington a couple of streets below her place.
Here's a view of the lake with Mt. Ranier in the distance:
The neihboring homes were lush with spring flowers.
We love you Auntie, and hope we can see you again. Maybe at the next family reunion?

Point Roberts-A Country of its Own

2007-05-22T11:51:00.000-06:00

After leaving, again by ferry, from Swartz Bay, we were met in Twassen, BC by Fran Taillon who kindly drove up from her home in Point Roberts. The weird thing about Pt. Roberts is that, if you look on the map to see, it is like an independent state--not physically connected to the US!
Fran and her husband, Yazdi, moved there some years ago. Due to the complications of the location, which would have meant that we would have to rent a car in Canada, drive across the US border to go to their home in Pt. Roberts, visit for a few hours and then cross the border again and make the two hour drive (crossing back into the US again!) to Bellingham, Washington. Anyway, in spite of Franny having to keep an oxygen tank & breather hookup connected to herself in the car, she was willing to meet us at the ferry dock and drive us all the way to Bellingham. The idea was that we really wanted to reconnect with each other after so many years of separation. (Yazdi was on a trip somewhere so we wouldn't have been able to see him anyway.)

We originally knew Franny in San Francisco as Fran Fernandez. (Her previous husband, Larry Jordan, was part of a team of three of us who made the first Baha'i Youth teaching project outside the US in 1965. The the third member was Phil Lucas who unfortunately died recently. We three traveled up the Alcan Highway, a thousand miles of permafrost road from Dawson, Canada to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.) Franny always had an open house and many a Baha'i Fireside was held there.

So, we had a great time during our drive and subsequent lunch in Bellingham to catch up on our histories. It was really great seeing you again, Franny, and thank you for your kindness!

Visiting the Skuces

2007-05-20T18:27:00.001-06:00

After our short visit with Anisa Skuce at her house in Victoria, BC, she drove us up to visit her parents, Bill and Houri, who live about an hour North. They were Baha'i pioneers to Costa Rica for many years and we haven't seen them for ages. Here's Julie and Bill's excited greeting:
Of course Anisa gets to see them often but the joy is always there!Houri is famous as the world's most efficient organizer and cook. She really went out of her way to prepare a fabulous Persian multi-course dinner for us. Yummy!
Carolyn Kornatz accompanied us on the trip with Anisa. She hadn't met the Skuces but had been hearing about them for a long time. She and Bill really hit it off and talked a lot about art together.And then fruit and deserts, like Persian candies, and dates and coffee and tea--endless goodies!
Bill gave us a tour of some of his artwork around the house. The portrait of Anisa below was made when she first graduated from art school.Later Bill worked as an art teacher at the Maxwell Baha'i School in BC and did a composite of some of his students as seen in the work below. Then, when he retired, Anisa took over his job.
Anisa and Carolyn had to return early while Julie and I stayed on with Bill and Houri for the rest of the afternoon. On the way back to Victoria they wanted us to see a famous Inn called the Sooke Harbour House. Part of what makes the place famous is the fabulous collection of art which the owner has placed throughout the building. Below are some of the sculptures and wall art. We spent the last evening with Herm and Carolyn Kornatz and are deeply grateful to them for their warm hospitality and kindness during our stay. Here's the last shot of us together before we caught the ferry out to Point Roberts. (See the next post for our meeting with our old friend Fran Taillon and our journey to Washington State.)

Westward Ho!

2007-05-09T12:55:00.000-06:00

From Whitefish, MT. we headed out to the West Coast and the scenery really started to change radically. We didn't know what was going on outside during the night, of course, but the morning views were pretty exciting. Here are the first of the mountain and river views we saw.

After leaving the train station by bus for Vancouver we got a dose of Seattle's culture
Then by ferry to Victoria:These ferries are really cool. They are huge! There are multiple decks and we must have seen at least thirty large trucks roll of one lower deck.One great decision we were able to make was to visit Carolyn and Herm Kornatz in Victoria, BC (well, in nearby Swartz Bay). Carolyn is Darren Spratt's mom. She was a real sweetie in arranging for us to come to stay at their home and to pick us up at the ferry.

A sign that all was very well was the rainbone that showed up where she picked us up, a beautiful harbor very near their home. Actually it's a double one!
They have a beautiful house nestled in the trees and near the water.
Carolyn is quite a talented lady. She's been working on various art projects in the past and would love to be able to dedicate more time to this in her busy schedule. Below are some sculptures she made.
Her grand daughter:Her mom with a caretaker:
A model who posed for her sculpturing class:
The next morning we went with Carolyn to visit Anisa Skuce. In passing we noticed the Victoria Baha'i Bookstore which is closed for remodelling. (One of these days maybe we'll connect with an open bookstore! This is the second time we cain't get in...)
So much Native art work in this area!
This was the highlight of the day. We haven't seen Anisa in years!She found a perfect house which is filled with light and brightness--perfect for her own reflection.
More to follow. We're just now leaving Oregon, so I'll continue later from the next best Internet hookup...

Missoula and Beyond

2007-05-09T08:41:00.000-06:00

We pulled in to Whitefish, Montana around 10 pm and there was my brother, David, standing on the platform waving at us. He had to drive about two hours from Missoula to meet us, so we had a bunch of time to catch up on all the news and family stuff on the way back down.

Since this was Julie's first trip to Montana, David was trying to describe the scenery we were passing in the dark. Later in the visit we got to see everything in it's sunlit glory.

Here's bro' Daywee with his big mountain machine and his "trail-mix" bag...
...and at a rest stop...David and Kate's house in Missoula, nestled in the trees.
and toadsty warm inside...
It was terrific seeing Caleb all grown up!One of Mom's antiques which she inherited from a friend in England:All the gang at dinnerThey have a great front porch with a view of Missoula down belowand deer grazing in their front yard and the neighbor's...
And trees galore!I took an early morning walk with Katiekins and Sharly, their doggie, who unfortunately died shortly after we left of some stomach complications.
And we all took an evening walk by the riverside.Missoula has a fabulous place called "The Good Foodstore" with every kind of food known to Gringolandia. Check out the bulk dispensers for grains and nuts! (Sure could use one of these in Costa Rica!)The last day we drove back North to catch the sights in daylight and head toward our train station again. Here's a view of the Flathead lake enroute with a rainbone poking up.and a Magpie on a sprinkler (Magpipe?) David wanted us to see an amazing decorative gateway along the road. There are a number of heavy steel eagles built in. (Ali, check out the 2 inch thick steel eagle mounted on the gate below!)
We stopped at the St. Ignatius Mission on the way to see David's first house in the area.David built this house some years ago and now rents it out. He's hoping that some day they can make some improvements on it and move back up there from Missoula.Along the way Caleb excitedly wanted to stop to see Tom Smith, a friend of the Moore's who's working with the Salish Elders at their cultural center. A tribal council was going on when we stopped by.Somehow I missed getting a shot of Tom, but here's his wife, Karin, with Julie in front of their very amazing home in the valley.Karin and Tom are so very special! We are hoping that they will be able to travel down to CR to visit one day.Below is a shot of Karin's Herbal heaven. She's an acupuncturist and has built her own office and clinic to see patients at her home.

Train to Montana

2007-05-06T19:25:00.000-06:00

We decided to go with the sleeping car again this leg of the journey...hopefully the last time we have to pay extra for such an item. We're getting too picky in our old age for sleep deprivation issues. Here's the Lady in her berth.The dining car is part of the sleeper benefits, and that led to a very interesting situation. There was a group of 20-plus youth and adults who were part of an organization called something like "The Mission" (they gave us the following website to investigate: www.missionzones.org).

We were seated on two occasions by the conductor at a table with them and had some pretty animated conversations about their work, as well as explaining the Baha'i principles to them.

Here's a shot of Paul and Sharon who are part of the group. Paul was from England and Sharon grew up in Brazil. They had some amazing stories about their lifetime commitment to the mission (which, we understand, is a continuing thing with no home-base). They travel to all parts of the world, having raised their own funds, apparently, and search for ways to serve and teach the Christian way to peoples. They were on their way to a large gathering in Seattle. They go to rock concerts, golf matches or wherever large groups of people gather.
They seem to accept the followers of all Faiths, but are primarily Christian in their orientation. We were a bit mystified by what they are up to.

Here are two more members of the group, Jana from Greece and Pandita from Brazil. We were delighted with our conversation with them but a bit surprised that they were unaware of the Baha'i Teachings. (Some had seen a message or photo of the Baha'i House of Worship in India.)The next day we still saw mostly flatlands with endless fields of grain and alfalfa (which is rolled instead of bailed these days).
At last we started seeing some of the Rocky Mountains as we approached the Glacier National Park near Missoula which was our destination.

To the Hill's

2007-05-06T17:06:00.000-06:00

After our tour with Gilberto, Faranak and Sofia at the Calatrava museum in Milwaukee we drove over to Madison to visit Kit and Xiao Yan (pronounced sort of like "Chayanne") Hill.

Kit is Marty's brother. (Marty Hill-Dehart--see on previous blogs.) I've known them since they were little kids.

Faranak and Gilberto also wanted to hook up in Madison with Justin Manners, who's Gilbe's buddy from the Baha'i World Center. Justin came out to the house to join the whole gang.

We really had a great visit and overnighted there as well. Xiao Yan and Sofia really bonded (see more on Sofia's blog about that).The weather was great while we were there and we enjoyed that first afternoon's visit on their rear deck which overlooks the valley. The Hill's doggie, Mozart, whom everyone thought looks a lot like an Ewok, can be seen in arms below.
I was hoping that Gilbe would get some good advise about his computer design business from Kit and it seems like they had some good conversations.Kit's mom, Joy, who has suffered a severe stroke, was able to join us for meals and various conversations. It's very difficult to understand her speech but we were delighted that we were able to communicate. We learned that Joy the founder of the newspaper USA Today! Here's Justin speaking with Kit in the kitchen.We were sad to leave everybody but our train was ready to catch for our trip to Montana.

To Chicago by Train!!

2007-05-01T15:10:00.000-06:00

This is the first leg of our journey by train. We started our 30 day U.S. rail pass at Springfield, Mass. and overnighted to Chicago.

We wanted to take this Northern route to be able to see states which we had not seen before, plus to enjoy the anticipated woodsy scenery and such. However, the woods were pretty barren this time of year with the leaves trying to make a return for early Spring but not yet flowering.

We were prepared, with cozy down blankets, loaned to us by Britt, and fat travel pillows to sleep in our seats on the train. However, that turned out to be a disaster (and would have been worse without the blankets--thanks Britt!). There was plenty of legroom but no comfortable position to be found for sleeping. (I ended up sleeping on the floor where there was an open space used for storing the metal stairs they use to climb onto the train, but you might imagine a very hard floor rocking back and forth with the clickety-clack of the rails below, plus the overhead lights blasting right in my eyes. It was sheer torture most of the night.)
Here's Julie finding our place on that first train.
But all was well the next day when Faranak and Sofia met us at the Chicago train station. Sofia, whom we had only known from "her" blog, had just awakened from a good nap in the car and was a little shy with us at first. She became the center of attention from then on. What a sweetie she is, and so independent! Here she is keeping her daddy, Gilberto, in tow... (Daddy Gilberto. That's a real jump for our imagination! But it's for real, folks.)
Sofia was showing off her "potty-trained" doll.
And her Tiara. Sometimes she likes to wear it upside down. She flipped it over after Julie placed it in her hair.
To our delight Lua Del Campo was visiting from college in LA to attend the youth portion of the National Baha'i Convention, and she stayed with the Medranos for the first night we were there.
The morning after our arrival we went over to the Baha'i House of Worship which is very close to the Medrano's house, but it turned out that the National Convention activities made the whole downstairs portion of the Temple inaccessible to us, which meant that we were unable to buy any Baha'i books from the bookstore as we had planned. However, we did enjoy a quiet and lovely period under this glorious dome to have prayers and reflexions.
The Temple was enshrouded in fog, as seen below. We enjoyed a very pleasant walk around the area and ended up walking all the way back to the Medrano's place, just for the fun & exercise.Later we went out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and the next day left for Milwaukee and on to visit the Hill family in Madison. Below are photos of a stop at Starbucks and dinner at the Cheesecake factory. Here's a shot of the ladies on the way.
(Note, Ali, I am using your famous camera tripod-cito to catch us all without the need to have someone holding the camera.)On the way to the Hill's place in Madison we stopped at the amazing museum in Milwaukee which was designed by the famous Architect/Engineer, Santiago Calatrava. Those "wings" actually fold down at a designated hour to cover over the glass panes. The steel cables which support the pedestrian bridge from a nearby building and higher street make very interesting patterns where they attach and fan out. Great and unusual design.
This colored blown-glass sculpture was on display in the reception area.Here's a closeup of the intricacy of the shapes.

Last days at the Ruhes

2007-04-26T16:14:00.000-06:00

Since the weather was turning fabulous we took advantage of a last day hike through a favorite woodsy path leading to an amazing marshy lake. As seen below, there was still a little snow on the ground in shady places.The owner of this amazing property has posted little amusing signs of household poetry along the path and next to the wooden seats which are set along the boardwalk across the marsh.
There were sculptures and large stones which the owner has placed around the property for everyone's pleasure. There was no sign of the owner, nor his house.
The ever curious and daring Colin checking out a fallen tree damming up the lake's outlet.On the way back to Amherst we passed "Uma's" house (she's Britt's mom). She has this amazing redwood piece in her front yard. I call it the yawning dog...
Colin, and everybody, is obviously delighted with the lone female child in the house. Anika is such a little doll!
On a previous walk Julie was admiring Colin's having broken the nail-biting habit which he had for years. Now he has to trim his nails... The last shot before heading for the train station. This magnificent Magnolia tree burst into bloom while we were there.Bumpa was admiring our next rental car! :-)

At Marty's!

2007-04-23T07:51:00.000-06:00

Julie and I had a very lovely visit at the Dehart residence near Nashville--missing greatly Buddy who was suddenly called to the "Kingdom" before we arrived. Marty was her radiant and lovely self in spite of this great tragedy in her life.

This is Marty. Marty rocks! Marty's my true sister!
Her daughter-in-law, Angie, and her two grandchildren came over a couple of times while we were there to hang out. There is always an atmosphere of laughing and unity in this house and we felt right at home
Angie and Marty's son, Nathaniel, are making plans to sell their house and move in with her which will be much easier on everyone financially. Meanwhile, they come over to hang out a lot and obviously love to.
We really loved being with y'all and hope that you'll come down to Costa Rica to see us next! Thanks for all your love and hospitality!

At the Ruhes in Amherst, MA

2007-04-21T09:41:00.000-06:00

We arrived at the Ruhe's place in Amherst about 8pm after a 5 hour drive from New Jersey.

Colin, Britt and the boys have joined with Britt's brother, Alfie, and his wife, Erica, with their two small children in buying an amazing old 12 bedroom Sorority house. They've split up the house for the two families and added a second kitchen on the ground floor, so it works out great for an extended family residence. Plus there are so many great spaces to enjoy--a basement which they've converted into a TV-family room, complete with a fireplace, as well as a big attic area which works out great for sleepovers with the kid's friends. Lots of great areas to play and hide out.

Britt says that the cost of buying and fixing up this old place gave them a much larger and more practical area than had they bought two smaller homes separately.
Isaiah and Aman took us on a grand tour of the nearby U-Mass campus and we could appreciate how this whole area seems as if it were a rural neihborhood. Check out the stairway and stained glass windows!We are delighted to get to know Alfie and Ericka's two children, Mason (3, shown below with his auntie Britt) and Anika (1, with Julie).
Then, off to lunch at a favorite Pizza place in downtown Northhampton. We listened to improvised guitar music and entertainment in front of the courthouse until Britt arrived with the kids.Colin, Isaiah, Aman, Mason and I went to one of their favorite playgrounds which was provided to their school by a number of contributors. This is the best playground of this type that I've ever seen. It's loaded with wood stairs, flexible ladders, tube tunnels, slides and places to hide, swing, run and jump. I sure wish we could build something like this for our kids at home.
Colin starts a game of chasing his boys around the playground and draws in a whole flock of other kids since they're having such a great time. He's such a cool dad...Julie and I are saying we would be delighted with just half his energy!
Here are the boys at Britt's dinner table.In the morning before the Ridvan holiday celebration we all went on a picnic trip to a forested area with a playground and terrific riverside walks.

Then that afternoon we were invited to the Ridván celebration at Juan & Braulia Caban's home.

Colin had prepared an amazing recording of a bird song from his bedroom window which he edited and looped so that he could play it during the beginning of the presentation. We were to close our eyes and imagine the scene at the Riván Garden in Bagdad in 1863 of a group of enamored followers of Baha'u'llah sitting around a huge pile of roses and the atmosphere of anticipation of some great event soon to enfold--the declaration of His Faith to all the world. It was very moving.

Then, after prayers and readings we all joined together in a social portion with piles of delicious food and a really nice variety of friends present, including some people we knew from many years ago. (It seems that almost every place we visit we are seeing people whom we know or who know people we know.) The lady in the photo below (left front) is Carol Rutstein, Author Nathan Rutstein's widow.

At brother Sean McKinney's place

2007-04-20T19:28:00.000-06:00

This leg of our trip has been pretty amazing. After about 40 years I'm reconnecting with my long-lost brother, Sean. He was about 8 years old when I saw him last in Santa Fe, NM.

So now Sean has grown children and step children and grand children! We had such a warm welcome and felt like we were right at home with all these people. Here's a shot of their home in Belvedere, NJ. We had imagined a busy metropolis, so near to NYC, and yet this was a quaint little farming town with trees and hills and rivers (however, overflowing greatly due to recent torrential rains). The place is a total delight. There are old Victorian homes everywhere and Sean and wife Maryann's place was one of them. (Our brand-new "PT-Cruiser" rental car is sitting in front.)
They have refinished many details in the house, and especially nice are the aged honey-colored pine floors and nice woodwork. Sean's a great cabinet-maker and builder in the McKinney family tradition. Here's their kitchen with Maryann, Sean and doggie, Dexter.Sean with step-daughter, Natalie and her new baby girl, Kayleigh.
We took a morning walk to see the sights on our way to breakfast out. Here's a tributary to the Delaware River which was raging past these buildings and the bridge.This cozy little family restaurant was a delight as well. Sean and I, both being raised up on Santa Fe's customary hot tabasco sauce, ordered whatever they had on hand to splash on the omelets. Believe it or not, guys, I (as well as he) had to push aside whatever that stuff was that they gave us. Now that stuff was HOT!
This bar stool was part of the restaurant's colorful decorHere are a few of the classic old homes seen all over this town. Some are from the mid 1800's.Natalie showed us one of her school art projects. This John Deere oil can is made out of styrofoam.Sean and Maryann's teenage son, Dylan, with their super friendly doggie, Dexter...Natalie, Julie and I took a great walk around the center of town to look at these great old homes and spring flowers popping out. Note, Ali, I'm in this picture. (Thanks to him for the great lil' camera-holding gadget that allows me to attach it to a tree branch or anything.)Our last night with the McKinneys they took us out to dinner. Thanks, guys, for a terrific visit! May the next one be at our place in Costa Rica!

With the Duque Family

2007-04-19T07:04:00.000-06:00

After our visit with Pete and Brenda McKinney we headed for Stone Mountain, GA to hang out with our great friends, Leonardo and Linda Duque. The Duques were next-door neighbors when we first started building our house in Villa Colón back in the early 1980's, and we've scarcely seen them again since that time.

They live in a woodsy and multi-flowered neighborhood filled with multi-cultural families in the greater metropolitan area near Atlanta. While Linda was still working at school (she has a job which she loves--as Spanish teacher to little kinder and first graders) Leo took us on a walking tour of their gorgeous neighborhood.
We enjoyed a nice afternoon catching up with Leo on all his amazing adventures from their previous life in Colombia where he was born. (After finishing the construction of their home next to ours they had to unexpectedly take off to tend to urgent family matters at home, so they've been living and working in Colombia for 20+ years.) Leo has been working with some of the Faith's highest power rural development organizers in Colombia and has written a couple of books about his experiences in this field (one of which I am now devouring--thanks, Leo!).

There is hope for this chaotic world! We were amazed to hear about the multitude of NGO's who are working quietly but constantly to organize the systematic order of the earth and rural peoples.

We really covered a lot of verbal territory during this two day visit. Here's Leo and Linda at dinner time:
That first evening we got to meet their daughter, Jazmin, now all grown up, and her Persian Baha'i husband, Siavash (sorry, I missed getting a good shot of him).

Also, Jason Ighani came over for the weekend from his studies and we had a terrific time with him and everybody.
Then, on the last morning of our visit, we got to go to the Baha'i Center for a devotional program. We were really stunned with all the beauty of this place (a previous church, very much like the one in Albuquerque--wood pews and all) and especially the rockin' Baha'i Community.

The lovely MOC, shown below introduced Kamal who's sitting in the front row.
We knew Kamal, previously Sinclair, as a tiny girl when her parents where pioneering to CR. Her older brother, Tony, was the fellow who turned Colin and our local Baha'i youth on to the dancing of the time--and who all later toured Central America with their show called "YA".

This lady knocked us all out with her charm and very precise and lively introductory talk. There were many first-time visitors to this gathering and they were pretty impressed. Many stayed over for coffee and snacks afterwards. At this gathering we took the names of several people who are planning trips to Costa Rica and have invited them to come and stay with us.

I taped the amazing Baha'i Choir which had the whole audience moving to the beat and spiritually uplifted as well to the Creative Words set to music. Unfortunately the clips are too long to upload to YouTube, but ask me about them and I'll be happy to share.

Onward with the Journey

2007-04-17T11:15:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the delay, guys...I know what a bummer it is to check a blog and there are no updates! It turned out that we weren't able to get any wireless nor direct, nor fast hookups until now (we have a four hour layover at the airport in Pittsburgh due to weather conditions).

After leaving Ali's place in Florida by rental car we made the nearly 8 hour drive to visit my cousin Pete McKinney in Macon, GA. We were warmly greeted by him and his wife, Brenda, who were more than warm and welcoming. We sat out in the cozy rear patio area complete with southern comfort chairs and a swing seat and tried to catch up on a huge part of my family which I had never known. Pete has been compiling the McKinney family genealogy for some time and it was a delight to learn so much from him.

Brenda had prepared a nice dinner for us and we continued with the conversation. Their place is cozily nestled in the hills beyond the city and is very pleasant. They both love to garden and the place is surrounded by some fabulous plants. See the photo of one such below:Julie and Brenda on the porch with their pool in the rear.
She had to get into that, of course, in spite of the below 60s temps! I was freezing just taking the pics! (She went in in the evening to avoid the predicted low 40s am temperature!)
Check out the southern swing chair that Pete installed. We gotta get one of those!

We're On Our Way!

2007-04-10T17:33:00.000-06:00

This is just terrific! We are very excited about the prospects for the next 7 weeks...getting to see family whom we've never met or haven't seen in a zillion years, plus friends for almost as long. This will be the start of a long narrative of our adventures.

Here's our brand-new Spirit Air machinery over Cuba (how could it have 13 million inhabitants!):
Son, Ali, met us at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. Here he is, up to one of his favorite pastimes--taking people out to dinner! This restaurant happens to belong to a Persian Baha'i friend in South Florida. Me? I was having a light and delicious barley soup...and manning the camera as usual.
After dinner he drove us about an hour North to Port St. Lucie, and backed us into the garage of his brand-new house there. He's just moved in and the phones, alarm and cable network hadn't been installed yet. (Today technicians showed and hooked up everything, typical of U.S. efficiency.)
Julie and I were totally surprised that Ali had just purchased this king-size bed set, with the fabulous Tempur-Pedic foam mattress. The thing is about 12 inches thick. I think we're gonna be totally spoiled for sleeping the rest of the trip. Julie didn't waste any time slipping in!
The next morning we just about got buried in the grass around the house (it's about 4 inches deep when well trimmed!). That's Ali's house in the background. It's a three bedroom, 2-1/2 bath Townhouse.
View of the lake and fountain from Ali's upstairs bedroom window:Street view from the same window:View from Ali's upstairs office window in the rear of the house (the large roof is his garage).This whole area is an invented, but actually functional town. The developers have placed this church-like edifice, called the Town Hall in the middle of town (every hour during the day it chimes the hour). There are restaurants and barber shops and shopping areas and a market there. The town is called "Tradition".Julie made a comment soon after we saw what this place was all about...that it was almost right out of the movie, "Truman". That's a perfect description of the place, almost too down-pat and perfect to be real. The interesting thing is that everything seems to be functioning well. We saw some young ladies who jumped out of their car to look at a model home and sighed that it was just gorgeous...Ali had to spend all day today at work (in spite of not getting to bed until after 1am last night) and we had a great time relaxing and taking walks and attending to the technicians who showed up to hook up stuff.

This little fountain was a delight to the area's kids. We watched them darting in an out of it and having a great time. We guess that there must even be a school somewhere nearby.
Julie's been looking for a pool so that she can keep up with her exercises. We actually found one on one of our many walks around "town" today, but Ali isn't familiar with the community's plans yet to know if we can use it.

Tomorrow we plan to drop Ali at work early and head for the VA hospital in West Palm Beach to see if I can get some tests done and straighten out some online connections there.

Road Walks

2007-04-06T15:56:00.000-06:00

This is the view from the highest point of my usual daily walks. The road passes by our property (but not too close...we wanted to build far enough away to avoid the dust which you can see in the second photo):
And this is the morning view of the mountains we can see from a point a little above our place:

Visit with Mohebat & Helen Aghahi

2007-04-05T08:35:00.000-06:00

After our visit with Razi Ferisdani (see previous post) we stopped by to visit Mohebat and Helen. For those of you who know Persians, it's impossible to just visit and run! We were graciously invited to stay for dinner (we should have guessed that it would be prepared in full from scratch and include all sorts of exotic stuff!).

Anyway it was a very special treat to visit with them and to meet as well Mohebat's father, Mohammad Aghahi, who is well over 90 years old. He is in very good health but we needed to have Mohebat translate for us for any conversation.

This amazing man was the caretaker and gardener of the Baha'i Center in Teheran for many years, including during the revolution in 1979. This building, we learned, was very large and had an auditorium which could seat hundreds of people. During our visit, little by little, since this man is very humble and quiet, we were able to find out from him about some of his experiences there. When the building was taken over by the revolutionaries, at one point some soldiers started turning on all the lights (which were quite powerful and illuminated all the extensive grounds in and around the building). Mr. Aghahi tried to warn them that by turning all the lights on it would overload the circuits and could damage the system. They ignored him and left the lights burning. The system soon blew out, as he had predicted, and they held him responsible for what happened (assuming that he had sabotaged something). So, as a punishment they tied his feet and submerged him in the building's cistern, head first! The poor man almost drowned! Soon, the cause of the problem was discovered and he was released.

This building, unlike many of the Baha'i holy places in Iran, was not destroyed, nor even damaged, apparently. It has been turned into a university.

We also learned that Mr. Aghahi was in Teheran when the Tarbiyat School for boys was operating. Since I had read in Houri Skuce's book, "A Radiant Gem" (which is the story of her grandfather, Jinab-i-Fadil-Shirazi--known as Fadil, pronounced "Fazel"), that her grandfather was one of the early teachers at this school, and was wondering if Mr. Aghahi had known him.

Not only did he remember Jinab-i-Fadil, but he also remembered future Hands of the Cause, Mr. Faizi and Mr. Ali Muhammad Varqa, who studied under this great teacher at the school.

(BTW, I can highly recommend your reading Houri's book. It is loaded with so much of the early history, and her grandfather was an amazing person who was one of the most outstanding scholars of his time.)

It was a real honor to be able to sit at the dinner table with this family!

Here's a photo of part of the guests present (unfortunately, I forgot to get the camera out in time to include Heshmat and Zarrin Aghahi before they had to return home).
From left: Mohebat, Alan, Vicky, Helen, Marco and Mr. Aghahi:

La Bonanza Again

2007-04-04T21:30:00.000-06:00

Ruby Seals has been working for weeks on completely remodelling their house in Salitral de Santa Ana. She and Jimmy hope to rent it out while they're back in Nashville. Dick and Brenda Hicks wanted to give her a break and invited her, plus Ruby's sidekick, Lilia Ericks, and us out to dinner at our latest favorite eatery, La Bonanza. The Dutch owners have lived here for many years and turned their old home into this very lovely restaurant.

Here's the whole gang out on the front deck before dinner. Note Jaleh Ruhe who's been working with the owners as a cook. She blew everybody away with her delicious culinary touches!

Prayers for Razi, Please

2007-04-04T21:11:00.000-06:00

Our dear friend Raziaullah Ferisdani, a long-time Persian Pioneer to Costa Rica and dynamic teacher of the Cause, recently suffered a severe stroke which has left him very weak and with great difficulty in speaking.

Alan Pringle, Marco Morales, Vicky Mora (a spiritual daughter of his) and myself have gone to visit him a couple of times at the rest home where he's been undergoing care.

Unfortunately, Razi is pretty depressed and finding all this pretty difficult to deal with, it seems.
Please think of him in your prayers. This lovely man has brought many wonderful believers into the Faith as well as many inquierers.

Big Plans in the Making

2007-04-03T07:36:00.000-06:00

Soon the blog will be having a whole new theme: Our trip from South to North, from West to East across the States. We're treating ourselves to a one-time glorious vacation.

We're also celebrating Julie's retirement from the Costa Rican school system after about 20 years of service.

We leave here on April 9th for Miami, travel by car as far North as Amherst, MA., then by Amtrak across the North to Chicago, Missoula and out to Vancouver and Seattle. Then down the West coast to LA and across to Albuquerque (still on the train), and finally we fly from NM back to Miami and home again on May 31st.

Along the way we're programmed to stay with family and friends. When travelling by train we'll hop off at strategic spots, rent a car (or be picked up at the train stop in certain instances) hang out for a day or two and then get back on the train to continue on.

Here are some of the people we'll be seeing: My son, Ali at his brand-new house in Point St. Lucie, Florida: (In this picture he was visiting the family in Albuquerque and is shown here with his half-sister, Kisthell, and her daughter, Celeste.)
And more recently during my last Florida visit:
My half-brother, Sean McKinney, shown here-with mustache, and some of his family (unfortunately, his sister, Gail, in the blue blouse, lives in Australia, so we won't get to see her).Colin, Britt, Isaiah and Aman Ruhe in Amherst (here with us a while back. Colin's cousin, Zoey, is sitting next to Julie with Isaiah on her lap):
Gilberto, Faranak and Sofia in Chicago:
Kit and Xiao Yan whom we'll drive out to Madison from Chicago to see:
And in Washington State, near Seattle, we will stay with my Aunt Trudy:Ken and Leslie Lerner in California (shown here a few years ago in Santa Fe):
My old high school buddy, Tom Hunolt, and his wife, Susie, who live near Point Arena, Cal:In California we'll probably see most of these folks- my family, the Moore Clan (less Lisa Nardini, front right, who lives in Rome):
In Albuquerque, my daughter, Lisa Caldwell, here with my grand daughter, Anisa:
Anisa with her sister, Mariana:Mariana's dad, Eddie Caldwell:And daughter, grand daughters and an unknown winter guest:
Also in ABQ is Patrik and Carolina, with their daughter, Akeva (see blog links for details):
And our youngest daughter, Aria, here with husband, James, and Sasha:
A better shot of James and Aria:And James' dad, Pat, and mom, Patti:There are about forty more people scheduled into our itinerary, but this'll give you an idea of the variety.

Baby Shower #2

2007-04-02T09:26:00.000-06:00

On Sunday Julie put together a big baby shower for Gianni at our house (ladies only) so I don't have any photos of the 20 or so people who showed up. I hope Gianni will post them on her blog.

However, last night she invite only the family over for prayers and dinner and baby card making. The latter was a lot of fun, with everybody cutting and pasting and playing with glue and markers. (She'll also have to take shots of those works of art--some of her family members are real artists!)

Here's a shot of us all.

Jordan's Farewell

2007-04-02T08:57:00.000-06:00

We were invited by Munirih and Noily Gomez to a going away dinner for Jordan Baese who's been serving for some time in Costa Rica. He's been working especially on video projects and children's classes, etc., but will now be leaving for more service and learning adventures in Peru, plus to continue his studies in the movie-making industry up North later on.

I enjoyed watching him in action when he did some video interviews with Alan Pringle, Jorge Arias (days before he died! This video was presented at the last Reflection Gathering at the Charles Wolcott Institute and was very moving) and Richard Mirkovich. I hope these recordings are kept for posterity.

Poor fellow, as noted in the photo below, he was mugged by a couple of guys while he was walking along near the Sabana. One person grabbed him from behind and somehow hit a nerve or a vein which cause him to black out (probably causing him to fall and bump his head). When he woke up they had taken the only thing he had of value: his Ipod! (Thank God, not his life!)

Buen viaje, amigo!

More Construction Going On!

2007-03-30T08:10:00.000-06:00

Garry Weirsum, our new neighbor (who bought Kurt and Lissi's place next door) also bought the corner lot which belonged to Judith Johnson (Judith was planning to build here, but later decided she wants to stay in Japan and may build her home there).

Anyway, Garry's putting up a small two-storey place on that property. Here are a few shots of the progress. It'll have a small swimming pool in front, and the entryway to the garage is off our road. (These views are taken from our driveway.)

Alan's Old House

2007-03-30T07:55:00.000-06:00

This A-Frame is right next door to our place, and used to belong to Alan Pringle. (Yep, Alan sold it last year to move to downtown Ciudad Colón, where he is much more mobile and connected with the town's community.) This was the first house we built here. The Pringles were living in Panama while we were working on the house. Later we moved into it for about 6 months until Alan was able to retire from his work as tour guide at the Panama Canal.

Now the new owner, Stephan Brunner, a Costa Rican of German decent, is really making some serious changes.

A-frames are not very practical, I can tell you from this experience. They supposedly combine the roof and walls, but it results in a narrow space, especially toward the top peak. There is a real need for dormers on the upper floor so that light can enter and one can feel more space. (We did build a dormer for the upstairs bathroom, but it's on the opposite side of the house.) That's what Stephan is doing. The shots below show the new addition. (Our house is just down the hill from this side.)

Work Started on David's Studio

2007-03-29T15:35:00.000-06:00

We started the tractor work on the spot where we're going to start building David's music studio, next door to their place on the property. This will serve as both a recording studio as well as a small apartment with an upstairs bedroom and kitchen area, eventually. We'll probably just try to get the studio part on the lower floor ready first, as they need to move David's equipment out of the new baby's bedroom in time for his/her June arrival!

Here's David, Gianni and Tato, her brother, looking on:Here's the back-hoe dragging the heaviest trunk of the Norfolk Pine away. (Note the old Mercedes is still parked in the space. We are trying to sell this oldy-but-goodie. Note also the license number on it!)
The three chunks of the tree are being taken to our neighbor Garry's place where he'll saw them up for lumber:
This big old stump was a a bunch of work to remove, but with a super strong back-hoe it was so much easier.

The tractor was able to move massive amounts of earth and level the area out, pretty much by eye.The finished cut (after 6 hours of tractor time--the minimum fee time period). We want to have the principal part of the studio well insulated from sound in the left-hand corner of the cut.

The trench for the rear retaining wall and studio wall has been cut out by the tractor (saving many man hours if we had to do it with picks and shovels).
I just can't bear to remove another tree from the site. This is a bearing Guanabana tree. The fruit is one of the tropic's most delicious, and there are a number of fruits still on the tree. Unfortunately, this tree will eventually have to go, since it falls just about where the entryway to the studio will be.
Here's a near-ripe Guanabana. It's about a foot long and weighs a few pounds. And they are yummy! (We have it wrapped in a soft net so that the wind won't blow it down before it's ready to harvest...probably next week.)

Children's Park

2007-03-25T18:18:00.000-06:00

This post is especially for Colin, Aman and Isaiah who spent many a weekend polishing up the lawns and sidewalks of our local children's park.
Our local Baha'i Community spend years constructing and maintaining this park for the town's children and their parents. At one point we had painted the wall in the rear with a wonderful scene of world children's faces (see photos below).
The recent repainting of the benches was done (and the sidewalk--including the decorative brick 9-pointed star we made on the corner) by the Red Cross next door.

After a change of local government took over the park (interestingly, without a bit of recognition for our years of maintaining it) it was again abandoned for some time. I suppose the people next door got tired of looking at it and made these improvements.
Here's a shot from years ago of the Baha'is casting the sidewalks (that's Ali in the shades).This is the original mural which Leonard Ericks spent weeks painting. The sidewalks and benches had not been made at this point:Here's another angle showing our sign which says: "The earth is one country and mankind it's citizens, Baha'u'llah" All the public buses and traffic passed right by this park every day, so thousands of people were able to appreciate this message.

House Update

2007-03-25T17:59:00.000-06:00

We've been working on long overdue house repairs for some time now. Below shows the change of color to something we tried to match to the colors seen on the Baha'i Holy Places in Israel (blue-gray and white). We had to seal every one of the lapped siding strips, both at the ends and at the point where they overlap. Big job!
Here's the finished coat. Missing is some paint on the upper part of the chimney, plus I'm building some wide wooden window frames which will be painted white. That'll make a big difference.
We decided to take down years of Tricky-Tracky vines off the front because they were looking very scraggly and were not producing the wonderful orange flowers that they usually have. We just cut the vines back and will now direct each vine back across the beams on the front. We suspect that there were too many branches and not enough large trunks, so we'll see in a year or so how this plan works out.
Notice that the wooden bay-window off the living room has been sealed and painted white. It was very deteriorated after more than 20 years in place, so now it looks like new again.
You'll see the window border trim sometime next week, I hope. (Gotta be soon because we'll be heading Stateside for a big journey to visit all our family and friends on April 9th. More on that later.)
The next phase of the work will be to finish the upstairs bathroom and to install the family-room ceiling.

Meanwhile...

2007-03-25T16:27:00.000-06:00

While the rest of us are gearing up for big trips to the States, here's what Ali's up to:

Tough life he leads...he recently sent me this shot of him at 130 feet down, off the Florida Coast:

Naw-Rúz Year 164 Era Baha'i

2007-03-25T15:46:00.000-06:00

This year's Naw-Rúz party was held at our place, and we were delighted with the great turnout. Especially that many of our Baha'is' invited guests showed up...
Teen-age Jose, with Mike (& David, above), kept the music rolling :Some of our old and inactive Baha'is showed up--a great sign positive change!Marco making a move on the ladies :)Doña Lou with Maritza, whom we haven't seen in awhile...
A huge and noisy party brought poor studious Jennifer out of her room, and she joined David, Gianni, Carolina and Jesse Gingold for this quick shot (catching Carolina an instant too soon...):
We couldn't stop Vicky Mora and Jose from diving into the stack of dishes in the kitchen. They're supposed to be guests!
When I dropped off Juan Luis at his house he wanted to show off his new kitty--so similar to our Butter Kitty--but who looks like he ran into a brick wall (with his pudgy nose):

Update on the JJ investigation

2007-03-20T05:08:00.000-06:00

Early Monday morning I went to our local agricultural products store in town to try to find out who may have purchased the insecticide which is the favorite lethal substance used in dog poisoning here. (It's called "Larnate".)

Interestingly, it turns out that about a month ago the government has severely restricted the distribution of this product, precisely because of such misuse. They are requiring a special authorization through health authorities for the purchase of it and there is a hefty fee for this. (Much more than a whimsical, and most likely uneducated, person could afford. Plus the insecticide is not cheap either.)

They explained that no one has purchased the stuff at this store in quite awhile, so I asked how someone might have acquired it elsewhere. It's doubtful that anyone did, apparently, unless they had it on hand from before the law was implemented.

So, I ask, what other explanation could they give to account for the reactions an animal would have, such as was described to me by the neighbor. (That is, the dog loses equilibrium, falls down and has convulsions, foams at the mouth, etc. I've seen this before a number of times, either with our own dogs or ones on the street in town.)

Surprisingly, they said that if a dog would eat one of the large toads we have around here, or if it were bitten by a snake, it would have a similar reaction.
For this reason I'm beginning to think I was mistaken about the poisoning.
Only God knows the truth...

JJ's Gone!

2007-03-18T16:45:00.000-06:00

For all of you who knew and loved our doggie, Jay Jay, (named by the grandchildren for the little cartoon airplane character), she was poisoned yesterday and was gone before I found out. (Had we known in time we could have saved her with some carbon anti-toxin pills we keep on hand--especially since she was such a large dog.)

A poisoned animal suffers horribly, and I'm very angry about this. Especially because she was loved by everybody and never bothered anyone or even barked at them. When the neighbors would meet her on the road going up the hill she would usually follow them up, wagging her tail and running ahead and back again to get a stroke.
She accompanied me on my daily walks up the hill, waiting patiently while I rested and then scampered on ahead when I started again.

Near the top of our grade there are about five other dogs who love to claim their territory when we walk by. JJ usually ignored them, but this encounter was a little more aggressive by the brown dog.
I'm still investigating the situation and believe I know who the person was who did this. They deny it so far, but I'm going to ask around at the feed store in town to see if I can find out who bought the poison recently. If I can prove who it is, I'll denounce them to the rural guard here. JJ deserves some justice!

No Posts? It's Fasting Time!

2007-03-13T18:04:00.000-06:00

I love the period of the Baha'i Fast! It's a great time to think about spiritual matters and reflect on why we are making this effort to purify ourselves, physically and spiritually. There are many mysterious powers that one can feel in action, especially when you know that millions of fellow Believers are doing the same!

Here's what I have for my pre-dawn breakfast. All blended up in a "smoothie". This keeps me going all day. Really! That's it. I don't have anything else until after sunset. I've been taking my walk up our hill just after the smoothy, and drink some water as I'm walking along. (In the past I went at night when it was nice and cool, but I think I like the morning walk better.)

More on the Norfolk Pine

2007-03-05T20:43:00.000-06:00

I'm still feeling sad about having to down this tree. Here's the poor thing pushing up sap, trying to heal an impossible wound!
And what hope: even a little branch is sprouting out of the fallen trunk...
But there must be such sacrifices for "progress". Who's to decide? In the place will soon be a recording studio for David, and provisions made to the building so that it can also serve as a rental home for someone in the future. Soon we will plant other trees to shade it!

Home Visits

2007-03-05T20:26:00.000-06:00

Marco Morales and I have initiated some home visit activities for our latest teaching campaign recently. Since Juan Luis' family has been attending many of our Baha'i activities, during the last one (Ayyam-I-Ha), we happened to be talking about our wooden chess set and Juan's wife, Sandra, mentioned that they have two sets at home which they have never been able to understand. So yesterday we went over to spend some time playing chess with her and the two kids, Sandri and Luis Alonzo. Marco was instructing a friend of their's, Miguel, while I was observing the kids figuring it out together. We all had a great time. (Sandra was very surprised to know that during the Baha'i Fast we do not drink water...or anything else. She wanted to prepare something for us.)

Video Conferencing

2007-03-04T14:15:00.000-06:00

We're having so much fun chatting with Aria & James, and mostly Sasha, via Skype with a video camera and sound. It's the greatest! Here's "Mima" (grandma) speaking with Sasha.

Refinishing The House!

2007-03-04T13:58:00.000-06:00

I've mentioned that we're fixing up the house in preparation for our two month exit in April. Here are the noticeable changes. Julie always loved the Baha'i World Center blue and white, so we're trying to match that color of blue and will be installing white trim around the windows.
What a difference! The white was getting really nasty looking. (See the 3rd storey siding to get what I mean...maybe it can be seen on a zoom.)

Our Norfolk Pine Had to Come Down!

2007-02-28T20:44:00.000-06:00

It was so sad to have to remove this magnificent tree from the yard next to David and Gianni's apartment, but we need to make space for another building there.

This was a very tall Norfolk Pine which was beginning to tower twice the height as the house itself. We contracted an old fellow "Guicho" who took the whole thing down by himself! He trimmed off the branches, as shown around the base of the tree below, then climbed almost to the very top to take that section down (with a machete!).

Ayyam-i-Ha Celebration

2007-02-28T20:13:00.000-06:00

This year we repeated a fun event to celebrate Ayyam-i-Ha (Intercalary Days, or days of preparation for the Baha'i month of fasting, which is turn ends with the New Year's celebration). The event was a game of gift exchanging. What makes it a game is that each participant brings a wrapped gift (supposedly something they would like to have themselves) and these are placed in the center of the circle of friends. Numbers are chosen from a basket (as being explained by Margie and Julie below). Then number one opens any gift on the table. The second number can take any other gift on the table and, if not opening it, can exchange it for the first person's gift. Same goes for the 3rd and all the rest. This becomes pretty crazy as the more attractive gifts become evident. One gift can make the rounds many times before the last person chooses.
There were many guests, who are investigating the Faith, participating as well as most of the local Baha'i Community.
Stateside visitor, Charlynn Stevens, Gianni and David:

Three guests who were playing this game for the first time (Luis Alonzo, Stefani and Luis' sister, Sandri):Here's lucky number one, Betsy, who's a friend of Amanda Matamoros. Lucky because at the end of the game, as the first person to start (and not having the opportunity to exchange her gift) she gets to choose any of all the gifts to conclude the game !

So Much Going On!

2007-02-28T20:00:00.000-06:00

This past week I haven't posted anything. Sorry about that! We've been up to our ears in visits, Baha'i activities (see next post) and preparations for our April trip to the States (which means making itineraries, updating our Will, fixing up the house, etc.).

One of our most recent visitors is Fawny Ruhf. She was here as a child about ten years ago with her dad and a bunch of folks, so it was terrific to see her all grown up. She's staying at Jaleh's place in town but came over for dinner and to hang out. Charlynn had promised us a Thai meal and here's a shot of us all getting ready to dive in. (I caught Jaleh in mid-blink--sorry.)

Feria de Naranja (Orange Fair in town)

2007-02-18T21:20:00.000-06:00

For the past two weeks our little town has been pretty much blocked off by this big event. A multitude of local and outside visitors come to check out the concession stands, arts & crafts displays, herbal remedies stands and music. David was invited to play with a few local fellows who've been practicing up a storm at his studio next door to us. The band, "Custica" played a number of pieces and gathered a huge crowd.
Here's Gianni filming the whole show, with Jessie Gingold noticing my snapping this from behind a tree (and alerting Julie).
Just above my head where all these huge gourds!
And this sculpture is positioned under one of the branches:A closer look at the sculpture. Our town is becoming quite artistically significant, to our delight.Darren behind Laura (Gianni's sister) and Julie:
Julie and I made the rounds to see what was on exhibit and ran into Jaleh:

Another nice devotional gathering at Doña Blanca's

2007-02-18T21:12:00.000-06:00

I mentioned that Cherlynn is here in CR getting some extensive dental work done. Poor lady has been trying to recuperate for a few days now, scarcely eating anything (no solids--mostly soups), but she wanted to join us today at the devotional in Palmichal de Acosta. Maribel Morales, Alan Pringle and Rafa Apolinar joined us as well. With Blanca is Veronica, her daughter, and Viviana, her grand-daughter.

New Restaurant

2007-02-18T20:59:00.000-06:00

We just discovered a new place to take friends here in town: La Bonanza. It's very close to where we live and run by a Dutch family who've been in town for about 15 years. They decided to turn their home into a very attractive restaurant (bar too, unfortunately) with a loft and open-beam construction, and way above town so there's a great view at night. (They build a new house next door and have a pool and fountains as a divider between the two.)

Dick Hicks invited us out, so how could we refuse? Here he's greeting me with a "fajita" (tortilla wrapping a guacamole sauce, tasty chicken and many other things which you can spoon out of wooden bowls and put together yourself).

I had a delicious tomato-vegie soup with home-made muffins. All very yummy. We highly recommend this place!This was a decorative ceramic piece in front of the men's-room mirror:

Season for the Flowering Trees of Costa Rica

2007-02-17T12:40:00.000-06:00

Here are a few shots of the trees we're starting to see this summer. (Some are from last year, but just to give you an idea about how gorgeous they are.) This is my favorite, the "golden shower":

Then there are so many of these fig trees which put down a zillion roots.
And the infamous "strangler fig". This thing starts spouting from the crotch of a tree, when a bird ingests the seed and drops it there. Once the roots touch the soil they become practically unstoppable and leave the poor host tree unable to expand, so it eventually dies.Here's what'll happen if you leave some machinery around too long!

Local Teaching Campaign

2007-02-17T11:55:00.000-06:00

Our little Baha'i Community got together for breakfast to discuss our latest plans for helping our town grow spiritually. We discussed working with children and pre-youth in town, plus how best to get parents and friends involved.Auxiliary Board members, Munirih Rosales and Ronny Brenes (3rd and 4th from left), were assisting us by sharing other community's challenges and successes, and planting some of their ideas.
A young woman, Marcela Lemus from El Salvador, arrived directly from the airport to spend part of the morning with us (on left below). She'll be studying at the university here and living with Munirih.Here's Margie Diaz, Mike Robles, new Assembly member, Eliza Latouch, and Alan Pringle
Some of the other friends attending (Julie, Lilia Ericks, Mari Morales, Egitan Robles and Munirih):

Unexpected Visitors

2007-02-17T10:59:00.000-06:00

Our dear "Tica" friend, Helen Mirkovich, arrived for a few week's visit with her husband, Daniel Kohm, from their home in Alberta, Canada, and we invited them out for coffee and cake yesterday.

Helen's sister-in-law, "Piki", who is a Baha'i from the island of Chira (in the Puntarenas Bay) brought her daughter, Valeria. She's due to have a baby anytime in the next few days and said that she wanted to get out of the house for a break from so much waiting around for this baby to come!
Dick Hicks joined us, and Cherlynn Stevens, who is a Baha'i from Maryland, as well. Cherlynn is visiting CR for the second time and has been getting some serious dental work done. She'll be staying with us until the end of the month.

Here's Helen, in white, showing some photos of their great visit to the Arenal volcano (they got some great pictures of it in action) to Cherlynn. Dick's at the end and Piki next to him on the right. Daniel is looking at the camera (like saying, what are you up to, dude?). Daniel's a biker (Harleys). We happen to know that he takes very good care of "our" Helen. I understand that he has a dental laboratory in Canada and, I'm sure, works very hard so that Auxiliary Board member, Helen, can travel all around the Northwest Territories to assist with the Faith's needs.
Here's Helen, Daniel and Piki at the picnic table. It was almost dark when they left and we all had a great time hanging out.
Later in the day, Gianni showed up from work. Here's a shot of her with Julie and Cherlynn. I wanted to get a before-and-after photo of Gianni's baby bump.
Gianni and David do not want to know if it's a boy or a girl (we all suspect a boy), but Piki knows that her baby is a boy. It was a very great surprise for Gianni to learn that Piki and Eddie have chosen the same name that she and David would like to give their child if it's a boy: Tristan.
Here's Valeria with her uncle Daniel:
Valeria with her aunt Helen and her mom, Piki:She's almost too big for this tree swing:

New Friends

2007-02-12T21:35:00.000-06:00

We've been without Internet for about five days, due to some phone lines down on our road, so I wasn't able to do any posts until now. A few days ago we had Amy and David Hoffman over for dinner. David is a teacher at the University for Peace here in town. We heard about them through a Baha'i friend who lives across the street from their place in town. Amy is, we hear, a very talented artist and crafts-person.

Also, for dinner, to our great delight were the rarely seen, Anne and Parviz Ighani. Julie was able to button-hole Annie, while I caught up with a million things from Parviz after dinner.

And with us, as well, was our dear (lonely) brother, Dick Hicks. (Poor fellow is without his second half! Brenda is taking care of the grandchildren in the States for a few months.)

All in all, we had a very unusual and educational evening with all these people. (It must have been a successful gathering because we kept talking until 11pm, and that's very unusual for us!)

Thank you each and all for a great get-together!

The Passing of Phil Lucas!

2007-02-06T11:57:00.000-06:00

This shocking news just came from a friend who knew that I was very close to Phil.

Our dear friend apparently was not able to survive a triple coronary bypass surgery. (We were told that he died immediately afterwards.)
I've been trying, actually for months, to connect with Phil since Julie and I will be in the area near Issaquah, Washington where he was living with his family and we wanted to pass by for a visit.

I first met Phil, who was part Mexican American and part Choctaw, at the original Bosch Baha'i School, called then "Geyserville" in those days. He and I, and a young artist fellow named, Larry Jordan, drove up to the Yukon Territory on the first Baha'i Youth Project outside of the Continental U.S. It was a "trip" in more ways than one. Phil was a true entertainer and was a very intense person with amazing talents. Larry and I hoped that some of Phil's dynamism would rub off on us, and we learned so much about life and spirituality from him.

Our journey started out (in my old '57 Chevy pickup) with a round of Tablet of Ahmads and a promise among the three of us that we would dedicate 24 hours a day for the next 6 weeks (duration of the project) to the Faith. That we would keep an eye on each other to see that none of us would become distracted (by girls or anything else--hey, we were all single!) from our teaching goal.

That decision was key to the amazing successes we experienced. Not only did we put the roof on, and a new brick floor in, the Baha'i Institute on a lake near Whitehorse (which was the original goal of the project) but we also traveled to the most amazing Baha'i Summer School in Juneau, Alaska. People arrived there from some of the most remote parts of Alaska, so we were able to meet Alaskan Native Baha'is and pioneers who attended, as well. People were so totally united anyway, but with Phil's entertaining skills and marvelously animating songs (some written during the trip), the place was totally rocking! The unity and excitement was palpable.

After the week-long Summer School we were sent back to the Yukon to finish our project, and to travel teach over a vast area of the wilderness there (with hundreds of miles between villages sometimes), and then visited the coastal islands for more teaching. We were flown to some islands in a Baha'i's personal airplane, had a radio interview (Phil being the main attraction--Larry and I were terrified and inexperienced in that stuff) and finally returned home via an ocean-going ferry (with the truck on board). We disembarked, I think, at Ketchikan and drove back to California from there, our lives completely transformed...

To see Phil in action, check out the following video of a talk he gave in 1990:

<http://youtube.com/watch?v=2RDJdGwfH24>

For those who knew Phil, condolences can be sent to the following address:
Lucas Family
c/o Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Issaquah
PO Box 743
Issaquah, WA 98027

Arrival of Kathleen Stone and Grant Neie

2007-02-06T11:27:00.000-06:00

We've been anticipating the arrival of Kathleen Stone, an old friend who visited us last in the mid 80's. She and her husband, Grant, spend all afternoon with us. They are considering CR as a possible future retirement home. Kathleen, who wants to be able to serve as a Baha'i pioneer, is trying to work out a nice balance with her husband who's supportive of the Faith but is also hoping to continue his passion as a world-class surfer!

We had a delightful time getting to know them both. (Well, I spent more time speaking with Grant, while Julie was with Kathleen.)

I really clicked with Grant, who is employed as a nurse, but is also an expert in Reiki (he applied his healing technique to me while relating a very interesting history of the origins of Reiki). Grant searches for spiritual richness through meditation and practice of what he believes.
He graciously gifted us with the latest body surfing goodie: a body board which was developed by Bruce Blumenfeld in coordination with Tom Morey, the world famous inventor of the Boogie board. It's called the Wave Skater

Thank you so much for this and for your visit. Hopefully, we'll be seeing you guys again soon.

Reflection Gathering-6th Cycle

2007-02-05T07:48:00.000-06:00

Reflection garherings are always falling on Sundays, so we have to squeeze in our Devotionals beforehand. This week Maribel brought a ton of her sobrinos to the Dev. and then took them all to the Charles Wolcott Institute for the big event afterwards.
Two cuties who are Mari's sister's daughters
Aileen McCoy with Reflection Coordinator, Daniel Mora, and Aux. Board member, Munirih Rosales:
There was a call for cantantes, so this group came forward (the words to the song were being projected on a screen behind them).
Mike Robles has always been our main chorus leader:Lots of singing, and animated singers in the crowd:
There was a little song sharing during a break. Below, a recent Baha'i arrival from Washington State, Tiara Stevens, who's here to study Spanish and meet the Baha'i friends:
Andres, with novia, Roya, and Tiara:

Julie made tons of tuna sandwiches to share with our community during the lunch break. Here with Melissa Angulo (who's moved to Santa Ana to take care of her sick mom).Some of the crown for picnic lunch:
Viviana, Doña Blanca and Dick Hicks:

The Plodger

2007-02-01T19:22:00.000-06:00

A "plodger" is an old codger who's still working as a plumber. That'd be me.

We have a backup plumbing system with a pair of pumps and water storage tanks which really has come in handy over the years when the public water system is shut down for repairs or maintenance (often!). So, all afternoon I had to replumb the system so that we can readily turn on one or the other pump (depending on the level of water in the storage tanks outside). Before, I had to run a hose between the two systems and it caused some problems with the pressure.

Now, anybody at home can flip either of two switches to turn on the backup when we are out of water.
Here's the dirty, nasty old Plodger caught in the act. (Never mind about the suds in the glass above...it's Near-Beer, not the other lethal, illegal, stuff...hey, it was hot out there!)

Julie's Birthday Party!

2007-02-01T09:26:00.000-06:00

Complete bummer that I'm just now getting the photos organized for the most important recent event. Sorry to keep it from y'all for so long (well less than a week).

Julie's birthday dinner at Gianni's and David's place. Gianni prepared the most amazing oriental dishes, and lots of it (good thing, since Darren was there, and I already mentioned how much this guy can put away!) Anyway, it was delicious, and Julie was delighted, and Jaleh joined us as well.

Then a delicious cake:And Julie's first Seranade! David organized a bunch of his buddies to sing some great typical Serenata songs for her: Is she delighted or what!?Here's David giving the honored lady some fabulous bunches of fresh flowers. (The serenaders pigging out on the cake, their just due...)
The lovey-dovey hosts...

Tuesdays With Alan

2007-02-01T08:56:00.000-06:00

As per our usual Tuesday morning outing, Alan and I moseyed around town to get a little exercise together and to keep updated on the latest news. We always cross the new Pedestrian Plaza in the center of town and pass by this lovely tilework bend/wall which was done by a delightful young woman, Zenda Alpizar, who is the daughter of our family doctor.
Then we decided to walk clear across town to the local cemetary to check out our LSA's new aquisition--a corner plot with six gravesites.

A little history on this: When Alan's wife, Ruth, died she was buried in a fancy cementary on the other side of the Central Valley, near the town of Heredia. Alan always mentioned to me that he thought it was more proper to be interred locally, even if the local cemetary was rural and less dignified, and that's what he wanted for himself. Unfortunately, in our local cemetary the rule was that burials would have to be above ground in concrete crypts, one stacked on top of another. Families would buy/rent two, four, or six such spaces and the entire monument was dedicated to the family. Once all the spaces were full, the next family member to die would be placed in one of the older spaces (and the remaining bones from that would be placed in a plastic bag and stuck next to the new casket--as weird as that sounds!). After a few years of letters and interviews, our Baha'i Community was ultimately successful in having the rules changed for the case of the Baha'is. This has set an interesting precident, I think, but time will tell.

Anyway, we now have a formal letter from the Municipality giving us the right to have Baha'i burials in the form specified in the Writings. (In a fine casket, underground and facing East, etc.)

The photos below show the SE corner area of the local cemetary which has been designated as a place where Baha'is can be buried in this manner. (Our LSA will be discussing how we will beautify this area soon.)

Regional Convention Pics

2007-01-29T11:32:00.000-06:00

In case anyone noticed, I had posted the following photo showing Gianni with her baby bump...but had to remove it because she and David were afraid that her Puerto Rican family would get wind of the pregnancy before their trip and they wanted it to be a surprise.

So now that David and Gianni are in Puerto Rico for a long week I am putting it back on the blog.

Here's all the center of attention at the Regional Baha'i Convention last week at the Charles Wolcott Institute--Gianni and Fiorella Cardenas, with Roya Eshraghi in the black skirt, Vernush Montenegro standing in the doorway (next to Blanca Galdames and David McKinney. Aileen McCoy is on the sidewalk outside and Martha Farrand is speaking with someone right front.
Our Baha'i Community was responsible for the physical arrangements for our Regional Convention on Sunday. Here are a few photos of some of the dear friends who attended:
Eli Hughes, David, Gianni and Darren (obviously, a witty, straight-faced, Eli made some snappy remark)
Farhad Hashemi sitting next to Jenifer (her husband, Ronny Brenes, is hidden behind)
Fio again, sitting with her husband, Jordan Hughes:
There were about 60 Baha'i present, but I just had time to snap these few photos during a break...

Yet Another Waterfalls Adventure! This time with some U-Paz student friends.

2007-01-23T12:29:00.000-06:00

See below the whole gang (me absent, of course, since I'm taking all the pics). On the left is Jenn Scharf, who is staying in Jaleh's old apartment. Then, Fanneke Verhallen, from Holland. She's also staying with us, but will be moving on to NYC next week. The couple on the right are Keven and Jessica who are studying here from New Zealand, their latest residence.
Here are three of many, many, pretty birds that are so accustomed to people walking by that there's no problem in photographing them:The Flutterbys this day were pretty numerous. People were running all over trying to get good shots of their favorites. Here's Fanneke, successful at last, after waiting for ages for this Morpho to open it's wings for her:I was able to get some closer, clearer, shots of the poison-dart frongs this trip. Here are a couple lil' fellows on a leaf:
This guy was really working to camouflage himself. He almost succeeded!
I finally got a clear photo of this colorful dude (his eyes are bright red!):
You have to zoom in on this guy to see the toadwholly spaced-out eyes!
This couple were "hanging out" in the new snake museum.This couple were observing this viper stretching far out towards the glass. Maybe they were angry with me for always pushing for a group shot...?
This is the fun falls. Fun because they've named it "Magic" and because this is the one where we share the popular illusion trick of staring at the center of the falls for 30 seconds. (You have to come down to CR to appreciate the effect.)Keven and Jess checking out the effect:
Fann and Jenn concentrating on their own 30 second stare:The last observation point on the waterfalls
Then we caught the shuttlebus back to the Reception center and pigged out on typical CR food! I love this place!! (No photo. You don't wanna be grossed out again by feedings.)

Summertime Blossums

2007-01-19T17:46:00.000-06:00

Once the rains stop and the dry season sets in we start seeing all these wonderful blossums appearing on what previously looked like dead trees. Here's one I see along the highway leading to Escazu. I had to get out of the car at the bridge to get this shot. There are so many to see, but often they are obstructed by electric cables.
Here are a couple other types of blossums--Jenn Scharf, from Canada on the left, and a new arrival, Fanneke Verhallen, from Amsterdam. They are both at the nearby University for Peace. Fanneke will be with us only for a couple of weeks. Welcome to the McKinney family!

Going Away Party for Payam & Alma Motlagh

2007-01-14T21:40:00.000-06:00

Our dear friends Payam, Alma and their little sweet daughter, Zamin, are returning to Uruguay after living here in CR for about two years. Payam's a doctor but was never able to work here in his field. Almita was our family tutor in the Ruhi classes and we'll really miss them all.
Alan broke out some old photographs of some early Baha'is here and Payam was enjoying them:
The Baha'i kids and all their friends were having a terrific time outside in the cool night air while the BB-Q was sizzling away nearby:
Here's Alma checking out the photos with JulieAnd Lilia Ericks...And Chantal, another super cutie in our community:Lil' Zamin's such a complete sweetie! She melts everybody's heart...
The two girls were inseparable all night:
Mike Robles was keeping a musical atmosphere for everybody. Just after this scene he started singing a little song for the two girls. (I'll try posting the video later)Chantal's half brother, Alonzo, with his wife, Shawna, were visiting from Tuscon, ArizonaJuan Luis and wife, Sandra, came to share the evening with us all:Here's Amanda Matamoros goofing around with Jeremy Morales

Julie's a retired lady!

2007-01-11T18:07:00.000-06:00

One of the teachers at the Blue Valley School, where she's been working for the past 11 years, gave her this little Do-List so that she'll be well organized at home: