We’re back from vacation and gearing up for fall. Angus has one more round of fencing camp, celebrates his birthday, then starts a new school for Grade 7. Exhilarating times!
Los Angeles was pretty much as we’d left it last time, expect for the rather uncomfortable heat wave that decided to pass through while we were there. Some highlights, for better and worse:
- There was a plane crash, just down the street from my brother’s house! A 2-seater made an emergency landing on a residential street, just after taking off from the Santa Monica airport. The pilot died, plane went up in flames. Miraculously, there was very little house/street damage other than the plane and no one else was hurt.
- Angus and I went scuba diving on Catalina Island while Carsten rented a golf cart to tour around the island. The diving was beautiful and warm – we swam through a kelp forest with lots of diverse marine life. Interesting fact: a movie studio abandoned a small herd of buffalo on the island decades ago – they continue to roam free and thrive! Speaking of large animals, our ferry hit a whale on the way back. We have no idea how the whale fared afterwards.
- Owen’s birthday was on August 18. We spent the day at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Lovely place – fed the lorakeets, pet the stingrays. All things Owen would have loved.
- I decided to come home instead of heading to San Francisco – will save the Bay area for next time.
- The rest? See photos below!
Quick updates on other matters:
- I am working on Book #2. I thought it would be done by the end of the summer, but it’s turned into a larger project. I’ll start blogging about it soon!
- I will have an article in the October issue of Abilities magazine.
- I’m doing alright. Blog post on that soon too.
