Isabella was a participant of Camp Erin this week. 60 children at Camp Arroyo in Livermore – all who had lost one of more family members. There was a great atmosphere around the whole camp and Isabella was lucky to get selected to participate. Isabella walked straight into the arms of a couple of the younger girls – Phoebe and Kayla – and she was still with them when John picked her up Wednesday afternoon.
Isabella and Phoebe e-mailed back and forth today and we’ve already planned to hit Great America on Monday. There’s a reunion baseball game sponsored by the San Francisco Giants on September 29 – it’ll be good to see the folks with whom she now shares an unfortunate but strong connection.
The back pipe player below was photographed at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay this past Saturday. It’s a lovely picture and the small size doesn’t do the print justice. The three of us had a nice long walk on the beach and decided to pass the golf course and hotel pretending to be wealthy guests not minding to pay $9 for a cup a warm chocolate in a paper cup. Still on the outskirts and edge on the cliffs we nearly interrupted a guy proposing, and we had hardly passed them before he got down on his knees. We later bumped into them at the hotel and had to ask if she had accepted, which also gave us a chance to apologize for nearly being part of it all. All was good!
John’s just turned the last page in the PADI Open Water Diver manual. Tomorrow is the first day of a two-weekend intensive course. Wallin’s Dive Center is just down the road with a pool big enough to learn all the fun stuff. Next weekend it’s time to jump in the ocean around Monterey, and if all goes well he’ll earn his PADI certification. Something that all started standing in the shark cage… Time to get on the outside.