Tag: Pia Esguerra

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Weekend in Hawaii

On Friday, John and Olivia went to Hawaii for the weekend. While it was partly to relax and enjoy the island, two other action items were on the agenda. One was to inspect the condo for water damage from a recent storm. The other reason we will get to a little later.

It was great to be back on the island of Oahu and visit the local restaurants – some new, some old. The weather is typically very nice and comfortable in June, which was also the case this time. John still managed to catch a cold lingering by the time this is published.

Adriana wrapped the school year at the end of last week. She’s busy with Cheer, art projects, and working above the local hospital and Dizzy Lizzy’s Baked Goods. Up next is Pia…

Our garden is looking great. John and Olivia went to find some pincushions at a very nice nursery in Berkeley. They only bloom once a year, and we might have missed it this time, but hopefully, they will look great next spring.

As mentioned above, there was one more reason that John and Olivia went to Hawaii. The flight from San Francisco to Honolulu brought John past 3,000,000 flown miles with United Airlines. That’s a lot of flying, and it was a bit anti-climactic to receive a pen at the gate together with a thank you. Anyway, it’s done, and it remains to be seen if John will ever board a flight again 😉

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Summer is coming to an end…

Summer vacation is slowly coming to an end, and Adriana has been busy wrapping up the last two summer camps: cake baking, and tennis. She enjoyed both – especially tennis, where the got to play with the daughter of our former neighbors.  Now it’s time to start thinking about all the summer homework assignments incl. the dreaded book report.

Bella spent the week in Honolulu together with Andrew. She’s not back at Santa Clara college until mid-September. Pia, on the other hand, was first back. She moved up to Varsity cheerleading and lost her captain position – at least for this year. Not sure she’s missing it. 

As a Christmas present, Ella got a ticket for an outdoor music festival called Outside Lands. This year was their 10th anniversary. Seems to be a bit of an older crowd, so among the list are many “mature” bands. Still, good times and transportation luckily never got to be an issue. The week before, she spent the week in New York and on Long Island seeing two of her friends from school.

Olivia, John, and Adriana hosted the McGregors at Casa Bellamia in Carmel Valley. They are a British couple with three children that used to live in Burlingame. They were fellow St. Catherine’s parents, and it was good to catch up after they moved back to the UK in 2014. As usual, the kids spent almost the entire day in the pool and had no trouble falling asleep.

Before leaving for Carmel, Adriana, Pia, Olivia and John celebrated Penny’s 75th birthday together with Adrian  – and Penny, of course – at John Bentley in Menlo Park. It continues to be one of our favorite places to go to dinner. 

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Never a Dull Moment…

It’s been weeks since we got home. We’ve had more than 200 people read our travel diary from Africa, and we’ve taken a peak ourselves to remind us of what a great trip we had. 

It was sweltering the weekend we came back, and the girls mostly spent the first couple of days in and around Adrian and Penny’s pool. John had to return some rented camera equipment and continued south to Carmel and got back in the saddle riding the beautiful 17-miles drive. 

Once home John and Adriana got busy power washing the drive way, patios, and outdoor furniture. With what looked to be a terrible chore, the neighbor, Liz, had John suspected of being in the dog house, but it was quite therapeutic and very satisfying to see the moss and dirt disappear, and also to see the brown teak color come alive behind what was mostly gray chairs and couches. The free mud bath was a just a bonus that both Adriana and John enjoyed. Less so the ones who showered after us. 

As mentioned in a previous blog post, John was fortunate to get a couple of Hamilton tickets from Olivia. They went to the Orpheum Theater on July 14 and loved every minute of the show. It really is a great musical, and although had cast has changed several times over, every performance was to a tee. It’s a shame that the tickets are a small fortune – the music is perfect for a younger audience and was a great piece of history. 

Dinner was eaten at 54Mint. Great food but the basement turned out to be very dark and very loud. Luckily the staff could help get a couple of seats at the bar. 

Bella’s been busy working at a pair of event planning businesses. Long hours and much planning, but rewarding when the event is successful and both the hosts and guests are happy. Pia has been enjoying her new license and is always (and still) glad to run errands around town. Late last week she blew a tire but managed to drive back to the house. AAA replaced it within the hour. AAA is also where we have an auto insurance policy and the bill, for now, four cars – with two young drivers – is something we don’t care to think about a whole lot. 

Adriana’s summer camp schedule has been tight, and so far she’s enjoyed volleyball camp, a camp focused on producing YouTube videos and finally an art camp. So far we have not seen anything posted on YouTube, but it won’t be long – she reviews several products each day and is often recording her slime making skills.

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Breathtaking Victoria Falls

First day of July and a day that was mostly spent at the Victoria Falls. We did start out with a morning drive, but most had their thoughts on the adrenalin-rushing activities they had signed up for at the falls. 

Departure from camp was at 11:00 and it took almost and hour before we were at the entrance. The guides offered ponchos, umbrellas and waterproof phone pounces in participation of the rain and sprays of water that comes with a visit to the falls, and while it started pretty dry, some of us got completely drenched and gave up trying to stay a little bit dry. It was no big deal – the weather was warm, and it never became an issue. 

The Victoria Falls were breathtaking and the 16 viewpoints each offered different views that all brought “ooohs” and “aaahs”. We also got a close-up view of the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe from where Jilly would later let a bungee cord prevent her from falling head-first into the Zambezi river. 

Eleven family members signed up for either gorge swing, bungee jump, or zip-lining; which is how the time between 2 and 4 was passed. All of them seems to defy what any human should be doing, but all had fun and agreed that if you were ever going to do any of these things, then Victoria Falls was the place to do it. Out of respect for parents and grandparents, we will not post any pictures 😉

The afternoon brought a lovely reunion with many of the local family members. All-in-all we ended up being 34 for high tea at the famous Victoria Falls Hotel, from where the famous “Dr. Livingstone, I presume” saying originated. Whether is was the first time connections were made, or it was a welcome chance to catch us since the last visit, the afternoon was spent with much laughter and tales from African, Australia, and California. Good times!

The activities, walking, and playing with cousins took its toll on the group, and dinner at camp was with a little smaller group than usual. We agreed to skip the early morning drive and get a good night rest. (See July 2.)

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Visiting Deadvlei

Yesterday’s travel from Cape Town to Sossusvlei got disrupted, but we managed to just touch in the Namibian desert before sunset. It was dusk by the time we had checked-in and we got a taste of how dark this place really gets while having dinner. The night sky was incredible to watch and a few got to visit the on-site observatory. The itinerary for the following day was to see the desert dunes and also to visit the famous Deadvlei with its dead trees. 

We set out early in the morning so that we were at the park entrance by 7:00. We enjoyed the closed vehicles and the included African massage, as the drivers call the seat movement that is a direct result of the gravel roads.  

Once at the dunes we we’re given a choice of dune to hike: Big Daddy or Small Daddy. Only David, Pia and Jilly ventured towards the 1,000’ Big Daddy while the rest chose the somewhat easier option. It was a very good hike up before – with a bit of hesitation – one could run downhill. A few elected to roll downhill. One of those that initially seemed like a good idea. 

At the bottom were the dead trees and is was rewarding to be among them in the midst of blue, orange, white and gray colors. Surprisingly hard to capture the color, but as everyone will know it’s possible and there is hardly a screen saver collection with respect for itself that doesn’t feature parts of this rather smaller area. 

We enjoyed a delicious brunch at the foot of Big Mamma but nobody had the energy to venture up despite the slightly smaller size of the dune.

We got back to camp around 2:00 in time for a siesta at camp. At 4:30 p.m. we left for a sundowner and munched on Oryx skewers while the sun disappeared in the horizon. Dinner was loin of kudo – some looked envious at the spaghetti Bolognese that the kids were served. 

Sadly a decent amount of cloud cover hid the impressive night sky and we had to wait another 24 hours before gazing and the International Space Station, satellites and galaxies.

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Zip-lining and Cheese

Busses departed One&Only at 9:00 in the morning. Five people headed for the wine country for wine, cheese and chocolate tastings while the other 11 had chosen zip lining as the activity for the day. 

About half of the zip lining group had already tried speeding across valleys and forest on a thin metal wire. Some in Hawaii, some in Costa Rica. The rest was not quite sure what to expect, but after the first ride all felt comfortable and couldn’t wait for more. There was a total of 13 legs and it took almost three hours from start until we were at the pickup spot for the 4×4 to take us back to camp.

The scenery was amazing and a big part of us enjoying every minute. 

Both busses were back at the hotel at 5:30 and we walked in just as Chris and Kara arrived from Santa Barbara. Despite a delayed start from Los Angeles they had found time to tour Dubai with the same guide as the rest of the family, and cruised around the city until 2:00 in the morning. 

Dinner was enjoyed at Gibson Burgers. Lively, hopping, loud and fairly expensive but the casual meal hit the spot and the walk back to the hotel made sure at least some of the calories stayed behind in Cape Town.

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Successful Foot Surgery

Olivia’s foot underwent surgery on July 14. All went as expected during the operation and the staff at Mills Peninsula hospital took very good care of her. Olivia stayed overnight and saw the physical therapist before going home, so that she could learn to master the crotches. Unfortunately she took a dive during one of the walks so it was back to x-ray to make sure everything was OK. The photographs revealed all was intact and Olivia was back at the house in the early afternoon. It’ll be another few weeks before she can put weight on her foot/ankle but all is going well and everyone is helping where they can. 

For the girls the week started on a questionable note with a couple of fillings for Pia and spacers for Adriana. Dentist visits are always such fun… Pia said “Thanks, but no thanks” to any kind of numbing and was named “Most brave” of our four girls. Adriana didn’t enjoy it as much but it’s good to know there’s now room for when the last of the new teeth decides it’s time to come out. All was forgotten afterwards and Adriana hoped the tooth fairy would take her fresh mold in exchange for money – just this one time. She’s been active in Volleyball camp all week at Crystal Springs School. She’s excited to start that activity in the school year that’s just around the corner.

On Friday Pia left for Santa Cruz together with cheerleading teams with a 12 other high schools. She’s leading her team this year and is co-captain together with one other classmate. They are training and competing all weekend and the rumor is that she’s been awarded a very special “Nicest to be around” award. Congratulations – seems very appropriate!

Isabella is in Fiji and will soon have to start thinking about packing everything up and head home. John will meet her in Los Angeles on Wednesday after her flight from Nadi. We’ll put together a separate post on the trip as there surely is lots to tell. 

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Las Vegas in 24 hours

Las Vegas in 24 hours

 

Partly to celebrate John’s birthday and partly to introduce Pia and Bella to Las Vegas, all six set out to enjoy what at one point looked like 115 degrees (46 celsius) in the shade. As it turned out the temperature never went higher than 100 but only after Las Vegas was mentioned in the national news because of severe thunderstorms that brought hail with them. The flight was therefore diverted all the way to Los Angeles to avoid the stormy weather before making a left turn.

John and Olivia were lucky to sit next to a couple of winemakers who had brought samples of their wines. The extra hour of flying time came in handy for that reason. Good stuff – look up Enriquez Wines and Vokel Cellars if you’re ever in the Healdsburg area.

The trusted Mandarin Oriental was the base for the 24 hours in Nevada. All jumped in a cab and drove to The Wynn hotel and slowly made their way to the Bellagio where Olivia treated all to the ‘O’ show by Cirque de Soleil. Dinner was consumed at Otto in the Venetian. Despite Adriana begging the urge to ride the gondolas was resisted and the Venetian remained a visual-only experience.

Isabella had unfortunately caught some stomach bug days before leaving and the effects were still very much present upon takeoff from Oakland airport. She was, unfortunately, uable to join the rest of the family for the dinner and show and instead rested in the hotel room. It helped and she felt much better on the second day of the trip.

The following day was mostly spent relaxing on the strip and ride the roller coaster at the New York New York hotel. Adriana was deemed too short during the last visit, so she was thrilled when she was allowed on the bumpy ride this time around.

After a burger at Bobby’s Burger Palace and a quick scoop of Pinkberry, it was time to fly back so that they could all join the rest of the family for an early 4th of July dinner at the MPCC Beach House in Carmel.


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Wrapping up another school year

Bella graduated from Burlingame High School on May 28. The ceremony at the on the football field was followed by a small dinner for the family. Nice event with good speeches and even of couple of performances of the school band and choir.

Pia had a to wait a few more days before she wrapped up he final exam with a two-mile run. There was no end in sight for Adriana and as we write this, she’s still go on strong at Saint Catherine’s. She just wrapped up the last book report of the year, and got to pretend to be Ella Enchanted in front of the camera. She’s quite enjoying those type of assignments.

Bella had invited 75 people to Adrian and Penny’s home for a reception in her honor. The place looked beautiful and Pia record effort from handing 100 rice paper lamps paid off.

Across the country Isabella was starting to her final exams and it all kicked off on Memorial Day (May 30). Five days later and she was done for the year. John went out to help help pack up the room and freight laundry from Connecticut to California. They spent the day hiking Kent Falls but also completed a rather long drive to Collin’s Creamery – surely some of the best ice cream in CT.

John flew back Sunday evening while Isabella stayed behind. She’s on a small team representing Kent School at the Independent School Gender Project. The conference starts June 16 so until then she’s staying with a very good friend – Hannah – from school. She’s back home June 18.

http://www.isgpsummerconference.org
http://thecollinscreamery.com