090512 Year 4 Saying Farewell to Ziggy & to Santa Fe
Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Weather: Blue Skies, Sunny, Temps in Mid-70′s
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico

We are sitting in the airport terminal in Albuquerque waiting for our 10:24 am flight to Denver. From there we fly to Chicago and then on to Providence, Rhode Island where our son-in-law Jed will pick us up at 9:30 this evening. Yesterday was a tough day. Every time we would walk from our casita to Justin and Jo’s I would get teary-eyed thinking about leaving Ziggy, Justin, and Jo. Ziggy was one month-old last Thursday and yesterday he weighed in at 8 pounds 8 ounces. He was so tiny when we arrived but now he is starting to get chubby little cheeks, fingers, and toes. It is going to be vey hard to leave him. We hope to see him again before we return to Malaysia in late fall, and in the meantime, we will see him via Skype video and continue to watch him grow. We had an interesting conversation with Jo and her parents last evening about just how huge this country is and how far apart families live from each other. In England where they live, nothing is more than a couple of hours away. Wouldn’t that be wonderful! But here we just have to get on a plane and fly across the country. Of course, while sad to leave Ziggy, we are very excited to be going to Cape Cod to see Sam, Heather, and Jed. And in about five weeks, we will have another grandchild there. And that is very exciting.

The weather in Santa Fe has been spectacular and we are going to miss that as well. Springtime in New England is beautiful, but it won’t be sunny and in the mid-70′s everyday as it is here. So we have lived everyday of the past week to the fullest. We started our week working in the garden. Tuesday night we went out to dinner at the CowGirl restaurant in downtown Santa Fe to say farewell to Jo’s sister Katherine. She flew back to England on Wednesday. Then on Thursday we had a one-month birthday celebration for Ziggy. And Mirabelle came home from the VW shop just in time for the birthday party. On Saturday we rented a car and took Justin, Jo, and Ziggy for a day out in Taos. There is a high road and a low road leading to Taos. The high road has gorgeous mountain scenery and is very green. The low road is the fastest but it winds through dry country that has a very different kind of beauty. The difference in the scenery on the two roads was truly unbelievable. Taos is a tourist town at the base of the highest peaks in the area which also makes it a ski town in the winter. We had a wonderful lunch on the outdoor patio of a restaurant in downtown Taos, wandered though the plaza, and visited the Taos pueblo north of town. On the way home we stopped to see the Santuario de Chimayo. To top off a fantastic day, we had dinner back in Santa Fe at a Thai restaurant. Our waitress was from Krabi, an area of Thailand that we really enjoyed visiting in Windbird. Just talking to her made us homesick for Windbird but we hear from friends that Windbird is doing just fine in our absence.

Sunday was Mother’s Day and Justin, Phil, and Mark prepared a fantastic brunch for us. Justin and Jo gave the grandmothers each a photo of them with Ziggy and each mother was presented with a beautiful rose. We sat and talked and ate for almost three hours, and then later in the evening we had the whole gang over to our casita for a southwest dinner of chili and polenta. Yesterday we packed and did the last little bit of work on Mirabelle and the garden. Then we all went out for sushi. We said our farewells to Jo’s parents after dinner. We have so enjoyed getting to know them and already look forward to the next time we get to see them. We ended our last evening in Santa Fe by being treated to desert at Justin and Jo’s-chocolate brownies fresh out of the oven with raspberries and Rice Dream ice cream. What a treat. We smothered Ziggy with hugs and kisses and said our goodbyes for now to Justin and Jo.

It’s time for take-off, so I’d better send this while I’m still connected to the internet. I’ll post another log when we reach Cape Cod.

Note: Actually I didn’t get to post this log before leaving Albuquerque, so it is being posted a couple of days later. We are now on Cape Cod. Our flights here went without a hitch from Albuquerque to Denver, Denver to Chicago, and Chicago to Providence. Heather, Jed, and Sam are doing great and we are already settled in here. I’ll write a log this weekend to update our activities since arriving here.

090504 Year 4 Second Week in Santa Fe
Date: Monday, May 4, 2009
Weather: Sunny and Warm; PM Temps Hovering Around 70
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico

This time last year we were just arriving in Australia after spending five months in the US. One month ago we were still in Phuket, Thailand, and had just gotten Windbird back in the water after her refit. I’m really having trouble believing that it has only been a month since we were in Phuket, but the calendar tells me this is true. How time does fly and this past week was no exception. This was the week of Mirabelle. Mirabelle is Justin and Jo’s 1973 bright yellow VW Beetle whose engine needed some serious help. Mark and Justin decided they could take the engine out and they did this working only in the afternoons on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, Jo’s parents rented a car to go to Albuquerque to pick up Jo’s sister Katherine, so Jo went along with Ziggy and Mirabelle’s engine which she traded in for a rebuilt. All Thursday afternoon, Mark and Justin followed the VW manual directions for reattaching everything to the engine and hoped to have it installed by the end of the day. But there was a hitch. A bolt coming out of the engine to which the heat exchanger would attach was the problem. The bolt was fine but the threads in the engine were stripped so the bolt could not attach anything. So Friday morning we rented a car and Mark took the engine into a local VW garage to have the machine work done. After talking to the mechanic, however, Mark made the decision to tow the car to the garage and have the mechanic do the engine installation. The installation will be on us, but Mark just felt that he couldn’t learn enough fast enough to do the job right. We still don’t have Mirabelle back, but hopefully she will return tomorrow in good working order.

Late Friday afternoon, Justin, Jo, and Ziggy played music at the art gallery where Jo’s art is on display. It was a lovely evening. Ziggy arrived attached to the front of Jo with the most amazing baby wrap I have ever seen. Jo just whips the Moby wrap around Ziggy and off they go. Ziggy slept attached to his mom while she and Justin played their music. Since both sets of grandparents and Jo’s sister were there, we finally convinced Jo that she must let us hold Ziggy. We all danced around with Ziggy and enjoyed the music. After the performance, Justin, Jo, and Ziggy came to our casita for dinner. It was the perfect end to a busy week. It had been such a busy week, however, that we all decided to take the weekend off. So Jo’s parents and sister headed to Albuquerque on the train while Mark and I just stayed close to home. I’m working desperately to get a pair of overalls embroidered for Ziggy and Mark can always find things to search on the internet. We did take a walk downtown on Saturday afternoon just to check out some of the shops, but that was the extent of our activity. On Sunday, Mark and I took the bus to Museum Hill. There are three museums there, but the most striking thing is the setting. The hill overlooks Santa Fe and gives a great view of the surrounding mountains. We walked more than halfway back to town just to enjoy the desert hilltop scenery. It is beautiful.

Sunday evening was the highlight of the week. Both sets of grandparents and Auntie Katherine all gathered at Justin and Jo’s for a Sunday night barbeque. Jo’s dad bought a tent gazebo for the backyard and he trekked from his casita through the neighborhood streets with the barbecue grill so we could grill out at Justin and Jo’s. We all sat under the gazebo and enjoyed Ziggy and a great dinner. We had fish, shrimp, chicken, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and a salad. It was quite a feast and a great family gathering.

Week three in Santa Fe will be spent doing more gardening and all of the odd jobs that we started in week one and never finished. Thursday is Ziggy’s one month birthday, so we will certainly have to celebrate that in style. We are going to Taos on Saturday and spending Mother’s Day Sunday back here in Santa Fe. By this time next week, we will be packing our bags and getting ready to head to Albuquerque to catch our flight east. Then we start all over again getting ready for grandchild #3 on Cape Cod in June. It’s a wonderful life!

090502 New Mexico–Last Week of April in Santa Fe

090503 New Mexico–Sunday in Santa Fe