Soon after we arrived in SR Marion and Kent took Merinda and Edwin
off to Safari West.
Soon after we arrived in SR Marion and Kent took Merinda and Edwin
off to Safari West.
Circa 2001, Merinda travelled with Mr P Panther to Australia, as
recorded previously, but sadly Mr Pather
became separated from the party in the vicinity of Kiama. It appears that
he made his way back to California looking for his travelling companion,
and finding that she had disappeared, he made Safari West his home,
and put up signs in the hope that one day he would find his companion.
Behold, his searches were not in vain, and after all this time
they were reunited. Mr Pather and Merinda had both grown. It was
a fond reunion!
As this picture shows, Ms Merinda has grown quite a lot.
Well, in height anyway.
There was a lot of catching up to do.
We visited Matthias and Delia's spread...
Edwin caught up with Charlie...
...and Merinda with Mary...
...and Edwin with Tadd,
while Tadd caught up with Kent's new electric vehicular toys.
Of course, Kent's wonderland is usually popular...
...if you are turned loose, that is.
Mr TT from Kaipaki was not forgotten either.
Kay took him on a weekend with the girls.
We visited friends.
Jonathan attended the Mechatronics Cup Lego robot competition via Skype.
We attended the traditional Friday Lunch with Agilent people.
And we shopped. The recession had hit CA quite hard... the malls were
a bit like ghost towns. Lots of shops were vacant.
Shops usually stacked with the latest goodies like CostCo and Best Buy had what
must be described as "lean floor stock".
Mind you, cash was king, and we weighed a
good deal more upon departure than we did upon arrival.
Edwin bought his fabulous "jazz hat", the wearing of which seemed
to change is personality like magic.
Edwin also spent a day with Ms Catherine and kids from the
Santa Rosa Charter School, just for comparative purposes!
Marion and Kent trekked off to Italy leaving us looking after their
wonderful house. Edwin was in charge of bird feeding,
Merinda of cat feeding, or at least that part of the cat feeding
that is not taken care of by the bird feeding (Otto is a mean
predator, I saw him swallow a small creature whole like a snake).
We did a little entertaining there.
Bye bye California.
