Our Town

Our town of Sebastopol is sometimes called quirky, eclectic or "out there". But we feel very at home here.  A nice little place to see the creativity of Sebastopol is on Florence Avenue.  There, an artist by the name of Patrick Amiot and his family have helped transform a normal city street into an art exhibition.  Here are some of our favorite sculptures on what our kids call "Sculpture Street".  Some are small (like the campers below) and some are as big as a car.  Enjoy!

Batman and Bat Man...                                                                     

Still Here (where ever here is)!

In our final weeks in Honduras, packing up and saying goodbye caused the priority of the blog to slip way down on the totem pole.  In short, we got rid of a bunch of stuff, said goodbye to school friends and city friends, gave a tearful goodbye to Yuliza and packed 10 suitcases/boxes and flew back to Northern California on June 4.

We bid a farewell to Honduras and all the amazing places we visited while in that part of the world.  We tip our hats to that country for being our jumping off point for overseas living, and what a jumping off point it was.  For anyone who has followed the news over the past couple of years, Honduras has not been the easiest place to live.  But we didn't move there for an easy life, we moved there for adventure!  On the 4 wheels of our trusty 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe, we traveled the country and beyond, racking up experiences that we will never forget.

Our awesome view on a cloudy morning.  Tegucigalpa was at its best at night with the twinkling lights down low in the city and making their way up the green mountains.

Dempsey's artwork was chosen for the end of the year art show.

Linnea with some kindergarten friends.

Now we bask in the glow of a beautiful California summer.  Bike riding, camping, a Music Festival, farmer's market, small town living and family and friends have filled us up.  

Dempsey went to "College for Kids" at the SRJC and built cool mechanical stuff out of Legos.

We went by ferry to the Colombian Consulate in San Francisco to get our visas sorted out before heading out for Bogotá.

We spent several days in MacKerricher State Park near Fort Bragg.  Here is Lake Cleone with the Pacific Ocean behind.

Glass booty at Glass Beach.

Bike riding in the campground.

We rode the Skunk Train to Northspur for a picnic lunch.

Our niece Katy brought her Notebook of Fun which provided activities for all the cousins.  This included  scavenger hunts, making peanut butter and seed bird feeders, reading stories, countless miles around the campground on bicycles, sand art, and making ice cream.  Above you see her ice cream ingredients and the kids with their bags of vanilla ice cream.  

We have two more weeks in Sebastopol until we fly out to Bogotá.  We will be living and working in the capital at a school.  Stay tuned if you're interested to see what life is like in Colombia!

Last/Random Images from Copan Ruinas

...Procession on Good Friday...

Someone loves mangos

Linnea and Nirmala in a TukTuk

Birds and an altar the kids made in front of our "home" in celebration of Viernes Santo.  That's Ernesto, our host.

 Last morning in Copan.

 ... our ride to the bus station...

 Pretty driveway

 Someone brought a gas oven to the river for the 3 day holiday of Semana Santa.

Field of tomatoes.

Sawdust Carpets of Copan Ruinas

We spent the week of Semana Santa in Copan Ruinas, in the western mountains of Honduras.  Semana Santa culminates with Viernes Santo, or Good Friday.  We walked with our teachers two blocks from the school to the central plaza where the sawdust carpets had been dutifully made the night before.  These alfombras, or carpets are made from dyed sawdust that is used to make elaborate religious pictures.  The street is measured and marked with twine the evening before.  Then a layer of wood shavings is laid out and leveled.  People work on the temporary carpets all night long to have them ready for Good Friday.

Here in the first panel of the alfombra, there is a mix of religious symbolism 

and Mayan numbers and symbols, too.

                                Watermelon vase for the flowers.      

This is how the kids viewed the carpets... they took these pictures.

People also created altars in front of their homes...

When we returned to our house later that day, the kids were inspired to create their own little altar in front of the house with things they could find around the street and driveway.

In the afternoon, a procession walks over the carpets and they are swept up the next day.

Guacamaya Language School, Copan Ruinas

  We spent our Semana Santa in Copan Ruinas, near the ancient Mayan ruins of Copan.  We all went to brush up on our Spanish at Guacamaya Spanish School.  We stayed with a local family and attended classes each morning from 8 to noon.  After, we would meander through the streets of Copan Ruinas, visit the swimming hole at Macaw Mountain, or the ruins.  Completely relaxing, entertaining and... educational! The adults of this family can attest to the pleasure of improving our Spanish with a one-on-one tutor.  The kids spent the morning with their teachers practicing their Spanish in a more playful way with games and physical activities.

Linnea and her teacher, Emma

Dempsey and Sarah

                         Field trip...        

 

             Pretty door on the way to school.     

Linnea in front of our house before school one day.

Stay tuned for more pictures of las alfombras de viernes santa, horseback riding, and the ruins.

Yeah, So we've been a little busy lately and the priority of the blog has fallen down on the totem pole.  So here's the Reader's Digest version of our last few weeks:

Linnea staging a store in her bedroom. 

 She repositioned the bookshelf and strategically staged the items for sale.

                                                      

Our new home... we had to move... the story is not really worth telling unless we're talking in person.

Rural Honduran shower on the "roadside"

One of Dempsey's Lego creations

We call this the "Secret Garden".  It's a great little pathway through a xeriscape garden at school between pre-school and the elementary school.  It's not necessarily hidden, but it's "secret" because no one uses it.  In it we find lantana, peanut grass, succulents and enough winged flying-things to keep a bug zapper happy for an evening.  It's also a nice place to walk before school to avoid the speeding Range Rovers and Prados that are exiting the school after drop-off.   This picture was taken on our way to Family Day. 

 Family Day snacks with Laurel.

Our new view from our new home...  it's even more spectacular at night.