Good fences make good neighbors...

Another house project at 30 rock. My dad came out to help us build the new fence from scratch. Nothing like three days of math and engineering. The bamboo had strangled and practically swallowed the old fence.

Belize

Javier and I met his parents in Belize in mid June. We spent the week on Ambergris Caye. Nothing like a tropical vacation to slow down father time.  It was a week of relaxation, swimming, snorkeling, diving, eating, walking the streets of San Pedro and more. The best part was that it was low season, so it felt like we were the only ones there. Such a treat. 

What's missing from this photo, you ask? Me, with my book and an ice cold Belikin. Vacation. Gotta love it.

The Island Seamstress

Too funny

Best pastries ever

Coconut at cocotal

Virgi asked this nice man who worked at Cocotal (where we stayed) to cut down a coconut from one of the trees and cut it open. Deelish!

Desired mode of transport...

Thirsty?

This is my kind of drinking establishment.

Cruisin the island via bicicleta.

Snorkeling off the dock

The cold pacific is for the birds. Warm water is where it's at. Ahhhh.

Diving

Not too bad for a dinky little disposable underwater camera. Of course, these measly photos are only a fraction of what we saw on our dives. The diving was out of this world. I won't even try to put the experience into words. But here is a short list of what we saw...turtles, nurse sharks, sting rays, eels, coral too beautiful for words, schools of fish bigger than our house, barracudas, and more. And the colors were from another world.

H2O

Here is the water they gave us on the dive boat. Bite it open and voila... drinking water.

Bob & Virgi (Javier's parents)

Pinky & Martin (aka Bear claw)

Our good pals Pinky and Martin came up for a farewell wine tasting weekend. Congrats to them, as they are headed to DC to start their careers at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Health. We met them at UCI when Javier was doing his post doc. That was 4 short years ago! Feel like we've known them forever.

Don't be strangers to the west coast P & M. There will always a glass of red wine with your names on it waiting for your return. We'll miss you kids!

Italian Street Painting Festival

Every year at the mission in SB they have a street painting festival. It's one of Santa Barbara's gems. The photos don't do it justice.

Costco

Javier's first ever trip to Costco. A little shocked from the volume of things. Come on Jav, you need to get out more.

Friendly Skies Part II

My mom came out for mother's day to redeem her birthday present (flying lesson). Javier and I got to tag along for the ride. Great fun, except for when my mom turned around mid flight, out and over the pacific and said "we have a loose connection!" Apparently, we had lost contact with air traffic control because of some faulty electronics. Nothing like being sky high in a tin can with dodgy equipment. Luckily, TJ (our instructor) was able to jerry rig things and we had a safe and happy flight (and landing!) phew.

Citrus Grove

Taking Donations to Seek Pilot's License

I purchased some living social vouchers for flying lessons. One was for my mom (plane/adventure enthusiast) for a birthday present. The voucher was expiring at the end of the month, so my mom wasn't able to make it out. Instead I dragged javier with me to take her place. Long story short, we both got to use the controls to fly the plane. We had ten minutes of short instruction before taking off and then I was in the drivers seat for 30 minutes. We landed, swapped spots and javier got to fly too. It was so great. What a spectacular view of santa barbara. We even spotted our house and our giant redwood tree. Javier prefers jumping out of airplanes, whereas I'd rather be flying the airplane. Can't wait to get you out here for your lesson mom! If my pal Molly wins the big lotto today, maybe she can fund my 70 hours of lessons to earn my license!

Bird's Eye view from the Skyhawk

Mighty Blue

Goleta Pier

Santa Barbara Harbor

UCSB