Sabbatical epilogue

January 26, 2010: Where to even begin… We returned to the U.S. in mid-July, about six months ago. That’s half the amount of time we spent living abroad. (Feels like we’ve done so little in the last six months compared to any six month period of our sabbatical.) We left as a threesome in August, 2008, and returned a threesome plus a little. We learned about the “plus a little” while at Tyddyn Mawr, our lovely farm in Wales. How happy the owners of the farm were to hear our news when we shared it with them as we packed our car to head to southern England. Seems like forever ago. I’m now two months from my due date with our next babe, although the size of my belly suggests that I could give birth any day now.

The last six months have given me time to reflect—here and there—on the year that we call the best experience of our lives. Jeremy described it this way in talking to friends a couple of weeks ago, and I guess I hadn’t thought about it in those terms. But, it’s true. The freedom from life’s constraints and responsibilities, from the routines, the predictability of most days, planning and schedules. Freedom from all of this became our way of life. New experiences at every turn. Constant change. Endless time together. We lived each day with purpose. Even if the day was spent playing in the sand at a beach, we did it with purpose.

Liberation from my type-A ways felt amazing. No piles. No home to keep too tidy, since we were quickly on our way to another destination. No planning to do aside from thinking about where I would get my next latte and pastry, where we might explore the next day, or where the closest organic store was located.

When Jonah was born, I made a conscious effort to live in the moment, to truly enjoy every stage of his life so that I’d never regret not having experienced it. To my surprise, I did pretty well at adjusting to this new way of being. Sabbatical brought it to an entirely different level. My mind was quiet. No nagging reminders in the back of my head or thoughts of those things that needed to get done. Sitting on the ground with Jonah as he “cooked” for me in our beautiful courtyard in Greece or as he moved cars up and down his garage in South Africa meant being right there with him. Completely being there with him.

For me, the great lesson from our sabbatical has been being aware enough to quickly quiet my mind so I can just be, mostly so I can now enjoy the imaginary latte that Jonah makes for me in his play kitchen, the car ride we’re pretending to take on the couch, or the books we’re reading together as he sits in my lap or snuggles up beside me. Whereas before out sabbatical it would be easy to get caught up in my piles or lists of things to do without thinking about the lost opportunity, now I’m acutely aware of the tradeoffs and make more conscious decisions about how I’m spending my time. It’s not noticeable to an outside observer, including Jeremy I’d imagine. But, my own awareness gives me a greater sense that, even with the routine of “normal” life, I can live life with purpose.

I’d say the one thing that I no longer fret about (to the extent that I fretted about it on our sabbatical) is Jonah picking something up and walking off with it, only to wonder whether he’ll put it in some random drawer that we’ll never think to look in until after we’ve moved to our next country. Things get moved around in our house. Jonah likes taking things out of drawers in our kitchen in particular. But I imagine we’ll eventually find most of the things that matter before it’s time to return to California.

Through December, I felt like I was—to some extent—in a post-sabbatical funk. How can any experience beat the one we’d just had? Turning the corner to 2010 though brings us closer to meeting our next little one and excitement about our growing family. One evening last week, Jonah and I watched a DVD with footage of Jonah the month after he was born. It took Jonah a while to get his head around the fact that he was watching himself as a baby. Remembering him as a little bubs made me especially excited to have another one.

So what exactly are we doing now anyway and where are we??? Always a good question for us, even if we are back in the United States. When we got back to California, we spent a couple of weeks visiting family and friends in southern and northern California. We took another two weeks to sell our townhouse, start looking for housing in the D.C area, and pack up our stuff. Jeremy began his position in the Obama Administration as the Director for Democracy for the National Security Council on August 17, about four days after we got to town and moved ourselves into the basement of our good friends, Debbie and Bill, in Silver Spring, Maryland. We quickly found a house to rent not far from them. It’s lovely with a huge yard, less than a block from a fabulous playground for Jonah and a short walk from a pleasant downtown area.

Before we left California, I started having conversations with colleagues in the environmental health community about opportunities for me in D.C. I soon landed a job as the Chemicals Policy Director for Health Care Without Harm, an international coalition of organizations working to green the health care sector, which I began the third week of September. It’s the perfect job—interesting, challenging, flexible (three days/week mostly from home), and with just the right amount of responsibility.

Jonah had a bit of a tough transition to our new, stable life. I think it was probably more on account of our family size having grown from three to seven when we moved in with Debbie and Bill and their two boys, Fisher and Stuart. Suddenly we were no longer a quiet little threesome.

Within a week of getting to town, however, I found an amazing preschool for Jonah at Temple Emanuel in Kensington. Based on the philosophy of Reggio-Emilia, the school focuses on group projects and documents everything the kids do to show the process and product of their work. Since Jonah had spent the last year with just us and only short periods of time with one other child at any given time, we thought a group focus would be good for him. It has been. He absolutely loves school! On the first day I left him on his own, he was the slightest bit clingy as I was about to leave. But he quickly ran off to do something fun in some part of the classroom. He never shed a tear, not then or since. What a relief. Now when I pick him up each day, he insists on hugging all of the teachers goodbye before we go. He even makes his way into the school director’s office to say goodbye to her.

Jonah knew no other way of life than one that involved a monthly move, so about a month after we moved into our house in Silver Spring he started to ask me when we were moving to our next one. I explained several times that we were going to stay here for a long time, and he would respond with suggestions for our next move anyway. Usually that meant he thought we should move in with his cousin Natalie. Eventually he stopped asking about the next move. And recently, he voiced concern over the possibility of actually having to move. I happened to mention that we were renting this house and that it belonged to another family. He asked questions about the family and said, “I don’t want them to come back to this house.” In other words, “I don’t want to move!”

Since moving to Silver Spring, we’ve had wonderful visits from Safta and Tanta, Nana and Papa, and Guy and Maya. We made a trip back to southern California to spend Thanksgiving with our family. We took a quick road trip to New York to visit Uncle Josh and Aya, my nephew Micha, Macartan, Jacobia, and Aoife, and Advah, Guy, and Maya. We travelled to the Wintergreen Resort outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, to bring in the new year with Nana, Papa, Uncle Josh, and Aya. And I just returned from my first-ever weekend away from both of my boys to meet Liat (who flew in from California) in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, for some rejuvenation and relaxation.

While driving to Heathrow airport from southern England to head back to California in July, Jeremy and I compiled a Harper’s Magazine-like sabbatical recap. So here it goes:

- Number of countries visited: 10 (not breaking out Wales, Scotland, and England separately)
- Number of places we stayed: 21
- Number of places we’d trade in: 2 (Barcelona apartment and Dublin hotel)
- Number of ocean views: 4 (Connemara, Ireland; Lindos, Greece; Istanbul; Cape Town)
- Number of plane segments: 23
- Number of days out of the United States for our sabbatical: 304
- Number of castles and palaces visited: 10 (including one in Uganda)
- Number of religious buildings visited: > 50
- Number of mazes walked through: 4 (Parc del Laberint in Barcelona, Scone Palace in Scotland, Green Forest in Wales, Penny Farm in England)
- Girlfriends Jonah had on our trip: Mayan, Maya, Charlotte
- Number of times Jonah went from liking peas to not and back: 4
- Worst dessert of the trip: “Pumpkin Surprise” in Istanbul
- Best dessert of the trip: chocolate molten cake in Lindos
- Best selection of organic produce: Cape Town
- Place with a high chair in every restaurant: Ireland
- Place with no high chair in any restaurant: Barcelona
- Place Jonah was licked by a cow: Israel
- Number of figureheads we saw (from a distance) on our travels: 2 (the Pope and Queen Elizabeth)
- Cost of our trip: no idea, but we came back with money in the bank!

And as always, I will conclude with more on Jonah… New developments for Jonah in the last several months include: his first dentist appointment (he did fabulously and was extremely patient but did not care for the fluoride treatment), the growth of many more teeth (he’s now only missing his second set of molars on top), the loss of a regular nap (as of about a month ago, we’re lucky if Jonah naps these days, but he always goes to his crib for “rest” time), countless sicknesses with a wake of illness left behind him (for me, Jeremy, Safta, Nana, Papa…), Jonah’s first time in snow (excited to see it from inside, not so excited to be in it outside…until he discovered that he had his own snow shovel and could help his daddy shovel the walkway), a first parent-teacher conference at school during which I was told that we had an extremely delightful, intelligent child, Halloween as Mickey Mouse and trick-or-treating at Jeremy’s office, the addition of a number of songs (mostly Jewish) to his repertoire, an obsession with birthdays and presents, and amazing growth with his language (which already was advanced for his age).

Some of Jonah’s conversational highlights over the last six months:

After Jonah has been in his crib for about 45 minutes or so at naptime, he often calls out for us to hear through the monitor, “I’m all gone shloofing!” or “I’m all gone with my shloofy!” “Did I take a good nap?” he sometimes adds.

While getting dressed one morning, Jonah was crying because he wanted to get dressed in the other room. He said to me, “I having a hard time.” “Oh, why are you having a hard time?” I asked. “‘Cuz I crying,” he replied. If he’s crying about something, sometimes I’ll ask him if he’s having a hard time, which is where that came from.

While driving in the car with the radio playing music, Jonah shouted out from the back, “Good song!” It was a Top 40’s song. I smiled.

Jonah’s classroom has pet hermit crabs that he loves to help take care of. While driving home from school one day, I asked Jonah, “Did you get to play with the hermit crabs today?” Annoyed, he answered, “No, they’re not toys!” “Oh,” I said, “Did you get to see them today?” “Yes,” Jonah replied.

While watching a man walk down the street, Jonah said, “He had a sad, bad day. He has to kiss hiself.”

Jonah announces to us when he’s going poop (still in his diaper) and often goes to find himself some privacy to do so. One morning, when I asked him if he was finished so I could change his diaper, he said, “Poop is still coming out. And then some pee will come down, and I’ll be all done.”

So we’re happy and well in Silver Spring. It’s colder than I’d like, of course, but then you can’t take the California out of a native Californian. We’re really enjoying living so close to some of our dear friends who we left behind back in 2004, and we’re thrilled that we’ll get to make our way back to California when our stint is done here in D.C.

With that, I’ll call this the conclusion to my blog. I’d make a toast, but instead I’ll do what most pregnant women would rather do: eat a piece of cake and go to sleep. So, as Jonah would say, “Night, night!”

Picture descriptions: Jeremy and Jonah pick our pumpkins from a nearby pumpkin patch (Jonah insists on carrying his own); Jonah loving time with his cousin Natalie in California during Thanksgiving; my nephews, nieces, and youngest cousins at Thanksgiving; giving Jonah and his little buddy Natalie (Charlotte's daughter) a lift; Jonah and Casey get ready to man the boats in northern California; hanging out with Uncle Josh and Aya in NYC; Safta reads Jonah a bedtime story; Jonah and Aoife enjoying a park in NYC; lighting the Hanukkah candles; Jonah gets crazy with Fisher and Stuart in his crib; Jonah's first day of preschool; Jonah and Maya reunited; Jonah's cousin Mollie giving Jonah and Natalie a lift during our Thanksgiving visit; hanging out with my nephew Micha in NYC; enjoying Wintergreen with Nana and Papa; walking the halls of Jeremy's office building to trick-or-treat; playing with homemade play doh on a cold fall day; getting a lift from daddy at the Wintergreen play park.

The final leg of our journey

July 13: With only three days until we finish our sabbatical, I'm mostly excited but a little sad too. At this point, Jonah doesn't know any different lifestyle than moving from "new house" to "new house" every month or week, as the case may be. A small part of me feels the same way, only having a vague sense of how we used to spend our non-working hours. If I sit and think about it, different memories of hanging out with friends and family on this day or that certainly come to mind. But the days of jumping in the car and making a quick run to Whole Foods or Target, for example, feel very, very far away. I suppose we're ready to return to the land of the planned life, at least for now . . .

The last week plus has been lovely. From one beautiful landscape to another, we've traversed the better part of the UK. Our drive from Edinburgh to North Wales a week ago Saturday was uneventful. We had pretty views on our way out of Edinburgh but then spent most of our time on major highways with little to see out the windows of our car. We pulled into the fabulous working farm on which we were to spend the next week, immediately depositing Jonah with another family with kids who were playing with little trucks in the picnic area. We ended up spending the evening with the family, a really wonderful bunch who invited us to join them for dinner and delicious wine in their cottage.

In our internet search for a place to stay in North Wales, we were lucky enough to stubble upon fabulous Tyddyn Mawr, a family-run working farm with five lovely cottages on the property. Nestled in Conwy Valley, the farm was the ideal location for exploring the coastal towns of Conwy and Llandudno as well as the mountain towns and attractions. Our cottage was perfect and adorable with great views of the valley and the farm's five cows grazing in the field outside our kitchen window. We had a busy week filled with castles and trains, beautiful surroundings, and mostly decent weather.

Our first full day in town, we walked around Conwy Castle, one of King Edward I's castles from the 13th century. He built many in North Wales, creating an iron ring of fortresses to secure the area believed to be the greatest danger to Edward's power. Strategically located, Conwy Castle sits on the harbor and provides an anchor for the fortified town of Conwy. During one of Jonah's naps, I walked around the walls of the town, catching wonderful views of Conwy Valley, the town, and the marina.

The next day we visited another of Edward's castles, Caernarfon. Like Conwy Castle, Caernarfon sits along the water and anchors a walled-village. Both castles are must sees, really very impressive. From Caernarfon we drove a short distance to GreenWood Forest Park, Jonah's first amusement park experience. And, wow, did he love it! He rode a sled down a little hill by himself, played in a fabulous playground, crossing rope and rickety bridges on his own, found his way (with us in tow) through a boardwalk maze, sat in the passenger seat of my pedal-operated go-kart, went for a ride in a row boat with Jeremy at the helm, and drove a mini-tractor by putting his foot on the gas and having Jeremy steer him. Set in a forest with tons of trees, GreenWood Forest Park was a fabulous low-environmental impact amusement park with everything operated by people using the attraction (no automated rides, except one mini-roller coaster for bigger kids).










































On Tuesday, we visited the Llechwedd Slate Caverns, taking two tours to learn about the slate mines of Blaenau Ffestiniog. The first tour was via an underground tramway that explores the 1840s network of tunnels and large caverns. The other, the Deep Mine tour, took us about eight floors down by steep-incline tram to a series of caverns, which we walked through to learn more about the life of a miner and to see the underground lake and impressive remnants of the massive mining operation established so long ago. Jonah loved the trams, of course, but he was also intrigued by the dark caverns.

The next day we drove to Llanberis at the foot of Snowdon Mountain, the tallest mountain in the UK. It was a foggy and somewhat wet day, so we didn't get to see much of the mountain. We took a ride on the Llamberis Lake Railway, a narrow-gauge steam train, which Jonah loved. He mostly stood on the seat to catch the views of the lake and to try to see the railway tracks.

Another day, another castle. On Thursday, we drove to Anglesey Island to check out the last of Edward's castles, Beaumaris Castle, which was never completed. We were among the first ones there, so we had the run of the place to ourselves, including the massive expanse of grass in the central courtyard, where we all chased after each other. We spotted a neighboring playground, where Jonah played for a bit, mostly "driving" the play structure in the form of a big wagon. From the castle, we drove through Anglesey Island to a small coastal town on the island. There, we found our way to the beach and walked on the sand for a while before heading home for lunch.

The next day was a beautiful, clear day, the perfect day for a ride on the Snowdon Mountain Railway. We could see all the way to the peak of the mountain that day at over 3,500 feet. The train uses a rack and pinion system, taking about an hour to travel the almost five miles to the mountain's summit. What fabulous views we had from the top! Especially considering how unpredictable Wales weather is, we really lucked out on this day. It's the only one of our stay that would have given us such views.

Jonah's schedule had him going to bed pretty late, around 9 pm or later, and taking long naps in the afternoon. We had great post-nap outings, walking around Llandudno and Conwy, hiking up to 13th-century Llangelynnin Church at the foot of Tal y Fan mountain on the farm, taking a ride on Llandudno's aerial tram with great views of the town and oceanfront below, and checking out more of the farm and playing at the farm's playground.

On Saturday, we headed southwest to Devon to visit our friends Dom, Rob, and Charlotte as a last hurrah before heading back to the states. The ride down was a bit grueling, primarily because Jonah was coming down with a cold and wasn't feeling very well. He zoned out with the portable DVD player for quite a while though.

We're staying in Brixham, an old fishing village that is still very much alive, now with a busy tourist industry in addition to the fishing industry. And I'm pretty sure the seagulls have their annual (daily?) convention here at the harbor, which we get to hear around three in the morning every day. I heard it quite loud and clear last night, as Jeremy and I spent a couple of hours from 3 am until 5 am trying to get Jonah to go back to sleep. Poor guy had trouble sleeping because of his cold. Brixham is quite charming, seagulls aside. It has a pedestrian walkway with shops, and around the harbor are any number of ice cream and seafood stalls, souvenir shops, and video arcades with little coin-operated cars for toddlers.

On Sunday, we walked around Brixham in the morning for a bit before heading over to neighboring Torquay, another fishing village that now boasts far more tourists than fishermen and fisherwomen. We walked around Torquay before hitting the grocery store on our way home for lunch and an attempted nap. That afternoon and evening we went over to Rob's parents' house and hung out with Rob, Dom, Charlotte, and Rob's family. It was wonderful to meet up with our friends and to spend the time with Rob's fabulous family. Really warm and welcoming people.

And today we went with Rob, Dom, and Charlotte to Pennywell Farm, a great attraction for kids that's a petting zoo with miniature pigs, huge rabbits, goats, donkeys, and so on. It also had little car rides, play areas with farm equipment, a type of hedge maze, and a little train. Jonah and Charlotte had a great time, and it was fun for us adults too. From the farm we went to a great pub called The White Hart on the grounds of Dartington Hall in Totnes. The food was delicious, the gardens were beautiful, and the company fabulous.

Tomorrow we're heading to Dartmoor National Park, not too far from here, with Rob, Dom, and Charlotte. Then we'll have one more day together before we head home. Wow. Still hard to believe. It'll be a taxing flight though. We head from London to L.A. in the late afternoon with a stop in D.C., arriving at LAX after midnight. Oy! Let's hope we all get a little extra rest over the next couple of days to get a jump start on what we'll lose on our trip home. And, fingers crossed, let's hope Jonah gets over his cold fast.

Speaking of Jonah, his capacity to remember seems to be developing quite a bit. Things we say or questions we ask invoke images for him that he associates with people or places. He remembers a fair bit from Kampala. When we mentioned the play center at Kabira, he talked about riding his boda boda by Prakash on the way to get there. He also said he used to play with Jackie at the play center. Today he saw a taxi and said, "Where'd that taxi go? Toda raba, taxi!" That's a throwback to Israel!

I haven't captured as many good lines as usual, but here's what I've got:

"Take my kitty. Take my milk. Put it in the backpack."

While driving around, trying to find the farm in Wales, Jonah piped up from the backseat, "I smell cow poop, mommy."

When we told Jonah we were going to an amusement park, he decided to "call" them to find out if they had some of his favorite playground items. "Dial, dial, dial. They have a merry-go-round. Dial, dial, dial. They have a slide."

Jeremy asked Jonah, "Where does the airplane go?" Jonah replied, "To our next house."

While watching parts of the Michael Jackson memorial service, I'll admit that I got a little teary eyed. Jonah was trying to understand the situation. "Mommy's sad. Mommy's ki-ing. Mommy's bread and better made her feel better. Mommy needs a bandaid on her knee. Mommy's okay."

While getting dressed in the morning, Jonah told Jeremy, "I'm on my froggy shirt." (He had been laying on it.) Jeremy replied, "No, you're not on it anymore." "I was on my froggy shirt," he said.

"What's that, mommy?" Jonah asked me. Before I could answer, he said, "It's a train, mommy."

Jonah has new nicknames for Jeremy and me. When he wants to get our attention from another room, he calls out to us, "Mommy mom!" or "Daddy dad!" We respond with "Jonah Joan".

While looking at a picture of a cable repair truck and pointing to the cage in which a worker stands to get lifted to repair the cable lines, Jonah said, "A guy stands in here to go up to fix the light." I replied, "Mmmhhhmmm." "No," Jonah responded. "The guy fixes the telephone." This is something he does often, testing us with questions or trying to make sure we're paying attention. He'll give an answer to a question he's asked, and if you agree with it but the answer is wrong, he'll say, "That's not such and such," in a somewhat irritated voice.

Well, this has been fun. This, I mean my blog. It's hard to believe that this too will come to an end. I feel a bit saddened and liberated at the same time. But I'm ready to be done with this and to move on to something else.

As for the sabbatical, what to say? It's been amazing, everything I'd hoped it would be and more than I could have possibly imagined. Jonah left as a baby and returns as a little boy. Jeremy left untenured and a bit burnt out and returns tenured and excited for new opportunities. And me, I left unsure I was going to put fingers to keyboard at all and return with a tomb on my hands, having used this as an outlet and job of sorts. We all return quite happy to have had this time together, having laughed until we couldn't breathe, cried for one reason or another, and experienced new places, foods, and cultures. We've had so much wonderful time together as a family. When we cooked up this plan originally, it felt a bit fanciful even to me. Now I see that it was one of the most brilliantly conceived plans imaginable.

Stay tuned for the epilogue to this wild ride . . .

Picture descriptions: Jonah enjoys the promenade in Llandudno; view from car window right outside of Edinburgh; Jonah playing on our Wales farm; the cows with the main farm house and cottages in the background; Conwy Castle; Conwy Castle with Conwy Valley in the background; Caernarfon Castle; same; Jonah loving his ride at GreenWood Forest Park; same; same; same; our tram into the mines of Llechwedd Slate Caverns; walking through the caverns at Llechwedd Slate Caverns; Conwy Valley; taking a break from the Llamberis Lake Railway; running around Beaumaris Castle; Snowdon Mountain Railway making its way up Snowdon Mountain; view from the summit of Snowdon Mountain; hiking to 13th-century Llangelynnin Church; on the grounds by the church; riding on the Llandudno aerial tram; replica of a 16th-century ship in Brixham harbor; checking out Torquay marina; playing in the maze with Charlotte at Pennywell Farm in Devon; view of Devon from Pennywell Farm; enjoying the beach on Anglesey Island; Jonah's first attempt at really driving at Pennywell Farm; enjoying the Wales farm playground; after the aerial tram ride, heading down the hill with views of Llandudno below.

Crazy weather and good times in Scotland

July 3: I know I've written this before, but now I'll finally do it. This post will indeed have fewer words and more pictures. Rather than writing during the week, I spent Jonah's naps exploring our neighborhood and reading.

The past week in Scotland has been wonderful. The transition to our new place was quite smooth, in part because this is probably the nicest place we've stayed in many ways, not including the views from our windows. We do have a great view of the cemetery containing Adam Smith's remains from the late 18th century. And you know how I love those old cemeteries. But it doesn't quite compare to the amazing ocean views we had in Istanbul and Cape Town.

Although still in the UK, Scotland certainly brings a different culture than that found in England. And the difference in accents is remarkable. I suppose you get drastic accent differences in the U.S. over a similar geographic distance. Still the same are the beautiful green hills and the tons and tons of sheep everywhere. Two new visible features I'll call out: fabulous brick bridges and men walking on the streets in kilts.

In any event, it's official that our sabbatical is coming to an end soon. We booked tickets home for Wednesday, July 16. It's going to be a bit of a hellish flight (flights, actually) because the only tickets we could get for our class of seats have us leaving on Wednesday afternoon, flying through Washington, D.C., taking off for LAX just after ten at night, and arriving on Thursday morning just after midnight. Jonah won't sleep on the first flight (given past experience, and we have plenty), but he should eventually crash on the second. Fingers crossed. I hope the entire plane (crew aside) sleeps on that flight to keep noise to a minimum, not just for Jonah but for Jeremy and me who also will be unbelievably exhausted.

So, a short recap of our past week. We did indeed visit Wordsworth's home in Rydal on our way out of the Lake District last Saturday. It's lovely with an amazing sitting room and surrounded by beautiful gardens. It was a pretty easy drive to Edinburgh, although finding our way to the apartment rental company's office and on to our flat took us all over the place given the extensive construction going on in the city (mostly for a new tram it appears).

Edinburgh is a beautiful and charming city with stone architecture and cobbled streets in much of the Old Town. We're staying just off the Royal Mile (Canongate), the stretch of the main street in Old Town that runs from the Palace of Holyroodhouse (the Queen's Scottish palace) to the Edinburgh Castle, the latter of which we visited, the former being closed due to the fact that the Queen is currently in Edinburgh. Our particular street (Old Tolbooth Wynd) is quiet and once had a toll booth at the top by the Royal Mile, where people entering the burgh had to pay a toll. We're within walking distance or a short bus ride away from pretty much everything a short-term visitor would want to see and do here.

Over the course of the week, our weather has been mixed, to say the least. It started off on the rainy side but has since oscillated back and forth between hot/sunny and cloudy/drizzly. And you can experience many different weather fronts in a single day. So one morning we left our apartment in shorts, and as we hiked down Arthur's Seat, found ourselves in the midst of drizzly conditions with no umbrellas. Not having learned a lesson, I proceeded to get rained on quite a bit while out that afternoon taking pictures, not just once but twice, first up toward the castle and then in the neighboring cemetery.

Edinburgh has plenty of indoor and outdoor options, so even on wet days, we've kept quite busy. We spent a morning visiting Brittania, the decommissioned (c. 1997) Royal yacht over in Leith at the port (where we also found a GREAT Marks and Spencer Simply Food to do our grocery shopping and buy up loads of organic food items).

We walked along the Royal Mile from the palace to the castle. Along the way we visited St. Giles Cathedral and looked down closes off Canongate. We visited the castle, which was mostly interesting for its views of the city below.

We hiked up Arthur's Seat, one of seven hills in Edinburgh, this one located right by the Queen's palace. It's a lovely spot in Edinburgh, where you find yourself surrounded by nature, despite your location in the middle of a major city. From Arthur's Seat, we watched the Queen's motorcade take her across the street to the Edinburgh Parliament for her to participate in the Parliament's 10th anniversary. News reports suggest that many members of parliament snubbed her by not showing up to her address, although many members said they'd already booked holiday plans well before they were informed of the Queen's appearance. From Arthur's Seat, we hiked down to the Dynamic Earth, a science museum that teaches people about earth from the time of its formation to present day, enjoying, among other things, a great half an hour show on space (watched in a dome theater on the ceiling). Jonah was quite captivated by the show, turning his head like everyone else when the images moved across the dome.

Today, we visited the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, which are just beautiful. The massive greenhouses include flora from many different regions. We strolled through the rock garden, watched the ducks in the pond, and kicked Jonah's ball around. It started out as a beautiful day. Now it's raining.

While Jonah napped on two different days, Jeremy and I visited tourist sites in the city. I went to Mary King's Close, a sort of slum of hidden streets where people lived starting in the 17th century. Walking through old town houses and rooms, a guide told us the history of the close and the many different people who lived and died there. Jeremy is on an outing now to the dungeons of Edinburgh, more of an amusement park attraction. Neither permitted (nor are suited to) kids, so we made good use of Jonah's nap time.

Together, we've taken nice post-nap walks around the Old Town, checking out the nearby cemetery and 17th century garden, strolling through the grounds outside of the Queen's palace, and along the Royal Mile. One afternoon, we found our way over to Meadow Park and the fabulous playground Dom said we should visit (Dom, Rob, and Charlotte lived in Edinburgh before moving to Cape Town last year).

We also took two day trips outside of Edinburgh this week. One day we drove a loop northwest from Edinburgh to Stirling (where we visited a castle), through Kilmahog, climbing into the Western Highlands via Tyndrum, moving farther west to Loch Awe and Kilchurn Castle (which we didn't visit), and stopping at a picturesque fishing town of Oban. From Oban we visited Dunstaffnage Castle, headed southeast toward Loch Lomond, took a northern bypass above Glasgow, and finished east into Edinburgh.















































On another day, we drove north to St. Andrews to visit the cathedral and castle and then west to a spot just north of Perth to Scone Palace, home of the Earls of Mansfield and once the crowning place of the Kings of Scots, before heading back to Edinburgh. Jonah particularly liked the palace's playground and hedge maze, which he led us through for the most part.





















Tomorrow we leave for North Wales, where we'll be staying in a cottage on a traditional Welsh-speaking, family-run (since 1889), beef and sheep farm just outside of the town of Conwy in Snowdonia National Park. We'll be well situated by castles, lovely coastal towns, mountains, and a steam train. Should be a great week. We have a five plus hour drive ahead of us though.

Since we left the Lake District, Jonah has returned to a more normal sleep schedule, thanks to the extra towels in our flat. I was able to use tacks to cover Jonah's window with two towels. They don't completely rid the room of light, but they darken it such that you can't read a book or assume anything other than that it is nighttime. As a result of Jonah's getting more sleep, he has gone back to the easy-going, reasonable little guy (with some typical two-year-old exceptions). Hallelujah!

He also has become quite the storyteller. I suppose he has been for a while. But, he had a funny exchange with the woman working at the gift store at Scone Palace yesterday. For some reason, he started to tell her about his little car from Granny Doris. He explained to her that he had a car at home that didn't have a steering wheel. It broke, he informed her, and mommy threw the steering wheel away because it couldn't be fixed. The woman assured him that he would get a new steering wheel, but he let her know that that couldn't happen. I had to do some interpretation for the woman, but Jeremy and I just stood there smiling at each other. He also sat for a while in the backseat on one of our day trips, "reading" his book, more looking at the pictures and telling the story to himself (or perhaps to Meow Kitty Cat, who was with us on that day's outing).

He is very into his picture book with various types of motor vehicles, including construction and farm equipment, boats, motorcycles, cars, rescue vehicles, and various types of aircraft. As we drive in the car, he now points out the different motor vehicles on the road or side of the road when he sees them.

He's had some great things to say this week as well . . .

"These are not sidewalks. They're drivewalks for me to drive over them."

While in the car one day, he said, "I want my light on for kitty to see outside."

After I'd stuck my head out the window to ask someone for directions, Jonah hollered out, "We need help!"

"I don't eat cars. I do eat toast and cream cheese though."

"I'm all gone with my milk, daddy." We now hear some version of this "I'm all gone" phrase every day. He used to say that he was all done, and I guess we'd respond with, "Is it all gone?" or some such phrase. So now he thinks the word to use is "gone" rather than "done".

After explaining to Jonah that the Queen was in town and that we couldn't visit her palace as a result, he said, "The Queen is here. The Queen is coming to our house. I'm calling the Queen." He pretended to dial the Queen and said, "Hello Queen? Possible to clean our house?" We laughed out loud at this one. This is the question I would ask almost every morning our first couple of weeks at Kabira in Uganda. Of course, I wasn't calling the Queen. I was calling the front desk. But, hey.

"We need umbrellas, especially at the playground."

While looking at a picture of an ambulance in his book, he said, "This guy's the driver. This guy's going to get in the passenger seat. They're going to get in to go help the people and save the day."

Okay, I'm not sure I'll be able to post from Wales because our place doesn't have internet access, so you'll hear from me when you hear from me!

Picture descriptions: The guys standing along the wall across from our flat; cemetery next to our flat, with our building (the cream/yellow one) in the background; Jonah runs in the park behind the Palace of Holyroodhouse (after having visited the tractor in the distance), the path to Arthur's Seat in the distance; Wordsworth's Rydal Mount; Royal Mile in Edinburgh; same; the Royal Brittania; Jonah spinning around the pole at the Edinburgh Castle; the chapel for the Order of the Thistle at St. Giles Cathedral (the Queen sits in the middle seat); enjoying the plants and walking around the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens; same; Greyfriars cemetery in Edinburgh; daddy and Jonah go for a ride in Meadow Park playground; Stirling Castle; view as we headed into the Highlands; the waterfront by Dunstaffnage Castle; Jonah loving his cannon ride in front of the castle; St. Andrews Cathedral and cemetery; ruins of St. Andrews Castle; Scone Palace, where Jonah said he wanted to live; checking out the maze at Scone Palace before making our way through it; walking around Dunstaffnage Castle; resting outside of the Queen's palace (perhaps hoping she'd take pity on him and invite him in?); along the water by Dunstaffnage Castle; walking through a garden in our neighborhood in Edinburgh; and checking out the fern glasshouse at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardnes.