Coastal tour

We did a couple of cool road trips in early September. The first was to an underground institution that could only be found in the Bay Area: Cliff's folk dancing deck. In the middle of the wilds west of Palo Alto (it really is in the centre of nowhere) a bunch of unreformed hippies have built a massive wooden deck expressly for a twice yearly folk-dancing- camping-drinking-storytelling extravaganza attended by literally hundreds. We missed Memorial Day and the prior Labour Day due to medical misadventures so Labour Day '06 was the first chance for many of Rebecca's oldest friends to revel in her restored health, meet me and catch up with an ever growing Rami. It was truly a great time.

The following weekend, we were lucky enough to get invited to the lovely country home of Maria and Michael Faer. It's near Watsonville, south of Santa Cruz, east of Monterey Bay. We got to eat fresh fruits and vegetables picked from the garden and even perfect our drives. For the young person on the trip, the highlight was undoubtedly an excursion to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. While Gracie was no longer there, the sea otters were highly entertaining, at least for the first three hours. They do a great job with interactive exhibits too.


After a fine afternoon there, we found a playground in Monterey with an old steam engine that was ideal for climbing and for thoughtful portraits.


As the fall wore on, Rami decided to take a more dapper approach to his weekly visits to Shul. Amazingly enough, there was someone at home who remembers how to tie a tie. This is how Rami looks every Saturday morning.