Lovely and peaceful  on the south west coast of France, walking the dunes, biking along the coast and in the Pyrenees forests, taking the first years swim in the sea, eating oysters for the first time, and eating the best oysters in all of France ( says the locals), drinking wine with every dinner, perhaps every meal, eating the most amazing homemade food by Melanie’s mom, eating pasteries with lots of buttery goodness, listening to the words of French from everybody around me, soaking into my core, the beautiful sun, listening to the silent fall of the wave, resting my head on Melanie’s shoulder on the long train ride, falling asleep tired and effortlessly floating away…and that was the first hour

for France. The fam (Vic, Abe and Tilde) and I made a visit across the water. The top shot is on the ferry ride over. We spent a lovely day at the shore and an excellent evening in the Olympic mountain range.

and I’m visiting with my family in Seattle -that would be a month long visit, while I wait for the visa process to inch (2.54 centimeters) forward. I’m discovering the area. I’m staying just north of the city. There’s a skate park one block away which is also great for trials bike riding when its not raining. I’ve found that that occurs perhaps two times per week? Lake Washington is a two blocks away. Theres a bike path and some small parks that wrap it. With my sister Mallory, I’ve taken a few bike rides along it. At the nearest park, there are often various water fowl hanging out. The other day we watched some cormorants on the docks wave their wings at the water, saw some mallard ducks waddle around eating trash, and looked at a bunch of chicken behaving birds. They were doing the odd chicken walk and bobbing their heads around looking for food along the shore. This weekend I will check out downtown Seattle. I wish I would have done this earlier but I haven’t made many plans this past month becuase I was supposed to leave three time already.

Little nephew Victor, who you can see below, doesn’t look like that anymore. He still a chub of love but now he’s a few pounds heavier and a few inches longer. I think another month or so and he will start walking. I was optimistic at first and thought by now he would stand and balance on his own, but no. He just smiles a lot.

I will put some photos up on the next post. Everybody loves pictures!!