We’re back…. I’m writing this sitting in Victoria. We’ve come back to spend a few short weeks with family and friends. From oldest to newest:

Cali

We were just settling into our apartment and Cali…and it was time for our trip to Canada and Florida. We were really enjoying the walkability of our place – everything from groceries to a major shopping mall are within a safe twenty-minute walk. If we lived here, it’s debatable whether we’d need a car. Family is a bit far to walk, though, but still close by car at less than 15 minutes away.

We were walking a few days each week in the park that runs for several blocks beside our building, ending in the duck pond I mentioned in the prior post. I was, believe it or not, using the open-air gym in the complex three days per week. Adriana found a Pilates class she wanted to sign up for. And we discovered that there are otters here!

On our second last weekend, we did some in-depth exploring of San Antonio, a barrio (neighbourhood) in Cali. It is slightly higher so slightly cooler. The big attraction is that it is the only neighbourhood deemed Patrimonio, meaning heritage, meaning there are many attractive older buildings. We looked at four attached houses, asking prices COP ~1,000,000,000 to 1,600,000,000 (CAD $334-534K). The one in this video is an older building with tons of character – there are indoor courtyards full of plants. It was attached to three other houses like it.

The real estate agent loves the area and insisted on taking us through some local places that showed the character of the area. The 30-second video below is of Casa Alebrije. The same owner also owns the very beautiful Antigua Contemporanea Cafe across the street.

On our last weekend we went exploring near Dapa with Navide. We didn’t find ‘the’ property, but we did learn more about where we want to be. It was pouring that day and at one point we were starving, so we stopped at what is best described as a roadside dive.

Canada

But…we were also dying to see the grandchildren while they were off for summer vacation! We were also missing other family and friends, and this looked like the last chance to return that we’ll have for awhile, so here we are.

We spent a week in Ontario with Brian’s mom – A was working, Brian did some cooking in order to freeze leftovers. The weather was up and down: one day sunny and hot, the next cool and rainy. Brian’s mother took us out to David’s restaurant in Port Dover, which has a nice view over the lake.

Off to Victoria!

We flew Toronto > Calgary > Victoria. The first flight was delayed twice, the second one cancelled and we were rebooked on a much later flight. Not impressed with WestJet….. Our AirBNB was not available for the first night so we stayed with Julie and then spent Saturday with her.

Sunday was beach day with the grandkids! Here are Julie and Hattie being paddled around by Hal:

And Abuela helping build sandcastles:

We’ve only been here the weekend so far. Still to come: visiting with friends and more time with Julie and the grandkids!

For the Sanji addicts, here are photos and a video! You can see some of our apartment in the video.

And when he was very young.