Traditions

 After church, almost like magic a green papaya appears out of nowhere. Sometimes I think they grow in the rafters of the roughly framed old houses. Within minutes I hear the thumping noise of the mortar and pestle. The papaya salad will soon be ready.

Making Papaya Salad

Meanwhile, if there are any chairs around they are stacked and set to the side. Thin mats are placed on the floor. Bowls of sticky rice are brought out along with various side dishes. The smell of fish sauce and other things familiar and unfamiliar fills the air. The bowls are placed on the mats in clusters around the room. The papaya salad is scooped onto plates to join the other fragrant dishes. Soon, people sit in circles around the clusters of bowls. There may or may not be plates and utensils for everyone.

People grab a wad of sticky rice with their left hand. With their right hand, they grab a smaller mass and massage it into a smooth ball. This is used to help grab food from the dishes in the middle. If there is some kind of soup, Asian-style spoons will be available for use. Welcome to a traditional Mennonite meal in Isaan, Thailand.

After-church Lunch in Isaan

I did not know much about Mennonites growing up—I'm not even sure I knew the term. I think the first Mennonite I met was my first girlfriend. She was normal enough, except that her last name was not one I had ever heard of before, though it turns out that it, along with many other last names that were unusual to me, were quite common in Mennonite communities (when I visited her home, I checked out the phone book and there was column after column of names that before that time had been unknown to me). 

Mennonites get their name from Menno Simons, one of the leaders of the Radical Reformation in the 16th century. There were several other leaders of these Anabaptist groups that faced much persecution. Because of this persecution, many of them fled from various places to West Prussia where a dialect of Low German became their common language. In the last half of the 18th century, Catherine the Great opened parts of Russia (now Ukraine) to European immigrants and many of the Mennonites relocated there.

Eventually, many of these Mennonites relocated, either by choice or because of further persecution, to places in the western hemisphere where they formed colonies and retained their language and culture. By this time the term Mennonite had as much, if not more, to do with their culture than their religious faith. In the late 1800's, there was a revival among some of the Mennonites in the Ukraine that gave birth to a branch of the Mennonites known as the Mennonite Brethren (MB). Many of these relocated to North America where they tended to stay together in various communities, hence the phone books packed with "Mennonite" names that were not so common elsewhere.

I broke up with that girlfriend and did not think much more about Mennonites until we moved to Fresno in 2001 and eventually ended up joining an MB church. It is there that we discovered that Mennonite was as much a culture as a religion. Fairly early on after joining Butler MB church, we were hosting a small group at our home. Some the members of the group would get to talking about who is related to who and how. They found out they had common relatives in a place called Corn, Oklahoma. Corn. Is that really a place? Later we discovered that this name game of discovering common relatives was frequent occurrence at Mennonite gatherings. This was a bit of challenge for us, as we were Mennonite by choice, not by birth.

We also learned that there are some Mennonite traditional foods. When I first heard the term Verenika, I thought it was someone's name. Turns out its a kind of stuffed dumpling, a Ukrainian ravioli, if you will (I may get ostracized for saying that, but I grew up among Italians, not Ukrainians). Verenika (or varenyky) is a Ukrainian name, but they also go by their Polish name pierogi. Like ravioli, verenika can have different kinds of stuffings. When I first had verenika, it was served with gravy and Mennonite sausage. This sausage was not a smoked sausage, but the Mennonites have that, too. If you are ever in Abbotsford, British Columbia, I recommend going by Rempel Meats to pick some up.

Verenika at a restaurant catering to Russian tourists in Phuket, Thailand

Another Mennonite food/tradition is fritters aka portzelky. These are deep fried dough akin to donuts, except they are not shaped like donuts. By tradition, they are served on New Years day hence they are also known as New Years Cookies. Even though we are not ethnic Mennonite, we rather like this tradition.

Making New Years Cookies in November in Phon Phisai, Thailand
Couldn't wait for New Years day

The third traditional food I'll mention is zwieback. I had heard of zwieback as a youth and I knew it is a crispy toasted bread. The name comes from German zwei ("two") or zwie ("twi-"), and backen, meaning "to bake", in other words, "twice-baked". After joining a Mennonite group, we heard people getting excited that zwieback was going to be served on a special occasion and we were wondering why people feel that way about overcooked toast. We learned that Russian-Mennonite zwieback is altogether different—it is neither crispy nor flat. The "two" in this zwieback comes from how they are double-buns, so to speak, with one stuck on top of the other. Getting them to stay that way during baking takes special skill, and in our own attempts at baking them, we have ended up with a significant number of einback.

Our first attempt at Zwieback (and einback)
in Kalasin, Thailand

There are other Mennonite foods and traditions, but I am getting off-topic.

One of the characteristics of the Mennonite Brethren is their desire to share the good news of Jesus with others. To this end, the North American MBs began sending missionaries to other countries not long after arriving in the US and Canada. These missionaries saw great fruit to the point that at present both DR Congo and India have more people worshiping in MB churches than North America.

One of the challenges of missionary work is not confusing our cultural forms of religious expression with that which is essential to the gospel. To put it somewhat amusingly, does one have to embrace fritters, zwieback, verenika and sausage as an essential part of being a Mennonite Christian? I have visited MB churches in both DR Congo and India and saw no "traditional" Mennonite foods. But if you consider that the MB conferences in those countries are larger than the countries of origin of Mennonites, we see that traditional Mennonite foods are, in fact, minority Mennonite foods. There are probably more Mennonites living where there is a rice-based diet than a bread and potatoes diet, but even they are not all consuming the same kind of rice. (In the Isaan region of Thailand they prefer sticky rice, while in central Thailand jasmine is the rice of choice and both of these differ from the various types of rice I ate while visiting India.)

After-Church lunch in Shamsabad, India
No zwieback for this faspa

Khanom Thian - a treat for Thai New Years day (April 15)
Made with tapioca flour

The separation of tradition and religious belief is not always straightforward and there isn't always agreement, even in one's own culture. For example, what style of music do we use? It seems like it wasn't all that long ago when guitars and drum kits came in alongside and later replaced the organ in churches. Then we see churches in Thailand that don't consider themselves a real church unless they have a building, a guitar and a drum kit. None of which are required by scripture. I remember our first trip to Thailand and we were visiting Khmu church in the North of the country. I was excited to be in a place where I could hear some ethnic church music. But all they had were translated contemporary Christian songs accompanied by drums and electric guitar. On the other hand, when worshiping with older believers in Isaan, I hear them come alive when we sing songs of traditional style and instrumentation.

Worship at a Khmu church in Northern Thailand
with electric guitar and drums

Worship Isaan style with phin and kaen
They use an 8-tone scale instead of 12-tone

Another example of religious tradition is how we serve communion. We once visited a church in Thailand where they used sticky rice instead of bread or crackers for communion. I thought that it was a nice cultural adaptation, but it turns out that they did this especially for visiting foreigners. For themselves, they normally used western style communion cups and crackers because it was associated with higher status—something that was culturally important for them.

Communion with communion cups and crackers
Phon Phisai, Thailand

While traditions are nice, there can be a problem when the traditions outlast the faith that they are supposed to represent. People end up considering themselves to right with God because they follow traditions rather than actually believing in God. Or sometimes the traditions may conflict with God's will, but we give them priority over following God's word. This was certainly a problem in Jesus' day. On one occasion, some Pharisees we complaining that Jesus and his disciples did not follow the traditional handwashing ceremony before eating. Jesus replied.

⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

    ‘This people honors me with their lips,
  but their heart is far from me;
   “ ⁷ in vain do they worship me,
  teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

(Mark 7:6–8 ESV)

The Pharisees were giving greater priority to following their traditions than to obeying God's word.

This is kind of behavior is not that unusual. For example, a person may consider themseleves Christian because they observe certain traditions (going to church on Sundays (or maybe just Christmas and Easter) but not really living according to the teachings of the Bible the rest of the week. Or the Buddhist who participates in some Buddhist rituals but who also regularly shows disdain for one or more of the 5 precepts. We humans have a tendency to hold onto the forms of religion long after we have forgotten the meaning behind the form, like Christmas without Christ.

So if I eat fritters on New Years, cook up a mean pot of verenika, and play the Mennonite name game at social gatherings, but refuse to forgive those who offend me or love my enemies—Biblical teachings of Jesus emphasized by Menno Simons and other Radical Reformers—am I really Mennonite?

Though it is not my heritage, I like some of the traditions that the Mennonites carried over from Russian and the Ukraine. But what attracted me to the Mennonites were those who, like Menno Simons, believed that Jesus meant what he said and felt that Jesus' life was a model of how Christians ought to live. But whether I'm seated around a table sharing borscht and zwieback or seated on the floor around a bowl of bamboo curry and sticky rice, I'm happy to be together with like-minded believers. Because if we are to try to live the kind of life that the Bible teaches us to live, we will need the help of these other believers as well as the power that comes from the Holy Spirit in order to do so.

Though I did not plan it this way, I'm publishing this blog in the same month we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Anabaptist movement. It was on January 21, 1525 that a small group of people defied the state church by participating in a believer's baptism that marked the beginning of that movement.

Street Food

In a blog last month I wrote about a gastronomic quest to find some mille feuille. Today, I will write about another seach for elusive food.

In 2014, we moved to Chiang Rai in province in Northern Thailand. Sortly after we moved there, we were visiting friends in Chiang Mai and they introduced us to a Northern Thai dish known as Khao Soi. Khao Soi, which translates "street food," is a noodle soup with a yellow coconut curry-based broth. It typically has chicken (usually a drumstick) and is served with garnishings: pickles, cut up shallots or red onions, and a piece of lime. The soup is topped with crispy-fried noodles. Sometimes they will also serve garlic. It is typically mildly to moderately spicy. We enjoyed the Khao Soi, and decided we needed to find some place closer to home that served it.

Khao Soi in Chiang Mai, 2014

Eventually, we found a place about a kilometer from where we lived. This was a small, unassuming restaurant that served two dishes: khao soi and another kind of soup. It ended up being our go-to place to each lunch after church on Sundays if we didn't have other plans. The price was right, too. At the time it was about $1 US. (When we went back in 2023, the price had gone up to $1.50.) Good food at a good price.

Khao Soi Restaurant in Wiang Kaen

Khao Soi Restaurant in Wiang Kaen

When we lived in Northern Thailand, we typically traveled to Chiang Rai city, which was a 2-hour drive away, about once every two weeks or so. We did find a very rustic place along the way that served only khao soi. What was unique about this place was the big cauldron of soup on the wood-burning "stove."

Rustic Khao Soi Restaurant in Chiang Rai

In January, 2015, a friend of ours gave us a tour of some places he was doing ministry across the river in Laos. He was excited one day to take us to a khao soi restaurant. We were excited, too, until we saw it. Apparently there are different styles of Khao Soi. The Lao version was okay, but it was not what we were expecting.

Khao Soi, Lao Style, topped with fried pork rind

In 2017 we moved to Nong Khai province in Northeast Thailand (Isaan). Northeast Thailand is culturally different than Northen Thailand—it is more Lao than Thai. We sought out a place to find khao soi, but we could not find any in our district—it was easier to find a good hamburger or decent pizza and those were not easy to come by. I tried searching the internet, but to no avail. One day we were in the provincial capital, about a 45-minute drive from where we lived. We were looking for a particular business, but it was on a busy street, so we had to park some distance away. Just a few steps from where were we parked was a small, dark shop. "Wait...does that sign say khao soi?" We weren't ready for lunch yet, but we went back at a later date. The proprietor was a woman from Northern Thailand who had married someone from Nong Khai. She opened up a restaurant that served Kuai Tiao (a noodle soup found all over Thailand and is common in many places in the US as a Vietnamese variant called pho) along with khao soi.

Khao Soi in Nong Khai

In 2021, we moved to Kalasin province in the central part of Isaan. Like where we had previously lived, there were no khao soi restaurants in our district. One day, we were in the mood for some khao soi and I scoured the internet and eventually found a place. It was at the end of a small alley off a street that barely qualified as such. But it was popular—not so much as a sit-down restaurant, but with people ordering by various motorcycle delivery services. They ended up expanding but, for some reason, ended up closing about a year before we left Thailand. Now where to go?

Khao Soi in Kalasin

One day were were on our way back from Roi Et, the provice south of where we lived, and we stopped a a service station complex to try to find some food. These complexes typically have a Seven-Eleven or other convenience store, some kind of restaurant, a coffee shop, and various other small shops. This was our first time stopping at this service station for a meal (we had stopped there previously to get gas and/or coffee.) We walked into the restaurant and noticed that they had khao soi on the menu. It was good, but it was Isaan style—much spicier than we were used to.

Khao Soi in Roi Et

In 2023, we moved back to the USA—now where are we going to find Khao Soi? If you think it is hard to find in Isaan, what must it be like here? There are actually a lot of Thai restaurants that have sprung up in the US and Canada, but few of them serve khao soi.

One time, after we had returned to North America for our home ministry in 2017, we were traveling south on I-5 from Canada. We randomly pulled off the freeway somewhere in or near Tacoma and saw a Thai restaurant. We thought we would try it, not necessarily looking for khao soi, but it was on the menu—though at ten times the price of Thailand.

Khao Soi in Tacoma

Just after we returned to the US for home ministry in 2020, we took a few days to relax on the coast in Morro Bay. One night, we went out to eat at Thai Bounty. This was an interesting place in that it served both Cuban and Thai food (the owner was a Cuban fellow married to a Thai woman). The khao soi there was good, but unfortunately, the restaurant is no longer open.

Khao Soi at Thai Bounty in Morro Bay

But now have have moved back to the US permanently. Shortly after we returned to Fresno, we read an article that says there are 27 Thai restaurants in Fresno. But what constitutes Thai is another matter. Fresno has a large SE Asian population, the majority of which are ethnic Hmong from Laos. There are also Khmu (from Laos), ethnic Lao, Cambodian, Thai and other. We have been to several Thai restaurants, some of which have khao soi on the menu. But NOT the northern Thai version.

Today is my birthday. I had already decided a couple of weeks ago that I would like Thai food for the occasion. Yesterday evening, I was scrounging through Google maps, Yelp, and general web searches looking up Thai restaurants. Then I decided that maybe I should try to find places that had khao soi. Some places I already knew had the Lao version. A reviewer of one restaurant said they had a Mien version. When I could pull up menus, I would look at the descriptions and end up disapponted.

Then—there it was—a description of Northern Thai style khao soi—only it wasn't in Fresno. It was in Madera...close enough.

This morning we were up early to help out with the monthly food distribution at Butler Church. We finished up just before 11 am. Then off we were to Madera. Thai Basil is located not far off the 99 freeway on the north side of Madera. The proprietors set up shop there 2 years ago after running a Thai restaurant in Sacramento for 15 years. They wanted to move to a quieter community and find a place where it was more affordable for their daughter to practice golf. Victor is from Udon Thani in Isaan. His wife is from Trat in Eastern Thailand but went to school at Burapha University in Bang Saen, the town were a team of MB missionaries did a church plant in the early 2000's and to which we have been to many times. So it was surprising that they had the Northern Thai version of Khao Soi on the menu. Victor said that they try to have Thai food and not the variants from nearby places like Laos.

We we happy with the khao soi, and we will probably go back—though we will probably try some of the other dishes. We were drooling as we watched them bring food out to the other diners. It was like going home to Thailand. Happy Birthday me!

Khao Soi at Thai Basil in Madera, CA

Bookends 2024

Bookends: when I look at change through the year through a photo at the beginning and the end.

I began the year with COVID. Between that and the cool weather, it was a good time to stay home and assemble jigsaw puzzles. So this photo becomes the first bookend. Otherwise, we probably would have made a day trip on New Year's day and posted a photo from that.

I suppose this was a fitting way to begin the new year. Like putting together a jigsaw, we had to figure out a lot of things in our lives as we moved from being employed to not being employed. In the United States that also means, among other things, figuring out the health care system with the various parts of Medicare. Then there is the issue of how to make ends meet when you no longer have employment income. We decided to work with a financial planner to help us navigate through this period of our lives, and that has helped a lot.

Health issues were a dominant theme for the year. Beginning with a broken toe and surgery, which affected mobility for a while. Then there was lots of dental work, including surgical removal of a tooth and resulting implant (still waiting for the crown for that). On top of that was cataract surgery, in my right eye—for the first time since 4th grade, my uncorrected vision is better in my right eye than my left.

Another part of our retirement and settling back into Fresno is getting the house and yard back in order after being gone for so long. Exterior painting with all the prep involved has taken and will yet take a lot of time. Fixing broken sprinkler systems. Removing trees for various reasons. Planting more fruit trees. Reinstalling a vegetable garden. Converting the front yard to a xeriscape. All these things are ongoing. So, I'm not really retired, I'm just not getting paid for my work (but I'm also not having to pay someone else to do it—at least not most of it).

Amidst all that, we managed to do some traveling. A road trip to Canada to visit family. Another road trip to Arizona to visit friends and family, but also check out the Grand Canyon. Then, a quick trip to Los Cabos, Mexico, to use up some airline credits before they expired.

There are ministry activities. The main things we are doing is helping with the food distribution at our church once a month. Added to this, we began English tutoring at a local school our church partners with. We do this one morning a week.

Then, all of a sudden the year is over. On the last day of the year, I went to check out our garden. And I saw that some of our marigolds were still blooming.

I bought the marigolds at the Spring Plant Sale of the UCSC Farm and Garden back in April. And they are still blooming! While I enjoy the flowers, they are a reminder of how mild the temperatures have been this fall. We have not had a good frost, or even many days below 40F (5C). While our bodies appreciate the warmth, it is keeping some of our plants from going dormant, which may affect fruit production next year. (Our nectarine tree and grape vine have yet to drop all their leaves.) It also means that our citrus have not sweetened up yet. So, our oranges and Oro Blanco are looking ready to pick, but we're still waiting on some cooler weather so they'll be sweeter.

Maybe this uncertainty in our garden is also a picture of our lives. I still don't feel that I've completely adapted to our new lives. Just like the weather can confuse the plants, so also events that have happened in our lives can leave us uncertain as to which direction to take with our lives. I still don't feel like I've settled on what role I should have in church (our church also is going through times of uncertainty). I'm not bored—there is a lot to do. I'm content to be an introvert at home staying busy with things that need doing there. But I'm not sure this is the best use of my time and talent.

I asked my wife this morning if she had any goals for this year. Like me, she says she doesn't. Should we have one? Do we need one? I did tell her after that I have at least one goal: to stay married to her all year. Other than that, we'll see where life takes us. We did complete 4 500-piece jigsaw puzzles this past week. Maybe that's a sign that the pieces are starting to come together.

Top 12+11 2024

Here is my year in review summed up in a few photos. I'm being risky this year, publishing it before Christmas, but I like my choice for the December photo enough so that I think I'm safe. This year for my annual review, I have the usual Top 12, but I also added one for each state or province (includes Canada and Mexico) we visited outside of California.

January - Sunrise

Sunrise from our front yard

There are a lot of things I like about living in Fresno, but air quality is not one of them. In the summertime, pollution gets trapped in the valley. In the winter, fog settles in (which also serves to obscure the pollution). But there are those days in the spring and fall, and in the winter right after a storm goes through, when the the skies are clear. On this particular January day, the cloud patterns added to the morning colors (probably some pollution effects here as well) to make for an awesome sunrise.

We weren't even supposed to be around to enjoy that sunrise. We had planned to be in Mexico, but I had broken my toe about a week earlier and had just had surgery a couple of days before. It was January 31st, our last official day working for Multiply (though we were using up vacation time). I had peeked through the blinds and seen the colors and decided I needed to hobble outside in my special boot to grab a photo from our front yard. We won't get a view like this again, because the tree in our yard and the tree in our neighbors yard across the street have both been cut down.

February - Blueberry Blossom

Highbush Blueberry var. Hello Darlin'

One of the things that suffered a lot in the 14 years we were out of our house was the landscaping. Some fruit trees had died and others were not healthy. So one of the many things we began to do was plant new fruit trees and other landscaping trees and shrubs to replace some of the old ones. We also decided to add some blueberries to the mix, which we had not grown before. We bought three different varieties, as that makes for better fruiting. Of course, we had to make sure they were varieties that would bloom about the same time. And we were happy to see that the blueberry bushes we planted in January were already blooming. we didn't have a big harvest, but we were happy that we had anything at all for the first year.

March - California Poppies and Kings River

California poppies beside the Kings River in Piedra

In March, the wildflowers begin to bloom in the nearby foothills. We were busy with yard work and other tasks around the house, so that we didn't have much time to go enjoy them. And walking had been a challenge for me, because my foot was still healing. One day we had enough of work and being trapped in the house. My special boot had finally come off, so we hopped in the car and drove about a half-hour east to where the Kings River empties out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Some years, the wildflowers are spectacular here (see photo below) — this was not one of them. But there were a few California poppies blooming along the edge of the Kings River.

Piedra in a better year for flowers.
Photo above was taken at the bottom of the hill shown in this photo.

April - Bigelow Coreopsis

Bigelow Coreopsis along the Pacific Crest Trail near Walker Pass in Kern County

One of the amazing sights we have in California is when the desert flowers come into bloom. There are different flowers in different places. The timing and composition varies from year to year based on precipatation patterns. There are actually websites where you can check to see when the peak bloom times might be. We didn't have a lot of time to go investigate the desert flowers this year, so we figured we would go see them someplace fairly close. Some years, the California poppies go gangbusters in Antelope Valley, but I was checking the "flower cam" at the poppy preserve and they weren't looking very good this year. So we opted for the Mojave Desert in eastern Kern County. We spent some time in Red Rock Canyon State Park and we also went up to Fossil Falls in adjoining Inyo County. But by far the most amazing display was on the eastern slopes of the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

We drove up Highway 178 toward Lake Isabella and the hillsides, which are mostly bare for much of the year, were painted yellow. We parked at Walker Pass and walked north along the Pacific Crest Trail until we were surrounded by the blankets of yellow from Bigelow's Coreopsis. There were actually lots of other things blooming, but they were almost obscured by the yellow flowers.

Here is what they look like from a distance

May - Alstromeria

Alstromeria var. Indian Summer

While the cats away, the mice will play. Ingrid was off for a women's retreat so I decided to go on my own "retreat". I left early on a Saturday morning and headed over to Santa Cruz for the spring plant sale at the UCSC Center for Agroecology. This is where I had taken an apprenticeship when we first moved to California in 1993. While I was living on the farm back in those days, I learned about Alstromeria flowers. Over the years, we acquired several different varieties which graced our backyard here in Fresno. But when we returned, there were none left.

So after getting some vegetable and bedding plants at the Spring Plant Sale, I went down to San Lorenzo Lumber (Discount for members of Friends of the Farm and Garden), and I bought two different varieties of Alstromeria. (I wanted more, but I contained myself.) This variety is called Indian Summer. It still has some blooms on it as I write, even in December.

June - Big Baldy

On top of Big Baldy in Kings Canyon National Park

It was four years almost to the day since we had last visited Big Baldy in Kings Canyon National Park, and it was time to escape the Valley heat and go to the mountains. The trail to Big Baldy follows a narrow ridge to the summit of the mountain. Since our previous visit, a wildfire had taken out most to the trees on one side and top of the ridge. This meant two things. One, there was not as much shade. Two, there was a different composition of plants that had come up now that the forest canopy was gone. We enjoyed examining the different wildflowers along the way. This picture was taken looking back to the east from the summit, where you can see the high Sierra peaks in the background.

July - Desert Rose

Desert Rose (Adenium obesum)

In the fall of 2023, we had gone to a plant sale held by the Fresno Cactus and Succulent Society. While we were there, we bought a desert rose (Adenium obesum — not at all related to true roses), to "replace" the one we had with us for many years in Thailand. (That one was several years old and gnarly when we bought it, and so was a bit expensive.) The desert rose we bought in Fresno was a small plant in a 4 inch pot. Desert roses are fairly slow growing with a unique shape that lends well to bonsai. They will drop their leaves under stress, but will bloom on the naked stems — which is a good thing, since in Thailand our plant would often get defoliated by oleander hawk moth caterpillars. As a drought adaptation, they have chlorophyll in their bark and so can photosynthesize without leaves. They are native to the Sahel — that region just south of the Sahara Desert from Senegal to Sudan. Think sunny, hot and dry. They seem to handle humidity okay, as they are popular in Thailand. But they don't seem to like cold. (Kind of like me, running around the house bundled up when the thermostat is at 70F.)

Well, winters in Fresno can be a bit chilly, so we brought the plant inside. But our winters seem to be lacking in sunniness, which was compounded by the fact that the only window we have with significant sun in the winter is the master bathroom, which has one window above the toilet. The desert rose was not happy! ☹️ We thought it was going to die. Finally the days got longer, and we were able to put it back outside in a place where it could get more sunshine. It thanked us by producing a few blooms. Yay!

Below is a photo of the one we left behind in Thailand for comparison.

Desert Rose in front of our apartment in Thailand

August - Morro Rock and Morro Bay

Morro Rock reflecting Morro Bay

We really enjoy the central coast of California, but with all the stuff going on, it was almost a year after returning to California that we made it there. We typically hang out in the Morro Bay area because of the diversity of possibilities of things to do. There are the mountains and the bluffs at Montana de Oro State Park. Then there is the estuary full of wildlife. The harbor with its hustle and bustle of restaurants, fishing boats and sightseeing boats. Then there is the beach for walking. But what stands out is the rock. It is a really big rock.

Morro Rock is 581 feet / 177 meters tall. It is a volcanic plug — a remnant neck of an extinct volcano. The rock is protected as wildlife habitat. If you're lucky, you can spot some of the peregrine falcons that nest on the rock. The first day we were at Morro Bay, we could hardly see the rock because of the fog. But the second day, the fog cleared off and we could see the rock reflecting in the still waters of the harbor.

September - Half Dome from Sentinel Dome

Half Dome (on right) viewed from Sentinel Dome

We picked a school day in the off season thinking Yosemite Park would be quiet. We were wrong. We didn't even go to the valley — which is generally the more crowded part of the park — and still parking spots were hard to come by. Our first destination was Taft Point. The last time we came here in 2008 there was hardly anyone to be seen. Not so on this day. After visiting Taft Point, we took a trail that circled under Sentinel Dome before climbing to the top of the dome. This is a longer, more difficult way to go, and we did not see many people on that trail until we joined the other route that goes to the top of the dome. From the top of the dome, you can get nice views in every direction. In this view you can see Half Dome on the right. Tenaya Creek flows in the canyon to the left of the dome. What is impressive in this view is the vast amount of bare granite rock that is visible.

October - Foggy Morning

Morning Fog over Central Avenue southeast of Fresno

One of the characteristics of winter in the Central Valley of California is fog. During the night, cool air flows down off the Sierra Nevada Mountains into the valley below. When the cool air hits the moist air in the valley bottom, it causes the moisture to condense and make fog. Usually the fog is thickest just after sunrise.

Some winters have more fog than others, depending on how much rain there has been. On this morning, there were scattered patches of fog — but not enough to keep me from going for a bike ride. Right at sunrise, I came upon this patch of fog that seemed to create a tunnel on the road.

November - Mammatus Clouds

Mammatus Clouds over our house

November offers another weather-related photo. I was working in the front yard when the wind pick up really hard and really fast. I rushed to the back where Ingrid was already starting to take the clothes off the line. This brief, powerful storm did not bring us a lot of rain, but we did get a nice double-rainbow and, what I find more interesting, some beautiful mammatus clouds.

December - Lewis Creek

Along Lewis Creek

We were wanting to escape the fog in Fresno that had been persisting for the previous several days. It would lift — but not very high. It had been cool, damp and dreary.

I wanted a trail that was not too long and not too far away and below the snow line. We ended up going to the Lewis Creek Trail, which we had last been to in 2006 (photo below — I'm still wearing the same shirt). Since that time, probably about 10 years ago, a fire had burned through, killing off many of the big trees. When we first started out, I thought we were on the wrong trail, because I remembered it being a lot more shady. The trail starts off uphill a bit from the creek, then it winds down past some private land and eventually meets up with the creek. The the trail follows the creek up to Corlieu Falls. We were grateful for a few hours with some sunshine, since when we got back home in mid-afternoon, the fog still had not lifted.

Along Lewis Creek in 2006

Part 2 - Other States and Provinces

Nevada - Lovelock

One of several places to lock up your love in Lovelock

In May we decided to take a road trip to visit Ingrid's family in Alberta. To add some adventure, we decided to not take the direct route. Our first day we traveled north on Highway 99 to Interstate 80. We traveled east on I80 until we got to the town of Lovelock Nevada. I picked Lovelock to spend the night for two reasons. First, It was about half way to our next destination. Second, the name. So how does a place end up with a name like Lovelock?

There were some natural marshes along the Humboldt River, which passes through what is now Lovelock, and in the mid-19th century it became an important stopping point for people crossing the continent. An English settler named George Lovelock came in 1866 and bought squatters rights for 320 acres. When the railroad came through, he gave 85 acres for a train depot, so the depot was named after him, and it stuck for the name of the town that grew around it.

To enhance tourism, the city put up several places where couples can put up padlocks showing the permanence of their love, putting a new spin on the name of the town. We didn't purchase a lock, but we did pose for a photo by some of them.

Utah - Great Salt Lake

Great Salt Lake and the Rocky Mountains viewed from Antelope Island

On the second day of our journey, we continued east on I80. Our original plan had been to turn north in Wells, Nevada, toward Twin Falls, Idaho. Instead, we decided to keep traveling east, crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats. We decided to spend the night in a suburb on the north side of Salt Lake City, but before we did that, we made a visit to Antelope Island State Park. Antelope Island is located in the Great Salt Lake. We spent a couple hours there, checking out the lake and the vegetation that manages to survive in that environment. What we really enjoyed was the view looking back across the causeway to the snow-covered Rocky Mountains.

Idaho - Snake River

Basalt Columns beside the Snake River in Idaho Falls

The next day we were heading to West Yellowstone. We turned off I15 in the town of Idaho Falls. After eating lunch at Panda Express, we went to see the "falls" for which the town is named. We found a small park on the Snake River just below the falls. We were disappointed that the falls in the present day are mostly water flowing over a dam. However, just below the dam, the river cuts through some old basalt colunms. It looks almost like some man-made retaining wall, but this one was built by God, and is probably a lot more solid than anything a human would have put up.

Wyoming - Old Faithful

Old Faithful Geyser faithfully erupting

We spent two days in Yellowstone Park, which was not enough time because there are so many interesting things to see. One of the trails we wanted to try still wasn't open though, because it was too early in the season. One can hardly go to the park without seeing its mainstay, the Old Faithful geyser. It was Ingrid's first time to go to the park, but I had seen the geyser back in 1965. I don't remember much from that time except that at one point I was lagging behind my family on the boardwalk, and a geyser decided to spew some hot water just as I was going by. We had been told by the ranger earlier the dangers of wandering off the boardwalk, but I was just scared by the sudden explosion next to me and bolted to where my parents were up ahead, taking a shortcut off the boardwalk in the process. This time around, I managed to keep to the boardwalks. We decided to get our first view of Old Faithful from a distance. We joined about a dozen other people who braved the short climb to the viewpoint overlooking that geyser field.

Montana - Great Falls

The Great Falls of Great Falls, Montana

From Wyoming, we were headed to visit relatives in southern Alberta. I had never gone to that part of the province before. We could have made ther drive in a day, but we decided we would rather not push ourselves and do some sightseeing along the way. We spent the night in Great Falls, Montana. Before we left the city, we decided to find out why the place was called Great Falls. This, too, was a bit disappointing because, like Idaho Falls, a dam had been put up at the site of the original falls. Still, it was nice to drive up to the viewpoint and check out the Missouri River from above.

Alberta - Pyramid Lake and Pyramid Mountain

Pyramid Lake and Pyramid in Mountain in Jasper National Park, Alberta

Most of our time in Canada was spent visiting relatives, starting with an aunt and some cousins in Bow Island. On our way there we passed Writing on Stone Provincial Park, which is known for its unique rock formations and for petroglyphs. From there we traveled north to Barrhead. We took Dad on an overnight trip to Jasper National Park. It was the first time for him to visit the park since before Mom went into the nursing home several years earlier. On the first day, we went to Pyramid Lake. The first time I had visited that lake was on our honeymoon 40 years earlier. While we were visiting the park, we were under the realization that this might we'll be Dad's last visit to the park, so we did our best to help him relive old memories and make new ones.

Pyramid Mountain and Pyramid Lake from our honeymoon trip in 1983

British Columbia - Natural Bridge and Kicking Horse River

Natural Bridge over the Kicking Horse River in Yoho National Park, British Columbia

We left Alberta by taking the David Thompson Highway through Saskatchewan River Crossing and heading south to Lake Louise Village where we spent the night. The following day we took the Trans-Canada Highway through Yoho National Park. I think this was my first time driving west on this stretch of highway. We detoured to Natural Bridge, a formation on the Kicking Horse River — I had never been there before. This was a pretty spot, and I tried out the long exposure setting on my phone to take this photo.

Washington - Frye Cove County Park

Rain Forest at Frye Cove County Park, Washington

After several days with family and friends in BC, it was time to head back to the US. Our car was loaded with things we had stored with relatives in BC while we were in Thailand. Our first stop was Shelton. We had some time, so we made a detour to Frye Cove County Park near Olympia along the way. This is a very wet part of Washington, and everything was covered with moss.

Oregon - Haystack Rock and Cannon Beach

Haystack Rock reflecting on Cannon Beach, Oregon

Finally some sunshine. We had had some rain every day since we left Montana until we got to Oregon. We left our friend's house in Shelton, WA, and headed for the Pacific Coast. One of our first stops in Oregon was at Haystack Rock. I had seen several pictures of this rock over the years, and now was finally my opportunity to see it in person. This one is not as big as Morro Rock in California as it is only 235 feet / 72 meters tall. It also has a different kind of origin. It is made of basalt and is a remnant of an old lava flow, the rest having been eroded away over time. The rocks to the left are collectively called the Needles.

It took us a while to figure out where to park so we could walk to the beach, but it was worth the effort to see the reflection in the thin film of water on the beach.

Arizona - Lipan Point, Grand Canyon

Lipan Point, Grand Canyon, Arizona

Convergence. Ingrid had always wanted to see the Grand Canyon. Now seemed like a good time. One of my brothers had moved to Phoenix over the summer. A Thai friend of ours had married an American and was living not far from Phoenix, and they were about to make a trip to Thailand, so we could send some things along with them. So we decided we would make a trip to Arizona. We went to Phoenix first, then we traveled north to Williams, where we stayed while visiting the Grand Canyon, which was about an hour to the north of there. Williams is a quaint tourist town along the Historic US Highway 66. We even found Thai food there—one of our servers was from Khon Kaen, the province next to where we last lived in Thailand.

We didn't have much time to plan, as we had been busy prepping the exterior of our house for painting and we had begun putting down some primer. And since we didn't know much about what to see at the Grand Canyon, we booked a tour for the first morning with a group called Canyon Ministries. That same afternoon and the next morning were spent checking out viewpoints and other sites along the South Rim of the canyon. There are lots of viewpoints, but my favorite was Lipan Point. The photo shows a view looking west to north from Lipan Point. It's amazing how the Colorado River has etched out all this sedimentary rock.

The weather was unseasonably hot, so we didn't want to do a lot of walking. After we left the Canyon, we went to check out the Little Colorado River Canyon. Then we drove north, almost to Utah, to see the Glen Canyon Dam and Horseshoe Bend. When we returned to California, we detoured through Oatman, a ghost town along the old highway 66 that now has become a tourist town—the wild donkeys plying the streets help the tourism effort.

Baja California Sur - Playa Balandra

Playa Balandra, La Paz, Baja California Sur

In January, we had planned to make a trip to Mexico. A friend of ours had rented a condo and had invited us to come, all we had to do was buy plane tickets, which we had done. But then I broke my toe and needed surgery and we ended up not going. We got credits for future flights with American Airlines. Fast forward to November, and we realize our credits are expiring at the end of the month. Where can we go with American Airlines for about the amount of credits we had? After doing lots of searching, we decided to go to San Jose del Cabo, one of the two "Cabos" in Los Cabos, the other being Cabo San Lucas.

This would be our first trip to Mexico. We hasitily put this trip together and really didn't know what we would do there. I had never really entertained the thought of going to Los Cabos before. We ended up working with the concierge at the hotel to plan some things to do in our 5-day adventure. One day we went whale watching, and got really close—too close?—to some humpback whales. Los Cabos was really built up for tourism though, with resorts everywhere and more under construction, so one didn't really feel like one was in Mexico. So, for one day we joined a bus tour to La Paz. We were the only non-Mexicans on the big tour bus. (The tour guide would give his main presentations in Spanish, then he would summarize for us in English. Because of the need to do this, we got to sit in the front row of the bus the entire time.) La Paz is the capital of the state of Baja California Sur and it seems like it has a raison d'ête other than tourism. As well as visiting the town, we went to two beaches near there, my favorite being Playa Balandra. On the way back, we stopped in a small town called Todos Santos and saw the Hotel California, which may or may not have something to do with the song by that name.

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And so another year comes to a close, but this is our first year we are "retired" (at least from paying jobs). We're grateful for all those who have helped us as we transition to this next phase of our lives. And we're grateful to God for the health and wisdom to get through the year.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8