April, May, June and July - Part 3

June took me unexpectedly back to Seattle as my dad had sudden surgery to remove a sarcoma tumor. The surgery went well and he continues to heal nicely. He will be undergoing some radiation also in the days to come. It was good to just be with family for the week and also catch up with friends in Seattle. In recent months we have been able to catch up with different friends here in DC as well as say goodbye to others as they departed this transient city. All of this makes me aware of how time can fly by - and thus Amy's video above and the title of these 3 most recent posts...(watch the video!)

Mom's home cooking - always good!

Dad - deep in thought (or watching TV) post surgery

Tammy and I met in 8th grade and went all the way through high school together in the Philippines.

Tammy and her husband Steve

Another Easter table shot - with friend Mark

A farewell dinner with Church friends for Michael (the only other guy in the picture) before he left for Medical School

A meal with friends Lauren and Stefan who have left DC for the West Coast.

We also said good bye to Mark, Shalyn and Alisha who returned to Malaysia.

Duncan

April, May, June and July - Part 2

May took me to Mozambique for ten days to attend a USAID conference. I had the great joy of traveling with one of my work colleagues, Pam, who always makes everything fun. While we were mainly in a hotel for most of the time, we did spend one day exploring Maputo (a somewhat run down formerly glorious African city with wide boulevards and crumbling buildings but a city that is humming nonetheless with countless cranes on the horizon and astronomical real estate prices) and another day on a beautiful, outrageous catamaran - just the two of us sailing out to a couple of islands and back with Maputo Yachting. Talk about living it up (and no tax payer money involved here!) We ended up being boarded by pirates...but that's another story! Needless to say, I loved being back on African soil - even for a short time!

Pam!

First A380 ride leaving London

Sunrise view from the hotel looking out on the Indian Ocean

Hotel and Pool

Hotel Veranda

Maputo Street

Mines and other explosives on display at the fort

Front of the Railway station

Inside the railway station

Our ship for the day...

The other way we could have sailed to the island...

We ended up "rescuing" 40 people from the wooden 'pirate' ship you see on the horizon when it got stuck on a sand bar

Another view of the ship

Returning to Maputo at sunset

Conference in progress...

The weekend after returning from Mozambique, Andrea and I caught the train up to New Haven, Connecticut for her brother's graduation from Yale. It was fun (and so easy and cheap) to go by train and to be present to celebrate Matt's accomplishment(s).

Duncan

April, May, June and July - Part 1

So we survived the winter...and then things got busy.

April saw two trips to North Carolina (or as I like to call it now, The State of Niceness - the contrast at times between the more easy going nature down there and the push and shove of DC is sometimes quite stark!) One trip was for work by myself and then a couple weeks later for Easter with our friends in Durham and at Duke Chapel. Easter lunch with our friend, Deb, is a treat and always features good food, friends and just a bit of purple!

Early morning Easter table

Deb loves Tulips!

Friends gathered to share a meal

Caramel Cake...to die and live for:-)

 April also brought a visit from Andrea's parents to DC and the return to life of almost everything that had endured the winter.

Duncan