San Diego: Friends and First Ocean Experience

This post includes a trip to San Diego which coincided with quite a few "firsts" for Willow: seeing the ocean, and meeting her *honorary grandparents* (who travelled from Boston), friends of Chinese ancestry who travelled from Los Angeles, and a few more friends who travelled down from Yosemite.

San Diego: Continued From Above ...

Looking at the Pacific Ocean from the balcony of Grandma Henny's apartment:



We highly recommend the fabulous little aquarium at UC San Diego, La Jolla:

Clinging to Daddy's leg:

Making the "sign" for I Love You:

February 14: Happy Year of The Tiger

I thought the illustration below was lovely. Happy (belated) Chinese New Year.
But, I jumped ahead by a few weeks. First our friend Sara, a.k.a. Willow's Ayi, came to visit in January. Sara was our guide in China, and quickly became extended family. While working in the U.S. (Seattle) for two months, she decided to come visit during subzero temperatures. Willow was enamored with Sara right away (did Willow remember???) Chris loaded her down with presents (books), and we even went to the Mall of America to ride the carousel--good excuse. Willow was afraid, which necessitated we move off the horse and sit on a bench; there was a young man of about 15 years of age sitting on the only bench, and he was clearly mortified when we joined him. Actually he was emanating teenage angst--I still wonder why he was there to begin with.