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First, for those who are wondering, we are safely settled in a friend’s condo in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We are both healthy and hope to stay that way. We avoid crowds and our main activity is taking long walks around Santa Fe, a unique and historical city. We are only about a half mile from the old plaza so there are many interesting places to walk just outside our door. There are few tourists left in town so social distancing is easy. We hope all of our friends and family are healthy, as well.

Carrie received a yarn Advent Calendar last year, consisting of 24 mini-skeins of yarn, one to be revealed each day before Christmas. In addition to knitting a large shawl, she is using bits of leftover yarn for a mystery knit-along hosted by two Norwegian designers who are quarantined for 14 days in their home in the Norwegian mountains after disembarking from a cruise last week. A pattern for a patch is released every weekday for 2 weeks, with the final project revealed at the end. Mixing unusual colors into unfamiliar patterns is providing new and interesting combinations that Carrie wouldn’t have considered before. The silver lining of self isolation?

Before we came to Santa Fe we spent two weeks in Albuquerque, house sitting and cat sitting for friends. We had sat for them before and Mai-Mai seemed glad to see us. Rocio, more reserved and more cat-like, seemed to wish we would go away most of the time. We enjoyed revisiting some of our favorite walking paths along the Rio Grande, including the Bachechi Open Space.

One day while in Albuquerque we drove about 100 miles south to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, along the Rio Grande just south of Socorro. Bosque del Apache is well-known in the Southwest for its abundance of migratory birds. Mid-winter is the peak bird season so we were a little late for the most spectacular sightings, but we did see many birds and we enjoyed the day. On the way we stopped for lunch at the Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, NM, well-known for their green chile cheeseburgers, a New Mexico specialty.

After the holidays we headed north to Oregon for a couple of house sitting stints. We recently signed up with TrustedHousesitters, a website that matches home owners and pet owners with nomads like us who need a place to stay. We arranged two sits near Corvallis, one with a dog and one with a cat. We decided to drive up the coast to avoid possible snow in the mountains and also to enjoy the beauty of the coast. A highlight of the drive was a stop at Redwood National Park, north of Eureka on the California coast. There we saw grazing elk as well as an impressive grove of coastal redwood trees. Click on the first photo in each block to view the slideshow.

We had about a week’s gap before our first dog sitting gig so we rented a house through VRBO on the outskirts of Springfield, Oregon, near Eugene. The house sits on a mini-farm that currently houses three alpacas and a slew of chickens. Alpacas are quiet, gentle creatures and it was fun watching them each day. Pam, the owner, also rescues Chihuahuas and she would drop by often to let us visit with the three that she has now. Carrie knitted a sweater for Olivia, the tiniest one of the bunch. While we were in the area we also attended a basketball game at the University of Oregon’s new arena, Matthew Knight Arena. We used to enjoy games at McArthur Court, one of the great old barns in college basketball, and we wanted to see the new place. The Ducks defeated Arizona in an overtime thriller.

Next we moved about 50 miles north for our dog sitting gig just outside Philomath, a small town near Corvallis, home of Oregon State University. Bailey is a sweet, adorable dog, and she loves to play fetch with her ball. She is well-trained and rarely barks so it was a pleasure to spend a couple of weeks with her. Bailey is a small dog, about the size of an average cat, so she enjoyed sitting in Carrie’s lap and relaxing. Bailey’s house is in a beautiful rural area, and we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the Oregon winter. We were able to take in another basketball game in Corvallis, this time with our own UCLA Bruins in town to play the OSU Beavers. The game was close throughout, lots of fun to watch, and the Bruins came away with a close victory.

One afternoon while we were in Philomath we ventured about 30 minutes south to the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge consists of open wetlands, forests, and a lake, all ideal for the migrating birds that inhabit the area during winter. Our favorite spot was an elevated wooden walkway that traverses the forest to the edge of the lake. We enjoyed seeing the scenery and all the birds.

When we finished dog sitting we drove up to Portland and caught a flight to LA so we could spend Super Bowl Sunday with long-time friends in our old home town of Camarillo. We flew back to Portland on Monday, ready for our cat sitting gig near Alpine, Oregon. Nigel is a huge cat, about 21 pounds, and he will follow you around outdoors like a dog. The house is unique, with beautiful woodwork and artwork throughout and with decks on all sides. It is isolated from other houses, making it very quiet and peaceful. We rarely left the property during our stay, instead enjoying the solitude of the surroundings and the companionship of a loving cat.

To return to California we took a leisurely trip down the Oregon Coast. We hit the coast at Newport and then drove down US 101. We spent a couple of nights at the Overleaf Lodge near Yachats, a long-time favorite of ours right on the water. While in Yachats we spent part of the day in the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area, one of the most beautiful spots on the Oregon Coast.

We spent a restful November and December in California, celebrating the holidays as well as Andy’s December birthday. Andy and Charlie also attended the USC/Cal football game in Berkeley, a family tradition of seeing the Trojans play when they visit the Bay Area. Andy played in the USC Band in his college days, so they enjoyed sitting near the band during the game.

We rented a small guesthouse in Lafayette, an upscale town in the hills just east of Oakland. It was a very pleasant spot and only a 15 minute drive from Andy’s apartment in Oakland, so we enjoyed frequent visits with him. We especially liked daily walks at the Lafayette Reservoir, a quick 5 minute drive from our apartment. The trail around the reservoir is 3 miles and it affords beautiful views of the reservoir and of the many birds that live there. Click on the first photo in each block to view the slideshow.

One day during our stay in Lafayette we took BART (the Bay Area subway) into San Francisco and visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). We had visited SFMOMA in the past but it had been completely remodeled in recent years and we wanted to see the new facility. We enjoyed seeing the museum and also seeing the Christmas decorations in the city.

During the first week of December we took a 3-day trip to Paso Robles to visit our Food Group friends. We are a group of about a dozen friends, all originally from Ventura County, who have been getting together for 36 years. Many of us have scattered across the country but we still manage to congregate several times a year. Always lots of laughs and lots of love.

About a week before Christmas we left Lafayette and moved into a guesthouse near Camarillo for a couple of weeks. We still have family and friends in and around Camarillo so we wanted to spend Christmas there. Andy came down for a few days and stayed with us for Christmas. He also had time to catch up with one of his close friends from high school.

After New Years Day we headed north and spent a long weekend in the Bay Area on our way to our next pet sitting gigs in Oregon in January and February. Sunday was a rare sparking clear day and we took BART over to SF to explore the new Salesforce Park. SF recently replaced its old bus station and transit center, and the new center has an urban park on its 4th-floor roof. It is adjacent to the Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in SF, and there is direct pedestrian access from the building to the park. The park features small botanical gardens, each dedicated to one of the world’s Mediterranean climate regions.

We headed north from Maryland to Rhinebeck, New York, about 100 miles north of NYC along the Hudson River and home of the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, arguably the premier wool and knitting event in North America. We attended the festival last year and wanted to go back. The festival is great and the Hudson River Valley in the fall is stunningly beautiful. Carrie began the long weekend with a needle felting class, where everyone in the class made a Rhinebeck knitting gnome. Carrie is a financial sponsor of a sheep at Prado de Lana Sheep Farm in Massachusetts and at the festival Carrie got to meet Amanda, the shepherd who cares for her sheep. Amanda does a monthly videoblog from the farm, so Carrie felt like she already knew her. Carrie also got to connect with other online knitting friends from around the country.

While we were in the Hudson River Valley we visited the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park, just a few miles south of Rhinebeck. FDR’s family had owned this estate for many years and it was one of his favorite places. While he was president he enjoyed spending time in Hyde Park and he had an office in the house where he could work. The house was interesting in that it was large and very nice but it was rather simple and not ostentatious. The grounds also house the FDR Presidential Library. Designed with input from FDR, it is the only presidential library in which a president worked while in office.

While in Hyde Park we also visited the Vanderbilt Mansion, owned by Frederick Vanderbilt, a grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who first created the Vanderbilt family wealth. The National Park Service maintains this estate not as a tribute to the Vanderbilts but as an historical snapshot into the lives of the wealthy during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. Unlike the rather modest FDR home, the Vanderbilt mansion presented a flamboyant display of wealth intended to impress the other members of New York high society. It was the location for many high society parties and it reminded us of a smaller version of the Palace of Versailles in France. Although it seemed like a fabulous mansion to us, it was only a seasonal cottage for the Vanderbilts, used mostly in the spring and fall. They spent summers at their “real” mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, and winters at their lavish apartment in New York City, when the social circle was in full swing.

We left New York on October 21 and, realizing that the weather could soon turn cold, we took a southern route back to California. Sure enough, we avoided an early-season snowstorm in Colorado just a few days later. We made a stop at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, site of the longest cave system known in the world. We took a guided cave tour in the morning and then had a wonderful picnic among the fall colors. As we were finishing lunch a deer came right up to our table and ate scraps of apples and strawberries leftover from some prior picnickers. She wasn’t the least bit afraid of us and stayed around for at least ten minutes. We then headed south to Spicewood, Texas, near Austin, to visit our nephew and his family. We had a fun family visit and had some great barbecue at Opie’s.

We headed north from Virginia to attend the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in mid-October. But we had a couple of weeks to spare so we decided to spend the time in the Maryland/Washington area. Carrie was born in D.C. but neither of us had spent much time there since we were kids so we wanted to visit. We rented an apartment in Severn, Maryland, approximately equidistant from Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis.

We began with a visit to Baltimore, stopping first at Fort McHenry, the site of a decisive battle in the War of 1812 and also the birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner. We got to witness the daily raising of the 15-star American flag that flies every day (there were 15 states at the time). They normally fly a replica of the huge 30 by 42 feet garrison flag that was flown after the battle (we saw the original flag later, displayed in the Smithsonian) but we were there on a windy day so they flew a smaller version. The morning view of the flag was the inspiration for Francis Scott Key in writing the Star Spangled Banner. The battle in Baltimore Harbor in 1814 was crucial to the American victory in the war. Washington, D.C, had been burned by the British just a few weeks prior and if Baltimore had also fallen it might have been the end of our country as we know it.

After lunch we took a 1-hour boat cruise of Baltimore Harbor. We saw Fort McHenry from the water and we also had good views of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, a previously blighted warehouse district that has been revitalized with skyscrapers and restaurants. On another day we took a van tour of location filming sites in Baltimore from The Wire TV series that ran about a decade ago. It was interesting to see the actual locations from the series but we didn’t get out and take any photos that day. Click on the first photo in each block to view the slideshow.

We spent a day exploring Annapolis, a colonial-era port that also serves as the capital city of Maryland and the home of the U.S. Naval Academy. Annapolis is a beautiful old city and it was fun to walk around the old streets. During the afternoon many midshipmen from the Academy were running through the streets in identical workout gear, getting their daily exercise.

We visited Washington, D.C., on several occasions. It was within easy driving distance and there was also a Metro (subway) station not far from our apartment in Maryland. As we have done in several large cities, we took a hop on/hop off bus tour to get oriented and to see some of the iconic sites. We passed by George Washington University Hospital, Carrie’s birthplace, which she had never seen as an adult. Our ticket included a 1-hour boat tour along the Potomac from Georgetown to a dock near the Jefferson Memorial. We like boats so it was fun, but much of Washington is set back from the river so there isn’t a lot to see (excellent views of Reagan Airport, though).

Our favorite stop in Washington (and currently one of the most popular in the city) was the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This new museum, part of the Smithsonian, opened just three years ago, and it has a unique and symbolic layout. You begin by taking an elevator to the basement, which houses displays depicting the early days of the slave trade. The museum down there is dark, evocative of the slave trader ship’s hull. You then wind your way up a series of spiral ramps with displays depicting the years of enslavement, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, and finally present-day America.

We made several other trips into Washington to visit other museums and attractions. The Renwick Gallery, near the White House, is an art museum featuring special arts and crafts exhibits. Part of the Smithsonian, it just recently reopened after major renovations. We especially enjoyed an exhibit of holograms, with moving flowers visible only by holding an iPad near the artwork. On another day we visited the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. A special feature there is a display of the inaugural gowns worn by First Ladies going back more than a century. Finally, although not strictly a museum, we visited the White House Visitor Center, which has displays of presidential history and daily life in the White House. We did not tour the White House itself but we walked around the perimeter. We were intrigued to see one of those huge airport fire department foam trucks enter the gates, and then about an hour later the Marine One helicopter arrived. It makes sense that such fire protection would be provided for the President, but it never occurred to us before. Since then we have seen the same truck in the background on TV when President Trump does his South Lawn press briefings before boarding the helicopter.

On one of our last days in the Washington area we intended to visit Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Virginia home south of the capital. As it turned out, however, it was Columbus Day and also Homeschool Day, so the place was mobbed. We couldn’t get a house tour ticket until late afternoon so we decided to regroup and spend the day in nearby Alexandria, Virginia, instead. As it turns out we had a great time exploring this old colonial city on the banks of the Potomac. There is interesting history everywhere you turn along the Atlantic Coast.

After we left Prescott we went back to California for a brief visit with Andy. He wanted to see a new exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco featuring Japanese tattoo art, so we went there with Andy and his friend, Heather. Tattoos were very common in Japan in past centuries and the artwork depicting them was spectacular. We ended the day with dinner at one of our favorite Oakland restaurants, Chop Bar. A few days later we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary with lunch at Brix, one of our favorite Napa Valley restaurants. Brix has a large garden outside their patio and they harvest it regularly to provide fresh produce for the restaurant. Click on the first photo in each block to view the slideshow.

We left California and began the drive across country, taking our time to see some sights and stop to visit friends. We drove across Nevada and headed to Moab, Utah. There we took a twilight boat cruise on the Colorado River to view some of the beautiful red rock scenery. The next day we explored Arches National Park, with its striking red rocks and plentiful arches.

We spent a day in Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado, one of the best preserved Native American ruins in the US. Many spectacular ruins are visible along the cliffs in the park. Mesa Verde was inhabited from about 600 to 1300, after which most of the residents migrated to form the present-day pueblo communities in New Mexico.

We spent another day exploring the mountains north of Durango, Colorado, including the old mining towns of Silverton and Ouray. This area was a thriving silver mining region around the turn of the last century. Towns that once had thousands of people now have only a few hundred, and cater mostly to tourists. The mountain scenery is stunning.

After a week and a half on the road we reached our first destination, Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were there to house sit and cat sit for our friends, Norm and Emilee, while they ventured off to Europe for a few weeks. We had been there before so we were looking forward to seeing Mai-Mai and Rocio again. We had a mostly quiet and leisurely stay, enjoying walks along the Rio Grande most mornings, while it was still cool. We made a few local day trips, as well, including a day in Santa Fe for Carrie’s birthday. We also enjoyed the New Mexico State Fair and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

After we left Albuquerque we drove to Nashville, Tennessee, to visit our friend, Kashena. We hadn’t seen her in over six years so it was a treat to have brunch with her and catch up on things. While in Nashville we visited the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home and estate. We toured his home and spent time in the adjacent museum to learn about his life and his influence on a young United States. We also took a drive through downtown Nashville, “Music City.”

We continued east to visit our friends Chris and Reed and to attend the annual World of Bluegrass, a week-long festival of bluegrass music always held in Raleigh, North Carolina. On the weekend Raleigh’s main street is closed down for about 12 blocks and bands perform on multiple outdoor stages. We also had the opportunity to tour the Plant Delights Nursery, a beautiful garden that is being donated to NC State University to be part of their arboretum. Finally, we got to see the finished Navajo rug which Chris and Reed had purchased partially completed off the loom when they visited us in Prescott!

After Raleigh we made the short drive to Charlottesville, Virginia, to visit our old friends Betty, Susie, and Michael. While there we toured the beautiful campus of the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson 200 years ago. We also spent most of a day touring Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home and estate. We toured the home and gardens and learned a great deal about Jefferson’s years at Monticello and about the enslaved people who made the place run.

After Charlottesville we headed toward our next apartment in Maryland which would serve as our home base for exploring Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis, the subject of a subsequent blog post. But first we made a stop at the Fredericksburg Battlefield in Virginia, the site of a major Civil War battle in December 1862. Lincoln was planning to emancipate the enslaved people on January 1 and he wanted a Union victory to pave the way. But the Confederate military strategy was superior and they drove back the Union forces. The Fredericksburg area was the site of several battles over the next two years, making it one of the most contested places in the Confederacy.

We spent a leisurely and mostly uneventful summer in Prescott, Arizona. Carrie volunteered at the Yavapai Humane Society, socializing the cats that are up for adoption. The cats spend their days in cages so it is good for them to have someone to take them out and play with them. Carrie loves cats so it was the perfect activity for her. In critter news closer to home, we had a family of four young skunks in our yard for a couple of weeks. They would come out at dusk and forage around in the backyard. They were cute and fun to watch but we kept our distance. Finally, our neighbor down the hill puts out food for the javelinas so it was fun watching them. They seem to be rather docile creatures, except when they begin fighting among themselves over food. Click on the first photo in each block to view the slideshow.

Walt came to visit for a week in July so we visited several of the local attractions. Tuzigoot National Monument is one of the best preserved Native American ruins in the region, inhabited around a thousand years ago. The nearby Verde River provided a consistent water supply as well as arable land in the river valley. Tuzigoot was one of many pueblo communities in the valley region. Today, visitors can walk among the ruins, situated on a hilltop with sweeping views of the river valley and the surrounding mountains.

The Smoki Museum is a small museum in Prescott, and it houses one of the most impressive collections of Southwestern Native American pots and baskets. We spent a couple of hours admiring the collection.

A new museum in Prescott honors the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a crew of 19 young firefighters who died tragically when a fast-moving wildfire overcame them on June 30, 2013. We visited this memorial museum with Walt. It has information about the fire itself as well as about each of the men who served on the crew. It is a sad tribute but we appreciated the opportunity to honor the men who died.

Our friends Chris and Reed came to visit for a weekend in early August, and the highlight of the weekend was a visit to the Navajo Festival at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. Many Navajo artists displayed their beautiful works for sale. Carrie bought a pair of silver earrings from a young silver artist named Sage, who was there with his grandfather. Sage is 21 years old and he has been learning metal work from his grandfather since he was a small boy. Sage is determined to pass the Navajo craft on to future generations. Chris and Reed purchased a Navajo rug that was still being woven by the artist, Vivian, who was demonstrating her skill at the museum. The rug will be finished in a couple of weeks and then will be shipped to Chris and Reed. Lunch was fry bread, lamb, and Navajo tacos from a food vendor set up outside. Yum!

We have been in Prescott, Arizona, for the past six weeks, enjoying the perfect summer weather in Arizona’s mile-high country. We have rented a fabulous little house in the hills just west of town. We can’t see any houses around us so we feel wonderfully isolated, yet we can be in the middle of town in about ten minutes. We bought a little bird feeder so we see lots of birds every day, along with chipmunks, lizards, deer, coyote, and even a family of four javelina that wanders nearby occasionally. On the downside, there is also a resident skunk, as well as a rat that lived in the house for a while (thanks to a rat trap she is no longer with us).

Prescott is an historic city, rather old by southwestern standards. It was formed in 1864 and served as Arizona’s territorial capital for a short while. The old downtown core is centered around the Yavapai County courthouse, and many of the buildings were built around 1900 or earlier. The western block of the courthouse square is called “Whiskey Row” because it consisted entirely of saloons back in Prescott’s rowdier days. Prescott is pronounced “Prezkit” for reasons probably known only to the locals. Click on the first photo in each block to view the slideshow.

We like to take a long walk almost every morning. Sometimes we like to walk in Prescott’s old residential neighborhoods. The old houses, many from the turn of the last century, remind us of our old neighborhood in Woodland. On other days we walk in the open areas beyond the edge of town. Prescott is a rather small city so it is easy to get out of town quickly.

Some friends came to visit so we did some touring of the area. On a day trip we began with a visit to Sedona, an artists’ colony situated in a beautiful red rock valley. We visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross, located on a hillside with a great view of Sedona. Then we headed up to Jerome for lunch and some exploring. Jerome was an old mining town built on the side of a hill. The mines closed almost a hundred years ago and now Jerome is principally an artists’ colony.

We took a day trip to Montezuma Castle National Monument, one of the best-preserved Native American ruins in the Southwest. It was inhabited around a thousand years ago but everyone left around 1300 for reasons that are not understood. You can’t go into the ruins but you can view them from the trail below. We took our binoculars for a better look.

On another day trip we went to Arcosanti, about halfway between Prescott and Phoenix. Arcosanti was started in the 1970s by architect Paolo Solari as an experimental urban community, designed to minimize environmental impact. It still exists as a learning center for architects and artists. Arcosanti still produces the bronze and clay wind chime bells that were a trademark of Solari’s design.

A highlight of a quick trip to Phoenix was a visit to the Heard Museum, housing arguably the world’s finest collection of Southwestern Native American art. Charlie especially enjoyed seeing a piece by noted Hopi potter Al Qoyawayma. Before becoming a professional artist Al was an engineer and he worked with Charlie on an air quality project in Arizona back in the 1980s.

Prescott is home to the world’s oldest rodeo, begun in 1888. The rodeo is held every day for a week, surrounding July 4th. We are not rodeo fans but we attended one evening just for fun. It was an interesting evening and it provided a glimpse into a fascinating subculture. The rodeo people travel around to these events year-round, living in RV’s (sometimes just tents) and bringing their horse trailers with them. During rodeo week the rodeo grounds, not far from our house, was transformed from an empty dirt lot to a campground full of both people and horses.

After we returned from Scotland we spent the month of April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, housesitting and catsitting for friends who were out of town. Carrie misses her cats so it was a pleasure to be around a couple of cats for a month. Mai-Mai is a very friendly little cat and she warmed up to us immediately, spending a lot of time sitting on Carrie’s lap. Rocio is more reserved but by the end of the month she allowed us to pet her a bit. Andy came to visit for a few days early in the month and we celebrated Charlie’s birthday together. Click on the first photo in each gallery to see the slide show.

One of Andy’s high school friends, Spring, moved to Albuquerque shortly after they graduated almost 20 years ago. We spent a day with Spring and her family and we all went up to Sandia Crest, at the top of the mountain just to the east of Albuquerque. It was cold on the mountain and there was still some snow on the ground. We ended the day at a local brewpub where we had good beer and Mexican food from a food truck.

We are all fans of the Breaking Bad TV show, which was filmed in Albuquerque. We took a three hour bus tour of many of the filming locations around town. Albuquerque has become an active center for on-location filming, due in part to tax incentives that the state has provided.

Petroglyph National Monument is on the west side of Albuquerque, about a 15 minute drive from our house. We made several visits to see the petroglyphs and to hike around the desert terrain. The monument consists of a large expanse of volcanic rock which was ideal for etching petroglyphs into the rock surface. Native Americans created the petroglyphs dating back many centuries. The Albuquerque suburbs are creeping into the area so it is fortunate that the National Park Service was able to preserve this land and protect the petroglyphs from destruction.

We took a day trip to Acoma Pueblo, an hour drive west of Albuquerque. The pueblo is built on the top of a mesa and it is the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America, dating back to 1150 A.D. The pueblo can be visited only by guided tours, so we took a 90 minute tour up to the top of the mesa to look around. Many aspects of the pueblo are as they have always been. For example, there is no electricity and no running water. But cars parked on the village roads show accommodations to 21st century life. Many of the residents make pottery and jewelry, and they had it on display throughout the pueblo for purchase. Each pueblo in New Mexico has a distinctive pottery style, and the Acoma style is especially beautiful, featuring a rusty brown color.

The Rio Grande runs through Albuquerque and we enjoyed daily walks through el bosque (the forest) that covers the extensive floodplain. Albuquerque has preserved most of el bosque as public parkland, partly for the residents’ enjoyment and partly because it occasionally floods and thus is unsuitable for houses. The people of Albuquerque use the parks a lot and so did we. The river was near its high springtime flow (in an especially wet year) so the water was high and some of the trails nearest the river were flooded. We saw lots of water birds on our walks, mostly geese and ducks.

We left Albuquerque with just enough time to drive back to Oakland for Mother’s Day with Andy. We began with brunch at Belcampo in Jack London Square. After we ate we walked around the farmers’ market for a while and then we drove up to Albany, a few miles north along the East Bay. Andy is a civil engineer and he has been working on a project to reconstruct the trail system on the Albany Bulb, a man-made peninsula that juts out into the bay. We walked along some of the trails and Andy showed us some of the ongoing construction. Seeing Andy’s accomplishments was a great treat for Mother’s Day.

We took several day trips to explore sights in the Edinburgh region. Scotland has an excellent rail system so it is possible to go almost anywhere by train and the trains are frequent, often several per hour.

We took one day trip to Linlithgow Palace, situated between Edinburgh and Glasgow. This old palace was the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots in 1542. It was a favorite of royalty due to its beautiful setting above a lake and due to its central location between Edinburgh and Stirling Castles. Linlithgow Palace is now an abandoned ruin, not having been restored. Nevertheless, it was interesting to explore the remains of the old building and to imagine what it was like in its day.

On another day we took the train up the coast to Dundee, one of Scotland’s major cities and a major trading port for centuries. Our goal was to visit the new Victoria and Albert Museum, just opened about six months ago. We had hoped to visit the old V&A in London but we didn’t get around to it, so we wanted to be sure to see the new V&A in Dundee. It is housed in a striking new building on the riverfront, and the design of the building mimics the shape of a ship to honor Dundee’s shipping history. The V&A is devoted to design so it was interesting to see how Scottish design has influenced everything from fashion to architecture. We were especially surprised to learn that Dundee has long been a center of video game design, dating back to the early gaming days of the 1980s. An exhibit on video games is due to open in April but we were too early for that.

Another day trip took us to New Lanark, a restored 18th century cotton mill town on the River Clyde, upstream from Glasgow. The mill operated on water power from the Falls of Clyde, a set of waterfalls and cascades at this hilly location. The entire village has been restored as a World Heritage Site and no visible signs of modern conveniences are allowed, such as overhead electrical wires or satellite dishes. We toured all of the parts of the village, including the mill (which now spins wool), the workers’ housing, the company store, and the school for the children. The owner, Robert Owen, was very progressive and he treated his employees well (unusual at that time) so consequently his mill was very productive and it prospered for many years. During our visit, there was an interesting display of tapestries illustrating the stories of the Scottish diaspora. We especially liked those from Canada and the U.S. as we were familiar with many of the places and events displayed. Finally, there was a gift shop at New Lanark so we had to buy some yarn from the mill!

One day during the Edinburgh Yarn Festival Charlie set off on his own to explore Stirling Castle. This castle, dating from the 12th century, is in a strategic location overlooking what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, effectively separating the Highlands from the Lowlands of Scotland. Stirling Castle sits high on a volcanic crag much like Edinburgh Castle, but Stirling has a more bucolic (perhaps more authentic) feel because the area is still largely rural. The restoration of Stirling Castle is interesting in that the Great Hall has been painted its original gold color, used both to protect the stonework and to provide a magnificent tribute to the king and the royal family. Most of the old castles that we see today are now gray and drab, but in fact some buildings, statues, and fountains were brightly painted in their day.