Markee in more carefree times....clamming at sunset in Baja just after the New Year.

Back-to-law-school-man has been a bit absent minded lately.

Yesterday we couldn't find the large tub of french vanilla yogurt used to make a homemade kefir drink the night before.

After a fairly involved search including his study desk and the bathroom (don't ask me why--we were just going room to room), it turned up in the dish cabinet, with the glasses and mugs.

Understandable. Large tub of yogurt, large coffee mug--it could happen to anyone.

Today I found a toothbrush in the utensil holder.

And utensils in the toothbrush holder.

I'm seeing a theme here.

I'm getting ready.

We have two and a half more years to go.

Baja, Diego, Catalina , 2 viajeros, and a trusty truck

3000 miles of driving

10 nights of camping, 2 hotels, 4 restaurant meals, one ferry express ride, and a midnight hike

5 whales + a calf, 2 dolphin schools, 7 clams, a few sting rays and legless starfish, uncountable seals sunning and jumping, plovers, sandpipers, herons, pelicans, frigatebirds, cormorants, and ospreys

a blue bay and empty beach

sand and seashells

wind and sun gentle on our skin

the coolness (shocking) and clarity of the water

the sound of the incoming tide lapping at the sand

a million, billion stars.

2 weeks of...
bottled water, watchless days, velvet nights, clothing re-runs,
rural roads, grand vistas, wandering cattle, and cultural eye openers.

Living on the beach and in the best way possible.

Baja California, Santa Catalina Island, and San Diego.

We're home now. Just got in the door after an all day push from California to New Mexico. Our first meal is green chile stew from the Frontier restaurant. Crazy Baja Driver Man has finished wading through his email--140 messages from UNM alone--and has moved on to Cyclocross scores (very important!).

I'm happily organizing entropy--and delighted at the state of our house. Our kitchen jungle plants didn't die, the furnace turned on (after a breathtaking delay), we didn't leave dirty dishes in the sink, nothing moldy is growing in the fridge, and the car started on the first try.

Happy, happy New Year.