Trip to Orange County CA

President Reagan is said to have observed that when Republicans die they go to Orange County. I sort of doubt this, but Wade dearly wanted to go to college in California (Pomona), and has lived within three miles of the coast ever since, most of it in Orange County. Now he and his family (Joyce and 2 sons) live in Fountain Valley, and Orange County seems like a little bit of heaven when one feels the cool breezes and gazes at the lovely landscapes in the neighborhoods and along the coast.

Agapanthus - Fountain Valley

Zachary and Cody

Zachary. The firstborn grandchild always has a special place in one’s heart and Zachary is the first of our 4 grandsons. Now he is 13 and growing up. It was a thrill to have Zachary meet me in the baggage claim area, looking broader of shoulder and taller than he was at Thanksgiving, and lift the big clumsy red bag off the carousel with ease.

Zachary goes for a layup

Both Zachary and Cody are in the GATE classes at their schools. (Whatever that means. I guess that the curriculum is supposed to be more advanced or more enriched than ordinary classroom programs.) But a major focus in Zachary’s life has always been sports: Taekwondo, soccer, swimming, volleyball and now BASKETBALL. Basketball is Zachary’s favorite sport at school. This summer his coach has him practicing with the high school ninth graders, although they are all taller than he is.
Zachary is also taking advanced woodworking next year.  His shop teacher says he has an extraordinary skill with detail.

He plays ping pong against his dad and brother.

Zachary is also doing things for his family now such as getting the trash out on trash day and washing his mom’s car.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Cody.
 
 
Cody (age 9) has always loved video games.  However, playing video games doesn't make interesting copy or photographs.  Here Cody awaits Zachary's serve.
 
 
 
 
 
He is on the subdivision swim team as is Zachary.
Here his dad secures his swim suit.
Both boys won a race  and lost a race at the neighborhood swim meet.
 
 
 
 
 

 

Cody was interested in making a snake out of a tie, a la Alice Baird and Locke.  Above Cody peruses Alice's blog about Locke and making the snake.
 
On the right is Cody with his tie snake  We used a pipe cleaner for the tongue and put the goggle eyes on with rubber cement.  Neither eyes nor tongue stayed put.
 
 
 
 
 Doing Things with  Zach and Cody.

After telling my friends I wasn't focused enough to finish a Monopoly game, I managed to devote  3 hours to a game which Zachary finally won, although I was very happy to come in second as I am usually last.
That's Wade's disembodied hand in the picture.

Mom Joyce took us to the Science Museum in Santa Ana.   Here the kids are in Predators Plaza on a treasure hunt.

 Cody examines a bead sorting machine.

Another day they took me to one of my favorite places:  Huntington Beach.  We ate breakfast at the Sugar Shack (pancakes for me - yum yum) and walked on the pier.

All in all, the whole family spoiled me.
Besides a trip to Huntington Beach, Joyce took me shopping at Westminister Mall, and Zachary helped me pick out a tee while Joyce brought the car around to the mall door (more spoiling). 
While Joyce and the boys went to a family memorial service in Reedley on Saturday, Wade took me to a Cirque de la Symphonie concert with the Pacific Symphony at the amplitheater in Orange County.  The acrobatics who performed to popular classics were thrilling. My favorite act was an acrobat who seemed to fly around the stage with beautiful burgundy curtains fluttering in the wind like wings. I also loved the woman beside me who  cried,  'Wow!  Wow!" as the performers did their tricks.

The Fourth of July in Egypt

This Fourth of July I was looking at pictures I had taken over the years in Egypt. I remembered a number of July Fourths spent in Cairo when we attended the American Embassy sponsored Independence Day celebrations on the Cairo American College campus. (Cairo American College is an international K-12 school, allegedly established by petroleum companies to educate the children of petroleum workers in Egypt. The children of employees of many embassies, including American, attend there. However, the children from East European embassies often attended the school where I taught: The American International School. It was cheaper, although still pretty expensive.)

The celebration took place in Cairo’s summer heat. Cairo Egyptians, those who can, leave for Alexandria in July. Many of my students and their families spent summers touring the States or shopping the capitals of Europe. However, some Americans stayed in Cairo and even went out in the noonday sun, at least on the Fourth of July. Of course, even then we had to go through Security (basically a metal detector) to get into the campus grounds.

For the first few years this celebration was a nostalgic return to Americana. Embassy employees (the men) would grill bratwurst and the embassy women sold acres of homemade apple, cherry (my favorite), a variety of berry pies, as well as coconut and chocolate cream. There were also cakes, breads and cookies. You could buy the whole loaf of banana bread (Egypt has the sweetest bananas in the world), or a dozen cookies and take them home, or just buy one slice of pie. I usually bought a slice of pie, because, as you know, I would be tempted to eat the whole pie by the end of the day, if I took it home.

Here is my water bottle carrier.  My only momento.

There were many tents selling art work, scenes of Egypt, calendars, and books. Egyptians and ex-pats made items such as jewelry, vests, and t-shirts or cylindrical bags for a liter of water with logos commemorating the day and year of celebration.
 For security reasons, we didn’t have fireworks. We would meet a few stalwart friends there. Most young American teachers would have left for the summer. Even teachers who no longer owned homes in the United States would leave soon after July Fourth, if they hadn’t left in June, to spend time with relatives in the USA.

Later the celebrations changed dramatically when KFC, Bascom Robbins, McDonald’s, Chili’s, and other American chains were successfully established in Egypt. On Independence Day, they would set up concessions that were mobbed by the crowds, especially the Egyptian employees of the American Embassy. The concessions quickly ran out of food, and the ice cream was soup. The whole atmosphere was quite commercialized. At this point it became disappointment to attend.