Destination: USA, October 7 – November 4, 2009

Ah, I’m back a week now from my trip to the States.  What a whirlwind trip it was with a quick trip up to Portland and then 2 1/2 weeks in San Francisco where I was given the great gift of witnessing my nieces’ first few weeks of life and assisting with caregiving and nannying for the Guidi-Wygant family.   My folks also managed to come in for a month to help Joy & David.  And I managed to see almost all of my friends in between various family commitments.   It was great to see everyone and catch up and I hope I’ve convinced ya’all to come visit us in New Zealand some time.

Here’s a bit of a photo montage of my trip.

First stop – Portland – to see several friends:  Kat & Andrew, Scott & Anne, Ken & Christina, Sola & Inayat at Riversong, and Sebastian.   And thank you Kirk and Jim for coming up from Arizona!  What a busy few days we had.

We played Rockband and went sightseeing:

Lunched with Sebastian and visited Sola & Inayat at Riversong Retreat:

 Back in San Francisco, I hung out with my gal pals for birthday celebrations:

 And BBQ’d with friends Mary, Darek, Wes, Anthony, and Mary and a few others:

And I basically hung out and had many lunches, coffees, and dinners with all my pals.

Jack and Nane, Kelly,  Mei:

 Lillian, Daniel, and baby Nathaniel:

Lashon, Darek, Roni & Ella:

 And of course family:  mom & dad, Joy, David, Sienna, and my sister-in-law Laura! More Sienna photos can be found here.