our summer memories

This past summer Sky stayed home and had an early childhood friend come live with her in our house and they ate all of our bananas. Sky did some photography related work after discovering she did not like working in a grocery store. Yay college motivating experience!

Meanwhile Gary and I travelled with Annabel and Shawn. First we went to northern California to see Amma, then we went to DC to see friends. While we were in DC we drove to see my sister and her family in Philadelphia and attended our niece's eighth grade graduation ceremony. The kids loved seeing their cousins. Back in Virginia I got to see my best friend from college, Janel. Then we all went to see my parents in Rochester NY. From there we we drove Shawn to camp in rural Pennsylvania. A few days later we flew to JFK and got Annabel connected with a travel group through a wonderful organization called Where There Be Dragons. She spent a month traveling in Nepal with a great group of kids. Then Gary and I were free so we saw Amma briefly in New York and then took off to Europe! After we returned from all of our respective adventures we all went to see my family in Chicago for a few days. Then the kids went on a youth retreat with an international organization called AYUDH and Gary and I hung out with my brothers and their families. We all ended up back in northern California for some time. It was a great summer. 

birthday celebration

For my big 5-0 we were in France. We took a train to Amma's ashram in Pontgouin. Gary had arranged with the people there for us to visit. First we got a guided tour of the beautiful grounds, where we saw the bread house, the bee house, the extensive vegetable gardens, many fruit trees, composting toilets, a library, a seed bank, a barn filled with every tool imaginable. We attended a meditation session, had lunch with the residents, they surprised me with some cakes and parfaits. After lunch I wanted to do some seva (service) so I worked in the gardens, weeding. It was a perfect day. I loved every minute of it.

first day in chartres

After a long travel day we flew into France and ended up in this small charming medieval town called Chartres. Wow. What a place. We could walk everywhere we wanted to go. That night after dinner we saw this amazing light show projected onto the cathedral. It was incredible.