I'm HOME!

I'm very happy to be back home. It's not that I didn't enjoy the trip to California, but it was a week long! I was ready to come back home. Monterey was very pretty and the grounds at Asilomar were beautiful.

Shorebirds feeding on the beach...

Photo of the trails at Asilomar outside my room.

I did get to visit the Monterey Aquarium which is somewhere I've really wanted to go for a long time. It was a good aquarium, we were there at night for an evening reception so we didn't get to see the outside exhibits and some of the critters but it was still a good time. I'd love for Ron and Maddie to see it too! We spent one day at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve, which was election night (yes, I was away on election night, and YES I did vote by absentee ballot...only the government would schedule a week long conference over an election!)

Here is a picture of a portion of the group huddled around a 19 inch television watching the returns come in. There are no TV's or telephones at Asilomar in the rooms so we watched together in a common room.

Maddie, Nana and Daddy had a good week as well - or so they said. I tried to time my calling home between session breaks and near Maddie's bedtime. I was regaled daily on her adventures with verbose stories that went on and on and on and on...I wish I had recorded one of them! So, what evidence do I have that things went smoothly back in Delaware? Besides that all were happy and in good spirits when I got home late Friday night? Well... I did find two photos on the camera I left at the house...

Maddie sporting a new outfit from Nana!

And this photo that Nana might not be aware of...I'm betting that Ron snuck in and snapped this picture of Nana. Undoubtably tired out from Maddie, aka the nonstop whirlwind of action.

You know...I do believe that Maddie got bigger while I was away... =(