San Diego--Hanging Out at Mission Beach

This 2018 retreat hosted by my law firm, DJP, was even more fun than the time we stayed at gold-encrusted Trump Tower in Las Vegas and drove around Sin City in a limousine.  This year's retreat was at Mission Beach, San Diego.  It ran from Thursday dinner on April 19, 2018 to Saturday lunch . 

 We stayed at the Bahia Resort and our room opened right onto the beach.

 We arrived in San Diego on Thursday morning, and so had all day before the first firm event.  We spent the morning at the San Diego Zoo.  I especially enjoyed the Ethiopian Highlands section of the zoo, with the monkeys that I remembered from when I lived in Ethiopia in the 1960s.

 Another favorite spot was the penguin pond.

 I love strange-looking members of the cow/antelope/buffalo family.

 And who wouldn't love the pandas?

 We couldn't keep our eyes (and hands) off this nasty Australian creature.

 And it is always fun to discover an animal I had neither seen nor heard of before.  The fossa prowls the forests of Madagascar, eating lemurs.

 We spent Thursday afternoon exploring the Midway, a US aircraft carrier that was commissioned in 1945 and sailed until the 1990s. 

 The Midway was named after the 1942 Battle of Midway, which turned the tide of WWII, after US pilots sank three Japanese aircraft carriers.  One of the high points of our tour of the Midway was seeing a newsreel of that pivotal battle.  Dave and I have been reading many books about WWII, and so we were particularly intrigued.  Whenever I board a US Navy ship, I also think of my dad, who was in the Navy during WWII and taught Naval officers at the training center at Princeton University to shoot the guns on the big ships.  "Naval ordinance," his class was called.

 The flight deck of the Midway included a museum of fighter planes and helicopters. After his years of flight training and serving in the Air Force, Dave has an abiding love of airplanes.

 We took a tour of the bridge of the Midway, including the spot where the captain steered the huge ship with its flotilla of twenty or more accompanying destroyers, battleships, and submarines.

Across San Diego Bay, we could see the USS Carl Vinson, one of the US' currently serving 11 aircraft carriers.

 David pointed out the airplanes from the Viet Nam era, when he was in the Air Force.

 We enjoyed listening to the vets tell about their time serving on the Midway, and ships like it.

 We lingered at the used book store on the Midway, lovingly stocked by a volunteer vet, who picked his library from used book sales.  I found many treasures, including "The Longest Day," a classic about D-Day.  The books sold for $2 to $6 apiece, "just enough to make a little profit," the vet explained.

 On Thursday evening, DJP hosted dinner on the large ferry boat docked at Mission Beach.

 I snapped this picture of the shore, as we sailed around the bay.

 After meetings on Friday morning, Dave and I were treated to sea kayaking in La Jolla Cove.  We boarded our double kayak on the beach and were pushed into the breakers.  "Row as hard and fast as you can, and hit the waves straight on," we were instructed.  I didn't look to right or left, but plowed straight forward as the waves crashed under and around us.  Finally, we were past the breakers and into the sea, where dolphins and seals played around us.  I felt as vulnerable as if I were floating out to sea on a banana peel.  Only 11 of the 18 DJP kayaks made it back to shore without seasickness or capsizing.  Dave and I were one of the 11, although we did roll over as we surfed back onto the beach.

 On Friday night, the firm dined at Sea World, with a special performance by two killer whales (orcas), which leapt out of the tank, skidded onto the side of the pool, and poked their noses into the air.  It was a memorable evening!

Everything Nordic

 "I am 10% Scandinavian," I told my family, citing my Ancestry DNA test.  "And I know where that comes from--the Vikings who conquered northern Scotland."  My father's family comes from Dunnet, the northernmost town in Scotland, and the Orkney Islands, just across the strait, where a Norwegian earl ruled for many centuries.  I celebrated my Norse heritage on April 15, 2018, with a dinner of stuffed pork loin, cucumber salad, rye and orange nut breads, and strawberry cream cake.  Spencer and his wife, Naomi, came from BYU and brought Spencer's friend, Lance Nielson.  Jono will be attending BYU when he returns from his mission, and he enjoyed talking with his cousins and their friends.

I have collected Norwegian pewter, including serving spoons, bowls, and napkin rings with Viking symbols on them.  The table was covered with a runner in Scandinavian colors of red and Nordic blue, and Naomi arranged fresh flowers.

 I consulted three Scandinavian cookbooks to get the menu right.

 It is a treat for Camille and her family to join us.

Shauna and Alan Dale are frequent dinner guests.  Alan Dale brings loaves of fresh bread which he makes on Sunday morning.  "I have 100 different recipes for my bread maker," he assures me.

Janice's husband, Mark, is working in Saudi Arabia and "the house is quiet."  We enjoy having her join us, as well as regulars Heidi and Mike.

 Steve is a good dad, with jokes and hugs for his children.

Annie also shares hugs with Ezra.

Heidi's Recital

Heidi has taken accordion lessons for a year, and she is amazingly good.  On Saturday evening, April 14, 2018, Heidi invited her family and a few friends to her home for a recital.  She played several "sets" of pieces, including music by Bach and music written by her accordion teacher, based on Russian folk tunes.  Heidi's parents, her sister Jessica, and her brother Ben drove 2 1/2 hours to SLC from Axtell, UT for the event.  Heidi's sister Mauresa left a new baby at home to attend.  It was an impressive lesson in family support.

 
When the recital was over, Heidi's mother led us in a standing ovation, and Heidi then gave her parents a bouquet, thanking them for introducing her to music.  It was a lovely evening.

 We appreciated Camille making the effort to come.  She was in charge of food for the YMYW Confrerence for her ward, which she attended all day with Steve, Jono, and Annelise.

Mike videotaped the concert, but also spent a few minutes lost in his own thoughts.  Mike and Heidi are both good at learning new talents.  Mike spends an hour each morning, five times a week, speaking Spanish with teachers in Mexico and Venezuela to sharpen his language skills.  He plans to know Spanish, French, and Italian by mid-2020, when he hopes to take an extended vacation to the Southern Mediterranean.

Homecoming

 "No chair empty."  That's a phrase often used by Mormons to describe their goal of keeping their family united in love and faith.  No matter how divided geographically they are on earth, someday, the family will all be together in heaven.  To further that goal of faith and common family values, Mormons send their children all over the world, for 18 months to two years at a time, as missionaries.  It is a joyful experience when the children return home.  Dave and I spent the weekend of April 7, 2018, attending the homecoming speech of our grandson, Grant Flindt, to his home ward in Seattle, after completing his mission to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

Our daughter, Lisa, works nights as a nurse, and she slept in on Saturday morning when we visited.  Dave and I enjoyed the chance to talk with our grandchildren, Alyssa and Bryce.  Alyssa showed us a picture she had drawn with pastels.

 Bryce proved to his grandpa that he has outgrown him.

 "Mom's been cleaning all week," the kids said.  Lisa, Kyle, and Grant have invited friends and family to an open house after the Sacrament Meeting at which Grant speaks.

 We took Alyssa for a hike along Lake Sammamish and learned all about her friends and teachers.  "You have to earn the right to be loved as a grandparent," Dave and I remind ourselves.  "If they don't know you, how can they love you?"

 When Lisa was up, we went shopping at Costco for the crates of fruit, cheese, chocolate, and nuts needed to fix a lavish buffet for the open house.

Seattle is a city of a hundred cultures.  Grant and I found the "Little Prague" restaurant, and Dave and I took the family there to celebrate Grant's Eastern European adventure.

The owner told her parents' story of coming to America in the 1970s, when Czechoslovakia was Communist and they could have been imprisoned if the police realized they were fleeing the country.  The owner's mother still bakes "kolache" pastries each week for the cafe, and they sell Czech food at farmers' markets, as well as in their shop.

 The cafe was tiny, and we were the only diners.  We eagerly awaited our dinner.

 My food was delicious--nuggets of pork, served on distinctive Czech sauerkraut which is made to order at a farm in Eastern Washington.  The plate included large sliced dumplings, which tasted like bread.

Alyssa ordered a pork scallop and potatoes.  The Czech Republic is next to Germany, and so some of the food is similar.  It looked like wienerschnitzel to me!

 The glass case in the cafe included five types of pastries.

 We chose a cake/donut with cherry topping.

On Saturday morning, we were at the Stake Center by 8 a.m. for Grant to give his missionary report to the Stake Presidency and High Council, who preside over six or seven wards in northeastern Seattle.  Kirsten arrived in Seattle just minutes before the meeting, since she had given a scientific presentation in Colorado earlier in the week and had to drive back to SLC and then fly to Seattle.  After Grant's excellent presentation to the High Council, we went to Sacrament Meeting at the Flindts' ward.  Grant told his mom he would be speaking on pornography.  She was relieved to find he was kidding!  Grant's talk was about helping people on his mission to gain faith.

Party time!  The house was clean, the food was luscious, and the people came.  We served pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit salad, green salad, carrot cake, and brownies.  Each recipe was a family favorite.

Grant's missionary friends stayed and stayed, and Lisa had time to chat with her favorite people from the neighborhood and Church.  Dave and I tended the kitchen, enjoyed the party, and then ran for the airport.