Marco...finally chillin' out in Tijuana
- Kira, Santana & Sienna..ready to snorkel!
Family at la Escuela
Are we relaxing yet?
Two weeks into our trip and I think the manic behaviour we had all adopted before our departure is beginning to dissipate.
In the months leading up to this trip our family had been consumed by a driving force to finish all of the things that needed to be finished in order for us to feel that it was a good thing to be taking off into the wide blue yonder for 7 months. The renovation of our home which had been ongoing for more than two years was suddenly pushed into overdrive as we had decided to rent the house out as a holiday rental as a way of paying the bills during our absence.
Marco spent his days on the house and his nights in the recording studio finishing up a major project for clients. Sleep was a luxury.
I spent my days working as a teachers aide at the local highschool, two afternoons a week teaching art and evenings and weekends preparing for a major exhibition of my paintings which was hopefully to finance a large proportion of our trip.
The girls had spent their days at school and evenings and weekends alternatively helping out or avoiding the line of fire.
My exhibition was a great success……we breathed a sigh of relief knowing the mortgage was paid for a couple of months, raised $1500.00 for La escuela de esperanza-www.americasfoundation.net in Tijuana (thank you to Lisa, Karen and Barbara) and sat down to open the moneyboxes we had all been tossing coins into for the past year. Sienna was excited to find she had saved almost $800.00, Santana had put in a valiant last minute effort and come up with nearly $600.00 and Marco and I were happy to find nearly $3000.00 in our can. Obviously this was not going to last the whole 7 months but it was a start and we were both confident that we could make some money along the way…somehow! Sienna offered to busk with her recorder in Mexico, Santana declined when I suggested she could belly dance ( which she is very good at) in town centres along the way.
I finished up at work the week before we left and we all threw ourselves into organising, packing the house up and finishing it off at the same time..Marco and I felt like automated zombies on speed…no sooner would we finish one task than our eyes and minds were locked onto the next thing..the beauty we were creating in our home had no time to be enjoyed and we consoled ourselves with the fact that we would enjoy the fruits of our labour when we returned from our trip. Wonderful neighbours and friends turned up at odd times to help with whatever and for this we are extremely grateful.
The night before we left we worked until 2am, doing the finishing touches, hanging the paintings…Marco;” Where do you want this one?” Me:bleary eyed “Put it wherever you want…”
We left at 4am with our trusty chaffeur Scotty and arrived in Sydney to find out all our flights had been cancelled. Marco’s mum had given us the amazing gift of enough frequent flyer points for all of our tickets but it meant that Sienna and Marco were flying together on Qantas and Santana and I were heading off on United…this all changed and Santana and I were placed on an Air Pacific flight with a 3 hour stop in Fiji while Marco and Sienna were left at the airport on standby. They waved us off not knowing when we would see each other and hoping they would make it to LA sooner rather than later.
Strangely enough this scenario caused us no stress..we were all just relieved to be standing around doing nothing for the first time in months, no lists, no countdown, no work..bliss!
Santana & Sienna at abuelitas
We have now been officially on holidays for 15 days and things are starting to feel more relaxed. A strange jetlag (or maybe accumulated exhaustion) overtook us for the first ten days and all of us found it hard to drag ourselves out of bed. Normally up at 7 we found ourselves in delicious slumber until 9 or 9.30…waking still strangely tired and a little unmotivated to do anything…I wonder why!
Curly fries on the beach at San Clemente
California has been gorgeous this past 2 weeks, beach days, hanging with friends and family…a two day trip to Tijuana merits another blog which I will start on soon. Meanwhile enjoy the photos and check in next week for more…
lots of love
Tracy, Marco, Santana & Sienna
Sightseeing
ps Upcoming itinerary; Sunday;leave Carlsbad, on to san Clemente, heading North to Ventura, Monterrey, Kelseyville, Sequoia Forest and on to Portand..then up to British Columbia sailing and back down to Portland for a month…South to Fresno, back to Southern California then down to Puerto escondido, oaxaca, Mexico for two months in the tropical sun..back up to california for Christmas and Jan..home early Feb!
- Snacking on succulents!
Escuela de esperanza
