Not many more days in the Bay Area

We went to San Francisco today to have dinner with Reeves, Jasmine and Ella to celebrate John's birthday. Before we ate John took us to Mile Rock Beach so we could see it before leaving the Bay area. It was really nice. Only a few miles from his front door and right in the middle of San Francisco. Despite the closeness to the huge city it felt very remote and tranquil. Definitely glad we got the see the spot.

It is very sad to leave California and we will really miss days like this. At the same time we are also very excited to come back to Family and Friends in Colorado.

Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

I had the opportunity this week to go to Rio de Janeiro for work and had an incredible time.

My International Team at work - Left to Right

Marcelo - Brazilian Based in Rio

(Me)

Tom - South African Based in US

Antonio - Portuguese based in Rio

Antonio's family owns one of the best Rodizio Churrasceria grills in town. I ate more meat that day than any other week combined! Food is fantastic, people are so nice.

View of Christ from the top of Pao de Azucar - "Sugarloaf". Similar to our Statue of Liberty - this Christ was a gift from France.

The town is very active - tons of bikers, runners, soccer and volleyball on the beach.

(Rock climber at Pao de Azucar)

I stayed at Ipanema Beach. Mornings before work included waking up, deciding if I wanted to go for a morning run around the lagoon or at the beach, eating a fruit plate - and off to the office.

Morning Run at the Lagoon:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263547

Morning Run at Ipanema Beach:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263547

Then off to the office. Our office is the tallest building in the picture on the left - 42nd floor. Totally sweet views.

This is the view from our office - of Sugarloaf. This picture is literally taken from Marcelo's desk at work.
Alien landscape in all directions

(These little monkeys are very common. Very small - but intelligent faces!)

Amazing Race San Jose

Hello!

It has been far too long and the blog has seemed dormant! We have a really good posting to revive it!

Last weekend Julie and I participated in the San Jose "Amazing Race". It was a charity event inspired by the TV show and it was one of the most fun weekends I've had in a long time!

How did we get involved? Our good friends Jenn, Adrian, Jose and Perla knew the person who organized the event. Shauna did a kick-ass job putting this together. One day at a BBQ, Perla aske us if we were interested. Our competitive side shined through as we accepted the invitation. Next thing you know we were picking team t-shirts ("Patron" - imagine the inspiration behind that one!), picking a team name ("Perla's Playmates" - which was a triva team name Jose and Perla has used before). With that we were ready to rock!

Race Day:

We met for breakfast at Jenn at Adrian's house, the "Balzac Coffee Shop" to double check our list of race pre-requisites:

- Six fierce competitors
- 1 car to fit all
- GPS/Nav System
- Swim Suits (we didn't yet know why - just that they were required)
- Camera
- Spare Cash
- Rule and Regulations
- Lots of Attitude

From here we headed to downtown San Jose for the shotgun start.

(Perla, Jenn and Jose ready to head downtown)

From that point forward it was a seriously crazy day. I could write a book about it but I will start with the highlights:

- Burned at least 1000 calories on a city scavenger hunt. We scoured the city to find historical facts, boys traveling with 2 goats and our big time killer: the name of a stagecoach driver stamped in the concrete by the museum. We gathered these pieces of info for clues to our next location...

- Out of the way Ben Stiller - Our next location was a dodgeball tournament. We beat our team for an extra 50 points and we were all still in at the end of the game!

- Next location clue was a series of questions leading us to a crazy web url with our next location:

http://www.swingbatterbatterswing.i8.com/

We wasted so much time on this one! It was the bane of our existence that day!

- From there we were at the Flea market buying nopales in spanish, treading water in a pool with a 10 lb brick, dancing the irish jig and performing karaoke for tips, doing body shots and Irish Car Bombs, ordering lunch in swim suits, performing cartwheels, finding live lobsters, riding a scooter in a nacho libre mask and finighshing it all off with a great BBQ

It was a great time and I would love to do it next year. Here are the pics:

Racing the bartender with an Irish Car Bomb, then off to dance a jig for tips

Ladies doing kartwheels at the local firestation

Men doing kartwheels for the lovely customers at the Target Starbucks

The team on the fire truck

It was an All Star team - it was so much fun to play together for a day. We each had our own contribution to the team:

Baseball All Star: Adrian

Dodgeball Killer: Jose

Swim Champ: Joe

Persuader: Jenn (as in "Hi, you see, we're doing this race and we would like to stand in our swimsuits in your restaurant and order sandwiches", "Hi, yes we know we can't sing but we'd like you to give us tips to benefit the American Cancer Society in our race", "Hi, yes, you see, we're on a scavenger hunt and we need to take a picture holding a live lobster, yes, out of the tank.... Oh! Hi, you're his manager? I'm Jenn. You see, we are doing this charity race..." etc etc)

Team Stylist and Captain: Perla

Googler: Julie

(2nd Place Finish!)

She came... she saw....

We were delighted to have Polly come visit us in California this weekend - we had a great time!

Friday - Dinner in Los Gatos at the Los Gatos Brewing Company and custard cones at Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt
Saturday - Lunch in Carmel, then lounging on the beach, driving through 17 mile drive, then to Pacific Grove to see the pink ice plant all along the coast, then to Monterrey and Cannery Row for a coffee and a stroll
Sunday - University of California at Santa Cruz, strolling in the redwoods. Pier walking, mini kite flying, Corona drinking, oyster eating and generally softening our spirits and minds in the California sea breeze. A lovely dinner in downtown San Jose ended the weekend

Here are some pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/joeandjuliemorales/PollyAnnInCalifornia

March-May news from Greg and Amy

Hello family,

This spring has simply flown by and we haven’t updated the “Avocado” in several months so….here’s what we’ve been up to…...

My job at the college keeps me busy some weeks but…. other weeks are pretty light so Amy and I find lots of time to play. We spent the last week of March in Salida just hanging out… listening to some great music at the local coffee house on the weekend and hiking, fishing, reading, soaking in the hot springs, and just relaxing the rest of the time!

Amy spent time helping Amber in her classroom, doing “gardening stuff”, and going to Pilates and Yoga classes. She even got me to go to “Cardio Salsa” a few times and while I’m not a big fan of aerobic classes….the music was awesome and the instructor was an amazing dancer. At the first class the instructor came up to me said, “real men do Salsa” …… I guess she was trying to encourage me as there was only me and one other guy in the class of about 35 :-)

In early April our good friends Bill and Sandy Lamberton joined us in Salida for several days of “fooling around” and it was fun showing them our favorite spots. We returned to the front range to hear the very sad news that one of our oldest and dearest friends had passed away. Amy and

I flew to California to attend the funeral and we stayed with Julie and Joe as the grave side service and memorial celebration was in the mountains near Santa Cruz. We spent time with the family reminiscing and celebrating the life of a wonderful person who is no longer with us….and it certainly reinforced what all of us know….that we need to show our love to, and spend time with, family and friends whenever we can…… Since we returned from California, we’ve settled back into our routines of working (me at the college and Amy doing some kindergarten assessment work for the Aurora Public Schools) and playing.

Later this month, we leave for our annual vacation with Barbara and Lance (Amy’s sister and husband). This year it’s Portugal!!!! When we return we’ll post some pictures from our trip.

Love to everyone in the Morales and Reed families!

Greg and Amy