The Road Goes Ever On...

Just when we were getting used to having family around again (and enjoying it a lot!), it was time to say goodbye. Hopefully, we will have a chance to visit them in Portland... that would be great! Meanwhile, we will just cherish the wonderful time spent together.

Little Kevin trying really hard to listen for the baby in Kevin's tummy... ;p

When we were in Berkeley and Socorro, Agnes knitted a hat for each of the kids... patterns from her favourite blog.  

The last thing Agnes knitted in the US was a pear pouch, for Barney and Holly. It is also a pattern from the same blog, only that it was converted from a toy/ home decor to a draw-string pouch.

Then, it was time to head back to Australia on our first flight on the new Airbus A380. It was such a fantastic experience; it was so quiet and the take-off and landing was hardly noticable because it was so stable! It's no surprise that we actually managed to sleep quite a bit during the 15-hour (from 23 June in LA to 25 June in Sydney/ Perth) flight.

The skycam even allowed us to witness the entire flight from a different perspective, right on our screens...

from the landing...

to the arrival at the terminal in Sydney.

It was swiftly followed by another 5 hour flight to Perth...

Fun in San Diego

The best thing about San Diego is the fact that Kevin's cousin, Charissa and her family came all the way from Portland to spend time with us. Aside from a day spent shopping with Barney's wife, Holly, Agnes was with them every day and had a great time. Kevin joined in the fun on the weekend and the boys were especially thrilled to have Uncle Kevin around.

Legoland; which the kids can't get enough of (and Agnes doesn't mind at all!), which explains why we went back again and again.

Charissa, Mark, Makayla, Justin and little Kevin...

Who's this?

Agnes could actually go for quite a number of rides...

putt-putt golf...

SeaWorld

going for some splash...

We were there until the park closed at 11pm... :)

San Diego Zoo

The tram ride which brought us to 75% of the animals in the zoo...

San Diego Wild Animal Park

getting our 'passports' stamped...

Last Stop: San Diego

After spending about 6 hours at the Albuquerque airport, we finally boarded the plane that would take us to our last stop for this US trip: San Diego.

Barney Rickett, the Professor whom Kevin has been working with for the past year or so, and whom Kevin would be working with for the next couple of days, picked us up at the airport and brought us to his home in La Jolla. He and his wife have kindly offered to host us for two nights, cooking for us and giving us the entire top floor of their very beautiful home! Due to visiting family members, they were unable to host us for the entire duration of our stay.

La Jolla is a seaside community, and their place is just a few minute's walk away from the beach. While discussing a bit of astronomy, we took a walk down to the beach to enjoy the view and watch the surfers trying to catch some good waves.

For the next few days, Kevin would work with Barney in the Engineering Department in the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In fact, he wishes that he could have stayed here longer. They've had really good discussions on the project, and Kevin now has enough to think about for the next couple of months.

On the third day, we moved into the accomodation on campus. Unlike UC Berkeley, UCSD has a much more modern flavour to it, being a relatively new university. They've got quite a few interesting giant sculptures around the campus grounds, like the giant teddy bear:

There's even a huge snake that forms a path that leads to the library:

The name Geisel comes from the man behind Dr. Seuss of the cat in the hat fame. Apparently he used to work here once. So they've erected a sculpture of him and one of his characters near the library.