My daughter and her husband Julio were headed to Sacramento the weekend before thanksgiving for her to compete in an Irish dance competition, so I drove up there on the Friday to meet them. Long drive, about 7 hours, but it was a nice time seeing them again and watching her dance. She danced well against a very big and experienced field, and she was very pleased with her work. A big storm came through and pounded the town with cold rain, flooding the streets. We walked 4 blocks back and forth from the hotel to the competition hall, several times over the 3 days, and our shoes were always wet. Crossing some of these streets was dangerous as you could not see what was under there and one of the guys in our group stepped in an open hole and went in up to his waist! We were very careful to make sure the dancers didn’t break a leg stepping into a hidden hole.

After all that the 3 of us drove down to Dana. Another long drive, made longer by getting caught in LA rush hour traffic. ARGH. I could have sailed there faster!

We spent 2 nights on the boat, sailing one day. It was cold but the wind was good and we had a nice time, but Kenzie got a bit sick and we saw no dolphins, adding insult to injury! Kenzie and Julio both took turns at the tiller, steering the boat and learning how to hold a course to the compass, a very hard thing to do!

We wanted to be back to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving with the rest of the family, and it was Julio’s birthday also, so we buttoned up the boat headed out. We drove to St George before stopping for the night, and coasted into SLC the next day, just in time to enjoy Pie and pie and more pie at Porter and Erin’s place, and then a wonderful Colombian dinner at Julio’s mom’s house. Herminda is a great cook and we were as stuffed as the turkey, which she had somehow managed to remove all the bones from before baking it! Julio said it was a Colombian secret and he couldn’t tell us how to do it. Since Kenzie is now ½ Colombian I think she should be entitled to know. Maybe next year Herminda will teach her.