During the weekend after the elections and in the midst of Covid, The DeAndas invited us to camp with them at Huntington Beach. With gusts of strong winds and rain, we managed to enjoy the moment and have some fun! They gave us their bed as Franky slept outside and Jen on the portable bed! Who does that? They always give and serve to the people they love. Even when we did not always see “eye to eye” in religion or other things per say, our love for each other, and respect has kept this friendship going for a very long time. Mike has known Franky since 1999 because they worked together at Edwards Middle School in Whittier. My first memory of them was 5 days after 9/11/2001. Yup, chaos probably brought us together, and chaos continues to pull us together once again; where many friendships can fall apart from fear of diversity on many issues; ours has brought us closer still. If our friendship has survived this, we can survive anything! We actually have a lot in common. What is that? The love and honor for our elders and family, serving people, wanting the best for others, striving to learn, travel (and boy do we have many traveling stories together), our love for Kauai, cooking, and eating all sorts of things. Now that we do not eat pork, they too respect us in that they even had beef chorizo for Sunday’s breakfast. The De Andas also visited us on Kauai when others did not want to know anything about us, they continued to do so. Even if they did not understand our journey, they have been there, and for that our Creator has taken note. Rainbows keep appearing everywhere we go together! Frank and his children are now learning to blow the conch shell. How sweet is that?

So here we enjoyed Rv-ing at HB while listening to Nortenas or Mariachi music while Franky was studying Spanish, and Jen and I and our children were learning to play Mah Jong. This game was depicted in the Crazy Rich Asians movie. This suits us since Jen and Mike are Hapa. That is how we roll. One day we are eating Mexican food and the next meal will be some type of Asian cuisine. We are enjoying these moments becoming memories….our 3 eldest children are college age and are out and about. We now have our youngest 3 between us. Next year, Sofia and Aidan will be college bound or military bound and we will be left with our son Michael. It will then be us two couples traveling with Michael. That is actually very funny! We will have only 2 years left with Michael before he leaves, God willing. Then it will just be us four traveling the world and/or Rv-ing across this continent. A new phase in our lives, how fast it is getting here.

Later Saturday evening, we met up with Emily to surprise her boyfriend Chris for his birthday party. As we waited, Sofia and Michael wanted to visit our neighbors but we didn’t have that much time so they paid their old elementary school a quick visit. They walked the grounds and took pictures. It actually is a bittersweet moment for us since we loved our life in Fullerton. I get really sad as I see our home on Fern Drive and our neighbors we loved: The Knights, McDaniels, Gribbles, Irene, Paula, Max, Mel, Veronica, Kusters, Younts, Rays, Erseks, Ehes, ……… so many beautiful people. I know we will see them soon again. We have a lot to share.

The party was set up by Emily and his family was fun. We met some of Emily’s new friends and their spouses that are in the military. We also had the opportunity to meet Chris’s dad, Jose. We actually have a lot in common when it comes to things of the spiritual nature. We are looking forward to share a lot of information that we all need in these days. Mike and I are pleased to know his dad and his mom are pretty strong believers.

In the pictures below I am blowing the shofar for a sister that happened to call me who needed help. I haven’t heard from her since 2016 and she knows our walk for she too is walking this path. How interesting are the ways of our Father. I came to understand why certain things have to happen at a certain time, and that moment was for this friend. Seagulls came nearby and the rainbow was right there. HalleluYAH!

Finally, on our 3rd day there, Jen and I couldn’t wait to walk the streets of HB and Pacific City. We love to buy snacks and food items from various places and taste and walk. Walk and walk and eat and eat. Drink bobbas, coffees, teas. While Franky was continuing to study Spanish, and the children were out and about on bikes, Mike, Jen, and I set out on our adventure of window shopping and taste tests. We actually ran into a sock store. They have a lot of cool things in there and we have to go back.

Franky roller-skated his way to meet us while the children biked their way as well to meet us for lunch. This time we ate Pho. It was delicious! We loved the beef and ox tail soup. We truly enjoyed going into the small shoppes and walking around with them. We always talk about our next adventure and look forward to them. In the meantime, we are enjoying each moment that is presented to us. If we lived on Kauai, we wouldn’t have these moments and so we cherish them.

Thank you De Andas, always a good faire with you guys. Love you to the moon and back. Healing is brought by forgiveness, laughter, friendships, love, food, and some bobba tea with a touch of chocolate somewhere.