Starry night

It's wonderfully cool and sunny here. I enjoyed another hike along familiar trails this morning. The forest is so green and sun dappled:

On the way home, at the foot of Betty's driveway:

I noticed a large patch of tiger lilies in bloom along the road:

We made shrimp/chicken kebabs for dinner:

***

Overnight, I made a timelapse of the night sky above the flagpole:


This is from 10pm through 6am with one frame per minute. It's cool how the stars move with the rotation of the earth. I'm going to try another one tonight.

A Walk In The Woods

Spent a relaxing day on the hill today. I got up at 4am, still struggling with the time change, but the up side was a lovely sunrise:

Later I hiked around in the hills:

Everything is so green here--a stark contrast to Walla Walla and Sevilla.

I had a bit of a nap this afternoon. I hope I can sleep until at least 6am tomorrow.

Osceola, PA

My family has had a piece of property in northern Pennsylvania since 1977. I spent a lot of time there as a child. Only Betty lives there now and we're visiting her for a few days. It's in a very rural location and in many ways is the polar opposite of Sevilla. That said, it's quiet and familiar and a good place to adjust to life back in the US. This is the view to the east from our front porch:

Betty has a few things she'd like us to take care of, but other than that, we're just going to chill out and relax here. I have my GoPro and am planning out a few long-form video shoots. Today I did a 5 hour time lapse of the view above. There were just enough clouds rolling by to make it interesting. I'll upload and share soon.

Sevilla -> Pennsylvania

A year in 4 suitcases:

A last look back at our building and home for the past year:

A low-quality photo from the plane as we left Sevilla for Lisbon and eventually Newark:

Though the flying was long, it went smoothly. It was on the ground in Newark where things really snarled. Passport control was about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Then, another half hour for the rental car. We were already tired, so all the waiting was a bit fraying.

We drove for about 90 mins away from Newark and towards Betty's on Interstate 80W and stopped in a little motel in Stroudsburg for the night. After a quick dinner at a local Thai place, we hit the sack.

El ultimo dia

Today was our last full day in Sevilla. We leave for the airport at 8:30am tomorrow morning. The day was filled with a lot of finalities.

 Here's the last load of laundry:

The last dinner crowd at Diego's. Notice the group in the middle enjoying some heaping plates of snails (caracoles):

The seasonal display by the river was updated for summer. A pretty flamingo:

One last visit to the (best) bridge:

We've cleaned and packed as much as we can. There will be a few odds and ends tomorrow morning, but it seems all under control.