Happy New Year! New Years in Northern California

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family! We had a great Christmas and New Year. It's been roughly 24 days since I worked last and I'm doing GOOD. I think I might have thought about my previous job a few times. I'm truly amazed that I'm not bored yet. I guess it's all the good food we've been eating and daily busy work. In terms of busy work, we had no idea how much work was going to be involved in leaving the country for a year. Basicly we have been getting our lives in order (on paper). A lot of logistics.
What have we been doing the last couple of weeks? In short, we stayed in Eureka til Christmas morning. We had a nice time in Eureka and actually had some nice weather. We had a good time visting with Jen's family. Payton loved feeding the pigeons with Nana and Papa at the old town gazebo and we were productive with our "to do list" (all of those logistics). We drove down to my parent's house in Willits, CA "Gateway to the Redwoods" or what I commonly call, the "Southern tip of the Emerald Triangle", on Christmas morning and spent Christmas day with all of my family. There are two other grandchildren (ages ranging from 5mos to 1.5 yrs old) in the family, so as you could imagine there were many toys and a lot of noise, which makes for a lot of fun and entertainment. Now that my Dad is retired, he's become quite the cook, we truly had upper-end restaurant quality meals. Who knows, maybe he'll become a personal cook for his second career! On the 29th of December we drove down to the San Francisco Zoo and toured the grounds with my sister Jenny, her Daughter Riley, her mother-in-law Chris, and Grandma, as well as my Sister-in-law Michelle, her son Sebbie and my parents. Payton had a wonderful time. She liked the lions the best and roared most of the day. She also loved riding the train around the zoo. They had a South American exhibit, but it was closed. I guess that's for the best, no point in ruining the unexpected sights prematurely. I should add that the Eureka Zoo has Patagonian Cavies! The following day we went to the San Francisco Aquarium, which was a lot of fun. Payton loved touching the star fish and could have done it for hours. We thought that one hour of star fish was probably enough, mostly for us, so we moved on.
For New Years Kevin & Michelle, Josh & Jenny and Jen and I went to a strip mall Italian restaurant, Cafe Giostra, with 4 star quality food. If you have read any of our previous blogs, it probably appears that we don't have anything negative to write. Well for the most part you're right, we just haven't had any problems with our food, nor have we been exposed to bad food. However, the service was mediocore at Cafe Giostra. Later that evening, we drove back to Santa Rosa and celebrated the New Year with Jeff and Susan at their new place, which is quite cute. New Year's was about family and good wine! Thanks everybody!
Now we're back in Willits and will begin the painstaking task of streamlining what we take to South America and what we leave behind. So far I have minimal clothes for everyday use, and too many clothes for all the activities we will partake in . I'm sure Jen and I will have some interesting discussions tommorow. Good thing my parents will take Payton to the Mendocino coast so that we can spread EVERYTHING out and start organizing.