California Christmas: stuff I forgot the order of

We got out and did so many things on our California trip that I can no longer remember the order of them... so here is the wrap-up post for California Christmas with all the leftover activities included.

Salton Sea: this happened before Zoo(2) because Marley and James were still there. The Salton Sea is an accidental lake -- it was created when irrigation canals from the Colorado river were dug too deeply the 1905 and the ENTIRE flow of the river was diverted into this low elevation area on the San Andreas fault. There are no outlets so it just sits and evaporates and is now very saline. For a few decades it was a recreation hotspot. Now it's a big question -- what to do with the Salton Sea when so much agriculture depends on it but it's shrinking away?

Silas wore socks-and-sandals the whole trip because
he outgrew the sneakers we brought while on the trip.
Seriously.

 

More fun with Aunty Marley:

And a few last-days-in-town shots:

Cora putting on a show with her new puppet theater -- thanks Willem & Eliza!

G'night!

And a story from flying home on January 1:

On our way home, Silas performed a gem of a performance. We were waiting for our plane to Ithaca (making our third flight of the day), and Cora and Nate had gone for a walk while Silas and I stayed with our bags. After a while, Silas started looking around, for Cora (I guessed). So I joked with him, "Cooooooorrrrraaaaa, where aaaaaarrrre youuuuuuuu?" and he just started crooning right along:
"OOOOOORAAAAAA! OOOOOOORAAAA" at the top of his lungs in the tiny airport waiting area where everyone was half asleep at 8pm on a Thursday night.

When Cora showed up a few minutes later, he was delighted and jumped down from my lap. She was more interested in telling me a story then engaging with her little brother, though, so he was disappointed. No worries -- he walked over to her new favorite toy, a panda bear, and picked it up with lots of flair and noise, "deedeedee doo dee!", making the panda dance around in his hands and clearly aiming the performance at his sister.

It worked. She stood, unsure what to do (she does remember sometimes not to tear things out of Silas' hands). Silas, having won her attention, gallantly approached with the panda and gave it to her, earning laughter not only from me and Cora and Nate, but from the weary onlookers in the airport.