Since coming back from San Diego, Katharine has been filling her days with shopping, eating out and reading in the sun on the balcony. So trying to copy my life, basically. There were some tricky moments this morning when it came to weighing her suitcase, and some hand luggage had to be quickly improvised from a Trader Joe's bag to take the extra. It's been wonderful to see Katharine, and even better (dare I say it?) to see her away from the kids.
As if to rub salt in the wound, Jack and Amanda's flight left within five minutes of Katharine's! They were travelling in the opposite direction - out to Japan, where Jack has been stationed for the next couple of years. He's about to embark on a six month expedition on the USS George Washington, where he'll be using his recent meteorological qualifications to tell them where best to sail.
A little-known fact about Jack is that, in 13 years of service, he's managed about three weeks on a ship, and that's only because his helicopter couldn't take off to bring him back to a cozy land-lubber bed. Pretty impressive. So to aid him on his way his close friends held a little party and put together a "first time at sea" kit, which included a rubber ring, a copy of Titanic, some pee to spray on jellyfish stings...and several other items which I won't list on this blog.
So goodbye Katharine, it was so nice to have you here and take our love back to rainy England, and goodbye Amanda, our first Berkeley friend, and Jack: keep the world safe and try not to get into trouble. See you guys in Japan!
Arbel lines them up.
Sisters together!
The party food of choice: Zachary's Chicago Pizza!
Amanda shows off her new cook book. She's a long way from the frozen-food eating girl we met all those years ago.
Jack receives his supplies.
Amanda is not fully impressed with all the contents. Hey, you've got to keep morale up!
Checking the freshness of the jellyfish sting cure.
Hand luggage only.
