Final Thoughts of the California Trip - Queen Mary

• Last year was my eighteenth year of teaching. From the beginning, some of the students and parents welcomed me into their homes, their lives, and their hearts. I've gone to dinner in restaurants and their homes; had breakfast with some; had my Thanksgiving meals with some; gone to birthday parties; Halloween parties, Christmas Eve parties and Christmas dinners; pool parties, pizza parties, a trip to an amusement park, attended movies, and a First Communion. This year I went on a ten day vacation with a family. Connections and sharing is what it is all about. We drove to Burbank, California and spent our first day. The next day the "men," me included, went north for a week of hiking and camping in the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains. A day after that, the ladies headed south for a week of girls camp at rustic Big Bear, California.

• After our week in the woods, we went to Big Bear and met up with the ladies. With the remaining few days, we visited family, went to Long Beach, and had a very good time. I saw a lot, experienced a lot, so this year when someone asks me what I did this summer I can tell them...