Congratulations to quilt designer Erin Russek, who not only answered correctly that Polly is going on a cruise to Antarctica, but was the first person to write in an answer! She will be getting a personally autographed copy of Mary Had a Little Lamb. There were some great guesses for places all over, including several countries along the Andes. I hope that Polly’s new outfit keeps her warm in Antarctica–she insisted on wearing her skirt, though!  We will be going through South America and stopping in warm Santiago, Chile for a night on the way to the tip of Argentina, where we will board a ship. We’ll try to send pictures from down under, depending on internet excess. If not, see you in a few weeks!

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On our last day in the bay area of California, we visited beautiful Muir Beach. We met our friends from home, Judy and Phil Richardson, who are renting a house in Berkeley for a month. Judy and I created 2 picture books together (read about our book, The Way Home here). This was an opportunity to see Green Gulch, Phil’s boyhood home. For years he has talked about growing up on a cattle ranch that was later protected from development, when the property was given to the San Francisco Zen Center and a nature conservation organization. 

Polly came along, while we hiked through the Zen Center and up to the top of the hill, which overlooks Muir Beach. What a spectacular view!

Leading up to our special day, we had gone out to Green’s restaurant in SF earlier in the week, which is run by the Zen Center. Here, Polly is inspecting my dinner, a delicious grilled polenta that was served with butternut squash and sweet potato gratin.