San Francisco is an amazing city. It is unique,  beautiful, and diverse. The steep hills like I have seen only in movies to China town ,which is just Asia in the middle of the U.S, to Stanford and its neighborhood. Wow!

Great time at Dean’s, and lovely drive to San Francisco.

You can see that the kids were keen on supporting the Golden Gate Bridge. Leendert also felt the need to hang on the bridge as well.

At Dean’s we established Leendert is still one mm (actually 1degree) sm : ‘look mom I am taller that you!’

Tomorrow 4:30 am departure – the real voyage starts.

couple of last moment delights – Fish in the nr 1 place in NC,…. A delight of fried onion rings, fried shrimp, and fried fish,…

But most importantly, the bag packs got packed. The fall colours for AvtR are blue and grey. What you see on the bed is all the clothes for 8 months,….

Alicia’s clothes for 8 months below – bit more colourful…. (notice Piet  the cat on the right side – he’ll be the trusted travel companion).

Playing the bagpipe

So, if you have looked at the video (and hopefully not put it as loud as you could), it is very impressive. Playing it is harder than you think it is. You can make it easier by NOT being with your family. Like the violin, it is louder next to your ear than at a couple feet away. Like a tuba or a trumpet, it needs a reed and a mouth piece. Getting it ready you put it together like most of the other instruments. If the talking was unclear or you heard more than what I could hear listening, I had asked:
“Why are there two times the same note?” To what he said that there would not be enough sound otherwise. The best place to play the bagpipe, one of the old ones is where it is 12-20 degrees Celsius. If the heat is to hight, it would be able to cracks them but to cold or to humid will get water on to the reed and it will not make any sound.

A good part of the day spend at the North Carolina State fair.

Incredible rides, massive pumpkins (winner at about 1500 pounds), beautiful animals, a one man band, and some culinary delights that are to die for (?). It is amazing what one can fry in this part of the world,… read the photo of the sign.

Great day in Carolina’s.

This one included pumpkin carving and learning about bagpipes.

…which ain’t easy!

Good news. Backpacks arrived.

Left for Southern Pines. In the garden, harvesting sweet potatoes. A visit to the farmers market (with hoola-hoops), and pumpkins as Halloween is close.

Oops, don’t do that,…  DON’T follow our backpacks!

I flew over London to Raleigh, the rest of the family with Austrian from Vienna over Washington.  One thing in common – none of the backpacks arrived. Mine stayed in London, the rest of the family lost them in Washington….

So, don’t follow backpacks, travel with us…