Land Time

In June of 2024 we put Dovka on the hard in San Carlos Mexico. Hurricane season approached, and it was just getting too hot to be on the boat. And after 8 moths aboard Dovka, we were all ready for some land time. 

We began our overland travels in a beautiful, mountain town called Guanajuato where we shared a home and meals with a local grandmother. The girls and Ben enrolled in Spanish language school, while Lauren enjoyed free time strolling the winding alleyways of this ancient town that used to be the wealthiest in Mexico thanks to its silver mines.

In Guanajuato, Ben contracted Covid, so we quickly bussed (with masks on) to Mexico City, where we were able to quarantine as everyone in the family got sick one-by-one. But it passed quickly and we were able to enjoy the treelined boulevards, delightful cafes, many museums, and splendid churrorias of CDMX. 

By August, we were back home in San Francisco so the girls could enjoy another year at Camp Tawonga and some time in Tahoe with their cousins. But by September we were itching to hit the road and decided to visit as many National Parks in the Southwestern U.S. as we could.

We did pretty well, making it to Great Basin, Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, and Mesa Verde.

In Santa Fe, we went our separate ways. Lauren flew to Paris with her family to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday in style. Ben took the girls to Falls Church to visit his parents and celebrate the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

When reunited in Santa Fe two weeks later, the four of us hopped in the car and drove to Omaha, Nebraska to spend the last three weeks of October working on a Senate Campaign. We did everything we could to help get Dan Osborn, an independent candidate, elected to the U.S. Senate. In the end, while he vastly outperformed expectations, he lost by about 4 percentage points and election night was a sad one all around. 

Come November, we hightailed it back to San Francisco to celebrate more family birthdays, bar mitzvahs, thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, and new years.