June’s FILTH...

We had great weather and a good turnout for the FILTH’s trail in Leiden at the end of June. 

Opee had hoped to do a pub crawl, but had forgotten that bars had to close at 8 p.m. Instead we started with a beer at the Duke of Oz, then he used my bike to have a beer stop in a park...

…and another around the corner from Sissypants’ apartment before ending at the park across from Bootjuh.

Along the trail I spotted a blurry reflection of this fancy house...

…smiley faces on a bridge...

…a nice reflection of trees and modern houses...

…and some street art that I might have already included in a previous post.
 

Where It All Began...

On June 21, Veronica and Brett flew from London to Los Angeles, where they were picked up by Brett’s family and driven to their home in Bonita, south of San Diego. 

The following day, they were thrilled to get the first of their two COVID-19 vaccinations.

How great for Veronica to finally get to spend time with Brett’s twin sister, Siena.

They hung out for more than one month in San Diego, where Jimmy and I met nearly 30 years ago. Here they are in front of our old house on Aragon Drive. While it hadn’t changed from the outside, we saw photos on Zillow that show that the interior had been significantly upgraded. Whereas we lost money on it when we sold it in 1996, it’s now worth over four times as much. 

How ironic that there a cross street named Veronica. 

That same day they were went on a hike with our old SDH3 friends Nancy and Dan and their son Julius, who was visiting from Washington. 

In a small world moment, Brett and Julius recognized each other and realized that they’d attended the same summer camp years earlier at UC San Diego. 

Jimmy and I always loved California street fairs, and Veronica and Brett loved the one they went to in Ocean Beach.

Brett dared to take Veronica out for some driving lessons.

Brett bought a large format camera much like the one that Jimmy owns.

Comes Too Soon and Moist Incest went to a Mission Harriettes H3 trail in honor of Pride, which ended at Pacers Showgirls, a strip club.

I was impressed to learn that she made an announcement to see if any old timers remembered Opee and Tuna and Innuendo stepped up, whom we saw during our last visit in 2016. 

 

A Coastal Adventure...

Veronica had hoped to take Brett coasteering for his birthday in April 2020, but COVID had other plans so they celebrated his birthday with us in Holland instead. Over a year later, four of their friends joined them for their big adventure on the south Devon coast.

Donning just a bathing suit, they put on all of the gear provided, including life vests and gardening gloves.

As you can see, coasteering involves swimming, rock scrambling and jumping into the sea. That’s Brett on the left and Veronica next to him. Apparently all of her friends laughed at her because she screamed every time she jumped. The water was cold, but the wetsuit helped keep them warm for the first half and hot chocolate with whisky helped warm them up later. 

There were two instructors for the ten participants, the youngest of which was nine. The tide was low enough that they could swim through the natural arch visible in the back.

After so many hikes on the South West Coast Path, Veronica and Brett appreciated seeing the Devon Coast from a very different angle.

The jumps got progressively higher. Despite apprehension at the beginning, they were surprised how high they were willing to jump from. Veronica, on the left, managed to climb this bit, but fell in when attempting to boulder on another rock. 

Everyone loved it! They’d hoped to have a beach BBQ afterwards, but the rains sent them scrambling back to Exeter. 

Two days later, they locked up their love nest for the last time before heading to Heathrow Airport for their big trip to the US. They had moved their belongings earlier in the week to Brett’s new house, where he’d store some of Veronica’s stuff for the foreseeable future. 

 

An Engagement Shoot...

On June 19 we took the train to Hillegom and then walked through the village...

…on our way to Celine and Richard’s for a yummy vegetarian BBQ and an engagement photoshoot. Dylan was very cooperative...

…but didn’t star in all of the shots. The first set of shots were taken in their front yard...

…with the rest taken in a nearby field with poppies.

One of the neighbor kids was intrigued by the funny guy with the strange camera perched very high.

On our walk back to the station, we spotted a reflection of the church in the center of the village...

…and a monument to the Beatles, which was unveiled exactly 55 years after they played in Hillegom in 1964. 
 

More June in Voorschoten...

We were surprised to see firetrucks on the cinder track behind the farm. Apparently a woman tried to rescue a cat that was stuck in a tree and then needed rescuing herself. 

Luckily this bozo didn’t need rescuing after getting too close to the new beehives at the farm. 

We were all smiles, but were actually sad to host Carlin and Kent for dinner for the last time before Kent moved back to the England.

None of us knew at the time that Carlin’s UK visa would be so delayed that they’d have to live apart for over two months. 

The locally grown peonies were very amazing this year. 

It was surprising to find a big banner across one of our usual walking paths. Apparently one of the local soccer fields, which we never see anyone using, is going to be replaced with refugee housing built out of containers. It’s not surprising that the local homeowners don’t want that in their backyard since there’s no way to predict what impact it will have on their property values. 

 

Meanwhile in Exeter...

This photo from July 2010 was the oldest one that I could find of Veronica on her bike, which we had bought used.

Nearly 11 years later, she cried while donating her beloved bike to Ride On, a charity and social enterprise that refurbishes donated bikes in an effort to get locals more active. 

Clearly Veronica and Brett don’t need any organizations to encourage them to be active as they’re very active all on their own. On June 13, they headed to Dartmoor for an overnight camping trip. It was the perfect opportunity for them to soak in some waterfalls and have Brett capture some great photos.

This one is especially fantastic!

As the cows circled their campsite... 

…they stayed on this rock after dinner to keep their distance. 

They went to bed soon after sunset and didn’t dare to get up in the middle of the night to take star photos at the risk of upsetting the cows.