Toronto

 

On the heels of our return from Austin, we took off again, this time as a family of four. The trip had two components - a bat conference for me and a visit to our dear friend Liz and her family.

It has been several years since we've seen Liz, and huge changes have taken place! In the form of a beautiful daughter, Charlotte, born just 18 days before Simon.

A fantastic partner, Alex, sometimes doubling as Clark Kent.

And a wonderful black bundle of fuzzy sweetness, Jonesy.

We had the good fortune of spending time with Liz's sister Hillary and her sweet brood.

Who treated us to a wonderful Halloween. Toronto does Halloween well! We still love our little Gamboa celebrations, but there is really no comparison...

Gwendolyn basked in the older company of Leopordess Madeleine, who was extremely sweet with her younger charge.

And we had a lot of fun seeing with Liz's parents, grandparents now!

But one very important component missing - a visit from Jacqueline and Dado. We were very much hoping to see them in person here as well, but had to settle for a fun skype date instead.

To all of you, thanks for the wonderful visit!

Austin

Right on the heels of Germany, Simon and I went to Austin. Mike, Emma and Lucy were wonderful hosts, and fantastic Simon-entertainers, even when he wasn't his normal happy self (jetlag plus a second long trans-atlantic flight, but he did pretty well considering).

We spent many of our work meetings in Mike's amazing backyard treehouse, surrounded by Austin live oaks.

And despite it being a super quick trip, got a chance to see the St. John friends, meeting for a delicious dinner at Sarovar.

And go to the Farmers Market with Karin plus baby to be!

So strange to be in Austin without David and Gwendolyn. Made me very homesick for the full family.

Germany

This has been a hard post to write. At the end of September, Elisabeth Kalko, my mentor and close friend, died suddenly and unexpectedly in her sleep. I'd known Eli since I started working with bats. Every March and August she would visit Panama and stay with us in Gamboa. Her death was a horrible shock, we're still reeling from it, and we miss her dearly.

Here are some shots from the Aug before (2010) - she was happy, vibrant, and full of life.

Just after her death, Simon and I flew to Germany for the memorial service, leaving David and Gwendolyn in Panama. It was so strange to visit Ulm without Eli present, having visited her there so many times in the past. Simon was both a good travel companion and a good antidote to the somberness of the visit. 

  

We stayed in Mirjam's lovely, sunny apartment. Mirjam was wonderful to us, charming smiles out of Simon despite his jetlag, taking us on long river walks, helping me try to make sense of the terrible news.

Here is a photo of Eli at the end of March, two weeks after Simon was born. It's still hard to find words for this. Eli, we miss you.