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From: Family Sumroy
[family@sumroy.com]
To: Trip List
Subject: "Last leg ..."
Sent: Monday, June 24 2002
I write to you
for the last time as the Traveling Sumroys. We are at the airport and fly
tomorrow.
We discovered
(hick!!) the wine regions of Lodi and Napa and then slept it off; and I took
an exciting and tranquil hot air balloon trip over the vineyards.
In San Francisco
we were the guests of my relations, Toby and Michael Hopstone and their 4 boys
(thanks) and Shuli and Lionel (Ari) Brigs, who also return to Israel, the week
after us - thanks for the use of your driveways, showers and washing
machines. We cycled the city (which it turns out has a number of hills!!) to
the Golden Gate Bridge and visited Alcatraz. We all enjoyed one of the best
'hands-on' kids museum of the trip. The Exploratorium, including the cows-eye
dissection (especially Gidon who had to feel every part as it was removed ...
a budding Ophthalmologist or Taxidermist!) I also had one of the worst days
of my life, deep sea fishing with Lionel and his mates. We later found out
there had been a 'Small Boat Advisory' that morning, but no one mentioned it
to us. I laughed as, 10-minutes into the trip everyone was violently ill
until it hit me. They have to have been the seven most miserable hours I can
remember ... EVER.
We spent a week
slowly working our way down the coast towards Los Angeles: the beaches and
amusement parks of Santa Cruz; the huge redwood forests in Roaring Camp,
Felton; more cycling around Monterey; the beautiful 17-mile Drive to Carmel
and the magnificent Hearst Castle. We also spent a night camping outside the
RV in our new tent and watched hundreds of seal, sunning themselves on the
beach in their short mating season.
Last stop ...
LA. We stayed with (outside) Marni and Trevor Scheftz in Irvine and have used
the last week for a holiday (from our holiday!). Beach, swimming pool, theme
parks, etc. We also unloaded the RV and sold it ... WOW. We finally stayed
with Karen and John (Buckley/Kaminichi) in Mission Viejo until today (thanks
for the great hospitality). None of these photos are up yet they will have to
wait till we land.
We are so lucky
to have had the opportunity. Although Tal probably won't remember as much
detail as the rest of us, we have all enjoyed every second, learned so much
and grown - both as individuals and as a family.
These are the
five most popular questions asked of our trip:
1. What is
the best thing we did?
It's a silly
question, we have done 101 completely different things. However, we all
agreed to pick one:
 | Jon - Zion
Canyon |
| Rhoanna -
Yosemite |
| Ilan -
Kings Dominion Theme Park |
| Gidon -
Grand Canyon (and swimming yesterday) |
| Tal - His
$2:00 toy school bus |
2. How much
did it cost?
Don't know, we
will work it out at some point for our own curiosity, but one thing is
clear; it is much, much, much cheaper than 4-months of mortgage, school
fees, car payments, utility bills, etc. Our gut feel is that the most
expensive items were - in order:
| Renting the
RV (and insuring and fixing it etc.) |
| Petrol
(gas) |
| Entry fees
to 101 different attractions |
3. How did
you manage to live in such a small space with the kids (we think the
innuendo was also relating to a degree of privacy)?
Easy, take our
word for it. If this is the only reason you are not doing the same thing do
not worry. Videos and Game Boys help.
4. How is it
living 24-hours a day with each other? (Actually this was only asked of
Rhoanna, about me, by her friends) but we agree on the answer. We loved it,
it was great.
5. What are
we doing now?
On June 25 we
fly back to Israel
6. Why
Israel?
If you don't
mind, I'll answer that another time
We started in
March by saying that "Life Is Either a Daring Adventure, or Nothing" - this
has been the most amazing adventure. Thank you for joining us, looking at the
web site, writing e-mails, etc.
Love
Jon Rhoanna Ilan
Gidon and Tal