My cousin Heather sent this photo of Chacala Beach with the following message.

Hi Chowbee,  Buppy and Carlos —We are having an excellent first day on our retreat, starting with yoga at 7a, breakfast, and a walk along the beach to explore Chacala beach and harbor. Then lunch, yacking, inability to decide what to do next….nap, pool, hot tub, hammock, reading,  painting, more  yacking…..before yoga at 5 and then dinner. I am trying to lure Jeanine and Carol away from attending a rather fruity sounding program tonight—“self care sanctuary”—to drinking cocktails and playing gin instead. Let’s see if I can prevail over the better angels of their natures, etc. Please send news!

Jeanine shared this photo she took of what she calls her Happy Stairs. I am left to wonder where they lead.

On the home front, Kyle and I continued working diligently preparing his basement renovation project for the drywall crew coming later this week. We had hoped to avoid strapping the ceiling to preserve another 3/4 inch of headroom but upon further investigation, it became apparent that this addition would be necessary to compensate for imperfections in the floor joists. This has added another day and a half to our work and we hope to complete the remainder tomorrow.