I’ve resisted the temptation to entitle this post, “How I spent my summer vacation” because for most of the summer I was working. June was time for helping with final exams in Rome, an activity that is not particularly picturesque unless you want to see students squirming and perspiring.
In July I headed back to the United States for a few weeks working on writing projects for rcspirituality.org, then visited home in August and went on vacation in and around Cupertino. We stayed in the beautiful Legionary retreat house, Our Lady of Santa Clara. This is a picture of the statue of the Blessed Mother on the back deck of the retreat center. It was just installed and blessed this year.
During my stay the Legionary brothers working in Cupertino renewed their temporal vows at Canyon Heights Academy. School families attended and later we had a pizza party at Round Table.
I should have entitled this post, “sharing the beauty” of California. Writing and researching is not very photogenic, so most of the photos are when I and other writers slipped away for an outing, as well as my vacation at the end of August. California is a beautiful state, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking (or showing).
Point Lobos and Carmel Mission (where St. Junipero Serra is buried):
The campus of Stanford University and Stevens Creek County park:
The Japanese Friendship Gardens and Kelley History Park in San Jose:
Rancho San Antonio County Park, Cupertino, and the reservoir on Highway 17 at the end of the Los Gatos Creek Trail:
I also celebrated my birthday by going to the Computer History Museum, a wonderful experience for reconnecting with my inner nerd and feeling old: they had practically every PC, gadget, and game on display that I owned for the last forty-nine years. The Legionary community in Cupertino was also nice enough to get me a cake:
