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Rick and Emily Francona... ...wish you a happy and prosperous 2014! |
Happy hour on the deck - 250 feet above the Pacific Ocean
The Milky Way from the deck
Outdoor living
A frequent visitor
Windsock #16, this year's resident in the swallow nesting box
With visiting Rotarian friends LeAnn and Tim Mobley
With travel friends Paul and Cathy Peschiera
Cathy Peschiera with Rick and Emily at "the range"
Picnic at Cape Blanco with Ulli Fenner, visiting from Germany
Friends since our Air Force days finally visit again - Carol and Dave Elliott from Montana
Pasha (white nose) and Nikki (black nose)
Quail flight training off the deck
AG Bill Grile helps President Emily charter the first Rotary E-Club (E-Club of the State of Jefferson) in District 5110;
President Emily visits the Rotary Club of Brasov/Kronstadt in Transylvania, Romania
One of the rights you retain as a retired officer is to adminster the oath of enlistment - which Rick was honored to do
Rick did a stint with CNN as military analyst - below with noted Middle East scholar Dr Fu'ad 'Ajami
Back in Washington with friends:
- Dr Walid Phares - Fox News terrorism analyst, a former colleague at NBC News
- LTG Ed Soyster, former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
A quick media analyst trip to Egypt after the coup
Click on image for more photos
General 'Abd al-Fatah al-Sisi
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of Defense
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
Tawadrus II is the 118th Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of the See of St. Mark
'Amru Musa (Amre Moussa)
Former Secretary General of the Arab League
Former Egyptian Ambassador to the United Nations
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Drafter of the new constitution
With my cousin Theresa Jay in Washington DC
In the CNN skybox at Washington National stadium
The Grandkids
Rick's grandkids keep growing - Dominic is 6'2"
Alexa (5), Dante (9), Dominic (13) and Bella (6)
Annual pilgrimage to Cabo San Lucas
Click on sunset image for more photos
Sunset from Monte Christo villa
Emily battling "the big one"
Humpback whale from the boat
Adopted goddaughter Melissa Weinblatt at Gardenia's, one of our favorite hangouts
Paul and Cathy Peschiera
John and Sally Johnston at Gardenia's
Dinner at Corazon de Alcachofa
Love the birds
A swing through Eastern Europe
Austria - click image for more photos
Emily with cousins Hilde and Katjai in Vienna
Slovakia - click image for more photos
Hungary - click image for more photos
Croatia - click image for more photos
Serbia - click image for more photos
Reminders of US airpower in Belgrade
Bulgaria - click image for more photos
Romania - click image for more photos
The balcony in Bucharest where Ceausescu gave his last speech before his overthrow
Carpathian mountains - Transylvania
Brasov / Kronstadt
Brasov / Kronstadt
As we were visiting, a group of young Germans from the former East Germany, part of a singing group that only sings religious works in English, broke into song in a church in the middle of Romania.
From the Monterey County Herald's feature "Travels with Herald"
The famous Russian Antonov-2 (NATO: COLT) in an impressive airshow in Ghimbav
Friends Grete and Gabriel Toma in Ghimbav/Weidenbach
An old fortified church in Transylvania
Western grebes mating dance on Clear Lake, California
Lake County, California wine country - click image for more photos
Sonoma wine country - click on image for more photos
Mazzocco Winery - our favorite Zinfandel purveyors
Emily's sister Vera (with husband Eberhardt) visited the girls' mother in Port Richey, Florida
Our annual Thanksgiving visit with the Myers/Mills ranch outside Creston, California
We are flanked by Karen and Roy Butts (left) and Beth Myers/Jim Mills
Visiting friends Norm and Donna Smith in Winchester, Oregon
One of Rick's Air Force friends - they flew together in the Middle East in the 1970's....
Rick's mini-reunion in Oakland with two members of his high school class (1969)
With friends John and Muriel Niehaus at the Coppola Winery in Geryserville (Sonoma County)
Our apartment in Carmel - the flag is ours; the car is not
Our landlady Jacqueline Jones
Great friends (and owners of Twigery) Mike and Cherly Merritt - our traditional hosts for Christmas
On their deck overlooking Carmel Bay - Christmas 2013 - 76 degrees
Monarch butterfly in Pacific Grove
With visiting British Rotarian friend Andrew Hawksworth in Carmel - Andrew was a great host in York in 2012
In Carmel with Air Force friends from our stint in Europe - Rod and Bernice Laverdure
Carmel artist and sitarist Ernie Baber
Retirement ceremony of friend Chief Master Sergeant Leo Chang at the Defense Language Institute
Yes, Social Security....
