January 25,

We were up and about by 0700. We had breakfast of oatmeal and raspberry jam – plus PB for me and with Nutella for Jeff – in addition to our Javas. Of course, we enjoyed this on our balcony. The skies were partly cloudy with the high supposed to be 83. (It got to 84!) 

We then started our communication/connection day with folks back home. First was my mother and her husband. We were informed of the snow storm that had swept about 37 states. They had around 6 inches of snow they supposed, and they had electrical power out for one hour only, thankfully. Glad they received power back so soon! 

Then we went for a walkabout. We walked to Plaza Pedro de Castillo. This plaza had placards all around that we Google translated. We learned that Mendoza had a large earthquake in 1861. This quake basically leveled the town and the whole town was moved South (we think) because of this. The square had a lovely fountain and more embedded placards in the sidewalk. It seems this park has been renamed multiple times, with this last name sticking around since 2007, as I recall. As we walked on and about we heard some birds. It ends up that they were Monk Parakeets. We also saw a couple of Saffron Finches. I know this is what they are because Jeff found a great app called Merlin Bird ID. It’s so cool! The app picks up the bird’s call, tweet or whatever you want to call it; processes it and then reveals what the bird is! I love it! Of course you need an internet connection…

We arrived back at our place and Zoomed with our church back home. They did not meet in the building due to the weather, so everyone was on the Zoom. Yay!! It was great to see them all! After we finished meeting with them all, we had “lunner”. We made steaks with mashed potatoes, and Greek salad. Then we talked with my sister… seems the only person in Kansas – that we talked with today who lost power was my mother! 

For supper we finished the mashed potatoes with a small can of corn. Then we failed in connecting with Jeff’s sister. We had forgotten they had gone to Washington State for a funeral of a friend. So we watched some YouTube and then went to bed.