Wednesday, Dec. 9th

Long day!  It is not 1 AM and I just finished doing the pictures for today.  It gets harder and harder with three cameras snapping every day.  After very ruthless deleting there are still 74 pictures from today!!  Obviously you didn't get them all.  We left Tia Peddie relaxing with Joan while Patrick took the five us, plus his son Christopher off on a jaunt.  Hopefully the pictures and captions will tell the story because I am running out of steam.  We are all overwhelmed with the kindness and immediate friendship we have found with all the Clemo family.  Tia Peddie is definitely the "cement" that kept us connected over the years to Joan and her family,  but all generations have embraced us and welcomed us like long lost cousins.   Tomorrow we are driving to Temuco where Jackie, Joan's youngest daughter lives and runs a bake shop.  Obviously we will be eating well AGAIN!  I don't know if we will have internet as we will be spending the night at Patrick and Rose's farm, so Hasta la vista for now.  The Blisses

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~~~_/)~~~D&M

The first stop on our adventures today was at 691 Pedro de Valdivia, the Bliss house in 1955.

The second stop was an open air market where Christopher (center picture) needed to pick up fresh fruit for his "smoothie" cart. He takes the cart to the beach area at Lenga, near Talchauano on weekends. We went there to see the area and have lunch.

Third stop was the fishing pier where we saw lots of fish and shellfish most of which we could not identify!! Some that we could, we were surprised to see considered as food. Barnacle anyone?? (they were HUGE). Jay bought some "loco" which is related to abalone, but we learned that "loco" is carnivorous while abalone eats seaweed! We watched two sea lions cruising for handouts near the dock.

We also drove by "CAP", the steel mill that Grandpa John helped start up 60 years ago. It is still going strong.

When Tia Peddie first arrived at Joan Clemo's house she was met by Maureen, Joan's daughter. Tia Peddie exclaimed, "Why Joan, you haven't changed a bit!" It's easy to see how she had become confused, Maureen is the spitting image of her mother!

Dinner the first night (and tonight also) was hosted by Patrick and Rose with help from their son, David and his girlfriend Melanie.

The day ended with another dinner at Patrick's, with everyone contributing something. This time Patrick and Rose's youngest, Pauline and her boyfriend Willy (along with Christopher) represented the younger generation. Pauline had brought back fresh salmon she caught yesterday from the lake district which they served as carpaccio - "cooked" in lemon juice with capers and parmesan cheese. Quite amazing.