Our Sabbatical Life

A lot has happened in recent weeks, so a brief rundown is in order for this last post of 2017. At the end of the previous post, we were preparing to pack for another trip across the US, for another short-term (one month) rental in California.  This winter trip came about fairly quickly because my (that is, Julie's) mother is undergoing some medical treatments, and it seemed like a good use of our sabbatical time to help out and provide moral support while also getting a chance to be around the LA contingent for the holidays. Because we were a bit concerned about winter driving conditions over the Rockies, we decided to take the southern route this time--through Oklahoma and New Mexico--as opposed to through Kansas and Colorado.  Since we started from Chicago and ended up in Los Angeles, we essentially drove along the entire Historic Route 66 (and were reminded about this every few miles or so...). A few years ago, we read about a couple who decided to retire to Latin ...

We left Montreal right before Thanksgiving, in the first real snow fall of the season.  As we were packing up the car for the drive out of Montreal, we marveled at how the first flakes came on so thick and heavy right outside our living room window (pictured above). By the time we were on the highway right outside Montreal, it was fast becoming a winter wonderland.  Watching the alternately bleak and gloriously snow-blanketed Quebec landscape (pictured right below), we were simultaneously relieved that we were leaving Montreal "just in the nick of time" (before really hitting the blizzard season) and a bit sad that we wouldn't be able to experience (just briefly!) what real winter weather would be like.  After all, if we are seriously contemplating returning here to live, it seems to us necessary to know just how much worse Montreal winters are over the Chicago winters we were already familiar with. It didn't take us long to miss not hearing French being spo...