I decided to update the name of this page to make it more generic. I’m also playing around with the contents of the web page just for fun so things may change from day to day.

 

So what happened at casa Martinez in 2024?  Not a whole lot so this should be short.

 

‍ In May, Rosa officially graduated with her associate degree from community college.  She actually fulfilled the requirements in the summer of the previous year but had to wait until this year to walk the stage.  She is continuing her studies at UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio, where her father and I both graduated as well) and hopes to finish her bachelor’s degree next year.

 

In June we lost our brother in law, Juan Esquivel, who was married to Al’s sister Hope.  He was such a fine man: generous and patient, always smiling and had a “dad” joke.  We miss him as well as Hope.

 

In September Al and I went to Scotland for a 2-week trip.  We flew into Inverness and stayed there 3 days, exploring the city and visiting Cawdor Castle.  Then we drove to visit my sister in her new home just west of Lochcarron.  It’s situated right on the edge of the loch and has beautiful views looking east and south across the loch to mountains  Then to the west you can see the Isle of Skye, particularly the Cuillens mountain range.  While there we visited Dunvegan and Portree on Skye on one day and on another day went up the west coast to Applecross and Sheildaig.  Al was a little nervous as we drove up the mountains on the single track roads but we made it without a scratch and only a few scary moments.  When we left the west coast we drove back through Inverness to the east coast to visit my brother in Marykirk.  From there we visited Fraserburgh and Montrose.  Then it was back to Inverness for the flight home.  That was a lot of driving as you can see from the map.  The weather stayed fine for quite a bit of our trip with only a couple of days of rain and a couple more days of cold (for us).  Al ate a lot of fish and chips during our visit, and pronounced the ones in Maitland’s restaurant in Fraserburgh the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This month, we visited the Botanical Gardens here in San Antonio to see their Illuminate show, which replaced the previous years’ Lightscape shows.  It was a beautiful exhibition but not quite as Christmassy as Lightscape so I put it in the 2024 photos instead of the Christmas photos page.

 

We have had a good year and hope that you all have had one too.  We wish you all the best for 2025.   

‍