State Fair, Round 2

I think I mentioned that one of the main exhibits at the State Fair this year was all about Huell Howser. For those who don't know (I didn't) he was a TV/Radio personality who had this show called "California Gold" that took you to different places in the state and gave the history and background to some "amazing" stories. I knew my Mom liked the show, so I offered to take her for a day at the fair.

That's her below with one of the Golden Bears at the fair's entrance, and with the life-sized cut out of Huell.

She had a pretty good time, and of course we had some good food. Corn dog, cinnamon roll, deep fried bacon-wrapped cheese bombs, lemonade, and a wedge of frozen chocolate covered key lime pie to take with us.

The Halls Have A New Home

After our big weekend with Julie, we dropped her off at the airport and drove down to San Jose to see Chris and Lorna, who had just moved out to the Bay Area a couple days before. When we got there, they were waiting outside their new home while the cleaning company finished up, and while the furniture rental company brought in the last of the items. (It's a long story, but their own furniture should arrive in another week or so.)

I think it's a nice house. No yard really, but a neighborhood pool down the block and the school is only a couple blocks away. The front doors are newly painted red. I like it.

After the work was done, we all went out to eat at Chevy's. Below the grand kids mug for grandpa's camera.

This little girl was the star of the show. She is so chubby-cheeked it's amazing. I think she looks quite a bit like Chris did when he was a little younger then she is now. But I think she has her Mom's beautiful eyes. And she has red hair. How could it be better?

The City by the Bay

Aunt Julie's sweet kids bought her a plane ticket for her birthday so that she could come visit Melody. We thought we'd take her to see the sights in San Francisco, rather than making her suffer the 105 deg heat in Yuba City. So after picking her up at Oakland Airport we stayed in a hotel, then hit the City the next day.

This iconic sign for Fisherman's Wharf is actually at the entrance to the parking lot where we left the car on our visit. I dropped Julie and Melody off up the hill on Hyde Street so that they could ride the cable car down to the Hyde Street Pier. I met them there and we saw the sites and ate the food.

One of our favorite stops was the sourdough bread factory where they make all kinds of animal shapes out of the bread. The alligator is always a favorite, and the teddy bear and lobster are cool too. 

And even tough the bread is GREAT, I think the thing all of us enjoyed the most were macaroons! Without question the best I've ever had. Here's a photo of Mel standing in line to buy the good. I think it's a funny sign.

(Get it? The "bread line." Okay, maybe not that funny to other people.)

Of course, we had to stop at our favorite seafood place (among the many on Pier 39) for sourdough bread bowls of clam chowder (I got the shrimp & crab bowl). These two just had a blast being with each other. And I enjoyed their company too.

These two photos are mostly of interest because the last time we were at Pier 39 it was Christmas time and the weather was not as clear or warm. So for Nate & Kim and David, this is what it can look like. And the view of Alcatraz Island was as clear as I've ever seen it.

The sail boat was indicative of the upcoming Americas Cup race which will be based in S.F. this year. We saw some really spectacular catamarans and other sail boats practicing out on the bay.

The street performers were out in force also, and we caught this guy getting pictures taken of himself with some of the tourists. I remember going to the wharf over 30 years ago when these guys were just kids, and watching them over the years as they've developed their acts. What a way to make a living.

Earlier in the day we had driven out to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and old Fort Point. This fort was built to protect California during the Civil War. 

This shot is from the top level looking down on the inner courtyard

The shots below were actually taken from up on the Golden Gate Bridge. The circular forms you see on the right are gun placements, and this is the side facing into the bay. The ocean side has as many facing the other way.

 Don't these two look happy?

 Well, they are.

State Fair Fun

We had a great time at the fair this year. There were a lot a great exhibits: Huell Houser, California Coastline and Super Heroes - including Dr. Who. Melody & I took a trip through in the Tardis

The California Coastline exhibit was pretty cool too. This restored woody was beautiful.

The free concert that night was The Four Tops. They were pretty good, better than last year's act. We listened for about as long as we could stand the loudness level. 

The best part of the fair (for me anyway) is the food. Below was the "finale" I picked up as we were leaving. It's a frozen piece of key lime pie dipped in chocolate. Wow! Previous excursions into Yum-Land included the standard corn dog (couldn't find the advertised chocolate dipped corn dog) which exceeds every other corn dog anywhere, the fantastic cinnamon role with cold milk, a really, really good fish taco, a fantastic ear of roasted corn - and my first time eating a Krispi Kreme donut cheeseburger! Double wow! It was a good day.

One More. . .

Not to steal any thunder from Kim's blog (we're so proud of her for updating it), but I had intended on posting this anyway. One of the really fun things about our trip to San Diego was that someone in Pam's family thought it would be fun to buy me this cook's hat with the great logo on it.

As Kim noted, the funny thing about the hat was Lucy (or maybe it was Molly) kept saying "Bacon is my favorite color!"

[makin' pancakes, makin' bacon pancakes]

San Diego, Here We Come!

My 1st counselor, and good friend, Mike Johnson and his wife own a second house east of San Diego in a little place called Ramona. He is always after me to go down and  make use of it, since they are living here and taking care of his elderly parents. So when Kim and Nate started talking about vacationing over the 4th in San Diego, I took him up on his offer. Pam and Rob and their family joined us for a rip-roaring good time!

We spent nearly the whole day on the beach at Torrey Pines. The water was pretty nice, and I was out in the surf three different times. The best was the last time when I got Grant and Lucy boogie boarding. They loved it. Lucy seemed to be a natural - and there's nothing Grant can't conquer. Below is our "compound." Two beach shelters, the umbrella, blankets, chairs and boards.

Grant gets buried in the sand up to his waist, while HG has the time of his life playing inn the sand with his Mom.

After a great BBQ that night back at the house (thanks to Nate's excellent choice of Italian grilling sausages), we headed back the next day to downtown S.D. for  a tour of the USS Midway. You may remember four years ago when Mom and Kim and I were there for an ESRI convention that Kim was volunteering for. I went on the Midway then and was very impressed. It was even better this time because we had the grand kids with us. We bought churros on our way out as an appetizer to our picnic lunch.

Above is the "island" which over-sees the operations of the flight deck. Below are a couple of shots of planes and people on the hanger deck. Pam has more of these posted on her blog.

 (No, Kim and Nate don't have a baby yet - that's Henry.)

(Grant, Lucy, and Molly take a rest on the enlisted men bunks.)

A length-wise view of the ship from the dock. It is such an impressive sight, and still decked out in it's 4th of July bunting.

To me, this is the truly impressive view. I'm standing on the west end of the fight deck looking east. You can't even see the other end of the deck (over 3 football fields away) and it has airplanes, helicopters - and people - all over it. Absolutely incredible!

Next to the Midway of a little park with two interesting things. One is the larger-than-life sculpture of the famous photo of the sailor kissing the nurse upon his arrival home from war (who, as you may know, was simply the first girl he came across on the dock, and he was so elated that he just laid a big smooch on her, and it was caught by a photographer from LOOK magazine). And after all that, it was nothing more than another opportunity to climb for Lucy and Molly.

The other thing of interest that I missed last time I was there, is the tribute to Bob Hope. They have statues of him and several service men as if they were attending a USO show, and a looped recording of some of his jokes. Pretty funny. and a worthy tribute.

As fun as the trip was, there was an even more important event this past weekend. David has been working hard and diligently to prepare to take the GMAT test again to improve his score. You can visit his blog (the link is on the right) to read all of the details, but the bottom line is he was successful beyond his high hopes. We are very proud of him, and I am very impressed with his thorough preparations. 710! Woo-hoo!!

                                                            

Port Angeles

Last week we were able to visit Michelle and her family up in Port Angeles while Trevor was away at Scout Camp. It was a fun trip, because Michelle always has good stuff planned to do, and because Melody likes the cool, wet weather so much, and because we have the cutest grand kids in the world!

The twins mug for the camera

On Monday (the only truly sunny day the whole week we were there) we drove over to La Push to go boogie boarding. It was a beautiful day and the water was warm. Below, Atticus wears my sunglasses. There aren't too may good photos of the Atti-gator, mostly because it's hard to get a four year old boy to sit still for very long. But I had him captive in his car seat for this one.

A self portrait of me on the driftwood jetty, with the beautiful scenery behind.

Can you tell I'm taking the picture?

The warning light at the end of the jetty, and a fishing boat leaving the harbor. It was really close.

The tide was coming in all morning, and we really had some good waves to ride. Michelle rented us a couple of wet suits and she and I had a blast. And the water was really warn. (Did I say that already?)

It was pretty cool at the beach at La Push, because it's an Indian Reservation so you can build fires on the beach and cook hot dogs and stuff (which we did). Everybody was pretty beat on the way home. I stayed up front to keep Michelle awake by telling her funny stories.

Another morning we drove over to Salt Creek Rec Area (Tongue Point to be exact), but the weather was not as nice. Well, okay, it was nice for Washington, but not what you'd hope for for an outing. The tide was way out and we walked around the tide pools

The neighborhood where Trevor and Michelle live has a heated swimming pool and the kids like to go down there, But really, only Jane likes getting in. That's Atticus, Jane and Lizzie in the right hand photo.

Then, as sort of a grand finale, we went to the Wild Animal Park. This is kind of a retirement home for animals that have been performers in movies, and other exotic animals that need a good home. It was pretty fun to feed them bread (only wheat bread allowed), and many of them would stick their heads right in your car to get at it. You see Michelle pushing away the incredibly foul smelling water buffalo.

Michelle and the zebra got along well. Lizzie likes feeding the reindeer.

Big eyed bison looking to me for a handout.

The bears really were the best though. Most of them would smile and wave. We even got one to sit up and wave goodbye to us as we drove off. It really was fun, and the kids just had a great time. Of, course, it didn't hurt any that we took them to McDonalds afterward. That made me happy too.    :  )

One final shot. I took the twins on a walk the last day we were there (Cause they were being fussy). It's always fun to see them stop, squat, and look at the slugs (which are as plentiful as raindrops). I say it's funny because looking is fine, but touching is not. Lizzie nearly had a cow when she thought she had closed her hand around a caterpillar. When we finally got her hand opened and she saw there was nothing in there, then the drama was over. But the world came apart for her while she considered the possibility that she might actually be holding a bug!