Happy Belated Birthday Jeff

Alas, I did not have Jeff's birthday in my blackberry, an issue that has now been corrected and I certainly would not want Jeff to feel slided in any way. So with that said, we want to wish you a belated birthday Jeff and we are glad you are part of the family!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBECCA

Here is a sweet picture of Rebecca with her Grandpa.

We hope you have an awesome day today!!

We love you and think you are the greatest.

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

Because we were in San Francisco over the Valentine's Day weekend and since we had just had our 32nd wedding anniversary earlier in the week, I was really into hearts and was so excited when I'd see one and tried to capture as many as I could with a Kodak moment. This first heart photo is dedicated to my friend, Debbie Isaksen, who has a very intense love of See's candy. And just in case Debbie is wondering, I very easily drove right past that factory without having any desire to jump out and buy up pound after pound of chocolate. I just don't get the fascination some women have for chocolates...?!


Klarissa put me to work on Sunday making heart desserts with her new pie pastry gadget. This is how they turned out. I'm anxious to see the pictures of the pastries when she tries to make them. I found it difficult to get them all uniform and to get one that wasn't falling apart. But, they were fun to eat and fit well into the heart theme I personally had going all weekend.


I was so happy to see Fresca's all heart decorated for us when we arrived there for our Valentine dinner celebration. Not so fond of the scary face on the door, but the red heart was beautiful.


Even the hardware store went all out with their paint can heart display in their front window.


Sweetie Pies carried the heart theme to the max and I loved being in there so much. Glen was getting a little sick of all the heart pictures I was taking and I was feeling like Cupid should perhaps shoot an arrow his way.




Every night as we left the city and drove to our hotel, we passed by this darkened area where there was a big red heart all lit up for our enjoyment. It's not the best picture, but if you click on it to make it big, hopefully you'll be able to see the heart.


Ahhhh, what a great Valentine's Day/anniversary celebration all rolled into one terrific weekend. Another "heart"-felt thanks goes out to Abe and Klarissa for being awesome tour guides and even better than that--for being awesome members of this family. I "heart" you both!!

Our Last, Fun-Filled Day With Abe and Klarissa

One thing we've learned about Abe through the years is that he loves surprises and apparently Klarissa does as well because they both had a big surprise up their sleeves for us the last day we were there. They tricked us into believing it was going to be so worth it to get up super early (4:15 a.m. for us) so we could pick them up at their apartment and then drive out to this "fabulous place" for breakfast when it opened "so we wouldn't have to stand in line". After seeing the line at Dottie's, we were believing them, although couldn't believe they found a place an hour away when there were so many places right in the city where we could have eaten and had much more time to sleep in. After all, it was a holiday that day!

Once we arrived at our destination--20 minutes early, I might add--Abe and Klarissa hopped out and were soon back in the car with a clipboard, a pen and a waiver that they were anxious for us to sign. At that point it became apparent what they were up to. We were supposed to sign away our life so we could go up in a hot air balloon. And our fabulous breakfast turned out to be some measly muffins and hot chocolate while waiting for our instructions on what we were about to do.


Since the Napa valley was fogged in that morning, they had to transport us 40 minutes away to do our ballooning in Winters. So, instead of flying over vineyards, we flew high above some orchards and farm land. We got to go in the first balloon.


Here we are leaving the ground.


Three happy people who were experiencing ballooning for the first time.


Here's our pilot, JP. He was informative and entertaining and seemed to know what he was doing up in the air.


These next pictures are taken high above the ground. Note the shadow of our balloon in the middle photo.




JP made a successful, albeit bumpy, landing in some random farmer's field. I was impressed he had avoided hitting the fence and his goal was to land as close to a road as possible. He didn't make it as close as this photo might suggest. This was taken after his helpers had dragged the basket from the field to the road. His crew got busy getting all the air out of the balloon so they could load it on the truck.



After our 40 minute ride back to where we started, we were then able to enjoy the champaigne brunch that was promised after our return back to earth. JP was not only our pilot in the air, but he turned into our waiter on land. I guess the kids hadn't told us a complete lie. We did FINALLY get a good breakfast that morning. And after all that time, it sure made me happy that we'd been given some muffins to hold us over.


Look at the cute sweetie pies that Glen and Abe were hanging out with all day.


Here the three of us are about to share a couple of Sweetie Pie treats which absolutely did not appeal to Glen at all.


From that exciting, exhilerating activity, we moved on to the next one. This one involved lots of hiking--straight up a mountain! It was a lot of work! We went to see Cataract Falls and it was beautiful. We started at the bottom and hiked our way all the way to the top. At least one of us enjoyed taking a little breather on a bench after hiking for quite some time and wondering if we would EVER get there.




And what was our reward once we got to the top of the mountain? An open meadow and an OUTHOUSE!! No--there were no bear sightings. That bear-ish looking thing in the clearing is a dog that looked like a bear. Sure glad its owner had it on a leash when it came up behind me on the trail!



As usual, Glen has a hard time leaving work behind. Here he is "enjoying nature" with his Blackberry.


The last thing on our agenda was dinner at House of Prime Rib. The kids surprised us about that as well and didn't reveal our destination until we were right there. We had one meat-loving man in our company who was extremely happy about that dinner decision. Klarissa and I ate our small pieces of meat and fish while the guys got their fill--and then some--of their huge bloody, red beef.



Thanks for a fun (although can't say "relaxing") vacation, Abe and Klarissa!!!

The Sabbath In San Francisco

Our Sabbath started off with church, a panini lunch at Abe and Klarissa's place and then we were off on a nature walk during the afternoon. The scenic backdrop for our walk was the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge.



Despite the scary warning signs all around the area, we managed to have a safe and enjoyable, scenic walk along the path.





We ended up at the Legion of Honor Museum where we paused for a moment at "The Thinker" statue.


Back at the apartment, Abe and Klarissa fed us a delicious dinner. It was a great way to spend the Sabbath in San Francisco.

San Francisco--With Tour Guides Abe and Klarissa

We just had the privilege of going to San Francisco once again to see Abe and Klarissa. They always have some interesting things for us to do and they like to take us to new and different places to eat. When we arrived in the city on Friday evening, we hooked up with them at Burger Bar for dinner. It was a much higher class restaurant than the famous Burger Bar in Roy where Glen ate many meals when he was younger. This one actually had tables where you could sit to eat your meal and most tables had a television screen. Just when I thought Glen and I were actually having a vacation with no sporting event involved... We couldn't leave the restaurant until the basketball game ended its third overtime.


Breakfast at Dottie's was first on our list of things to do Saturday morning. In fact, it was such a hot item that we had to get up early to get there so we wouldn't have to wait too long to get in. The faces on each table top were very unique. Good thing we got there when we did because the line of people had grown quite long while we were inside enjoying our food.




Abe had to make a stop at Partnership Capital Growth to do some work and so we got to see his place of employment. He told us of the magnificent view he has up on the higher floor of the building where he works. When we got up there, it appeared that all the windows were frosted, making it impossible to see out at all. Too bad the typical San Francisco fog had settled in over the city that day and we missed the spectacular view of the city from that high vantage point. Something to look forward to on another visit, perhaps??? Glen had fun entertaining himself on some of the health equipment in the office.





Since Abe put the motto "work before play" into effect that day, it caused us to be a little late in getting to the beach where the Mavericks surf competition was being held. We enjoyed our ride down the popular Highway 1 costal route and then found a spot to park. Not being familiar with that area, we didn't quite know where we were going and how far we had to walk to get there. We walked for what seemed like miles and then up a steep incline once we got near the water only to find out we had to go down the other side of the steep spot. Ambulances were sitting there just waiting to be called into service. It appeared it was to help people who were having a hard time getting down the hill (Klarissa--who didn't have the best walking shoes on that day...), but we later learned the waves were so big and had caught some spectators unaware and some people suffered broken bones and other accidents that day. Perhaps Abe's work prevented us from being involved in that commotion.




We didn't see much surfing action, but Abe talked Glen into going up another steep hill where they were able to see a little bit. Glen "tweaked his knee", as he likes to say, on his way down and it was bothering him the rest of the day. We were so happy to find a free bus ride that dropped us off halfway to our car.




We made a stop at an ocean-front hotel and golf resort and walked around there enjoying the beauty of that area. Abe kept Glen company when Glen decided to sit it out at the top of the hill while Klarissa and I walked down the slope to look at the beach area down below.






There's nothing like a run to Costco to load up on groceries for the Sabbath.


We ended our day with a delicious dinner at Fresco's where Glen chose a lamb entre for his meal.