Alcatraz, Football Game, Dinner In The Hood, Church and Home

Definitely Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, but my favorite is always the leftovers. 
By the time we would find a parking spot and hike the hills to Abe's place, we were famished and ready to consume those leftovers!

 

Our outing for the day was going to Alcatraz.

 We waited in line to board the boat that would take us to Alcatraz.

We arrived safely on the island and were welcomed inside the old penitentiary.

Inside we saw where the prisoners were issued their prison clothing.

This is the shower area.

Looking into a cell an inmate would call home as long as he resided at Alcatraz.

 Glen is listening to the self-guided tour and is emerging from "The Hole"--solitary confinement.

In the kitchen, the knife shapes were painted on so the guards could quickly tell if a knife was missing.

Double-tiered rows of cell blocks.

Our little escapee.

We were tired and hungry after our Alcatraz tour and our long walk to find food. Newland is waiting patiently for our dinner to arrive.

Does this look like game day? We're eating our pre-game meal.

The stadium was only partially full, so we were able to find a less-crowded spot where we could spread out and where Newland could safely wander around a little bit during the game.

 

 Everybody was in a good mood when BYU won the game.

After-game activity was going to see the lights at the Oakland Temple.

It was getting late and we were all hungry and we ended up at a BBQ joint. This is how Newland entertained himself while waiting for our food.

It was quitting time when we arrived, but the restaurant owner and her family members rustled us up the food we ordered and kept checking on us to make sure we were happy and well fed.

Newland surprised us all by refusing to leave until Klarissa had fed him every last bite of meat. He loved that stuff.

The owner talked with us for a while and she thanked us for venturing into "The Hood" for dinner that evening. She said she was going to walk us to our car to make sure we were safe. That, in and of itself, made us all feel very unsafe. She was a very kind woman and we appreciated the hospitality she and her family showed to us that evening.

Sunday morning we opted for breakfast in our hotel so we wouldn't be late for church.

Klarissa was happy we stopped by to give her and Newland a ride to church. Normally they walk, but it was raining that morning.

Newland found a ledge at church that made for the perfect-height bench for him to sit on that he loved and didn't want to leave.

We persuaded him to leave the bench, but then he was refusing to get on the elevator to go down to his nursery class.

This is one of those times when he used his oft-repeated favorite phrase, "No way, no want it."

Spending our last few minutes outside of church with Glen while waiting for his ride to take him to the airport. He was once again on his way to spend another work week in Minnesota. It had been so fun to have him all to ourselves for a whole week.

The rest of us went to Abe's apartment where we all hung out together for the rest of the day. The sad thing is Glen's plane was delayed by an hour and a half which would have given him just enough time to have gone back to Abe's place and had lunch with us. Instead he had to eat by himself at the airport and kill time until his plane was ready to depart.

These are our last few minutes before Ben and I said our final good-byes and headed off to our hotel.

Monday morning Ben and I got ourselves to the airport and were anticipating our flight back to Utah.

We were glad our destination was somewhere a bit warmer than Glen's 5-degree Minneapolis location. Brrrrrrr!!!

Newland loved being with his Uncle Ben and it looks like Madison was happy to see Uncle Ben when he got back home.

We had a great time vacationing with Ben and spending time with Abe, Klarissa and Newland. I guess I'll say I'm thankful there was a BYU game in California on Thanksgiving weekend.

San Francisco Trip With Ben

Glen will say we went to San Francisco to spend Thanksgiving with Abe's family. I will say we went to San Francisco to go to a ball game and it just happened to be played on Thanksgiving weekend and it was a coincidence the game was being played near a city where one of our children lives.

Either way--the fact remains we took a week-long vacation to San Francisco. Ben went with us and we got to spend some quality time with Abe's family.

Look at this kind brother who consented to deliver Abe's guitar to him.

Once in California, we ate lunch at Houlihan's.

Klarissa had a party that evening, so I got to go to dinner with the four boys.

Look closely and you can see the faces of three of the guys peering at me through the huge chunks of meat sitting in the refrigerated window of the restaurant.

The fourth boy was rolling around on the floor while waiting for our table to be ready.

Newland was exceptionally well-behaved in that fancy restaurant once we were seated and he began eating bread, sucking on ice and watching Curious George movies on Abe's cell phone.

Who says technology shouldn't be allowed at the dinner table? It enabled us (and everyone around us) to have a quiet, peaceful dinner.

IHOP was where Glen, Ben and I ate breakfast the next few mornings.

This was our contribution to Thanksgiving dinner--two Costco turkeys which we handed over to Abe to do the cooking.

We exchanged the two turkeys for one little grandson.

We had Newland for the day so Abe and Klarissa could get some work done, get ready for Thanksgiving the next day and go on a fancy dinner date that evening.

First stop for the boys and me was the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

Each of the buildings had different themes and things for the children to do and explore.

Let's just say Newland was only interested in the train building. He would have stayed there all day if we had let him.

But more important things were pressing upon the minds of the older boys. I was lucky they took a moment on our way to the parking lot to turn around and let me snap a picture of them with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Within seconds of getting him fastened in his car seat, Newland was fast asleep.

The guys wanted to watch a BYU basketball game and decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings where they could eat lunch while watching the game. I sat out in the car reading a book while Newland napped during the whole first half of the game.

Once he discovered his grandpa and Ben were gone, Newland was quick to make a beeline straight for Glen once he was spotted inside the restaurant.

After the game was over, we decided to stroll through the mall located right next to the restaurant. Newland loved the benches all through the mall that were just low enough for him to be able to sit on. Every bench he saw, we had to stop for him to enjoy sitting upon it for a while.

While Ben was shopping for a new pair of athletic shoes, Newland kept himself entertained by rearranging all the shoes on display.

We picked up sub sandwiches for dinner to eat back at the hotel where Newland spent a lot of time investigating every inch of our hotel room and then settled down watching more Curious George movies on the iPad.

He was giddy with excitement when Abe and Klarissa came to pick him up. He went crazy tickling and snuggling with Ben on the bed. Silly boy!

Thanksgiving morning found us back at IHOP for breakfast. Thankfully it was the only day we were seated at a window booth. Ben noticed ants crawling all over the wall by him and started trying to plug up their holes. Despite the crawly critters, he still had an appetite for his breakfast and he didn't use ants as an excuse to not go back the next morning.

When we arrived at Abe and Klarissa's apartment, Abe gave us a little peek at what he'd been working on all morning--his grilled turkey.

 Klarissa enlisted Glen's help with her fancy centerpieces.

We helped carry stuff out to their back patio and helped set the table.

While Klarissa was taking special care with her artistic touches to the table, Abe was using his artistic skills on the turkey presentation.

 Looks so delicious!! When can we eat?

 Not until a few family photos are snapped.

 Weren't we the lucky ones to be able to eat our turkey outside under a palm tree?

Abe and Klarissa had invited two other families over for dinner.

The little boys enjoyed playing much more than they did eating.

 Good food, great company, much to be thankful for, beautiful day!