Andy Comes to California for Spring Break 2009

This year Andy decided he would make the trip to California all on his own. He's 17 now, and has been out to see me with friends for the last 2 years. I think he finally felt like he had the routine down.


We got to spend a lot of quality time together. We went to San Francisco on Saturday and walked around, visited Eric's work (AutoDesk) and saw the design center. Then we made our way on BART to Union Square and hung out for a while and then went to Westfield Mall.

Andy and I went hiking at Sycamore Grove and took Sugar. We almost got lost. We also all went hiking at Sunol Wilderness. Then Andy and I went to the car museum in Blackhawk and saw some awesome cars.

Christmas 2008

Eric and I went home to Indiana for the first time we were all together as a family since our move to CA 3 years ago. It was so exciting to have him with me on Christmas morning and not to have to rush to get back to CA and leave my kids and parents.

We first went to Chicago on Eric's birthday December 18th and landed in Chicago at 11:00 pm. My step daughter Lisa is now living there and he had been about 18 months since Eric had seen her.

We just made the landing in time for a big snow storm which had started about an hour earlier, so the cab ride to the hotel was quite an experience. The roads were empty except for a few brave souls... tires were slick and we were sliding all over the place. But the white snowy atmosphere made it feel very much like Christmas. We visited with Lisa the next afternoon after a morning bruch at Macy's downtown.

Lisa took us the next day back to Greenfield and went on down to Evansville. It was bitter cold as the temperatures fell as we got to Indiana the next day. We hadn't experience sub zero temps for quite some time so it was a bit of a shock. The temperatures warmed up by the end of the week so we got to experience the extremes of Indiana winter weather... from sub zero to 60 all in the same week.


Christmas Eve we all celebrated in our usual tradition and here you can see my sweet mother enjoying yet another year with all of her family.

My Dad got a snow cap that was 3 sizes too small so Andy decided to wear it around like Davy Crocket. It went well with his new hunting knife set that my brother gave them. My Dad just sat there taking it all in and relaxing after it was all over. My neice Kendra has grown up so much in the past few years. Here she is opening presents.

Hawaii Summer 2008

July 4th wee and a last minute (less than 24 hour) plan - Eric and I got up on Saturday morning and decided to just go to Maui.

It was an exciting adventure to get our online tickets, hotel booked and find a dog sitter (when we hadn't ever used one before). We were on the plane in less than 24 hours from the time we started planning. Everything just fell into place.

We had both visited Maui before but we had never been together. Eric had never completed the road to Hana or any of the tourist type attractions, so we took off and explored a little of the treacherous road.

Spring Break 2008

The big trip to California finally came - Andy and Cody made the trek across the country and landed in San Jose for a week long visit. We did the usual tourist stops. First we went to Alice's Restaurant - from the Arlo Gunthrie song, and visited Pescadaro Beach, then Sunday was Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf day. We saw Tin Men and Bush Guy at the Wharf..... along with a few other characters.

Lots of shopping in between - Cody wanted to learn how to use his credit card, so we went to the mall several times through out the week. But the first adventure was to climb the hill behind our house, which they did Fri morning and again Saturday, and until we discovered they had broken out with Poison Oak.... This was a first from all the trips, so the growth must have been more robust this year with all the rain over the winter.

We did a day of horseback riding (2 hours into the Sunol Wilderness), where we saw "little yosimite" and the famous W tree. Copper Rider, Dusty Rider and Outlaw Rider did well, but it was a slow ride there and back. Cody did very good for a first time rider.

We had an awesome day at the Marin Headlands viewing the Golden Gate Bridge. We thought it was going to be cloudy, but the sun broke through just as we turned the corner through the tunnel and we had sunshine all afternoon. Muir Woods reminded us all of Jurasic Park.
We saved the best day (a high of 72 inland; 65 beachfront), to go to the beach and went just north of half moon bay where they yearly "Maverick" surfing contest occurs. This time of year there are not the big waves, but a few and some surfers out. We took sugar (the cocker spaniel) and she really enjoyed the trip and was fairly well behaved aside from chewing her leash.

It was a good end to the visit with the blue skies and warm sun. We headed home for our last supper and another trip to the pharmacy for more poison oak prescriptions. I'm sad that our time is over, but we have some great memories and photos.

Boys will be Boys!

Our last child came to visit us finally in mid-October and we had a great time. Jeremy came with him and I hadn't seen Jeremy since he was a middle school kid. Now he's all grown up just like Cory who turned 20 on December 13th. I'm feeling a bit old these days.

Above you'll see Cory at Marin State Park overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Cory at Muir Woods in front of Giant Redwoods and also at Muir Beach.

We also went to Berkeley and turned the boys loose (but only for an hour).... we didn't want them to get in too much trouble. It was very crowded that day because there was a Cal State football game going on and so the streets were lined with vendors for blocks selling all kinds of hippy trinkets. There is no place in the world like Berkeley.


Downtown San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf and another trip to Alcatraz (this time the night tour).... I've been three times this year now. We also spent the day in Alameda and some time at a couple of great Skateparks. The boys STILL love to skateboard and they could go for hours here because there is no humidity.

Alex and Lisa Home at Last!

For the first time in almost 10 years Alex and Lisa were back home in California and under the same roof with us. Although the duration was brief, we compensated for the ephemeral nature of our reunion with bonding moments and good times.

We enjoyed the time together with a perfect mix of outdoor activities such as touring Alcatraz, horseback riding, and going to the beach, as well as simply visiting and having conversation. Alex and I tackled the upper reaches of the Sunol Wilderness and had a great time appreciating the natural beauty northern California together. My legs were sore for a couple of days.


Alex and Lisa attended a San Francisco Giants baseball game and had the good fortune to watch Barry Bonds hit #754. I'm still not sure how they spent so much money at the game.

Our entire visit was fantastic and the memories will be with us forever.

Beach Blanket Day!

Eric and I decided to just take off at the last minute and have a Beach Day last Monday. It was the first time we had been to the beach together since we moved here and a much needed change of scenery. We went over the hills on 84 west and ended up for several hours at Pescadero Beach.

In the summer, it is usually about 15 to 20 degrees cooler over on the coast, just an hour a way. And many times hazy or fog layers come in and don't allow for the best weather and clarity for picture taking. Today however, we checked the weather and it was a perfect 73 degrees, sunny and no expected fog, so even the sunset would be clear. We are actually experiencing a heat wave this week as it reached 105 degrees yesterday. Today looks to be only about 95 degrees.

We went North in late afternoon to Redondo Beach after we ate dinner in Half Moon Bay! It was a great getaway and we have vowed to do it more often or at least to pick different areas to explore like we used to before we moved here and we were just visiting. In this picture you can see the outline of San Francisco in the distance just about 30 miles north of Redondo Beach. The scenery out here is awesome!