October 25th - the week in review

Last Saturday was the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin festival! It was the 39th annual festival. When Val and Cathi were in the 3rd and 5th grades, they along with friend Cindy, marched in the parade as a horse and rider! Cindy was the front of the horse, Valarie was the back, and Cathi rode on Val's back. No wonder Val has had problems with her back!

Saturday was also the day that we were leaving for our trip down under to Aussie! We were going to visit Andy and Linda and girls, and spend a week or so in Sydney! Lee had been carefully watching the Delta flights from LAX to Sydney, and they kept filling up and getting oversold! There is only one flight a day on Delta, so we decided to stand by for the Qantas flights. We had a ticket to LAX on Virgin America, so that leg of the flight wasn't stressful! When we got to LAX we went to the Qantas ticket counter, and they told us that they would not list us for any flights for the remainder of October. Due to fare specials started by Delta, and then matched by Qantas, the flights were all full. In fact, there were over 60 Qantas employees trying to get home! We did stand by for the Delta flight, but didn't get on it. We decided to give up and go home. We spent Saturday and Sunday night in LAX, and got home Monday evening.

We were very sad, but our timing was clearly bad! Andy, Linda and the girls were really disappointed, too. We're going to try again in the spring.

So, here we were, at home, when we were supposed to be in Australia! Tuesday was a shopping day, as our cupboards were bare! Wednesday morning we did mundane things, like laundry, then went for a walk up to the Montara light house in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful!

The ocean had been very busy this week, with really high waves. We heard that they were going to begin the waiting period for the Mavericks competition in November, which is really unheard of. It's usually in January or February. In fact, Jordyn was born on the day of the competition in 2006!

Mavericks is a major surfing competition, where certifiably insane individuals come from around the world to ride ridiculously huge waves: http://www.maverickssurf.com/

We hiked from here down to Mavericks, and watched the waves, which were pretty impressive! We packed a picnic and spent some time on the beach before hiking back.

Since we had a hiking theme going, we went into SF on Friday, to Lands End. There's a great trail that begins at the Cliff House, and ends in the Sea Cliff area. The trail follows along the coastline, toward the Golden Gate bridge. The weather was as spectacular as the scenery.
http://www.parksconservancy.org/visit/park-sites/lands-end.html

We saw the bridge of the USS San Francisco, a ship that fought in Guadacanal, had a birds-eye view of the Pt. Bonita light house, and saw one mile rock, which used to be the site of a light house. We went down to China Beach, and had a picnic there before hiking back. We took a side trip down to Mile Rock beach, which were comprised of lots of STAIRS!! But, it was great exercise!

Saturday we went for a hike in Pacifica, and figure that we walked about 10 miles in 3 days! It's great to be able to take advantage of the wonderful Indian summer that we've been having.

So, in spite of the fact that we're SUPPOSED to be in Australia, we had a pretty great week!

And there was a pretty special day in this week, too - Cody's golden birthday - he turned 24 on the 24th! Happy birthday, Cody-o!

Carving the giant pumpkins at the Pumpkin Festival

The winner of the Pumpkin Festival weigh-off. Sadly, not from Half Moon Bay, but came all the way from Iowa on the back of a truck!

Wednesday- the beach by the Montara light house with some wave action!

Thursday at Mavericks! Lots of waves!

Along the trail to Mavericks

A large group of harbor seals have made the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve home. They were all up in the sun, taking advantage of the warm weather.

Dewey nasturtiums

Friday - the Golden Gate Bridge from Lands End

A great stone bench -

Perfect for a "breathing break", after

Climbing these! And there were that many more ahead of us! Nice of them to put benches along the way!

China Beach is a great little beach, just south of Baker Beach. It was my first visit there.

And here's China Beach! There were picnic tables, where we enjoyed our packed lunch and the wonderful view, and a much appreciated restroom! We really enjoyed just soaking up the sun, and watching ships sail under the Golden Gate bridge. Life is good!

Here's information on Mile Rock lighthouse! The lighthouse has been dismantled, but the base is now used to land helicopters!

And here's the landing spot! I personally would not want to try and set a helicopter down on that little circle! But I'd sure like to see someone else do it!

Here is what's left of the Sutro Baths! If you enlarge the picture, you can see that the birds are still enjoying it!

Happy Birthday, Cody! You still have that great smile! We love you and are counting the days till you get back! Take good care of yourself.