Sunday Sep 12th, Opera in the park

After dropping Cathi off at the airport on Sunday, we headed up to Golden Gate Park to attend Opera in the Park.  This event is really well attended, and parking is always at a premium, so we were planning on parking out near Stowe Lake and hiking in!  But, we drove through the area where we usually park, just in case, and someone happened to be leaving, so we got a close parking spot, which was pretty much a miracle!

We've been attending Opera in the Park for decades now, with a group of friends.  Frank and Penny, who live in San Jose, get there EARLY and stake out real estate for all of us, bless their hearts!

The music this year was fabulous, as usual!  A wonderful day with wonderful friends.

The stage, with full orchestra

Still life

One of the arias being performed by the cast of the 2010-2011 San Francisco Opera

The San Francisco Chronicle puts out a special edition Sunday paper for Opera in the Park, and include this "Bravo" card.

You can see by the pictures that it wasn't very warm there, and at the end it got bloody cold!  Oh, well, still a great event!

Thank you, Coast Guard!

Our grandson, Nathan, is in the Coast Guard and is assigned to a buoy tender, the Sycamore,  stationed in Cordova, Alaska.  However, the Sycamore was deployed in June to the Gulf of Mexico to assist in the clean up of the BP oil spill.  They were there until just recently, when they received orders to head home.  The crew and their families were very glad to hear that!  An added bonus was that the Sycamore spent two days in San Francisco, AND, Nathan didn't have duty, so he got to come and spend time with us!

As a surprise, Cathi flew down from Aldergrove, and was with us when we went into San Francisco to collect him.  We didn't see his ship moored anywhere, so we drove out to Aquatic Park, and walked out on the pier, and were able to watch his ship sail in!  It looked pretty darned small to me (but I prefer ships the size of the Queen Mary), but after they moored, we were able to have a tour, and there's actually quite a bit of room in the 220 foot ship!

We spent Thursday doing some shopping, hanging out, watching a movie and just spending time together.  On Friday we went to San Jose to visit the Shark Tank, where Nathan bought lots of Sharks stuff, then headed to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for some fun in the sun.  The rides weren't going, but Nathan had a great time in the arcade, and Cathi, Lee and I enjoyed the sun and the beach.

Sadly, we had to take Nathan back on Friday night, as they were sailing on Saturday morning.  Cathi took advantage of being in the Bay Area to go and visit her good friend Heather in Modesto on Saturday, then on Sunday it was time for her to head back home to a very happy husband and children!

What a wonderful, whirlwind visit with both Nathan and Cathi!   Now, if the USAF would only deploy Cody to San Francisco!!

The Sycamore, "Keeper of the Sound", sails into San Francisco Bay.  You can see the cut-out on the ship, where buoys are hoisted up to be worked on.

Cathi and Lee, with the Sycamore in the background

The Sycamore sails in front of Alcatraz island.

Moored at a pier in down town San Francisco!  Very convenient!

Surprise!!  A very happy mother and son reunion!

On the Sycamore.  This is Nathan's work station in Operations

Cathi and Nathan

On the bridge

Nathan's "rack" area - his rack is on the bottom.

Coming down the gang plank with Nathan's unicycle

In front of the ice rink where the Sharks practice.

Fun at the Sharks store!!

Sharks fans!  Three brand new Sharks baseball caps!

The Sharks' 20th Anniversary logo, adorning our new dishwasher.  Nathan thought that it looked bare, and that a Sharks emblem was just what it needed!

What a wonderful unexpected surprise!  Thanks, Cathi and Nathan!!  We love you!

The Mason's Visit from Australia!

Andy, Linda, Brittany (15) and Sammy (11) Mason came to visit us from Australia!  It had been 9 years since they were last here, so the 2 and 5 year olds had grown up considerably!  They live on the sunshine coast of Australia, where both the weather and the ocean are warm, so they found our weather to be quite cool!  Here's a picture of the Masons at the beach.

We had a great visit with them.  They arrived on Wednesday, September 1st, and left on Monday, September 6th.  We managed to do a lot in the short time they were here, even with jet lag!  We had fun shopping, spending the day in Santa Cruz, swimming at Bob and Penny's house and doing the tourist thing in San Francisco.  Linda and I did a tour of the San Francisco victorians, built in the last half of the 1800's.  It was really interesting and we saw some beautiful homes.  What a great experience - can't believe that I'd never done that before.  Thanks, Linda!

Sam and Brittany at the beach

Climbing the trees in the "Magical Forrest"

Sam, swimming with Tucker, Bob and Penny's dog.  They had a great time.

Sam and Brittany in the pool with Tucker and Sophie.  Tucker and Sophie are "Golden Doodles", a cross between golden retrievers and standard bred poodles.  They love kids and they LOVE the water!

Sam and Brittany

After swimming, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, at the table under the wisteria arbor.  If you were at our wedding, you will remember this beautiful space.

Andy, Brittany, Michael and Penny

Linda, George and Samantha

And of course, Tucker!

Andy and Sam at Coit Tower in San Francisco on Sunday

Brttany and Sam at Coit Tower, in front of the statue of Christopher Columbus

Andy and his girls.  Linda and I were out viewing victorian houses!

Andy, Brittany and Sam at the Palace of Fine Arts.

Linda in front of a Queen Anne victorian on our walking tour.

More beautiful victorians, nicely restored.

Linda, pointing out the Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of Fine Arts in the distance.

San Francisco's "Painted Ladies"

Linda in front of a beautiful garden

A grand victorian.

The Masons and the Golden Gate Bridge

Brittany and Sam

Ok, we were trying to get Andy's hands positioned so that it looked like he was holding up the Golden Gate Bridge - didn't quite work!

Off to Pier 39!  Time for lunch and some souvenier shopping!

Brittany and Sam, outside of the Hard Rock Cafe

The end of a wonderful day!  The lights on the Bay Bridge were great, but they didn't show up in the picture.

One of the things the girls wanted to do was eat at Mc Donalds - "Mackers" - and see if the food there was different.  We worked this in on the way to the airport on Monday.

Waiting for lunch at Mc Donalds in Pacifica

Lee and Brittany, with groovy sun glasses!

California girls!!

Andy and Linda

And now they are off to Florida!  First stop - 5 days in Orlando and the theme parks!  After that, they are going to Bonita Springs, FL, to visit with family and friends.  We're pretty sure that they will enjoy the weather in Florida!

Thanks so much for coming to visit, you guys!  Come back again, soon!