Christmas brunch at the Cliff House

In what has become an annual event for us, we met Jon, Sue and Jacob for brunch at the Cliff House in San Francisco.  They have an amazing brunch, complete with champagne and harp music!

Since Richmond is thousands of miles from us, it seems that we only see Jon, Sue and Jacob once or twice a year!  Have to get better about that!

We had a great time catching up - Jon has a new job in Marin, which is only about 20 miles from his house, instead of nearly 100!  Sue has decided that she is ready for a new challenge, and is looking for a job as a Communications director in the public sector, either in the education or non-profit area.  She would be awesome in that role.  She'll be retiring her business of 17 years once she finds the ideal job.

Jacob is a Junior in high school, and will be 17 in February.  I think that he now holds the record for height in the family!  Don (son-in-law) used to be the tallest, but I think that Jacob may have edged him out!  Jake plans to join the military when he graduates from high school, and after a 4 year stint, take advantage of the GI Bill to go to a technical school.

Fortunately, the Cliff House allows you to dine in a leisurely fashion, so we were able to do lots of catching up.
 

Jon, Jacob and Susan

Pat and Lee

Blustery, windy cold weather! 

Yes, there's a bit of a height difference......

Lee, Jacob, Sue and Jon

The Golden Gate bridge with Ft. Point on the right.

After brunch, Lee and I changed into tennis shoes and warm coats and went for a walk along Lands End.  Once we got away from the ocean, it wasn't as windy.  A lovely walk, and a good way to walk off a bit of the delicious brunch!

Walking in Moss Beach...

We took a walk down to the beach, as it was a minus tide.  It was clear, but pretty cold, so we were the only ones on the beach!  We commented that it was a New Zealand beach - they are wonderfully uncrowded!

The view from the top

Not a soul in this direction....

Or this one, either!

Lots of exposed rock, due to the minus tide

Some of the erosion along the cliffs - you can see a part of the fence that used to be quite far back from the bluff!  It will be interesting to see what this year's winter storms bring, as there are several large trees, just teetering on the edge!

We found lots of great sea glass, too - very peaceful walk, so happy to live where we do and be able to take advantage of the beach.

Steitz Family Thanksgiving 2011 at Yosemite Lakes Park

For the second year, the Steitz family celebrated Thanksgiving at Gary and Joyce's home at Yosemite Lake Park, near Coarsegold.

This year was very special, as Mark and Alisha are home and were able to join us.  Last year it was just the five of us, and we talked to Mark and Alisha in Ireland via skype.

We enjoyed another wonderful Thanksgiving buffet dinner at Ducey's Lodge in Bass Lake, about 40 minutes from Gary and Joyce's.  The selections of food is amazing, and everything is fabulous!  I think that we all agreed that the most amazing thing on the menu this year was the salmon!  There is certainly no reason to shop, cook and clean up when you can go to Duceys!

The weather was amazing during our visit.  Last year it was quite cold, and there was snow on the ground on the way to Ducey's.  But this year it was warm and clear and beautiful!  We took advantage of the lovely walking trail around the lake, and watching the ducks and wild life.  We even saw an egret and a blue heron.

We all worked on a jig saw puzzle, did lots of knitting and computing, and enjoyed just spending time together and visiting.  In addition to all of us humans, there were 4 dogs and one cat, so it was quite fun - lots of laps!

The fall colors were in great abundance, adding to the beauty of the area.  


On Sunday we all loaded up and headed home.  Jim had the most traffic to contend with, as well as fog.  We cut across to the coast and avoided going up Highway 101, so we had no traffic problems.  


Another wonderful Thanksgiving!  Thanks, Gary and Joyce for being such wonderful hosts!  We can't wait till next year!

At Duceys' - Jim, Joyce, Gary, Pat, Lee, Alisha and Mark

Family portrait - Mark and Alisha with Tricky Woo

The walking trail along the lake

The lake at Yosemite Lake Park

Pat, Jim and Joyce

Egret!

Beautiful trees across the lake

Alisha and Mark

Jim and Joyce, working on the puzzle

Tricky Woo

Gary and Joyce took us all out to dinner at the Blue Heron as our Christmas gift!  It's a wonderful restaurant that's just five minutes from their home.  We had a great time.

And since we'd just had Christmas dinner, and since Mark and Alisha will be with Mark's family for Christmas, they gave us our gifts early.  Jim and Rex got a sweater for Rex!

Hmmm... not sure he likes it!  But I bet he will when it's really cold.

We got a great book of the "Back Road Wineries in Sonoma" - the perfect size to live in the glove compartment in the car, for reference when we're in the Sonoma area.  We're looking forward to making use of it!

And a DVD for Gary and Joyce.  You can see Atticus there on the couch between them.  We didn't get a picture of Cricket, Gary and Joyce's black cocker spaniel, but she was at Joyce's feet in her bed.

Autumn in Gurneville

We visited Guerneville recently, and stayed in one of these cute little cabins at Dawn Ranch there.  We had visited there before when Bryan and Peter were here last year.  After that visit, Lee found that his credit card had not been charged for one of the nights stay.  He called them and they were so happy that he did - they sent his a gift certificate for a free nights stay!  Good karma!

Most of these little cabins are nearly 100 years old, and are nothing fancy, but they are comfortable and in a beautiful setting.  We really enjoyed the changing colors of the leaves in the area, too.

While there, we visited some wineries that we had never been to, and found some really great ones.  This has been a big wine year for us!  And we are not good at visiting a winery and NOT buying some, so at this point our wine cellar is very well stocked!

Dawn Ranch would be a great place for a family reunion - or, an AGP!!

Cabins nestled among the redwoods and other trees

Our visit with Nathan

We went to Long Beach to visit with our grandson, Nathan, at the end of October.  We hadn't been there since he moved in this May, so we decided that some time with him at his beach-front condo would be a great way to extend our summer.

We had great luck with the flight down, and Nathan picked us up at LAX.  After going to Nathan's condo and unloading, we did some errands that included a trip to Costco to get the things we needed for a spaghetti dinner for Nathan's friends on Tuesday night.

Several of his friends came, and enjoyed the dinner and playing video games afterwards.  It was great to meet them, and get a feel for Nathan's life in Long Beach.

We spent lots of time on the community deck, enjoying the sunsets with a glass of wine - very cool!  We took lots of walks and did some sight-seeing around the area, too.  We watched him play hockey with his league on Friday night, which they won!  Nathan scored the winning goal, which was cool! 

Nathan was a great host, and gave up his room for us.  He slept on the murphy bed in the living room, which allowed him to enjoy his electronic entertainment, long after Lee and I had retired for the night.

Nathan worked on Wednesday and Thursday, so Lee took him to work, and we had a car, as well!  We decided that while the condo was great, it really needed something to house all of his game consoles and tv, and contain the myriad of wires in the living room.  We found the perfect thing at Ikea, and called that his Christmas present.  Then we decided to add a bigger TV, since his very small one looked silly when all set up with everything else.  So, we added a bigger TV and some gaming chairs.  The result looked great, and we have taken care of his birthday and Christmas gifts for the next few years!

We also helped him hang his pictures, which added to the homey feeling.

A great visit, Nathan, thanks for your hospitality!!
 

Boats in the harbor, with the Queen Mary in the background

The boat harbor and lighthouse.

Nathan and the lighthouse.  He's settled very easily into southern California living

Grandpa and Nathan

The Queen Mary.  Right beside her is a Russian submarine

Long Beach from the Queen Mary

The moon was coming up as we walked back to the condo

Lots of beautiful clouds. 

Hawaii??  Or, Long Beach!  Just as pretty and a lot easier to get to

A surprised Nathan sees the additions to his living room

Entertainment center, tv and gaming chairs - and not a wire in sight!  Well, not many..

He didn't seem to mind that he's gotten his birthday and Christmas presents all at once

Pictures!

More pictures, and the i-Pad docking station.  The picture frame on the right is electronic, filled with lots of pictures of Nathan and his family

The Sharks wall!

Family pictures

Our Moss Beach walk

We've been having some lovely weather here on the coast side, and we've been taking walks to enjoy it.

Here are some of the things we've seen along the way:

Gorgeous golden Angel's Trumpet bloom - sadly, not ours!

The flag, flying high at the Pt. Montara light house.  We've adopted the light house, and have provided the last two American flags.  We go there often, so we always know when it's time for a replacement

Halloween decorations at the Point Montara Youth Hostel - they do a great job of decorating for Halloween

All of the pumpkin "noses" are pieces of drift wood

We noticed the huge line of vans and trucks parked in Moss Beach on the frontage road, across from the Post Office.  We had to go and find out what was going on!  Turns out it's a filming crew!  They are making a film about Maverick's surfing, and were filming near the Montara state beach.  We chatted with several of the members of the crew.  They will be filming for the next couple of weeks, and will set up for the duration near HMB state beach.  I guess that we may have to see that movie!

Okay, under the heading of "the little things in life" - we noticed this tiny soap bubble, perched on the hairs of the African violet which is in the kitchen on a shelf over the sink!  Evidently the bubble is from the liquid dish washing soap.  It's been sitting there for over half an hour now!  What a hoot!