Alisha and Mark's visit

Mark and Alisha are here from Ireland!  They are on a year's furlough from their missionary work there, and hadn't been home for 4.5 years!  They brought their dog, Tricky Woo, with them.  We picked them up at Mark's brother's house in Pittsburgh on Sunday, and they spent the week with us.  We had fabulous weather for the first part of their visit, and the coast was at it's best, with blue skies and sunshine, and even warm temps!

We spent time around here, took walks, went into Half Moon Bay for a stroll, and just enjoyed visiting and catching up.  We also went into San Francisco on Tuesday and enjoyed Chrissy Field, where we had a picnic, and did the more touristy things, like Lombard Street and Coit Tower.  You could sure tell that it was summer by the number of people that were out and about, but what a spectacular day!

On Wednesday our gray, overcast skies returned, but it was still warm.  We had an "at home" day, did laundry, Lee and I visited the dentist, and got a nice walk in before dinner.

Thursday morning we loaded up the car and headed to Calistoga!  We left the gray and soon found the sunshine!  We stayed at our favorite place in Calistoga, and enjoyed the deck and the wonderfully warm weather!

We visited a few wineries and did some tasting, which was lots of fun.  We had dinner at the Flatiron Grill, which we had eaten at before.  Unfortunately, the service was really slow this time, but the food is still good.

We came home on Friday afternoon, and sadly, hit LOTS of traffic - took us about 3 hours to get home.  We all walked up to the little Mexican food place by us and brought food home for dinner that night.

On Saturday we loaded up the car, and left for Los Banos, where we met Gary and Joyce and Mark and Alisha and Tricky are now in Fresno for a while, visiting with family and friends there.

It was great to have them here after such a long time!!  Thanks so much for coming to visit!!

A walk on Tuesday up to the lighthouse in Montara.  A beautiful, sunny and warm day!

Mark, Alisha and Tricky Woo at Chrissy Field, with the Golden Gate Bridge

Mark and Alisha

Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Some nice lady took this picture for us.

Mark, Alisha and Tricky with the fountain behind them

Some of the columns at the Palace - amazing!!

The original structure was built in 1915 for a Worlds Fair.  It was meant to last for a year!

Coit Tower with a statue of Christopher  Columbus

Christopher Columbus

At Cornerstone in Sonoma!  We had fun with this chair!  Tricky is on the left arm.

Family photo

Another family photo

The whole gang

A picnic at V. Sattui winery.  The weather was gorgeous!

Mark and Tricky enjoying the hammock at our lodging - well, Mark is enjoying it!

Alisha, Mark and Tricky, outside of Cabin 3, where they stayed

The winery Chateau Montelena, through the trees.

Chateau Montelena gardens and picnic pagodas

Another view of the winery.  If you haven't seen the movie Bottle Shock, rent it - it was filmed here and is about California taking first place at a blind tasting in Paris in 1976.

Mark, Alisha and Tricky

The bottle of Chardonnay that rocked the wine world!

At the fountain

It was lots of fun!  Thanks for visiting and giving us an excuse to be tourists, and to visit Calistoga and the Napa Valley!