Garden Ramblings: The Brown's visit

Our dear friends from Phoenix, AZ, Betty and John arrived for a visit, along with most of their family. John, Betty and granddaughter Ashley arrived on Saturday evening, their daughter Leslee and her kids Katelynn and Matthew arrived on Sunday morning, and their son Jon and his family arrived on Monday morning. Son Jim and his wife Kristi weren't able to make it, sadly.

We had a great time! They rented the Little Red House, which is around the corner from us and just down the street from the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. The kids loved the beach and playing in the water. Katelynn, Matthew and Ashley also found a lot of sea glass and have begun their own collections! Betty and John also did some beach combing and found sea glass.

We went into San Francisco, where most of them went on a tour to Alcatraz. Lee, Betty and I stayed behind, and spent some time at Pier 39, as well as enjoying the beautiful sunshine that day - it was quite a treat! Everyone enjoyed Alcatraz, and then went to the Aquarium by the Bay, which is located very near the pier for Alcatraz. The kids all did some shopping and got souvenirs from San Francisco.

We celebrated the 4th of July by attending the Half Moon Bay 4th of July parade. It's a real "small town experience", complete with tractors, horses, kids and pets, etc. All of the participants in the parade throw out candy for the people watching so Ashley, Matthew and Katelynn each had a bag of candy when it was over - better than Halloween!

In keeping with tradition, we bar-b-qued hamburgers and hot dogs and had all the accompaniments to go along. Lee lit a fire in our fire pit - the first one ever and except for the smoke everyone enjoyed the warmth.

We spent a great day at Santa Cruz, too. We left foggy, overcast Moss Beach and about 30 minutes down the road, the sky turned blue and the sun came out! We took a picnic and set up camp on the beach. The kids had a great time on all the rides and with the amusement park food - they even had deep-fried Twinkies and oreos!

We went to San Francisco a second day and drove through China Town so the kids could see it. It was really busy and crowded so we didn't try and stop, but it's on the "next time" list. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and visited Hyde Street Pier, where 17th & 18th century sailing ships are open for touring. Very interesting look at maritime history. Of course, no stop is complete without an ice cream at the Ghirardelli Square ice cream shop! They each found personalized bracelets from a street vendor, saw the cable cars at Bay Street and saw a different part of San Francisco. Then it was time to go home for dinner.

The next day, sadly, people began leaving - Leslee and her kids and Jon and his family both flew out on Saturday morning. Then Betty, John and Ashley got all loaded up and hit the road, as they had driven up. And then it was awfully quiet around here! Lee and I didn't quite know what to do with ourselves!

So, thanks you guys, for coming to visit us! We had a wonderful time and we hope that you will all be back! There's still lots of stuff to do!

Leslee, Matthew, Katelynn and Ashley at the Little Red House. Jon and his family stayed there, too, as there were two "bunk rooms" in the back, that accommodated everyone