2012 Hughes Airwest Christmas gathering...

Continuing our holiday celebrations, we went to Jan and Tracy's last night for the Air West Christmas get-together.  Jan and Tracy had decorated their house and it was very festive.

We all brought side dishes to go with Jan's Buttermilk Fried Chicken (yummy!!) and had a very delicious dinner.  It was great to see Jan and Tracy, Bill and Gloria, Judy and Russ, Chris and Jack, Charla and Linda.  Sadly, we don't get to see them as much as we used to, so gatherings like this are special.

Everyone was doing well and making plans for the holidays - some with families, some are traveling and even working.  But everyone was looking forward to the holidays and the coming year.  What a joy it is to have good friends like these!

 

 Jan and Tracy's Christmas tree and some of their decorations.  You can see that there was no shortage of desserts!

The beautifully decorated table

 

 Gloria and Jan

Chris and Judy

Al, Tracy, Bill and Russ - gathered around the bar!

 

 Charla, Pat and Linda

Happy birthday, Judy!  Judy's birthday is the 13th of December so a birthday cake seemed appropriate!

 

 Ready to blow out the candles!  I hope she made a wish!

Judy cutting the cakes

 

I made "frilly" scarves for all of the girls

 

 The Air West gang - minus Jan, who was taking the picture

What a great evening!  We loved catching up with everyone and look forward to seeing all of you in the new year!

Holiday Brunch with Jon and Sue

On Sunday, December 9th we met Jon and Sue at the Cliff House for our annual holiday brunch.  Sadly, Jacob had committed to working that day, so he was unable to join us.

Brunch was fabulous, as usual, and the day was spectacular!  Beautiful blue skies and plentiful sunshine!  After a leisurely brunch, we walked around outside of the Cliff House to enjoy the views and take pictures.

The tide was out and there were lots of people about enjoying the great weather.  We went through the giant camera - camera obscura - which projected the camera's view via mirrors onto a giant disc inside the "camera".  It was quite amazing!  Google "camera obscura" it's the ancient discovery that lead to modern photography.

After Jon and Sue left, we went for a walk along Lands End.  When the trail became too mucky and muddy, we returned and walked through the park above the Cliff House, which was once home to Adolph Sutro - immigrant from Prussia who as an engineer helped develop San Francisco and served as Mayor.  He owned much of the area around Lincoln Park and included the area where the Cliff House stands now.  

And what an amazing view he had!  We were able to climb up to where his home had been, and stayed to watch the sunset.  After that it was time to head home along the Great Highway, where we had an amazing orange sky almost all the way to Moss Beach.

A grand and glorious day!  And while we certainly missed seeing Jacob, it was great to see Jon and Sue and catch up with them.  We love our holiday tradition with them!

 Behind the Cliff House with the beach behind us

 A beautiful day with a very low tide

Jon and Sue

 

 Lee and Pat

Sand Art!!  We watched this guy with a rake create this amazing work of art - you can see him in the upper right hand of the picture.  And, by the time we left the area, the tide had begun erasing it!

 The camera obscura!  Inside the building is a dark room where the images captured from the camera lens in the roof are projected onto the disc inside the room - very amazing!

 Walking along Lands End

The view from Sutro Park

 

The wall surrounding the area where Sutro's home once stood

 

 Enlarge this picture - to the left of it are a series of steps leading to the top of the hill - the first step is just big enough for one foot - they get slightly larger as they go up

 And the sunset begins.....

 And here it is, in all it's glory!  Just beautiful!!

What a great day!  Thanks, Jon and Sue, for braving all that traffic, too!  We loved seeing you!

Half Moon Bay Christmas

Half Moon Bay celebrates the Night of Lights on the first Friday in December.  We went into town to take part in the festivities - the lighting of the Christmas tree, Christmas carols by the Half Moon Bay High School Chorus, chestnuts roasting on an open fire - Lee had never had roasted chestnuts before - free roasted marshmallows for the kids, the parade with all of the floats and people decorated with lights (which was a good thing as it was DARK), all of the children scrambling for the candy that was tossed from the parade floats, entertainment at La Piazza, lots of people dressed in red and wearing Santa hats, even the pets!

It was a true small town event and we really enjoyed all of it!  There were hula dancers performing and the evening was closed out by the Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers doing lots of great Scottish folk songs.

The night was clear and very cold (for us!) so a great way to kick off the holiday season.  And it looked like lots of people were taking advantage of the shops being open, too.

On Saturday night we went down to the harbor the the "lighting of the boats" - each year many of the boat owners decorate their boats with lights and it's so pretty on the water.  Santa was there listening to wish lists, a small band played Christmas carols and the HMB High School chorus sang again.

We were able to go down on the docks where the boats were anchored to get a close up look at the decorated boats.  There was a contest for the best decorated boat.  One of the boats was all festive and "Santa", in shorts and tank top, was singing and dancing to music.  We decided that he'd possibly had too much eggnog! 

But it was lots of fun, and a good way to keep the holiday spirit going!

 The Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers performing at La Piazza

Some of the lighted and decorated boats

 

 The back of "Santa" as he was dancing on his boat - he attracted quite a bit of attention

 Lights reflecting on the water

 A bit blurry, but you can see that these boat owners went all out!  I hope they won the contest!

We also discovered a houseboat at the end of one of the docks that is a beauty parlor!  Who knew??

Thanksgiving 2012

We drove down to Jim's in Grover Beach on November 17th to spend a few days with Jim before we all traveled to Gary and Joyce's in Coarsegold for Thanksgiving.

As usual, the weather in Grover Beach was beautiful!  Jim was on vacation that week, so we had lots of time to visit.  He is nearly finished with his remodel - only waiting for his drapes - and his house looks wonderful!

Sunday and Monday we did a bit of shopping as Jim was looking for a few throw rugs to add to his kitchen and entry way.  We also loaded up Jim's car with all of the old photos that we had taken from Dad's house and had been stored in Jim's garage, waiting for all of the boys to go through them.  Thanksgiving seemed like a perfect time!

On Tuesday we got up early in the morning and drove down to Simi Valley to visit the Ronald Regan Presidential Library and Museum!  Jim and Lee had visited the library shortly after it opened in 1991.  There had been many changes and improvements since then and another visit was on Jim's "bucket list".

I had never visited a presidential library and was envisioning lots of books, and not sure what else!  Needless to say, the "presidential libraries are not libraries in the usual sense - they are archives and museums, preserving the written record and history of our presidents".

We embarked on a journey through Ronald Regan's presidential experience - beginning with his childhood and continuing through his life, until he was elected president in 1982.  The exhibits took you through his 8 years of presidency, with audio, video and interactive presentations.  We saw footage of the attempt on his life on the 71st day of his first term (I had forgotten all about that!) heard many of his speeches and footage of important meetings with heads of foreign countries, most notably Russia.  There was a piece of the Berlin Wall, which had come down during his presidency and his 707 presidential jet, displayed amazingly in a vast room that was literally built around the plane.

Most interesting (and depressing) was seeing that the same issues that faced Regan still exist today - the economy, immigration, foreign policy, etc., still exist today - it seems that nothing has changed in the past 30 years......

There are 12 presidential libraries in the United States, and it would be interesting to see other, but I'm sure that the story will be the same with each of them.

It was a great experience!  If you ever get a chance to visit one, you won't be disappointed.

We got home Tuesday night and picked up Rex (who stayed with Jim's friend, Millie).  Rex was NOT happy at having been left all day and wouldn't sit with Jim!

Wednesday morning we got up early (even me!) and were getting ready to head to Coarsegold, when Gary called to tell us that Joyce had the flu!!  Needless to say, we did NOT go as none of us wanted the flu!

So we had a quiet low-key Thanksgiving dinner at Jim's.  We sure missed seeing Gary and Joyce, but we glad that they could rest and recover!

We spent the rest of the week with Jim and then headed home on Saturday.  Thanks, Jim for a great visit!

Ronald Regan - larger than life - at the entrance to his Presidential Library

Lee and Jim with Ronald

Ronald and Nancy Regan

Lee at the presidential podium.  To either side of him were teleprompters that project his speeches onto a clear Plexiglas screen - very cool!

An exact replica of the oval office - complete with the desk that Regan and other presidents before him used.

Air Force One

As you can see, the display of this aircraft was amazing!  You could walk around it, under it and through it!  And it was the shiniest airplane I've ever seen!

Lee and Jim and Air Force One

The back side of the Berlin Wall

The front side

This is where Ronald Regan was laid to rest.  We wondered if Nancy will be buried there, too

Preparing to enter Air Force One - it was interesting to see the layout of the airplane

It was a great week - beautiful weather, nice visit, nice field trip!  Gary and Joyce we missed you!  But there is always next year!!