John's and Jo's visit

After much planning and anticipation, John and Jo arrived from New Zealand for a visit!  It was Jo's first visit to San Francisco and we were so looking forward to seeing both of them!

We had lots of thing planned along with time to just relax in Moss Beach and environs.  Following are some pictures of the things we did in the area:

John and Jo arriving at San Francisco after an all-night flight from Auckland!  We thought that they looked pretty chipper!

We had the New Zealand flag out for them!  After some lunch and some rest time, we went for a walk around Moss Beach

A beautiful but windy day at the Fitzgerald Reserve!

Another beach picture!

Jo and John enjoying the swing on the deck

Our first event - Opera in the Park at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park!  It was a beautiful, sunny day!

The Opera in the Park stage and people enjoying listening to the rehearsal arias

The "divas" singing an aria together - it was fabulous!

John enjoyed it - he's holding up the "Bravo" card!

Opera in the Park is an annual event.  It's a kick off to the opera season with principal singers doing arias from the upcoming operas.  We try to go every year!

Sunday's paper was all about the America's Cup yacht race between New Zealand and USA!

Another Moss Beach tradition - The Distillery with G&Ts!

Fun with the trees in the "magical forest" on the walk to the Distillery

Go Sharks!  An ice hockey game was on John's "bucket" list and it just so happened that the San Jose Sharks were playing pre-season games in September!  So we got tickets and headed to the "Shark Tank".  

The Shark Tank!  Our grandson Nathan is the Shark's number 1 fan, and he had sent us the schedule of the pre-season games so that we could get tickets.  It was a great game and we all enjoyed it.  Sadly, the Sharks lost by 1 point in overtime.  Oh, well - they have had a fabulous season so far!

Another Moss Beach tradition - a walk to the Montara Light House.  This is a great shot of the lighthouse - Lee is using the "panorama" feature of his new camera!

Jo and John at the lighthouse

Jo and Pat enjoying the sun and sea - as you can see, it was a beautiful day!

One of our favorite spots!  We walk up there a couple of times a week

Half Moon Bay is home to the annual Pumpkin Festival.  Pumpkins are everywhere beginning in September.  We found this one as we were doing a walk around Half Moon Bay

Jo and Lee with Lombard Street (crookedest street in the world!) in the back ground.

Jo at the top of Coit Tower.  The 360 degree view from up there was amazing.  Such a clear beautiful day, too!

John at the top of Coit tower

Lunch at Fisherman's Wharf.  Clam Chowder in a bread bowl and a cold beer!  It doesn't get much better than that!

Jo and John on a cable car at Fisherman's Wharf

A beautiful seal sculpture by Pier 39

Evening at the Palace of Fine Arts

All of us at with the Golden Gate bridge in the background.
We only spent one day in San Francisco so we'll have to remedy that on the next visit.  We also had an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista - another San Francisco landmark.  In fact the coffee was so good that John, Jo and I had a second one!  Lee was the DD, so he abstained.

Their three week visit just flew by!  The next thing we knew they were going home.  Here they are in line at Air New Zealand.  We were in line with members of the New Zealand America's Cup team, which was very exciting.  But that's another post....

And then through security and they were off!  Thank you so much for coming to visit!  We miss you and can't wait till you come back.  In the meantime, we'll see you in February!

The day that Jo and John left was also our 12th wedding anniversary.  They left us these lovely flower and card - so sweet!

There will be many posts following this one of our of our travels and activities!