Travels Fall /Winter 2012

October 4-6 Hopper (Baltimore MD)

Gloria Townsend and Paul Gabbert

At the Reception

October 20-23 Lynchburg, Virginia

Nov. 2-3 Chicago SIGCSE Board

SIGCSE Board Dinner Mercat Planxa

Nov. 15 - Dec 3 Georgia Thanksgiving Vacation

Chloe and Phil at the Corn Maze in Ellijay

Rob and Chloe before the Blue Ridge Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving in Blue Ridge

Phil Geocaching in Hayesville NC

Little Williamsburg in Blue Ridge

Dec 13-18 San Francisco California visit with Suze and Luis

Clockwise from top left:

Suze and Luis' Door; Hanging cards, Parade of Boats, at Cafe Pacifica, and 100% Sweet and at the Science Museum

September travels

Coast to Coast and North to South

Pacific Coast Sept 1 in San Francisco; northern border Niagara Falls, Canada September 9, Atlantic Coast Plymouth, MA September 10 and Gulf Coast at Galveston, TX September 27

We began our car trip two days after we returned from California.  Our first goal was to get to Wauseon, Ohio for Barb's class reunion.  Most of the festivities were held at the Heritage Inn in Archbold, part of the Sauder Enterprise -- you may see Sauder furniture in high end stores like Wal-Mart
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We also took some time to visit friends and places around Wauseon.

Phil at Fulton County Museum where we saw artifacts from my grandparents;; visiting  Jean and Dave in assisted living pictured with Jean's daughter-in-law, Bev; Barb's parents' grave in Wauseon

We headed off to Massachusetts but missed a turn in New York State and decided to detour to Niagara Falls, Canada.  We had a great time.  We saw Jay Cochrane tightrope walk from the Skylon Tower to the Hilton Hotel; and saw the evening colored light show.  We had a fantastic pizza at Johnny Peppers -- watching the owner roll the dough and bake the pizza in the wood fired kiln. In the morning we enjoyed walking through the commercial section of town and down to the lovely gardens and falls view.

Niagara Falls, Canada

We then went to Carver, MA where we had a grand visit with Phil's sister Belle.  We did lots of local exploring including a drive down to Cape Cod to Falmouth and Woods Hole.  We learned there that Paul Revere had cast the bell in the church on the Falmouth green and that Katharine Lee Bates who wrote America the Beautiful was born in Falmouth. We walked a lot in Myles Standish Forest, along the shore in Plymouth and around Carver. We ate a lot!  We had pizza from our favorite place Georgio's in Carver together with Steve and Gay.  Gay is a nurse and took everyone's blood pressure!  Crazy family!  We drove around looking at many places Phil and Belle had lived as children.

        The last evening we had a lobster cookout in Belle's backyard.

From Massachusetts we headed south for a few days at our cabin in Blue Ridge.  We did some hiking, resting, and geocachine plus Barb had 3 phone meetings and three paper reviews!  We headed to Decatur to celebrate our granddaughter Camille's birthday before going back to Texas.


The final leg of our trip was to Houston where Phil had some medical appointments at the Baylor College of Medicine.  A Trader Joe's had just opened not far from our hotel, so we had great food in our extended stay hotel room thanks to TJ.  We used the trip as an excuse to explore places on Galveston Island that we had not been to before. Before heading back home, we took a guided tour of Ima Hogg's Houston Bayou Bend mansion and gardens .  We were the only two on the tour and the guide, a chemistry/art history major at Rice was fantastic.

Galveston State Park Beach

Home at Last!!!!

San Francisco - Georgetown Tuesday September 4

Luis had to go to work but Suze took the day off to be with us.  She began doing wash and cleaning up.  We eventually walked to Golden Gate Park through the neighborhoods.  I had too much coffee and was thrilled to find a construction port-o-potty on the sidewalk!

We found a couple of geocaches (actually Suze spotted both of them) in the park.  Our goal was the free museum day at the de Young Art Museum in the eastern part of the park.  We did go in but only to enter the sculpture garden which was amazing.  We could have spent days in the two museums and gardens around them.  Another time, I hope.

We took two buses back to the apt. for a lunch of leftovers and final packing.  Suze found pictures for me to use in a newspaper wedding announcement.

We got in the car to go to the airport but I talked Suze in to driving by China Beach for a last look at the water and the bottom of the fogged in bridge. We saw the sun finally at the airport! We picked up sourdough bread for the Hulshizers in the airport and had an uneventful flight home.

See all the trip pictures

Labor Day September 3, 2012 San Francisco

I baked an apple pie using refrigerator rolls as bottom crust (not a good idea).  Suze, Phil and I walked to Golden Gate park, found a geocache and enjoyed being in the park even though it was a very foggy day.  We loved the vibrant Queen Wilhelmina Garden with its windmill. At the northwestern entrance to the park.  Just down the road was Beach Chalet with murals painted in 1936-37 showing only one tower of the Golden Gate Bridge which was then under construction.  We walked north along Ocean Beach to Cliff House and the Sutro Baths, so we have made a loop from Suze’s house, albeit on different days.  Luis picked us up and brought us back to the house. 

Once again we went to Fresh and Easy to get a few things for the “picnic.  We crossed a picket line at the store which was ironic as it was Labor Day! Luis did a lot of chopping and grilling for our feast.  Their tiny grill was down a flight of stairs in the yard but did a great job on fresh corn on the cob, eggplant, burgers, chicken and Italian sausage. He had also oven roasted new potatoes. We had our picnic indoors!

See all pictures from the trip

San Francisco Sunday September 2

Phil and I went to the store and bought supplies for a huge breakfast.  We had eggs to order, sausage, bacon, hash browns, melon, tomato, avocado, coffee, toast and juice.

The guys went back to the store for supplies for the Labor Day cookout.

It was incredibly foggy with the fog horns softly sounding in the background. We decided to head for the sunshine and the Marin coast at Point Reyes.  The Golden Gate Bridge was completely shrouded in fog.  We felt bad for all the tourists walking in the cold, wet across the bridge.

As we hit the end of the bridge, the fog lifted and it was a glorious day. We stopped for coffee and a geocache which we found next to a very dead deer! I love the changes from dry oak sprinkled hillsides to dark redwood forests.  We drove through the quaint town of Pt. Reyes Station and stopped at the really informative Bear Valley National Seashore Information station.  The ranger gave us maps and told us that the lighthouse would be in fog.  We decided to take the Limantour Spit Trail.  The 20 minute drive down to the beach was spectacular and the beach was fantastic.  We did take the trail along the estuary. Lots of birds and blue sky.


The trip back to SF was really pretty (until the fog and traffic at the Golden Gate Bridge.  Phil and I went to Fresh and Easy for supper stuff.  We watched Bernie II and enjoyed our meal.

See all pics from the long weekend.

San Francisco Saturday September 1, 2012

Phil and I woke early, ate breakfast and I worked on my pictures and diary. We found a cache near their house that was in Lincoln Park Playground (built over a cemetery that had been moved). Then we walked to a really cool hardware store narrow jammed full including a (long 4 aisle) basement, where we bought an ironing board cover to replace the ancient one on the built-in board in the kitchen.

 Suze led us on a walk up Camino Del Mar to the Legion of Honor Museum where we walked around the grounds and found a geocache. We then took the coastal trail out to Point Lobos. We ate lunch at Louis overlooking Seal Rock and the Sutro Baths. Great view but expensive $60 for grilled cheese, soup and a veggie burger plus a patty melt take out for Luis.

 Back at the apt. we got ready for the game and rode the bus and then Bart to Oakland. The seats were great and the Red Sox were awful! An older woman got hit in the back of the head with a foul bowl that ricocheted.

 

We were exhausted after the long trip back but pigged out on leftovers and watched the first episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I managed to break one of their wedding china bowls and so I ordered an additional place setting.

 See all the pics on Flickr

San Francisco August 31, 2012

Friday August 31  Gtown-SanFrancisco


Neither one of us slept well – waiting to get up to go to the airport.  Getting to San Francisco was really easy on JetBlue especially since we bypassed the long security line using American priority status.

The plane got to SFO early but had to circle because only one runway was open – a common occurrence in this foggy city.  Suze had circled many times in an effort to pick us up.  She got us to their house in good order.  Oh, my goodness, it is lovely.  So much room and so much light on a grey day!

We immediately went on a long walk.  Great outdoor trails and vistas are only a couple of blocks away from her apartment!  We first took a national park trail called Land’s End with panoramic views of the water and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Then we walked the other way in a VERY ritzy neighborhood called Sea Cliff.  Actually the border of Sea Cliff is just across the street from their apt. We saw what is reported to be Robin Williams house, across the street from China Beach where Suze was able to decipher the geocaching clue “Think Pink Floyd”. (The cache was in a hole in the retaining wall.)

From the beach we walked back passed her house to Fresh and Easy, a marvelous grocery a block away where we got fixings for lunch including their version of 2 buck Chuck – the Big Kahuna.  After lunch we took a short nap and then headed by bus to the other side of the city, the financial district.  I showed Phil where I had stayed in June, and we found a cache in a lovely park just across the street.  We met Luis in the Ferry building and with a few mis-starts, got the bus home.  Suze has either a cold or allergies so we went to CVS for medicine and then to Fresh and Easy for fixings for a late supper.  I made pasta, broccoli and salmon with a ready prepared pear salad.  Yum.

The cats seemed to like us and bugged us while in bed!

See entire trip pics in a slide show