Jackson

Look at this cute boy!  

I went to Meredith's last week and was so jealous that she had her whole house all decorated for Christmas!  Not much decorating going on at my house this year!

And, of course, Jackson was being his normal cute self.  He makes all kinds of funny faces but they're hard for me to catch with my camera sometimes!

Fall

Is everyone's favorite time of year Fall?  I guess if you live in Arkansas you can't help but love it after suffering through the hot and humid summers.

I've especially loved Fall so far this year.  We've had some cold days, some hot days, and some perfect days.  Today was definitely one of those perfect days!

I tried to get some things done in the yard that I normally put off until Spring.  If we're going to try to sell our house next year, we're going to have to work extra hard to make the yard look nice.  So I decided to take advantage of the weather and get a little head start!

Tiger, the stray cat that has been here for a couple years, showed up while I had my camera out this afternoon.

He still hasn't ever let me touch him.  He comes by randomly a few times a week and I feed him, talk sweet to him, and even try to lure him in the house from time to time but he's still scared of me.  I'm starting to think we'll never be pals.

San Fran Part IV - Alcatraz

On Monday we had tickets to Alcatraz.  I've always wanted to take the tour so I was really excited about it.  Christy, Beverly, and I headed out earlier than everyone else so that we could go to Lombard Street and Ghirardelli Square.

Crown and Crumpet Tea Salon.  I thought this was such a cute place.  But by the time we ate lunch Charell and the guys had joined us so we ate at a Pub around the corner before we got on the boat to go to Alcatraz.

Self-portrait of Brad and me in front of Alcatraz.

This is where each inmate received their uniform upon arrival.

And then to the showers.

Brad and me

Jason and Christy

Richard and Beverly

As you can see, the sun was very bright and the wind was blowing HARD.

Brad, Richard, Jason, Zac

View of the city from the island.

After Alcatraz we went back to the Wharf to eat since we were already close.

We were going to eat at a place Zac had picked out but once we got there, he decided he didn't really want anything there so we left and went to Bubba Gump's.

Left-Beverly, me, Christy, Charell, Right-Richard, Brad, Jason, Zac

It was much more laid back than the first choice and we had a really good time.

We had a great trip until it was time to go home.  Our flight out of SF Tuesday afternoon was delayed about 20 minutes which wouldn't have given us enough time to catch our connecting flight to LR.  

So we stayed in Dallas overnight, got on a way-to-early flight the next morning, and got home around 8:30 Wednesday morning.

San Fran Part III - Raiders

As soon as we knew we were going to San Francisco, we checked to see if the 49ers were in town, but they were away in Detroit.  But the Raiders were home against the Browns that weekend.  Perfect...Darren McFadden and Peyton Hillis!!  We ordered our tickets immediately and were able to get seats on the 9th row behind the Browns' bench.  

Once we got to SF, two other couples (Zac & Charell and Josh & Beth) decided that they wanted to go to the game too.  They ordered tickets on Friday and had to pick them up at a hotel a couple of blocks from the stadium.  No problem, right?  Well, we didn't think so until we got off the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) at the stadium and started walking to the hotel.  It was the WORST place I've ever seen and couldn't believe 6 Arkansans were busting right down the middle of it.  We would have thought it was a deserted area except there was so much stuff everywhere.  Weird stuff all over the road and sidewalks...like a small mattress, three pairs of black dress shoes in a pile, random trash, tires, LOTS of latex gloves, just strange things.  We all had Raiders shirts on (except Charell but at least she was wearing gray) and felt like they might be the only reason we would survive the walk.  Beth basically plastered herself to me and honestly, I was glad she did.  The guys deal with questionable people all the time at work so I think they were less worried than us, but they still thought it was all a little alarming.  I wanted to take pictures of some of the surroundings, but didn't want to waste any time or pull out anything that looked more valuable than a Raiders shirt.

We finally made it to the hotel and realized there was a slightly better route we could have taken to get there but it was still Oakland.  The walk from the hotel to the stadium wasn't quite as bad as the walk to the hotel but still not somewhere I would want to be by myself.  Thank goodness it wasn't a night game!

Brad and I love football and we were excited to see two teams we'd never seen before but were REALLY excited to see two ex-Razorbacks.

Head coach Hue Jackson shaking hands with his players before the game.  

This was before the game started.  By the end, Brad's face was sun burned pretty bad.  The weather was perfect in my opinion.

We didn't see many Browns fans, but I liked this one!

I didn't know Darren McFadden was a captain.

Sebastian Janakowski can kick the crap out of the ball.  Even if he is 100 years old.

Brad Maynard plays for the Brown's now.  I like him because he was with the Chicago Bears for years.  I wish they would have kept him.

Hillis didn't play much.

But McFadden had a pretty good day.

This was the first home game since the Raiders lost their owner, Al Davis who passed away Oct. 8.  Several ex-Raiders were featured on the field at half time as a tribute to him. 

The highlight of the tribute was definitely when our attention was directed to JOHN MADDEN who lit a torch that burned the remainder of the game!!!!

This was definitely my favorite day of the whole trip for me.  The Raiders' fans are awesome and LOVE their team.  If it wasn't in Oakland, I would love to go back.

Next up...Alcatraz.....

San Fran Part II - Chinatown

We found ourselves back at 4th Street Bar on Saturday watching football.  Charell didn't want to sit there all day so she decided to go to Chinatown.  That sounded better to me too and then we met up with Richard and Beverly and they were already planning on going.  Brad and Zac realized it might be more fun than sitting in a bar all day so all six of us went.  Good thing....I'm pretty sure Charell and I would have never made it there on our own.  There is no way we would have figured out which bus/trolly to take.

It was interesting but I didn't really like it.   Too many people and I couldn't read most of the signs.  And the streets were littered with trash and produce.

Chinatown birds.

It felt good to be able to read all of the words on the post office.

Cool art on the side of a building.

The hills in the city are pretty amazing.

We went down to the Wharf after we left Chinatown.

This guy wasn't the least bit scared of us.  I'm sure it's because he sees a million people every single day of his life.

I don't really like to be on boats but this looked like a lot of fun.

The Rock

We had dinner at the Franciscan.  Josh and Beth met us there.  Brad worked with Josh last year but now Josh has a "real" job, as we like to call it.  :)   The food was good but the best part was the view.  I wish it had been a little warmer so we could have sat outside to eat.

We walked around the pier after dinner.  Beverly wanted to see the sea lions but I didn't really like them because they wouldn't quit barking.  I tried to get a picture of them but it was too dark and it never crossed my mind to use flash.

Next post...our day spent in Oakland. And how happy we are to be alive to tell about it.

Sweet Hadley!

I got to see Hadley this weekend!  

She's just PRECIOUS!!!!

Heather spent the night with me Friday night and we got up Saturday morning to do the Race for the Cure.  We stayed up WAY too late and were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to get up Saturday morning.   We did though and went to the race.  But once we got there, we just stood in line to pick up Heather's packet and to get the Ford scarf and left!  We should have just slept later. 

Hadley and Heather's mom stayed with Martha in Sherwood and I really just wanted to see Hadley and didn't want to mess with the crowd at the Race.  

I wish I had gotten a better shot of her two little teeth.  You can just barely see them in this one...

I didn't get to see her for long, but I think she's just about the sweetest baby ever!!  I wish I got to see her more often.  

San Francisco

Brad had a conference in San Francisco for work last week so I went with him to hang out for a few days.   Several of the people he works with went too and it was nice to meet/spend some time with them.

Our view from Houston to SF

Since I was without my camera lens, I decided I needed to rent one for the trip.  I initially made a mistake on the rental dates but when I called to cancel, they told me they had a location about 3-4 blocks from our hotel in SF and I could just pick it up!  I couldn't believe my luck!  As soon as we arrived in SF, we dropped our luggage in our room and then walked the few blocks to pick up the lens.  We learned quickly that the blocks in SF are longer than the blocks at home.  We also learned that we didn't want to walk back to return the lens because the area seemed questionable to me.  

I rented a Canon 18-200 and was very happy with it.  If I didn't already have an 18-135 I would consider buying the 18-200.  I didn't even use the 70-300 that Bedford loaned me.  It would have probably been nice for certain situations, but I didn't want to carry extra lenses with me everywhere.

One of the guys Brad works with found The Mosser hotel (the red brick building in the middle) and we all ended up staying there.  It was unlike any hotel I've ever stayed in.  But we were lucky to get the room we got...it had a bathroom in it and the sink was in the bathroom.  I know that doesn't sound like much but one couple (Zac and Charell) had to use a community bathroom down the hall from their room and another couple (Richard and Beverly) had a room with the sink out in their room instead of in the bathroom.  

There was no air conditioner which is probably fine most of the time but it was warm while we were there so the window that opened up to 4th street was the only way to cool the room.  4th street was busy 24/7 so that was a small problem.  

 This window in the shower was odd...can you tell that there is another window about 8 inches away from ours that is in the shower of the room next to us?  Weird.

This was the miniature sink that was in our bathroom.  It was so small that we all laughed about dripping toothpaste on the floor because we couldn't get above the sink.  There was a mirror that stuck out over it just to make it all more difficult!  I took this photo with my phone and I don't think it really does it justice.  HA!  

But the hotel had charm and interesting architectural details and I really ended up liking it.  We didn't spend much time in the room anyway.

The first night we just met up with some of the others for dinner at John's Grill.

After that we went to 4th Street Bar and Grill.  Brad spotted it on our way to pick up the lens.  It was just at the end of our block and we ended up eating there three or four times during our stay.  We were there on Saturday and Sunday so we had to have somewhere to watch football.

I'm going to break up our activities each day into separate blog posts so that this one isn't too long.....