Destin Mini-Vacay

I think Brian and Ashley have invited us to Destin for at least the past three years but we were never able to go because I couldn't take the time off work.  

So another good thing about my retirement is we were able to go spend a few days with them this year!  

Brian's parents had a condo on the beach and it was so nice of them to let us stay with them. It was chilly and cloudy most of the time but we had so much fun!  We ate well, shopped a little, and surprised Brad with a strawberry birthday cake from The Donut Hole one night.  The Baltzes even gave him a t-shirt from The Crazy Lobster (we ate there a couple times).

We sat around this table playing cards for at least a couple hours each day.  On this particular night, we had a little Pitch tournament.  Another couple from Pocahontas who are friends of Brian's parents were able to join us.

Brian's mom is the funniest person and we just laugh and laugh at with her when we're playing cards.  You never know what's going to come out of her mouth!

We walked to the jetty one afternoon.  Even though it wasn't super warm it was nice to get our feet in the sand. 

I'm surprised we didn't end up in the ER after this.  At least we had a real doctor back at the condo just in case.  :)

I love this!

I really wanted to try to get some pics of Addison while we were there too.  It warmed up a little the morning we were leaving so we took her to the beach to give it a try.  That girl LOVES the water!  But she did really good even though she only got to get her feet wet.  The water was cold!  

Isn't she adorable?!?!

And yes, she is the best dressed girl on the block!  Ashley owns Patty Cakes Children's Boutique in Jonesboro and Addison always looks adorable.  

She looked so cute in her bathing suit.  

She's so happy!  You can see the little bruise above her eye in this one....she ran into the table a day or so earlier.  At least it was just a small bruise and not an entire black eye. 

It was so nice to get away for a few days and spend some time with good friends.  Hopefully this will not be the last time we can enjoy a little vacation with them.  With the guys getting their real jobs in just a few months, it should make scheduling things a little easier from now on.

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 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.

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.....