The redwoods, and lunch at an old favorite eatery in Vacaville

We left Monterey and headed north to Henry Crowell State Park to see the redwoods. This was a much nicer park and much cheaper as well than the bay area as it was by the car load. It was rather chilly there despite the bright sunshine. We passed through some amazing truck farming areas with huge crops of artichokes, strawberries and other veggies we couldn't determine what they were. Thousands of acres of crops all of which seemed to be irrigated. We then stopped at a place I visited while sationed in the Air Force and the grandson of the owners still run the business and the food was some of the best we ate during our trip. The place of course is considerably different from when I ate there 43 years ago but the name is the same and the picture of the original owners is how I remember the momma always sitting at a table when you entered the place slicing large mushrooms by hand. Joey the grandson also remembered her doing the same when he was a youngster.

17 Mile drive down Pebble Beach, Nancy and Carol with their feet in the Pacific Ocean and the bag piper at Spanish Bay and back to Monterey for supper

There were some rugged vistas along the 17 mile drive and one of the high bridges was built in 1932 and was still standing despite all of the earthquakes, there were many mansions and some very unique ones, the girls nearly getting swept away from a rouge wave and the lone bag piper at Spanish Bay who serenaded us on our 36th anniversary and then we went back to Cannery Row for supper.

Monterey around Cannery Row

We spent the better part of a morning around this wharf, saw otters, seals and lots of large gulls. We came back the next evening to have supper at one of the seafood eateries which was splendid. This seal was sunning himself on a rock just below the waterline next to the wharf.

The pics below are from the Carmel area where the shoppes are plentiful and quite touristy. We had a nice lunch there as well as toured the coastline. It's very rugged and pristine still despite all of the grand structures that line the coast.

Additional photos of the western trip with these mainly of the San Francisco area.

Here are a few more pics from San Francisco. It was rather warm the day we arrived but by late evening you could see the fog starting to drift in from the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean which is a norm for the city.

 Here are a few more city pics that show the Transamerica building with the view from the Coit Tower as well as the Oakland Bay bridge and the round outside toilet which I thought was unique. Several large ships were at dock as well along the water front.

Monday Morning in Florida and a few pics from our Western Trip

Well Sunday was a great day that ended on a sour note as Nancy was up most of the evening and night with a stomach bug or food poisoning. She is still peaked as I write this ramble.

The morning started out fine on Sunday and we had decided to visit First Baptist of Riverview where Bobby now is the worship pastor and leader. Nancy has been watching the podcast of the sermons by Jeff Knight for the past several weeks and I too have listened to his messages. He is a wonderful speaker and his messages are to the core with no sugar coating but strictly from the Word. It's too bad he is such a great distance as we both like him and the venue. We got back around 1:30 and went to work on the family dinner we were serving at 5 PM as Tyler had a meeting at his church at 6 and this was another combined birthday supper for GG and him.

I tuned into the hapless Bucs who play lights out one week and then this week it was horrible to watch. They definitely need a place kicker as he left 10 points on the field with his missed kicks. I vacuumed, snapped beans and helped as much as possible with the preparation. Nancy had 2 huge chickens in the oven roasting along with carrots, salad and crusty bread. There was carrot cake for dessert.

Arianne came up from Miami by herself and Betsy and Braden came along with Bobby's new friend Katie. We had a house full with all 5 grand kiddos there as well. It was our typical family supper and the eatin' was superb as usual. All except for Nancy becoming ill a couple hours after everyone left left around 7'ish.

I promised to share some pics from our western trip as Tyler has shown me how to download our photos onto this new laptop, bear with me as I'm still trying to learn the Apple methods; these pics start with a shot of the rocks around Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe, the gals in Napa and then some winery pics at the Mondalvi Estate in the Napa Valley area where some tasting occurred.

The second group of photos are from the western side of Calif. as we traveled south towards the Bay Area. We came upon the Sonoma Raceway. Notice how brown and barren the hills are, then a few shots of the Golden Gate and cliffs surrounding it as well as the steepness of a typical city street in San Francisco. I will publish more on a different post.