Home Sweet Home

Well, we're back! We got home around 5pm today, after another late start. We had a rough morning. We stayed at Travis AFB again, and discovered they were going to have a planned power outage this morning, for about 5 hours. So, power went out at 7am at the hotel, meaning no lights, air conditioner, or bedside clock. So we slept late. Then when Mike was carrying out our stuff (no power= no elevator) he discovered the car battery was dead. We forgot to unplug our little mini fridge in the trunk overnight (oops). So, after trying to push start it himself, we ended up having to get one of the hotel clerks to jumpstart the car. Eesh!

Yesterday was our anniversary (5 years, can you believe it?), and we spent a few hours in Santa Cruz at the boardwalk. We played some games in the arcade, walked around the boardwalk, and had lunch. We only rode one ride, the Skyglider, and then we had to head back upstate.

We were hoping to have dinner at Chilis in Vacaville, but after an hour of searching and driving in circles, we gave up and went to the Outback Steakhouse.

So now we are home, unpacking, doing laundry, all that fun stuff. Glad to be home, but sad our vacation is over- we really had a good time!

Alcatraz

After an unplanned late start, we just barely made it to our boat in time to tour Alcatraz this morning. Seriously, we ran from our trolley to the dock, and they stopped boarding about 2 minutes after we got there.

The boat ride was packed, and the island was pretty busy too. We took the cellhouse audio tour, I think it was about an hour long, walking through the cell blocks, the library, the administration area, and the dinning hall. Most of the cells were empty or falling apart, but several were dressed to look as they would when the prisoners were there.

The tour was really neat, got to see a lot of the cellhouse, and it was narrated by former guards and inmates. There was actually a former inmate at the gift shop, autographing his newly released book!

After Alcatraz, we spent some more time at Pier 39 window shopping and people watching.

It's been a busy week, so I am looking forward to a nice day in Santa Cruz tomorrow, celebrating our anniversary!

Play Ball!

Wednesday we spent pretty much the whole day at or near AT&T Park. After taking the BART train into town, we arrived at the ballpark about 11 am. We had tickets for the stadium tour at 12:30, so we spent some time browsing the "Dugout" store. The tour lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, and we got to see pretty much all of the stadium, including the visitors dugout and indoor batting area, the press box, and one of the suites. Here's some pics from the tour.

After the tour we went back and made some purchases at the store (I had to get my Giants gear) and then had lunch at a little diner down the street. Then we walked around the outside of the stadium and checked out the marina and statues.

We entered the park about 5:15 and headed up to our seats. We were in right field, front row. Batting practice was going on so Mike got out his glove and stood at the rail with a bunch of other fans, hoping for a ball. He didn't get one, he was competing with cute little girls :)

The game started at 7:15 and seemed to go pretty quick. Our section seemed to get pretty rowdy, and at least 2 fans got tossed! Unfortunately, the Giants lost, but we had a great time.

Oh, SURE!! We can walk there!!!...HA!

I think Mike made it his personal goal to walk me into the ground today. I looked up distances online and we walked at least 3.5 miles- from Pier 39 to Ghirardelli Square, then to Fort Mason, then back to Pier 39. Most of it uphill. Plus walking around the shops at Pier 39, and all the other stops. My feet are killing me! But, we had a lot of fun and saw all sorts of neat things! BTW- in the picture at right, we started our journey on the far right side of the map.

So, here's what we did today:

Took a shuttle from the hotel to the airport, and then took the BART into downtown SF. We took a trolley over to Pier 39. Then we decided, we should WALK to the Exploratorium. Sure, it doesn't look that far on the map! WRONG! We only made it halfway there! We walked around Ghirardelli Square, the headed up to Fort Mason and saw the roof of the Exploratorium, about 10 more blocks away. We decided to head back and look at the aquarium instead. Along the way, we toured the docked submarine "Pampanito" and the ship "SS Jeremiah O'Brien." The submarine was very cramped, as expected. Here are some pictures from our adventures:

One of the ships we saw along the way

Returning from our "hike"
Mike in the submarine

I'm quite certain Mike will hate me for posting this one, but.... at the aquarium

The train back to the hotel... poor Mike got sunburned on his freshly shaven head!

Tomorrow we are going to tour Giants Stadium and then we have tickets to the game against the Cubs.

Jelly Belly!

We stayed at Travis Air Force Base last night, and then explored some of the base this morning.

We headed over to the Jelly Belly Factory around noon, and it was PACKED! We waited in line for about 30 minutes to take the tour, but it was lots of fun!

They had their cool Jelly Belly artwork on the walls, and a neat Jelly Belly motorcycle in the lobby.

There is a even a little cafe there!

We couldn't take pictures during the tour, but it was pretty much like they show on the Food Network show Unwrapped. We got to see the process from beginning to end, and then we got free samples!

We shopped a little bit in the gift store, and then headed down to San Francisco.

JETBOATS

Oh, my goodness! Jetoats are AWESOME!!! We had sooooo much fun this morning! We did the brunch trip, so we were out for almost 5 hours, including the hour and a half for brunch. Biscuits and gravy, eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, champagne, apple cider, orange juice... mmmmmm MMM! Tasty!

It started out nice and slow, lots of talking about scenery and animals, and the river. We saw a few other boats coming back up from the short morning trip.

This is the lodge where we had the Champagne brunch. We all sat out on the patios and everything was served family style. There was never an empty bowl on the table, and we all ate too much :)

Hellgate Canyon. The rock walls were really steep through the canyon. I didn't really get any good pictures of the canyon walls.

Tristan and Mike... they had apple cider too :)

Tristan took this pic of Mike and I on our way back down to the boat after brunch.

The trip back into town I had to put my camera away- we got soaked!!!!