We had a great time visiting my sister, Patsy, in Sacramento, CA. She was a great hostess and tour guide. She was also a slave horse making us (mostly Bob) do all of her projects that were on her "to do" list. (Just kidding.) We did surprise her and arrived a day or so early, but she was ready for us. The first day we got settled in, did laundry, went shopping, created ideas for and shopped for materials for her projects, and celebrated with wine, good food, and chocolate cake.
Patsy even noticed an ad in the newspaper about a magic club meeting so we all went. Bob had another opportunity to show off his talent as well as seeing other magicians' talents. Patsy and I even enjoyed the magic tricks.Bob made contact with one of the magicians, and on another day he visited him. He was in his 90's and had lots of experiences and ideas to share.
One of our big trips was to San Francisco via Amtrak. It was a great way to go. Here we are enjoying the ride.
One advantage was being able to plan what we wanted to do when we got there.
We were delayed for about 20 minutes when a ship had to pass under a drawbridge which was the route for the train. It was pretty interesting to see that.
To entertain himself, Bob visited with one of the passengers. They had good conversation, and then Bob challenged him to several games of NIM. It turns out that this man was an accomplished chess player so he enjoyed the challenge of NIM even though he didn't quite figure it out. Bob gave him a resource to check it out though.
We arrived at Pier 39 where we had a great view of Alcatraz.
The Sea Lions hang out on the dock around there.
Here we are.
We found a magic shop and stopped in to see a few tricks being performed. Fun.
This reminded us of our Aunt Rosemary who was a Rosie the Riveter in Seattle. She worked on planes instead of ships.
This is the Fisherman's Wharf area.
In the bay, there were people actually swimming. I can't even imagine how cold and difficult it must be. Here is a guy who just finished his swim. I supposed it helped to wear a wet suit.
Here are three heads bobbing in the water as they swim. You won't catch me in there. Give me a nice swimming pool any time.
We walked out onto a pier to get a better view of Alcatraz. Does it look like we're escapees? Well that's what we were trying to look like.
Does it look like we just swam across and are climbing over a wall onto safe, free ground?
Did we get samples. YES!!!! MMMMmmmmm!!!!
We did walk the hills of San Francisco, and our muscles felt it the next few days.
We walked up to the top of Lombarde Drive which is a very steep, narrow, and windy road. We walked down to the bottom. One crazy guy used his skate board to go down. He is next to the car. I know he fell a few times, and I know he hurt himself some, but he made it to the bottom. Unfortunately a policewoman was at the bottom, and we think he was ticketed for his stunt.
Here is a view of it from the top of Coit Tower. We also hiked up and down hills to get to the tower.
This was a view from the base of Coit Tower. It was a cruise ship.
Another view.
You guessed it, the Golden Gate Bridge.
This is Coit Tower. Patsy and I went up to the top, but Bob waited for us down at the bottom. We got great views of the city from up there.
Coit Tower again.
Here we are up at the top.
This was a statue down below.
Then we went to China Town. We did a little shopping, but we mostly just looked around.
We got hungry so we decided to find a restaurant in China Town and actually found a great one. We sat outside on a balcony and had a great view of the area.
Some of the delicious food.
The restaurant.
Then we walked through an Italian area where we bought some pastries to eat on the train ride back to Sacramento.
Sisterly connection.
Neat church.
This is at the Amtrak Station. I took some pictures while we waited for the train to go back to Sacramento.
MMmmmm. Good. Our treat after a long day of walking the hills of San Francisco.
One day we spent touring Sacramento. Here we are at a fort where we visited.
One of our favorite spots was visiting the Blue Diamond Factory. We saw an informative video, sampled all kinds of almonds, and bought some very important souvenirs. Sorry we ate them all.
Then we toured the Governor's Mansion. It was scheduled to close so we may have been some of the last visitors for a while. Our tour guide was very entertaining. He said he had been on RAGBRAI.
Bob and the tour guide talking after the tour.
A model of the Governor's Mansion. No Governor lives there and hasn't for several years.
Nearby, were the Capitol, the gardens, and the rose garden. We stopped to smell the roses.
Cooling off with the water in the fountain there.
The Capitol. Evidently, they have used this building in movies as a stand in for the Capitol in DC.
After our day in Sacramento, we met Patsy's friend, Ed, for a birthday dinner for Patsy since it was her birthday. We met at the Crab Shack along the Sacramento River where there was a cool draw bridge. He greeted her with a beautiful lei.
One thing the workers do at the Crab Shack is entertain the customers with dancing to music from time to time. If it's your birthday, then they have you dance so here is Patsy getting ready. They picked out a Hawaiian outfit for her for some reason. It just fit.
She looks like a pro, doesn't she? I think she's had lessons. I don't know about the guy.
Then Patsy opened up all her gifts from Ed. He was very thoughtful.
This is the bridge. Notice the road way is even.
Here, the center is raised to get ready for a boat to go under.
There goes the boat.
Another day we did the winery tour just north of Sacramento. We went to several wineries. Sampling all the wines was a lot of fun. Patsy and her friend, who joined us, knew their wines, but I just knew what I liked, and that was mostly the sweet wines.
We had a nice picnic on the porch of one of the wineries. That was very pleasant along with a glass of their wine.
Patsy and her friend bought their fair share of wine.
The grapes.
Did I have too many samples?
I feel great. Is there more?
Another day we went to San Jose. Bob has had a desire to check out the Rosicrucians because he had some dealings with them when he was in junior high and has wondered about them ever since. It turns out the museum we had decided to visit wasn't exactly what he had in mind. While Patsy and I toured the museum, Bob went in search of information about the Rosicrucians in their library. He was delighted to find someone with whom to visit.
This is the museum. It was an Egyptian museum and very interesting.
We also went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. This is a huge house that was built by a woman who believed as long as she built onto the house she would remain alive. It's amazing what all she had built, including a door that led nowhere.We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside, just the outside.
Here's a model of the house.
Sunday, we went to church with Patsy. I thought it was neat that they offer a free breakfast to anyone every Sat. morning.
Here is what her church looks like.
They have a garden to grow produce for their breakfasts and for sharing with those in need.
After church we took a Sunday drive in the Delta area along the Sacramento River. It was quite pretty.
We accidentally came across a Cajun Festival, and we decided to check it out.
Typical food, crawdads. Someone just left it there so I took a picture. We did not partake!!!!
There was a magician so we stopped and watched him. He was especially good for the kids.
Another day we drove to Tahoe. The scenery was beautiful
The pine cones are huge.
We had a nice picnic along the lake in Tahoe. We did not go to any of the casinos. Thank you.
One thing that Patsy and I did about 3 times was walk in her nearby park. Our route was about 4 1/4 miles. Good exercise and good conversation.
Another thing we did often was to sit by the pool. Here we are toasting ourselves.
Eating breakfast out by the pool was one of my favorite things to do while there. I could get used to this kind of life.
After our walks we did water aerobics and cooled off in the pool. The weather was nice and warm in the day time to warm the water , and it mostly cooled off at night so we could open up the house to cool it off.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten........................
This is what I did while Bob worked on his projects.
Here he is showing off the screen that he fixed while I am lounging in the pool.
Yes, one of Bob's favorite things to do is projects for people. So Patsy had a "to do" list.
One was repairing the screening on her windows, two of them.
Here they are choosing the wood for the shelf that Bob made for her.
Here he is sanding the shelf.
The shelf was going just outside her kitchen window so she can put food, etc. out on it when she entertains out on the patio. She had a shelf there before so Bob used the existing braces as well as adding one in the center.
Staining the shelf.
She also needed to level this fountain that was moved during another project that she had done.
More screening.
The finished shelf.
She also wanted something to hide her pool equipment. We didn't get all of it finished, but we got a lot of it done before we left. Patsy will have to finish the project later, probably after her trip to Hawaii.
Bob also set up and leveled this new fountain.
I was in charge of the project of getting and putting in the pictures of our family into the plastic pockets on the quilt that I gave to Patsy, and all my siblings.
One night, Patsy and I went to play Bunco. I had never played before, and I had beginner's luck because I won $80 for having the most Buncos and for having the last one. Both bring in the most winnings. I didn't realize what was happening. I was just there to have fun, but I don't mind winning either.
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