A QUICK VISIT TO HAYWARD

On the weekend of May 20 - 22 Charlie and I drove up to Hayward to see Ian, Sarah, Sean, and Harriet.  Ian's first year at Holy Names was over and Sarah's semester was over.  We figured this would be the least intrusive weekend to drive up at this time of year.  I took Friday off from school.  It was a very necessary personal leave day.  I can tell when it's time for a bit of a break - I get down-right cranky.

We drove up at a careful pace.  On our last visit Charlie was convinced that 88 mph was OK on the 5 freeway.  The answer is - "No it isn't".  He got a ticket - did his time in traffic school - and is now on an 18 month - "No more mistakes or points will get added to you license" time.  Actually it was a very relaxing trip, and, actually took about the same amount of time.

Here's some views of Sean and his class's performance

Sean and Harriet played a bit before the songs and dances began.

The 20th happened to also be the end of year dinner at Sean's school for the Mandarin immersion class.  Sarah brought a spinach lasagna (very tasty).  Since everyone brought food - there was a mountain of choices.  Each class (K-3) did a little performance.  On Saturday we drove up to Holy Names to finally see Ian's school.  It sits in a gorgeous location - the hills overlooking San Francisco Bay.  It's not a big place, but has a nice feel to it.  Especially good if you need some stair/hill climbing exercise.

Some views of our walk around Holy Names

Ian had his math/art on display in the library.  One of several there is seen below

VANCOUVER IN APRIL 2011

We flew up north to visit Glenn, Krysty and Kayley.  Kayley and I are suffering from colds - clearly - from the sounds of both of us, despite the distance, it's the same cold.  We landed about lunchtime, then set ourselves up at Steph's flat on the first floor.  Steph has been amazing about letting us use her house when we visit.  She goes to her son's house - we take over hers.

Sunday we went to Granville Island in the morning.  One of the shops that we've gone by in the past looked like a toy store from the outside.  Inside, it's a collection of small kid rides, toy stores, and places little guys would like.  What a great place.

A store filled with clothes to imagine in - Kayley liked the helmet.

There were lots of birds in a pond which were fascinating.

Inside the market is nifty too!

Monday, Krysty and Kayley had a baby signing class and Charlie and I took a walk.  Poured rain, but a lovely walk.

 A little indoor play time.

THE NEW (AND IMPROVED) DRIVEWAY

We moved to South Pasadena in 1985 (in July).  Since we bought the house, our driveway has been a challenge.  It's long, curvy, and tough to negotiate.  When the boys first learned to drive, we decided that if they could make it to the street without driving over the lawn - they could drive anywhere!

So many cars rolled across the lawn that the sprinklers were permanently squashed on the south side of the run.  In the summer our lawn always looked pathetic - no sprinklers - no lawn.  About a month ago, Charlie asked Paul Chen (our friend and contractor) to expand the driveway.  The photos below are the great result.  As an accidental aside, the neighbor behind our house has a strange property.  It's 600 feet long and 200 feet wide.  The neighbor actually lives on a perpendicular street, and the width of the property extends behind our house.  While Paul was working on setting up the driveway expansion, the neighbor decided to trip trees along our mutual property.  Apparently, the trees were the only thing keeping the fence at the back of our house upright.  Our south side neighbor John told us that the thought our neighbor to the north had his fence down.  No, it turned out their fence was fine - ours was tipped away at a 45° angle.  Paul added the back fence to the project - now all is fixed.  Here's the front drive photos.

MINIATURE GOLF

I mentioned in a slightly older post that we had gone miniature golfing with Ian, Sarah, Sean, and Harriet.  Here's a few photos of the adventure.

THE HUNTINGTON GARDENS - CHINESE GARDEN

Charlie and I used to belong to the LA County Art Museum.  The problem was that it took us almost an hour to drive out to the museum and at least 15 minutes driving around trying to park. We then would go to some wonderful exhibit that would take us about an hour to see.  Back to the car and another hour trudging home.  Needless to say, we didn't go very often.  Eventually we decided it really wasn't worth dragging out there.  Close to our house is Huntington Gardens which have always been a treat to walk around.  Several years ago they began to charge an entrance fee.  We decided we'd join, and go as often as we could.  We manage to walk around the gardens at least once every other month at the least.  They have built a new Chinese Garden which is particularly peaceful.  Here's some photos of us in the garden.

THE HOLIDAYS

From the beginning of winter break until the beginning of February, we had a lot of house guests.  It was hectic, but a lot of fun.  The most difficult part of the month + was having company and needing to work at the same time.  Ultimately, it just made me tired.  Glenn, Krysty, and Kayley showed up first.  Due to the work on Krysty's parents' house, our house became home base.  When Ian, Sarah, Sean, and Harriet came through, we ran out of bedroom space, so Ian and Sarah ended up on futons in the living room.  Ian and Sarah (and children) came down again for New Year's  - more futons on the floor.  At the beginning of January, Glenn made a trip to Vancouver to do some work - Krysty stayed with us.  Toward the middle/end of February, Glenn took a two week trip around Canada to recruit for UBC.  Krysty went to Oklahoma to see her Grandma and cousins for the first week.  The second week she was back with us.  Then they left to drive back to Vancouver.  Our house was so QUIET it was unsettling.  The photos above are a few from our time of company.

We had driven up to see Ian and Sarah before December.  Here's a photo of our rainy trip down.

Over President's Day week-end we drove back to Ian and Sarah's.  Another rainy week-end, but Sarah found an indoor miniature golf course.  Half of it was normal room light.  The other half they had darkened and had glow-in-the-dark holes (our balls, clubs, and anything white glowed too).  Here's a photo of our favorite site on the way to and from the north - good old Arvin Edison.

 Now the visitors, trips, and company are over.  Just some quiet week-ends and teaching until spring break and a trip to Vancouver.  Later on, a trip to see Ian and Sarah again.

ANOTHER TRIP NORTH

The weather isn't exactly conducive to travel.  It's been rainy all afternoon.  I went to a faculty teacher meeting this morning.  I had planned to visit Ian and Sarah in Haywood today, but really hadn't realized that our furlough day-make up was planned to be the extra President's day weekend day (today).   I left the meeting a bit early which really made the difference in the trip.  The rain really increased as we drove becoming quite heavy the last two hours.  Fortunately, the weather put people off traveling, so the traffic wasn't as heavy as it could be.  We managed to get to Ian's by 8:30 - in time to see the grandkids before they went to bed.  Everyone was tired, but visits are good! 

We've taken the drive north so many times we know the high lights by heart.  The first highlight is Arvin Edison - the water tower seen above.  Our next highlight is Gorman (1 hour north).  Then Harris Ranch (3 hours north).  We stopped at Apricot Tree (3.5 hour north) for dinner - better than we remember.  Then on to Ian's.  Even with a rainstorm, the drive is always entertaining.

Soon - what happened between Christmas, New Year's and the beginning of February.