Family Christmas 2009

Here are some photos from Christmas week in Texas.

I don't know if Ginger is looking for Santa or watching the turkey flock in the back yard. She did like her gifts, especially the quacking pull toy Chris, Tim and Maya gave her.



Here's a glamor shot of the cutest puppy in the world.



Our cousin, Jo Ann, was almost a Christmas baby, so we started the festivities on her birthday two days before Christmas. (Although we really started with a Cajun dinner my sister prepared the day before--we just didn't have anything specific to celebrate yet.)



My sister, Becky, was able to get here for the holidays (that's her on the left with my mom and Tim).



Uncle Ron read to Maya while we waited for dinner.



Our best Christmas present might have been the news that Chris got tenure at the University of Texas. She's worked very hard and certainly deserves this honor.



In addition to engineering software, she also acts as a sous chef for Tim. Usually he does all the work himself, but this Christmas there were so many dishes he enlisted Chris, his brother Arthur, and his mom, Audrey.



Here's Audrey.



We not only had a lot of people at Chris and Tim's but also a lot of dogs. Here's a subset of the six that came to dinner.



Becky brought Maya a tea set, so Maya had a tea party with Becky and her aunt Jocelyn.



We got Maya a scooter (with the appropriate safety gear) and she took to it like a champ. Note the cute boots she got for Christmas.



And of course, there was turkey.

October in Florida

We decided to use one of our timeshares to take a late season trip to Florida. We expected to get a one-bedroom condo, but to our surprise, we ended up with a two bedroom, two bath unit. We decided that having some company would be fun, so we invited my cousins to go with us. That proved to be a great decision and we had a great time. Ron and I got in four rounds of golf (Susan and JoAnn got in two, plus a lot of shopping). At first the weather looked dicey, when a late season hurricane blew up in the Gulf and headed our way. We ended up with a couple of days of rain, but by and large the weather cooperated and the storm landed west of us and went north to the Carolinas, which got hit much worse than Florida.

Here's a picture of the surf as the storm was rising.



I think two flags means stay out of the water. You can see it was beginning to blow.



We used one of the days of rain to visit the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola. It is one of the best museums I have ever visited (and it's free). We got a guided tour and saw an IMAX movie (not free). Here are couple of shots from inside the museum. All the planes are real, so you can get some idea of the scope of the place. This goes under the category of "Highly Recommended."



We were staying at a Marriott resort and it was very nice. It wasn't on the beach, but there was a marina and a boardwalk out into the channel that gave some really nice views of the water.



The resort has two golf courses, one of them a Nicklaus design. This is one of the holes. We could see part of it from our condo.



We walked out on the boardwalk to see the sunset. Here's a pelican that happened by.



This is a succession of shots as the sun went down.




By the way, did you know that a mixture of candy corn and peanuts tastes just like a Payday candy bar?

Road Trip

Chris and Tim had a chance for a work/pleasure trip to the Canary Islands and Madrid over Thanksgiving. We offered to babysit Maya and go visit Rob and Sarah and their family in Chicago. Most people thought we were crazy--two old folks taking on an eight day babysitting trip with a two and a half year old. We're back and we survivied. Here are some highlights of the trip.

Maya discovered luggage carts and always wanted to help and sometime ride when the cart was empty.



Once we got to Chicago, it didn't take long for the little girl mafia to organize. Here's a picture of their first meeting under the bunk bed.



It was really great to get to see the grandkids and how they've grown. Andrew is getting quite mature. I thought he was very grown up in behavior and looks.



Nate lives and dies with his guitar and Eli Manning.



Maya and Megan zoomed around the house.



I tried to provide Sarah with a family picture for their Christmas letter. This is the best of an indifferent lot. The subjects aren't done justice by my photography skills.



Maya was happy to get back to Texas. We stopped at the Texas welcome center to get some exercise and take a break from the car.

Escaping the Heat in San Francisco

The Board needed someone to do a quick job in San Francisco, so Susan and I compared the temperature there (65 degrees) with the temperature here (102 degrees) and decided that it would be a good idea if I helped them out. So we took the weekend and paid our first visit to SF in several years. We used to go a lot, but not so much in the last few years I worked for the Fed. We got a chance to see a few things we'd missed on prior trips and revisited some others.

The DeYoung museum has been closed for renovations for a couple of years, but it has reopened now and has a very nice, if eclectic, collection of art. On the way there we saw this interesting tree in Golden Gate Park.

The collection at the DeYoung includes a lot of things besides paintings (in fact we weren't too impressed with that part of the museum). They do have a lot of porcelain. They allow still photography (unlike Italy) and here is a piece I liked.

There were also a lot of 20th century works. One that really struck me is the picture below.

The photo doesn't do it justice. It's a three dimensional suspended cube. Each of the pieces is hanging from the ceiling on a very fine wire. The pieces themselves are the remnants of an African American church from the South that was firebombed in the 60s. It was very moving.

On Sunday we decided to take the ferry to Sausalito. This is a shot of the SF skyline from the boat.

We really like Sausalito. We took our time and wandered through the stores and art galleries that line the main street. This is a particularly pretty side street with flowers everywhere.

In one of the galleries we found some art that we really liked. The artist is an Italian who paints with acrylic on glass. The result is something that resembles stained glass. We were so struck by his work that we bought a piece. It's not here yet, but if you want to see it, you'll have to come visit.

We stopped by the harbor (I always stop by the harbor). This was one of the better shots I got of a very nice sailboat.

We decided to have an early dinner and after considering our choices, selected a Tuscan restaurant in one of the hotels where we could sit on the sidewalk and watch the people while we ate. Boy, did we luck out. The food was fantastic--the equal of anything we had in Italy. Here's a picture of my Calamari antipasto. It was fabulous.

We had a great time. We stayed on Nob Hill, rode the cable cars and had sundaes at Ghiradelli's. A really nice trip. Thanks, Fed.

Cruisin'

Susan finally got me (after 40 years) to take a cruise. We just got back from Alaska. It was great. Norwegian Cruise Lines' freestyle cruises eliminate many of the issues that have kept me from wanting to go on a cruise. Essentially, one is left to do whatever one wants and that includes meals. I didn't have to make small talk with anyone but my wife.

Our trip was seven days out of Seattle. We stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Prince Rupert , Canada. We did some sort of excursion at each stop. They were all great, although one of our planned excursions got cancelled and Susan wasn't able to go on the helicopter flight because of her broken foot.

Here's a sample of the things we saw. First the skyline of Seattle from the ship.

A sunset from the ship the first night out. The weather was fantastic all cruise long. Everyone was amazed that we had warm clear days for the whole cruise.

Each night our stewards treated us to a different animal made from our clean towels. (The Eyes are chocolates.)

In Ketchikan, we visited Totem Bight Park where they preserve and reproduce totem poles. (If you are curious, a bight is a section of shoreline where it looks like someone took a "bite" out.) Here are the totem poles at the entrance to the park.

We hoped to go on a whale watching expedition in Prince Rupert, but the excursion boat broke down and the trip was cancelled. We did sight some whales from the ship one night. Here's a tail. (You may have to enlarge the picture to see it well.)

In Juneau, Susan and I both visited Mendenhall Glacier. I did it from the glacier itself via helicopter and Susan from the bay where it meets the water.

A shot from the helicopter.

The top of the glacier.

The bottom of the glacier. First from Susan's viewpoint and then from mine in the helicopter.

We also got a close up look at Sawyer glacier. If the stars align, cruise ships can sail right up to its base. As it happened, we were the first ship that was able to find the fjord ice free enough to make the two hour trip up to the glacier. First, ice bergs we had to dodge.

A waterfall along the way.

The glacier itself. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any icebergs forming.

In Skagway, we took the White Pass railway that parallels the route taken by the Klondike gold rushers in the 1890s. Some of the old path is still visible and its almost unbelievable that people walked all the way to the top. They had to carry a ton of supplies (considered a years worth) up to the Canadian border or the Mounties wouldn't let them in. Needless to say, they had to make more than one trip. The railroad bends back on itself so much that I was able to take a picture of the front of our train.

One of the bridges we had to cross on the train.

Here's a lighthouse we saw on the way to Prince Rupert. There were a lot more, but we tended to pass most of them at night.

The harbor at Prince Rupert.

Our whale watching excursion in Prince Rupert was cancelled, but we got the opportunity to see the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride (or bilingually, the Gendarmerie Royal du Canada Carrousel). It was fabulous, we got to meet the mounties and their horses and see a Native American (in Canada, First Nation) dance as well as see the ride itself. First the dance.

The Ride.

If you look close at the rear of the horse (no bad jokes, please) you will be able to see the maple leaf that is water brushed on to each horse prior to the Ride.

That's the cruise. We liked it enough to try another one sometime.