Fleet Week... awesome day!!!

So my Aunt and I the other day made last min plans to head to the city for Fleet Week. We thought that taking the ferry would be best to save the headache of traffic and the headache of parking fees. So we took the 12:10pm ferry out of Alameda with perfect blue skies out. There was fog in the vicinity of the Golden Gate Bridge, but that wasn't going to affect us. We got to Pier 41 around 1:15pm and the air show had started. We saw the Coast Guard helicopter and one jet doing their thing while we were still on the ferry. When we got off we decided to walk past Fisherman's Wharf and down toward the Aquatic Park. The place wasn't too bad, because the hoards of people were mainly at the end of all their piers already watching the show. So the streets were full of people, but not as bad as I was expecting. We eye-balled some of the food on the way, but we hate eating and walking, so we wanted to find a place to settle first.

We wound up down the Hyde Street Pier which is where the vessels of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park are docked. We saw how packed the lawns were at the Aquatic Park, and this pier wasn't bad. We saw what I think may have been the Patriot Jet Demonstration Team do their formation flying as we were scoping out the pier. But we were getting hungry and had about 45 mins until the Blue Angels did their thing. So we popped into Capurro's to have some beer battered shrimp and a soda at the bar. Then we headed back to our spot at the end of the Pier right next to Balclutha, which one day I'll actually step foot on. And a little while later the Blue Angels started doing their thing. They are always super impressive, and it's all the more exciting when they are flying right over your heads and crossing right in front of you. I also love the loud roar they make, it just gets your blood flowing. It made me miss when the Alameda Naval Air Station was still active and you would hear jets take off and land every day. I grew up listening to that and I loved it. The show lasted about 45 mins and we let the crowd disperse before thinking about our next plan. We played tourist and had someone take our pic with Alcatraz in the background and watched at several tugs turned the SS Jeremiah O'Brien around and put back onto it's dock after it's final cruise of the weekend.

We walked up to Ghirardelli Square to check it out. But really not a lot of shops to wander these days, it's more about the restaurants. On our way out of there, we started hearing a lot joyous hollering from a group of guys telling everyone that the Giants had won. Clapping was heard from all around the park. Anyway... I was starving at this point, so we decided to have dinner upstairs at Alioto's, which I love. Plus I've been having a craving for clam chowder lately, so that was going to get satisfied today. It was about a 30 min wait, but that seemed to fly by. We got a table by the window overlooking a marina and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. At the time, the shades were pulled low because the sun was shining in. But by the time we finished our clam chowder, the sun was setting and they raised the shades. We couldn't have had a better table. Then I had the shrimp louie, which was delicious.

After dinner we had almost an hour and a half to kill until our ferry. So we popped into the Musee Mechanique to see Laffing Sal (seen in Princess Diaries among other movies), and play a few of the toys. Then we headed down to Pier 39 to say Hi to the sea lions, but too dark at this point to get any pictures. Then we just quickly walked up the pier before getting in line for our 8:20pm ferry back to Alameda. We sat on the very back of the boat, outside, and had beautiful views of SF and the Bay Bridge on the way back. Really nice day, but had to slather my face with lotion when I got home... the one place I didn't put sunblock on. Dumb I know.

Oktoberfest

So I went out to my friend Monica's on Sunday so we could go to the Clayton Okoberfest. It was fun, but a little disappointing. They did have a German band who sang and yodeled, but they didn't bring in a lot of German food or other vendors. So that was a little bit of a bummer. But it was nice to be outside and wander around. And gotta love fried zucchini, mushrooms and cheese, and a terriyaki chicken skewer. Very German don't you think? ;-) There is the Clayton House Museum on that street so we poked our heads in. It was pretty cool with all the old bedroom stuff, clothing, piano, a bunch of old kitchen stuff which reminded me of stuff of my Great Grandmothers.

Then we headed back to Monica's and took her dog Bella for a walk around her neighborhood and park before I headed home. Once I was 20 mins from my house, the sky turned overcast and it was freezing out. I had been in 90-106 degree weather since last Wednesday and that was a shock to the system, but nice.

Redding - Day 4

I slept in until 10:30am today because I was exhausted. Pam made some great cheesy/bacon scrambled eggs and toast with freezer strawberry jam for breakfast, so we all sat down and ate before hitting the road. I wanted to leave by 11am, but we packed up, said our Goodbyes and ended up out of there by Noon. We stopped on the way to pick up a thank you card for them and a gift bag I needed for Abby's Bday gift. While in that little shopping center, there was one of those guys holding a sign directing people to Quizons, and he was wearing a cheesehead, so had to take a picture of him to show Claire. So the ride was uneventful, and we arrived back at my Aunt's at 4pm which was on track. Because I needed to turn around from there and head straight to Heather's for Abby's Bday dinner. So got out there by 5pm and we headed out to meet up with all the other family members at Chevy's at 6pm. We had a really nice time at dinner, then headed back to their house. Tony went to bed and Heather, the kids and I watched Fantastic Mr Fox. Which I lost interest in at the end and just went and crashed by Midnight.

Redding - Day 3

Got up at 9:15am again so we could be out of the house by 10:30am to go kayaking. We had to load the kayaks in the car, then meet up with Pam's friend Claudette. She packed up 2 kayaks in her car, then we went to Holiday Market to pick up deli sandwiches for lunch. Then just a short drive to Whiskeytown Lake. We got there and unloaded, then had to inflate the 2 inflatables. Then we packed up our gear, lunch, etc and launched from the boat ramp by Noon. We headed in one direction where there is this metal tube in the water that you can paddle through. There is just a small cove on the other side. A handful of ducks became our new friends and followed us around. Then we spotted 3 turtles on a log, very cute. We headed back through the tube and shortly after the ducks flew over to meet us. We rounded a corner into another cove and watched a blue heron fly from tree to tree for a while. After a while we were hungry so we went over to this beach, pulled up onto shore and unloaded lunch onto a picnic table. Not long after, 2 of the ducks found us again and hung out waiting for food. Which we obliged. So we hung out and ate for about 30 mins, put our feet in the water to cool down, and just take some pictures. Then we paddled across the lake and back to the boat ramp at about 3:30pm. We deflated the 2 kayaks and packed up the car and got on our way around 4pm. We decided to just go directly to the Sundial Bridge again instead of heading home first. So we did and took a bunch of day time pictures before heading back. On our way into the Turtle Bay area though, we looked across the intersection and saw about 5 cows/steers running across the road with 3 white trucks following close behind. They headed towards this fence line on the right and luckily didn't run down the freeway off ramp side of the fence.

We headed back to the house and had BBQ'd steak, with pasta and veggies this time. We sat around for a while telling old family stories and such for a while, then Don went to bed. My Aunt, Pam and I moved outside with our wine and continued to get a little tipsy. Then we decided to take some silly pictures. We had a really nice evening chatting and laughing. At one point they asked me what time it was and I said 2am, to a reaction of "WHAT?!?!?!" out of both of their mouths. So we all headed to bed.