Merry Christmas 2010

The family in our Christmas pjs - ready for Santa...

Melissa and Kerry had the Foster's Christmas party on Thurday night and Jayden wanted to go duck hunting with Pop on Friday morning, so Auntie M to the rescue....She picked up the boys after work on Thursday and headed to Arkadelphia.  We got a little extra time with Miranda and the boys, and Miranda got a little snuggle time with Evan ( he won't do this if his Mom is around ), Jayden, and Kyler:

 

Mim and Mike stopped by the hospital to see my Uncle Charlie in Texarkana, so they arrived around 2 on Christmas Eve (which was the same time Melissa and Kerry arrived).

 The boys and I have had a little project going for the last couple of weeks.  I took some pictures of the little cuties, they took some pictures of each other, and colored some pictures for their Mom and Dad.  They also made a list of their 10 favorite things about each of their Parents.  I put it together in one of those books you can order from Walmart (8x10) and it came out SO CUTE!  We talked them into opening that gift on Christmas Eve so that they could take time to look through it with the boys. I think it was a hit~

 Setting out cookies and Coke for Santa and cheese for Santa Mouse:

I woke up around 3:30 am....I can never sleep on Christmas eve!  When the girls were little, I was always the first one up and had to wake up the girls when I couldn't stand it anymore :)  Jayden woke up around 6, but he had to stay  in his room.  We're hanging out until everyone else gets up:

 Checking out the goodies from Santa:

See Kyler's grin?  He pretty much had that look on his face all day.  He kept saying "I love Christmas!"  Of course the other boys were pretty happy too :)

Miranda getting a BIG "thank you" hug from the boys for the game table:

 And last, but not least, THE SISTERS~ ~



Thanksgiving 2010

Place saver

Bikes, Blues and Barbeque 2010

Place saver

The Big Dam Bridge Bike Ride 2010

Saturday was the BDB Bike Ride.  Since the ride starts at 7:30, Phillip and I went up the day before and stayed at the Double Tree...making a little mini-vaca out of the event.  We did a little shopping, picked up my packet and checked into the hotel.  It was such a great evening - after all of this heat we finally had some cool temperatures.  We walked down to Flying Fish for dinner.

I was so glad that Kara was able to join me - and her friend Stephanie!  I have done 50 mile rides by myself before, but it is so much more fun when you have a buddy to chat with!  It was a great ride - perfect weather.  At the halfway point, Kara decided to keep going with Stephanie.  The goal...the Metric Century....68 miles.  Now when you are just saying the numbers, 68 doesn't sound like a lot more than 50, but when you are on your bike that is a lot of miles!  Yea Kara and Stephanie!

I completed my 50 - and was glad to see the finish line... and my husband!  Phillip is not usually there when I do a ride, but it sure was nice.  He loaded up my bike and took me to Panera's (my choice) for lunch.  Creamy Tomato soup is back :)  A few pictures:

The last of the lazy days of summer....

Will post pictures here eventually :)

BASEBALL 2010!

The boys had a great baseball season and I was there with my camera!  I will post pictures shortly.

Such a beautiful day!

Sunday was a great day!  I got up early, leaving my hotel a little before 8. The weather has been fantastic...typical SF, it starts out foggy, but then clears up before noon.  The temps...high of 61!...low of 51!  This is fall weather.  

I walked to fisherman's wharf from the hotel (about 3 miles) which is an up and down walk.  Some of the inclines are so steep that they have horizontal ridges in the concrete to give you some grip.  After picking up my rental bike I headed out.  My trek took me from Pier 39 over the Golden Gate bridge, and into Sausalito.  It was still pretty early when I went over the bridge, so the fog had not lifted yet.

 I stopped at a cute little cafe right on the bank of the bay and had a large glass of orange juice.  Although I'd not had breakfast, I just wasn't hungry and the fresh squeezed OJ hit the spot. Below you can see my view from the cafe...

This is such a cute little town with lots of shops, but no shopping for me...I wouldn't be able to get anything else in my one suitcase that has clothes for 8 days.  I took the side trip up to Mill Valley and that was a treat. 

They have a park with the oldest redwoods in California (according to the locals).  I walked into this grove of trees that were huge (diameter) and so tall I couldn't see the tops.  Even though it was the middle of the day and the sun was shining, it was almost dark in this grove.  I'm setting up my camera on a picnic table so that I can get a picture of myself and then I notice that a homeless man is asleep on the next table!  That is one thing that has been shocking to me.... the number of homeless people.  When I left my hotel this morning, I noticed a sleeping bag on the sidewalk.  Much to my surprise, there was someone in that sleeping bag!  Back to the biking trip...

After Mill Valley, I headed back to the trail that runs along the coast and followed the trail to Tiburon.  I just missed the ferry, so I had to wait for an hour for the next one.  That gave me a little time to look around town and eat some ice cream (since I hadn't had breakfast or lunch, I could eat without guilt).  The ferry left port about 4:15 and docked in San Francisco a little after 5:00.  A few pictures taken from the ferry below:

The fog looks so cool in this picture below.  According to a couple on the ferry, this fog is the reason that San Francisco enjoys such cool temps in the summer.....aaawh beautiful fog....

 By the time I checked in my bike and walked all the way back to my hotel (stopping to get a little something to eat) it was 7:00.  I was pooped!!! But I can't think of a better way to spend the day. 

Even though I wasn't on a bike trail the entire way, all of the roads had a bike lane and all had speed limits of 35 to 40 mph, so it wasn't bad.  Again I'm wishing Arkansas was more bike friendly!

Friday/Saturday

Friday was another long and busy day.  I have so enjoyed this class and all of the people that I've met.  It has been so much fun to learn about the sustainability initiatives at their companies.  Just at my table I had Darsey who works at Adobe headquarters, Tiffany who works at SunMicrosystems headquarters (they have actually been bought out by somebody else, but I can't remember who it is), and P.Patel who worked for President Bush! 

We finished up about 6:30.  It wasn't dark yet, so I walked across campus into town.  The campus is just so pretty with all of the huge trees.  The weather is so cool that it feels like late fall.  The cool temps really make a difference in your day-to-day activities.  There are sidewalks and trails all over the place so people walk to get their groceries and ride their bikes to work, etc.  Darsey lives on an island that is about 2 miles by 4 miles and you have to take a ferry to get to it.  She doesn't even own a car.  She rides her bike to the ferry, takes the ferry to the mainland and rides BART (Bay Area Rail Transit) into town and then rides her bike the rest of the way to work.  I was discussing my options for getting into San Francisco with someone and she said "It's only a couple of miles from the BART, so you can just walk (this is with luggage in tow)."  Can you imagine someone in the south walking a couple of miles carting luggage?  No way...no sidewalks and its too hot.  AND women don't wear makeup here...really!  We need to get that started in the south.

I got up this morning and took BART into San Francisco and walked to my hotel.  My hotel is really nice...and I have my very own bathroom! :)  I checked in about 10:30, dropped my stuff and headed to the Embarcadaro.  They have the market place on Saturday so it was packed.  I walked, shopped, ate and took pictures all the way down to Ghiradelli Square and then circled back around to my hotel.  Its been a fun day and I'm exhausted.  I better get some rest since tomorrow is the big bike ride! Oh yes - high temp today was 59 with a low of 51!  A repeat is expected for tomorrow!

This is a picture of some of the vendors set up at the Embarcadaro - Saturday is market day:

Although it looks similar to the Golden Gate bridge, this is not.  This is the view of the bay from the Embarcadaro:

This fountain is at Ghiradelli Square.  The last time that Phillip and I were here, we got a hot fudge sundae made with Ghiradelli Chocolate....yummm.  I was looking forward to having another, but apparently everyone else was too.  The line was too long for me....

This is Lombard street.  I took a picture of a family from France and they returned the favor by taking my picture.  The exchange rate must be really good for the Franc...I saw/heard a lot of people from France.

Embarcadaro - Ferry Island Seafood

The view out the window while eating lunch at Ferry Island Seafood.  Phillip and I ate here the last time we were in San Francisco and the atmosphere and food are great!

Beautiful campus...

The campus has lots of big trees and old buildings.  Below is a picture of "The People's Park" in Berkeley...many a protest has been held here over the years.

I thought that someone had left a bag of trash in the park, but as I got closer I realized that someone is sleeping in the bag...

Co-ed bathroom/shower!

I'm staying at the Faculty Club which is right in the middle of the UC-Berkeley campus.  The building reminds me of the lodges in Yellowstone (beautiful wood on all the walls and large stone fireplaces).

They told me when I registered that all rooms have a shared bath on the floor. That really didn't concern me since many of the lodges out west have shared restrooms and it has never been a problem. I checked into my room right before dinner and went to the restroom. I had a key to get in, but noticed that I could not lock the door from the inside (so everyone on the floor that has a key could walk in). Now, this would not be a problem, but this is a co-ed bathroom! I went to the front desk thinking that maybe I had missed out on some instructions and there is a system that I'm not aware of....No, said the front desk clerk...it is a co-ed restroom/shower. Now, you walk in and there are two stalls to the right with commodes and stall doors, and two showers to the left with frosted glass doors, and one shower with a stall door, with two sinks in the middle. Let me be clear, when I say "stall door," I'm talking the same kind of doors that you see in all public restrooms with a one inch gap all the way around! So I could be taking my shower and some strange man comes in to brush his teeth....I just can't handle that. No need to worry, I solved the problem...I got a piece of tape from the front desk and put a sign on the door that said "Occupied, come back in about 10 minutes."

All things considered, this has been a very productive day. It is probably the best seminar that I've ever been to. I am the only educator in the group, so it has been very interesting visiting with these company leaders and learning about their sustainability efforts. The west coast society is so far ahead of the south in terms of thinking about sustainability. The Chief Sustainability officer of Symantics (they make Norton Anti-virus) spoke this afternoon and our dinner speaker was the CEO of HIP Investor. We started at 7:30 this morning and finished at 8:00 this evening - and we have an equally long day tomorrow.

This beats the hostel!

I'm staying at the Berkeley Faculty house tonight. The day is not over yet...meeting until 8pm.  It has been very interesting.

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