Guys 40th birthday

Last Saturday we celebrated Guys 40th birthday in a hanger at the airfield where he keeps his plane. an unusual venue that proved very popular with the guests. The other unusual feature was that we had lots of kids along with the adults, since many of Guys friends and coworkers have families with small children. Here are a few pictures from the big event. we start with Phil giving his speech about the terrific person Guy has grown to be. Guy looks like the kid that got sent to the corner of the school room. at least he is smiling!

small kids area

How many parties have you been to recently that featured a neat toy box like this. This was also a great attraction for the smaller kids. That's Luc in the middle, and his cousin Alton on the left.

A party for adults with kids

Here's the inside of the hanger, with an assortment of moms, dads and kids.

The Center of Attraction at the Party

Guys plane was parked right outside the hanger and proved to be the center of attraction for both kids and adults. He spent much of the afternoon helping people in and out of the plane.

Guys Birthday - celebrating 40!

On Saturday we celebrated Guys 40th birthday. A bit of an unusual celebration and venue. Since many of Guy and Joahnnas friends and coworkers have small children, the party included lots of children (about 20 of them) along with around 40 or so adults. Here you can see that Guy had lots of helpers making sure he blew all of the candles out.

Entertainment in Santa Clara

On Tuesday we left Naples to drive north to Guys house in Santa Clara. grandson Luc is now crawling and exploring everything within reach. One thing within reach are African drums that Guy has and Luc knows what to do with them. Here he is providing us our evening entertainment.

Eucalyptus No. 2

Naples and a charming tree

The front yards of the houses in Naples are quite small and are adorned with an amazing variety of plants, trees, and patio fittings. This is one eucalyptus tree that I particularly liked because of its shapes and textures. You'll get a second shot of it from a different angle.

The Southern tip of our trip.

Now that I have recovered my memory of how to get the photos here, I'll continue. After an overnight stop in Sacramento to see our daughter Shana, we continued south to Long Beach, where we stayed three days with our friends Ken and Jean Frost (sailing friends). They live in the charming community of Naples, with houses built along both sides of a series of constructed canals. There are sidewalks next to the canals, enabling you to walk around the entire area enjoying the canals and the neatly kept houses of all different styles. I find it to be like a fairy land, and love my early morning walks here. We enjoyed some sunny weather, a bit cool with a good wind blowing, but still nice enough to sit out in their front yard and enjoy the sun and view.

elevator door at Hotel Oregon

Hotel Oregon in McMinnville

On the road again--April 2012

Time to share a bit of our latest road trip. The overall draw on this trip was to get to Santa Clara to celebrate Guy's 40th birthday. We decided to drive, so then set about making the drive into something fun. We began last Wednesday, April 11, by going to McMinnville Oregon, a charming small town roughly due west of Salem, located in the middle of prime Oregon wine country. The town has restored its old main tree-lined street, and boasts several good restaurants, thanks to the wine industry. We stayed in a refurbished older hotel that is located right on the main street--Hotel Oregon. Fairly charming, with lots of paintings done directly on the walls that tell the history of the hotel, along with the people who worked and lived there. We enjoyed a couple of great dinners while there too. So I'll start this trip blog with a picture of the hotel, along with one of the painted door of the elevator, which disguised it so well I almost didn't find it.

whoops. Minor technical glitch on the pictures while I try to remember how to get pictures that are on my iPad posted to the blog. I'll post the text and work on th pictures.