Spiral Stairs

Spiral Stairs

Heading East

Projects completed in CA and now heading East
Over the last 10 weeks we have definitely been able to bond with Lucy, especially Memere. Sue has had the time to spend hours reading and playing with her. Lucy is a delightful little girl, very smart and has a sweet personality.
Since Chuck was out of school for the summer, he kept Lucy out of daycare on Wednesdays and he, Lucy and Memere were able to spend the day with her.
Bob got to spend sometime with her when he finished working on the house for the day. Lucy has brought much to joy to us and we will definitely miss her as we travel East.
Installing the spiral staircase was just part of the home improvement project. Bob ended up reshaping 2 rooms, adding a closet and then building out a 3rd room in the basement which will be an office/study. This has increased the useable square footage in this small house. Since the area of the office was used for storage Bob built over 150 sq.ft. of storage racks in the garage area. Chuck and Becky are very pleased and this definitely will make their home more livable as they plan to stay in this neighborhood in San Francisco for many years to come. This was quite a project and, thankfully, Chuck was out of school and was able to lend a hand and do most of the necessary painting.
We will be heading back to Mt. Pleasant, SC to be with Amy, Noah and Sarah soon. Our plans are to establish ourselves with a site at the KOA and keep the site even when we travel so that we have a home base near Amy.

Hello from San Francisco

Hello from San Francisco
It has been a real treat getting to know Lucy. She has really taken to Sue and has the word, Memere, down pat. She enjoys the special time with Sue reading stories and playing, and, of course, Sue could not be more thrilled.
Bob is coming along with the home improvement projects and the spiral stairs should be delivered on Thursday, June 17. Now that Chuck is out of school, he is helping with the projects doing some of the painting.
We had the opportunity to baby-sit for Lucy when Chuck and Becky attended a wedding. As she had never gone to bed for anyone else except her parents, we had no problems whatsoever with putting her down. The picture of her wrapped in a blanket is after her bath.
Bob still says that he is going to have her and Sarah as his “sumo wrestlers”. Lucy already has her sumo shirt which you can see in the photo. Becky and Chuck are well and they look great.

San Francisco

San Francisco

We arrived in Pacifica at the campground on April 29. Dorothy, the Manager, picked a lovely spot for us as the view right out our front window is that of the Pacific Ocean. We are able to see the hand gliders who take off from the beach from our campsite. They’re fun to watch. We settled in and washed both the RV and the car as the desert dust was everywhere.
Lucy, Becky and Chuck are good and we were able to bond with Lucy almost immediately. She loves singing songs with Memere especially the “Hokey, Pokey.” Bob sat down with Becky and Chuck and went over what they wanted or thought they wanted accomplished on their home while we are here.
Besides the spiral stairwell, Bob will make an office in the basement for Becky, a closet to replace the one being taken out for the stairs and adding a number of walls to partition the stairs and the bedroom for Lucy which is now Chuck and Becky’s bedroom.
As typical with Bob, he started in right away and hopes to have everything done in a couple of months.
Lucy attends day care and her care takers speak Spanish. When she wants a drink she’ll ask you for “agua” and always says “masa’ when she wants more of something. She is quite a delight to watch and is fun to be with. She is a very good eater and serious about her food. One of her favorites is miso soup with tofu and I’ve yet to see her eat any candy or drink any fruit juices. Berries are one of her favorite desserts as is yogurt

Old Mission San Juan Bautista

04/28/10 Today we visited the Old Mission San Juan Bautista not too far a distance from Gilroy in San Juan Bautista, CA. It was June 24, 1797 when this Mission was founded by Fr. Fermin de Lasuen, Presidente of the California Missions, successor of the Blessed Juniper Serra. This mission was one of the 4 established by Fr. Lasuen that summer of 1797 and the 15th of the 21 missions in Alta, CA. Largest of all the mission churches, and is still an active parish today, faces the only ORIGINAL Spanish plaza in CA. There is a museum here as well as a gift shop and chapel. The garden area here adjacent to the veranda is just lovely with many rose bushes in bloom similar to the other mission we just visited in Soledad.
In 1817 the interior of the church continued through 1817 when the floor was tiled and the main altar and reredos (which holds 6 statues were completed by a Thomas Doak, an American sailor who jumped ship in Monterey and who painted them in exchange for room and board.
There are rooms off of the “convento” where the museum is where one can see old artifacts from the church, old vestments and even a living room which is displayed that may have looked a lot like that of the Breen family who occupied the mission back in 1847 and called this place home. This family actually survived the Donner Party tragedy.
The Our Lady of Guadalupe chapel is just lovely too. Mass is offered here at noon daily but for some reason the priest didn’t show up for mass today on time and we decided to leave.
We took a walk into town after and had lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, called Casa Esther. It was very good and the servings were generous.