Gavin's Birthday at F. McLintocks

It is a family tradition to go to F. McLintocks in Pismo Beach when somebody's birthday is close. So on our trip up to Morro Bay, we stopped to help Gavin celebrate - even though his birthday isn't for a few days. They are a kid-friendly restaurant and immediately upon arriving, Coco was given crayons and a cow picture to color.
Gavin wasn't sure that he wanted to have the waiters pour water into his glass, on his head (kind of a signature activity that the waiters entertain the customers with). This waiter, blindfolded, stood on a chair and poured into Meg's glass. . .she didn't even get too wet.
Then it was Gavin's turn - and even though he was hesitant at the beginning, he enjoyed it thoroughly.
The waiters and waitresses all came over and sang Happy Birthday to him - and he got a Brownie Sundae.
Another treat for the kids, which our children all remember, is getting to pick out some toys in the saddlebag if they eat a good dinner. Gavin and Coco are shown here rooting through every toy in the saddlebag.
There are a few stuffed animals at the restaurant. . .Coco and Gavin couldn't believe how big a buffalo was.
Afterwards, they rode the small horse toys outside - and they can't wait for Uncle to come home from Argentina in October so he can ride on them with him.
Coco learned how to ride with one hand in the air for balance.

The Final Days of our Croatia and Italy Trip

After spending the night in Austria, we drove over to Italy. The above picture is the valley that leads off to Cortina, Italy, where they held the 1956 Olympic Games.
We went to the Brenner Pass, as my Dad had always wanted to see the mountain pass that figured so significantly in World War II. All along the pass, there are small towns and villages and the one we had a picnic lunch in was Chiusa. Note the convent located high above us, clinging to the hillside.
We drove by Lake Garda, one of the mountain lakes that Italians like to vacation at in the Dolomites.
We stayed around Verona for our last night and here Pat, Alana, Helen and Donna are shown in front of Juliet's balcony. . .Verona was very crowded.
Finally, here we are shown in front of the arena in Verona where they have marvelous operas every summer.

Happy Birthday Ne!

Yesterday was cousin Ne's birthday and Jay helped to plan a surprise party for her.  Aunt Sue, Uncle Jim, Grammie and Grampie drove up from Southern California, Aunt Helen, Uncle Dan and Erin came from Roseville, Jay was already there looking at apartments and Tat flew all the way from Hawaii for the occasion.  Ne came home from work and had no idea we were all hiding out in her bedroom.  She was very surprised when she saw all of us!

But she was even more surprised when she went to take a shower and Tat jumped out of the tub!

We had a great happy hour at Ne's apartment in Oakland, a delicious dinner at the Lake Chalet restaurant on Lake Merritt and then back to Ne's for dessert and a fun slideshow of Ne's life made by Aunt Sue.  Happy 30th Birthday Ne!!

Croatia, Slovenia and Austria

Our days were coming to an end on the cruise and in this picture we are shown with Zlatko, the outstanding maitre ' d on our ship. He did everything for us at dinner. Zlatko and most of the crew were Croatian.
Here we are shown at the dinner table one night. We usually tried to move around to different tables as the people we were on the cruise with were from mostly Europe, with 3 from Canada and 1 from Australia. There were 24 people in all, with a crew of 8.
We had fish on most nights and it was excellent. On this night, we had sea bass that they had just caught.
Here we are riding on cobblestones on the island of Solta, which is known as the Island of Olives.
We toured a small olive oil factory and then had a taste testing of different kinds of of flavored olive oils.
In this picture we are shown, after our last ride, on the top deck of our boat.
Pat got us started shopping at the Aqua stores. They are a uniquely Croatian store, with clothing and accessories that have stripes like many of the nautical clothing lines tend to have.
On our last day, Helen, Alana and I walked around the streets of Trogir, an ancient city where our cruise started and ended. Because Croatia has been under Italian influence and governance for many centuries, the country looks very much like an uncrowded Italy.
Zlatko, Mom, Alana and Erin just before enjoying our final dinner of the trip.
Jenny, one of our tour guides, plays guitar on the last night while the crew members sing. One night in Skradin, Jenny took her guitar out to a cafe/bar with all of us and we sang for awhile that evening for the customers at the cafe.
After leaving the ship today, the 7 of us headed through Slovenia and stopped at the absolutely beautiful town of Bled. It was pretty crowded today due to it being a Saturday and many people from the capital city of Ljubljana were visiting. We decided to continue onto Austria where it wasn't so crowded.
We found a small town in Austria call Mollebrucke and saw that instead of people and cars on the streets, that we had to contend with cows blocking the road.
Here we are on the balcony of our hotel in Austria. It was a beautiful little village and had the best spaetzel I have had in a long time.
The town also had a real maypole in front of the city hall. It was a tree that had been cut down from the local forest.
This was the little hotel that we stayed at in Mollebrucke. Onto the Brenner Pass and Lake Garda.

Beautiful Croatia

This is the Croatian flag. The five crests at the top of the checkered part symbolize the 5 regions of Croatia.
We rode our bikes up and over some mountains today, to the part of the Krka River. There is a monastery behind us in the middle of this slow moving river that flows into the sea about 5 miles further on.
Donna, Erin, Natalie and Alana did the "jump" shot right in front of the Franciscan monastery.
Here are Helen and Mom riding down the last hill before we got back to Skradin, the town we stayed in last night.
Pat and I went out kayaking off the boat, and even though the swans were friendly when we were feeding them from the ship, they steered clear of us when we tried to kayak near them.
Here is the town of Skradin taken from the kayak.
Helen and I went out kayaking next and here is a picture of Erin, Alana and Pat waiting for us on the back of the ship.
In the afternoon, we took a boat up to Krka National Park, that has amazing travertine falls.
We are all pictured here in front of some of the falls.
We walked around some of the boardwalks, up and down the waterfalls.

Zadar and the Kornati Islands

Last night we spent docked at Zadar, an ancient city. Helen and Mom are shown here in front of St. Donat's Cathedral, which was built over a Roman forum. This city was under Italian control in World War II and was bombed pretty heavily by the Allies.
Alana and Pat are shown here by the Sea Organ. This was constructed on the strait between Zadar and the Kornati Islands. When the waves come in they push air up through some pipes and we heard different harmonious sounds coming out of the Sea Organ. This was built here on the shore in 2005.
This was sunset over the strait next to Zadar.
After watching sunset, we went to a local outside cafe and posted to the blog. There are so many outside areas where people congregate here. . .really a lot of fun.
This is another modern art piece that was built right on the harbor. It is called a Salute to the Sun. There are hundreds of solar batteries that collect the light during the day on the ground, and then at night there is a computerized light show that was so fun to walk on and take a jumping picture on.
Here are Aunt Eileen and my Dad on the bow of the boat.
When we were riding on one of the islands, a goat came out from the hills and started running behind us. These islands in many cases have been overgrazed by sheep and the goats. There are only a few cities on these islands and most are inhabited by seasonal people.
This was one of the highest points that we rode to on the island of Dugi Otok (which means Long Island in Croatian).
Here is Pat on the bow of the boat, going through a narrow strait between the islands.
Here are some of the cliffs on the south side of Dugi Otok. We only rode about 20 miles today but it was all up and down hill.
We hiked to the Salt Lake and these donkeys were there waiting for us. They were very tame and liked to be patted.

We had about a 5 hour ride in the afternoon to get to our location tonight at Skradin so we had a yoga class on the upper deck(er) of the ship.
This is part of our group just prior to being called to dinner. We spent most of the afternoon reading and relaxing.