Thanks at Thanksgiving at the Marin Headlands

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend up in the Bay Area, specifically, Marin County. But we stopped first at Fenton's, the iconic ice cream parlor featured in the animated film, "Up". We had some delicious ice cream sundaes.
We stayed at a hostel, which was built in the early 1900's and was the Bachelor Officer's Quarters for the army. Evan is shown here sitting with Grammie and Grampie on the front porch of the house.
We smoked our turkeys this year as usual.
Our group attending to the turkey.
Helen, Evan and Brad in front of our hostel. We overlooked this big lawn and Rodeo Beach.
The work crew in the kitchen just prior to dinner.
Finally, we sat down to our feast, all 18 of us.
Since most of my family was here, Alana and Steve opened their wedding presents from them.
Steve and his new cousins-in-law.
We played games in the living room after a great dinner.
The following day, we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin County and went to Fort Point, the fort at the base of the bridge.
The inside of the fort is shown above. It is now just part of the National Park System.
From the top of Fort Point, looking back at San Francisco.
A view of the bridge from underneath.
After a trip to Ghirardelli Square for hot fudge sundaes, we went to Rodeo Beach in front of the hostel to watch the sun set.
Steve, Alana and Evan doing a silhouetted jump shot on the beach.
Steve and Evan found a log to play with as a teeter totter.
Sunset from the bridge in front of the hostel.

The End of a Great Trip to Argentina

On our way home from Iguacu Falls we stopped at the ruins in San Ignacio, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We took a very informative tour of the property. The Europeans, in the 1600’s, specifically the Portuguese and the Spanish, settled this area. The Spanish settled more the western part of South America and the Portuguese more the Eastern part of the continent. The missions were primarily located in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, in this Misiones area. The Catholic Church benefited by spreading their religion, the Indians benefited because they received protection from marauding people, and the Spaniards were able to benefit financially. Throughout the 18^th century this mission grew to become one of the most important in the region, inhabited by more than 3,000 indigenous Guarani converts. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, however, San Ignacio, along with all the missions, fell into decline until in the 19^th century it was destroyed and its occupants ejected.

We stopped in a small town for the night. Jeannie and Gavin decided to ride a fake bull.
The next day we took a tour of a mate' (tea) plantation, one of largest in the province of Corrientes. On the plantation, there were a lot of capybaras just roaming around. They are the largest rodent on earth.
On the plantation there was a small chapel dedicated to the owner's daughter who passed away many years ago as a small child.
Along the highway, we saw many shrines dedicated to Gauchito Gil. He was like the Robin Hood of Argentina, who the people believe has caused many miracles to occur. So they erect these small red shrines to him in hopes of a miracle.
We went to the famous cemetery in Buenos Aires called Recoleta, where many of the rich and famous are buried. Eva Duarte, aka Evita, is bured in this cemetery.
Just before we left for the airport we stopped for a milanesa sandwich at one of the sidewalk cafes in Buenos Aires.
Evan and Gavin posed in front of an Argentina flag made of Legos at the airport.
We had a large contingent of family members at LAX to meet us and welcome Evan home.
First stop after leaving the airport? In and Out Burger on Sepulveda for Evan's first In and Out Burger in two years. . .fortunately he was in a country where good beef was ubiquitous so he didn't suffer too much. It was a fabulous trip and the best part is that Evan is finally home after serving a great mission.

Happy Anniversabirthary at Morro Bay!

Earlier this week, Grammie, Grampie and Helen spent a few days in Morro Bay enjoying Fall in the Central Coast. The weather was awfully nice with warm days and cool, clear nights. Here is one of the spectacular sunsets from the deck in front.

One day we drove north to the elephant seal colony, just north of San Simeon. The male and female elephant seals were doing what they do best which is resting, occasionally grunting and flipping sand on themselves.

It was fun watching the elephant seals just lounging on the beach. The afternoon was nice and warm.

Erin and Dan drove to Morro Bay on Friday evening and of course, no trip to the Central Coast is complete without an outing to Bali's for some yummy frozen yogurt. Pumpkin with caramel sauce was a favorite that night. And despite the rain that night, Bali's was actually packed.

At McLintock's on Saturday night, we all enjoyed a delicious dinner celebrating Grammie and Grampie's 61st anniversary and Erin's 26th birthday. Happy Anniversabirthary!