July 2012

The month of July always begins with a birthday 

buddy celebration for Allison and Uncle Steve.  We celebrated Allison's birthday with a lovely dinner planned and barbecued by Riley Wilson.  He even baked her favorite rainbow-chip cake! Then the Brimleys came over for the party. We love Allison and wish her the best year ever!  

Next, we held our 2nd annual Rockbridge Dr. 4th of July breakfast.  We love our neighbors and enjoy breakfast and the basketball shooting tournament we hold each year. 

 San Francisco here we come!  Dad and I spent 2 1/2  days in San Francisco.  We rode BART  into the city each day and walked our feet off while trying to see everything we could.  

This is breakfast at Dotties True Blue Cafe. I had the best fresh blueberry pancakes ever.  Dad had bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and the house special, Grilled chili corn bread toast.  It was to die for. Thanks to Nicole for the restaurant tips!

 Here we are in front of Chinatown.  While there, we found this "authentic fortune cookie factory".  It was seriously this little room with four little stooped-over old women sitting at these little cookie presses, where they would put the fortune on the cookie, fold it in half and press.  We were treated to a warm cookie by a little stooped old man and sent on our way.  Very interesting. 

 

 Crooked Lombard Street. These pictures don't do justice to the steepness of the block. And it was worth every block we hiked to see this beautiful site. 

We rode the Cable Car through the city (in my head I was singing the song," Rice-a -Roni the San Francisco Treat" the whole way!)

The Brimleys recommended Zachary's Pizza and it didn't disappoint us.  The freshest sauce we have ever had.

 Fisherman's Wharf was a lot of fun.  Lots of unique characters wondering around and performing.  We even saw the crazy man dressed us as a tree that says boo as you walk by him.  Dad really enjoyed his fried shrimp and chips.  We also bought a small loaf of sour dough bread from the Sour Dough Bread Company(yum) . Our camera battery died, so we don't many have pictures from day 2.  But we also went to Ghiradelli square, Alcatraz Island (great audio tour), and rode a trolley.    

On our final day, we visited the Oakland Temple, Visitor's Center, and Mission Home.  It was overcast that morning, so we didn't get the full spectacular view from behind the temple.  But the grounds are everything Kelli said they would be.  We went through the presentation at the visitors center where two darling sisters shared their message.  It was just wonderful.  The spirit was present and we felt the love of our Father in Heaven when we were reminded of the plan of Salvation and that we were sent to live here with families. 

 Good-bye to the Bay area.  We really loved our time there.