tweety-rospo-show: Bay Area Visit

June 30 - July 2, 2013

We had a chance to take a quick trip up to the Bay Area to see my brother,
David, while he was visiting Nanette and Erik. We had a wonderful time and
really enjoyed our visit with them. I will forever be mad at myself, because as I was
downloading photos from our trip, I somehow managed to erase nearly all of them.
Don't know what button I accidentally pushed or what techno freak of nature happened,
but I sadly lost most of them.
Luckily David came to my rescue and sent me what he had taken.

We were able to celebrate David's birthday with him on July 1st. We went to a yummy

breakfast at Black Bear Diner and then he took us on a nostalgic (for me anyway)

tour of our old stomping grounds where we grew up. We went to Tilden Park,

Kensington, Berkeley and Oakland. We just happened to be there on the day BART

went on strike- so we had to very carefully plan our time on the road because traffic

to the city, San Francisco and Oakland, was CrAzY- to say the least.

It was definitely a trip down memory lane for me and David.

First stop- Tilden Park- missing some cool pictures from a vista point of the Bay

and Golden Gate- but I did get the really important stuff- the Little Farm- an icon of our

childhood visits to Tilden Park. It really hasn't changed too much, and they have added

a children's discovery center-which unfortunately was closed on Mondays.

Sadly- the stables and pony rides were all gone.
How I used to look forward to a ride on those ponies when I was a kid.!

From there we drove through the hills of Kensington- forgot how skinny those streets were.

We wound our way up to Kensington Hilltop School. Oh the memories of good times
we had there as we walked around campus.
Got a great picture of David in front of the traffic
patrol room- it is still there-just to my left.

David used to be on the safety patrol. Hope he still has that shot on his phone.

We drove by our old home on 9 Arlington Way. It is so funny how different your

perception of things was when you were a child. I remember a steep hill and long

street with a dead end. In reality, it wasn't a very steep hill at all and it is a very
small cul-de-sac with probably only seven or so houses on it. The big magnolia tree
in the Laverty's yard was gone, which made things look so different.
Our front yard also looked so different without the old white picket

fence and now gracing the front yard is an odd, large sculpture. Maybe some

quirky artists live in our old home. The house on 20 Anson Way looked pretty much

the same, but it lacked Mom's beautiful green thumb and was quite overgrown.

We stopped at Sunset View Cemetery to pay our respects to our

grandparents and our sweet Auntie Maida.

From there we went to El Cerritto High School. Awhile back they did a total renovation

and tore it all down and rebuilt it. It is quite impressive. I never had a chance to attend

El Cerritto, since we moved to Texas the year before I would have started. Here is David

standing in front of his old alma mater. In front of the school they have a wall where

you can pay to have a tile put in remembrance of a student, team, or class who

attended the high school. David had fun reading them and recognized a number of names.

We drove over to Berkeley and took a look at Auntie Maida's old apartment,

Shattuck Avenue, the Berkeley LDS Chapel, and walked around UCB.

It was interesting to see Sather Gate and the Old Campanile...
a lot of new construction going on-

but truly a beautiful campus!

We ventured to the Optometry Building, so Michael could see it. Who knows-

maybe he will attend UCB for his optometrist degree someday.

I don't think Ralph N. Minor would be so happy with his namesake building right now!

Our last stop was the beautiful Oakland Temple and Interstake Center.

I am especially sad to have lost a photo of me standing in front of the baptistry
at the Inter-stake Center where I was baptized. I'll have to go back someday
and do a picture re-do. This is the only picture we salvaged from the temple visit.
Unfortunately the temple was closed for cleaning and maintenance and the
beautiful fountain and streams were dry- but the flowers were amazing.
Michael, our family photographer, got some

wonderful shots- unfortunately floating in cyberspace somewhere.

Our fun day continued with swimming and a birthday BBQ for David,
courtesy of Nanette and Erik.

It was so fun to be able to celebrate David's birthday with him.
Apparently David is having his 1st birthday and here
he is showing off all his Amazon cards he received and hats that Erik gave him.

You would think most people would be disappointed with all those Amazon cards-

but David was THRILLED with them!