We hang out with Rich's cousins

Next stop--El Dorado Hills, CA--to see Rich's cousin Mary Ethel and her husband Roger. They are SO much fun! We always have a great time visiting. Well, I say "always," but this is only the second time I have seen them. :) I guess that tells you how welcoming they are. We hit it off right away the last time I was there, several years ago, and had a great time again this visit. Mary Ethel had a big pot of spaghetti sauce going when we arrived and her daughter Susan, son in law Ryan and their two cute kids came over to join us for dinner. Sorry we did not get any pix of the kids!

After dinner, we drove over to their son Michael's yogurt shop, the Rockin' Frog, and had some dessert. Yum!

Thursday morning we sat around and chatted over breakfast, then went to Target so I could buy a few things. From there, on to Sacramento to meet Ryan after work and Vesta who happened to be in town for a training.

Tunnel to Old Sacramento

Back: Roger, Mary Ethel, Jane

Front: Rich and Vesta

Vesta and Jane being silly

We had a fabulous dinner at Ten-22, along with great conversation and lots of laughs. We walked Vesta back to her hotel and said our final goodbyes. Very cool that it worked out that we would see each other again in Sacramento! On the way back to Mary Ethel and Roger's house, we made a brief stop at a casino, where Rich won $50 and promptly cashed out. :)

Friday morning we were going to head out fairly early for Lake Tahoe but got wrapped up in computer stuff and political talk. Luckily, Mary Ethel and Roger still like us even though we have our left wing ways. Or we think they do, anyway. :) We really had a blast and enjoyed every minute of our visit. Thanks, you two!

On to Mariposa

After leaving Vesta's on Monday, we drove to Mariposa to visit with Rich's stepkids and grandkids. Monday night, we all went out for pizza and had lots of fun catching up with everyone. Hannah, William, Ryan (Sara's fiance) and Sara. William's wife and son were out of town so we missed them.

Sara's adorable daughter Emily with Hannah

Cute Cody, Emily's twin brother

Twins!

Sara's handsome oldest son, Hayden

Emily

Ryan and Sara

Loving siblings :) William, Hannah and Sara

They have an older sister, Heather, who lives near Lake Tahoe and we will be visiting her and her family soon.

Tuesday while everyone was at work or school, Rich and I took a drive to the Merced River at Briceburg. Rich told me a harrowing story about how he nearly drowned in the river 25 years ago.

Later, we picked Hannah up from high school and she wanted to go bowling. We got to the bowling alley but it was league time so Hannah and Rich played a little pool while we waited for a lane.

Okay, there's a lane available now and here we go! I have not been in a bowling alley in years and was never very good in the first place. Let's just say that none of us would be invited to join the pro tour. Rich was much better than Hannah or me, though.

You can see my attitude! My scores: 74 and 101. :) If we'd bowled another game, I might have improved a bit more, who knows! I felt like I was just getting into the groove when we left. LOL

After bowling, we got a snack and stopped at the store for some food to bring to a BBQ with the rest of the family back at home. We had lots of fun hanging out with everyone and having time together. We don't get to see them often enough but always enjoy our visits.

Visiting Vesta

We rented a car and left San Francisco last Friday to drive to Rich's sister Vesta's in Kingsburg, CA (about three hours away). The warm sunshiney weather continued and we had a pleasant trip. Vesta had chicken tacos finishing up when we arrived and we had a great time talking and laughing through the night, looking at old photos and family keepsakes. Over the weekend, Vesta and Rich tackled a few boxes of family stuff from the house and in the garage, deciding what to keep and what to toss.

Lots of memories and fun stories ensued, as well as discussion of family roots and ancestors and who's who.

I really should put one of Rich's little boy pics here. He was so cute. :)

We also spent some more time on the computer, showing Vesta the fun of Facebook and how to work with photos, etc.

On Saturday, Rich cooked us a fabulous pasta dinner and we stayed up way too late talking, going through photos and messing around on the computer.

Sunday included more of the same as well as going out for a nice Mexican dinner. Vesta had to go out of town early Monday morning so we said our goodbyes on Sunday night. We'd be heading for El Dorado Hills to see Rich's cousin Mary Ethel and her husband Roger on Monday. Vesta was going to be in Sacramento for training, not far from their house, so there was the chance we could all get together one more time.

It was a great visit with lots of fun and lots of laughs. Thanks, Vesta, for having us!

Shoes/The Feet of San Francisco

On Thursday, we took the bus to the Marina area and had a fabulous lunch of southern Italian food at a place called A16. According to Rich, it's become trendy to name restaurant after a highway that runs through the region where the food comes from. (We do have some food photos from that meal and from Boulevard. I will see if Rich will do a food post at some point!) After all the fun I had taking photos of street scenes, I gave myself another photo project: shoes. Here's the first one, people getting on the bus ahead of us.

Two guys chatting her up while waiting for a bus.

Union Street

Bus full of feet

Rainbow socks

Hello Kitty!

Lime!

Flip flop weather

Getting a manicure but not a pedicure

Someone else who's not quite ready for spring

Someone who is!

Here we are, wearing our tootsies out with all the walking. We climbed more steep streets to get to the top of Russian Hill and browsed the shops in the area before walking all the way back to our hotel. I know I would be in great shape if I lived in San Francisco and walked everywhere!

Maybe her feet were hurting and she took her shoes off.

Heading back to work after lunch?

More flip flops

Waiting for someone

Animal print

Sitting in the sunshine

Heels

Egg with hair and pink shoes, and a cup with shoes on it

Summer dress and boots

Red shoes

Dog and best friend