Jet toy competition

These guys are on their way home from Detroit. They represented Oconee County well at the international jet toy competition.

 They did not win but it was a wonderful experience for all three of them

Here is Henry's teacher Mrs Garland and the school principal Mr. Holliday. They went on the trip too

Building the toy cars

Luke Nate and I have been holding down the fort here at home. At yesterday's running club Luke earned his marathon!

Here is Luke with his buddy Reed 

Detroit

Bryan and Henry are headed to Detroit for the International Jet Toy competition! 

The school surprised them yesterday with tshirts, backpacks and jackets for everyone going! 

Good luck Henry and your team of 3! 

Elizabeth's septic tank was out this weekend so we had the pleasure of hosting these cuties for their bath! 

We are a little sad they fixed it yesterday

Almost home

It is 10:00 PM and we are 20 minutes from home. So thankful for a wonderful spring break and great friends to enjoy it with. We are looking forward to sleeping in our bed tonight with cats laying all over us! We missed our kitty babies.

The last day

We began our day on the cable car in San Francisco.

Nate's request. He loves the cable car. In all it has been a wonderful spring break. The only negatives of the week include a call from Discover card. Someone had hacked our number and purchased a lot of groceries in North Carolina also some things at QT. hey probably added up to about $900 but thankfully discover noticed it and shut the car down and we aren't liable for any of the charges.

We also had quite a bit of excitement with Henrys camera. Two days before we left another child visiting our house accidentally knocked his camera over and broke his best lens. We decided our best course of action was to rent a lens from a rental company. That lens was delivered to our hotel in Napa and it was wonderful. While hiking in Muir wood Henry and Josh were joking around and Henry fell and broke the hood on the lens. Thankfully this is the cheaper part of the lens. If this is all the trouble we have had this week it has been a wonderful week.

I am thankful for all the precious friends in my life.

And I am thankful for these precious people I call family

The Millennium Restaurant

We literally had time to throw our bags in our hotel room in San Francisco and get on the BART which is the public transportation system here in San Francisco to head over to Oakland. It would have taken over an hour if we driven. It was about 25 minutes on Bart.

Bryan's cousin Trey is the sous chef at this fantastic vegan restaurant in Oakland called the millennium. His mom and Brian's mom or sisters. Trey has been out here for a few years and we are the first ones to visit his restaurant. He was so excited we were there and all of the staff came over to say hello.

The boys were such good sports. The menu was very different from anything we've ever had. They had nothing to drink that was ordinary. Henry ordered a Shirley Temple and it was made with lemon and lime juice and kombucha 

Here is Henry trying the fried king truffle mushrooms. They were yummy. They tasted like calamari.

This was the special dish that Trey cooked for the boys. Mashed potatoes with fava beans.

The main course for me and Brian. Mashed Cauliflower broccoli and Portabella mushrooms. Really was divine. I would love to be able to eat like this at home. I had to take a picture of some of the menu items. Trey is so proud of what he has done here.

It was a very late night but a great experience. Trey was thrilled we were there and we enjoyed the unique dining experience. We didn't get in bed till midnight which is 3 AM East Coast time! One more day of fun and adventure

Whale watching

we boarded the boat called the sanctuary at 10 AM Thursday morning for a 3 to 4 hour whale watching tour. Immediately out of the harbor we saw a humpback whale.

I was so excited to catch the tail flip with my camera. Henry took so many great pictures with his camera I can't wait to get home and see them all.

As we had it on out to the ocean we encountered a very large group of dolphins. We just couldn't get out of the middle of them. There were baby dolphins and they were jumping completely out of the water. It was beautiful

An hour or so later we were happy to find a gray whale. They are harder to see according to the biologist named Doris who guided our trip. He was covered barnacles.

Henry got some amazing pictures of him but my phone just didn't have the capabilities.

Then we saw many see lion sunning themselves on a buoy. We also saw some adorable sea otters. They were nearly extinct a few years ago but now there are plenty around the Bay Area

As we were docking Brian and Nate got pooped on by a bird! Other than that it was a wonderful outing. And all we saw one grade oil three humpback whales dolphins sea otters and sea lions.