San Fransisco--actually Monterey and San Jose

Saturday we headed south and west to the Pacific coast.  Monterey Bay has a great aquarium that both Gary and I liked and wanted to share with Jena and his mom.

The drive is beautiful up and down the hills
which were covered with early morning fog.



Our first view when we walked in--
a scuba diver cleaning the window of a big aquarium

Face to face with a penguin

Coral

They had tanks and tanks of jelly fish of all types

Leaf seahorse

Jena and I

Jena watching the waves

Did I mention I am a "geek" in relationship to the ocean?  Gary knows how much I love to be at the beach so he dropped off Jena and I at a beach to enjoy it for a few minutes before we headed back to San Jose.  There was no place to park for free so it was just the two of us.  Too cold for swimming anyway but it was nice to touch the water and listen and watch the waves on the beach.  I couldn't convince Jena to take off her shoes so I restrained myself as well, but it was good to be on a beach, anyway.

We headed back to San Jose in the late afternoon as we had one more surprise for the day.  We got tickets for the evening performance of "Shen Yun", a classical and modern Chinese dance company.  The dancing and costumes were great and we all enjoyed it.  Very different from musicals which we usually attend but very spectaculor.  They had dances from different time periods and ethnic groups of China.  I wasn't sure how Jena would like just dancing but she loved it too.

(Weather still in the single digits in Utah!)

San Fransisco--Friday

The whole reason for the trip  was to go see the Broadway musical "The Lion King".  Our tickets were for Friday afternoon.  We had a slow morning and then headed back to San Fransisco.  The theater is right in the downtown area so we were able to walk around a bit, have lunch and then go to the play.

The Streets of San Fransisco



A door on a courthouse we walked by

The theater--built in the early 1900s--redone, reused, and then restored in 1980s
My dad remembers going here when it was a movie theater with his mom.

Door of the theatre

After the performance pose--this is painted on the
outside wall of the theatre

There is no way to describe the production.  It was amazing.  And afterwards, we paid $20 for a program (which seemed ridiculous on the way in) because it was so awesome.  The music, the actors, scenery and the costumes----the costumes were indescribable.  If you have a chance and you like theatre, go to see it.

The performance ended around 5 and Gary headed west.

We got to the coast in time to watch the last of the sunset as it disappeared into the western ocean.  I am a bit of a geek about the ocean so it was a fun thing for Gary to add to the day.

Panda Express for dinner and then we headed home and to bed.  It was a great day and we had another great day planned for the morning.

San Fransisco--Thursday

Still no fix for the picture problem on blogger.  It is a "known issue" and they are trying to fix it.  Why would it work for years and then stop working?  It is not as fun to write a blog without the pictures to show.  Afterall, a picture is worth a thousand words.... I guess I will add pictures later.  I don't want to get too far behind.

Thursday, Jan. 3rd, Gary, his mom, Jena and I headed off to San Fransisco leaving 9 degree weather behind and landing in 59 degree weather and blue skies.  This was a trip that Jena had started by finding out that "The Lion King" was playing "near us" according to the web site she had found.  She does searches from time to time for her favorite musicals to watch youtube and other sites.  In one of those searches, she found "Lion King".  When she told me about it she said that we needed to go and take Grandma. I pointed out that San Fransisco isn't really near us but it sounded fun so we decided to go.

The picture I texted our kids to let
them know we had arrived safely.

If you look carefully you can see our first view of the bridge.

We landed in San Jose and headed right up into San Fransisco.  This was Jena's first trip to here so we went to the the Golden Gate Bridge first---where all good trip to San Fransisco start.  We went to the north side visitor's center.   After taking pictures, Gary suggested that Jena and I walk across the bridge and they would pick us up.  I had never thought about doing it but it sounded awesome so off we went.  Jena doesn't like heights much but I was so proud of her.  She walked the whole way and even paused for lots of pictures along the way...even along the railing. 

north visitors center--San Fransisco in the background

Starting off

Jena taking a picture of me taking a picture of her
taking a picture of me...you get the idea

In case you wondered what it looked like
close up

The Pacific Ocean side

Looking back the way we came--
it was beautiful.

The city and the bay
We saw all sizes of boats and even a helicopter
flying under the bridge while we crossed.

Jena's "we made it" pose

I am so glad that we did it.  Gary and his mom had a bit of an adventure themselves trying to drive to the south visitor's center.  There was some road construction so it took them a bit of time to circle back around...and around...to find us.  After we connected we drove through town and up and down the famous Lombard Street.  We visited Coit Tower just as the sun was setting so got to see the lights of the city and the bridges turn on.  It was beautiful.

We got to "enjoy" rush hour traffic which reminded us one of the reasons we like living in our "neck of the woods". 

That was a lot for our first day..............

Let the New Year Begin.....

I texted that to Scott as we arrived home from our trip last Sunday night. He texted back that the new year had started for us with a great trip. It was a great trip...but the "real" New Year of 2013 starts now as we get back to "real" life. I haven't even made goals or set plans for much yet. And that turned out to be a good thing since some of "real" life has been a challenge.

Good thing that we had a Early New Years Eve Party as New Year Eve turned into a complicated day for us but even more for Ben. He had been working on making a change in medication due to some side effects which were bad for his health. Often when he switches medication there is a space for a few or more days when he feels better less sedated and more feelings. We have guessed that this is due to not quite having enough medication on board. However this time despite going slower down and up with the new medication quicker, he has gone "down hill" for the past 4 weeks. It has been very sad. There were some unfortunately events which also played into the whole thing as well. It came to a head on Dec. 31. Gary and I had wondered about possibly that he might need to be in the hospital even though in the past we had not done that for a variety of reasons. This time, Ben made the decision himself that he needed to go to UNI (University Neuropsychiatric Institute in Salt Lake) help with medication adjustments. And so he was there for 10 days until last Thursday. We are very proud of him and for his willingness to seek help when it was needed. He actually had a good experience there, but has struggled as he came home so has stayed with us since then.

Of course these things are never at a great time for the rest of your life (there is probably never a good time to have a child in the hospital). Gary, his mom, Jena and I had a trip plan to San Fransisco from Jan. 3rd through Jan. 6th. However, with Ben's support and his doctor's okay as well, we headed off for our trip on Thursday. Scott and Chantel stepped in and took care of our dogs for us while we were gone since Ben had been planning to do it for us.

It was hard to leave him even though we talked often on the phone.  In addition it was hard to manage conversations with medical personnel from long distance.  One call I had to take by leaving the small diner we were eating lunch and go to the street to hear her......then a fire truck and some police cars went blaring down the street.  Ben handled it very "matter of fact" and even said that he didn't know why we needed to call him everyday.  Well, I needed to talk to him so I guess that was for me instead of for him.

I will post each day by itself.  However if you don't want to have a picture tour of the area you can skip those posts.  Just know despite everything we had a great time.