A little moving, a lot of time with friends

As it turns out, we've come to the end of our lease without having secured jobs, so we're once again packing up and going mobile.

We had a lot of help packing - Natalie catered lunch the first day...



And then Natalie, June and Kim packed up our entire kitchen and most of the living room in just a few hours!!

Since we had so much help with the packing, it took much less time than we'd anticipated and we had time to fit in some other fun things.

We took Kim up to the Marin Headlands to experience the fog rolling in...





Bob and Kim made a travel bag out of a coffee sack from Alvin's...



We took some friends from New Jersey on a tour of San Francisco including cable car rides,



Chinatown,



and dinner at the Spinnaker in Sausalito with an amazing sunset view!



Thanks everyone for all your help!!

End of Summer Bounty

These pictures are from the last Friday before Labor Day at the Mill Valley Farmers Market. Seems like after 11 months of the continuous seasonal bounties we can't remember what's coming next. So by next year we'll all know! This day we had: melons, tomatoes, end of summer peaches and nectarines, grapes are coming on strong, baby squishes have arrived, no apples or pears yet. Yes there are still a few strawberries.











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Oops! Wrong turn.

We were driving around the South of Market area of SF, took a wrong turn and ended up on the freeway. Not just the freeway but the last on ramp of the "Bay Bridge" (on left in photo). So making the most of the situation, we decided to try something new and take the Treasure Island exit, halfway across the bridge - we always wonder what kind of treasures they have there. Not only did we discover a "treasure trove" of city views, we didn't have to pay the toll!


When will you come and play?

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Surprise return!

After a lengthy unexpected trip back east to deal with a family matter, Bob returned home unannounced.

6:03 am departure from Newark non-stop. Price unknown.
1 - BART (bay area rapid transit - subway) trip. $9.80
1 - transfer to the bus free
1 - stop at 19th and Quintara street sidewalk flower vendor. $20 with a little haggle - hardly!

8 hours 3 time zones on 3 hours of sleep, 4 dozen roses and getting caught hiding in the bushes... response - Priceless!



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Trip to the Sauna (aka St. Louis in July)

Right after the family reunion, we parted ways - Bob went back to Sausalito stopping in Reno where he found an excellent deal ($29) on a hotel of questionable taste...



While Suzanne flew to St. Louis to visit Savanna and the kids in their very hot, very humid new home!



Visiting the Butterfly House...





Smiley Atlee...



Active Aldan...

Summer is really best in MT

So it seemed like a good idea to head north around the 4th of July for some family fun (and a reunion) in Great Falls. There was a lot of family:

Fortune siblings - Jeane, Joyce, Dale & Faye - with Aunt Alice.



Visiting, looking at pictures, reminiscing...



Fighting - in a socially acceptable way...







Learning from the older generations - notice the water balloon...



Performing - the twins did an iteration of Abbott & Costello's "Who's on 1st?"...



And lots of eating...





Fresh King salmon from Alaska, courtesy of Les & Ann



A hand carved fruit basket courtesy of the Benjamin family and Bob



Homemade ice cream courtesy of Uncle Harry



And last but not least there was some gorgeous scenery

$2 day at the Jewish Museum

And what would be the attraction to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, you say? Well, it was designed by a famous architect (Daniel Libeskind) AND one of our friends helped build it - I think he may prefer to work on a building NOT designed by a "famous" architect next time, something with fewer obscure angles!