August California Vacation update

Greetings from sunny California!   You've been wondering where my posts have been, haven't you?  I told Bruce I needed to make a blog post, as I figured there was checking being done... :)  But I just hadn't taken the opportunity.  

We flew into Oakland, which is basically across a bay from San Francisco.  Since we have a rental car, driving in Oakland isn't nearly as crazy as it is/will be in San Francisco.  Oakland was better than expected area. Unfortunately, however, there is a crazy amount of graffiti all over, and lots and lots of trash in many areas.  This picture was taken from the parking lot of the Oakland Museum.  We drove to a Redwood Park Area, thinking we would see some redwoods, but I think we are still too far south.  We saw lots of trees, and a lot of pretty area (although brown, not green, from lack of rain/drought), but not really any redwoods.  

 We headed northish up to Sacramento, and visited the California State Capitol building.

 The Old Sacramento District is a several block area ... touristy....trinket and candy and ice cream shops, along with some restaurants and eateries.  It was fun to walk around.

 Sacramento is the ending spot of the Pony Express as well as the first Transcontinental Railroad.  We found this pony express statue, but we decided we like Marysville's better.

 There are many, many museums in Sacramento.  We went to the California Museum (eh), the
Underground Sacramento History Tour (showing how Sacramento had to jack up their buildings during flooding of the mid-1800s), the Sacramento Museum (pretty good), and the California Railroad Museum (which was really, really good).

 These pictures are at the Railroad Museum.  I thought this one with the cat on the roof was cute.

We only have three more days of travel, the hind leg of the journey, which is always a little bittersweet.  I don't think it sounds like we will actually go into San Francisco this vacation 'round.  We are going to try to tackle the "Gold Rush" towns, go towards the Lake Tahoe area, and I thought it would make some sense to check off another state capitol by heading over to Carson City, Nevada.  There is a Marysville, California, which is not too far away, and Bruce would like to go through there as well.     I will try to post again soon. :)

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

If you are wondering....

If you are wondering why I have a Superhero name in my blog....working on summer reading program, and I was just trying this other website out...recommended posting to my blog, and I thought what the heck? :)

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

My superhero name is: The Azure Defender

You were working in a secret government lab, when a freak accident gave you unearthly powers!
Laser Blasts - You can generate focussed blasts of laser light powerful enough to devastate your opponents!
and...
Power Dampening - You have the ability to act as a dampener, temporarily removing the superpowers of anyone you encounter!
Now, you protect Futureville from corrupt congressmen, while also battling the evil plans of Astara, Lady of the Night!
Get your own superhero name from the superhero name generator!

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

Day 8 of Florida Vacation...sorta

Boarded the plane for an 8:30 takeoff, which didn't actually occur until 9:15, and arrived in Omaha about 11:20-30 or so...Home again now....*sigh*

Here are some of the pics from the Sugar Sand Festival from last night at Clearwater Beach...it was neat. This is just a very small portion of the pictures I took. The theme was Nursery Rhymes, and there were a bunch.  So artistic.

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

Florida Vacation - Day 7...technically the last day....waaaaaaahhhhh

Slow internet tonight at the hotel....can't get pics uploaded.

Suffice to say for right now....we had a very good day....

Dad got to have us tag along to horse racing this afternoon, and then this evening we ended up on Clearwater Beach at the Sugar Sand Festival.  The pictures are really neato!

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

Florida Vacation Day 6

After leaving Tarpon Springs this morning we headed south toward Palm Harbor, and ultimately to Dunedin.  We initially started out looking at the beach area overlooking the Caladesi Island, Honeymoon Island, etc.  

 The town of Dunedin was pretty quaint.  We walked downtown a little bit, ate lunch, and then went to the Historical Museum.  It was an old train depot.  This was the bike rack across the street in front. I just thought it was so cute.

 In the museum, Allison got to dress up a little and try her hand at rowing a boat, tying knots, etc.

 Stayed at a nice hotel, and Allison could swim in the pool for awhile.

Our evening agenda included a fun boat tour with hopefully some dolphin sighting. 

 And we did get to see some dolphins.   This is actually a couple of dolphins jumping out.  They would swim behind the boat, in the water wake that the boat created.  They would jump, and it was very cool. I wasn't in a great position to get a great photo but we did see several of them, and it was very cool.

 An osprey nest.

 There were several "celebrity" homes along the route.  This was John Travolta's home.

The name of the boat company is Parrotdise Express....Allison has the parrot hat on! :)

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

Florida Vacation Day 5

Started out our day in Lakeland, FL, which Bruce enjoyed, and then drove up and over and in rain. Ended up in Tarpon Springs, FL, and at the Sponge Factory, where this pic was taken. 

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

Day 4 Florida Vacation

Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa.

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

Florida Vacation Day 3

So, like even with a phone that now takes pictures I still can't do a very good job anymore of taking pictures.

After a very late night last night with Samantha Fish, we kinda slept in this morning. Bruce took Allison to a family fun center this morning for a little bit to play games, etc.  We then headed to "downtown" Tampa, but stopped in Ybor City, which is the Cuban and other immigrant influence. Very, very neat area.  We stopped at this park which was having a Saturday morning vendor fair.  There was a Ybor City Museum just across the street that we also went to. 

Our lunch find was a real treat!  It was the Columbia Restaurant which has been in business since 1905.  It is a Cuban/Spanish restaurant.  Bruce had the Cuban Sandwich, which is still made exactly the way that it was made in 1905 when the cigar making workers would come for lunch.  He also had a mojito (pictured below).  I tried my hand at Sangria  because it is supposed to be really spectacular here.  To me, and my nonalcohol tastes, tasted like wine with ice cubes. It was okay, but not great. 

Following lunch we went to the Henry B. Plant Museum.  It was really spectacular, and I should have taken a picture.  He was one of the great selfmade millionaires of the 1800s.  He had like 8 hotels, and I guess this was the finest. It was quite something.  It now houses the museum and the University of Tampa. While we were there, there were at least 3 wedding parties getting photos taken, as well as another girl in a very lovely gown, and I wonder if it was her "quincione" or however it is spelled....16th birthday.  She was lovely. Tonight we are staying in a refurbished hotel, the Floridian Palace Hotel, which is nice, and grand, but very quiet tonight. 
By the way, it is really hot here! Ugh!  I'm not ready for summer!!!!!!

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image