Friends and Family in CA

Traveling around the country has enabled us to see many friends and family members that we wouldn't have been able to visit otherwise. Steve and Barbara Olson have been friends of Delton's from before Delton met Joni. They are retired IBMers that Delton met while living in California many years ago. We've been able to visit them a few times this winter and Delton has gotten to play golf wth Steve a number of times. Steve also helped us out by taking us to the airport and watching our car and bikes and kayak, when we went back to Texas for Byron Nelson week. THANKS Barbara and Steve!!

Pictured are Steve cooking us some pizzas and Barbara working at her computer.


Sometimes friends show up in the strangest places!!! Terry Vance, a friend from Trophy Club who moved to Minnesota with his wife, also named Terry, had a business trip to San Jose while we were there. We were able to meet for diner one evening and enjoyed catching up on old times. Pictured are the three of us at a Mexican restaurant in San Jose.

Delton's Aunt Dorothy and her husband Jack, live in Sacramento. They moved there about 3 years ago. Dorothy is Delton's Mom's sister. We enjoyed spending an evening with them and their bird. Sorry - I can't remember the bird's name. He entertained us all evening by whistling and talking to us, and jumping all around the den - outside of his cage.
Thanks Dorothy and Jack for a fun evening and a great diner!

Byron Nelson Golf Tournament 2008

Well, it's that time again. Delton worked his 34th season and Joni worked her 23rd season. We have the most combined years as a volunteer couple on this tournament.

Pictured are Joni and Delton in their tower. Also pictured is our hole viewed from the fairway - see the volunteer tower in the distance with the TV tower next to it.

Since we are touring California this winter, we had to fly to Texas to work this year's tournament. We left our motorhome in the San Jose area and flew to Texas for the week. We stayed with our friends from Trophy Club, Kandy and Val Franklin with one night at Ron's (Delton's brother). Thank you Kandy and Val for your friendship and hospitality. It's always great to be "home" and visiting our friends and family. But, we didn't get alot of visiting in. Joni got sick!

She came down with a sinus infection that just took her down. It hit her hard and she wasn't able to work 2 of the 4 days. She was disappointed that in 34 years, she had not missed even 1 day to volunteer. Thank goodness that Delton's brother, Ron, was also working the tournament (his 3rd year) (Pictured are Ron and Delton working). Usually we work 3 people on a hole, but it can be done with 2. Delton and Ron had to work hard without Joni there every day, but Joni felt very appreciated by them this year. And thanks again to Kandy and Val, for letting a very sick Joni contaminate their home for a week. Luckily, no one else got sick!


As you can see, we are still working as Laser Operators, measuring the distances that the golfers hit the ball - from the tee box all the way to the hole. (Pictured is OUR hole - number 17 with a crowd watching) Using survey equipment located in a tower which stands about 10 feet high, we spot the ball and push the button. The machine and computers do the rest.

Just a few more years and Delton will get his 35 year pin and Joni will get her 25 year pin. Do you think we will retire from our volunteer jobs after that?

Beach Blanket Babylon

After visiting Alcatraz, the Coit Tower and eating diner, we all went to a San Francisco show called Beach Blanket Babylon. It was hilarious!!!! Ken suggested we go and he treated us to the show. What a nice surprise.

The show is a spoof on current events and celebrities. It is also known for it's outrageous HATS!

Pictured are 2 hats of San Francisco. One is being worn by an actress in a red dress and one by an actress in a white dress in the final scene of the show.

One of the funniest spoofs was made of Hillary and Obama. See the photos of them - big ears and big hips!

It's the story of Snow White and her search for her prince charming. Political characters and people in the news all enter her life as she rejects each of them, until she finds her prince. Guess who it ends up being???? ELVIS (See photo of Elvis)

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Condy Rice all make an appearance. (See photo of the three of them - Bush in his Texas shirt and Cheney in his hunting outfit)

We felt the show was great, funny and done in good taste. It's been running for about 30 years and is constantly being updated with current events and current celebrities in the news.

San Francisco View from Coit Tower

After we left Alcatraz, Ken suggested we walk to the Coit Tower in San Francisco. It's basically a needle on one of the highest points in San Francisco and allows a panaramic view of the city.

As we walked to the tower, we took a picture from the street looking down the hill. There are many big hills in SF. Notice how the cars are parked perpendicular to the curb!

Other pictures shown are of the city of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge. Also pictured is Alcatraz (the island in the middle of the water). It seems like it would be an easy swim for an escaped convict to the shore, but the water is very rough and very cold.

Alcatraz Prison

Alcatraz is an island in San Francisco Bay. It was used as a federal prison until 1963. It was closed due to deteriorating buildings and high costs. It is now a national park. We decided to take a day and check it out. Joni's son, Ken, joined us for our day in prison.

Since it is an island, the only way to get there is by ferry, so we boarded our boat and took off for the very short (1 1/2 mile) ride to the island. (See Joni on ferry with Alcatraz in background). The bay around the island is very cold and very rough. It's where the bay meets the ocean.

After we got there, we saw an introductory movie about the prison, then we were each given a headset to listen to a self guided tour of the facility.

I wonder what crime Joni and Ken committed to land behind bars!

The cell blocks were very cold and very small. See the photo of a typical cell. It wasn't like our modern prisons these days. It was cold, damp and dingy. Prisoners could see and hear San Francisco from "the Rock" (see photo of SF from Alcatraz) which made it very enticing to try a prison break. In all, 36 prisoners tried to escape. All were recaptured except 5. It is assumed they didn't make it to the shore.

If you look real carefully at the prison cell that looks like it has a prisoner sleeping on the cot, you will see a hole chipped out of the wall in the back. It's at the bottom in the back of the cell. The prisoners made phony heads (see in picture) and used them to make believe they were asleep and escaped out of the holes they had chiseled out of the wall. The movie, Escape From Alcatraz, with Clint Eastwood, dramatizes this escape.

Alcatraz housed some famous prisoners. Al Capone and Robert Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz). See Delton looking at photos of famous inmates.

There weren't many recreational activities at Alcatraz. Outside activities were confined to the recreation area pictured.

Visitation wasn't very comfortable either. See the visitation area in the picture.

There were 90 correctional officers which covered 3 hour shifts and some lived on the island with their families. Can you imagine raising a family on Alcatraz. We were told the families felt very safe. I don't know about that!!!!! The children would take a boat to get to school in San Francisco every day.

Alcatraz had no death row and no facility for executions, but the inmates were dangerous men and some were put into isolation cells (see Ken in isolation) which were more secure and "dark" with a set of bars and then a solid door (see photo from inside the isolation cell looking out) in front of the bars to block out any view of the hall. Eight inmates were murdered by other inmates and five committed suicide.

Even though it was a beautiful day in San Francisco , the island was cold and windy. Even in the summer it is chilly and windy. I wonder if the living conditions on "the Rock" would be allowed today?????

Half Moon Bay

It was a beautiful day, so we decided to take a 1 hour drive to Half Moon Bay Beach State Park. Half Moon Bay is just south of San Francisco. Ken, Joni's son, met us there. (See photo of Ken with Joni)

We took a long hike along the ocean, partly on the path and partly along the sand. Joni wished we had taken our bikes, but the hike gave us more time to visit and talk with each other.

As we walked along, we saw a kayak group surfing the waves (see photo). The ocean here is very cold, so they all wore wet suits. Joni would love to try that sometime, but she'd need to buy an ocean kayak. The one she has is a recreational kayak.

After a few hours, we decided to take a drive along the coast to Santa Cruz. Actually, Joni wanted to go there. Ken and Delton said it wasn't worth the time. They were right. Santa Cruz is just an old small town with a boardwalk with lots of carnaval rides and lots of kids and teenagers AND A LOT OF TRAFFIC. We got stuck in the traffic along the beach for a long time. We didn't even park and get out and walk - we couldn't find a spot to park even if we wanted to. SO, we just turned around and went back to Half Moon Bay. We didn't take any pictures in Santa Cruz.

It was a beautiful drive along the coastal Route 1 so that part was was worth it.

We all had diner in Half Moon Bay when we got back.

Joni enjoyed every minute she could spend with Ken. He was planning on moving out of San Francisco to Denver the following week. We had traveled to San Francisco just in time.

Winchester Mystery House

Sarah Winchester was married to the son of the Winchester Rifle manufacturer. After the untimely death of her baby daughter and husband, she was convinced by a medium that continuous building on her house would appease the evil spirits and help her attain eternal life.

Mrs. Winchester inherited $20,000,000 and continued to add on to her house until her death at 82 years old. She kept carpenters working for 24 hours a day for 38 years. There are 160 rooms in the house and building style was very bizarre. Parts of the house weren't even finished when she would decide to move on to another builidng project. Also she didn't use or live in most of the house.

Mrs. Winchester was a tiny person and had trouble picking up her feet as she climbed the stairs, so she removed the normal stairs and had tiny stairs installs (see photo of people walking up the tiny stairs). These stairs had to be built in a switchback pattern to get the next floor.

Among the bizarre things we saw were: doors and windows opening onto blank walls (see photo with table and chairs), staircases that went down to nowhere and then back up again, doors opening to nowhere (an 8 foot drop). Pictured are pictures showing the door from a distance and the door close up.

This Victorian house has many more oddities which are too many to mention, but we have to say that it wasn't worth the $50 we paid to tour it. It is located in San Jose, which is within 1/2 hour of our RV park, and was an easy drive when we had nothing else to do .

Big Basin Redwood SP

TALK ABOUT BIG TREES!!!!!

Big Basin Redwoods State Park is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 23 miles from the city of Santa Cruz. There are over 80 miles of trails , so off we went!

Since Joni's son, Ken, (see Joni and Ken in photo) still lives in San Francisco, he joined us for a day at the park. It started out as a chilly day, but it ended up being a perfect day to hike.

We started on the Redwood Loop Trail which is where some of the tallest trees in the park are found. That was a short 1/2 mile trail. After that were took one of the longer trails which took us about 3 hours to hike.


We saw trees that were named: Mother of the Forest (see photo of sign in front of tree) and Father of the Forest.

These massive redwoods are up to 300 feet tall and 50 feet in circumference. They range from serveral hundred to 2,000 years old. Some have hollowed trunks but are still alive. (See picture looking up from INSIDE the tree.)

Their root systems are shallow and far reaching, usually found within the top 8 feet of soil and are intertwined with those of nearby redwoods. Redwoods have thick protective bark and have the ability of draw thousands of gallons of water which makes them well adapted to survive wildfires. We saw quite a few trees that looked like they had been partly burned.

Standing next to the big trees made us feel very small. We were amazed at the sizes of the trunks. We couldn't get a picture that would show how very tall they were. We couldn't get the whole tree into the picture.

After we left the park, we all went out to eat in Los Gatos. Delton used to live there BJ (Before Joni) and worked for IBM in that area. We had a great day!