A Truly Enjoyable Saturday

Yesterday, I went to the Children’s Discovery Museum with Katie, Ryan and Lucas.  The museum is just north of San Francisco on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  This museum is similar to the one in San Jose except is has more fun outdoor things for little kids to do.  The one in San Jose has more indoor things.

We first went to the “stream” where they had plastic fish and frogs that kids could “assist” in their swimming.

 We then went to an area where there were foam blocks that could be built into cool structures.  

 He liked climbing the tower with Dad.

 He also liked the large granite frog head,

 and the spider web.

 He had fun in the large log.

 He had an easier time walking through than I did.

 He visited the cave, but there were too many silly girls.

 He liked the plastic tunnel.  It was great for crawling through.

 And driving trucks on.

 The truck also went up the ramp.

 At lunch, we enjoyed a fun picnic.  Lucas likes bananas.

 After lunch we did more of the indoor things.  There was a water tank with wind blowing across it.  There were foam parts that creative sail boats could be constructed from and tested.  Lucas liked playing with it, but I think engineers Katie and Ryan also like building boats to try out.

 There were tunnels to walk through if you were short enough.  Taller people had to crawl.

 Lucas especially liked the trains more than any other indoor activity. 

 Back outside again, he was hiding from Grandpa behind the fence.

 This was the view out the door of one of the museum buildings.  The Golden Gate Bridge is very close.  There were lots of sail boats out on the bay enjoying the temperatures in the mid to upper 70s and sunshine with a light breeze.

 When it was time to go, I spent an extra 30 minutes to find a couple of geocaches that were very close by.  These were virtual caches where you just go to the location and find some information to email to the person who created the “cache”.  Apparently, the police in that area get very concerned about hidden containers and do not allow them.  There was a great view of the sail boats on the bay with Alcatraz Island on the right.

 Further to the right in the next photo is downtown San Francisco.

 Further yet to the right in the final photo is the Golden Gate Bridge.

I ended the day by talking to Mom and Neil on the phone while driving home and then making cheese and chocolate fondue for dinner with John and Becky and watching the Cardinals in game 3 of the World Series with a 16-7 win.  It was a very fine day.

Stir Fry.....

Last night was the first game of the World Series, which the Cardinals won!!!!  John and Becky came over to watch the game in HD. 

For dinner, I fixed stir fry steak, pasta and veggies.  As with many of the things I cook I mix cultures in my ingredient selection.  I started with carrots cut up and sautéed in olive oil.  I then added yellow and green squash pieces with fresh ground pepper, olive oil and a little teriyaki sauce.  I then cut up a steak in to pieces like I would for stroganoff, but I cooked it in olive oil and teriyaki sauce with fresh ground pepper also.  While this was cooking, I cooked small shell pasta in boiling water.  When it was done, I stir fried it in olive oil and teriyaki sauce also.  I then mixed it all together.  This is what it looked like.

It was very tasty.  It went quite well with a Cardinal win.  We then celebrated the Cardinal win with vanilla bean ice cream and magic shell.

Last week I made the same thing except instead of the steak, I had shrimp cooked in olive oil and lemon juice.  It was also very tasty.  I have found that making stir fry with left over pasta is really easy.  I am now ready to try using rice again for variety.

What Happened to the Third Reich?

Last week, I had a very short business trip to Nuremberg Germany.  It was a hectic trip.  My flight left Saturday evening, Oct 7^th and arrived in Frankfurt Sunday afternoon.  We then took a train to Nuremberg.  On Monday, we had meetings with a potential customer.  Tuesday morning, we had another short meeting and then went directly to the train back to Frankfurt.  I then caught my flight back to San Francisco, arriving Tuesday evening, 71 hours after I left on Saturday.
Because of the short trip, there was not much time for site seeing.  Even though I had my cell phone camera, I really did not take many photos.  The few I did take were not very good. 

There is a photo at the bottom that is not very good that I took with my cell phone, but the story behind it is interesting so I will include it anyway.  In 1936 A large stone building was built to house transformers for the growing electrical needs of the Third Reich.  Here is an old photo from the internet.  Notice the Reichsadler (Realm eagle - Symbol of Hitler's empire) on the end of the building.

Today, this building is a Burger King located about a half block from the Hilton Hotel where I stayed.  This photo is also from the internet.

You can see where the Reichsadler used to be on the end of the building.  It is now a regular Burger King, complete with children’s play area.  This is a great monument to remembering the past but moving into the future. 

This is the photo I took with my cell phone in the taxi as we were leaving.  

I also saw lots of McDonalds and Subway restaurants in addition to the traditional German restaurants.

Cruise Day 7-8: At Sea--- On our way back to Puerto Rico; Getting off the Ship and Going home

On our last full day on the ship, we were at sea on our way back to Puerto Rico.  We had some excitement in the morning.  They announced that a tropical storm that had not yet reached hurricane stage yet was headed for Puerto Rico and the Port in San Juan was closed for safety reasons.  Since we were coming from the south and the storm was coming from the north east of Puerto Rico we were able to continue going north in anticipation that the Port would open and we could arrive in San Juan the next morning.  We were actually hoping that the port would stay closed.  That would mean that we would have an additional day at sea and the next cruise would start a day late.  They allowed everyone to have free internet access in case they wanted to make other travel arrangements in the event we would not be in Puerto Rico the next morning.  There were long lines and I think at least a third of the ship made other flight arrangements.  I tried to check out our options, but could never get through, so we decided to just wing it.

The captain continued full speed ahead, hoping the port would be open and we would be on schedule.  Later that night we found out that the storm was not as bad as expected and he port would be open and we would arrive on time.  I was glad that we did not make any other return travel arrangements like a lot of the others.

In the afternoon, we had a tour of the galley.  It was cool to see where all of the food was prepared.  John was tempted to raid the food but we held him back.

 Preparations for dinner:

 The mashed potatoes are really good and they make a lot of them.

 We talked to the chef that gave the tour.

 At dinner that night, all of the chefs walked through.  We applauded them for the incredible food they made for us all week. 

After that the waiters sang for us.  They should stick to being waiters.  They were not very good at singing.

This is our waiter, Melroy from India, behind Mom and Becky, and our assistant waiter, Cesar from Peru, next to John.  Of all the cruises we have been on, these two are probably the best waiter and assistant waiter we have ever had.

The next day we started our last morning on the ship with breakfast in the Windjammer as usual.  Once off the ship, we found our bags and then had to wait in line to go through customs.

Once we were through customs, we found a lot of taxis available for rides to the airport.

At the airport, we grabbed our luggage and made it through the airport bureaucracy.  

After that, all we had to do was wait for our plane home.

It was a very enjoyable cruise.  I'm glad we went.

Cruise Evening 5: Dinner after we left Aruba -Dancing in the Aisles

After we left Aruba, we had our normal delicious dinner.  During and after dinner there was some entertainment that quite fun.  There was a parade of the waiters and assistant waiters balancing things on their heads.  Our waiter Melroy even did push-ups  along with another guy while keeping his vase of flowers balanced.  They then had everyone get up and do the Macarena.  I of course had to run the camera to record this entertaining event so I am not in the video.  Since this was shot in the low light level in the dining room, it is not as clear as I had hoped.  Staring form left to right is Mom, John, Becky and our waiter Melroy.

Cruise Day 6: Curacao

In the 6^th day of our cruise, we arrived at Curacao, which is about 50 miles from Aruba and was also a Dutch island.  This is a view of Curacao before getting off the ship.  

 This is us getting off the ship in the morning. 

 Mom and I went scuba diving at this island.  On our ride to the scuba location, we had a good view of the ship from the highway on the bridge. 

 We also got a view of the harbor entrance.  In this view, the floating bridge was pulled to shore for boats to enter.  There will be more about that later from our afternoon visit to the bridge.

 We also passed a house with cacti growing out of the roof.

 When we arrived at the scuba location we got our gear.  This is before I got my scuba equipment.

The coral and fish were beautiful in Curacao, but the part of the dive that almost killed Mom was before the dive.  It was a beach dive, which means we had to carry all of our gear over 200 feet to the beach.  Since the gear weighed more than Mom, it seemed like 200 miles.  Once we caught our breath and were in the water, it was beautiful.  We saw a lot of different kinds of fish and coral.  We saw a big lionfish and a spotted moray eel.

John and Becky went on a boat that they got to drive and then went snorkeling.

We all had a great time.

After lunch (can’t miss lunch), we left the ship again to go into town.  We were also greeted by lots of trumpet fish right next to the pier.  They are almost a foot long but less than an inch in diameter.  If I was the one that got to name the fish, I would have called them needle fish.  I think their noses were al little trumpet shaped.

 We walked into town and down to the harbor so we could across the harbor on the floating bridge.  The floating bridge is quite famous in Curacao, so we wanted to see it and walk on it.  We got there just as the bridge was rotating back to shore to let boats through.

 This is the view of the other side after the bridge was out of the way.

 We waited a while and decided it was going to be a while before the bridge was open again, so we took the free ferry across the harbor.  While on the other side, Mom posed in front of a cute church.

 Eventually, we took the ferry back as it was getting to be time to return to the ship.  Just as we were headed back, the floating bridge once again spanned the harbor.  After waiting so long, we had to walk out on the bridge.

 While on the bridge, we took photos of us.  In the background, you can see the highway bridge that we were on in the morning on our way to scuba diving.

 Another shot of John and Becky with the cute buildings in the background.

 On our way back to the ship, I got this view of the ship from the old fort wall.

 Dinner that night was a formal dress night.  We had the flourless chocolate cake, which was amazing.  This is Becky enjoying her desert.  It was really delicious.

 Since we were dressed up in our formal attire, we took quite a few photos while we were dressed up.  These are a few of the many photos taken. 

 The last one was taken of all 4 of us by a guy that was just passing by and I asked him to take the photo with my camera.