more vacation stuff

My sister and parents want to see more family shots....so here it goes.

So here we are in San Francisco at the Presidio. It was once a military base, now it is back in the hands of civilians and folks are paying big buckaroos to live in government housing. What a great thing they are doing there. This area, Chrissy park (I may very well be spelling that wrong, help me out, Laura) has a great view of the bay with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. I thought that picture made me look skinny, so that is why it is there.

Laura (my little sister) took me on a walking tour of the grocery stores in her neighborhood. Holy cow. I LOVE a good grocery store. Always have. But it is more of an obsession now that I have been denyed for the past couple years. I was stunned that you could purchase your wine, beer and groceries in one shop. Oh and how cheap was the produce. Heck everything is cheap for that matter. I hear you squawking about the price of gas....yeah, it is pretty cheap guys. I am paying about $12 a gallon for diesel in Alice Springs. Now that is expensive. I think milk is about $8 a gallon. I can't believe how cheap America is! We are so moving back here some day!

I had to show off this quilt. I made it about 5 years ago when I first started sewing big time. It is the second quilt I finished. Most of that is Amy Butler from her Ginger Bliss, Gypsy Caravan, and Temple Flowers lines. I used the scraps from this quilt to make on for my mom. Mom's is pinwheels with my favorite poem embroidered along the sashing. "Solitude" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. I will take a picture of that one when we go out to visit their house later this week. Maybe we will go by after going to the dentist. Oh that is going to be a fun day. Visiting the dentist while on vacation. Yippee. But we need to since the dentists in Alice leave something to be desired.

This is Laura, Emma and I at the San Francisco Airport (no family potties). See her bag? I thought it looked like her. I am carrying a red back pack my husband brought home for me. Yes, yes I know it is bordering on sacrilege, but I didn't have time to make one for myself before we left. I did have on cut out and was working on it about 2 hours before leaving for the airport...it is still waiting on me in Alice.

Here is a nice view of the Beach at Bellows Air Force Station in Hawaii. It was so pretty! Lots of Man-o-war jelly fish, but as long as you avoided the mature ones you are fine. Ethan got stung pretty bad by a big one, but he is fine now and the scabs have come off. Anyway, if you are looking at an affordable vacation in Hawaii, check out the website. I do believe you must be a government employee or retired to stay on the base. To rent a cabin is $60 a night. Not bad! It is a no frills place, but that is fine with us. No crowds too! I hate teeming humanity, so that was a huge plus. We went down to Waikiki for an afternoon....most of that was spent driving around looking for parking. Horrible. But lots of strange people to look at so that was fun. I saw Obama strutting down the road trying to look incognito (well I am not really sure if it was Obama or not, my husband wouldn't go ask him, and I wasn't going to either) but it makes for a good story.

For this last picture we took the cog train up to Pikes Peak in Colorado. My Stu bag has been all over the place. I have a group on Flickr....I need to send out invitations or something so you can show me and the world where your Camp Follower Bags have been. It was a nice day trip. Well, we are off to get tires for the Passatt while we are in the states. I would hate to have a blow out on the way to see Malia in Charlotte!

xo,

Tia