A Deep Hodgepodge

This photo from January of 2016 (10 years ago) was from a few days spent in San Francisco while Greg was at an Oncology Conference. The words below the first photo are about that day in 2016.

Today was a full day of sight seeing with an old friend from my college days who grew up in San Francisco. She happens to be Russian/Chinese and knows the city well. We had several stops and enjoyed lunch and shopping in China Town where everyone is getting ready for the Chinese New Year. I don’t think I need to tell anyone what bridge they are looking at in my photo…

My friend, Alice, at our delicious lunch in Chinatown. She did the ordering. My friend passed away in 2018.

Back to…

…Another winter Hodgepodge with a flashback to ten years ago thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond.

1. Ice skating, skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, playing in the snow, or a snowy walk…which winter activity do you choose? Have you done any of these activities so far this winter?

Nothing this winter. We have not had any measurable snow this season.

At this stage of life, the only winter activity I would choose are the walking kind.

When we have a good dump of snow I have gone out our door to snowshoe. This is from 2019.

This one is from 2022.

2. Everyone is posting pictures from ten years ago on their social media sites so let’s jump on the bandwagon too. Share one photo and one thought to go with said photo from the year 2016. And maybe everyone isn’t doing this, but many are and we’re going to be part of the fun.

This was one of the best memories of 2016! This is the photo that was shared with us and I shared it on the Hodgepodge with the words below the photo.

15036604_1356018304417236_4867337359558403527_n

We have the best of news that we have permission to share now with the world. Dear and I are grandparents for the first time and will be able to see our new little granddaughter for the first time in person sometime in March or April of 2017 depending on when she pops out. Even though our little granddaughter is not born yet we consider her our granddaughter already as God is wonderfully forming her right now.

At the end of 2016, this review of the year from July to December was published on my blog. What a year!

3. What’s a trend you hope disappears in this new year?

Stalking, attacking and verbally assaulting Law Enforcement.

4. ‘They’ say there’s a day for everything and January 21st proves it. National Granola Bar Day. Do you like granola bars? How about just regular granola? Do you like bars of other kinds?

I’ll have one if I’m desperate but they aren’t something that is purchased and available in my pantry. I do enjoy granola as a cereal with milk.

5. A frozen lake, a trickling stream, a raging river, or a deep well…which one describes something about your life right now? Elaborate as much or as little as you like.

A deep well. There is so much to learn that I do not know. So much to see that I haven’t seen. So much about God that I do not know. I believe the ache to know more, see more and do more comes from a deep longing from our inner being that wants to see God as He is. It is a hard thing to explain. Someday that will be a reality. Until then I’ll keep digging in God’s truth and in the world God created for us to enjoy and give glory to God in the discoveries along the way that show me more of Him. My deep desire will become reality when I graduate to heaven.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of 2016, this is another amazing memory and experience we had in September/October of that year.

The “Girls” and most of our husbands have just returned from a seven day trip to Indiana and Ohio to see a production using our name in Amish/Mennonite Country. The Blue Gate Productions hosted us and treated us as VIP’s. All ten of the girls were together at the Blue Gate Garden Inn where we enjoyed “Faspa” on Sunday night before we had our cooking show and saw the production for the first time. As you can see from the first photo above we have fun together.

We took this opportunity to get some photos of all ten of us since Betty and Charlotte live in Manitoba and miss many of our get togethers in British Columbia and Seattle.

I shared many posts about our time in Amish Country. This is the initial one here.

Happy Wednesday, Hodgepodgers and all who stop by here.

The Golden Gate Bridge

I was so pleased to be able to get many views of this historical bridge that has been photographed by millions. This first photo and next photo collage images were taken on Thursday from the Presidio and from China Beach.

The name of the bridge has nothing to do with the color but with the fact that the waterway that the bridge spans has been considered a gateway. The Golden Gate Strait is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The strait is approximately three-miles long by one-mile wide with currents ranging from 4.5 to 7.5 knots. It is generally accepted that the strait was named “Chrysopylae”, or Golden Gate, by John C. Fremont, Captain, topographical Engineers of the U.S. Army circa 1846. It reminded him of a harbor in Istanbul named Chrysoceras or Golden Horn.

On Friday I took a hop on hop off bust tour of San Francisco and it was a very grey and rainy day. These are the shots I got from the tour bus.

This photo was taken from the Top of the Mark on our first day in San Francisco. We walked to the hotel to have a drink and small bites in their top floor restaurant with 360 degree views of the town.

Don’t forget to look up when you are on the tour bus. I’m glad I didn’t drown or soak my camera lens!

Now for a treasure of a photo from 1959! This is my sister Vera, our lifelong friend Milla with our friends from San Francisco, the Hamzieffs. We must have been strolling across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Hope you all have a great Friday and weekend. An update on me going grey, my hairdresser decided a gentle approach with foils would be the best way to go. A little silver at a time till my hair catches up. She’ll leave whatever grows out naturally uncovered and add streaking to the ends of the new growth. I don’t know if I explained that right but the grey/white will be subtle. Now today I’ve got to get my cleaning skills out of the closet and get moving!

Signs and Fences…

Last Friday on a hop on hop off bus tour of San Francisco while it was raining I managed to get some photos of some fences and some signs.

Jammin on Haight, Head Rush and a more down to earth Haight Street Market! Does Haight Ashbury ring a bell with you?

This fence/gate was spotted in the historic civic center area of San Francisco and this was across the street from the San Francisco City Hall that looks a lot like the U.S. Capitol building.

Here is probably the most photographed bridge in the U.S.A., the Golden Gate Bridge. You can see how rainy it was this day. These fences play a very important roll on this bridge. I’m devoting a whole post with all my photos of the Golden Gate Bridge soon.

It’s time to link up with Lesley for signs, signs and with Tex*Wis*Girl for Good Fences #97!

Dear and I continue to walk about our neighborhood after all our uphill/downhill walks in San Francisco last week. We are trying to set some good habits for our health. I have some fences to share another time from our neighborhood walk.

Friends Touring San Francisco

About forty six years ago I met Alice through my Russian Baptist church friends in the Los Angeles area. She lived in San Francisco and would come down and stay with her good family friend, another Alice she was named after. When she visited we had some fun adventures. The photo above is of Kathy (a New York Russian friend) myself and Alice at the Rose Parade in Pasadena. This was New Year’s Day in 1971. My friend Alice’s family came out of China to the United States years ago.

Fast forward to January 2016 and since I was in San Francisco I messaged Alice to see if she had the time to get together. Happily she was more than willing to pick me up at our hotel and take me on a incredible driving/walking tour of the city she knows well. We started by driving the scenic route to Golden Gate Park to see what we could see. We started at the Conservatory of Flowers but were very disappointed to find it was closed for maintenance. We found a great alternative at the botanical gardens in the same park.

Magnolias were the feature of the day. I also captured this great Blue Heron.

We left the park and drove through the Presidio where there were some good views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

China Beach past the late Robin Williams’ home gave us another great view of the bridge. The stone reads Since Gold Rush times this cove was used as a campsite by many of the Chinese fishermen who worked in and around San Francisco Bay. Their efforts to supply the needs of a young city helped establish one of the areas most important industries and traditions.

At this point we headed to China Town to have lunch and walk about and shop. It’s good to know what garage to park in because parking is difficult in China Town. Alice chose a restaurant nearby and suggested the Dim Sum sampler. “Dim Sum” refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food, traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. It reminded me of High Tea. We had fun shopping about the streets of China Town with all the special wares offered for Chinese New Year (Year of the Monkey) that is coming up in early February. Many of the celebrations start the last weekend of January. I bought some fun items in hopes of setting a Chinese New Year table. This year Chinese New Year will be competing with the Super Bowl and all the preparations for that. I will share more from China Town tomorrow.

Our last stop of the day was at Twin Peaks high above the city of San Francisco. You can see that the city is going all out for Super Bowl 50!

The views from Twin Peaks were incredible. From here we drove through lots of traffic and made it back to the hotel in time for Dear and me to walk a couple blocks to dinner.

My visit with my old friend Alice was so good. We had so much time to catch up as we drove around the city. So much life happens in 46 years! Thank you my friend for spending the day with me and showing me your beloved city!

I’m linking to Sunlit Sunday at My Little Home and Garden and Amaze Me Monday with Cindy at Dwellings (The Heart of Your Home).

Postcard from San Francisco Day 2…

San Francisco Landmarks

Alcatraz, Ghirardelli, Lombard St., and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Fisherman’s Wharf and the Bay Bridge.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Golden Gate Bridge