Topo Fun - And More

On a whim, Matteo and I decided to visit the SLO Children's Museum after dropping Serafina off at Cinderella. The two of us get quite a charge out of the place. Among today's favorites, pictured below, where the Topo Table and Shake It Up. The Topo Table had all-white sand that kids could mold and shove around to their hearts content. In the meantime, a camera and projection system was mapping the topography of the sand and projecting topo lines and depth colors from above onto the otherwise white sand. Very cool! The deep blue areas were the lowest elevations all the way up to white being the highest elevations. The Shake It Up station let you build structures and then shake them to see how they'd behave in an earthquake. Afterward, Matteo asked if we could eat at a restaurant on the way home. I said sure, where do you think? To which he started to rattle off an entire list, "Well there's Habit, Pizza Solo, Woodstock, Splash, blah, blah, blah." He is paying attention.

Railroad Reconstruction Begins

There have been lots of changes along the PB&J right-of-way over the past year or so. The largest change is the back yard. The entire back yard has been taken over by a deck (see the photos of Lynn's retirement party). The other major occurence was the removal of the large oak tree that was right in the middle of Fosterville. This necessitated the removal of the entire railroad. So, we're pretty much starting over. When Papa Bill got started a couple weeks ago, there was NOTHING but a few concrete bridge supports and the wall around the mission area. Everything had been take out to raw ground. Some other changes to note... A new puppy, Sandy, a labradoodle, brought a dog run to the driveway. The run is directly behind the bench. That actually opened up the area nicely. The hot tub is gone from the concrete area lower right. This'll be a new seating area. Note how the two bridges will soon lead to a 30-degree crossover/diamond in the foreground. There will be a balloon track on the rock patio that connects one side of the diamond to the other making the basic layout a circle eight.

More photos: http://jf2.com/pbjrr/140802.html

Papa Bill's Descendants

We caught Papa Bill at Olde Port Inn tonight with two generations of his direct descendants. Missing, of course, were spouses ("outlaws") and nine great grand kids. Jen, thanks for the photo!

SLO Triathlon - #compoundtri

The Compound fielded a triathlon team today. We reached back to Kansas for the runner, but heck, that just added to the festivities. There were 15 of us at Sinsheimer Park today cheering for Janice (swim), Tracy (bike), and Megan (run). They all made PRs! The unofficial elapsed team time was 1:52:20. All the photos are here: http://JF2.com/140727/

Daou Winery with the Kansans

Trevor and Jen hosted the Kansas contingent at Daou Vineyards and Winery this afternoon. And we were treated like royalty! Katie was a delight as she kept the tastings coming, the cheeses, olives, etc. and, of course, a couple extra bottles to finish off the afternoon. And the wine is superior (i.e. McKeon Phillips "replacement"). Wow! We capped off the day with a fabulous dinner at Estrella in Paso Robles. If you haven't tried this South America/Italian Riviera restaurant, you're missing out. All the photos are here: http://JF2.com/140726/

A Theater Rat Birthday

What does a theater rat do for her birthday. She invites theater rat friends over to put on a show. "Newsies" was the theme, and all the world's a stage, which is good because the best we could muster was the back deck. Well, the show's over, and they're watching a movie. Newsies.

AJ got some mic time, too!

It's Sum-mer!....

Tracy: My babysitter just sent me these pictures! ‪#‎love‬ ‪#‎summerfun‬ ‪#‎twins‬