CA Dec 29 - Jan 4, 2006 At Mark & Wendy's, Travel to CO

On the afternoon of the 29th, we drove from Three Rivers to San Jose, CA and spent the weekend with brother Mark, sister-in-law, Wendy, and their kids who are still at home.

The plan, besides visiting, was to play golf on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we were able to get only one round in in really iffy weather on Friday.

After the golf game and a dip in the hot tub, we went to Vin Santo to celebrate Wendy's birthday which was the 31st. We had a table on the patio under a heat lamp. Tyler was our server and along with a great meal we had excellent service.

Mark
Wendy
Tyler - Freshman in College
Kurtis - Sophomore in High School
Collin - Wendy's youngest son; Freshman in college

On this particular weekend, there were torrential rains in the area, with serious flooding of the Russian River and in ares around San Jose and San Francisco.

Saturday night we went next door with Mark and Wendy and celebrated New Year's Eve with neighborhood friends.

We were without power for several hours at Mark's on Sunday. BUT, being the resourceful guy he is, Mark broke out his generator and we had the power needed to finish making fudge and to power the TV and DVD player. With candles burning we enjoyed homemade candy and a movie.

We left Monday morning for Reno where we spent the night with Gene and Sharon Prescher, friends first made in Moscow, and revisited in Saudi Arabia and China. On the way, we stopped and had a nice lunch with Bob and Minnie Buyse in Sacramento. (The Buyses were the family Willy Peterson and I stayed with for several weeks when we moved to California in 1964.)

We also had the pleasure of putting chains on the car as we reached Donner Pass on the way to Reno.

We left Reno on the 3rd, spent a night in Evenston, WY, and arrived at Kjirsten and Scott's on the afternoon of the 4th, Kjirsten's birthday.