Ridiculously Awesome

We slept in this morning and had late workouts, so we didn't head out until 10:30 or so. Our first stop was the Boudin Bakery to pick up sandwiches for a picnic lunch. This huge bakery/cafe/store/museum in Fisherman's Wharf claims to be the first baker of San Francisco's famous sourdough bread, and it has been calling to us every day we've been here with its heavenly scents. Clay was also particularly interested in watching the bakers work and loved the animal-shaped loaves they were producing.

Boudin Bakery

Watching the baker make a crab

Once our lunch was purchased, we took an Uber over to Golden Gate Park, where we spent a lovely afternoon, soaking up the gorgeous weather and creating special memories. We visited the Japanese Tea Garden, had our picnic on the steps of what Clay called The Temple of Doom, rented a surrey bike which provided lots of laughs and was deemed "ridiculously awesome," watched a bit of lawn bowling, played at a really awesome playground, rode a fun indoor carousel, and saw many lovely plants and flowers.

Japanese Tea Garden

The waterwheel bridge in the
Tea Garden was the little boys' favorite!

Assembling in the "Temple of Doom"
for lunch

Our best memories of the day
were probably made in the surrey.

Carousel Riders

 Eventually, we made our way back over to the wharf for dinner at Pier 39's Crab House. And after dinner, we killed an hour in the puzzle and game store Think Out of the Box, where they encourage customers to try all the products, whether they buy them or not.

Crab House at Pier 39

Crab enchiladas

A skating dance group was
practicing at the pier.

Working on a puzzle at
Think Out of the Box

Playing a game

Last night in San Francisco
(Golden Gate Bridge on left, Alcatraz on right)

A week in the Alps

We had plenty of snow this last week, but not so much Internet. So here's the report-in-brief. After a half-day of fairly unpleasant skiing in blizzard-like conditions, with several days of that remaining in the forecast, two-thirds of our group said, "No thanks!" and turned in our skis. Jeff and Weston were the only ones brave, or crazy, enough to continue, and were rewarded later in the week with lovely, though not warm, ski weather. The rest of us spent countless hours huddled in our warm little chalet, sitting around in our pjs, watching French cartoons, drinking hot chocolate, reading, working Sudoku puzzles, playing games, and snacking. But, we weren't just complete slugs. We also took advantage of some of the other fun activities in the little resort town, like swimming in the huge indoor pool, ice skating at the indoor rink, visiting some of the cafes and shops, and, when the weather was nice, sledding, building snowmen, throwing snow bombs, and playing on the playground. One evening, we were all able to attend an ice skating show, which was a lot of fun. Now, we are in a little town near the French/Swiss border, preparing to catch a plane to Moscow in the morning. It's so hard to believe that our time in Europe is coming to an end! But, we are looking forward to new adventures in Asia and beyond!

The place where we rented our skis said we were the first
Americans they have ever rented skis to.
I guess the town was so excited, they hung a banner out for us!

The view from our chalet on various days

Skating

Good thing I was quick with my camera!
I didn't have much time to capture everyone on their skis.

Snow Fun

It's never too cold for ice cream!

The finale at the skating show