Adventure Playground.

As it is nearing the end of the school ear for Hannah a visit to the Adventure Playground was arranged by the school. Diana had offered to transport some of the children and I was invited to go along. The Adventure playground or "junk playground" is situated in Berkley and is the last of its kind. Many areas like this were set aside for children to heal and rebuild their lives after World War Two and many still exist in Europe. However this is the last of its kind in the states.

each child is challenged to find the above items. The play ground is fitted out with lots of wooden structures made from bits and pieces of wood which local builders have donated. The children are free to create whatever they wish.

There are no rules or guidelines. Each child is encouraged to do whatever they like. Their reward for finding anything off the list is the choice of hammers and a choice of paint.

It was amazing to see the little ones walking around with their metal detectors finding nails buried in the sand and then taking a hammer designed for adults, choosing their piece of wood and enjoying hammering in her nails!! She is a better "hammer a in" than I am!!

In between carrying out the challenges the children can climb, go on the zip line, play old pianos and just have fun!!

I was so taken with this playground and thought of the many troubled. Hidden who could benefit from a couple of hours here every so often!

It is also a great place for company's to dump their junk!!

After this creative play, the children had their lunch and then went down to the "beach" to look for crabs!

A wonderful day was had by all! I am so pleased to have been part of it.

Sight seeing tour of San Francisco.

The best way of seeing a city is without doubt a "Hop on hop off" bus tour that comes with a guide who fills you in with lots of interesting facts and details you might otherwise miss. We caught the local bus into the city which took us via the Bay and dropped us at the Ferry Terminal and from here we made our way to the stop, to catch our tourist bus.

This is also the only place to catch the ferry to Alcatraz.

One of the surprising sights was to see how any homeless people were sleeping wherever they could find a comfortable spot.

I was a little nervous of getting too close and upsetting these "homeless" folk! They seemed to have their worldly goods with them and looked so scruffy!

San Francisco was named after the patron saint of small animals and is one of the worlds most popular tourist sights. There is much to see and some beautiful buildings.

 

The Hearst Building was home to the newspaper mogul William Hearst who lived in the penthouse until his death. This building was remodeled by one of the first female architects Julia Morgan. The entrance is very beautiful with its monogram.

Many movies have used the beautiful buildings as the background for their scenes.

The City Hall is modeled after the St Peters Basilica in the Vatican and has gilded decor for all to see.

Lombard Street is a street everyone wants to travel down as it is known to be the "crookedest" street in the world. Because the street is so steep it has been designed so that it winds down and thus slows the traffic down. It has eight hairpin bends and is quite beautiful as the street is lined with lots of colorful plants. This could not be seen from the tourist bus. I should add that while it carries this important reputation, it is not the crookedest street in San Francisco or the world!

Union Square is a great place to sit and watch the world go buy. It is opposite Macy's

 

The tour ends at Pier 39 and this is also where the cable car start fom but ther was a four hour wait so we gave that a miss. I would however like to return to Pier 39.

 

China Town was buzzing with activity. Lots of Chinese restaurants are here too.

There is lots to see and do in the city and it was great fun trekking around!

 

 

Build a Bear!

Because we flew back from Hawaii on Hannah's birthday her celebrations went on for three days. The morning after we arrived home was gift opening time. I think this family have shares in the "Barbie" business! Oh my what beautiful gifts Hannah received. I wish I was five all over again! Tea time was birthday cake time and Hannah enjoyed blowing out her candles!

Saturday dawned and wow! The girls were so excited to take their friends to "Build a bear" party.

Ten beautifully dressed little girls arrived at the venue and were so excited to be able to choose their own teddy and then to top it all they could choose a pretty outfit to dress their teddies in.

The group gathered and "Grant" took over laying down some basic rules like " Let us stick together like peanut butter and jelly."

Once the teddies were stuffed, the girls took it in turns to bathe them.

Now came the difficult part, choosing an outfit. Oh my, what beautiful options there were. I would have taken hours to choose but these little ladies knew exactly what they want. The teddies were dressed and we ended up with ten very happy little ladies.

Now it was time to go off for pizza and lemonade. Diana had also baked a batch of cup cakes which she decorated so sweetly with My Pony rings!!

Ten very cute little bears and their owners were happy to go home!! it was time for Diana to rest up until the next birthday!

 

House Sitting in San Francisco.

 




 

To alleviate the space problems in the family home Diana sent out a request in the community letter as to anyone needing house sitting during the period that we are staying here. To deviate a little, I think having a "community" email letter being sent out regularly is such a great idea. This makes it possible to communicate with your neighbors without invading their private space and also makes it easy to send messages out quickly. The positive possibilities are endless and could break down many barriers.

To continue, Diana got two positive responses and so we have stayed in two different homes. The first home was just across the road where we had to take care of Dooper, the family rabbit. He is a beautiful creature and loves being fussed over and was no problem whatsoever.

The second home is a block away and is a very cute house. The owner wrote out very detailed instructions as to how to take care of Watson the dog and the two beautiful black cats! Warren and Watson bonded and went on many long walks together. The cats kept their distance and had a flap in the door in the basement through which they would sneak in and out. When Winston was out for his walk they would follow at a distance just checking that their friend would be brought back safely. Warren described them as being "furtive" a lovely old fashioned word. I loved watering the garden every day. It is on a small piece of ground but is a bit of an "English country garden."

 

The children came over and enjoyed playing with Watson and this too was a bonus.

What I have learnt from the two homes I have been so fortunate to stay in in the states, is that these folk have bright happy homes, practical as they do their own housework and that they love their pets. All the home owners I have met are aware of recycling too. Even on the plane flying back from Hawaii, the air hostess had two garbage packets one for rubbish and one for recycling. We really need to improve our attitude back home!!

 

These enjoyable home stays has got me thinking that maybe we could do more of this while traveling around South Africa and further afield. So should YOU need house sitters just let me know. We will look after your pets, water your garden, empty your postbox etc.

 

 

All good things come to an end!

What a wonderful time we have had in Maui, Hawaii. A happy week, with beautiful weather, super accommodation and our precious family! Most of the people we met were so friendly and curious to know where we were from. The Snorkeling was great and even the little ones managed to see turtles.

Now we know what people mean when they talk of a holiday of a lifetime!! Everything was perfect.

The resort catered so well for the children's needs having several pools of three to four feet deep so even the non swimmers could have fun floating around in their tubes or "floaties" and the sea is gentle and fun for children too.

The surrounding gardens are lovely.

And soon it was time to go home and celebrate Hannah's fifth birthday.

Thank you Diana and Christopher for a great time, to the kids for being so great and to Hawaii for giving us a holiday of a lifetime.

Hawaiin Quilting and back to Lahaina.

It was a day for the girls to go off to Lahaina on our own while the boys took the car, loaded up the children and set off on their own adventures. Diana and I made use of the free shuttle service and set off in the opposite direction! Lahaina was the original Royal capital of Hawaii and was well known for its whaling! It is a charming town with one of the prettiest main roads ever!  

There are over fifty galleries selling Art. We were able to see work by several film stars, for example, Red Skelton, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Hopkins amongst others.

 

We really loved this piece of work although I am not sure I want it in my home!

An interesting Craft Market was being held under the BIGGEST banyan tree I have ever seen. It is impossible to capture the magnitude of this tree in one photograph as it spans the entire block. From the original main trunk the branches have re rooted and grown in all directions! It is the most amazing sight ever.

 

Of course we were on a mission to find the quilting shop and see some traditional Hawaiin quilts.

Unfortunately the person working here was not very friendly so we did not spend too much time in the shop. We found a general clothing and gift shop that had a lovely display of Hawaiin quilts for us to enjoy.

I love these three examples. If you are interested in knowing how these are done, think back to your school days when we folded a square of paper into eighths and cut "snowflakes" and that will give you a good idea! The edges are needle turned onto a background fabric and with a little echo quilting, you have a Hawaiin quilt!

 

We ended our day off with a wander down to the harbour and lunch at the Pioneer Inn.