Celebrating Ann’s Birthday...

Due to unusually hot weather, Ann’s official birthday party was postponed until Labor Day when it was to be slightly cooler. In the meantime, we had a family-only party on her actual birthday.

The following day, Robin and Alex had to leave early, but I had a great time with Mike, Leigh and a bunch of Ann and Dad’s friends.

It was fun chatting with their neighbors; poor Tarni had broken her ankle and was getting around with the help of a very fancy scooter.

Tarni has a fun sense of humor and bought Ann lots of gag gifts including these goofy glasses; luckily Ann and Dad also have a good sense of humor.

In addition to neighbors, there were several old friends along for the wonderful garden party. It was a great ending of my trip as I flew home the following day.

Final Year in School...

For the second time that summer, Ashlynn was happy to find Kati waiting for her at the airport. I’m sure she was also happy to see Jimmy.

It brought tears to my eyes when I realized that I would miss seeing Ashlynn leave for the first day of school for the final time, so I really appreciated that Jimmy sent me a photo. Hard to believe that our baby is already in Year 13 (a Senior). With only three classes this year—Biology, Geography and Math—she’ll have a lot of free periods during the day to study and is even allowed to come home early once or twice per week.

California Wine Tasting...

Unfortunately, Ashlynn had to get back to Holland in time for school, so she had to fly out the day before Ann’s birthday. Luckily for Ann there were more surprises in store as although she knew that her daughter Robin would be arriving that day, she didn’t know that her granddaughter Alex would be coming along.

After Dad and I dropped Ashlynn off, Leigh and Mike picked me and Alex up to take us into the Saratoga Hills to do some local wine tasting, which I’d never done before. Our first stop was Ridge Winery, high in the hills above where I grew up. 

While not quite as expensive as Napa, I was still surprised by the charge for wine tasting and high prices of the wines themselves. We’re definitely spoiled by low wine prices in Holland.

While I’d seen Gender Neutral signs before, I’d never seen this particular one... 

 ...nor do I remember ever seeing this sign before.

We stopped at this quaint old winery as well and then met Ann and Robin in Saratoga at one last tasting room.

Big Band and Miscellaneous...

After our return from Alcatraz, Ashlynn and I headed to Alameda to watch Dad play with the Bob Enos Legacy Big Band. Ashlynn was by far the youngest in the audience.

 It was cool seeing Dad playing a few solos.

Although we didn’t encounter many panhandlers during our visit, this sign in front of my parent’s favorite grocery store in Menlo Park was a stark reminder of California’s problem with homelessness.

I went on several morning runs in my parent’s neighborhood. It was hard not to gawk at the many mansions, but I gawked at this house for an entirely different reason.

Although we had a lot of great meals in California, the one that stuck with us the most was at a new Chinese restaurant in Menlo Park where we were introduced to Chinese Garlic Eggplant, which we have since made many times at home.

More Alcatraz...

There was a simple system to make sure no cooking knives went missing: outlines of knives on a magnetic board. Apparently the food was the best in the federal system. At the end of each meal, utensils were laid on the table to be counted to ensure none were stolen, although it must not have been a perfect system as some inmates did manage to tunnel out of their cells.

The Model Industries Building was originally built by the US military to do laundry, but was abandoned in 1939 after a smaller building was built further from the risky hillside.

The New Model Industries Building was built in 1939 containing factories where prisoners could work for money to be received when they left Alcatraz making items such as gloves and army uniforms.

Due to rising costs and deteriorating facilities, Alcatraz closed in 1963. We were lucky to get to see a large format photography exhibit called Alcatraz: The Last Day that captured the intensity and emotion as the prison closed and the last remaining prisoners were escorted away. It also showed some photos of the children that lived on the island—what a strange life that must have been for them.

Inside Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary...

Our self-paced tour started with lining up in the shower block to get our audio guides.

The prisoner cells never shared an exterior wall and were only nine feet deep by five feet wide. As you can see, some of the cells are in horrible shape after all these years...

...while others showed how they would have been furnished.

It was fascinating, but also overwhelmingly depressing. Was it the lingering sadness of all those inmates pushing upon our shoulders or perhaps ghosts after all?

Off to Alcatraz...

I was pretty excited about finally going to Alcatraz Island for the first time since I was a kid while Ashlynn was thrilled about going for the first time, and we were both pleased how enthusiastic Ann was about joining us. We had great views during the 15-minute ferry journey.

This infamous island in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay housed the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary from 1934 to 1963, typically housing an average of 260 inmates at one time with a total of 1,545 prisoners rotating through in the 29 years. Earlier, it was a military prison starting in 1861 during the Civil War.

Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons as a last resort to hold the worst of the worst criminals.

Although there were escape attempts made by 36 prisoners, the penitentiary claims that there no successful escapes.

It was especially fascinating learning about the three prisoners who left behind life-like dummies complete with human hair laying in their beds when escaping through holes in their cells.

Built in 1921, the warden’s three-story mansion was burned down by Native Americans during the Occupation of Alcatraz in 1970. Like many sites on the island, the house is rumored to be haunted.