Time to go home.

We will head out of Evey's house at 9:30 this morning to return the rental car and begin our flights home.  We fly to LA first and then straight to Orlando, landing at 11:38 p.m.  Long day!

It's been a fabulous visit, and we will see them again in November when they come to our house for a week around Thanksgiving.

Saturday we visited the Lick Observatory at the top of Mount Hamilton in the San Jose Foothills.  The nearly 40 minute drive up hundreds of switchbacks to reach the top at 4,000 feet elevation made me kind of motion sick.  We had a picnic lunch and then toured the Visitor Center and the guided tour inside the 36 inch refractory telescope.  James Lick, the millionaire bachelor who left his fortune to build the "biggest telescope in the world," at least at the time, is literally buried beneath it.

Sunday we had brunch with Laverne and Kelly at the Presidio Social Club and then visited the Disney Family Museum, also in the Presidio, part of Golden Gate Park.  We have been to the museum twice before, but this time there were two special exhibits that Mark wanted to see.  We also had time to go through the regular stuff, too.  It was a long, but fun, day.

Now it's over and we are packing to head out in about 90 minutes.  I'll write again tomorrow morning from Poinciana, FL. I will be posting my weight, which I'm pretty sure will be very bad.  I came here planning to stick to my diet.  Evey was helping by calculating calories and carbs for her cake and ice cream and measuring it out.  And we are most of our meals at home. Then I threw all my plans out the window and ate what I wanted, which is always a bad idea.  Still, I'll report the truth tomorrow morning and then try to get back on track.  Unfortunately, we are having dinner with Al and Barb tomorrow night late at Narcoossee's, the fancy-pants restaurant at the Grand Floridian where we can see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from their deck.  Guess I'll start that diet on Wednesday.

The view from the top of Mount Hamilton. Those buildings are some housing for the scientists who live up here while they are working  It's WAY too far to go up and down every day!

The overlook at the parking lot right after we arrived.  You can see San Jose, the bottom of the bay, and even San Francisco way off in the distance from here.

The  building from the parking lot.  The dome is houses the 36 inch reflector.

In the Visitor Center 

This was the largest telescope in the world in the late 1880s when it was built. 

Looking over the railing on the opposite side.  Over Mark's shoulder are other domed telescopes, much larger than the original one. 

The weirdest thing was this building with a Jewish star  n it.  We are not sure what it is now, but it used to be dormitories for scientists.

We exchanged birthday presents at brunch on Sunday.  I've known Laverne since the summer of 1962 when we started 7th grade.

Toasting to good health and good friends.

Entrance to the Disney Family Museum.

The Nine Old Men were the nine principle animators that worked with Walt.  He called them his nine old men.

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Academy Awards!

Always a little sad when you get to the end of the exhibit and read about his death and see this picture of him.  Bye, bye, Walt.