Thanksgiving for Everything in Life

 

We had an awesome weekend, with some family time on Thanksgiving and then some alone time on our trip Friday and Saturday to Half Moon Bay. You can see the leaves that we came back to from Hawaii. It is about to come to an end as the trees across the street are almost bare. The liquid ambers on the side yard are a little behind on losing their leaves and I'll be working those leaves for a few more weeks. You can see the picture of Lucas with Papa above from Thanksgiving. It was one of the only pictures with his pacifier out of his mouth and I am not a fan of those things. I was very happy when Samantha finally gave hers up.

 

The second picture is from our dinner on Friday night at Sam's Chowder House on the Cabrillo Highway (Highway 1) in Half Moon Bay. They are known for their clam chowder and for their lobster rolls, who no less an authority that Good Morning America has listed as one of the top 5 sandwiches in the United States. They happened to have a singer from Thunder Bay, Ontario Billy Manzik playing in the bar and we were seated in the bar for our dinner. As I listened to his music, I made the comment that it would make great traveling music and that we should buy a CD. When Darla went up at a break to buy the CD, Billy said to her, "the CD is really good traveling music." The CD was actually made when he was part of a group of musicians and the extra instruments are actually a slight improvement over his acoustic set he was doing in the bar.

 

The third picture down is of the beach at Half Moon Bay, where we went Saturday morning and relaxed at the beach. It was a little breezy, so we decided to take our sandwiches which we bought at the San Benito Inn where we stayed Friday night with us to San Francisco. I was looking for a nice spot overlooking the city and we found Grand View Park which is near San Francisco State university and is actually a high hill that you have to climb up to. Darla counted the stairs and there were 22 per flight and seven flights up to the park. There is one bench at the apex of the hill and we sat there and enjoyed our sandwiches.

 

The final picture is of the sitting room in our suite at the San Benito Inn. We had a Groupon, which is an online coupon for travel and services, that I bought in January. I bought the Groupon for a two night stay in a queen room at the San Benito Inn, but the Romance Suite was available when we checked in and we upgraded for $50 a night to the two room suite with a private bath. The original room was with a shared bathroom. The suite is really nice with hardwood floors, an upgraded bathroom and a large overstuffed bed with antiques and artwork in the room. that was the good part. The bad part was the unending noise from the bar below. The Romance suite is on the street side of the Inn and directly over the bar. Apparently the bar is one of the only hangouts for locals in the area and it used to stay open until 2 AM, but the new owners have changed the hours to close at midnight because of the noise for the inn's guest. They actually turned down the music at 10 PM, but Darla and I were done after just the one night. The noise was deafening and the "F" bombs being dropped by one drunk patron were not adding to the "Romance" feeling of the suite if you get my drift. We checked out after breakfast and were given a refund of the second night's stay. The Inn is really charming, but the 120 year old building just doesn't have the acoustics of newer buildings and sound tends to travel. One of our issues is that the suite does not have a television or stereo and there is no way to mute the noise from the bar.

 

The town itself is really cute with restaurants and shops lining main Street. Dad and Shirley: it would be like spending the night in an Inn in Fort Langley. Darla and I walked the strip and ended up buying some books from the used book store in town. Darla found a nice jacket that she decided to go back and buy on Saturday morning, but the shop owner never showed up. I look at it that she saved $100, but she was disappointed. We got home at about 4:30 Saturday and I washed the car before we went to church. Today, we just relaxed and watched football and I had a nap in the afternoon.

 

Jennifer and Samantha joined her Mom in Southern California for Thanksgiving at Diane's husband's family's house in Redlands. Jennifer is dating a guy from Southern California and they all get together for dinner. They were driving back to Las Vegas this afternoon. 

 

The results this month at work are epic. As of Friday, we are up 35% over November of 2011 with a full week left to go. Things are really clicking and it is really rewarding to see the hard work that my staff has been doing paying off so handsomely for all of us. We even were able to withstand the loss that we had to pay for ourselves and it is basically a non factor on our profitability because we are up so dramatically this month. We are still working on the Holiday Open House that will be held on Thursday December 6th. We are still working on the menu and the guest list. Shawna received a quote of $3500 from one of the local restaurants and I had a good laugh over appetizers for 150 for $3500. We can and will do better than that. it is not a sit down dinner for 150 for God's sake.

 

I have been off of golf for three weeks and will get back in the saddle weather permitting next Saturday. The layoff has been good for my heel and it feels much better. Hopefully, the worse is behind me. Time will tell.

 

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and have much to be thankful in your life. I'll be back at the keyboard next Sunday. Our RGC Christmas party is next Saturday night and so it begins. Ciao.