Trip to Aurora Picketts

The Grand Hall at Chicago Union Station

We returned home from our California trip last Wednesday night a little after 11:00.  I left the next morning on a 6:40 AM flight to Chicago to visit Brendan, Eileen and the kids whom I hadn't seen since last October.  I arrived around 8:00 and took the CTA train to the Loop downtown, walked about three blocks to Central station and then took the Aurora METRA train out to Aurora where Eileen and Brock and Brady picked me up.  I had to wait a couple of hours for the next Aurora train but otherwise it was a very efficient and pleasant to make the trip to Aurora.  Also it only cost $8.50 which is less than the cost of gasoline for the same trip.

Although it wasn't known when I planned this trip, Brendan is taking a new job in Morgantown WV.  He will be Director of Production for Dan Ryan Homes, a major regional builder founded by one of the grandsons of the founder of Ryan Homes where he has worked for the last 17 years.  He will start in Morgantown July 1 and he was giving his two week notice the day after I arrived.  This is a great move for him professionally in many ways and will be wonderful for the family as well.  Morgantown is the location for West Virginia University, about an hour and a half south of Pittsburgh.  It is midway between Rochester and Charlotte where Liam lives, 3 hours from Cleveland where much of Eileen's family lives, and three hours for Washington DC where Brendan and Eileen went to college and have friends and family.  A six hour drive for me means that we will be seeing much more of them than a 12 hour drive or an airplane flight now permits.

Brendan told his boss Friday morning and then he and I played a round of golf--my first of the season--on an absolutely perfect day weather wise.  We dropped Braden off at Prairie Fest, a local festival, and then the rest of us went to a ballgame to see the Kane County Cougars--Single A affiliate of Chicago Cubs-- play the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers from Appleton.  We left a bit early and stopped for ice cream on the way home.  We had to get home and get to sleep since we had two ballgames of our own to get to on Saturday.

Brady receiving a pitch

We dodged rain throughout Saturday during two baseball games:  Brady and Brock.  Brady played outfield, catcher, third base and first base.  He enjoys the game and especially behind the plate which he says is his favorite position.  You can click here to see a photo album of his game.

Brock also had a game Saturday with his regular team.  He would also have an All Star game on Sunday.  He plays shortstop and pitches both of which he enjoys but he says that shortstop is his favorite.  In fact, he is one of those players who enjoys fielding more than batting and can't wait to get back in the field.  He has only been playing organized ball for two years but he is good at the game.  As you can see in the video below, he studies the pitching form of professionals and then copies that in a very consistent way.



You can see more photos of Brock playing in two albums:

• Brock regular season
• Brock All Star game

After a long afternoon of Little League baseball on Sunday, we returned home to watch the end of the U. S. Open and Phil set a "new league record" followed by a delicious steak dinner.  Along the way over the weekend, I got to watch some favorite family movies with Brendan:  Parenthood and Field of Dreams.

I take a late flight home Monday where I will be till mid July when Marilyn and I will go to Kansas City for Mom's 101st birthday.

Petaluma Friends - Day Two

Bill Crowley shared an interesting and intriguing artifact with us.  His son, Dan, found this volume while he was working on rehabbing a house in San Francisco.  It is a scrapbook that was started in 1873.  It was filled with news stories, poetry, pieces of fiction most of which appear to have been published in newspapers and then clipped and carefully glued into this large book.  The book itself was a railroad engine ledger that kept track of trips, cargo, and fuel used.  It appeared to have focused on railroads in Oregon but it was hard to tell since the pages were almost completely covered.  Most of the pages had colorful lithograph labels which had been cut out and again carefully pasted in.  The colors were vibrant still.  There were also pages of children's books that had been cut apart and pasted in.

We decided to spend the day in San Francisco and to get there by taking a ferry from Larkspur.  The day began with some fog and wind but cleared as we neared San Francisco and the Ferry Terminal.  We passed right by San Quentin State Prison, Alcatraz and Treasure Islands and had some great views of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges as well as some America Cup yachts in their training in the bay.  

As we explored the Ferry Terminal with its many shops and restaurants, I met Milo, a security guard on duty on the second floor where there are offices.  As we chatted I learned a great deal about him.  He came to the United States 13 years ago from the Philippines.  I also learned three important pieces of information from him.

• The Ferry Terminal building was constructed in 1898 and was the only major structure to have survived the 1906 earthquake and fires in tact.
• When he retires at age 66--not too far in the future--he will receive $600 a month from Social Security which is 16,000 pesos in the Philippines to where he plans to return.
• He travels back for visits on Philippines Air.  The 18 hours flight costs about $2,000 so he can't return too often.  But more important to Milo is the disturbing fact that the female flight attendants all appear to be of grandmotherly age.  He wonders why the airline doesn't hire all those attractive young Philippinas who are looking for work.

We finished the day with a pleasant dinner at The Central Market Restaurant.  We got to bed early.  We return home tomorrow and will be traveling all day.

Click here to see the constantly updated photo album.

Petaluma Friends - Day One

Marilyn, Bill, Bill Crowley, Barb

For the next couple of days, we are staying with our friends, Bill and Barb Crowley.  After both retired, they moved to Petaluma from Rochester four years ago to be near their two children and the recent addition to their family, Vinnie, their first grandchild.  They appear to have become fully acclimated to life and climate here.  But then, who wouldn't?

After the girls were up till 2:00 AM visiting, we got a late start and spent the late morning through early afternoon walking through Petaluma and having a leisurely lunch at one of Bill's favorite places.  They live in downtown Petaluma in a redeveloped area called the "Theater District."  Their three bedroom apartment is spacious with lovely views.  Everything is walkable in a charming district that sits astride a channel or river that leads out to the Bay and beyond.  It was cloudy most of the day with a break around sunset.  I scouted out a few locations and came back out around 8:00 and got a few nice sunset lit photos of the area.  We will see what sun rise tomorrow might bring.

One of the interesting places we visited is the Seed Bank.  This is a store in an historic bank building in downtown Petaluma that sells heirloom seeds and associated supplies of all kinds.

You can click here to view the constantly updated photo album.

Pleasant Hill Picketts - Day Three

Sam had a Cub Scout outing Sunday and it was a wonderful opportunity not only to spend time with Sean, Julie and Sam but also to connect with an important part of Marilyn's family history.  Marilyn's Dad was crew chief on a B 24 during World War II.  He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service and we are all very proud of him.  In fact, he will be part of an Honor Flight from Buffalo to Washington this weekend where he will join a group of his fellow World War II veterans at the Memorial in our nation's capital.  The reason this is especially relevant to our trip is that Sam's Cub Scouting was to a display of a B 24, B 17, and a P 51 Mustang at a local airfield in nearby Concord CA.

Marilyn in front of the area where her
Dad would have worked in his B 24.

Marilyn had a wonderful time exploring the plane about which her Dad had told her so much and in which he provided his remarkable service to us all.  I created special photo album for the pictures from that display.  You can click here to view them.

I also got some nice video of the P 51 Mustang taxi and takeoff while we were there.  You can view that in the window below.




After spending time at the display, we headed to a local pizza restaurant where the Cub Scouts devoured several pies and then celebrated their year of scouting.  Sam will advance to the Webelos by the end of year and will then advance into the Boy Scouts.  We are all very proud of his achievements as well.  It was great to see him interacting with his den mates.

After a nice dinner, we said good by and drove over to Petaluma to spend a couple of days with our friends Barb and Bill Crowley.  More about that in next trip blog.

Click here to see an updated photo album of our time with Sean and family in Pleasant Hill.

Pleasant Hill Picketts - Day Two

The big activity Saturday was the assembly of an adjustable basketball goal.  This was not some wimpy version for a little kid but a full scale one, adjustable from 7 feet to a regulation 10. The base is anchored with 300 pounds of water.  It took us most of the day to complete it and by "us" I mean Sean, Sam and yours truly.  Marilyn provided some photography, occasional advice, and mostly reading her novel in the sun.. Oh, yes, and it was hot...very hot.

Actually the very first activity was a game of Ticket to Ride with Sam.  It is fairly complicated game of strategy on board that looks like a power grid of the United States--that last bit of observation from Sean.  The first one to 100 points wins which Sam did 100 to 98.  I almost caught him!

After Julie left for some Saturday work in the office, the guys began the assembly of the goal.  It took four hours plus a lunch break.  There were the inevitable reassembly of steps once it was recognized that something had been installed backwards.  This apparently is a Pickett trait--at least a Bill Pickett one--since every piece of furniture or device that I have ever assembled has been at least 120 percent assembled due to some necessary rework.  Finally however it was completed.  It was too hot and everyone was too tried to try it out right away so that is left to another day.  Perhaps Sunday before we leave.

We went to 5:00 Mass at Christ the King Parish and heard a remarkable homily by one of the priests who does weekly supply on the weekends.  He preached the raising of the widow's son as a way of accessing the plight of women in the time of Jesus and then went on to say that things really haven't changed all that much.  After detailing the many abuses and injustices of women throughout the rest of the world today, he painted a similar picture of the situation in the United States where we think everything is just fine.  He received a spontaneous round of applause when he noted the fact that "the old boys club" still reigns supreme in most areas of life including the Roman church where women religious who care for the sick, homeless, and marginalized are being investigated by the male bishops most of whom have never been in a homeless shelter or ministered to the homeless and marginalized.  That was the trigger for the applause which was repeated when he had finished.

After a delicious dinner from Three Brothers from China restaurant, I finished the tub of Ben & Jerry's American Dream, watched another episode of The Walking Dead, and went to bed.  Tomorrow is a big day for Sam and his promotion to the next rank in Cub Scouts.

Click here to view photos in the updated album.

Pleasant Hill Pickett's - Day One

Marilyn waiting to board in Newark

We are off on a one week trip to Northern California.  Our first four days will be spent with Sean, Julie and Sam in Pleasant Hill and the last three days with our friends Bill and Barb Crowley in Petaluma.  We left the rain and storms behind in Rochester to arrive in sunny California to a pleasant 68 degrees in San Francisco and a summery 80 degrees 30 some miles inland in Pleasant Hill.  On Friday, our first full day, the temperature reached 98, but as the saying goes, "It was a dry heat."  Saturday should be the same with a nice cooling off by Sunday.

The day we arrived was Sam's last day of school.  Julie had taken the day to be with him as he went through his promotion to fourth grade.  As I have come to expect, she had numerous lovely snacks ready for our nibbling and Grandma and Sam got right to them.   Since we had gotten up at 3:45 to make our 6:00 flight, we were both exhausted.  I kept falling asleep in the most comfortable rocker and foot stool ever--Ikea acquisition--and we hit the hay a little after 8:00.  I slept so soundly that I only got up once during the night and when I did, I initially had no idea where I was.  Lovely sleep after a long day.

On Friday Julie went into work.  She is in a particularly challenging time with many tight--perhaps impossible--deadlines in an implementation project.  The rest of us just lollygagged around during the morning.  Sam and I enjoyed a couple of bocci ball games while Marilyn enjoyed the seemingly always sunny backyard and patio.  After lunch and a quick nap--for the adults, not Sam--we decided to go bowling at a nearby bowling alley.  

The results were a little different than we had expected.  We got in on a Thursday afternoon $2.75 a game special and were given an alley between a very good bowler--last game was 266--and a group of beer drinking, screaming women who apparently had the afternoon off from their jobs in a nearby warehouse or something similar.  More than that, we didn't anticipate that Grandma Marilyn would turn out to be a turkey...well she bowled a turkey:  three strikes in the tenth frame.  Who knew?  The rest of us had had enough bowling but she kept whining about another game...and putting a little loose change on the outcome.

We returned home to spend some time with Sam's new cats who joined the household the first of the year.  Miko is very personable and enjoys interacting with people.  Monkey on the other hand is more like a cat.

After a yummy dinner of takeout from Los Panchos, we welcomed Julie home from working late.  After Sam went to bed, Sean got me caught up on two more episodes of "The Walking Dead," my new guilty pleasure.  Julie plans on going into work Saturday so she can be with us for Sam's Cub Scout promotion ceremony Sunday afternoon at a local air field where a B-17 is on display.

You can view more photos on the constantly updated photo album by clicking here.