Little and large Aircraft

Fraser and Gaye and I left San Francisco airport within a few hours of each other on Sunday evening and early Monday morning. This is the General Motors Gulfstream which he flew to Detroit on early Monday morning. It has a capacity of 12 and flies regularly between SFO and DTT. If there is less than 5 booked in it they have to go scheduled. As Mountain View is the new IT Centre for GM it is regularly full now.

The inside of the Gulfstream

The A380 similar to the one we flew on from San Francisco to London Heathrow. It seats 480 and we were upstairs near the tail in Business Class. Great luxury and fabulous food, but quite a bit of turbulence on our journey.

Traditional Family Photo of the Graham Clan

Whenever we come to USA to visit Fraser and his family we always take a family photo on the day we depart home. The kids are growing up so fast and we were very sad at leaving them. This has been our quietest ever trip with no trips to Utah or weekends away. We are getting older so a quiet time suited us and weekends are taken up with sporting events with the kids. I walked my trusty Golden Retriever friend Sammy at least twice a day. He is such a loveable rogue, but very good natured. Fraser is enjoying his new job with GM and will be heading off to Detroit for 4 days early tomorrow morning, but with the luxury of flying in GMs Corporate Jet.

A busy day of Soccer

I started the day with a walk with Sammy who seemed to sense it was my last full day with him and he followed me everywhere.

Then the Graham grandchildren got ready for their 3 matches at 3 different places in Silicon Valley. A logistical nightmare but Fraser & Leslie had it covered.

The Graham name well to the fore. Tommy won 4-1, Eleanor won 8-1, and sadly Elliot lost 0-5.

Earlier Elliot and Tommy made us breakfast of pancakes.

Saratoga Gardens

My faithful companion for three weeks.

Just some of the many lovely gardens that Sammy and I pass each morning on our Saratoga walk. They all have sprinklers or drip feed irrigation systems or they just would not grow.

Saratoga High School

We took Eleanor to Saratoga High School tonight for her Soccer Practice. Saratoga is the same size as Dumfries but the sporting facilities at the school are fantastic. An Athletics Stadium, 12 Tennis Courts, and pitches for Soccer, Baseball, and American Football. This is the full size swimming pool.

The Athletics Stadium

Soccer Pitches.

12 Tennis Courts. As Saratoga is one of the wealthiest towns in Silicon Valley these facilities are probably not the same in all High Schools in America but it certainly shows how America spends money on sport.

A BBQ in the Yard

A great BBQ in the yard with Smoked Spare Ribs that Fraser had been preparing since first thing this morning.

The Smoked Spare Ribs disappeared very quickly.

Some of the kids.

A good supply of fancy sweets.

The kids played a board game called “Bang” which looked to be hilarious.

Elliot and Maxine who didn’t play the board game.

A most enjoyable evening.

Saratoga Farmers Market

We visited Saratoga Farmers Market this morning and I have never seen such an array of beautiful Fruit and Vegetables.

Loads of mini tomatoes.

Citrus fruit.

Asparagus selling well.

Eleanor chose some Roses as a gift.

Kombucha is a very popular drink and Fraser took 3 bottles to be refilled.

Huge vegetables. California truly feeds America.

Leslie chooses her Mothers Day present to hang at the back of the house as long as it gets a minimum of 4 hours sunshine a day.

Such an array of Mushrooms.

Water Cress

A lovely display of fruit.

San Francisco Bay Nature Reserve

After a nice sea food lunch with Fraser and Leslie we were taken to the other side of the Bay to the San Francisco Bay Nature Reserve. The bird in the photo is a Turkey Vulture.

This is the highway that runs right across the bay and it sits beside the nature reserve.

Lots of little inlets and creeks.

The tide was coming in so there were very few birds feeding.

There were loads of Swallows feeding in this stretch of the creek.

A rose between two thorns.

A lizard basking on a fence.