Its a Zoo!

It was a great day to go to the zoo! The Virginia Aquarium had a reciprocal pass promotion with the Virginia Zoo and we took advantage of it.

It was a big success.  Pam, Kelly and the boys and I went to the Virginia Zoo shortly after 10:00 AM on Friday.  Maybe Friday's are a big field trip day for the local schools because there were probably 10 groups of kids at the entrance.  But that was no probably - its a good sized zoo and we got around without too much congestion.

We only had time for a few of the exhibits but they were great!

The first one on the trail was the Trail of the Tiger.  

We didn't see a tiger but did find a orangutan or two

 I thought the whole zoo and layout was very well done.  The walkways and suspended overlooks into the cages and animal exhibits were safe, kid proof and good viewing.

 We saw a couple of bears who were quite active in their compound.

We took both boys and the double stroller and Brooks got out of his seat about 5 minutes into the zoo.  He had a great time running around.  He couldn't wait to see the "amals" and was not disappointed.
It was impressive to see Kelly keep up with him and keep him hydrated and fed and entertained to stay ahead of the dreaded meltdown.  He's an active and curious 2 year old.

An added bonus was meeting up with one of Brooks' buddies - Owen (a few months older that Brooks).  He was there with his mom and grandmother.  It was nice to see them again and spend some time together.

After the bears, we made it over to Africa exhibit and saw the giraffes and rhinoceros.

And a sleeping lion.  You can barely see it on the right under the tree.

About lunch time, Brooks had seen enough and we headed out.  It was a beautiful day and we all had a good time at the zoo!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Hanging Out at the Campground - JEB Little Creek

One great thing about being here in Virginia Beach is that our campground is about 5 minutes from Kelly and Jon's house.  We are at Joint Expeditionary Base (JEB) Little Creek RV Campground.

There are a lot of good things about this older park.  We noticed that the grass has been mowed.  I asked about the pot holes and puddles but that is a different matter.

We like our camp site.  It has 50 amp and we are able to get satellite TV despite all the trees nearby.  They have cable just in case.

The weather has been mostly great.  It has rained a few days but the sunshine and temps are great.  Even in the high 80's and low 90's at times which I like.  Its been good weather to clean the Roadrunner.

Plus I like the fact that the water here is not hard and therefore does not leave ugly water spots.  I still need to wipe it down with the Solution, but it still takes a few hours to get it done.

We've had plenty of time to enjoy the campground.  It has a nice fire pit and a picnic table that we took advantage of when Jon and Kelly came over the other night for hamburgers.

 Then it was time for s'mores.

mmm!

One evening I stopped and chatted with a guy in the campground who had a interesting vehicle.  He said it was a 1986 edition of an Austrian personnel carrier used by the Delta Force back in the day.
 Never heard of this company.

But then, I have never known anyone involved with Delta Force either.  I found this very interesting.  Don't know how useful but at 18 mpg to the gallon, this diesel ought to be good for something. 

It's great to be close by these guys and to be able to hang out with them.  Now if there were only a good campground up near DC close by Adam and Melissa in Chevy Chase MD we'd be all set. 

Thanks for checking in on the Roadrunner Chronicles today.  Until next time...

Habitat for Kelly and Jon

We are glad to do some projects on Jon and Kelly's house.  They were ready for us and had a few lined up.  One thing we did the first few days we got there was weed a small portion of their back yard and transplant some cuttings we picked up from Joan and Mike's in Tennessee.

We will see how they do.

Another one was to shorten the end of the workbench in the garage that we built last year while we here.  The clothes drying  hanger rack now can accommodate dresses with out sitting on top of the bench.

When shirts and dresses hang there, it hides the TV.  But they only use the TV when they workout in the garage.  That one took about 30 minutes to do.

Then I needed to remove the second shelf on the bottom of the shoe rack/shelf we built last year.

That way boots can fit onto the shelf.  That was about a 10 minute deal.

Along the way Jon borrowed a high pressure wash and we did the house around all the windows and soffit and fascia.  It was a pretty easy job and really cleaned up the windows.

The soffit and fascia and gutters will have to be painted.  But there is some work to do before we can tackle that job.

While he was at it, he cleaned the shed with the vinyl siding.

Pam has been making shelves for the back closet.  She is putting them down each side and above the main coat rack and shelf.

Kelly wanted the washer and dryer raised up on a platform of sorts.  So we built a couple of 'boxes' with some wood they had left over from the deck.

We cut the platform to fit the width and depth of each ones, then put them in place to make sure they fit.  We used OSB board to cover the top of each 'box' so the when the washer and dryer were working their hardest, they would not slide off the platform.

Then we painted them and put them in place.

I think we are just getting started on our projects.  We have more to do, but we are enjoying it!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Kelly is 31

Those of you with kids probably are very proud of them.  We are blessed to have Adam (32) and Kelly (31).  I always love reading what they write.

Today Kelly is 31 and I wanted to share what she wrote in her blog today:  13 on 31  (or you can click on the House of Gold on the right panel under "Blogs I Follow".

Hope you enjoy it.

Tomorrow's post:

What I learned from going to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to renew my Driver's License.  

Hope you'll you'll join me for that.

Until then...

A Fantastic Day in San Francisco!

We were in the Bay Area over the weekend and spent Sunday in San Francisco with Kelly and Jon.  They flew out for Matt and Sierra's wedding on Saturday.  More on that on another post…

If you had only one day in San Francisco and had never been there, what would you see?  We have visited a few times and decided to take the Alcatraz Cruise over to the island.  We bought tickets online a few weeks ago.  We got the 10:30 ferry.

First was finding parking (A).  We found a lot near Pier 33, paid our $40 for all-day parking and walked over to the ferry.

We arrived right on time and had very little wait.  It was a pretty short ride on the ferry.

And it was a beautiful day to be out in the bay.

The spectacular Golden Gate Bridge poking through the fog

And to the east - the Oakland Bay Bridge

Once on Alcatraz, we heard a Park Ranger give a short overview of the history of the island and then walked up to the top to begin our individual audio tour.

The audio tour was fantastic.  Once you have the headsets, you can move along as directed from point to point on the grounds, or you can pause and take your time.  It was very well done.  Full of stories, history and anecdotes about the people who ran the place and those that lived there.

Originally the island had a lighthouse, then in 1868 became a military prison.  In 1933 it became a federal penitentiary and was closed as one in 1963 by then-Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. Over the years, infamous characters such as Al Capone, Robert Stroud (Birdman of Alcatraz), Machine Gun Kelly and Doc Barker were housed there.  Today it is a National Recreation Park and run by the National Park Service.  

The return trip on the ferry I may never forget!  We had to wait because they were running the last race of the day for the America's Cup.  Yes - THE America's Cup.  The ferry got underway after the last race between the Oracle (USA) and the New Zealand boat.  We learned what was going on and Kelly started following the events on Twitter to get a moment by moment update.  Sure enough, the USA boat won both races of the day and were finishing up. 

Meanwhile, we got some good photos -

And front row seats!  All the support and official boats were nearby after the race.  And as far as I could tell, we may have been the closest spectators.  We were stunned!  People pay big bucks and hope to see this up close and personal.  And it happened on our return ferry ride!

We made our way down the wharf and stopped for some lunch.  Mine was a chicken club sandwich on sourdough bread.  

Then we walked along the wharf and down Embarcadero Street to see what we could see.

After a while, we made our way back down to our car which was only a couple of blocks from the area where the America's Cup was set up.

It was getting late, so we made our way out of the city by way of Lombard Street and Chinatown.  Then we got into the traffic and made our way out to Redwood City.  We found a great Chinese Restaurant there - The Crouching Tiger.  I don't know if I have every had better Chinese food.

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco and one we will remember for a long time.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  And thanks for your comments ~ we always enjoy them.  Until next time.

Projects Around the House...

While we have been in Virginia Beach for the past 10 days, we have gotten involved with a few projects at Kelly and Jon's house.

The first one we got to do was a large shelf in the garage.  They wanted some fairly deep ones (like 12" deep) and wanted it to go from the floor to the ceiling.

First - a little planning and figuring out where it was going to go.  Took a few measurements.

Next - Off to Home Depot for materials.

 Then back to work and more measuring and ciphering...

And then, after leveling and securing the shelves to the wall and a few hours later - the finished product.

The next day we moved on to more shelving in the shed.

The house they moved into has a new shed that is great!  The shed is very well built, just no shelves.  So in the shed, we followed the same process:  planning, getting building materials, building and putting it together.

And we have more shelves to build.  We are just getting started. There will be more to follow on the shelving.

Next - we got to spend a few days in Washington DC.  We wanted to go see #1 son Adam on his birthday (Saturday).  While there, we stayed with some friends including Jeff and Tiffany.  We asked if we could do a project and she suggested a shelve where a medicine cabinet was located.

 We picked up some materials and had it done fairly quickly.

Except for the caulking and final painting.

Then, when we returned to Virginia Beach, we got back in time to help with the new brick walkway beside the shed.

The bricks were reused from lining around the flower beds.

We love projects and are about to head out to continue with shelving and painting.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Hope you have a great week.

Until next time...