Avery Island, Louisiana

We visited the TABASCO Pepper Sauce factory today and watched bottles of TABASCO brand Green Pepper Sauce being bottled and labeled. After watching that process, we visited the store where we tasted jalapeno pepper ice cream and all the different varieties of pepper sauces they make. We then had to purchase some of the new varieties...yum...yum. After checking out the pepper sauce, we had to visit their private Jungle Gardens with the alligators, deer, raccoons, armadillos and Snowy Egrets. Just as we finished touring the gardens it started to rain and by the time we got back to Abbeville it was pouring buckets!...with lightning all over the place. It was raining so hard, we had to pull off the road and wait until the rain let up. At one point we had lightning strike an electric poll right next to us....about scared the you know what out of all of us! Marge & John were with us. Tomorrow we travel on east. We plan on stopping around New Orleans and visiting that city. Watch our blog for more pics. LIFE IS GOOD!

Snowy Egrets

There are over 20,000 Snowy Egrets in the Avery Island's 200-acre Jungle Gardens. They nest on these specially-built platforms in a pond nicknamed "Bird City". We saw many baby egrets like the one in the middle of this picture. E A McIhenny helped save these beautiful birds from extention in the late 19th century by establishing this breeding colony here in this private marsh area. There are alligators in the water below the birds, but the platforms keep them safe.

Alligators

We enjoyed watching the alligators at Avery Island's Jungle Gardens in Lousiana. We saw over a dozen of them today. I thought I would share these with you. We stayed in the car and I took these through my open window!!!

What is this stuff???

We have spent the past 4 days driving over 1400 miles...Arizona to Louisiana. We arrived in Lake Charles, LA this afternoon. This picture was taken on I-10 on our way from Houston, Tx to Lake Charles. LA. The forecaste for the next several days is much of the same....rain...thunderstorms....rain. But that is not going to stop us from seeing this area of the country. Quack...Quack.

Lynn graduated Law School

Lynn graduated UC Hastings Law School on May 20th. The graduation was in San Francisco at the Masonic Lodge. We took Bart over to San Francisco and then took the trolly down California St... over Nob Hill to the Lodge. The place was packed. We got there 30mins early, but ended up in the balcony at the top. I couldn't get close-up pictures of Lynn during the ceremony ...instead I only was able to get pictures of the stage with her on it!!! After they had a reception and I was able to get a couple of pictures of her before she took the robe off! We went out to dinner at a great place in Berkeley later. She is now taking the class to help her pass the bar, which she will be sitting for in mid July. Wish her luck in passing the Bar the first time! Life is Good...we have a lawyer in the family!

UC Hastings College of the Law

Jelly Belly or Belly Flop

We are in Fairfield, CA...Home of the Jelly Belly factory. Of course they have a factory tour and a store here also. When we are in the area we HAVE to stop here and pick up Belly Flops...rejected Jelly Bellies that they sell for over half what Jelly Bellies sell for. If you are traveling on I-80 between San Francisco and Sacramento, make sure you take a side trip and visit this place. Fun place to visit and they give out samples too.

Ding Ding, the San Francisco Treat

Life is good! Riding the San Francisco Cable Car!

Ed & Sandy Kruty

We left our hearts in San Francisco

Ed & I started our adventure today by traveling on the BART from Richmond to San Francisco. We got off the BART at the Powell St station. We walked a short distance and waited in line for over an hour to ride the San Francisco Cable Car. We had fun talking with the people waiting with us at both ends of the line. This was Ed's first trip to San Francisco and we both enjoyed our visit. Here you can see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background while Ed is posing for the camera.

Here is Ed getting off the Powell-Mason St cable car at the Fisherman Wharf end. We had a great time riding the cable car. They stop this thing in the middle of an intersection to let people get on and off and all the traffic has to stop. Quite a ride when we went down steep hills! No seriously, they have great brakes on these things!

These sea lions have taken over this dock at the end of Pier 39. They were fun to watch and boy were they noisy.

Sandy at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. We had Lobster Bisque in a sourdough bowl for lunch in a resturant here at the Wharf. Yum-Yum!! De-lish!!

Here Ed is at Fisherman's Wharf with Alcatraz in the background.