First off, my 60th birthday was coming up and I thought nothing was going to happen for my birthday since one of my daughters was going to be out of town and not be coming back until Sunday, August 10th in the evening. Then my best friend, Judy, flew in from Utah on Friday, August 7th and came to my office and surprised me by sitting at my desk and when I came in from lunch there she was!!! What a joy to see my best friend again. We decided to head to San Francisco on Saturday morning and spend the day there -- little did I know, but this was a ruse to get me out of the house so the preparations for the big party for my 60th could begin. I must say that my friend and my family are really great sneaks as I had no idea that a party was in the works for me at all. Call me a blonde and all that goes with it, but I sincerely believed everything Judy said. She said she had talked to Rob and that since nothing big was happening for my birthday she wanted to spend the whole weekend doing fun things with me.
Judy and I arrived in San Francisco for a day of fun on August 8, 2009. The weather was really nice and I ended up getting a sun burn 'cause I didn't think to put on sunscreen. I had checked online to see what things we could do while we were there. Our plans were to go to Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, The Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of Fine Arts & Exploratorium. Judy opted to ride behind a biker in a little cart for the Pier ride to Ghirardelli Square. We had our "driver", John take this picture of us at Ghirardelli Square...
Judy and John...
Of course we had to get a picture of the two of us in front of a trolley car! 
Picture of Alcatraz --
The chief baker at Boudins. We watched him create this lobster out of dough...you could talk to him and we found out that he had worked at Boudins for 30 years. We had fun watching them make their dough creations...The fun thing about Judy is that she is so interested in others and is able to find out so much about them in a short while. She asks great questions and information flows out----I would have never asked and, therefore, I wouldn't have known all the cool stuff that Judy learns simply by --- asking --
Here we are at Ghirardelli Square to, of course, get some chocolate!
We then stopped at Fisherman's Wharf and had some clam chowder which was really good. Judy is a great person to go anywhere with because she is always introducing herself to new people and finding out a little about them, things that I would never find out, because I didn't think to ask...Here's a pic of me with a "Knight in Shining Silver Armor"
Judy feeding the "Knight"
We lined up in our car for the opportunity to go down the curvy Lombard Street. Judy took this pic out our window as we went down the hill. I thought she got a pretty good shot considering that you weren't supposed to stop along the way!
Our last stop was going to be the "Palace" and then the Golden Gate Bridge, but we couldn't locate the "Palace" and ended up heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge. We got off at the last S.F. exit. The Bridge was all fogged in and we couldn't get a great shot and so we tried to get back to S.F. going surface streets... and ended up at the Presidio Cemetery.
We finally reached the Palace of Fine Arts and took some pictures of this beautiful area and even had some people take some pictures of Judy and I -- the whole time Judy kept telling me that she was going to take me somewhere and we had to get back by 7:15pm because it would take about a half an hour to get there. Little did I know and I mean I didn't have a clue -- totally clueless and blonde!
We headed back home and to Judy's credit we arrived at 7:15pm. I saw all these cars parked on the street and said "Well, somebody must be having a party" never realizing somebody was having a party...and it was ME! Got to the house and Rob came out and said that he had been working in the back yard and wanted to show me what they had been doing....I walked to the back and WOW!!!! Surprise, surprise, surprise.....I was so surprised and appreciative...Friends and family had come to wish me a happy birthday and a lot of work had gone into making it a wonderful occasion. Thank you to all who came and thank you to my family for making this 60th birthday a wonderful, wonderful experience. -- Rob gave a slide presentation and I finally figured out a way to get it onto the blog as a slide show (see the little slide show at the top and side of my blog) ...for my next blog I hope to have some pics of the actual b-day celebration and Rob's tribute lines to me...made me cry 'cause it was so special.
Judy and John...
Of course we had to get a picture of the two of us in front of a trolley car! 
Picture of Alcatraz --
The chief baker at Boudins. We watched him create this lobster out of dough...you could talk to him and we found out that he had worked at Boudins for 30 years. We had fun watching them make their dough creations...The fun thing about Judy is that she is so interested in others and is able to find out so much about them in a short while. She asks great questions and information flows out----I would have never asked and, therefore, I wouldn't have known all the cool stuff that Judy learns simply by --- asking --
Here we are at Ghirardelli Square to, of course, get some chocolate!
We then stopped at Fisherman's Wharf and had some clam chowder which was really good. Judy is a great person to go anywhere with because she is always introducing herself to new people and finding out a little about them, things that I would never find out, because I didn't think to ask...Here's a pic of me with a "Knight in Shining Silver Armor"
Judy feeding the "Knight"
We lined up in our car for the opportunity to go down the curvy Lombard Street. Judy took this pic out our window as we went down the hill. I thought she got a pretty good shot considering that you weren't supposed to stop along the way!
Our last stop was going to be the "Palace" and then the Golden Gate Bridge, but we couldn't locate the "Palace" and ended up heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge. We got off at the last S.F. exit. The Bridge was all fogged in and we couldn't get a great shot and so we tried to get back to S.F. going surface streets... and ended up at the Presidio Cemetery.
We finally reached the Palace of Fine Arts and took some pictures of this beautiful area and even had some people take some pictures of Judy and I -- the whole time Judy kept telling me that she was going to take me somewhere and we had to get back by 7:15pm because it would take about a half an hour to get there. Little did I know and I mean I didn't have a clue -- totally clueless and blonde!
We headed back home and to Judy's credit we arrived at 7:15pm. I saw all these cars parked on the street and said "Well, somebody must be having a party" never realizing somebody was having a party...and it was ME! Got to the house and Rob came out and said that he had been working in the back yard and wanted to show me what they had been doing....I walked to the back and WOW!!!! Surprise, surprise, surprise.....I was so surprised and appreciative...Friends and family had come to wish me a happy birthday and a lot of work had gone into making it a wonderful occasion. Thank you to all who came and thank you to my family for making this 60th birthday a wonderful, wonderful experience. -- Rob gave a slide presentation and I finally figured out a way to get it onto the blog as a slide show (see the little slide show at the top and side of my blog) ...for my next blog I hope to have some pics of the actual b-day celebration and Rob's tribute lines to me...made me cry 'cause it was so special. 
