Dinner at Armstrong's

We had dinner at Armstrong's, a seafood restaurant, the second night.
Looks like Chuck likes margaritas even more than Tom does.

All the happy margarita drinkers.

Waiting for our dinner -- nice table on the deck, overlooking the harbor. Dinner was pretty good, seafood as you might expect. The clam chowder was especially good.

You can tell that this picture was taken from a much greater height than the previous picture :-)

Down the Hill

Done with the gardens, and time to go back down the hill. The shuttle only ran every hour or so, and we weren't really sure when. It was only about a mile down, so some of us decided to walk.


Some of us didn't.


However, they were shamed into it, and off we went....


Uncle and nephew walking down the hill....

In a close-up, you can see that they apparently like the same music...

Apparently it was white-shirt day, and maybe even goofy-hat day.

You can see here how close the fire got. To the fire station.

And guess what. Another tile encountered !

More Gardens

After our arduous climb up the stairs to the Memorial, a rest was necessary.

Grandmother Gene feeding (ok, watering) her little flock...

Dad Bird steps in to help....

Back down to the entrance, through the cactus.

Dutifully reading about the history of the gardens.

And look, a tile !

At the Wrigley Memorial

Some of us climbed up to the actual memorial building.... as you will see later, some of us did not :-)

Unsurprisingly, it was a building with lots of tile.

The view from the top was pretty nice.

This picture, in case it isn't obvious, is of the ceiling of the arch, taken by lying on the ground. Guess what? more tile !

Remember the part about how some of us (ok, one of us) didn't climb up to the memorial....

Very important disclaimer about the marble we saw.

Sitting in the shade....

Who is the Indian god with all the arms? Is it Shiva?

Oh, no, it is just Nick and Alex.

Even more tiles.

And finally, Nick, looking cool.

Jeff wants to take a photo,,,

Here comes the whole clan, walking up the path towards the actual memorial...

It's a pretty view.

Jeff decides he wants to take a photo of everyone.

Hey, stop, everyone, turn around!

Hey, that means all of you. Stop !

So hurry up and take the picture already....

Jeff -- if you read this, we should put the picture you took up here too!

At the Wrigley Memorial Gardens

There were lots and lots of different kinds of cactus in the gardens.

Some of them looked a lot like a pineapple.

Some of them were just weird.

Some of them looked even more like a pineapple....

Some of them were a bit Cthulhu-like (look it up).

But there was a lot of beauty there.

I see Mickey Mouse !

Chuck takes a break ....


While the boys carefully inspect the cactus.

On our way to the Wrigley Memorial Garden

We decided to visit the Wrigley Memorial Gardens -- a native plant botanical garden just a bit out of town. There was a tram that went up there, with a stop right outside the hotel.


Waiting for the tram.... Nick plugged into his Ipod.

The tram route, with the gardenpretty much at the end of the line.

While waiting, the Renda boys found a friend at one of the nearby houses.

Lunch at the Pizza Place

Lunch the first day was at a pizza joint down the street from the hotel, can't remember the name but that is okay because I don't think we'll be recommending it to anyone.


We did get to eat lots of peanuts, and throw the shells around...

Tom thinks he is being subtle here....

but now he is happy, a margarita at last !

The whole gang, looking reasonably happy (because Chuck hasn't received the wrong food yet, and Jeff hasn't got his non-crispy bacon ).


Everyone has to have some kind of electronic gadget on this trip.

A charming picture of Alex, returning from the restroom....