Undertaking...

Our 10th anniversary trip to New England

It will be coming soon

PhotosPhotosPhotos

Vaca '10 Day 7

August 13th

The drive home... it was beautiful, fun, long and enjoyable.

The coolest thing was one of the many stops we made to look at the view gave us a little more than just the view. We found these adorable little creatures!

It was a great way to spend our last day of vacation.

Vaca '10 Day 6 Part 3

Last stop in San Fran = Take me out to the ball game

It didn't take long for things to get exciting.

The Padres are now playing the game under protest!

Giants lose = US happy!

"A key National League West game was played under protest Friday night at AT&T Park, but because the Padres beat the Giants, 3-2, a fourth-inning base running controversy won't have to be looked into by the Commissioner's Office." --MLB.com

Vaca '10 Day 6 Part 2

After our very tasty lunch we hopped on a MUNI train and rushed to our appointed time for a trip over to ALCATRAZ!

Beautiful views of the city from our boat,

however the bridge seems to always be under a blanket of fog

 1.5 miles off the San Francisco coast and referred to as The Rock

The island became a federal prison in 1934. During the 29 years it was in use, the jail held such notable criminals as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), George "Machine Gun" Kelly, James "Whitey" Bulger, Bumpy Johnson, Mickey Cohen, Arthur R. "Doc" Barker and Alvin Karpis (who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate). It also provided housing for the Bureau of Prison staff and their families.

Sights around The Island

Walking in a free man....

Prison Life

Hard Time

 I promise I'll be good!

Paroled

The most violent occurred on May 2-4th in 1946 when a failed escape attempt by six prisoners led to the so-called Battle of Alcatraz.  Bernard Coy, a bank robber serving a 25-year sentence at Alcatraz, was in the C Block cell-house sweeping the floor when kitchen orderly Marvin Hubbard called on guard William Miller to let him in as he had just finished cleaning kitchen. As Miller was frisking Hubbard for any stolen articles, Coy assaulted him from behind and the two men overpowered the officer. They then released Joseph Cretzer and Clarence Carnes from their cells.

The cell block had an elevated gun gallery which was regularly patrolled by an armed guard. The guard, Bert Burch, had a set routine and the convicts had attacked Miller while he was away. Coy kept the Springfield rifle in the gallery and lowered a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, keys, a number of clubs and gas grenades to his accomplices below. Miller had held on to the yard door key, contrary to the prison's regulations, so that he could let out kitchen staff without having to disturb the gallery guard at lunch. Although they eventually found the key by searching the captive guards and the cell in which the prisoners had placed them, the door would not open because the lock had jammed as the prisoners had tried several other keys while searching for the correct one. The escape attempt was thus inadvertently foiled from the outset as the prisoners were trapped in the cell house.

Meanwhile other guards who entered the cell block as part of their routine were seized along with others sent to investigate when they failed to report in. The prisoners were soon holding nine guards in two separate cells, but with nowhere to go, despair set in among the would-be escapees. At 14:30, Coy took the rifle and fired at the guards in some neighboring watchtowers, wounding one of them. Associate warden Ed Miller went to the cell block to investigate, armed with a gas billy club. He came across Coy who shot at him. Miller retreated. By now the alarm had been raised.

Their plan having failed, Shockley and Thompson urged Cretzer, who had one of the guns, to kill the hostages in case they testified against them. Cretzer opened fire on the guards wounding five, three seriously including Bill Miller who later died of his wounds. Carnes, Shockley and Thompson then returned to their cells, but Coy, Hubbard and Cretzer decided they were not going to surrender.


Unarmed guards undertook the rescue attempt, but they were provided with cover by guards in the two gun galleries overhead. They found their colleagues and sealed off D Block by locking the open door but one guard was wounded by a gunshot from the roof of one of the cell blocks during the rescue. When the last officer had reached safety, a massive gun barrage opened on the prison with D Block subjected to heavy fire from machine-guns, mortars and grenades as the authorities erroneously believed one of the armed convicts was stationed there. Eventually it was established that the mutineers were confined to the main cell house and there was another lull in the battle as tactics were worked out.

They drilled holes in the prison roof and dropped in grenades into areas where they believed the convicts were in an attempt to force them into a utility corridor where they could be cornered.

On May 3, at about 12:00 noon, the convicts phoned Johnston to try to discuss a deal. Johnston would only accept their surrender. Later that day a shot was fired at a guard as he checked out C Block's utility corridor. That night, a constant fusillade was fired at the cell block until about 21:00. The following morning, squads of armed guards periodically rushed into the cell house firing repeatedly into the narrow corridor. At 09:40 A.M. on May 4, they finally entered the corridor and found the bodies of Cretzer, Coy, and Hubbard.

 

Alcatraz is a must see if you are ever in San Fran



Vaca '10 Day 6 Part 1

August 12th

We woke super early today. We had time for one day in San Fran and wanted to cram as much as we could into it. We drove up to the city and parked near the ball park then walked over and picked up metro passes.

Our first stop was lunch at Ike's!

Ike's was featured on Man v. Food so we wanted to give it a try. The sandwiches were amazing! Cyndi had a take on the Monte Cristo while Paul enjoyed a "We're just friends" sandwich. There is no place to sit and enjoy your sandwich though, which was a bummer. We just found a stoop around the corner to devour ours.

[there are rumors that one will be opening up much closer to home]

Vaca '10 Day 5

August 11th

 The Mystery Spot is seriously beautiful!

The Mister decided to photography me photographing flowers

Fun at the Spot

After finishing our tour and walking around we headed back to camp to shower so we wouldn't offend those providing us with dinner and sparkling conversation in the evening.

Don and Monica prepared a delicious dinner for us and we had a good time eating and chatting.

Vaca '10 Day 4

August 10th

Today we woke up early and headed out to Monterey as it was aquarium day! The last time we were here was on our honeymoon. Still as amazing as ever.

 Fishy's

A few of the favorite photos from the day

 Jelly's

 I've never seen a blue duck (bill) before

C's favorite -- the otter



Petting and posing with the sea creatures

Vaca '10 Day 1 & 2

August 7th
We drove up to Santa Cruz for our Anniversary week. Dinner @ Carpos!

August 8th
Today was spent just hanging around downtown. Drove over to Soquel to look around. Did the scenic drive around town. In the evening the Sousa's showed up to camp and treated us to a late night dinner @ Ihop. We enjoyed catching up with them and seeing the family.

Vaca '09 Day 9: home

Before heading home we made one final stop...

had to get a fro hot choc!

Then it was back to the real world... till next year when we will explore another part of this wonderful world together.

Vaca '09 Day 8

After a long slumber we rose and devised a plan for the day. First up was to appease the grumbling in our tumbley. Then, upon Cyndi's request we headed over to the gun range. We decided to use the WWII package and each got to shoot 3 different weapons.

There was then some lounging around, walking around Las Vegas Blvd. and dinner back at the hotel. Paul wanted to head over to Fremont Street since Cyndi had never been over there (to her recollection). We enjoyed watching street vender's painting photos, had our photo taken with a million dollars and of course stopped off to try out some deep fried oreos (also a first for Cyndi). After that we called it a night and headed into get some shuteye.

Vaca '09 Day 7

After getting a later start than anticipated we headed out to Vegas for a couple of days. After getting ourselves checked into the hotel we headed out to see what kind of a deal we could get on show tickets. We had a quick dinner at the Hilton, before heading over to see The Blue Man Group! Quick photo op with one of the blue men.
P&C had a great time at the show.

There was rumor that near by was a piano bar so we stopped by to see some dueling pianists before heading back to the hotel for sleeeepy time.

Vaca '09 Day 6

August 12, 2009

We woke up when we woke up this morning which was nice, no alarms set. Headed into town picked up some cookies for the family and coffee. Then back to camp to pack up the car... destination: Norwalk. On the way we stopped at The Apple Farm for a delicious dinner. Soon as we got home it was pretty much time to sleeeep. At least the way we planned it there was no traffic.

Vaca '09 Day 5

Today we celebrated "the ocho". We have been Mr. & Mrs. Hutchins for 8 years! Seems crazy how fast time has flown by.

To celebrate we SLEPT IN! Then piddled around town, drove over to Capitola and walked around just enjoying the day together. In the evening we were invited over to Don and Monica's for a home cooked meal. It was quite a spread with salad, chicken, steak, potatoes, corn...and of course dessert. Everyone had a great time hanging out and talking. We also watched the end of the Giants/Dodgers game (Dodgers won). It was late so we parted ways. We headed back across the camp to the cottage and spent the rest of the evening reading and playing cards.

Vaca '09 Day 4: Frisco

August 10, 2009

The Mr. and Mrs. slept in a bit today. Once they arose it was time to pack up some clothes and the cameras for the days outing to San Fran. We found a cheap place to park for the day and then walked over to get day passes for the trolley/bus. We took the trolley down to Pier 39 so that we could peruse the shops and grab lunch. We then used our smarts to figure out which buses we would need to take to make it over to the Golden Gate Bridge. Once there we decided to walk across, it was quite windy and foggy!So quickly it became game time so we worked our way back to the city on the buses again and started walking towards the stadium. We paused at Mel's Diner for some good eats before heading into the Giants/Dodgers game. Our seats were straight back from home plate... as far back as you can get. The good news was that being in the back row we didn't worry about anyone throwing anything at us, because of course we were wearing our Biola loves the Dodgers shirts.


Dodgers won! A kind Giants fan asked, "You want me to take a photo for you, I wont mess it up or anything." Before heading back to SC we stopped by the twisty-turny street

Once we got back to the cottage it was sleeepy time!

Vaca '09 Day 3: Choo Choo

For Cyndi's birthday we headed over to Roaring Camp Railroad.

As we walked up there was a festival going on, lots of tents set up with people selling old items

Before heading out on our train ride we enjoyed saw band music and a quick lunch. Breath in the freshness

Goofing around on our short walk through the woods

Vaca '09 Day 2: We are family

August 8, 2009

Soon as we woke this morning it was a rush to get ready and head up to Martinez to meet up with some of Cyndi's family. Uncle Bill and Aunt Marie were having a huge BBQ with friends to celebrate their wedding anniversary. My cousin Becky and her boyfriend made an adorable cake for the celebration.

We also had the pleasure of meeting George

We snagged an opportunity to get a photo of all of us.