Berkeley Rep and Opera in the Park

July 5th brought about a journey to Kensington, California first where we dropped off our suitcases and headed to Berkeley Rep for a personalized tour from Joanna. What a wonderful place to see the arts in full bloom! Thanks Joanna for letting us see where glorious theater is produced.

 

After lunch, and some more World Cup Soccer where Netherlands won in a shoot out, we headed to San Fransisco with blankets in tow for the Opera in the Park adventure.
The sisters held our place in line while the "kids" headed to explore the sights. Finally at 6:30 Drew, Caroline, and Joanna raced in first to secure our front row seats on the outfield. We placed our blankets down and proceeded to gather hot food before the opera began at 8:00 PM.

The Opera was La Traviata and was beautifully performed.  The sun went down and the wind picked up and we covered up with ALL the blankets we brought with us and then bought additional sweatshirts trying to stay warm. We made it through the first two acts and then scooped up our supplies and raced for the warm car.

The sisters proceeded to sleep at the Doubletree Inn while the rest of the group slept at Joanna's. 

Sunday morning we headed out to Cafe Leila's for a wonderful brunch.

 Then headed to the Kensington Farm and Art Market before heading back to Sacramento and Monterey.

 What an amazing cultural adventure we experienced thanks to planning by the California sister and her family!

July Fourth Sisters' Style

You can't have the Fourth of July without good food, laughter, and a new adventure when you are in California.  Drew arrived first on Thursday night with In and Out Burgers in hand and the cooking began.

The Sisters went shopping on July 3rd for the fixins to a traditional Fourth of July meal to include Drew grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob, Kay's homemade coleslaw, Shirley's potato salad and deviled eggs, with chips and onion dip. Appetizers included Party Mix and Baked Cauliflower Bites with cheddar mustard sauce.



WELL there was one thing more!

 

A recipe from our past that NO ONE had ever made but wanted to try....Aunt Pat Harrison's Velveeta Fudge!  Kay's new kitchen island was filled with cooking supplies and the fun began as Drew and Shirley made Velveeta fudge for the first time and we added a new recipe Pumpkin Maple Oatmeal baked donuts. 

Drew ready to Grill!

 July fourth morning Caroline and Ryan arrived with Homemade Apple Pie in hand and fireworks for the evening's entertainment. Joanna arrived next with the arrangements for the second day of our adventure and then we all feasted on the food while watching a bit of the World Cup and Face Timing with Kendra and Baby Madison in Denver, too!

Baby Madison Drew Celebrating her first Fourth of July!

Watermelon Cake

Duncle, We are ready for the loud BOOM!

The evening took us to Ryan's family for Watermelon Cake (Pinterest provided this recipe) and fireworks! Ryan had the evening show orchestrated to perfection and the fireworks went off without incident providing many OOHS and AHHS by the crowd.

P.S. The Velveeta Fudge was surprisingly good but a bit salty due to the cheese and we all decided we liked the original Nestle Marshmallow Fudge better.

California Dreaming

I arrived in California on Sunday, June 29th and the fun began for the Sisters on Wheels. I had barely gotten out of the car before we realized we had DRESSBARN coupons that expired today! We unloaded enough things from my car and Kay jumped in for our first shopping trip. Of course you must know that this year our travel colors are Red,White, Blue and Seaside colors. This is because our travels will include the beaches of California and the patriotic month of July.

The first two days were spent talking and planning out the next trip by calling hotels and making reservations. We also took time out to get our toes and fingernails painted with good friend Joyce!

 

Kay had special plans for us to work on home decorating projects while I was here and the first one was in Harrison Suite at Taber House. She was redecorating this lovely bedroom/bathroom after my son Drew moved out to his own place in Monterey, California in May.  Changing this space to a Victorian Suite was created by adding new bedding, a beautiful valance that went up like a breeze, and decorative touches that Kay can envision and pull off with aplomb!
This took us to Wednesday July 2 and the next adventure was about to begin with our children Joanna, Caroline and Ryan, and Drew.

WHEW!....since last summer!

It's been an amazing year!  One of us fell in love and got engaged, one of us sang at the San Francisco Opera as well as the SF Symphony, one of us got a "son" when her nephew moved to California!

While I was gone on Sisters on Wheels 2013, Caroline's long-time friend, Ryan Digman, changed his status from friend to boyfriend with Caroline.  Shortly after I got home from the trip, my nephew Drew (Shirley's son) moved in to begin his job hunt in California!  I really enjoyed the first few weeks when he was retired with me and Baxter and Hildi particularly enjoyed his attention!  Of course he did turn them in to KU (University of Kansas) fans!

In September four of us (Drew, Caroline and Ryan and I) had the pleasure of going to hear Joanna in San Francisco Opera's production of Boito's Mephistopheles.

The year really started speeding up as we got close to the holidays.  Drew accepted a job on the Monterey coast and began living down there during the week and living at Taber House in Sacramento over the weekend.  In 'N Out hamburgers were regular treats on Thursday nights when he arrived!

In December, Ryan let me in on a secret that he was going to ask Caroline to marry him and he and I began a secret process to create a video, a diversionary holiday party with his mom and sister and friends on New Year's Eve, and his proposal held at the State Capitol!  I hosted an engagement dinner and then New Year's Eve Party after she said yes!  We are blessed to have Ryan join our family officially this fall.

The last few months have been super busy planning the wedding as well as my struggles with my darn gall bladder that included a couple of trips to the ER and one hospitalization!  That struggle culminated in removal of the gall bladder in May and recovery since then.  I don't miss it!

It didn't slow me down too much since I continued as treasurer at First United Methodist Church and did some major redecorating in the house including creation of a great sewing room in one of the bedrooms.  Joanna created her first costume in the new sewing room in early June.

Most of you know that I name things in my house so I now have Three Thimbles (the sewing room -- named for the three thimbles of my Grandmother Harrison, my mom and myself), Rosemary and Thyme (Caroline's former bedroom which is now a guest room), and the Harrison Suite at Taber House (the first floor guest room) ....there are lots of other places at the house which are named but you will just have to come visit to find out the names!

I'm really looking forward to Sisters on Wheels 2014 -- we plan to visit at least five states, visit long-time friends, quilt shops, Shirley's beautiful granddaughter, Madison Drew, and Dennis' dad and our parents.  Of course we will spend time with our awesome brothers as well as the other two Harrison sistas, our sisters-in-love Alanna and Julie.

Travel with us --- we'd love to have you along.

Hugs
Kay

P.S.  -- several of you said last year they weren't sure who wrote the various entries -- we have modified out signatures so that you can tell.  My signature is Kay/AK/MOB.  AK stands for Aunt Kay which is what many of my nieces and nephews call me and MOB stands for Mother of the Bride -- my newest title!

Since last summer.......

A lot can happen in a year and some years are busier than others! Since we last met on Sisters on Wheels several family changes have occured. I will share from my family and Kay will add about her family soon. You will soon see that they overlap in new fun ways.

In June of 2013 my daughter Kendra and her husband Josiah moved completely to Denver, Colorado where Josiah had been working since January. Then in September over Labor Day, they bought a home and my husband Paul and son Drew drove to Denver to help with the move. Drew and I left the heavy lifting to the rest and we headed to California where Drew moved in with my sister Kay and proceeded to look for a job in the chemistry field. After six weeks of searching, and spending retirement weeks with Kay, he found a job as a lab manager for a Biofuels company in Watsonville, California.

So things looked settled in about October and then we found out Kendra and Josiah were expecting a baby in June of 2014. So at Christmas time Paul and I drove to Denver then flew to California to see both of our children and celebrate the new year.

Every month of 2014 has included a trip to Denver for preparations for our first grandchild and then came the waiting time for her birth. She was due June 30 but decided that she wanted to be here earlier and arrived in a flourish on June 12 weighing 6 pounds and measuring 18 inches long. I spent 2 and 1/2 weeks helping out with Madison Drew and loving every minute before driving out to California with a carload of items for Drew's new apartment in Monterey, California.



In between times Paul and I sang at church and for the Symphony Chorus, worked at our respective jobs long hours, and oversaw as our house of 33 years got all new windows and siding!

Whew... I need a vacation with my sister!

Smoochies, Shirley

PS: When I write a post my signature will be Shirley/ ASH / Nana
ASH is what my nieces and nephews call me for Aunt Shirley and my newest title is Nana!

We're Back

It is time to start up the blog again because the Sisters are together and ready to travel! A lot has happened in the past year that we will share with you as well as our journeys for the next month so hop on board!

New Sisters....and what's next for Sisters on Wheels?

Wow!

What a great trip!  We added some great new sisters to our group...Frances in Tennessee, Donna in Ohio, Suzann and Alice in Missouri, Jan and Tasha in Indiana, and Pam, Susie, Sharon and Sherry in Iowa!  We met a few more new sisters in Columbus, Indiana who are great at genealogy research and we won't lose touch with them.  And, of course, we got to spend time with special sisters Julie and Alanna (our brothers' dear wives), in Topeka.  And, we visited with our niece, Katie, who is a sister in training!

We traveled almost 5,000 miles and have already started planning our next trip.  We HOPE that next July you will follow us when we move back even further in our family history tour of Harrisons to the 1700s in Virginia and North Carolina!  We're also having our mother's DNA done through Ancestry.com (we've already done our father's DNA) and hope to go to The Netherlands in the not too distant future!  AND, we've had so much fun writing together as a team that we're thinking of writing a book or two or three together!  Stay tuned!

Now for a few fun pics!

We made a few too many trips to Cracker Barrel but we loved this lunch with Mom and Dad and we are so appreciative of people who come up to our Dad and thank him for his service in WWII.

Ok -- we admit it.. we brought our Princess Diana rings with us and wore them the day after William and Kate's baby was born.  But, don't they look real?

This little project brought tears to our eyes....and bowling words!  They were supposed to be matching frames.....the hooks were NOT mounted in the same place on each frame.  What's the saying -- "measure twice?"  how about measure 147 times and then say a bad word and put a quarter in the jar!!!!  Brothers,  your pictures are missing!

I will remember looking out the window of the Masters Hotel in Burr Oak, Iowa at these beautiful flowers when I need to lower my blood pressure.

And, recall this beautiful promise from God after a particularly hard day of moving.
This fabulous rainbow was at the end of Lynn and Julie's street.

SEE YOU ON OUR NEXT TRIP!!!!!