Tour of the Rock

For Danny's birthday, we did what native Bay Area residents rarely do and toured Alcatraz. People who live in this area are generally fascinated with the Rock but have either never been, or only been when they were little on school field trips. So this was a first for me and the first for Danny since he was about 10, and it was fun! The audio tour was really well done and the legends surrounding Alcatraz are fascinating. It was also a gorgeous day with (rare) clear skies and made for some great pictures.

Danny wore what he calls his "jailbird" shirt (because it has fat horizontal stripes) and enjoyed posing in the cells.

This barely conveys how small the cells were.

The commentary from the inmates on the audio tour talked about how the close proximity to San Francisco was part of the punishment. So close to freedom, but so far.

Fall is here...yippee!!

Fall is here, and while that induces a bit of stress in my work, school, and youth ministry life, it also induces intense excitement because we have three, count em', THREE, vacations coming up this fall. It was quite by accident, but we're excited all the same, and we're ready to take a break!


This summer on July 1st we celebrated our second anniversary and on August 3rd welcomed our first niece into the world! She's beautiful and we are dying to meet her but will have to wait until November since Danny's brother and his family are all the way in Manhattan.

So, for our three vacations this fall, we are counting down (see the post below) to trip #1, our big trip to Italy, in less than a month. We will be in Rome for three days and Florence for four, and I'm beside myself with excitement! I can't wait to introduce Danny to the adventure of 14-hour flights and jet lag and the joys of seeing a new country. I've been practicing Italian, which is close enough to Spanish that I'm picking it up really easily. I'm looking forward to seeing the Sistine Chapel and the ancient sites in Rome and eating amazing food and gelato in Florence! We will definitely post pictures on our blog, so stay tuned!

Trip #2 will be with Danny's folks to New York in November to meet our niece. Fitelson family trips to New York are a blast, and I can't wait to see the baby and see my old friend, the Manhattan skyline. Fall in New York just makes me happy, and we have a baby to snuggle to make it even better!

Trip #3 was a recent development, but we are going with my whole family to Texas to celebrate my sister Grace's graduation from Abilene Christian University! I'm so happy for Grace to celebrate this big accomplishment, and I'm looking forward to introducing Danny to my Texas roots and Harold's barbeque. I'm drooling just thinking about it. We'll be spending two days in Dallas so I'm looking forward to catching up with Pepperdine friends Travis and Meagan (and their two kiddos) and Kelli (and her new baby boy). Lots of new babies to meet and old friends to hug! But, the climax of our time in Dallas will be ..... drumroll, please..... my first Cowboys game!!!! We just got the tickets in the mail today and I'm about to explode with excitement. We'll be seeing the second to last game in Texas stadium (sniff, sniff) and possibly the biggest game of the season as they take on the New York Giants. I plan to deck myself out in blue and silver and scream my head off. As my mom often quotes one-year-old Bethany: "EEEEEE BOWBOYS!"

In between these vacations, we'll be continuing with life as usual with the Oakland youth group, I'll be taking a new class on the Gospels in the fall, and work at Fuller is busy as always. More updates to come after all the fun to be had over the next four months!