ACTIVITY NEWS
Angel Island Outing and
Gathering at Penny's Wonderful Home
It was the perfect beautiful weather day for us to explore Angel Island and enjoy the scenic vistas from there. Angel Island was considered the "Ellis Island" of the West; and Klara Cheung arranged for us to have a very interesting docent tour of the "Detention Center", where immigrants were detained (some for many days), while Immigration Officials determined whether they could stay or be exported back from wherever they came. We also enjoyed picnicking together and further exploration before catching a returning ferry off the Island.
Afterwards, we made our way to Penny Nii's spectacular "Russian Hill" abode. We gathered in the very spacious Lobby where we were greeted with an amazing spread of appetizers, lasagna, desserts & beverages. It was a wonderful treat to socialize inside and outside with a spectacular view of San Francisco.
Thank you Klara and Penny for make this such a special day for all of us.
written by Tami
Tour of Thunderbird Lodge tour at Incline Village, Lake Tahoe followed by a party.
As usual our group had a really interesting and enjoyable day out together. We first went on a guided tour of Thunderbird Lodge at Incline village. This was the house of a recluse with no guest bedrooms as he did not want people to stay overnight.It overlooked Lake Tahoe giving us breathtaking views of the area. It was owned by the extremely wealthy George Whittell. He purchased nearly 40,000 acres along Lake Tahoe's shoreline in 1935.We were taken around the original house and other buildings around the estate. They including the Cook/Butlers house, the card house and of course the Boathouse where he kept the fabulous mahogany and stainless steel Yacht the Thunderbird. We saw a crew of maintenance staff dong working on the yacht. It appears to be a full-time job for them to keep it looking so beautiful. We went along a 600 foot tunnel leading to the boathouse noting in passing the special Smoking den, the swimming pool that was never finished because of a death during construction. It was a fascinating tour with much more beside what I have mentioned here. We must thank George Whittell for being a recluse and buying this land as we have been the recipients of unintentional preservation of a lot of the Lake Tahoe area including Sand Harbor beach area, which was taken from him by Nevada using eminent Domain.
We of the course then had to follow this with a great party in a beautiful house , with a wonderful spread provided and hosted by Shari Malone and Bob Kozmo in their home. Thank you both for doing this for our club members.
Thank you once again Tami for organizing all this. Thirty eight of us participated in this wonderful day out.
Rose marie Avery
Tour of the David Glass house in San Ramon Valley, Barbecue and drive to top of Mt. Diablo
Well we had another great day out. (As a group we really enjoy ourselves.) We started at the David Glass house, in San Ramon in the East Bay. We were given a Docent tour around a Victorian Italianate style house built for one of the first Ranchers in the San Ramon Valley .
It was the story of a family coming across the prairie in a wagon at the time of the Gold rush who did well out of anticipating the needs of the Prospectors and eventually becoming comfortably off landowners.
We then went to the home of Roger and Rose Marie for a Barbecue followed by some of the group driving up to the top of Mount diablo to view the wonderful 360 degree panorama of the Bay Area from 3,800 feet up. Absolutely amazing.
Rose Marie and Roger thank you all for coming on this Day Out.
Rose Marie Avery
Day Out in Glen Canyon
Wow ! What a great day we had on June !3th . The day was divided into three parts
The first was a walk around the Canyon in Glen Park. It was full of interest and beauty. It also included a great piece of Modern art in the new community center Grounds.It is a work in progress as it is set up so that the sun will etch the wood in hollowed out tree trunks. "Fascinating"This Canyon was saved from becoming part of the freeway system by a small group of ladies known as the Gum Tree Ladies and is now an absolute jewel in this area.
Afterwards we had a scrumptious lunch prepared by Carol Merzke and helped by a few others of our group.
John then took us all out again for a walk up the Harry street stairway and to see wonderful views over the Bay. There appeared to be about 150 steps . I did not count as I was too busy catching my breath. We all got our exercise onthis day, but it was also was a great and fascinating time.
Thanks to John and Carol Maerzki
Look in the right column for details of upcoming events in the coming months or in the Events Calendar Tab (Left of screen)
Rose Marie Avery
Abbey of New Clairvaux / Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park in Chico
We have kicked off the summer season with this great and interesting tour. In the morning we toured the Abbey. Among other things we saw a barnful of sacred stone which were brought to America by Randolph Hurst 80 years ago from a Cistercian monastery in Ovila Spain .They are now being used to reconstruct that Monastery's 800 year old chapter house in the new monastery here in California.We finished the tour with a Wine Tasting of the Abbey product.
Following this we had a pleasurable and generous lunch at Nash’s Restaurant in Chico.
The afternoon was spent touring the Bidwell Mansion in Chico. We learned of the life of John Bidwell and his wife Annie. He was an important man in Californian history as a pioneer, farmer, Statesman, politician, and philanthropist. His home,an1868 Victorian Italianate house,was lovingly restored after a brief period as a Dorm for Chico state and is now a part of a state park.
This was a great day out thanks to Tami Belew’s organization.
Thank you Tami
Look in the right column for details of upcoming events in the coming months or in the Events Calendar Tab (Left of screen)
Rose Marie Avery
Skiing in Utah
February 26th - March4th 2017
The club joined the 70 Plus club for their annual trip to Utah. The whole group was over 130 people strong. Our group of about 14 was small but significant.
All 130 had cocktail hour each night followed on 3 nights with dinner for all. Other nights GGTOTHG went out for dinner in their own group plus invited others.
They did do some skiing between the drinking and dining.
This trip allowed for different ski resorts to be used . Solitude , Alta, Park city, Snow Basin, Brighton, Snow bird and Deer Valley resorts were the choices each day.The best part was that no one had to worry about transportation to where they wanted to go as it was all part of the organization by the 70 plus club.
Most people skied between 3 and 6 days and their experience was made better by the Park City resort honoring the Tahoe local pass and gave all our group half price for each day they skied at their resort.
Every one had a good time thanks to the great organization of the 70 plus club and of course the company.
Annual Dinner 2016