Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Carson and Grandma in San Fran

Hey there!! Gosh, we owe you a big ole' end-of-summer entry.  And hopefully we can get to it before we owe you a big ole' back-to-school entry.  Not likely, since the boys start school in four days... 

 

Instead, we get to focus on yet another amazing Road Scholar adventure with Grandma!!!  She took Conner to Coloradoin '14 and the Ohio River Valley in '12, and she took Carson to Utah in '13 and California last month!



Every trip has a theme, and this summer's was service dogs!  Learning how they train, who they serve, and how they generally make the world a better place.



Now there was a bit of a catch this time around.  See the picture of all the grandkids?  Notice any gender-specific element going on?  Yup, Carson was the only boy.  He was given some serious jobs during the week because of his unique position...



Here he is working with one of the police dogs.  This puppy was very energetic, and kept running circles around the officer.  That may be why he and Carson got along so well.  :-)



It wasn't 100% service dogs.  They did visit an organization that connected all sorts of animals with underpriviledged children.  Carson was the only grandkid with the confidence to brush the llama.  They were warned that the llama could be "a bit aloof."



After all sorts of cool service animal activities, and a fun trip to the Charles Shultz museum, Carson and Grandma hooked up with cousin Amanda, who is working in San Fran at a lovely hotel.  She gave them an amazing tour of the city including a ride on the iconic trolley car.



They went to a place called Off The Grid, where cool food trucks were offering every kind of cultural dish you can imagine.  Looks like Carson chose a hot dog...



Yup, they even spent some time on the beach.  The water was not warm enough to swim in., but Carson at least put a couple toesies in the water to say he did it.  And wouldn't you know it, Alcatraz showed up in the background. A really amazing experience, thanks to Grandma and her wonderful Road Scholar programs!!!