Some of the "Excellent Adventures of Mike and Blake"
	Mike and Blake visited the Golden State Model Railroad Club in Point Richmond - this includes over 10,000 square feet of intricately detailed train layouts, towns, mountains, etc. Trains run every Sunday afternoon, and visitors of all ages are welcome!
Mike and Blake went over to Jack London Square in Oakland to see the yacht used by FDR when he was President. The Potomac has been completely restored, and one can just take a quick tour, or as Mike and Blake did, sign up for a 2-hour cruise around the Bay. The cruise was great, and the ship's historic surroundings and displays added to a fun day.
Mike and Blake had another adventure trip a few months ago, visiting the SS Red Oak Victory ship, which is part of the "Rosie the Riveter" National Historical Park in Richmond. This cargo ship was built at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond in 1944, and later saw service in both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
	Just past Sacramento is the Folsom Power House, a water-driven electricity generating plant right below the big Folsom Dam. It was one of the first on the West Coast.
Mike and Blake's September adventure was a visit to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to tour the "National Ignition Facility" where the only research in the country on generating electricity by nuclear fusion is going on -- a huge building full of one-of-a-kind high-tech machinery. No cameras were allowed inside the fence, so we settled for a picture by the entrance gate.
Last spring, Mike and Blake traveled up to Sacramento to visit an aerospace museum at the former McClelland Air Force Base. While the museum and its exhibits and planes were interesting, maybe the really unique part of this day was lunch at the old Officers Club - we tried to look like we were roughing it, but it was hard to do !
	"The Excellent Adventures of Mike and Blake" continued when Son-in-Law Blake surprised Mike recently with a tour of a HUGE castle (which also happens to be a winery) up near St. Helena. This castle has over 100 rooms spread over some 120,000 square feet.
Mike and Blake have traveled to many destinations over the years. Not long ago, Mike and Blake headed for San Francisco, stopping first for lunch at an old Herb Caen institution on the waterfront called Red's Java House, a hole-in-the-wall hamburger joint right under the Bay Bridge. Then they toured the Anchor Steam Brewery, and learned the fine points of making beer. There was some tasting involved, but I'm not posting pictures of that !
Earlier trips have included a visit to the Tech Museum in San Jose, where they saw the IMAX movie about the Mars Rovers, and got to try out the (tricky at first) Segway things (sort of a scooter, but not exactly). They have visited the Corps of Engineers' San Francisco Bay Model in Sausalito, and had a GREAT "right-in-the-middle-of-everything" tour of the NUMMI automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont where various Toyota and GM models were being made. (This plant is now closed, but parts of it are being taken over by Tesla Motors to build their new electric cars.)
Earlier, Mike and Blake went to an air museum at the old Castle Air Force Base, where they got to see 40+ aircraft, including the SR-71 and a B52.
Mike and Blake have also toured the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, and rode an old train at the Western Railway Museum near Travis Air Force Base.
	Mike and Blake spent a day at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos. There are lots of exhibits and things to see, but a highlight was spending some time at the controls of a Boeing 747 aircraft (on the ground, of course!)
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