September 8-12, 2017: A Trip to Montreal, Canada
	August 20-21, 2017: The Total Eclipse of the Sun
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This weekend, Fred and I have come down to San Antonio to help Prudence celebrate her birthday. Nancy, Karl, Guy, and Ron, along with other guests, will be on hand to congratulate her and share the festivities.

Getting to the Ruckman's House in San Antonio

You have probably seen an album page where we visit San Antonio, but in case you haven't, I want to show you the route to San Antonio from Dallas and where Prudence and Ron and Guy are located.

On the maps below, you can see the route to the Ruckmans' house. It is an easy matter to simply hop on I-35E from the Tollway in Dallas and take that highway all the way south through Austin to San Antonio. This 280-mile trip routinely takes about 4.5 hours. In San Antonio, we continue to follow I-35 into the city, eventually exiting onto San Pedro Avenue. We take that north about two miles, and either hang a left on Ashby and a right on Breeden or just a left on French to get to the Ruckmans' house on the northeast corner of Breeden and French.

In case you have not seen them, I have put below first an aerial view of the Ruckmans' house (it is the house on the corner and the garage/apartment building north of it where Guy lives) and a front view of the house (taken in 2010).

This will be a short visit, as we will be going to Canada with everybody in just two weeks, and we have a lot to do at home. Prudence is in the process of opening an art gallery over on Main Street, and we expect to be talking to her about that, as well has celebrating her birthday.

When we arrived in San Antonio, we went right to H-E-B to get Prudence some flowers and then took them to her house. Our's weren't the only bouquets she'd gotten; there were four of them on the table in the sunroom:

The Ceremony (Part 1): The Opening of the Gifts

On Saturday, Prudence's actual birthday, we got her esconced in a chair in her living room so she could open the various gifts that her family and friends had sent to her this year.

Prudence Opening Gifts

One of the nicest gifts anyone gave Prudence was the pastel portrait of her dog, Jax, that Guy Blair painted for her. We all thought it was an amazing likeness. We were all gathered in the living room, and both Fred and I were taking pictures. There is a selection of them below:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

As we were sitting around having fun watching Prudence opening birthday gifts, I made one movie, just to record the event; you can use the player below to watch that movie:

The Gang's All Here for the Opening (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Dinner at the Palm

On the afternoon of Prudence's birthday, she took us over to the storefront on Main Street that she is considering leasing for her art gallery; it is a nice space, and if she goes ahead with the project that it will work out well.

Everyone Having Dinner at the Palm

The Palm Restaurant in downtown San Antonio is a favorite place of both Ron and Prudence, and so that's where Ron made reservations for Saturday evening.

He and Prudence like to eat at the bar rather than at a table (unless the weather is nice and they want to eat outside on the patio); so that's why all seven of us are seated at the bar this evening.

Ron and Prudence like to interact with the bartenders and some of the waiters (many of whom they know well), and that's another reason they prefer bar seating. We had a great time and a great meal before we returned to the house.

The Ceremony (Part 2): The Birthday Cake

Yesterday, when we picked up the flowers, I ordered a birthday cake for Prudence that I picked up this afternoon, and instead of having dessert at the Palm, we returned here for coffee and cake.

Prudence and Nancy as Prudence Cuts the Cake

Prudence is fond of carrot cake, so that's the kind that I picked up for her. I think it interesting that at least H-E-B doesn't write directly on cakes any more; they put the sentiment on a banner that gets laid across the cake- as you can see here if you take a look at Prudence's birthday cake. I supposed that the reason this is done is because people order cakes and then don't pick them up, and so the cake is unsellable if not picked up. This way, if the cake isn't picked up, the banner can just be lifted off.

We took a few pictures in the dining room as Prudence cut and parceled out the cake; you can have a look at some of these if you wish:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

As Prudence was cutting the cake, the rest of us did the best job we could of singing "Happy Birthday" (which I recorded with a movie). You can use the player below to watch and listen:

The Gang's All Here for the Opening (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Some Final Pictures

On Monday, before Fred and I left to return to Dallas, we took a couple of additional pictures in Prudence's sunroom:

Fred and I in the Sunroom

 

Prudence and Fred in the Sunroom

We had a nice visit with Prudence, and we hope she enjoyed her birthday festivities!

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	September 8-12, 2017: A Trip to Montreal, Canada
	August 20-21, 2017: The Total Eclipse of the Sun
	Return to the Index for 2017