Home sweet home

and unfortunately here to stay. For a little while, at least. Our RAGBRAI trip was cancelled, or I'd rather say postponed until next year due to our drivers having schedule conflicts.
I'm sure everything will work out for the best. I need to to plenty of yardwork asap anyway. I had someone mow my lawn while I was gone, but my garden seems to have grown a foot. Ah, the pleasures of coming home.

The summer of love....

If you can't read the sign, it says haight ashbury. It's the last
place on my "want to visit" list. I decided to skip the walking tour
in favor of being leisurely on my last day. I wanted another iced
coffee and also when I read the tour description it said strenuous, I
just wasn't in the mood to hustle over there or for a strenuous walk.
As luck would have it I ran into the tour halfway through and joined
just in time to learn about the hippies, Janis joplin and the Grateful
Dead houses. I missed the SF victorian houses part. Although I'm
looking forward to seeing my victorian I'm not sorry I missed that. I
then went down to the beach for a last look.
Tomorrow, traveling and home. If anyone see's Kris remind her to pick
me up at 9 :)

Yes, I am a mac geek

Need I say more?

Back for more

I wasn't sure I liked Irish coffee after my first sip yesterday. It
obviously grew on me :)

San Fran botanical garden

Part of golden gate park. They say it's bigger than NY central park, I
believe it. I only made it around half before I called it a day.

Fortune cookie factory in Chinatown

Samples were free, picture taking was 50cents. I hope they meant
picture of the lady folding the cookies.
this was part of another interesting walking tour. If you're ever in
San Fran check out the tours from city guides. They're non-profit
through the SF library, donations excepted of course. I've decided the
guides are much better than on paid tours because they're doing it for
the pleasure of showcasing their city. On each on the three tours I've
been on the guides have talked about how they researched the area
through the library archives, insurance records, etc. Quite impressive
for a volunteer job.

Friday

I started off the day at Dotties again, I think I'm addicted and
judging by the lines for the small diner, as well as the Internet
reviews, I'm not the only one. Today I had brown sugar pinapple french
toast with toasted pecans. Extremely rich and I have leftovers for
tomorrow. From there I went on another walking tour. The hidden
stairways and gardens of Russian Hill. It was extremely interesting
and it definitely showed a part of San Fran I wouldn't have seen.
Steep sidewalks which are sometimes the only entrance to million
dollar hole in the wall houses, it's a location thing. I took pictures
but not with the phone, sorry can't share on the blog. After lunch I
went to the presidio and crissy field, I gotta admit I thought crissy
field was a baseball park until this week, oops. It's a park/beach at
the base of the bridge.
I had thought about seeing if I could get last minute lottery tickets
to Wicked but it was getting late and I had a little bus confusion so
I opted for dinner and the famous "Irish coffee" at the Buena Vista
diner by fisherman's wharf.
Tomorrow, walking tour of Chinatown definately and maybe golden gate
park. I was saving the park to do all day Sunday, but today I found
out the aids walk is there on Sunday. As much fun as that might be, I
think I'll stay away.
The pic today is of a cable car, I couldn't get the ling waiting line
into the same picture. I didn't actually ride one yet, but it might
have been better then my bus craziness.

Part two

He also was divorced twice, sounded like he had a girlfriend and was
hitting on me.
Back to the fog... For the past 4 days I've been listening to locals
complain about the 80-90 degree heat wave and rolling my eyes and
saying they don't know bad weather. They'd kinda agree but say there's
the fog too. The for I had seen was really prett looking pockets of it
o er the cliffs/hills/ mountains, not sure what they're called. Today
I learned about fog. I woke up, checked what walking tours were
happening today and decided on the golden gate bridge. As you can see,
I didn't really get a good view of it. I thought a couple of times the
fog would lift but it never did. The tour went to the first tower and
I thought as long as I was that far I might as well go the whole way
and visit Sausilito. It was a nice hike and since there was sunshine
and no fog over there it was much warmer. I took the ferry back across
the bay and got a good view of Alcatraz. After that I walked by all
the piers on the Embarcedero and stooped at Fishermans Wharf. It was
very touristy, but not as bad as The Monterey one. Lots of walking
today, but good since I was tired of driving :)
Oh, I got a cup of "New Orleans style iced coffee" from the Blue
Bottle where Rick at Redband learned to roast coffee and make my iced
coffee. I have to say, Redband is better. Go try it at Davenport
farmers market, you'll see.

Sent from my iPhone

San Fran fog

So I started this post earlier but I got interupted and it didn't
autosave. I'm only saying that because it was a guy in a bar who
interupted me, and some of you have asked if I'd met anyone. So, nice
chat but he's a 48 year old bartender taking a couple of months off,
and you wonder why i'm picky :) he
Anyway, the fog

A

Renewed

A good nights sleep, a motherly email from mom and a whiskey-fennel
sausage, mushroom and baby spinach scramble at dottie's cafe and I'm a
new women.

Home sweet home

The picture today might be boring to some, but I'm grateful to be able
to take it. I've been trying not to plan too much ahead this trip and
that non-planning took a little bit of a toll today. The plan this
morning was to take a leisurely drive down the coast, see point Reyes/
muir woods and make it to San Fran by 2 to drop off the car. I only
had two things to do before I dropped off the car, find a hotel (I was
tired last night and the internet was giving me fits, overwhelming me
with options but not the ones I thought I wanted) second to-do was to
ship the box of wine I bought yesterday. Easy right? Drove down the
coast. The navigation on the phone, when I had a signal, said i'd hit
town by 1. Sounded like plenty of time to stop for a quick bite, make
the hotel decision while I ate and maybe even find a shipping place in
the same town. There were no towns! The coast road was the curviest
I'd been on so driving was a litlle slow, still should have hit town
by 1:30, which actually I think I did. Coast was pretty, but I'm over
the whole driving thing. Gave up the idea of eating before dropping
off the car because I had no intention of hauling a box of wine and my
suitcase through town. I used the handy dandy gps to locate a mailing
service, found it, phone battery died. Using gps in coastal, hilly
areas eats up batteries. Still I was at the mail place, however all my
addresses were on the dead phone. Back to the car, found the cafe I
ate at Monday that had outlets at every table, charged battery, found
new place to ship. Oh, fedex/ups/usps can't ship wine, ugh! Decided to
return the car slightly late, lug wine, find hotel over a very late
lunch. Car place was very nice and asked if I needed a ride anywhere,
I knew the hotel that I was going to try for so I had them take me
there. Of course they were full, I was going to cry. Looking back, it
was 3 and I hadn't eaten anything since 8, low blood sugar might not
have helped my mood. They found me a hotel a half block away, for a
good price, that in the end I like the looks of better than the first
place. It's named hotel vertigo because the movie was filmed here.
Rest assured I ate a sandwich, went to see Harry Potter to let my mind
take a break and now I'm in a much better frame of mind.
Forgot to mention mom and dad, there's a box of "olive oil" going to
be delivered to you on Tuesday. One small box, no wine clubs like my
brother.

One thing leads to another

I laid in bed this morning with the intention to sleep in, find
coffee, maybe a short trip to bodega bay in the a.m. to cross that off
my list. Get back in time to go to a couple of wineries, then actually
sit by the pool for a bit before dinner. After avoiding looking at
the clock and telling myself I'm sleeping in many times, I finally
looked. It was 7:30. To be fair that's 9:30 our time and I get up
5ish so I really did sleep in over 4 hours. I found coffee, went to
bodega bay which was well worth the trip. I ran into maybe 3 people,
saw crabs, tons of starfish and just a beautiful unspoiled coast. The
water was freezing so not a place to dip your toes in too long.
I then drove up to Jenner and drove through the Russian river valley,
still with the intention of going to the sonoma wineries. I vetoed the
bike ride since the wineries I thought I wanted to visit were far
apart and it's 90 degrees today. Vicki I loved your plan, I wish you
could post so everyone could read it. Anyway a stop at korbel for
champagne and a picnic lunch, a stop on the river to eat it, a winery
or two more and I decided the Russian river valley had the wine for
me. Found myself in Healdsburg, Toad Hollow wine is great. Went to the
visitors center to find the coppola cellar and was given tasting
passes to other Alexander valley wineries. The guy at Truett something
or other was very helpful,told me about more places and told me Shana
Morrison, daughter of van Morrison was giving a free concert in the
Healdsburg square tonight. So here I sit, listening to her first song
and telling all that sometimes just letting the road lead you is a
good thing. More from the actual city of San Fran tomorrow.

Vineyard pic

Travel day with a vineyard finish

This should be the only day spent in a car during this whole trip. Big
sur doesn't count since the drive was the experience. I had to return
the first rental car to the airprt by 11 then I gave myself a buffer
of picking up the next car in San Fran at 3. Trust me, the price was
worth the inconvience. I actually picked it up early, but since I had
to wait for one to be available I got another 10 percent off. I was
still 2 hours ahead of schedule, but I'll take it.
I made my way up to Santa Rosa, upper Sonoma valley, crossing the
Golden Gate Bridge along the way. That was cool but I'm glad I'm
taking public transit when I go back to San Fran. One downhill drive
is enough for me.
Instead of checking in to my hotel room right away I drove a little
further to Calistoga (where Bottle Shock is set) and went to two
vineyards, or should I say had tastings at two vineyards.
I'm now sitting at a cute bistro with a wonderful cheese platter (I
always wanted to try humbolt fog) and a lovely glass of wine, blogging
and contemplating tomorrow. Drive vineyard to vineyard, bike tour or
self- directed bike tour, what shall I do?

Sent from my iPhone

Coastal highway to big sur

All I can say is gorgeous! You drive along and stop to take pictures
thinking it can't get any better,the road turns a little and you get a
whole different gorgeous view. That's a big cloud of fog on the cliff.
The hiking at big sur was very calming, with more beauty of course. No
"i told ya so's" please.
Sorry about my finger in the pic it was hard to see what I was taking
a picture of in the sunlight. I forgot to take a picture during the
hike, so you get more coast.
People have had trouble with posting comments, just click on where it
counts the comments and that should work. Oh, don't worry about me
spending my time blogging,I turn email/texts off while i'm out and
about and do this when I'm not doing anything else. This also saves me
time in the end. One place tells everyone about my trip and when I
photobook it, my journaling is done.

Rowing with the waves

Vicki was right, I did get up to row. When I decided Thursday to come
to Monterey I contacted the Santa Cruz rowing club and after a few
emails I made arrangements with Beth to go out in a double. (that's
not me in the picture) I didn't trust myself in a single with waves.
No worries though, the boats are much wider than anything we have. We
went out a mile, saw seals and sea lions, it was a different
experience than the Miss.
Kris, rowing with visitors is a good thing, feels very karmic at the
moment.
I'm sitting at my new favorite CA coffee shop. I didn't have enough
cash on me for my coffee and pineapple coconut muffin that was calling
my name so the nice owner said bring it by tomorrow, coffee karma she
says. Yes, I'm enjoying the California mind set.
On to Big Sur...

Life's just beachy

Monterey is a lovely town, if you can escape the tourist traps. My
hotel is a 4 block walk to the beach/wharf and walking seems to be the
best way to avoid traffic. It's been a long day, I'm a little tired
and I have to get up around 5 tomorrow, so I'm calling it a day. Most
of you know there's only one thing that gets me up at 5....

Get over it

I decided I was over-thinking and over-whelmed with the whole "how to spend 9 days in California" project. Imagine me over-thinking. Anyway today was the day to dive in and make some decisions. My plan is... 2 days in Monterey, 2 days north in Sonoma area and then come back and spend the 15th to the 20th in San Francisco. I booked my hotel and car for Monterey using priceline and I have to say I'm impressed. I bid $80 for a 3 star hotel and I got it, should have started lower I guess. I'm staying at the Hilton, the regular price on the internet for there is $199 a night. I think I got a bargain.

It's time

So... I've resisted blogging but I'm told it's time. So, I'll try this through San Francisco and RAGBRAI and we'll see how it goes.