On Sunday, I went to San Francisco to visit Jess. I was also interested in visiting a unique radio site, the Coast Station KPH (formerly KSM) station at Point Reyes, in Marin County. My brother-in-law, Jim told me about it because he had been there on a trip with his motorcycle gang. Jess and I enjoy road trips together and Point Reyes is a pretty area a couple of hours north of San Francisco. We had been to Point Reyes as a family a couple of years ago, but at that time, I wasn’t a ham radio operator. I still would have been interested if I had known about it at the time.

Although the station is normally open only on Saturdays, one web site I checked said it was also open on Sunday. I thought it would be a good idea to check, so I contacted them. I heard back promptly from the Founding Member and Chief Operator, Richard Dillman, W6AWO, who lives nearby. He let me know that the site is not open on Sundays, but he was willing to meet us there to give us a tour. Because of my tight schedule, Jess met me at the airport and we headed directly to Point Reyes.

Richard was waiting for us there and he had fired up most of the gear.

When we walked in, a teletype was running, and I could hear Morse code in the background from a couple of the radios.

The call sign of the radio station is KPH, which was the call sign of San Francisco’s first radio station. The history of the station and this site is very interesting and goes right back to Marconi, the inventor of the radio. The station provided commercial point-to-point overseas communications, as well as ship-to-shore communications. Rather than try to explain it myself, I’m linking the website of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association (<-click), which gives a short history of Marconi, the site and the station. Although the site is Point Reyes National Seashore property, it is maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers, the Maritime Radio Historical Society, and their website  goes into much more detail with lots of photos. (If you get that far, look at the photos as a slide show, because they have captions with more detailed descriptions.)  For my history buff friends and my radio buff friends, I really urge you to explore the MRHS site. MHRS also created several videos which are on YouTube.

This is a closer shot of the main operating position. Besides the Coast Radio station, the installation includes an amateur radio station, K6KPH.

There are several operating positions at the site. Here is another one, shown next to a carousel holding outgoing messages waiting to be sent.

This is a paper tape keyer which sends Morse code punched into the tape by another machine. Here, they’re sending an endless loop identifying the station and letting ships and other stations know that they are waiting to receive contacts.   

Here is a closeup of the punched tape. 

This is a “Klienschmidt” machine used to punch the paper tapes.

A rare vintage teletype terminal.

A bank of newer automated teletype machines.

Richard took us into the “Treasure Room,” where the real vintage and more fragile equipment is stored. Here are some examples.

And the Crown Jewel

Before we left, Richard gave me QSO (contact) cards for all the station ID’s, KPH, KFS

and K6KFS.

I made a donation to support the MRHS, and got my own mug.

Outside, we could view the antenna field. The frequencies used by the Maritime service were very low, so the wavelengths and the antennas have to be very long!

Here is a view of the art deco building at sunset, as we left.

If you will be in the San Francisco area, it is definitely worth the drive to Point Reyes National Seashore for the scenery alone, but if you are interested in radio, make sure you schedule your trip during the Saturday operating hours of KPH!

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About a month ago, Roger and I went to Bellingham for an exhibition of National Geographic’s 50 Greatest Photos. (I got distracted before finishing this post.) The photos were amazing to see, and each included an explanation of how the shot came to be. Very interesting! I wish I could show them here,but they are copyrighted. Try this link to get an idea.

It was a clear and cold morning when we left, so we stopped at Starbucks first. From Carillon Point, the view of the Olympics was spectacular. My lens couldn’t really do it justice, but I got the duck.

Roger had a longer lens, and his photo was beatiful! Click here for Roger’s photo from Facebook

We also visited the Spark Museum of Radio and Electricity. It is jammed full of antique electrical equipment, phonographs, radios, TV’s and had a ham radio section.

I was delighted to see among the relics a short-wave radio receiver just like one I built from a kit when I was in Jr. high school.

They also had a surplus aircraft transmitter like the one I converted for use with my first ham license when I was in high school.

On the way home, we happened to see a bunch of swans, so we pulled off for a couple of shots.

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We squeezed in the trip to Canada before Christmas, and arrived home on Christmas Eve. We were going to Katie’s for Christmas morning, but we did the cooking. Janie had prepared us ahead of time by being sure to get the groceries we’d need, and we had a great time sharing brunch with Katie, Jeff and the granddaughters.

The trip to Canada was also with Jess and Leslie. It was beautiful place! We all agreed that Fern Hollow was the best AirBnB we’ve stayed at. It was too bad that we didn’t have more time, but we had gone to see Dina Martina on Wednesday, the night Jess arrived, we left Thursday morning for B.C., and had to be back by Saturday evening.

This is a picture Jess took with his phone at a little cove in a nearby Provincial park that we explored.

Here are some photos I took from the ferry on the way up and on the way home.

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Back from Long Beach, I had a couple of weeks to get ready for Christmas. That meant cards and letters, decorations, tree and gift shopping. We did most of our shopping on line this year and I sure liked it better than mall mashing! Janie and I did take one quasi-shopping trip to Leavenworth. I had found an online deal for a bus tour to Leavenworth. We walked through the shops there, trying to be sure that Janie didn’t fall on the icy sidewalks and we had a great day together. I did not bring the camera because I wanted to concentrate on enjoying the time with Janie. This photo is from the web.

Credit: Facebook Christmas Lighting Festival Leavenworth WA

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A couple of days after we got back from Allyn, Roger and I headed down to the Long Beach Penninsula to try to get some lighthouse pictures during stormy weather.

The North Head Light was closed, and it is being restored. Unfortunately, it looks kind of sad now. I don’t know if that’s because paint has been stripped, or if it has just deteriorated a lot since the last time I saw it. Nevertheless, it is still photogenic.

I happened to catch a pretty good late-day view from the lighthouse grounds.

We met another friend of Roger’s down there. We stayed in a cheap motel in Ilwaco. and hung out for a couple of days.

The addition of Roger B (my other friend Roger) was fortuitous, because his is knowledgeable about birds, and we saw some unusual ones. This (and the next photo) is a Red Naped Phalarope, which Roger B. said is unusual for that area.

This was a photo expedition, so while wandering around, we looked for photo opportunities. This is a view of the Ilwaco harbor from a nearby hill.

We also spent time at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.This is a view of Cape Disappointment Light from the Interpretive Center.

Our visit to the Interpretive Center led to an encounter with a Barred Owl. This guy was very cooperative, sitting in a tree about 30 feet from us, and just watching.

I’m definitely saving some of these shots for next Halloween!

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We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at daughter-in-law Katie’s. Leslie did most of the cooking, including the turkey and as usual she did an amazing job. Janie was able to contribute as well, as she is getting more and more stamina and more mobile. I pitched in with some pie crusts for the apple and pumpkin pies.

The day after Thanksgiving we headed to an AirBnB in Allyn, Mason County. Jess was here from San Francisco and he and Leslie joined us on the trip. This was a first-time stay at this AirBnB and we liked it a lot. It had a great view of the water and since our goal on these trips is to watch movies, watch the rain and just chill, we had a great time.

Here is another picture of a heron. (My brother thinks it’s a cormorant.) I seem to go places where the herons hang out. If you look closely, you can see that it was raining pretty hard.

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After leaving Yellowstone, we just needed to get back to Kalispell for our flight home. This would be a 2-day trip, so we decided to stay in Three Forks. We wanted to take back roads and stay off the freeways, as much as possible. We stayed in an older hotel with a very friendly desk clerk. We were in the mood for seafood. (Yes, we were in cattle country, but we had been eating red meat all week.) We wound up going to the Sacajawea  Hotel in beautiful downtown Three Forks. It was outstanding! I had Walleye for the first time and it was delicious. This was really a top notch restaurant in a town with a population of less than 2000 people. I asked the waitrress how they did it, and she said they got people from Butte and Bozeman, and that this historic hotel was a destination for weddings. What a find!

The next morning we headed for Kalispell and the end of our trip. Montana is a great place to visit and a great place for Jess and I to spend quality time together.

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We figured we could enter the park one day and drive around until we got tired, then stay in one of the outlying towns at whichever entrance we were close to. We didn’t know whether we would have a place to stay, but we decided to leave it open until later in the day and take our chances.  The plan worked out great. Although all of the lodges in the park were full, and most of the hotels in West Yellowstone were also booked, we found a decent place for the night and did not have to sleep in the car. The next day, we would spend most of the day in the park until it was time to head north again to go back to Kalispell.

If you have not been to Yellowstone, you should go! Allow at least two days in the park–more if possible. Stop at the Lewis and Clark Caverns on the way. The scenery changes between Butte and Yellowstone were worth it just for the drive, but the park is something out of this world!

I couldn’t go through Yellowstone without thinking of my Uncle Bob, who was obsessed with geology. He and I went there about 15 years ago and it was a great trip. That time, we camped in the park in September–and it was cold! The park is between 6000 and 8000 feet above sea level. Jess and I appreciated our comfy room!

Our first stop, Mammoth Hot Springs.

An upside-down popcorn ceiling.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

The Lower Falls

Hot Springs, Geysers and Fumeroles in the Norris Geyser Basin

Fumerole

https://youtu.be/QwL_kMvn6wI

We got caught in the beginning of a downpour here, and I was afraid for my camera. Fortunately, Jess had a jacket on so he could protect it and it didn’t suffer the same fate as in Munich last year! We headed for West Yellowstone to find a motel. It wasn’t bad, but they were all expensive at the peak of tourist season.

We stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin on Yellowstone Lake. This part of the lake was formed by a volcanic explosion 150,000 years ago. I got a chance to get pretty close to this grazing elk (with a zoom lens).

Here is video of a cauldron of mud.

https://youtu.be/OVzL_pPHqBg

The lake is 45 degrees, but there are several steam vents near the shore.

Some other geothermal features in the West Thumb Basin

Jess caught a photo of this pretty good sized elk while I was driving.

In Hayden Valley bison are plentiful but these were close to the road.

On our way out of the park, we stopped at Tower Falls.

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OK, it really wasn’t a black hole, but that seemed like a good title for this post. Our next adventure was to the Lewis and Clark Caverns, near Three Forks, and in between Butte and Bozeman. Actually, at one point, the guide turned off the lights and it was really black! This was one of the best stops on the trip. I have included a lot of pictures here, but not so much commentary. You can find out all about the cavern on the Lewis and Clark Cavern website.

The path to the entrance is about 3/4 mile and well paved, but it seemed steep to me! (I was by far the oldest one on our tour, so maybe it was just me.)  From the entrance to the cave you can see the path we came up. Once at the entrance, the tour involves descending about 500 steps down and about 100 steps up in the cavern. That gives you an idea that getting to the entrance is equivalent to walking up a 19-story building. It is also about 5300 feet above sea level, and that alone has an affect on us sea-level dwellers.

Also, from the entrance there is a great view of the valley below. This is where Lewis and Clark traveled. The caverns are named for them, but they actually passed by them unaware of them.

The tour is about 2 hours long, and involves descending the stairs and squeezing through a few places. My big camera (and my big gut) made it a little more difficult, so a point-and-shoot camera would be better. The tour was fascinating! Our guide was good, but she is an elementary school teacher and at times sounded like one. (Can anyone tell me how bats navigate in the dark?)

We did have bats with us, and we were asked to be careful not to blind them with flashes and to be quiet around them. There weren’t many, but it was neat to watch them flying around us. They are not scary and didn’t fly too close.

It was a little difficult on a moving tour to get good shots in poor light, but the formations can speak for themselves.

This formation is named “Santa Claus” for obvious reasons!

We stayed in Butte that night, and found a pretty good pizza place with incredibly cheap pizza and beer. We didn’t think we’d be able to make it to Yellowstone on this trip, but when we were in Butte, we realized that we could do it if we left a little earlier and drove a little longer than usual. So I guess we did actually have a plan for the next morning.

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I wanted to  try to visit the canoe shop,so we headed South along the east side of Flathead Lake toward Swan Lake and the Swan Valley. We didn’t know where we would stay, how far we would get, or what we would find when we got there. As it turned out, we did make it to the canoe shop. Greg’s son Steve was there and graciously showed us around. The canoes were beautiful! Each one takes about a month to build.

These are old-fashioned, pedal powered scroll saws. From the sawdust on them, I assume they are still in use.

Here are some of the canoes. All of the designs are inlayed wood.

Steve recommended a bed and breakfast, the Laughing Horse Lodge. There were other possibilities down the road, but we decided to say here. It was a great serendipitous experience.

First, the signs were inviting. This one didn’t say anything about real estate agents, but I figured that Jess was with me and so could probably fall under the lawyer category.

Next the registration process–there was no one around! A white board on the front porch instructed us to look for the rooms that did not have peoples’ names next to them, and check them out. The unoccupied rooms were unlocked. Once we picked a room, we were to write our name next to it and that was our check-in.

As we walked to the back, we were greeted by a carved crow (always a good sign in my opinion).

Here is a look at the row of rooms behind the main building. It’s hard to describe the friendly environment with the friendly hostess, the animals, including birds, and the garden sitting area, where we enjoyed the warm evening drinking wine.

Shortly after we arrived, Kathleen arrived with her 3 golden retrievers. Oh boy! Dogs! Extremely friendly big dogs! Later on, we met Juliet, the 3-legged cat, also very friendly.

Before breakfast, I sat outside watching the multitude of birds at the feeder.

Breakfast was huckleberry cheese blintzes. Yum!

And why wouldn’t there be a parrot in the dining room at a place like this? Hate to leave this place, but we are on to another adventure.

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It was a fun feeling to have no plans for the day. Whitefish is a recreation town. Just outside is Big Mountain and the Whitefish Ski Resort. It also lies along the beautiful Whitefish Lake for boating and fishing. There are also several other lakes nearby.

We decided to head for the mountain and take the ski lift to the top for a view of the mountains. Looking at the slopes on the way up, I was surprised how steep they were! I couldn’t walk down them, much less ski (if I could ski)!

Here are some views from the top.

Again, from the top, you can see Whitefish Lake and another not far away.

After taking in the view, we decided to take a back road around the lake before heading south. The map looked like we could take the road all the way to the highway, but we ran into a long dead end. No problem! We had no schedule, so we just turned around and headed back.

Next stop? Not sure!

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On day two of the road trip we headed to Glacier National Park. Of course I had forgotten my lifetime senior National Park pass at home, but I was able to buy another one at the gate, so I still saved $20. This one is wallet-sized, so I can keep it with me.

The one thing about Glacier National Park, like many other national parks is that it can’t be captured in words or even in photos. I can offer glimpses but they do not capture the expansive beauty. The quote by naturalist George Bird Grinnell displayed on the wall of the visitor center at Logan Pass that I used as the title of this post says it best.

The National Park Service does a good job of making it convenient to leave your car behind. They have a good free shuttle service set up with hop-on, hop-off service. (Similar to the shuttles I used in Zion and Grand Canyon.) We left our car at the Apgar Visitor Center and took the shuttle on the Going-To-The-Sun Road (I love that name). While waiting for the shuttle, I noticed a couple who just looked interesting to me.

I struck up a conversation with Ann and Greg Morley which continued on the shuttle. Greg builds custom cedar canoes in a little town to the south, Swan Lake. He had previously worked for the State of Oregon and years ago they decided to do something different. So they moved back to Montana and started the canoe business. As a wanna-be word worker, I was interested in seeing the operation, and hoped we could go that direction when we headed south. (Spoiler alert: we did visit there.) Besides the beauty of this park and the beauty of the state as a whole, the same can be said about the people we came in contact with. Everywhere people were friendly and helpful, and you can tell that they love living in Montana.

Our first stop was at Lake MacDonald. This is where we got our first real view of the scenery.

We ate lunch at the historic lodge, built from big trees (with the bark still on them) and with its massive fireplace.

We hopped off again at Avalanche Creek, where we took a short, easy hike on the Trail of the Cedars, passing this beautiful scene at Avalanche Creek.

Next, we headed to Logan Pass, the highest point in the park, on the continental divide. The drive had spectacular views, but we were glad that we had chosen not to drive. The road was steep, winding and narrow. It would have been impossible for one of us to both drive and watch the scenery.

Once at the top, we took a hike. It went straight up hill. (Janie and Leslie: It was like the path up to Dun Aengus in Ireland, except this path was dry and had wooden steps instead of slippery stones.)

The view was fantastic from the top of the world. We were at the Continental Divide, the dividing line where streams flow East or West.

We headed back down in the late afternoon, still with no firm destination or room reservation, but we settled on Whitefish, a recreation-oriented town that is a skiing destination in winter and fishing, boating, biking and hiking destination in summer.

We got a room at the Stumptown Inn, tired looking on the outside, but nice on the inside.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, Jess and I are going on a week long road trip.  He mentioned a couple of months ago that he’s interested in seeing “Big Sky Country.”  I’ve never been to Glacier National Park so we thought that would be a good place to start.  From there we will have an adventure-in-driving and go where the road takes us.  Jess and I had a great time driving together on our road trip in Germany last year and I’m looking forward to this one.

We started Sunday, getting up too early to fly to Kalispell. There we rented a car for the trip. We had the afternoon to kill and we found a really interesting mansion to tour.

Charles Conrad was one of those rags-to-riches tycoons, who eventually decided to build a mansion in Kalispell. The history of the mansion is given on the Conrad Mansion Museum web site. I wasn’t able to take many photos, but here is one I took before I was told not to.

As wanna-be woodworker, I was fascinated to see the woodwork in the house. Our tour guide explained that they did not have to touch it when the house was restored. It was finished with varnish and 7 hand-rubbed coats of beeswax, and it still looks as good now as it did 121 years ago!

And a couple that I copied from the museum web site:

Although the mansion stood unoccupied and neglected for many years, it is amazing that most of the artifacts in the museum are original to the mansion and the Conrad family. That’s one reason that the mansion is so interesting. It might be explained by the fact that Alicia Conrad, the daughter who eventually owned the mansion and gifted to the city, lived on the grounds in a trailer and had become a hoarder. I speculate that the good artifacts were probably buried among the trash in the house and rediscovered when it was restored.

Sweetie Pie the cat is the only permanent resident of the mansion. You can see her story and more photos at The Conrad Cat.

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Last stop of vacation. It was a long drive from Enterprise to Yakima, and we were really tired, but the hotel had a good bar and bistro, so we didn’t have to go out again for dinner. Sarah had steamed clams, I had mini tacos, but I can’t remember what the others had.

In the morning I looked out of our balcony to see what looked like swans in the river. With my telephoto, I realized they were pelicans.

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Having had our fill of the water, we wanted to explore Joseph a little more. The area around the State Park at the South end of the lake has a lot of family activities. I’m kind of glad we didn’t stay there because it’s crowded. Our B & B in Enterprise was quiet and spacious, not teeming with other tourists.

Since Joseph is not far from Enterprise, it was easy to get to the activities when we wanted to. This day, we planned to do some window shopping in town. We also found a laundromat so we could do a wash while we shopped. Janie got a book at the local museum, so she could read in the car while we did some of the things she couldn’t handle.

The girls and Cool Aunt Leslie started with the go kart track. Janie and I watched from the car. I was kind of surprised that they went fast enough to drift around some of the turns. Fearless Emma came in first.

Next, we decided to take a tram up to the top of Mt. Howard, which was pretty spectacular. The ride made some of us nervous although it didn’t bother me. (All those years of ballooning?)

This is a view from the tram as we ascended.

We were greeted by many Columbian ground squirrels, begging for food, when we arrived at the top. They weren’t shy and were happy to pose for photos.

We decided to take a “short” hike to one of several viewpoints on the mountain. The one we chose was supposedly 1/8-mile-long, but it turned out we took the wrong trail and went on the 1/2 mile hike. That’s not a very long hike, but Leslie had worn sandals, so it was a little more difficult. Still, it was a fun hike to an amazing viewpoint.

The top of the mountain is about 4,000 feet higher than the lake and the lake is higher than the valley that you can see beyond.

This area was populated by very bold chipmunks, which would run right up your arm if you were holding food!

After returning to the tram base, I took the actual short hike to the summit. I’m not very good at selfie’s, especially with a DSLR, but I tried to get a view of myself with the mountains in the background.

By the time we got back to earth, Janie had waited 2 hours for us. Given the hot weather, it wasn’t particularly pleasant, but she was patient. She was even willing to wait in the car again as we played miniature golf at a different course–this turned out to be the best maintained and most fun course I’ve ever played at. At least this time, we were able to park so that Janie could watch us. Finally, we headed back to Joseph for a little shopping, and headed back to the B & B for another afternoon and evening of naps and games.

These are pastoral some shots I took that evening.

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Day Two of vacation in the Wallowa Valley, Oregon. The girls had quite the adventure! I was lucky enough to get some good pictures of the debacle. We have deemed this the Big Paddle Boat Pickle of 2016.

After an elegant breakfast, we decided to go to Joseph for the day. Joseph is the more tourist-oriented town. We looked around at a few shops, and then headed for the state park which has a lot of activities available. The girls wanted to rent a paddle boat (pedal boat). Janie and I would stay on shore and relax.

The girls took off with Leslie and Emma pedaling and Sarah sitting in the back.

A short way from the marina there was a log and buoy boom. They paddled out around it so they were outside of the protected marina. At that point they decided to rest and chat.

About 5 minutes later they looked up and realized they had been blown quite away out from the boom. They started pedaling back toward shore, but the more they peddled, the further out they drifted.

When exhaustion set in, they tried switching positions, which only resulted in unbalancing the boat, causing the back to fill with water. They didn’t realize that this in turn raised the paddle partly out of the water reducing their power.

For quite a while it was not obvious from shore that they were having trouble. Being responsible for the girls, Leslie began to get quite concerned. She began waving. I thought she was letting us know they were having fun, but Janie began to sense something was wrong. When Leslie took off her bright orange life jacket and started waving it, I started paying attention to Janie’s concerns. I went down on the dock and asked some people who were getting ready to head out in a boat to check on them.

Meanwhile, Leslie had gotten the attention of some nearby boaters, and Janie got the attention of one of the attendants, who got ready to head out to tow them in. The boaters stayed with the girls until the attendant arrived. In the end they came in safe and sound although the boat was half full of water.

They were relieved but wet, exhausted and embarrassed. No one was interested in paddle boating for the rest of the trip.

After the Big Paddle Boat Pickle, we went for a round of miniature golf at a pretty dilapidated course. We were sunburned and tired and ready for lunch, so we ate at a very good brew pub.

Rested and fed, we also stopped by Chief Joseph’s monument.

By then, it was late in the day and we and decided to pick up some sandwiches to bring back to the house for dinner. We took naps and spent the evening playing Cranium. We were all ready to retire early by the end of the game.

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On vacation! Janie, Leslie, Emma, Sarah and I left yesterday for Northeast Oregon, to the Lake Wallowa area to be exact. The main towns are Enterprise and Joseph. I went ballooning there many years ago and I remember it as a beautiful area with fun activities. It is also historic–the burial place of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce is here.

Our first stop was the town of Pendleton, where I had previously learned that there is an underground city. The underground was supposedly built by the Chinese railroad workers because they were not allowed out after dark. Reportedly they could be bullied and even shot with impunity if found out after dark. There may be some question about the authenticity of that story, but there was little question that they did live underground and there were laws in Oregon prohibiting blacks from being outside after dark, so the story isn’t much of a stretch. We took a tour in which we saw representations of various periods including the Chinese, speakeasies that went underground during prohibition, and legitimate businesses that used the underground for various purposes. The tour also included the history of the lively prostitution trade that continued up to the 1960’s.

This is a gaming table in a Chinese part of the tour.

Here are the kinds of accommodations the Chinese workers had.

This is a jail in the Chinese part of the underground.

Of course, the underground is a perfect place for drinking and gambling.

There were legitimate businesses, too (not necessarily in the same time periods). Hop Sing’s laundry operated for many years,

and Empire Meats took advantage of the cool temperatures.

Part of the tour included the “Cozy Rooms” boarding house. There were some legitimate boarders, but also Working Girls. Pendleton was the “Entertainment Capital of Eastern Oregon” for many years.

We stayed in the town of Hermiston nearby and had a great steak, crab and lobster dinner. I usually avoid seafood so far from the sea, but both the lobster and the crab were very good. Next day, we got off to a leisurely start and headed for Enterprise. We stopped in La Grande for lunch and had both really good pizza and really good service in a local place.

We were all kind of dragging by the time we got to Enterprise. We were expecting our first night to be a little difficult because of stairs and Janie’s physical limitations. Fortunately, another guest cancelled and made a downstairs suite available. Otherwise it would have been very difficult indeed.

Our room would have been up 15 very steep steps. It’s still challenging, but Janie is a trooper.

We were excited to see a herd of bison right outside our back door that evening. It is also mating season, so there are a few tussles going on between the bulls.

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Just after New Years, we went to California to visit Jess, and combined it with a getaway to the Point Reyes National Seashore area in Marin County. We stayed in a cozy cabin and enjoyed the time together, although this was a very challenging trip for Janie.  This was the first long trip, and negotiating the airports, rental cars, etc. was not fun.  It didn’t help that I forgot her walker at the car rental office and didn’t discover it until we were 2 hours away. Luckily, we were able to borrow one for the weekend from a local senior center. When we got to the cabin, we also discovered that the “accessable” cabin was at the bottom of 10 steps and we had to take her down  backwards in the wheelchair.

Once we got settled, we had a good time with each other, watching the fire. We enjoy these quiet getaways, playing games, cooking, eating and spending time together.  We also binge-watched most of Making a Murderer.

One of the days, I took off with Leslie for a couple of hours to look for photo opportunities. With her driving the winding roads, I could focus on finding places to stop.

We set out to find what we thought was a shipwreck. It turned out to be a derelict fishing boat, but it was an interesting subject.

Of more interest, when I turned my head, I watched a pelican hunting for food.  Here is a series of shots showing the hunt:

We next stopped to photograph this unusual house(?) built over the water.

As a bonus, we got some close-ups of several vultures.

Although we went to the end of the road for the Point Reyes Lighthouse, it was closed on the day we were there. (We knew that in advance.) Still, there was a pretty view of the Pacific.

On the way back, we made one more stop to capture this hawk and a coyote.

The drive back to the city from the cabin was beautiful–but very winding! I was glad Leslie was driving, and she decided to drive at her own speed and let any impatient drivers pass her.

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Last weekend, Janie and I had to clear out of our condo because they were resurfacing the hallways, so we took the opportunity to go to Long Beach for a couple of days. I didn’t get around to posting any photos, so here are a few.

This was the view from the deck of our condo.

An evening visitor (from the deck of the condo).

Cape Disappointment Light

Troller heading out

Sunset on the beach

This weekend, Jess is in town to celebrate his 40^th birthday and 2^nd adoption anniversary, so we decided to get away for a couple of day to a beach house on Harstine Island in South Puget Sound.

Here is a photo from our deck taken in the evening.

This is the same view in the morning.

Very relaxing!

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We had an early flight on Thursday, the beginning of a 25-hour odyssey for me and an 19-hour odyssey for Jess. This kind of travel is never fun, but a couple of good things happened. First, I decided to give my camera another try and it had dried out enough to work again. Whew!

Secondly, I met an interesting guy on the plane. Brendan Tang is a Vancouver BC ceramic artist. He told me about his creative process, and shared pictures of his work with me. I liked it a lot. He also gave me permission to post copies of his pieces from his web site, so here are a couple of examples:

I like the way he mixes traditional Ming-style decoration with complately wild colors and shapes. I also like the way he makes parts look like they are draped material. Brendan’s web site is: Brendantang.com, but I also found photos at this site: Yatzer.com.

I said goodbye to Jess in Vancouver. He was flying to San Francisco and I was taking the train to Seattle. It was a great two weeks together! Parts of it were challenging, but we held up and held each other up. I’ve never had the opportunity to spend this much time one-on-one with Jess. We had some good philosophical talks as well as just plain having fun together. This is not a trip that Janie would have enjoyed, so it was nice having Jess as a travelling partner.

I had some time to kill while waiting for the train, so I took a little detour to take a picture of one of my favorite buildings, the Vancouver Main Library, which evokes the Roman Colosseum.

I should have known better, but I was really hungry, so I ate a microwaved hamburger on the train. Ew! I didn’t get sick, but it was a good thing I had a beer to wash it down.

Next trip: Australia and New Zealand!

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Our trip from Munich back to Berlin went smoothly. No close calls at the station, no surprise transfers to a bus. The 1^st class seats were the nicest of our 3 trips, except that the train was very hot. The trip took about 6 hours. I enjoyed watching the countryside, the villages and the cities go by. The landscape changed from hilly to flat as we headed north.

Our AirBnB host, Albert, was very friendly and very helpful. His flat was by far the nicest one we stayed in and they neighborhood it was in was far nicer and more convenient. Albert’s place was modern, roomy and immaculate. He had coffee available and eggs, milk, juice, butter and bread in the fridge. I wish we could have stayed there during our first Berlin leg—it would have changed our initial impression of the city.

It didn’t hurt that the weather was cooler and less muggy, though. Albert took the time to walk us to the corner to show us the way to is favorite restaurants. The flat was in or on the edge of a gay neighborhood, Nollendorfplatz that dates back to the beginning of the 20^th century.

The local train station had a dome lit in neon rainbow colors. We weren’t sure whether it was an intentional landmark like the giant rainbow flag in the Castro of San Francisco, but it looked pretty neat. (I looked it up later and learned that it was intentional.) I copied this photo from the web (under an open copyright) because I could not get a clear picture with my point-and-shoot camera.

The place we went to dinner was in an area that was very busy with people out enjoying themselves.

We only would have one full day in Berlin this time, so we decided to take a hop-on-hop-off tour. We ran into Albert at the bus stop, so he showed us where to go to get the tour. It was a pleasant way to see the city, and it’s another thing I wish we had done during the first stop in Berlin. I think done of the most interesting things I learned was many of the historic sites that we saw were destroyed in the War, and the ones we were seeing were actually replicas. There were a lot of replicas, but it gave us a chance to see what pre-war Germany looked like.

Presidential Palace

Reichstag Building

Fredrich the Great

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Our next destination was Munich. For this leg, we decided to take the Autobahn route, although we traveled through quite a bit of backroads before we reached it. Munich was not that far away, so we arrived fairly early and decided to go to the Altstadt, Marionplatz. It was Sunday, and there was a huge street fair going on there, so parking was difficult.

We eventually found a spot and walked through the crowds. It was nice out, but warm. After walking about ¼ mile, we found a restaurant for lunch, but I realized that I’d forgotten my camera, so I wanted to go back to the car for it. That later turned out to be a mistake!

After lunch we walked around some more and listened to the music. There was some colorful ethnic dancing on a stage but it was difficult to get close enough for good pictures.

We went into the City Hall, which was interesting architecture.

Our flat was probably the most eclectic of the places we stayed. Rodrigo is an artist, and the flat was filled with artworks from floor to ceiling.

While in Munich, we were able to do some sightseeing. On Monday, we went to the Nymphenburg Palace, a huge extravagant palace, originally built by Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria, and extended by his heirs. There would be no way for me to capture the grandeur of this place (even if my good camera were working), so I am including a photo from the web. That small cube in the middle is the original large palace, and the rest of the buildings and grounds dwarf it!

Again, this was really interesting because it had been lived in, and there were many exhibits of furniture and art that were used by the Bavarian royalty. It is still used as a home by Franz, Duke of Bavaria, the head of the Bavarian royal family.

One of the more interesting exhibits was the Marstallmuseum that had many carriages and horse-drawn sleds used by the Emperor.

There was also an extensive collection of porcelain.

Unfortunately, it was raining quite hard when we were there, so we couldn’t enjoy a walk through the extensive gardens.

On Tuesday, before catching our train to Berlin, we went to the Bavarian National Museum. It was a good way to pass some time, but I wish they had had more English-language translations. Nevertheless, the artifacts were interesting. I had left the spare camera in our locker at the train station, so all I have to show of that visit is a couple of poor phone photos.

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After leaving Hohenzollern late in the afternoon, we decided to change our schedule, cancel our leg to Salzburg, Austria, and add a day in Eisenburg. We are so glad we did! By the time we reached Eisenburg, it was 7 PM. There is no way we could we could have gone to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. We knew from the experience at Hohenzollern that the two castles would take at least several hours the next day, and we would have at least  a 3-hour to drive to Salzburg afterwards. The next day we would have a similar drive from Salzburg to Munich. As it turned out, it took us all day to go to the castles and we were exhausted afterwards. I can’t imagine taking that 3-hour drive! Even if we had, we would not have had time to see much in Salzburg before we needed to head out for Munich.

Eisenberg is a tiny village in Southeast Bavaria. It looks quite new, and it has a golf course, so I suspect that it’s pretty much a recreation-oriented development. It is near Innsbruck, so there would be skiing in the winter. Two towns closer to the castles were obviously heavily tourist-oriented. This was also farming area with a number of older villages nearby. The surrounding landscape was probably hay fields, but when we got there, it looked like acres and acres of mown lawn. Our flat was modern and very comfortable—the top floor of the host’s home. It was roomy enough to sleep about 6 people. It had a great view of the Alps from our back deck. Our hostess was very nice and even did some laundry for us!

On Saturday, we went to see the castles. It really is a kind of Disney experience, starting with the line for tickets. The line snaked around until you went through a door, where you expected the ticket office to be. Instead, there was another line snaking around to another door. This led to the room where the ticket windows were, but before getting to the ticket counter, you have another line to snake through!

There are two castles in close proximity. Hohenschwangau is the earlier castle built by Maximillian II and the childhood home of “Mad” King Ludwig II.

Ludwig also lived there as an adult while he had Neuschwanstein built.

Neuschwanstein is the famous castle used by Disney as the model for Sleeping Beauty.

You can only see the insides on guided tours, which are tightly scheduled with time-stamped tickets. Miss your time and you are out of luck! Our tour of Hohenschwangau came first. We had plenty of time to eat and walk around. It was a very touristy area with many small shops selling cheap souvenirs and also some more expensive shops for the shoppers.

Eventually, we walked up a steep hill and stairs to the castle. It wasn’t far, so I felt like I could make it if I took my time. We had time to take some photos outside before the tour.

The tour was very interesting. As Jess commented, it was actually more interesting than the more lavish Neuschwanstein, because people actually lived there as they did at Hohenzollern. As I mentioned earlier, Hohenzollern is still occupied part-time by the Prussion royal family. I didn’t realize until later that Hohenschwangau is still owned by the Bavarian royal family and is still occasionally used by them. Hohenschwangau was the official summer and hunting residence of King Maximilian.

Of course we couldn’t take pictures inside, so I bought a booklet with pictures of both castles that I scanned. Notice the vibrance of the colors, particularly of the paintings painted on the the walls. These are the original colors from the 1800’s and have not faded. Our tour guide explained that a coating applied at the time the paintings were done has protected them all this time.

5 photos scanned from booklet purchased at the castles.

For more interior photos of Hohenschwangau click here:

Hohenschwangau Interior 

Here is another view of Hohenschwangau taken from from Neuschwanstein.

We took a shuttle to Neuschwanstein because it is quite a bit farther. Even with that, it’s about ½ mile down a steep hill to a place below the castle, and then a short steep walk uphill to the castle entrance. There were hundreds of people there, but with the timed tours, the whole thing work pretty well. Inside the castle, the tour included many stairs that would make it very difficult for anyone with mobility challenges. The tour was interesting and it is amazing how the royalty could be so lavishly self-indulgent. Neuschwanstein was built by “Mad” King Ludwig II. Although he stayed there at times during its construction, he never really lived there. In fact, he died before it was finished. Again, we couldn’t take photos inside, but here are some photos from the booklet I bought.

4 photos scanned from booklet purchased at the castles.

For more interior photos of Neuschwanstein click here:

Neuschwanstein Interior

For some reason, they did let us take photos of the castle kitchen. Probably because it is restored rather than original.

We walked down from this castle and it was a long, steep walk. By then, we were very tired and it was hot. We considered taking a horse carriage, but it looked like the wait would be too long. (We passed several that were on their way up but by then it was too late.) By the time we got down, we were exhausted, but we had survived!

Neuschwanstein is very photogenic, so here is one more photo I took on the walk down.

After dinner at a restaurant in nearby Füssen, we went home and collapsed. Jess slept all night, but I got up a few hours later to work on the blog. While I worked, a thunderstorm came up—the most incredible thunder storm I have ever seen! The thunder was a continuous roll for about 20-30 minutes, and the lightening was constant and bright enough to completely light up the yard behind our flat as well as light up the Alps on an otherwise black night. I could actually continue to hear the thunder in the distance much longer than that but it was not as loud as the storm moved away.

https://youtu.be/Rn1aoIj180I

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I just realized that I left out a couple photos in the Hohenzollern Castle post, so I edited the original post and added them in (at the end). I also corrected some spelling errors.

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After leaving Tübingen, we were headed to Eisenburg, near the castles of Neuschwanden (of Disney fame) and Hohenschwangau next door. We took a side trip, not too far out of the way to Hohenzollern Castle, the home of the Prussian Kings.

As we were driving, we saw this sight in the distance and thought, “Now that’s a castle!”

As we got closer, we saw this powered parachute flying near the castle. I couldn’t get a picture with them both together, but I bet the pilot got some good photos!

We took a shuttle from a parking lot below the castle, and there were a bunch of old Morgan sports cars parked in the lot. When we got to the castle, these were parked in the courtyard. I took these photos with my friend, Roger, in mind.

Even with the shuttle, there is quite an uphill walk to get to the main part of the castle.

From the vantage point of this photo, we had walked from below where the archway is. Visiting these castles is not for anyone with mobility challenges.

This castle was the best one we’d seen so far. It is privately owned by the Prince of Prussia, Georg Friedrich, who has only a nominal role as royalty, but is a direct descendant of a long line of Prussian kings.

The family still owns and uses the castle though, and were actually in residence when we were there (signified by the family flag flying above the castle).

We took a very interesting guided tour through the castle—the only way that you can see the interior—and once again, no photos, but here is a link to photos of inside of this spectacular castle:

Hohenzollern Interior

We were allowed photos on the grounds and in the chapel.

The property has a nice view of the surrounding area!

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We drove on to Tübingen, mostly on the back roads. Unfortunately we had our GPS set to take us the shortest route rather than the fastest, and it took us through Stuttgart at rush hour. Eventually, we figured it out and got on the autobahn to finish our trip.

We have been fortunate to have gotten AirBnB flats in the Altstadt’s where the streets are quaint and cobblestoned and they are great for walking around.

They are not so great for finding places to park, so we have had to drag our stuff some distances over cobblestoned streets. Tübingen is also hilly, so it was kind of a schlep.

We had to park in a public pay garage, and it appeared to us that it was going to cost of 45-75 euros, but we had little choice. It turned out that overnight parking only cost us about 10 euros, much to our relief.

Our flat in Tübingen was great! It was tiny and old, but our host was friendly and helpful and the flat was comfortable and right in the middle of things. A short walk away was a Greek restaurant where we had dinner outside.

A short walk the other way was a market square, where we had espresso and sweets outdoors on a lovely night.

The next morning, we went there for breakfast and were surprised to see the square filled with a farmers’ market.

We had a great breakfast, again outdoors, and it got us off to a very good start for the day.

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After leaving Nuremburg, we decided to take the back roads to our next destination of Tübingen. We had planned to stop in a city named Rothenburg ab der Taub, but in reviewing the tour book, we concluded that mostly what it had to attract us was it’s being picturesque. We decided to go to Bad Mergentheim instead.

The word “Bad” in German means bath, and this city has Bad in the name because of the natural mineral springs which are supposed to have healing power. It has a castle that was dedicated to the Teutonic Knights, otherwise known as the Knights of Malta (Hospitaller), an order of knights from the Crusades.

The Maltese Cross was their emblem:

The trip there was great! Such beautiful scenery and quaint rural villages that really reminded me of the back roads of Ireland.

The castle wasn’t the greatest, and like most castles, we were not allowed to take photos inside. This castle was also somewhat out of the way, and they had very little in the way of English-language explanations.

However, here is one photo of an amazing spiral staircase taken from the web.

Other than that, you will have to be content with some pictures I took of the outside, and pictures inside a nearby restaurant, where we had more delicious traditional food.

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Unfortunately, as on any road trip, we needed to move on to see more places, so we headed for Nuremburg, about 1-1/2 hours away. We found our AirBnB fairly easily (with 2 GPS’s) and met our very congenial host. After getting settled, we walked to the town center which is a large walking mall oriented around a church. We were still seeking help with our phones, but we finally got our issues solved at a Vodaphone store. (As in the US, there are both corporate and franchised stores and the corporate store was much better than the franchise.) If you go to Germany, I highly recommend Vodaphone for ease of use. After all the trouble I went through to get my phone unlocked, the sim card I got at the airport was pretty much worthless.

We spent several hours walking around this area of Nuremburg, and plan to spend more time tomorrow, before leaving for our next destination.

I actually didn’t take many pictures. The time spent on the phones got in the way, and much of the walking mall was just shops and food vendors.  We enjoyed it though and didn’t worry about the pictures.

Jess composed this picture of the arch, but asked me to take it with my camera.

This is a picture of part of the fortification wall around the old city.

We planned to go to a castle on Thursday morning, but after thinking about it, we decided to head for the next destination instead.

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We have been enjoying traditional food–and I have been enjoying traditional beer–on this trip. Our night in Regensburg was no exception.  We found a brew pub where we had good food and beer, and then went back to our apartment. It had been a long day of travel and we were tired.

In the morning we spent a lot of time walking around the Old Town (Altstadt) section of Regensburg, which is located Southeast of Nuremburg. This section is totally quaint having escaped bombing during WWII, and having been founded in about 700 AD. Although cars can drive through, the Old Town is geared for walking.

Our flat is located in the middle of it, so it is very convenient to walk around. There were lots of tourists, and lots to see, as well as many open-air vendors and cafes. We went into St. Peter’s Cathedral, a huge, beautiful Gothic cathedral, started in 1273. It was built during the height of Regensburg’s golden years. The full fron of the cathedral is so tall I had to piece the photo together from three shots.

We also visited St. Emmeram’s, a former monastery dating from around 800 AD and restored in a baroque style in the 1700’s. It was designated as a basilica in 1964 by Pope Paul VI. It was awesome to see these buildings of such an age.

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No pictures today because it was travel day and the train was not conducive for taking pictures.

Our surprise was halfway into our train trip when the conductor informed us that we’d need to get off the train and take a bus for most of the rest of the trip. I thought I had specifically booked our train itinerary to avoid that, but I missed something.  Still, the bus was more comfortable than a plane, and the time was built into the schedule. Shortly before reaching Regensburg, we stopped in another town and boarded a smaller train for the remainer of the trip.

We barely made it to the Hertz office in time to pick up our car, and then we got lost on the way to our AirBnB flat, but we made it. This is a nice area and I’ll get some pictures for the next post.

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I love Prague!

We went into the Old Town of the city today and had a really good time. It is a beautiful city. During a tour of the city, our driver told us that it had not been bombed during the war, so the buildings are quite old.

The architecture is baroque and is really ornate. The Old Town buildings date back to the 11^th century. Our driver also explained the “New Town” buildings only date back to the 14^th century! It was a nice day—overcast and not too hot, but not cold or rainy either.

Before going to the city center, we had to take care of a couple of things. Jess had to figure out where he could dry his jeans at a laundromat. Prague is a hilly city and he dragged me over a mile uphill. I should have made him carry me! It turned out though that the laundromat was also an internet café and advertised that they liked to speak English!

Jess got directions to a place where he could buy a new sim card, which could be topped off on an English-language web site. Still, he had to trim it down to fit his phone.

We figured out the train and headed downtown and to Old Town. We really enjoyed the cosmopolitan atmosphere. The city is clearly a magnet for tourists. With limited time, we had thought about taking a tour. When we got to the Old Town district, we came upon a tour in an antique Praga car. We decided to take it, and had a great time!

We could not have seen as much of the city in a short time on our own. There were other types of tours available, but sitting in the back of a chauffeured touring car was worth it! On the down side, it was very hard to take pictures. We were moving and most of the streets are cobble stone and very narrow.

Besides Old Town, we went through the Jewish Quarter and up to the Prague Castle. I took a lot of pictures, but I will have to go through them and post more later.

Here is the Swedish Embassy for our Swedish friends.

After lunch, we made our way back to the flat and took naps. Then we went back to Old Town for a late dinner. As soon as we left the flat, there was a thunder/lightening/rain storm, but hey—I can take it, I’m from Seattle! We didn’t get too wet.

We had a great dinner of paella and took a few nighttime pictures before heading back. I was surprised to hear how many clubs were going full bore on a Monday night, but there were lots of tourists.

Prices in Prague are very reasonable. If you are going, be sure to get some Czech crowns (CZK), as the Euro is not used here. The CZK is worth about 4 cents, so things look more expensive than they are.

This has been the best day of our trip so far!

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On Sunday, we were to leave for Prague. My feet were sore from previous days and I did not want to go wandering around the city, so we went directly to the station. The station is very large and very busy, with 4 floors of shops. Jess tried to get help with his phone at the train station but was unsuccessful and he finally gave up.

We wound up just waiting several hours for the train and then we almost missed it after taking a couple of wrong turns to the platform. We got on at the last minute! At least once we were in our seats we could relax. I took a few pictures of the Czech countryside on the way.

We arrived in Prague about 7:30 PM. Our first impressions were not great since our car driver got lost and wound up about two or 3 uphill blocks from the flat. Although he walked with us and helped with the luggage, we learned that the Czech Republic is one of the EU countries that doesn’t use the Euro, and that’s all we had. He was unhappy, but our host Stephanie took care of the fare and said we could pay her back later. We had also encountered rude people when asking for directions at the train station and when we stopped at a grocery store, the clerk was surly. So far, only Stephanie was friendly. As you can tell, our overall experience on this trip has been frustrating. People in Berlin did not seem to be particularly friendly or helpful it was hot and humid, and we didn’t find it as interesting as we expected, at least in the limited time we spent there.

Things began to look better when we got to the pub for dinner. The staff spoke English well and were very friendly and helpful. The traditional Czech food was delicious and the Guinness helped! Except for getting lost on the way back to the flat, things were looking up. Also, our flat is beautiful, especially after our little dorm-like room in Berlin.

We still have some communications problems, both with our phones and our Wi-Fi connections. Given how dependent we are on the internet, this is a major stressor. I hope we can get things resolved soon.

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After walking so much the day before, we weren’t necessarily keen on doing a lot of walking again. Besides, it was very hot and humid on Saturday so it was not pleasant outside.  We did go to the Deutsche Historische Museum and spent several hours there. Here are a few pictures from the museum.

We went to lunch in Fredrichstrasse. I thought I would include a picture of typical German food, in this case bratwurst.

We took a light rail to an area called Gesundbrunnen. We had intended to go on a tour of the Unterwelten (Underworld) Museum, an underground area where Berlin citizens were evacuated for safety during World War II. We waited for a while but decided we were too hot and tired to go on a long walking tour and decided to head back. After naps, we went out for dinner and walked around the trendy Kreuzberg area, then went back to the hotel. By that time the soccer match was on, and many people at the hotel and in the surrounding bars were watching it.

I took my computer down to the first floor courtyard where I was able to get Wi-Fi and contact Janie and continue trying unsuccessfully to resolve my phone unlocking problems. By now, Jess’ data on his sim card has run out, and he has been trying to reload it. He is frustrated because he has not been able to figure out how to do it, and could not get instructions in English. He tried to get people to help him understand the instructions in German, but no one is willing or able to help. Apparently, the sim cards we got at the airport are an off brand (Blau), and there is nowhere to go to get help. Now both of our communications are limited, and we can’t use his phone to navigate.

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We arrived in Berlin after about 24 hours of traveling. For me, it began with a train trip from Seattle to Vancouver, BC, a trip to the airport by light rail, and the usual security rigmarole. (I thought the Canadian security people were surlier than my recent contacts with US TSA people.) I had not seen the King Street Station since was restored. It looks nice, but there is not much there.

Jess flew from San Francisco to Vancouver, and met me at the departure gate. I thought he would be able to stay inside the security perimeter and avoid going through it again, but that wasn’t the case. As it turns out, he had just enough time to make the connection, and they were getting ready to board our plan by the time he arrived.

The flight on KLM was very nice. We had opted for premium economy seats and they had lots of leg room. Unfortunately, the seats weren’t much wider—if any—and that made them a tight fit for me. Although we didn’t sit together, there were enough empty seats that we did not need to be crammed next to another passenger. Service was very good, including two pretty good meals and complimentary wine.

We had a connection in Amsterdam, which involved going through security again.* Finally, we landed in Berlin. We bought sim cards for our phones at the airport. Jess’ worked perfectly, and we thought we’d tested mine, but after leaving the airport, it locked up, so I have been without a phone so far.

Our hotel is “interesting.” I don’t remember staying in one like it before. It is a very small room with two pairs of Ikea-style bunk beds. Part of the name of the hotel is Jugendhotel—Youth Hostsel. I wondered if it was geared for travelling young people, but there are plenty of older people here too. We had some difficulty booking an affordable room in Berlin. What we didn’t realize is that there was a HUGE soccer championship going on this weekend. A cab driver told us that the tickets were going for around 2,000€. In checking room rates for our return through Berlin in 2 weeks, it looks like rates are about 1/3 of what they are this weekend.

After checking in, we wandered around a little and found a pretty good restaurant, where we got schnitzel. Since we were still acclimating to the time change, we took naps, then walked a couple of miles to the Brandenburg Gate. This was kind of a central meeting spot for activities leading up to the soccer match, so there was a festival atmosphere. I took some shots of the Brandenburg Gate and the Soviet War Memorial, we walked through the Tiergarten Park and took the bus back toward the hotel.

One thing that surprised me about Berlin, such a large city, is that people do not speak much English. I might not have been as surprised except for our experience in Sweden, where it was very easy to speak English with people, even in more rural areas far north of the Arctic Circle. Here, English is much more limited. We had problems with a couple of grumpy bus drivers. We couldn’t communicate where we were going and the first driver told us to get off because we were on the wrong bus (which we weren’t).

This is a picture I took on the way back to the hotel, and I just liked the way it turned out.

Once we made our way back to the hotel we found a very good Greek restaurant a block away, where they were very nice and even gave us complimentary shots of schnapps. The food and prices were excellent also.

*By the way, if you are traveling outside the US, although TSA no longer requires us to remove liquids from our carry-ons, other countries still do, so be prepared.

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Today we visited Acoma Pueblo. We visited yesterday, too. Two trips of nearly 100 miles each way in two days? Have you ever driven 100 miles for a good photo opportunity, only to realize that you forgot your camera? That was my senior moment of this trip! Janie’s response was “Well, this is too good an opportunity to pass up without a camera, so we should come back tomorrow.” It meant passing up some other sightseeing possibilities, but when we arrived at Acoma, we could see that it would be worth a trip back.

While we were there on Thursday, we met Ed, Jessica and Eva, who were selling pottery at a viewpoint along the road.  We spent quite a bit of time talking with them, and Ed was proud to show us the work he had done.

He also took time to explain how they made traditional dyes from natural minerals found in locations they keep secret even from other family members.

Eva was painting a piece and showed us some of the dyes along with her work.

On our return trip, we were able to take some pictures of the landscape. One formation reminded us of Stonehenge. A permit is required to photograph at the site. I wasn’t clear whether that applied just to the Sky City, or to the whole Pueblo, so I was cautious about taking pictures until we arrived at the Cultural Center on the 2^nd day and I got the permit. This photo shows the “Stonehenge” in the foreground and the Sky City on the mesa in the distance.

The Acoma’s have a guided tour of the Sky City site, on top of a 350 foot mesa, which has been continuously occupied for over 800 years. The Acoma’s believe it has been an ancestral site for much longer, but their stay was interrupted by Spanish invaders.

The tour was really interesting. We were taken by a shuttle to the top of the mesa, where we were guided on foot by a member of the community. The Sky City site is primitive, although I saw some modern accommodations, such as port-a-potties, propane tanks and cars. The mound in the center of this photo is a wood-fired bread oven.

But water still must be hauled up to the top of the mesa, the terrain is uneven, and the houses are tiny.

This house (part of a group of row houses) is thought to date back to before the Spanish arrived. The bottom floor is made of sandstone brick and the doorways are very low. The upper floors are made from adobe brick, which was introduced by the Spanish and the doorways are taller, which may reflect physical changes in the people after better diets were introduced by the Spanish.

It was interesting to learn that the Acoma society is matriarchal. These homes are passed down through families to the youngest daughter. If there is no daughter, they go to the youngest son, but then pass to his youngest daughter in the next generation.

Although the tour guide and others said that the Acoma do not discuss their religion and rituals with outsiders, and that they are passed down orally, they were documented by Northwest photographer Edward S. Curtis in the 1920’s. That is not to say that many people were in favor of the disclosure–most of this kind of documentation of tribal customs was done in secret and over the objection of most tribe members. If you’re interested, here is a link to Curtis’ detailed description of the Acoma people and their customs, including his photographs. The North American Indian

Our guide did show us the exteriors of some Kiva’s—rooms where the men conducted ceremonies. She explained that the Kiva’s are now square, whereas they used to be round. The Spanish destroyed the round ones in order to suppress the Acoma religion, and the rebuilt Kivas were disguised and made to look like part of houses.

Most of the people live below the mesa in more modern communities, but some people—including the tribal leaders—live all year round on the mesa.

Our tour ended at the church, originally built in the 1600’s.  We were not allowed to take  pictures inside, but it had 8-foot thick walls, a dirt floor, and included several beams that were never allowed to have touched the ground. Paintings seen inside the church were done in the 1600’s and rescued during a sacking of the cathedral during a Pueblo uprising in the late 1600’s.

On our way back to Santa Fe, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat. I had never been to one before, but they are obviously designed for the retired tour bus/RV crowd. (For those of you who knew her, we thought of Janie’s mom, who would have loved the food: meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, ham, and turkey.) Since we were late eating lunch, we decided to have a more substantial meal there at around 4 PM. The food was good, but I realized that we had become retired early eaters! What next?

Today is our last full day in New Mexico. We may not have gotten to see everything we wanted to, but we’ve enjoyed it. I did realize that 4 days may be all my Northwest body can take of the low humidity. Even though it rained today, I feel like I’m shriveling up, and it will be good to get back to our Northwest dampness.

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I’ve just updated my Day Twelve – Bryce Canyon and Beyond post with a few more pictures. These are the “Beyond” photos. I’ve also added to the text of that post if you want explanations of the photos. You can go directly to the post by clicking the button. Then scroll to the end of the post for the new photos.

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I’ve just updated my Day Twelve – Bryce Canyon post with a bunch of pictures. If you want to go directly to them: 

(My apologies if you clicked the button earlier–I didn’t have it linked to the post.)

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In 2003, when I volunteered on the Lady Washington tall ship, I met a young man who impressed me very much. His nickname was “Stitch” and he was the Bosun’s Mate on that voyage. Adam Billings was a nice, sincere, humble young man of about 24 who gave me the strong feeling that he would do something with his life. I stayed in touch, and 10 years ago, he let me know that he was getting married, so I went to Salt Lake City to attend. His wife, Becky, was just as nice as Stitch. In spite of having just gotten married, and the fact that Becky didn’t know me at all, and needing to get to a family barbeque (to which I was invited), Stitch and Becky spent about 2 hours showing me around Salt Lake City.

I had not been back to SLC since, but I knew that they had moved to Payson, a city just south of Provo. I made arrangements to meet Stitch, Becky and their family of four kids for brunch on the day I left. Stitch did do something with his life. Becky already had a teaching degree when they got married, and Stitch now has two masters degrees and is the Director of the Deaf South Division of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Their kids are just as polite and pleasant as I would have expected.  Stitch and Becky are the kind of people you can know long-distance for years, but when you get back together, it is like it’s only been a week.

We left the Billings after 4 or 5 good byes and “oh one more thing.” I dropped Bill off at the airport for his trip home—I really enjoyed the opportunity to explore Arizona and Utah with him. We never turned on the radio or audiobooks, because we just kept talking. But now I turned north and was homeward bound and eager to get home.

I did make one more sight-seeing stop on the way in to my first night’s destination, Twin Falls, Idaho. Shoshone Falls was a few miles off the route, but it is a picturesque site, and the light was waning, so I  thought it would be worth trying to get a good photo.

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Friday was our day to visit the area east of the Wasatch Mountains, where Bill lived 30 years ago.  He described it as a jeep, a dog and living in a cabin in the mountains where he could snow ski in the morning and water ski in the afternoon. A good life for a young air freight captain. He hadn’t been back since moving to Arizona. This is a beautiful rural area, although the snow was now sparse, and I could only imagine what it would look like all snow-covered. We drove up through Park City, where they were still skiing, and up to Deer Valley. Then we drove to Snow Basin, where Bill used to ski and although they were still skiing there, we found out we could ride up the gondola and see it from the top.

Next, we headed to and Eden, and drove by the cabin where Bill lived, and on to Huntsville where we stopped at the Shooting Star Saloon, claimed to be the oldest continuously-operating bar in the United States—since 1879—including through Prohibition. Apparently, the bar was owned at that time by a couple, who took turns going to jail for serving alcohol, but they kept the bar open anyway.

On the wall of the bar hangs the stuffed head of a St. Bernard, Buck. Buck was a world-record sized dog, weighing in at nearly 300 lb. When Buck died, his owner, a friend of John, the Shooting Star’s owner, had his head mounted. The bartender told us that the man’s wife would not allow him to hang it in the house, so John let him hang in the saloon, where it still hangs today.

After leaving the saloon, we headed down Ogden Canyon to Ogden, where Bill flew in and out of Hill AFB, and then headed back to the motel.  In spite of the fact that we stayed “local,” we drove nearly 200 miles that day!

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Arches is not part of the Grand Staircase but it is just as interesting. We tried to get there early for the light, but not as early as we had hoped. Still, there was lots of beautiful sights, not to mention a distant view of the Colorado Rockies.

I included a lot of photos of this area because there seemed to be more close up photo ops.

A balancing rock

This formation is called the Courthouse.

The Three Gossips

When we got to the Windows section, we took a fairly easy (paved, but slightly steep) hike up to the Windows, and decided to take the “primitive” trail down. It was easy most of the way, but unpaved, and we looked for rock cairns to follow the route.

I joked to Bill that it seemed easy at the beginning, but we’d probably get far into it and find a steep climb or something. Guess what? We got to one spot that I didn’t think I’d be able to make. After studying the rocks in front of me though, I figured out a way up where I didn’t think I’d roll back down. I was glad I had my camera monopod with me, which doubles as a walking stick. When we got all the way down, we felt like we had accomplished something.

After visiting Arches, we took in a museum exhibit of John Wesley Powell about the exploration of the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers, and then headed all the way across the state to Provo. We’ll stay two nights there and tomorrow, we explore the Wasatch Mountains to the east of Salt Lake City and Provo, and Bill’s old stomping grounds before he moved to Phoenix.

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The Grand Staircase is an immense sequence of sedimentary rock layers that stretch south from Bryce Canyon National Park through Zion National Park and into the Grand Canyon. In the 1870s, geologist Clarence Dutton first conceptualized this region as a huge stairway ascending out of the bottom of the Grand Canyon northward with the cliff edge of each layer forming giant steps. . . .

What makes the Grand Staircase . . . unique is that it preserves more Earth history than any other place on Earth. . . . [T]he Grand Staircase and the lower cliffs that comprise the Grand Canyon remain largely intact speaking to over 600 million years of continuous Earth history with only a few paragraphs missing here and there. — National Park Service

We had arrived the previous night at Bryce Canyon City, so we just needed to eat breakfast and head out to the park 3 miles down the road. Although I didn’t see them in order, I’ve been to Zion, the Grand Canyon, and we’ve now arrived at the top of the stairs. Our motel was at about 7,700 feet above sea level. We definitely noticed the altitude! If you have never experienced it, it takes time to acclimate to the thinner air, and we found ourselves huffing and puffing even on short walks.

We stopped at the Bryce Point viewpoint (8,300 ft.) at the beginning and then went to the Rainbow Point viewpoint (9,115 ft.) at the far end. There was snow up here! Until we got this high, the weather had been warm.

I’m not a fan of panoramic shots in a blog, but there is no way to show this grand landscape without at least some of them. (You can see larger images by clicking on them.)

On the way back, we stopped at the Natural Bridge viewpoint and then at the Bryce Canyon Lodge.

Needless to say, Bryce Canyon is beautiful!

What is really amazing about all of these places is that they are basically layers of red rock in different formations and shades of color, but each one is interesting in a unique way. One thing about the photographs is that it is difficult to capture the view without making a panoramic shot. I’ve taken quite a few series of shots, moving the camera over for each shot, so that I can stitch them together on the computer (as I did in one of the Grand Canyon photos), but these take time to process. It can be hard to see detail in the photos, but it’s the only way of showing the grandeur of the scenery.

Here is a panorama from one viewpoint in Escalante.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see the winding road we would follow. Although the terrain looks like sand dunes, it is all rock. Although it looks flat, the walls of the canyons towered above us in places as we drove through. Unfortunately, we had to stick to the road that day, and only took these shots from one location. But if you do a search for Escalante National Monument, you can see many incredible and unusual formations.

Although Boulder Mountain is over 11,000 ft. high, we reached 9,600 ft. at the summit of Highway 12. There are viewpoints up there that make you feel very small as you survey the vastness of the landscape. I did not have to stitch together multiple pictures to get this panorama from the summit. The view was so vast that even the camera could take it in.

On the way, we stopped at a pitstop at a crossroads. This was an unusual convenience store, either built directly into the rock cliff or built in a cave. It is pretty big inside–about the size of most gas station convenience stores.

We went on through the Capitol Reefs National Park and saw even more spectacular rock formations. I didn’t take any pictures there as it was getting late.  This was one of the best overall days of travel for scenery on the whole trip.

We finally ended at Green River at our luxurious Motel 6, and prepared for the next day’s trip to Arches National Park.

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Bill and I went to another losing Mariners game on Sunday, and I visited my aunt, Vera. Bill and Sue are gracious hosts. Roger (whom they’d never met) stayed until Saturday, and they put up with me until Monday.

Bill substituted as my driving companion, and we left for Flagstaff Monday, so he has to put up with me for another week. Bill and I are very close to the same age and he is kind of like a 5^th brother in our family, so it will be fun. Also, he has traveled this area extensively, and he will be a good guide.

[For those of you who knew my Uncle Bob, you understand why this trip should be dedicated to his memory. He loved geology and he loved road trips. I know that he saw some parts of Arizona and maybe Utah during his life, but this trip would have left him speechless! (No it wouldn’t!) Every time we go around a bend, it seems that we see a new and different geologic formation. Since it is his nephews, Bill and I, on this part of the trip, it is fitting that we are remembering him as we go.]

Bill and I took off and headed for Sedona, but took an indirect route through the town of Prescott Valley and over Mingus Mountain to the little former mining town of Jerome. The scenery was fantastic before we ever got to Sedona.

Then we got to Sedona. No, when you have seen one red rock, you have not seen them all! They are really red! Around every turn is another vista. While in Sedona, we detoured to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built into the red rocks. It was beautiful and unique. And more spectacular views!  These photos were taken in and around the Chapel.

To give you an idea of the scale of the landscape, note the small dot to the right of this cliff.  It’s a helicopter. It is closer to the camera than the cliff. (I have another photo with the helicopter in front of the cliff.) So it isn’t a dot because it’s farther away than the cliff–the clif is that big.

Bill thought that the figure in the rock shown by the arrow looked like an eagle.  I think it looks like a labrador. Given Bill’s fondness for labradors, I’m surprised he didn’t see it that way.

Here is a closeup of the same formation. Now it kind of looks like a monkey!

From Sedona, we headed through the Oak Creek Canyon up several thousand feet to the Mogollon Rim and Flagstaff. It was cooling down and the road was winding and slow so we opened the sun roof and windows and enjoyed the forest air,the scent of campfires at the campgrounds and enjoyed the breeze.

We stayed the night in Flagstaff. We thought we were just going to a good steak place for dinner, Black Bart’s, but it turned out that the wait staff are all singers and they put on show while serving!

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On Friday, Rog and I went to Taliesin West, the compound founded by Frank Lloyd Wright, in Scottsdale.  It was very interesting, but from a historical standpoint and for the architecture and design. In addition to innovative architecture, there was a lot of interesting sculpture. I recommend the tour if you are in Phoenix. We had lunch in “Old Scottsdale” but I was disappointed. It seemed like a bunch of kitschy souvenir shops and silver/turquoise jewelry (i.e. expensive) stores.

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We went to our first Spring Training game last Thursday. Unfortunately, the Mariners lost, but it was a fun time anyway. It was HOT though (90’as)! Sue said it was unusually hot for this time of year, which means it will probably be hotter than normal during the “hot” season.
 This is one of the closest foul balls that have ever landed near me. The guy in front of me got it. (While I was ducking!)

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We left the Grand Canyon on Wednesday and headed south for my cousin Bill’s in Gilbert, near Phoenix. We arrived around 8:30 PM, so it was a long day. (Rog had forgotten to reset his watch when we crossed over from Utah, so we had gotten up at 6:30 AM.  That worked out well because it got us going before the crowds in the GC.) By the time we got to Phoenix, I think we had driven about 1,800 miles.

On the way down, we saw miles and miles of open land again, but it was interesting as we traveled from 7,000 ft. elevation to 1,100 ft. We went through a number of distinct climates and matching ecosystems. One of the changes was the appearance of the cacti, which appeared in a few scattered specimens, but quickly increased in number. We stopped to photograph a few in the late afternoon light.

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As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border I saw God in the sky in the form of huge sunburning clouds above the desert that seemed to point a finger at me and say, “Pass here and go on, you’re on the road to heaven.” Ah well, alackaday, I was more interested in some old covered wagons and pool tables sitting in the Nevada desert near a Coca-Cola stand and where there were huts with the weatherbeaten signs still flapping in the haunted shrouded desert wind, saying, “Rattlesnake Bill lived here” or “Broken-mouth Annie holed up here for years.” –Jack Kerouac, On the Road

The route from Zion to the Grand Canyon is pretty sparse country—some parts pretty and others pretty in their own stark way. We had time to listen to our audio book or talk or just be quiet. Rog is a good traveling companion (not too much like Kerouac’s Dean Moriarity). We got to the Grand Canyon after dark, so there we were—but we couldn’t see anything. No problem, we were tired and hungry so we wouldn’t have stopped anyway.

When you’ve seen one bunch of red rocks, you’ve seen them all, right? Nope! We weren’t necessarily planning to spend all that much time at the GC, but we spent half a day or more. It really is spectacular, and in a different way than Zion.

[By the way, you should be able to click on these pictures to see larger versions.}

We did not go to the part where the clear Skywalk juts out over the canyon. (That’s not inside the National Park.) However, there were a number of places with rails up to the edge of the cliff where you could look down.  For someone who flew balloons for 30 years, and was completely comfortable looking over the side of the basket, I found looking down into the canyon that way pretty unnerving.

We’ve all seen photos and videos of the Grand Canyon, but seeing it in person is something else.  My photos don’t compare with some I’m sure you’ve seen, but enjoy them anyway.

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We said these words repeatedly on our trip to Zion National Park. What an amazing place! I had been told by many people that it was among the most beautiful places in the country, and they were right.

Roger’s friend Brent was our guide through the first part, beginning at the Visitor’s Center, and through the Scenic Drive. He knew which stops were the most interesting or photogenic, and we took a couple of short hikes. One of them was pretty steep for a couple of old out-of-shape guys, but it was worth the walk to see the “Weeping Rock.” We could also see climbers scaling the rock walls and hikers waaay up on the trails.

This is the weeping rocks.

Once again, the scenery was too grand and beautiful to capture in photographs, but I decided that I couldn’t come home from this trip with no photos because every scene was too grand and beautiful. So you will just have to put up with my feeble attempts to capture some of the beauty.

We spent several hours on the Scenic Drive, during which we uttered “Wow!” and “Oh My God!” many times. Then we really needed to press on to reach the Grand Canyon before it got too late. (As it was, we arrived at our motel at the Grand Canyon around 9 PM.) We took Brent to lunch at a place he recommended near Zion, and then headed off through the park to go out the other side and on to the Grand Canyon. Beyond the “Scenic Drive” were many more incredible views, and more exclamations of Wow! and OMG! Here we couldn’t take photos because of time and because the road was too narrow to stop in most places.

Beyond Zion, we saw more amazing scenery and wide open spaces that are hard to imagine if you are from more populated areas. True Southwest cowboy material. This is really a BIG country!

This trip had already exceeded my expectations, and we hadn’t even gotten to the Grand Canyon or Spring Training yet!

Roger and Me

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[I am already a day behind with posting, but some of this stuff is tiring!]

Although it was a long day of driving from Provo to St. George, Utah, it was a pretty drive. Once again the scenery was spectacular but too expansive to capture in photos. We could see the country change as we progressed. Some of the areas reminded Rog of the farming areas France and reminded me of Sweden. We never got tired of it.  After a while, the 80 MPH speed limit didn’t seem that fast, especially crossing long straight stretches.

One of the parts of traveling that I like best is meeting people.  I have found them to be incredibly generous. Last year at spring training, it was my cousin, Bill’s Harley club. In Sweden, it was Annalena’s family. It was repeated again on this trip with Roger’s friend Brent and his wife Susan. Not only did they meet us in St. George and take us to the beautiful Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, but they also took us out for dinner and put us up for the night. We enjoyed the time with them including two hikes easy enough for us tenderfeet, and dinner with their friends Marty and Joan.

These pictures are unedited for now.

This is the original Territorial Statehouse for Utah, in Fillmore.

My new friend Brent and I at Red Cliffs National Conservation Area..

Roger, Brent and Susan at Red Cliffs.

A dinosaur track at Red Cliffs.

Not a scenic shot, but our car was way down there.  No, there is no escalator!

Rock formations at Red Cliffs.

Flowers on our hike.

Brent and Susan are both lovely, talented people. Susan made breakfast for us before Brent took us on a tour of Zion. Susan makes some very nice ceramics.

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I was wildly ambitions to think that we would make it to St. George in Southern Utah today. That would have been a 12-hour drive. Instead, we stopped in Provo for dinner and stayed there. Today we made a point of taking more time. We started off with a good breakfast at a Bacon restaurant in Boise.

We also stopped in Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho to take some pictures. It was a sleepy looking farm town, but had some interesting shots.

I never thought about it before, but it isn’t surprising that there is a niche for an equine dentist. But here in the middle of nowhere (and it is the middle of nowhere) there is an Academy of Equine Dentistry.

We came across this little motel that has obviously been here for a while.  What struck me, was the phone booth to cap off the picture.

On the way out of town, we saw these tractors all lined up. I had to give a go at getting an artistic shot.

Once we got into Utah, the Rockies loomed up, and they are spectacular! We saw snow-capped peaks and colorful, striated layers or rock uplifted by unimaginable forces over eons. We were in high desert plateau and it was magnificent. I felt as if some grand movie score should be playing in the background. You may ask why I didn’t include any pictures of the mountains. I could not do them justice. What our eyes and brains can absorb is very difficult to capture in a photo, and I didn’t even want to try. I just enjoyed them.

Finally, after reaching Provo we found a Sizzler! Eat your heart out, Leslie! (I guess that’s what we were doing.) Our La Quinta motel is much nicer than the independent motel we got in Boise because it was cheap, and no more expensive.

Tomorrow we’ll get to St. George.

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Not much to report for our first day of driving, and no photos.  This was planned to be a long drive (about 500 miles) for the first day, to give us more time during the trip through Utah.  However, the drive went smoothly.  We left about 10 AM and arrived in Boise about 8 PM. We listened to almost an entire Hamish MacBeth mystery. We didn’t get our naps though, so we had to get to bed early. Sunday’s goal is St. George, Utah.

Update: St. George is too ambitious.  We’ll see how far we get today.

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On Friday, Jess had us lined up to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, a volunteer project for his colleagues at Paragon Real Estate. He didn’t force us into it, and we were all definitely interested in pitching in. It meant getting up pretty early, and they promised we would be tired at the end of the day!

Habitat does a variety of kinds of housing in cities all over the country. The development we were working on was a group of town homes for working families who could not afford housing, especially at San Francisco area prices.

There were several crews assigned to do different tasks such as siding, insulation, plumbing and painting. The workers included professionals, experienced interns, Americorps volunteers and lay volunteers like us. We all got on the plumbing crew, with the idea of working together. As I listened to the description of the work, I wanted an assignment that I felt I could handle for a full day, and I volunteered to help test plumbing installations for leaks. Jess and Leslie were on the same team but they had a more labor intensive job digging holes for and placing cement enclosures for meters and valves.

Leslie was disappointed that I wasn’t working directly with them, especially since she had given up painting to be together, but I don’t know how well this old guy could have done their job. I did however wind up walking up and down lots of flights of stairs in these 3-story town homes! I definitely got my exercise in!

I was working with a nice young woman named Sarah, who was an Americorps volunteer. She actually worked mostly on housing rehab projects but was on loan to this Habitat project. I felt like I was actually able to contribute because of my 40 years of experience as a home/condo owner and do-it-yourselfer. We actually figured out how to rebuild a shower valve to stop a leak, and fixed several other problems in the course of our testing. Jess and Leslie were told that they made much faster progress in their work than many other volunteers do, and did their work accurately.

By the end of the day we were tired! We ordered food instead of making it, and enjoyed our meal once again at “my place.” We all went to bed early and tried to recover for the next day.

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Thursday, Jess had to work, so Leslie and I went on and adventure together.  We started at the Ferry terminal, and then headed to the North Beach Neighborhood.  This was the center of the beatnik culture of the late 50’s.  We browsed through City Lights Books, which was started by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and published Allen Ginsberg’s Howl.  We also visited the Beat Museum, a labor of love by Jerry Cimino.

North Beach is also the home of the original Hungry i, which was instrumental in the careers of many performers including Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, Barbara Streisand, the Kingston Trio and many more.  There is still a Hungry i in North Beach, but it is a topless club at a different location.

We walked from North Beach to nearby Chinatown, although we avoided the phony Grant Ave. shops and looked instead at the more authentic Stafford Street open markets, where food is so fresh, it is still alive when you buy it.

We finally headed home, and later Jess and Leslie came over for dinner.  Leslie cooked us another great dinner: Fresh tilapia tacos and nachos.

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This trip to SF is a short one for me, and longer for Leslie.  (Janie stayed home.)  I am staying at an AirBnB place just 2 blocks from Jess, so it’s very convenient.  Jess, Leslie and I had a great dinner in Jess’ neighborhood on Tuesday.

I am sharing the home with my hostess, Brooke, who is very nice.  We don’t see each other much because of our schedules, and she left on Wednesday for several days, so I have the place to myself.  So far, we are batting 1000 with the AirBnB’s we have stayed at!  This is a very nice home and is beautifully decorated.

Wednesday, I took pictures at the Mission Delores, and we had a nice lunch at an Indian fast food restaurant. We also went to see Jess’ current real estate listing.  Pretty cool to see his name on the sign!

That night, we had dinner at “my place” for Jess, Leslie and a couple of Jess’ friends, Jorge and Phillip, whom I’ve met before.  Leslie made a great pasta dish that she’d made up.

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Leslie and I are headed for San Francisco to visit Jess. I’ll only be there a few days, but the trip includes a day working with Habitat for Humanity. Should be interesting!

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