Friday, November 12, 2010

SoCal

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. I fell asleep at 8:30. I'm a whimp.

We did the Highway 1 drive from San Fran to Los Angeles. We stopped in beautiful towns along the way, including morning in Carmel (where Clint Eastwood was mayor). The sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks. They were yawping so loudly, we thought they were piping in the noise to attract tourists. But it really wasn't the case.

Here's part of the fishing bay. You can see a sea lion on the floating tire attached to the boat.



We continued on south through Pebble Beach Golf Course. The road takes you right though the lodge, shopping area and restaurants of the course, so we stopped and had a snack. Yum! Golfing this course really is right on the shore:



This tree is the logo for the course:



After spending the night in Santa Barbara (which was beautiful), we met up with my friend Shawna and her kids who took us on a whirlwind tour of Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Sprinkles (cupcakes) and Hollywood.





Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but it's looking like sun!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Muir Woods and the coast

I'm pretty beat, so this will be short. I went to Muir Woods this morning with my new friend Laura. The photos really don't do it justice because they aren't scratch-and-sniff.





This was a fella who wandered into the shot on accident, so we decided to make the most of it:



The tour included a stop in Sausalito (sp?) on the way back. It's a cute little town known for its houseboat residents. This is one of the more famous--the Taj Mahal.



After Tim finished his presentation at the conference, we rented a car and headed for the coast. We made it just in time for sunset.



Tomorrow, we continue down Highway 1. I hope it's warm!

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

It really is uphill both ways

I am sore. And beat. And did you know you have muscles in your shin area? Well you do. I know this because mine hurt. But I don't feel guilty for eating that crepe, though.

We did a ton of walking today. The weather has been beautiful (sunny and in the low 60s) for the most part, so it was a great day for a long walk. Tim went to his conference this morning, so I explored the area near our hotel. Apparently, there is a swanky neighborhood just across the street full of old, victorian and art deco architecture. I started walking up a hill, turned right, walked up another hill and came to a park. What do you know? There was a hill in the park. I felt like a mountain goat.

After picking up Tim at the hotel (wow, that sounds naughty, but it really wasn't), we had lunch and headed back to China Town. I couldn't let him leave San Fran without experiencing that. We made a bee-line for the fortune cookie factory. Since I already had a photo of cookies being made, I opted for a photo with the adorable little old man who acted as "host" of the shop.



After China Town, we met up with my new travel friend, Laura, at City Lights Books. The bookstore is famous for being owned by one of the Beat Poets, but I didn't see him there. I did see this mural behind the building, which I thought had some pretty sage advice:



The next part of our adventures led us up, up and up hill. A lot of up hill. We wanted to go to the top of Coit Tower, which was built to honor the firefighters that battled the post-1906 earthquake fire. Some people say it looks like a firehose. Others say it looks like a, well, AHEM. I think it looks like a lighthouse.



After climbing to the top of a very steep hill and then taking several flights of stairs to the base of the tower, it turned out you couldn't go to the top because it was under renovation. Figures. But the view from the tower area was nice and we got to go though some really beautiful backyard gardens on the way down.

Our next stop took us to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in San Fran. It has eight switchbacks that cars have to navigate to decend the hill (it's a one-way street). They also have to navigate tourists jumping into the road for a photo. We started at the base of the hill and walked up more stairs to the top. It was a nice walk, beautifully landscaped, so it didn't seem bad.



At the top of the hill, we all decided it was time for a drink and a snack. Fisherman's Warf and Pier 39 were only a few blocks away, down this street:



We made it to the bottom and thought we should check for the sea lions that frequent the bar area of the warf. We smelled them before we could see them. Cute animals, but woof! SMELLY! Alas, it was naptime:



Tomorrow my new friend Laura and I are going to Muir Woods. Then Tim and I leave San Fran and start making our way down Highway 1 toward Caramel and San Simeon, and eventually L.A.

Seeing the sites of San Fran

I had a very busy day. It's helping a lot that my body hasn't fully adapted to Pacific time, so waking up at 6 a.m. feels like sleeping in to me. I'm telling myself it is the jetlag that got me to Ghirardelli Square at 9:15 this morning, not the excitement over being in a store completely devoted to the consumption of chocolate. Makes perfect sense.

After taking in the free chocolate samples and smells of the square, I made my way down Fisherman's Warf. Between stores and restaurants, you can sneek peaks at the bay, Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. After a little retail therapy, I visited the aquarium. A school of sardines and anchovies were swirling above me in one of the tunnels:



The aquarium made me hungry for seafood, so I called Tim and he joined me on the warf for lunch. I enticed him with crab sandwiches, which did not disappoint:



After lunch, we headed back to the hotel so Tim could work on his presentation for Wednesday and so I could figure our what kind of trouble I could get into next. I opted for China Town.

I caught a trolley (Think: Rice-a-Roni the San Francisco treat! Ding-ding!) to Grant Street, which is right in the heart of China Town. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a blast. I began by looking for a fortune cookie factory and on the way, I met a woman who was also touring by herself. We ended up exploring China Town the rest of the afternoon together.

We started by sampling tea. The tea shop had at least 40 teas to sample.



You start by telling the shopkeeper what kind of tea you like. They then tailor your tasting around what they think you will like. Sitting at a bar, the tea person gives you a tiny cup--smaller than a child's tea set. She made us several samples of tea to try. It was a lot like doing shots of boiling water. As fun and educational as that was, by tongue is still a little raw. The last sample we tried was called something like Iron Goddess Something or Other. It was a great tea, which I wanted to buy for home. Note the past tense of that sentence. The tea cost $120 per pound. Uh, I'll go with the cheaper jasmine tea, thanks. We also sampled tea that had monkey in the name and we were assured there were no monkeys harmed in the tea making process. But by far the most interesting tea we sampled smelled and tasted like buttered popcorn, which was very enjoyable.

Leaving the shop hopped up on caffeine, tongues blazing, we began looking for the elusive fortune cookie factory. The discription in my guidebook was a little misleading. I thought factory: assembly line, a dozen or so workers, a cash register. Not at all. This was a tiny store front (we passed it several times. I finally asked a tiny old man where it was, and patting me on the hand, he pointed about 15 feet behind me). Inside a little old man gave you a hot-off-the-cookie-maker sample as you walked in to his "store." Further in, an old lady was sitting at the cookie maker pouring batter, folding and stuffing cookies with fortunes. It was 50 cents for a photo of the cookie making in action. Totally worth it. Plus, when you paid for the photo, the little old guy gave me another two hot cookies--score!



Leaving the fortune cookie factory, we bumped into a woman who was a tour guide. She told us we couldn't leave China Town without seeing the oldest temple there. So we followed her over a few blocks to Waverly (Amy Tan wrote about this street in The Joy Luck Club). In a very non-descript doorway, up four flights of stairs, you walk into a Chinese temple. No photos were allowed, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was beautiful and ornate and red. In such a tiny space (it was maybe 15 feet wide and 30 feet deep), around 100 lanterns hung from the ceiling all with red papers attached to the bottom. Prayers of thanks and requests for spiritual help hung from the ceiling in front of the altar. By making a donation to keep the temple operating, I was given a packet of tea and a good luck charm of red fabric and string.

After the temple, we continued our stroll and found a Chinese kite shop. If you can think of a shape, they had a kite. These were just two of the really interesting kites we saw:



We wrapped up the night with dinner with a high school friend of mine and his wife. It was my first experience with Indian food and it was fun. It was great to see a familiar face, especially one I haven't seen in more than 10 years. Thanks!

Not sure what the plan is tomorrow. You'll just have to tune in and be surprised.

Monday, November 08, 2010

California!


This trip has been amazing so far. California has so many variations--remote and wild to packed with people and concrete.

After we landed, we rented a car and headed in the direction of Yosemite. I have to give HUGE propps to Garmen. The navigation system made it so much easier and efficient to get around. I highly recommned them.

The drive to Yosemite was beautiful. It was full of rolling hills, huge mountains and winding roads. One road was even covered by a rock slide, so we had to share a one-way road. Once we got into the park, it lived up to every expectation we had. Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Falls, Half Dome and El Capitan were all easily visible or hikable. But the park is so huge (it's the size of Rhode Island) that we feel we barely scratched the surface.



The day after Yosemite was rainy, so we decided to drive to Pointe Reyes National Seashore in the hopes that we would drive out of the storm. It worked! The seashore is tucked miles back from the main gate.



We drove through (literally, through) ranches that had been in business since the mid 1800s. Seriously, cow crossing! Oh, and I'm pretty sure I had the best cokie I've ever had in my life near Olema at a bakery called Bovine Bakery. Double chocolate cherry. Yum!

We're in San Francisco today. I'm heading out in a little bit to explore. I'm torn between Chinatown and Fisherman's Warf. I have a feeling Fisherman's Warf will win because it's near Gheridelli.