December 15, 2011

                                                                           DAY #4

We decided to do another walk today in the Presidio. Because of all the construction taking place there, the original walk had to be altered and the park ranger suggested an appropriate route. We included the Palace of Fine Arts because of the close proximity to the Presidio.

                      Some of the views of the Golden Gate Bridge were the nicest along Crissy Field.

                We had hot chocolate at the Warming Hut and then headed back to our starting point.

                                  We ended our walk with a tour of the Disney Family Museum.
               This was the second time I've visited and I saw many things that I had missed on the first visit.

We finished the tour about 5:30 and drove to Alice's Restaurant for dinner and a nice end to Linda's visit.

December 14, 2011

DAY #3

Linda drove to Carson City, NV today to do another of her walks and to visit another state capital. She returned to San Francisco about 9:00 p.m. and we ate at the Magnolia Pub on Haight Street.

December 13, 2011

DAY #2

We decided to do another of the AVA walks in San Francisco, starting at Pier 45 and taking in some of the best sights of the City.

                                                                     Highlights included:

                                                        * Lombard Street, crookedest street

                                                                           * Coit Tower

                                         * Nob Hill - with the Fairmont Hotel and Grace Cathedral

                                                                        * Chinatown

                                                                    * Cable Car Museum

                We had a light snack at Starbucks on Fillmore and finished the walk about 4:00 p.m.


     That evening Linda attended my GGMC concert and got to meet Bill, Fred, Angela, Albert , and Doug.
                                        It was our last concert of the season and it was sold out.

Doug took this picture during intermission.

We got home about 10:30 p.m., exhausted.

December 12, 2011

LINDA'S SAN FRANCISCO VISIT

Linda arrived at SFO on Saturday evening (12-10-11) and drove to Merced, spent the night, and then drove on to Visalia to visit family members.

Yesterday, on Sunday she drove to San Francisco and arrived here about 9:00 p.m. We walked to Martin Macks on Haight Street and had dinner and watched football.

                                                                        DAY #1

Today we got up and drove to Santa Rosa for the first of two walks sponsored by AVA (American Volkssport Association of Walking Clubs) an international walking club.  We arrived at Sam's Cafe, the start of the walk, about 10:30 a.m.

An interesting highlight along the way was this house with lots of fun art objects in the yard.

                                  The Train Station had a humerous statute of Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

We visited the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. The Peanuts cartoonist lived in this area for almost 50 years. There is a nice display of his cartoons and other memorabilia in the museum. An Ice Arena and Warm Puppy Cafe are also part of the complex.

We had lunch at Sam's Cafe, also the starting point of the trip, before heading to our second 11K walk.

The second walk was a California Golden Heritage walk through the City of Santa Rosa which started at Lucky's Supermarket.

                                                Highlights included the Luther Burbank Gardens and Home.

'

                                                                   and the Courthouse Square

The last 45 minutes of our walk was in the dark, but we saw some beautiful homes nicely decorated with lights for the holidays.

                                       We had dinner at Tex Wasabi, a fun Guy Fieri restaurant in Santa Rosa.

  We drove back to San Francisco and arrived about 10:00 p.m.

September 2, 2011

Day #4

Andrew jogged in Golden Gate Park in the morning and then we had breakfast on Haight Street.

Marie and Kelsey had breakfast in their hotel restaurant.

We spent much of the afternoon picking up the rental car (a major event!) and with cell phone conversion and a trip to the post office to mail Kelsey's portrait back to Columbus.

A late afternoon lunch at Leticias Restaurant with good Mexican food got us in the mood for the evening San Francisco Giants game.

But first we stopped at a thrift store to get Andrew some wam clothes for the cold night game.

The game was fun and the Giants won!

Marie, Kelsey and Andrew made a late night drive up to Redding, CA.

We had a great time the four days of their visit.

September 1, 2011

Day #3

I picked up Marie and Kelsey about 10:00 a.m. at their hotel and we had breakfast at Stacks Restaurant before going to explore Fisherman's Wharf.

The ladies wanted to go souvenir shopping, so I agreed to be patient and let them do their shopping.

We spent an hour or so looking at the shops at Ghirardelli Square (multiple purchases were made!) and then we made our way down to see the street venders near the cable car turn-around.

Kelsey found a street artist she liked who agreed to draw her portrait.

We then went to the Blue Mermaid Restaurant for a late lunch. Again, clam chowder was the choice of the day.

A drive down Lombard Street, the "crookedest street," was a little scary.

Next we went to the Presideo to check out the Walt Disney Museum Gift Shop and, of course, there was more shopping.

We decided to return to the hotel and rest before picking up Andrew at the airport.

Andrew arrived about 8:00 p.m. and we drove to the Benihanna of Tokyo Restaurant for a late dinner.

We had a delicous meal and the cooking display was awesome!

 

 

It was a long day and we got to bed about midnight.

August 31, 2011

DAY #2

I picked up Marie and Kelsey at their hotel. They had already eaten breakfast.

We drove to the Golden Gate Bridge. I parked the car on the San Francisco side of the bridge, helped get the wheelchair onto the bridge, then returned to the car and drove to the Marin side. I started walking back and met Marie and Kelsey halfway. It was great fun, but it was a little windy and almost 2 miles from end to end. We were glad we did not have to do the return trip!

Here's a photo of Marie and Kelsey on the bridge, taken at the start of the trip.

We then drove to the Marin Headlands for a view of San Francisco.

Here are Marie and Kelsey with the bridge in the background.

Kelsey wanted to ride a cable car, so we drove to the California cable car line. I dropped them off near California and Van Ness and parked the car. Then we all hopped on board.

Here is a photo of Marie and Kelsey enjoying the cable car ride.

We rode the cable car to the end of the line and walked to the Ferry Building where we had a bowl of clam chowder and some questionable fish tacos before heading back via the cable car again.

Here is a photo taken in front of the Ferry Building.

It was a fairly clear day, so we drove to Twin Peaks to see the view from there. It was cold and windy so we did not stay for very long. But we did get one picture of Kelsey freezing in the wind.

We had some time for a short late lunch and went to Mel's Diner on Geary Blvd. where we sat at the counter and played old 60's and 70's songs on the jukebox.

It was a busy day and I had chorus rehearsal that night, so we returned to the hotel in the late afternoon.

August 30, 2011

TALLE FAMILY CALIFORNIA VISIT

Day #1

Marie and Kelsey came for a visit to San Francisco; this is Kelsey's first visit and she was quite excited about the trip.

I met Marie and Kelsey at the Oakland Airport about noon today.

We drove across the Bay Bridge and through Golden Gate Park and had lunch at the Beach Chalet.

Here is Kelsey in the lobby of the Beach Chalet.

And we had to get a photo of Marie and Kelsey outside the Beach Chalet with the San Francisco mosaic.

After a fine lunch where we tasted the clam chowder (good!), we drove to Mitchell's for some ice cream on the way to their hotel.

Marie and Kelsey had been up since 4:30 a.m. Columbus time, so I drove them to the Hilton Hotel near San Francisco Airport for some needed rest.

We'll start the real sightseeing tomorrow.

July 10, 2011

Day #3

We woke up early, fixed coffee and a light breakfast, and then began breaking camp.

This beautiful campsite has been our "home" for two days; sorry to leave it.

After leaving camp, we drove to the Rubicon trailhead for a 1.7 mile hike to Eagle Falls and Vikingsholm Castle.

The hike provided some beautiful views of Emerald Bay.

Here are 2 photos Eagle Falls.

Vikingsholm Castle

Mrs. Lora Knight of Santa Barbara purchased this site at the head of Emerald Bay in 1928 and asked a Swedish-born architect and relative to "design a home without disturbing any of the trees" on the property and they decided to "reproduce a Norse fortress of about 800 A.D."

The castle was completed in 1929.

The hike back was a bit more strenuous, uphill most of way, and the temperature much warmer, but the scenery was spectacular.

Osprey (fish-eating hawks) nest in the top of dead trees along the shore so they can see better the fish before diving into the water. The birds have dark brown feathers with white underbellies.

We ended our hike about 1:30 p.m. and stopped at Subway in South Lake Tahoe for a quick lunch before heading home.

The weather was hot for our return drive, but we took turns driving, which made it bearable.

Got to San Francisco about 6:00 p.m.  A very fun camping trip it was.