20120806 Redwood City CA Cool, mostly sunny
The suitcase arrived in the night, so I got re-acquainted with it. We unpacked for the rest of our stay.
Then we went down to the lobby for the complimentary breakfast. Scrambled eggs & sausage, waffle-maker, various breads for toast, orange juice, coffee. It was quite good for an in-house affair.
Back to the room with coffee, soon to go to Susan’s place. Later:
We went to S&B’s house and chatted with her for a long time over the house, her upcoming job with Apple, Byrant’s job with Disney, family stuff, and house stuff, and California SF peninsula stuff, CalTrain, and some other subjects.
We went to Alana’s in downtown Redwood City for lunch, very nice outside seating except the tree above us was propagating. We sat through wind-driven seed showers. Afterward, we took a hike around downtown Redwood City, the seat of San Mateo county.
Back to the house then for slower chatting and time with cats, sympathizing with Susan about cat Nixie, and watching of Olympics. We both sneezed a little, reminding us to take our antihistamines and reminding us of the reason why we sleep in the little motel.
Later we went with Susan to join Bryant at an Italian place he frequented when he lived here 19 years ago. Good food, and more than enough of it. We charted a plan for Saturday when Bryant is off, leaving the days till then open.
Then we let them go home while we returned to the motel.
Only a few pictures.
Picture Link20120807 Redwood City CA Clear, moderate
We began in leisurely fashion, finally having breakfast in the lobby. Then we went to Susan’s, arriving around 10.
We took note of the fact that the 11th upcoming is on a Saturday, not Sunday as we used in our planning yesterday. So we re-planned the week.
The only other time Dolores has traveled through San Francisco the fog was so bad she couldn’t see the Golden Gate bridge even though she was on it. So we took off up I-280 to CA-1, through the Golden Gate Park and Presidio, and across the bridge. We stopped at the north vista of the bridge to take pictures looking to the south of the bridge, the skyline, and the bay. Alcatraz Island is clearly seen to the left front and Treasure Island beyond it with the Oakland-Bay Bridge going through it. The Golden Gate bridge is in the near foreground. Richmond and other east bay towns are to the left, behind Angel Island. Tiburon is to the left rear, around the corner of the hill.
Also at this vista is one of the Lone Sailor statues, a replica of the one at the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. This one has four plaques around it to mark the sea-going services, and a unique plaque to this location.
Link1 and
Link2 and
Link3Dolores looked at a map there and decided we should see the Muir Woods Nat’l Monument. We zipped off up US-101, then CA-1 again, then local roads winding up into the barren hills that are normal around here. After a while we began to see redwoods and firs. When we reached the monument grounds, there was absolutely NO parking available, so we continued on local roads around the park, just looking. We came out on 101 again.
The decision then was made to go to Napa, not for tasting nor for a long time, but just to get the idea of the place for Susan so she and Bryant can better deal with the place on a weekend. We finally reached downtown Napa after seeing many vines and wineries. We had lunch in little grill and stopped in the visitors center for maps.
Then it was time to return. We went south toward Vallejo, and onto I-80. We went home down the east side of the bay through Richmond, and Berkely, and Oakland, and over the San Mateo (CA-92) bridge. Then we joined US-101 South and on to Susan’s place, arriving at 3:30pm, which was our goal all along so that we’d be off the roads before they locked up.
Susan took a nap while we did computer things.
Later we started preparing for cooking dinner. Susan started the charcoal in the Magic Egg cooker and prepared the green onions and green peppers and garlic potato for heating. Bryant arrived and put the salmon (marinated overnight in soy, syrup, brown sugar, and something else) on the grill with the green onions and green peppers. Susan mashed the spuds. Then everything went on the table with a bottle of chianti and we ate. Very nice.
We talked about tomorrow and outlined the day. We chatted some more and then decided to call it an early night. We came back to Olympics and books
Picture Link
