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Published: August 8th 2011
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Redwood and Palm Tree
Official move to Southern part of the state... less Redwoods and more Palms Left Redwood Valley around 8 am and headed out to Santa Rosa to meet up with a friend that I went to High School with. He suggested that if we had any time, we see a town called Healdsburg along the way and we did have the time, so we stopped. What a very quaint town... we parked the car along what looked like a main street and got out and started walking. Small galleries, shops and loads of coffee shops in the area... we knew we'd stop for some coffee and chai, but wanted to walk around a bit. We found a men's clothing shop and we picked up a hat for Ivan. Being British and well, PALE... he was already needing the extra protection... this hat was the best thing... ended up being a part of his wardrobe for the rest of the trip! LOL We meandered a bit and I walked into a small boutique. The lady told me that there was a town square just two blocks up... so we decided to check that out. We found a cool bakery/coffee shop. Christopher and I got an Iced Chai and Ivan got a Vanilla Latte' and Christopher ordered
a vanilla bean bread pudding, and Ivan and I split a cheddar thyme scone... Yum! We took it across the street to the square and sat on a bench and just enjoyed the park setting. This is where I saw the Redwood and the Palm Tree (in pic) and thought, how appropriate that was, as we were leaving the north and soon would see no more Redwoods. Shortly, after, we knew that if we were to make our lunch date, we'd better head out...
We passed lots of wineries in Santa Rosa area, which is basically wine country in California. Would have loved to stop, but just passed through... we, obviously, couldn't fit it all in to our schedule... and I think we did a fantastic job of fitting as much as we could in to this trip. We made it to Tex Wasabi's in time and shortly after we got there, my friend, Adam joined us... it was really great to see him after about 15 yrs, since we saw each other at our 10 yr reunion. We had printed the menu and knew exactly what we would try. Ivan and I opted to split an appetizer platter,
Tex Wasabi's
Guy Fieri's restaurant in Santa Rosa as we wanted to experience as much food from a Guy Fieri restaurant as was possible as it would be our only visit. We had a bit of everything, garlic fries, killer eggrolls, fried wontons (amazing) and probably something else... (obviously couldn't have been so great to leave an impression). lol Christopher ordered the Dragon Roll which was basically Spicy Tuna and inside the sushi roll was a tempura shrimp... he LOVED IT! Adam ordered some Gringo sushi and let us try them as well... the Jackass Roll and the Big Bird Roll lol Ivan and Christopher really got along well with Adam. Basically we are all self-proclaimed nerds and well, Adam is a bit of a nerd (I think Geek is a better term for all of us, actually)... so talk revolved around technology, gaming, some stories of home (Fontana) and the like... we all had a fabulous time! Adam has suggested we walk around the corner to this cupcake shop where the owner won an episode of Cupcake Wars... So, we hugged and thanked him for the great company and great food and headed out the door... Christopher'd mouth was watering, but when we got there, there was
a note on the door that it was an employee appreciation day and that they were closed! LOL (nice to know some people appreciate their employees!)
After lunch, we headed on down to San Francisco. This wasn't going to be a destination of ours, mostly for the cost of it... but I have a friend from Elementary School who is a dentist in town and she wasn't getting off work til 7 pm and we were going to meet for dinner... so, after crossing the Golden Gate (and having the most unbelievable fog bank hit us), we headed to Pier 39, after doing the ONE thing we needed to do here... LOMBARD STREET. I had been to San Francisco about three times and this is the one thing I've never done... so we had to go down the street. Once at the top, the minute you get on the street, you are riding soooo steep a hill and there were cars all along it. It was nuts. Lots of fun, though... tons of hydrangeas all over the drive. Then we headed to the pier. I've been to Pier 39 before, so knew there would be parking and enough for
us to do to kill a few hours. Found a parking spot that wasn't too expensive and walked along the pier... saw a few seals at the end of the pier and could see Alcatraz peeking through the fog. We enjoyed looking at shops along the pier and then headed down to Fisherman's Wharf... just to walk around a bit... we were tired from the few days of travel and really didn't take the opportunity to "really see" things there... it was more of a walk around for us. My g/f, Katherine, said that we should probably go to Ghiradelli Square. There was this amazing cupcake shop there called Kara's Cupcakes. What's with all the cupcakes now? LOL Anyway, Christopher felt that this was his moment... finally, we'd get some cupcakes. However, we didn't quite know that the square was still a ways from where we were... I think it was like 5-6 or 7 blocks... and in San Fran, you know at least ONE hill was involved! OMG... I thought my feet were going to fall off! LOL But, we made it... and it was only the promise of a dinner that kept us all from stopping at the
Golden Gate Bridge
heavy fog, but sort of a cool pic of the bridgework. Ghiradelli place for some amazing chocolate concoction. We'll totally have to remedy that the next time we are out there. Cupcakes were bought, but not tasted til after dinner. Flavors were: S'more, Key Lime, Carrot, Banana and a Chocolate Mousse type of cupcake Lovely! Sat by a lovely fountain til my friend showed up... then she drove us around the city a bit, took us through the Citadel and an overlook, then we ended up at this amazing Burmese restaurant... OMG, it was MY favorite meal of the vacation. Everything was delicious and even Christopher loved it... He and Ivan had chicken curry and Katherine and I split our meals... a Mongolian beef and a pasta dish that was to die for! Conversation was fantastic... it was as if we had not been apart for geez, over 30 years! And she was very nice, witty and so entertaining to Ivan and Christopher that we all had a splendid time. She drove us back to our car, where we then headed to the hotel we chose in South San Francisco for the night... We were not thrilled, but we were too tired to moan too much. Long day over... another super
San Francisco
Coit Tower in the background... and obviously all the hilly street long day coming... Early start up... OF COURSE! LOL
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