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Published: July 31st 2008
Nick and Devin
Pebble Beach...This one is for you, Pa!Some of you may have been seeing California in the news with quakes and forest fires but you should rest assured if you were worried because we are all fine. We left LA a couple of days prior to the quake and the fires…well, we have decisions to make based on the fires in Yosemite.
The last time I wrote we were leaving Carmel and heading to San Francisco. Actually I am not sure right now where I left off in my writing since I am not connected to the internet so I think I will talk about Carmel one more time. Have any of you been to Carmel? Well, what a lovely little seaside city/town. There was definitely a Newburyport feel to the place. We were there on a Sunday as the shops closed and the sun went down. This was probably good from my wallet since I had seen very few boutiques along the way (I need things to wear the next time I visit my new home on the Vegas strip!!!). We walked into every café and looked at all menus and decided to eat at a very busy Italian restaurant. Amazingly, neither Chris nor I can
City Lights Bookstore
I am embarrassed to admit that I had not heard of this FAMOUS bookstore but am proud to say that I learned something and enjoyed perusing the shelves. remember the name of the restaurant. The food was good; the environment was cozy and eclectic. We had a nice meal and witnessed Devin and Nick having a very intellectual discussion about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Who would have thought? After dinner we headed back to our expensive campsite where the boys’ played ping pong and I sent a blog. This would have all been in the last blog if I hadn’t been disconnected from my on-line connection….twice!!! I have smartened up and am writing them in Word first and then pasting them in….
We have been awoken by cars, trucks, sirens, voices, trains, etc. but we hadn’t yet had a rooster be our alarm clock. Well in Carmel we did…that rooster would just not stop so it was easier to roll out of bed, stumble to the timed shower and hit the road than try and sleep. This morning we are headed to San Francisco…we paid our 9.25 to drive the 17 mile scenic route from Carmel to Monterrey. It was scenic and we saw some of it twice do to the poorly marked roads. Pebble Beach looked magnificent and every time we pass a golf course we have
Candlestick Park
This was the view...not a pretty one and definitely not Gillette Stadium. a heart warming discussion about Pa. There is a great spot to watch sea lions, seals and birds along the route. You should note that it was low 60’s at 11am. It felt like New England in October…I am not sure we were prepared for such cool weather but we layered up. We stopped at Pismo Beach to dump our sand from Plum Island and collect more sand to bring home. I still wish we had driven the RV onto the beach like all the other cars but knowing us we would have been washed away with the tide and you would find us stranded on some island in the Pacific.
We then drove up Route 1…if you have never done it you should. Now that we have been on this trip we will have a lot of advice for those of you thinking about a future adventure. Chris and I switched driving just in time. The roads are just not Chris’s type of road. This is where being the opposite has its advantages. Chris decided to catch a little nap and Devin became my co-pilot as we traversed the coastline of CA. It was spectacular. We saw the
Chris and I
Chateau St. Jean Vineyard, Sonoma, CA rocky coast of the ocean with huge cliffs as well as the burned out forests by Big Sur….we also crossed the rocky remains of a rock slide. Devin is a good companion to have sitting next to you. He will talk your way through anything. We talked about many classic books…he’s read more than me when it comes to the classics, I am embarrassed to say.
We were soon in Palo Alto and looking for the Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Winchester of the Winchester rifle family inherited 20 million and began building a house in Palo Alto to appease the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles. Sarah had been to a reader in Boston after experiencing “bad luck” with the loss of her husband and daughter. From this meeting Sarah gleaned that she would have to build a house and never finish it. That meant that she built on her home for 20+ years…it was weird and interesting. Devin really enjoyed it! It is amazing how a tour of a house can cost 3 people $70.00. Actually, everything in CA costs many dollars. We are a little tired of the tours at this point but we are visiting sights for everyone. By the way I think this woman was certifiable. It may seem obvious since she built on her house for so many years but there were many other details of her personality that solidified this opinion for me. It was neat to see her Tiffany stained glass collection (I bet you didn’t know I liked Tiffany stained glass and the damage done by the 1906 earthquake that still exists as evidence in the structure of the house.
We then sidetracked to Stanford. For all you NCAA basketball fans this was our second T-shirt stop! We are on a mission to collect shirts from the participating schools. We have many more to go….you may want to join us in this endeavor. Colby and RIT will never make the tourney so we need to make our fun.
We then headed for our new home. Candlestick RV Park. All of you sports fans can figure this one out. We stayed across the street from gate 4 of Candlestick park. It became our most expensive RV park and I can only imagine what this place is like when the 49’ers are playing, yikes! It was rather surreal to wake up to the stadium. The weather was really cool and foggy. The first night we thought that we would blow away the wind howled so much.
Yesterday we took a shuttle into San Fran and took the boys’ on the cable cars. They loved it because they got to hang off the side from Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was neat and it is so much fun to see them having such a good time. Our first stop…Boudin sourdough bread for Devin. Ghirardelli square was second for a 3.00 cupcake from Kara’s cupcakes. Then we walked the streets for a bit and headed to North Beach and City Lights Bookstore. Now there was heaven. All of you English teachers were in my thoughts as I perused the poetry shelves on the 3rd floor. We ended our day in China town convincing Nicholas that Chinese food doesn’t contain chicken teriyaki and that there are other things to eat. He did decide that he liked the sweet and sour pork and the moo shi pancakes…not the moo shi, just the pancakes It was a successful day all around we arrived back at Candlestick at 8:30pm and did laundry for a million dollars!
This morning we had a special start….we got a NEW RV! Honestly we didn’t buy one but we did convince Cruise America that our RV was not safe. The trail of brake fluid I guess was enough to convince them. Some may wonder what the final straw was…well, the kitchen sink decided to spring a leak and flood the TINY living area every time you used it. Can you imagine 3 more weeks cleaning this up? We still have many things to discuss with Cruise America when we get home but our new RV seems to be a better operating unit (that’s the lingo they use).
After doing a fireman’s brigade and exchanging all of the stuff in the RV we headed for Sonoma where we did a wine tasting at Chateau St. Jean’s. It was so beautiful and the wine so good. The boys’ were super patient and then we hit the road. We are now sitting in an RV park that is a 3 minute walk (oh yes, we’ve timed it) to Starbuck’s…can you imagine how excited Chris was to see the green awning so close to his new home? My guess is that he will be up before all of us and heading for a quiet Café Mocha.
Well we have decisions to make regarding Yosemite so I must go and do some research. Hope you are well! We enjoy reading your comments and are glad that you are keeping in touch with us. For the record, all paperwork for the condo was signed without the influence of martinis. A little crazy, I know but we are wild and crazy (have you ridden an RV with two kids for four weeks? Maybe sanity is an issue…this is a JOKE)…all is well.
Su, Mintz and Melissa…I am so glad that you made it and am sorry that you had such bad luck with luggage but I look forward to your stories. Luggage at the opera?
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Shannon
non-member comment
I Heart City Lights!
Man, I miss that bookstore! Well, I think I'm all caught up on your adventures. (FYI: When I typed "Tammy Due blog" into Google, you came up as the first hit.) A condo?! You know you're just supposed to use the timeshare people for a free place to stay and then tell them you're not interested, right? :) Carry on, and here's hoping your mechanical woes are over.