Friday, June 19, 2009 The Adventure Begins

Here we are again, friends. Another Jones family road trip for your reading enjoyment, amusement and I'm sure there will be a amazement thrown in for good measure. (You know how us Joneses are...)

This vacation is a first on many levels. This is the first road trip we've taken with our #2 married son, Brady, and his lovely wife, Kristen, who just happens to be preggers with our first grandson (due in November).

This is the first family vacation we've taken without #3 son, Cameron. Yes, friends, he now has a job -- thank God and Subway for gainful employment, however tedious and maddening it may be -- and didn't feel like he should ask for time off after only working there such a short time. It was rather sad this morning as we hugged him goodbye, but we know that we're beginning another one of those "seasons of life." *sigh*

#1 son did not get to come along this time either because of his work schedule between concert tours with the band. Have I mentioned that they've played all over the world and will be going back to Europe on July 15?

This is also the first time that Kristen has been on a road trip of this magnitude, period. And the first time she will visit one of our favorite vacation spots: Creede, Colorado.

Anyway, on to the travelogue. First morning of vacation and my stupid BlackBerry alarm went off at 6:30. Yes, I forgot to turn off my regular workday alarm before going to bed last night. I turned off the annoying little vibrating ting-a-ling after the first intrusion and went back to sleep until Dear woke me up at 8:15. We'd decided to get everything ready this morning (our typical travel M.O.) and be ready to leave our house at 11. We had to gas up Granny's car and take it and her mail to her, go to the bank, and be at B&K's house around noon-ish.

If you've read me at all in the past, you know that we are not those vacationers who get up at the crack of dawn to get an early start on the day. That would NOT be vacation-like at all in our humble opinions. So, we got everything packed up and into Dear's car in plenty of time to get away by our 11:00 target.

We said our goodbyes to #1 and #3 and left the house at 11:03 a.m. So far, so good. Dear made the bank run and I took Granny's car for gas and then to her apartment for safe keeping. I've been driving her car ever since she had the hip replacement surgery back in May because we now have 4 commuting drivers in our household and only 3 vehicles that belong to us. Since Mother wouldn't be driving for a while, having her car to use has really been a help for us. Thanks, Mother!

Anyway, Dear met me at Mother's apartment and, after a short visit, we left for B&K's house. We pulled into their driveway at 12:06 p.m., transferred our belongings to their Pilot, said bye-bye and be good to the grand-dogs (Jaxon and Syndey), and left their house at 12:30. Brady needed to drop off his other vehicle for repairs at a dealership in Arlington, so he and Dear went in the truck and Kristen and I followed them in the Pilot.

Traffic was horrendous with all the I-30 construction going on in Arlington (all your fault, Jerry Jones [no relation]), but we finally got the vehicle situation taken care of and made more progress toward actually getting on "the road." Fort Worth traffic was doubly-horrendous and we were all hungry (especially little mama). Brady got us to a Cheddar's somewhere northwest of Fort Worth and we ate lunch. We had debated on whether to have Mexican food "one last time" in Texas before we leave the land of Tex-Mex for a week (yes, we're Tex-Mex junkies), but we figured Cheddar's was safer in light of the road trip ahead in confined quarters.

As we were sitting in the booth waiting for our food to arrive, a family was seated in the booth behind us. Dad, Mom, three boys and a girl. The dad had one of those BOOMING VOICES, even when he was supposed to be using an "inside" tone, and we learned that the little girl had just had her tonsils removed and wasn't feeling much like eating. Dad was determined that she should have SOMETHING IN HER TUMMY or at least SOMETHING TO DRINK. HOW ABOUT SOME RASPBERRY LEMONADE, KATIE?

Now, if any of you dear readers have been through the tonsillectomy process -- especially the first recovery days after surgery -- you know that the LAST thing you'd want to drink is RASPBERRY LEMONADE!!! Duh, Dad. Thankfully, Katie declined that offer. So Dad went through virtually ALL the menu choices until Katie finally decided on a VANILLA MILK SHAKE.

By this time, the three brothers were restless and the youngest one (looked to be about 2 years old) started bonking Dad on the shoulder with a sippy-cup. Dad must have been made of glass, because the OWWW he let out would have been more appropriate for a brick bashing than a sippy-cup bonk. Needless to say, we finished our meal as quickly as possible and got out of there and back to the quietness of our adult-occupant vehicle.

We officially got "on the road" at 2:30. I'd made hotel reservations in Amarillo, so we knew our destination and stopping point for the night. The drive was really uneventful. We made a couple of potty-break stops and had a DQ Blizzard somewhere around Bowie. We switched seats when B wanted to take a little snooze, so Dear drove and I got in front with him. By the time B actually got nested in the back seat, he was fully awake -- isn't that always how it goes? -- and so we put on some vacation tunes to start the trip off in traditional fashion. Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold and Riders in the Sky. K was reading a novel during the Patsy and Eddy selections, but when RITS started singing "Ghost Riders in the Sky" with the cattle calls and yodels she said "Are you serious??" and dug out some earplugs so she could concentrate.

Then B started fiddling around with "stuff" that was lying around amongst the packed items, found a sun visor and put it on upside down for the comic effect. K got out the camera and took a couple of pictures and it just went downhill from there. I uploaded a couple of mobile photos to Facebook to start off the Vacation 2009 album, and I figured out how to put them in here, too. Well, I'll have to work on the layout thing, but at least you can see this pictures. I took the Dumas one (I have to stop and think everytime I say that city name...think about it) for my friend LaShera. Dumas is her home town and we pay homage to it in her honor as we pass through. (Don't tell LaShera I said so, but the place always smells like cattle.)

We got to Amarillo about 8:15 and decided to assuage the Tex-Mex cravings at Abuelo's before checking into the hotel. The Pilot GPS directed us to the restaurant and we had a wonderful dinner. It was quiet because we were all winding down from the excitement of a full day and a 6-hour drive. After dinner, B drove us to the hotel, I checked us in, and we're situated for the night.

And so it has begun. We miss you #1 and #3!

ttfn

The Journey Is Half the Fun?

We must have been more ready to get home than we thought, because we all woke up before my phone alarm went off at 8:30. Actually, Dear said he woke up at 6:15 with that song on his mind that goes “five-hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes…” and he laid there doing the math to make sure that’s really how many minutes there are in a year. After ciphering for a while, he concluded that it is.

Anyway, after the 8:30 phone alarm, we snoozed until someone did the tap-ta-ta-tap-tap thing on our door. Hmmm, we have no friends here and we still had the “Do Not Disturb” sign out, so who could it be?

Since the boyz were in their sleeping skivvies, I got up and looked out the peephole. There was a sturdy-looking tall bald man standing there, so I said (in gravelly morning voice), “Who is it?” and he said, “Da#&, I’ve got the wrong room again, sorry!” The same guy had knocked on our door last night and looked surprised when #3 opened the door. He’d REALLY have gotten a shock had I actually opened the door! LOLOL Good thing we were already awake when he knocked this morning, or we would have been much less forgiving.

At 9:00 Dear did his shower thing while I checked email and verified our flight departure info. Then it was my turn to clean up while Dear found the actual song (525,600 minutes) on iTunes so he could get it out of his head. Great song, by the way.

We’d packed most everything the night before just to make sure we had room for all of our original stuff PLUS the souvenir stuff we’ve bought in the last 2 weeks. All we had left to pack in the morning were our routine toiletries, PJ’s and slippers (mine), and find a place for the few dirty clothes from the morning cleanup. #3 showered and we were ready to check out about 10:45.

We hadn’t finished up some of the food items we’d bought the other night. Dear poured the rest of the milk down the sink, but we just left the brownies and 2 doughnuts. Maybe the housekeeper had a little snack as she cleaned our room.

Checkout was smooth – the printer was “miraculously” working – and we were on our way. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:40, so we figured we’d get to the airport about 12:30 to return the rental and get through all the security. But since it wasn’t 11 yet, we looked for a place to have lunch before going to the airport.

My boyz graciously agreed to one last Malibu Chicken lunch at the Sizzler just for me. Aren’t they thoughtful? It was wonderful.

We filled up the rental with gas for the return to Enterprise and Maggs got us to the Oakland International Airport in record time. The air around Oakland was really hazy, but I had read online this morning that the fires were building up again because of the hot, dry weather. I’m glad we did the SF tour when the smoke had blown out of the area for that short time.

We pulled into the rental car return at 12:30 on the dot. Enterprise man checked us in, told us we’d driven 2,511 miles (WOW), and gave me the receipt for the charges. It was less than what Gloria (San Jose Enterprise Clerk) had quoted – even with the extra drop-off and driving-into-a-non-bordering-state charges. Take that, Glo! There is justice, albeit *hooters* couldn’t think of the word I wanted. Oh, anti-climactic. That’s the word I wanted. Ignore the *hooters.*

Quick shuttle ride to the Oakland terminal, check the bags (no charge for 5 bags because we booked before the baggage surcharge requirement), endure the tedious security check, get dressed again, and made it to Gate 8A by 12:50.
Yep. We had a hurry-up-and-wait experience, but at least we didn’t miss the flight. My mother would be proud. She’s big on the hurry-up-and-wait philosophy of life.

We were scheduled to arrive in BigD at 8:15 p.m. and #1 was supposed to bring Dear’s van to pick us up at the airport. I sent him a message the night before with the flight info and again in the morning with our arrival gate A15. #2&K were on stand-by just in case. We like to have a backup plan for insurance.

We sat in the gate waiting area for a while and then #3 and I went browsing at one of the little souvenir/snack stores on the concourse. They had a deal on OAKLAND shirts, so we got one for him and one for the guy who house-sat for us. We also bought some of those little solar-powered keychains for friends and a couple of sodas. That killed about 15 minutes and it wasn’t too long after we got back to the waiting area that they started boarding the flight for home.

We kept ourselves occupied on the flight with various activities. Dear read the SkyMall magazine, I worked the crossword puzzle in the American Way magazine, and #3 listened to music on his iPod. When we started out, the pilot told us that the weather in BigD was sunny, temp of 97 with a few clouds, and that we’d be arriving about 15 minutes early. Must have had a good westerly tail wind.

Looong flight: 3 hours and 25 minutes. The skies were clear and we could see the terrain down below. FYI, Monument Valley, UT, is still impressive from 38,000 feet. #3 was sitting by the window, but I leaned to see things every once in a while.

AA (that’s American Airlines, not Alcoholics Anonymous) still serves free soft beverages and bottled water, but doesn’t give out free food anymore. Not even those little bags of honey-coated nuts or Chex mix. About halfway through the flight, our Malibu chicken lunch was a distant memory and our tumblies were grumbling. We figured we’d eat at Abuelo’s in Arlington after #1 picked us up from the airport. Yummy!

At 7:45, the pilot told us that we were flying over Wichita Falls (we knew he was talking about TX, but the people in front of us thought he meant Kansas. Hello? 7th grade Geography?) and that they had just gotten the report that there was “weather” at DFW and the airport was closed to incoming flights. At that point, he was thinking we’d be rerouted to Oklahoma City to refuel and wait out the DFW storm. Hmmm.

Many things ran through my mind, not the least of which was how to get this info to #1, who had already left our house to make the trip to the airport to pick us up and doesn’t have a cell phone. Hmmm. Oh well, there was nothing I could do at 38,000 feet and #1 is savvy enough to check the website and/or the Arr/Dep screens at the airport to get the latest info.

We did land at 8:00. It was just that we were in OkC instead of BigD. Pilot said that we’d refuel, deplane the 3 lucky passengers who were headed for OkC anyway and just got there 2 hours early, get a new flight plan, and wait for DFW to open up to incomings. It’s the first time in my many years of flying experience that people weren’t up out of their seats the nanosecond the plane stopped on the tarmac. Everyone just sat there talking quietly and waiting for the next update.

9:00. Pilot said we’d been refueled, the 3 OkC passengers were off (lucky them), we had the new flight plan, and DFW was still closed. But it looked like the weather cell was moving quickly (obviously he’s not from TX because he seemed surprised at fast-moving weather) and we were going to get in line to take off.

9:35. Pilot explained why we’d been sitting on the runway for so long. There were at least 60 rerouted flights coming into OkC and we had to wait for a takeoff spot between the incomings. We finally started rolling a couple of minutes later and were in the air by 9:40. Pilot said it was only a 25-minute flight to DFW.

10:26. The 25-minute flight (uh, more like 46) landed at DFW. We were anticipating a turbulent ride and #3 had his knuckles all set for whiteness, but it was a smooth flight. We saw the lights of BigD long before we landed and figured that those fast-moving clouds were off in Arkansas somewhere by then.

10:40. Taxied to Gate C10 (remember I had told #1 we’d be arriving at A16 – oops) and people popped up to deplane. Flight Attendant told us that there would be gate clerks to direct people to connecting flights (yeah, right) and that our luggage would be at Baggage Claim C4. Situation back to normal.

11:00. Not so much. We were still waiting to get off the plane. No one had moved. We were still sitting down (experience has told us that it’s easier just to wait than to join in the deplaning rush). Pilot told us that the gate folks were having trouble getting the SkyBridge rolling walkway thingie to work so we could get off the plane, but the mechanics were working on it and we’d be on our way very soon.

11:15. Yeah, we’re still sitting. Pilot said that the SkyBridge rolling walkway thingie was still not working and everyone needed to do an about-face because we’d be walking down the aft stairs, around the wing, and up the back SkyBridge stairs into the gate area. Understand that our seats were in Row 26, so we were very close to the back of the plane. Now, suddenly, we’re at the FRONT of the line! Sweet.

I’ve never been pooped out of a plane before, but obviously there’s a first time for everything. Talk about dropping off the kids!

11:25. We made it down the back, um, aft steps, around the wing, up the baby steps into the SkyBridge NON-rolling walkway thingie and finally into the waiting area at Gate C10. I noticed that there were large signs above the corridor that told us our luggage would be at Baggage Claim C12, but didn’t the Flight Attendant just tell us it would be at C4? Hmmm.

We followed the crowd to Baggage Claim C12, where VOILA!!! there was #1 waiting for us! Hugs all around – we’re HOME!! #1 said he was glad to see us but that he had some bad news and my heart did a flip-flop expecting … I don’t know what I expected to hear.

He’d locked the keys in the car. And it was parked in a one-hour tow-away spot. And the fuel light had come on a few miles back. And our baggage was at C12.
Fitting ending to an interesting day, wouldn’t you say?

Long story short (did I just hear a sigh of relief??), we walked to C12 and retrieved our luggage. I called #2 and he went by our house to get the extra set of keys and then drove to the airport to bring them to us. He got there about 12:30. After the hugs all around with him and the locked-inside key retrieval, we loaded everything up and he followed us to the nearest gas station just to make sure we got there. With the adventure we’d just experienced, we weren’t taking any chances on running out of gas with no backup plan!

We stopped to eat taquitos at What and eventually pulled into our driveway at 2 a.m. We unloaded the car, talked for a little while and my head hit the pillow at 3:30 – which was really only 1:30 to us because we were still functioning on CA time.

It’s been a fun 2 weeks. Thanks for reading along and sharing our adventures. The last set of pictures will bring the total to somewhere around 525. Lots of memories and gorgeous scenery.

Hey, it’s good to be back home again.

ttfn

p.s. Oh, did I mention that the air conditioner on the bedroom side of the house wasn’t working when we got home?

Rainy Days and Mondays

Well, it’s not raining, but it’s the last Monday of our vacation and it’s been a quiet day for us. No excursions or adventures, but write-worthy just the same. My blog, my stories.

Dear and I got up early this morning (relatively speaking, of course – it was 11 when we left the room) and did the laundry chore while #3 slept. (Packing dirty laundry is yukky.) All his clothes were in the laundry anyway, so he couldn’t go anywhere decently until the task was complete. Although…this is California. Maybe no one would have noticed.

While we were out, we went by a UPS Store to arrange for shipping our redwood windmill home. The girl at the first store kind of gulped when she saw the size of the thing. It’s not really HUGE, but it stands at least 2 feet tall without the turning blade apparatus thing (I googled for the technical term, but to no avail) and it’s a good foot across. She didn’t have any boxes big enough, so she gave us directions (here we go again) to another UPS Store that could accommodate The Thing.

This excursion took us about 20 minutes, so we went back to the Laundromat to put our clothes in for the drying cycle. Since the other UPS Store was further away, we finished the laundry and brought it back to the BW lodge so we could get #3 for the rest of our days’ activities.

By the time he got ready and the boyz finished watching the movie they started while I was checking email, it was 3:00. We found the other UPS Store and forked over massive amounts of cash to ship The Thing to ourselves in TX. Good grief, it’s only wood – not solid gold. It cost more to ship it than it did to buy it in the first place! Hindsight.

After the $$$hipping transaction was complete, we stopped at a Target to get a cheapo carry-on bag to add to our collection because we have more stuff to take home than we brought with us. Souvenirs and shirts and jackets and magnets and shot glasses and whirlijigs and you get the picture. More stuff. We found a duffel bag in the Clearance section and got a bargain. Now we have to figure out who will be assigned to this new carry-on bag. That’s a task for tomorrow morning.

I took the camera out with us today, but only took a couple of pictures. I love the purple trees, but again don’t know what they are. Where’s Neil Sperry when I need him?

After Target, we looked for a restaurant for our last vacation dinner. We chose the Elephant Bar Restaurant – a place that boasted of an “eating adventure with a Pacific Rim flair.” Whatever that meant. I wondered if there would be tiki torches and pigs with apples in their mouths on roasting spits, but no.

Our sampler appetizer had shrimp, garlic bread, potato skins, nachos, chicken fingers, and sweet potato fries. Hmmm, quite a combination. But also quite tasty. #3 and I ordered “Pacific Rim” dishes: I had Mongolian beef over rice and he had sweet ‘n sour shrimp over rice. (I guess Pacific Rim is the new euphemism for Chinese?) Dear went for the chicken and shrimp jambalaya over rice. (Wait. That’s Cajun.) (Whatever.) I think all their dishes had rice in some form or fashion and there were also quite a few sushi and other Asian choices on the menu. That was their Pacific Rim theme.

It is California, you know.

We debated on whether to see a movie after dinner, but we opted to return to our lodging base and just get our act together for the Great Packing Extravaganza, Rental Car Adventure and the eventual Trip Home tomorrow. Checkout is at 11, so we’ll have plenty of time to do everything and still make it to the Oakland Airport to catch our 2:40 departure.

She said with fingers crossed and bated breath. Yes, it’s “b-a-t-e-d” not “b-a-i-t-e-d.” I looked it up just to make sure. Wouldn’t want to lead you astray or give you the impression that I’m an uneducated dweeb. I aren’t, and I got well grades in English.

ttfn

I Left My Heart...

In preparation for our San Francisco outing on Sunday, I looked around online Saturday night to find adventures and interesting activities. We definitely wanted to go to Alcatraz and check out the Fisherman’s Wharf for souvenirs and, of course, seafood. When I checked the alcatrazcruises.com website, we’d missed the window for an actual tour of the island. The earliest available would be Tuesday morning at 9:30 – cutting it a bit close for our afternoon departure from the Oakland Airport.

Plan B. The website takes into consideration those unprepared travelers who wait too late to book The Tour and dutifully linked me to the Guardian of the Gates boat tour. The Next Best Thing. And not nearly as expensive or time-consuming. So I made reservations for the 3 of us on the 3:30 GG Tour. Good deal. Except that to pick up our tickets at the Will Call window, Dear would have to present a government-issued photo ID and the first page of the electronic receipt printed out from our home computer.

Um. We’re not at home and don’t carry a printer around with us. So, I called the front desk of the Best Western where we’re currently hanging our hats. The lady said no problem, just come to the lobby after 9 a.m. and the on-duty desk clerk will print what I needed.

My next challenge was figuring out the ride on the BART train into SanFran so we wouldn’t have to fight the Bay Area traffic with the rental car. Online again for schedules, routes, fares, and where the heck is the nearest station. It only took about 15 minutes to find all the info I needed to plan our round trip and decide which schedule we wanted to keep. We decided to go for the 11:15 inbound train. That would give us plenty of time to get into the city, have lunch somewhere and pick up our GG cruise tickets from Will Call at Pier 33 before our 3:30 tour.

We got a good night’s sleep (no noisy neighbors) and were ready to go at 10 a.m. Sunday morning. I went down to the BW lobby to access my email receipt and have the on-duty desk clerk print out the required receipt for our cruise tickets. That’s when the fiasco began.

ODD clerk (no pun intended, that’s just how the acronym worked) said in her Middle-Eastern-accented English that although the customer computer in the lobby was connected to a printer, the printer was not working. She would have to see if we could print to the manager’s office printer. Okaaaay. Let’s do that.

She made a phone call to (I assume) the manager, who informed her that the printer in the manager’s office was – alas! – not working. Hmmm, wonder how they printed out our BW lodging receipt the night before…but I didn’t ask any questions. Other than did she know where there was a Kinko’s or some similar copy services establishment nearby. It was now 10:15 and our 11:15 BART train appointment was fast approaching.

ODD clerk gave me some sketchy directions to the nearest copy place and we started driving. We didn’t see anything resembling a photocopier at the intersection where she directed us. Grrr. Drove around blindly for a couple of minutes, then stopped in at a Starbucks – they’re usually coherent, right?
The guy behind the counter told me that they didn’t have any printer availability, but there was a Kinko’s just up the road a bit. Better directions this time and off we went again. Found the FedEx/Kinko’s just as the Starbucks guy directed. It didn’t open until noon.

Back in the car to see what else we could find close by. We finally found the Copy Mat place that ODD clerk originally told us about and I went inside. Dear and #3 were doing the driving-around-the-block maneuver so we wouldn’t waste more time trying to park and walk. Yes, they could print what I needed, but the lady who does that only works Monday through Friday from 9-5. Well, that’s about as useful as…fill in your own blank.

Back in the car and more driving. Just a couple of blocks away, we found a Pacific Copy place that looked new and modern. Dear parked the car this time and we went together to accomplish The Mission. A cleverly placed sign on the front door informed us that Pacific Copy was closed on Sunday in observance of the Independence Day holiday. HEY! That was FRIDAY!!!

By this time, we were getting desperate and had already missed the 11:15 BART train opportunity. Dear went in to a little restaurant (Buffalo Bill’s Brewery) and asked if they had a printer we could use. (I told you we were getting desperate.) They didn’t, but the girls in there were very sympathetic and gave us written directions to the closest Office Depot and Best Buy. We thanked them and got back into the car to head toward one of those places.

At this point, Dear said, “It’s already 11:15. Let’s just have lunch here, go to Kinko’s when it opens at noon and print out the receipt, and catch a later BART train into the city.” The inbound train that we needed runs about every 18 minutes and as long as we were at the Will Call window by 3:00, we’d be okay.

Lunch at Buffalo Bill’s Brewery was wonderful. It was a very unique little pub-like place where they brew their own beer. Rachael Ray would definitely have sampled some of the home brew, and I was even tempted by their Orange Blossom Cream special. But no. I’ve gone more than half a century without having a beer, so why mess up my record now? We had sodas with our meals: I had a turkey/avocado sandwich and a cup of cheesy clam chowder; Dear and #3 had the Buffalo Bill burger and fries.

I took a couple of pictures of the brewing vats in the back of the place, as well as one of the signs hanging overhead with someone’s name on it. Good luck pronouncing it. I can’t even begin to try.

It was 12:15 when we finished lunch and went back to the Kinko’s to print our GG receipt. Kinko’s was OPEN!!! Beautiful sight. Naturally, there was someone already using the public computer, but we were second in line. We waited for about 10 minutes and the people finally finished their online whatever and we FINALLY accomplished our Printing Mission. We left Kinko’s at 12:45 with receipt in hand and headed for the B Street BART station.

We made the 1:10 BART train – after a helpful BART employee took pity on us and pointed us in the right direction with the necessary transfers and instructions for our return trip later in the day. Very confusing and I left without the paper he wrote it all down on (DUH), but we made it into San Francisco by 2:00. YAAAAY! Just like we had good sense.

BART deposited us at the Embarcadero Station at Market and Spear Streets. We mentally took note of our surroundings so we could get back there without leaving a trail of breadcrumbs or pebbles. And started walking to Pier 33 and our GG boat tour.

We walked a couple of blocks and came to Pier 1 and decided that there must be more than one pier at each entrance. Wrong. We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked some more and the Pier 33 sign was like water to thirsty travelers when we finally saw it. I took some pictures along the walk, but mostly just kept my head up and eyes forward looking toward the Pier 33 prize.

It was 2:40 when we actually presented our precious printed receipt (and government-issued photo ID) and had our GG tour tickets in hand. In time and with time to spare! So we walked some more – down to the entrance of Pier 39 just to tantalize ourselves for after the boat tour.

They finally started loading our boat, The Escape, and we were set and ready for our cruise around San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Island and under the Golden Gate Bridge. Lots of Kodak moments, as you will see. There are photos of the SF skyline, famous landmarks Telegraph Hill and the TransAmerica Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge in fog and sunshine, and Alcatraz Island from all angles. I won’t explain them here because I captioned them in myspace for clarification.

It was colder than Billy Blue (my mother’s favorite metaphor) out on the bay. We had wondered why everyone had jackets or sweaters with them while standing in line on the pier in the 90-degree sunshine. It definitely weren’t that warm on that boat. In fact, it was bloody cold! All the SF promo says that the fog comes in from the ocean every day and drops the air temps in the afternoon. We can definitely testify to that now.

The tour was very informative and entertaining – especially the voice-overs by the former inmates of Alcatraz. We were back at the pier by 5:30, bought our souvenir photo, and headed for Pier 39 and dinner.

Before we got to the restaurant, though, we had to pass a LOT of cool shops. We stopped in at a couple of them just to spend more money, which I’m sure they greatly appreciated. But Dear and I came out with warm fleecy SF jackets and #3 bought a SF hoodie. More stuff for the rest of the fam, too. Then on to Neptune’s Palace for dinner.

I didn’t realize until I looked at the photos that I had taken pictures of Neptune’s Palace restaurant from our GG tour boat, and then we ended up eating there. Significance in the small things again. Our server looked like Taye Diggs (Rent, Private Practice) and was very touchy-feely with my menu. After the initial ‘awkward,’ we ordered our meals and Taye asked if we’d like some sparkling water? I said no, just flat, thanks, thinking we’d get good ol’ tap water.

Think again. The bottle of “flat” Sole (so-lay) mineral water with “no minerals added” (huh?) cost us $9.25. Taye was a clever one, eh? We drank every blasted drop of that bottle of water.

The food was very good. I had Dungeness crab pasta, Dear had sautéed seafood pasta with salmon/scallops/shrimp, and #3 had Dungeness crab cakes with angel hair pasta. (Taye had told us that it was crab season and we should definitely get something with crab in it.) No dessert because we were going to hit one of the shops on the way back up the Wharf to satisfy our sweet tooth.

We didn’t get anything sweet after all, but we tried to ride a streetcar back to the BART station so we wouldn’t have to do that endless walk again. The streetcar fare was $1.50 per person – exact change required – so Dear ducked into another souvenir shop and bought a little SF magnet so we would have the right change for the ride.

We waited at the streetcar stop with an assortment of interesting (read odd) folks. And waited. And waited. Finally a streetcar came along that was already packed in like sardines and didn’t even bother stopping at our corner. Just as well, none of the 20 of us waiting would have fit anyway. We waited a few minutes more and then decided to make the journey back to BART on foot again.

It didn’t seem as long getting back to the Embarcadero BART station, but it was nearly dark when we finally got there. Interesting that we only saw one other streetcar going our way on that whole journey. We’d probably still be waiting had we actually waited for one.

Walking the streets of San Francisco at night was definitely NOT appealing to us Waxahachians (Hachie-ites?), so we were very glad when we got to familiar BART territory and caught the 9:10 train back out to Hayward. We were in the rental car by 10:00 and at the BW lodge by 10:30.

It was a long day, but lots of fun. We got some really good photos and saw familiar sights. Interesting that we never did hear Tony singing the song, but it was running through my head all day long. I’d like to come back some time and actually stay in the city by the bay for more sights and adventures.

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Anderson to Hayward

Our stay in Anderson was probably the least pleasant of any on this trip. We rested for a while after we got to the hotel and then ventured out to find something to eat. We were headed for Red Lobster, when Dear spotted a Marie Callender’s. We don’t have those in BigD, so we stopped. I had a slice of quiche, salad and a bowl of clam chowder. Dear had a tri-cut steak and mashed potatoes, and #3 had the chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes. Then we all had a piece of pie: razzleberry for me, german chocolate for Dear, and sour cream apple for #3.

The food was good, but more expen$$ive than we had anticipated. And afterward, we all felt awful, and it made for an uncomfortable evening. We watched a Hallmark Channel movie, I crocheted, #3 chatted online, and then we all went to bed early (11:30). One thing I’ve noticed about being in this time zone: the days seem to last forever. That’s random, but it just popped into my head so I wrote it.

My cell phone has served as our alarm clock for this trip. I usually set it and put it on the night stand between the beds so we’ll all hear it in the morning. No problem so far. Until Anderson. For some reason, my phone would interfere with the cheapo hotel clock/radio frequency (I don’t know how to explain it, but if you’ve ever talked on your cell phone around a radio, you know what I mean) and the clock would make that annoying buzzing sound at random intervals and without warning.

The first time we heard the buzz, I just put my cell phone under my pillow on the opposite side away from the nightstand. The buzzing didn’t stop. Finally, about 3:00 I just yanked the clock/radio cord out of the wall socket, put my cell phone back on the night stand, and went to sleep again.

Then the fun really started. The people in the room next to ours (on the other side of the adjoining door) decided to start talking and laughing loudly at 4:15. Woke us all up – and that’s really saying something if they woke up #3!

I had seen a couple of men going into that room earlier and they seemed rather jovial. I can only imagine how their evening went to make them so slap-happy in the wee hours. That’s probably very non-politically correct, but HELLO? We were trying to sleep! We could tell by the voices that there were at least 4 people in on the fun – and at least one of them was female.

Dear got out of bed and cranked up the air conditioner in our room for white noise to drown out the party, but the stupid thing kept cycling off leaving us in relative silence in our room and privy to the goings on in the next room. Thrilling. I considered calling the front desk, but didn’t want to risk life and limb by poking a stick at the party-ers. They finally quieted down about 5:00 and we three went back to sleep.

8:00. Noise from the next room AGAIN. Do these people never sleep?? Are they vampires who sleep during the day? What’s up with this? But this time, they added slamming doors to the cacophony. Since the sun was up now, our A/C was running full speed ahead and helped to drown out some of the noise. We managed to doze until my phone alarm went off at 10. Grrr.

I must admit that when we got up and heard nothing coming from the other side of the adjoining door, I deliberately banged my suitcase lid against said door just for spite. It was a futile, childish attempt at neener-neener, because almost immediately they started talking, laughing and slamming doors again. Sigh. There’s no justice. Or rest for the weary.

#3 turned on the TV (loudly) to some wildlife show and the first thing I heard was, “Oh no, the hippo decoy is stuck in the mud!” HUH?? The human “star” of the show was in Zambia or some such place trying to get a sweat sample from a female hippopotamus (for whatever reason, I don’t even want to know) and had cleverly (?) concocted a hippo decoy to fool the female into approaching what she assumed to be an available male hippo. Duh. That’s the first picture. The decoy is the one on the left that’s laying there like a beached, um, hippo.

We checked out at 11:45 and were traveling by 11:47. A few miles down the road, we started seeing signs for the Olive Pit and an accompanying olive tasting. Then we began seeing olive groves on either side of the road. This was the first time we’d ever had an olive opportunity, so we stopped. And took a picture. Are you surprised?

The Olive Pit in Corning was a little store that sold mostly olives. All kinds and varieties and flavors. I’ve never seen so many olives in one place. There were garlic olives, pickled olives, stuffed jalapeno olives, smoked olives, black olives, every kind of olive you could ever imagine and then some. They also had pickled garlic, sauerkraut, artichoke pastes, rows and rows of EVOO (Rachael Ray should buy stock here!), and even some souvenirs thrown in for good measure. There was a little deli counter on one side of the store where you could “build your own olive sandwich.” Yuk. We passed on that opportunity.

I tasted a pickled garlic clove and a hot ‘n spicy olive while Dear and #3 pretended they didn’t know me. I bought a green shot glass and an olive spoon. The cashier also gave me a couple of postcards, a shipping order form in case I wanted to buy something later, and a free sample of lotion. Lotion? #3 wanted to know if it was Olive Lotion. NO, SA, it isn’t olive lotion! The Olive Pit was an interesting little diversion from the drive on The 5.

As we were leaving the Olive Pit, we saw a man walking his dog that appeared to be a Papillon (the dog, not the man), but it was much bigger than our grand-dog, Jaxon. Dear stopped the car and I asked the man if I could take a picture of his dog for comparative purposes. Thus the dog photo.

From Corning, we found a Subway and had a light lunch to hold us till we got to our destination for the next 3 nights: Hayward and the San Francisco/Oakland/Bay Area. We made it without incident. Gas is back up in the $4.45 - $4.75 range. The hotel where we’re staying is a Best Western MOTEL (it’s hard to tell the difference with those Internet promo photos), but it’s in a quiet neighborhood and close to the freeways.

We rested for a while and then Maggs directed us toward an Olive Garden for a familiar eating place. On the way there, we saw a Mimi’s Café and detoured there for dinner. It was wonderful. And reasonably priced. We took a little side excursion to find a UPS store for the aforementioned mailing of the redwood windmill and then made it back to the hotel – I mean motel – for a quiet evening.

The outside temp is 70 with very little humidity. The forecast for where we just came from is in the 100’s for the whole week, with the hottest day being Wednesday with a potential temp of 109! I’m really glad we’ve come south and west of that heat wave. Of course, we’ll be back in TX by Wednesday, but I’m just saying.

There are beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. The first floral picture doesn’t show the true color. The flowers are more of a deep, hot pink. It’s probably because of the shooting angle. The other two photos are more accurate color-wise. Just don’t know what they are!

We have a bunch of brochures to help us decide how to spend the next couple of days, but we know for sure we want to see a Pacific Ocean sunset at least once more before we leave for TX. And visit Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz and ride the cable cars. And get some photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.

But first we want to get a good night’s sleep without slamming doors, laughing neighbors, or annoying electronic devices. Here’s hoping…

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SoOR to NoCal

The Super8 Motel in Phoenix had a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. Who’da ever thunk it. A flat-screen TV in a Super8 Motel. Wonders never cease. The bathtub didn’t drain and I’ve seen water fountains with more water pressure than the shower. But we managed to get ready and we left Phoenix at 10:45 – a full 15 minutes before we actually had to.

There were low clouds around the hilltops when we left the motel and the air temp was 69. Heavenly. The further south we got, the more haze was hanging in the SoOR air. The haze cleared when we got into NoCal, so the winds must have blown all the smoke from the fires northward into Oregon.

We stopped for lunch in Yreka. Want to know why? Good. I was going to tell you whether you wanted me to or not. My blog, my stories.

When Dear and I were first married and lived in Mecca (Springfield, MO for any non-A/G readers), he played for youth choirs at Central A/G and I worked at the Blue Goose (otherwise known as the Headquarters of the Assemblies of God) (genuflect, genuflect, hobaba). One of the families we knew via teens in the youth choir and mom who worked at the BG with me had named their daughter Yreka, after the NoCal town.

I told you I see significance in small things – so that’s why we stopped in Yreka for lunch. It’s pronounced “wy-reek-a” and it was a quaint little mining town that popped up during the CA gold rush. Or so they say. Yreka the town for Yreka the old friend. End of story.

Anyway, after a quick lunch we got back on The 5 and resumed our southerly drive toward Anderson. Along the way, we saw Mt. Shasta. There were also several fires burning to the west. We saw one of the planes that drops water onto fires and watched it make several runs to the water hole and then back to the largest of the fires in the area. We took several photos of Shasta, the Dam, the Lake and the fires.

Another interesting little town was Weed. We didn’t stop, but #3 saw the sign for Weed Central Community College and decided that he wants to go there. NOT, but we took a picture anyway.

There was a houseboat rental marina at Shasta Lake with really nice looking houseboats. That might be a fun thing to do sometime in the future. Live on a houseboat for a week. Hmmm, we’ll add it to our “Maybe” list. One of the houseboats had run aground. Kodak moment. Wonder if there’s an extra charge to extricate a houseboat from the shore.

We exited The 5 to check out Shasta Dam. #3 was reading the directional signs by the roadside and then saw that there were directions painted onto the roadway. He read it as Dam To. You know how they paint those signs to be read as you reach them rather than logically? Yeah. Who’s idea was that anyway? It’s very confusing. But we got there.

Shasta Dam was an interesting stop. It’s the second largest dam in the US – I assume the first one would be Hoover – but I didn’t get the chance to ask the dam tour guide because we missed the dam tour by about 10 minutes. Oh well. We’ve done dams before, as you know if you’ve been reading me for any length of time.

Dear and #3 did get their picture taken by a dam photographer who was shooting visitors for a future dam promo brochure. I was in the dam restroom at the time, so the dam photographer didn’t get my picture for the dam brochure.

On our side trip to the dam, I noticed some particular plants that had red branches. I asked a woman what they were and she said they were manzanita trees. I’ve never seen trees with red branches before, but they were really cool. Wonder if they’ll grow in TX?

After the dam, the drive to Anderson was uneventful. It was only about 20 miles, but I managed to get a few more rows done on one of the baby afghans I’m crocheting. #3 had programmed Maggs to take us to what Dear thought was the hotel. But when she declared, “You have arrived,” the only thing close by was a Dairy Queen. Not very subtle, #3, but effective. We all had a Blizzard.

Just behind the DQ was Sue’s Java Café. No DOOL Daniel, but I took a picture anyway.

We’re at the Baymont Inn and Suites in Anderson, CA, and it’s the 4th of July. We’re celebrating by watching the “Dirtiest Jobs” marathon on the Discovery Channel.

Happy Birthday, America!

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Crater Lake

We actually got up early this morning and were on the road by 10:15 because we had a 200-mile drive to even get to Crater Lake and then another 100 or so miles further to get to our stopping place for the night. We drove a little while to give the restaurants a chance to open for the lunch crowd and then stopped in Albany, OR for a Sizzler lunch.

We also looked for a Post Office or UPS Store to mail the redwood windmill we bought last week. (Did I tell you about that? No? Well, you’ll just have to visit us to see it.) There’s no way we can get it on the plane, so we’re just going to ship it home. Dear stopped in at an Army Recruiting place to ask if there was such a store nearby and the Army person gave some sketchy directions. We never did find it. I hope that guy isn’t on a SAR team! (Just for K, that means Search And Rescue. Love. I hear that your paint job is coming along nicely.)

Anyway, Albany was the first town where we’d actually seen an A/G church on this trip, so naturally we had to have a photo. They had a fireworks stand on their parking lot (great fundraiser!) and I figure that the female in the picture was standing on the sidewalk to make sure that drivers-by knew that the fireworks were available – just in case they didn’t see the giant white tent or the FIREWORKS signs every 3 feet along the road.

We made the rest of the trip to Crater Lake in pretty good time. Got there about 4 p.m. Along the way, we passed the Lowell Covered Bridge, the Blue Pool camping area, and Diamond Peak. There are pictures of each place. Then we paid the entrance fee for yet another national park and drove the last few miles to Crater Lake.

All I could say was, “Wow.” Check out the photos and you’ll see what I mean.

Crater Lake was formed when the volcano Mount Mazama erupted 7,000 years ago (so they say) and the top of the mountain collapsed in on itself. Eventually, the rain and snow runoff filled the hole and became what was dubbed Crater Lake. (What? Did you think it was formed by a meteor that hit the earth?) The deepest point of the lake is 1,943 ft. and the average depth is 1,148 ft. It’s the deepest lake in the US and one of the deepest in the world.

Wizard Island is one of two “islands” in the lake and is actually a volcano-in-progress forming upward from the floor of the lake. The other island is called the Phantom Ship because of its appearance. One more interesting thing is that Crater Lake is called a closed ecological system because no stream runs into or out of the lake. Isn’t it amazing how “nature” is self-sufficient and perfectly balanced? Hmmm, I vote that it’s all part of a creative plan. Amen.

Entertaining AND informative. I should get an Emmy.

I took way too many pictures, but it was so awesome that I just couldn’t stop. Flip through quickly if you get bored. I’m especially proud of a couple of them and plan to ooch my buddy, Buddy, into painting one of them to add to our, um, I mean HIS collection.

We stopped at the Rim Village Visitor’s Center to take care of some necessities and then looked around the gift shop. I bought a couple of things, including a Christmas ornament to commemorate our 2008 vacation.

Back on the road toward Phoenix (Oregon, not Arizona) – our destination for sleeping tonight. Along the way, we passed some interesting shops. Moozie’s Café and Catering boasted “Udderly Delicious Food” and was next door to the Longhorn Saloon. I found that immensely amusing. Then we saw the Purple Parrot that declared they had White Castle burgers. They lied. Well, they had the frozen ones, but that’s just cruel.

The hands-down winner for the day was the drive-through coffee stand in Eagle Point. I wanted to get a bunch of their cups just for the shock value. “Hi, welcome to our home. Would you like some coffee??” You’ll have to look at the pictures to get it.

We had dinner at Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant in Eagle Point. After the hilarity of their other retail establishments, we figured the food would probably be worth the effort. We all had various flavors of burritos and they were great. Knock on wood. We’re 2 for 2 with Mexican food, so I think we should quit while we’re ahead and are not regretting those choices. If you get my drift…

We made it to the Super 8 in Phoenix before dark and are settled in for the night. I’m so thrilled that all the pictures turned out good – I was worried because it seemed so hazy out. Must be the NoCal fires sending all the smoke northward and eastward.

Tomorrow we drive back into CA, but it’s only 150 miles to where we’re staying in … get this … Anderson. I look for significance in the small things. We didn’t want a long drive on the holiday because you just never know what kind of other drivers will be out there, too. Be safe, everyone.

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