Transportation

Whew, we spent a lot of time traveling around today.

We drove to the Bart station and parked.  Took the Bart (train/subway) into San Francisco.  While there we rode the cable cars, a street car and the bus.  So, we did almost all the types of transportation available in SF today.

We had lunch at Fisherman's wharf at Boudin Bakery which has great food.  While we were there I bought some Chardonnay brittle (which takes just like regular peanut brittle) and some chocolate tea (that I can't wait to taste).

We went to the Apple Store (of course) but didn't buy anything (surprise - I think it's because we already own almost everything in the store).

FedEx delayed my package for a day because they had a full pallet and they "rolled it over to the next flight".  They won't re-route, even though I am the recipient, without the permission of the drop off location - so I am not impressed with them.

San Francisco and Pacifica have been awesome.  Moving on towards warmer climates tomorrow.

More Pictures

Here are some pictures I took while we toured San Francisco with Mandell.

The first couple I took with the iPad because I did not want to lug the camera around Pier 39.

Here are the SeaLions on the docks at Pier 39.

Here is the Golden Gate Bridge from the beach nearby.

Last night I got some more sunset pictures.

We walked down to the Pacifica pier and watched the fishermen fishing for crab. This pelican was waiting for any tidbits.

For some reason Kathie did not want me to go swimming even though my life insurance is paid up.

Dog Show

Today we went over to Daly City to walk around the dog show. We looked at the Bernese Mountain Dogs, of course, as well as the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers. We saw some gorgeous Newfies and talked to one of the breeders of Irish Water Spaniels.

Mandell met us there and came back to the campsite for dinner. Now we are looking forward to a couple of days of relaxing before we move on.

Busy day in San Francisco

Woke up to another sunny day in Pacifica. Mandell came out with the zip car and drove us around.

Our first stop was Pier 39 and we split up to various interests. I went to my favourite earring place. I saved a lot of money there today (my new earrings are beautiful). We had lunch at the Pier with some very large portions.

After lunch we went to the Palace of Fine Arts and walked around admiring the architecture. It was built on the premise of buildings and landscaping working together and is really quite impressive. We drove around quite a bit to find parking as it was a sunny day in SF; and they are infrequent enough that, when combined with a weekend ensured that maximum crowds were out.

Mandell also showed us his office and home. After that, we came back here to the campsite for dinner and a rest.

Some Pictures

Here are the first pictures of the trip.

Sealion caves;

These are pictures from the RV park we are staying in:

I got this shot this morning;

I got this shot just after the sun went down;

Sunny days

Woke up this morning to the sun shining. Had coffee watching the surf pounding slong the cliff. What s great way to wake up.

We took the Bart into San Francisco and spent most of the day at Macworld 2012 expo. This is a Mac trade now. What a lot of fun. I got to talk to developers and programmers of some of my favourite apps. Like any trade shows, the specials were many. So we didn't leave empty handed.

Mandell was tied up at work but we are hoping to spend time with him tomorrow.

San Francisco

Driving along in northern California was sunny and warm . . . Until we turned the corner just before San Francisco. And the we hit very heavy fog. You couldn't see the edge of the Golden Gate bridge as you were driving on it. All through SF it was the same - very foggy.

Mandell was here for dinner, as well as our friend Don. After Dinner we had a great visit with both of them and Theo and Flinn Deen - both from the Netherlands. We had an delightful and interesting evening visiting with everyone.

Fog, fog, more fog

The Oregon coast is beautiful and our friend Don hadn't seen it before. He still hasn't. He hasn't seen the redwoods either slthough we drove right by them

There was so much fog today that at times you weren't sure where the road was going. We stopped for lunch near Brookings and it was like it was raining the fog was so heavy.

Picked up phone messages and heard from Uncle Truman and Aunt Gwen - hi guys.

Stopped tonight in Fortuna CA. Heading for San Francisco tomorrow.

Interesting Day

We started the day at the Sea Lion Caves.  Usually we are here during the summer and see the Sea Lions outside - maybe one or two in the cave.  Today we saw approximately 200 in the cave.  Wow, that was neat (boy are they noisy).

It was so windy up there that we had to anchor James so that he wouldn't get blown away on the way to the elevator (the caves are 200 ft down the elevator).  They just got back to full power today, so I kinda held my breath in the elevator hoping for power the whole time....but no issues.

In the afternoon we relaxed around the trailer in the wind and rain storm.  The power in the RV park went out for a short time, but no big deal.

Then we went to our favourite restaurant here in Florence.  Paul and James love the Fisherman's Net seafood platter.  We were the only customers the whole time we were there.  But the food was great as usual at the ICM International C Food Market.

Getting ready for an early start tomorrow.

Florence Oregon

Stopping tonight in Florence. We drove highway 126 to the coast. Although the signs were still up for possible flooding on the road, the roads were clear and dry for us. Good thing we didn't get here earlier - the campsite "ranger" said that 14 trees blew down in the wind. There was some damage to vehicle and motor homes and they were out of power all week until this morning.

Woodburn Oregon

We stopped just south of Portland for the night.  Washington State still has a lot of snow on the side of the road but we spent the day driving through the rain.  We are travelling with our friend Don from Smithers - he has a 34' motor home.  At least for the first bit - he has a reservation for a month in Surprise, AZ.  It might be warm and dry there.

Just north of Centralia we pulled over for gas.  The first gas station was "for lease", so we drove across the road to the Arco, no diesel.  There was a Chevron with diesel four miles down the road.  So we drove down there.  They had no power and no gas.  So back to the I-5 and the next thing we see is a sign for a Love's truck stop in another 15 miles.  There, we got diesel.

There is an outlet mall next door to the RV site, so we plan of spending a bit of time over there in the morning before we take off.

On the ferry

Well, the Coho was fully booked for tomorrow morning. So we drove to the terminal to get in the line up for the morning . . . And they said stand-by only. Eeeeekkk. Drove down to the BC ferry and caught the 5. We're hoping to drive to Ferndzle WA tonight.

But it's okay. 'Cause we're on the road.

Hurry up and wait

It's snowing in Victoria and in Washington state - both on the 101 and I5.  So, we sit in Victoria and wait for a bit.  The weather forecast changes hourly it seems going between simply a weather watch to an alert to a warning - they don't know exactly what the system will do.  Mother nature at her finest.

So . . . .

we didn't leave yesterday as originally planned.  Now it might be Thursday or even Friday.  Our friend Don, who is planning on traveling part of the way with us, will come over this morning for a strategy meeting.

Getting Ready For Our Next Loop

The trailer has been checked out and the wheel bearings have been done. The new spare tire is mounted on the bumper beside the other spare. The propane tanks are full. The new mattress is on the bed.

The truck is ready to go. The oil and antifreeze have been changed, and the bushings and tie rod ends in the front that were worn out have been replaced.

We just have to de-winterize the fresh water system and pack the trailer and we will be ready to go. Now we just have to figure out where everything will go. This trip we will have to take some winter clothes as well and they take up more room. Kathie won't be teaching this trip (as far as we know) so we don't need to bring along all the text books that we had last time.