Riding bikes, cable cars, and trollies

Did I mention...
 -You can click on all the pictures in this blog and see them in better (HUGE) detail, if you'd like.
-GORMP is my made up revision of GORP because it's deluxe and includes Gold Old Raisins and M&Ms and Peanuts... 


I think we left the last blog as we headed out, me still mumbling about the lady at the hotel, and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge.  I'd seen an interesting landmark online called Fort Point, which is right near the beginning of the bridge, so I thought "good place to start!"

So, I put it into our Garmin, named Val (it was our romantic Valentine's Day gift...)  The drive to the bridge was actually very enjoyable because we took the long stretch of road that runs along the bay, where there are all kinds of people walking dogs, riding bikes, jogging, and picnicking with the GGB in the backdrop.  We got a bunch of pictures and wished we had such scenery for our daily jogs...

When we arrived, we were surprised to find that we couldn't actually FIND any fort.  Not sure if there's anything to visit at Fort Point, or if it was closed, but we had some bike riding to do, so it worked as a parking spot... relatively well.

From our parked car:

As you may have guessed from the angle of that picture, we had a bit of a ride ahead of us, most of which would be pedaled in the lowest gear.  Here we are about halfway there:

A nice tripod shot, believe it or not...

And after about a half hour of pedaling and passing the unfortunate souls whose spirits were broken by the 80-degree hill,  WE MADE IT!

As you can see, it was a bit of a labor:

But it didn't take long for those frowns to be turned:

It was quite a thrill, and to our good fortunte, it wasn't too busy. That meant we were much less likely to get in a wreck and fall over the edge--yay! And we could take pictures like that one--yay!

And more:

And in response to last blog's question--it would seem so!

-Look at how sweaty that guy is! (Is this the hottest day of the year in SF?)

Lovely scenery, though...

With the big city skyline:

And with my Navy Memorial friend:

So after that, we headed back across and stopped at the GGB Gift Shop, after taking this last shot with my phone:

Pretty.

We picked up some postcards, and most importantly, a Pressed Penny ANNND  Collector's Commemorative Keepsake Penny Book, WITH Limited Edition GBB Penny... It's quite an item.

After that, we headed to where every SF vistor must head, Pier 39. We got tired of driving around figuring out parking, so we parked at World Market (just like at home...) and bought some silverware on sale for the apartment we would be moving into. That got our parking validated for the few hours we would spend getting pulled into tourists traps, and getting bothered by street performers, like this guy!

Yep, that's the answer to last blog's questions:
-Why does that guy have his arm around your wife? And why's he SILVER??


He was silver because he, and his friend behind him, were statues. (duh) And he has his arm around my wife because...hey wait... why exactly DOES he have his arm...?  No, it was fun, and we got some film, along with some silver paint on Cara's shoulder.

Easily the most memorable thing at Pier 39, the REAL reason you should go, is the answer to the other question:
-What's are those blobs behind Cara?

Thos are big, blubbery SEA LIONS! Honestly the best thing to just stand and stare, and laugh, at.  They just roll around, bark at eachother, hack up a lung occastionally, and struggle to get back on their pads after they take a dip. 

And actually, I started to write as I was typing this, which is wrong, and when I looked it up and found out they're sea lions, I also found this site. It is dark right now as I write but MIGHT be fun during the day:
http://master.livetrac.com/cgi-bin/pier39marina/live?pset=pier39marina&template=restaurant

So, we hung out and ate some clam chowder in a sourdough bowl--quite good, despite the warmth. Then we saw an exciting sign:

As you can see, I was running to see my friends, but since we'd already eaten, Cara said no...


That's OK! We went on the cable cars:

See the bus driver about to give me a hard time? He did, perhaps because I didn't know how the ticket things worked, but probably mostly because we were holding him up by taking this picture. Who knows.

Out the back window, lotsa cables:

The ride gave us a nice view of the city, which was fun, but it was a bit longer than we expected.The fun and interesting thing was where they drop you off for the turn-around.

I call this picture, "Why yes I just got done riding a lady's cruiser bike."

 

I'm not sure if the SF transit system has a sense of humor or it's just a coincidence that many tourists find themselves at this stop daily, but I giggled thinking about the expressions on some faces.

After our ride back, and after Cara's seeing the AWESOME downtown shopping, we were destined to end up staying juuuust a little longer.

So we ate some pizza, at Blondies:

 

We walked through this little square, which had neat little trees with hanging flowers. Pretty as a flower:

 

And, finally, we road the trollies downhill! 

 

And that was just about all the fun we could handle, although NOT quite...

It was imperative that Cara go back and pick up the cute dress she saw, which was fine because she did indeed get a (some) lovely dress(es) and looks dashing in them. However, she also didn't quite make it out in front of the store by the time Adam returned from the parking spot 5 blocks away...

And, because Adam had foolishly turned his Garmin on Pedestrian mode while walking back to the car, and because he foolishly forgot to turn it off, thus began 40 minutes of being told to turn down one-way streets, "make a u-turn" in the middle of traffic, and just general mayhem between him and his friend Val.  Plus it was dark. And a big city. (Val was right, you can go the wrong way down one-way streets WHEN YOU'RE WALKING).

It was a true trial.

But we made it! And all that fun couldn't be undone by a itty bitty little meltdown! So, off to Sacramento we went, to stay the night and get the thing we'd been waiting for: the California Nursing License...

The fun had only begun...

So, we last left you from Salt Lake City, Utah.  We had a very nice room in the Hyatt Place, as you could see, with its flat screen and modern decor and so on... We enjoyed celebrating the big day by relaxing with a bit of the bubbly (a thoughtful gift from home!)

After our fun bicycle ride in the morning to the Capitol building, the Olympic Game Murals, and the STOCKTON and MALONE statues outside the Jazz's Arena, we washed up, packed up, ate the FREE breakfast (you bet) in a nice little breakfast room.

Then, we headed for CALIFORNIA-- the UPS Store in Grassvalley, CA, to be exact. That is where Cara got her fingerpints taken in order to get her California RN Licensure.  After a long, long drive, only stopping for gas (where we did manage to take some good pics of the salty landscape) we got to the store with not just 6 or 8 minutes to spare, but a full TWELVE MINUTES before closing time!

We'd checked, though, before that point with the nice UPS worker there, and he said it'd be quick and didn't mind.

So, we made it! Over 2300 miles in 3 days! Here's the proof, with other neat facts about the trip:

And Cara, with her electronically printed fingers:

So, boy that was fun, but that was only the beginning.  That night, we stayed at a little Reservoir (see me and the cheesecake in the last post) called Scotts Flat. Our UPS friend said it was pretty nice, and we had no other ideas, so we went for it.  Boy, were we thrilled when we saw our camping spot-- just beeeeautiful:

The whole layout, and our chariot with Xcargo:

 

 

 

 

Some real, lovely Bob Ross stuff. It was truly hard to believe. And all these lovely shots are brought to you by Tripod 2000 XL-- here I am happy to have him (thanks Uncle!):

 

This was a pretty neat view, too:

So of course all of this was a great start to our three-day waiting period (how long it takes the Board of Nursing to process the fingerprints, supposedly). We were having a great time, and I was especially engrossed with my tripod set-ups when Cara snapped a shot with her camera:

No-- that is not just a picture of a Ziploc bag on a tree stump... See the little thing behind it?

This may help:

Ta Da! Yep, that's right, it's a squirrel. And that's not just an empty Ziploc bag-- it's the bag of GORMP given to us by Aunt Kathy before we left! He really is trying to get into the Peanuts! (and raisins and M&Ms)

Sadly, I missed this little guy, whom I would have loved to have seen since I always like seeing little squirrels and chipmunks running around.  They're fun. Although, they're more fun when they're not tearing holes in your GORMP bag and making off with it.

So, after that little episode and the tent set-up, we bought a few supplies at the store up the street and enjoyed a nice little campfire that night. We cooked up some tasty hot dogs and mallows then slept under the stars.

In the morning, we cooked up some eggs over a new fire-- which by the way was started with one match! I even skipped the newspaper!

Of course, this is less impressive considering that I had all those highly flammable pine needles everywhere.... hence the terrible natural disasters going on all over the state : ( 

Still, it was neat having our little hot meals. Then, we took down the tent, which brings me to my next bragging point: I fit it in its original bag, no problem... yep, I know! Awesome.

We loaded up the car, said goodbye to the site and to our gormp-eating friend, and headed out. About 4 minutes after leaving the gate, Cara fortunately realized she didn't have her camera. So, we pulled over and looked in her purse, in the bag of stuff, in the other bag of stuff. Still nothing, so we searched in a few other spots and then began to panic. We went back to the campsite, searched the table, ground, bushes, tree stumps, etc... nothing. I even ran up the road, just in case we had done the old leave-it-on-the-roof thing. Nothing. So, the last resort was to unload EVERYTHING out of our packed car. We did. And we searched every bag, under the seats, etc. It took a while. Then we began to come up with suspects:

A. the only other campers, who were 4 sites down

B. the trash guy who had come earlier

C. That dog-gone SQUIRREL!

Well, the other campers were gone, so we couldn't ask them; a worker came by and he hadn't gotten word of a found camera; and we couldn't track down the squirrel. It was hopeless. Then, Cara, with tears in her eyes (almost all our videos and pictures were on that camera, plus it was a great camera) asked me to open up the tent, which I had earlier told her "There's no way. That things packed tight. I would have felt it..."

But, since there wasn't nothing else to do, we opened it up, and what did I feel? A lump! Unbelievable! (Guess I shouldn't have been so impressed by my tent packing, eh?)

Here she is clutching her wayward camera:

Sweet relief. But, it did set us back and hour and a half. So, we left for San Francisco a little later than expected.

So, that meant we got to SF in the late afternoon, and just had a nice seafood dinner at a restaurant near our hotel, the Castle Inn.  It was actaully a motel, I guess, if Motels are the places where rooms open to the outside, but either way, the best part was the elevator, which was really old fashioned and had a regular, hinged door on it! Prrrrretty neat:

The dinner was very good. It was a place called Yabbi's, which we stopped in after taking a walk down a few blocks past a bunch of restaurants, bars, and shops. City nightlife--almost as exciting as old-fashioned elevators for people from NE Ohio!

It was a nice stay, althtough the most surprising part was the ICY lady at the front desk. I wouldn't usually bother telling the story, but she was a real doozy!

The first moment was when we were checking in. We had booked on hotels.com, and they had told us we had a King room. The guy at the front said, "Oh, well sure, you want one, you can have one." But this lady, standing behind him looking at the books, DID NOT THINK SO.

"NOPE. One queen room." The guy kind of joked and started talking about something else... she, grouchy, was still mumbling, "At that price, one queen is it..."

Clearly, she was born to be in customer service. (This all was in response to "Oh, they had told us we had a king." which that had...) We didn't care to fight about it; we were just telling them what the site told us. Guess that was a poor choice!

Then, in the morning got up about 9, I looked on the computer for tourist traps, and we headed out a little before 10. Checking out, I asked her about the breakfast...     woopsy!! What a silly idea!

The best part: There was a long silence; I wondered if I had misread the website or something. Or maybe she didn't hear me?

But then I realize the lady's not responding because she's busy removing her spectacles. Hmm, seems odd, I thought. She slowly folds them up, looks me very squarely in the eye, and says, "Yes, there was breakfast... UNTIL 9 O'CLOCK"

"Oh, ok..." I said.    "It ended an hour ago." she said.   

(Thanks for doing the math for me.)

We got our receipt and grabbed 2 extra-chocolaty Hot Cocoas on the way out the door, requesting that she "Have a nice day." (please?)

Clearly, again, she was born to be in customer service...

(I hoped I've done justice to the removal and folding of her glasses in order to let me know breakfast ended at 9-- one of the most remarkable things I've ever been a part of. Just remarkable.)

So, we headed out with a bikes on the back of our car, ready to ride the Golden Gate Bridge. But, since I trust you got a bit fatigued reading all this about 5 minutes ago, I'll save that--and more--for the next episode, including:

 -Wow! You road your bike from down there!?

-Why does that guy have his arm around your wife? And why's he SILVER??

-What's are those blobs behind Cara?

-Neat modes of transportation!

And

-Look at how sweaty that guy is! (Is this the hottest day of the year in SF?)

 Indeed, the fun had only begun... until then, a little preview:

More fun and-- finally-- ANSWERS to those questions.

Answers to last week's cliffhangers:   

Can you spy the Cherry Cheesecake pie?

There it is! At a Nebraska Rest Stop. Delicious! About the only thing exciting going on in this state of the "corn huskers." Pretty flat and unexciting.

  Wyoming: quite a bit more entertaining with the huge mountains on every side of us! Still broke out the cherry cheesecake though for another light snack to break up the driving!

Finally, we reached our destination in California and broke out our beloved cheesecake friend from the cooler one last time!  Scotts Flats Reservoir!

Why is Cara wearing that outfit standing in that place??

Well we're not quite sure, actually, but of course-- FOR FUN! And what better place to represent our Burn Unit friends at home than at a huge Napa Valley Winery with an outdoor porch!?  Domaine Carneros...

 

 And why not break it out again on the famous 17 mile Dr. along the Pacific Coast in Carmel by the Sea! Sure we got some stares from the drivers, photographers and golfers, but hey ....I went the " extra mile" and expect my gold star at my new address!

How big is Little America??

Turns out, about the size of a small shopping center, BUT they had quarter cones!! On our anniversary! Wee! Thanks Little America-- the 50 billboards hyping it up for 378 miles were NEARLY accurate.




Is Cara getting dunked on by "The Mailman" Karl Malone?! (Good D, Adam!)

Quite simply. Yes, or at least by his beautiful statue. That was us in front of the Utah JAZZ arena (see last blog). It was neat but that wasn't the Jazziest part of the trip:

Yep! That's Cara hangin' with the Winter Olympic Bobsled Team!! Thumbs up!

But wait! There's more:

I thought we should certainly have a picture of the figure skaters, but all I got from the bike was... this. Gotta say, though, those are some Olympian Glutes, aren't they?

 And at the top of a lllllLLLLong hill...
speaking of glutes. WOH!

Cara in front of the Capitol of...

you guessed it, the STATE OF UTA(cara head)!

And some really excellent picturers taken by a really excellent photographer. Caution: may lead to extreme and uncontrollable feelings of patriotism.

What's that you say?  Aren't experiencing flashes of the Rocket's Red Glare? Weird...

Well, I tried. Wait, did you know if you click the pictures you get a bigger version? ...oh, yeah yeah, I figured you tried that too...

Cara arriving home at 8 AM to a home full of prizes! Smiley balloon, Jumbo Pen, Golden Ring, and Breakfast (dinner?).

 

BUT as far as an update on things here in Oceanside goes, we've enjoyed our roughly 9 days here so far.  After really having great luck on the trip here (no car troubles, no Xcargo flying off the roof, a good roof over our heads each night, making things "on time" roughly-ish, etc) the luck has continued with our new Spanish-inspired apartment and Cara's job at the hospital. (Adam's "job" is a luck that's yet to come... but he's been busy making Cara eggies a COUPLE of times!)  Cara was relieved when she found that the hosptial seemed to be a Childrens-like atmosphere and size, and she's even working with 2 other travelers who just started in the same unit! Between that forced freindship and Cara's friend from childhood who happens to live 20 minutes away, our social calendar is really starting to bulge at the seams!

Cara was sure to begin the chic decorating in our new little place, spicing up the rented couch and tables with accessories of yellow and brown...

We are in a unit whose patio (and bedroom and living room windows) look out at the sand volleyball court, pool, and courtyard area, so it's pretty neat but also LIVELY. You can see that whole area in these next two pictures. Look how much fun Cara's having out there:

And here's Adam, not really playing despite the ugly face:

We haven't done too much aournd here yet, but we have filled our time with some fun, including Cara's first fill-your-own-container ride! Earlier tonight after some Coldstone Creamery:

Well, that about does it for now. Next time: we'll start to make sense of this trip-- although up to Salt Lake, it was pretty much driving and an old Ramada in Nebraska. So, we'll start making sense of the good stuff after Utah.

Better to get the aloe-- it got a bit sunnier than Pool-Cara expected. We'd also better go get some rest because these weren't taken all that long ago:

Ok, let's be fair:

Wait, that's not even close to fair! Whoooooof!

 See you soon.