1000 miles is a l-o-o-o-o-n-n-n-g way to go to get an artichoke!

I’m learning that it won’t be easy to do a blog entry every day! It’s been three days already and we’ve just started!

It is May 4 and we are now on day 3 of our journey, or perhaps I should say day -12/11. I’m using -12/11 because of the International Date Line; right now it is -12 until we sail, but after we cross the date line we will lose (or gain, depends on how you look at it) and it is -11 days until we sail in Oz because it’s really the 5^th over there. Are you confused yet? I am!

Only have a couple of photos so far, but I promise, later you’ll wish I had more photographic restraint!

We had a wonderful dinner with my (almost) 92 year old aunt Margery and her son, my cousin (one of the very very few I have), Daniel, at Margery’s yacht club in San Diego. Beautiful, right on the water, makes me almost wish for a boat. Note the “almost.” My uncle Bill (Margery’s husband) said a boat was a hole in the water into which you pour water.

Kathy doesn’t know this yet (but she does now!), but, is spite of her reminder phone call, we forgot the VB beer! Didn’t forget ALL the Bundaberg rum (we have 2 bottles for her) but we did forget some of it. Sorry Kathy, things just got too hectic at the last minute and we were crossing the Arizona border when I asked if Randy had remembered the beer.

Randy in the field of artichokes

I’m learning already that we need to exercise at least SOME restraint at buffets! Ate way too much breakfast at the hotel.

Some of my least favorite things? Los Angeles traffic and motorcycles in said traffic.

Some of my favorite things? Good friends, my sister and brother, and artichokes. 

Not a field of dreams but a field of artichokes! Heaven on earth!

Our good friends, Alex & Marian Monto, recommended Pezzinis near Monterrey, CA, for artichokes. We bought a couple (wish I had time to get and cook a half dozen! I’ll have to settle for two.) and I can’t yet say they are fabulous, but they LOOK fabulous and I’ve never had a bad artichoke grown in the Monterrey area. We’ll cook them at Kathy’s house. Tucson does NOT get good artichokes. In fact, I’ve given up even looking at artichokes in Tucson. Monterrey artichokes are the Green Globe (Yum!) variety and Tucson gets something else, probably from Mexico rather than Monterrey (Yuck!).

Randy & I had wonderful dinner last night at Perbacca in San Francisco with my sister Victoria and brother Lance (who is a self-described “foodie” and chose the restaurant). Fabulous food and even better company. Wish we lived closer together. But who knows, maybe we have more fun just because we don’t see each other but once every year or two?

Now THAT'S an artichoke!

Today is Be a Tourist in San Francisco Day. We lived in this area for 27 years but I never fail to have fun in San Francisco.