No more sleeps!

 We have spent the past few days in San Francisco and Sacramento (with our daughter, Kathy, and son-in-law, Ken) just being tourists.

San Francisco was wonderful! The weather was fantastic and all the places we remembered were just as delightful as we remembered: the BV (Buena Vista to those new to San Francisco) for Irish coffee; the Top of the Mark (the Mark Hopkins Hotel) for a martini and the view; the cable cars; the trolleys. The trolleys were especially fun as they really weren’t there—or we don’t remember them—when we lived in the area. Each trolley car is different and began its trolley life in a different city. We rode on one from Philadelphia; one from somewhere in Italy (the signs were all in Italian); one from Denver, I think; and another from yet another city. Fun! Lunch was outside on Maiden Lane at Bistro69; really nice!

The Top of the Mark has a weird idea of what constitutes a martini! Jack and Kahlua is a martini (!). So is “3Gs”: vodka, lemon juice, orange juice, ginger beer, ginger ale, and fresh ginger. How about the “Sunset Martini”: Prairie organic (!) vodka, crème de cassis, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, and a squeeze of lemon juice. What part of “martini” do they not understand? Randy and I are purists, James Bond notwithstanding: Bombay gin, VERY dry—just whisper “vermouth” over the glass—one olive, stirred not shaken as shaking bruises the gin. Or so my father taught me!

We watched the Kentucky Derby from the bar in the Hyatt Regency. We used to bring visitors to the Hyatt just to see the awe on their faces when they came up on the escalator into the HUGE atrium that soars about 20 stories above you. Now it’s commonplace to see such an atrium lobby, but 25 years ago it was an astonishing sight. Boy, am I showing my age!

And we almost rented a GoCar, the same cute little vehicle we are planning on renting in, I think, Barcelona (I have to practice pronouncing it “BARTH-a-lona” since they use Castillian pronunciation). We have one other couple going to do it with us; I hope we can get one or two more. Anyway, it looks like a ton of fun!

Kathy is driving us to the airport for our 2235 departure. We’ll have dinner with her after we drop off our six, yes SIX, pieces of luggage and check in for the flight. I know I could have printed a boarding pass, but since we have to check six bags and we’re going first class, I thought we might as well just do it at the gate.

It’s been a wonderful start to our Grand Adventure. Now, onward and upward to Sydney!

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.