Before I forget, I have to show you the chandelier in the office of CANDLESTICK RV PARK in San Francisco. Eric and I have been in over 30 campgrounds in the last 80 days -- and some were pretty darn fancy -- but NONE had a chandelier. This is a BIG chandelier, too. At least 4 feet tall. Enjoy!
Okay, now on to today's story:
We woke up really early this morning, because we had to be at BRANDON TIRE in San Rafael before 8:00am to get the new ball joints on the RV. Once again, I drove the Dodge Grand Caravan and Eric followed me in the RV. Once again, we had to go up and down some UNBELIEVABLE hills (this IS San Francisco, after all). I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like heights, and the hills have the same effect. I’m actually more scared going UP the hills, because I’m afraid I won’t make it and I’ll roll backwards. Going down the hills isn’t fun, but at least I know the brakes will work! Meanwhile, when I was younger, I’d go on any roller coaster I could find. It scared me half to death, but I loved it. I’ve gotten soft in my old age. I’m a scaredy cat!
We got to BRANDON TIRE and dropped off the RV, then got back on 101 going south and went to SAUSALITO for breakfast. We ate at a cute little diner called THE LIGHTHOUSE CAFE. I had raspberry pancakes, made with fresh raspberries, which was so good you didn’t need syrup! Eric had a bacon and avocado omelet with mushrooms and jack cheese.
One of the two elephants framing the entrance to Viña del Mar Plaza in Sausalito, in honor of their sister city of Viña del Mar, Chile:
The fountain in Sausalito:
We walked around Sausalito for a while. The shops there are all beautiful, selling expensive jewelry, artwork, clothing, and furniture, but it was all brand new, so it didn’t appeal to me too much. I much prefer vintage or antique. There was one shop that had art, accessories and jewelry that was all hand made by artists from all over the country, and that was wonderful.
Betty in Sausalito!
There was one artist, Mark Brown from Massachusetts, who uses vintage tins and other found objects to make robots and then puts a clock in the stomach. They were adorable! If you’d like to see more of his work, click on these links:
http://www.uncommongoods.com/item/item.jsp?itemId=15734&gclid=CMPboum-uI8CFQh6gwodMivLcQ
http://www.uncommongoods.com/artist/artist.jsp?artistId=10560
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_home_accessories/article/0,,HGTV_3255_3273674,00.html
JON ANDERSON'S creation using FIMO clay -- all made by hand and not painted:
We went into the studio of JOHN WILMER, who does antique restoration, sells prints, paintings and photography, and also had some beautiful pieces of furniture for sale. He was a lovely gentleman with two beautiful collies, both over 15 years old, who were so sweet. Eric really enjoyed petting them. He has become a real dog lover over the last few months. He is unable to resist petting any dogs we see and it sometimes slows our progress a great deal as he befriends every four-legged creature on the street! It’s very sweet, and the animals seem to love him as much as he loves them!
It was chilly in Sausalito this morning, and I don’t have any jackets in the RV, since I didn’t think I’d be traveling north in October! We stopped at SOTTOVENTO and I got a great fleece zip-up jacket in a chocolate brown with cream trim, which has SAUSALITO embroidered on it in red letters. I felt cozy for the rest of the day!
We stopped in at PINESTREET PAPERY, which had gorgeous cards, journals, wrapping papers, books, and other beautiful accessories for the home. I could have stayed there all day! I bought a sheet of beautiful wrapping paper that is a map of the U.S. Since we’ve been traveling across this beautiful country of ours, I have become very interested in maps of the U.S. I was never very good at geography, but now love to study the map! This has been very educational for me – and I think for Eric, too!
We then drove all around the town (up into the mountains) to look at the neighborhood. Most of the homes have an unbelievable view of the bay. The homes there cost at least a million, and renting an apartment is as expensive as Manhattan. It’s definitely an exclusive place to live.
We finally left Sausalito and headed to MUIR WOODS. On the way up the mountain, we stopped at BIKE RX, a mountain bike shop in Mill Valley, and Eric bought a map of MARIN COUNTY, including Mt. Tamalpais, to see if there is good single-track there (turns out there’s really not).
We then headed to MUIR WOODS NATIONAL MONUMENT, who will celebrate their 100th anniversary in 2008. Many of the trees there are over 600 years old (they can be as old as 2,000 years old!), but the 295 acres of redwoods was donated to the federal government by William Kent and his wife in 1905. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the area as a national monument and, at William Kent’s request, it was named for conservationist John Muir.
It's very hard to tell, because they blend so well, but there were four deer at the entrance to the park. They were only about 10 feet away:
MUIR WOODS is so impressive. The trees there are the tallest living things on EARTH. It’s amazing to think that a tree could just keep growing and growing and growing until they are almost 400 feet tall! The trunks of some are the size of a normal tree, they’re just extraordinarily tall. Others are so big you could hide 10 people behind them!
These are pictures of a scale model of the forest in the Information Center:
The real thing:
There is a lovely boardwalk with railings you can walk along to see all the trees and read all the plaques with information and history. Then, there are steps you can climb to take a different view of the forest. It’s all so beautiful, so historic, so tranquil and so majestic. We loved it. We stayed a few hours, had a fast lunch of sandwiches in their café, and then headed up the mountain to Mt. Tamalpais.
It was another harrowing trip for me, with miles of curvy roads up the mountain, but Eric had a great time. There were houses all the way up (I can’t believe people live up there), and we enjoyed the views from every angle.
We went all the way back down the mountain and headed back to San Rafael to see if the RV was finished. We got back to BRANDON TIRE around 3:00pm and only had to wait a few minutes. Eric was thrilled. They did a great job and the RV is now riding perfectly. No more veering to the right if you take your hands off the steering wheel for a second.
I think Eric is finally happy with the RV. In the past three months, it has had an oil change, six new tires, new brakes, new shocks, new ball joints, and has been balanced and aligned. He’s happy, so I’m happy!
We got back to the campground at 4:30pm and we were both exhausted. I had called my college friend, Nancy, this morning to see if we could get together with her, her partner, Donna, and their son, Joshua. We were hoping to see them tonight, and wanted to bring Jimmy along to meet them. I left a message at their house and still hadn’t heard back from them when we got back to the campground.
We decided to take a nap and set the alarm for 6:00pm. When the alarm went off and we still hadn’t heard from Nancy, we decided to go back to sleep. We called Jimmy and he said he was tired, too (we had kept him out late Saturday, Sunday and Monday) and was going to go to bed early. We went back to sleep for a while and then took showers and were doing things outside the RV when Nancy called, so we missed her call.
While Eric was in the shower in the men's bathroom, there was a man on the toilet. He suddenly asked Eric if he felt the earthquake and Eric said he hadn’t. When I met him back at the RV after our showers, he asked me if I felt an earthquake and told me what the guy on the toilet had said. I told him I hadn’t felt anything and the guy on the toilet was drunk. We turned on the TV and they were reporting a 5.6 earthquake! I couldn’t believe it. First, we were in San Diego and the day after we left the wildfires started. Now, we’re in San Francisco and there’s an earthquake! Eric feels like he brings disaster wherever he goes!
Anyway, we saw that we had missed Nancy’s call, so we called her back, but it was almost 8:00pm, so we decided we’d all get together tomorrow (Halloween) for an early dinner.
Eric and I now had a second wind, after our nap, so we went back to NOE VALLEY. On the way there, my sister, Audrey, called. She is so funny. She was begging us to come home, because we’ve already escaped wild fires and now there’s been an earthquake in San Francisco! She said we could click our heels and be home safe in New York with the snow and the cold. I told her thank you for your concern, but we’ll stay here, thank you very much!
A window display in NOE VALLEY had a beautiful table setting with place cards. My mom's name is Hazel, and she IS a grandma! I couldn't resist!'
We got to NOE VALLEY and went to PASTA POMODORO for dinner. Eric had chicken cutlet parmigiana and I had a seafood risotto.
We wanted to go back to GELATERIA NAIA for gelato for a third day in a row, but decided it wasn’t fair to go back without Jimmy! So, we drove around NOE VALLEY looking for someplace to get dessert.
A genuine rickshaw, which has been attached to a bicycle, was chained to a tree. It reminded me of the rickshaw episode of SEINFELD (everything reminds me of an episode of SEINFELD!):
Believe it or not, we found a place called BELGANO CHOCOLATIER GELATORIA on the corner of 24th Street and Sanchez. It was just 10:00pm and the place was closed, but I tapped on the window and made pleading faces, with my hands clasped, begging, and he opened the door to let us have dessert. What a guy! I got a small cup of chocolate espresso and Eric had a bigger cup of vanilla and mango.
This is what has become of me. I'm now a fat cow begging for gelato on the streets of San Francisco. Aren't you ashamed of me? I'm pretty ashamed of myself. I told Eric I want to find a scale, because I've been telling people I've gained at least 10 pounds, but Eric says it's probably more like 20. Since he's had better views of me than I have, I have to assume he knows what he's talking about. You can tell we're deeply in love, because there are some women who would file for divorce if their husband told them they gained 20 pounds. Fortunately, he still loves me (although he DOES want me to lose it). We discussed (over gelato) our plans for change when we settle down. We will both eat healthier, eat in a lot more, and get back to exercising. He will lose all the weight he's gained in about a week, as soon as he starts mountain biking regularly again. I will have a LOT more work to do, since I've gained more than him, and I'm naturally a lot more sedentary than he is. I WILL do it, though. I'm determined!
On the ride home, my mother called. Did I mention I have the coolest mother in the world, who is still up at 1:00am in Florida?) We spoke all the way home while Eric followed Betty's directions, ate his gelato and drove.
I had my Mom laughing, because I told her how all the natural disasters have been occurring wherever we go and promised we wouldn’t go back to Florida, because there would certainly be a hurricane!
We got back to the RV and Eric promptly fell back to sleep and here I sit, typing away, and watching LENO on TV. We had a wonderful day today. It was such a good idea (of Eric’s) to rent the car, because we were able to go sightseeing all over while the RV was being fixed, and it makes driving around San Francisco MUCH easier, because of the hills. Those hills are scary enough in a car. In the RV it seems like you’re just not going to make it up, and not going to be able to stop coming down! Yikes!
Tomorrow, we will sleep in, relax and then drive around town to see more sights before meeting up with our friends for an early dinner. Maybe we’ll find some kind of costume to wear. After all, it’s HALLOWEEN!