San Francisco Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Jon and I took our time getting out and around today.

About noon we took off and headed for the Farmer's Market though small as it is in the middle of the week we enjoyed shopping and buying a few items.

I bought a lovely pair of silver earrings from the gentleman in the plaid shirt and I bought a pair of elephant earrings from the man in the yellow shirt.

In fact he's making me a necklace to match my earrings and I pick them up on Friday. I can't wait.

After a couple hours of shopping we stopped at Yank Sing for some dim sum and it was quite tasty. This was my first experience and of course I wanted to taste everything but I kept my choices healthy.

I wasn't able to finish this post but I'll get back to it later.

San Francisco Saturday through Monday

My idea again this vacation was to post some of what we've been doing out here in San Francisco but time has gotten away from me and I'm just now getting around to sharing.

On Friday Jon ended up working later than he was supposed to so we were much later getting out of Illinois.
We finally left after 8PM for Indianapolis where we had reservations at the Holiday Inn to park/sleep/fly. We got to bed late and asked for a wake-up call for 3:45 so we had time to shuttle to the airport, 15 miles away since they've moved. The wake-up call came but I fell back asleep. Thankfully Jon got up but we missed the first shuttle. We caught the second shuttle and arrived at the airport at 6:00AM for our 6:45AM flight. Thank GOD we had our boarding passes and were able to check our baggage at the curb. When we got to the gate we didn't even sit down; we walked right onto the plane.
We arrived at San Francisco a half hour late because of closed runways due to the fog.
For lunch we walked up Chestnut street to an outside cafe where we had a light lunch. We walked through China town and part of Russian Hill. Later that evening and had dinner at a seafood restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf.

Sunday (Mother's Day) we managed to figure out public transportation

well enough to make it to Oakland in time for our 10:00AM Zeppelin Airship tour. There are 3 Zeppelin airships in the world; Germany, Japan and as of October 2008 San Francisco. The difference between an airship and the Goodyear blimp is the airship's propellers are on the envelope instead of the gondola. The Goodyear blimp is completely collapsible and the NT airship is a semi-rigid airship that gets its shape from gas pressure inside the envelope. The NT Zepplin is the the length of a Boeing 747 and travels 35 mph at 1,200 feet above the ground. Once in the air we were able to walk around the cabin and take in the view of the 360 degree vistas through huge windows. The gondola is much smaller and I guesstimate it to be 20-ft long and approximately 5-ft wide.
















Later that day we toured








On Tuesday we got up early and rented a car. We traveled down historic route 1









to Ano Nuevo,the site of the largest mainland breeding colony of the northern elephant seal.

We took the 4-mile round trip hike to the south beach where there were 100 or more elephant seal on the beach. This is their moulting season and I have a picture of the fur they shed during this time. While on the beach they don't eat or drink so they look lazy but in fact they're conserving energy.

From there we traveled to Montery in hopes to visit the aquarium but because of a prior commitment later that day we skipped the aquarium and instead did some shopping, met a really cool dog,




and took the famous 17-mile drive
through Pebble Beach and the Del Monte Forrest. The drive winds through the forrest and along the coast
and past the Cypress Point Club, Spyglass Hill Golf Course, and Poppy Hills Golf Course.

After the scenic drive we headed up route 101 to Joan's house in Oakland where we visited with her and her family and had Chinese for dinner. We weren't able to stay long because we wanted to return our rental car before 10PM to avoid extra costs. We'll get together with them again this week.

South Carolina Wednesday through Friday

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 13
I’m not feeling very well today. I went to bed early last night because I wasn’t feeling well and I didn’t sleep very well either. It rained most of the night as well as most of today.

We made it to Savannah about 2:00 and checked into our hotel. We’re right in the middle of the historic district and just a few blocks from the City Market with small gift shops, restaurants, bars, and antique shops.
After dinner at Vinny’s we walked around the shops and down toward the Savannah River. We meandered along the narrow streets of Savannah and happened upon The Lady and Sons, Paula Deen’s restaurant. With the mixed reviews of the restaurant we had already decided not to have dinner there but since we stumbled upon it we decided to inquire about dessert. We were seated right away. Jon ordered a mousse pie and I ordered Key Lime Pie both with homemade whipped cream. Both pies were very good but way too much for either of us to finish.

After dessert we wandered back through the city to our hotel. Tomorrow we’re having lunch at the crab shack and then heading to Hilton Head to do some shopping on the way back to Folly Island.

THURSDAY AUGUST 14
We had a wonderful time in Savannah. I woke up feeling much better today and I had the best night’s sleep all week and Jon had the worst. Sorry Jon.

We went to Hilton Head Island to do some shopping. I got a new purse and Jon bought some kitchen utensils and a basket for the grill. Jon’s the chef and enjoys cooking much more than I so he made grilled vegetables and shrimp this evening with Creole seasoning. Mmmm was it ever good!

Here’s a picture of the hotel we stayed at and the lovely girl with the beautiful hair at the front desk.

And I took these flowers just for Courtney at work.

Now I'm going to spend the rest of the evening reading a murder mystery. G'night all.

South Carolina Saturday through Tuesday

SATURDAY AUG 9
After frantically racing the clock yesterday Jon and I finally left for our South Carolina Vacation at 3:00P.M. We had to stop in Danville so we actually started making progress an
hour later.

Last night we stayed in Richmond, KY where we got a full 6
hours of sleep. Woohoo. We were back on the road at 7:00 this morning and we pulled into our beach house about 6:00 SC time.
We unloaded the car and made a trip to the grocery store; came back "home" and fixed hamburgers on the grill.
After cleaning up the dishes we took a stroll along the water. We were both surprised as to how warm the ocean was.

It didn't take long to start relaxing. The only thing we are both saddened by is that none of our children were able to make it and oh how we desired them to be here.


SUNDAY AUG 10
This morning I rose early to get some pictures of the sunrise. Soon afterwards I went back to bed and slept in. The house may be empty but Jon and I each have our own room, our own bathroom and I have an extra bedroom I call my dressing room. :-)

After breakfast we scoped out the storage area under the house. The house is on pilings high enough to park the car under. We found a table umbrella that we transformed to a beach umbrella and Jon found lots of sand buckets. I think in his future Jon would like to build sandcastles professionally. Basically we stayed on the beach or at the house all day long. I've got a few projects I'm working on and a book I found in the house. Right now it's 10:20PM and the salt air is blowing in off the ocean with the sound of waves crashing against the shore. Is there a more relaxing sound than nature at it's best? God is good!

Here are a few more pictures from today.

MONDAY AUG 11
Today was a beautiful but windy day. The sun was strong and with the amount of sun we got yesterday we tried to spend more time under the beach umbrella and on the screened porch.

Jon finished his book, Pandora's Legion by Harold Coyle & Barrett Tillman, a story about Al-Quaida terrorist agents who injected volunteers with the "Marburg virus" in an attempt to spread a highly communicable and deadly epidemic throughout the world.
A private military company, Strategic Solutions Inc., hired by the U.S. Governement tracked down the infected men and women in an all out search before thousands more became infected. All is well with the world.

I spent most of my time on the beach working on my Stampin' Up! order.
It looks like I'll need to scale it back a bit but it's so much fun coming up with projects and ideas for the new products. I really look forward to introducing all my friends to my card and home decorating ideas.

TUESDAY AUGUST 12
What a wonderful day! We had cloudy skies and rain today but that didn’t stop us from having fun.
This may be the last picture of Jon’s attempt to build a sandcastle. It’s supposed to downpour tonight and tomorrow.
Today we took a trip into Charleston where we enjoyed dinner at Sticky Fingers. Oh, the BBQ pork ribs there are out of this world. Jon and I each tried the sampler platter which included 4 rib samplers each with a different sauce. One was the dry rub containing paprika. It’s better than it sounds but my favorites are still the wet sauces. The Tennessee Whisky Sauce and the Carolina Sweet Sauce were both good but my favorite is the Memphis Original Sauce. Mmmm. Sorry there were no leftovers!

We took a carriage tour through the historic district. This is where the Civil War began and there are lots of beautiful historic buildings to visit.







We rode by the Circular Congregational Church built in 1892 on Meeting Street. This church has the oldest cemetery in Charleston with a monument remaining from the 17th century.
We rode past the First Baptist Church which was founded in 1682. This is one of the oldest churches in America and has seen some familiar people worshipping there such as the Former Presidents George Washington and Bill Clinton.
We saw the famous Mills House where General Robert E Lee made his famous wave from the wrought iron balcony and where Theodore Roosevelt later stayed. And we rode past the “Four Corners of the Law” with a law building on each corner. The St. Michaels Episcopal Church representing the Episcopal law, Charleston City Hall, representing city law, the Federal Building, representing Federal law, and the Charleston County Courthouse representing State law.
One final bit of Charleston fact is the 75-year rule. If a building is 75 or more years old the law protects it from any changes to the outside of the building. In this case the 75-year rule protected this historic building so the current occupants of the building built a building with law offices INSIDE the building. You can see the walls and doors from the street.
Here’s a building that lost half of its roof during the earthquake of 1886. The law in effect would not allow for added material to the outside of the building so they made necessary repairs using the original wood to protect the building but as you can see half the roof is missing.

Tomorrow we head to Savannah.