Saturday 12/5/2009. Left hotel for airport at 8:30 am after breakfast. Train to car rental, then picked up Alamo rent a car (booked via Hotwire), got a bit lost on the drive back to the hotel to pick up Anne. Whole process took about an hour. By the time we picked up Ellie at her apartment it was around 10:30. We made a quick stop at the UCSF Parnassas Campus where Ellie is a Fellow for a year; great views from many school buildings. Drove along the western part of San Francisco to connect with Route 1. Along the way passed by several vista points (such as Half Moon Bay and Pigeon Point Lighthouse) and took some pictures. Had lunch at Acalpulco in Santa Cruz. Most of the natural bridges at the eponymous State Park have fallen: we saw only one. Dinner at Crabby Jim’s in Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf. There was Monterey Fish Company which had too long a wait, and Ellie wanted to try another place but we were too eager to eat. Stayed at Monterey Embassy Suites.
Pigeon Point Lighthouse. The lighthouse itself is in a state of disrepair, the hostel next to it is still in use.
Sunday 12/6/2009. Breakfast at hotel. Drove down to Big Sur area, hit a couple of scenic spots, including Rocky Creek Bridge and Bixby Bridge, the latter of which is often used as backdrop for car commercials. Lunch was at Rocky Point Restaurant, great view, okay food. The town of Pacific Grove, just north of Carmel-by-the-Sea of Clint Eastwood fame, started a a Methodist retreat. We visited the Point Pinos Lighthouse (which is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast) and the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. The docent told us there were about 1000 perch on the several eucalyptus trees; in some years there would be several thousand. It was too cold for them to fly. Actually it was quite cold during the trip. We had to scrap ice off the windshield of our rental car a couple of mornings as it dropped below freezing.
Bixby Bridge on Highway 1.
Point Pinos Lighthouse in Pacific Grove.
If you look carefully, you can tell the brown objects are actually butterflies. The colors would be much better if the sun had been at the correct angle.
We spent a couple of hours at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is relatively small compared to the nationally well-known ones (Baltimore, Coney Island, Boston, etc.) It was a good museum with interesting displays of local sea life and an interesting display of seahorses. Anne took some interesting shots of the jellyfishes. The short video below shows how the moving hairs on the jellyfish give out an interesting blinking-light effect.
Dinner was at Dumpling King in the Sunset area. Ellie wanted to try it out. Very authentic Chinese fare. Not expensive. And it was easy to find a place to park. The place was surprisingly quiet, though. After dropping Ellie off, we went to Berkeley La Quinta for the night.
Monday 12/7/2009. We drove to Sacramento to visit our “old” college friend Ruby who is in Sacramento a lot to help babysit her grand-daughter. Picked up a toy at Sears in Fairfield along the way. Drove to the Tower Café to have lunch. Eclectic cuisines from all over the world (European, Asian, South American, etc.) Walked along the old town for a few minutes.
Hawthorn Suite in Napa. Not as nice as I had hoped. We decided to eat light and went to Panda Express.
Tuesday 12/8/2009. Toured around Napa. Since neither Anne nor I drink, we looked for non-winery activities. We were disappointed that the boat ride business seems to have folded, so we walked along the Napa River waterfront for a bit instead. Then we went to this wildlife park. The name of the park simply meant there might be wild animals around (we didn’t see any). We did do a moderately strenuous hike to about 2 miles, climbing 600 plus feet in the process. I sprained my calf muscle and was in pain for a while. Luckily there was no long term damage. We also wanted to visit The Copia. It is out of business. I guess the recession has hit the winery business also.
We had some extra time before we needed to pick up Ellie so we sat around at the Golden Gate Park. This Park is supposed to be larger than New York’s Central Park. We remember visiting it decades ago: it has improved quite a bit.
Dinner at SPQR which is one of the “in” restaurants in San Francisco. My neighbor’s son is the executive chef there. I don’t think he was in while we were there, but we still got a free appetizer and a free dessert by mentioning this fact. The dishes are good, not too expensive, although the portions are small. The rabbit was a bit dry. I think that was the first time I ate Thumper. They also serve partridge, quail, and sweetbread (we didn’t order).
Stayed at Crown Plaza SFO which we have been at several times (in their previous incarnations such as Westin). Ellie stayed with us because she had a very early flight (6:15 am).
Wednesday 12/9/2009. Travel day. Our flight UA90 took off at about 10:15 am (scheduled for 8:30 am), but favorable tailwinds of up to 125 mph mean we would be late by about 20 minutes. Flight is moderately full and both Anne and I have an empty seat next to each of us. (I am typing this blog enroute.) Ellie’s flight on Frontier was also delayed but she should make her connection.
We also had to circle around for about 30 minutes before we could land at Newark, but only about 30 minutes later than schedule. Took the EWR - South Amboy train and then walked home.
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