Bay Area

Matt blending in at the Berkeley Rose Garden.

We covered a lot of territory in three days: San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Marin and Muir Woods. Like Los Angeles--like most US cities--you need a car to explore more than one part of the Bay Area. We stayed with friends from the Judge Business School who have now returned to their home in Berkeley , and we were able to visit my friend Amy, whom I met in seventh grade, who now lives in San Jose with her husband and baby girl.


Amy, Brooks and their daughter; Nik and Jen made sure we had the trolley experience.


Nik arranged a dinner at the landmark Fairmont Hotel's Tonga Room restaurant, where it rains inside.

We also experienced the many climate areas: Marin was in the 50s, while inland was close to 90 degrees. Muir Woods National Monument, the world's most visited redwood park, is situated on the Marin Peninsula just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. It is also just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Between our visits to the redwoods and the beach, we stopped off at the Pelican Inn, an English pub "nestle(d) at Muir Beach in the sea-blown fog, among the pines and the alders, the honeysuckle and the jasmine."



I think Matt's favorite part of the day was the plethora of lichen in the park; he kept teasing me by calling it old man's beard--a common name for a type of lichen that I sometimes take in a tincture when I'm not feeling well. My favorite parts were watching the dramatic fog rolling in, absorbing a feeling of calmness and quietness imparted by the redwoods, and happening upon some fearless deer.


Matt examining his lichen, and a buck shows off his good side.


Muir Beach.

Some People Buy Souvenir T-shirts

and we buy souvenir dome-shaped, wart-like growths found on the trunks of trees. Yep, we bought a redwood burl (scientifically a lignotuber) at Muir Woods during a recent weekend trip to the Bay Area. It's been sitting in a little bit of water for about a week, and in another two we should have full-sized, fern-like shoots growing from it.

One week old shoots.

As the gift shop instructions didn't mention anything about the lifespan of the shoots, I figured they were fine as long as they had water. However, I just read that the shoots don't live very long due to lack of nutrients, and one normally then just throws out the burl. The upside is that the burl can be planted under "appropriate conditions" with the shoots growing into redwood trees. Since we only have a concrete balcony, we're up for sending it off to anyone willing to give it a go.

In Case You Are Stuck In A Trunk

Just pull this tab. Oh, then run.

Uncle Peter Is Kinda Crazy

Taken by my uncle near Guadalupe Island, Sep 2004

but we love him all the same. I'm not saying he's crazy like a great white--just that he's much more of a risk taker for diving (on purpose) in great white infested waters. This is as close as I want to ever get to one of these creatures.

Black Mountain Open Space Park

Matt and I have been trying to get out of downtown San Diego on weekends, and hiking is our current preferred activity. Recently we've been to Black Mountain Open Space Park, about 10 miles east of Del Mar, and El Moro Canyon, on the northern edge of Laguna Beach. While I brought my camera on both hikes, I wasn't as inspired by the terrain of El Moro to take photos--we didn't have a view of El Moro Bay, and I already have plenty of chaparral landscape pictures. Plus, I was really hot; the sun just sapped my energy. Tyler had joined us on that excursion, and I do wish I'd captured his newly enlarged hiker's calves for posterity (he's been hiking quite a bit up in LA as a way to deal with his insane work schedule that finds him home, in front of a computer for days on end).

As for the Black Mountain hike, it was memorable for a few things:

*The group of hikers in the parking lot singing songs about chugging beer and making Matt quite uneasy. He thought them cult-ish, and I tried to allay his fears by explaining that some people don't give up drinking games just because they've graduated college. I still found him glancing worriedly down the hill, whenever we heard their chants in the distance.

*The two snakes--one a rattler, one harmless. Matt had a way of notifying me of the snakes' presence which did not put me at ease, at all. I couldn't explain why until the following week's hike with Tyler. We were walking, and Matt said, "A snake." (Long pause, Tyler and I freeze, trying to locate where the threat is approaching from.) "Was here earlier," he finished. Tyler pointed out that the delivery could have been made less traumatic, if Matt had not paused between the two pieces of information or had said, "These marks are from a snake."

Rattlesnake and a harmless snake (or so Matt tried to convince me).

*The microwave towers at the top that looked like big drums.


*The 360 view at the top of one peak. While the views to the north, south and east were dominated by development, the view west at sunset gave the illusion that you could walk off the top of the mountain directly onto the water.

Cannon Battles in San Diego Bay

The U.S. Coast Guard's Eagle in San Diego Bay

The tall ships sailed into San Diego Bay last week on their tour of the West Coast. Usually we have a few rigged sailing vessels at the docks just a quarter mile from our apartment; they are part of the San Diego Maritime Museum. The most famous is the Star of India, which has the distinction of being the world's oldest active ship (1863). In the summer of 1996, a year after I moved to Los Angeles, I drove to San Diego to meet up with my uncle Paul, who was in town to captain the Star of India on one of her semi-annual voyages.

The highlight of the San Diego 2008 Festival of Sail was seeing the U.S. Coast Guard's Eagle. My uncle Paul captained this tall ship from 1976-1980, and it's played a part in family christenings and a wedding. We went by the ships in the early evening of the first night, and there were Navy, Coast Guard and Colombian Navy (I think Navy, but definitely Colombian) service persons and a host of other people dressed up for cocktail receptions on a few of the ships. It was fun to watch. We didn't pay the $65/person fee to sail on the ships during the cannon battles, but we could hear them from our place. A cannon going off is quite a distinct sound.


Current me by the Eagle's figurehead (Colombian ship in back), and just a few years ago in front of the Eagle with some of the Welling women. I'm the one in pigtails with my hands over my head. Aunt Shelia is holding my hands, and then there's golden-haired, baby Martha, Aunt Joan, my cousin Andrea, my sister Carolyn (in front) and then my mom. I love this photo.

Anniversary Balloon Ride

Matt and I were treated to an anniversary balloon ride by my very sweet mother (yeah Anne!). We had seen balloons frequently in flight a little before sunset by the Mormon temple off the 5 freeway, and we'd always thought they tracked close to the coast. When we were planning an activity for our second anniversary, I immediately thought of the hot air balloons. I had only been once before in Palm Springs, and it wasn't very scenic. Since I was with my sister then, of course it was fun, but landing in a field with shot-up fridges and sofas just took away from the experience.



We met our fellow flyers and crew in a Vons parking lot in Del Mar--this may sound unappealing, but it gave us the opportunity to grab some appetizers at a kick-ass Persian restaurant nearby (the herb salad made our breath smell like mint and basil for hours). We were trucked over to a launch site, where I'd say about five other companies were getting their balloons ready. Although the area wasn't anything special, it was fun to see the balloons being inflated and lifting off. Ours was the last to take flight, so we got a nice show. Matt was a little nervous, as he has issues with heights when he feels unsteady. The initial moments were a bit hard for him, but the rest of the flight (minus the HARD landing) was smooth and he enjoyed it.


Our launch and landing sites--we certainly didn't escape civilization.


The balloons being unfurled, and our ride is just about ready to go.


Matt, trying not to think too much about what he's about to do, and I'm adding another layer of sun protection.

Some of the others in our group were, like us, a bit surprised at how we flew mostly over developed areas. We should have expected it--San Diego is built up and the winds blow us east, away from the water. Still, the balloon companies do over sell (surprise!) the idea a coastal excursion.


San Diego, a city of subdivisions, and a reason not to go skinny dipping before dark (you never know who is looking or from where).

However, the views west towards the coast were just beautiful. Fog covered the coastline, and surrounded some of the low hills. We were also able to see how SD is really a series of developments tucked into narrow canyons. From where we were, we didn't see a large, flat basin like you have in Los Angeles.



Sunset.

The experience was fun and relaxing, and though tired and a little dusty, we drove up to the North County beach town of Encinitas for a late dinner at Q'ero, a Peruvian restaurant I read about. It was certainly the type of place that once you enter, you know the meal and experience are going to be memorable. The colors were rich, the space cozy but not crowded, wine was present on many tables, and people just seemed happy and content. We thought that a table of "nice but crazy" Peruvian women (as described by our server) was a good sign as to the authenticity of the food. We slowly enjoyed our ceviche, filet, and fish prepared in Peruvian and South American styles. We also partook of a Patagonian Malbec--it was a night to celebrate.

... and it wasn't over yet--an unexpected adventure awaited us. One of Matt's coworkers lives in Encinitas, and we were going to meet him for a quick drink. The place he suggested was kinda horrible--beach town sports bar, hook-up haven on a Saturday night. Ick! Luckily he was delayed by a "heavy metal band", and we decided that sounded better than the bar. We joined up with him and found ourselves at a Future, Space Age, Retro keg party, with many of the guests and band members wearing some sort of metal or foil.


We love seeing live music, and this was no exception.

The host welcomed us in--he welcomed everyone from 20 somethings, to a homeless man, to a late 50s couple that loved to dance. It was awesome. The band, wasn't really playing heavy metal--Doors, Led Zeppelin, "Let's Get It On", and such. They certainly knew how to work with the crowd. I was impressed that they had a dedicated theremin player, who resembled a glam version of Harry Shearer in "This Is Spinal Tap". Another charming feature of this community is a lady who goes around to parties on weekends selling homemade egg rolls for $1.

I can't wait for next year's anniversary!