July 9: we tool around Berkeley--more parking woes

We began our day at the Optometry School. It turned out to be a very fun tour, but it almost never happened. You may be aware that I am not the most patient person. I could not find ANY parking!! Finally, I called the optometry school and negotiated the phone maze (why can't phones have human people at the other end?) which told me to go to the gate and tell the man there why I was there. I did and he told me where to go to park off-campus. (After we retrieved the car, I found two other lots at half the price I paid for our parking but I was just glad to find ANY place to put the car!) Matt and I found the optometry clinic and went up to the front desk. I told the nice lady what I was here for and I was expecting her to retrieve an idle 3rd year clinician who could just show me around. But NO, we had to go thru student services. Argh.

However, THAT turned out great. Matt was quite impressed to have the young lady, Tammy, come over to me and recognize my name! Ha! Finally got one on the boy! The reason she knew me was that we had emailed a few years ago and I had done a write-up of what my life was like both before and after optometry school. We then ran into the guy who put the write-up on the web and HE recognized the name. I was loving it and Matt was astonished! It was quite comical.

Tammy, Arianna and their other cohort were great tour guides, taking us wherever my feeble mind thought I would want to go. It was a great tour! Matt was impressed because they gave him a goodie bag with all kinds of Cal Optometry paraphenalia including gummy BEARS!

The next funny thing that happened was that when we passed Dean Levi's lab, who should emerge, but the Dean himself. I had never met him, but he always has come across as rather personable. He was a delight to meet and was gracious with his time.

Me and Dr. Meredith Morgan's bust. He was one of the early pioneers in the field of optometry. I got to hear one of his overvue lectures in my first year. I will always remember him questioning the class and asking us which, of all the equipment we had just purchased would benefit us most in clinic once we graduated and were working with our own patients. We all guessed all kinds of clinical instrumentation. But he told us that none of that would matter as much as something we already had, but might not know how to use very much: our ears! I think of that often when a patient will be surprised when I make a diagnosis straightaway and I can tell them: you TOLD me what it was, but YOU didn't know you did!

Ears and some clinical training. Smart guy, that Meredith Morgan.

This is the new spectacles dispensary. Wow. Pretty amazing.

The reception area of the new Fong Optometry Library. This is just a gorgeous facility!

I LOVED this sculpture at the checkout desk in the Optometry School Library.

This is all new since we were there.

After the Optometry School and Clinics tour, we continued to explore the rest of the campus.

Matt was wondering why we even bothered to go all the way to Muir Woods when we had this lovely and peaceful grove of coastal redwoods right here on the campus!

We like it BIG: a pelican sculpture on the UCB campus.

Don't you wonder what the story is behind that??

The Sather Gate: the gateway on the north side of campus to Sproul Plaza, home of Mario Savio's Free Speech Movement in the 60s (long before MY time here!)

I used to love to come and study here in the reading room of the Doe Grad School Library.

It has always reminded me of what I suppose Harvard must be like. Once I was studying when the epicenter of a small magnitude earthquake was right below me. THAT was exciting!

We were hungry and there were lots of places I still wanted to walk by/through on campus. I had only ever been in Moffitt Library a couple of times and don't recall this little eatery. It very well might have been there when I was there, but I just don't know for sure. In any case, it was a great place for lunch! While waiting for our sandwiches to appear, I was looking around the inside seating area and was surprised to note that 75% of the laptops were Macs!

We were tooling around the lower campus...I rarely (never?) went there when I was in optometry school. So, as Matt and I were looking around, I kept seeing things that were certainly there in the 80s, yet I had never "seen" or noticed. This was a relief from the Zoology Building. There really was art all around campus. And, nooks and crannies to read/study.

We peeked into the baseball fields. They were NICE!

Karen had told me about taking the elevator up to the top of the Campanile. We couldn't even get anywhere close as it was being refurbed. We did hear the chimes play at noon. Beautiful.

Does it seem to you that this trip is either knitting or food? Hmm....there may be something to that, along with a bit of walking around (and, today, trying to find parking). With not a less than three times around the block, we finally did find Article Pract and one of us was not disappointed. I bought another skein of greys and creams to use for that hat I promised Matt.

I could so easily have this be my favorite LYS (that is knitterese for Local Yarn Shop).

This place, Betty's on Telegraph in Oakland just down from Article Pract, was too funny. When we walked by, there was a long line waiting to get in. Evidently, this is a place, Betty's, that makes fresh pastries with fresh fruits. Look again: those are old ironing boards set up on the sidewalk that Betty's uses for tables!

Next stop: more parking adventures. I just HAD to go back to Body Time for a refill on some Lavender Tea Tree deoderant spray. Yipes. I wanted to take some photos and asked if that would be ok. Well, it was THREE phone calls before I could get a begrudging OK on the photos. Honestly, it was almost too much trouble, but I love the lineups of bottles and potions.

I hope you do too.

I had several things on my shopping list at Body Time. I found a parking spot within a quarter mile of the shop on College Avenue--score!

We passed a bunch of Peet's Coffee locations today. However, I was like a pilgrim in search of her shrine and only the original Peet's location on Vine Street in Berkeley would do for me. I had my first cuppa Peet's here and this was where I would have a cappucino today!

We only had to circle the block once and turn around once before finding a spot to park the car.
So far, no parking tickets and we want to keep it that way. One is enough!

And, my parallel parking is much improved over just one week ago!

Now there are tables with more room for the lines of coffee afficianados.

This Peet's is roomier than it was back in the 80s. It's obviously been remodeled, but that wonderful coffee roasting aroma is still thick in the air and the essence of it's charm!
We passed on the pastries but they did look great.

I just TOOK photos in Peets. I was afraid to ask them if it was ok!

Matt has his Mocha from Peets and we rest for a moment on the Northside of Berkeley to ponder our last few hours of vacation. We both have enjoyed ourselves while missing our other guys. After two days of parking craziness, I'm more than ready to head home.

Our bags are mostly all packed.

Josie, Kiisa and Diabla will be more than happy to see us....we hope..

July 8: Muir Woods and how it becomes easier to return to Ohio

While the San Francisco Chronicle said it was Fog Week in the City, you would never know it. Kathleen prepared a wonderful breakfast for us, complete with home-made bisquits. With the sun burning off the fog, we decided to eat al fresco on her gorgeous patio. The jasmine, bouganvilla and agapanthus were all in bloom for us!

As I was leaving, I noticed a piece of "paper" under my driver's side wiper. My stomach tightened. What could it be but a parking ticket?! And, of course, it WAS. Grrrr....parking would prove to be my nemesis over the course of the next day or two. How tempting it would be to just ignore that ticket...but, alas, that is just one more expense on this trip.

(Which, I should mention, has been well worth it.)

(Of course, you can talk to me next month when the bills for both the trip and the office come in and we will see what I'm saying at that point....)

Now, normally I would stop on the San Francisco side of the Golden Gate Bridge for this photo op, but that side had NO parking available and it was crawling with tourists. We did want to join them, but there was "no room at the inn". Sad to come from so far and have no place to park to take that (much better) photo with the landmark bridge.

Back in May of 1987, I was one of about 300,000 who walked on the closed bridge for it's 50th Anniversary Celebration. That was a rather creepy day. The crowds were SO thick that I was no able to raise my arms to scratch my nose! THAT is crowded!

Well, well, well. There are more Bridge Rules than I knew.

On to Muir Woods:

Matt was impressed with the Coastal Redwoods. Check off another box on his MUST SEE list for this trip! We took the longer loop trail and included the part that went along a ridge. That was not part of the paved short loop that I recall from when my mom visited here with me in the 80s.

Shot looking straight up. Wow.

Nice shot of Matt at the end of the hike. We've walked a LOT every day but one or two on this trip. YAY! Now we head over to Berkeley via Larkspur and the Richmond Bridge, just north of Berkeley. We did need to stop for some fresh cherries at one of the roadside stands before hitting the freeway again. Goodbye Hwy 1!

July 7: We tour San Francisco

Kathleen's son, William, was the absolute best tour guide could have had for our day in San Francisco. He knew more facts about the City than I know about anything. He was also very conversant in baseball, which was a pleasant surprise and bonus!

We walked out of the house, sans any map, and William navigated throughout the entire city. I figured: hey, it's a penninsula, so how lost can we possibly get?? There was but one extremely steep downhill where I was scared for the car and us in it. William took us where we wanted to go so we could see what we wanted to see and kept on suggesting MORE places.

I think that the next time I come back, I will stay for a few days and rent this young man for the entire time!

The sea lions own this part of the pier. They are so much fun to watch.

Just like a bunch of fat and lazy kids!

Matt, on Pier 39, with Alcatraz Island behind him.

William's favorite store!

The Boudin sourdough bakery....yum. We were so impressed to see all the little critters that the Boudin bakers had formed from the sourdough bread. Alligators, crabs, bears. Way cool.

No trip to SF is complete without seeing the fresh crab on the street vendor's carts. YUM.

William, tourguide extraordinaire. It sure is a good thing to see what a nice, smart, polite, funny and well-balanced young person he is. I was so grateful to have had some time with him.....this photo was taken in the Ghiradelli chocolate ice cream parlor.

It was too early for a round of sundaes, but who could blame us for splitting one, three ways? It's a tourist "Must Do" when in SF!

The cable cars are still turned around by human power on a turntable.

Made standing in line more fun.

We were also bombarded with old folky tunes from a guy who was trying to make a living from the tourist donations. I will say a prayer for him. His melody lines needed a bit of help.

Matt and William got to hold on to the railing on the outside of the car.

Matt had said that was something he wanted to do and he got his wish!

Lombard Street: it's pretty crooked at this point!

A nice view of Coit Tower and the Bay Bridge from the top of Lombard Street. Coit Tower was built as a monument to the firefighters of San Francisco after the Great Earthquake of 1906. The tower, only after it was built, was said to resemble a firehose nozzle!

The street performers add color to the tourist scene...in this case, it was an aluminum color!

We took advantage of having the roof down on the rental car. I handed Matt the camera as we drove through the financial district and he shot...he had a bunch of cool shots straight up into the buildings. Here are just a few of those. Concrete (and, glass!) jungle, indeed!

William took us past the entrance to San Francisco's Chinatown, the largest Chinatown outside of China itself. This is only one of MANY fun facts that William told us!

One of the things that I wanted to see at Golden Gate Park was The Conservatory of Flowers.

I think this is just a gorgeous building. It is REALLY gorgeous on a sunny day but we were there during FOG WEEK, so what can you expect? Keeping with our tradition of FREE stuff, begun with Free Mustache Day at the San Diego Zoo, we happened upon the Conservatory on a FREE day. I love that!

Inside the Conservatory

For some reason, I've noticed an inordinate number of attractive grates on this trip.

This one was at the Consevatory of flowers at Golden Gate Park.

The boys dubbed this plant "the camo plant". Camo as in camoflage.

I think they have something there!

Matt and William pose at the entrance to the tunnel by the Conservatory

We hiked "the road less traveled"...then we found a (?) homeless couple just off the trail and diverted back to more popular paths!

Matt wanted to see the Bison. Here is a Bison. This was the number one thing on my "underwhelmed" list for this trip, but we got a good laugh out of it. Bison in the City.

That is just not right.

Just outside of Golden Gate Park on the west side is the big windmill and then the Cliff House and the ruins of the Sutro Baths. This was a popular bath house around the turn of the LAST century. They are now in ruins and much memorabilia from that era is now housed in the Cliff House. We stopped there for hot cocoa for the boys and an Irish Coffee for me.

And yes, even though this area could be treacherous, I gave in to the boys' pleas to climb and explore. (What Kathleen doesn't know won't hurt TOO much, I thought...).

That is the Cliff House off in the distance. Appropriately named, methinks.

I love the pattern of the Monterey Cypress along a ridge line.

This lion looks to me like he's watching over the entire San Francisco Bay!

The Legion of Honor--an art museum in SF.
Closed by the time we got there, but still impressive.

William and Matt: climbing again. This time on outdoor sculpture at the Legions of Honor.

David, Kathleen's beau, never wonders why he has no reading glasses with him. It's not as if he has not been provided for in that department. William, he just smiles.
Thank you, David, for your wit and for a wonderful meal at Fresca in Noe Valley.

Kathleen introduced me to Pisco Sours. She first found them in Chile.
I found them at Fresca."Potent Piscos" I call them.
We actually were singing part of the way home! Songs from old movies, no less!

Tomorrow, we leave Kathleen's and travel to Muir Woods in Marin County