I'm Back!

After a long hiatus, I decided that I better start blogging again so family and friends can see what we're up to. We are making our way back to Tucson much the same way as last year. Two important changes are that Larry is now retired and that we have sold our house in Bellevue. I'll give a summary of some of the highlights of our trip. I'm giving some mundane details about our route, where we stayed, and where we ate so that we can use this information for future travels. Sorry if it's boring!

On day 1 of our return journey we managed to pack up our Prius and head off to Ashland at 9:20. I was really hoping to travel lightly, but we kept thinking of things that would come in handy, such as Christmas ornaments, music,extra clothes, and ice cream maker. Plus, we are taking a half dozen paintings made by Larry's aunt and mother for his nephew in Tucson. Our Prius is full! The drive to Ashland was uneventful and beautiful. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather. We arrived at the Windmill Inn by 5:00, checked in, then headed for downtown to get in a little walk before dinner We discovered that the Lithia Park had a pleasant walking trail, so were able to walk by the river at dusk before having a great dinner at Sesame restaurant. We were told that there were no plays on Mondays. However, as we were walking along the street toward our car, we saw a group of people waiting in front of the Black Swan Theater. I asked a man what they were waiting for and he explained that there was a free performance open to the public in a few minutes. Larry and I decided to go for it. It turned out to be a play with music in a modern mode. The acting and music were memorable. It was called The (Un)fortunates. I tried to look up more about it on line afterward, but couldn't find any notes.

The next morning we headed out for San Francisco. Once again we had a beautiful, uneventful drive. We left around 9:00 and made it to The City around 3:30. We stayed in the same house in NOPA as in January. This time instead of renting the whole house, we did it B&B style. The owners were pleasant to talk to and we learned more about the neighborhood. The beds were comfortable, we had off-street parking, and they let us unload our stuff in their garage. Highlights of our 3 night stay were playing trivia with Cliff and his friends at a local bar, going out for a celebratory dinner hosted by Cliff at a wonderful restaurant called The Plant Cafe, having lunch with friend Anita at a Thai restaurant called Osha, having dinner with friends Richard and Gloria at NOPA, and having lunch with cousin Lee in Berkeley. Larry, unfortunately, came down with a cold and needed to take it easy at the end of our stay in SF, but we still managed to walk a lot. We went on a walking tour of Victorian houses around Alamo Square and were amazed at the variety and complexity. We had a real treat when the owner of one, Richard Reutlinger, led our group on a tour of his house which was restored inside and out. The furnishings, woodwork, and wallpaper were amazing, with every detail appropriate for the time. In his lower level, he had a collection of mechanical pianos and music machines from the early 1900's, including a violana, a combination player violin and piano. Richard played a few instruments for us--remarkable!

We left SF for Palo Alto on Friday afternoon. We stayed at the Super 8 Motel in PA, which actually is a nice place. We had a one bedroom suite with a little kitchen and found the accommodations clean and comfortable. Originally Cliff was going to stay with us, but changed his plans when he found out that his girlfriend wanted to come to Homecoming activities with him, plus Larry came down with a bad cold. I was happy that Larry could relax in a separate room as he was sniffling and coughing. We picked up Cliff and Tracy at the Millbrae BART station, then all went to the Stanford Stadium for the Homecoming football game against WSU. We made it in time to tailgate with a couple of friends from our Stanford in Germany group. I enjoyed catching up with Alan M., who has moved to Lake Oswego, Oregon and with Lance L. and his wife, who was just a contestant on Millionare. She was sworn to secrecy about how she did, but told us her segment would air the day after Christmas. Her story was inspiring to Larry. I know he would love to get on the show, and now he has a better idea of what is involved. We bought tickets to the game from a scalper and ended up sitting in the heart of WSU territory. Although I really didn't know what was going on in the game, I did appreciate the energy and am glad that Stanford won. I had dinner with Cliff, Tracy, her brother, and some of their other friends at a restaurant called Baklava. It was excellent. Tracy is a good conversationalist and talked more about her life and how much she enjoyed talking to Cliff.

Sunday we had a pleasant drive down to Anaheim. We have to remember that highway 152 just N of Hollister is the one we want to take to get to I-5. We had to ignore our nav system at times. It pays to look at a map to get a general sense of where to go instead of blindly trusting the nav system. We stayed at the Alpine Inn, which is within walking distance of Disneyland. We stayed there last year and liked it. This year the odor of some disinfectant spray bothered Larry, but we managed to air out our room OK. The room has been updated, was spacious, clean and comfortable. It had a little refrigerator and microwave also. It's my favorite place to stay near Disneyland. We had a pleasant surprice in restaurants. We walked over to Downtown Disneyland to look around and decided to eat at the Mexican restaurant there. It was surprisingly good. We made it back to the hotel just as light rain started to fall.

We spent a full day at Disneyland and California Adventure on Monday. Disneyland opened at 8:00 and we were there. We had planned out in advance the rides we most wanted to do and found that they were not crowded a bit for the first couple of hours. Closer to noon the park started filling up, so we had to wait some in line. We then went to CA around 2:30. I love California Soaring, so went on it a couple of times. We went on the river rafting ride and got splashed. Fortunately, it was warm enough to dry us out in short time. Larry rode CA Screaming, the roller coaster, while I sat it out. Other highlights of CA included the Aladin broadway type show, A Bugs Life, and the Wonderful World of Color light and water show after dark. We had a total of 12 hours at the parks--which was plenty!