Wine Country!

Sunday was a day that has been long anticipated by both Katie and I: Angella was taking us to wine country! We had talked the night before and agreed that we had to get an early start since Angella told us that lots of the tasting rooms are not open later than 5 p.m. Grudgingly Katie and I crawled out of bed at 8 a.m. after our few short hours of precious sleep. Angella was bright and chipper as we came downstairs, ready to take on the day since she had not gone to the show the night before. This was good for us as her energy carried over to ourselves and we got excited to go all over again. Angella had planned out our day for us the night before having us stop at 2 wineries in Napa Valley and then crossing the mountains into Sonoma Valley for a stop at one of her favorite wineries. Katie and I had never before been to a wine tasting and we were extremely grateful that Angella was coming with us to show us how its done. The only downside to our day in Wine Country was that the weather was not cooperating at all. It carried on its attitude from the day before only seeming to concentrate harder dropping larger rain drops. Pulling into Napa we stopped at the Oakville Grocery, a small shop that Angella likes to stop at because it is a small local store, very cute inside, and they usually have free samples of various mustards and sauces. But today it was Costco all over again and there was barely anything out for us to snack on. Disappointed but not daunted we moved on to the wineries. Our first stop was at the Rubicon Estate which is

the winery owned by Frances Ford Coppola. This place was a stunning first impression and a grand entrance into Napa Valley. We turned down the 1/4 mile drive, flanked by vineyards on either side of us bearing full grown grapes ripe for the plucking. When we reached the parking area we could see the full majesty of the place, a mansion complete with terraces and fountains at the entrance way. The only thing that was missing from the scene

was the bright sun shining through a cloudless sky. As it stood, we were hopping over puddles trying to reach the mansion before we all melted away like the witch of the west. Inside, the mansion has been converted into half museum, half tasting area. The museum is stuffed with apparently ever changing memorabilia

from Francis Ford Coppola's movies and his private collection. There were several private tasting rooms aside from the general tasting room which we took part of. These private rooms were lined with oak barrels filled with wine and had elaborate furnishings in the center giving a very intimate, elite feeling to the room. We of course only gazed at these rooms from behind the gated glass dreaming about what it would be like to be able to afford a tasting in this setting. Back in the real world

of the general public tasting room, Katie, Angella, and I split 2 tasting sharing each of the 3 wines we received with one another. We didn't dare buy any of the wines that we were tasting from this winery since the bottles ranged about $50 bucks a pop, which was just a bit out of our price range. Our first tasting in the bag, we left the Rubicon Estate and headed a few miles down the road to visit our next winery. It was called V. Sattui and was famous, at least in Angella's mind, for its deli and large picnic area set amongst the beautiful,

vine-covered, stone buildings of the winery. Because of the rain we could not enjoy the outdoor setting of the picnic area but we were determined to not let it disrupt our visit to the deli, even if we were forced to eat in the car. We entered the winery through

the deli, the only way possible, and were immediately so sidetracked by samples of gourmet cheeses and mustards that we almost forgot about the wine tasting completely. While rounding a corner in the deli, hoping to find more cheese stashed away, we peeped in on the tasting room and were reminded of why we came. We found a spot at the bar, lucky to get a place where we all could fit, then scoped out the tasting options. At Rubicon, there was only 1 tasting available for under $30 and it only offered 3 different wines to taste, here however the tastes were $5 for the standard and $10 for the premium and offered 5 or 6 wines to taste. Recognizing a good deal, we each ordered a tasting here but still shared all of our wines with each other and in effect got to sample 16 different wines here. After the tasting we all purchased a few bottles of our favorites and then headed

into the deli. Here we purchased a meal worthy of the streets of Rome and very fitting of wine country. It consisted of a large loaf of Italian bread, 2 hand mixed cream cheeses (garlic and habanero flavored), a hunk of goat cheese, a half pound of gnocchi, and a bag of sea salt chips. Knowing that the picnic area was not an option due to the rain, we asked the cashiers if there was any place to eat on the premises. They informed us that because of the rain they

had opened the cellar for guests. The cellar was a large banquet hall that is usually reserved for weddings and the like, offering an intimate atmosphere with giant barrels of wine again lining the walls. Though it was not as private nor exclusive a setting as the Rubicon private tasting rooms, it was still a welcomed treat to be able to enjoy our meal down here. We had so much fun enjoying our food and the setting we found ourselves in, that we nearly forgot about the rain outside; that is until we left. Again greeted by pouring rain, though much more apt to handle it now that our stomachs were full, we loaded up in Angella's car and made our way out of Napa to Sonoma Valley. Angella had never done both Sonoma and Napa in one day before. She had brought her GPS with her so that we could punch in the address to our next winery and hopefully take back roads over the mountains into Sonoma. After loading our destination and looking at the route, she was displeased with its suggestion which appeared to be to go back to the main highway. Determined to get it to recalculate the route, she headed in the opposite direction watching as it kept telling her to turn around and head back down the highway. Seemingly there was no other route over the mountains for a long way. After about a half hour of the machine telling us to turn around we finally did only to find out that a couple miles down the road it would have taken us over a small mountain road, just what Angella had wanted. We turned at the small back road dubbed Oakville Grade and quickly began to ascend the mountains after a short stretch of grape filled fields. Now, if this was Angella's plan, to take a steep, winding road across the mountains from one valley to another, it was a poor plan indeed. For any normal human it must sound like a great plan, getting a scenic view and a fun ride while avoiding the rush of traffic, but not for Angella. As she told us about 2 minutes after beginning to climb over the mountain, she is deathly afraid of roads just like this. She has been having the reoccurring dream of falling off a cliff while driving in a truck since she was a child and this has evidently

scarred her for life while driving such roads. The 20 minute drive turned into an hour as Angella gripped the steering wheel, both hands white knuckled, and drove at a constant speed of 10 mph while screaming "OHHH MYYYY GOOOOODD" over and over again each time we took a switchback. Katie and I have rarely had so much fun in a car. We spent the whole ride laughing with and at Angella in her torment as we slowly but surely entered into Sonoma Valley. I offered to drive, trying to relieve Angella's stress and get us there before the we all turned old and gray, but she said that it would have been worse for her to be a passenger, so we continued to slowly trudge on. We made it to our last winery of the day still intact and with an hour to spare before

the tasting room closed. Angella chose to end our tour with her favorite winery, indeed the same winery she used for her wedding, Valley of the Moon. The setting here was much more relaxed and quiet than the comparative hustle and bustle of Napa. The tastings were comparable to the ones we had at V. Sattui in price and amount, the only difference being after we purchased all of the wine we wanted to buy, they waved the tasting fees entirely. We headed back to San Francisco this time on the valley floor and traveling much faster than 10 mph. On the way home we discussed what should be done about dinner. Though all of us were still pretty full from lunch, we knew that we would be ready to eat by the time we reached the Horton Hippie Hotel. Since we arrived in town, Angella had wanted to take us to try some Vietnamese food that she thought we would enjoy called Pho, but had not yet gotten the chance. We weren't in the mood for going out to eat after our long day and Angella didn't think that we could order takeout since it is a soupish meal that requires a lot of extra sauces and fresh vegetables, so it looked like we were to be cheated entirely from trying it. On the way

home she decided to drop in at the restaurant and enquire anyway, just to check. After waiting about 5 minutes in the car, Katie and I knew that we would be having Pho for dinner. Angella emerged moments later both hands full of oversized bags of food and a look of excitement and joy on her face. We got back to the HHH and Angella proceeded to cook up our

Pho since they had given us all of the ingredients individually wrapped. It was delightful, tasting like a cross between Asian food and chicken noodle soup. We enjoyed our dinner while watching Iron Man 2 with Kyle's surround sound shaking the floorboards loose below us. The next day we had planned to leave San Francisco, for good this time, and head back East before looping down to San Diego.

Beat Poets and Bluegrass

We woke up early Friday and began the drive back to San Francisco for the last time. Determined to not pay bridge tolls and avoid the interstate as much as possible, we decided to

try and find our way through back roads from Modesto to San Jose, then up to San Francisco from there. After a few wrong turns and some educated guessing, we felt we were on the right road to San Jose. The scenery changed from vast farmlands to on either side of the road to rolling hills of golden grass as we entered then began to climb yet another mountain range. This road was about as country as you can get. After about 20 minutes of not seeing a single car drive by, we turned the corner to see a pickup truck urging on 6 or so cows in front of it. We couldn't decide if this was on purpose or if a fence had broke and the truck was filling in for the sheep dog. The driver stopped for a second so I could pass and we continued down the road for a mile until we reached another crowd of cows on the road. The only problem was these cows were stagnant, just standing around, not moving like their friends. Lucky for us there wasn't too many of them and after CJ gave them a little holler, they made a path wide enough to pass through. We drove past a number of small farms, still not seeing any cars and beginning to doubt whether or not this road was the right one or not. Next thing I know I drove right over a tarantula! I stopped the van and looked in the rearview mirror and

sure enough, there was a tarantula in the middle of the road. I put CJ in reverse, not worried about any traffic coming our way, and drove right over it again, put CJ in park and hopped out to

investigate further. By this time the spider was scared stiff, not moving, just pensively gazing up at us hoping that we weren't going to kill him. He was real hairy, as big as my fist, and looked very threatening. I have never had a fear of spiders but I have also never been particularly fond of them. Neither Katie nor I had ever seen a wild tarantula before and it tickled us to death that we got to see one on this California back road. We continued on toward San Jose and actually spotted 2 more of these monsters, though the first one was by far the biggest. The rest of the drive was uneventful in comparison and we arrived in San Fran around noon. We stopped in at Starbucks for a while before Kyle got home from work to check us back in to the Horton Hippie Hotel. That night we went down to the Lower Haight and met up with Angella and some people from her work. We started off watching some rugby at a sports bar then finished up the night at Noc Noc, an awesome bar just across the street. Your just going to have to check out the website on this one, this place is beyond description. On Saturday we woke up and lounged around in the morning being sure to fully enjoy the comforts of a bed again. Ever since Hardly Strictly I have known that there is a disc golf course in Golden Gate Park and I have been itching to try it out; today that itch would be scratched. Kyle, Angella, Katie, and I all descended on GGP around 11 a.m. dressed for the rainy weather and ready to disc. The course was great and I have honestly never played a more well put together and maintained course in my life. It took us about 2.5 hours to finish discing and by this time we had worked up quite an appetite. We picked up Theresa, a friend I used to work with at Sears, along the way and headed to 21st Amendment for lunch. This place was the site of Angella and Kyle's first date and coincidentally was the first stop on our Angella-provided tour. Ever since we first arrived at the HHH Angella has been wanting to take us on a guided tour of her fabulous city but because of various circumstances we had not gotten around to it until today. Unfortunately the tour was literally dampened by the intense rain that hit the city which made none of us ever want to leave the car. Since

Theresa had recently moved to the city and because we hadn't had a chance to hang out with her yet, she came on the tour with us. We started along the coast, driving past Ocean Beach which offered us great views of the storm coming in over the ocean. Our next stop was Golden Gate Bridge where the rain again got the chance to pelt us, this time aided by the high winds that frequent the bridge area. Being outnumbered by 3 girls, the third stop on the tour was to do some shopping at Angella's favorite sporting goods outlet, Sports Basement. All I know is for a sporting goods store they sure had a lot of cloths and after 30 minutes of shopping Katie walked away with a new pair jeans and I had a new disc as a consolation prize. We got to drive through the Presidio twice after Angella made a wrong turn, then continued on to Lombard Street which we drove slowly down, admiring the beautiful flowers along the way. By this time it was beginning to get dark, the constant rain not helping, and when we got to Coit Tower, their was no point to even get out and look around, the visibility was so poor. Undismayed by the weather, Angella drove us down to Chinatown where Katie and I were looking forward to seeing dead ducks hanging in every window. On the way to Chinatown, Angella recognized

a bar that she thought we would be interested in: Vesuvio. This bar was the former hangout of Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and other greats of the beat generation. The atmosphere inside was extremely chill yet visibly exciting. Game 6 of the Giants series was on and you could easily draw a line

down the room of people who cared and those who didn't, though both scenes seemed perfectly at home here and not at odds. For the most part we ignored the game, Angella took a mysterious walk every now and then to check the score, and enjoyed the legendary atmosphere and the light hearted company that can only be experienced between good friends long separated. The evening wore on and soon it was time to change locations. The main reason that Katie and I were in town this weekend was to see a concert, Greensky Bluegrass. I have been seeing their shows for what seems like forever, way back to the days they were playing Thursday nights at Bell's Brewery. Katie and I have seen them twice together in Chicago and when we found out they were going to be in San Francisco this weekend, we just had to come. They were playing at the Boom Boom Room on Fillmore Street which is where Angella ended our tour by dropping Theresa, Katie, and me off at the front door. The concert was awesome, one of those experiences that really can't be described unless you were their to witness it. It is currently two days later and I still do not have my voice completely back. The band played until 3 a.m. and Katie and I danced every minute they were on stage, finally leaving after the second encore.

So Much for the Alpine Glow

Our first attempt to reach Yosemite National Park failed miserably. We left the HHH in the mid afternoon after a morning of doing some chores and catching up on our hygiene. We drove all day, through mild but tedious traffic and successfully reached Yosemite at 8p.m. to find out that all of the ranger stations and camp grounds on the side of the park we were on had already closed for the season. Since all the camping in the valley was full as well we had no choice but to tuck our tails between our legs and retreat to a rest area back on the highway. This however put us in a prime location for the

next morning to get up early and make the most out of our stay in Yosemite. We entered the Yosemite Valley around 10:30 a.m. and slowly made our way toward the visitor center stopping at almost every turn to soak up the stunning scenery. Upon arrival we received our standard list of hikes for the area and also discovered that it was going to be hard to camp in the valley. Apparently all of the campgrounds that were still open this time of year were by reservation only, which of course, we didn't have. The ranger told us that we could take a shuttle over to Curry Village and put our name on a waiting list to see if we could get a spot to camp. Deciding that this was a primary concern, as we both did not want to drive back to a rest area again tonight, we hopped on the shuttle and headed to Curry Village hoping against hope to be able to purchase a spot for the night. When we got to the registration office we put our names on the list and got the 12th spot on the waiting list. The ranger told us that the raffle began at 3p.m. sharp and if we weren't present when they called our name, we would forfeit our spot. With this news Katie and I began to schedule our morning being sure not to venture far out of the valley, ensuring that nothing would come between us and 3p.m. We decided to do a hike, a 2 mile loop trail to Mirror Lake. We took the shuttle to the trailhead and got off with about 10 other people and began to hike up the trail. The path was also a horse trail and was completely

blanketed in horse nuggets that rent our nostrils as we strode forward. Once we got to the "lake" we discovered that it is really a seasonal river that floods, not a constant lake. Since the snow had long melted away from the previous winter, we were greeted by a small river and a large bed of sand. Though there was no mirror, nor lake for that matter, the views were still amazingly beautiful and the hike was definitely not in vain. While standing gazing at the surrounding mountains we began to hear a low murmur which steadily grew into a thunderous roar. Before long the valley was resounding with this ominous noise and everyone around us stopped to look around. Slowly the noise quieted, became a low murmur once more and was gone. We had just experienced a rock slide and even though we didn't see it, it was pretty cool. The sound distinctly reminded me of kayaking in front of a glacier in Alaska and hearing the ice calve moments after seeing it happen. Both were memorable experiences if for nothing less than being slightly frightening. After the hike we spent the rest of the time walking around Curry Village until it was 3p.m. and we could find out whether or not we would be camping in Yosemite. We were 12th on the waiting list and the ranger came out of the station and announced they had 15 spots available! We waited patiently for them to call our names, quickly snagged our golden ticket, then went to wait in line to pick out our spot. The administrative stuff complete, we headed down the road to our campground and set up camp for the night. We wanted to formally secure our site before heading out again to see the sights. That evening we had planned to do a hike through a redwood grove which was near a gas station in the park which we were in desperate need of visiting. But once we reached the gas station, dusk was setting in and we both agreed that we would rather spend the night around the fire rather than walking in the woods. Curry village has a pizza deck that offers some moderately priced and fairly decent pizza which you can enjoy out on a deck amongst nature... sorta. Since we were only camping 1 night and didn't want to buy all of the food supplies for cooking on the fire, we opted for the pizza deck. While we were eating the sun was setting behind the valley and we glimpsed Half Dome bathed in a dark orange hue; it was the alpine glow. Back near the road we had seen lots of people scattered throughout the fields waiting for this moment. We could just envision the barrage of photographs that Half Dome was experiencing at that very moment. After dinner we picked up some firewood and smores and headed back to camp. That night the Giants were playing game 4 against the Phillies and everywhere the game could be heard blaring from car stereos. This did create a different atmosphere than what you would normally think of when you imagine Yosemite valley, but it was something you could easily block out as well. The Giants ended up winning and the campground burst into cheers and applause then as if a light went out, almost completely fell silent 10 minutes later. No fires were even glowing anymore, save a couple off in the distance. It was crazy. All of a sudden shouts began to ring out then horns and whistles began to blow. From the mingled cry's we could faintly discern that a bear had entered the camp just a few rows away from ours. We saw people running over with flashlights, banging pots and pans, trying to scare the bear out of camp. This put Katie into a frightful mood. During the party this past weekend, Phil and Evan had told us a story of their friend who was camping in Yosemite and got bit by a bear through their tent. Then as we arrived to camp we were shown pictures of cars broken into and ravaged as well as canisters that bears had eaten into pieces. Even when we purchased the camping space for the night we had to have a special talk with the ranger who told us we had to put everything with an oder in

the bear box for the night. The ranger also told us that they had a bear break into a car the night before in the campground just across the street from ours. Needless to say, Katie's fear was not without merit, and this bear scare as soon as the lights went out really gave her the creeps. We stayed up pretty late, burning all of our wood as well as the numerous pamphlets we had acquired during our travels. The moon was insanely bright, not yet full but if you looked away from the fire for more than a minute the moonlight poured through the trees and illuminated the whole forest floor. Once we were ready for bed, Katie made sure that I packed the bear mace, my knife, and my hatchet in the tent so that I could protect her if the bears decided they wanted a midnight snack. We passed the night safely and I was only roused one time by shouts of a bear in the distance. I thought briefly about getting up to investigate but decided the calls would be much louder if the threat was nearer, then drifted back to sleep. In the morning we quickly packed up camp and hit the road. Last night we had devised a travel plan that forced us to adhere to a rigid time frame if we wanted to get it all in. First on our list was to travel up to Glacier Point, doing a hike along the road on the way up. We were doing great on time until we reached a construction site which we had to wait 40 minutes at before passing through. Once we got onto Glacier Point road, the traveling went much more according to plan. Our hike for

the day was a 2 mile loop trail to the top of Sentinel Dome. The appeal of this trail was its panoramic views of not only the Yosemite Valley but also the High Sierra's surrounding it. The valley looked amazing from atop the dome, everything so peaceful and still, even the waterfalls were so distant that you couldn't hear their rushing water. After the hike we continued on to Glacier Point where we were rewarded with stunning views of Vernal and Nevada Falls. We had not yet seen these waterfalls and only now were we seeing them in their weakened Autumn state, but even so, they were vastly impressive. Aside from seeing the waterfalls for the first time, the view was much the same from Glacier Point as it was from Sentinel Dome, so we did not stay long also conscious that we still had to adhere to our time schedule. From Glacier Point we headed back into the valley and took the Tioga Pass road to the east side of the park. Here we planned to visit Devils Postpile National Monument as well as Mono Lake before we ran out of daylight. We didn't really know much about either of these sites but Mono Lake came recommended by our travel book and the other is a National Monument, so you know its

got to be good. The Devils Potspile was a crazy place. When you enter the monument the road that you travel down is 8 miles of twists and turns, one lane sections, and shear drop offs along the mountain edge. During the normal tourist season you are not even allowed to drive down the road having to take a shuttle bus.

Once we reached the bottom and hiked to the monument we were greeted by a strange and intriguing sight. The postpile monument looked like it was made out of play-doh sticking straight out of the earth after being pressed through the spaghetti maker. The columns were shaped into perfect hexagons and at the top they were perfectly cut and polished by passing glaciers which adds to the impressiveness of this sight. At first glance this structure reminds one immediately of a small Devils Tower, but on closer

inspection it is evident the correlation is not warranted . Unfortunately, all of the interpretive signs in the area were stripped

bare and the self guided tours were closed up for the season so this natural wonder remains sort of a mystery for Katie and I. We left this natural oddity and headed straight for another. This time it was nearby Mono Lake. This lake is one of the oldest lakes in the North America clocking in at 1 to 3 million years old. Today, the water level has been vastly depleted; most of the water being diverged to supply the city of Los Angeles. This drop in water has exposed the tufa towers; a concentration of calcium carbonate formed underwater from the mineral springs below the then water level. These tufa towers are what make the lake an especially interesting place to visit. The lake is 3 as salty as the ocean and is home to the second largest population of migratory birds in the US. We arrived right at dusk allowing us just enough time to walk around and read the interpretive signs before the light faded completely. At this hour

especially, the place was full of photographers, many of them hoping to grab a shot of the alpine glow in this picturesque setting. We grew weary of walking in between all of the tripods

and ducking out of peoples photos so decided to head back to the parking lot having already completed the interpretive trail and now just looking around. As we turned to leave Katie noticed that the sky was turning a deep red before our eyes. It lasted only about 5 minutes, slowly changing from orange to red, red to purple, then purple to the deep blue of the evening sky. The best part about experiencing the alpine glow in this beautiful setting is that none of the

photographers flooding the shoreline with camera gear saw a second of it. We were alone looking at the sky while they all had their lenses pointed in the other direction. One lone camera man was near us and photographing the sky but it seemed that he couldn't make up his mind about the right spot and he just walked back and forth positioning his tripod but before long it was to late. With the sun finally absent from the sky we piled in the van and headed back to a the interstate, a short 4 hour drive through mountain roads to a rest area, where we fell asleep as soon as CJ quit moving.

Welcome to the Rock!

Our Alcatraz tour was planned for a 1:45p.m. departure which would make our arrival on the rock about 10 minutes later. We had spent the morning lounging around and reconnecting to the virtual world before heading down to the pier to catch our ferry. Much to our surprise, we had learned the day before that only 1 ferry service actually takes you onto Alcatraz island. All of the other tour trips and boat rides only circle Alcatraz and don't allow you to stop there at all. When we had called the company on Friday we discovered that the next available ferry wasn't until Monday, today, which worked out perfect for our weekend plans. When we got to the pier we were herded like cattle into a line along with the other 250 people that were on our ferry to the island. We waited in line being forced to take a photo in front of a picture of Alcatraz which was later available for us to by at the low low price of $22 a pop... yea right! While we were boarding the boat, Kyle began to text me saying that he could see us. Katie and I were both a little creeped out and didn't know what to make of this. Apparently Kyle was working at a home right near Coit Tower that looked out

onto the bay and he could see our boat as we headed to the island. We boarded the boat and headed straight to the roof to wave farewell to Kyle as we sailed toward the foreboding island that lay in front of us. Once we got to the island we were greeted by a mandatory speech delivered by a park ranger. Amidst the rules and many warnings regarding our behavior on the island we did receive a bit of useful information. We found out that the last ranger program of the day was about to start in 25 minutes and it was one that focused on escapes from Alcatraz. To waste the time before our ranger program started, we first watched a video about the history of Alcatraz, then perused the exhibit displays as well as the gift shop. The ranger program turned out to be a walk to the top of the hill finally ending at the cell house but making stops along the way for the ranger to unfold the story of the first prison escape attempt from Alcatraz. The story, though interesting, was quite long and the only pertained to the first escape attempt not mentioning the more famous and elaborate attempts. Personally, I would have preferred a little more variety in the story, but when its a free ranger program, you really don't have much

to complain about. After the story had ended we joined the queue for the self guided audio tour of the cell house. We entered through the showers, headed up the stairs and were greeted by an impressive view of the cell house before us. The tour led us up

and down the 4 blocks of cells, out into the courtyard, and through solitary confinement where Katie and I both stepped behind bars, thankfully for the first time. The route proceeded to lead us throughout the prison, highlighting the locations of various breakout attempts, cells, and battle sights; it was extremely fun and informative. One of the coolest things was to see where the floor had been permanently scarred by grenades during the so-called battle of Alcatraz. At one point a ranger made his way to the second floor and began to open and shut the cell doors. It was an intense moment to experience the silence that came over the crowd as we watched him repeatedly open and shut the cell doors; the loud mechanics creaking and clicking finally ending with the bone chilling BOOM that surely would dampen the spirits of anyone, had they been behind those bars. We both really enjoyed the tour and were grateful that it wasn't mid July during the height of tourist

season forcing us to shuffle through the prison like sardines. We had 40 minutes before the next ferry left after our tour finished, so we spent the time walking around the rest of the island, taking a nature trail which is brimming with birds during the spring and summer but was rather desolate and barren as we walked through in mid fall. Back on the mainland, Katie and I were starving; we hadn't eaten all day since there is no food on Alcatraz island. After deciding on Thai food, we hopped in CJ and headed over to Haight Street. Katie and I hand only briefly glimpsed the neighborhood during our first visit to the city and we were both looking forward to getting a closer look. We drove down Haight looking at all of the shops and people but mostly keeping our eyes peeled for anything with the word "Thai" in it. The fruit of our labors was Best of Thai, a small little restaurant that had the cooks cooking right out in the dinning area. It was a really fun atmosphere and the food easily met our expectations. Once dinner was safely in our bellies we walked down Haight again, this time more aware of our surroundings, stopping occasionally to gaze into the storefronts and politely refuse the beggars asking for change. We arrived back home at the HHH around 7p.m. and

immediately began to prepare things for pumpkin carving. We cleared the table and got the spoons and knives ready then proceeded to sit and think about what we would all be carving. Katie was the only one who knew what she was doing before sitting down at the table; a grateful dead bear! Angella and I sat and pondered our designs for a while before our respective muses came to us. I decided to go with a standard jack-o-lantern face and Angella chose to draw up a complicated spider design. We proceeded to saw off the top and de-gut the pumpkins getting our hands full of gewy pumpkin innards. Once the actual carving began it we were all done in no

time at all. We put candles in our pumpkins, shut off the lights,

and gave Kyle the honor of being the first to witness the greatness which was our pumpkins. Pumpkins successfully carved, we moved on to the seeds. We had a ridiculously large amount of seeds and we decided to each take a batch and make our own blend of seasoning. We all got really creative with our mixes and each batch we made was completely unique and different from the others. Angella did a spicy mix while Katie did a sweet and sugary one. I did a sort of combo of the two, first mixing up sauces and lime juice with pepper and seasoning, but then sprinkling sugar over the top. This created an excellent

combination which gave you a sugary sweet taste up front but ended with a strong spice that only "Z" can produce. During the baking however, I got distracted and ended up burning half of

my batch thus cheating the world out of some of the best pumpkin seeds ever made. The left overs we just covered in plain salt, rounding out our experimental phase with a classic original. Once everything was cleaned up and we had eaten our fill of pumpkin seeds for the night, Katie and I grabbed up the three pumpkins and placed them outside on the staircase leading up to Angella's porch which is where they happily reside today. Tuckered out, we headed to bed for the night, Yosemite next on our list.

Back in the Bay

The next morning we headed back to San Francisco to again be weekend residents at the Horton Hippie Hotel. Since "check-in" wasn't until after the proprietors got home from work, Katie and I decided to be genuine tourists for the day and

headed down to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. We first checked out Ghirardelli Square and did a little shopping much to Katie's enjoyment followed by a visit to the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, much to Katie's dismay. After walking the pier, looking at all of the old historic ships, and getting a good view of Hyde Street, we began to walk down the street to Fisherman's Wharf. This place was almost too touristy for us. Since there was no way to entertain ourselves aside from spend large amounts of money, we didn't stay there long. We walked into a mechanical arcade which reminded us of Marvelous Marvin's back in Michigan, though not nearly as impressive, but didn't spend any money on machines. Walking between Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 we noticed a number of homeless people asking for change in various ways, some putting on elaborate shows. Disappointedly we did not run into the famous bushman who we were both looking forward to stiffing as he popped out in front of us. At Pier 39 we walked over to the water to view the famous sea lions, apparently celebrating their 20th

anniversary of life at the pier this year. On the way to join the throngs of people Katie and I noticed 2 sea lions just sitting on a dock that normally houses boats, not sea lions. As we were about to leave them and move to the large pack, a man began to drag a hose toward them. We watched with anticipation and joy as the man proceeded to carry his hose closer then spray the

sea lions in an attempt to kick them off the dock. After the spraying did not work on the first sea lion he took the hose and beat it on the dock finally scaring the first one off then moved on to spraying the second. The water was enough to deter this one, but the first sea lion had come back for more. He was swimming around the dock eyeing it longingly when the man began to spray him while in the water. Eventually the sea

lion had enough and hopped back onto the dock and the man finally admitted defeat. It later occurred to Katie and I that this guys entire job was to

stand on the dock and ward off sea lions that ventured away from their designated area. What an occupation! After moving down the dock and enjoying the large mass of sea lions piled together, Katie and I decided that it was time for some lunch. We walked around the shops of Pier 39 and finally ended at Wipeout, where we dined outside on some surf themed pizza. After our meal, tempted with the endless options of Pier 39 in front of us, we decided to indulge in some desert. Katie opted for some ice cream while I got a frosting covered cookie. In true "fat American tourist" fashion we moved from desert back to Ghirardelli Square where we had a second desert. We decided to stay lean and both chose liquid deserts, Katie a hot chocolate and me an espresso drink. We were so full by the end of our food binge that halfway through our drinks we decided that we couldn't even finish and abandoned them. As we headed back to the car we saw a pile of bushes on the ground, evidence that the bushman was nearby, but again we missed him. From here we decided to pick up Angella from work and go exploit happy hour. We picked her up downtown and headed over to a place called The Ramp. This place has one of Angella's favorite outdoor patio's in the city. It is near AT&T Park, home of the Giants, and looks right out onto the bay. We had a drink enjoying the sun and beautiful weather while we caught Angella up on our northern excursion back into Oregon. Afterwards we headed back to the HHH where Angella made us some amazing taco's that Katie and I happily packed in to our already full stomachs. We spent the rest of the night relaxing at the Hotel making plans for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday, Angella was hosting a party for one of her friends birthday's, and Katie and I had volunteered our services as payment for room and board. We woke up early in the morning, at least early for Katie and I, and headed to Costco. Kyle had left before us to get his car worked on and called us just before we left informing us that the store hadn't opened yet. Deciding to

take advantage of our extra time, Angella volunteered to play tour guide for a bit and drove us to Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies, a group of old-fashioned houses made famous, at least in Katie's mind, by being featured in the Full House opening montage. We arrived at the park, Katie's excitement brimming over, and walked up to the very spot that the Tanner family

supposedly used to enjoy afternoon picnics. After we took our photo's and Katie's 80's nostalgia subsided, we drove past San Francisco's beautiful city hall on the way to Costco. We got there just as the doors were opening, Kyle already waiting out front for our arrival. We had not planned to eat any real food before the party. Phil, the husband of the birthday girl, was having the party catered with Venezuelan cuisine and each guest was responsible for bringing appetizers, so we were trying not to spoil our meals. We had anticipated snacking on the Costco samples while shopping but our plan was foiled. Since we arrived so early the samples weren't even out by the time we left and we only got to enjoy a select few that didn't require cooking. Angella made an executive decision on the way out and bought a whole roasted chicken that we all proceeded to eat in the

Costco parking garage before we even got in the car. After enduring many stares from the other patrons, we parted ways with Kyle whose car was still in the shop, and headed for the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. This was both a practical stop as well as a stop on Angella's tour. She had wanted to share this market with us, which she described as a true San Francisco experience, and also needed to pick up some flowers and veggies for the party. We spent at least an hour at the market, this time able to take part in the many samples offered to us at nearly every booth. This market was more of what Katie expected the Portland Saturday Market to be, an actual farmers market, not a weekly craft show. We enjoyed ourselves greatly while wandering around and really appreciate Angella making time to show us around even while she had a party to prepare. Back at the Horton Hippie Hotel, we all began to get the house ready for the nights guests. I even got a chance to make some pepperoni rolls as an appetizer! The party went off without a hitch. We finished getting everything ready well before any guests showed up and we had a real fun night getting to know all of Angella and Kyle's friends. The next morning was devoted to laziness. 10 people had utilized the hotels accommodations the night before and

everyone woke slowly, not anxious to start the day.

Angella made an excellent breakfast and we all gathered around the TV to watch some NFL Sunday football. Midday, Angella, Katie, and I went to the neighborhood pumpkin patch and each picked out a pumpkin that we were planning on carving the next day. Angella also picked up loads of fresh vegetables and made an amazing chicken soup for dinner. We spent the night watching TV and planning tomorrows excursion, a trip to Alcatraz!

Volcanic Adventures

The purpose of our visit to Ashland Oregon was to hopefully catch a Shakespeare play there. Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and though it was not that time of year, the city regularly puts on shows year round. The previous night while eating dinner at Standing Stone, Katie had noticed a ticket stub on the table next to us. I picked it up to discover that it was from a showing of Hamlet from earlier that day. We were both excited that it seemed our plan would be working out so well. In the morning, we headed into a local Starbucks hoping to utilize the internet to secure tickets for a show. Much to our dismay we found out that there were no Shakespeare play on Wednesdays. There was a few modern plays but Katie and I had never heard of them and didn't feel like wasting 60 bucks to find out whether or not they were any good. Ultimately we decided to rethink our plan for the day. After consulting our Atlas and

our many guidebooks we decided that the best plan of action was to head to Lava Beds National Monument in Northern California. This was just a few hours drive from Ashland and we figured we could easily waste a day there. We were wrong. We could have easily wasted a week there! The national monument was chalk full of lava tube caves like the one that we hiked at Mt. St. Helen. There are more than 700 caves in the

national monument and more being discovered everyday. Regrettably we only had one afternoon to spend there so we could not explore nearly as many caves as we would have liked. We went to the visitor center to get a trail guide and began our exploring. Because of our time constriction and lack of gear, we decided to stick to the easier hikes. We did a short cave near the visitor center that actually had lights and interpretive

signs throughout the cave, then moved on to the only cave in the area which still has ice in it. Apparently the indians utilized this water source and air conditioning unit to survive in the harsh desert above the caves. In the early years when the caves were first discovered, there were ice patches big enough that the people used to create skating rings out of them. Now, in the only cave with ice remaining, you can only view it through metal bars designed to keep people from

walking on the sparse ice that remains. After the ice cave we decided to do 2 caves that were nearby which had indian pictographs inside it. These were both very shallow caves, more like craters in the earth than actual caves. The signs told us that the indians used these caves as destinations for vision quests and the

pictographs were the embodiment of their lucid visions. We sat in these sacred areas for a bit, pondering the minds of the artists and trying to decipher their visions. It was a mile above ground each way to reach these caves and by the time we got back to the car we both were ready to hit the road. The other caves that we were skilled / prepared for did not interest us enough to go exploring in and we didn't want to waste another day to explore the more adventurous ones; deciding instead to

leave them for another time. After we left the national monument, we took winding back roads through the country

watching the scenery change from barren desert back into wooded forest, all while fleeting daylight gave way to prevailing dusk. As we entered the Mt. Shasta national forest area, while perched on a mountain ridge, we looked into the valley to see what appeared to be a dense fog. But this did not make sense; it was evening. Surely any fog that developed during the night would be long gone and it was too early any to have develop yet this night. Katie had recalled signs for a scheduled burning which I had apparently missed and we assumed that this must be smoke from that. Our road led us into the valley and we would soon find out the cause of the smoke. As we drove the smoke stood before us like a sheer cliff wall and as we passed

into it we were greeted by an erie scene. The smoke intensified the darkness and created a haze that was visible far into the woods. Up ahead we could see glowing embers on half devoured trees and then actual fires still burning in piles on the forest floor. I stopped the car for a moment to let the atmosphere sink in, the brooding stillness only broken by the faint crackle of fire. We were only able to endure this

atmosphere for a short time before we were both sure that something horrible was lurking in the forest watching us and felt we had to get out of there. We left the desolation of Smaug behind us and entered again into the now welcoming dusk. We drove for a bit before before bedding down at a rest area for the night, the gloomy sense of foreboding finally gone from our minds. The next day we were on to another National Park. Keeping with the volcanic theme of the area, it was Lassen Volcanic National Park next on our list. We arrived early afternoon to the visitor center where we got our trusty information about the sights to see as well as trail recommendations. I must say that the national parks system really has their stuff together in this regard. Every park we have visited has been extremely helpful in providing this type of information in an organized and easy to follow manner. We have almost always followed the recommendations of the rangers and information pamphlets and have not, as of yet, been led astray. Anyway, after acquiring our information we had a full day planned: 5 scenic stops, 2 hikes both 3 miles long, and a .75 mile interpretive trail explaining more about the volcanic history of the area. We pulled off regularly enjoying the sights, mostly views of the mountain and crater from where it exploded. At the interpretive trail we passed by fields of huge boulders that had been hurled during the blast as well as giant "hot rocks" which exploded from the mountains core and were reportedly hot for weeks after the blast. Our first hike that we had planned for the day was at Kings Creek and followed a river through a meadow then down a long cascade of seemingly endless waterfalls. We walked through the meadows and reached what appeared to be the more difficult section of the trail, which we assumed followed the waterfalls, only to find it blocked off by yellow caution tape. We both figured that something was wrong with the trail and conceded to taking the longer, less scenic, horse trail down to the bottom of the valley. Once we reached the river we discovered nothing but disappointment; there was almost no visible waterfalls. In the fall, the snow fed rivers usually lose their impressiveness or vanish altogether, but as we saw plenty of running water in the meadows above and knew this was not the case with this river. We reached the bottom of the more challenging route and again found it taped off down here as well. Just beyond the tape was a downed tree that barred the path but we could easily walk

around it. Throwing caution to the wind, we ducked under the tape and began to hike up the trail. Immediately our defiance was rewarded and we walked right up to the beautiful cascade of waterfalls. We enjoyed the view on a large rock for a bit, then continued the hike to the top, the

entire path following this majestic scene to its source. It was great and we were both extremely happy we didn't take the horse path back to the top. Just as we reached the top we heard someone blowing a bear whistle non-stop. Katie was particularly disgusted at this. We had always laughed at people when we heard them blowing whistles or ringing with bear bells at their side, even before we visited Alaska and had so many run-ins with bears. Now the idea seemed ridiculous and completely disrupted the serenity of nature which was the whole point in taking hikes like this. Once we were finally out of earshot of the whistle blower and we had reached the meadow portion of the hike again, we heard another person making a barking noise which we assumed was to ward off bears too. Katie was beside herself. We continued on a bit until I glimpsed who was making the noise through the trees. It was a couple of park construction workers, their gaze focused on the field before us. I told Katie to quite down, she had begun to make mocking barking noises herself, and we stood still trying to see what they were looking at. Soon the construction workers were aware of us and yelled at us to hurry forward; there was a bear just in front of us. Katie and I ran quickly into the clearing to see a big California brown bear 30 ft.

in front of us. We were both really excited to see a bear as we hadn't seen one since we entered back into the lower 48. We watched the bear drink from the river and run through the meadow for about 10 minutes before he ran out of sight. The construction workers stayed around to talk to us as we reached the street and told us that if you bark like a dog, bears will usually stand up and look at you, which is what they were trying to get this one to do. Thrilled about our luck, we continued on the road to our next hike. This hike was called Bumpass Hell and was named after a guide with the unfortunate fate of having the last name of Bumpass who had discovered the location. The destination of the hike was a large geothermal area with hot

springs, fumaroles, and boiling mud pots very reminiscent of the Yellowstone geothermal features. The "hell" part of the Bumpass Hell trail name is derived from the fact that the guide fell into one

of these boiling mud pots, covering his leg in 350 degree mud which resulted in him ultimately losing the leg. Luckily for us the area is much more tame nowadays and comes equipped with a boardwalk to navigate the dangerous parts. After this hike we left the national park and drove toward Sacramento to find another rest area for the night before heading back to San Francisco in the morning.