Birthday Wishes!

Happy Birthday today to 2 inspiring men!  Do you know them both?

Can't control how large the Lincoln picture is, sorry about that.

They are both 200 years old today.

Do you suppose they had ever met?  Does anyone know?

Rodin exhibit

After we met Jason for lunch at Bakesale Betty's in Oakland, we drove to Stanford University in Palo Alto and saw the Rodin exhibit at the Art museum. Pictures are posted on our web album on Picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/danklim1/CaliforniaFeb2009?feat=directlink

It is quite an impressive collection of Rodin's sculptors. The weather continues to be in the 50's and rain off and on, so indoor activities have been called for, though there are still very enjoyable periods of sunshine. Storms are forecast for the next week, so we'll see what that brings.

California's Most Dangerous Beach and Cows Do Run

We drove up to Bodega Bay and Jenner, and saw the beautiful, rugged, forboding coastline of the Pacific. As we stopped at Goat Rock Beach, we heard the tremendous roar of the waves before we even saw the huge, powerful waves. There were signs up everywhere about how dangerous the beach was, the "most dangerous beach in California." Play the videos to get a sense of it. Yes, it was fairly cold, though not by Michigan standards!
We also found a walk, which does qualify as a stairway walk, as it had stairs! It was quite steep and interesting, so I did get the walk in.

We drove back down Hwy One, through countryside, farmland, and the Tomales Bay. Dan


really liked the drive, and thought
Tomales Bay was an unexpected gem. It was a beautiful and delightful day. We were coming home around 4, and saw cows RUNNING in the pastures as it was evidently feeding time. Pat was quite surprised to see that cows can actually run.

We stopped at the bar in Nicasio to get their entertainment schedule. This bar is out in the middle of nowhere, but claims to get quite a crowd. It's sort of a country bar with gourmet food, we will have to try it.
We ended up at Boca, the local restaurant, where they have a great tuesday Happy Hour--1/2 half all appetizers and half off all bottles of wine. They have an excellent wine selection, as well as Pat's favorite wedge of lettuce salad with blue cheese dressing.

The Spirit Moved Us but We Didn't Fall Down

With apologies to the similar name of a poignant book , I had to entitle this entry that because we went to a Meditation Center last night named "Spirit Rock." We had never been to a meditation before, and this center has beginner meetings on monday nights, taught by renowned teachers.
So, we liked it. It's hard to say more, because it really is all inside us. But here is my favorite quote:
"Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,

"You owe
Me."

Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky."
— — شمس الدین محمد حافظ / Shams-al-Din Mohammad Hafez

The next morning when I went downstairs, I looked out the window and noticed the sun shining on the little bird feeder outside the window. I had never really noticed it before!

Pat

Stairways Redux , then Packing Redux, then Baby Makes Three

We drove into the city today. First of all we did the first stairway walk of this journey! I am so happy to be back to this activity. This walk is a brand new one that was in the SF Chronicle . It's at The Presidio, and part of their on-going restoration. It was a beautiful walk, short, but we wandered through the Eucalyptus and Redwood trees. At the top, and on the walk, you could see wonderful views of the bay near Golden Gate bridge. A beautiful walk. We met many people, who were also out to check out the new walk, and everyone gave this an A+.
Later, we went to Jay and Lindsey's to yes, help them pack! Oh yikes, we thought we were done with this, but no, it is ongoing. At least this time it isn't our stuff, it's theirs. We didn't do too much, they were actually pretty organized themselves.
Later, Lindsey managed to open the Hope Chest her mom had been saving for her, and found all these wonderful baby clothes that had been hers and her brother's, from when they lived in Scotland. We had so much fun looking at them all.
We left them fairly early, as they were tired, and came back home. Sigh, a nice day. Pat

Re-connecting

This is out of order, again, but until we figure out how to edit it otherwise, there is nothing to do about it. (and who cares anyway, you are all saying).

On Friday night, we went into the city to meet Jay and Lindsey. We had talked to them, but hadn't seen them yet, as they had been busy working and signing their lease for their new house in Alameda. They will move in at the end of the month.
We went in early on Friday, as there were some destinations that I (Pat) had seen that I wanted to check out. The first was an Art Deco antique store near Russian Hill, named Decorum. It had beautiful antiques in it, really beautiful! It was all Art Deco, alot of it french. But so expensive! Nice to see, a nice shop. How do these places stay open, you have to wonder? How can they make a living with this?

Anyway, we then bolstered our driving courage and drove downtown. We're not really wimps, after all, we drive in Chicago all the time, but the parking in San Francisco is actually the worst. We finally realized we should just bite the bullet and go into a parking garage, and pay the price. We walked to Belden Place, which was described as a small French little enclave in the heart of the city. Well, it was cool, it was a little street off of Post St., but all it had was restaurants. It would be cool to go there for a meal, esp. mussels. An interesting find, but not much else there. We walked around the area for a bit, then headed to Jay and Lindsey's.

We visited with Lindsey, who looks really good. She really does have that pregnancy glow, feels 70% better than when she was in Ann Arbor at Xmas time. When Jay got home, we went to this restaurant named "Aziza". I had been there before. I had taken Jay and Lindsey to it. It's one of their favorite places, and we all wanted to share it with Dan. It's sort of Moroccan-Mediterranean . It is really a beautiful place, many little rooms with couches and curtains. They have a "tasting menu" where the chef decides what he'll be serving you. Yikes, we had so much food! We were stuffed! So delicious! Their version of bisteeka, couscous, lamb shank, hummus, scallops, etc. The picture is from there, and the people in it are just random customers. It is very dark, but I wanted to include it.

We also just found out that the chef from Aziza will be on The Iron Chef on March 1st!

On Saturday night, we had Kathleen over, and we cooked. It was so good to see her again. We had a really nice time. Good to re-connect!

One final comment--the weather. It's been rainy and cool. The rain is off and on, as is the cool. It still isn't snow, and it still isn't cold. it doesn't stop anyone from activity, which is great. We have a hot tub in our complex, which is really nice too. It reminds us of Sweden, actually! The Swedes would call it a "Swedish Beach Day."(are you reading this, Per?) (to understand this fuller, you can check out our blog to Sweden--www.danklim.blogspot.com--and look up 7-6-08)