A Day of Wine and Mustard

Today we went to the Napa Valley Mustard Festival food and wine "marketplace" at the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville.    I was surprised how elaborate it was!   This is a huge winery, and people were everywhere, in all the rooms---the hallways, the courtyard, garden, barrel rooms, halls, everywhere.  There were wine tastings all over too, from all the many vineyards in Napa, wine tasting tables everywhere!    We couldn't even give a count of how many vineyards were there.   There was food too, although not very much.  What there was, was excellent, Nimen Ranch cheeseburgers to pulled pork to homemade pizzas, cupcakes, snacks around too.   There were many artists there also, including Judy Theo, who is the artist whose prints I bought a few weeks ago in Sonoma.    Musicians, good musicians, were playing all over the place too, so you could just sit and listen to them.  You paid one price and got 5 food tickets and 8 wine tickets. 

It was a nice Napa event, very busy with people. Many of the wines were similar, though I did like the Merlot they were pouring from Robert Mondavi, Napa is always busy on weekends, and today was no exception, though traffic could have been much worse, it took us less than an hour to get back to Novato. Overall a very enjoyable day.

Dan

The Kim Novak Bike Ride, Meeting Jay and Lindsey, and Learning about Evolution in Wonderland

We had a relaxing day on Wednesday morning, then drove into Emeryville to meet Lindsey at Ikea. We are helping them buy a futon for their house, mostly for our future visits there, so she wanted our approval on what she liked. She got our approval! We then shopped near there, and waited for Jay to get out of work so we could all go to dinner together. It was nice and low key, nice to be with them as usual.

On Thursday, we drove up to Sonoma in the morning, as it is close, and it was a beautiful morning. We did some wine tastings in Glen Ellen. Not much, it's hard to do a wine tasting before 3:00 for me!

That evening, we drove into San Francisco for an event at the new Academy of Sciences called "NightLife." You pay $10 for a ticket, and it gives you entry into this new terrific museum. They have a bar and appetizers for sale, but also a free DJ and music, and a lecture. Well, it WAS a young group, we thought maybe 10% of the crowd was over 40! But again, like everything else here, no one cares, and it's not uncomfortable. We wanted to hear the lecture, which was by their science director, Dr. David Mindell, speaking on "Evolution and Solving Crimes." It was so-so, he did a pretty good job, explained alot of evolutionary science. I wanted to talk to him afterwards, but people were asking annoying questions, so we left. I wanted to talk to him because 1) he went to U of M, and 2) I wanted to mention Matt to him, since they are in the same field.

Actually, I got completely distracted (not hard for me) and kept texting Matt about some of the stuff he was lecturing on, like some of the terminology and ideas. I think Matt would have presented this better, by the way, and we really wished he were there! He did try to explain some of the concepts by using Lewis Carroll and his fascination with word play; I did enjoy this part, but I really can't explain it!

Before we went there, we stopped by our neighbor's art gallery. I will include a picture of Philip and his art gallery later, it is a beautiful gallery. We really like Philip, he is very nice, and he took us around the neighborhood where his gallery is, and introduced us to some restauranteurs and other shop owners. The flower shop woman made me a little corsage. Everyone likes Philip, as he is Mr. Friendly. As i had said earlier, his gallery is in a very posh part of San Francisco, so it was really fun.

On Friday, we did one of Dan's goals, we biked the Golden Gate Bridge. I have to say, it was more fun in theory than in actuality. It was very windy, but more than that, it was incredibly congested! It was a Friday, but it was fairly early, so we thought there wouldn't be many tourists. I think it's just always crowded. Actually, if any of you out there ever think about doing this, wait until 3:30 when they open up the other side just for bikes. That probably wouldn't have helped me, however, as I am a slow bicyclist, not entirely confident, and I get freaked out when I am constantly passed by others biking faster, I would still have been a bit nervous. Plus, I have trouble keeping straight, so I drive passerbys crazy. It would probably be like Copenhagen during a weekend!

We to parkwest side of the bridge, and carry our bikes down a STAIRWAY and then walk UNDER the bridge to bike on the east side! Yes, it was nerve wracking. It was a bit shaky, and of course, very noisy from all the traffic and cars above us. I don't usually react to bridges, but walking under it, and then riding on it was a bit nerve wracking. The bridge does sway, I will tell you that.

Oh, the Kim Novak reference, can you guess it? I won't tell you!

A Comment on Stairways

This is a quick comment.  As I re-read the recent blogs, I realized that the 2 hikes we took last week---the Pacheco Valley Walk and the Catarack Trail near Mt. Tam, both had high elevation.  One was 1000 ft. and the other was 800 ft.  But the difference in how strenuous they were seemed alot more than 200 ft.   I think it's because the Catarack Trail one had stairways on it.  True, they were rustic, just wood or rock, but it supports my theory that it's much easier to ascend a stairway than just a path.

Do you agree?

The Way They Play Golf in California

We went into the city today, first of all, for me to get a haircut.  I got it cut by Emily McKeever, a friend of Jason's from childhood days in Ann Arbor, who has moved out here.  She is actually very good friends with Lars.  Anyway, after my haircut, [which is very good  by the way], we played golf at Lincoln Park.

This course is beautiful--it is by the Legion of Honor, and the views from it are beautiful, views of the ocean, of Golden Gate Bridge, of the hills of the city.   Old cypress trees surround it.  It's a very old course, and very difficult---no tee boxes, narrow, uneven fairways, alot of long grass, but still so enjoyable.   And, it's not like we're good anyway, so who cares?

What I mean by the golf in California is that this golf course was on a walking path, so there were continually non-golfers on it.  People taking hikes, people just walking, people playing Frisbee with their dogs, people with the children, whatever. ! And none of the golfers cared.   When we were done with 9 holes, we drove our cart around the back nine, interrupting many golfers, and no one cared, no one cared at all.  "Oh, go on through"  "have a good time"

"don't worry about it" we'd hear over and over.   I really like this kind of golfThe course literally went around the Legion of Honor to the other side of the road, then it ambled back.  It was actually quite hard to follow, but hey, who cares!  Not the other golfers!

Memorable Walks

Of the many walks, hikes and marches that I have taken, a few stand out. The first was when I was about 12 years old. My brother Jerry, my sister Barbara and possibly our younger sister Chris, took a walk down the beach from Wilderness State Park on the Straits of Mackinac. For some reason we misjudged the length of the walk and were gone for hours. Our parents actually called the Park Rangers to look for us. We finally stumbled back into camp about six hours later, hungry and tired. My attempts to calm the younger children, always began with the phrase "it's just around the corner". After a while they became quite annoyed with me saying that.

The second was the march I took in the Air Force in basic training. It was May in Texas in the middle of a record heat wave. Temperatures reached 105f. One day we were lined up in the sun for vaccinations. The Air Force was using air guns, where they gave us several shots at once. If you flinched, you could get hurt and bleed. Some guys were passing out. This took at least an hour for our Squadron to be inoculated. We then marched five miles to a non air conditioned classroom where we took the aptitude tests that determined our job placements for the remainder of our time in the Air Force. Many guys took the opportunity to catch a short nap. We then marched back five miles to the barracks. That's military intelligence for you.

Today was also memorable. The hike was on the Pacheco Valley trail, otherwise known as Big Rock Trail. The five miles of the trail went up and down the mountain that is directly behind our condo. I thought it might be a somewhat strenuous trail that wound around the woods a little, and ended up in our courtyard. Little did I realize we were headed up to the top of the mountain. We were dressed appropriately but didn't bring a map or the GPS, so we had no idea how far we were going. As I looked ahead and saw the trail winding around, I did realize we were going to be walking a long way. At one point I did wonder if we had miscalculated where we would end up because of the direction the path took. My fear was we would end up in Marinwood, which was on the other side of the mountain. As we were ascending one of the highest points, we were passed by a guy on a mountain bike! About ten minutes later, he headed back down, and we stopped him to ask where in the Hell we were. He assured us that the trail split a short ways up the hill, and that if we kept to the left we would end up back in our neighborhood. If we went right, we would end up on the other side of the mountain in Marinwood. We soldiered on up the trail.

He was correct. The total walk took two hours and fifteen minutes, we walked five miles and ascended and descended 1000 ft. The hot tub by the community pool was a welcome reward.

Who knew we were staying so close to such a walk, with such a magnificent view of the Bay? We did forget the camera, so pictures are from my phone, but they did come out OK.
Dan

The Longest Walk, or I'm So Glad I didn't go to Jazzercize

We are stealing the title today from a book called "The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom " by Slavomir Rawicz. It's the story of a man who walks from Siberia back home to Poland to freedom. We think we know how he felt!

We took a hike suggested in the Marin Independent Journal, which is, by the way, a very good newspaper. The walk is behind and around our condo, in the Pacheco Valley. I have never taken such a strenuous hike! (and never hope to again!) It was probably 5 miles, but half of it was uphill, and the other half was downhill. To say it was steep is really an understatement! The elevation was 1000 ft from top to bottom. It was gorgeous! We actually walked up and down a mountain, and from the top could see all the way over the San Francisco Bay to Richmond. We could see the Petaluma Harbor on the way to Sonoma, we could see the bridge near Vallejo. (I don't know the name of it).

On the other side, we could see most of Novato. We don't know how high we were, because we didn't bring the GPS. We did, however, remember our walking sticks this time, which we've been continually forgetting on every other hike and walk.

There is only one other hike I remember that was as strenuous, and it was a climb, not a walk. When Jay was about 12 or so, Dan and I took him and his dear friend Peter to the Pierce Stocking Drive around the National Lakeshore in Leelanau, Michigan. For those who haven't been around there, it is a bit of heaven. Anyway, one of the stops was a 465 ft. dune that ended up in Lake Michigan. Jay and Peter hesitated not a minute, and ran down the steep dune into the water. Dan and I looked at each other, and impulsively followed, and Zeke, our former wonderful, HUGE golden lab, followed us. We playfully ran down the sand, then enjoyed the water. THEN, we had to climb up. Well, Jay and Peter just trotted right up, not even panting. Zeke tried to be a loyal dog and stay with us, but even he got impatient and made his way up. Dan and I took forever, we rested, we climbed, we rested, we crawled, we panted! Jay and Peter found it quite amusing. Well, we finally got to the top, but we have never forgotten that. Today's hike equals that.

To top it off, I had fallen yesterday while walking Gus, after this hoity toity woman chided us for not having him on a leash. She had a "grand champion" French Bulldog, and probably afraid Gus would stick his nose in her dog's royal rear end. Anyway, I was so annoyed at her snobbiness that I wasn't watching where I was going, and I tripped and fell, hurting me knee. So I knew I couldn't handle jazzercize today, but thought a walk would be fine, plus I bought a knee brace. Well, I think it's actually o.k., but it was a little extra handicap on this walk!

This is getting to be a bad pattern, by the way, as when I was in Sweden this summer, I tripped and sprained my ankle. Well, here is Dan's take on today's adventure. I am going to take a hot tub in the spa at our complex! (bring your bathing suits, Laura and Jim, and Jay, when you visit.) Pat

Family Day All Day

We've been feeling a bit lonely lately, so today was really nice.   It's sunday, a family day anyway.  for lunch, we were invited to this couple's house---they aren't really my relatives, they are my cousin Mickie's relatives on her father's side, and older than us.    He is from Chicago originally, was a lawyer and a judge here in Mill Valley.  There names are Sarah and Arne, and they live in Tiburon.   Mickie had given each of us the other ones' names, so we contacted each other.    It was lovely.  They live in a lovely condo, filled with beautiful art work, decorated beautifully, and very warm and inviting.  They are very nice;  Arne has had a stroke, and some of his memory is affected, but he was really pretty sharp.   Sarah is younger than he is, and delightful.  She is a writer,  is currently writing short stories  She is quick and bright, open and delightful.   We had a really nice lunch, it was nice to meet them.

We had to leave there early, however, because Jay and Linsdey were having her parents and us for dinner, to celebrate Paula and Ken's birthdays.   It was so nice!    Jay made delicious "short ribs of beef", although none of us thought they were actually short ribs.  We weren't sure what they were, but they were marinated and cooked wonderfully.  Lindsey made a wonderful salad, sweet and fresh, and a delicious almond torte.   It was sort of a Hawaiian food theme, as both of them are so clever with themes!    Aside from the good food, it felt so good to be there all together.  We are a new extended family, and it truly felt like that.    We toasted that, as well as being their first guests in their new place.   Lindsey's tummy is growing beautifully, as she now has a nice round bump, not too big, but noticeable.    Amazing how she grow everytime we see them. 

so, it was a really nice day, we felt so good and connected.  We had to bring Gus with us because of the length of time we'd be gone, but he can't come in the house because of their kitties, so he was outside.  He is getting used to that there, and was quite happy too.   We do miss friends, and the rest of our family alot.   Jim and Laura are coming out soon, and we are excited about that, wish the rest could be here too.   

And oh, he slept through the night!  yippee.