Seeing San Francisco

It was a gorgerous day in San Francisco and we didn’t waste one minute of it! We left our hotel in the Nob Hill area and headed into Chinatown before 10:00. We walked around Chinatown for a little while but it was pretty quiet with most of the shops and stores just beginning to open. Just on the outskirts of Chinatown we walked through a park where 50-75 homeless people were gathered for breakfast, free hair cuts, and what sounded to us like church music. Near the park was an open market where I saw everything from jewelry to wooden bowls for sale. The market was just across the street from pier 1. Laura wanted to meet us for breakfast so she and John discussed a meeting place. Laura said she would meet us at the Ferry Building near pier 38. We walked from pier 1 to pier 40 near the baseball stadium but didn’t see the Ferry building. It turns out that we didn’t see the Ferry Building because it was literary next to pier 1 where we started. Laura met us and drove us back to pier 1. We had a great time walking around the pier while enjoying fresh bread, cheese, and olives for a mid morning snack. Laura headed back home to catch up on some work and shop for the dinner she’s hosting for us this evening. John and I walked up many steep hills (it is SF after all) and eventually reached the Coit Tower built in 1933 as a sightseeing spot. You get amazing views of the city from the tower. We got views of downtown, the bay bridge, the golden gate, bridge and Alcatraz! After exploring the coit tower we returned to Chinatown for a second look, and then skipped over to little Italy where I had a beer and John had a Coke. Then we decided to walk up Lombard Street for more nice views of the city. We got back to our hotel shortly after 4:00 and had to scrabble a bit and get ready for dinner at Laura’s. Dinner at Laura’s was superb. The meal was delicious with salmon, green beans, a salad, and sourdough baguette. Laura and her brother Thomas are John’s first cousins (his dad’s brother’s children). Tom is a writer and magazine editor who is busy traveling all over the county promoting his latest book. Laura is a surgeon obviously keeping busy with her work. Thomas is married to Whitney, a social worker and they have two little boys, almost 3 year old, Rex and 5month old Buckminster. Adorable little kids, Rex presented me with gifts throughout the evening usually items belonging to his aunt Laura, coins, a bracelet, a piece of paper with Arabic writing on it, and a black tank top. Rex wanted to sit at the head of the table and assigned me to sit at the opposite end Buck is a strong little guy who loves to stand with assistance and according to Whitney he’s been doing this since he was three week old. I’m going to sign off now because this post is getting long and we have lots to see in San Francisco today including the California Redwoods. Again, no time to proof this post so forgive or just ignore the errors.

XC Skiing and Sprouted Grain Pasta

We're just back from cross country skiing in Grand Teton National Park. It was my first experience on xc skis and although I managed to fall at least 4 times in less than an hour I had a pretty good time and a decent workout. Cross country skiing is basically gliding along in the snow while using ski poles for balance. I also discovered ski poles are meant to prevent falls and intended to be used to get up out of the snow if and when you do fall. It was a very good workout, so good in fact that I had to take off two layers of clothing because I was sweating so much. Of course as soon as I stopped skiing and the cold air hit my sweaty body I got chilled to the bone. Now we're back at the cabin making dinner for John's friends Peter and Inger who are due here at 6:30. After the dinner party John and I plan to watch Deliverance.

We had a very nice time with Peter and his mom, Inger. Inger was born in Denmark and as a young adult was active in the Danish Resistance movement. Inger and her husband Bob helped smuggle Danish Jews out of the country to safety in Sweden, their home was used as an underground railroad for Danish Jews trying to escape German occupied Denmark. Inger often speaks about her experiences in Denmark at local schools and community centers. She is 95 years old and still drives wherever she wants to go in her Subaru wagon. She also skis and hikes despite some knee/hip aches and pains. Peter is 65 years old and has worked as both a log cabin builder (remember he built John's cabin in the late 80s) and climbing guide. He developed cancer a few years ago and moved back to WY from CO to be closer to him mom and medical treatment. He still has cancer in his lungs but says the treatments appear to be working. He takes a lot of supplements and is very particular about what he eats, but John says that has been the case for as long as he's known Peter. When we ran into Peter at the grocery store a couple days ago he asked John to buy a specific type of pasta made of sprouted grains for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, the sprouted grain pasta was absolutely disgusting and pretty much ruined John's homemade pasta sauce. Oh well! The evening was still great fun.

After Peter and Inger left we watched Deliverance. All these years I've thought Deliverance was a comedy so I was mentally prepared to watch a comedy. I guess I thought it was a comedy because guys are always quoting a couple famous lines from it and laughing, but I'm here to tell you there's absolutely nothing funny about this movie.

Dinner at High Heskett

We're just back from a wonderful evening with Bob and Lynne, Lynne's friends from WI Ellie and Joanne, John and Bob's friend Loring and his partner of 25 years, Melody, and Bob and Lynne's neighbors Deborah and Greg. The drive to Bob and Lynne's takes about 25 minutes and their house is located at the top of a hill near the science school. Their place is the ultimate Wyoming getaway my favorite features are the enormous stone fireplace and plank floors. We had a blast hanging out with everyone, enjoying a wonderful dinner and lots of laughs. I'm feeling dog tired at nearly 11:00 PM so unfortunately I'll have to come back to this post tomorrow to share more details. I watched Good Hair while John was out skiing in the afternoon. I guess my expectations were a little too high and Good Hair turned out to be a Bad movie. John had a really good day of skiing including a 45 minute hike up a mountain to a remote area carrying his skies all the way up. He called before skiing down to report his exact location in case something went wrong, and about 10 minutes later he called from the bottom of the slope to report that he was safe and sound.

I couldn't resist posting this handsome photo of John posing in front of the cozy fire he built last night.