10/12 Pam, Brian & I toured SFO. Sunny mild day. Lunch at Cliff House while aircraft carrier steamed by. Fleet week had just concluded.
10/13 We all toured the Peanuts comic strip museum. Nicely laid out and enjoyable. Visited the town of Sonoma in PM. Downtown is nicely restored to an oldtimey look. Lots of vineyards along hywy 12. Many had big tents set up for the fall wine sales and one even had an armored car out front to haul away the loot!
10/14 Off to meet up with Tom Jones for lunch. Got sabotaged by Garmin right away. She wanted to go through Vallejo, but I pushed on the Richardson bridge and I-580. Once back on land, she kept trying to route me off onto surface streets. That led to an ill advised run down to I-80 and the approach to the Bay bridge, A tortuous escape and a trip pu a pass and into a long tunnel. Big relief to to meet Tom and wife for lunch at a quiet suburban mall.
Last filled up in Oregon so really wanted a truck stop. None to be found on US 101 or any of the roads in the bay area. Took 680 down to San Jose. Got Penning's son to tell me where to find a station and Google sat view to confirm that I could maneuver. Had 17 gal left in tank, but hate to let it get that low.
Pennings routed me to the only decent CG near San Jose and picked me up and took me out to supper.
Mimi is her usual cheerful self and Chris remains upbeat despite the lack of healing on his ankle.They hope to make it to Indio and QZ.
10/15 Short run over to Monterey area. Carmel-by-the-river managed to squeeze me in. When I called, a new CG just across the road answered the phone and said no 40 fters would fit. Then I figured out this was wrong number. Had to expand the Google map greatly to separate the overlapping pins and get the right CG called!
As I write this, I am sitting on the shore at Pacific Grove facing a kelp bed. Lots of activity out there:
-sea otters everywhere, feeding and caring for their young.
-pelicans fly by low, near the water on the way to hunt further south.
-beyond the kelp a herd of sea lions junping about and raising a ruckus with their hunting.
-a dive boat monitoring a couple of divers.
-a sail boat tacks by
-2 kayaks drift through the kelp
-a whale watching small ship returns to port
-in the distance, a cloud of dark colored birds dive on a fish boil (tuna attacking baitfish from below, probably)
-it is now grey here with low clouds but still sunny east across the bay.
-the water must be quite deep here under the kelp, as the waves roll in and hit the shore without breaking.
The staff cheerfuly (I hope) solved the problem with diatomaceous earth (kitty litter).
