Pittsburgh - Weekend Trip with Reeves: November 4-6, 2005

Friday night after work, we packed quickly, and compactly. We were on the road to the Reeves homestead by about 5:45pm, only a bit late. We got to their place in time to catch the last bits of their own packing mania, trying to make a few last minute decisions about what needs to go and what doesn't. And off we went with Monty, our trustworthy Mitsubishi Montero of 96,000 miles and counting, in full gallop to the 'Burgh. Everyone seemed full of energy, and a steady chatter kept us all alert and excited about the weekend ahead. The turnpike was loaded with people apparently headed to Happy Valley for Saturday's game against Wisconsin. After barreling through the rolling hills and mountains of late night Western PA, we arrived at the Holiday Inn around 11:00 or so, checked in, and quickly headed back out to scope the scene. Our hotel was conveniently located on the campus of Pitt Univ., and there were flurries of student activity everywhere. There is electricity about college towns, and this one has it. We walked through some areas of campus that had been Becky's domain during her undergraduate years at Pitt, and we enjoyed the shared nostalgia of each place that she showed us. It was a warm night, unseasonably warm for November, and nothing like what we had expected, or packed for. I think it was probably in the mid 60's, even at this late hour of night. We meandered to a pub that Becky knew served good food late night. It was perfect. We had drinks, small pizzas and spring rolls, all of which were delicious. Being some of the oldest people in the place, we actually ended up being some of the last to go; not bad for a bunch of 10+year-out-postgrads at 1 or so in the morning after a 4-5 hour car ride. We did a late night tour of some more of Becky's campus spots and headed back to the room. The ladies hit the sack pretty quickly and Matt and I were determined to jam out to his new "iHome" clock radio until the wee hours of the morning. Before finally dozing off, we played a sort of "name that tune" with MP3s of 80's tunes, and Matt masterfully named each track except for the Toto stumper. We had established a 10 am wake up rule, but that was easily breached, and it was nearer 11 before anyone stirred. It wasn't long before we were all ready for the day ahead, despite our grogginess. We tried breakfast at Pamela's, an obviously well-known spot, but because of a 20 minute wait, we decided to hit up Bruegger's Bagels across the street. After bagels and various morning beverages, we hopped the bus for a ripsaw ride downtown and got off at the huge steel building in downtown Pittsburgh. We snapped some pics of this impressive structure and made our way across one of the many city's many bridges to the "incline". The wait wasn't too long and we were whisked up the side of Mount Washington to a beautiful street on the ridge with expansive views of the city below. We walked out on a few of the concrete pedestals to get pictures and eventually wandered further up the ridge snapping pictures of the amazing Fall foliage, beautiful cityscapes, and impressive homes. Needing a little something to eat and drink, we found a little pizza shop with $1.50 slices and sat down for a bit of a rest. Matt seemed to have mastered the old school Galaga arcade game in the short time we were there, and then we set out for our walk back to the incline. Again, the weather was absolutely awesome, the sun bright, mostly blue skies, and amazing visibility everywhere. We wondered through a surprisingly vacant part of waterfront office properties and emptied restaurant bar establishments, then found ourselves at the foot of the "glass cathedral" where the watchful rent-a-cop reprimanded Matt for taking frontal pictures of the main building that apparently conflicted with their post 9/11 security policies. Interesting. The huge Christmas tree, lights, and skating rink under construction foreshadowed a beautiful mid-town Winter scene once the inevitable snows come to town. We walked more through the center of the city in search of the right bus stop, and once on board, went across town to a beautiful nook called Shadyside. We were all very impressed, again, and almost immediately went to Doc's for some drinks in what used to be one of Becky's main hangouts. We had a great time talking it up, taking some group pictures, and then were back outside to check out the scene and to find a place for dinner. We perused a few shops and then decided on Cuzumels for dinner. Once we finished our tasty Mexican meals, we decided to walk back to the hotel, since it was still quite warm outside and we agreed that a walk would be good for us after having stuffed ourselves silly. It seemed really late at this point, yet probably was not even 9pm yet. We walked by a boarded up old mansion that could have easily been haunted, and Vee swore she saw the silhouette of a dog-headed figure walk by one of the darkened windows...creepy!!! We took a detour up one of the streets close to the hotel and were very impressed with the beautiful homes. Back to the hotel where Matt and Becky went for a late night dip in the pool, and then dessert in the lounge. Vee and I, with bulging guts, and tired minds and bodies laid down for a rest and never got back up. Sunday morning, I showered and got a Wall Street Journal and headed down to the lobby while the gang got packed and ready to check out. We loaded up Monty, checked out, and went back out to campus and got more pictures of the Cathedral of Learning, and one of the beautiful churches on campus. We hopped back into the car and headed across town to the Shadyside area again to see about getting into the Pamela’s there for breakfast, but this time was even worse with a 40 minute wait. So instead, we found another place tucked away down the block, upstairs in a building across from Doc's. We were seated immediately, service was fast and friendly, the food was delicious, and the environment was very inviting with beautiful paintings and sculptures on the walls. Once we finished and paid up, we headed back to the car, cruised through another nice part of town called Squirrel Hill, where Becky lived during her final two years at Pitt, and then got back onto the PA Turnpike for our ride home. Despite a vicious wind the first hour of the trip, it was a beautiful ride as the mountains were in their full Autumn glory. We made a stop for a few munchies, and drinks, and were back home in no time. It was a fantastic weekend trip, and I believe a great time was had by all.

Finger Lakes, NY & Grand Canyon, PA: October 14-16, 2005

We left Philly Friday night around 7pm or so but the action really started a bit after 11:00pm. On Rte 414, about 5 miles from Wellsboro,
a Kamikazi Bambi vaulted in front of the car. I slammed on the brakes, swerved into the opposing lane, and avoided a frontal collision, but the poor deer smacked right into the passenger side of the car. I pulled over 100 yards or so down the road where there was a shoulder, inspected the side of the car, called the police, called the insurance company, etc. A guy pulled up behind me and told me that the deer was back on the side of the road with a broken leg. There was nothing more I could do. We both felt horrible, but were fine, and the car didn't seem as bad as I was expecting, but only the light of morning could reveal the truth.

We arrived pretty late to the Penn Wells Hotel. The guy behind the front desk had the tv blaring, and was stuffing his face with some kind of grub. He looked at us, waved a finger to let us know that he was finishing up a final bite of his food and would be with us as soon as he could force down the huge wad in his mouth. Finally, wiping the corners of this mouth, the wolfman looked at us as if to indicate he was ready to hear us explain our reason for being there. Without waiting any longer for a formal greeting that would never come, I told him we had a reservation for the weekend, which prompted a shuffling of papers, a few signatures, and a doling out of room keys. Room #112. Directions to the room were something along the lines of "over there" and "up there" and possibly a "down the hall". I needed a beer. Directions to the nearest bar were very similar, along the lines of "either over there, or up that way".

Welcome to Wellsboro, PA.

We lugged our array of bags up to the room. There was an elevator, but I was feeling adventurous, so we climbed the creaky steps to a door that could have gone as easily to nowhere as to the next floor. Actually, it went to another set of stairs, that did get us to the next floor. The hallway floors were uneven and creaky, and due to some "refurbishing", the walls were stripped and signs were posted for us to excuse the temporary condition of things while they were being improved. Our room was relatively clean, creaky uneven floors, somewhat firm bed, clogged sink, window unit ac, etc. All good.

After dropping off the bags, we quickly ran across the street to where there was a bar with a band playing. I ordered and paid for a Bud. The girl behind the bar asked Vee for her ID, which she did not bring with her, and then the girl said that Vee could not stay, so I asked for my money back, and we left. So much for that. Back to the room, a bit of tv about haunted hotels, and some restless sleep.

Saturday, we woke to the sound of kids running around, screaming and the maids running vacuum cleaners on the creaky floors above us. We tried snoozing some more, but no luck, and so we showered and headed to the diner for breakfast. Vee had oatmeal and a muffin, I had the standard two eggs over medium, bacon, browns, toast, juice and coffee. The waitresses were nice, their attentiveness was great, and the atmosphere was authentic. Food was very tastey, a bit greasy, as it was supposed to be. We paid up, shuffled through the gift shop, walked the town for about 15 minutes, and after seeing pretty much all there was to see, we decided to hit the road for wine country.

Along the way, we stopped in Corning, NY. We absolutely fell in love with this town. The golden yellow fallen leaves were blowing in the wind as we walked the main street in town, and we stopped in a great little coffee shop for some cappuccinos. We stopped in a few other shops and got to see some glass blowing and beautiful glass art sculptures. We looked into the windows of some of the real estate agencies, and noticed that the real estate was DIRT CHEAP. Hmmmm....

Top down, we continued on our way, through Watkins Glen, and onto Rte.14 along the West side of Seneca Lake where it looked like we'd be able to hit alot of wineries. We stopped into 5 wineries in all, and enjoyed 3 tastings, each with a minimum of 5 wines to try. We loved the whole vibe, and had such a great time. It was fun to hear the descriptions of each wine we were about to taste, and to find out what kinds of wines we really enjoy. I am more of a semi-dry, and Vee is more of a sweet. Eventually on up through Geneva at the northernmost point of the lake, and then back down the Eastern side of the lake to Ithaca. The whole way, we snapped picture after picture after picture. The sky was amazing, the way the sun was lighting up the Fall foliage was as if the hills were on fire. We saw a giant rainbow, horses, and had to get pictures of it all.

After parking the car in a garage in Ithaca, we walked around the Ithaca Commons, perusing restaurants and the multitide of shops, and decided to eat at a pub-like place called Simeons. They seated us right away at a tiny table hardly big enough for one person, so I suggested sitting at the bar until another larger two-top opened up. I had a delicious India Pale Ale and Vee had a Pepsi. We eventually got seated at a fantastic table just inside the front window where we could see all the action outside. We shared a delicious bruschetta appetizer, I had a mediocre shrimp-scallop penne pasta primavera, and Vee had a tastey chicken dish, and we shared creme brullee for dessert. After dinner, we felt as if we had seen most of this part of the city, and we were tired, so we headed back to Wellsboro. At the Penn Wells, we watched the Contender rematch fights, where the judges must have been bought, and fell asleep.

Sunday morning, we slept late, showered, packed, checked out, and went to a homey bagel shop in Wellsboro for breakfast/lunch where we had some tastey bagel sandwiches, cappuccinos, and coffees while reading the paper and listening to the guys next to us talk about football for at least an hour straight. Then, after deciding Wellsboro really was not the town for us, we hopped back in the car and drove to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania and saw some AMAZING views of the gorge/canyon. Absolutely stunningly beautiful! Much more than I expected. The Fall colors were wonderful, and the blue sky with white puffy clouds was awe inspiring. It was pretty cold though, with the wind blowing so hard and all. They were selling hot dogs, hot chocoloate, coffee, maple syrups and other things at the entrance, but we skipped it all. We tried driving out to the lookout tower, but it was gonna get sloppy with the mud and ruts, so we turned around and headed for home. The drive down Rte 15 was staggering. All the colors, WOW!!! I talked with a real nice older fella at the gas station who was up from Wilmington NC with his wife, and he said, being originally from upstate New York, and a retired Kodak executive, that this area was beautiful, but difficult to live in as a professional person. Vee and I had that same conversation about 5 minutes before.

A few rest stops later, we were home. All in all, a beautiful weekend. We loved Corning and the wine country experience, and the amazing foliage. We look forward to doing this again, minus Wellsboro.

Santa Cruz, BO - Friday-Saturday, Final Days in Santa Cruz

Tired from the movie we watched the night before, we woke up late again, and scurried down for a quick breakfast before they cleared everything off the buffet. We didn’t have much to eat before the food was taken away, and we headed back to the rooms soon after. Vee stayed back in the rooms to hang out with the family, and I went down to the wi-fi area to get caught up on emails and blogs and pics. It was not long after I sat down before Andrew popped by with his PowerBook to work on his seminar program that he was giving in La Paz the next week. Sonya joined us, and eventually Vee came down too. We had a few cappuccinos and another very nice conversation. They were very nice to offer to go to the HyperMax grocery store and by tickets for us to the ExpoCruz tonight and we took them up on their offer. While hanging out back in the room, I worked on the computer a bit and Vee spent some more time with the family. We eventually made our way down to the pool and had a few drinks, and then Mom and Vanessa came down too. After some conversation, and the disappearance of the sun, we went back to the rooms to get ready for the big night out. We caught a taxi to the the ExpoCruz and walked around for about 4 hours, highlighted with a delicious meal in a small restaurant on the grounds where I had some more trout, and a tasty shrimp bisque. The expo was quite an affair with live bands playing, mascots walking around, and a huge number of “azafatas”, or Bolivian models, who were representing every kind of product imaginable, including cars, motorcycles, industrial products and services, electronics, foods, liquors, beers, agricultural products, real estate and vacation packages, etc. Most of models were handing out flyers detailing whatever product they were selling, or just standing there looking pretty. I made sure to not look at any of them out of fear that they’d approach me and I’d be helpless with my horribly limiting Spanish. One of the few that actually did approach me was none other than Miss Bolivia herself, and being completely unaware, I gave her my usual “no gracias” and continued on my way. It was not until afterwards that Vee told me who she was, and we had a good laugh over it. Outside, we saw the Miss Bolivia from the prior year, and with video camera in hand, Vee went up to her and asked her to say a hello to Philadelphia, which she graciously obliged. After a lot of walking, we decided to call it a night, and taxied back to the hotel and to bed, as Saturday was going to be an early, and long one. We woke up Saturday morning around 5:30, packed, checked out, got our last breakfast buffet, said our goodbyes, taxied to the airport and began the long trip home. The air turbulence was pretty bad, and we got held up in Miami customs, but otherwise the trip was fine. When we got back to Philly, the R7 was done running, so we took the R1 to 30th Street, and taxied home.

Santa Cruz, BO - General Thoughts in Santa Cruz

So what can I say. I guess the first thing is that I am really impressed with our hotel, Los Tajibos. I did not have very high expectations. The last time that Vee and I were in Bolivia last year, we took an overnight trip to Chapari where we stayed in a high-end hotel, and it was then that I realized the disparity between what we consider high-end in the States versus what is high-end in Bolivia. The hotel in chapari was pretty much right in the middle of the jungle, and so obviously did not have access to the resources that a hotel in the city has access to. Even so, it was still nice, and clean, and comfortable and we had a fantastic time there. But, at least in my opinion, and Vee is not in total agreement with me, I think Los Tajibos truly is a high-end hotel, not on par with the best of the best in the States, but I am confident that it certainly is within Bolivia. The service, pretty much all around, is fantastic. In the morning, a newspaper is delivered to the room, and room service cleans everything, makes the beds, mops the floors, refreshes all towels and linens. They must also spray an air freshener in each room as everything always smells so very fresh and clean when they are finished. In the evening, they come by again to turn down the sheets of the beds and leave some chocolates behind. They check the inventory in the refrigerator probably every other day and replenish anything that we have consumed, which in our case has only been bottled water a Corona, and a granola bar. They also leave two glasses of purified water in sterilized sealed glasses in the bathroom so that if you are afraid to use water out of the tap for washing and brushing, you can use this water. We both have confidently been using tap water for everything but drinking, and have not had a single “episode”. The water pressure in the shower is very good, as well as the water pressure in the sinks. The floors in our rooms are a beautiful large faux-marble tile, with area carpets in the reading room and the sleeping area. The carpets are in good condition, and have unusually thick padding underneath them that I noticed right away since I almost tripped and fell over them since they were so thick with padding. Everything in our rooms is immaculately clean, and this attention to cleanliness is a constant throughout the grounds of the hotel. Each day, no matter what the weather, the groundskeepers are cleaning, whether it is sweeping leaves, hosing the pool deck, polishing the hallway floor tiles or hard woods, pruning trees and bushes, watering plants, they are always taking take of the place. Also, everyone is very friendly to us, everyone from the room service folks to the waiters to the security guards and the people at the front desk, although they aren’t as convincing. This hotel is obviously the place where the Bolivia’s most famous, powerful and wealthiest people stay, and also where all the biggest and most extravagant weddings are held. We’ve noticed that American Airlines must have an arrangement with the hotel as we have seen all of the people from the crew that flew us into Bolivia here at one time or another. I think that the majority of people here at the hotel are international, a lot of business people from Argentina and Chile, big fat Texas oilmen from the States (according to Andrew anyway…heheheee), and a good number of business people from Asia too. The food is excellent here too. Although the items on the breakfast buffet never change, the array of food is plentiful and it is all good. The presentation of the food is always very appealing too, as for each meal, they change the linens on all the tables, and on the buffet with coordinated color themes. The lunch buffet is very good too although yesterday was the only day that we’ve had it. And dinner has been excellent each time. The menu is in both Spanish and English so it is very easy for a gringo to pick out their meal. They have a wide variety of items on the dinner menu including steaks, chicken, pastas, seafood, with choices that are “local” and others that are more international traditional fare. I have eaten green salads, vegetables, eggs and omelets, steak, fish and have drank coffee, fresh lemonade and glasses of water, and I have not had even ONE single bad reaction. This in itself is a testament to the quality of the hotel and its commitment to the international traveler. Room service food has been good too, and the selection of foods is very adequate. Aesthetically the hotel is gorgeous, with very pretty, classy yet simple architectural design, whitewash walls, terracotta tiles, natural hard woods, an in-wall water fall, goldfish pond, peacocks, large clean pool with thatch roofed huts, comfortable whicker chairs and sofas in the hallways and cozy little nooks. The business center is outfitted with about 5 Internet-connected PCs each with MSOffice installed as well and it is all free to use. There are always hotel taxis waiting out front if you need to get around the city, although they the fare is more expensive. As I have said before, the grounds of the hotel are beautiful with lots of tropical trees, bushes and flowers, manicured lawns, and singing birds. I think that the one caveat in all of this is this: remember, this is Bolivia, not New York City and everything here is relative. You cannot come here expecting the Waldorf-Astoria. I would guess that the GDP of Manhattan alone is more than the entire country of Bolivia. But regardless, bottom line, this place is fantastic and I have loved our stay here. And, of course, you have to remember that the dollar goes A LOT further here. For example, a double room here, and Los Tajibos is a 5 star hotel, with a full breakfast is $85. In the states, you’d be lucky to find a rat-infested hole in the ground to sleep in for $85 in any major metropolitan area. So, enough about the hotel, how about Santa Cruz. Most of our time was spent either in the hotel, on the Ave. San Martin which is the street on which Los Tajibos resides, or on the Ave. Monsignor Rivera also known as El Christo. Outside of this extremely limited range, I cannot say much except that from the elevation of the apartment we looked at the other day, it seemed very pretty with lots of green mixed with Palms and terracotta roofs. It is a flat city so you cannot see much of what is around you. The vegetation is rather tropical, but I cannot say that there is lots of it. After all, it is a city, and it is the most populous one in Bolivia. The cars are a mix of mostly asian imports, with a few European cars in the mix and even fewer American cars, mostly older models in pretty bad condition. The sidewalks are mostly walkable but not in very good condition, and there is lots of broken glass. You hardly ever see policeman. You see a lot of private security guards though. Every decent residential area, and in a lot of cases, individual residences, and a lot of businesses, if not all of the larger ones, have their own security guards. I was happy to see that Santa Cruz has not been Americanized. Of course there is plenty of signage for Coca-Cola, there is a Burger King, there is a restaurant named “American Style” and on the menus in the places serving lunch, you can even find “Filly Sandwiches” which is their interpretation of a Philly Cheese Steak which I have had no desire to order. I would say that the majority of people I have seen are of mixed descent, and that I see many of the same kinds of native people that I remember seeing in La Paz and Cochabamba although I don’t think there are as many here proportionally. On the two main streets that we have visited, there are plenty of cafes and bars, but a lot of these places do not open during the day. Actually, it is difficult to know when and how often a lot of these places are ever open for business. The city streets are designed with few traffic lights and stop signs, all of which seem to be optional anyway. There are lots of traffic circles which make it very difficult for pedestrians to navigate since there is very rarely a break in traffic around these areas and the cars come from all directions. It often comes down to a game of chicken, in the hopes that the car you have decided to step out in front of is being driven by someone having at least half a conscience and will slow down enough for you to scurry to the other side of the street. The other day, I made the mistake of assuming that cars stopped for the “Pare” (stop) signs, and decided to cross a street where a car was still a good distance away, and had a stop sign. Well, he had no intention of slowing down, and certainly no inclination to stop, and the guy practically ran me over, only missing me by a few inches as he blew through the stop sign as if it was not even there. This is normal here. In general though, the first few days out and about in Santa Cruz gave me a feeling of sadness. But by Wednesday, when the weather began to get better, that feeling transformed into a wonderful feeling that I think I have only ever experienced in Cochabamba before, and it is hard to describe. It is a VERY good feeling. It is one of release; of freedom from the trappings of material and societal weight; a feeling of acceptance of something that you know is flawed yet beautiful in its own way; an appreciation for the rawness, the relative innocence; an embracing hopelessness that negates expectations and elevates your appreciation of the simple things. It is a light feeling that I can feel in my chest. It does not last long, but when it does happen, it is very real. It is something I have felt different varieties of before, though, but infrequently. It is similar to the feeling I’ve had standing in awe of the mountains in Denali State Park of Alaska, or in one of the cascades along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, or in the woods when mountain bike riding in Western PA, or hiking one of the peaks in the mountains of New Hampshire. It is a similar feeling, but not the same, arising from a different set of stimuli. Anyway, it is a good feeling.

Santa Cruz, BO - Thursday, Day Six

The sun has finally made an appearance. However, we took our time to introduce ourselves to it as we slept in past 9am and finally got out of the room around 10:30 or so. Just as we were about to leave our room, Mom stopped by to tell us that the breakfast buffet was about to close. At the same time, the phone rang in our room, and when Vee answered, it was one of the people from the restaurant telling us that they were about to close the breakfast buffet, and they wanted to see if we would want them to prepare some food for us from the buffet and bring it to our room. Where else would this happen? What a nice touch. Anyway, we were still full from dinner last night and were not interested in a full breakfast. Instead, we went down for a cappuccino with plans to have lunch a while later. Not long after we got our drinks, Andrew and Sonya appeared and we invited them to our table and ended up having a really nice time together, with conversation, coffees and lunch. Around 1:30pm or so we decided to go our separate ways and met up with the family at the pool. I put on the headphones, pulled down my hat, sprawled out on a lounge chair and took in the sun. Chris joined me, and the girls sat at a table by us, had some fresh lemonade and talked. The sun was warm, but never got too hot. The sky was a beautiful clear blue, and the wind died down to just a slight breeze. The pool water was still pretty cold from the rain we’ve been having, but Chris braved it and went for a swim. Mom pointed out a man who was walking by, and who must have just been checking into the hotel, as Jaimie Doria-Medina. He is one of the three main candidates for president of Bolivia, and is the one who Vee’s father is supporting and running with. Vee’s father is running for office as Deputy of the State of Cochabamba, and the elections are in December. Vee was able to pull the camera out in time to snap a pic as Sr. Doria-Medina walked by. Once the sun began to dip behind the hotel, we decided to head back to the rooms where Vee and I changed and headed to the gym for a workout. We had it all to ourselves for a time, but then another bunch of people came in. We were about finished so it was no problem really. After our workouts, we went back to the room and spent some time getting cleaned up, reading, etc., and then met up with the family for dinner. Although the stop was called off late in the afternoon, and many of the restaurants and bars would be open tonight, we decided to take it easy and have dinner here in the hotel. Dinner was excellent and we had a great time exchanging stories. I had a delicious trio of fish including fresh trucha (trout) from Lake Titicaca, surubi, which I think is similar to a catfish, and pejerrey. It was all good, especially the pink-colored trucha filet which apparently grows to be a huge fish in Lake Titicaca with steaks being 3 fingers thick. Our waiter was the same one from the other night that we ate here, and he remembered what each of us ordered for dessert and helped us decide what we should each have this time. Vee and I shared a tasty warm brownie with vanilla ice cream. After dinner, we turned in, and spent the rest of the night relaxing in our rooms. We got sucked into a movie called The Astronaut’s Wife, with Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron; it was entertaining. I guess it was after 1 or so in the morning before we finally went to sleep. Not an exciting day, but a beautifully relaxing one.

Santa Cruz, BO - Wednesday, Day Five

Finally, the weather has broken, and we’re able to get outside without being cold and/or wet. The day started with our usual buffet breakfast. This time we were also joined by a woman that Mom met who was from Uruguay and was here on a business trip. Unfortunately for her, she ended up having to cancel her meeting because of the stop that is going to be happening tomorrow, which will shut down all mass transportation. After breakfast, Vee and I changed into our workout clothes and went over to the spa and played a few games of ping pong while Mom and Vanessa went to the 7 Streets markets again and Chris went to the business center to use the computers there. After finishing up with our ping pong games, Vee and I showered, watched a few minutes of tv, and got dressed for a walk back to the Ave. Monsignor Rivero area where we were yesterday. It had warmed up outside and we were eager to get out and enjoy it some, as it was still a bit too cool to sit by the pool. During our walk, we stopped into a few condo/apartment buildings to see if they had any information about places for sale or rent, but each place was full or just didn’t want to make any effort to show us anything for whatever reason. We continued on to find a place for a mid afternoon coffee and ended up at a café with nice outdoor seating in the sun. We had cappuccinos and a pastry and enjoyed the activity of the busy-ness around us. Once finished, we were determined to find out about some of the high-rise apartment/condos in the area, and after trying to get in a few more, unsuccessfully, we finally found one called Castelo Branco with a sales office, and got inside one of their smaller two bedroom units that was selling for $47,900. The bedrooms were small, and the condition was so-so but the views were beautiful. They also took us up to the rooftop pool where the view was even better. However the pool was questionable, despite the area itself being quite pretty in design. We thanked them for the tour and went on our way. Monthly fees were 40 cents per square meter of your unit and that covered maintenance, security, water, etc. We then made our eventual way back to the hotel where Chris was watching some soccer and the girls were on their way back out to the 7 Streets market area. Vee and I lounged around the room, and napped a bit before we re-grouped and got a taxi down to the Ave. Monsignor Rivero for dinner. On the way out, we ran into Andrew, and talked with him more. He highly recommended the restaurant El Hierro and so that was our destination. Dinner was very good, and the service was excellent. Dinner included fried yucca, fried potatos, rice, a salad buffet, a cheese and meat plate, a fried provolone and tomato plate, in addition to each of our entrees. Mom and Vanessa had pasta, Vee had chicken, Chris and I had steaks. Again, I had a Huari, and this has established itself as my favorite beer here. We had a great time with lots of fun conversation, and topped it off with some delicious desserts including lemon pie, crème Brule, and lemon mousse. Not bad for $40. We got a taxi home, and although we had intended to go out to a club/bar afterwards, it seemed a bit too crazy out for us tonight. The Avenue San Martin, where the hotel is located, was lined with kids drinking in their cars parked on the side of the road with music blasting. It was like a tail-gate party at a football game and they were all partying it up before going into the clubs. Tomorrow is a stop, and most businesses will be closed, so tonight is a free night for most people, and they are taking advantage of it. Instead, we went back to the hotel and let our stomachs settle from our feast. Vee and I went down to the lounge around 11:30 for a nightcap, and to update the blog. The weather forecast for tomorrow is 80 degrees and partly cloudy so we are looking forward to a day by the pool.

Santa Cruz, BO - Tuesday, Day Four

So this nasty weather just won’t break. It is cold, grey, and very very windy. Apparently this is somewhat normal for this time of year as the winds blow in from the Argentinian coast. We all went down to the breakfast buffet together and had a nice meal as per usual. After eating, we went back to the rooms, and then I came back down to the business center to use their computers to check email and make sure my servers were up. I then brought Vee’s laptop down to the wifi area and uploaded pics and blog entries. Vee came down as I was finishing up, and as we were leaving, we ran into the couple that we had met from Philly last night. We had another nice conversation with them, of course disgusted with the Eagles performance last night, and learned more about there lives here in Santa Cruz. We parted and went back to the room, where Vee spent more time with her Mom and sis, and I continued reading my book in the cozy reading room. You could tell that there was a feeling of lethargy and a bit of cabin-fever setting in as we all wanted to be outside but with the weather being so nasty, we felt more compelled to stay indoors. Finally, Vee gathered the troops for a taxi ride to an area of Santa Cruz where there were to be cafes and restaurants. We walked around for a bit, but there was not as much there as we expected, and wandered into “Alexander Coffee” for some warm drinks. It took them forever to get us menus, and almost as long to take our orders. Once received though, everything was good; mostly espresso drinks and pastries. The excitement of the evening was when a tv reporter and cameraman came to our table to interview Vee. With the lights of the camera shining in her face, Vee was asked by the reporter (in Spanish of course) “what is the best lie you have told so that you could come home late”. Poor Vee really didn’t have anything to divulge and said so while being filmed. I was just relieved that I was not the one being interviewed. After a few moments, with no juicy material, they left. We got the check and left soon after as well. It was getting to be dinner time so we debated ways of getting pizza at the hotel and decided to walk to Eli’s, get the pizza while we waited, and then get a taxi to the hotel and hope that the people at the front desk don’t give us a hard time. Whenever getting a taxi, it usually involves a sort of game I call “hide the gringo”. This is where I stand away from the group, looking around aimlessly, while Mom, Chris or Vee negotiates a decent fair, and then calls me to come to the car when everything has already been agreed upon. This way, the taxi driver gets paid a “normal” fair, as opposed to a fair that has been adjusted up to a level they believe a rich gringo should pay. No problem, it’s kind of fun in a strange way. We got back to the hotel with no problem, and thoroughly enjoyed the pizza. Then I finished reading my book and listened to some music. Then Vee, Mom, Vanessa and I went to the spa and got a good workout in. Vee spent most of her time showing Mom some exercises she could do with her weights at home. After that, we went back to the room, changed, and headed down to the lounge for a drink.

Santa Cruz, BO - Monday, Our Third Day

Today, Monday, our third day in Santa Cruz, began down at the breakfast buffet. Actually, I had woken up around 6am, read some, written some, then went back to bed, until we woke up at 8:30. After breakfast, we headed back to the rooms where I continued to read my book, and the rest of the family watched shows and relaxed. With our stomachs a bit less full, we got dressed in more comfortable clothes and headed over to the spa. We rented a walleyball court for an hour, and had a great time playing 6 games or so, mixing up teams and playing competitively but without rigorous rule-enforcements. The net and ball were in surprisingly excellent condition, and the guy who hung the net made it nicely taught. The floor was a very slick hardwood that made it very difficult to maneuver without slipping and falling. Mom took a pretty hard fall once, and cracked her head on the floor, but swore that she was fine, and kept playing with us as if it never happened. We were all very concerned but she was not. She bounces around like a little girl; it is really amazing. After an hour of walleyball, we returned the equipment and took out the ping pong paddles and ball. I lifted weights for a while, and Chris went to the pool while the girls played ping pong. Then I played a few games with Vee and Mom, and we eventually finished and went back to the rooms. We got changed again, and met up with Chris, and took a taxi to the city plaza where we walked around for a while. We went in to a massive Catholic church, and were begged by a lot of poor little kids and campinas on our way out. It is so sad to see so many people on the streets with nothing. I just wish that I could help them all. In the plaza, there was a peaceful stop going on in front of one of the government buildings. We found a “Picolo’s” restaurant and we stopped for a coffee to hopefully warm us up. It was a nice break and we stayed for a while, having some desserts and coffees, etc. We walked around town a bit more, but soon got a taxi and returned to the hotel. The plan for the night was to get pizzas and watch the Eagles opener against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. Unfortunately, according to the people at the front desk, there are no pizza places nearby, and they do not allow pizza to be delivered to the hotel. So, plan B is to order room service for anyone that is hungry. I ate an entire avocado, and snacked on some crackers, and Vee does not sound very hungry, so we may be fine with nothing more. Since we still had a bit of time before the game, we went down to the wifi area and attempted to get some things done online. While we were sitting there, a young couple came up to us and the guy asked me if I knew whether or not the Eagles game was going to be on ESPN tonight. I said that I really hoped so but I could not say with 100% certainty that it would be on. He explained that he saw me wearing my Eagles hat and that the was also from Philadelphia and that he and his girlfriend Sonia just got off a plane from Cochabamba and that they have a place here in Santa Cruz. He is a journalist and is teaching down here. I introduced Vee and I to them and explained what we do, and what we were doing here in Santa Cruz. We agreed that if the game would not be on ESPN, we would meet back up with them in 10 minutes in the lobby and go to a sports bar he knew of that would almost certainly have the game. They seemed real nice and we half hoped that the game would not be on ESPN so that we could get together. I told them our room number but didn’t think to get theirs. It turned out that the game was on ESPN, and so Chris, Vee and I had a great time staying up late watching the game despite the disappointing loss to the Falcons.

Santa Cruz, BO - Second Full Day

We slept in Sunday, day two, until about 9:30, but the rest of the family was up earlier, and we met them at the buffet breakfast. The weather was very different today, with a lot of rain in the morning, very windy, and cold, and this is how it would be for the rest of the day but mostly with clouds instead of rain. I am very happy that I got out to the pool yesterday while it was hot and sunny. It is Spring here in Santa Cruz, so this rainy windy weather may be what is in store for the week. After breakfast full of delicious food and very interesting conversation about life in Bolivia and the social and political issues here, I came down to sit in the WiFi area between the restaurant and the pool so that I could do some work on my blog software. Mom and Vanessa took a taxi to the 7 Streets area to do some shopping, and Vee and Chris hung out in the room. Vee came down and recruited me for a walk around the hotel and surrounding areas. So we grabbed the camera, and went exploring. It turns out that this place is a lot bigger then any of us expected. We found the tennis court, putting green, driving range, bird sanctuary, and a whole other beautiful building with numerous huge ballrooms where they were being prepared for wedding parties later on, and many other smaller conference and meeting rooms. We found another bar in the main building, and a business center with Internet computers, etc. And best of all, we found the spa with wet and dry saunas and whirlpool, racquetball court with walleyball net hookups, a converted squash/racquetball court, ping pong table and exercise room with a full spread of universal and free weights, cardio, tv, etc. We asked the guys in the spa how we could get racquets, balls, etc. and found out that the ping pong stuff and exercise room was free, but the walleyball, racquetball and squash courts were 10 dollars per hour, so for today, we decided to stick with ping pong. Chris and Vee played first while I got in a little workout, then Vee and I played while Chris worked out, and finally Chris and I played. It was a lot of fun, and very competitive. Tomorrow we plan to come back with Mom and Vanessa and play some walley in addition to the ping pong. After playing around, we walked outside the hotel to see what lies beyond these walls. There were huge water puddles in the streets from the rain the night before so we had to be careful where we walked since the cars passing through the puddles probably would not be too concerned about giving us a drive-by shower. During our walk, we saw that there were a lot of dance clubs, restaurants and even some higher end retail stores in the area. Of course this is mixed amongst some incomplete housing development, and other not so nice commercial establishments. It’s difficult to describe. It’s not that the area is bad or good. It’s just different. In me, it induces sadness. Perhaps it was partially a result of the grey cold sky, and the wind. But after talking with Vee about my impressions, I learned that it had the same effect on her too, and probably even more so since she has memories of her times in Santa Cruz from the mid to late 1990’s when things in Bolivia were generally better. I did not take any pictures of the area, but maybe I will later on in the week. There were a few large buildings that looked to be really nice hotels, all beautifully landscaped. During our walk, since I must have “American Sucker” painted on my forehead, a homeless guy apparently hailing originally from the U.K., wished me a hearty and cynical “welcome to this mother-*^#% country”, and then came to ask me for money to cover the cost of a bottle of milk he wanted to go buy…not booze…not cigarettes…not drugs…just milk. Right. I gave him the 4 or 5 bolivian coins in my pocket, due to his persistence and seemingly very coherent and intelligent-sounding speech in mixed English and fluent Spanish about how he came from a very wealthy family and that he chose to leave it all behind to live on the streets and that once he was a beautiful man with lots of women and now at 46 he looked like an ugly old man and so on. He probably would have continued on all day had we not walked away after 5 minutes or so of this. I bid him good luck, and he wished us God’s blessings. So after covering most of the immediate area around the hotel, we went back to the rooms where I did some reading and some napping while the others had time to get caught up. After a while, we took a taxi to the Hyper-Market for some munchies and loaded up on water, beer, juice, fruits and lots of sweet cookies and other snacks. When we got back to the hotel, we put on the U.S. Open Men’s final between Agassi and Federer, which went four sets before Federer finally won. Vee made avocado sandwiches with the gigantic, almost-cantaloupe-sized avocadoes, and later on, we ordered room service, with Vee and I sharing a club sandwich while it was hamburgers for the rest of the family. Despite having a range, cabinets, a fridge, etc., there are NO utensils, plates, pots or pans, so we thought it would be good to have some silverware, and kept the knives, forks and spoons from room service and put the remaining things back on the tray and out in the hallway to be picked up. After the match, I did some more reading and promptly fell asleep.

Santa Cruz, Bolivia Trip: Sept 9 - 17 2005; First Day of Travel and Arrival

Santa Cruz, Bolivia, is where we're headed. We took the train from home, the R7, to 30th Street Station, and switched to the R1 to the airport. This was a great way to go, so easy, pretty quick, and much cheaper than driving with gas at $3.49/gallon and economy parking at $9.00/day if you can find a spot. We packed light, bringing just one pull-behind suitcase, one day-pack, and one carry-bag. There was no line at American Airlines check-in, so that was a breeze, and although I got angry at security for having to unpack my entire day-pack just to get out the video camera, we got through without issue as this line was very short too. We got to the gate with about a 30 minutes to spare before boarding, so we watched a Friends DVD on Vee's laptop, and I had a few Coors Lights from the bar located so conveniently right at our gate. Once aboard the plane, we were seated together in a row of 3 seats, with a guy sitting next to me, and upon seeing the emergency exit row was empty, we asked to move up there and did so with the benefit of much more legroom. Strangely though, some Argentinian (...we think) guy sitting behind the exit row decided, as soon as we sat down, that he wanted to re-claim his seat in the exit row, and moved back into "his" seat, right next to Vee. Anyway, the extra leg room was nice, despite this guy's intrusion into what we were hoping would be a row to ourselves. We got the customary bag of chips and a drink and were off to Miami. Just a hair shy of 3 hours later, we touched down in Miami, and walked to the next terminal for our connecting flight. Hungry, I persuaded Vee to take walk through the airport in search of someplace still open that would have some food. I eventually found a Cuban place, and got us a delicious chicken filled pastry, and a guava filled pastry. Yum. Back to the gate, and we realized it was going to be a full airplane. We boarded the big bird, and yeah, it was big, but yeah it was full. Vee was stuck in the middle, but the lady next to her was sweet. We tried sleeping some, but even though it was plenty late, it just seemed like every position was painful, and did not sleep a quality wink the whole trip. We flew into La Paz, and got a nice pic from the airplane of the big mountain Illimani while taxiing back onto the runway for our final leg to Santa Cruz. We had a few scary moments on this leg of the journey, with a few screams and gasps, as the plane unexpectedly pitched up and down a few times, but otherwise it was fine. The final leg of our flight was only 30 minutes, and before we knew it, we were touching down in the tropical flats of Santa Cruz. It was early in the morning, about 7:30am, and it looked to be quite windy outside. We got off the plane, through immigration without even a look, then to baggage claim, and on through customs, again without issue. We changed some dollars for Bolivians and took a taxi to Los Tajibos. My impressions of Santa Cruz, from our drive to the hotel, was that although it was flat, and full of palm trees, it was otherwise very similar to Cochabamba in the architectural style, types of businesses, types of people, signage, etc. Los Tajibos seemed to be plopped down in the middle of a very ordinary mixed commercial, industrial and residential area, which was surprising; I thought it would be nestled in a prettier area but it did not matter once inside. I was impressed right away with the service folks attentiveness, and the comfortable, quality of the resort. Despite check-in not being until 12noon, our room was ready, and they let us in immediately which was a huge relief as we were both exhausted. They showed us to our rooms and again I was very impressed. Our room was actually a connecting suite of 3 rooms. Our room has a King bed, a sitting area, a full bathroom with bidet, fridge, closet, cable tv, accommodative furniture, and a whole other separate sitting room with desk, chairs and loveseat. The middle connecting room has a granite wraparound bar, stove, cabinets, bar stools, fridge, sitting area, and a half-bath. The 3^rd room, where Chris, Vanessa and Mom are sleeping has 2 Queen beds, sitting area, and a full bath. Everything is very nice, and the views from the huge open windows are beautiful. In general, the landscaping here is absolutely gorgeous with lots of mature trees, perfectly manicured grass, exotic birds singing, flowers, pools, etc. Security is amazing with a number of guards stationed throughout, and keeping a close eye on everything. So, we were starving, or at least I was, and hustled down to the restaurant to gorge on the breakfast buffet, with omelets, French toast, potatoes, bacon, sausage, eggs benedict, 5 kinds of fresh cut fruits, tons of pastries, meats, cheeses, juices, coffees, teas, cereals, etc. We were about finished when in came the rest of the family, fresh off the 10 hour bus trip from Cochabamba. We changed tables to accommodate the larger group, and they dug into the buffet as well. It was great to see them, and they all look fantastic despite the grueling trip. After eating heartily, we wandered back to the rooms and relaxed in front of the tv for the beginnings of the U.S.Open Mens Semifinal between Agassi and Ginepri. Agassi ended up winning in yet another 5 set thriller. I went out to the pool, and eventually stumbled through a conversation well enough with the guy selling sunscreen poolside to get a bottle of SPF30 before I could fry. Chris came out and we talked and swam for a while, then the girls finally came out, and I swam some laps while they sat and talked by the pool. Everyone was pretty tired, so we went back to the rooms and caught the end of the Agassi match, and the beginnings of the Federer-Hewitt match which Federer won in four. Vee and I napped while Mom and Vanessa went swimming. We re-grouped around 6pm and headed back down to the restaurant for a delicious dinner. I had French onion soup and a delicious white fish, Vee had a salmon-topped green salad, Mom had ravioli, Vanessa had pique, and I can’t remember what Chris had. Then we shared 3 desserts: tiramisu, mousse, and lime pie. ALL GOOD! I enjoyed my two Huari cervezas too. After dinner, we began watching the Klijsters-Pierce match, which Kim won in two. I think we are retiring early tonight. This completes the day one blog. I will be uploading pics from today as well. Looking forward to a very relaxing week. Tomorrow I think we’ll get some groceries and explore the grounds and the immediate area more.

SF - Final Thoughts

Things I like about San Francisco:

• Every person we encountered was friendly and polite
• Service is fast and professional
• Good food
• Beautiful geographic setting with mountains, bay, bridges, eucolyptus trees
• Activity and liveliness of City
• Flourishing creativity
• Architecture of the homes in the City

Things I did NOT like about San Francisco:

• Traffic
• Number of people that are homeless, and/or mentally ill
• Urban sprawl and its destruction of the environment surrounding the City
• Housing prices
• Golden Gate Bridge Toll, lack of signage for it, $25 fine for not having cash to pay it, inability to pay by credit card, and lack of ATM in the Toll Office at foot of southward side of bridge
• CD prices
• Name of transport at SFO airport: "AirTran"

Things that surprised me:

• Friendliness and helpfullness of people
• Huge number of Asian and Latin people there, as well as the huge number of tourists from other countries
• Seemingly small number of African-American people there
• Number of homeless people

SF - Last Day

This being our last final day, we had to be more mindful of our time. In the morning, we packed our bags, had breakfast down in the Atrium, and checked out at noon. Target was right around the corner, so we went there to get a few bags of Ghirardelli chocolates for the family, and batteries for the camera.

I wanted to show Vee the Haight-Ashbury district so we headed there next. Traffic was awful, as usual, and after driving down Haight St., and some of the side streets looking for a place to park for about twenty minutes or so, we decided to ditch the idea of walking around, and just got back onto Rte 101 and headed for Sonoma.

We stopped in a Visitor's Information center and asked for their opinion regarding which winery tour we could to, and still get back to the airport in time for our flight. The staffperson recommended Cline Winery which was just a few hundred yards from the Visitor's Information center, but he said we'd probably not be able to do the tour and get back to the airport on time. By this time, it was 2:50PM and the tour started at 3. We flew over to Cline Winery, and hopped into the crowd already in the midst of the tour. It was a brief tour, but the elderly man leading it was charming and entertaining. There was a wedding reception being put together, so alot of the winery was off limits to us because of this. We took a picture with the "Red Truck", and tried to get into the wine tasting, but it was crowded and we weren't feeling like pushing people out of our way to get to the wine bar, and instead just walked around on our own a bit, and then left. It was a beautiful winery, with a duck pond, lots of landscaping, a museum, etc.

We continued on into the town of Sonoma, and parked in the main square or plaza, and walked around, looking in some of the shops. The sun was really hot, so the air conditioning in the shops felt really good. It was getting close to dinner time, so we went into a cafe where I had a sandwich and Vee had a vanilla smoothie. We couldn't spend a whole lot of time there, but I think we both felt as if we saw all that we wanted to anyway. We were on the road headed towards SFO by 5pm.

Returning the car was no problem, neither was check-in and security. All was smooth and before long, we were on the plane and headed home. Vee finished her book, and I made some more progress with mine, but got tired, and caught a few naps during flight. We landed around 6am, headed home, quickly stopped at McDonalds for an egg mcmuffin, and went to sleep until 1pm. Home Sweet Home.

SF - Visitor's Tax

Today was Vee's last day of class, and our first day of having our own set of wheels. I called around in the morning to see about getting a fun car, like a Mini or TT, but none were available. So, once Vee was done with class, we took a shuttle to the airport, and eventually found our way, with quite a bit of frustration, to the rental car building. Part of the problem is that the name of the transporter was AirTran, so we were unsure if we were following signs to AirTran Airlines or to some sort of transporter. Anyway, we eventually figured it out. Alamo quickly got us into a silver Chevy Classic, and we were off to Napa. Since it was early afternoon, I figured we could make the trip pretty quickly, but because of numerous accidents on route 101, we were stuck in traffic for quite some time. We got through it without many expletives, and got to the town of Napa around 4pm. We really lucked out as we found out that every Friday during the Summer, there is an outdoor festival. Block after block was full of booths where retailers were offering their wares, restaurants were selling food, wineries were giving tastings, bands were playing, artists were displaying their works, etc. We dropped into a quaint little place called Annette's where we treated ourselves to a cappuccino, a chocolate ice cream, and four dark chocolate truffles. We sampled a few little breadsticks from a bakery's booth out in the street, a local beer from a place called Downtown Joe's, and continued walking around town. It was a beautiful night, with skies a perfect blue. One of the bands playing was a spanish-style flamenco 4 piece group that we really enjoyed. After a while, we wandered into a little Mexican restaurant where I had a shredded pork burrito and Vee had a shredded chicken tostada. It was 8pm by this time, and we decided to make the 70 mile trip back to the hotel. On the way, we encountered what I'll call the "visitor's tax". This is where you approach the southward side of the Golden Gate bridge and find out that there is a $5.00 toll only AFTER you've passed all exits, and where there is no other way to pay except cash, and their version of EZPass. I even pulled off at the "toll office" and they had no ATM and explained that I would have to pay a $25 fine for not having any cash. Lovely. $30 to cross the Golden Gate bridge because I have no cash, had no warning of the toll, had no exit to get off prior to the toll, no ATM to get cash, and no way to pay via credit/debit card. I was absolutely infuriated, but there was nothing more I could do. Onward we went, and made it back to the hotel in pretty good time. Tomorrow, we have to check out in the morning, and our flight out is not until 9:30pm, so we may find ourselves up in Sonoma. For now, sleep.

SF - The Other Side

With soreness in the arches of my feet from all the walking yesterday, I was determined to tackle another full day in the City. I caught the 9am shuttle to the airport, and BART to the Embarcadaro stop. One of my destinations for today is "Lori's Diner", said to be the best diner in the city. So, rather than going to the Powell Street location, which is right off Union Square, I headed for the Ghirardelli Square location. It would be a pretty long walk from the Embarcadaro stop, so instead, for $1.25, good for 90 minutes of municipal transportation, I boarded a streetcar which whisked me away to Fisherman's Wharf. The driver/captain/pilot of this "Chicago" streetcar, or whatever the appropriate title for this person is, was laughing it up with another passenger, no other than the world famous "Bush Man" of San Francisco. These guys were practically in tears, they were laughing so hard from one-upping each other with some raucous comment or impromptu comedic narrative. I was able to learn through some of their discussion that the "Bush Man", yep, the same one from our walk along the wharf on Sunday, was married, with two kids, his oldest in Stanford. Whether this was another tale, or the truth, I will never know, but the guy was a trip, and all smiles and giggles.

Anyway, I got off the streetcar with a silly crooked grin from all the antics I just witnessed, and headed off towards Lori's. Within a few minutes, I was up the steep hill of the square, and inside. The very friendly waitress seated me in what she described to be her favorite seat in the diner, and this was no joke. The view from my red vinyl seat was beautiful, as I was overlooking the Municipal Pier, Maritime Park, Aquatic Park, wharf, etc. On my way to Loris, I noticed a large white building that was a "Swimming Club", and sure enough, with my view to this part of the Bay, I was able to watch 3 intrepid souls swim from their club, out to a buoy, and presumably back again. Quite a display. Looking over the menu, I was disappointed to see such a brief listing of breakfast items; I guess I have grown spoiled from my occasional scattered, covered, smothered, and topped Waffle House breakfasts back home. But, after further inspection, I found that although the selection appeared minimal, the creations sounded quite good. I went with something called the "Del Mar Omelet" with sourdough toast and a coffee. When the waitress returned moments later to deliver this beast of a breakfast, I realized I would have my work cut out for me. This omelet was huge, bursting with fresh prawns, green peppers, avocado and jack cheese. The hash browns were a perfectly symmetrical rectangular slab of crispy brown deliciousness. It was ALL good! She kept the coffee flowing too, so that was a huge plus, as I would need it to keep me going the rest of the day about town. I took a snap from inside the diner looking out to the bay, and another from my seat, looking back inside. It was a cool 50's motif with all the typically authentic diner stuff, minus the cigarette smoke, greasy grimy windows and chattering locals.

Stuffed, I walked a few blocks to board the #47 Muni bus at the foot of Van Ness Street. Luckily, the large group of youngsters that arrived at the stop at the same time I did, obviously out on a class trip for the day, got onto a different bus. Whew. With a short wait, I was off for the other side of the city. I wanted to find my way to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, as it is a place famed for it's hippie-folk and Summer of Love vibe. I got off at South Van Ness, and got tangled up in this confusing mess of streets, but with the help of a friendly San Franciscan, I got pointed in the right direction. It was a hike, as some of the streets were really steep, especially up 14th to Castro. For a time, I wasn't really sure if I was getting anywhere closer to Haight, but upon making it to the famed Castro District, I knew that I was almost there. I felt a bit uncomfortable here, but the homes were absolutely amazing. Gigantic, beautifully restored and tastefully manicured. Not all of the homes, but I'd say most of them were this way. I continued on Castro until I arrived at Buena Vista Park, and ventured up the sloped path next to Buena Vista West and into the wild-looking, forested park. It was a little un-nerving as it was difficult to see around all the large trees and bushes, but I made it to what I guess was the summit, and was rewarded with a beautiful view of the whole city below. After snapping a pic or two, I continued down the other side of the park where I encountered a huge pack of 20 or more unleashed dogs, including a large Rhodesian Ridgeback that I wanted to go say hi to. Although unleashed, there were at least two people with them who were obviously leading the pack, and it was fun to watch this huge group of dogs, seemingly so familiar with each other and their dog-walkers, playfully sniff around, and eventually pile into the back of a small pick-up truck for what I assume would be their ride back home. Out from under the canopy of trees, and back into daylight, I found more beautiful homes and another wonderful view worthy of photographing. I snapped a shot, and then heard a kind of shuffling, giggling noise to my left, and upon looking, saw a "couple" all intertwined in the back seat of a small car parked alongside the sidewalk where I stood. Uhhh, time to leave. I high-tailed it down Buena Vista East and back up Castro, and up Haight Street. On my way up the steep Haight incline, I had to pull off for a few moments, because the fellow I was trailing was emanating such a disgustingly foul stench of body odor that I couldn't stand it. By the looks and smells of it, this chap hadn't bathed in quite some time, or recently washed his clothes. I did notice however, that he had the seat of his pants intentionally cut out, with only a flimsy fabric to replace it apparently sown in; so maybe it was this little accoutrement that was accentuating this repugnant aroma. Whatever, I had to breathe, so after enough of a gap widened between us, I continued my march up Haight Street.

It was obvious when I got into the Haight-Ashbury District. The stores were just what I expected, selling tie-dyed shirts, smoking paraphernalia, skateboarding gear, vinyl records, adult toys and trickets, underground publications, tattoos and piercing jewelry, vintage clothing, shoes, etc. There were a bunch of very fun and interesting looking bars, cafes and restaurants too, some specializing in vegetarian, and/or organic foods. I wandered in and out of a few places, and then topped it off with a visit inside the famed Amoeba Music store at the foot of the Golden Gate Park. Amoeba Music was my favorite of the record stores I have been in so far, being a large wide-open building with row upon row of every imaginable type of music, both new and used, and a huge selection within each genre, with thumping music playing in the background. But still, the prices were too high for me, as I have grown accustomed to paying about $5/CD on Half.com, and simply refuse to pay the $13 and up prices they all charge out here in the retail stores. I picked up my backpack from the security check-in, and headed out to the park with hopeful expectations.

What a letdown. In my opinion, this park was sad. Besides the shady-looking folks that populated much of it, it just looked neglected and worn down. I did not explore much of it, but did see a team of youngsters having soccer practice, a lawn-bowling club, and a huge collection of tennis courts which seemed to be in decent shape. There was a public rest room, which I used, reluctantly, and then I took a break to check email and plan the rest of my day's venture. With my wind-breaker on, I had sweated through my t-shirt, so I took that off and put on my long sleeve shirt and fleece vest to get warm again, then left the park and headed back up the other side of Haight Street, eventually to Market Street, and up to Powell St where I planning to meet Vee after class. It was a long, rather uneventful walk, and I got to Union Square with plenty of time to spare, a few hours-worth actually. I went into the huge Macy's store across from the square to kill some time, picked out a few things for Vee, and then went back outside for a quick slice of pizza, back to Union Square, and then plunked down to read more of my book, and wait for Vee to arrive. We hooked up right on time for the fee open-air jazz concert in Union Square. The band was the Marcus Shelby Septet, and they were quite good. It got a bit cold, so after 45 minutes or so, we huddled on a park bench, flipped through one of my many free San Francisco guides, and picked out a restaurant for dinner. We knew that we wanted something close by, and ended up in a place called the Daily Grille, on Geary Street, just a block or two off the square. We were again seated immediately, ordered our drinks, appetizer and entrees, and within minutes, everything was on the table. Too soon, actually, because we hadn't even gotten through half of the delicious complimentary sourdough bread, and our cheesy spinach artichoke dip before the entrees arrived. I ordered something I've never had before, a "Columbian Wild White Sturgeon" in a blend of gravies over top a patty of rice with grilled asparagus...all delicious! I also had another new beer, a refreshing pilsner called "Lagunitas" that was brewed in Petaluma, CA. Vee had very tasty grilled, marinated chicken breasts in a sweet salsa, with spinach mashed potatoes, and a grilled onion. We finished the meal with a very enjoyable NY Cheesecake in a fresh strawberry sauce.

After dinner, we caught BART back to the airport, and the shuttle back to the hotel where I collapsed with exhaustion while Vee checked email before finally going lights out.

SF - Perfect Alignment

Today was another one of those days where everything aligned perfectly for a fantastic day. I was eager to get out of the room, and back into the city. Of course Vee had another full day of SAP class, but according to her, the class is very interesting, informative, and even somewhat enjoyable.

I started my day with another delicious breakfast in the atrium, which I inhaled just in time to make the shuttle to the airport, where I then hooked up with BART for a ride to the Powell Street station. Having a USAToday delivered to the room is such a treat, and I polished off today's just as I was ready to disembark. Yesterday, I spent some time online researching where I wanted to go, and my first stop was Rasputin's Music which happened to be right in front of me, on Powell Street, as I walked above ground from the train station. It was a few minutes before opening time, so I waited outside with a few other folks, and then got inside shortly thereafter. It was an interesting, eclectic store, kinda old-school, with a large selection of new and used CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, video games, shirts, posters, etc. It was 5 stories high, and I visited 3 stories of it, looking through their entire used and new metal inventory. Their prices were high, and I left empty-handed.

Next stop was the Visitors Center, just around the corner, where I picked up a few visitors guides and stuffed them into my daypack. I then spent a few minutes outside, standing alongside Market Street, analyzing the city map so as to orient myself in relation to the various places I wanted to visit. The next place I wanted to go was the Cartoon Art Museum on Mission Street. Actually, where I really wanted to go was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it is closed on Wednesdays. I crossed over to Mission Street, and started heading towards my destination. Along the way, I stumbled across the Yerba Buena Gardens, which was a little slice of tranquility along what I thought was a pretty shabby looking area along this span of Mission Street. Another unexpected diversion was the Sony Metreon, a sterile, futuristic, mall and digital entertainment experiment full of large interactive flat panel displays, restaurants, bars, movie theaters, IMAX, strange Sony-style retail displays, and a video game arcade that drained me of $10.00 much quicker than I had expected.

Once out of this Jetson-like experience, I continued on my trek. The folks at the Cartoon Art Museum gave me a warm welcome, then stripped me of my backback, as every establishment does, and directed me to the two exhibit halls towards the back. I found an entire exhibit full of original Garfield cartoons, by Jim Davis. In another area, were baseball-themed cartoons from the 40's-60's. In the back was a wall full of Will Eisner's "The Spirit" and other works, and on the opposing wall, a bunch of superhero comics like Superman, Green Lantern, Batman, etc. In the other hall was just about every other cartoon character you can think of from the 1900's to the present day including Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, the Simpsons, Foghorn Leghorn, Huckleberry Hound, Heckle and Jeckle, etc. I don't even like cartoons or comics anymore, but this is a pretty darn good museum.

By this time, I was getting hungry, so I found myself in a San Francisco original establishment, Boudin. This was a retail cafe offshoot of the big bakery that is famous for it's sourdough, and has been in business since the mid-1800's. Although I committed a sacrilege by not ordering anything sourdough-related, my turkey and avocado croissant sandwich was delicious. I ate outside where it was warm sunny and breezy. My double-cappuccino was adequate and I took it with me on my journey onward. I decided I wanted to see Chinatown, so I headed up Grant Street in that direction, walked through the "Gates of Chinatown" and peered in the strange shops as I continued up the hill through this main street of the neighborhood. It was mildly interesting for me, but not a whole lot different from the other Chinatowns I have seen in Philly, NYC and DC. As I continued though, I entered into an area called North Beach, and this I liked. It had an Italian influence and was chock full of tastey looking restaurants and eclectic bars. I knew I wanted to bring Vee here for dinner.

I cut across to Lombard Street, so that I could have a peek at what is known as the "Crookedest Street", and it sure lived up to its name. It is a perfect zig zag, with traffic one way down a steep hill, with beautiful gardens lining each zig and zag. I snapped pics from the bottom, then climbed to the top, and got some more beautiful shots from there. I continued down Hyde so I could check out an area known as Russian Hill. The views from here were amazing. You can look out over the Bay, with views to Alcatraz, the Golden Gate, the Pier, the Wharf, and onward. Stunning. I took a short break in Russian Hill Park to re-orient myself, and figure out how I wanted to get back to the Powell Street Station to meet Vee. I took Mason, which was pretty boring, then cut onto Columbus, where I found a Tower Records to explore. I listened to a few tracks off the new CD by Nickel Creek, a bluegrass band, and continued on my way. I hopped back over to Powell Street where it is more interesting, and stopped in Union Square to read The Guardian paper, and wait for Vee. She got my text message earlier in the day, and was already on her way downtown. She had miraculously caught the 5pm shuttle from the hotel to the airport, even though she was a few minutes late because of her class. Then, when she got to the airport, the BART train pulled up just as she got there, and thus was whisked away in near record time to the city. We managed to hook up via cell phone, despite our dying batteries and missed voicemail messages and happily reunited outside the station on Market Street. We walked back up to Union Square to discuss our days, and agree on plans for the night. I had already picked up tickets earlier in the day for the play that we would see, so that was taken care of, and now it was time for dinner.

So we hiked through chinatown, on up to "The Stinking Rose" restaurant in North Beach. It's name derives from the fact that almost everything on the menu is cooked with LOTS of fresh garlic...thus, the "stink". We were seated immediately, our order taken just minutes later, and in less than 5 minutes, our entire meal was on the table. The atmosphere was eclectic, just as I had hoped, active, and colorful. Absolutely unbelievable, and the food was SUPER! Vee had a mouthwatering chicken and vegetable lasagna, and I had a cherry tomato, pepper, and olive pasta, and we shared a potato leek soup. I had a "Fat Tire" beer, which was okay, and for dessert, we shared a "Grande Tiramasu"...and it was MUY grande, in a huge martini glass, with a thick layer of whipped cream on top. Vee finished with an espresso, and we were back out on the street in perfect time to bounce back down through Chinatown and up Sutter to the San Francisco Playhouse for the 8pm showing of "Art". It was a very good play, just one act, 3 characters, and about 80 minutes long. The actors were a riot, the dialogue was sharp, and the plot was engaging and enlightening. It was everything I had hoped it would be. It was a very intimate playhouse, with the company only in its second season, and with only about a hundred seats. The Executive Producer was also the Box Office person, the usher, and the MC. After the show, despite wanting to hang around and mingle with the actors and producer at the after-show invitational, we hustled back to the train station and caught BART back to the airport. The last shuttle runs from the hotel at 10pm, and since it was about 10:25, I was afraid we would have missed it, but to my surprise, we found out through a phone call to the hotel that it was on it's way, and would be there to pick us up in 2 to 3 minutes. PERFECT!!!

This was a day to remember. So much seen, so much experienced. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. At least in the morning, I can expect a more vile version of the garlic-breath I'm cursed with right now!

SF - A Slow One

Again, not much to report today. Vee was back in for her second day of classes, and I again tried to work from the hotel room. Vee's day of class was more interesting today, and she was also less tired. I ended up writing off my workday since my client was unable to get their Citrix server back up for me.

So, I started my book, "The Archer's Tale" and counted the minutes to Vee's return from class. I spent a bit of time in the "Chit Chat Lounge" with a coffee and my book, then once Vee got back, we went into our usual hangout here, The Clubhouse Bistro. I tried a local beer, Gordon Biersch, a märzen, and it was good enough for me to shun my usual IPA safety-net, Sierra Nevada, and order a second. We shared an appetizer plate made up of a chicken quesadilla, popcorn shrimp, and buffalo wings. We then played two games of pool, where Vee won the first game, and I took the second. Then, back to the room for some Ghirardelli chocolates, reading, music and a bit of bad TV.

Wednesday will be more interesting for me, as I plan to go downtown. For Vee, it will be another day of classes. But, I do have a play picked out for us, and hopefully we'll be able to make it in time.

SF - Back to the grind; sort of.

Monday was back to a detached sort of grind. Vee started her SAP class, which is quite conveniently located just a few blocks away. It is a full class and she is sharing her computer with a girl who lives in the Bay area. I got to work in our hotel room, connected to a free high speed hotel LAN. I did all I could until about 4pm when the Citrix connection to my clients server stopped responding. In the late morning, I took a walk over to the shopping strip to pick up a few things for the week, and of course popped into a Starbucks for a cappuccino.

The evening was a quiet one, with Vee recuperating from her long day in class. We turned on the MNF, and watched the Eagles get whooped by the Steelers. Actually, the scoreboard was merciful as we ended up only losing by a touchdown. The first few minutes of the game were quite painful, and we just hope it is not a foreshadowing of the season to come. In the fourth quarter, we wandered down to the hotel bistro and shared fish tacos, before retiring for the night.

I think tomorrow will be more of the same. I have alot of work to do for one of my clients, and I don't feel comfortable "vacationing" while that work remains on the table. Hopefully, by Wednesday, I will be finished with it, we can get a car, and then Vee and I can start taking more advantage of our evenings together here in the Bay area.

E - A - G - L - E - S !!!

SF - Day Two

Today, our second day in San Francisco, was a very special day. So enjoyable in so many ways.

We started off the day with a delicious Sunday buffet breakfast here in the atrium of the hotel. With no plans, we decided to hop the hotel shuttle to the airport where on a whim, we were either going to try and rent a car and go exploring, or take the train into the City. I overheard some guys on the shuttle say that most of the car rental agencies were closed on Sundays, and it was then that I decided it would be fun to just try the BART system, and rail our way into San Francisco for the day. We grabbed a bunch of BART brochures to figure out where we needed to go and how much it would cost. I thought it would be fun to tour Alcatraz, so we got on the BART line headed in that direction. The train was clean, and comfortable, though loud. We got off at the Montgomery Street station and picked a direction, which we eventually discovered was taking us away from our goal of getting to Alcatraz. With a friendly San Franciscan's help, we corrected our course, and meandered towards the Embarcadaro, stopping by a Starbucks for some caffeination. There is no shortage of places to get coffee in this city with a Starbucks or some other coffee depot on virtually every corner.

Once along the water, we took some pictures, walked around the various piers, shops, etc. We watched the sea lions bark and grunt while jousting for position on the docks, and we walked out a long pier to watch some Asian fisherman cast out there huge fishing lines in the hopes we'd see them catch something. We got some more good pics of the Oakland bridge, and the City skyline. We tried to get tickets aboard a boat cruise to Alcatraz, but learned from another couple trying to get tickets, that tickets to tour Alcatraz were sold out through Thursday and that you needed to buy them online. Rather than give up, we walked on anyway, since Fisherman's Wharf and the Cannery were up that way. Rather than spend $24/pp for a one hour Bay cruise around Alcatraz on a great big cruiser, we lucked out with a $10/pp 45-minute trip aboard the "Bass Tub", a smaller, cozier fishing boat where we had a wonderfully personal, enjoyable, and rather wet ride around the Bay. It was ALOT of fun! Chris, the skipper, gave us a blanket to stay warm and dry, and the captain, a very pleasant and personable read-headed woman with an Irish accent, provided a thoroughly entertaining, enlightening, and comedic commentary about the sites we would see during the ride.

Once back on dry land, we continued our walk towards Fisherman's Wharf, and then on to Ghirardelli Square where we browsed shops and galleries, some housing original works by Dali, Picasso, and Rembrandt. I approached an Information Desk, and got some advice for a tastey seafood dinner at Alioto's Fish Company restaurant. Dinner, was amazing. The view from our table in Alioto's was spectacular, overlooking the wharf, the food was delicious, and the service was excellent. Vee had salmon, and I had a fish sampler platter, we shared a crab cake for an appetizer, and for dessert we had delicious "Illy" coffee, tiriamisu and a dessert sampler that included fresh strawberries, a canoli, a creme brulee and a raspberry gelati. Super-tastey!!! After dinner, we walked all the way back to Union Square in hopes of catching a play at one of the theaters in the area, but we couldn't find the theaters. It was beginning to get colder, and later, so we hopped BART back to the airport, and then the shuttle to the hotel.

Today, we got to see so much of the city, so many interesting people, so much activity. There seems to be a lot of homeless people here, as well as alot of gypsy-like folks who appear to make a living by entertaining folks on the streets, dancing, singing, playing instruments, rapping, magic tricks, comedy routines, etc. A few of the more memorable folks included one shabby looking man begging for money while holding a sign that read "Why lie, it's for beer", and we saw another guy who claimed to be "world famous" for being a "bush man" where he literally held two hands-full of large bushes in his hands, hiding next to a railing, and then would pop his head through the bushes and scream "BOOH" just as a person or group of people would walk by, scaring the living be-jeezus out of them EVERY time...a real crowd pleaser, and people were more than happy to reward him financially for his craft. In San Francisco, being caucasion, I am definitely a minority, with most folks being of Asian or Latin descent, or a tourist from Spain, Italy, Germany, or elsewhere. The water in the Bay was a green-blue that was totally unexpected, as was the number of sailboats out today, despite what I would consider to be choppy conditions. A beautiful day. A bit chilly for me in my t-shirt though; at least I wore my jeans. A wonderful city. So much more to do and see; what a GREAT way to start the week.