For dinner on Tuesday night we went to Toucan Charlie's at the Atlantis, which was amazing as always (thanks, Grandma and Karen!), followed by our game of pinochle. I had made an attempt to make buttercake as well, which turned out okay, though not great (less yeast and a smaller pan next time!). We enjoyed that during our meals.
After Reno we went to California, stopping off in San Francisco for a day. We had grand plans to see much of the tourist spots, but we underestimated the traffic, parking, and difficulty in biking around. When we finally found a parking spot and got our bikes out, we figured that we should first head for the Golden Gate Bridge. After a few mishaps (e.g., accidentally getting onto a highway with no bike lane), we found the right road to get to the bridge, though Liz's bike suffered an accident when her bike cleat got stuck in the pedal and came off her shoe. She was a trooper, though, and kept going even with that. We finally made it to the Bridge!
We biked across the bridge, weaving our way through oblivious pedestrians (Liz's bell came in handy). It was very windy, but offered a beautiful view of the bay and the ocean. I was a little nervous at times, given my fear of heights, but I survived making it across. When we got to the other side a pleasant German couple asked us to take their picture and then returned the favor.
On our way back to the car, I got a flat tire, so we decided to end our adventure in San Francisco. We managed to barely beat rush-hour traffic and escaped to Highway 1 to enjoy the scenic route down to Monterey. We got to the Braithwaites' house and enjoyed a fun first evening with them (the kids were very friendly from the outset). Adam and James had shaved their heads to be like dad, and they look like little tough guys. The next day we were tourists with Brian and Brooklyn, visiting the Fisherman's wharf, Carmel's expensive shopping district, and the beach. We ended the night by teaching pinochle to Brian and Brooklyn (they caught on quickly!).
The next day was full as well. In the morning we went to the military's language institute to see their International day, where the native teachers from various countries performed traditional dances and had booths with fun. It was pretty interesting, and it was fun to see everyone saluting Brian. After that, we did a short hike into a nearby canyon that had some redwoods.
After the hike we went to the Monterey Bay aquarium, which was really neat. I think my favorite was the octopus they had; apparently they are very intelligent creatures and can recognize humans by our 'taste' on their tentacles. Of course, there were also a few "save the planet" posters (or a lot of them).
Our last day we went ocean-kayaking, which was a blast! Unfortunately all of the pictures are on Liz's camera, which is currently packed away somewhere, so we will have to post them later, probably on Facebook. It was fun, though, especially with all of the sea lions around. I tried to get them to chase up by splashing water at them, but that didn't work. Oh well. They are very loud and very smelly, though, especially the big bulls that just spend their time sun-bathing on the rocks.
We bid farewell to the Braithwaites and spent the next night with Grandma and Karen, playing a final game of pinochle which went down to the wire! We both went under once and at the final hand were both playing for the game (the score was 116 to 108). Liz won the bid as the bidder, and she and Grandma went on to beat Karen and I by ten or so points to complete their comeback bid. Oh well! It was a lot of fun! We finished the trip back home exhausted but very happy that we were happy to see everyone we did before moving out to Boston!
No comments:
Post a Comment