Up the West Coast - Day 3 - 8/25/12 - Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA

After checking out off the hotel a quick breakfast at McDonald's we drove around Sunnyvale just to see how much it had changed. There also seemed to be a centennial festival, but we didn't go for that one either. Instead we went to visit with our friends the Serrone's. We have known Mike and Sue also since we moved to Sunnyvale 16 years ago. Their daughter Krystine doesn't live at home anymore but Anna does. I would not have recognized her anymore. She has grown up to be a beautiful young woman. We had a nice little chat with Mike and Sue and had lunch with them at the Country Gourmet.

Mike, Sue and Jeff

 After that we headed back to San Francisco. We took our rental car there also, since we had a hotel in the city for the night. And with our usual fashion we hit a big traffic jam again. Randy and Terri met us at the hotel and then took us to Pier 39 and the Fisherman's Wharf. There seemed to be a lot of stuff happening, some more weird than others. Also America's Cup was going on that weekend and we did see several of he boat that took part on it. And the day before there were regattas going on all over the Bay area. We would have liked to go to the Alcatraz, but the tickets for that have been sold out months ago. We had some more Peppermint Schnapps Hot Chocolate at the Buena Vista and after that went to Boudin's Bakery and had clam chowder in a sour dough bread. Boudin's is world famous for that. They also had a nice small museum attached to it, which we were able to look through while waiting to be seated. After we left the restaurant we barely made it to Randy's car before the meter maid came. He/she was just couple cars behind us and our meter had run out of money an hour earlier. We were told that you could park for free after a certain hour on Saturdays  but I guess that was not the case. After arriving back to our hotel we said good byes to Terri and Randy. Jeff will see Randy again in about three weeks when he bicycles through San Francisco and has a rest day here. They are supposed to go golfing then.

One of the boats in the America's Cup

Pier 39

Pier 39

Fisherman's Wharf

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Magician at Pier 39

An Artist's spray painting

A guy dressed as a dog doing an act with his dog.

Don't really know what she was doing.

This just looked funny

Breads in the Boudin Bakery Museum

Boudin Bakery

Boudin Bakery

Boudin Bakery

Story about the Boudin Sourdough Bread Mother Dough.

Boudin's Clam Chowder in a Sourdough Bread Bowl

We stayed in the Le Meridien in downtown San Francisco. It is probably one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed. We had lovely room with a balcony and views of the San Francisco Bay and the Bay Bridge. Here are some pictures of and from the hotel room.

Our balcony

View straight down

View of the Bary and the Bay Bridge

Sitting area

View down the other way

Up the West Coast - Day 2 - 8/24/12 - Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA

Tiburon, CA

After having a big breakfast at Denny's we headed up to the Wadley's but before we got there we did stop by our old house and the kids elementary school (I spent a lot of time there too). Boy has our house changed a lot. The new people have filled in the pool and have grass in the back yard and now are in the process of building a second floor. The kids school has changed some too with a new addition and more portables.

Front of our old house in Sunnyvale

Cumberland Elementary School

Back of our old house

We have known  Randy and Terri since we moved to Sunnyvale 16 years ago. We took Randy's car and he drove us to Tiburon, on the north shore of San Francisco Bay. From there we took a ferry to the Angel Island. First we were thinking of renting Segways and doing the tour around the island. Then we thought that bicycles would be nice too since with them we can go on our pace. But when we got there there wasn't enough bikes for the four of us. Some more were supposed to be returned by 12:30 but it might not have given us enough time to bike since the last ferry back left at 3:30. But there was a Segway tour starting at 1pm so we signed up for it. It wasn't cheap, but boy was I happy we did that instead of the bikes. I would probably still be pushing my bike up the hill. While we were waiting for the tour we had a quick bite to eat and toured the little visitor center. The tour took us around all of Angel Island. We could see the old immigration buildings and army barrack, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco and Alcatraz. It took surprisingly short time to get used to it. I was quite wobbly in the beginning and especially going down the hills. But it was a lot of fun and I'm happy we did it.

Tiburon as seen from the ferry

Visitor's Center on Angel Island

Learning how to use the Segway

Still learning but doing much better

And off we go. . . 

The haunted hospital

Camp Reynolds

Golden Gate Bridge in the distance

San Francisco and Alcatraz on the front

Sand making machine

Park personal residences

Fort McDowell hospital ruins

Fort McDowell hospital ruins

Jeff and I at Angel Island

Still afraid to go downhill

and more downhills, this is almost at the end

Uphills are easier, this is at the beginning

After the tour we headed to San Francisco and had dinner at the Calzone's. It was an interesting place with all kinds of merchandise on the shelves around the restaurant. And the food was good too. From there were headed to Buena Vista, which is the place where Irish Coffee was invented. Terri's cousin works there, but he was not in that day. We did have an Irish Coffee and Jeff and Terri, the non coffee drinkers, had Peppermint Schanpps hot chocolate. The time change and fresh air started to whack me out and soon we headed back to Sunnyvale and our hotel in Santa Clara.

Golden Gate Bridge

Calzone's Restaurant

Cable car 

Terri, Randy and Jeff at the Buena Vista

Up the West Coast - Day 1 - 8/23/12 - Newtown, CT to Sunnyvale, CA

We got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Bradley Airport in Hartford, CT. Bradley is so much easier to get to than any of the New York airports which take forever to get to and there might be long delays with take offs. Bradley also has some nice rocking chairs you won't see in too many other airports.

Our flight took us to San Francisco via Chicago's Midway airport. To our surprise all the flights were early, the last one 40 minutes. We received our car for the car rental place and headed up to Santa Clara. Our hotel for the next two nights is Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.

There has not been a Douglas vacation without a traffic jam

View from our room

We checked in and after that headed out to our favorite Thai restaurant in Sunnyvale, Thai Basil. Surprisingly it still exists, but Sunnyvale sure has changed a bit. We had our dinner and after headed back to the hotel. Even though it is only 3 hour time difference, it still affects you.

Thai Basil Restaurant

Murphy Street, Sunnyvale, CA

Appetizer - shrimp spring rolls

My main course - can't remember what it was called

After we got back to the room there was a knock on the door and delivery from the hotel. It was their gift to us for our 30th wedding anniversary - a bottle of wine and cheese, crackers and dried fruit tray. Thank you so much Jennifer at the front desk.

Sunset in Santa Clara as seen from our window