Author: sutherland

Foggy and 55-degrees – July in San Francisco.

I got a good night’s sleep after picking Aryn up from dancing at midnight and woke up around 8:00.  I went out and let Aryn sleep for a bit more.

I love Fisherman’s Wharf in the early morning when things are just opening up and there’re no crowds.  I walked around for a while and took a look at the WWII submarine on display – from the wharf, not the tour.  Then went down to Pier 39 for some breakfast donuts – fresh-fried mini-donuts in cinnamon sugar.  When Aryn woke up, we grabbed Starbucks and went for more donuts.  I like donuts.

We got the car and headed for the Legion of Honor museum, someplace I go every time I’m here.  They have Rodins.  Aryn distracted me with a math-riddle and I missed the exit, which happens to be the last exit before the bridge.

Not so bad, except for the $6 toll to get back into the city.  The riddle wasn’t even a good one, since its question is based on a flawed premise.

I’m not very interested in porcelain, but after visiting Starbucks it was interesting to see what a serving of coffee looked like 200-years ago.

I loved this piece.

Screw Ikea, give me some Rococo.

After the museum I asked Aryn what she wanted to do and her priority was to avoid any more walking for a while.  I decided to drive around and see the city that way and figured to start by seeing if the Little Prius Who Could could handle Telegraph Hill.  So I plugged that into the GPS, but it couldn’t find it – lots of businesses with Telegraph Hill in the name, but no location. 

So I decided to drive down the coast road since we were there, and we’d see Telegraph Hill once we were back in the city.  Funny how that works, because if the GPS had understood Telegraph Hill, we never would have run across the horseback riding.

The stables are on a cliff a good 100-yards above the beach and the trail winds down to beach-level.

My horse, Breezy, kept wanting to rush up and crowd the horse in front of her and didn’t like to be held back to give them room – and she really wanted to go faster than the group.

Aryn’s horse, Ginger, shied a bit on the beach, but Aryn handled it really well.  Much better than any of the others in the group, who had a tendency to answer any untoward action by the horse with a high-pitched screech. 

After the ride, we circled back to the city and dropped the car off at the hotel, then went down to the wharf for lunch/dinner at Boudin’s bakery.  Aryn had a grilled cheese and tomato soup and I had their Havarti bread, all on Boudin sourdough. 

By this time it was after 6:00, so we browsed the shops a bit more, got Aryn a couple t-shirts, saw panda and penguin statuettes she wants, and headed back to the hotel to eat some pumpkin pie fudge we got in Monterey and rest for an early start tomorrow.

For snacking later tonight, I grabbed a crab-salad sandwich from the Alito’s street stall and Aryn got a long-loaf of sourdough from Boudin’s – I think she’s a convert to San Francisco sourdough.

On the city-side of the wharf, I see people in the Chipotle and In-and-Out burger and walking into Joe’s Crab Shack and Rain Forest Café … across the street is some of the best food in the country and $7 buys you a huge Dungeness crab-salad sandwich.

I wanted a whole Dungeness, but it’s off-season and the prices are high, so I’ll stick with the sandwich.

I knew it was coming, looming like a storm cloud, but I just couldn’t bear to deal think about it.  Parking a car in San Francisco costs a fortune.  Last time I was here with a car, it was $35 / day at the hotel.  Now it’s $48 here and $65 at the downtown hotels.  I had two cheaper options – park in a city lot and get up to move the car before 7:00 AM every day or park in a cheap lot in the Tenderloin for $17 a day, which would put the car on the other side of town if we needed it. 

Since Aryn wanted to dance tonight and we’re going to the bridge and the Legion of Honor museum tomorrow, we’d need to get it out both days, so not much choice. 

We had a short drive with lots of traffic to get here from Scotts Valley.  The hotel had a room for us even though it was early, so we checked in and then walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf – 66-degrees and sunny today, with a low of 55 tonight.  Twenty miles north or inland and it’s over 100-degrees.

First we walked down to Pier 39 to see the sea lions.

I’d heard there were starting to be fewer of them than in the past and it’s summer, so they migrate, but I expected at least a couple to be around still.

But Alcatraz is still there, at least.

On the walk to Pier 39, I’d been looking for the store where I’ve bought leather jackets in the past.  Aryn’s windbreaker really wasn’t enough for cold and wind here.  I didn’t see it on the way to Pier 39, so I kept looking as we walked back down the wharf … at which point, Aryn holds up her phone and says: “There’re lots of leather stores here.”

Exercise for the adventurous: Go to San Francisco. Search Google maps for “leather”.

I got some directions from a different shop and found what may or may not be the store I’ve purchased from before.  Regardless, Aryn now has a new leather jacket.  Much as she would like to, she does not have a new penguin hat.

Why the penguin has paws … I don’t know.

Then we walked down to the other end of the wharf where the maritime museum is and I got to go on a tall-ship.  I like tall-ships.

They’ve done a lot of work on the exhibit since the last time I was here and the inside of the ship is nicely laid out with areas describing the different cargoes it carried.

We stopped for lunch at Cippolino’s and I had a Dungeness crab salad sandwich.

It was this good:

Then we headed for Ghirardelli where they were sampling a hazelnut-crisp filling and Aryn got a dark chocolate with caramel and sea salt bar.

We went through a couple art galleries on the way back and I found a new artist I like.  Andrew Baird.  He does the drippy-paint thing like Pollock.  Now … I hate Pollock and I despise the drippy-paint thing, but Baird takes a new tack on it … he actually paints things with drippy paint.

We took a break at the room before heading for Market Street and the United Nations Plaza.  There were two swing-dancing events in town today and Aryn wanted to go, so we took the cable car over the hill to Market Street.

The cable car station was busy and we had to wait through two cars before getting on.  I much prefer the city when no one’s here and I can use the cable cars as reasonable transportation, instead of waiting in line with the tourists.

At UN Plaza, they had a live band and set up a dance floor for a couple hours of swing-dancing. 

While we waited, a bird shit on me.

Then Aryn did some dancing and we left to head to the other venue – even though the dancing there didn’t start until 9:20, I wanted to check and make sure it wasn’t an over-21 club like the swing-dancing in Vegas was.

Unfortunately, it was some distance away (Sutter and Diversadero).  As we walked, I looked vainly for a cab, but they were all taken.  I hate medallion-cities.  Just let the damn market decide how many cabs are right for the city.

We walked up Van Ness to Sutter and finally caught a cab a couple blocks down Sutter. 

The dance event turns out to be in a community center, so that’s okay.  We caught a cab back to the hotel for an hour or so before it starts, then I got the car and drove Aryn over there and will have to pick her up at 12:30.  She’s afraid of taking cabs alone … how the girl expects to survive in a New York with that hang-up, I don’t know.  Sometimes, you just have to take a cab.

I was up at 6:30 again and while I let Aryn sleep until 8:00, I got on the computer to find a place for the night close to San Francisco.  I settled on Santa Cruz, but Priceline has only one bidding zone for that area and rejected my $70 bid.  They did counter-offer at $85 for a 2.5-star, so I took it and wound up at the Best Western Plus in Scott’s Valley.

As we drove toward the coast and the Pacific Coast Highway, something ominous loomed on the horizon.

The morning fog rolled in and Aryn’s first experience at a California beach was foggy and 55-degrees.

We headed up the coast and stopped at the elephant seal beach.

A gorgeous drive with lots of scenic overlooks.

Aryn coined the perfect description of the hillsides – a flower reef.

I wish they’d had these signs when we took our trip in the 70s – maybe my folks would have seen them and not let me play so near the surf that pulled me into the Pacific when I was seven. 

	Traumatized me for life, that did.

We tried to stop for lunch south of Big Sur, but the area’s sparsely populated and the restaurant was pretty expensive, so we moved on.

When we got near Monterey, I saw a sign for the aquarium and remembered that it’s supposed to be pretty cool, so we hopped off the highway and went there.

In addition to the sea otter exhibit, they have telescopes on the deck to view the kelp beds in Monterey Bay and the wild otters there.

There’re a dozen or so otters out there.  They’re the black dots.  Really.

After the aquarium, Aryn made another new friend.

And we had dinner on Cannery Row and Aryn got a new t-shirt.

And Aryn composed an interesting picture of a tree … I’m not sure what’s tilted … the tree or the world … or just her.

Finally, it was back into the fog and on to Scotts Valley and the hotel.

What are the odds of finding another silver Prius with roof racks at the hotel?  Pretty damn good, apparently.

And now a quiet evening in the hotel, some laundry, and then on to San Francisco in the morning.  But it seems Aryn had too much caffeine today, because she’s hyper, bored, and watching Univision soap operas … could be a bad evening.

We leave Las Vegas with the only plan being that, by Thursday, we need to be in San Francisco.  830-miles and 16-hours of driving.  Ideally, I’d like to be near San Francisco, maybe San Jose, by Wednesday night, as that would let us get to San Francisco early in the day.

I was up at 6:00 again, but let Aryn sleep until 7:00 while I got ready and packed everything except her suitcase – then we called the bellman to get the luggage and walked to Paris for breakfast.

We said a melancholy goodbye to the Paris buffet … we will miss you, little crème brulee cup. 

And your little friends, too … the fruit tart, the lemon meringue pie, the pear tart, the raspberry tart, the tiramisu in chocolate cup, and the crème caramel.  Miss you all. 

On the way to pick up the car, Aryn headed for the Bellagio fine art gallery and I headed for a blackjack table.  Unfortunately, the art gallery didn’t open until 10:00, so we didn’t get to see it – blackjack was open.

When I’m leaving Vegas I always play one last session of blackjack, consisting of one bet.  I play until I’ve either won or lost that bet and it’s more than I typically bet.  Since my usual bet is $5, that isn’t hard. 

Today I sat down and dropped $40 on the table.  I won the first hand, but lost the second – since even is right out for this session, I put the $40 I’d won on the first hand back out there.  A blackjack, a pushed-18, and three winning hands later, I left the table up $140.  So with the other day’s $80, that’s up $220 for the weekend, which isn’t bad, considering I only played for a couple hours.

Also, I’d taken out $300 cash when we got to Vegas and after three days of tips, taxis, and small cash purchases, I left with $290 cash.  But even with winning $220, this was still my most expensive trip to Vegas ever.  The shows were worth it, though.

We left Vegas and headed for Sequoia National Park to see big trees.

The drive up to the Sequoia grove was, of course, gorgeous and we stopped to walk down to a mountain river on the way.

Once we got to the grove’s visitor center, where Aryn apparently found this interesting enough to take a picture … note that they keep the spares under lock and key …

It was time to make a decision.  There was construction on the road up to the grove and it was one-lane for several miles.  The clerk at the visitor center told me they’d run that section with twenty-minutes each way after 5:00.  The other option would be to continue through the park to the North entrance – and he told me that would add about 30 minutes if we were heading south afterward, which we were.

We opted to continue and see the rest of the park before heading for San Luis Obispo.  It was a great drive through the park and worth the extra time, but when we exited the park we had no cell service, so I couldn’t use mapquest to get directions.  The options were to go back south to Porterville or west to Fresno. 

Since San Luis Obispo was a bit to the south and we hadn’t come that far north inside the park, I opted for that and we took California 245.

The “curvy road” highway sign for 245 also contained the note: Next 31 miles.

When Californians set out to build a curvy road, they don’t screw around.  There wasn’t a straight 50-yards of that road for 31 miles.  Even sections that could have been straight were curved – I’m not a highway engineer, but half a mile across a dead flat pasture doesn’t have to curve five times.

I joked that we’d google “California 245 road” and find that it was some famous curvy road … but it only got 4 of 5 stars from motorcycleroads.com, so I guess it’s not that famous.  Would have been a bad ride on a motorcycle today, though, since long sections of the road were covered in sand and gravel for some reason. 

Midway down and just at dusk, a skunk was crossing the road.  Hit the brakes to avoid hitting the skunk and as he made it to the far side and we slid slowly past, the tail raised into the air … punch the accelerator and get out of Dodge.

Once we had mapquest access, we headed for San Luis Obispo, and really not doing all that badly on time.  It had gotten dark while we were on 245 (which made the road much more interesting, let me tell you), but mapquest said we were only three hours from the coast. 

I drove until 10:00, then pulled off and got on the laptop with my phone tethered for internet and got on Priceline.

I tried to get something in Paso Robles, Atascadero or San Luis Obispo, as those were closest to us, but got no takers up to $70 bid, so I took a Priceline “express deal” and got the Holiday Inn Express in Atascadero for $78 – $120 on the Holiday Inn site.

We got to the hotel at midnight after a very long drive – but it leaves us with only the drive up the coast today and we’ll be able to stay close to San Francisco tonight.

Magic Underwear Update: Vegas was pretty hard on the Magic Underwear.  It was 111-degrees yesterday and topped 100 the entire stay, but a pair washed at midday was perfectly dry and okay to wear by nighttime. The only hiccup was this morning, because we’re leaving and I can’t let a pair hang-dry – enter the blow-dryer supplied by the hotel: within a couple minutes last night’s pair was fresh and mostly dry (waistband still a little damp). 

Sadly, the rest of my clothes aren’t as easy to wash and dry.  I leave Las Vegas with only a pair of jeans and a couple shirts still clean and wearable.  Aryn says she doesn’t have that problem, but that’s because she packed four times as man clothes.  Will have to do laundry before San Francisco.

Up at 7:00, Aryn slept until 8:00.  Breakfast at Paris – I wasn’t going to get the buffet pass again, but it’s within our budget and Aryn and I both want to eat at Paris again.  By getting it this morning, we’ll have breakfast tomorrow covered as well.

Our morning view of the mountains.

Breakfast started with Eggs Benedict, fingerling potatoes, Lyonnais potatoes, a creamy, sweet polenta, corned beef hash, bacon, and sourdough toast – there were some normal eggs on my plate by mistake that just got pushed around and ignored.

Smoked salmon and smoked trout were available, but I don’t care for fish, and I skipped the omelet station this morning in favor of some French toast and bacon … because I like that.  Aryn gave me a look because of the amount of bacon, so I got some fruit.

See?  Fruit.  It was a healthy breakfast.  I’m on vacation, stop judging me!

After breakfast we again stopped at the Tix4Tonight booth in Wild Bill’s near the Flamingo and got our tickets for Mystere tonight.  Tix4Tonight has saved me $190 this trip compared to the box office price – the only ticket we weren’t able to get through them was Celine Dion – and that because, well, Celine Dion doesn’t need to dump extra tickets on the market at a discount.

Then we walked down to Venetian, so Aryn could see it – did not take a $16/person gondola ride.

From Venetian we caught a cab to Stratosphere and went to the top of the tower, 1,000 feet over Las Vegas.  Aryn rode a couple of the rides there.

Finally, after a very long morning/early afternoon, we took a cab back to Ceaser’s to get Aryn a t-shirt from the Celine Dion show and then back to our room to rest.

Dinner at Paris, much the same as Saturday.  Then on to Mystere, which is classic Cirque – Ka was much more impressive, in my opinion.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning, even after being awake until after 2:00 last night.  Aryn woke up shortly before 8:00.  While she was getting ready I checked the show schedule and found that Celine Dion is in town tonight.  I want to see Penn & Teller, but thought Aryn might want to see Celine instead – turns out that was sound figuring.

We walked over to the Tix4Tonight booth, but they weren’t open until 10:00, so we continued to Imperial Palace for breakfast.  Imperial Palace is more of a cafeteria-style buffet, but it’s hard to mess up breakfast.  Aryn doesn’t believe that the guy in front of me took just as much bacon as I did.  Mmmm … bacon.

Then we went back for tickets.  I got my Penn & Teller ticket, but they had no discounts for Celine (not surprising), so it was off across the street to Ceaser’s to try the box office.  The $90 seat I’d seen available this morning wasn’t anymore (it was a single, lonely seat in the top section, with everything else there sold out), so we had to move up a level in price.

A long.  Very long.  Horrendously long tour of the Ceaser’s Forum Shops then commenced.  We looked through the Gucci, Versace, Costly, and Pricey stores – and that’s all I can remember.  The rest is a blur of ridiculous clothes and four-digit price tags.

Then over to Mandalay Bay, but the tiger/dolphin exhibit was $20 each and I’ve hit the entertainment budget for today, I think.  So back to the room for a rest before lunch … or might wait until dinner … that was a lot of bacon.  Mmmm … bacon …

We went to Flamingo for an early dinner.  Not much to speak of … Aryn and I agree that we’ll just stick with Paris tomorrow.  The other buffets are simply not up to that level … although, in the taxi today, the Wynn video makes their buffet sound pretty good, with a lot of the food being cooked to order at the stations.  Not on the Buffet of Buffets, though.

Aryn’s show was at 7:30 and mine at 9:00, but I left for mine early, planning to do some gambling at Rio beforehand.  I got there about 6:00 and had an hour to kill before the box office would open so I could get my seat assignment, so I headed for the casino.  I really wanted to play craps, but all of the tables were $15 minimum bets.  That’s a problem this trip, because I have a limited gambling budget – most of the money being earmarked for, well, the trip.  So with not wanting to gamble with more than $100 for the session, my style of craps play, with as many as six or seven bets outstanding at one time, could wipe out the bankroll in four rolls of the dice.

So I found a $5 Let It Ride table and played for an hour.  Lost about $40 and then went to get my seat for the show.  When I came back, I sat down at the other Let It Ride table, which turned out to be a $15 limit.  I went ahead and stayed, which turned out to be a good decision, since I was quickly up about $150.  Once that dropped below $100 after a few bad hands, I decided to call it quits and left $80 ahead.

Still with some time to kill, I wandered around Rio and stumbled across this year’s World Series of Poker – didn’t know that was this week or I’d have played a satellite game for the hell of it.

There were over a thousand tables in the ballroom for the tournament.

But only one Final Table.

On to Penn & Teller and a great show.