Brunch at the Cliff House

For Christmas last year we gave Celeste a gift certificate for brunch at the Cliff House - it took us 6 months to finally make it happen!  But what a beautiful day it turned out to be!  We enjoyed a fabulous brunch, overlooking the entrance to the Golden Gate, while being serenaded with soothing harp music!  A very decadent thing to do!

After brunch we changed into walking shoes and walked along the Lands End trail, into caves and around the old Sutro Baths.  We worked off a bit of that brunch!

On the way home we stopped at Fort Funston and watched the hang gliders!  That was amazing - dozens of hang gliders, taking off, landing and soaring all about!  That is on Celeste's "bucket list" to do someday!  We didn't see anyone doing tandem soaring, so yesterday was not the day for her to try it.

Again, the gorgeous weather made this even more amazing!  We also discovered that there are lots of walking trails at Fort Funston, so I'm sure that we will visit again.

After brunch, beginning our walk.  It was a bit breezy, but I didn't have my jacket on for long

The Cliff House

The remains of the Sutro Baths

Cargo ship, heading to the Golden Gate bridge

Great cave at the Sutro Baths

Hang Gliders!!

This is where they take off - beautiful beach below, and the fog coming in from the south

And away he goes!

Airborne!  There is a "bag" at the back of the glider that they put their feet in when they take off, so they don't have to worry about keeping their legs out.

I think they are very brave!

Soaring overhead

Great shot!

Lots of gliders

Coming in for a landing!

Touch down!  He just put his feet down and planted the bars on the glider - very smooth!

Hang gliding is as popular for the spectators as it is for the people who fly them!

What a beautiful day!  Thanks, Celeste, and Merry Christmas!

Alisha and Mark's visit

Mark and Alisha are here from Ireland!  They are on a year's furlough from their missionary work there, and hadn't been home for 4.5 years!  They brought their dog, Tricky Woo, with them.  We picked them up at Mark's brother's house in Pittsburgh on Sunday, and they spent the week with us.  We had fabulous weather for the first part of their visit, and the coast was at it's best, with blue skies and sunshine, and even warm temps!

We spent time around here, took walks, went into Half Moon Bay for a stroll, and just enjoyed visiting and catching up.  We also went into San Francisco on Tuesday and enjoyed Chrissy Field, where we had a picnic, and did the more touristy things, like Lombard Street and Coit Tower.  You could sure tell that it was summer by the number of people that were out and about, but what a spectacular day!

On Wednesday our gray, overcast skies returned, but it was still warm.  We had an "at home" day, did laundry, Lee and I visited the dentist, and got a nice walk in before dinner.

Thursday morning we loaded up the car and headed to Calistoga!  We left the gray and soon found the sunshine!  We stayed at our favorite place in Calistoga, and enjoyed the deck and the wonderfully warm weather!

We visited a few wineries and did some tasting, which was lots of fun.  We had dinner at the Flatiron Grill, which we had eaten at before.  Unfortunately, the service was really slow this time, but the food is still good.

We came home on Friday afternoon, and sadly, hit LOTS of traffic - took us about 3 hours to get home.  We all walked up to the little Mexican food place by us and brought food home for dinner that night.

On Saturday we loaded up the car, and left for Los Banos, where we met Gary and Joyce and Mark and Alisha and Tricky are now in Fresno for a while, visiting with family and friends there.

It was great to have them here after such a long time!!  Thanks so much for coming to visit!!

A walk on Tuesday up to the lighthouse in Montara.  A beautiful, sunny and warm day!

Mark, Alisha and Tricky Woo at Chrissy Field, with the Golden Gate Bridge

Mark and Alisha

Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Some nice lady took this picture for us.

Mark, Alisha and Tricky with the fountain behind them

Some of the columns at the Palace - amazing!!

The original structure was built in 1915 for a Worlds Fair.  It was meant to last for a year!

Coit Tower with a statue of Christopher  Columbus

Christopher Columbus

At Cornerstone in Sonoma!  We had fun with this chair!  Tricky is on the left arm.

Family photo

Another family photo

The whole gang

A picnic at V. Sattui winery.  The weather was gorgeous!

Mark and Tricky enjoying the hammock at our lodging - well, Mark is enjoying it!

Alisha, Mark and Tricky, outside of Cabin 3, where they stayed

The winery Chateau Montelena, through the trees.

Chateau Montelena gardens and picnic pagodas

Another view of the winery.  If you haven't seen the movie Bottle Shock, rent it - it was filmed here and is about California taking first place at a blind tasting in Paris in 1976.

Mark, Alisha and Tricky

The bottle of Chardonnay that rocked the wine world!

At the fountain

It was lots of fun!  Thanks for visiting and giving us an excuse to be tourists, and to visit Calistoga and the Napa Valley!

Flowers from our garden

Flowers are blooming!  We are rich in fragrant blossoms!  And we've been picking them as they bloom to save them from the rain.  It looks like a florist shop in here!

Prolific, perfumed peonies!!

And beautiful, fragrant roses

Another view

In the meantime, the zucchini plant is blooming and the blueberry bush is loaded with fruit!  We love this time of year!!

Sunday walk and Geo-caches...

Sunday was another day that had been predicted to be very rainy - but, fortunately, the weather people were wrong again!  It was over-cast and cloudy, but not cold, and not a raindrop in sight!  So we took advantage of the dry weather and headed out on a "geo-cache walk".  Cathi and her family have done this activity, which is a cross between a walk and a treasure hunt, with no real treasure!  It's like collecting sea glass - the finding is the value.  It's a big thing - google it!

Lee found that there were 4 geo-caches along the area we planned to walk - up to the forest, past the Distillery, and then along the ridge to the radar station near the harbor.  The location of the geo-caches is listed by longitude and latitude, and you use your GPS to find the locations, and then you hunt! 

The first one was in the forest - once we found the approximate location, we began looking.  Sure enough, there were rocks stacked into a hollow in a tree.  A big clue was a hooked stick nearby.  Lee drug the rocks out, and there was a tin box, embedded in a concrete "pot".  Inside the box, in a plastic bag, was a small piece of leather with a picture of a knife on it, an a piece of paper with the name of the person who left it.  We signed our name, and continued on.

The second one was located in the parking lot of the Distillery - we think!  We never did find it.  There is a planting area with a recessed space under it, but you couldn't see in there without getting down on your hands and knees - which I wasn't about to do.  Lee, apparently, wasn't going to do it either.  Nor were we going to stick out hands up in there.  Oh, well, we continued on walking.

We had a nice long walk after that without the distraction of looking for a geo-cache.  Once we got down to the radar station, we started looking.  We covered a lot of area, but couldn't find the location.  I quit "playing" when, as tromping through the underbrush, we found a snake!  Only one, but undoubtedly there were dozens of them lurking around.  Lee continued on, over hill and dale, at times up to his knees in shrubbery.  He gave up on that one, finally, and we began our walk back, with one last geo-cache to go.  This time we were successful!  The location worked out perfectly.  This was a "real" geo-cache - an actual geo-cache container with lots of stuff in it, and a little geo-cache notebook to sign when you found it.

With a 50% success rate, we headed home.  We walked for 2.5 hours, and totally enjoyed seeing the ocean and wildlife.  In addition to the snake, we say two bunnies.  Lots of walkers, bike riders, strollers and dogs were also enjoying the trail and the lack of rain!

We got to experience our walk again later that night when Lee discovered a tick that had burrowed into his chest!!  YUCK!!  We've decided that staying on the trail is the way to go.  Fortunately it came out easily and intact, so hadn't been there very long.  Needless to say, we are both still feeling "itchy"!

The tenacity of plants constantly amaze me!  This nasturtium has grown up the white pipe around the wire, and is blooming.

The location of the first geo-cache, with the rocks removed

The metal box embedded in cement

Lee with his first find!

The second geo-cache!

Opening the geo-cache

Geo-cache treasures and small notebook

This "X marks the spot" made finding the geo-cache easier!

Anyway, it's fun!  If you are out for a walk, anyway, google Geo-Cache and find where they are hidden in your area!

I guess this post could also go under the heading of "Easily Amused"!