Garden Ramblings: Peter Mason's visit...

Peter Mason arrived from London on November 1st, en route to visit with Andy, Linda and girls in Hervey Bay, Australia.

We picked him up at the international terminal after a 12 hour flight from Heathrow. Peter was in pretty good shape considering that he had missed a nights sleep! We got home, had dinner and a quiet evening so that he could adjust to the new time zone. Early to bed and then we were up and ready to go on Friday for some sight-seeing.

Friday we packed a picnic lunch and drove first to Treasure Island. There is a great view of the city from there and of course the sculpture of Bliss that you have seen here before. We took pictures of Pete with the naked woman, then drove over to Chrissy Field where we parked. We first toured Fort Point, which was built during the Civil war era to protect the San Francisco bay from attack from sea which fortunately never came. The fort was open and we were able to see all of it, including the lighthouse on the roof and the underneath of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Next was a picnic at Chrissy Field and a long walk along the waterfront. The weather was gorgeous - warm with a slight breeze and pretty clear.

Saturday we headed south. We drove down Skyline (Hwy 35) to Highway 9 and then into Santa Cruz. Along the way we stopped at the Henry Crowell state park and had a great walk among the redwoods. We saw lots of grazing deer, who paid very little attention to us, as well as squirrels. Again, the weather was perfect!!

We had lunch on the wharf in Santa Cruz and enjoyed the sights from the pier, including lots of sea lions. We did some shopping and then started home. Along the way we stopped at the Natural Bridges State park and also the "pebble" beach along Highway 1. Lee fired up the bar-b-que and we enjoyed one of those yummy marinated tri-tips for dinner.

On Sunday we went into San Francisco to take a "Duck Tour"! It was a perfect day - nearly 80 in San Francisco! The duck tour is aboard an amphibious craft that drives like a car on land and then drives into the sea and becomes a boat! Our captain - Captain Crunch - was full of facts about San Francisco and our land tour took us all around the area, including Union Square! I would NOT have wanted to drive that thing around downtown SF!! We then went to the ball park and to the bay along there, where we drove into the bay! We had a leisurely tour of McCovey cove, where the home run balls land in the bay and watched the Fish and Game boat stop boaters who were trying to sneak in with crab. Crab season had started on Saturday and they were making sure that the crab were of legal size. Sure enough, they detained fishermen with under size crab - and the $850 fine to go with them!

After the tour we spent some time on Fisherman's wharf where we had lunch, did some shopping and visited the new Maritime Museum. The museum is great and has lots of great displays as well information on San Francisco's maritime history.

The crowds finally got to be too much and we headed back to Moss Beach. Peter had gotten a huge piece of salmon for us for dinner, which was just delicious.

Then it was Monday and Peter had to continue his journey. He and Lee had a nice walk up to the Montara Light House in the morning and then we were off to the airport! Peter had many hours of flying ahead of him at this point! But he arrived safely and is enjoying the warm weather in Hervey Bay and spending time with everyone there.

Thanks, Peter and we'll see you in two years!

Peter arriving from Heathrow

Pete with Bliss

And Alcatraz behind him

Fort Point, under the Golden Gate Bridge

The series of doorways in the barracks side of the fort - it was quite an illusion

The same series of doorways, from the other side

The Golden Gate Bridge from our walk along the bay

Peter and one of the many large redwoods at the park

One tall redwood reaches for the sunlight!

This tree was hollowed out and you could stand up inside of it, which Lee and Peter did - not so easy getting out, though!

Lee crawling out of the tree. Needless to say, I declined to go in and took pictures instead!

This "island" of sea lions were floating right off the pier in Santa Cruz. It looked like they were sleeping! We wondered if this is a natural behavior as we had never seen them do this before - it was quite interesting. By the way, a group of sea lions is called a "raft" - pretty fitting!

Here's a closeup - eyes closed, noses out of the water, and barely moving

This picture was taken at Pebble Beach - its a rock that has been hollowed out in a pattern that almost looks like a fish - all of the holes were filled with tiny pebbles.

More of the sculpted rocks and tiny pebbles that give this beach its name

Fisherman's Wharf before the Duck Tour! Blue skies, sunshine and WARM!

A nice Japanese tourist took this picture of the three of us. He then came back with his wife and asked if we would take a picture with him. His wife took that picture with their camera and then she got in the shot and he took it. What a hoot! We're in the Japanese tourists holiday pictures!

The Duck! Getting ready to load up and take off on the tour

Getting ready for the tour

One of the painted houses along the tour

As part of the tour we were all given duck-bill "quackers"! Here's Lee and Peter with their quackers! Needless to say, we were a very noisy bus with everyone blowing on their quackers! We did attract attention....

They asked who wanted to drive the Duck in Mc Covey cove and of course I raised my hand! I then realized that I was the only adult to do so.... so several children and I had the experience of driving - it was fun!