Our last vacation day

So, we had our last day in San Francisco and our last vacation day (insert sad face) on that Saturday. Dave decided not to go back into town with us, because he was kind of towned-out and besides, there was a car show at the bowling alley near the hotel that he wanted to see. (Obviously, you can take the man out of Fayette County, but you can't take Fayette County out of the man).

So, Colleen and I went together and we got off the BART at the Civic Center...and because we were doing all of the touristy stuff and not paying attention to the news, we unwittingly stepped right out into the LGBT Pride Celebration, where my 18 year old daughter got her first look at a live and entirely naked man. Well, except for the hat. So, we walked here and there to see some of the stunning architecture, and even found our way into one building with an interesting art exhibit. But ultimately, between the Naked Man Sighting and the amount of drinking that I saw going on that early in the day, I thought we had better move on.

So we walked up the hill to look at the Victorian houses and made it all the way up to Alamo Park and the Painted Ladies. Beautiful!




Then we headed to Japantown, where I had promised Colleen a sushi lunch. We had a marvelous afternoon just shopping and eating and looking around.

Then back to Union City for a little more shopping and that's where I found the Giant Wall of Silk (in Needlepoint Inc.) Here's the photo again for some of you who may have missed it the first time. Yes folks - that's a wall of silk thread. To. Die. For.

Then back to Pacifica where we had a wonderful pizza dinner at Luigi's and we said goodbye to some of the things we'd miss, including:

Hot Surfers

Stunning Pacific sunsets:

And goodbye to a wonderful vacation with two (out of three) of my favorite people on the planet.

Also, thanks to my new blog friends from the San Francisco area who have chimed in or commented here and there! I wish I had posted about our trip before we left so I could have had some of your advice and ideas. I hope I remember them if and when we go again.

Let's see, will I stitch this weekend? See you Monday!

Either you're just being polite -

- Or you really mean it.

I remember when my parents went to Ireland years ago, and Dad took hundreds of photos that he had processed as color slides. On a rainy afternoon, they LOVED saying, "Hey, let's look at the Ireland pictures!", and they'd bring out the slide projector and screen and we'd all groan inwardly but sit through it anyway. And hope to catch a nap until it was over.

So that's the experience that I think of as I'm showing you all of my vacation pictures on this blog, and it really surprises me to read that some of you are enjoying my ramblings. Surprised, but glad, too! Well, I only have a couple more days to write about, then I'll get back to writing about my normal, day to day stuff. Wait - that's kind of boring, too. You readers just can't win, I'm afraid.

Now back to vacation. We had decided that Friday we'd go to Fisherman's Wharf. Instead of driving in, we went to a Park and Ride place and took BART into town. (Bay Area Rapid Transit), then rode one of the historic streetcars to Fisherman's Wharf. As it turns out, this one had been in service in Philly before it was sent to San Francisco. I used to ride streetcars a lot as a kid, mostly with my grandmothers and I had to wonder what the chances were that I had ridden this one back in ancient history.

Here's my take on FW: It was like a lot like the Wildwood NJ boardwalk, only bigger. And more expensive, yet for some reason you still buy stuff. (For instance, why did I pay $4 for this cupcake?)There were some interesting street performers, including one guy whose gig was to hide himself behind some leafy branches and then lean over and scare people and afterward ask them for money. I know, I know, it sounds lame, but it was hilarious and we watched him for the better part of an hour. And there was this fellow:We don't know what he was, but Colleen was hypnotized by the glitteriness.
And of course, there are bars and places to eat. Dave and I needed a break so we went into a blues bar, where a very drunk woman offered to take our picture. What do you do when a drunk woman offers to take your picture? Smile and hold up your beer.

Turns out that she also wanted us to take pictures of her and her boyfriend while they were dancing, and she kind of liked erotic dancing and it was totally weird. At one point, she actually went to her knees and bit/licked his crotch.

Ahhh. Vacation memories. Luckily, Colleen had left us for a while so she could do some souvenir shopping.

Shopping-wise, this was the only place that made us ooooh and ahhhhh - an adorable tea shoppe in Ghiradelli Square, The Crown and Crumpet (not my photo - this is from their website)
But at the end of the day, Fisherman's Wharf isn't worth the effort. Especially since the ride home was like this:

Oh - two sights that we really enjoyed that day were up the hill quite a bit. We loved Lombard Street (the worlds most crooked street) and the other street - the world's steepest street.


Tomorrow I'll show you the last of the vacation pictures. Colleen and I left Dave behind in Pacifica and spent one more day in San Francisco. (Where I found the Giant Wall of Silk)

My Quaker Exchange and Chinatown

Finished this as a small pillow. The lace is out of a friend's sewing box that I inherited when she was cleaning out before she moved. I think it's fairly old. That button on the right? Camo for a few mistakes...

So now we're back to vacation photos!

So Thursday morning we said goodbye to Bass Lake and headed back to San Francisco, but we stopped for lunch in Oakland. We stumbled upon The Cheese Steak Shop, where we had the best Philly Cheese Steaks we had eaten in a long time. Really! I'd give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

An aside about Philly Cheese Steaks: I know that everyone thinks of Pats Cheese Steaks when they think of that sandwich, but I had never had one of those in my life until after I had lived in Pittsburgh for quite a while. And they use Cheez Whiz? Sorry, none of my Philly neighborhood sandwich shops would have used Cheez Whiz. They used white American. Cheez Whiz, in the words of Theresa from HW of NJ, is skeevy. And for the record, the very best cheese steak isn't actually found in Philly, but at Pat's Lunch, in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. It's on Stone Harbor Boulevard and Pat, who is in his late 80's, has been there since the beginning of time. Let me tell you, if you go, plan to spend some time with him. He's a jewel.

(Sorry. Never get a Philly native started on the subject of cheese steaks)

Back to vacation. The one thing that Dave absolutely wanted to do was ride a Cable Car. So we waited in line behind a hundred or more people, but we were entertained by street performers and it was a fun experience.
We explored the Cable Car Museum a bit, and I think it's a must for anyone who is interested in transportation history. (We've been to lots of car, train, and plane museums)

Then we walked over to Chinatown and saw both the touristy and the non-touristy sections. The food selection in the non-touristy stores was...perplexing. Really. I even saw Chinese people who looked confused. But it was fun. Then we headed back to Union Square so Colleen could do a little shopping and then back to Pacifica for the night.


Tomorrow: The World's Steepest Street, The World's Most Crooked Street, and Fisherman's Wharf!

Wednesday - Relaxing at Bass Lake

We were pretty tired out after our day in Yosemite, so we spent the next day being as vegetable-like as possible. Except that I went to the laundromat in the morning and did a couple loads of laundry. Really....not very picture-worthy.

The Bass Lake beaches weren't very beach-y, but luckily our house rental came with dock access, so we relaxed on the dock. Besides, the beach was waaaaaay over there.

The dock was quite pretty.

Dave always pokes around about getting in the water.
But not Colleen - always the first on in!

And then there's me. Luckily this isn't a video, or else you may have heard me snoring.

In the evening we had John and most of his co-workers over for spaghetti and meatballs. It was so wonderful. They all seem like very nice people and interesting people, and the conversation was a nice change of pace, (after having spent the past few days with Wordless Dave and Perpetually Annoyed Colleen). I was glad that we got to meet them and know who he's living with through the rest of the summer.

Thursday - back to San Francisco! I'll show you my Chinatown pictures tomorrow.

But now...back to the present! I framed two more pieces over the weekend.
Here's something I stitched a few summers ago, and this winter I found a neat white-washed frame for it. Still, it looked too bare, so I went to JoAnn's looking for some yellow cording but I liked this rickrack better.
And finally....Souvenir Sampler is framed!
And if you're reading via a reader, click over to my blog and click on the music player in the left sidebar and play the song by Vienna Teng. Lovely voice.

I'm giving you a break...

From my vacation pictures. But just for today. Then you'll have to suffer for a few more days.

Yesterday I had the day off. And amid several teenage crises, I managed to frame these two things from the Basket of Old-But-Not-Forgotten Stitchery. I've collected odd frames from flea markets here and there, and these two worked out nicely.

First up is a little stitching from two summers ago - a Little House design.

Next is a freebie from Blue Ribbon Designs. I stitched it last summer, and liked it so much that I went on to order some other charts. They're relaxing and fun.
I worked on a third project, too, but it needs more than just the frame. So I'm headed to JoAnn's some time today or tomorrow...I hope. That is, unless my children cause me more headaches.

Yosemite!

Tuesday we were all up bright and early for a day in Yosemite. It sounds crazy, but between us we have hundreds of pictures. If you've never been there, I'll tell you that there is gorgeous scenery around almost every single corner. If you have been there, you understand how hard it is to sort through those photos and choose your favorites. But since this was a family day, you all are going to have to put up with pictures of my family in most of the photos.

First stop: Mariposa Grove and giant sequoias.

Then on to Tunnel View.

There are waterfalls everywhere. It was a short hike to Bridal Veil falls.

And later in the day we saw Lower Yosemite Falls. And loads of tiny, tiny people.

We fiddled around a lot in other places in the park, including heading down to the river and taking off our shoes and socks for a little foot refreshment. As in ice bath. That water was COLD! Then the kids wanted to hike the four miles to Glacier Point. We would have gone with them but for the heights and my inevitable panic attacks that would send us all tumbling down the trail again. So instead, Dave and I dropped them at the trail head and we went to the Ahwahnee Bar so that I could have a Lupine Lemonade and steel myself for the ride up to Glacier Point.

And we all made it to the top...

Where, while I was busy patting myself on the back for being so brave and taking pictures, I noticed these climbers on this rock. I think if you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can see them more clearly. There are three crazy people up there. Let me tell you, there's not enough Lupine Lemonade on this earth to get me up there.

Meanwhile, my children were completely unimpressed by this. As if it happens everyday in their life. This last photo cracks me up. There's scenery out the wazoo behind them, and they are taking pictures of a common lizard. You could leave my house any summer day and see one of these on the road. Kids. Feh.I'm going to give you all a break from my vacation pictures tomorrow. I'm not working today, and I have three framing projects in the works. Boy - if I can have them finished by tonight there will be fireworks for real!

Day Two

On our second day, we drove to Bass Lake and then to North Fork to pick up John. We saw lots and lots of windmills
And how about this for temporary housing? This was taken on the deck of John's house, where he lives with 6 other workers. It's kind of rough on the inside, but the deck is spectacular.
We had dinner at a very nice restaurant in Bass Lake, overlooking the water. And it was this guy's birthday, to boot. This is his "I'm too hungry to stop eating to smile for the camera" look. And here's John. The kid looks pretty good, doesn't he?

Tomorrow? Yosemite!