Meandering through a Day Trip North of the City

An awesome friend made me a fantastic self guided tour to get to know the north a bit better.  It was the perfect way to start off the new year driving through beautiful country with tons of places marked out to stop for tea!  It also helped me work to really kick this cold as with the house getting ready to ramp back up it may be awhile before i have another lazy sunday to kill in my car.

The adventure started off in Petaluma, off the main drag at a cute little place … Aqus Cafe.  Yes i’d only been away from home for 30 minutes, and yes i already needed more tea so i popped in and was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere, range of music nights (jazz to celtic), and super friendly staff.  Refilled on tea i wandered the back streets a bit admiring the houses that look like how mine will some day look when there are no longer boards on the windows ;p  Now i knew there would be water somewhere on the journey…and there it was!  There is something to be said about being level with a boat while standing in the street drinking tea.  

  

While staying on the tour route i took a slight detour through a cemetery with beautiful head posts from the mid to late 1800’s.  I really need to go on a dead people in California tour as there have to be beautiful cemeteries outside of Japan and the Yucatán.  I found something odd in leaving your departed loved one a pumpkin, anyone able to explain this?

   

From here a short drive to the town/city of Valley Ford for brunch.  The recommended spot was the towns happening seafood place Rocker Oysterfeller's, but i found the most perfect thing on the menu of Carmel Apple French Toast with Fresh Whipped Creme, random!  The random vibe was continued when next door to the post office the house had the front windows full of trophies.  It was actually kind of creepy come to think of it…

Then to continue to the drive i headed to Occidental, saw a fantastic herb shop i had to go in, found out said shop was super closed for the day, and left pouting a bit while i drove off in the wrong direction to later turn around and find the correct direction without GPS (as apparently AT&T has decided having service in Occidental is not important as there was nothing).  The entire drive i kept wanting to get out of the car, and did, to stare at the mossy/lichen covered trees.  The camera didn’t quite get the “glow”, but we’ve all seen it, amazing what the sun can do when it’s not burning me.

  

Once back on the right track i was put onto Coleman Valley Road which was billed as "the county's prettiest road", which i would have to agree with.  The sights coming through the hills over looking the valley was amazing coupled with the perfect amount of fog, sun, and just plain old clouds.  Unfortunately it was way more than the camera could take so the pictures were really pretty, one of those had to be there to believe it type things.  The prettiest road ended by dropping me off on Highway 1 headed for Goat Rock Beach.  Here are pretty beach photos! (Are aliens moving on from Crop Circles to Sand Circles?)

     

And the over sized vegetation on the way to the final destination on my tour, Sebastopol for dinner and beer!  I kept seeing these larger than life plants along the river on the road and it was causing a total down the rabbit hole effect, which was made slightly more weird by a quick neighborhood pre-dinner tour finale of front yard art, which began deep in the rabbit hole.  So i know i’ve seen his work before…what’s the artists’ name???

  

A beautiful way to start to the new year exploring places super close to home.  The tour was amazing so i will definitely be hitting said friend up again for some of the other mentioned tours, like cemeteries…

A Merry-Go-Round Christmas Adventure

So there has been absolutely no time for travel with the housing adventures, and really no money either…so i’ve decided to start exploring my own “backyard” per sea and start checking out what it has to offer.  For Christmas in particular i needed a snazzy destination to help fill the void left by growing up with parents that actually own 6’ tall nutcrackers that line their garage throughout the holidays and lights that run off the computer with sound accompaniment; coupled with being less than an hour from Disneyland…a lot to live up to.  I scoured and searched online and a couple of papers looking for a super lights fantastic street to help jump start my holiday spirit; nothing!  And i mean not a single street listed anywhere.  There were a couple of houses listed within 30 miles, but i’m not driving that far to look at a single lit house, lame.

Though there were no neighborhoods for me to wander there was one place that stood out and having awesome potential to fill an hour or so of wandering around … the Tilden Merry-Go-Round!  It’s definitely the closest thing to DL up here i’ve found so far (that isn’t creepy fairytale land).  I went on the Wednesday night before Christmas and they had a Santa, Hot Chocolate, Carmel Corn, and tons of other tasty treats.  A much better environment to take your kids to see Santa then the mall.

The lawn was strewn with all types of neon signs for all of the different holiday events and cute little scenes.   I love the Cacti!!!

   

The Merry-Go-Round is a beautiful historic item in the Tilden Park, and it’s indoors.  For the holidays they decorated themed Christmas Trees (when seems to have been the trend this year) placed all around the exterior perimiter of the Merry-Go-Round inside.  The trees were georgeous and tons of fun, i wonder if they were done as a contest or just by the people who work there?  Tree “Themes” as interpirited by me (Left to Right, Top to Bottom): Traditional, Bird/Child Cage (my Favorite), Candy Store (actually in the candy store), the Devil?  maybe Mardi Gras? Archery, Country Christmas

     

     

After wandering around in the fantastically warm room for a bit i decided to head out.  Normally i would not pass up a ride on a Merry-Go-Round but we are talking about a 45 minute line to ride on a fake animal for 3 minutes…pass!  On the way out i noticed EVIL penguins stealing Santa’s Mail!!!  I always wondered where my letters went, next year i’ll be prepared!

Arches National Park = Hot and Sandy Trails

After the lush fields of plants in Zion we drove on Eastward through Bryce and onto Arches National Park.  Arches totally deserves it's name with beautiful natural arches everywhere and gorgeous desert terrain like petrified sand dunes.  We camped at the park camp grounds and found a fantastic spot to erect an amazing "Radiation Deflector" = a piece of fabric for shade ; )  This turned out to be a super must as the temperatures rose to nearly 100F at lunch time ... ouch!  There were massive sunburns earned along both of the longer trails we journeyed.

Negro Bill Trail | This trail is just off the highway and considered "highly shaded".  This translates to at mid day nearly 30% of the trail being shaded.  Given the other trails in the park this is tons of shade and most are full cover, but it still felt a little misleading.  The trail runs along a stream for about 2 miles going over rocks and crossings over the stream in multiple places.  The trail itself is well marked with signs and there is some over growth as we went rather late in the season.  The trail ends into a beautiful large arch and a small pool.  This was most non-existent as we were there in August, but there was plenty of stream to stop and soak the feets in.

    

Devils Canyon Trail | The trail head is just past the campgrounds inside the park.  The trail is considered the major trail in the park and is totally worth the just over 4 miles round trip.  All of the guide information will tell you to bring 2+ liters of water per person...you will want to do this.  The trail is very poorly marked in places and it is quite easy to get yourself set on a side journey.  The water is key to keep up your spirits and energy while you get through the minimal cover (7-10% morning and evening |  less than 2% midday) and if you need to go back and find the real trail.  Gorgeous arches at each of the off shoots and all are recommended.  The view from on top of the fins is amazing as you can see across the entire valley to the north; this is a different view from the south facing camp grounds and adds to the beauty of the valley.  The compass was *very* helpful for this one.

    

Beautiful Scenic Views brought to you by Zion National Park

Pictures from the Canyon Overlook Trail in Zion National Park | Fantastic short hike, 1 mile round trip, with only one weary bridge and lots of great views.  Not a bad way to start the nature part of the trip : )

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Sharky Time in Vegas

As a quick last thing to do in Vegas a visit to the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay was decided upon.  I have been before, but it's still awesome to go to the only predator based aquarium in the US...rock out piranha's!!!

Mister Komodo Dragon taking in some sun bathing

Fishies i don't believe i've met before...so cute!!!

Criss Angel and Cirque du Soleil know Costumes!!!

Part of the road trip was a required stop in Las Vegas.  This was not required for booze, gambling, or hookers.  This was put on the "i want it now" list because of a Cirque du Soleil show starring Criss Angel.  I had no idea who this guy was or even his stichk...but after seeing pictures of "victorian broken dolls" online i knew i had to go.  Tickets were pricey...but it's freakin Cirque du Soleil and a guy with a TV show who can apparently levitate.  After having seen the show i can honestly say it was more than worth it.  Georgeous costumes and fantastic Cirque du Soleil style dream sequences left nothing to be desired.  I sat on the edge of my seat the entire show having to remind myself to close my mouth and not oggle the costumes too much here and there.

"Criss Angel Believe"  The show began as appearing to be a standard Magic show.  Very quickly a twist is taken and the dreaming begins.  There is a fantastic Alice in Wonderland feel with all sort of different rabbits throughout the show as they are the "Magician's Best Friend".  The rabbits also help pull you down the rabbit hole into a world were Victorian dolls are broken and twisted, rabbits feed on human flesh, and disembodied animal heads doing acrobatics aren't so weird and they are fantastically entertaining.

If you are going through Vegas in the next six months or before the show closes it's a must see.  I managed to restrain myself and walk away with only a program to keep the memories alive (the soundtrack isn't going to be released until November!!!)...but if anyone has some free time when i get home it's worth a mighty long oggling session as there are corsets, stripper shoes, 10 foot train skirts, and Victorian evil rabbits ga-lore!!!

Adventures in the Mojave Airplane Graveyard

The fact that i didn't melt says a lot about my determination to see the awesome planes through the 100F degree heat.  It kinda hurts to look at the dirt and see all of the heat just sitting on top of it.  Next time this is totally a November trip, the desert is awesome at night in the winter.

The day began with a late arrival at the Mojave Airport & Space Center, late meaning about noon.  We followed the minimal instructions we could find online and headed for building number 58 under the tower.  Score!  Found a person who explained all, and were told that the guy who would take us on the van tour was just heading out for lunch and to come back at 1pm.  It couldn't sound better as i was expecting to roam around in the desert on foot for a few hours at mid day and pass out, the thought of an air conditioned van sounded like bliss.

To kill some time Denny's was sought out for a milkshake, my sweet tooth is unsatisfiable some times.  Yummy!  Then back to the tower for the awesome tour.

The tour was awesome!  We ventured back into the office under the tower for the van ride, after paying $10 total for the van ride that could accommodate 8 easily.  A couple of things learned from the tour
* Tour Guide for over 23 year = Javier = awesome!!!
* Van tours started in 1991 when they got tired of tourists trying to run out on the runway.
* Previously the tourists could only walk up to the runway and looked at the planes from a distance.
* Waterworld and Speed were filmed here
* A crazy old commercial came up about people right after smoking was banned inside planes... Javier told the tale of cute women sitting on the wings of a plane smoking while fake stewardess' served them to say it should be ok to smoke on a plane.

Awesome place...

Beginning of the Road/Camping trip and socks

Last night the Fall journey began.  The first leg of the trip is from the bay area down through the Mojave Desert with a peek in to the Airplane Graveyard and continuing onto Vegas for a few days.  So far so good!  I would of course would prefer a bit cooler weather than the heat that the inland areas are currently going through, but all in all it's not bad.  With the first section of the leg done i'm excited about the Airplane Graveyard in the morning.  It should be some awesome sightseeing and it would be great to get some photos of older planes.  Message me if ya want a postcard.

In the car, in the dark, i decided to cast on for a new pair of socks.  Ummm...i actually can't read or see in the dark...especially enough to start toe-up socks, a project i have never done or read the instructions for before.  Hehehehe...  I'm sure some of the passer-bys in their cars got a good giggle out of watching me trying to hold up my knitting and instructions into the headlights shinning behind me.  Once the hotel was reached i pulled out the socks and gave the instructions a good going through and so far today i have gotten through nearly the first toe!

I am using a cotton yarn i picked up at Color: A Fiber Festival a little while ago.  It's a gorgeous yellow green...my Sunny Socks : )

(This post brought to you by free internet from the Desert Inn Hotel...yea for unsecured wireless!!!)

Fouth of July Round About

Fantastic Fourth of July this year!  THe day began at Ano Nuevo beach with yummy sandwiches (yea for Hummus) and a bit of exploring.  After lunch i got to sit and knit.  Good progress was made on the Ripple Blanket.  On down side...i managed to burn the hell out of my legs on the tops of my feet and the back of my hands that were perfectly under the sun for 3 hours while i knit, knit, knit.  I will be rocking the Aloe Vera for a few weeks ; )

   

From there we drove down along the coast and happened by a "U-Pick" Strawberry farm!  We picked for a few hours and ended up with 4 pounds of berries for dessert later, yummy.  I had never been to a u-pick farm and it was super fun to walk around and only grab the individual fruit that you felt was ripe and ready.  It was neat to look at all of the berries in their different stages of development from the tiny white berries to the clearly should have been picked last week berries.

   

The day ended with watching the fireworks at Half Moon Bay.  They have a fantastic show that had great color as well as different styles of fireworks.  I would totally recommended it.  Also the areas wasn't super crowded and there was tons of great food places down in the Half Moon Bay Marnia (great viewing spot for the fireworks).

Hello Prague!

I love traveling my train.  First and fore most...there is NO SECURITY!!!  I love the fact that i can walk onto a train and go to another country with all of the damn liquids i want!  No one has to pull my bag apart to make sure my phone charger isn't a bomb i've disguised as a phone charger; i don't have to explain why i bought fabric somewhere that is super cute.  Security drives me crazy.  I get the point and appreciate all of their hard work but it is soooo annoying to have to deal with each time i fly, which is pretty often.  Second they pretty much just leave you alone unless you need something.  Third they go different places and make those quick drop offs so you get people running up to the them and running behind them to say goodbye to loved ones.  Trains rock!

The adventure began Wednesday morning with a trip to Prague Castle.  From a distance it totally looks like a Disney Castle and i can understand where his ideas came from now better.  The main attraction at the castle is the Cathedral "St.Vitus Cathedral".  Beautiful!  There were many different chapels within the Cathedral each dedicated to a different saint or cause, crazy!

   

Other parts of the Castle were cool, but i guess the Royal Family has not lived there for hundreds of years so it's more of a Medieval castle with all of the crazy bricks and arches.  Beautiful, but i was hoping from some more Rococo styled palace goodness like in Potsdam.  After walking around the castle i found an awesome park with fantastic views and some really nice stencil work, who knew!

   

Today (Thursday) is beginning with Laundry and then its off to Kinsky Palace that is quoted as having "lusicious Baroque Interiors" so i should be able to get my over adornment fix today.  And then tonight it's over to "Bar Bar" that was recommened by some friends for dinner/drink, where ever the night has taken me.

The End of Berlin

"The Wall" ... An item that kept families, friends, and ideas separated for so long.  After seeing the wall in person it's hard to believe that something as frail, thin, and at maybe fourteen feet tall kept people apart for so long.  I guess it's more of what it stood for and it's strength was more in the people who built it then in the physical representation of the wall.  It's odd since as a child i remember the stories and the pictures having this enormous stone structure that looked impenetrable.  I remember in grade school hearing stories about the people and life on the other side and all of the celebrations, even in the states, when the wall came down in '89. 

As a kid i always imagined bulldozers running the length of the wall destroying all of it in one swift action.  In reality the wall came down in pieces.  Sections of the wall were moved to museums and another small section was left where it was and murals were painted on it...well not anymore.  I had read that the East Side Gallery, the wall where the murals and tagging were, was under going "renovation".  This was translated incorrectly as what's really happened is they painted over everything in white.  The whole wall was white except for a few new painted areas that people were working on.  I didn't see plans from the previous murals anywhere and the people painting didn't appear to be working from anything.  It's sad if the Germans truly lost the art that was created in such close emotion with the fall of the wall to replace it with artwork from a time where most working on the painting are too young to even remember it.  I get that the country needs to move on, but it feels like it has become more of something to bring in cash from the tourists then a memorial to the thoughts, ideas, and feelings that came from the end of the wall.

After the stroll along the East Side Gallery i headed over to the Museum complex Museumsinsel.  One museum had caught my eye, all Egyptian artifacts...Altes Museum.  I had a fantastic afternoon browsing the different finds from digs in the 1800's.  The Bust of Cleopatra is amazing in person.  I don't know how much restoration has been done, but the color is stunning and the piece truly shows off how beautiful of a woman and queen she was.  The entire museum complex is under going renovations and it appeared that they were building new buildings for some of them, Museum Island as they refer to it.

Afterwards a brief nap on the grass in front of the Berliner Dom i decided i was done walking and wanted something else to give me a tour.  I decided on a really long boat tour to end the afternoon as the day was in the mid 70's and the water looked fantastic.  We went up and down the River Spree which gave me another view of the Wall from the water and a tour of the water lining sites of Berlin.  It's interesting how old buildings have been renovated and re-purposed for things like a TV Station for Comedy Central.  A working power plant in the middle of the city seemed odd to me...but i guess if you don't have a lot of space, and maybe didn't know how dangerous they were, you'd put it in the midle of the city center. A nice end to the day.

One of the sites on the boat tour was the Markisches Museum, Museum of Berlin essentially.  After putting everything back into the backpack i headed over to the museum for a few hours before my train.  Awesome things, and ok for pictures!  Lots of photos from the late 180's and items from the entire history of Berlin going back to 1200's.  There was a stereongraph from a worlds fair (i think that's what the sign said) that was showing stereo photos in a round booth with different viewing portals all around.  There were 40 different images in all from 1895 - 1910~ish.  Fantastic images of real people in the city of Berlin, oh the hats!  Nice end to my stay in the city of Berlin.

Here is a Link to the Set of Berlin photo's i took on my Flickr Page, enjoy : )

Now to Prague!

Potsdam, the Land of Rococo

I joined a walking tour for my exploration of Potsdam.  I couldn't find a map online and was hearing good things about it.  So to make sure i got to see the highlights i opted for the group thing.  The Group met up a bit before 10am Sunday morning.  We rode the train together to Potsdam and began the tour!  I've always wanted to make one of those Google Maps for myself... so here it is!  Feedback is appreciated : )

Berlin Solar and Aqua, Flora and Fauna...and a Palace

Friday began waking up way too early...4:30am...and doing a bit of photo updating followed by needing more sleep that lasted a bit longer then i had thought it would. I awoke at 9:40am realizing the time hopped up, dressed, and dashed out for breakfast, which the hotel stops serving at 10am. Breakfast at the B&B here is nearly the same as in St. Petersburg; cheese, sliced meat, bread, juice, and tea/coffee. The big difference is instead of fried egg(s) i am given a hard boiled egg. Well i'm not so big on how they smell, nor can i even get into one to try it out (i think the last one i has i was three). I've tried hitting the shell with a fork, squishing it on the plate, tapping it as if to open it to pan fry an egg, nothing works! I'm pretty surprised that a egg has eluded me on how to consume it for two days. Tomorrow will bring another opportunity and maybe success! At least at opening it to see if i'm still totally not a hard boiled girl.

I headed out very excited to see the Berlin Aquarium. After a bit of searching i found the entrance, paid, and promptly began taking pictures of fish. I think i've been spoiled with the amazing Monterey Bay Aquarium and the new Cal Academy areas as this was pretty unimpressive. Nice fish, don't get me wrong...the big new exciting thing here, a for me was all of the insects! I'm used to these being in the zoo, and in small quantities, so this was exciting to see Ants, Grasshoppers, and Cockroachs with their own room. The not so fantastic part was two great ant setups in open air in the middle of the room. Each was surrounded by water to "ensure the ants did NOT escape". This failed as there were ants crawling all over the bases of each of the exhibits, evolution for ya. Regardless it was pretty awesome to see the ants so close up and watch them work.

     

I decided to venture into the Zoo, which is connected to the Aquarium. I had read and heard amazing things about the Berlin zoo. Again i'm spoiled rotten. I think growing up with the San Diego Zoo places my bar a bit higher than it should be. One refreshing and applaudable difference was the interaction i saw between the zoo keepers and the animals. I turned a corner to find a man casually playing with an ant eater in their habitat. Awesome! It was a warm day and everyone was out both and in and out of the cages. Europe isn't too different from the states as there were just as many idiots outside of the cages as back home. Why can't more people treat the animals with respect. They're already in cages, do you have to point and yell at them?!?!? "Other peoples kids"

     

From the Zoo i headed over the Schloss Charlotten . Such beautiful rooms! They reminded me of the palace apartments in St. Petersburg, very ornamental and lavishly decorated. Two rooms stick out in my mind. First was a room on the back of the Palace on the ground floor with deep dark hunter green Silk Damask fabric on the walls and large mirrors running the length of the room. It truly looked like a "Garden Room" where someone would want to entertain royalty. The second was a room on the Second Floor decorated in light calm shades of Green with all Silver adornments. Amazing to see how it all worked together...and it's how i've always wanted to decorate a Dining room, go figure (well i really hadn't thought about silver plating reliefs on the wall...yet). Most of the rooms that had been destroyed in WWII were very plainly restored. This is an area were the Germans could take a cue from the Russians, "make it as beautiful as it was before, and maybe a little bit more"...and while you're at it let them take pictures!!! Plain white walls, no ceiling adornments, the rooms were so out of place with the rest of the palace. Oh well, what had survived mostly was restored beautifully and i really enjoyed the tour.

     

Behind the Palace were the Schlossgarten which contained the Baroque Garden, the Belvedere, and the Mausoleum. I made it through the gardens and made a quick run through the fine dining and tea china sets before the Belvedere closed. The rest of the afternoon was spent strolling the gardens and enjoying the beautiful weather.

The afternoon ended with a fantastic glass of wine and more pizza. The restaurant said it was authentic German cuisine...flat bread baked with veggies, sliced meat, and cheese...that is pizza and it's *not* from Germany. Oh well. Saturday WILL include some German food, it should be easier as i booked a guided tour of Potsdam and think we might stop for lunch.