UK visit and return to the Golden State

Haven’t blogged for a while. Mainly because I’ve been away in the UK – went for a week to visit family and friends, and to go to a wedding. If you’re reading this, then you’re probably one of the family and friends that I visited!

The weather was atrocious when we arrived a week last Saturday – throwing it down with rain. However, Jon still managed to drag me down to the Thames to watch the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, as it went past Hammersmith Bridge. We all got soaked by the wake of one of the speedboats following the crews. It was one of those moments of truly British camaraderie – all camped out in the rain, getting soaking wet, to watch thirty seconds of action. That night we stayed in a hotel in Kensington (I would have said it was the smallest hotel room ever, but the receptionist actually moved us to a supposedly “bigger” room when he saw our bags, so I can only assume that smaller rooms do exist). We went out for a curry with our good friends Karen and Duncan. It was nice to partake of a beer or two in a British pub.

On Sunday, we picked up a hire car from Heathrow and went up to stay with my parents for a few days. The journey seemed very short after our long weekend treks to Tahoe and the like! On Monday we made other visits: to my aunty June and then to Jon’s gran, who was actually due to come out of hospital that day. We ended up taking her home from the hospital. Then, in the evening, my brothers came around for dinner.

The next day, we went out for a posh lunch to Hassop Hall, in the Peak District. I’d been there once before, and it was just as lovely – a beautiful stately home turned hotel in the heart of some delightful countryside, with good food to boot. It was great to get out with Mum and Dad.

After three nights in Derbyshire, we headed down to Bristol to stay with our friends, Andy and Dipika. We had a nice meal together (with yet more wine! – Quite a lot got drunk during the week). The next day, we saw Jon’s dad and step-mum Pam, who came up to Bristol from Devon. We had a lovely day out in Clifton. The weather was good enough to sit outside, which we did, having lunch at a pub with great views of the gorge and suspension bridge. That evening, we went out for dinner with Andy and Dipika to a really cool tapas-type restaurant.

Friday was the day of the wedding. It took place near the school where I used to work in Bishop’s Stortford, Herts. In fact, the parking was in the school car park, and I bumped into my old boss, which was a bit unexpected! The wedding was lovely: the bride and bridesmaids looked gorgeous (the latter were in bright turquoise with pink tulips) and Emily’s three little nephews, which look like different-sized clones of each other, were charming (as are their names: Archie, Billy and Herbie!). We moved on to the reception at Quendon Hall, another former stately home, just north of Bishop’s Stortford (passing through the amusingly named village of Ugley!). The weather was kind, and we were able to sip champagne outside in the lovely gardens. Over dinner, I talked a lot to Emily’s German friend, who owns an ice-cream café in Hamburg. In the evening, my replacement at the school, Antje, was there, so I got to catch up on some gossip.

On Saturday, we moved on to Dan and Michelle’s place, near Hertford. It was great to see them again – as well as our gorgeous ex-cat, Pebbles! In the evening, we went out for a dinner at Marconato restaurant in Hoddesdon with lots of friends. It was a bit difficult to get to talk to everyone, but I think I managed it. It was wonderful to see so many, including Jon’s brother, who’s lost loads of weight – well done, James!

On Sunday, we awoke to snow on the ground. I couldn’t believe it! Not only would I have to contend with Terminal 5, but most likely a dire journey there through the snow! However, in the end, the journey was fine. Jon drove me over there. My flight was delayed almost three hours due to the snow and general Terminal 5 disorganisation, but I filled the time by using it to do my Spanish homework. Couldn’t sleep a wink on the plane (I never can), so I watched movies and did more Spanish homework. I also wandered around quite a lot, as I had an aisle seat for once. It was cool looking out of the window at the ice floes between Canada and Greenland!

Back in San Francisco, I’ve had a bit of a rough time: first with jetlag, then with a flu-like illness (apparently Dan and Michelle have had the same thing, so I’m guessing I caught it in England). Managed to go to Spanish class on Tuesday, but then had to leave work early on Wednesday. I did a long day on Thursday, but that did me in, and now I’m back to square one, so I’ve only been into work for a couple of hours today. It’s so frustrating, especially as today is the warmest so far in the year, and would otherwise be a sunbathing and pool afternoon! I miss Jon, especially as I really could do with having someone to look after me. Still, things can only be so bad when you’re in San Francisco. I get to travel by cable car. I get to see great architecture on my way to work. I get to look out over the Bay and the mountains beyond on a cloudless day when I’m home sick. I just hope I can get well soon, so that I can get back to enjoying it all.

Oh, I haven’t commented on the Olympic torch relay, which came through on Wednesday. It was a shambles, as far as I can tell. They advertised a route, then changed it completely at the last minute, without telling anyone, and they also cancelled the closing ceremony – again without telling anyone. You have to ask, what IS the point?!

Photos from my UK visit are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/uk-visit-marapril-08/ (password: moocow)

Hiking and imbibing

The last two weekends I’ve had plans to go whale-watching. The trip was cancelled both last weekend, and again this one, because of “heavy winds and rough seas beyond the Golden Gate”. You could have fooled me – we’ve had lovely weather now for a long stretch. I can only conclude that they must try to take you out whale-watching on a rowing boat!

Jon’s been busy working and doing his coursework for the Open University, so I’ve had to entertain myself a bit. Last Sunday, I took myself off on a hike on the coastal path – bussing it as far as Cliff House, then picking up the trail and walking through Seacliff, along Baker Beach, past the Golden Gate Bridge, then through Crissy Field to the Marina. It’s nice to have the option of going to do a great hike on your own, without having to get in the car.

Yesterday, I went out with Cassie. We headed up to the winelands (Sonoma valley) and did a hike in the hills. It was the first really warm day, which made scaling the gradient pretty hot work. After we’d finished the hike, we went to lovely Château St Jean winery, which has delightful grounds. We did a tasting there and I bought a bottle of their Riesling. Back on the road, we didn’t have to go very far until we got to another tasting room: this time one that offered tastings of wines from a variety of very small vineyards. The servings were pretty big, so I was slightly fuzzy-headed on the way back (fortunately, Cassie was driving!).

Last night, we decided to try a restaurant that recently opened on our block, namely the Belgian-themed eatery and beer emporium, La Trappe. We were swept down to their basement, which had a big bar, lots of atmosphere, and more importantly, a menu featuring some 150 or so beers! It was only when I got back and checked my e-mail that I found out the whale-watching trip had been cancelled for the THIRD time!

Today was another gorgeous day, so we decided to head out and do a hike I’ve been wanting to do for a while, starting at Stinson Beach and climbing up Mount Tamalpais. The drive along Highway 1, which hugs the coastline, was stunning as ever. It was a fairly steep climb, but we were rewarded for the effort when we came out on the smooth, grassy shoulder, which afforded fabulous views north to Point Reyes, out west to the Farallon Islands (which we were supposed to visit on the boat trip!) and then south towards the city. We had lunch on top of a knoll and did a bit of sunbathing at the same time, as it was really pleasant. The hike back down followed a creek and went past some big redwood trees. Back in Stinson Beach, we decided to have an ice cream, then head for the beach to catch a few rays. As days go, it was pretty perfect, in spite of the disappointment about the whales!

Photos are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/hiking-adventures (password: moocow)

More Tahoe fun

Made use of the ski pass once again and went up to Lake Tahoe on Friday evening after another rather tough week at work. This time there were four of us: me, Jon, Cassie and Sarah. We stayed at the Highland Inn, which had put us up before in an emergency and was incredibly cheap, in spite of having nicely refurbished rooms, kitted out with enormous flat-screen TVs!

We had a very sunny couple of days. On Saturday we took advantage of the fact that we were mere walking distance from the gondola and headed off up from the motel, doing lots of skiing on the Nevada side, which has some nice long runs. I was a bit slower than everyone else, so I had to push myself a bit to keep up. On the whole, this worked well, but I did take a tumble in the afternoon, which left me with a sore left ankle. A nice après-ski beer at the bottom of the gondola largely sorted it out, though.

That evening we thought we might go and sample the buffet at one of the casinos, but having arrived there (on the 18th floor!), we found there was an hour-long wait. So, we headed to a brew-pub instead – also very busy – and had dinner there. We were pretty tired from the day, and knew we’d lose an hour in the night (the clocks have gone forward), so we went back to the motel afterwards.

This morning, we drove to California Lodge and went up on a different lift. Did some nice skiing in the morning, then headed back down. Jon had brought his laptop with him and had some work to do (poor thing). The girls wanted to have a lesson, so I thought I would have one too, taking advantage of the hefty discount you get with a season lift pass. I got put with Sarah (just the two of us) and an Aussie ski instructor. It was really worth doing, as I haven’t had a lesson in a long time, and knew I’d slipped into a few bad habits. He did a lot of work with us on turns (specifically carving) and took us down our first few black runs! I’d never dared to do anything harder than blue, but the ones we did were fine and I wasn’t scared at all. When we’d finished, Sarah had had enough, so she went down the lift with the ski instructor, but I skied all the way down to the bottom, albeit on some rather slushy snow (it had been a very warm weekend).

We drove back through some lovely mountainous scenery, which we could see for once because of the hour change, stopping for dinner in Fairfield. It was a brilliant weekend – gorgeously sunny (to the extent that I’ve actually got a red neck, as I only applied sunscreen to my face!) and great fun.

Exploring Point Reyes

Last week was another busy one at work – I’m just getting into my new role in the Linguistic QA department. I also had Spanish class on Tuesday (am miffed because didn’t get an A+ in the test, in spite of having a score of 97% ;-)), went out with a friend on Wednesday (ate at a *not very good* garlic-themed restaurant, then had cocktails in a rather better establishment) and went to step class on Thursday. Jon arrived back from his week at the test event in New Hampshire late on Friday night. He’d had lots of snow there, so was happy to return to the Spring-like climes of California.

We didn’t do a lot yesterday: chores, food shopping, a short run. Jon was pretty tired from his week. We did get cracking with planning our Alaska holiday, though, and I’ve sent a reservation request for a camping trip late June/early July (see the details here: http://www.travelalaskaoutdoors.com/tours_classicalaskan_7.htm).

Today, we got up early and headed out on a trip to Point Reyes. This is the large coastal wilderness area a little way up the coast. It’s actually an errant bit of the earth’s crust on the Pacific plate, separated from the mainland by the San Andreas fault, and it's been travelling up the coast from Mexico for the last several million years at an average rate of two inches per year. Although I’ve visited the area a few times, I’d never been up to the far north-west, which is almost 2 hours’ drive from San Francisco. It was forecast to be a beautiful day, so we went up there in the hope of seeing whales, which are beginning their migration north about now.

The drive there in itself is amazing. We took Highway 1, which clings to the rocky coastline, but also offers views of the interior to Mount Tamalpais, before passing through Stinson Beach and by the tidal Bolinas Lagoon. We had to leave our car at the visitor centre at Point Reyes and take a shuttle bus to the two main visitor spots in that area: the lighthouse and Chimney Rock. It was very, very windy, but the views were wonderful, as it was such a beautiful, cloudless day (something to be appreciated in a spot that is often shrouded in mist). It was a tiring hike back up the (300?) steps from the lighthouse. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any whales (although 5 were observed yesterday), but we did see plenty of other wildlife, including murres (penguin-like birds), several deer (from our picnic spot), elephant seals (babies and big-snouted males), an owl, falcons, scoters and vultures. The views from the path to Chimney Rock especially were fabulous – on the one side was the Pacific Ocean and on the other, Drake’s Bay, so-called because Sir Francis himself landed there when the area was inhabited by Miwok Indians and called it Nova Albion, as the white cliffs reminded him of Dover. Back at the visitor center, we took a little stroll onto the beach, before heading off.

En route (actually, following a small detour), we stopped at our favourite eating place in the area, Coast Café in Bolinas. I am now very stuffed of oysters (from Drake’s Bay!) and chips, having washed it down with a champagne cocktail called an “epicentre” (what else?!). Bolinas is famous for being a hippy hang-out, and indeed someone who looked like “Wurzel Gummidge with war-paint” (I’m quoting Jon here) did drift in. After dinner, we returned to San Francisco, stopping to admire the stars along the way, as there’s no light pollution out there. Photos are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/day-trip-to-point-reyes/ (password: moocow).

Staying in San Francisco

Things have been very hectic at work, plus we’ve had several busy weekends in a row, so it was high time to spend some time at home. The temperatures have risen and the winter coats have well and truly been retired to the wardrobe. They were out for just under two months. In fact, we had lovely weather last Saturday – as nice as many days in summer. After the morning’s chores, we headed out into our neighbourhood, North Beach, and took a stroll up to Coit Tower, then down to Washington Square, where people were sunning themselves and an art show was in full swing. We had lunch on the terrace of our local café, then repaired to a different one for coffee and Italian cakes! On Sunday we went for a run in the morning and a hike in the afternoon, but there was no sun on the coast, so we just did a short one, then returned to (sunny) Sausalito and had tea at a café right by the water, looking across the bay to San Francisco – lovely! In the evening we tried out a restaurant we’ve been wanting to go to for a while: Moose’s on Washington Square. It features in a cheesy film with Reese Witherspoon called Just like Heaven. The starters in particular were excellent: I had a brussels sprouts salad – yummy! (No, I’m not being ironic!).

It’s been another busy week at work, punctuated by a Spanish test on Tuesday night, going to do our taxes on Wednesday night, attending a leaving “do” in the Tenderloin on Thursday night and doing my volunteering stint at Marina Middle School on Friday. It was the first time we’ve had to do our taxes in the U.S. We’re still none the wiser. The system’s so mystic that there was no way we wanted to try doing them on our own, so we availed ourselves of one of the chains of accountant/financial advisor outlets (which don’t exist in the UK) and paid someone to do them. It seems we’ve vastly overpaid, so we’re expecting a big fat cheque from the IRS (equivalent of the Inland Revenue).

Today it’s back to the rainy weather, but at least it’s still fairly warm. Haven’t done much other than shop for food and go to the gym. Jon’s off to New Hampshire for a week tonight (flying to Boston), so I’ll be all on my own :-(. At least I know where New Hampshire is now after repeatedly playing some interactive U.S. geography games on http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm!

Tahoe skiing

I’m going to keep this fairly short as it’s pretty late and I’m feeling ill with a cold. Another one. I don’t know what it is – the fact that I’m not used to American germs or the fact that I ride the bus every day and come into contact with other sick people, but I get everything that’s going!

I had a pretty horrendous week at work last week, but something good has come out of it. When I can (which won’t be for a little while, given my current workload), I’m going to be moving over into a different job more suited to my skills, namely linguistic QA. Amusingly, someone already in that department wants to be a project manager, so we’re going to do a swap!

We went up to Tahoe on Friday night, eager to try out our new boots and skis (the latter were purchased at a 20% off event at Sports Basement on Wednesday night). The trip up was fairly good (no snow on the roads – thank goodness!) and we arrived at our rented cottage at around 11:30 pm. There were five of us in total: me, Jon, Emma, James and Mark (Jon works with James and Mark). A blazing fire was going, which was very welcome!

Next morning we had a rather late start and chose to go up the mountain from Boulder Lodge on the Nevada side, as there’s plenty of parking there. The weather was glorious – as it was today – blue skies and sunshine. Unfortunately, I started to feel ill with my developing cold and had some trouble with my new boots (which resolved itself largely when I removed one of the liners), so it was a struggle for me to get down at the end of the day. However, a (very hot!) session in the hot tub back at the cottage sorted out my aching muscles. We had dinner, then various games were played, but I had an early night to try to stave off the cold...

... Didn’t work, and I still felt dreadful when I woke up. I fully intended to just do a couple of runs, then come down and do my Spanish homework in the afternoon, but remarkably, I felt better than expected on the slopes and really enjoyed skiing. Jon tried a tough black run with lots of moguls while I did the easier blue next to it – the first time I beat him down a slope in years!

We set off back at about 4:30 pm, and bar a few traffic hotspots, had a good journey (4 hours in total). Had the usual experience unpacking all the toiletries – lots of squashed bottles as a result of the changing pressures due to altitude, similar to when you’ve been on a plane! Now I’m about ready to drop and not looking forward to the working week, but I’ve uploaded some photos here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/tahoe-skiing-weekend/ (password: moocow)

Yosemite in the snow

Our trip to Yosemite began with a panic. We rented a four-wheel drive, which (stupidly) you can’t rent with snow chains. Jon had borrowed four sets of chains from other people, in the hope that one set would fit. They didn’t. And nowhere in San Francisco that was open early Friday evening had a set that would fit. Not good news when you’re heading to the mountains with lots of snow forecast. We set off anyway and did manage to purchase a set (at great expense) en route. Although it was touch and go, we didn’t have to use them in the end, so it’ll be a case of trying to sell them on eBay now!

We had a pretty good trip, but did arrive very late, just because it takes four hours to get there at the best of times. Saw a couple of coyotes on the way. The road was pretty snowy, but the 4WD coped very well. We checked into our (very cold!) cabin and went to bed.

Next morning we awoke to a beautiful winter wonderland with the granite face of Half Dome towering above us. After a rousing cup of coffee and (slightly uninspiring) instant oatmeal breakfast from the Curry Village Coffee Shop, we rented our snowshoes and set off on the Mirror Lake loop, a trail of approximately 5 miles, heading up Tenaya Canyon. The snow was really fluffy and light, so Jon couldn’t resist making a huge snowman on a flat patch of ground by Tenaya Creek. The snowshoes made us feel invincible – you didn’t have to worry about slipping, as you would with hiking boots, and could simply plant your feet wherever you wanted to. They also came in handy when we completely lost the trail (just after I managed to slide into a creek tributary!) and had to tramp over goodness knows what in search of the bridge that would take us over to the other side. We watched with great amusement later as a hapless pair followed our footprints! We returned via the largely iced over Mirror Lake, and then went to take a look at Yosemite Falls. Unfortunately, the snow had set in by this point and the clouds had come so low, that the much more impressive Upper Yosemite Fall could not be seen.

That evening, we decided to take a look at the super posh Ahwahnee Hotel (the cost for a room is some $600 per night and it’s the only luxury option in the park – or, indeed, for miles around. We had cocktails in the bar and took a look at the amazing lounge with its huge fireplace. We weren’t really dressed for dinner, otherwise we’d have been sorely tempted to eat in the sumptuous dining room. Instead, we had dinner at a bar with a huge firepit in Yosemite Lodge. Stuffed full, we returned to the cabin and tried to play cards, but were too tired to do so for long. The snowshoeing must have taken more out of us than we’d thought!

The snow had been falling from early afternoon without stopping and was still falling when we went to bed and when we woke up. The car was buried under over a foot of snow the next morning. Fortunately, there was a huge plastic food container in our cabin, the lid of which we were able to use to clear the snow! We took a stroll to lovely Bridalveil Fall on our way out of the park, starting each time we had the crunch and boom of a minor avalanche down the rock face.

Our route back to San Francisco – Highway 120 – was closed, so we were obliged to take the longer, but ultimately no slower Highway 140. It was amazing how sudden we emerged from the snow into a valley that reminded me of Wales or Scotland with its dark clouds and unremitting rain. We had a good journey back and crossed the Bay Bridge back into San Fran before nightfall.

It was great to see that wonderful place in a different season, without the crowds. I was disappointed that we didn’t get blue skies and sunshine, of course, but pleased in a way that there will be no drought this year as there was last year.

Photos are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/yosemite-in-the-snow/ (password: moocow)