Sunday Morning in San Francisco

I had a great sleep in a great bed.  This morning Ashley and I went out.  She to Zumba class and me for a walk / run to get the lay of the land.  Hills!  But I made it and am back at the house waiting for Phil "Flip" Casey and Charlene "Chuck" Smith to come over for a Middlebury brunch.  So much fun.

Yesterday.  We got off the train in Reno and boarded buses for the ride to Sacremento where we would reboard a train for the final leg of the cross country journey.  My seatmate was a wonderful older woman who knew the area quite well and pointed out the sites as we left the city.  We quickly realized we were in trouble as we passed lines and lines of trucks that were parked.  The climb out of Reno through Donner Pass (named after a party of settlers who got stuck in the snow and resorted to cannibalism my seatmate told me as she hungrily eyed my arm!) is very steep and had been closed for the previous 22 hours because of the recent snowfall of 5-7 feet.  The driver was completely calm and eventually pulled over and put on chains.  The highway department was not letting anyone proceed without chains or a 4 wheel drive vehicle.  There are actually people called "chain monkeys" who for a fee will help people put on or take off their snowtire chains.  $30.00 to put on / $15.00 to take off.

You want snowbanks?  You got snow banks!

 We slowly made our way up and over the pass, worked our way down into Sacremento and onto a train for Emeryville, where Ashley picked me up and we headed for San Francisco.

On our way from the Emeryville train station we got to see a member of CHIPS (California Highway Patrol:

and one of the street cars:

took a quick ride up to the highest spot of the city, Twin Peaks:

checked into the guest room:

and went out for ribs to celebrate Rowan's last night before going back to school.  Cailin and Grady take note.

Don't tell anyone but here is a pirated picture of the cover of Ashley's newest (not even published yet) book, entitiled "Baby Bear Sees Blue".  It is a great story of a baby bear learning his colors and bound to be a must-read for every child interested in discovering the world of color.

I've gotta go, folks are starting to arrive for brunch.  I could get used to this.

Love you all.  Peace.  Peter