Heading South

My travel plans for heading to Southern California were delayed by a day because of the torrential rains. I intended the leave Monterey on Thursday the 21st, but the rain, wind, hail; thunder & lightening (oh my!) convinced me to wait until Friday the 22nd. I also had to change my driving route since now the Interstate 5 grapevine portion of the highway is closed due to heavy snow. The Grapevine Mountains are between the central valley on the north and the Southern California basin. I will now drive highway 101 down the very soggy coastal route. In order to wrap my head around the potential stressful drive, I decided to put on Nina's 'head wizard' spider hat to help relieve the stress from my brain. Really! That s what it is supposed to do! (see photo)

It did make me laugh, so therefore, I forgot all about my stress. :o)

I got in the car on Friday, tuned in to a fabulous Spanish radio station and headed south. Hispanic music is always so happy. My drive took me through more of the amazing Salinas Valley and further south through Gonzales, King City, San Lucas, San Miguel (where I

stopped at the Mission), and the Paso Robles wine country. This was the greenest landscape I think I have ever seen through this part of California. All of this rain really has turned this typically brown landscape into what looks like Ireland. I was so overcome by beauty, I had to keep stopping to take pictures. Here are a few photos from that region:

I have the fondest memories of riding my bike through these valleys and over these mountains on my rides from San Francisco to LA. We always rode around and along the 101 routes through many of these towns. I finally got to the coast when I reached Pismo Beach. I love this town. So quaint and laid back. I kept heading south through Santa Maria, Los Alamos and on to Santa Barbara. I had to stop just south of here to take in the smell of the ocean and let that salty sea air refresh me. Here are a couple of photos of the beautiful coast.

At Ventura I cut inland to meet Interstate 5. This is when it started POURING rain! When I hit the Hollywood Freeway, I was reminded why I would never live in LA. I spent the next 2 and 1/2 hours bumper-to-bumper going 5-40mph! It took me that long to get to Fullerton, a trip that should have taken only about 40 minutes! Ugh! I had to laugh when I finally pulled into Sue's driveway and it started to hail and thunder and lightening. I sat there for 20 minutes before I could even get out of the car! I thought to myself, 'and they call this the City of Angels'!!!!? Whew! I can't wait to see Rowan.

Monterey - The Salad Bowl

For those of you reading this that have never been in Monterey or the Salinas Valley in California, you have to know that this region has some of the most fertile earth for growing fruit and vegetables in the entire country. Once you come down hwy 101 into the valley you are completely surrounded by artichokes (see photo above), newly planted strawberries (see photo right). The chokes are in season and the berries have just been planted on top of plastic sheets). There is field after field of freshly turned earth ready for planting. I have

cycled through this valley and the surrounding coastal mountains 4 times during my AIDS Rides from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the late 90's. Riding my bike through the early summer crops of lettuce, chard, strawberries, cabbage, cauliflower, celery (you name it) that cross the landscape, into infinity, is a site to behold. One develops a whole new appreciation of farm workers when you see them bent over in the fields for hours and hours in the hot California sun. Work none of us white folks would ever think of doing today. Even if we were out of work and on food stamps! Sorry if I'm getting political, but hey, I AM a progressive Californian. :o) We need to give thanks to all of

those Hispanics who pick the food we eat every day. As we approached Monterey and the ocean, you can sense the change in the smell of the air.

Fresh, salty, misty, alive. The sand dunes are simply stunning with their winter ice plant color on to contrast the sand dunes in the background (see photo).

We arrived at Nina and Kim's Monterey home (see photos) to 'no power'. No surprise if you remember my last blog entry about the storm we drove through to get here. We spent the late afternoon getting settled and arranging candles

around the house so we could see as darkness fell. We decided to go out to Carmel for dinner, since we still had no power. We ate at a most excellent sushi restaurant called Sushi Heaven on Dolores Street. Well, of course I had died and gone to HEAVEN! I still can't get enough fresh seafood!

I do love coming to visit here. We just kick back and relax and do 'whatever'. No expectations. No worries. Sit and read a book all day. Do a little work via the Internet. Go for a hike. Shop for great food and then cook it together (of course it helps being on sabbatical and having

the time). That laid back California image the rest of the world has can exist every once in a while. As the storms kept coming, we kept losing power. We had to cook dinner one night by candle light. Very intimate and quite challenging to not lose a finger while chopping onions. We managed to make some great pasta with tofu meatballs (remember, you are in California!).

YUMMY! The tofu meatballs tasted just like beef. I SWEAR! Nina

is just a queen in the kitchen (see photo) :o) I will end this blog entry with a beautiful Monterey California sunset sky picture.

Cats and Dogs!

O.K., so you know how the saying goes, 'it's raining cats & dogs'? Well, when Nina and 1 tried to leave San Francisco on Monday, Jan. 18, it started raining sheeps and cows! I mean right when we got in the car it started coming down like that. You would think we were in the mid-west, forchristsake! We headed towards ocean beach to pick up coastal highway 1 to get us to Monterey. By the time we drove the 10 minutes to ocean beach, it was getting pretty scary. It was raining so hard the wiper blades on the car were useless. The wind was gusting between 45-60mph. The ocean was out of control, crashing against the beach and walls like a monster. By the time we started to round the curve and go up the hill towards devils slide (how comforting) we had zero visibility. What made it even nicer was they had the right lane closed (the one on MY side of the car!) due to that lane being eaten away by the violent ocean. Good thing it was raining so hard I couldn't see out of the window! :o) That's when we looked at each other and said, "NO! This aint happening today!" We pulled over till the rain let up a bit and we could see and then we turned around and headed back to the house. On our way back,

the flooding was crazy. Manhole covers were popping up off of the street from the amount of water going through them. Cars were swerving around them as the geysers were randomly popping up out of the street. You have to remember, this

is California

and it doesn't usually rain like this here. Geeez, this was almost as exciting as a tornado where I live! We got back to the house and

went right to the computer to get

the weather map to see if we were going to be able to make it down

to Monterey today or not. We saw that there was going to be a 3 or 4-hour break between

the next system coming through, so we jumped right back in the car and tried again. This time we took the hwy 101 route that goes a bit more inland and we were successful. The drive down was really beautiful with all of the dramatic thunderclouds and random sun popping through on the lush green hills. We did have the occasional rain shower, but nothing like our earlier experience. Here are a few photos of our beautiful drive south to Monterey.

Rowan Up-Date

Lots of you are probably wondering what has happened to Rowan. She hasn't been in any photos in a while and doesn't seem to be mentioned. No, I haven't been keeping her in a bag in the closet.

She has been down in Los Angeles since Jan. 10 working with a couple of her colleagues in vision research (I mean this is a sabbatical, and one is supposed to do some work while being away for 6 months!) We keep up with each other via skype (see

photo)every day so it is almost like being together, except she doesn't get to partake of the food feast I've been on for the last 12 days (that is why she weighs 20 lbs less tan me!) She spent her first week in Glendale with good friend Kristina Tarczy-Hornoch (say that fast 3 times) who is a pediatric ophthalmologist at USC. She works at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Dohney Eye Institute. Rowan has had the pleasure of observing more eye surgeries in the operating room with Kristina. Sometimes they are in there for over 7 hours. Row says it is amazing to see a child's eye turn

surgically fixed right in front of her eyes. It blows away all those pictures in the books you learn from in school. Luckily it hasn't been all work for her. She and Kristina did have a wonderful hike above the hills of Glendale that

provided beautiful views of the valley (see photo at bottom of post). One whacky footnote is that Kristina just happened to marry one of my old AIDS Ride buddies, JP (whom I hadn't seen in years). It's a miracle how they met in LA and are now married and have a baby on the way. Congratulations! It really is a small world! Rowan is now working with Sue Cotter at the Southern California College of Optometry, planning research collaberations between Kristina, Sue and Rowan's lab in Indiana.

Stay tuned for more updates from Rowan's end of the state soon.

San Francisco

I left Sausalito on January 16 for San Francisco to stay with my dear friends Nina & Kim (see photo). The drive into SF across the Golden Gate Bridge never gets old. This is one of the reasons people leave their hearts here.

Nina & Kim have a flat on Grove Street, right on the panhandle of Golden Gate Park in the Haight/Ashbury district of SF. It is just wonderful to be in San Francisco and walk this neighborhood. Nina is 2 blocks from Golden Gate Park, so we walk even if it's raining. A little water falling from the sky can't keep us from the beauty and diversity of this neighborhood.

The girls got a dinner party together here in The City with a bunch of our old work mates from UC Berkeley. What a blast catching up on old times! Whew! What a party! We had drinks at Nina & Kim's place first and then ventured out to a Moroccan belly dancing restaurant called El Mansour on Clement St. I will let the photos speak for themselves with just a little narrative from me.

This was the perfect place to be taken for dinner. Definitely getting me ready for our trip to

India. Takes one right out of their own comfort zone for food and culture. Loved it! The first thing they did for us was bring us all a towel and then a huge bowl and a pot of hot water arrived at the table. The hot water was poured over our hands to wash them. The reason they do this is everything they bring you is eaten with your hands. Finally! It's OK to eat with my hands!!! :o)

The food started to arrive. Plate after plate. Lentils, couscous, marinated vegetables were first. Then came more vegetables for the salad course. Bread is handed out and you just dig in with your hands!

Then, the most FABULOUS appetizer arrived called Bastela Du Chef, a crispy pastry filled with

chicken, almonds and assorted spices. All covered in powdered sugar. HEAVEN! (see photo here)........Then, came the rabbit kabob, Cicken with lemons and olives, chicken with honey and prunes, lamb with honey and almonds, lamb with eggplants and couscous with vegetables. Ugh! I think this has turned into another food blog!

Thank goodness the music started so we could take a breath between our courses. Suddenly, we were graced with the presence of the most beautiful belly dancer. If you have never seen one. You should. Graceful, elegant, sensual, mystical, beautiful. Here are some photos.

It was such a pleasure to sit and take in all of this culture. The dancing was just magnificent! I couldn't wait to get up and tip this very talented woman. And, of course she wanted me to try and dance 'the belly'. How can one resist when asked by such a beautiful woman with all of your friends egging you on! Oh dear! (Paula, I couldn't resist putting you in here too!) What a night.

More Food!

Don't be afraid. It's only food. REALLY good food! I learned not to be afraid of so much of it years ago. I mean
I do have a German mother who grew up on a farm and made everything from scratch my entire life! When you make mashed potatoes, you ALWAYS use real butter and 1/2 & 1/2. When you make a piece of meat, you make enough for the family and then some extra for, well, breakfast and maybe lunch the next day!
I will now share with you the rest of my eating adventures during my stay with Charles. There was the cheese and lamb steak dinner. Yum! Did I say yum? YUM! YUM! YUM! 5 kids of cheese (drippy, gooey, french and fabulous) and there were 3 steaks for 2 of us which made for a KILLER lamb sandwich the next day. Oh, and mom, we did have broccoli too. We've got to have SOMETHING to scrub the fat out of our arteries! :o)

One of my other favorite meals was a three courser. Cheese (of course) then a fantastic plate of luscious, tender, melt-in-your-mouth chicken livers (they were so delicious, I almost passed out!) Then came the grass fed pork chops, sauteed king mushrooms in garlic & ginger, and sauteed kale with onions and garlic. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to really make sure I am still alive and not in heaven. I'm thinking maybe Charles and I should take up that 250 miles a week on the bike again. RIGHT NOW!

Then, there was the steamed mussels, crab cakes and salmon dinner too! UGH! I swear I don't weigh 250 pounds........... YET! Thank goodness for the walking we do to shop for all of this food. We have to lose an ounce here and there some how. :o) I just really can't get enough sea food.

The grand finale of

meals was a doozy! Thank goodness Kevin came over to help us with this one. Again, there was

the cheese! We then fell into the ginormous side-or-beef steaks, sauteed mushroom, grilled onions and mashed potatoes (yes mom, I used the real

butter and 1/2 & 1/2!). Oh, and lets not forget the salad. Got to scrub those arteries. I must say that the thing makes me happiest in my life (besides Rowan) is the magic that takes place while cooking good food, with good friends and eating it while drinking good wine over good conversation. Cheers!

Food Fest #1

It's about time I catch everyone up on what has been going into my tummy for the last 8 days. There is no problem with variety here. Of course sea food is at the top of my list because of the freshness and availability. But then there is also grass fed beef, pork and more grass fed beef and pork. Oh, and let's not forget all of that cheese! And, of course a lot of that great wine we brought home from the wine country.

My first tale will be of the seafood shopping spree Charles and I went on in San Francisco. We went to a Chinese market district on Clement Street to search out fresh crabs, clams and oysters. It nearly brings me to tears when I see this much wonderful sea food in one place. Just can't find this in the mid-west.

Absolutely everything is brought out of the water alive in front of your eyes. Getting home without having a crab attaching itself to one of your fingers or your pant leg isn't easy. We made our selections and drove back across the Golden Gate Bridge to get the pots boiling. Of course we start our seafood feast with oysters. Yum!! That

salty sweet hunk of wonderfulness sliding down your throat is a gift from heaven. Who needs to swim in the ocean when you can eat it instead! Our next chore is to try and separate the crabs as they have now latched on to each other for dear life. Somehow they know that if they grab on to each other, it will be harder to get them in that pot of boiling water. Pretty smart for a delicious little crustacean! Charles risked

the fingers on his right hand to do this. Finally, he decided to just drop the lowest one into the pot, and of course it only took 5 seconds for the other one to be free of his friend. Each crab was a whopping 3 pounds each. And, we still have to eat steamed clams first! Ugh! This is just a little sample of what it is like to dine with Charles. We learned to eat like this back when we were doing the AIDS rides and cycling over 250 miles a week (that was over 8 years ago). Lets hope we can survive it now. Maybe I just won't use as much melted butter for that crab :o)

I will catch you all up on our next food fest in my next blog.