New Post (gasp!!)

Highlights since the last post:

I finished my summer school classes!!! And I made all A's!!!!!!!!! Never had a 4.0 before, unless you count that one semester in high school. I enjoyed all 8 hours this summer and learned a lot.

I got the "Pampering Package" at Serenity Day Spa on Aug. 1 (the morning I left on vacation). It was WONDERFUL!!!! We started off with a paraffin treatment on my hands and feet, then moved to the "scalp treatment" which was pretty relaxing. Then she wrapped my head and hands with warm towels and let me just relax. She finished up with an excellent massage. AHHHHHHHHHH. I highly recommend it. I was so relaxed.....Dena recommended that I go home and take a warm bath with epsom salts. I needed to clean the tub anyway, so I did that. I was lucky to get the packing finished!

VACATION NOTES:

I left Searcy that day about 6:00 p.m. for my much-anticipated vacation. My friend Elissa, her parents (George & Sue), and I were going to San Francisco.

Friday evening - My plan was to drive to Memphis, park near the airport, shuttle over to airport, and take cab to the train station. I was running a little later than I planned, but made good time. I made a wrong turn looking for the FastPark place. Got the cab, and made it to the train station. I knew that we'd have to bus over to the train (sink hole at the station!). It's just a little after 9:00 p.m. and I think the train doesn't leave til 10:40 p.m. so I'm doing great! I carry my luggage up the stairs and find the little kiosk to get my ticket. I'm a little nervous, not having done this before. I get my reservation number, and start getting my ticket. Only......I notice something about a 9:15 time......about then, an employee tells me, "we're leaving in about 2 minutes." WHAT?!?! I get my ticket, frantically look around, and then my mind went blank. I finally asked him where do I go? He calmly tells me to go down to the buses. Oh yeah. Duh. But then, I still had all my luggage....(I planned to check one bag). SO I went downstairs to the buses and asked one of drivers what to do. He was really nice and just suggested that I wait on the train guy. Anyway, I made it to the train with all my luggage. Elissa met me on the stairs and helped me get up (E, G, & S got on in New Orleans, and we were on a Superliner train with two levels). Talk about leg room!!!!! If you want lots of leg room, take a train. There was SO much more space than planes. The seats reclined quite a bit, and we even had a foot rest. AND plug-ins. We got caught up and finally dozed off. When we woke in the morning, we were almost to Chicago! Mr. George graciously got up, and got breakfast AND brought it back (4 cups of coffee, 4 cups of cereal with milk, and some danishes!!).

In Chicago, I was able to check my other bag, and we put the rest of stuff in a rental locker so we could go explore the city during our layover. We got to go up to the top of the Sears Tower! That was about all we had time to do but it was really neat. A great view. We picked up lunch on the way to the station. There were a lot of people waiting (hint: if you're older, or have kids or are basically anything other than the average traveler, you get to load first). The nice thing about train travel is you get to pick out your seats if you're the originating city. We got settled in and enjoyed the ride, leaving Chicago about 2 pm on Saturday.

Chicago skyline

The Sears Tower from the street

There are lots and lots of farms along the way - corn and soybeans mostly. The scenery was really interesting. We got into Iowa that evening, Nebraska that night. We hit Colorado Sunday morning. By then we were running a little late and had to wait to get into the Denver station. We were in Denver about 30 minutes or so, so we were able to get off the train and go into the station. It was very interesting - the "old time" train station look.
Volunteers from the National Park system got on the train and gave some interesting history along the way. Heading up into the Rocky Mountains were really interesting. The Moffat Tunnel was....dark. :-) We decided that Glenwood Springs would have been a good stopover. I think we all enjoyed this day's scenery. We followed a river most of the way this afternoon - and the river runners must have gotten a message to "moon" the trains because most of them did!

We made it into Utah the evening. Talk about empty and desolate. We finally broke down and ate in the Dining Car this evening. At least it was more interesting than the scenery. It was a good experience. It sure beat the Lower Level Lounge and Todd (the LLL attendent). Todd would get on the intercom and encourage people to visit the LLL - and he'd say it with a deep, seedy kind of voice. The food there wasn't bad though - we especially enjoyed the cheese and cracker tray.

Monday morning - Nevada! More scenic that Utah. We had reservations for dinner in SF that night, but we were running behind schedule and weren't sure we'd have time. So we rescheduled dinner at Morton's, and made reservations in the hotel instead. We enjoyed the Nevada mountains, and made it to California about lunchtime. We were getting close when we had to stop and wait. We had to cross a body of water, but a tanker had to pass (the bridge had to be raised for the tanker so we had to wait - tankers go rather slow.....). We finally made it to Emeryville on Monday evening!!!!!!!!

There was a bit of confusion here. The train stops in Emeryville and they had shuttles/buses that go into SF. But we weren't sure about luggage. Turns out, you have to get your luggage, then put it on the bus. We weren't sure where the bus would stop, so we just got a cab. Well, we had to get a van because we had so much luggage (trains let you carry a lot more luggage!). We were packed into the van too. We got to a hotel, and partially unloaded, only to figure out that this wasn't OUR hotel (the names were similar). We finally got to our hotel!!! The Beefeater doorman was huge - and carried a lot of luggage. More confusion on the rooms for tonight, but I didn't care as long as I got a shower! We cleaned up and ate Italian in the hotel. We had expected something quiet, but it was rather loud. We were hungry though, so the bruscetta hit the spot and dinner soon followed.

Tuesday – Mrs. Sue’s birthday! We walked down a few blocks and got our transportation lined up (a 7-day pass for the bus/cable cars/street cars/etc.). We took a street car down to the Ferry Building where we thoroughly enjoyed the market – tons of fresh veggies, fresh fruits, and other foods. The figs were delish! We got some fresh sourdough bread and some cheeses also. We had a little picnic behind the building, sitting on a bench and watching the bay. We ate dinner on Pier 39 at the Crab House. The Eyrichs enjoyed fresh crab, while I enjoyed a crab enchilada. Mine didn’t take long to eat, so I went outside to get pictures of the amazing sunset!!

A cable carThe farmer's market

Sunset from Pier 39

Wednesday – We got out and about this morning. A bus picked us up for day of touring. We got to the office, where we loaded a smaller bus for the morning tour. We headed out to Muir Woods to see the magnificent redwoods. We walked the trail and took tons of pictures, and then visited the shop. We loaded back up and drove to Sausalito where we had just enough time to eat our fish & chips and get some ice cream. Yummy! Back to the tour office, where we loaded up on a bigger bus for the afternoon tour of SF. I’m not sure how much we got out of the first part though – I think we all dozed off. We toured the SF area and got some great views of the Golden Gate Bridge from both sides. We made it back to the hotel in time to get ready for dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse. And what a dinner it was!! The chopped salad was just divine – the best salad ever. The steak was delicious and very tender. We got some sides to share – asparagus, potatoes, etc. We shared two desserts – a soufflé and a way-too-good chocolate dessert. We walked back, and checked out the bookstore at the corner.

From the SF side of GG Bridge

From the Sausalito Side of the GG Bridge

The redwoods at Muir Woods

The fog rolling in - what a sight!

A famous "photo spot" in the city - historic homes, city skyline

Panoramic Shot from the Sausalito side

Thursday – We rented a car for the next few days. Since Elissa was in charge, I knew we’d have something good and more than likely a convertible. She had researched rental companies to find a convertible big enough for the 4 of us and we ended up with a nice black PT Cruiser. The only thing it lacked was four doors. The two doors got old crawling in and out. Anyway, we hit the road, with the Eyrichs Tom-Tom GPS, for Napa Valley. We enjoyed the lovely drive and found the train station with time to spare. So we hit McDonald’s for a snack/late breakfast. We got back on the train, and enjoyed a leisurely train ride through the Valley. The vineyards were so pretty and scenic. We enjoyed a fruit and cheese tray and some dessert. Afterwards, we hit the road again – this time to the Jelly Belly Factory!! We barely made it for the last tour but we did get to tour. We got to wear little Jelly Belly hats (everyone has to wear them) and we got a bag of Jelly Bellys at the end. Then, of course, we had to peruse the gift shop!!! Belly Flops are the ones that don’t quite pass inspection but are still good, so I got a back of those. Way too tempting…… We hadn’t had Chinese food yet, so we found a Chinese place for dinner…and had so much food that we took half of it back with us.

Napa Valley

Friday was the day for our driving down the coast…..but before we left, we had to eat breakfast/brunch at Sears Fine Foods. It got great reviews, was an established restaurant, and right across the street. I had the Swedish pancakes with Lignonberries!!! Yummy!!! After Tom-Tom took us on a little detour, we made it to Hwy. 1 - what beautiful scenery!!!!! It was breathtaking. We stopped at several points along the way for pictures. We ate dinner at a little picnic spot – we took our leftover Chinese, leftover cheeses, fruits, veggies, etc. and we enjoyed our chilly, breezy dinner! We parked the car and headed back to the hotel, but decided to try the diner across the street. We had heard they had good malts. And boy, they sure did!! Hwy. 1 - south of the Bay Area


Our happy group and our cool car!

Saturday – after looking at the menu at the diner, we decided to go back there for breakfast. Yummy! We took the car out for another drive. It was an experience navigating the city on a Saturday. We got pulled over for driving in the bus lane, couldn’t turn left anywhere, and got all mixed up before we finally made it to Lombard Street for the drive down “the crookest street.” It was crooked all right. We drove around a bit more before giving the car back! Elissa and I took it back to the rental company, and walked back to the hotel (about 6 blocks, only one of which was really uphill!). We had more adventure getting back to Pier 39 on the street cars. We walked around a bit and ate Mexican before heading over to another pier for our evening cruise to Alcatraz. We stood in line a while before boarding, and enjoyed a nice cruise over to island. We had a great tour (even got to see & hear them open/close the prison doors) and got some great pictures. It’s a very neat place – eerie, interesting, and chilly. We were pretty tired by then!

Lombard Street Alcatraz from the ferryThe Cell BlockNice pix from the "rock"

I finished packing and set my alarm for way-too-early. I had a shuttle to the airport and made it in good time. But I didn’t have time for breakfast or coffee before I got on the plane! I made do on the plane with the “breakfast cookies” and a cup of coffee. And more of the cookies, pretzels, juice, and more coffee. I ate when I got to Atlanta and made it home that evening.

HOME AGAIN!

I reluctantly went back to work. And worked.

School started – I have two classes this semester. Anatomical & biomechanical kinesiology and Research Methods.

I had dinner at Eagleview with the ICHF (supports the Nigerian Christian Hospital) and learned a lot. I got a book from Grace Farrar and it was really good.

Went to NLR – got two new pairs of shoes at Sports Authority (one was on clearance), got a few things at Sam’s, and then ate dinner at Cracker Barrel.

The fair is September 8-13!