San Rafael adventures

We've been enjoying spending time with family and discovering what the North bay area has to offer. Turns out there's a lot to explore :)

On Smith Ranch Rd we found a great little walk right by the settling ponds, which I must say didn't smell at all - unlike Sifnos where I nearly choked on the odors. Anyways the ponds  have gates that let in sea water and it provides safe haven for water fowl. If you are lucky you can see turtles and otter but it wasn't our lucky day.  Lots of white egrets, too far away to get a good pic, pelicans, swans, ducks and plenty of bird watchers enjoying the serenity. 

We took a drive out to Muir Beach and whilst the water looked tempting, it was still a little chilly.

The old Pelican Inn was still looking grand but was closed as we went by.

As we drove along the Shoreline Highway there were any number of lookout points to admire the coastal stretch - stunning.

We made our way to Stinson Beach and had a game of ping pong on a community table in the park - very cool to have paddles and ping pong balls for anyone to have a bit of fun. 

It's not all beer and skittles, we did a bit of hard labour - helping with yard improvement - good to get the muscles working hard again.

We also have had to do a bit of forward travel planning. Travel planning is much more time consuming with checking Covid country entry details and the ever changing flight schedules, cancelled flights and flights cost increases for aviation fuel  - eek. You can go down a rabbit hole searching for an elusive  great deal :) 

We  shot over to Berekely to pick up some foreign exchange for Malaysia. While in Berekely we took a walk up Panoramic Hill - great views back to the city.

There were a stack of ships waiting off the wharves - it's a busy harbour.

We also managed to catch some local music on Friday night - a free summer community event in  Terralinda.

Today we had a visit to  Halleck Creek Ranch - 45 years celebration today. There was an Irish trio, bbq and cake and just a lovely, lovely experience to be a part of.

The ranch invites people with disabilities, and their families, to live a “Life without barriers” through the beneficial activity of therapeutic horseback riding.

Each week, participants and volunteers travel to the ranch, staff pair trained horses with volunteers, creating a  team that carries special riders into the beautiful Nicasio countryside. 

Check out the You Tube link to get a sense of the wonderful work of the team and volunteers.

https://youtu.be/PLItP5z2zkU 

It has some fantastic facilities, tack rooms, stables, equipment, easy mounting platforms,  arena, trail paths through the ranch - all provided by good people's fundraising efforts. 

Thanks to Michelle for inviting us to such a wonderful event💓

4th of July

Playing blog catch up as we are having so much fun in California :)

We are fully on US time now having had a good few days of waking at 2am, 3am, 4am as our body clocks moved from Spanish time to US time.

Sausalito - a lovely walk along the seafront saw us revisit some familiar sights, the city in the distance, the San Francisco - Sausalito ferry chugging it's way across the bay and we spotted seals lolling about and being admired by tourists - just not quick enough with the pic to capture them.

Lots of groovy little shops and cafes and the place was humming with holiday weekend visitors.

Great to see elephants in the Viña Del Mar Plaza again

The  elephant statues  come from the Court of the Universe during the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.  Today they help light up the Viña Del Mar Plaza.

We had a great walk from the top of Mt Tamalpais  down to Stinson Beach. We started in mist at the top and by the time we got to Stinson beach the sun was out - great walk followed by some holiday weekend cocktails with the neighbors -  fun day! 

Then our first 4th of July holiday celebrations.

We were heading north to have a holiday lunch with my nephew in Ukiah so we made a day of it.

We stopped in Healdsburg,  an iconic wine country town very much like Martinbrough in NZ - village square, boutique stores, galleries and eateries in a gorgeous setting. 

This was the place to be on Independence Day - great community spirit, people all ages having fun and relaxing in the square, the band playing, lots of Stars and Stripes on hats, bikes and bunting.

They had activities for the kiddies with a 4th of July kids' parade, bike decorations,  a Duck Dash and no one went hungry with free lemonade, hot dogs, snow cones, popcorn, and Mexican street corn!

 Awesome job by Healdsburg Rotary making such an inclusive free event for the community when times are tough for so many.

As we were leaving the square we spotted the only museum in America devoted to fans, the Hand Fan Museum. It was closed but if the window display is anything to go on it could be pretty interesting inside.

https://www.nextavenue.org/the-ultimate-fan-of-fans/ 

As we were driving further north we heard the devastating news of a fatal shooting in Chicago  at a small town 4th of July celebration, tragic and shocking.

On the road to Ukiah for a family lunch and time together with a spot of dog walking :).  Fun fact along with  grape growing, Ukiah is home to a bumper crop of Bartlett pears every season.

On our return journey to San Rafael we stopped at Coppola Vineyards - wine tasting meets pool party in beautiful grounds.

Reached via a grand staircase from the parking area, there's a pool and cabana area, tasting rooms,  a rustic restaurant with a gorgeous patio overlooking the  vines.

Spotted an impressive cork chandelier.

The winery is also used to share the Frances Ford Coppola movie memorabilia.

Among the objects on display are a Tucker car,

Don Corleone's desk from The Godfather - with a note not to go behind the desk....yeah right :)

Coppola's 5 Academy Awards and a range  of movie mementos for the ciniphiles.

The grounds are lovely with a kitchen/restaurant garden you can wander through lush with produce - peaches, zucchini, figs, chillies, herbs, onions, beans and plums. 

Our first ever 4th of July day has been brilliant and we feel very lucky to be here having the time with our US family  who made our day so special 💓

San Francisco

 Howdy from San Francisco.

We  had a good, but long flight from Lisbon arriving 2.30pm and after clearing customs and immigration we were free to enter the USA.

Off we went on the airporter bus to San Rafael. Great to go over the Golden Gate bridge and see the city  and harbour and all the kite boarders zipping around on the water under the bridge. It was 2am on our Spanish body clock but we tried to stay awake as long as possible to get into local time sleeping 👍

 

Lovely walk around the little Loch Lomond marina and the world's greatest bait store😁. The heron helping himself to the live fish bait tanks was fun to watch.

 

A few days of acclimation in San Rafael with travel tasks - foreign exchange and SIM card purchase (expensive compared to Europe) and then Friday we had a fantastic evening at the Black Star Pirate BBQ at Point San Pablo Harbour in Richmond.

Such a fun quirky little spot, right on the water, groovy outdoor seating and music and delicious smoke house BBQ.

Lots of sculpture around the  property and pretty plantings.

Great boat houses too.

It's a holiday weekend here, 4th of July and we'll put on our hiking shoes and see what exploring we can get up too😊.

Lisbon Bom dia

13 hours layover in Lisbon en route to San Francisco. 

We have visited Lisboa previously and with such a short layover time we hunkered down close to the airport - 17 mins walk today/tomorrow for our early morning flight :)

With not much time we explored the little suburb Alvalade where we are staying and there's a terrific church, Igreja de São João de Brito, in the center of the wee plaza.The modern design dates from 1951 and is by the architect Vasco de Morais Palmeiro - large and dominant concrete structure, interesting.

Our hotel recommended a traditional Portuguese family restaurant just 10 mins walk, Tico Tico, and it was perfect. Nothing fancy, just traditional local recipes and flavour. We had grilled sardines, a baccalu and shrimp type of fish stew and marinated salad - all delicious. 

Long flight in small seats tomorrow to San Francisco but it will be worth it to see my brother and dear friends again.

So long Europe, it has been such an adventure with wonderful experiences, cultural exchanges, hard yakka trekking in blistering heat,  breathtaking architecture and history, sea so blue and crystal clear it's almost unbelievable, cuisine to fire up the taste buds and the warmest of welcomes, help and directions from total  strangers being wonderful ambassadors for their village, home, country - good people 💓.

Hola Amigos

 It's great being back in Spain!

We are just here for a few short days before we head to San Francisco. 

We are staying in Tres Cantos which is a small satellite city of Madrid, population of approx 48,000, and interestingly it's a purpose built new city started in the 1970's with ongoing urban development.

We walked through Tres Cantos as part of Camino de Madrid a few weeks back and this visit as we see little yellow Camino arrows we recalled how hot it was as we walked to Colmenar Viejo during the heatwave....this time we are not melting thank goodness.

It's so easy to access Madrid via the train, 30 mins to the centre and easy bus link to the airport - we like it! It has  a lovely, quiet neighborhood atmosphere and you can nip into the city for action if you like - perfecto!

It's great to see the cycle lanes and green parks integrated into the design and it's so clean and the parks and gardens are well cared for and respected by the community.

The town looks to have  a number of large  businesses located here. I spotted Siemens HQ, a large Spanish telco and what looks like tech companies. 

We wandered into the culture centre and enjoyed exploring the town.

We were in a little cafe/bar looking at the menu del dia and a lovely local man asked us if we needed help understanding the menu.  Meet Jean and Christina Triquet😊. Jean and Christina's daughter had travelled around New Zealand in a minivan so we got chatting and we had the loveliest lunch together. It was so interesting to hear  from Jean and Christina about Spanish traditions, festivals, places to visit - all shared with laughter and understanding, a perfect lunch.