Manteca and San Francisco and Beyond

From Yosemite, we moved on to Manteca California. There is nothing particularly special about Manteca except for great fruit and veggies that are grown there and a very nice campground that we can stay at for free for three weeks (Thousand Trails membership). As I said, the fruit and veggies here are amazing - peaches, nectarines, melons, plums, pluots, all kinds of heirloom tomatoes and so much more. We have eaten our weight in stone fruit and melons. It is so easy here and pretty inexpensive. Definitely the most inexpensive things in California which is incredibly expensive.

We took a drive south along the coast to Point Lobos Nature Preserve. The coast here reminds us so much of New Zealand.

Our first seal sighting in California!

Really strange rock formations!

This so reminds me of Kaikoura, New Zealand.





















After Point Lobos, we stopped at the Basilica of Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo, more commonly known as the Carmel Mission. It was founded in 1770. It was a beautiful stop. Most of the furniture in the parlor are still the original pieces.

See the graves in the distance, the top of each cross has an abalone shell on top and most of the graves are covered (or tiled) with abalone shells.

This is the sign at the base of the cross in the cememtery.

This is a whale vertebrae fossil

A cork tree and the bark really feels like cork!

How would you like to work in this kitchen?

This is the parlor and most of the pieces are original.

This was Father Junipero Serra's cell.

 The other amazing this at the Carmel Mission was the gardens. I couldn't help but take some of these shots of the flowers.

Ernie and I went to San Francisco for a couple of days to figure out the Bart system and get the lay of the land for when Chris gets in town a week later. We went to one of our favorite pizza places in North Beach - Tony's. It was just as good as we remembered it. Took the trolley down to Fisherman's Wharf to see the seals and eat some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Then onto Chinatown for Dim Sum. We also went to our favorite tapas restaurant the second day in San Francisco.

 Sea Lion colony at Pier 39 (Fishermans Wharf). Male sea lions can reach up to 850 lbs. and 7 feet in length. I think we saw a few of those big guys on these platforms.

This fog came in early afternoon.

Couldn't believe we had a clear view of Alcatraz!




















The day finally came for Chris to arrive. We drove to San Francisco International airport to pick him up and then went through SF to get to Muir Woods. Chris had never been there and never seen the coastal redwood trees. For those of you that know Chris, you know he is not a little man. When we stood in the redwood groves he said it was the first time in his life that he really felt small. It is a humbling experience to stand in the shadow of these trees which can reach up to 370 feet in height. We were really lucky to see this little guy while we were walking through the woods.

Since Ernie & I have gotten hooked on white water rafting and Chris had never had the pleasure of this activity, we went rafting on the American River. While I won't bore you with all the photos, I just wanted to show a couple of them.

This is leading into a class 3 rapid

Chris and Ernie are sitting in the front row of the boat and I am in the middle row. Our guide is at the end of the boat

That was Ernie's paddle. We are all under water and when we popped out of the rapid, both Ernie and Chris had been pushed back of their seat into the bottom of the boat. Thankfully, no one left the boat! That's a good ride!!!!

Considering Chris only had 5 days in town, we managed to walk through Chinatown several times, go to Coit Tower, Fishermans Wharf, ride the cablecars several times, walk the Financial District, go to Pier 41 with all the restaurants, go to Boudin for sourdough, eat at a great Irish Pub/Indian Restaurant, have cioppino at Pier 41, eat dim sum in Chinatown, go to Golden Gate Park, walk the Botanical Gardens, see Haight Ashbury, and wander the North Beach.

Oh, while we were in Chinatown, Chris and I had a Chinese foot massage and we all went to the Chinese doctor and got our prescription to help balance our chi. The Chinese believe in going to the doctor before you are sick to keep from getting sick. They say you don't wait until you are thirsty to dig the well.

This is a great shot that Chris took in the mid-afternoon - Golden Gate bridge in the fog

We stayed at the San Remo Hotel and we all thought we were back in Europe. The rooms were small with no TV. The bathrooms and showers were down the hall and there were sitting areas nestled in the corners of the hallways. All the bathroom plumbing was like this.It was so quaint and cool. We were only 3 blocks from Fishermans Wharf. This is the most inexpensive hotel in all of San Francisco and the nicest people. They will even hold your bags when you check in if your room isn't ready and when you check out and still want to go sightseeing.

This building was a hotel in Chinatown back in the goldrush days. Note the cost of rooms, $1.50 per week with hot and cold water and bath.

This is Ernie's prescription from the  doctor in the herb shop. 17 ingredients and the herbalists were quite impressed with that amount!

This is his medicine. These are packaged in separate paper bags. You put 4 cups of water and the contents of one bag into a kettle, bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 - 60 minutes until the liquid is reduced to one cup. Let cool down to warm and drink. Repeat with the herbs the next day starting out with 3 cups of water. After that, throw it all out and continue with you next bags over the next 3 days. I will tell you the smell is horribly foul and the taste is worse. When we asked how you know if the 'medicine' is working they said you will feel a difference at the end of the 8 day course. If you do feel better, contact them for a refill. We saw her filling someone else's prescription and she was putting in cicada shells. Yes, bug shells! Chris was so hoping that we would have bugs in our bags. No such luck - thank God!

Chris is now back in Austin and taking his Chinese medicine while we are in Still in Manteca taking our medicine. I found that I can get a cup of it down if I hold my noise while drinking it and then have several handfuls of raisins to get rid of the taste. The jury is still out if my chi is getting into balance but I will stay the course and let y'all know.

Tomorrow we leave here and head to Annaheim which means Disnyland, adrenalin rides, Tumecula wine region, the Joshua Tree National Park, cooler days and nights since we will not be in the central valley any longer. I hope to visit and old friend from Austin who returned to California quite a few years back and Ernie will catch up with some old work colleagues.

That's all for now folks!