Hottest!!!

Today was the most miserable day of all for most of the state. Fortunately, we spent most of the day in the car where the air conditioning was working perfectly. And when we were done with our trip, we were on the coast, in the fog. Yes! I have never been so happy to see fog.

Our day began again with George and Donna cooking us up another wonderful breakfast and then some sad goodbyes. Dan had left quite early in the morning because the air-conditioning in his truck has stopped working.

We only had to stop once or twice for gas or to stretch a bit. Even the dogs were eager to jump back in the car as soon as possible. It took us about four hours to finally make it to the coast. Our destination was the town of Pacific Grove, and we were paying a return visit to the Bide-a-Wee motel.

A lot had changed about this place since we were there many, many years ago. It has been completely renovated, and while all the plumbing and heating works now it has lost of bit of the funkiness that we liked. The grouchy white people who used to run it have apparently retired and been replaced by a polite Korean man. I heard several of the guests speaking Korean, too. I suppose they’re here to play golf.

We took a walk down to the beach. We had only gone a few feet when John spotted deer.

Fortunately, Edie was on her leash. She loves to chase deer. I suspect if she ever caught up with one she’d be sorry, however. Bambi can be brutal!

We took a stroll on Asilomar State Beach and stopped for a snap shot or two.

We had a fairly forgettable meal at Fishwife, a local spot with good ratings on UrbanSpoon. After that, we drove around a bit. It was near sunset, and this one was indeed what David Lean called a “golden hour.”

From there we went to downtown Monterey. We stopped at the 1827 Customs House and a couple other historic buildings near the shore.

From there we walked out on to the Wharf. Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey may be even cheesier than its cousin in San Francisco. What makes all of the midway honky tonk bearable on both is the sometimes unexpected presence of the sea. As the dog were walking around they hear a load noise nearby and had to check it out.

We soon found a whole party of raucous, stinky sea lion males hanging out on a platform nearby.

And just as they were turning in for the night, tired dogs and humans decided it was time for us to get ready for sleep, too.

Hotter!!

I went to bed before George made it in from San Jose. The traffic is so miserable that he finds it better to wait until at least 8:00 before leaving the Bay Area. Our friend Dan Story from Sacramento also joined us this morning. George and Donna cooked a lovely breakfast for all of us. By ten o’clock or so, it was already close to a hundred with a high of 106 predicted for the day. We decided that we should find the coolest place we could, but that even at that it would be too hot for dogs to accompany us.

Our first destination was Lake Alpine high up in the Ebbets Pass. This is not a natural lake - there are not many of those in the Sierras - but it sort of looks natural anyhow.

We all walked down to the Lake’s edge eager to stick a foot in the cold water.

John, ever the bravest, contemplated a swim. Dan tried to encourage him despite the frigid temperature of the water.

He finally took the plunge and announced that it was great!

Still, he was the only person to really and truly get wet.

From there we went on a little lower to one of the branches of the Stanislaus River. This is one of the environmental tragedies of California. A dam had been proposed for the river as part of the Central Valley Project, but had not been built when all the other reservoirs were constructed. By the 1970’s, environmentalists were already keenly aware of the damage that the kinds of projects were doing and fought against the construction of the New Melones dam. The Stanislaus, they pointed out, was one of the last wild rivers in the west and supported a lively white-water rafting and tourist industry. Unfortunately, the good guys lost on this one and the dam was built. Today, even the federal Bureau of Reclamation describes it as a case study in doing everything wrong. As a result, the Stanislaus is a sad little stream and not the majestic river it once was.

We made it back to the house in Murphys, and I walked the dogs - as much as they wanted to be walked in such miserable temperatures. George grilled some chicken and Donna provided some delicious salads.

We made plans weeks ago to attend a production of Oklahoma at the Fallon House Theatre in Columbia. We had stumbled across the Sierra Repertory Theatre a couple years ago and were really impressed with the quality of the production. George drove us to Columbia at something just a little shy of warp factor 4, and we were there to pick up the tickets and even walk around a bit.

It’s a small house with a tiny stage, but they still did a great job. I’ve seen the movie a couple times, but I think this was the first time I’ve seen it on stage.

Hot!

All good things come to an end they say, and so our time in Inverness was finally over. I was not expecting much on Monday as we drove endlessly and John, well, had difficulties, but it turned out to be a really great place to stay and I left quite refreshed. We took quite a while to pack and clean up, and we pulled out just after 11:00. We probably passed the cleaners as we were coming down the hill. Our destination was the Gold Rush town of Murphys where our friends Donna and George have a home.
Daniel, our trusty GPS, took us around the edge of the Bay Area. I suppose left on my own I would have gone across the Richmond Bridge and gone through Oakland and out to the Central Valley via the 580. Daniel took us over the bridge to Vallejo and through parts of Solano County and the Delta. It was not the most scenic route imaginable, but we ran into no traffic and saw some areas we had never seen before.

Speaking of places we had never seen before, we came across the “city” of Copperopolis as we were starting to enter the foothills. This place has to be the ultimate of faux urban planning. There is no town any place to be seen, but this shopping mall has a fake “Town Hall” in the center of it.

And there is a fake little bandstand in the middle of the fake town square, thankfully lacking a fake Civil War memorial.

Surrounding this ersatz Americana are a bunch of stores and restaurants. What made it all even more bizarre was that it was totally empty. We were just about the only people there. I half expected at any moment to hear Rod Serling intone, “John and John pulled off Highway 4 … and into the Twilight Zone!”

We are in the midst of probably the worst heat wave to hit the Western United States in decades, if not ever, and the temperature as we drove through the Central Valley was well into the triple digits. I hoped as we climbed into the Sierra Nevadas that it would cool down. No such luck. By the time we reached Murphys we had only dropped a degree or two at the most.

Donna has a large house with a great view and a somewhat odd floor plan. But the house has a great feel to it and a fantastic deck. Had it been even a little cooler we would have been happy to have stayed out there and talked all evening.

We waited until after dark, and then we went into the town to get something to eat. Although I have been through the Gold Country many times, I usually have never ventured far from Highway 49 and as a result I had never been in Murphys before. It is probably the cutest of the towns in this part of the state. It is definitely more affluent than places like Angeles Camp or Mokulumne Hill. We found a restaurant with a patio. Donna good naturedly put up with John’s picture snapping.

In the 90 degree heat of the night we walked around and talked.

We Do Like to Be by the Sea

This is our final day in Inverness, and we will be sorry to leave. The weather has changed considerably, and it should be quite warm today. We thought we would explore one of the trails by the house before we headed out further. But it seemed a little too confusing. Too many choices.

One of the major attractions of staying in Inverness is that it is right by Point Reyes National Seashore. Administered by the National Park Service, most of this area is not particularly friendly to dogs. But there are a couple of beaches where dogs are permitted. Kehoe Beach is one of these.

It’s a broad expanse of sand with high palisades. We pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves, so we decided to let the dogs play off leash. Since this area is not a plover habitat, I figured we were doing no harm.

At one point, Eli and I were walking down to the end of the beach when we were both soaked by a rogue wave.

John found a sheltered place for us.

I decided that sleeping seemed like a nice break from walking up and down the sand tossing a tennis ball.

Eli stopped by a visit. He even dropped his beloved tennis ball for a moment.

But all too soon it was time to go.

We stopped by the cheese shop in Point Reyes Station. We picked up a locally-made soft cheese.

We returned to the house and had cheese and crackers - and some wine for me - on the deck.

It was a lovely ending to a lovely day.

The Sun will Come Out … Today?

Morning broke with the sun still nowhere in sight. We appeared to be in a cloud back up on this ridge. But at least it wasn’t raining!

Gradually, however, the sun came out and we decided to get in the car and do some exploring. There are some interesting sight just down the hill in the town of Inverness such as the Lipnosky’s Dacha, a reproduction of a Russian summer house built on a pier over Tomales Bay.

We stopped at the nearby “Chicken Ranch Beach” and since nobody was around we let the dogs frolic. Elie loves shallow water, so Tomales Bay was perfect for her.

John remember that there was a place nearby where a boat had been abandoned and he wanted to go back and explore it. We found it without much difficulty, but it was in even worse shape after a few more years.

Shortly after I took this picture I slipped and went down flat. I was not hurt, but I was covered from head to toe in mud. John did me the favor of being solicitous instead of laughing at me.

We continued on to the town of Point Reyes Station. This has always been one of my favorite spots in Marin. It’s an odd place, both a working-class agricultural town and a retirement home for those people David Brooks memorably called the “Bohemian Bourgeoisie.”

There is a lot of sympathy in this area for oyster farms who are losing their leases from the National Park Service after having been allowed to continue in operation for 40 years.

I’m not so sure. Not only am I not that fond of oysters, but I think when people make agreements - as all these folks did when the National Park was establish several decades ago - they should keep them and not try to change the rules.

We continued on to the Dillon Beach Resort. This may sound grand, but it isn’t. It consists of a group of tiny cabins clustered in a small village at the south edge of Bodega Bay. If its a resort, it’s a very working class kind of resort where you’re more likely to find a bucket of bait than a champagne on ice. Its attraction for us is that its the only place on this part of the coast where you can have dogs on the beach. And, oh, did they have a great time! They didn’t mind the fog at all!

And neither did we, either. It was rather strange weather - very foggy, but still pretty warm. Not the usual sub-arctic chill I remember along the north coast.

On the way back, we noticed a butte and realized it looked familiar.

We realized that it was the inspiration for a lithograph in the living room of our rented home.

We spent a pleasant hour in the hot tub, and then we had dinner on the deck as we watched the sun set.

A perfect ending to a lovely day.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

This was a quiet day for men and beasts alike. It was drizzling when we woke up this morning, and it continued to drizzle for most of the day. In its own way, it was a nice change of pace.

Fortunately, when there’s wifi rain really doesn’t matter, does it?

Eli was happy sleeping most of the day, but when I opened the door he made a good faith effort to get up and walk outside. Edie gave me a “You’ve got to be kidding” look and refused to budge.

The Long and Winding Road

We had some time on our hands today since we were not able to get into our house in Inverness until four in the afternoon. So we first spent a little time walking around Cesar Chavez Park in the Berkeley Marina.



We decided that it might be fun to go into San Francisco for a bit of lunch, and we decided that dim sum on Clement Street would be fun. The place we were planning to eat was closed for the week for some reason, so we found a restaurant with the fabulous name of the “Tong Palace.” Afterwards, we figured the Chinese markets there would be a good place to pick up some really fresh produce.

We went across the bridge to what Herb Caen used to call “Marvelous Marin” and decided to to make a stop in one of its most precious spots, Mill Valley, a town that makes Carmel seem vaguely down-at-heel. We had some coffee and gelato there as it began to rain. Eli was bored. Edie, ever the princess, looked like she had been born to live in Mill Valley.

We stopped at the Safeway there to pick up some groceries, and from there Daniel, our ever patient British GPS voice, directed us to find Highway 1 towards Inverness.

Most people usually like the ride through Mount Tamalpais State Park up to Stinson Beach, and it certainly is beautiful route on a sunny day, but this was not that kind of a day and it was a miserable ride. When Daniel picked this route he apparently did not know that pork buns, gelato, and a tendency towards motion sickness is NOT a good combination. I will leave out the worst details, but suffice it to say, dear readers, that John was miserably sick. You will be happy to know that I had the good sense not to record any of this with the camera.

After a wretched - or perhaps retched - 90 minutes on the road we finally arrived at our lovely Inverness accommodations. I’m sure that when the sun finally comes out we will see the promised panoramic view of Tomales Bay.

The dogs seemed to instinctively know that the trip was over and that this would be home for a while.

It’s supposed to rain some more tomorrow, but I still need to finish my work from Olympia and there is the season finale of Mad Men to watch.