Yosemite National Park! San Francisco!

Moraga Farmers' Market, with actual fruits and vegetables, and not a single sausage
My friend Cris sponsored my latest adventure: a trip to California. We were in San Francisco with Deanna, and the East Bay where Cris lives, and then... Yosemite National Park! When Cris invited me to come, I was wishy-washy about seeing SF again, even though it's lovely and I can see my lovely daughter, but once she mentioned Yosemite, well, it was a done deal. I was very surprised to realize that our family had never been there. 

Here's a link to a slide show that I hope will work on blogger. The advantage of a blog, is that I get to tell you about the pictures, and about the trip. It's more than just posting pictures online. Ready?

We three ate at Defina's and totally got into philosophical discussions about current events! I loved it. This is what defines excellent relationships, in my mind. Cris and I reconnected after 35 years a few years ago, and have been having great discussions ever since. Driving for hours to and from Yosemite gave us more time to talk about everything from grief to politics to sibling memories. I'm not the only one with a sibling who apparently did not share the same childhood!

A new-to-me "thing": cold-brewed coffee. It's brewed with cold water overnight. I had one as a latte at Peet's Coffee with Cris. It looked like a foamy beer. It was smooth and delicious! I have to try making this at home, since it hasn't invaded Bergen yet.

On to REI for a new rain jacket. Bergen has had record-breaking rain last July, last August, and this June. I can now verify that Gore-Tex does not last forever! Cris got new hiking boots. Her feet were killing her when she hiked in Norway the summer we reconnected. Her boots and my jacket served us well.

Speaking of shoes, I had ordered 3D printed shoes made for my specific feet, and had them delivered to Deanna's. They have a white flexible plastic sole and a grey super-flexible upper that looks almost knitted. They're lined with cloth. They fit pretty well, and are cushioned nicely. The company, Feetz, has you take pictures of each foot on a standard piece of paper (A4 in Europe) using a template they provide. They created a 3D image of my giant big toes and wide bases of the toes. The fit is decent; better than mass-produced ones. The right foot is perfect with socks, while the left foot is a tad bit too long. I have zero experience walking in ladies flats, so that left foot flopping is a problem.

We drove out to the Cliff House, at the ocean end of Golden Gate Park. Beautiful views! The history of the Cliff House is fascinating. We sat next to pictures showing the building in all its revisions through the decades. From that history link:
Mark Twain visits the Cliff House.   “If one tires of the drudgeries and scenes of the city, and would breathe the fresh air of the sea, let him take the cars and omnibuses, or, better still,a buggy and pleasant steed, and, ere, the sea breeze sets in, glide out to the Cliff House…”the San Francisco Daily Morning Call – June 25, 1864

Tadich's for dinner was delicious, and the next morning, Cris fixed equally delicious teff pancakes. I just discovered teff, after getting a card from my god-daughter in Ethiopia, where they farm teff. I used teff flour in a bread recipe I posted on Instructables.com. (recipe) It's a tasty brown gluten-free flour.

It was a nice day with Deanna, watching an avant-garde dance performance at Yerba Buena Park, then walking on Embarcadero.

The 3rd and 4th of July were Yosemite days. Cris and I hiked to and around Mirror Lake on Monday, and discovered that we have limitations that we were not really aware of! The slide show has lots of reflection pictures, and we saw a doe in among all the happy people in the lake. On the 4th, Tuesday, there was less traffic in the park (what a relief). We hiked a shorter but more vertical trail to Vernal Falls footbridge. We had our packed lunch to the roar of rushing water and joyful human sounds. A ground squirrel kept begging, but we kept scaring him off. Apparently, the small wild animals in the park have the plague! We got no flea bites, and only one or two mosquito bites, so the Yosemite trip was a big success.
Cris and hat-wearing Anne

Tuesday night, we spent at Cris' twin sister's house, 15 minutes from the park. They have identical voices, as well as mirrored features. I loved meeting her. Anne has a commanding view, two cats, a pool for cooling off in the 90+ degree days, a hot tub for warming up after talking for too long in the pool, and a chicken-wire-enclosed garden. She has kept her garden safe from almost all the hungry local wildlife with that chicken wire, and her compost bins are tough enough to withstand a bear attack!

This area of California has been devastated by the seven-year drought. The pine trees were weakened enough that pine beetles killed more than 102 million trees since 2010, across 7.7 million acres of California forest. (reference) Anne had over 40 trees cut down. The silver lining is that her view is more spectacular, I guess.

Wednesday, the 5th, we're getting close to the end of this wonderful trip. Cris and I drove back to the Bay area, and I went to hear Sen. Al Franken talk at JCCSF (Jewish Community Center SF). He brought down the house. You can listen to the podcast of the interview after it's processed, here. I'm proud to be Deanna's mother at JCCSF. They love her so much that she has been promoted from 25 to 40 hours per week! I loved watching her handle the book-signing line. One woman walked up to her to bitch about how the line was set up, and Deanna's smile never faltered. She just said, "The house security staff made this plan." After a couple of repetitions, the woman grumped back to her party.

Thursday, it was all over. After lunch, I was back on the plane. Nowadays, it only takes 10.5 hours each direction, between SFO and Copenhagen. Transfer to get to Bergen. Then I had a new plane trip to Stavanger to join my old work friends for a party. It was for Ankur, by Vandita.

Comments

  1. Hello Pilla,
    Not sure how to get in touch with you, so hopefully this is good. You likely know that Wencil retired a short while ago, and last I heard he is heading off to Sante Fe. I will be leaving Boeing after 35+ years on Sept. 22nd, so I'm starting to get my head around what the world will be like outside that company. There is a lot to explore yet on this planet. All is well.

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