San Francisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea May 17

Monterey to Carmel-by-the-Sea

May 17

On the way out of town we stopped by the local supermarket, Trader Joe's. They had a huge floral department. Prices were good. Orchids that went for $35 in New Orleans were $13 here. Assorted bouquets with calla lillies were $9.

The decor was Hiwaiian. I half expected to hear Tikki music. We enjoyed samples of cinnamon croissant with raspberries & sliced mango. There was a free glass of fresh squeezed chilled organic orange juice.

Ground meat was $1.99. There were also good prices on wine. I found a Vouvray champagne for $8.00 which was not bad as it turned out when we had it that evening. I did not know there was such a thing as Vouvray champagne & was happy about that. Vouvray is my favorite white wine & I like champagne even better than white wine.

There was a sale on a wine label Trader Joe's had purchased from a winery going out of business. The label was Blue Fin. Bottles were $3.99. I should have purchased some to see if my rule of thumb was correct. Normally I say nothing under $4, nothing with dust on the bottle , nothing with a frou frou label. That one had all of this.

There was a Whole Foods store next door. Prices over there were high. Noticed their parking lot was full but Trader Joe's was doing all the business. The deli in Whole Foods had some disposable forks that looked like they were made of plastic but were actually made of potato starch.

Out of curiosity we walked through a Costco first thing in the morning before the door greeter started checking membership cards. If I had never been to a Sam's Club it would have been impressive. It was apparent that Walmart had copied Costco down to the last centimeter.

I had heard a few years back that Costco had caskets for under $400 so looked on the back aisles. It turns out they didn't stock it at this location though they do at some others. I looked up caskets on http://www.costco.com/ . Costco sells them in 34 states but not Louisiana or Mississippi.

It has to be billed & shipped to the same address. The manufacturer is Universal Casket Company. Standard shipping is Monday by noon, Wednesday by 5 pm although it can be expedited for a fee of ordered by 2 pm Monday with delivery by 5 pm Tuesday. 18 guage steel was $924 - $2999; a flag case was $89; 32 oz copper from Edward Casket Company on this site was $2599; floral spray was $299-$329.

I looked up casket suppliers on the internet. http://www.dignifiedcaskets.com/ had 18 guage caskets for $995 as well. woden caskets cost $2300.

Costco members paid $2.45/gallon at the station in the lot. Other stations locally were $2.56. A couple of days later in Silicon Valley gas was $2.71-$2.85.

The Jelly Belly Factory is in Fairfield. Jelly Belly brand came out in 1976. They offer a free tour. We learned it takes between 7 to 21 days to make their jelly beans because they brush on the layers of flavor one at a time. The beans have to dry between applications.

Before the brand came out they were making jelly beans for Govenor Ronald Reagan. He was trying to quit cigarettes. His favorite flavor was licorice. They created blueberry jelly beans for the inaugration when Reagan was elected President for a red, white & blue display. They also invented a dispenser that wouldn't tip over for use in Air Force One. There were mosaics on the walls created by a San Francisco artist of Princess Di, Ronald & Nancy Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Duck, Elvis, Walt Disney. There was a 3 D tableaux of a mallard swimming among cattails. We got to sample a tangerine bean & received a take away bag of mixed flavors. The factory is closed on weekends so we saw movies of production. It was a great tour.

#1 Jelly Belly Lane, Fairfield

800-955-5592

www.jellybelly.com

It was hot in the area near Gilroy, farming country. We saw artichoke farms, big strawberry operations. It went from 104 degrees to 65 in half a mile as we neared Monterey.

This is the world capitol of garlic. I recalled watching a documentry 20 years ago about the International Garlic Festival held here annually, a film titled Garlic As Good As Your Mother.

We parked in Monterey by the beach. The water was crystal clear.

We walked toward the world class acquarium, had lunch at a gourmet restaurant overhanging the water called FishHopper. We had abalone, grilled scallops & prawns with mashed potatoes. There was a marinated artichoke appetizer that was great. Dessert was hot fudge sundaes at a Ghiradelli icecream/chocolate candy store.

700 Cannery Row

http://www.FishHopper.com/

There was a 17 mile scenic drive to Pebble Beach and Carmel-by-the-Sea

Shepard's Knoll Outlook

Spanish Bay Outlook

Restless Sea Lookout

Brandt's Cormorants need to sun themselves after catching fish because their feathers aren't waterproof & need to dry.

Samuel F.B. Morse founded Pebble Beach along the edge of the 5,300 acre Del Monte forest

Lone Cypress Tree is 250 years old.

We stopped at the Pebble Beach Golf course, visited the gift shop,purchased Robert 2 shirts & an ink pen. You do not want to know what the pen cost. The shirts were on sale, $35 apiece. I was hoping Robert would decide to retire a couple of his faded golf shirts that he has been wearing for the last 10 years. They must be his lucky shirts. Apparently he will be keeping them all.

We rejoined Hwy 1 and drove through the village of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Clint Eastwood was not to home.

Fog rolled in at 6 pm. A lifeguard told the surfers over a loud intercom to leave the water in 2 minutes because he couldn't see them.

This bucolic villate is one mile square. Many folks had yards where all the space was flowers or landscaped flowering trees. It reminded me of a Yorkshire hamlet. It was hilly there. The streets resembled a country lane. Houses for sale were represented by Sotheby's.

We had reservations with best Western Lanai Gardens in San Jose. I asked the reservations agent to help me find a room at a place on I-101 between San Jose & San Francisco. He was no help at all. Good thing we had the AAA book.


We knew the way to San Jose thanks to our gps but it was hard to get to our hotel due to a 4 lane interstate in front of it & a 4 lane street on the side of it. For a time it seemed like a mirage.


The new owners are Vietnamese & were very nice. The book says the pool is heated but it was not. They also had a box fan in the lobby to circulate air instead of central a/c working which made us wonder if it was also not working in our room but the system in our room functioned just fine. We got there in time to watch the 2 hour season finale of Desperate Houswives.
The room was discounted with AAA membership to $71.00. The free breakfast was nice, with make your own Belgian waffles.

1575 Tully Rd., San Jose 408-929-8100

San Fancisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea May 18

San Francisco Encore
May 18


San Jose is 57 miles from San Francisco. The next morning it took us two hours to get to Enterprise Leasing downtown to return our car. It was Monday; there was lots of traffic but it moved smoothly. Entrances onto the freeway are controlled with traffic lights. Approaching San Francisco it looked like a fire but was just low lying fog. We passed the headquarters for Microsoft, Yahoo, Intel, Walmart.com. There was a dirigible hanger for the Good Year blimp. We had seen a blimp flying over the bay earlier in the week advertising the disney film 'UP'.










We put 480 miles on the rental car.











It was time to check our bags with Eddy the personable doorman at Hotel Sir Frances Drake. The hotel stored them for us until our room was ready that afternoon.








Hotel Sir Frances Drake has had 6 owners. Kimpton has owned it since 1995. Eddy & Laban were the doormen we met. They have been working there for over 10 years. Laban told us he got his start with the company at Hotel Serrano.









450 Powell Street
415-392-7755





We got on a different street car than the others we had ridden earlier in the week, ending up by the Levi Strauss offices/museum.




Lynne Downey the company historian was being interviewed by a Dutch journalist with a European fashion magazine.

There was a jacket displayed from a contest in 1974 where fabric artists were invited to submit Levi jeans jackets they had appliqued.

We watched a film on how they recreate vintage jeans, copying them down to the last rip and worn crease.

There was a display of check blotters that were given away with purchase in the early 1960's to put under your check when you wrote one with a fountain pen so the ink wouldn't go through the paper onto the writing surace underneath.

We walked up to Union & down Lombard Street, saw the wild parrots in some magnolia trees on an upper terrace. You could see them flying around & hear them but when they were in the trees it was very hard to see them because they were the same color as the foliage. A parrot sat with his back to me. He kept turning so all I could see was his tail feathers. I remarked that no one would want to see a picture of the bird's backside. Another photographer commented not to be so sure, that this was San Francisco after all.

The address is 1000 Lombard, corner of Union Street. The best way to get there is from the cable car at Pier 39.

On the corner of Vallejo, bottom of Lombard we found a famed coffee house, Caffe Trieste. It was founded August 28,1956, by an Italian named Johnny Gianni, known as Papa. He dropped by while we were there, played a couple of Nat King Cole songs on the jukebox, Sweet Lorraine & Sunny Side of the Street. The jukebox has records from the day the place opened; artists such as Connie Frances, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Sinatra, Caruso, Lawrence Welk. It is a very cozy place with shiny red concrete floors, murals on the walls. There was not room for one more picture on the walls, black & white celebrity photos such as Pavarotti or Bill Cosby fixing his own coffee behind the counter.

Caffe Trieste was the first coffee house established on the West Coast.

It was lunch time so we had cafe au lait and a turkey with cheese panini. It was the best coffee I have ever had.

415-392-6739

http://www.caffetrieste.com/

Washington Square, a park shaped like a parallelogram, was around the corner. There were yellow caution strips set out in the middle of the park for a dog obedience class that started as we watched.

There is a big church facing the park, Church of Saints Peter & Paul. There were several statues in the park, such as one of Benjamin Franklin in a grove of trees & a badger by a pond.

On the corner of the park we saw Joe DiMaggio's Chop House. It is open for supper, looked expensive, a place where you would wear a suit & tie.

After that we toured the cable car museum which was free. Cable cars travel at 9.5 mph. There are 40 cable cars with a maximum of 26 operating daily. Cable cars are single or double ended. Singles run on Powell-Mason & Powell-Hyde. This type has to be turned around at the end. Doubles on California don't have to be turned around; the conductor just switches ends of the car.

There were black & white photos of the April 18,1906 earthquake. Fires burned over 400 blocks of the city. The oldest streetcar was on exhibit, Clay Hill #8 from 1873. It is loaned to Chicago for the Columbian exposition & disappeared, turning up in Baltimore at the Baltimore/Ohio railway museum. After this discovery it was returned to San Francisco.

We caught the California to Van Ness streetcar back toward Powell, enjoying a lively tour from our favorite loquacious conductor Chris. Most of the other conductors didn't say anything or visited with their coworkers.

There was a massive Edwardian brownstone facing California Street that seems to take up the entire block known as the Flood Mansion. It is now a private gentleman's club. Chris told us Bill Clinton is a member there.

We ended up near Ghiradelli Square, site of the candy company that is now a shoppping center & condominiums. It is a series of brick buildings. The Clock Tower building dates back to 1916; Mustard bldg 1899; Woolen Mill bldg 1864; Cocoa bldg 1900.

There is a photo contest at the moment where if you submit a winning photo of Ghiradelli Square you can receive a $100 gift card. http://www.ghiradellisq.com/

Another shopping center nearby is known as Cannery Row & was a Del Monte canning plant.

Quite a few of those submitting San Francisco trips on Yahooo.com mention eating at a fast food place called In & Out Burger. There was one on Beach Blvd so we gave it a try. We had cheeseburgers/fries & a coke and it was $9.50 for the both of us. It was very good.

Our room was ready at the Sir Frances Drake Hotel. It was a corner room on the 14th floor, #1428, with a view of Union Suare. We loved it. Beautifully furnished, king bed, nice sheets, quiet. The closet looked as big as my office at home.

The bell hop brought us a box of cookies & a couple of bottles of Sir Frances Drake water that had a picture of the 3 doormen on the label. Normal price of our room was $479.00 according to the sign posted on the back of the door. We paid $165.00.

There was a hardbound San Francisco city guide in the room. It recommended The Stinking Rose, a restaurant on Columbus Street that was also mentioned in the Yahoo trip guides & AAA book. We made reservations. The voice on the answer machine messsage sounded like Dracula. One of the options was if we wanted to speak to a dead person to push button #4. The concierge at our hotel said the rabbit there is terrible. During Shakespeare's time garlic was called a stinking rose.

sign: 'we season our garlic with food'

Robert had the porterhouse pork chop. I had the 40 clove roasted chicken. My chicken was cooked on a bed of garlic cloves. All 40 of them were on my plate.

There was fresh pesto & house brand olive oil to dip our herbed yeast rolls in. The rolls were on a plate that sat on a cast iron stand over a candle to keep the plate of rolls warm, a nice touch. I had the garlic icecream with brown sugar sauce for dessert. Robert did not care for it but I thought it was delicious.

I thought about Oscar Wilde's quip that you never know how much is too much until you over do it. We both had garlic aftertaste in our mouths until the next day however, no matter how many times we brushed our teeth and used mouthwash.

325 Columbus St

http://www.thestinkingrose.com/

415-781-7673

There are a ton of good restaurants as well as mom & pop groceries on Columbus Street

sign: 'may dog be with you"

sign: 'enough with the plywood"

We learned that there was a worldwide psychiatric professional convention meeting here this week. Conventioneers from America, Norway, Sweden and Denmark were fellow guests at the Sir Frances Drake. One of them, a Norwegian blonde explained she was attending it & that the convention will be held in New Orleans next year.

San Francisco Scientology Center

San Francisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea May 19

Adieu San Francisco

May 19,2009


On our last morning we got up before 6 am & rode the streetcar to Beach Street. It intersects Columbus Avenue near there.

We ate breakfast at Joanie's Happy Days Cafe. There was a Google map & critic review taped to the front window. He liked the place but hated the music on their web site.
http://www.jackspics.com/


Other items on the menu that were different besides usual breakfast fare were a breakfast burrito, bowl of chili with cheese, hamburger patty, corned beef hash, chicken breast, steak with white gravy. Besides regular hamburgers they also had an avocado & bacon burger. Royal's Scrambled had hamburger, spinach, mushrooms & onions. Hobo Scrambled had ham, onions, country style potatoes plus Jack, Swiss & Cheddar cheeses.

I had Eggs Benedict made with crab under the spinach. The place is decorated with subtle taupe wallls and tile floor and has black & white photos of San Francisco street scenes.

1328 Columbus Avenue

415-928-4843

We saw kids start walking to school around 8:30 am. School is from 9-5.

We walked down Lombard. The best way to see the crooked part of it turns out to be catching
the Hyde streetcar at Pier 39.

We had cafe au lait at another charming coffee shop, Caffee Sapore. It is located at the bottom of Lombard/corner of Taylor Street.





















"Foreign places are not meant for you to be comfortable in them. They are desgned for natives of that area to be comfortable. If you do not like it go home & stay there." Clifton Fadiman





Home again.

Of course an online quilting magazine sent me a feature on fabric stores in San Francisco the day I get home. There was one shop I saw on Geary Street, Britex that was mentioned but did not go in. It would have been nice to buy some special material for the next quilt I will be starting soon. It looked like they had specialty shops for Chineese silk & Indian saris, novelty shops for theatrical costume materials. Besides several in San Fancisco there were a few in Berkley & Oakland.

Britex 415-392-2910 146 Geary St
Mendel's Far Out Fabric 415-621-1287 1556 Haight St
African Outlet 415-864-3576 524 Octavia St
Fabrix 415-221-4111 101 Clement St
Satin Moon 415-668-1623 32 Clement St
Black Cat Quilts 415-337-1355 2608 Ocean Avenue
Stone Mountain & Daughter 510-845-6106 2518 Shattuck Ave, Berkley
Silk Road 510-763-1688 272 14th St., Oakland

It's always nice to purchase some special souvenir distinctive to the area you visit. I regret for example not purchasing some hot & cold water faucets in France that read 'chaud' and 'froid', or a kitchen ceiling lampshade typical of country farmhouses, lampshades that look like a chinaman's hat with a lace handkercheif draped over it. On this trip we purchased caps for opened champagne bottles that keeps the fizz in after the bottle is opened, wine & food pairing charts from the Chandon winery.

Two ways to save for your next vacation are when you make a purchase for cash set aside any $5 bills you get in a vacation fund.


The other is to round down the amount of your paycheck when you balance your account, then round up the total for any checks you write so that you have more money in your account than it looks like. Keep a running total of the excess. At the end of each moth take that out & deposit into the vacation savings account.


We took 1,368 digital pictures on the trip.


It took us 36 hours to edit them and write this story.















Merna and Robert Schneider May 22, 2009