Well, we are getting a late start
on the blog this trip. The first week on the road was very busy getting
settled in to our new RV. So far, everything is working fine and we are
just about finished getting our stuff sorted out and put away.
We left home on Tuesday, August 9th
for a short trip to the Marin RV Park just across the GG Bridge in Larkspur.
We ate out at a favorite BBQ place nearby. The last time we were
there in June, we arrived late and they were out of ribs. This trip as we
walked in the door, again towards closing, the manager recognized us and said
they were out of ribs again. Then he said," just kidding" and gave us
a free order of ribs. It's incredible that he would remember us from June, but
the food is great there and we'll be back.
On Wednesday, Judy had her
bi-monthly medical appointments at UCSF. Everything went fine, with no
changes in her status. "No changes" is good. Kevin took
us out to dinner Wednesday night at Angelino's, our favorite Sausalito restaurant.
Since it was Judy's birthday, she even got a free dessert.
Thursday, we shopped for RV stuff and went into SF to have dinner at The Grove restaurant and see a jazz concert at SF Jazz,
a great jazz venue nearby. The performance was by a Cuban born piano player,
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, with a great percussionist accompanist.
Friday, we traveled to Calistoga
and stayed at the fairgrounds RV park and relaxed, eating in and going to bed
early.
Saturday morning we went to the
farmers market in town, did a little more shopping and rested for our big
dinner Saturday night at the Frank Family Winery. it was a really great
dinner in a style we cannot ever recall experiencing. The dinner was a
Chardonnay and Lobster Feed. The meal was served on the back lawn on the
winery, family style on long tables. Seats were assigned by ticket number
and we sat next to people from Oregon, Southern California, the bay area and a
party of 15 celebrating a birthday for a guy from Wisconsin with a second home
in Napa. All five of his sisters and brothers and their families were
there.
Before the meal, Frank Family reserve wines were served in an open bar format
and fresh oysters were prepared as appetizers. There was also a very good
band. The meals were all cooked in a number of special pots that drained
when taken out of the boiling water. In each pot were whole Maine
lobsters, shrimp, bratwursts, corn on the cob, onions, artichokes, whole small red potatoes and
garlic bulbs. When the meal was ready one of the caterers dumped one whole pot on each table and people took what they wanted (only one lobster per
person). There were no knives or forks, only tools to crack the lobster,
lots of napkins, salt, pepper and various hot sauces and seasonings and cups of
melted butter. They also placed baguettes on the table and bottles of
wine with more on request as they ran out. It was certainly a “hands on”
dinner. Everything tasted great and it was truly a special treat for
Judy’s birthday.
We travelled over the mountain to
Clear Lake on Sunday on our way to Ashland, OR. We narrowly dodged the
fire in Lower Lake, traveled east on Highway 20 to I-5 at Winters then headed
north. It was a long 300 mile day with lots of mountain driving. We
stayed at a small, somewhat older RV park but it was quiet and in a nice
setting. We ate dinner in the RV and went to bed early.
After sleeping in Monday morning
and resting in the RV we went into Ashland to look around and have lunch.
Ashland is a neat town famous for its Shakespeare Festival every year as well
as a variety of other theater and musical productions. We had a nice
lunch, took a walk in their large city park along a creek running through town
then returned to the RV for another dinner in and early to bed.
Day 7 Pictures.
That’s about it until we left for
Crater Lake on Tuesday morning. We’ll do another post for that leg of the
trip and try to keep the blog current as we continue the trip. We also
have a few pictures to post and will try and do so as Internet connectivity
will allow.
No comments:
Post a Comment