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The Trip North, and Back
Aug. 30th, 2005 07:21 pmHappy Birthday to my one-and-only, Chris (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
f__k)! I love you, and it is why I'm still in Dallas right now, waiting to take you to dinner before I have to go home to Houston.
I guess that I have to say that I'm happy at least to have a Houston to go back to, even if I will be sad to leave Chris after getting to spend several days straight with him. While watching the devastation that has occurred in New Orleans and Mississippi. Katrina is a storm that we always worry about having each year. Every hurricane season Houstonians wonder if we will be hit by a storm such as that. One advantage we have is not being below sea level, but we're close to it, and water can easily back up in Galveston Bay as it did with Allison in 2001.
It's interesting that on Sunday night Chris and I went out to dinner with Richard (bear_with_me), Matthew (mamoosh), Scott (sftekbear), and Cory (ibubtoo), and we got to talking about earthquakes. Most, they said were very small, and as Richard said, they were "just good enough to stir your drink," but visitors like me always make such a big deal about it. This was after I asked the waitress for more sourdough bread, thereby re-marking me as a tourist. Still, I'm sure that they worry about the big ones, as few and far between as they are.
I'm sad that the trip is over. It was very exciting and fun, and they city was exciting, but the countryside was good as well, seeing more of California than just the city. When I last wrote, we were sick, and had made the trip up to Chris' parents place in Kelseyville. Their place is just off of Clearlake, a huge lake in Northern California. The lake is natural, created by volcanoes and the hills all around the lake. It's beautiful, but it is true that Lake County isn't an affluent place, with more trailers than homes in the area. Still, Kelseyville did have a fairly good bistro that was certainly trying to raise the standards. Talk is that the county is getting more affluent as people who are priced out of the Sonoma and Napa Valleys are moving in. Still, one of our meals was at the very upscale Round Table Pizza.
Just for the record, Kelseyville is the seat of Pear production for California, and possibly the US. Still, as growers have increasing competition from other countries, they are turning to more grape production, with several wineries in the area. The Fetzer winery was on the road in, just before you climb the twisting road through the hills. I almost wanted to stop to see how they put the wines in those boxes.
We went out with Chris' dad on his boat last Wednesday. I had to grab some Dramamine since I get seasick very easily. I was glad that I did, since the water was very choppy. We hung out on the lake for a while, where Chris' dad, was actually talking at length. He's usually kind of quiet. Chris' mom stayed behind that day working on the beaded bracelets that she sells on eBay. She later baked a cake for Chris' birthday that she meant for us to eat when we went to visit Chris' aunt in Calistoga, but we had a great meal there, that we were all too full to eat it. We didn't eat the cake until our last morning in San Francisco, before we had to head for the plane in San Jose.
We stayed overnight in Calistoga on Friday, after crossing the hills between Lake County and the Napa Valley. The Napa Valley was nice, with more hills and more grapes. We woke up to a nice view of wineries and hills in the background, and spent time with Chris' aunt who was happy to have us around to help he with her new cell phone. We threw balls and frisbees to her dogs, who kind of reminded us of Joey.
After leaving Calistoga, we crossed another set of hills in our little Prius to get back to Santa Rosa. There we went to the Charles M. Schultz museum with all of it's Peanuts memorabilia and the artwork. It was a lot of fun, and different than the other sight-seeing that we had been doing.
We traveled from Santa Rosa down to Muir Woods, about an hour and a half before closing, and walked though the woods in the failing light. Eerie and beautiful. It was rather quiet as most of the tourists were leaving. It was another winding road back and forth, making me wonder if they can actually make a straight road anywhere up there. We ended our tour of the north by going up to the Marin Headlands as darkness fell. The bridge was lit up as was the city behind it. The wind was cold and the fog was falling over the hills above us. We got a few pictures and kissed before leaving the old fort and making our way back over the same bridge and into the city for a little more time.
I'll cover the last of our trip soon, but for now I need to get ready to take Chris out for dinner, and get ready for the drive back to Houston. Still, I wish I was still on Pacific Time.
f__k)! I love you, and it is why I'm still in Dallas right now, waiting to take you to dinner before I have to go home to Houston.I guess that I have to say that I'm happy at least to have a Houston to go back to, even if I will be sad to leave Chris after getting to spend several days straight with him. While watching the devastation that has occurred in New Orleans and Mississippi. Katrina is a storm that we always worry about having each year. Every hurricane season Houstonians wonder if we will be hit by a storm such as that. One advantage we have is not being below sea level, but we're close to it, and water can easily back up in Galveston Bay as it did with Allison in 2001.
It's interesting that on Sunday night Chris and I went out to dinner with Richard (
bear_with_me), Matthew (mamoosh), Scott (sftekbear), and Cory (ibubtoo), and we got to talking about earthquakes. Most, they said were very small, and as Richard said, they were "just good enough to stir your drink," but visitors like me always make such a big deal about it. This was after I asked the waitress for more sourdough bread, thereby re-marking me as a tourist. Still, I'm sure that they worry about the big ones, as few and far between as they are.I'm sad that the trip is over. It was very exciting and fun, and they city was exciting, but the countryside was good as well, seeing more of California than just the city. When I last wrote, we were sick, and had made the trip up to Chris' parents place in Kelseyville. Their place is just off of Clearlake, a huge lake in Northern California. The lake is natural, created by volcanoes and the hills all around the lake. It's beautiful, but it is true that Lake County isn't an affluent place, with more trailers than homes in the area. Still, Kelseyville did have a fairly good bistro that was certainly trying to raise the standards. Talk is that the county is getting more affluent as people who are priced out of the Sonoma and Napa Valleys are moving in. Still, one of our meals was at the very upscale Round Table Pizza.
Just for the record, Kelseyville is the seat of Pear production for California, and possibly the US. Still, as growers have increasing competition from other countries, they are turning to more grape production, with several wineries in the area. The Fetzer winery was on the road in, just before you climb the twisting road through the hills. I almost wanted to stop to see how they put the wines in those boxes.
We went out with Chris' dad on his boat last Wednesday. I had to grab some Dramamine since I get seasick very easily. I was glad that I did, since the water was very choppy. We hung out on the lake for a while, where Chris' dad, was actually talking at length. He's usually kind of quiet. Chris' mom stayed behind that day working on the beaded bracelets that she sells on eBay. She later baked a cake for Chris' birthday that she meant for us to eat when we went to visit Chris' aunt in Calistoga, but we had a great meal there, that we were all too full to eat it. We didn't eat the cake until our last morning in San Francisco, before we had to head for the plane in San Jose.
We stayed overnight in Calistoga on Friday, after crossing the hills between Lake County and the Napa Valley. The Napa Valley was nice, with more hills and more grapes. We woke up to a nice view of wineries and hills in the background, and spent time with Chris' aunt who was happy to have us around to help he with her new cell phone. We threw balls and frisbees to her dogs, who kind of reminded us of Joey.
After leaving Calistoga, we crossed another set of hills in our little Prius to get back to Santa Rosa. There we went to the Charles M. Schultz museum with all of it's Peanuts memorabilia and the artwork. It was a lot of fun, and different than the other sight-seeing that we had been doing.
We traveled from Santa Rosa down to Muir Woods, about an hour and a half before closing, and walked though the woods in the failing light. Eerie and beautiful. It was rather quiet as most of the tourists were leaving. It was another winding road back and forth, making me wonder if they can actually make a straight road anywhere up there. We ended our tour of the north by going up to the Marin Headlands as darkness fell. The bridge was lit up as was the city behind it. The wind was cold and the fog was falling over the hills above us. We got a few pictures and kissed before leaving the old fort and making our way back over the same bridge and into the city for a little more time.
I'll cover the last of our trip soon, but for now I need to get ready to take Chris out for dinner, and get ready for the drive back to Houston. Still, I wish I was still on Pacific Time.
