Rollercoasters and Portland

On Monday, July 18th, Rich, Sarah and I went to Six Flags Discovery Kingom in Vallejo. It is full of rollercoasters. Rich and Sarah rode on all of the major ones, including Medusa, Kong and the traditional wooden rollercoaster, Roar. I wonder who thinks of these names. I am not the sit down ride around fast, inverted, twisting, etc type so I watched, stomach intact, taking pictures. I did go on SkyScreamer which was like a set of swings that go around a center column and raise up in the air so you get a good view. The park has a bit of a zoo and an aquarium as well.

Tuesday, Sarah and I drove the Subaru north and stayed in Medford, Oregon the first night. The next day we continued with a stop in Eugene to visit one of Sarah's college friends before arriving at Portland. We stayed at Jesse and Rae's apartment.

Thursday was apartment hunting day. Sarah had researched a few places both downtown and near her new job towards Gresham. One of the apartments downtown was really a studio with a kitchenette. This mini kitchen had a half size stove/oven, a sink with drainboard and a bar fridge in a closet with a few shelves. In fact it was so small it was smaller than the galley on Windarra. Needless to say, it was not the first choice. Sarah did find a great one bedroom apartment which is about a mile from her new job, full size kitchen and bath with a living room, dining area with two window seats, one in the bedroom and the other in the dining area. If all goes well and we expect it will, she will be able to move in at the end of the month.

Thursday evening after dinner, Jesse and Rae showed us pictures from their honeymoon. They flew from Los Angeles to Basel, Switzerland for a few nights before taking the train to Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre and back to Basel. The photos were fun especially of the hikes between the towns in Cinque Terre.

Friday Sarah dropped off her application for the apartment, made a quick stop at Costco and they dropped me off at the airport for my flight back to Oakland. With relative ease, I was able to give off the plane, take the shuttle from the airport to the BART station, ride BART to MacArthur station, take the Emery-Go-Round bus to Powell Street and met Rich for a short walk back to Windarra. We are now without a car. Soon we will be off the dock.

Catching up on current events

On Monday, July 4th, we (Rich, Sarah and I), stayed on Windarra in the marina. For the past two weeks there have been signs posted about no fireworks or alcohol in Emeryville on July 4th along our street, zero tolerance, no parking and the road will be closed from 5pm to 11pm. So we decided to just stay put. Instead we watched the movie, “Independence Day”, ate hamburgers and then when the movie was over we walked out to see the fireworks over downtown San Francisco and out by the Berkeley pier. It was a very low key holiday celebration.

The next day we washed the boat as it was a bit dusty and dirty. We drove Sarah to the airport so she could catch a flight to Portland, OR for a job interview. In the evening, we had Jenny Wannier and Alec Turnbull over for dinner. Jenny is Rae’s sister and of course you know that if you have been following the blog. Jenny is living in Boulder, Colorado and attending the University of Colorado. Alec was one of Jesse’s groomsmen and he visited us in Australia in 2003 and while we were in French Polynesia as well. Alec is currently living here in San Francisco doing contract work in web site design. Both have done some extensive travelling so we had lots to talk about. We are always on the lookout for potential crew…

Friday, July 8th, we drove into San Francisco for an appointment. On the way we got a call from Sarah that she had a job offer. HOORAY! Now she is looking for an apartment in Portland. A few hours later we got another call from Sarah. Someone had stolen the Honda, our car that she had been using. Boo-Hiss! After we returned to the boat we helped coordinate a police report and notification to the insurance company. Both the police and the insurance person said that often the car is found abandon a few days later and that whoever stole the car was just interested in a joyride. Well, we will see.

Quemores visit Windarra, 6/20-23

After dropping Jesse and Rae at the LA airport, Rich, Sarah and I drove back to Emeryville and Windarra. At the same time, Chris and Kathy Quemore were riding the Coast Starlight north to the Bay Area. At 10:30pm we met them at the train station in Emeryville and brought them home to Windarra.

Tuesday morning we drove up to Napa. Summer had arrived and it was plenty hot. We made a stop at the grocery store for items to fill our picnic basket then on to Castello di Amorosa for a tour and hopefully a chance to get out of the sun and to cool down. After some tasting in the chilled environment of the wine cellar we departed and went to enjoy our picnic. We chose the same spot we had from our previous visit to show Chris and Kathy the view of the valley. A bottle of cool chardonnay from Rutherford Hill topped off the picnic. That evening we watched the movie ‘Bottle Shock’ with Alan Rickman. It brings it home when you have just visited the same location.

Wednesday we took a trip to Sausalito. It was cooler and sitting in the sun was pleasant. After lunch we walked around the town, checking out the shops and the views of San Francisco.

Thursday morning we were up early to catch our tour boat to Alcatraz and Angel Island. Luckily we had booked this on Tuesday as it fills up fast. On the trip over, we caught sight of Oracle’s training catamarans. This sailboat is only 45 feet long. The boats they will race for the America’s Cup will be 72 feet. The black sails are distinctive and the boats are definitely fast.

None of us had been to Alcatraz before so it was fun to walk around. As part of the tour you get an individual audio system which tells you more about the prison, the inmates and what life was like. It must have been hard seeing the city just a short distance away. We boarded a powered catamaran for our trip to Angel Island. The catamaran has solar panels on the roof as well as wind generators to augment the diesel engines. It even has variable frequency generators, similar to the new 787s. Angel Island once served as the Ellis Island on the west coast for immigrants from Asia as well as being a military base. Now it is protected and folks may visit and picnic on the island. There is a nice anchorage with mooring buoys that we hope to visit later in July. We rode a tram around the island for a 1 hour tour. The road around the island afforded some spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. We were lucky that it was clear and fog free, which is not typical for this time of year. After the ride back we dropped Chris and Kathy at their hotel near the San Francisco airport so they may catch an early flight back to Tennessee.

We have been looking forward to their visit for a long time and we were glad to have this opportunity.