Cellspace

Had lunch at Louis�� Restaurant, which also has a great view, and is definitely cheaper than Cliff House, although you can��t really compare the food (simple food).
There was some big happening at Cellspace that Karl had found out about, so we headed to the corner of 18th and Bryant to check it out. Some company had sponsored it, but the evening was filled with programme.

They also had robots there, like this beer robot.
And one that looked so familiar and nice that Robin wanted to learn more about it.��
And some jazz, and later something much wilder, we heard...
... because we decided to leave for dinner to Velvet Cantina, a very crowdy place, and with pretty decent Mexican food. Found out afterwards that the party had turned quite raunchy - damn!

Anything for Starbuck´s

I needed my daily Caffe Latte, so checked from my Garmin where I would find a Starbuck��s at the sea. It turned out to be at Pacific State Beach, so I drew south along Cabrilly Hwy (1) and walked along the beach.
A hangout for local surfers, and when the evening comes, maybe for some other activities, too.

Back to Lands End + Tiburon

I decided to come back to the area already the next day, because the weather was much better.
It also happened to be Memorial Day. Anyway, I decided to take a long walk along the coast line from the Cliff House to China Beach (about), and the back along the road.










Palace of the Legion of Honor
My gut feeling told me I needed lunch, so I drove over to Tiburon in search for that, and found Sam��s Anchor Cafe. Not the best place food-wise, but at the seashore.


This looked liked the place I��d like to check out next time, though.
A fog was coming up...
...the road was packed with cars...
...... and the Golden Gate Bridge was disappearing...

First rain and Cliff House

Wow, I don��t think it had rained for more than two months, so waking up that day taking a look out of the window was a surprise. Had to use the heater on the weekend to warm up the flat, instead of having the sun doing that.
It stopped raining and I drove to the Beach Chalet for lunch, but decided to walk to the Cliff House, instead.
The views are pretty nice.
And the location of the house is pretty fabulous.
Right?
The house has an old history...
... and was long ago used as a bath house.
But today it is most famous for the location and the food.
The food was very good...
... and the view from the restaurant window wasn��t too bad, either.
The views on the other side, towards Land��s End were interesting, too...
... but the weather was so freaking cold that I didn��t feel like exploring that area - this time.

Greetings and appointments

There is this guy at the reception/security in our office building who is a little different than other receptionists. The first time he was there I couldn´t really see him, because the corner where he was sitting was pretty dark, and he is extremely ... um, dark, too.

So I was a little surprised when I heard a greeting, and expecially when it was saying "How´ya doin, bro´?". That was pretty laid back for a greeting, I would say.

Well, we greeted each other every morning, and suddenly some days later he greeted me with "What´s up chief?". A few days later it was "How´s´it going´, boss?", and then "Good morning, boss!".

Something had clearly changed, but I don´t know if it´s good or bad. Normally, if somebody starts calling you "boss", you have gone up in the ranks. But on the other hand, of somebody calls you "brother", that could mean quite a lot, too.

Hm...

Robin´s Bday party

Damn, I had almost forgotten this one! But I have a very good excuse, read on...

I returned from Finland via Amsterdam to SF on Thursday evening at 7.20PM (or something like that). I took a cab to my condo, took a shower, and took the next taxi to Bourbon & Branch. The place was so well hidden (no windows) that I found it only because some other guest were going there, too. Robin had reserved the whole backroom, which was packed with guests.

I received quite a few compliments when people heard that I had just returned after an international flight and if I wouldn´t have been so totally jetlagged, I probably would´ve taken some pictures, as well as remember something from the evening. But Auste, Karl, Bob, etc were of course there - in addition to Robin.

Flying back

I was at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport in time, and the flight was actually late, so I had some extra time. Watching out of the restaurant window I saw lots of smoke and took a picture. Some other people took a picture, too, but the waitress said it is forbidden. Oh, well, I was fast and nobody noticed. It was not a plain crashing or anything dramatic, just something being burned nearby. But quite some smoke.

So, I had a flight at 13:15, which left an hour late, but due to the time difference I was in SanFran at 19:20 the same day, even if I was flying for ages. All went well, though. And I even found my car intact at the airport parking. And I didn��t crash it driving, jetlagged.

Good food

I had almost forgotten how professional service you can get in a restaurant, and how good the food can be, too. We had dinner at one of our favourites, Tapiontori.
It tasted very good, and as you can see, it did not look too bad, either.

Finnish spring/summer

I spent a couple of days in Cultural Center Sofia in Vuosaari, just outside of Helsinki and was once again struck by the beautiful nature in Finland. It was very nice to spend at least some time in the fresh air and try to recover from the jetlag.

Flying to Finland - in parallel

I needed to fly to Finland on business, something that I hadn´t planned when we booked the flights for Sirpa, so I didn´t manage to gets a seat on the same flight. She had a flight with KLM leaving around 3pm, and I had a flight with Luftwaffe...hansa leaving at 2pm. And they were of course in separate terminals, so had to go separate ways at customs (buaaa).

My flight was late, so in the end I think we left SanFran about at the same time, my flight taking me to Munich/Helsinki and Sirpa´s to Amsterdam/Helsinki. But we arrived in Helsinki on Monday before 6pm, both of us, so we joined a taxi to our house in Larry Bay, Espoo, Finland.

Heat in SanFran

At least when it come to the weather, Sirpa was extremely lucky when she was here. The two weeks before were windy, cloudy and colder, but during the week she was here it changed. Clear blue skies, little wind, and high temperatures - for SanFran that is. We had one day of 35C, and most other days were around 25C or even above. I read that it has not been that warm in SanFran for about 50 years. And naturallt the temperatures fell below 20C when she left, and the winds returned. But it was great as long as it lasted!

A day in Wine/Marin Country

We hook up with Gregory and Greta at Caffe Centro in South Park. Greta had brought an old colleague and his son along, too. Gregory jumped in to our car, and the next stop was in Sonoma, some 70 km away.
Sonoma is really nice, and being in the Wine Country, also warmer.
Check their site for more history, but in 1823, Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma was established by Father Junipero Serra. It was the only California mission installed after Mexican independence from Spanish rule. Sonoma was first acknowledged by Mexico as a City in 1835.
Yes, very nice.
City Hall is pretty old, some of the really old buildings have been preserved, although some how burned, etc.
It also so happened that their was a big Porsche meeting in the city that day, so we walked around and admired all the old a well-kept cars.
Sonoma has lots of nice cafes and restaurants, as well as lots of shops, small inner yards, etc.
And some hotels, too.
The population is only about 9500, and there are only a few streets, but here��s a map if you get lost.
Next stop was Petaluma, a somewhat bigger city with a population of 70000. And - surprise, surprise - there was a car meetup in this city, too. Greta started to think that Gregory had planned it...
This was all about American cars, all the way back to (almost) the T-Ford, and to a few years back. Challengers, Mustangs, Firebirds, etc - and this fabulous old Vette.
We walked around for a while and had lunch at Graffiti, a very nice place with a pretty decent wine list, too.
Next stop was Armstrong Redwoods National Park, a place quite few is aware of. If you drive north, it��s the closest place where you can experience those big trees.
I call them big, not huge, because I have seen huge trees in Sequoia. But these aren��t small, either...
Armstrong was an interesting guy. He made timber of most of the redwoods in the area until there was almost nothing left, but decided to preserve them.
Today it is a very nice park, well organized, and as said, not too crowded.
The trip continued along Russian River to Jenner, a point where you can watch over the ocean and there is kind of an island where the river ends. And the seal enjoy this place, which for us humans is damn cold.
The coastline here is pretty rugged, but a very beautiful sight. Sorry about the people destroying it :-)
After a long day it was time for dinner at The Tides in Bodega Bay, a place known for a few things. One is the location at the coast, and the great and fresh seafood.
But the main thing is that the movie "Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock was filmed here, and there��s lots of information and pictures about that in the restaurant.
It was foggy at the coast and it was dark when we arrived, but still quite a view right out of the window.
It was a pretty amazing day. We started around 10am, and were home around 10pm, so a full day. Temperatures were about 20C in SanFran, rose to almost 30C in Sonoma, but it fell down to below 15C up in Bodega Bay. We only drew around 315 km, but covered Wine Country, Redwoods in a national park, a fantastic coast line - and everything just around the corner.