Vacation Wrap up

We have been back from our Oregon trip for a few days, still catching up on laundry, (why is there always laundry? I even did a load in the hotel!) so everything still feels pretty fresh and new. The second half of the trip turned out to be mostly visiting college campuses. Henry is heading into high school, but he has been following college sports for years and knows exactly what schools he wants to see, namely, Oregon State University in Corvallis and University of Oregon in Eugene.

Henry the future beaver in the brand new basketball gym

Henry (on the 2nd floor) in UO business school

The loot, book from Powell's, yarn from Pearl Fiber Arts

How interesting some of you mentioned Portlandia in last week's comments. I have seen a few episodes of the show (Henry too), and really enjoyed it. I wanted to visit Portland, because it's the city of bikes and public transit, fresh organic local foods and free spirited Portlandias unpolluted by the corporate national retail chains, not to mention all the yarn shops. It'd only be fitting for me to plan a trip that takes me there on the train, and we'd find a little place to stay through AirBnB, maybe someone's backyard cottage, or a garage converted into tiny apartment; we'd get around town on bikes or buses; we'd shop in the local farmer's market or eat at the food carts. I wanted to support startups, small business, local economy, and do everything to avoid big boxes and corporate chains.

Best laid plans.

Searching for a place to stay for two people that are not a couple is a bit of a chore, and it's nearly impossible on AirBnB. I had to look at each posting and click on the pictures to see if there is a fold out sofabed or cot or some other alternative arrangement. If I search for accommodation for three people I end up with a family size apartment that's way over my budget. Occasionally there are places with the right arrangement, but the place may not be available for all the dates, or the owner looks like a gansta or spacey hippie that hasn't logged in the site for a few days. Do I really want to stay on their property?

So I went back to the familiar. On Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline.com, every hotel has a two-queen-bed standard room, and an 800 number I can call any time. Yeah, the rates are pretty good too.

And then there is the train. According to Amtrak website, for the two of us, round trip between San Jose and Portland, with a roomette, it'd set me back close to $1000. A rental car costs less than $200. The Chevy Impala we got was a gas guzzler at 25 mpg, after 1600 miles the total gas expense was less than $250. A lot of things we did, like going to the coast and visiting the campuses, we wouldn't have done without a car. We were very glad to have the options.

As for the farm fresh organic food, we hit quite a few food carts. I used an app, CartCompass, to find the nearest pod, then it switches to Google Maps for the directions. The food can be a hit and miss as well as seating, and it's outdoors of course. After a few days I caved and let Henry hit Subways and other familiar places, since I really needed Starbucks some afternoons to stay upright and alert. You can't beat the AC, a nice cool place to sit down while charging my phone, and free wifi so we can research our next destination.

We really enjoyed our trip, but sometimes I wonder if it's reasonable for me to insist on "doing it right", and why it's so hard to "do it right". After my years in bay area, I might have become one of the suburban car-centric Americans that can't live without supermarkets, coffee shops, and 24x7 customer service.

While we were on the road, my husband got a call one morning and was informed his position was eliminated, in fact, his entire group was disbanded. Six hours later on the same day he received an offer from a group he had been talking to (in the same company) with a job offer. I was happy to be away for those few hours and avoided all the drama. We are all extremely pleased the world worked its own magic.

A few days before we left Henry's transfer to a new high school was finalized after couple of weeks of intense negotiations. It's been a roller-coaster 8th grade year, especially the last few weeks. In the new school Henry will have a chance to enjoy playing music, continue to pursue his academic interests, start learning Chinese, and may even join the basketball team. This freshman will have a nice fresh start indeed.

If you are still reading this far, have a Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, and leave me a comment!

Blogging on the Run

Henry and I are traveling in Oregon this week. Many new sights and we are thoroughly enjoying the change of scenery. With a teenager in tow, I'm not visiting as many yarn shops as I would like, but here are some random pictures. Lots more on Facebook, find me there!

The Websters in Ashland. We got in town late and the shop was closed.

The picture above is a very large scale yarn bombing/art installation project in Portland. More information and lots more pictures can be found on this blog. They will put up more pieces in the next few days, and I'm going to see if I can catch a few more glimpse before leaving town.

Powell's bookstore not only has a huge knitting section, they even sell yarn!

Can't agree more with this stash philosophy

I brought Tilly with me as my travel knitting, imagine my nice little surprise to see Tillie the Tillamook mascot when we visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Then again I thought she was a little lam :D

The gorgeous Oregon coast

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Playing with Ellen's Yarns

Nightsongs (Gail) got a nice soak the other day, and I pinned it to a yoga mat to block, since I can't find the foam blockers except for used kiddie mats (who knows what's been on them!). The stitches really opened up after blocking. Isn't it gorgeous? And if you still can't find the error, I think I'm getting away with it! This is one of my happiest projects from Ellen's Half Pint Yarns.

Next, turning knitting back into yarn. From this:

To this:

To this:

The sweater was ripped, yarn skeined and washed. I have:
- 9.75oz, 792.2 yards variegated Ellen's Half Pint Falkland merino
- 6oz, 487.5 yards lavender Ellen's Half Pint Falkland merino, custom dyed
- 50g, 146 yards Misti Alpaca Sport

We are having the first heat wave of the season. It's been in the 90s this week, the shawl and yarn both dried super fast. This picture was sunset on the lake I walk to regularly, looks like the sun was ready to explode behind the hills.

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, and leave me a comment!

Yarn Shopping in Santa Barbara

This week we are enjoying a much anticipated week-long vacation in Santa Barbara. We've passed through the town quite a few times when we traveled to and from Los Angeles and San Diego areas, but never spent much time to explore. This is a beautiful city, with Spanish style architecture everywhere, and a huge downtown leading to the ocean. We rented a small bungalow that's built on top of a garage. The home owner listed it on TripAdvisor, and the week rent for this nicely furnished two bedroom one bath apartment with full kitchen is much less than any hotel I could find, no brainer!

Of course, what's a vacation without yarn shopping! So far I've visited three shops in Santa Barbara, with more planned on the way home. Here is my experience so far, good and bad.

Loop and Leaf is a block away from the main drag (State St.) in downtown. Very cute little house turned yarn shop which also sells its own tea blend. The shop is pretty small (cozy/cramped). I got in an hour after they opened. There were two ladies sitting in the living room knitting, they barely acknowledged when I walked in, which is fine as I usually enjoy to be left alone. There was a class in one of the rooms, I heard one of the ladies telling someone it’s ok to go in as the class was ending and there were a lot of yarn in that room. I tried to go in to look at the yarn, twice, and was stared back like I was an alien. the other room was the tea room with yarn, books, etc., but someone kept vacuuming in it. Couldn’t get around her. I was quite disappointed at the experience as I was really looking forward to visiting this shop.

Cardigans is a little ways away from downtown, also a very cute house. I went there in the late afternoon but not close to closing time. Another class in session in an area full of yarn and books, but I was able to check out the rest of the shop (more than half). Quite a bit of high end stuff, nice displays. 

Knit and Pearl Boutique is also in the downtown area, away from Loop and Leaf (it’s a very large downtown). The shop is slightly bigger, very friendly staff. Fortunately there was no class in session when I visited, so it was very pleasant. On the other hand, their table and chairs are set up away from the yarn displays, so visitors won’t be in the middle of a class. They had Mission Falls and O-Wool, among other things, on the sale rack. Super :-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Parker Cardigan Full Body, Fiber Sightings

I ripped the top half of the back and reknitted it in the right stitch pattern. Now it's just the sleeves left. (If you look closely the back of the neck doesn't match the fronts, since I forgot to decrease every row -- darn those "at the same time" patterns! Will just have to do some nip and tuck while I knit the button band.)

Last week we went up to North Bay for a quick get away. When I travel with the guys I don't usually stop at yarn shops since they don't have a whole lot of patience for wool or alpaca or cashmere or plies or gauge. So I squeeze in whatever I can. This time I stopped at Balls and Skeins in Sebastopol and scored some discontinued Noro from their sale bin. Blogger is not cooperating with me with formats, whenever I move the pictures around, everything gets messed up. I loaded tons of pictures on Facebook, so you'd like to see them, just friend me there! This link should take you straight to my profile.

Last night in our knitting meeting, one of the ladies showed us a piece of fabric she bought at a garage sale. It turned out to be part of a Chinese skirt from the 19th century (Qing dynasty). Look at the embroidery details! I learned a little bit of embroidery when I was a little girl, no where near this complicated.

Update to add this link. #12 is the style of skirt we saw. It's called "hundred pleat skirt". In the old days gentle ladies supposed to walk slowly in their bound feet and the skirt was not to move with their steps. 

To Rip, Or Not to Rip

Project: Parker Cardigan

Pattern: Parker Cardigan by Deborah Newton, IK Spring 2009 
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca
Needles: US Size 4

Previous entries: planning, progress1, progress2

Notes: Three weeks ago I complained about not having charts for the stitch pattern, and not being able to visualize the ribs in the upper body. I finally figured it out from a larger picture in the front part of the magazine. I've since finished the right front, and the ribs are stacked correctly. In this picture it's on the left hand side of the diagonal line - the line is a shadow but it happened to line up perfectly with the front decrease. Now the back, the right hand side in the picture, looks terrible with the mis-stacked the ribs. I'm debating if I should rip the top half. This is the part will be covered under my hair most of the time, and I'll have to redo all the arm hole and neck decreases. But I know it's wrong and it's going to burn my back when I wear it. 

In the non-knitting news, we had record rain fall in March, after years of drought. A creek close to our home overflowed and washed out part of a walking trail. We need the water, but now it's too much water everywhere! No one is in danger, not because of this creek any way, but it'll be weeks before we get our trail back.

Yesterday it started to clear up. Sun is out, flowers are blooming. This little plant survived the winter, outdoors, what a trooper!

Be sure to visit Andrea's blog Wisdom Begins in Wonder, and better yet, join Fiber Arts Friday if you are not already part of the group. This is a wonderful group of women with endless talent.

Bucky on Vacation

We spent early part of this week on the central coast of Califonia, which we planned to visit last summer but didn't make it since we couldn't find a dog sitter. Now that Bucky is our only dog and with his fragile state I don't trust others taking care of him, he went along for the ride.

The ride he had! Everywhere we went he had fans. We picked restaurants with outdoor seating, and people stopped to admire "your cute old pug". At an icecream shop a girl volunteered to bring a bowl of water outside so she could meet "the cute puppy". The place we stayed was right on the beach, and Henry and Dad enjoyed hours of whacking a paddleball around. To my surprise, Bucky had a great time exploring the beach. He doesn't walk very well, and I thought it's more difficult for him to walk on the soft sand. Instead the sand cushioned his falls, and he really liked all the new smells.

Staycation -- CAS

Day three of our Staycation, the third Wednesday of August, we hit the newly opened California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco on their free admission day. We got there right after it opened, and the line was couple miles long. They kept broadcasting on the mega phone that everyone waiting in line would get in, so we waited. The guys found entertainment with sticks and wadded up paper. Three hours was a long time in the cold.



Once we got in it was pretty nice. It took me sometime to study the albino alligator, to make sure he's alive. This shot was taken from the view on the side of the tank, with his reflection hitting the top of the water.



The Living Roof was a big so what. Barely a few plants to call it a garden.

Had to wait in line again for the rain forest exhibit. This time it was much faster and warmer.

There were a lot of cool stuff in this exhibit, I'd say it's the best of them all. Here is a scary looking green Basilisk. To the Potter fans' surprise, he's a lizard, not a big snake.

All in all, CAS is a nice museum, but I wouldn't pay what they charge admission for it, nor would I wait three hours for a free pass again.

Staycation -- No Golf

Day two of our Staycation, we planned a day of golf at Peter Hay Golf Course on the scenic 17 Mile Drive in Carmel. To our greatest dissappointment, the course was closed for the month of August. Since we were already in the area, we decided to play tourist and hit a few vista points. A walk from Spanish Bay beach to Asilomar beach.

The Lone Cypress.

I like standing on a step when I talk to the tall person, something about being more equal.

To make up for the lack of golf activities, we closed the day with a round of miniture golf in the dark.

 

Staycation -- Golf

The short cut to an unrealized vacation is to yak about it months ahead of time, and taking polls on blog. As I was able to convince the guys to visit central coast for our summer vacation, we went ahead with the planning, checking out hotels, golf courses, bike trails, restaurants in the area. Couple of weeks before we supposed to pack our suitcases, my mother-in-law was scheduled for surgery on the Thursday before our vacation. We better stay around town for that. So last week we joined this year's fad and toured around town -- call it Staycation.

Monday was golf at Deep Cliff Golf Course in Cupertino. Henry started learning golf earlier this year, after many early morning hours in front of TV watching golf channel. Bill played in his youth and it took the guys only a few months to convince me to join the game. Hey I don't have a job, might as well play golf!

Henry teed off in perfect form.


Hole #7, my ball made a splash. Not to lose second or third or fourth ball in the day, Bill fished it out of the creek.


Flying dirt.


Almost in the rough.


In our family this is called a Bucky Ball (the ball is about three feet in front of Henry, after a full swing). We used to play baseball when Bucky was a tiny 2.5lb baby. A Bucky Ball is a little hit that the 2.5lb baby could manage.

 

More Field Trips with Henry

Week two of field trips with Henry. Monday the 3rd was Carmel to visit my mom and beach. Thursday we went to Steinbeck Center in Salinas with Sarah and her kids. Henry really needed the kiddie time, obviously hanging out with me was a bit more boring than I realized. Rocinante, the converted pick up truck that Steinbeck drove across the country in Travels with Charley was on display. Even with a life size Charley in the cab. On Friday we made the two hour drive up to Santa Rosa for the long anticipated visit of Charles Shultz Museum. I've been wanting to visit it since its opening in 2002, when Henry was small enough to enjoy all the little kids things. It took me only seven years to plan it. I left my drawing in the visitors book. This is one of Henry's favorites.

In two weeks, we made two long trips (Sacramento, Santa Rosa), two smaller trips (Carmel, Salinas), and assorted other local trips to the libraries, book stores, etc. On the longer trips Henry almost got car sick more than once, so on the way to Santa Rosa we decided he's big enough to sit in the front seat. Heading home after the Shultz Museum must be one of his best trips ever, sitting next to Mom, like a big shot. On the other hand, my trusty little green engine gave out after we got through Friday evening traffic jam in San Francisco. Turned out there was a part in the power steering system had to be replaced. I had to drive the last twenty miles or so on city streets, but we made it home.

Point Reyes Seashore

Last weekend we took a minivacation and went back to Tomales Bay, Point Reyes seashore area.

First, lunch at Bouchon in Yountville. Thomas Keller, the chef owner of The French Laundry and Bouchon, created "the world's greatest sandwich" for the Adam Sandler movie Spanglish. In the movie the sandwich is a twist of traditional BLT -- there is a softly fried egg in the middle and the runny yoke serves as sauce over the bacon and bread. We've been wondering if Keller serves this sandwich in one of his restaurants. Henry found a very similar version on the menu at Bouchon. The ham and cheese sandwich comes with a softly fried egg on top. Even Henry, who usually doesn't like runny eggs, declared this sandwich to be delicious. The big mound of fries was a surprise to all of us. 

Can't skip the pastry from the Bouchon Bakery next door.

Marconi Conference Center is a retreat facility situated on wooded acreage right off the Tomales Bay, near the tiny town of Marshall. Usually the center serves large groups, and only rents out spare rooms to individual travellers if they call just the right moment. Since they don't accept my reservation, we were very lucky this time they had one room left that could accommodate three people. It turned out very nicely. The room is facing the bay. No human insight.

 
A family of quails visited us along the moss covered wooden fence. This is the father looking out, mom and babies soon followed, but I wasn't quick enough to capture them on camera.

Henry was exceptionally happy with his loft. The kid couldn't wait to get his parents out of his hair!

Nobel prize winner, Guglielmo Marconi, who first transmitted wireless signals through radio waves, set up The Marshall Receiving Station to send signals across the Pacific Ocean. This building was the original staff and visitor hotel. It's described as "Mediterranean revival with Craftsman allusions", but it's quite run down now and sitting empty. We peaked into the other meeting rooms, which were all historical buildings, very beautiful and charming. I hope I can bring the South Bay Knitters' annual knitting retreat here some day.

Hiking in the Point Reyes seashore area is always a wonderful experience. Before the hike we stopped at Drakes Bay Oyster Farm where Henry tried his first raw oyster, fresh out of the Pacific Ocean. I still regret that I didn't get a picture of the oyster, nor when Henry ate it, but it was so cold that I could hardly think. I always forget how cold it gets on the coast, especially Point Reyes area.

Couple of restaurants we liked in the area:

Station House Cafe in Point Reyes Station. After the big plateful of fries at Bouchon, Henry was "fried out". For dinner here he ordered a kid's Fish n' Chips, and asked the waiter, very politely, if they could substitute fries with vegetable. Mr. Waiter said he'd check with the chef. When the food was served, Henry's plate was filled three quarters full with roasted vegetables, including some of the best looking green beans and heirloom carrots. We saw the carrots next day in the local farmer's market for $4 a bunch.

Olema Farm House in Olema. Olema, population 45, sits on the intersection of Highway 1 and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, and the intersection is the whole town. The farm house is a lodge, restaurant, deli and convenient store. The chef demoed Mahi Mahi with vegetable Risotto in the farmer's market earlier in the day, which prompted Henry to order halibut with assorted vegetable and a nice helping of Risotto. Bill had oyster stew in both restaurants and he said they were different styles but both very good. I just wished we could hang around longer to try out all the other interesting seafood dishes.