West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day 17

Today got off to a relaxing start. I only had a 30 minute drive to The Lake, so I took my time getting up and getting out. I had a huge breakfast! The highpoint of which was my Texas shaped waffle!!



I moseyed over to The Lake and was pleased to find that my memories of it were not wrong. Wow! A billboard for a Saucer! I wonder if it works...



Still a great looking Saucer. And I had an excellent time there. Race's brother was the Manager on duty - well, one of two. The other was Becca (one of only five female manages currently in the Flying Saucer Stores). It was lunch time, and they were moderately busy, so I took my time eating my chicken snack and drinking my one beer.

All of the servers and the bartender came over to say hello and pose for pictures.



On my way out, I almost asked a server in training for her picture! Good time.

The drive to Little Rock was uneventful and pleasant enough as my drives on freeways can be.

My second visit to the Little Rock store was agreeable. Nice chat with the MOD. One of the calendar models was actually there! Yippee!



No sign of the top beer knurd, but apparently, he doesn't come in that frequently anymore. Only my server was brave enough to sign my calendar and pose for a picture. Sigh.



I guess part of my reason for not being comfortable in the Saucers I am not comfortable in, is not finding a seat that I like. More on this in another post one day.

Off a little way out of the city for overnighting!

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day 16

The Econolodge guy convinced me to take a third floor room - because the view was better.

The drive from Albuquerque to Fort Worth went pretty smoothly.

I like the Fort Worth store's look and feel. And my experiences have been decent, though not exemplary.

I got there right about 6, and headed inside. Not particularly crowded. Found a tall table in a corner. Not optimal for me, but ok. My server was a friendly woman who found the manager for me - Curtis. He and I had met the last time I was at the Fort Worth Saucer. He said he would get some of the rest of the staff to come to sign my calendar and pose for pictures. He also told me that it wasn't certain that the top beerknurd would be in that day. But the other calendar model was gracious enough to come over and sign my calendar and stand with me for a picture.



Only two other staff members (out of 10 or so) came over to say hello.



What made my visit was meeting Mason. We chatted about this and that before we each headed our separate ways - he to his home, me to Addison!



Instead of heading to the Addison store, I headed for the Econolodge I had chosen. Turned out to be about a mile from the Saucer. So, after Tanga, I walked down the street. Addison is one of the seemingly few areas with actual sidewalks! It was a pleasant walk. I walked past the Motel 6 I had stayed in last time I was in the area.

Not a banner time at the Addison Saucer. Race, the manager, remembered me from my previous visit and was very personable.



Sadly, no one else came to chat. And my server took five minutes to even approach me, then didn't bother to tell me her name, tell me the specials or ask if I wanted any food. I asked for an icewater with lemon and it took me asking two more times to finally get a wedge. Sigh. I ordered a piece of pizza, that in my mood was not exemplary. Snarfed that down, chugged my beer and left. At least I had a pleasant walk home. I will, of course, continue to give Addison a chance - I just haven't been hitting the correct servers so far.

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day 15

I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to stop when I left Las Vegas. I was leaning towards someplace near or after Albuquerque. (That is a tough city to spell!!) On the way, I opted for an Econolodge on the Eastern Outskirts of Albuquerque. Not a lot happened other than a lot of driving.

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day 14

Originally my GPS, which sometimes seemingly anticipates my desires, wanted to send me through California and the freeways. I dissuaded it from that by starting down a mountain road. It dutifully recalculated and I had another lovely drive through the high desert.

I am a bad tourist. I stopped for gas at a Candy store and was approached by a trombone player from the local highschool band. For a donation, he would wash my windshield. He didn't do a great job, but it was cleaner than it had been.



Anyway, I was given the option to go see Death Valley - but I didn't bother to take out my map and see that I really wouldn't have had to do any backtracking to do so. Sigh. I opted not to go. Who knows when next I will have that opportunity. Did I Sigh already? Still, the scenery was great!



The rest of the drive was uneventful. The same Econolodge was waiting patiently for my return. This time I had a much cleaner, happier room - for the same price. Go figure. Again, I had gotten into town fairly early in the day. So I got out and hopped on the bus to the strip. First stop, was Treasure Island to see what time their shows were. Next stop, Mirage to see about tickets for that evening's performance of Love - the Cirque's Beatles show. They had two shows - one at 9:30 which was good for me so that I could Tanga. The ticket seller actually suggested I buy the lesser priced of two tickets - weird. More on that later.

Next stop, Harrah's to gamble my hundred dollars. Not a good gambling experience. David Cummerford mentioned that hotels off the strip had better odds on their slot machines - and I think he was correct. Next time, I think I will try one of the off strip Harrah's properties. Grrr.

Then it was time to head back to Tanga. That was kind of pointless as I didn't do particularly well. Sigh.

Back on the bus to the Strip to hang out till the show started. I checked the timing and realized that I could use my two for one drink ticket that I got with my admission and also go see the TI Sirens show before Love. I went to Revolution, which was opened just for the people who had these tickets and got my two for one beers. Good thing it was two for one. They were charging $8 for a beer! Eeeek!! Cool thing about Vegas, though, is that one can walk the street with beer in hand! Yippee!

The Sirens show was fun, but I liked the pirates versus the British show that they had before. And it would have been better with binoculars - which I conveniently had left in my car. Sigh. This actually didn't strike me until I was watching Love later. Anyway, back to The Mirage and love.

Great show! And the seats were excellent. All the way at the top of the theatre, but not that high and not that far from the stage. And right behind the sound and light boards! Lots of hydraulics, lots of projections, great sound and nicely balanced circus acts versus pure sort of dance stuff.



I also harassed, only mildly, the young saleswoman who had convinced me that Love was worth seeing - Shannon. Sigh.



After the show I was exhausted and headed straight back to the hotel to sleep!

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day 13

Eeek - Thirteenth Day -

Got up to find my car covered in frost! Garg!



The drive from Redmond to Reno was along a non-thruway which was great. A really, really lovely drive. All high desert.



I might actually like Reno better than Las Vegas in some ways. It is smaller and less ostentatious than it's bigger cousin. More manageable. I got in pretty early, so went to check out the downtown. Found the Harrah's and did my $100 gamble and came out $10 ahead. I decided not to gamble the last $7.50 from Jo-Anne in Reno and to wait until I got back to Vegas for that.

Wandered around a bit, took a picture of myself in front of the famous Reno sign. Then back to the room to Tanga (Grrr Necole).



Next, my friend Patti was coming from San Francisco to meet a friend up in Reno. How random is that! It was meant to be. So I went to eat and wait for her call. Found a cool place called Brews Brothers. The beer was decent and the chicken club sandwich and fries was one of the best meals I have had in a brew pub! Yum!



Soon thereafter Patti called and we met and chatted for a while. Yippee! She was with her friend Ed Lenert who was quite an interesting guy!

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day 12

Since my plans changed - see, I can adapt - and with Shauna's gracious invitation extended, I decided to stay a second day in scenic Redmond.



Leisurely start to the day - I got up, took a shower, did some blogging, played some Tanga (curse you Necole) and got out in time to meet Shauna at the Deschutes Brew Pub in Bend. Bend is a more populous city than Redmond. And I had had a Deschutes porter as mentioned earlier, so I was looking forward to our experience.

Lunch was yummy - wings and a side salad. And two flights of beer. The pub had 22 beers from Deschutes on tap. Most of them were decent - a few really good.



After lunch we went to pick up the kids and then picked up my car to head to the Deschutes brewery for a tour! I was surprised to see a ticket on my car. Apparently I can send in the receipt from lunch and get out of it. We shall see if that works.

Poor Fiona! She hated the smell of the brewery. Michael seemed to have fun. He was the only one of the group who asked any intelligent questions.



On the way back to Redmond, we stopped for an early dinner. I don't think either Shauna or I were particularly hungry, but the kids were. Yummy food - I hope to go back there when I am hungry one day.



Back to the homestead and some chatting before sleep! Fiona took Chuck to sleep with her!

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day 10

Daniel had to head off to work very early in the morning. I had a short driving day to Seattle to look forward to, so I took my time, took a shower and moseyed on down the road.

Another beautiful driving day.




And traffic through Seattle, which can be brutal, wasn't too terrible. Yippee!




I got to Ellen and David's house a little earlier than I had said I would.



They had been planning on going to a lecture that evening, but opted to skip it in order to hang out with me!

We spent the evening chatting and eating. David, a chef in one of his incarnations, prepared yummy artichokes with a garlic aoili for an appetizer. And then we had Steel Head Trout over a bed of greens with a blueberry topping for our main course. Yum!

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day 11

After a good night's sleep, I got up and out fairly early in the morning. I was supposed to get to Redmond Oregon by 2:15 so that I could accompany Shauna on her way to pick her kids up from school. I thought I had timed everything adequately. Little did I know that I would have to drive extra slowly and extra cautiously through a mountain pass where it had snowed!! Eeek! It was lovely, but a little nerve wracking. Needless to say, I managed to navigate through safely and survived.



I got to Shauna's just a little later than I had anticipated and she had already left. To kill a little time I headed to Applebees for a beer and some food.

After Shauna returned, we went to watch Michael have soccer practice. Burr! The wind was brutal, but the kids seemed to have fun.

Next we went to dinner at a local brew pub. I had beer and three tacos (the special) and had fun chatting with Shauna, though it was a tad loud to hear anything.





After getting the kids to bed, and David arriving home, I spent the night in the study on another air mattress.



Luckily, earlier that day, I had stopped and gotten a space blanket! That made all the difference. Sure, it was a little crinkly but at least I kept warm!

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day Nine

I got up really early and wanted to be on the road as soon as possible. I stopped a few times to take some early morning pictures as I left Jeff's house.





It was another ten hour day, and that was without having to worry about traffic through the bay area.

It was surprisingly light traffic wise. I basically sailed through downtown SF with only a minor slowdown. Yippee!

Once out of the bustle of San Francisco, the drive, though long, was relatively pleasant. I tried to get some scenery shots as I was driving. And actually stopped a couple of times for photos. I really need a better camera - or the camera needs a better operator! :)



I arrived in Eugene at almost exactly 4:00pm local time, as I had said I would. I really like to be on time. Or early. Daniel was at home and waiting for me.



I have known Daniel since our days at Ithaca College together. He had plans for the early evening so we went our separate ways for a while.

My dinner and beer at McMenamins 19th St. Cafe was fun. I had some decent pizza and two yummy dark beers. Yay!



After my repast, Daniel and I stayed up relatively late hanging out, catching up and having a good old time!

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day Eight

I woke up pretty early local time. Jeff is a very early riser - generally around 5 in the morning! Eeek! But because I am on East Coast Time still (sort of mainly ish) I woke up around 5:30. The plan was to get out early and go on a hike.


Jeff usually hikes four hours on Sundays but was willing to forgo an hour in my honor! Phew!!



We got out of the house in a timely fashion and walked to the trail. Up and up and up and up! Goodness. Good thing I do five minutes of yoga once a month. :) Seriously, it was not the easiest of hikes but I survived. And once we were up on top of the hill, well, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.






After returning from the hike, we relaxed a bit before heading out to lunch in Mountain View CA. Another brew pub. My friends are so accommodating!



This time, 3 of the 8 were good enough to drink again. And the food was, once again, quite tasty!



After lunch with Jeff, I headed to Alameda to visit Diane and David!



Diane I knew from a job I had at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory many years ago. They are a great couple and I had a lovely afternoon with them. And then they fed me! Yippee!!



Then, the slightly arduous drive back through the hills to Jeff's house for another much needed night of sleep!

West Coast Trip April 2010 - Day Seven

Las Vegas to San Francisco - well actually La Honda. Again, I made really good time until I got to the hills near La Honda. Eeeek! I drove 16 miles of switchback roads to go three miles as the crow flies. Did I say eeek? Eeeeeek! I will at some point do something to show how dramatic the drive is! But it is great up in the hills!

I found my friend Jeff's house despite my GPS sending me one driveway off.



Jeff has been working very hard on making his house over and doing an amazing job!



After a little rest and relaxation, we headed out to a relatively local brewpub for dinner.



The food was very good - though Jeff's tuna looked better than my prawn tacos.


The beer was decent - two out of ten were good enough to drink again!



Then, back to up into the hills for a much needed night of sleep!