A Week In The Life: Day 6

saturday we left the bay area around 2:45 and headed to the hideaway. it was another gorgeous day so we decided to take a different route though Brentwood and Stockton so instead of the usual 2.75 hr drive, it took us a little over 5 hours of enjoying the scenery and going down the road less travelled.

The wind turbines line the road all the way into Brentwood. These are part of the Altamont Pass Wind Farm, the largest wind farm in the country.

Highway 4 is called the California Delta Highway all the way into Stockton because it follows the the San Joaquin River, which is the 2nd longest river in California and used to irrigate many of the farms in the central valley.

Pretty horse near the delta.

Getting into Stockton.

Just a few weeks ago, California's Gold, a PBS travel show that features many natural, cultural and historical sites our state, featured the "Little Manila" of Stockton. In the late 20s and early 30s, the Filipino immigrants came to Stockton to find work in the farms. I wonder if my dad ever worked in Stockton.

The program featured an beautiful old Catholic church and Jimmy and i spent about an hour trying to find this church. Unsuccessful, we gave up and decided to get back on the road to the hideaway. Just as we were about to get on the highway, I saw another tall church spire and asked if we could just check that last one. It's funny how that works, isn't it? Yes, it was the church we were looking for.

There used to be a park across the street from that church and it was the gathering spot for the Filipino community.Opposite the church on the other side of the park was where many of the Filipino immigrants called home. However in 1972 a highway was built right through the park. Many of the fiipino families were displaced and had to move to different parts of the city.

A small historic sign is the only indication of Little Manila.

Heading out of Stockton into the foothills are dozens of cattle ranches.with thousands and thousands of cows roaming the green hills.


These are the stars of the California Happy Cow commercials. LOL.



Heading higher into the foothills. Calaveras County.

Serbian Orthodox Church in Angels Camp.

Downtown Angels Camp.

Between Angels Camp and Sonora is the istoric site of Mark Twain's cabin on Jackass Hill.

Downtown Sonora, about 20 minutes from the hideaway and is the county seat of Tuolumne County.


Dinner in Sonora at Jeb's Hill Country Cookin'. Jimmy got a salmon filet and I got an 8oz prime rib. Our bill was less than $30. I'd give it a 3 1/2 stars and would certainly go back.

By 8:30, we were up at the hideaway, relaxing for the rest of the night.

Here are a few California Happy Cow commercials. Because unless you're in California, you might not be familiar with them and how clever they are.





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Readers please watch and listen

You might be tempted to click close on this one, but give it a go all the way thru. Pretty clever effect and the message is worth a listen.

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Georgia Aquarium

I'm a bit biased towards the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Afterall, I live just over an hour away from it and think it's phenomenal. So the Georgia Aquarium wasn't on my priority list of things to do in Atlanta. But the Sunday we were there, I had a late start to my day because Jimmy's conference didn't start till 12:30 and it ended earlier than the previous days, so I had about 4 hours to myself for exploring. I had already toured World of Coca-Cola, CNN Center and Olympic Park, so unless I wanted to get on MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority), all that was left to explore within walking distance was the aquarium. It was a great decision because the aquarium far exceeded my Monterey Bay Aquarium biased expectations.

I never woulda guessed it, but the Georgia Aquarium is the world's largest aquarium. According to their website, it "features more animals than any other aquarium in more than eight million gallons of water" and after visiting, I suppose I can believe it. The Monterey Bay Aquarium feels bigger, and perhaps it is by is by square foot, but GA has more gallons and more creatures in perhaps a more compact space, although according to wikipedia, MBA has more species, 600+ to GA's 500ish. No matter what all that means, I really enjoyed my visit to the Georgia Aquarium and saw creatures I haven't seen at the MBA.

Again, instead of featuring my many photos one by one on my blog, I did a video slide show. Experimenting. Not sure if it's something I'll really get into, but it's fun to play.

World of Coca-Cola

One of my many, MANY vices is drinking a lot of soda. My soda of preference is a diet coke or diet pepsi. And Atlanta is home of Coca-Cola and in 2007 they opened a 60,000 square foot exhibition-attraction of all things Coca-Cola. It was both fantastically and grossly entertaining. Fantastic because the exhibits and movies - a 3D show and a cute animation, were well done, funny, colorful and carefree. But it was slightly gross, too because of how easily we (I) can be drawn to the sugary caffeinated addiction found in a 12oz can or 20oz bottle.

Admittedly, I really enjoyed my tour at the World of Coca-Cola. Not only do I drink Diet Coke, I also love pop culture. Throw in lots of colors and a couple of cute shows and I'll certainly consider it $15 well spent. But I felt guilty, too. Because I believe it's a problem how much we drink processed, sugared, caffeinated drinks. And I am so very much a part of the problem. So I may ask myself, 'what am I doing to address my guilt?' Um. Unfortunately, very little. I drink soda 3-5x a week, almost always over 12oz each time. I've tried only drinking it at home and not ordering it when we go out to eat. I succeeded for about 4 months, but once I fell off the wagon, well. You know that lack of fortitude I've talked about before? Yea, sticktoitiveness is not my strong suit. The only thing I can say I consistently do and have for a couple of years is that I never buy soda in plastic bottles. But that's another issue not to be discussed at this time. :)

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Georgia On My Mind

I've been home for a few days and just now sorting thru the photos I took in Atlanta. As I mentioned in my last post, on my 1st day in a new city, I like to have lunch atop a skyrise hotel.

The Westin is the 5th tallest building in Atlanta at 73 stories high. The restaurant is on the 72nd floor. I got a great birds-eye view of Atlanta up there.

This is the CNN Center, The Georgia Dome and the Omni Hotel. That building is the world headquarters of CNN. Their main newsrooms and studios are located there.

The restaurant rotates in a clockwise direction so the next sight to see was

Centennial Olympic Park, the site of the 1996 Summer Olympics.
The Fountain of Rings is a key feature of the park. The fountain has 251 jets that shoot 12 to 35 feet in the air, and even in mid-50s temperatures, kids were playing in it.

Here's more of a landscape view - the CNN Center, Georgia Dome, Georgia World Congress Center, Olympic Park and flat Georgia lands in the background.

Rotating slightly clockwise and north of the Olympic Park is the Georgia Aquarium in Pemberton Place, along w/ World Of Coca-Cola. I couldn't get a good photo of WOCC from the restaurant though - buildings blocking the view.

(7)Facing north, a major freeway system going to North and Midtown Atlanta.

The Bank of America Plaza building is the tallest in Atlanta and is in Midtown. It's the 8th tallest in the country at 1,023 feet high. In comparison, the hotel I was in was 723 feet high.

The 2nd tallest building in Atlanta is the SunTrust Plaza. Below it, in the foreground is the Hyatt Regency, our hotel and where the conference that Jimmy went to was held. It's funny, because when we're in that hotel, it feels tall because we're on the 17th floor. But compared to the buildings surrounding it, it's puny!

This is the view looking north east. In the far distance I think I make out a mountain range. Appalachians? Ginnie? Anyone? help?

The Marriott Marquis is within the top 20 tallest buildings in Atlanta at 15. At the bottom left of this picture, see the circular building in the shadow of the building next to it? That's the part of the hotel we were in. We were on the 17th floor (out of 22) and looked right into those 3 buildings. Thankfully, neither one of us has claustrophobia issues.

Stone Mountain, east of downtown Atlanta. Maybe next year when we'll have a rental car, we'll check it out.

This is 191 Peachtree Tower. Built in 1990 and at 770 feet high, was taller than the building I was in.

A few "cute" smaller buildings downtown, compared to the skyscrapers, yet still full of personality. south downtown neighborhood of 5 Points.

Georgia State Capitol and Turner Field where the Atlanta Braves play, just south of downtown and 5 Points.

After one full revolution, I was back to CNN Center and Georgia Dome.

I have to admit, I was 'forced' to order dessert, delicious key lime mousse, so I could extend my visit at the restaurant through one complete revolution of the restaurant.That's my story and I'm sticking to it.


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Midnight Train to Good Eats!

I love Atlanta!

I haven't even scratched the surface of this city, in fact, I've only explored part of downtown and took MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) one stop north for dinner...but it's enough for me to know that this is a might fine city. Not just the sights, but also the Good Eats (which...you may know, that Alton Brown is from Atlanta)!

Jimmy's here for a conference and I get to tag along. Lucky lucky me! But what that means is I'm on my own for the day while Jimmy's cooped up in the hotel conference room for 3 days. Thankfully, I get him back for dinner.

I have a little routine whenever I'm out exploring solo in a city I'm not familiar with. On the 1st day, I check to see if any of the sky-rises have a restaurant on their top floor that offer reasonably priced lunches, ie: under $15.

As luck would have it, just 2 blocks down from our hotel, the Westin has a revolving restaurant on the 73rd floor with soups, salads and sandwiches under $15. Whooo hooo!

So while I enjoyed my lunch, I took lots of photos and got a good baring of where everything was.
This is Georgia's Capitol Building. I'll share more photos in another post.

After lunch, I walked to Centennial Olympic Park, site of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Then I went to the "World Of Coca-Cola". Both worthy of their own posts later.

Jimmy was out till 6:30 and was ravenous when he finally got out. They served bloody steak on top of some mashed potatoes for his lunch. He is not steak eater, especially when it's bloody. And he won't go out of his way to eat mashed potatoes, but will eat it if it's served. So at least he had some of the mashed potatoes that wasn't contaminated by the meat.

My cousin recommended Gladys Knight and Ron Winan's Chicken and Waffles. In most cases, Jimmy and I won't wait more than 15 minutes for a table. We're just impatient like that. But we had a 45 minute wait and it was so worth it.
I had the Chicken and Waffles, which was called "The Midnight Train"
and Jimmy had catfish and grits. We enjoyed it so much, we joked about going back on Sunday night for dinner. Tomorrow night, we might go back to the Westin and enjoy the nighttime views!

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Blackout in Chinatown and A Bit of Pukey Cuteness

Jimmy and I went to San Francisco for Valentine's. It was also the celebration of Chinese New Year.
So we were casually driving down Grant Ave, watching all the people, listening to the firecrackers,
and enjoying the sights and sounds of a busy Chinatown.

We heard sirens coming towards us, and as we approached an intersection, we saw the big fire truck quickly coming down the road so (of course) we waited for it.
It turned onto Grant Ave. right in front of us, barely missing that black car you see on the left.

Then stopped, blocking the road, so we patiently waited till we could move. What else could we do? Then another fire truck came up behind us, blocking us in from both ends. A fireman from the truck in back came to us and told us we had to back out, but right at that moment, the front truck moved forward just enough for us to squeeze by, so the fireman told us to go forward.

After we got past all the fire trucks, I said to Jimmy "Dang, I should have had my video camera out instead!" So even though I thought it was too late, I still took it out and start taking video as we continued down Grant Ave. I liked the sounds of the firecrackers.

So, we're casually driving down Grant Ave. again, enjoying the sites and sounds of the city. Then suddenly...

Blackness!

Well, this time, I got it all on video:

then:

Kinda cool, right?

Afterward, we went to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream, of course. And being Valentine's night, the line was longer than we'd ever seen it, but it moved pretty fast. Every time we get ice cream at Ghirardelli, we get it to go and walk to the cable car turn around on Hyde St and listen to the street performer. Then depending on where we parked, we walk along the waters edge at Aquatic Park. It's really quite romantic at night. Yep, even after 19 years of marriage, we can still find romance.



I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO (Tony Bennett)

The loveliness of Paris
Seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome
Is of another day
I've been terribly alone
And forgotten in Manhattan
I'm going home to my city by the bay.

I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me.
To be where little cable cars
Climb halfway to the stars!
The morning fog may chill the air
I don't care!
My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco,
Your golden sun will shine for me!
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A Little Kristin Chenoweth

for you, because there are still a few people out there who haven't heard this song yet. I encourage you to buy it, play it over and over again till you've memorized the lyrics, which I'm thoughtfully included below, then sing it at the top of your lungs.



Taylor the Latte Boy

There's a boy who works at Starbucks
Who is very inspirational.
He is very inspirational because of many things.

I come in at 8:11, and he smiles and says, "How are you?"
When he smiles and says, "How are you?"
I could swear my heart grows wings!

So today at 8:11
I decided I should meet him
I decided I should meet him
In a proper formal way.

So today at 8:11 when he smiled and said "How are you?"
I said "Fine and my name's Kristen"
And he softly answered, "Hey."

And I told him "my name is Kristen, and thank you for the extra foam"
And he said his name was Taylor,
Which provides the inspiration for this poem:

Taylor the latte boy,
Bring me java, bring me joy!
Oh, Taylor the latte boy,
I love him, I love him, I love him...

Well I'd like to get my nerve up
To recite my poem musical
He would like the fact it's musical
Because he plays guitar.
And today at 8:11, Taylor told me he was playing
With a band down in the village in the basement of a bar.

And he smoothly flipped the lever to prepare my double latte,
But for me he made a triple! (And he didn't think I knew)
But I saw him flip the lever, and for me he made it triple,
And I knew the triple latte meant that Taylor loved me too!
I said, "What time are you playing? And thank you for the extra skim..."
He said, "Keep the $3.55," because this triple latte was on him.

Taylor the latte boy,
Bring me java, bring me joy!
Taylor the latte boy,
I love him, I love him, I love him...

I used to be the kind of girl
Who'd run when love rushed toward her.
Till finally a voice whispered, "Love can be yours,
If you step up to the counter and order.

So many years my heart has waited,
I love him, I love him, I love him...
Who'd have thought that love could be so caffeinated?

Taylor the latte boy,
Bring me java, bring me joy!
Taylor, the latte boy,
I love him, I love him, I love him.
Oh, I love him, I love him, I love him.
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Christmas Prank

This is awesome in the silliest way.

I hate wrapping presents, so I can't even imagine the work that went into this. There's a link to Louie's reaction at the end.

Pretty clever those pranksters!

Silent Monks Sing Halleluia

My SIL sent this link to me last week but I didn't get a chance to look at it till tonight. It's funny! Check it out if you find a spare 3 minutes out of your busy day. At first you'll be like "whaat?" then it just gets funnier and funnier.

Merry Christmas!
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GleefullyLine dancing obsessed

You may have clued in on one of my personality traits - that I can be a wee bit obsessive. If I find something I enjoy or like, I'll become so focused on it that it consumes my every waking moment.

My current obsession is line dancing. And the TV show Glee. And posting Youtube videos.

I found this song through various website jumping and realized I could dance the "Cruisin'" dance to it quite nicely.


And if you haven't seen Glee, here are a few other videos with some fun snippets.



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Holiday Memories {Daily December 02}

Since I didn't do anything in regards to Christmas today, I decided to journal about an old Christmas photo.

As I was finishing up this page, I realized that it's appropriate that I used that photo on the 2nd of Dec, because I'm 2 in that photo and the 2 for date seems to work as a 2fer.

Haven't put any Christmas decorations up yet. Have you?

Here's another video of a dance I learned in my line-dance class:
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Cruisin'

Yeehaw!!

This is what I learned in my line dancing class tonight.
just wanted to point out that this isn't my group. I take a beginners class at the Campbell Rec Center. I pretend it's like an exercise class 'cuz it gets me off my duff for an hour and a half. I haven't done any 'organized' dancing but a friend and I have talked about going to the local country western bar to check out their Wednesday night classes and open dancing.

Good times, ya'll!
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Beyonce did have the best video of all time...

according to this baby...who happens to have back. heehee.

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Jimmy got a new toy

and by Jimmy, i really kinda mean we. Because I'll enjoy the heck out of it just as much as he will.
Here's Jimmy backing it off the trailer for the 1st time. We headed up the mountain for our first ride, near Eagle Meadow. We've been up there before in the car and knew the dirt road would be more suitable in the Rhino.


Our 1st water crossing at Long Valley Creek. and my fist youtube vid.

A stop to enjoy the view of Three Chimneys in the far background.

He went out again on Monday with the neighbors. I wasn't feeling well, so I decided to sit this one out.The cool thing is that one of the neighbors is a retired Forest Service employee so he knows the forest like the back of his hand. He took them by a grove of pine trees that he had planted over 40 years ago when the area was burned in a forest fire in the early 60s. They also rode on a trail that was covered with wild lilacs.
I hope Jimmy can remember how to get back there so he can show me, too.
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Barstow so easily mockable

I'm shocked that beautiful Barstow didn't win the Olympic approval. I grew up just 1/2 a hour from here and can understand the attraction.
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Peelings

posting this because it cracks me up and i need to be cracked up right now.

There's a funny relatable story about this video. Aside from the comedy regarding the Filipino accents. But about Vicks. I swear to you, my mom thought it was the cure all for everything. I didn't realize it was cultural till I saw this video. I wonder why Filipinos think that Vicks is the magic cure? Anyhoo...this one time...at band camp...(sorry, i couldn't resist)...jimmy and I were having dinner with my mom at her house. He had a scratch on his leg and my mom INSISTED that we put Vicks on it. At first, Jimmy and I were saying, "no no, it's ok. it'll be fine." But she wouldn't let up on the Vicks. So I finally said "ok" and pretended to put Vicks on his wound. Now, jimmy and I use that as our secret code to "Vicks it" whenever we're in a losing battle and we just need to stop the madness.
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Potrero Hill

Not too long ago, Potrero Hill on the southeast end of the city wasn't exactly a desirable place to live. It was considered remote, yet it has some of the best views of the city skyline.

Nowadays, well-kept and updated homes line the steep streets.

There are a few homes that are a bit tired. But it's still a lovely house in need of some paint, a new roof and some TLC.

The streets are steep...
After walking up one you'll definitely need a "Sharp Rest", but the original warning is for a Sharp Crest.

But while you're resting you can enjoy the views.
This side overlooks Twin Peaks to the west.
More homes that overlook downtown.

The local business district seems to be popular and the people in the community really makes an effort to be involved with safety, but it can still be a bit on the edgy side.

The actual crookedest street in SF is on Potrero Hill and not Lombard. It's Vermont Street and of course, we had to drive down it. While it certainly was curvy, since it's bordered by tall trees and you can't see as far off as you can on Lombard, the perspective of how steep you're actually going isn't quite as sensational. Fun nonetheless and the annual Big Wheel racers seem to love it.

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