Comfort Inn Mountain View

... d been to Morgan Hill. So, that's where we ended up.

The weather has gotten cold and the weather guesser is calling for quite a bit of rain over the next few days. Today was one of the few clear days and we decided to head out for some sightseeing. I pulled out the map and quickly routed out another one of our 'circle tours', no backtracking for us!! We started out by taking a ...

... right: 5px; p*dding-bottom: 0px; p*dding-left: 15px; ">BLOG M*jor Ob*m* m*ni* in Gh*n*. His visit h*s cert*inly m*de it more re*l for me. Often when I think of Gh*n* it seems like some figment of my im*gin*tion. Over the p*st 3 months I’ve intensely l*bored *nd p*cked to get re*dy for this epic move of mine. I’ve been wr*pped up in so m*ny det*ils th*t emotions other th*n ...

... the beautiful thing was at 5:30am on the dot I was in the alley leading directly from my hotel to Campo Manin, and as I rounded the corner, there by the ponte (bridge) was the taxi driver (or whatever they call the guys who pilot these boats). I must say, even though I was all alone in the back, this was perhaps the most romantic trip to the airport I've ever taken! I've got pics of this pretty limo-boat that I'll include with my slideshow (my goal is to have pics uploaded ...

... Savarognola era at the end of the Renaissance, but worst case I'll get a random book at the airport. Deep breath... I still have to set up my bill payments while I'm gone, and all my email auto-replies, and a number of other little things... Sigh.. 46 hours from now, it will all be done, and my adventure will be officially starting! :-) Hopefully my next entry will be from Italy, with interesting things to report. xo, Melissa

... in the US. Famous for their baseball team, the Oakland A`s and even more for their football team, the Raiders. Upon arrivinf in Oakland, one realizies how different SF is from the rest of the U.S. as Oakland for me, is more typical american than SF. So we, stormed the lovely but smallish Wall-Mart, I was the first to realize that there is somethign worng with this wall-mart, as it was first of all ...

... walked down Hyde Street to The Embarcadero and found the San Francisco maritime national park where there are about 10 ships of varying sizes from the late 1800s. We ended the day in a "Irish" bar which only seemed to mean it sold Guinness. We caught the MUNI bus back after just missing one - it had 9999 as its number but when it arrived it announced it was a 47 and it was free. How lucky was that??

... rental car and made a bee-line out of the place. My original intention had been to drop the car off in San Francisco, but it worked out several hundred dollars cheaper to just do a round trip to LA, then fly up. Unless you're going to be on a bike, one of the only ways to see America is by car. Public transport just doesn't go to many places, and as car hire and petrol is so cheap (despite their protestations to the contrary), it makes for quite a reasonable way to get around ...

... quite short of two years. Who knows what will really happen. If funds and my energy last, I will keep going beyond a year and try to jump over to Central and South America. We'll see. Right now the thought of no longer being employed thrills me. At the end of 2004 I realized three things that limited me from the being the happy, easy-going, adventuresome person that I once was. I took it upon myself to ...

... circumnavigate Tierra del Fuego, Argentina and that, as we all know is not the easiest crossing. Onwards....an old Italian bakery that is known for their focaccia breads. All the focaccia were sold out by the time we got there around 11am, especially given that this weekend is Superbowl Sunday. Not to worry, they saved the last piece for us to taste (yum!) or you can order ahead for freshly baked focaccia as long as you drop by to pick them up. Then it ...

In the final hours, but ah, it is lovely. I walked amongst the Redwoods and Sequioas yesterday, learning about a life and times of New Zealand guy -- with new perspective but parallel life questions -- and enjoying the Pacific Ocean and city views from Mt. Tamulipas. I helped a strained teacher in Oakland one afternoon and just quietly swept up the classroom. I spent the an afternoon/evening ...