Oakwood 101 San Fernando San Jose

Sunday found us having to change campgrounds. Here's a little run down on how we 'work' our bay area visits. We belong to Thousand Trails Naco (TTN) , which is a membership camping organization. The main reason we belong is because they operate one of the closest campgrounds to our old home in Livermore. This 'close' campground is in Manteca. We are able to stay in each TTN park for 3 weeks ...

... an easy drive to San Jose, our destination for the day.

We had already seen the Doubletree at the airport when we were leaving the rental car place so it was easy to find. We had a room on the second floor which meant we could take steps instead of elevators and had easy access to the pool and work out room. We went to bed early because my presentation was at 8:30 the next day.

... 8:00 AM 8:00 PM 02/10/09 029 At Sea 02/11/09 030 At Sea 02/12/09 030 Auckland, New ...

... who told me I could stay with her and we shifted plans so that I would go up there tomorrow night. So I spent more time than I thought I would with Lisa, her mom Ellen and her brother Jeffrey. They were gonna go out to party with a Kenyan family they knew but I also wanted to spend time with Peter back at the Freudenberger home so they invited me to walk with them tomorrow morning if I had the time. I went back to the house where we were getting ready to play poker with a friend Amy ...

... fees since Ecuador uses the US dollar - in that case, there's no reason for a fee since there's nocurrency change required, right? No such luck. Citibank will continue to charge the 3% fee for every Ecuadorian charge even though Ecuador uses the US dollar. As you might guess, we're not planning on using our Citibank card much this coming year. (Their ...

... one gained spirituality from it. That scrounging through garbage bins or enduring cold winters built character. However, there is nothing spiritual about begging for spare change. Just as there is nothing heavenly about cruising in a Lexus. Far from spirituality, poverty is responsible for Africa's malnutrition. Unfortunately it is also a main staple of the African diet. Ingredients include ...

... this will be interesting but I think I will b losing weight rapidly. haha my stomache is growling as I write this lol. We were all falling asleep in our dinners so came back to the room to catch some Zzz.. but not before seeing a Starbucks... haha. Called mama and dad passed out. Tomm is a free day so that will be interesting getting around on our own! P.S. Love the group, you'll hear all about em'

... Oregon coast, which we'd heard only good things about. It was indeed beautiful, reminding us a lot of South Africa's coast. It also marked the first sun we'd seen in several days, enhancing the overall experience. However, while we were anxious to put to use our camping gear, which Allison's parents had been kind enough to ship out to us, the temperature was still pretty mild and the rains returned that night. We opted to ...

Our train to San Francisco was only a little late but had previously been running 16 hours late and had to totally cancel its trip to Seattle to collect folk waiting who were bused down to meet the train - so beware of delays. Better viewing carriage on this one and most seating upstairs which was cool. Childrens' area, videos shown, meals dearer, so some good some bad. We had an excellent coach transfer to downtown San-Francisco ...

... the houseboats are the only remnants left from the bohemian and artsy community of the 40's to the 70's. Replaced by high priced and trendy decorative artists in chic galleries with decorative/planned interior and sales people dressed to the nines backed up with 3 ring binders with Xeroxed articles & repros from well placed articles in chi chi magazines all created to create the illusion of the painter as a real artist, when in reality they are merely clones!. All the ...