TravelStream™ news feed for member dn3a on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/dn3a en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:12:35 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1200175860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1200175860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1200175860/tpod.html Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:12:35 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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El Monte, California, United States

WE'RE HOME!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199412360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199412360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199412360/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:16:17 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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San Francisco, California, United States

So I never thought I'd see the day, but I'm actually all caught up with my blog! I'm actually writing, right now, about right now! Amazing, now that there's only 9 days left of our trip!
Not much has happened in the last couple of days. My only news is that I was deathly ill on Tuesday and into Wednesday. I slept for nearly 27 hours straight, and felt like I had some sort of evil poison coursing through my veins. I was afraid to even take a shower because my legs could barely hold me up and I didn't want to pass out in there and drown. Totally weird. Today I feel much better, but still tired and a bit dizzy and such. And it's pouring rain. Made for a good day to sit around and get caught up on the blog!
Tomorrow the rain is supposed to be worse. The doppler guys say it's to be the worst storm in years. Tropical storm type winds. Should be interesting.
Albert has just finished his last session with the SF office (he just walked in right now). Tomorrow or Saturday we'll travel to my mom's, where he will leave me off. He has to fly to Chicago on Sunday. It's 1 degree in Chicago today. 1!! I told him I'd rather hang out at my parent's house and visit with old friends than go to Chicago in January. Let's all pray that he doesn't freeze to death.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199152620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199152620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199152620/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:05:31 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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San Francisco, California, United States

My parents went home today, bringing us to the reality that Albert has to go back to work day after tomorrow. Vacation over. But Jehovah blessed us with a pick-me-up. Here are several shots of the magnificent sunset we had today.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199147820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199147820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1199147820/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:55:53 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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San Francisco, California, United States

So we're back in Marin County, back to the same RV place we had stayed at before. Since Albert doesn't have to be back to work until the 2nd, we decided to treat these last few days as the last bit of our vacation. My parents are still with us too, since they haven't seen much of this side of the Golden Gate bridge either. Saturday we didn't do a whole lot. It was moving day, and took a while to get here from Isleton. Plus, it was a gray, gloomy day anyway, so we just laid low once we got here. Except when we got hungry, of course. We went to a local microbrewery for dinner. (The office attendant's suggestion.) It's obviously a favorite with the locals, since it was already packed at 4:30, while surrounding places were still empty. Good choice. Albert and I split an enormous burger. Lots of mushrooms. Mmmmm....
Sunday morning we went to the meeting in Mill Valley. The Kingdom Hall is close to where we are staying, and has very interesting architecture. We all thought maybe it had originally been built as a church, because of the peaked roofs, large windows, and other details. But no. It was built, as a KH, back in the 50's. It used to have a baptismal pool outside, but that has since been filled in and is now a beautiful garden. Unfortunately, we forgot a camera, so no picture. Sorry.
The speaker had such a smooth, clear way of speaking that I thought sure he must have been a Bethelite. Sure enough. We got a chance to speak with him a bit after the meeting. He and his wife left Bethel some time ago, and returned to where they grew up, San Rafael. He and Albert are in a similar field, and it was interesting to hear him talk about the education he received at Bethel and how it trained him so well for his current secular work. He may not have any degree, but his Bethel education has served him better than any degree could have. Nice, very interesting brother.
After the meeting, we decided to go to Sausalito. It was a much nicer, sunnier day, so a good day to be a tourist. I know I've been to Sausalito before, but I was a kid, and really don't remember it. Now that we've seen a bit of this area, I can understand why people are so enamored with it. Even though this is a busy city area, it has a completely different feel. A strong sense of community not typical to cities. And everything is so CUTE. Cute houses, cute shops, people ride all over the place on bikes, it's just cute. And the marina area is BEAUTIFUL. The whole area is packed with tourists and locals alike. And it's easy to see why. What a gorgeous area. You look out over the water and you're surrounded by the bay, the islands, the bridges, the hills-it's beautiful.
Despite all this beauty, the group of us was getting a bit cranky. We're all tired, and it was late afternoon and we still hadn't eaten yet. We finally went to a restaurant called Spinnaker. What a lovely restaurant. It actually is built out over the water, and wherever you sit in the dining room, you have a magnificent view. I found myself going into a daze just staring out the window at the fabulous view. This meal proved to be decadent. I had a sea bass dish that was out of this world. Albert's seafood pasta rustica was just as amazing. Rick had clam chowder-perhaps the best I've ever tasted-and Mom had a shrimp salad sandwich which she greatly enjoyed. Admittedly, this was an expensive restaurant (Thanks for picking up the tab, Ricky!!), but I can see myself coming back here on a regular basis. We can always just have chowder and bread (we can probably swing the 5 bucks). It's worth it to sit and enjoy that view.
After 'lunner' (late lunch/early dinner), we continued to wander around Sausalito. No longer cranky, we had a lot of fun going into some of the cute little shops. Very touristy. Finally, since it was getting dark, the shops were closing, and we were freezing, we headed back to the car. We drove around the harbor for quite a while, looking at the boats.
We found a community, apparently quite famous, made up entirely of houseboats. Some of them were simple-looking apartments, others were virtual floating mansions. We looked for the oddly-shaped ones, but it was now too dark to see much. So we headed home and played more games.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198968180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198968180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198968180/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:07:56 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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Isleton, California, United States

After that lovely mountain setting, we moved on to somewhere completely different-the Delta of the Sacramento River. This is sad, I know, but I never even knew we had a Delta area. And it's only an hour and a half from where I grew up. Sad.
This area is kind of interesting. It's back over kinda close to where Kim and Nick live, in the agriculture belt. There's nothing to see this time of year, since the crops have all been harvested, and it's too soon to plant new ones. But it's interesting to realize just how vast the farmlands are here in California. I've always kind of known that, but never really thought about it.
The campground we're at is nice and is right across the street from the Delta. There's nothing much happening now, but we can tell that this place must be hopping in the summer. Right now it's just COLD. Really cold. I thought we'd be warmer out here in farm country, but it was actually warmer back up in Winters! My parents had gone home for a night (they had responsibilities to take care of) but they arrived here at this campground within minutes of us. We're all shocked at how cold it is! Too bad, too, because we have lots of space around us in a nice setting. It would be nice if we could sit outside and play, maybe have a fire. But it's too cold!
On Thursday we ventured into the town of Isleton. Albert had found a website on the area and had been reading to us about all the neat places to visit, all the history, the museums, and (of course) the food. We had started to think we might need to stay longer than 3 nights, because it wouldn't be long enough to see everything. HA!! First of all, we found the little restaurant we were looking for to have breakfast. The place had sounded like magnificence online, but turned out to be a tiny, empty, hole in the wall. That's alright. The food was good.
After breakfast, we wandered around town, looking for all that art and history. It turns out to be a tiny town, with one (very short) Main street, and a few blocks of ramshackle, run-down homes. Every street we went down, there were people standing outside, and they all looked at us like we were aliens from another planet. It was so weird!! To add to the strangeness, we picked up a few real estate flyers for houses for sale in the area, just for kicks. The average price was around $300,000, with one home nearly $600,000. Seriously? Here? We cannot figure out what could possibly be so attractive about this town that the prices would be so high. But it was amusing.
That night we went to what was reportedly the best restaurant in town. It wasn't much more than a bar, with a bit of space for dining. The specialty here is crawdads. In fact, it's called Isleton Joe's Crawdad Shack (I think). Well, we had to try them. We've all had crawdads before, but typically as a little morsel in a soup, like a chowder. But here they serve the whole crawdad, referred to as the poor man's lobster. We weren't sure how this was going to go, so we got an appetizer for the 4 of us to share, rather than ordering large plates of these things as our main meal. They were quite interesting. The waitress showed us how to break them open and eat them. It's a lot of work (not really a lot, but enough) for one tiny bit of edible meat in the tail. There's other gunk in there too that you can eat, but I wouldn't recommend it. (I accidentally ate some of this stuff-I won't be making that mistake again). Once we got the hang of it, Albert and I decided that they really weren't bad, but Mom and Rick were less than impressed. Needless to say, we didn't have the crawdads as our main course.
Yesterday we went to the town of Rio Vista. It proved to be a much larger town than Isleton. A real place with real neighborhoods. Actually quite cute. We started our visit with a bakery. (So like us, I know). We had read about this fabulous bakery in Isleton, which proved to no longer exist, and had been craving pastries ever since. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the bakery in Rio Vista, it was already about 2PM and none of us had really eaten yet for the day. So we were starving. Bad thing to go to a bakery when you're starving. We must have gotten one of just about everything in the store. And they were huge offerings. Shameful, I know. At least we only actually ate one item per person. We took the rest home for later. After the bakery, we just meandered around town. Checked out the neighborhoods, the shops, saw some fantastic views of the Sacramento River, stumbled upon a State park with a fabulous campground right on the water, that kind of stuff. Then we went to a wonderful Mexican restaurant for dinner. Mom seemed to be in heaven over her shrimp burrito. Then we went on back to the rig and played games.
Today, once again, it is moving day. So, after taking a few more pictures of the Delta (and all the many boats stored here-the river must be packed in the summertime!), we headed out yet once again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198703580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198703580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198703580/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:37:28 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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Winters, California, United States

We spent the past 3 days at a beautiful campground in Winters, CA-located sort of between Napa and Sacramento, really close to Davis. We had never heard of this place before, but saw it in one of our campground directories and thought we'd give it a shot. We wanted a place to vacation for a few days, but didn't want to go too far. This was only about an hour from San Francisco.
What an amazing spot. We're camped right on a creek, fed from overflow from nearby Lake Berryessa. We had wanted to do some fishing (the water is full of trout-yum) but the fish are spawning at this time of year, and only fly-fishing is allowed. (Apparently fly-fishing is less disturbing to the fish than traditional fishing). Since we don't know how to fly-fish, nor do we have the proper equipment, we've had to be satisfied with watching the other fishermen that have been wandering up and down the stream the entire time we've been here. They haven't caught much, though. My parents joined us here late Sunday night, and on Monday we ventured out to explore 'historic' Winters, CA. That took about 5 minutes. Tiny town, nothing to see. We wanted to try some local 'cuisine', but there weren't many options, and everything was closed anyway because of the holiday. So we headed to Vacaville, about 20 minutes away, where there are outlet stores and tons of other shopping. We ended up eating at a place called Fenton's, that my parents knew of. They started out as a creamery 80 years ago or something in Oakland. They raise their own dairy cows, and make their own ice cream. Never more than 3 days passes from the time the cow is milked, until the ice cream is in your bowl. Incredibly fresh. And GOOD. This second branch of Fenton's hasn't been here for long, but they do everything the same way as the original. The scoops are ridiculously huge. We got one Sunday for the 4 of us to split, and we all still ate way too much. But man, was it good!
After lunch, we went to wander around the amusement area-small rides and such for kids. This is all located on the old Nut Tree location (if that means anything to anybody). I remember coming here as a kid. It was much smaller, but it was fun. Now redone and much larger, a bunch of the kid stuff is the same as it was as far back as the 1950's. We were all on a sugar rush, and feeling giddy, so we gave those hobby horses a run for their money! We definitely had more fun than any of the kids that were around!
After all this excitement, we headed back to camp. We spent the rest of the time relaxing, playing games, and just enjoying the beauty of the area. Jehovah certainly does provide in his Creation, doesn't he?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198440000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198440000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1198440000/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:09:21 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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San Francisco, California, United States

This past week has been pretty quiet. We're staying at a little RV 'resort' (I use the term loosely) in Marin county. It's so weird that I grew up here in the Bay Area, about 45 miles south of here, but I really never came to this side of town. I rarely even went in to The City (San Francisco) because it's kind of a pain to get around in, and not much fun unless you know where to go. (Yes, there is a TON of stuff to see and do here, but you know how it is when you live somewhere, but you never go do the touristy stuff unless someone is visitng from out of town? It's kinda like that.) As rarely as I went in to the City, I really NEVER came over here-it's on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. I think I've been here once-I went to Sausalito when I was a kid. But now that I'm here, I love it. We've probably all seen all those beautiful pictures and postcards of San Francisco, the bridges, the Bay, and the surrounding hills and mountains. Apparently those pictures were all taken from this side of the Bridge. How crazy to have lived in this area for all those years, but to not have known that all these cute little towns and amazing scenery were all right here! Albert has been working all week, and I've just been kinda laying low. The highlight of the week was traveling down to my mom's house on Thursday. I drove down, and Albert took the train down after work. We went to the meeting there in the Palo Alto South congregation, where Rick was giving his first number 4 talk on the School! He did an awesome job, and looked so proud up there on stage. It was hard to hold back tears, especially when he got choked up talking about our hope for life in Paradise. What an amazing change! All these years of indifference on his part, as far as our beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses goes, but now he's finally moved at the idea that he too can enjoy life in Paradise. It's wonderful.
After the meeting, I accompanied my mom to the Oakland airport, where my nephew, Ian, was scheduled to arrive. It's been hard on my mom and Rick since my brother and his family moved to Colorado, taking the only grandchild with them. They've been empty-nesting really bad. So Mom was excited to get a chance to see Ian. She has to share him with Ann (his mom) during this Winter break, but at least we'll all get to see him for a little while.
Albert and I spent the night, with the intention of going out in service Friday morning with friends from my old congregation. But I woke up with a migraine (perhaps from sleeping all crooked on the couch) and Albert wasn't feeling so good either. So we just sort of hung out all day. Mom gave me a massage. (Moms are so good for things like that). We went to dinner last night with some friends, then headed back to our place in Marin.
The campground we're staying at is actually not bad. It's small (parking lot style), the sites are smaller, but it's very clean and has all the necessary amenities (laundry and such). The office staff is very friendly and attentive. And right behind the park is a marshy area that leads to the Bay. Great place to take the dog for a walk. It's in a great neighborhood and has wonderful views. We're within walking distance to the Ferry, which Albert takes to work in the City. It's only a few blocks from the ferry landing on that side to the office, so it's very convenient. Nice to not have to drive, too, since driving in the City is a nightmare, and crossing the Golden Gate is expensive. The ferry ride is about half an hour, and Albert has been loving it. I haven't gone with him yet, but he says it's very scenic and peaceful. We're glad we found this place. It's not so convenient for getting to my mom's house (we have to
get through the City, which takes forever, then another 20 miles down the freeway past that) but extremely convenient for work, and such a cute area.
Next week Albert is taking off from work, since half the week is eaten up by the holidays anyway, and most people are out of the office for the whole week. Not much point in trying to go in. So we're going to go check out some local sights-places I've never bothered to go to right here in my own backyard. My parents will probably join us, so it should be a nice little get-away.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1229453880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1229453880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1229453880/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:35:32 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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Tracy, California, United States

This weekend our focus has been on my friend Kim's baby shower. She's one of my oldest friends-we've known each other since I was 16 and she was 12. A little while. I've been so excited to see her, because it's been a while, and because her baby is due in 5 weeks, and I couldn't wait to see her big ol' belly!
Kim's friend Sheletha threw the shower, and I arrived early to her house to help set up. My mom, who I haven't seen since we began our travels, was mostly responsible for catering. So getting to the house, and receiving big, long hugs from her and my stepdad, Rick, was soooo nice. Sometimes you just don't realize how much you've missed somebody until you see them again, ya know? But Rick was quickly whisked away (Albert took him to lunch) since this was a girls only affair, and Mom was busy, so I tried to make myself useful while I anxiously awaited Kim's arrival.
Wow-she looks good! Kim has always been so cute anyway, but she's adorable pregnant! Absolutely radiant. And huge! (I mean that in the best possible way). I'm kinda hoping she has the baby a bit early so I can see her before we head home. (Baby London is due January 24th, and we go home the 12th). She's an active little one! Kim let me feel her tummy when the baby was awake-she moves around a lot! She likes to kick mommy.
The shower went really well. Kim and baby London received tons of stuff. That child will be one well-dressed little girl! Which should make her fashion-conscious daddy quite happy. It was nice to meet so many sisters from Kim and Nick's congregation. Kim and I haven't been in the same Hall for so many years-it's always a little strange to be with someone you know so well, but not know the people they currently hang out with. It looks like my friend is very well cared for. And there are a lot of young families in her congregation, so little London will have plenty of buddies as well.
Kim's sister Sharon, and mom Andrea were both there. I haven't seen either one of them since Kim's wedding 9(?) years ago. Kim and Sharon don't look much alike, but Kim and I have always been told that we look amazingly alike. So a lot of the friends there thought I was the sister. Ha! Some things never change. The food was fabulous (that's a plug for my mom). Mom made several little vegetable 'critters'. Very cute. And the cake was adorable-a little pink bassinette.
Somebody made stuffed mushrooms-my favorite! Yum! It all looked so pretty.
The one bummer was that Kim and I didn't get to visit much. I'm hoping that Albert and I will get a chance to visit with her and Nick sometime later in our stay in this general area. But for now, it's moving day. Albert is working in the San Francisco office for the next few weeks, so we're heading on over to a campground in Marin-about 2 hours away. I guess I should go help get things ready....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1197682140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1197682140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1197682140/tpod.html Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:25:56 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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Tracy, California, United States

Today was not a particularly fun day. Oh, it started out okay, and it ended fine, it just got mucky in the middle. You know, one of THOSE days.
We checked out of that fine establishment in Visalia, then headed out on the road. It was really pretty interesting heading up the 99 highway-I have never done that before. I know that most of us don't think 'agriculture' when we think California, but actually we're the leading agriculture state in the country. We passed tons of farms, orchards and dairies. Lots of cows. We saw plenty of familiar names-Kraft (I guess they do need cows to make the milk to make their cheese and such), Blue Diamond Almonds, Del Norte-to name a few. It was really kinda cool. I wouldn't mind doing this same drive again, perhaps in the spring, when things are in bloom. Especially the nut and citrus trees. That would be pretty.
When we finally arrived in Tracy, we headed straight to the campground where we had reservations. The only one in town, I might add. We had gotten there early since we wanted to spend the late afternoon and evening with my friend, Kim. Well, the campground was pretty rough-only about 20 sites, most of which were occupied by RVers who obviously live there. And who don't seem to care much about cleanliness. And several of them stared at us suspiciously, making us feel very unwelcome. Hmmm. When I tried to check in, the note on the door said they'd be back in an hour. Okay, well, I already don't like this place, and now we have to go kill an hour waiting for them to return so we can get a site assignment. We decided to go to lunch. A couple hours later, tired and headachy now, we returned. No note on the door now, but it is locked and no one is answering. Now what? I tried calling the phone number-no answer. So we left-again-and meandered around town for awhile, looking for alternatives. After making a bunch of phone calls, and looking at local mobile home parks (thinking one of them may accept overnight RVers), we found that there were still no options. Really tired, and now irritated, we went once more to the original place. This time when I knocked on the still-locked door, I could hear shouting. The office is attached to the manager's residence, and folks inside the house were having a loud, heated argument. I continued knocking and calling out, hoping to distract them from the fight and get someone to come help us. After several minutes of this, the shouting had escalated to severe obscenities, and I decided that I had completely had it with this place. It was definitely time to leave.
We decided that being really close to Kim's house was just not going to happen, and we found an RV campground in Manteca, about half an hour away. It was more expensive, and, again, a bit further away, but at this point we didn't care. Nor did we have a choice. We were also too tired and bugged at this point to go out for the evening, so I called Kim and told her we just wanted to get checked in, relax, and go to bed early. We'd see her tomorrow.
When we got to the French Camp RV resort, I believe the heavens opened up and the angels began to sing. This place is REALLY nice. Large sites, great amenities, large, open fields of grass, a golf course next door, a winery across the street-who could ask for more?We are so much happier here. It's actually only $7 more per night than the other place-and it was a dump! There won't be much time to enjoy the park itself-since tomorrow we will be mostly occupied with Kim's baby shower-but this might be a place worth coming back to. It's within a reasonable distance of some interesting-sounding attractions, and the park itself is worth a few days of hanging out in. The downtown is really cute, too (as we found out when we ventured out to look for food) so we'll have to explore that further on another visit, too. Now, I just want to close my eyes and forget about the obnoxious experience we had with that other place...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1197767340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1197767340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dn3a/xcountry-2007/1197767340/tpod.html Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:16:14 -0500 Dawn and Albert's adventures across the country

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Visalia, California, United States

When I say that this was a pit stop, I mean a PIT. The drive yesterday was pretty nice-lots to see, but the campground we spent the night at was yucky. Not horrific, I suppose, but certainly not somewhere I would stay again. This whole area is agriculture country, so it all smells of cows and their yuck. Not the campground's fault, of course, but eeeww anyway. It's all good, though-it was just a place to sleep on our way to Tracy.
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