Part 2 - On the Road ---- September 17 - October 4

Part Deux

of what could be

"The Longest Blog Post of All Time"

The ceiling in the check-in desk area @ the Bellagio.

The glass, suspended above the seating area is by artist Dale Chihuly.
http://www.chihuly.com/

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Well, we made it through a 2 hour 'time share' sales presentation for which

we were given dinner vouchers for a nice restaurant in the MGM Grand.

Perfect! We had tickets for the Cirque du Soleil show 'Ka' at the same venue,

so we took advantage of the offering and enjoyed a fine meal before the show.

We are Cirque du Soleil junkies and this show ended them all!

Skilled athletes and acrobats combined with technical precision made 'Ka'

one of our favorites.

The Wheel of Death in 'Ka'

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Did I ever mention that we are 'Cirque du Soleil' junkies?

Oh, yeah.

On the last night of our 4 days in Vegas, we saw 'Love'

a Cirque show built around the music of the Beatles.

Don is quite the Beatles freak and has been looking forward to this

show for quite a while.

The same day as the show, we had those difficult decisions to make regarding the

adoption of several SN children (whose needs were beyond our ablity to provide for

care considering our ages). So, the show was a great diversion from the day spent

in a cyber cafe & on the phone with our SW.

Most of the other Cirque shows rely on raw acrobatics as the main thrust of their shows.

This one was somewhat lighter and could appropriately be called

"A Celebration of the Music of The Beatles in Dance and Pagentry".

We got to the theatre early and had some fun with a display for the show.

The pics are below....

"Baby, You Can Drive My Car"

One of the numbers from the show.

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Clearlake in Northern California - Our 2nd Stop

Wineries, mountains and lakes surrounded us as we visited

Be's sister, Joanne, and BIL Bob for a week.

Moonrise on Clearlake

Cattails along one of the trails at Cache Creek Recreation Area.

Jake and brother-in-law, Bob, on a hike at Cache Creek.

Be's sister, Joanne, sings on the praise team at

Clearlake United Methodist Church.

Jake the LoverDog

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Get out your Birkenstocks, windchimes and your Chakra guides, folks -

we're heading to Mendocino.

It's a very beautiful town in Northern California which has become a haven for

aging hippies and 60s thought. When we first drove up, we parked next to a fence

outside an organic foods market (where we made several purchases) which had all sorts of flyers advertising meetings

from

The Disciples of Deepak Chopra

to

Finding the Primal Man Within.

The second offering was interesting, as I had seen a TV magazine article on the

weekend seminar. It seems that men get together in the woods outside the town and

release their inhabitions (something Don does without the big bucks of a weekend seminar) by dancing around a fire, beating on drums and yellingat the moon.

Heck, at our house, we do THAT before .... dinner!

Hhhhmmmmm - wonder what the women's version looks like.

Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon cruising the alleys & shops, drinking organic coffee

and hiking around the rugged coastline. We had the digital camera working overtime.

Enjoy the pics......

A seagull waits patiently for the scraps from a sea sea otter's dinner

of abalone.

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Last Stop - San Fran

We both love San Francisco ----- and we were fortunate that

family business took us to one of our favorite cities as the last stop on our 17 day excursion. It was one of the first stops on our honeymoon WWAAYY back in 1981.

Our time as 'tourists' would be limited but we still managed to get 'out on the town' when we could.

One especially memorable evening, we went down to Fisherman's Warf. It was one of those "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" kind of nights - the place was uncrowded,

breezy - but not windy

and you could actually hear the sound of the bells on the cable cars.

Our table at Neptune's

at the end of Pier 58

complete with a view of Alcatraz

(not to mention the wonderful meal) was the topper of the evening.

Here are some scenes from the other places we visited in this remarkable city.

City view - from the Golden Gate .

Our travels in San Francisco took us past

the University of Southern California Cancer Center at Mt Zion Hospital.

Some poor chap rode to work on his bicycle that morning

and locked it up to a bicycle parking rack outside the facility

- and will return to find a mere shadow of what was once a complete bicycle.

Welcome to the big city.

The lure of authentic Asian food drew us to Chinatown for lunch.

We sought out our favorite Dim Sum take out vendor and were entertained by

this gentleman who played a 1 stringed instrument which

(at the risk of being culturally insensitive)

let out with the most gastly sound I've heard since

Sigourney Weaver first encountered the 'Alien'.

I gave him a dollar and the

cacaphony was interrupted (only momentarily) when he

thanked me.

"Hey, Be! Got another dollar?"

Chinese Lantern Flower in Chinatown

Machete need here.

On our last day, we had a few hours to play 'tourist'.

I had never walked across the length of the Golden Gate Bridge and had wanted to do it for ..... well ..... a REAL long time.

Deciding to live in the moment,

we donned our walking shoes and brought along the camera.

I actually took this pic of the Golden Gate back in 2004.

It was about 7:30 AM and the light was just right.

I 'photoshopped' it to black & white and added the antique look.

All other pics in this set were taken during our walk across the famous bridge

on October 3, the afternoon prior to our 'redeye' back to Orlando.

The 'Customs House' below the GGB.

Looking west from the GGB toward Sausilito

Alcatraz - in the distance framed by cables on the GGB.

Here's a sign you don't see when you're driving by.

A walk across the Golden Gate Bridge allows time to read the text.

Don at the half-way point.

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On our last day in San Francisco, we were able to break away to San Jose to visit Cousin Lyn and hubby, Ed. We spent a relaxing evening with them having snacks under the stars. That night, we retired to the 'guest cottage' - their 24' RV. Our first night - ever - in those accommodations. It was a great way to end our 17 day trip.

Cousins Lyn & Ed