REDWOOD and SAN FRANCISCO

So Noah just managed to clear airport security with a large railroad spike in his knapsack and we're now flying home to Toronto....but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Last you heard we were en route to the Redwood Forest, so let's take it from there.

After the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, we headed off to camp for three nights in Redwood National and State Park. We hiked once again, and saw some f#@$ing huge trees, including the Boy Scout Tree "arguably the largest Redwood tree," according to the ranger. Arguably, because it's actually two trees fused together. Here we are in front of it.



N.B. this photo was taken by a Korean couple who had the exact same camera as us. We took a picture of them, too. Luckily we were all compulsive enough to make sure we didn't end up with a camera full of their X-rated honeymoon photos!

The second day of our hike took us along a coastal trail. We ate blackberries along the way (despite some fears that they were toxic, we survived).

About halfway through that second hike, we began to hear strange animal sounds coming out of the fog, a kind of barking noise. As we made our way along the coast, we realized the sounds were coming from the shore....sea lions! We actually never saw them, but they made a racket.

After Redwood we made the long trek down to San Francisco where we stayed in another totally unique space in The Castro (district). This was not our first time in the city, but we finally made it to Alcatraz (you have to buy the tickets weeks in advance...thank you to those who forewarned us about that). The "award-winning" audio tour really is excellent. For those of you Shawshank Redemption nerds, some of the real-life prison stories sounded very familiar. E.g., burrowing through a wall for a year with a spoon to try to escape, etc.

We also celebrated Rob and Diane's 22nd anniversary here. Our airbnb host, Aldo, made reservations for the two of us in one restaurant, and booked Aviva, Aaron and Noah into the sister restaurant; both Argentinian/latin american fusion/tapas type places. When we arrived at the restaurants, half an hour late and worried we might have missed out on our tables, all we had to say was, "Aldo sent us," and we were swept in. When the bouncer tried to card the kids, all they had to say was, "Aldo semt us," and they got waved through. And when we got to our respective hostesses, all we had say was, "Aldo sent us," and we we were seated immediately. Evidently Aldo has schlep!

We saw Chinatown (see pics above) and took a bike tour of San Francisco as well. BIKE TOUR?!?!? In San Francisco?!? Yep, and it was one of the best we've ever been on and actually no major hills were involved.

They do this thing here called "The Wiggle", where cyclists actually follow a bike path that wiggles around the hills. It sits in an old dried up creek and was used 100s of years ago by the missionaries who first settled here. In the afternoon we rented our bikes to keep on riding - making it all the way out onto the Golden Gate Bridge.

Of course we ate yummy yummy things the whole time we were in San Francisco. After the bike tour we tried this place where they make their ice cream to order, using liquid nitrogen. It was very good, but it reminded us we forgot to mention an even better ice cream place in Portland - Salt and Straw. Rob had Pear and Blue Cheese Ice Cream there that was seriously to die for...okay, you do have to like blue cheese to like this.

Now back to Noah's rail road spike. The rest of us had all cleared security for the flight home, when we saw that Noah had been detained for questioning. We had no idea why, assuming it was some sort of random spot check; we had no gels, liquids, or nail clippers. We even stowed away our camping frying pan, thinking that could be construed as a weapon. But what we had forgotten was a large railway spike that we'd picked up along the way, that was stored in the bag Noah happened to be carrying. After measuring it (seriously) and banging it on their table (again...seriously), the security guards actually gave the spike back to Noah and sent him and us on our way!

So that's it for this summer..... till the next time.

And as we listen to a choir of about 4 babies crying through much of the flight from San Francisco to Toronto, we leave you with a few more of the signs we've seen along the way...

RANAD