P.S. The car is running great.

 Feb. 7 Tuesday

Today we spent the morning walking around the Mission district. We had heard it was similar to Commercial Drive in Vancouver and so we thought let’s see if that’s true. It was a bit rainy which helped put us in a Vancouver frame of mind. Looking through the windows of a few of the stores made us realize all we could afford around here was a coffee so we stopped at a coffee shop. We managed to find a table amidst all the upwardly mobile 20-30 somethings who were plugged in to their Mac books and IPods of course. We didn’t see any people with kids but there were some kids stores. You know the ones—they sell a sippy-cup for $50 and say that it’s BPA free, pro dental development, will, somehow advance your child’s brain development, AND on top of it all will make all the other mom’s feel like less of a mother because you have one and they don’t. We were in Vancouver as far as I was concerned. But I was in a bad mood when I woke up so next time we go to Mission I’ll try to wake up on the right side of the bed first.

As we walked back to the car we window-shopped at a couple more hip clothing stores, walked passed a triceratops made out of plants, and there they were—a pair of shoes, just my size. Like I mentioned in an earlier entry, I’ve inherited the FREE gene from my dad. So when I saw these shoes sitting on a little ledge beside a high-end shoe store my brain yelped FREE! And my hands involuntarily snatched them up before I had a chance to stop them—not that I would have, what’s wrong with picking up a perfectly good pair of shoes off of the sidewalk?

triceratops

T-rex

Feb. 8 Wednesday

As you know we were having a bit of trouble finding a place to stay for a longer period of time. On Friday we had responded to an ad on airbnb—a website devoted to finding short or long-term sublets for people traveling around the world. The ad had specified: not kid friendly, but Steve was determined, he sent an email off anyway explaining our situation and Freddie’s exceptional personality. The woman got back right away saying we sounded great but her place had too many nic nacs and breakable things, it wouldn’t work out and good luck to us as we searched for a different place. Being at The Country Hearth Inn was fine, but $70 a night was more than we could afford for a long-term living arrangement.

On Tuesday (4 days later) we heard back from Stella (ad lady), she said she had moved a few things around in her place and would we still be interested in staying at her place. We planned to go by there on our way out of town and after a half hour casual interview we arranged to stay there while she was off traveling for the month of March. So now as we make our way to Las Vegas (yes we have re-routed our trip to go to Las Vegas for two nights before we head over to Death Valley Junction) we know we will have somewhere to stay when we get back to San Francisco at the end of February!

our trip over the Bay Bridge was foggy.

We left for Fresno and stopped in a couple of places along the way.

Here is the longest burning light bulb at Fire Department Station. 6 in Livermore, CA. It's been burning for 110 years. It was unscrewed once for 10 minutes so it could be transferred from the original Firehouse to this one.

You can see the light bulb up at the top. Steve was getting some video footage.

Here is the CAT office building in Turlock, CA. It's an office building that looks like a bulldozer.

We stopped at a park to stretch our legs and saw this strange swarm of bees on a tree.

Someone else wanted a picture too.

Feb.9 Thursday

Exit at Olive Ave. in Fresno and you will find some super cheap hotels. $29 a night sounded great to us so as we exited and within seconds realized why the prices were so low. Since we didn’t want to stay in a bed that frequented the 30 or so hookers lining the streets there, we got back on the freeway and stayed at a different sort of cheap place. It wasn’t the most pleasant room but we slept fine, enjoyed the outdoor pool, which was unusually warm, and had some complimentary raisin bran for breakfast.

On our way out of Fresno we got a call from Steve’s dad who has been managing our house in Kelowna for us (thanks dad!). He’s been trying to find a renter for the basement suite and while he was chatting with Steve about a potential renter he mentioned that the upstairs tenant had gotten tired of all the ice on the driveway so he had decided to rent a jack hammer to get rid of it. The conversation ended on a different topic but after Steve got off the phone we both scratched our heads wondering, why? “I ran out of salt” might be the response. Or maybe “I didn’t feel like waiting for the salt to do its job”, “I lost my pick axe”, “I’ve always wanted to use a jack hammer”, “A voice from beyond told me to do it”. Whatever the reason, the ice is gone so I guess that’s good—we don’t have to worry about getting sued by the mailman breaking his neck, and the renters get to have a safe walk to and from their car.

We put it behind us and enjoyed the view as we headed for Las Vegas!

This one is for you dad!