Saturday, March 30, 2002

Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Snapshots

Mount Tamalpais - or as it is know locally, Mount Tam - is 2571ft (about 800m) high and is located in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge. The east peak offers panoramic views of the ocean, cities and bay.

Napa Valley Snapshots

One of our early day trips was to the Napa Valley. The Napa Valley is about an hour's drive from San Francisco and is renowned for its wines. We took this trip at the start of February because we wanted to ensure that we finished the stock before we left (well all except one bottle ... see the Playing Catchup Blogging post for further details - Tony). Unfortunately none of the wines was outstanding - I guess that's what happens when you choose your wineries from a backpacker's guide.

I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

It's just about impossible to live in California without, at some point, becoming inquisitive about earthquakes. Major fault lines run up the western coast passing within a mile or two of us, and a few run inland. Together these faults produce a plentiful supply of mild tremors - 314 in the last 7 days - and the occasional, more attention-grabbing, certified earthquake.

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

There's Snow In Them There Mountains

Where did our early Spring go? The doona was cleaned and put away, the fire logs were stored in the garage and then, suddenly, Winter's back and it's freezing again. Last week I was driving south. It was such a clear day I could see the mountains on the other side of the Bay and there was snow on the peaks!

Monday, March 18, 2002

Blog!

It's Monday and I'm blogging again, exactly two weeks after I last blogged. There must be something about Mondays that makes them paticularly blog-worthy. It's a versatile word 'blog', and variations come readily to mind.

Sunday, March 17, 2002

We're On Our Way Home!

“Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening at once.
Lately it doesn't seem to be working.”
Anonymous

We're finally on our way home and all of a sudden it seems like there's a million things to do in very little time. We are hoping to leave Burlingame on the 12th April and make our way home via Yosemite National Park, San Diego, Palm Springs, Joshua Tree National Park and Hawaii.

As this is probably my last chance to write from American soil I am making no apologies for this wordy blog.

Monday, March 4, 2002

The Burlingame PEZ Museum

It's Monday, only a day after the previous post, so there's no new local news to pass on. Instead, we'll jump straight into the next installment of Debbie's and Tony's daytrips.

Sunday, March 3, 2002

They Passed!

To our considerable relief, we learned Friday from our local vet that Mitzi and Astra passed the rabies antibody test. This means that we can now start the multi-stepped process for transporting them (and us) home. Ironically, the registration tags for both of them arrived on the same day that we received the news so, just as they've become legitimate canine and feline members of San Mateo County, we're about to commence the task of turning them back into Aussies. Ah well, at least the new registration tags make cool clinking sounds when Astra and Mitzi move. Debs thinks that this sound makes Mitzi sound like a large dog. This goes well with her throaty bark and with Mitzi's own delusions of her size and import, but sits incongruously with her 5kg weight and 25cm stature.