Hot

Two months in SF temps. and I have already gotten "soft". I was down in LA yesterday for a corporate off site. It got up to 88 degrees there. I thought is was pretty hot and slightly humid- I am going to die in the Dallas heat over Labor Day!!

Carmel

A little triva for you: What is the official name of Carmel? Carmel by-the-Sea. Who was Carmel's famous former mayor? Clint Eastwood.

A couple weekend's ago I took a break from unpacking and headed south to Carmel to see a friend of mine from college who was in town with her kiddos visiting her mother. She lives in Carmel Valley. Saturday we went to Monterrey (connects to Carmel) and walked along the sea board, fisherman's warf, through Cannery Row - once the busiest cannery for sardines along the coast- and visited the Monterrey Aquarium. Very cool aquarium. Sunday was a beautiful fog-free day. We drove to downtown Carmel, along Carmel beach, part of the beautiful 17 mile drive through Pacific Grove, around Pebble Beach, and to the Carmel Misson. (Highway 101- the main highway I drove down to Carmel is the first highway in CA-- it was the path inbetween each misson in CA, from San Diego up to San Francisco. The path/highway is marked with old bells.)


The sunshine also enticed me to drop the top on the car and head up Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) for my drive back to SF. The highway goes through tons of farmland so I bought fresh fruit and veggies at one of the many produce stands that sprinkle the highway, made a pit stop for fish tacos in Santa Cruz, and stopped at a beach and to watch about 50 windsurfers taking advantage of the very windy day.

Pictures:

Seals in Monterrey Bay

Carmel Beach

Overlooking Clint Eastwood's property

17 Mile Drive/Pacific Grove

The Lone Cypress Ghost Tree
Pebble Beach (don't know which hole)

Carmel Misson

Wind Surfers

Morning Walk

With my move into the city I now get to enjoy a 20 min commute. (I have no idea how I got up in time everyday to do the hour commute from East Bay). I get on the bus at my corner, one of my co-workers calls it the yuppie bus- nice diamonds, nice shoes, hip clothes- as it is full of 20/30 somethings heading downtown. As I am crammed on the standing-room only bus I hope to at least face the direction of the bay so I can look out from the hilltop on Alcatraz, the old docked warships and the boats in the bay. I get off the bus in front of the famed City Lights Bookstore in North Beach and walk 10 min to the office. My walk consists of passing strip joints, "novelty shops", a tattoo parlor, and a few restaurants that had to close after a landslide about 3 months ago. After my stroll down erotica lane and just has I head down the hill, I get a glimpse of the Bay Bridge and the huge white cranes across the water in the Oakland Harbor.

I have walked home the last couple of days- a few hills and a few huffs and puffs later I home. One day I hope to wake up early enough to walk down hill to work. An hour of cardio a day will be good for me!

Commute

My commute in the morning from Berkeley is about an hour but I can't really consider it a real commute as I walk 10-12 min to the Berkeley BART, (hopefully just in time for train) rode BART for 25 min, then walked another 10 min to the office. Once in SF, I walk through a shopping area (danger!), two parks, and past 6 coffee places on my way to the office. One of the parks plays host to the older Japanese generation's morning workouts. They walk around the paths doing knee-raises, swinging arms, swiveling hips-- basically make sure the joints continue to work. Here are a few park pics sans "workout" shots.

Sam's House/Brody's Backyard

Berkeley style- where I stayed the first month I was here.

Around Berkeley

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