An Off-schedule day

Yes, gentle readers, we are back on a daily routine for the blog.  Though today's won't be long (really!).  You see, your intrepid writer spent part of the day trying to survive the curly roads of Sequoia National Park -- and dramamine helped.

We started the day in Fresno, in a nice Radisson.  Kudos for us picking it at 1130 the night before.

After breakfast there (Michael and Barb were trying to cope with a 5 o'clock PST phone call), we hit if for the Sequoias.  Michael wanted to see the big trees.

No one actually says "the road will be unbearably curvy", but the fact it leads with "15 mph" and one of those snakes on the yellow sign.

Notably, though, Fresno sits in California's central valley.  It is flat.  To make it to the sequoias, which live between 5,000 and 7,000 feet, you go through dry foothills (all the grass on them is yellow, making for interesting viewing), then climb quickly into the mountains.

The sequoias were grand.   Here's the largest tree by weight in the world, the General Sherman tree (in Sequoia National Park):

While the other three took the shuttle to the tree, I laid in the back seat of the car, two Dramamine in my system, in the fetal position and fell asleep.  I felt better after.  And even ended up driving!

From the sequoias we did this 270 degree circle -- it turns out, southwest, then east, to find the pass across the mountains, and into the Mojave desert.  Here's the only picture so far of that, which is quite different -- dryer, no trees, some cactus-like vegetation --

LOL!  That one's upside down!

Here are the pictures with the link, now separate (I changed the ones on the other page, which I was told didn't work, but worked for me): https://goo.gl/photos/V4YFLdaj3QkyvGmH7

We had lunch at a nifty place along the Keweah River that did subs -- they were pretty good.  

We had dinner in Ridgecrest (in the desert) at a steakhouse -- as Michael said "who needs a picture of this...it's routine!?"

Barb and Karen discussed ("") playing us in euchre and the guys won in two games.  It must be noted to be fair that neither B or K caught any cards.  Like most card games, you can't win without cards. 

We changed our schedule -- we were supposed to bolt out of Ridgecrest tomorrow morning, having already been to Death Valley -- but instead are going to Death Valley first, ending the day in a lodge back on the coast (we will get awfully close to Nevada tomorrow), and we will pick up tomorrow's site early Saturday morning.  If you follow.  

And now to sleep...dramamine is still in my system. zzzzzz

Days 4, 5 & 6: Berkeley, Napa and Two Days in Yosemite

So, great Reader, there’s be a hiatus.  It’s not that I haven’t had time, though that’s part of it (the card game last night interfered with writing & Monday was a late night), but the bigger problem is WiFi/cell service!

We spent the last two nights at a cabin “in” Yosemite National Park.  “In” because technically the park border is like a quarter mile away.  But it’s a “cabin,” in the middle of mostly nowhere and there’s no real wifi in the cabin and no cell service – the front desk warned you might pick up a call on Verizon, but it would drop, mostly likely.  Think “can you hear me now.”  And the place with the strongest wifi, the rec center, last night had so many people on it that the young woman next to me last night and I were competing to see who lost the white screen first.  We both lost. :)

So, a quick (my companions laugh out loud at my definition of the term) recap of the last three days.

Monday we visited Berkeley.  We started with brunch, at a place near campus called the Elmwood Café.  We all had the waffle with blueberries, lemon curd, and maple syrup.  The picture seems to have disappeared. 

Then to campus, which isn’t as impressive as Stanford (we all agreed).  Passhe schools have a way to go, but it’s very tight in the city, with a view at times of the bay, but jumbled, tight, and not as pretty in architecture or space as the rich private school to the south.

Then to Napa.  We started at Gloria Ferrer, “famed” for their Spanish style sparkling wine.  Michael had the mixed tasting – their Chardonnay and Pinot with two sparklings.  There’s a pic.

HERE’S THE FIRST LINK

Then to Domaine Carneros, whose Brut Rose we had at Waterbar on Friday.  We added a cheese and charcuterie plate. 

Michael and Barb were pretty tapped by now.  Michael kept telling people he was “three sheets in the wind.”

After the third place, where he told the server he was done, then tasted both Karen’s red flight and Barb’s wine flight, he told the guy “Now I’m six sheets in the wind.”

The third place was Pine Ridge.  They had a Chenin blanc that both women liked and bought.  It was that wine that took us there our first time and it was good on return.

Then a fourth place, Raymond’s.  Turns out no one was really up to tasting, and, by the time Karen was ready, the tasting room was closed! 

We had early dinner reservations in Yountville (in the Napa Valley), at a place we ate two years ago.  It was another excellent meal – food porn on the link, with Barb and Karen having the house specialty short rib, Michael a steak, and Karen opened the bottle of Merlot (not fucking Merlot!) from Raymonds.  Dessert was raspberry sorbet and I had dark chocolate gelato == because I thought I’d had enough ice cream the last couple of days.

Then the three hour and twenty minute drive into the mountains and the cabin.

How rustic is it? Well, it has running water and electricity.  No air conditioning, and it’s been in the mid 80s.  But it’s a dry heat. Right? :)

Then yesterday we got around and headed off to the horse stable.  Due to the fact I couldn’t make weight restriction (they made me keep on my shoes), we couldn’t go.  Adjustment to schedule. 

Yosemite is approx 1,200 sq miles.  There is no real road from north to south.  State road 120 runs through the center east to west, through the mountains.  All the roads are windy, at most 35 mph, and two lane.  So, you don’t move quickly. 

Our first goal was the largest falls in North America, Yosemite Falls.  It took us about an hour, with scenic stops, to get there from the stable.  Here’s my best picture of both the upper and lower falls.  It falls like 5,600 feet.  !!!  You’ll see a pic of Karen and I (see the bear) at the base of the lower falls.  Yes, you get damp standing there.

Then we drove more than halfway, Michael did all the driving (more on that later?), across 120, and those pics are of the mountains, the tallest seems to be Mt Hoffman at over 10.000 feet.  There was much snow on the ground.  We ended at Tenaya Lake, where “my guide” shows off “our” rainbow trout, fresh caught. :). Then back to the cabin.  Michael and I went in the pool (okay he went into the hot tub, which was NOT a time machine – except for his joints) & then we had the poolside BBQ for dinner – spare ribs, salmon, andouille sausage and two kinds of salad.  The pool is right next to our cabin. 

Then back to the cabin (no TV, no internet, remember) and the Slavins learned to play euchre.  They caught on quickly.  Michael and Karen won in the third game, 10-8.  Karen showed them some of her family’s slight of hand at cards…just sayin’, how did she keep turning up a jack??!?!?

Then today.  First, both couples had to find enough cell service – Michael ended up on the land line – so we could change where we stayed tonight.  From Ridgway (near the desert) to Fresno, a two plus hour ride from Yosemite. 

Then to Hetchy Hetch reservoir, which was “2 miles” from the cabin.  Two turned into more like ten, none of it fast.  The pictures from there are captioned.

This reservoir is the water source for San Francisco.  The sign there tells you that it feeds into  SF, 165 miles away, all without pumps – it’s all done by gravity.  It seems amazing.  There were also two waterfalls.

Then off to the Yosemite Lodge, where we had a quick lunch, then got on a bus to Glacier Point.  Glacier Point is the spot of some iconic photos – google them – one of the more famous has Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir standing on the rock there, overlooking the massive rocks you’ll see in my pictures. 

It was a four-hour tour.  Michael kept singing the Gilligan Song (“three hour tour…three hour tour”).   The guide’s name was Bill and he talked incessantly (if informationally) the WHOLE way.   We learned about the trees, the history of the park (it’s the oldest in the park system, in some ways) and more about Bill than I needed.

MY highlight – there’s a pick in this link – was a bear!!!  It was not far from the first campground we paid, not ten minutes into the trip!  He’s not a huge black bear (if you don’t know, they don’t have to be black), but he wasn’t more than 50 feet from the bus!  Rah rah.

Look at the LINK – the pictures are amazing.  Here’s one of the falls across the valley.

We were done at 5:30…and then rolled toward Fresno.

Dinner was at a Mediterranean restaurant.  See the pictures.  

In jokes:

One funny was our pulling into Gloria Ferrer’s and Michael asked “am I parking?” I said “do you think they have drive through tastings?”  He thought it was both funny and a clever idea.

Barb started us Sunday with a rude joke – the punch line is I’m remembering Mabel – and I responded with a bro-law Butch classic that ends with “the dog didn’t want to go either.”  Somehow the dog has become a yak (there was this place in Berkeley…) and

There have been thousands of jokes, mostly by me, playing off Michael’s advanced age (he’s 2 years older than I am) AND his memory loss.  I don’t remember why.  He is very happy about this…and has gotten to the point of snorting at either suggestion (you know, for instance, he gets the senior passport discount in national parks? :))

And, back to the bear tee shirt as part of the meme, it has long been suggested that Michael was our bear fodder here.  Though I’ve seen a yellow-bellied marmot (yes, that’s what they are called) and a fox (I have no picture of marmot, a black picture in the night of the fox).  So, there’ve been many suggestions about seeing bears, running from bears, and the signs have been ubiquitous “speeding kills bears” (Barb read aloud that cars killed 15 bears in the park last year!). That speeding might kill deer, people, etc…no signs.  But speeding kills bears.  Remember.

At the ranger station into Hetchy Hetch, he handed me a plastic parking pass and put it in the front windshield and said “it has to be back by 9 tonight.”  I said “we have to come back here?”  “Fella,” he says (yes, “fella”) there’s only one way in.”

When I came back, I said to the ranger (not the same one), I couldn’t find another way out.  He said, “You’d need a hot air balloon…got one in the back?”  Barb rolls down her window and quips “no balloon, but he’s got plenty of hot air.”  So funny.

To finish the day, Michael ran over the curb in the parking garage at the hotel, with a full-fledge “ka-thump”!  I pointed out he did it, but there was no coffee to be spilt!  Ha ha.

Another friend, Pebble effin' beach, and some mild food porn

Today we begin with a whole new thing: nature.

We spent the day near Monterey, about 2 hours southwest of our base at the SF airport, and on the water.

As we cruised around the community at Pebble Beach (the circular road is known as 17-mile Drive, to give you an idea of how long the golf course laden coast line is), we pulled into a scenic pulloff to see  --

He was two feet from some people, not 50 feet from the road, and the people had a German Shepherd, who was straining to...to...well, what happens when a German Shepherd meats a seal?

Michael and I got pretty close -- we didn't know it was law to stay 50 feet away -- I even took a selfie that is me and rocks but is supposed to be me and him...

it was awesome.

But here's the down side: the people there before us tried to pet it and it moved away (obviously).  This freaked out another bystander, who yelled at them "you aren't supposed to be trying to touch it, just leave it alone!  It was laying here sleeping, chilling, and you are bothering it, and with a dog that keeps barking at it! just leave it the fuck alone!"  Michael thanked him for saying something.

But to get so close was so awesome.

My prime goal in going down to the area was to see Pebble Beach Golf Links.  After last month's trip to St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf, going to Pebble was a good bookend as it is the most iconic golf course in the States.    It was an overcast day -- the guy in the pro shop said this was summer in the area, or, as he quoted Mark Twain about San Francisco, "The coldest winter I ever spent was one summer in San Francisco."

But we got to walk right up to the 18th green -- which sits right on the water (as you can see -- here's the link) -- and the staff person there took this picture --

That's the familiar tree on the left side, and the pin is just off the left of the screen. And the tee is back in the right center.  The last hole wraps around that water!  It's as picturesque -- more! -- in person than on TV.

Then up the coast to Pacific Grove and Cannery Row.

We had lunch there.  Again today it was ice cream.  I won't insert the pic here. :)

But before we did all that, we stopped on the way at Stanford University.

Wow.

Just wow.

The acreage is immense.  The buildings are amazing -- almost all in the same stucco with red clay tile roofs.  Here's a picture of their iconic (my word for the day) Hoover Tower.

Those of you who work at universities: you wouldn't have believed all the students milling about on a Sunday at noon!  I went into Starbucks and there must have been 30 on laptops sitting around!  Sunday, at noon!  It's a good-sized campus -- 16,000 -- but still...it didn't remind me of noon on any PASSHE campus I'd ever been on.  And I've been on a lot of them.

Impressive.

Then back to the airport and we had Chinese about a mile from the hotel.  We were the only Caucasians in the place.  The food was excellent.  I've captioned it in the pictures on the link.

And with that, our time in SF comes to an end, rather sadly.  We love the hotel, we love the area, and there's much to see and do.  But tomorrow we go west...and more rustic...and more nature.  No seals, but maybe a bear or two?  At least a horse.

But that's another day.

Today's funny:  somehow a view of some cows, led to a discussion of sheep.  and a series of jokes, including one from Barb that she claimed "I didn't tell, I just repeated."  Michael kept saying "that's my wife telling that joke!"

 Which led to Karen offering this euphemism for something seen in a Edinburgh men's "loo" -- "vacationing vagina."  Michael pointed out the alliteration; the renaming seems to have soothed Karen's sensibilities. :)

♫ We Left A Friend, in San Francisco ♫

Well, gentle readers, another interesting day "on the road," though there wasn't THAT much road today.

Since the biggest thing, the most fun, was breakfast (and there's some food porn), I will start there.

Over Michael's objections (if I had a dollar for every time he said "why are we waiting over an hour to eat here?...it's ONLY breakfast!" I would be very rich...though not as rich as if I had a dollar for every time he said "I've been down this road before" [duh, you've been here 4 times, and gone to essentially the same neighborhoods multiple times.  Just f***ing DUH!])

Yes, we went to Mama's, which is a breakfast place near Fisherman's Wharf (on our first trip to SF in 2011, we walked up from our hotel near the sea lions).  Yes, Mama's takes no reservations; it's not big; there's usually a line on the weekend, of some extent.

It is on some Top Ten lists of things to do in San Fran.

We got there at 825.  We got in at 950.

We stood outside in line.

Finally, Michael needed a personality, so I looked up "nearest coffee" (if you type it into my Google app, it comes up with just "nearest" -- LOL) and there was a place called "The Hole in the Wall."

It was a block and a half away.

It was...wait for it...a hole in the wall!  The barista said it was 27 square feet,  with an opening onto the sidewalk, waist high for him.  He did pourover coffee (if you don't know, this isn't the place for an explanation).  We got 4.

He asked what we were up to and we told him and he said "oh, happens all the time."  The patron sitting there said, "You should take it back and walk it under everyone's noses...no! you should buy six extras and make the money to get yours free!"  We didn't.

BTW, did you know that the darker roast has the least caffeine?  Who knew?  According to our barista, for lack of a better explanation, roasting burns off some caffeine.

We stood in line, drank our North Beach roast, which was quite good.

And chatted about where we got coffee in London.

About half an hour from the door, remember, Michael has had a good cup of joe and now has personality, I realized everyone was chatting away but there was a solo woman right in front of us in line.  She kinda looked over her shoulder at one point and I said "hi, are you here alone?"

She answered in an English accent, yes...we asked where she was from and she said London, and that she'd been listening to our conversation about Cafe Nero versus Costa and knew of some good independent coffee places...but not right where we usually stayed.

We chatted for the half hour to the door.  She had travelled a lot and was in San Fran on business; she is in HR and works in talent management.  She used to work in talent management.   Her husband, back in England, is a tennis coach.

By the time we got to the door, Michael invited her to join us for breakfast.  She was nice about not being too enthusiastic, but we said we were sick of each other already, so needed a new foil, so she joined us.

Oh, did I mention that Mama doesn't take credit cards (the barista told us about the skim at such restaurants :))?

We were in the door -- at Mama's you order at the counter, then sit, before we did introductions.  Our new friend's name was Jill.

And Michael, flush with cash, bought her breakfast.  I suspect it was to recompense for all the nasty things we might have said about London BEFORE we knew a Londoner was next to us, listening.  I suspect...

Here's the best picture of the food -- they are making French toast, which both Karen and Michael had.

But it must not have been any good:  Michael took two minutes to eat his. :)

We had a nice time with Jill, we all had alcohol (Karen had the unusual thing of a grapefruit mimosa) and then we were back on the sidewalk.  There's a picture of us with Jill in the link (here). 

We then walked around the square (Washington) which Mama's sits on, where they had an art show.  Karen liked a picture depicting a Buddhist version of "Go with the Flow." It was $3,200.  We didn't buy it.

Goorin Brothers has a shop on Washington Square (hat maker; started in Pittsburgh, we were told, actually!).  In the end (to shorten the story), I was the only one who bought one.  I tried on 5 different sephoras, from paper to cotton, a red bucket hat (couldn't quite pull the trigger), at least 4 flat hats...and ended up with a chocolate flat hat (notably, with a soft brim), over the objections of the sales person, Sheila, who at one point claimed "I could get you to buy that hat if I wanted" (!!!) and my 3 companions.

Then to the Legion of Honor, which is the big art gallery.  I have no good pictures of the surroundings -- it sits on a hill in Golden Gate park, with a golf course around it, and on a clear day (which wasn't today), you can see the Golden Gate Bridge through the trees.  And it is a great piece of architecture, with a miniature of Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre in its courtyard.

The album has one photo from inside of "Peasant Girl and Sheep."  Remember the Scotland trip.  Need I say more?

Then downtown for shopping.  After that, we didn't know what to do, and Karen suggested lunch.  It was 4 PM.  We fought a crowd, which moved faster than at Mama's, for this:

Yes, ice cream for lunch!!!  Oh, did I mention this was at Ghirardelli's (chocolate maker), whose home is there in San Fran, on the water.  No, the chocolate fudge sauce was nooooo good.  No,...no I didn't actually try to get the woman behind me to share HER chocolate brownie sundae.  No...that didn't happen.

To the hotel, cleaned up, Michael watched 5/6ths of the hockey game (the Penguins were still ahead when we got in the car), and drove into the business district for dinner.  I need to point out, because he did frequently, that Michael had had two glasses of pinot while watching.  He had his "personality" ON (if you can imagine...thankfully, he was distracted by the game :)).

At Perbacco.

Originally an Amy recommendation (thanks), this was Karen and my third time.

Because I find it disturbing, here's a picture of Barb's entree -- the quail.

We had Schamburg Brut Rose with dinner, which was half the price it was at the Waterbar!, and which we decided was a bit better than the Domaine Carneros version.  This info will come in handy on Monday, when we plan on drinking our way to Yosemite via Napa.

From the pics: I had the canneloni (no meat), Karen had the pappadelle (that's lamb ragout), and Michael had the scallops.  But Michael seemed to most enjoy side dish of asparagus.  He must have eaten six stalks.  

And then home.  Tomorrow we are going to Monterey, so see the golf course, the beach, the views, etc.  In a funny back reference, Ian took us to the airport Thursday and we told him we'd bring him a souvenir from Pebble Beach, and he said "I only want one if you play there."  (grumbly tone)  I said "not even a ball marker."  His witty mother says "yes, he might give it to you as a tip for picking us up."  She laughed and laughed.  So effin' funny.

The other big funny of day was our waiter at Perbacco.  After asking for coffee, I said "can you do a decaf espresso" and Adam assured me they could.  He was about to walk away and I said "hold it...let's go crazy, can you make it a double?" He said "Yes...you know how to live it up, sir."

LOL.

A good day.  A new friend, a new hat, sheep in paintings, ice cream for lunch...hard to top.  Again.

Woods & Waterbar

Dear Reader!

We are on the road again!!!!  Bob & Boda Bing! & the Barbs & my Mrs (who as yet does not have a reportable nickname :) --

We are in California.  Staying at the Hyatt Regency out at the SF airport -- and it's nice.  We decided it is likely to be the nicest place we stay -- Bing said "it's all downhill from here."  But four nights there, so...

I'm going to try to keep these shorter than in the past, for various reasons (one MIGHT be my advanced years and inability to stay awake late enough to do more).

I was going to start in chronological order, but dinner was sooooo good, according to Michael, that I thought I'd start with the food porn.  In fact, there was jocular discussion of going home tomorrow as we couldn't top the first day.  Yes, "it's all downhill..." may become a theme.

We returned tonight to the restaurant where we finished in 2014 -- I thought an interesting tie-in between the trips.  It's the Waterbar, and it's right on the bay, almost under the Bay Bridge (as you can see from the photos in the link).  But here's the most visually interesting dinner -- Michael's salmon with beans and potatoes.

The video is of our waiter filleting Karen's Greek seabass (I can't remember it's name).  It was pretty interesting.

I had the ono, a "pink tuna, not like the red of ahi" and Barb had the halibut -- just for the "halibut." :)

We had two bottles of California wine -- the first a sparkling from Domaine Carneros in Napa, where we sat and sampled two years ago. It was a brut rose and quite good.

Then desserts -- Karen and Michael had the blueberry tart with lemon sauce; I had the berry sorbet; Barb the chocolate assortment, and they gave Michael and Barb the pavlova with ice cream and kiwi for their anniversary (yes, it was their anniversary).

Here's the link.

Okay, now for the chronological.

First today we ate in the newly restored hotel atrium for breakfast.  Then went and picked up the rental car -- the guy at the desk was impressed that two years ago we got all our luggage and four people into a Toyota Corolla (there were pictures, which are still on the blog if you scroll back far enough).  Rather than challenge that kind of acumen, he gave us the pre-scribed Hyundai Santa Fe, which seems to be plenty big enough for moving our six bags and four people when the time comes to leave SF.  Monday.

Then to Muir Woods.  Which Michael, who did not really sing all day, kept calling something like "Mirror Woods."  It's not clear where he thought he was going -- somewhere out of Grimms?

Muir Woods was added to the national holdings before the National Park System was begun, in 1906, and is named after the naturalist and activist John Muir.  As the ranger guide explained, it's not the biggest, etc, redwood forest but it is so close to San Francisco it gets a million visitors a year.

No picture will do the trees, which rise to above 250 feet, justice.  Here's one of the burl on one -- Barb's line of the day is it look like something she didn't think grew wild.  Michael said they just ARE wild...Freud was having a post-humous field day --

And now for the first food porn of this trip!  To go on a hike (such as us old folks do), we stopped for snacks and water and got this: trail mix.  For the trail (both times this was said, Michael did a drum rim shot) --

Today's "funnies":

It was Michael and Barb's anniversary.  It was partway through breakfast before one of them (I'll not give it up who) remembered that!  Awkward turtle.  :)

In giving our email address to Barb, Karen gives it "p-t-d...Peter, Tom, Dick" and Barb (ah, yes, a "Barb") says "Gee, where's YOUR mind at?!?!"  This line of witticism became the motif of the day.  And maybe longer.

Michael let me drive all day.  Whoops!  Reminiscent of Scotland, I was not used to the car's size.  As we came out of a Starbucks (yes! they have them here!!!), a car seemed to let me into traffic, then not.  I gunned it to get into the open spot and...jumped the curb with the right size (it's not the same length as my Cadillac!).  There was this yelp from the back seat and Barb with "I guess we're paying the cleaning fee"...Karen's viente, yes, VIENTE iced coffee was all over the floorboard!  We stopped and tossed out what we could (the delightful Hyundai from Fox rental (motto -- we are as chintzy as we are cheap -- had no floormats!), but the SUV now smells, and probably will for two weeks, like cold brew.  I told Michael I like the smell of coffee. :)

And that, my readers, was day 1 -- wood, wine, and dinner on the water.  #

Pre-flight

So, for those of you who have been along for previous rides, as you can see it's time for the Bob & Bing road trip, again!  Yes, back to California (sometimes known as Sonoma, I think for the county famous for its wine, but who knows?), and the journey, over two weeks, from San Francisco to San Diego, via both bodies of water (there's a big one on our right, I hear) and deserts.  And mountains.  Big effin' state California.  Lots of stuff between no Cal and so Cal.

And Bernie.  Yes, we are lucky enough to be there for the final days of the campaign before the primary!  Feel the Bern!

But first we have to prepare.

You may recall the picture of what our daughter bought at the grocery store two years ago to survive our being gone.  Here's this year's picture.  I will give her credit, she bought some fruit.  On the other hand, she also bought more candy, a box of Little Debbies (I haven't had those in a long time, she said) and boxes of Taquitos and Pizza Bites.  Seriously?!?!?

I hope OUR food porn is FAR better than this.

Of course, for an 18-day trip there are packing questions.  How much can/should you pack? and what to plan on wearing -- even if much of the trip (AAA says 1824 miles, and that's the planned portion!) will be spent in the car?  Here's the JP Memorial Picture of a bag (avid readers may recall his for Scotland weighed, yes, 46 lbs (I saw the scale at JFK).  This one weighs 40.

But, in fairness, it's 18 days v. a week plus, AND it's two people's gear, not one.  But still -- the question is all that, it's WHO CARRIES IT?!?!!?  It does have wheels, of course (JP's didn't).

So, we are packed and going.  Here's the synopsis of the forthcoming itinerary:  7 airports (there'll be reviews), 6 hotels (ditto), one National Park Service "lodge", 4 restaurant reservations (and counting), 2 baseball games, and numerous renditions of the Road to Morocco.  Or the Road to Hong Kong.  Bob and Bing!  Bing bang bong!

Now, to finish a playlist.  Like in Scotland, I have to counter the playlist of one of my traveling companions.  But, unlike Scotland, where it was Butch and what my daughter (using Urban Dictionary) calls "Dad Rock" on the Left Coast it'll be avoiding show tunes!  Yikes!  Two years ago it was Michael practicing playing Christopher Walken in *Hairspray.*

And on that KMN notion, I return to preparations.  Manana all.

Almost a day in Dublin

Well, I didn’t think I’d be writing another blog, but the day has already produced enough excitement and entertainment for some extra paragraphs.

But there’ll neither golf nor food porn, lads and lassies. :)

We’ll get to the title eventually, but let’s start, as Maria does, at the very beginning.

We got up around 4.  Yes, A-M! My Fitbit (which is, of course, infallible) says I got 4 hrs 15 minutes sleep.  And I was first in bed, if not last up.

Here’s the thing: it was light out!!! WTF!??!!? It was rather mind-boggling.

We were cleaning up.  Mostly Mike, who we decided was a domestic god. :). I tried to help, cleaning the fridge.  There was a half bottle of something orange – called Irn-Bru.  I poured it down the sink as Mike grumbled something about John, and I put the bottle in the recycling out back.

Not long after 4:30 we were on the road.  We were amazed at the amount of animal and bird life on and around the road.  I tried to hit I don’t know how many doves in the middle of the road.  There was a cock pheasant (I didn’t see), Butch said “just watching us drive by, like we were nothing.”  Sheep, cows, horses, rabbits, squirrels, some in the road.

I said something about coffee and John said “it’d be good to have that half an Iron Brew I had put away for just this ride.”  Turns out it’s an energy drink.  Of course, he only said it once. #ifonly

We listened to the radio, first out of Dundee, then Forth; the guy on Forth said in his time slot it was his job to play stuff that got you energized.  He did a decent job.  I have Whitney Houston’s “Be My Baby Tonight” stuck in my head (yes, Michael, there was SOME singing – it’s a Euro thing).

To get an idea of the ride, I said to Butch, “it’s only 5:15, isn’t it too early for that.”  Mike said “it never stops.”  Butch said, “It’s always running.”  Not clear if that was his mouth or what.

And part of this Schtick were a series of sheep puns.  Butch started (of course) with “the flock on that hill looks sheepish.”  It wasn’t the worst of the series that followed.  Groan.

Butch suggests we drop the bags with a couple people and we take the car back.  In an interesting development, they wanted a £1 coin for the opportunity!!! I had one, we did it, and John and I meandered around the complex to the rental return hut.  The guy was pretty chirpy for 545 AM.  “Let me just have a wee inspection of the car.”  He goes and comes back with the thumbs up sign.  I say, “I guess I didn’t rip one side of it up.”  He says, in full Scottish brogue, “That’s quite a disappointment to me, actually.”  #irony.

Long walk to terminal, found Butch and Mike, and bag check was smooth, onto Ryanair – or into the cue.

Sandwiched between us, as she put it (sometimes you can’t make this stuff up) was an Irish woman.  Who turned out had four daughters – she said of her husband “I don't know where he went wrong”- two of whom showed up with her.  They had been to Edinburgh to shop for wedding dresses.  “It’s our first wedding,” Mom says.  To which (Dad joke coming) I said “you’re not married then?”  Karen will be embarrassed to know she didn’t laugh but corrected. :). Turns out (I now know too much about wedding dress shopping in the British Isles) that dresses are both better and less expensive in Edinburgh.  They weren’t sure, though, that they’d found anything to their liking.  And were told that the average expenditure on a wedding dress is 2, 500-3,000 euros, and a good one, “a Vera Wang” one of them cited, would be 6,000.  We suggested they could fly to New York and get one for far less and still save money.  They seem to be considering it.  Mom was big on us visiting Gallway – in the west, if your Irish geography is light – and JP said he wanted to play Ballybunion.  There was a short description of my visit (10 years ago with Ian) to Kilkee to play golf.

Bottom line: Gallway is beautiful and wedding dresses are quite the commodity in Britain and Ireland (this may come as no surprise to certain readers; I told the Irish women that they had hit my subject matter wheelhouse :) (another Dad joke?).

You can tell we were in line a long time.  Shortly after boarding we were zip, off and the flight is up and down – maybe 45 minutes in the air.

We get to Dublin, I stand up, feel my right rear pocket and curse.  I don’t have my wallet!!!!!! I realize I never picked it up out of the bin in security at the airport.  This is not good.  I have no idea what to do.  But I look in my messenger bag and there it is!!!!  I guess the security people didn’t like it laying around and threw it in there!!! Whew!!!!  It was the nth BP check of the day (what I think of as lots of turbulence on the plane – woke up multiple things thinking we were dropping and crashing, yikes!!!)

The line at border patrol was long.  But we had plenty of time.

Hahahahahahahaha.

We find our way to the “tunnel” from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 – we went the long way because no one told us differently last Sunday – and checked our golf bags and JP’s clothes whore bag – it weighed 21 kg where his golf bag weighed 18.  But he looked wonderful all week, didn’t you think.

Some unnamed went out to “burn one,” then we went through security (this is important) and then bought Irish whiskey at duty free.  JP wanted to drink Guinness in Ireland, so we went to a bar right there.  We thought we had plenty of time.

Well, it turns out there was a second line for security and passport checking!  For American flights.  We were in line to get our picture taken (this was done on the NYC end when we went in January) when an announcement came “will the Dodson party and Mr Hicks make their way to their gate immediately.”  Uh oh!

We still hadn’t been told our gate.  We went through security, again, this time (for those of you who know) taking off our shoes (the first time all trip?), then there was a line.  We didn’t know if we needed to fill out the declaration card, so filled them out in line.  As I’m 3 from going up one of the people says “anyone going to New York on Delta?” I said yes and he said I was okay.

LOL.

Oh, yes, and here they showed you a picture of your bag (you checked) and asked if it was yours.  I told JP that it might have been my golf bag or maybe not, but I wasn’t going to be wishy-washy at that point (3 of us have black golf travel bags – you have to look closely to tell them apart).

Butch and I were ahead of the kids by about 10 in line and we took to the gate; finally a sign said…well, I thought it said “405”.  405, of course, is at the end of the spur, where 401 was the first gate.  I see a second board and now I see it is “Delta 45 401” whoops.  JP says they wondered how we got behind them.

We were the last ones on the plane.  As JP said, “we were that guy.”  LOL.

Beware what you wish for: there was some comment that it wouldn't be that bad to have to spend a night in Dublin and fly back tomorrow, getting to see the town.

Whoops!

I’m sure we Americans are all safer for all that. :)

But we made the plane and are on our way.  Now 5:27 minutes from our destination (those of you who’ve flown lately with a screen in the back of your seat know there's a flight tracker that tells you this).  Rah rah.

There’ll be updates later.  If there’s anything interesting.  Like luggage not arriving, no one having the car park chit, a rough trip from the airport, or wisdom over Jameson’s and cards tonight.