Day 29

For any training that Bryan has to do, the company always changes his schedule to M-F, 8-5 pm with every Sat and Sun off. I wish this could always be his schedule, as it would match mine and we would have more than 3 days together each month. We decided to go to San Francisco on Saturday, one of our most favorite places. We headed out early, and took a northerly route, as the Bay Bridge had been shut down earlier in the month for repairs. On our new route, we accidentally found Infineon Speedway, which is one of the tracks NASCAR races on each year. It was only 30 minutes from San Francisco. We will definitely plan a trip around this race in the future. It was a nice day Saturday, but not quite as clear as the previous time Bryan had come out. We stopped and took pictures on the hills north of the bridge, and then set off to find the beach that has views of the bridge. I've seen many pictures and couldn't wait to have our opportunity. We did find it, and it is called Baker Beach. It was beautiful, and we walked all the way across to the cliffs to get our shots. On our way, we saw a naked man. Luckily, he was laying face down, sunning his backside, which was hairless. There were also a group of boys trying to surf a little; seemed kind of funny after hearing all about my mom and dad's trip to Hawai'i and the north shore. We then went up the steepest, sandiest staircase possible, which happened to be next to the naked man. He was now turned on his side, giving full exposure. It's amazing how difficult it is to keep looking straight ahead and to the right, even when you do NOT want to have a looksy. He knew this behavior was getting him attention. He was so vain, he put Narcissus to shame. After hiking up the side, we headed over to a lookout of the bridge on top of the cliffs. I can't wait for Bryan to finish developing these pictures to post. I'm sure they are postcard worthy as usual. It was then time to find our Greek restaurant and have a delicious lunch. This turned into a horrible adventure. We spent 2 hours driving all over the city in a Dodge truck (this week's rental) trying to get to where we wanted. The biggest problem was unexpected road work and one way streets, with no left turns allowed anywhere. We finally were able to find it, and got lucky with a parking space about 3 blocks away. The food was wonderful! Just like I remembered it. We loved it so much, we ordered again with food to go. We spent the rest of the day taking pictures of the bridge down by Crissy field, and then went to Coit Tower again and took the ride up and got some night pictures. A word to the wise; make sure to go with an empty bladder. The facilities there are not for the weak, or the germaphobic. We left the city and took one last look at the viewpoint parking lot on the north side. I will miss her til the next time we come back.
Sunday we spent in Sacramento. There is not much to do here. I had spent time Friday afternoon finding places to go, and could only come up with the governor's mansion, the Stanford mansion, and the city cemetery. The mansions wanted $5 entry fees for each of us, so we bypassed the tour and just took pictures of the outside grounds. The Stanford mansion was ostentatious to the max, but I still loved looking at it. There were several pieces that interested us, and we'll need to remember them to include in future home improvement ideas. The grounds also had a persimmon tree, which had hardly any leaves, and the fruit were in season, with a few on the ground smushed. It looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie. We'll definitely post pictures of this once we can. The cemetery was beautiful. All of the plots are separated into smaller plots for families (or specific groups) and are surrounded by bricks or concrete, with the inside raised up from the surrounding pathways. There was a Masonic plot, a military plot (filled with mostly veterans from the Civil War), a fireman's plot and several mausoleums. One grave was of the third governor of California, and he was buried in the Mason plot. Another was a gentleman who had started out in the US, moved to Canada and got involved with the uprisings against the British empire, and then had to escape back to the US and ended up here in Sacramento to live out the remainder of his life. There were also many workers in the cemetery, who kept looking at us funny, especially at me. When we got back to the truck, there was a sheriff's van that drove in, with Work Release Prisoners on the side. Oh. Time to leave. We then came back to the hotel to get all dressed up for dinner. We were going to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, and were not going to make the same mistake as last time in San Francisco. We ended up being a little fancier than most of the patrons, as the Roseville location seemed a little more relaxed. Our waiter was a little loud and obnoxious, but he provided the same great service we had received the previous time. When asked for drinks, I inquired if they had flavored lemonades. He said no, but that the bartender could probably make up something. So I asked for a strawberry lemonade, and got the best concoction I've ever had. Our steaks were great, and Bryan could have been in seventh heaven with the fries. We even got dessert, which was scrum-diddly-umptious! I thoroughly enjoyed our special date night, as we had dressed all up like the old days. We should do this more often.
Well, off to more adventures this afternoon once Bryan is off work. I wonder where (and what) we'll find next?