Tonight's Dinner

Open faced lamb burger:  Grilled bread topped with goat cheese, topped with lamb burger, topped with "salsa" with parsley, lemon thyme, basil, mint, garlic, sweet onion, heirloom tomato, sea salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar.  Winner!  This was delicious (if I do say so myself).

 

Nautically Themed Closing

Even though I knew I should have been home doing all of the chores I'd neglected for the last two weeks at home, I'm so glad I went to Whidbey.  It was nice to have some low-key time with Mike and Juliet and being at that beach brought back many fond (and sandy) memories of beach time well spent in PT, the San Juans and Oak Harbor.  Thanks Dan and Linda and Mike!

 
 

More from Danielle

I know these may not be technically the best shots, but this is what Sunday morning really felt like.  Lots of light flooding in the house, everyone waiting on Mike to fix our breakfast...

 
 

Sunday Morning Mug Shots

Danielle took the pictures of Mike and Juliet.  Juliet took the picture of me.

 
 
 

Goggle Girls

Danielle and Juliet wanted to go swimming on Sunday morning, and for some reason, thought they needed goggles.

 
 
 

Poppies and Floats

 
 
 

More Shots at the Beach

I forgot about one other fellow traveler: Penny (Mike and Juliet's dog) came with us too.

Flag Day Useless Bay

Mike, Juliet, her friend Danielle and I went up to Whidbey for the weekend.  It was great.  

 
 
 

Artichoke

I love this weather.  Shirtsleeves at 5:30 in the morning at my beachside bus stop.  Not too hot when I get home.  I hope we get a lot more days like this.  

I took this picture on the way to the bus stop this morning.  It's so light so early now.  

 

Driftwood Horses

I just took these shots yesterday while I was walking around with my tiny camera.  They're sculptures in the courtyard of an office building on Market Street in San Francisco.  I had a great time on this trip, even if I was traveling solo.  I met up with a bunch of new friends down in San Francisco and spent a lot of time with them, so that was fun.  The only bad thing about not having an actual traveling companion was that when I was out walking around by myself, I didn't feel as comfortable taking pictures.  I like to have someone with me when I do that.  For safety purposes, mostly.  I don't want to be so engrossed in taking a picture that I lose track of what else is going on around me, out of the frame.  So I apologize for not having more pictures of my trip...but maybe next time I'll do a better job.  

Thanks again to Mom and Dad and Ann--your birthday generosity partially funded this excursion and I'm very grateful!

 
 
 

Looking Up in Chinatown

Street level is chaotic and crowded, but things are much calmer above.

 
 
 

Aging Chinatown Signage

 
 

Give San Francisco A Hand

Some hands I saw in and around Chinatown.

 
 

Other North Beach Favorites

I didn't get to these places on this trip.  Close, but no (Mario's Bohemian) cigar...

 
 
 
 

San Francisco

North Beach goodness (and only a few doors down from each other).  Il Pollaio was my first stop on Friday afternoon for lunch, and L'Osteria was my last stop on Sunday afternoon for lunch.  So delicious.

 
 

Barbarians At The Gate

Last Saturday morning, I poured myself a cup of coffee and looked out one of our kitchen doors, when I saw two raccoons in our side yard.  I thought that once they saw me, they'd scamper off.  Not so!  Instead, the brave one came right up to the door and stood up as if "begging" like a dog for food.  Not happy with only having his mugshot taken, they turned around and left...

 
 

Belated Mother's Day

Sunday I went for a long walk with my camera and took tons of pictures of neighborhood flowers. It reminded me of the Mother's Day that Kim and I went through town with a brown paper bag and cut one flower out of each yard we passed and nonchalantly tossed it in the bag. (I remember justifying it to ourselves by saying it was just one flower. People probably wouldn't even notice.) We went home and (I think--made a cake) and arranged all of "our" flowers and waited for mom to get back home from sailing so we could give her her Mother's Day present--our beautiful bouquet of stolen blooms.

But now, I've given up my stem snipping ways and just take pictures of them instead. (Far less risk of angering the neighborhood gardeners.)

So Happy Mother's Day Mom.

This was my favorite shot of the day:

In Mid-Air

This tuft got caught in a spider's web near our bbq.  From a distance it really looked like it was just floating in mid air, suspended from nothing.  I thought I'd better get a picture of it before the next bout of rain/wind hit and took the wonder right out of it.

 

Leaves I Couldn't Leave Behind

These leaves were lying on the sidewalk on my way home the other day.  I picked them up and brought them home so I could take some pictures of them: