Category Archives: Travels

Sunday, May 10 … With Photos & Stories

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We began the day with breakfast at Redwood House. ALL that salmon they put on the plate is rather amazing. But that’s Scotland for you.

Then we readied ourselves to drive the north part of Skye, and off we went. I had set up a map and then we connected that to CarPlay. Quite handy!

I took a quick video as we headed out.

We drove first to Portree to get a few snacks since we weren’t sure what we’d find in the way of food on our drive. I’d read about the drive, about having to pay for parking at each of the places we’d visit, about the small number of bathrooms (or should I write “toilets” since that’s what they are called here for the most part), and few or no restaurants. Being as it was Sunday, I wondered if even more might be closed.

After the grocery store we started on our route. I’m getting more comfortable being on the “wrong” side of the car, and Dan is getting better at driving.

Until that huge pothole.

That really scared me! He had pulled over in the passing spot (they have these frequently on the roads here, since the roads are narrow), and at the start of that passing spot there was a hole he didn’t see and I didn’t have time to point out. (I do try to point things out sometimes, since I have his encouragement to do so.) I was just sure there would be damage, but all was well. (We did get out to check on the car.) Whew! But these potholes are one of several reasons we are encouraged to purchase insurance in Scotland!

And then … wonder of wonders! We spotted the “hairy coos”. I hadn’t expected that, since while I’d read they might be on the island I’d also seen a video of some women searching for the cows and they found it difficult to find them. Not so for us!

Next up was this little waterfall. Sweet, but when you’ve seen falls in Yosemite … well ….

One destination we knew we had to get to was The Old Man of Storr. Not that we would do the entire hike, but one never knows. We arrived, found parking (for £6 … parking isn’t exactly cheap here), and prior to starting out some sprinkling started up. We popped into the gift shop and spent a short time there, but decided, finally, to put on rain gear (including rain pants). I’m sure glad we did, although we probably would have been wiser to put everything on before the rain got harder! You can see the weather pretty clearly. Or maybe “rainily”.

Up the trail we went. It was a pretty good climb, and it really felt great to get a bit of a workout.

Photos along the way:

I wasn’t willing to do the final climb. It was just too wet, and I figured we’d done enough. I’m sure going up all the way would have been super, but I know my limits, and I also didn’t want to deal with slippery walks due to all the rain.

We then went back down a different route.

Next up was the spot below, near Lealt Falls. We saw a sign for coffee so figured we’d grab some. But first photos:

We got to the coffee/hot dog truck and they were out of hot dogs, and the coffee grinder had broken. So never mind. On to Kilt Rock.

After a short drive we found a coffee shop that actually had coffee.

Some of the houses have this great stone work:

Next we drove to Duntulm Castle.

It was tremendously windy. I couldn’t shoot flowers very well, so I thought I’d try a video. I have no clue how it will sound so perhaps turn down the volume!

Yes, I tend to like the sheep and sweet lambs.

We have to pull over at times. You can see that below if you can see the video. (Let me know if it works … I keep seeing a notice that it’s set to private but It most certainly is not!)

We drove back to Portree to see the rather well-known colorful buildings. I’m pretty sure the Redwood House (where we are staying) painted the buildings to mimic Portree. We saw some more coos there … well … stuffed ones, anyway.

As we drove for our evening meal it of course had to rain. And the sheep had to stand there looking as if they owned the road.

Our dinner … our very expensive Mother’s Day dinner … was at Monkstadt 1745 and it was delicious. I will share photos, but honestly they look rotten and it was such a fine meal!

So that’s the story of our day with photos and videos.

14,072 steps, 5.64 miles, 55 flights climbed (I’m skeptical of this last bit!)

Sunday, May 10

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We are finally home and it’s been a very long day. A good day, mind you, but so long! It’s now 10:54 and I can’t really write much because we do have to get up at a decent hour tomorrow.

I will just quickly say we did a lot of the northern part of Isle of Skye. We dealt with one whopping pothole that scared me a ton. We dealt with temperatures in the 40°s. We dealt with crazy wild winds. We dealt with rain. That’s a lot of dealing!

If I could post my photos I would. For some reason it takes time for the iPhone photos to appear on my iPad so maybe it will be tomorrow when I get them up here. I’ll wait a few minutes to see.

BUT … well … um … the best/worst story of all. Dan and I went to a fabulous (and very costly) dinner. It was about 45 minutes away from our lodging. (It’s Mother’s Day, after all … so I guess I was celebrating me or some such thing since I made the reservation. Hah!) What with the light sky it wasn’t bad getting home rather late (especially for me since I’m not behind the wheel!). When we arrived at the Redwood House (our lodging) we were busy gathering our things and I grabbed coats and the like. Suddenly Dan asks, “Where’s my bag?” That’s the bag that holds his wallet, passport, phone … you know, all that important stuff.

Uh-oh.

We looked and looked I mean we searched everywhere. Dan swore up and down (not literally swearing but you know what I mean!) Finally Dan used my phone and the FindMy app. But it was so curious. It showed that his phone was in the car. Nope. NOWHERE! I suggested it just hadn’t updated and he must have left it at the restaurant. FORTYFIVE minutes away. Sigh. I told him to try and buzz it. No sound. I finally was annoyed and said I should call the restaurant.

Gee … well … um … I was putting what I was holding into the trunk as I was preparing to give up and call when I realized there was something heavy around my neck.

Yep. Me. I was the culprit. I had picked up his bag and put it around my neck. NO clue why.

He was relieved. I was just annoyed with myself.

But I guess all’s well that ends well.

Except my pride. It ended poorly. Heh!

And darn … photos still haven’t appeared on the iPad so I guess you only get my embarrassing story and nothing else. Rats! I hope I can find a few minutes tomorrow morning to post things. So sorry!

Saturday, May 9 — Moving Day

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We woke at 7:00: we had to be packed and checked out by 10:00 and I don’t like to worry about time. After showering and packing we decided to go out and get coffee and a small bite to eat.

We walked a very short way to The Milk Bar, ordered our coffees and croissants, and had a relaxing time there.

Even so, after returning to our room we had forty minutes to spare. Dan knows me well, though: I get nervous about time!

When we took our bags downstairs Dan attempted to set up an Uber pick up. The app just sat there saying it was locating a driver. I figured I could try while he looked up taxis, so I set about trying to get an Uber as well. It did the same thing it did for him. (And I can’t even recall seeing one Uber here so perhaps it’s just wishful thinking on Uber’s part, suggesting they are in Inverness.) Meanwhile Dan tried to call a taxi but couldn’t get a phone call to go through, so he finally did what we probably should have done in the first place: he contacted our invisible lodging hosts. The woman answered and she was happy to get a taxi set up for us. Fifteen minutes later our driver, Greg (from Poland) joyfully greeted us and gave us a rather exciting ride to Enterprise, all the while talking about our crazy president and the crazy things in Poland as well. He also offered to help us move to Scotland. Heh. He was quite entertaining.

And then we got the car. Time for Dan to learn how to drive on the left side of the road!

Both of us were tense, of course. For me it was that I felt he was too close to my side of the road and there was no shoulder. In addition when there were cars parked on the road I kept feeling as if he would hit them! For him it was worrying about the oncoming traffic and my side. But he did amazingly well. He only turned into the wrong lane once when making a right turn. In my typical, non-confrontational way, I said, “Do you really mean to be in this lane?” Or something like that, anyway. He of course didn’t mean to do that at all, and he also suggested I go ahead and say “Wrong lane!”

In any case, he did a great job.

We went past Loch Ness, which brought back great memories of our Great Glen Way walk. We also passed through Drumnadrochit and saw the Fiddler’s restaurant that we enjoyed so much.


Lunch was nothing special, but we did stop to eat. And I finally remembered to get a photo of the car we have.

We saw very small lambs (or as I first called them, “baby sheep”) a number of times … so darn cute and I hope to get some good photos while we are here.

We eventually reached Eilean Donan Castle. We decided to pay the fee and go look at it. I took iPhone photos where I could, but they didn’t allow it in the upstairs, where the family actually lived in the summers after it was restored in 1932.

From there we continued on our way to our next spot to lodge and from which we will tour. As I mentioned to Dan, we are really hitting different sorts of spots on this trip: so far a big city (London), a smaller one (Inverness) and now … an island.

Hello, Isle of Skye!

When I was finding lodging for this trip I read that Portree was the place to stay. Nothing there was affordable. Then perhaps Broadford. Nope. So I located a place that was outside of Dunvegan near Edinbane, with a drive of 2 miles down a one lane, sort of rough but not too bad road. SO many lambs on this road!

We are lodging at the Redwood House, in a somewhat large room. I think it will be just right. One day we can tour going north and the other south. We are hoping the weather will be somewhat cooperative, but it is Scotland, so who knows?

We got to our room at about 5:30 and dinner here was scheduled for 7:00, so Dan spent time typing (I suspect doing his journal) and I began this blog. We both enjoyed some Walker’s shortbread and I made a cup of tea with milk. (Yes, Carolyn … tea! It’s the UK, after all. 😊)

We walked to dinner and found a nearly empty dining room. The entire time we were there I think maybe there were five tables occupied besides ours. I suspect this place is rather new, and of course being a distance away from things a lot of people won’t drive out for dinner. I do hope it survives. I had sea bass and Dan had chicken and they were both very tasty. Oh, and to start with we had calamari which very well might be the best I’ve ever had.

We walked out on to the lawn and the lambs and parents were still out so I attempted to get some photos. The lambs were quite skittish, though.

Then back to our room. I took a few photos of the place as we went back.

Dan checked the maps as I finished this blog entry. It’s now 9:35 PM and it’s rather light outside still. Dan is considering getting up at some horrendously early hour to do photography. He seems to think I’ll want to skip it. He might be right.

After breakfast tomorrow (he plans on getting back for that IF he really goes out) we head north to see what we can see.

All for now!

It’s hardly worth reporting but:

6563 steps, 2.7 miles, 4 flights climbed (I suspect that while we have a car we won’t be getting as much exercise.)

Friday, May 8 — Our Full Day in Inverness

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Finally, sleep is pretty much normal! My “sleep score” on my phone wasn’t terrific, but for some reason the doggone watch and phone are tremendously confused about things. It seemed to now think my bedtime should be 9:00PM. It’s never been that early. Sometimes it the watch is off, sometimes not. I guess both devices have also been suffering with jet lag. Or something.

We didn’t leave our room until after 10:00. Lazy bums!

Speaking of rooms — this place, Aye Stay, is similar to a B&B, but there is not only no second B, but it appears will we never even see the owners. As I mentioned yesterday we entered the house to check in yesterday, we just looked at the list with our name and grab the correct key. Earlier, when we dropped off our luggage, I didn’t know where to put the bags so I buzzed the owners and I was just told over the speaker what to do. I think they live in part of the house, but who knows? It sounds like our supplies will be replenished (I’m hoping they replenish the little package of cookies — I tend to collect those for emergency snacks!) They don’t do much, though. It’s all very impersonal. I’m okay with that, being the introvert I am, but it just feels odd.

Looking out our window, as well as checking the weather app, I could see that we were in for another windy day with temps in the low 50°s. I’m glad that I packed my turtleneck at the last minute! It’s definitely a lot of layers day.

With few plans or ideas of what to do, we did know that first stop was coffee. Dan had found a place nearby that looked good. So after his shower and both of us getting ready, we headed out.

We both had a sweet roll (which is much tastier than a sweat roll which was what I first typed) and coffee. The Bakery was a nice little spot!

Then we walked toward the River Ness, to go visit the Ness Islands I’d read about (and where we had headed yesterday, but ended up returning before we arrived there).

The Ness Islands were lovely. While there we met a couple who chatted with us for a while, which was also lovely. They live in Scotland, although the man was originally from South Africa. They had visited the United States so we enjoyed hearing about their travels.

But back to the Islands … just gorgeous!

Saw this poster for Parsifal, too.

Then we went to the Botanic Gardens for a brief while. (Thank you, Dan, for tolerating my flower love!)

Normally we don’t eat lunch if we have a good breakfast, but while the sweet rolls were tasty we decided we should actually have a decent meal. If you can call what we chose decent! But hey, we had been to the Victorian Market yesterday and had said we’d return for lunch, so what could one do but stick to what we said.

After lunch we attempted to find a map of some areas we will be visiting. Climbing some steps, we landed at what looked to be mostly a children’s bookstore, but there was a map of all of Scotland so we did pick that up.

The bookstore is at the top of these stairs.

Then some more walking took place, passing this interesting building (I remember it from our first visit).

We had to go into Leakey’s Book Shop, having seen it mentioned numerous times.



From there we walked by The Hootananny, which had been recommended to us back in 2023 when we took our Great Glen Way Walk, so I checked and (hooray!) we could make a reservation. But that meant there wasn’t enough time to go back to our lodging for any meaningful amount of time so … okay … don’t tell anyone … we stopped at a place to have a beer. Mind you, it was merely to take up time. Honest!

Finally it was time for our dinner at Hootananny’s. The person taking us to our table was a bit harsh when I said something about the sound and my bad ear — scared me, in fact. But I guess he’s just that way. He did give us a great table, further away from the musicians. He also told us we had 1 1/2 hours to eat and then we’d have to leave the table. Fine. We could deal.

Or could we? We had placed our orders and while our drinks and appetizer arrived quickly, our dinner did not. The two women next to us got in after us and were served quickly. Hmmm.

Speaking of those women, they had just finished the Great Glen Way walk! We ended up chatting for most of the time we were there. Both live in Arizona and, now both widowed, do tons of traveling.

I finally talked to our server and asked her about our meal and my concern that we now had 20 minutes left. She assured me that we would be able to finish. Meanwhile we listened to the music. I don’t have a clue how the videos will be, but I at least recorded some bits.

And our dinners did finally arrive!

When our server returned and we ordered a dram for after our meal she did tell us we’d have to vacate the table. But by then it had been two hours so we could hardly be upset! So we got our drams and headed downstairs.

While there, some altercation must have happened, as a man was escorted out. I suspect a bit too much to drink, but who knows? I think they have pretty tight security (we saw one guy outside as we left).

We drank and listened a bit more.

I’m glad we made it to the place this time around.

Walking back to our lodging it was really quite nice out.

We spotted some people bowing on our way, and one of the players came and chatted with us a bit. Such a friendly man!

Tomorrow we move to a new destination. I’m close to packed and ready, as I like to set the next day’s clothing out the night before. We just have to go get (GULP!) our rental car. I am betting Dan does the driving as I’m not too excited about driving on the left side of the road.

Goodnight!

18,137 steps, 7.29 miles, 5 flights climbed

Thursday, May 7

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I’ll start by writing about sleep. On a train. On a top bunk.

Or maybe I’ll just write that I did a whole lot of reading through the night. I figure if I can’t sleep I may as well work on finishing my book.

But, really, the train was fine. The ride was smoother than some, and the top bunk, while needing a new mattress, worked okay. I do think, though, that it’s our last time getting this kind of room. If we do another sleeper train I’ll be seventy or older and climbing up and down a ladder that is completely upright is not an easy feat. This train has a double room and while the bed is tiny I’d just work on making myself as small as possible and share it with Dan.

We woke at 6:30 and got dressed. Oh … that, too, is rather humorous. I didn’t want to climb down while Dan was getting dressed because there really isn’t room for the two of us to get dressed on the “ground floor”. So there I am, on my back, attempting to put clothes on. I’m sure I looked hysterically funny.

Then we went to the dining car for our breakfast. We had ordered a full Scottish, nice coffee (decaf espresso for Dan, cappuccino for me), and orange juice. As has been so very typical on this trip, something wasn’t available. This time it happened to be the coffee, because their machine wasn’t working. So we both got “coffee in a bag” … like a tea bag but filled with coffee, as you might have guessed. Not quite the same as the nicer coffees we wanted, but nothing to weep about. Publicly, anyway.

As we waited for our meal (orange juice had already arrived), a younger couple (okay, okay, nearly everyone is younger that the two of us!) sat down. They were clearly speaking American English, and I think Dan asked where they were from. “California.” “We are too! Where in California?” “San Jose.” Heh … talk about coincidences. And they live somewhat nearby. Crazy!

Our meal appeared. (Darn, I forgot to take a photo of that — all I did was this “before shot” above.) Breakfast was fine, but being as I don’t eat at that time of day I couldn’t come close to finishing mine. And yes, it included haggis. And no, I wasn’t even repulsed. (I apologize to my vegetarian and vegan friends.)

Back to our room we went, preparing for our arrival. (Below you can see the pretty view from the hallway window, and the hallway itself, looking both ways.)

It didn’t take very long.

Hello Inverness!

We opted to take a taxi to our lodging, in order to drop off luggage. It was only a bit before 9:00AM and with check-in being 4:00 we sure didn’t want to be hauling it around. We quickly dropped the luggage off at Aye Stay, which happens to be around the corner from where we stayed when we did the Great Glen Way walk.

Then it was walking time. Lots of memories!

Since we missed out on good coffee earlier we went to get that. Of course it would just be wrong to have coffee on its own, so we suffered and ordered a couple of croissants. Sometimes you just have to be brave and suffer, you know?

More walking …

I thought maybe Dan would want to take the stairs you see above. Then he could return and tell me if it was worth going up. He, however, didn’t agree with me.

We eventually reached the castle. When we did our walk in 2023 the castle was covered in fencing because it was being fixed up. Now it was looking quite nice, but I can’t say it’s the kind of castle I enjoy — it’s newer than many. I like the old and decrepit ones. (Is it maybe because I can relate to those? Hmm.) We didn’t go in. They have turned it into an experience and when I saw all the stuff in the photos at their site I knew it just wasn’t our cuppa plus it was costly. So we just walked around.

While doing that walking Dan noticed a museum below it, so after the castle we headed that way.

Well, we didn’t last long! We’d both slept (or not slept) so fitfully last night that Dan hit the wall and while I didn’t feel tired I felt like I was going to faint. (That’s more likely to my having food too early in the day, and not having enough water.) So while we didn’t plan to have lunch we headed to a restaurant just so we could sit, drink water, and eat a bit.

The restaurant wasn’t worth photos or writing about, but we were happy to spend time there.

Leaving the place, we walked more, and investigated places for dinner. We had crossed the river Ness when it began to rain so we popped into a small spot for tea (for me) and, if I’m remembering correctly, espresso for Dan. No food this time. We didn’t really even need the drinks, but it was a way to get out of the rain since we’d not brought our umbrellas.

Yes, that was silly. It’s Scotland, after all!

The rain died down so we went into a few touristy shops just to enjoy the beautiful wool clothing, then did more restaurant research, and just walked a wee bit more. (Can you hear my Scottish accent now?) I loved this busker sign …

Finally it was check-in time so we aimed toward Aye Stay, passing by an episcopal church on the way that had some trees blossoming to the side — just gorgeous.

We picked up our key (no one is at this place … you just find your room number on a board and then find the corresponding key), and found we were on the first floor. So some stair climbing ensued. I believe I counted nineteen steps. I’m glad my suitcase is small. Too bad for Dan!

Our room is quite nice, and I’m not on the top bunk!

The photo above is the view from our room.

One of us then took a nap while the other started her blogging for the day.

As we were sitting in our room the wind got pretty wild. We weren’t sure if we would go back to the city center for dinner or eat closer to “home”. I knew that if that wind continued I did not want to go over the bridge.

And no, we didn’t go over. Not because of wind, though: that had died down. But we were just taking it easy, and opted for a short walk. I ordered soup of the day (split pea) and mussels. They even brought me a bowl of water with a lemon to clean my hands after eating the mussels. That was something I’ve not had before, but it was a great addition. Both my plates were from the appetizer section. Dan ordered Chicken Balmoral. All was yummy.

Walking home the church bells began. I recorded just a bit … and do excuse the video work: we were walking and I wasn’t being very steady.

The theater near us had a poster for Marriage of Figaro. Sadly we’ll be long gone by the time they get here.

Oh … side note … I forgot to mention the games my ears play when I’m in certain environments. As I was attempting (and failing) to sleep on the train there was train noise, of course. But what my brain and ears tell me is that a radio station of rock music is playing. Later it was a crowd cheering. Sometimes just people all talking. I don’t know that that’s about my bad left ear. I tend to think it’s just my brain trying to make sense out of noise. Or maybe I’m just weird.

Stop nodding your heads, please!

I think I’ll try to remember to post walking info here. I am well aware it’s not always accurate, but it’s just fun to see what my watch thinks I did. As long as it’s high enough I’ll agree with it.
18,048 steps, 7.15 miles, 7 flights climbed

The Rest of the Story

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When it was time, we were told we could board the train. We walked and walked … I think our car was the second to last. We used our room key to enter room 2 in car P. Such a tiny room, but it’ll do.

Taking this train is costly, but it allows us to have one night lodging, a train to our next location, and breakfast. Plus it means we don’t lose a day in travel.

We managed to get things into the room, although Dan’s luggage wouldn’t fit under the bed. After filling out our breakfast form we walked it down to the dining car. We weren’t required to walk it there, but just figured we’d do it anyway. We asked for a 7:00 dining time, but were told it could be 6:45 or 7:15, as 7:00 had already been filled up. 7:15 it is.

This means we get up around 6:30. I set my watch alarm and my phone alarm since I’m never sure if I’ll feel the watch or hear the the phone but between the two surely one will work!

After tooth brushing and all I climbed the ladder to my bed. It’s all rather funny attempting to maneuver on the top bunk, but I managed and as I write this I’m just hoping I sleep some.

Of course I can’t post this until tomorrow, so stay tuned and I’ll fill you in on the sleep bit.

And finally … posting now!

Wednesday, May 6

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I was so tired by 9PM last night I had to get to sleep. And sleep I did … until about 1AM. Then it was four hours of wakefulness. This wasn’t unexpected, but still annoying! Looking at the bright side, though, I didn’t have restless legs so I could just lie in bed. A dark side? Well, a Traviata ear worm was driving me batty. I think I need to listen to some music today in order to remove that thing. Of course it will just be replaced by something else. I very rarely don’t have an ear worm.

I did get back to sleep eventually, and then woke at 8:30AM. The other traveler here was still asleep, but he’d said to set an alarm for 9:00 so we’ll see if that gets him to stir. I could tell he was awake a lot in the night as well (we never talk — I suspect he feels the same way I do: don’t add anything that might cause sleep to become even more difficult. I’ll have to ask him about that!)

After Dan woke it was shower and pack time. By the time we were ready to head out it was nearing the time we had to check out (11:00 AM), so we did that, left our luggage at the hotel, and went out in search of a spot to eat and get coffee.

As we walked out I spotted a plaque on our hotel wall.

A short walk later we found a nice place, Dolce London, and enjoyed a leisurely meal that should cover us for both breakfast and lunch. (We do try to keep to a two meal plus an afternoon snack plan on these trips.)

Then we walked on one of our random walks. This place caught my eye.

Then, surprise, surprise, we happened upon King’s Cross Central and a lot of new things. We hadn’t heard about this before. Maybe we should have? Dunno. But an old spot that has been completely altered. It was fun to wander through.

And then just a lot more wandering, eventually going over Black Friar’s Bridge (we walked past The Mad Hatter Inn — the place we stayed last time we were here — but I didn’t bother with a photo).

For our afternoon snack, which was mostly about sitting down a bit, we ended up at Black Sheep Coffee (or whatever the chain is called). No coffee for me, though.

At that point we had to decide how to get back to the hotel. We opted to walk a bit further so we could head over the Millennium Bridge. We took a few alley detours as we went, shot a couple of signs for the info they gave, and made a bank visit so we could pay cash for dinner. Then to the hotel we went.

We opted to eat right at the hotel. It was just easy and that’s what we were ready for.

When Dan pulled the cash out (we wanted to get some change which is why we wanted to pay with cash) we were informed that they didn’t take cash. Heh. Shoulda thunk it. This seems to be more and more common.

Getting our luggage we walked to Euston Station for our train adventure. Because we have the sleeper car we could relax in the lounge and listen to far too many people coughing. Oh dear … we’ll see what happens next, I guess. (Dan and I did get a Covid booster before our trip.)

So here we sit. And here we blog. I will post this before I fill you in on what’s next since we haven’t a clue what kind of WiFi we will get on the train. I know sometimes it works. I also know sometimes it doesn’t.

And no, Dan isn’t unhappy. I just caught him looking serious. I think it’s his, “Don’t mess with me,” look. Maybe?

Anyway, stay tuned … just maybe I can post the rest of the story from the train. I can dream.

Well … DUH … we will be on a sleeper train. Hah!

Here We Go!

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Yesterday afternoon I played my final opera performance as a tenured member of Opera San José.

Thanks to Bill Everett for this From The Pit photo!

After the concert I was honored at a reception, and then it was off to Il Fornaio where we had dinner. (MANY thanks to Pam Hakl for arranging this!)

Today we board a plane and fly overseas. What a time!

This morning I paid a hefty fee to our accountant, for his tax prep. I changed the bed sheets, washed all the towels, cleaned the toilets, straightened things up around the house, took the recycling and compost out, showered … all the stuff one must do before a trip, of course. Dan did a lot as well. Still, we were ready ahead of schedule.

My sister drove us to SFO … thank you, Carolyn! It took a few minutes to check our luggage (more on that later), and NO time at all to go through security. We are now comfortably seated in the Polaris lounge.

After our champagne we had a somewhat light meal, and now we are sitting back in some comfy chairs, waiting for boarding time.

Rough life, eh?

Thursday, Homeward Bound

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While I slept horribly (my watch nearly reprimands me) yet again, we did not have to wake early. We eventually did rise, and had the breakfast our hotel (Red Roof in Bridgeport — a pretty nice place for the price). Both of us caught up with various things online while we ate, and even after that.

Then it was time to pack the car and make our way home.

We drove briefly into Red Rock Canyon. I was hoping to find the mallow we saw growing all along the highway, but nope, not there. The mountains had a lot of bright yellow flowers, though.

Gas stop was in Tehachapi, where the temperature was twenty degrees lower than Ridgecrest. Yours truly does window washing duty while Dan fills the car. (Too bad I never have the inclination to do that on our house windows!)

I always enjoy the hills by Tehachapi. Today there was a lot of fog and I thought it was lovely. We didn’t stop, though, so no pictures. But the hills were green and the fog made it look a bit magical.

Eventually we stopped in the Central Valley for a bird visit. We didn’t stay long since we still had a bit of a drive, but I snapped a few photos.

And then we were home. Now it’s back to work for me, but my music career is quickly drawing to a close!

Wednesday, Death Valley Trip

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Well gee, let’s wake up even 15 minutes earlier, shall we? Yep … 4:15. Painful for this girl, but so it goes.

We got ready, packed up, and Dan loaded the car. Then off we went. Bye bye Beatty.

First stop: Mesquite Dunes. I was surprised to see tons of brown eyed primrose, and another flower I think is another sort of primrose. It’s always amazing to see what can grow in the dunes. I took some shots of the big picture but even more of flowers with my macro lens.

I tend to run out of steam before Dan, and today was no exception: I headed back to the car long before he did. I got a good amount of reading done.

Once Dan returned we went up a gravel road and set up breakfast. Fighter jets roared above us … so much for a quiet breakfast! I shot a few more photos because why not?!

We went to Stovepipe Wells to see if they had a DEVA wildflower book but found nothing. Books must not be popular for tourists.

Then it was goodbye Death Valley.

We decided to go out a different way. The brittlebush was plentiful.

We made our way to Father Crowley Point, where fighter jets practice above what is called Star Wars Canyon.

I walked around to see if I could find flowers. A higher elevation meant fewer flowers, but I did find some. When I went back to Dan he was chatting with a guy. As we stood the younger man pointed … a jet. It flew right past us! The noise was deafening. Dan may have gotten some good shots. Sadly I was just frozen due to the surprise … really shock! … of it all.

We stuck around a good long time but didn’t get another low flying jet.

Driving on Dan opted to take a dirt road detour on the way to Saline Valley.

There were a lot of Joshua trees, and this one was the first we saw.

More dirt road, another tree, among many …

Back to the main road, highway 190. Soon the Sierra Nevada came in to view.

We drove past Owen’s Lake a the tiny town of Olanche, and started looking for a spot to set up lunch. it wasn’t a tremendously scenic spot, and we opted not to get out our chairs and table, but food was eaten.

Next up was a rather ho-hum under one hour drive to our lodging for the night. Hello Ridgecrest.

But OH! A king-size bed is quite welcome, as was a hot shower and change of clothes. I’m a clean machine.

Then it was feet up (clean feet!) and get this blog entry going.

Finally, it was time for dinner. We had a couple of ideas in mind. The first place we were planning on checking out was a French restaurant called Mon Reve. We got there, walked in to see if there was a menu posted, and … well … never mind! We were seated and that was that. Forget the other choice! The server was also, I’m sure, the owner. He did the serving, and his wife, I believe did the cooking. It was just a lovely spot and we really enjoyed a relaxing, end-of-trip meal. (My meal is pictured: salmon and scalloped potatoes.)

Back to our hotel we went, for some reading and rest.

Tomorrow we are homeward bound, although you never know how many detours we might take.

Goodnight!