PICKUPPAL

Judith has a new ride, and it ain't this baby!

PICKUPPAL may be the solution we islanders, off island commuters, and everyone have been waiting for?
I suggest you consider signing up and giving this a try. We all did!

FYI, You can offer rides for $0.00 I tried it and it worked fine. If you think it is a good idea don't forget to spread the word.

FYI, Patty this is not a pick up social site, it is for people to share rides.

http://www.pickuppal.com/

Fire Department

Elephant 1 Fire Department O

Home Sweet Home

We landed in the arms of Boris, Liz, and Dean in Vancouver, and spent the weekend visiting friends and catching up on anything we missed before we headed back to the rock to plan our next adventure and catch up on that thing Judith keeps talking about called "work" I still don't fully grasp that concept, but she seems to think it is alright, so I promised to try it if it will make Judith happy.

Till next time in the famous words of Warren, "If you don't try it this year, you will be one year older when you do"

Carmel to Berkeley to Vancouver

Alice's Restaurant

This is a photo of miss Judith outside of Chez Panisse. We stopped in to see Amanda's good friend Alice. We invited Rita "the other woman" because Amanda had a previous engagement on the island that kept her from our lunch date. It was lucky "Rita" came, otherwise we would have ended up in Oakland. I just cannot live without my "Rita" anymore, even if Judith and "Rita" fight over directions the whole time! I mean come on we all need a personal "navigator" sometimes.

Alice was crushed Amanda wasn't with us, and like Alice had done many times before she just rolled her eyes and said "When will that Rob learn to prepare his own lunch so Amanda can stop by for a visit"

After the A6 and "Rita" took us up the coastal highway with a stop at Halfmoon Bay at the greatest little deli, before hitting Berkeley for the above photo op, we came across something people kept referring to as traffic.

Wholly *&^% was it thick. We had to take these photos to show people where we live as they just wouldn't believe it otherwise. Rush hour for us at home means you actually have to stop at the one stop sign in the community. Off course the A6 and "Rita" new just what to do, regardless of what Judith read on her map. "Rita" had to take over once and for all after Judith navigated us into Oakland, for a lovely tour. Again I spent my time keeping the peace between Judith and "Rita"!

Big Sur and Carmel Beach

The Normandy Inn in Carmel is the place to see and be scene! It is old, old enough to have been the summer place of many famous people which includes Judith as of last week. You name someone cool, and they have hit the pillow at the Normandy! Carmel is full of all this old Inns and boutique hotels. The town of Carmel is certainly nice, but I assume it was even better sixty plus years ago before total gentrification! The beach is and will always be just the way it was, so that is really special, no homes or businesses to crowd your view as you wander the endless sandy shores.

"Rita", Judith and I headed down the coast on day four of our honeymoon as far as Big Sur, and we ran into this landmark cliff side restaurant with this amazing fire (pit) place and a view that was second to none. I took this picture of the fire place to remind us as we design our next house around a similar feature. I used to think it would be funny to have a car in the living room, but this seems much more mature and useful. Big Sur has done a great job of maintaining the "back to the land" vibe and I would consider the culture and lifestyle similar to what we find around us at home so we felt right at home as we wandered around. Unfortunately for us we didn't go to the hot springs in Big Sur, so we will have to go back soon.

This is Judith taking a break from "Rita" and enjoying the beach. The beaches are endless and as you can see it was as clear as the eye could see and warm. I miss the warmth just thinking about it!

San Jose to Monterey to Carmel

We spent Monday traveling under the warm Californian sun from North Star to Los Altos through the mountains, with several stops including Fry's Electronics , and In and Out Burger We arrived in time for a visit with Louise before we made our way out to rent a car (see above photo) at the San Jose Airport early the next morning.

The treasure wanted nothing but the best of course! So I was going to have to make due with an Audi A6 (AKA Life support system for Rita)!!

This A6 bad girl came with all the trimmings, and I mean everything. You name anything and this sucker had one, or two, or even three in some cases, including a personal built in navigator and back up camera (Jane you will never have to turn your head again) just for starters. As someone pointed out you need a "computer science" degree to take advantage of all the features in this vehicle. It was not till I discovered the manual shift override before things got real interesting, well the rest is history! We quickly made friends with "Rita" the personal Hertz navigator, and off we went down the highway towards Monterey and back to day three of our honeymoon!
Ann insisted we went to the Monterey Aquarium and as always, Ann was right the Jellies are not to be missed if you're in Monterey. The Aquarium was endless complete with the best views Monterey has to offer, even for us spoiled west coasters.

The above photo is a tank with huge Jellies, lite with blue lights. You could easily spend days just watching this one tank. They also had a new shore birds exhibit which was equally as interesting and worth a day on its own.

Monterey must be the volunteer capital of the world. I am convinced everyone over that "age" volunteers at the Aquarium. Every time Judith asked me a question someone with a reference book was standing within earshot to offer some information.
The above photo is Judith being upset by "Rita" and insisting she gets to decide the route to Carmel and wouldn't get in the car until "Rita" was turned off. I guess the term riding shotgun will have to be redefined to keep Judith and "Rita" from fighting the whole trip.

After a while the girls came to an understanding and we headed back out on the road to Pebble Beach in honour of the Fletcher clan.

I was not at all surprised when we pulled up to the "Lodge" and the poperatsy ran up to the car when they saw Judith getting out. "Rita" of course was not impressed with all the attention Judith was getting so I had to keep the peace until things settled down.

Judith was in her element working the crowd, smiling, and laughing and telling tall tales of when she shot 20 under par at the island open last summer. Of course the poperatsy wanted to know what Jane is doing since she left the tour last year and kept asking when the next generation of Fletcher girls will hit the links driving for show, and putting for the dough!

After Judith signed autographs and meet with her people we carried on to Carmel for dinner at Pepe's with the beautiful people. The waitress recognized Judith right away, so we ended up in the VIP area drinking Limoncello and telling stories about skiing around the world with our Portland friends after eating our way around southern Italy.

One of the dinner guests was contemplating giving up skiing (he is 80) this year. Of course we all talked him out of this crazy idea, and Judith promised to ski a run with him, which of course made his day.

Board Meeting (AKA Ski Trip)

I say, screw the honeymoon. Lets call up our friends Sean and Don Don and go skiing for the weekend.

The above photo is for our 2007 Christmas card, notice the lake in the background (FYI, you can click on any photo you see anywhere on this blog for it to expand to become more viewable). And since we're late getting the photo you will all have to just think happy thoughts about how nice it would have been to receive yet another photo of these two crazy kids having way to much fun, and forever goofing off.

Judith of course was actually doing research for work "really". She wanted to know if the ski patrol could keep up with her while discussing the finer details of spinal care all in the name of tax deductible travel.

I know, it is hard to believe Judith is such a speed demon isn't it, but put her on ski's and watch her go, "if you can" Me on the other hand, well I spent all my time as usual just trying to keep up with Judith and get on the chair before the ski patrol crowded her, they all kept yelling punch her ticket, what ever that means! We may never know, if they don't learn to ski faster.

This is the board (circa 2008) it all started with one metric dollar, and has gone on for years and years. The corporate officers consists of a Chairman Don, President Sean, Chief Peter and the Treasure (Judith being the treasure of course).

We have been reaping the benefits ever since we purchased our first blender and went IPO. Like all good companies that have board meetings in fabulous locations we sell nothing and produce even less. But we are long on fun, good times, and endless memories. We have had several guest speakers at past board meetings but this year it was just the senior staff, as we had to discuss secret runs our Chairman was working out for future launches.


For you that don't know, the above photo is actually a jail, well a Yurt if you want to get technical, and in this exact case it is actually a very well disguised as a ski patrol outpost.

How do we know, well Sean and I had to do some reconnaissance work to find out where they would take Judith if they could catch her. Our mission was to ensure we could break Judith out from anywhere before cocktail hour. You will notice the ski patrol guarding the door. She cost us two cliff bars and an apple to look the other way while Sean and I cased the place for structural weakness and future escape routes.

The treasure is safe, the Ski Patrol is in denial a Canuck out ran them , and Sean and I are able to stand down till our next adventure.

While all this was happening I am sure Don Don was working off his second dessert trying out his new addition of "lift operator" game that we will be launching in Q1 2009.

The Honeymoon Day Two

I woke up this morning to the realization that Judith didn't come up to our room last night. I called downstairs to see if she was still hanging onto the pole at the lobby door? The staff informed me that she ran off early in the morning and they lost track of her after that. I had a pretty good idea of where she was, so I went about my business till the first cable car was ready to leave Fisherman's Wharf.

Sure enough as I approached the car, there she was already to go still riding point. The attendant was glad I came along to claim her, as they were concerned she had "it" bad. He went on to explain "cable car syndrome" to me, and it certainly described Judith's signs and symptoms.

I had to be patient and wait till she wanted a break. So after many hours of cable car riding, Judith decided she needed lunch and off she got. This "cable car syndrome" is really something.

We trucked around looking for that "just right" lunch spot, Japanese of course. And sure enough the universe provided sushi bowls, which is basically sushi unwrapped. Great lunch and a great business concept for quick cheap "on the fly" city food. Might have to have a sushi bowl party when we get home.

After lunch we stumbled across an Apple Store on Stockton Avenue. As you would expect everything was just so. The amazing thing was as we approached the new MacBook Air we couldn't believe our eyes. The screen was open to the GUTZ website . Here is a photo to prove it!

And if that wasn't enough we went upstairs to check out the Genius Bar and I kid you not, here was this guy that looked just like me behind the "Genius" counter. What are the chances of finding your twin in an Apple store in San Francisco and a "Genius" to boot? (You wouldn't believe how much work went into setting up this photo, lets just say Judith had to fake a collapse to get all the security guards attention)

After all the Apple excitement we decided to seek out peace, with a dash of culture at the SFMOMA

It was our lucky day as Olafur Eliasson installation was open. My written words wouldn't do this guy justice, so I recommend you check out this installation on line for yourself. I would be happy to discuss what I felt being up close and personal with each piece, especially the "mister" piece, which Rob and I will be building a version of upon our return.

Douglas Gordon also caught my attention!

I did manage to snuggle up to an authentic Picasso! FYI, Picasso has nothing on Franks "my dad" paintings! Warhol on the other hand, well, sorry dad!

The other works in the SFMOMA (too many to list) where different but equally as interesting, thought provoking, and nothing short of inspirational.

Ann, we wished you could have been with us, you would love the SFMOMA!

After all that we headed up Market to Castro to check out the filming of Gus Van Sant's "Harvey Milk" biopic, then we dropped in on some "local" friends Ellen and Lynn. In my opinion and I know Judith shares it, Lynn and Ellen are perfect, we love spending time together, as brief as it is sometimes.

Tomorrow we meet up with the other two board members, Don and Sean in a secret location (In and Out Burger) and head out of town for the weekend to catch up on business and ski our butts off. Details at 11:00!

The Honeymoon Day One

These two handsome men chaperoned us off of the Island, and made sure we arrived in Vancouver in time for our flight. The one on the left is the debonair Balash (our hero) and the other is Amanda’s handsome and handy brother Eric. I could go on for hours about these two, but that will have to wait for another time. We have trolley cars to ride.

Judith of course had to (had to) work before she went out to play. As you can see in these photos, she is taking advantage of the modern workplace (laptop/cell phone) me on the other hand; I continued my relentless on-line research to ensure we didn’t miss anything good while we are here visiting.



As you can see we’re safetly in San Francisco staying at the Argo Hotel at Fisherman's Wharf for a couple nights before we hit the slopes on Friday at Northstar at Tahoe. The trip was fast and easy from Vancouver to here, so easy I surprised myself we waited this long to hop on a plane down here. "O right, I remember why, it was the deep deep deep discounted flight that got us here today".

We found a city tour to jump on to quickly get the “lay of the land” as they say. And as always (old consultant trick) it was money well spent. The tour took us to all four points and everything in between in less than four hours. So we can carry on a conversation about the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, North Beach, Palace of Fine Arts, Union Square, Cable Cars (Judith’s favorite) Coit Tower, Nob Hill, Presidio National Park, Victorian Homes (Very nice), Civic Center, Golden Gate Park, Twin Peaks (Think Cypress Mountian Lookout), and of course for islanders, "Haight/Ashbury" I swear it was like being at ringside, these hippies have nothing on Hogan and Bobcat.

After getting our bearings of the city we decided to brave the trolley car at Union square to get us back around China Town for us to get lost in the firecrackers (Chinese New Years is starting here), people and to find some authentic city food and a unique or just weird experiences (My Favorite) and of course we were not disappointed.

FYI, The trolley cars are too cool and a must. This is how it played out for us, first we had to run out into a busy street and hang off the side of an already “bursting at the seams” full of passengers trolley car (the conductor insisted that the one square inch at the front was a perfectly good place to hang from), and then as I was dangling off this side having my bum pinched by the various drivers out their car windows (including a guy that looked just like Rob), I was required to remove money from my wallet (picture standing on a six inch platform no hands going up and down and swaying back and forth balancing as the trolley cruised along in a nothing close to smooth ride). So with Judith riding point and me hanging off her we climbed the hills this city is famous for. I had to apologize to the woman (more than once) we were standing in front of, because Judith kept screaming and yahooing like it was a roller coaster (The conductor thought it was all pretty amusing and seemed to hurl insults whenever possible at disobedient passengers, car drivers, and anyone else that he could). The moral of the story is even if there are seats on the trolley car make sure you ride point standing up off the side, it is worth the fare and some.

After I pried Judith away, and we jumped off the trolley in the middle of another busy intersection "suddenly lost in the middle of the road". It took about ten seconds for someone to ask if we needed help, and after she pointed us in the direction she decided we needed to go in, off we went down the dark alley and into the night.

We walked through a part of China town (nothing like the East End, don't worry, the area to walk faster in SF is called Tenderloin) looking at various city scenes including a nice street lady from, get this “Nova Scotia” that pointed out all her favorite restaurants, always ask a local where to eat, I say!

After our little walking adventure we eventually popped out in the North Beach area to find our nice little Italian bistro before walking down Columbus back to the Argo to hit the pillow after a 20 hour day!

"My poor feet" Of course Judith was hanging onto the front door jumping up and down screaming that she wanted to go back to the trolley car and not to bed, so I left her with the door man and gave him instructions to send her up to 466 when she let go. He smiled and said he was used to this effect with trolley riders and knew what to do.