Old News: Christmas In California

It has been a while, hasn't it?  Since my last post, we've been to California for Christmas, slogged our way through snowstorms, had many dinners with friends, and generally made our epicurean way around Calgary.

Armstrong Woods

First, Christmas!  Collin's family lives in Northern California, and we had a great time soaking up the sun/rain by day, and reliving Collin's childhood by playing Hero Quest with his brothers and high school buddies by night.

3/4s of the Trail Boys in
Bodega Bay

There was hiking, and a fun trip out to the shore.  We drove through gorgeous rolling green hills, dotted with adorable lambs (and shadowed by hawks and vultures waiting to make them lunch).  The shore was very windy and cold...but then, it was December, so it came as no surprise.  We looped through Bodega Bay, one of the filming locations of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.  Of course, there was a quick photo op (very quick - the townsfolk must be pestered to death.  The "No Trespassing" signs seemed particularly emphatic).  We stopped for lunch at the not-at-all ominously named Cape Fear Cafe in Duncan Mills.  No one was poisoned, thankfully.

One of the WPA
murals inside Coit Tower

Coit Tower atop Telegraph
Hill, next to a very macho-
looking Cristoforo Colombo

Later in the visit, Collin and I headed to San Francisco.  I'd been once before and had greatly enjoyed wandering its colorful streets.  Fortunately, the weather stayed nice for our trip.  We came in to the Port of San Francisco on the ferry, ate sourdough, watched sea lions, followed our noses to Ghirardelli Square, and climbed Telegraph Hill.  The WPA murals inside Coit Tower are gorgeous, and my camera actually cooperated enough to take some good indoor pics, for once!

The alley between City Lights
and Vesuvios

City Lights Books was its usual self-consciously off-beat self, and we browsed the shelves there for a while before heading next door to Vesuvios Saloon for a pint.  I seriously love that place.  Everything creaks.  Sitting upstairs, in one of the huge windows overlooking Colombus Avenue, it's unclear who's being put on display: you, the patron, or the characters on the street below.  I watched an old man and a young, Punk girl have an impassioned discussion about something for quite a while, down in that alley.

The desk from The Godfather.  [Insert joke here about offers you'll be unable to decline.]

There were also a couple of trips to wineries - did you know Francis Ford Coppola owns a winery?  I didn't!  The wine was...okay.  I thought the really interesting part were the displays of props from his movies.  It was interesting to see how detailed some of the props and costumes were.  Sadly, most of my pictures turned out very badly.  Looking at artifacts and reading anecdotes from the set of Apocalypse Now prompted Collin and I to add the documentary Heart of Darkness (about the making of the 1979 film) to our film cue.  

We went to Korbel Winery, as well.  I felt super fancy, sipping sparkling wine and nodding along to descriptors like, "medium dry" and "peachy", or "bright".  I discovered that Korbel Cream Sherry tastes like hugs and sunshine.  Sadly, they don't sell it in Canada.

Even if a lot of the outdoors we
explored was underwater.  Yay, Winter!

All of these fun activities, plus exploring Sebastapol and Santa Rosa, and going on marvelous walks.  As weather here in Calgary is still vacillating between "mostly acceptable for March" and "Who knew that nose hair could freeze?", I think fondly and often of being outside.

It was during this trip I discovered a new hobby: taking shaky, kind of blurry photos of fungus.  I blame the rain; everything looks better with water droplets.  Here, for your viewing pleasure - pictures of unidentified fungus (you're welcome).  If you know what any of them are, feel free to let me know!

Okay, moss isn't fungus, but I thought the
light was really pretty.  

It seems odd to close a blog entry about Christmas with pictures of mushrooms, but that's the sort of person I am.  Well, actually, I can do better.  Here's Collin, celebrating me updating my blog, finally.

Hurray!