The ride home

The drive home:
We stopped in Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Lubbock, San Antonio, Austin  Baton Rouge, Dauphin Island, Alabama, then home.  Santa Barbara was okay, too close to LA, though.  Which, by the way took Ojia off our retirement list.  It's really close to LA, which Don calls the armpit of America!  Phoenix was alright the second time, I don't remember much about Albuquerque except that it's a large city.  Lubbock was awful.  We did have a great dinner that night, but breakfast the next day was horrible!  We Yelped breakfast and found a place that had pretty good review.  They only served breakfast, so that was a good sign, they had lots of practice!

Update

Okay, I've missed posting quite a lot.  Michael and Katie, Maggie and Ben, Thanksgiving and so much more.  But once I got behind it seemed impossible to catch up.

I'll recap the important stuff.

Michael and Katie came.  They stayed at the Sheraton at Fisherman's Wharf which turned out to be a nice little hotel.  We did Muir Woods, Little Italy, China Town, and Alcatraz.  We drove them around the city and drove the hills and down to Castro.  It was a nice little visit and super good to see Michael.  Except they fought every evening when they got back to the hotel.  That kind of put a bummer on things.

Maggie and Ben next.  We also went to Muir Woods (I'm okay not seeing it again for a while), Little Italy, and China Town.  But Ben wanted to do something a little different.  We took one day and drove down to Palo Alto.  We saw Oracle, Facebook, Apple, HP, Google, and Intel.  I'm really glad we did that.  I wouldn't have thought to do that while we're here and it was really interesting.

The bikes at Google

Oracle, they were actually a bunch of buildings but looked like one when driving there

When I asked Siri where she lived, she said "right here"

Then I cooked Thanksgiving dinner in my "easy bake kitchen" while they were here.  Maggie insisted that we have the usual dishes, which was seconded and third-ed by everyone else.  I was able to make a half recipe of Brussels sprouts and a 10 lb turkey.  I couldn't halve Mom's sausage stuffing so I had to make the whole thing (which, by the way, got eaten!).  We had Momama's gherkins and olives she had every year (although I don't know why), and I made a cranberry sauce that was just okay.  Then for dessert we had chocolate pecan pie.  The meal was not as good as when I make it at home, but looking at the kitchen, I understand why.  I didn't take a picture of the kitchen after I finished cooking but I wish I had; every surface had a dirty dish on it or a finished product.  It was crazy.  But a wonderful meal and great company.  Then a walk to the Marina Green and back to play some Uno.  Maggie has always had one of the best senses of humor that I've seen.  Unfortunately she keeps it a well guarded secret!

Okay, that'Michael's visit, Maggie's visit and Thanksgiving.  We also took a trip to Carmel and Big Sur.

Clint Eastwood's restaurant, Mission Ranch

After all that, it was time to start thinking about packing up.  The thought of leaving made me so sad.  I walked around our neighborhood taking pictures of street signs and places that we've been:

Faustus, the waiter at e 'Angelo

We had our first dinner in San Francisco here

Great fire pit out back

Ristobar

Great bakery in Little Italy

Our hair salon, nice people but expensive!

The Marina Green

Alcatraz from the Marina Green

Our table at the Tipsy Pig

Complimentary Tiramisu at our last dinner at e 'Angelo

  Even today (we've been home for 3 weeks now) my heart is sad thinking about leaving there.  I loved our stay in San Francisco.  Don says our life style there probably had a lot to do with it (and he's right), but I'll always have a special place in my heart for San Francisco.