Santa Cruz May 11 Day 7

May 11, 2021 Tuesday Hot tub

We got up early to go to our 8:00 am hot tub reservation. It was outside at the back of the spa, which was closed, a victim of Covid. However the outdoor hot tub was very nice and in a relaxing setting.

I then went for a swim in the pool. Also very nice. I swam with a woman from Holland. We chatted for a while and she was gushing in her feelings about the diversity of geography in California. Based on my 8 day trip to Holland in 2017, the land was almost uniformly flat differentiated only by canals and lakes, so I could see why she was impressed. 

The step-daughter had work to do and she and my spouse went out to the restaurant for lunch.  I drove into town and expected to park at a charging station. However the charging station at the city administrative building was not working so I parked at a Hotel Paradox's charging station. I did not realize it was going to be an expensive charge since it charged by time not KwH.  

I then walked through the River walk park. It was a nice 2.5 mile walk along the San Lorenzo River. However I was shocked by the many homeless people and their encampments throughout the park.  In a subsequent discussion with a city employee at City Hall I was told that there are almost 10,000 homeless people in the county, most of them in the city. 

Santa Cruz is a very liberal place, fueled in part by the UC Santa Cruz. The city has declared itself a nuclear free zone and was one of the first places in CA and the US to implement medical marijuana. 

The downtown is not historic. Most of the buildings were destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. So a downtown that was once listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was delisted. There were a lot of street performers. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is California's oldest amusement park, but I had been there in 2017 so I passed this time. There were lots of charging stations in parking garages throughout the town, but all were fee based plus a parking fee.

I drove back to the Inn and while driving the hotel notified me that the charging station had been repaired, so I plugged in when I returned. After picking up a few miles we all drove back into town, drove around a bit to show them the downtown and the had dinner at Woodstock Pizza. Lots of beer and pizza.

When we returned to the Inn I plugged in again, but later that evening discovered that only one of the 4 charging stations had been repaired, so we did not get a full charge. 

Leaving San Francisco to Santa Cruz May 10

 May 10, 2021 Monday, Day 6

We had to wait for the step daughter to return to the hotel, so pretty early, about 8:00 am, I took a walk through the financial district. I was shocked at how empty, almost ghost like the area was.

I ended up at the Salesforce Tower and park. This is the tallest building in San Francisco and I had seen it all lit up the prior evening, so I thought that it might have an observation deck. However the building was closed to visitors.

I went next door to what is a combination Transit Center and park. The bottom floor is an entry way with pieces of art and some food stands. The second floor is a bus terminal. The third floor is a lush park with a playground. I was surprised and amazed at this 5 acre urban piece of respite 70 feet in the sky. It had a curved walking trail which circumvented the park and lots of signage identifying the plants. It has 13 different  botanical areas, including a redwood canopy, 600 trees and 16,000 plants, as well as grassy areas and lots of benches. It also had fountains which were activated by the arrival of buses below. It was impeccably maintained. I had a very pleasant time walking around that park.

I walked back to the hotel. The girls already had eaten so we got the car, loaded up and took off south along the coastal route. We drove through several beach cities until we reached Half Moon Bay. We stopped for gasoline, an ATM visit and a small bite to eat, but we didn't go into the main part of town because we were meeting friends of the step-daughter in Redwood City (This part of the trip was turning into a reunion "week" for her). 

We visited with the stepdaughter's friends in Redwood City. They were very nice and we spent an enjoyable afternoon in their nicely landscaped backyard. There are virtually no redwoods left in Redwood City.

We then drove about 1 hour to Santa Cruz and checked into Chaminade Inn. This is an upscale, 4 star hotel. I ended up here because I received a very large discount, although that was offset to some extent by "resort fees". However it was a very nice place. The room was large, the grounds well landscaped and the service was first rate. There is a large pool, a nice hot tub and firepits as well as an arrey of lawn games. It also had Sunset restaurant with a breathtaking view of the town and the bay. It also had multiple charging stations, both Tesla and non-Tesla. Alas, all four of the  non Tesla  charging stations were not working. I brought this to the front desk's attention, along with the fact that two Teslas were parked in the spots adjacent to the non-Tesla charging stations being blocked from charging stations by ICE cars, but never by another EV. (How ironic, I am accustomed to there were 4 Tesla charging stations)  who claimed that they were unaware of the problem. He also said that he had to call the external service company as there was nothing the Inn's staff could do.

I took a swim before dinner, but then learned that the Inn's restaurant could not accommodate us until 9:00. We sat out on the deck for a wile, had a drink, took in the view and listened to the band before leaving for downtown to eat dinner. It was a short drive. We ate outdoors at Kiantis Pizza and Pasta Barn. Pretty good food at reasonable prices. Then drove back to the Inn.

San Francisco Two Bridges May 9 Day 5

May 9, 2021 Sunday Day 5

We got started very late. The step daughter stayed with her friends in Lafayette which required a ride on the BART into town. We were also supposed to meet and eat lunch with the step-daughter's step sister, but that proved to be very complicated, especially picking a restaurant and agreeing upon a time. We eventually agreed on the Italian Homemade Company in the Marina District. We drove there from the hotel about 11:30 and to my amazement we easily found a parking place across the street. The step sister was late, but eventually we had a nice lunch. The restaurant had good food and an informal vibe. You ordered food at the counter and built your own meal.

After lunch we planned to walk toward Marina Green with the intent of stopping on the way at a drug store. That resulted in some hurt feelings and tension. When I was wandering through the store a clerk approached me and asked if I wanted a Covid shot. I declined, as I was fully vaccinated in March. However the step daughter had one shot and was scheduled for the second the two days later in  Watsonville, a 30 minute drive from our hotel, so I suggested to her that she get the shot at the store. They turned her down because she was two days early (really, would that have made a difference?) but she was upset because she felt that my suggestion meant that I felt she was a burden. That took a while to clear up.

After we left the drugstore the ladies stopped in a clothing store. I opted to continue walking to Marina Green. That is a parkland along the waterfront extending from Fort Mason to the Presidio. The walk there took me through some very nice neighborhood housing, particularly along Marina Ave. It was the area where Joe DiMaggio lived, although I saw no directions to his former home. The Park offered stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz and Angel Islands.

My spouse and step-daughter joined me at the Park, the step-sister having departed and we walked along the waterfront for a bit enjoying the views. Lots of people were out enjoying the area. I walked back to get the car and we drove the step-daughter to the BART.

After resting at the hotel, we drove down to Rincon Park along the waterfront, parked the car and walked north along the Embarcadero. We stopped for a small bite at the Waterbar Restaurant, expensive, but nice views, and took in the views of the Bay Bridge.

We retreated our steps, picked up the car and drove along the Embarcadero before returning to the hotel. 

 

Time share Day and on to San Francisco May 8 Day 4

May 8, 2021, Saturday 

We cooked breakfast in the condo, packed up and then went to what I thought would be a relatively short time share condo presentation. It took longer than I had hoped and we ended up making a small purchase to correct a deficiency in our membership. They are always trying to sell. That is our last purchase!

We finally got on the road by 2:30 with little charge in the battery or gas in the tank, so I filled up at a gas station near the condo before I left to avoid California's high gasoline prices. We took route 50, which starts in Ocean City Maryland and runs over 3000 miles across the country, out of South Lake Tahoe across the Sierra Nevada mountains. That is an incredibly scenic drive. Lots of great views, lots of sweet smelling, big, green trees and a vey rustic feel. That lasted until we got to the outskirts of Sacramento when we encountered sprawling suburbs and route 50 ended. We got on I-80 and drove west to Lafayette CA. to visit with friends of the step daughter. She knew the couple, a Frenchman and a Lebanese-American, from her days working in the French government's tourist office in LA. They have a beautiful classic California ranch style home. We ate a wonderful dinner, both food and conversation, out on their patio.

Leaving the step-daughter with her friends, we didn't leave until close to 11 and it was about 11:30 when after crossing the new Bay Bridge we checked into Donatello hotel in San Francisco. A 5 star hotel, you could tell by the $25/day valet parking fee, and the room was reasonably large for a big city hotel.

Lake Tahoe May 7

 May 7, 2021 Friday, Day 3 Touring Tahoe

We cooked and ate breakfast using the full kitchen in the condo. The step daughter and I left in the morning and drove to the California Base Lodge at the western side of the Heavenly Ski Resort. I went there because there was an electric charging station there, but it was not working. I plugged into a 110 volt outlet and got 4 miles. 

I had skied from this base in March with one of my sons and my recollection was that there were nice trails up the mountain, but the lifts were not operating now. An employee told us that it was private property and that we could not hike here, even when I told her that I was a Vail employee. (I showed her mu ski school hat, but I did not have my employee badge.) She suggested that we go to a state park on the Nevada side for hiking.  Instead we walked to the other end of the parking lot and hiked up the Puma Trail near the First Ride Lift. Even a beginner run was hard to walk up starting at 6500 ft. We got a nice view of Lake Tahoe and after about 1.5  hours we turned around, walked back down and drove back to the condo for lunch. 

 After lunch all three of us drove to the west side of the lake along Emerald Bay Road and then up Fallen Leaf Lake Road to the Trailhead. The road became increasingly narrow and windy as we climbed. There were some very nice vacation homes which were perched below the road on the lake. said that theer was no snowplowing on this raod so I wondered what residents did in the winter. When the pavement ceased we parked Glen Alpine Trailhead and began the hike up to the Alpine Falls. After taking in the falls, which was actually a series of large rapids or small falls, we continued hiking along Glen Alpine Creek until we reached the Susie and Heather Lake Trailhead. Here the raod ended and the trail narrowed and we encountered muddy conditions as we crossed and re-crossed the creek in an increasingly futile attempt to find a dry trail.

There were a more than a few hikers around the falls, but as we continued up the trail we encountered fewer hikers. One couple told us that there was more water along the trail so we finally turned around.

Returning to Emerald Bay Road we turned north for what was a hair raising ride along the cliffs over the lakes along a path that had spectular views of Lake Tahoe and many switchbacks until we came to Emerald Bay Park. From Inspiration Point there wereexpansive views of the bay and lake.

 

Lake Tahoe was named "big water" by the Washoe Indians. The Indian legend is that the lake was created whne an innocent Indian was being pursued by an evil spirt. The frightened Indian dropped a branch of leaves which became the lake thus saving him from the evil spirt. The lake is the third deepest in North America, behind Superior and Crater. The Lake is so large that when i viewed the opposite shore it fell below the horizen due to the curviture of the earth. However its distinguishing characteristic is its purity, almost the same as distilled water. As a result one can see very far into the depts of the lake, but its clearity has been decreasing. The Lake never freezes due to constant flow of water from the bottom. There was a lot of logging in the mountains surrounding the lake in the second half of the 19th century when the Comstock Lode needed lumber for fuel and to support its web of mines constructed under Virginia City. The decline of the Lode saved many trees.  

Fannette Island in the bay is the only island in the Lake. It houses the Tea House, which along with Vikingsholm, a 38 room mansion on the shore of the bay was built by Lora Knight as a summer home. No time for a tour of the mansion.

On the way back we stopped at MacDuff's Pub for drinks and finger food. They were social distancing the tables, but it was still pretty crowded.  

After driving back to the condo I went swimming in the pool  and all of us used the hot tub.

We ate dinner in the condo unit

Reno to Tahoe May 6

May 6, 2021 Thursday Day 2 Reno Nevada

Upon awakening I went out and moved the car from charging station where it had been charging overnight. Picked up 54 miles.  My spouse and stepdaughter  went to Starbucks for breakfast.  We walked around the downtown to see Truckee River, the river park, sculptures, murals, the restored train station, two passenger trains a day to San Francisco and Chicago (several years ago the rail line through the center of town was submerged in a trench) and the iconic town sign.

Left downtown about 9:30 and drove east briefly on I-80 and then south for 30 miles on I-580  to Carson City. This is Nevada's state capital. The town was founded in 1858 and became the state capital 6 years later when Nevada was rushed into the Union to support the Union cause in the Civil War, support the re-election of Lincoln and provide a vote for the 13th amendment.  At the time it had less than 10,000 inhabitants. It was named for Kit Carson who was the scout for the Fremont expedition which the first European expedition into the area. Initially the site was a stop on the California Trail, but it boomed with the discovery of the Comstock silver lode in nearby Virginia City. It is an independent city, not part of any county and with a population of 55,000 it is the 6th largest city in Nevada, although with 146 sq. miles as a result of acquiring several surrounding towns it is one of the largest state capital's in area in the US.

It seemed to be a prosperous town as we drove through it to the southern end of town to the Nevada State Railroad Museum.  Admission was $8/person. A docent just opened up the annex which contained a lot of old rolling stock. There was an exhibit centered around The Commissioner's Car. This is the only surviving railroad car from the meeting at Promontory Point, Utah in 1969 that marked the meeting of the Union pacific and Central Pacific railroads when then completed the transcontinental railroad. ate lunch there. The car carried the Central pacific President Leland Stanford as well as other CP big shots and gold and silver spikes that were driven into the railroad ties to mark the occasion. The information we saw replicated a lot of the information we saw in Utah museums in 2019 to mark sesquicentennial.

Several years later the car was sold to the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Line That line was established in 1869 primarily to carry ore out of the Comstock Lode. It later carried passenger traffic between the growing cites of Reno and Carson  City prospered for many decades. However with the advent of automobile, trucks and roads in the early part of the 20th century, like many railroad lines it began a long decline  which lead to its closure in 1950. However during its decline the line was discovered by Hollywood which purchased many of its railroad cars and steam engines to use in movies. Fifty years later these cars were sold to the museum. The docent was very good and we were able to walk through many of the restored cars. We missed the ride on the vintage train to Virginia City since that did not begin until late May. Before going to the main hall we ate a picnic lunch on the museum grounds. The exhibits in the main hall detailed the major impact that the transcontinental railroad and subsequent railroads had on the development of the western US and the fortunes the railroads created.

We then drove north through town to the Nevada State Museum. Along the way we passed the government center. The 19th century silver domed capital is still in use today, but tours of the capital and legislative buildings were suspended due to the Covid. 

The museum, $8 admission, was housed in the former Carson City mint (no need to drag all that silver to Denver) and there was a large mint exhibit.  Nevada was carved out of the Utah Territory which had envisioned a state called Dessert that encompassed most of Nevada and parts of current Arizona, California and Idaho. Even though the Mormons were some of the first European settlers in Nevada, the miners who flocked into the area after the silver discovery wanted nothing to do with the Mormons. I was amazed to learn that after statehood on two occasions Nevada added to its eastern territory by annexing parts of the Utah Territory. I think that is the only occasion when a state added to its territory after statehood.

After a few hours in the museum we headed south on route 50 for a beautiful drive along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe and to our condo in Zephyr Cove, just a few miles from California. It was a very nice three bedroom, there were not many guests so we were upgraded, on the second floor in a evergreen forest close to the lake. 

After unpacking we drove through Stateline, the site of half a dozen large hotel casinos and into California. We parked in the library lot to car up the car, (got 18 miles)  and walked down to Lake Tahoe where we walked the narrow beach and watched the setting sun. 

 

We then returned to Nevada and ate dinner at a small Mexican restaurant, Casey's in a strip mall near  the condo. The food was surprisingly good and moderately priced. After dinner shopped for some groceries at an adjacent Safeway

Beginning of western and southwest road trip May 5

May 5 2021 Wednesday Day 1 To Reno

We began our drive at 11:00 am after I had gone to the doctor and returned from Best Buy to pick up my computer following a devirusing cleaning. After a gas fill-up we set out going west on I-80 with a full tank and a full battery.

It is a long and largely boring drive across northern Utah and Nevada. As we approached the Nevada border in the Great Salt Lake Dessert we stopped at Metaphor: the Tree of Utah, a/k/a the Tree of Life. This is an 87 ft high sculpture that was created by a Swedish sculptor in 1986. It is made mostly of concrete and has a squarish trunk with six globes as leaves. There are several broken globes on the ground and the structure is surrounded by a fence. 

Very close to the Nevada border we stopped at a rest area that is adjacent to the Bonneville Salt Flats. This the largest of many salt flats in western Utah which were created by the ancient Lake Bonneville. Since the beginning of the 20th century this has been the site of many races and land speed records, as well as many movies. The race course is 10 miles long and due to the curvature of the earth one cannot see one end from the other. The first land speed record was set in 1935, at just over 300 miles per hour. The last entry on the plaque indicted that in 1970 the record had been pushed to over 600 miles per hour. 

The flats stretched almost as far as the eye could see. First we ate lunch at the picnic table. Adjacent to the rest area there was shallow clear standing water (probably snow melt from the distant mountains some of which were still snow capped) for a few hundred yards, but after wading through that we walked out on to the dry salt flats. The water was very salty and the flats were very crusty. There were a few dozen people walking on the flats, many with dogs. We conversed with two English girls. There was a vendor selling jewelry in the parking area. We were interested in purchasing something after our walk on the flats, but he was packing up saying that he could not stop to sell since he had to pick up his kids from daycare. 

About half way there we stopped for gas in Battle Mountain, NV. This is now a town of less than 3000 people. It was a stop on the Emigrant Trail and was named after amid 19th century battle between settlers and Indians. It developed in the 19th century as a mining town, primarily copper, but also some gold. Then the railroad followed. However the town's fortunes declined throughout the 20th century and in 2001 a Washington Post columnist declared the town the armpit of America. Battle Mountain embraced that and for several years it held an annual armpit festival, sponsored in part by Old Spice. We walked around the town a bit. There were two hotels, a few restaurants and casinos and a freight trail came through.

 We made a hotel reservation while driving, arrived in Reno about 8:00 and checked into the Silver Legacy Hotel and Casino in downtown Reno. Nice place that is very large. The hotel's parking garage had a free electric charging station. The weather was very mild in the evening, but many of the restaurants closed at 9, so we ate at Original Mel's in the Sands Regency Hotel.  Interesting sculptors on the evening walk over there.