I don’t know if I should do this chronologically or just dive in where I feel like it. I will try chronologically.

Well after I got back from  Scotland,Hartley and I decided to take a trip out side the confines of San Francisco Bay. The Bay is great to sail with challenging winds but is pretty flat, no ocean swells and we wanted to try the swells out again. At the end of May we went up to Drake’s Bay which is  on the south side of Point Reyes. Beautiful country but a big cold looking spot with lots of fog.

 

After spending the night we went further north to Tomales Bay, a little bit of  a navigating  challenge as it is a long narrow bay with lots of twists and turns and shallow spots. Kissed the bottom twice (soft forgiving sand) and otherwise had no problems. The area is great for kayaking, we saw several groups of kayakers camping on the shores. We  left the next day and reversed our track spending one more night in Drake’s Bay where it was even windier and bleaker looking than the first time. The next day we went under the Golden Gate bridge and were greeted by the SUN!

We had a visit from a new relative, well he has always been a relative but we just found out about each other. When I was is Scotland I met a relative of my Dad’s and he had a son who was getting married and traveling to the States for his honeymoon. Stefan and Ashley spent a day sailing with us on the Bay.

Hartley then went back to see his Dad in New Hampshire  (JB is 93 and doing great.)

JB at Odiorne Point on New Hampshire

and I stayed and worked a little on cleaning the boat and organizing cupboards etc. I was the time of the national championships for basketball. Not usually a big interest of mine but the teams were the Oakland Warriors (from here!) and the Cleveland Cavaliers. My boat neighbor, Bev is a Cavaliers fan and has TV!! So we spent some evenings watching and having great fun. We had planned to go to a chamber music concert at the Cafe Trieste in Berkeley but there was a game that night and I wasn’t sure Bev would go.(She is a much bigger basketball fan than me. ) In the end we went to the chamber music. I have talked about this interesting venue in the past. Well when we got there they had the basketball game on their big screen TV on mute. We got to watch the game and listen to the music all at the same time. It was really funny, towards the end when the score was close the violinist was playing away but turned round to watch the game and never missed a beat.

The next visit was from Ariel our daughter. The visit was great and way too short. I as usual had to have things planned to do. All 3 of us took kayaking lessons the first weekend. We wore wet suits as we were in the San Francisco Bay where the water temperature is 57 degrees. We learned the basic  paddling strokes and then how to fall out (easy) and get back in (hard!).

We also did a walking our of San Francisco through Meetup . We walked up and down hill and all the way to Twin Peaks near Sutro tower. It lasted over 4 hours and was great fun (and good exercise).

The next great adventure was to go to the South Fork of the American River and go white water rafting. It was a beautiful warm (hot) day and the river was a perfect temperature to swim in (good thing). I don’t think any of us fell out  but we sure got plenty wet. There was one rapid where you could run the rapid without any boat so I did that , great fun. Also we got to jump off a cliff into the water. Very scary as I was always taught not to do that, but this was “sanctioned”  so I jumped and made it (everyone else did too).

Next my good friend Jacque came to visit. All 4 of us were here for a few days and had a great time. We went to  see the classic production of Beach Blanket Babylon and had dinner in the city. Hartley and Ariel drove our car back to Phoenix where it awaits the end of the lease in October. So now we are officially carless. While they were gone over the weekend Jacque and I had a great time exploring San Francisco. It was her birthday so we used that as a good excuse just to have fun. We went on a tour of the city with Emperor Norton

which was tons of fun , followed by  late lunch in a French restaurant, my favorite thing. Because it was Jacque’s birthday it gave us  great excuse to have dessert, noisette ice cream for me, mmmmm.

Jacque worked like crazy on Sunday making covers for the pillows on the boat (great to have a seamstress for  friend!)

and I went out to look at kayaks and bought a beautiful red one.

All good things come to and end , so Jacque left on Monday.  The same day, June 29, Hartley came home and on July 1 we left for the Delta.

The Delta is an area northeast of San Francisco Bay where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meander through the farm lands before reaching the Bay. Because it is inland, away from the ocean breezes the temperature is much hotter than the Bay. The water is warm and freshwater as opposed to salt and very nice to swim in.

Rob is our neighbor at the marina in Emeryville and  has grown up in the Delta. He told us where there was  a great place to anchor so we went up July 1 an secured a spot.  He and his girlfriend Cindy came up the next day on his motorboat. There we swam and kayaked and generally enjoyed being in the warm. This was not an isolated island experience. There were boats all around. I was very impressed though that all the boats near us were considerate ( keeping the speed down so wakes did not rock the boats too much, not drunk and loud and quit the music at a reasonable hour.

On July 4th we watched a wonderful fireworks display put on by the Hilton’s. They have an old lodge up there and have had a fireworks display for many years. Thousands of boats come up to enjoy the weather and the fireworks.

A few days later we worked our way back to Emeryville where we have just stocked up on groceries etc and if the weather is good as predicted will head north. We have an open ended plan. If the weather is good and we feel like it we will head north and maybe make it to the San Juan islands, Vancouver Island area. If we get tired of the fog and fighting the current and the wind we might turn around and head south. The boat is all ready for the trip with kayaks stowed and bicycles secured, we are ready to see what the future holds. Off in the AM (probably).

For those of you who have followed stories of my Mom , she ran in the National Senior Games on July 6 in St Paul in the pouring rain , in the 85-89 year old group, 5 K. She is 88 and came in 3rd. Congrats Mom. (No pictures yet , hope to have the soon.)

Whew. Time to go to bed Leaving in the AM for wherever.