Scattered Thoughts . . .

After a delicious lunch at the restaurant in the Officer's Club, we headed back to the inn so we could freshen up and get a change of clothes.  Our luggage was waiting for us in our closets in each of our suites.   The Presidio has hiking trails all throughout the grounds.  One trail begins right behind the inn and takes you up to Inspiration Point so that was our first sightseeing trek on The Presidio.  The hike is easy, the scenery is nice and the weather was beautiful...  especially since a few days previously, we were freezing and wet in four feet of snow in Vermont! It is a short hike up to Inspiration Point...  the trail is wide and well-groomed...  I think it took us only 15 minutes to the view on the point...   Inspiration Point provides views of the bay, Alcatraz (below), the Palace of Fine Arts (the dome in the foreground) and one of the hillside residential areas (the following photo)... From Inspiration Point, we knew we wanted to head al

Our two Uber drivers dropped us off at the back entrance to The Inn at The Presidio.  Adam, Joi and Will had arrived quite a bit before Sheila, Sue and I so they were already there waiting when we arrived.  We were so far behind them that they were wondering if we got lost!  Actually, we purposely took a bit of circuitous site-seeing route. Here is the front porch of this historic inn.... This inn is actually a building named "Pershing Hall" which used to be the Bachelor Officer Quarters but has been recently renovated and converted to an inn.  I am standing in the large, heavy double doors from the porch as I shot our group in the lobby...   This is the manager's desk in the front Day Room/Living Room... Here are a few photos of General "Black Jack" Pershing hanging on the wall.  The walls throughout the Inn were adorned with historic photos and various historic items from The Presidio... Our suites were on the top floor overlooking the in

After spending a few days in Roseville and Sacramento visiting Adam and Joi, we turned in our rental car and hopped on a train to San Francisco.  Adam and Joi accompanied us on this part of our journey so there were no goodbyes necessary just yet. There is no doubt that we had been looking forward to spending time with Adam and Joi in Roseville but spending time in San Francisco was the main attraction of our long cross-country journey in my mind.  I was definitely looking forward to spending time in San Francisco but I also think Sheila, Will and Sue were excited about this part of our journey as well.  We headed to the Sacramento train station in the morning.  Sheila and I dropped everyone off at the station and then she and I headed to the rental car place about a mile away in downtown Sacramento.  We dropped the keys in the drop box and then called for an Uber to take us back to the station where everyone was waiting for us... The Sacramento train station is a bit spread o

Our last full day in Roseville was rather nice.  First we visited the air base and got a bit of a guided tour by Adam.  We had lunch at an Irish Pub (it was the day before St Paddy's Day) that was more like a  dive  sports bar.  Then, we actually had a little time to unwind and spend some time at the hotel pool before heading out to dinner with Joi's mom joining us.  It sounds like it was a busy day but it was actually the most laid back day we had while in California.  For a pleasant change, we actually had some time to kill which is why we ended up in the pool at the hotel. While on the air base, we stopped at the Coyote Pub and Grill to use the restrooms and get some cash from an ATM.  I have to say that it was difficult leaving that place because the NCAA basketball playoffs were on the big screen and they had the channel turned to the Florida game...  a game I wanted to see.  I knew if we stayed for the game it would lead to a few drinks, getting a bit too comfortable (a

I had a busy day today cutting up lumber to make our butcher block countertops for the outdoor kitchen.  It was like a typical Monday today though. First, I couldn't get the table saw adjusted correctly.  Then, when I finally got the saw adjusted well enough, I had problems with the lumber.  As I ripped the lumber it was binding the saw and then bending into crazy shapes after it was ripped to rough size.  I then needed another two passes in the saw to get them to manageable pieces of lumber.   Then, I whacked my head again...   then again...  at that point, I went inside to retrieve my bump hat.  I think I whacked my head another ten times while wearing the bump hat!  It was one of those days.  (I have a headache again this evening.) I managed to get the countertops assembled, cut to size and they are now set in place on top of the cabinets.  For now, they are simply clamped down to the cabinets.   I still have a lot of sanding to do before I can stain and f

We've been without the use of a dryer for about three weeks now.  It wasn't the end of the world though.  I set up a couple of clotheslines behind the house so we could continue to do laundry when it wasn't raining but I like absolutely nothing related to hanging clothes outside on a line so it has been a long, frustrating three weeks. First, I really hate seeing clothes hanging in someone's yard or over a railing.  That is not the place for clothes.  Next, drying clothes is then dependent upon the weather and we get a lot of rain-days here in Waterbury.  Worse yet, all the clothes turn out flat, stiff, rough and I think some of them have gotten moldy due to the lack of high heat that a good dryer would apply to each load.  When we would bring clothes into the house to be folded, we could just stand them up in a corner because they were stiff as a board.  If they had that freshly pressed look, that would be great but they looked like they spent the afternoon drying in

After a trip to Lowes the other night for more building supplies, I started my day yesterday by moving all the lumber we bought from my car to dry areas I have setup in our yard.  Then I got started on pulling power tools out of the shed and collecting all the other tools I would need for the day.   Once everything was organized and setup, I began cutting and assembling the back of the base cabinets and end panels on the base cabinets for our outdoor kitchen.  This actually went fairly quickly but all the bending and twisting was brutal on my spinal injuries.  This is the view as you are coming up the stone path to our back door... Here you can see how the cabinets form a "U".  I still need to cut and assemble the face frames for the left and the back side of the "U".  The wood you see in the photo is actually the back panel.  Since there is no countertop in place yet (I haven't even begun to cut and assemble the butcher block countertop yet), the insid