Week 14-2009
I managed to get my scissors confiscated in Melbourne before I had even got on the first plane in Melbourne.
First stop was Santa Rosa, California, visiting some friends, Thea and Jack Dolan who I had first met 12 years ago… Thea is a quilter of many years so it was good to see her current projects which included a lovely log cabin quilt for her grandaughter. We had a trip to Korbels Winery, a chamnpagne and brandy producer and then went to see the Californian sequoias, some of which are 300 feet high. Arnie wondered how many pens he could manage to make out of one of the trees. Michael, our son suggested a lot of pens or one pen plus a huge pile of saw dust.
We managed to get our selves lost in the sequoias, one of those miss-communication occasions. We thought that we had to meet Thea and Jack at a certain spot and they were waiting at another. We eventually walked back to the front gate of the Park and asked that the rangers keep an eye out for an elderly couple looking for two Australians. The ranger assured us that it would be all OK because we couldn’t possibly imagine all the things that had been lost in the National Park. Eventually, they arrived back at the front gate and rescued us! In time to go and have hamburgers at the local bikies hangout by the Russian River. THE BEST HAMBURGERS! Arnie sampled the local beer; I had to make do with the local Chardonnay! The restaurant was a good example of the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover!!!” The outside was very strange, but the inside was spotless wirh great staff. It was lovely to stay with Thea and Jack and for Arnie to meet them.