Birthday Celebrations in Morro Bay

Greetings from Morro Bay, CA. Jan and I celebrated our joint birthdays there this last weekend. The photo is of Morro Rock. You can't tell from the picture, but the rock is about 575 feet tall. It sits just off the beach at Morro Bay, but is joined to the mainland by a small spit, so you can walk/drive right up to it. Morro Rock is the northern-most of the 9 Sisters which are ancient, volcanic formations that lie along the CA coast between Morro Bay on the north and San Luis Obispo on the south. Before modern navigation came along, the 9 Sisters were important navigation aids to sailors along the coast.

It was a very nice weekend, although the weather was cool and windy. They had a kite festival out by Morro Rock on Saturday afternoon, but had to cut it short because the winds were gusting to 45 MPH around the rock.

This was a great time to go to Morro Bay because the countryside is all green and lush. It will all be brown in a few weeks. It's about a 4 hour drive from Benicia. We had a lovely dinner at a French restaurant in Paso Robles Friday night before going on to Morro Bay. Saturday we drove down the coast to San Luis Obispo and had lunch at a beach restaurant where the wind was blowing the sand so hard that we had to brave a sand blasting in getting to and from the car. On the way back, we stopped at a couple of wineries, one in a 102 year old school house and another where they have one wine that is made from a mixture of grape juice and apple juice. It was good, but a bit too sweet for my taste. They also have a small vineyard next to the tasting room that is guarded by a half-dozen or so peacocks.

Sunday Jan had to spend grading papers (Ah! the life of a professor) so I did some wine tasting along the back roads between Morro Bay and Paso Robles. My preference is for small, family-owned wineries where they are usually not very busy and you can talk directly with the people involved in making the wine. The wines in central California are very different that those farther north in Napa and Sonoma. The area east Paso Robles is known especially for zinfandels. It is interesting to compare zinfandels from Paso Robles with those of Napa/Sonoma and also from the Shenadoah Valley farther north near where Kevin and Nancy live. They are all made from the zinfandel grape, but because of very different climate and soil, they have very different characters.

I enjoyed exploring the area around Morro Bay. Since the first time I saw the area (at least 25 years ago), I always said it was where I wanted to retire. However, the smart thing would have been to buy property back then. It's way too expensive now. When we were driving back into Benicia today, Jan said "Benicia sure is a nice place!". So, I gues we're here for now.

Well, I guess I better go get ready for the cul-du-sac cake and ice cream group which is becoming a tradition on birthdays.

Love to all,

Bob

Fun and Games at the Bollers

Well, its been kind of a hectic couple of months here in the environs of Bagdad-By-The-Sea (San Francisco). What with birthdays, tax day, kidney stones and dog sitting for Rudi (photo), we've been pretty busy.

Jan continues being unable to say NO to anyone (except me of course -AW!), so she is working night and day to keep up with her students. A normal teaching load at the graduate level is 2 classes, but she has 3 because her boss, the Dean, talked her into taking a class that she was supposed to teach. Distance learning has many advantages, but studies show that it requires about 20% more time for the instructor.

Regarding the kidney stone, I had the first episode on March 9th and finally passed the damn thing on April 8th. In between there were 4 or 5 (I lost count) episodes, including 2 trips to the emergency room. Gotta love that morphine! Everything seems to be OK now, except that I am taking a course of antibiotic to treat the mother of all kidney infections. With this antibiotic, I can't eat anything and it can make your arms fall off! (I'm exaggerating, of course, but I have lost 12 pounds!)

The photo is of Rudi, the 100 pound standard poodle that lives across the street. We've had him for just over a week. He is supposed to go home this evening. Rudi is a real sweetheart, but you'll never convince Lizzie (our Yorkie) of that. She finds the whole situation to be very annoying. So far, Rudi has only broken one ceramic pot trying to jump through the window to get at the squirrels.

Jan and I are planning to spend next weekend in Morro Bay which is on the coast south of here. This will be our joint birthday celebrations. (I'm an official old geezer now!) Jan made the reservations when she was down in that area last month with Wayne and Shirley for the pinot noir festival (yes, that's as in the wine).

That's all for now.

Love to all,

Bob