Friends...family...for The Birds!

Millerton Lake

On Tuesday, after toe-dipping one last time in Millerton Lake, we packed up and headed north to Los Gatos, near San Jose. We drove out of the beautiful rolling hills dotted with happy cows and covered with velvety grasses gently bending in the wind, and into a rat's nest of roads choked with traffic.

Once at the house of Ken's friend, Brian, we soon forgot our traveling troubles and settled in for a nice chat on his back porch. Ken and Brian reminisced about old times and old co-workers, dredging up names and events from so long ago that they surprised each other. It was great! We headed off to dinner at Chef Chu's, an veritable institution in Los Altos. We were not disappointed with the fabulous meal and shared Singapore Rice Noodles, Kung Pao Calamari and the largest whole crispy fish I've ever seen on a plate served with sweet and sour sauce. The fish was...odd. The poor thing was staring at me through a thick crust of fried for most of the meal, until Ken and Brian were instructed to eat the eyeballs. They did. I wish I was kidding. The server assured us 'they're good for you'. Whatever. No way I'm eating eyeballs. Jus' sayin'.

In any case, we headed back to Brian's house to assess the RV situation. We decided that parking illegally overnight would probably not be a great idea, so we said our goodbyes to Brian and headed off to find a Walmart parking lot about 20 miles north.

Bodega Bay coastline

In the morning, we headed farther out of the San Jose area, only to find even more traffic while the GPS unit repeatedly shouted at us to turn around. In any case, we eventually found our way and crossed back into a more idyllic area as we entered Napa Valley. We set up camp at Skyline Wilderness Park, a lovely county park at the base of some hills in the middle of wine country.

Schoolhouse from 'The Birds'

We decided, instead of hitting the wineries, we'd head to the coast and visit Bodega Bay, a town known mostly for the filming of Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'. We traveled north along the coast and watched the surf pound the beach and the birds battle the strong winds. We wended our way until we turned off to follow the Russian River east and then turned again to go south along a tiny road until we reached the town of Bodega.

Bodega Country Store

Bodega is home to the schoolhouse filmed in the movie, as well as the St. Teresa of Avila church photographed by Ansel Adams in 1953. We walked around and took pictures of both and then stopped in to the Bodega Country Store, an eclectic mix of firewood, groceries, old magazines, fine gourmet food and the largest collection of

Dinner at Bodega
Country Store

Hitchcock schlock anywhere. We opted for a bowl each of red clam chowder and white clam chowder with a pizza-ette to share. Yum. The chowders were absolutely fantastic, made from old recipes (brothy instead of thickened with flour) according to the owner. While dining on a little old farm table next to a window, we looked out onto the tiny town and read about the filming of some of the movie there. Nice.

St. Teresa of Avila, Bodega, CA

Baker Creek Seed Bank, Petaluma, CA

After our early dinner, we drove back to Petaluma, where we saw an old corner bank repurposed into a
Seed Bank, run by Baker Creek Seed Company. We walked around the bustling little downtown a bit and then continued on our way. With a quick stop at a couple of Goodwills for some books and such, we returned to the RV and settled in for an evening of laughing at old 'Frasier' re-runs on Netflix. Ah, good times.

Old Schools Command, Mare Island

On Thursday, we drove into Vallejo and visited Mare Island, an old Navy base where Ken was stationed back in the day. We found some of the old Schools Command buildings where he took classes and the barracks where he lived, now repurposed into Touro University, with the rest of the old buildings boarded up and in desperate need of repair. In fact the entire old Navy base is mostly old dilapidated structures with broken windows and weeds growing all around. It looks like the perfect setting for a horror movie.

In any case, we next went to visit with my cousin, Sue and her husband, Randy. They live on Mare Island in an adorable community of pretty houses that provides a complete juxtaposition to the near ruin of the Navy base just a few blocks away.

St. Peter's Chapel on Mare Island

After a wonderful lunch and catching up with the two of them, Sue took us on a tour of some of the pretty formerly Navy buildings. We first walked to the oldest Navy chapel west of the Mississippi, built in 1901. It's still used for weddings and such.

Pam and Sue

Next we walked on to some of the old officers' quarters. These grand 4-square houses are, sadly, empty most of the time, but are occasionally rented out for receptions and other events. We peeked in the windows of several of them and saw each home is beautifully appointed with original wood moldings, huge pocket doors and lots of pretty details throughout.

Old Officers Quarters on Mare Island
used in the filming of a new movie!

One house was even used during the recent filming of a new movie with Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Sue thought the name of it would be 'The Master'. She also told us that the island has been used for filming other things as well, including a Jaguar commercial. How fun! We walked through the park (complete with hundreds of concrete bomb shelters) and back to her house and after chatting a bit more, we said our goodbyes.We really enjoyed our visit with Sue and Randy!

Sam and Pam

Next, we drove into Oakland through a fair amount of traffic and found Jack London Square where we had a brew at Miss Pearl's Restaurant and Lounge before heading off to find my friend, Sam's, apartment in the Temescal neighborhood of the city. We caught up with Sam (after about 4 years!!) and had a great evening swapping stories about our adventures since we last saw each other. We three chatted over a tasty meal of Spanish tapas at Barlata. So yummy!

What a fantastic couple of days!