Still going . . .

Okay, we are actually home now. We have AMAZING friends who help us with our cats and home when we are away. It is a real luxury.

Now, where were we . . .


Sunday morning we jumped out of bed and headed to Mt. Tamalpais. If you have read the Percy Jackson books or the The Alchemyst books, you will know that Mt. Tam is a big deal. The real deal was just as spectacular. We took a four mile hike with a 1000' elevation change. We walked among Redwoods and Douglas Firs, the richest moss you can imagine and a babbling brook that really seemed to talk. We have hiked a lot, all over the world, this was my favorite hike ever.



Did I mention that olives grow everywhere? Evie and I couldn't get enough. They were only $4/lb. at the grocery!



Sunday night brought more Aikido at yet another dojo. The Sensei at Heart of San Francisco Aikido is a good friend of Evie's favorite sensei and she had emailed saying Evie was coming. There is a string connection between this dojo and Evie's dojo so she was welcomed with open arms and hugged about a million times. Again, it was a very experienced class. It was interesting that it was much more segregated by rank than her dojo in terms of practice partners. Interestingly, Ruth Sensei honored Evie by asking her to take ukemi for her and after that Evie was in high demand from even the most senior students. This style of aikido was very familiar and comfortable to her and she really wowed some folks. I got to play with an 8 month old the whole time so we all enjoyed that class. More Humphry Slocombe followed (duh!)



We saw Occupy SF in the financial district. It was sad. It seemed they were just hanging on, not pushing forward.



We tried to take a geology tour of SF but the book we were using was almost 30 years old. We did find a cool park though.



At the start of our trip we made a conscious decision to not visit any chain stores and no stores or restaurants that weren't owned by locals--grocery stores included. It seemed easier in San Francisco than at home.