We arrived by bike and the sheer effort to get there created an appetite worthy of the Homeroom’s famous macaroni and cheese. We signed in because even at 2:00 p.m. on a Saturday there was a line. We waited about 20 minutes during which we drooled over (at a safe distance) the outside diners’ food. Mulitple friends had insisted that Austin try Homeroom with raves about the mac&cheese so we waited with much anticipation.
We decided to split an order of mac&cheese so we could also enjoy fresh asparagus in balsamic vinegar and save room for dessert. There are many variations to choose from and we went for the Macximus–a Greek inspired recipe with artichokes, spinach, feta cheese and we added chicken. Both the asparagus and the mac&cheese were delicious. We may not have had a lot of room for dessert and yet we were anxious to continue the dining experience. We ordered banana cream pie (in a mason jar) and a brownie sundae with caramel sauce. Both were incredibly satisfying. Now we were full.
The food is reasonably priced and makes an affordable urban dining spot. The service was excellent, and the decor in keeping with the theme of the schoolroom. The food may be inspired by the idea of food we loved in school, but I do not remember any of my cafeteria meals tasting this good!
I pedaled my Brompton across town and then jumped onto the train from Davis at 9:24 a.m. I asked the Amtrak conductor for a free transfer onto Light Rail once in Sacramento. Then I rode those rails to the end of the line in Folsom. All in pursuit of a day being a bike racing fan at the Amgen Tour of California. Today’s stage was the 12.5 mile time trial with a start and finish in old town Folsom. I arrived at 11:00 a.m. and spent time in the fan zone checking out the booths and picking up free samples of Jelly Bellys, and an Amgen TOC lanyard. I also bought a “Adios Jens” t-shirt at the Trek Racing Team booth. I also wandered around to get an idea of my viewing options.
At about 95 degrees, not a great day to be the California Bear mascot!Amgen Tour of California inspired sugar cookie from Karen’s Bakery
The start ramp was on Sutter Street right in the heart of old town Folsom. The finish had a challenging 90 degree turn onto Leidesdorff Street 150 meters from the finish. I decided I would stake out a spot along the barrier after I grabbed lunch at Karen’s Bakery. The Bakery is a popular spot for cyclists and the finish was right in front of the outdoor dining space. Karen rented sold out the space at $200 a seat, all you can eat. That is a good deal, however, I prefer being right on the rails.
I used my REI portable chair and enjoyed almost an hour of time knitting before the race began. The couple next to me went to the race in Sacramento on Sunday. It was fun learning more of the details about that stage. A large television screen across the road began broadcasting the race at 2:00 p.m. The first rider left the gate at 1:05 and it took over 26 minutes to finish. Thus began the ritual of cheering 128 riders approximately every minute or so.
The last time I watched an Amgen TOC time trial was in Sacramento. I was able to download the order of riders and take a printed copy so I could track our progress. I went to the Amgen welcome center and got a program. They said the order of riders is on the “Tour Tracker” application. I had downloaded the app the day before, so I found the list, only it did not include the rider’s numbers and when they left the gate the disappeared from the list, so it wasn’t helpful for knowing when your favorite riders would be riding to the finish. Nonetheless, our fan group at about 125 meters enjoyed ourselves. We especially enjoyed competing to see who could catch the riders with our cameras.
Sir Bradley Wiggins, Team Sky
As the afternoon wore on the riders finished in faster and faster times. 24:02 was the time to beat until Bradley Wiggins started his time trial. This is only the second stage and the first stage ended in a bunch sprint, so Mark Cavendish was wearing the yellow jersey and was last to ride. Of the general classification riders, the favorites are Bradley Wiggins and Taylor Phinney. The winner of the Olympic Gold Medal and the Tour de France 2012 decides to make a statement and he blistered the course. I am surprised I caught him on film. He finished in 23:18. Taylor Phinney rode well and placed third in the time trial but is now chasing Wiggins by 52 seconds.
The final rider is one of my favorites: Mark Cavendish, aka the Manx Missile. I only caught the beginning of his bike, though in this shot you can see the television screen and the barriers more clearly. No one expected Cavendish to stay in the yellow jersey but there is something about being the leader and as often happens he rode the best time trial of his career.
At this point I had to decide whether to stay and watch the awards or head to the Bike Valet and pick up my Brompton and catch the Light Rail back to the Sacramento Valley Train Station. After all of the sun, I was ready to head home. Great day and a great reminder of why I love watching cycling live.
Needing to stage a trial run for my Le Tour adventure I arranged to meet my friend Austin for a day of cycling, eating, shopping and fun in Oakland. I barely made it to the Davis station before the train’s departure. The station manager helped me purchase my ticket and directed me to the right car. I pushed my Brompton onto the train and folded Black Beauty and stowed her on the luggage rack. I was a little nervous about leaving her on her own as I climbed the stairs to my seat.
Riding the train is so much more fun than driving. 1. No traffic. 2. I can use the time to finish my book, or stare out the window; either way it is very relaxing. 3. My round trip ticket cost $54 for an adult fare. If you compare to the mileage ($0.56 per mile equals $72.80) plus bridge toll ($5.00) plus potential parking fees.
Austin and I exchanged emails earlier to share ideas about places to go and things to see. I have been collecting Oakland travel articles from Sunset Magazine and other publications. It was 9:30 a.m. and we set off on our bikes to Temescal Alley, featured in two magazines. Have you noticed how some places get all kinds of attention and then you go and wonder what the fuss?
We parked our bikes and stepped into Doughnut Dolly for a creme filled donut. Dolly has a focused approach to doughnuts–you select either raised doughnut with granular sugar or powdered sugar, then select a filling and they inject them and they are ready to go. It’s an interesting idea and we munched our doughnuts on a bench outside. We compared our Yelp rating systems and I like Austin’s. One or two stars neither of us bother to review. Three stars we would go back if friends all wanted to go there. Four stars is awarded to a great place we would return to if we were in the neighborhood and five stars for a fabulous place that we would go out of our way to visit again and again. Doughnut Dolly was a 3 for me and a 3.5 to 4 stars for Austin.
We took off on our bikes to Telegraph Avenue towards downtown Oakland. We made a U-turn to stop at the Bee Healthy Honey store. We both love bees and are fascinated with beekeeping. It is a lovely shop and smelled like hamsters (pine shavings from the newly constructed hives reminded us of a clean hamster cage).
Continuing on our way we took a slightly circuitous route to the Oakland Museum. I have been meaning to go to this museum for years. We looked at the current exhibits and decided we really wanted to see the Giant Robot exhibit. My Crocker Museum membership includes a North American reciprocal benefit so I did not have to pay the $15 entrance fee. The “SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot” exhibit was super awesome.
And when did museums step up their quality of their cafe dining? I bought a bowl of sweet potato pistachio soup at the museum’s Blue Oak Cafe and it was delicious. Note to self, bring protein to eat with donuts to avoid bonking from sugar rush and plummet.
Next we rode around Lake Merritt. The trails around the lake are not exactly bike friendly. We stopped at one point for a march organized to keep attention to the plight of the kidnapped girls in Nigeria. By this time we were feeling peckish so we began riding our bikes to Homeroom, a highly recommended eatery in another part of Oakland. (Review to follow in next post). We departed from the recommended route on Google Maps and discovered that Google Maps bicycle routes had probably been saving us from big hills. Black Beauty’s brakes work. I also discovered Oakland has not paved some of their streets for decades (think cobblestones) and the Brompton is a comfortable ride. By the time we got to the restaurant we were ready for a good long lunch break.
We had one more stop: a yarn store called A Verb for Keeping Warm at 6328 San Pablo Avenue. The yarn and fabric store is terrific and we enjoyed a good browse and a little shopping.
At this point we were close to the Emeryville train station and we pedaled there. The return train trip was very relaxing and just as easy to travel with my bike. The day made a successful test drive.
I have to figure out a lightweight option for locking the Brompton. And my bike repair classmates feel I should always keep my Brooks bike saddle with me. I am also very interested in the foldable helmet that my friend Hetta brought to my attention.
Children’s book illustrator Austin Lan was my bike buddy
The city of Winters just keeps getting hipper and hipper. Located in Yolo County (on the edge of Solano County), it hugs Putah Creek and offers the charm of small town with very cool community life.
It is a cycling hub with Mike’s Velo City bike shop, and several places to stop for coffee or breakfast including Steady Eddy’s. It has an impressive restaurant to citizen ratio. My favorite is Ficelle with tapas and other delicious small plates.
Putah Creek Cafe is a great diner that also serves Sunday dinners. It says pies on the awning, but I have not found pie available the times I went (disappointing!). The Buckhorn Steakhouse is an institution and terrific. We celebrated a family birthday the other night; the service was off the charts and my rack of lamb was so good I was gnawing on the bones to get every bit. Steakhouse prices, so we will save it for celebrations.
There is a crowd of young people who are starting wineries and breweries and cheese shops. First stop: Turkovich Family Winery for wine tasting.
They even have a yarn store, a fabric/quilting store, and a piano on Main Street!
Vogue Knitting Live is a terrific showcase and provides inspiration from workshops to art, to new fibers, and new designs.
Sweater designs displayed at entrance t Vogue Knitting Live
My knitting enthusiasm seems to have disappeared with the rain in California. I have plenty of projects to work on, but I lack motivation. Then I read about Vogue Knitting Live in the Knitter’s Review blog. I found the basic information on the website. I had work and church commitments that limited my time so I signed up for one afternoon workshop and planned my trip to Seattle so I could spend the afternoon learning to speed steek and then shop for a few hours in the Expo.
Yarn tasting where knitters could try out different fibers.
Steeking is a technique used in Nordic knitting where you knit in the round and then crochet a safety edge and then take scissors and CUT an opening in the yarn. When I was in Norway last summer I bought the yarn to make a Norwegian style sweater and thought this class would be both challenging and practical. I arrived in the nick of time to take my class from Ragga Eiricksdottir from Iceland. She did a great job explaining the properties of Lopi, the technique of steeking plus passing along tips. As we knit she shared some of her current projects, information on her wool cooperative in Iceland. She also explained how they bring the sheep down from the mountains at the end of summer and sort them by their ear tags to their proper owner to over winter.
Ragga and her friend like to find Icelandic sweaters in thrift stores and rework them in cool ways.
I would LOVE to participate in sheep sorting in 2015. I added it to my travel wish list.
The expo included the usual booths with yarn shops and specialty items. It also offered “yarn tasting” with dozens of different fibers to touch and try out. Plus there was an outside aisle featuring many yarn artists.
Octopussy
I spun the “wheel of fortune” and kept landing on “spin again”. After about 7 spins I finally won a bag of yarn and a pattern book. Yeah!
I enjoyed so much about my trip to Seattle that even if Vogue Knitting Live had been a bust my trip would have been worthwhile. The one frustration was how far the event was from downtown Seattle, thus requiring me to rent a car. The Meydenbauer Center is in the suburbs surrounded by a sterile neighborhood.
Did my knitting mojo come back? Not exactly. I do not know whether it is my preoccupation with cycling that has dampened my enthusiasm, or just a slump. I am trying some advice I read to knit every day for 10 minutes regardless of how you feel. I am trying this and one benefit is that you steadily make progress.
I recommend checking out one of the Vogue Knitting Live events already scheduled: in Chicago in October and New York City in January, 2015.
We did not go looking for a glowworm adventure. We were just looking for a place to stay near Tauranga on the North Island of New Zealand. The Mount Tutu Ecosanctuary popped up on Trip Advisor and my friend UK Sarah agreed that it sounded like a fun base camp for our girls road trip. Upon arrival our hosts Tim and Debbie Short explained that tours of the native bush and a night time glowworm adventure were part of our package. We said yes to both.
Tim Short guiding us on bush walk at Mount Tutu Ecosanctuary
Tim led the bush walk in the morning after breakfast. I am glad that we did this first so we could see the kind of woods that we would be walking in at night. Our host’s enthusiasm was infectious and we found ourselves asking lots of questions about the trees, flora and birds that we discovered once we softened our eyes. When I am in New Zealand I am usually looking out to sea for penguins, seals, and albatross. Tim’s guidance really helped me appreciate the beauty of interior New Zealand.
After dark we returned to the dining area where Tim outfitted us for our glowworm adventure. We put on our headlamps and spent a little time getting accustomed to walking in the dark with and without our headlamps. UK Sarah and I both got a little giggly as it was a little bit scary and a little bit exciting.
Tim led us to the woods and down into a small ravine where the creek has carved steep banks about as high as my 5’3″ head. On this dry evening the creek was gently burbling. It did not seem long before Tim asked us to stop and turn off our headlamps.
The utter darkness revealed the magical beauty of the glowworm. The trees blocked our view of the starry heavens, but this was like another constellation on the creek bank. I was filled with awe. And delight.
The little girl who delighted in lightning bugs on an evening in Iowa long ago reawakened. After a time of appreciation I began to get curious about how glowworms “work”. In the Te Ara encyclopedia it explains: “In New Zealand and Australia, glow-worms are the larvae (maggots) of a special kind of fly known as a fungus gnat. Fungus gnats look rather like mosquitoes, and most feed on mushrooms and other fungi. However, a small group of fungus gnats are carnivores, and the worm-like larvae of these species use their glowing lights to attract small flying insects into a snare of sticky threads. One species, Arachnocampa luminosa, is found throughout New Zealand, and others occur in Australia.”
What other kinds of species attract prey using sticky threads? Spiders! Not long after our eyes grew accustomed to the dark and the glowworms, we began to see darker shadows on the creek banks. Really big spiders! The scare factor went up a few notches and it made the experience that much more thrilling.
Eventually we were ready to head back to the lodge. We were not able to capture the glowworms with our cameras and so we began to savor the experience to make lasting memories. Experts say that heightened emotions make memories stick. We will not forget this adventure.
A lot of visitors go to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves to see the glowworms. But I do not do caves and so my cursor never lingered over this option. I am so thankful Tim and Debbie are willing to share their glowworms with us, and to lovingly preserve the ecosystem around them so the glowworms might continue to thrive.
Tim and Debbie Short with their three daughters have been managing these 16 acres of preserve for 25 years. We stayed in a separate guest house where the philosophy behind the decor seems to be “more is more”. Debbie and Tim have given over a part of their home for the guest dining area and have a library of books to help identify the abundant bird life all around. They are generous souls and we felt the tranquility of the Ecosanctuary permeated our stay.
Our road trip began in Auckland, New Zealand. We drove to Tauranga, stopping at Hobbiton in Matamata (fun to say) for a pint of ale at the Green Dragon. We spent a full day in Tauranga, with a morning bush walk, a bit of shopping in town and a hike around the Mound, and some sightseeing, then back to the EcoSanctuary for our glowworm adventure. The next day we drove to Rotorua and checked out the hot springs and the museum before heading back to Auckland. It was just the right balance of driving and varied activity. It almost goes without saying that everything was beautiful–it is New Zealand.
Blog post inspired by Where’s my Backpack? http://wheresmybackpack.com/2014/04/25/glow/
To celebrate World Penguin Day, here is a roundup of penguin related links.
First, World Penguin Day began when the scientists at McMurdo Station in Antarctica noticed that the Adelie penguins return to nest every year on April 25th. They began to celebrate and it grew into World Penguin Day. Check out their webcam.
Now a shout out to my friend Mara V. Connolly’s blog. She guest blogged in this space about African penguins. Follow this link to a leadership lesson that these same penguins taught her.
Earlier I shared Dyan DeNapoli’s Ted Talk about penguins. Here is a link to her website: The Penguin Lady. Check out the links to other penguin organizations on her resources page. Or click on the “yellow sticky” on the home page that says Help Save Penguins.
Here are some basic facts about penguins and the scary future they face. Check out this link to Defenders of Wildlife’s penguin page.
I live just 45 minutes from Napa Valley. Lucky me, right? Yet I rarely take advantage of the amazing food and beautiful landscapes. Mainly because I am not a big drinker, as in hardly ever. When I do enjoy a glass of wine I pay dearly that night or the next day. So when I go wine tasting with friends I am the designated driver.
Wine crusher statue greets visitors to Napa Valley
Over the years I have had many, many great meals in Napa, Yountville, St Helena and Calistoga. Recently I participated in 2014 Global Co-Active Summit at the Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa. I took my Brompton bike to be able to ride everyday. The Meritage is located in an industrial park right on the other side of the hill that the Wine Crusher statue. There is a great walk through a vineyard to a pretty view once the morning fog burns off.
Meritage Resort pool area from hill walk.
The cycling opportunities are a little less readily available from the Meritgage. The Summit kept me busy and my riding was limited to the industrial park. I having been thinking about driving back to the Valley to ride some hills. I found this great blog post on 7X7 SF offering 6 bike routes.
The Meritage is staffed by exceptionally friendly and capable people, but the food service was limited for some mysterious reason, so I jumped on Trip Advisor and Yelp looking for a Mexican restaurant. The first place I looked for did not appear to exist. I drove a few more blocks to an address for another taco place by another name. Instead I found the Hacienda Taqueria at 1851 Old Sonoma Road. It was very authentic and affordable. The freshly made chips are delicious. The hot sauce on the tacos is very spicy and the chicken enchiladas very delicious. Went back two nights later with friends when we needed some quick, filling, tasty food to go.
I will share when I try one of the routes from the 7X7 SF blog post.
I rode out towards Winters about 8 a.m. The sun was shining and the farmers were already plowing and planting transplants. A welcome site in this drought. A red wing blackbird perched on the fence sang in full song as I whizzed by on my new bike, yes NEW road bike. I quietly passed wild turkeys grazing along the side of the trail as the spring sunshine caught the beautiful colors on their feathers. My new Trek Lexa is super fun to ride.
Trek Lexa S in Platinum
I bought the bike from Joe at the Freewheeler Bicycle shop in Davis. He did a superb job fitting the bike to me and his colleague helped me learn to use the clipless pedals on the trainer when I picked up the bike. They adjusted the pedals so they are easy to clip in and out. I am still nervous about all of my bike handling skills and gaining confidence with every kilometer.
I am 10 weeks away from my departure for Le Tour de France. I am using Bicycling magazine’s Simple Plan to get in shape. The Simple Plan is a six week training plan by Selene Yeager and Leslie Bonci. It is living up to its name and it pushes me on my gear shifting skills.
In March I set a goal of riding every day for 30 minutes. It was an achievable goal and it motivated me to take Black Beauty to Seattle so I could keep riding. At the end of the 30 days I felt much stronger and comfortable on my bike. I made the pledge to ride everyday in April with the 30DaysofBiking. So 3 days a week I do an interval training ride and the other days I ride to commute or to relax.
Davis Adult School offered a bike repair class and conversational French class–both on Tuesday evenings. I decided that knowing how to repair my bike would be a useful skill for the long haul and not just this summer. We work on our bikes at the workshop at Martin Luther King Continuation High School. I had to laugh though, when I told one of the women who is an accomplished bike mechanic why I wanted to take the class she laughed and said, “You don’t need to know how to change a tire. The ratio of men to women in cycling is so great that all you have to do is wait by the side of the road and someone will fix it for you.” Hmmm. Not my style. Then I met a woman from Montreal who speaks fluent French and she said, “Well you can’t really learn much French in 10 weeks.” All I can say is Theo, our instuctor is a great teacher and I am enjoying the class.
People in my class are fascinated by my Brompton foldable bike. As soon as I am done overhauling Gidget (my beach cruiser) I will watch some more videos on the Brompton website and take it in and practice changing tires and other repairs. I found a great bike shop in San Francisco, Huckleberry Bicycles, that carries Brompton Bikes and parts.
Even when it rains San Diego is still beautiful. I registered my daughter Sarah and myself for Don Miller’s Storylines conference even though it flying from Auckland and going straight from San Francisco Airport to Sacramento to fly to San Diego. It was worth the effort to hear Anne Lamott talk about her writing practice that same evening.
General Session at Storylines Conference, San Diego
We quickly checked into Humphrey’s Half Moon Bay Inn and the desk clerk announced that we got a free upgrade to a suite. Lovely, at first. Our room was super roomy and had a plethora of televisions and a view of the marina. We had no opportunity to enjoy it as we spent the next couple of days at Point Loma Nazarene University for the conference. We were let down by housekeeping, including finding sand in my bed (and I never went to the beach!)
The Storylines conference attracts mostly “Jesus people” though not exclusively, and mostly 20-somethings though not exclusively. We connected with another mother-daughter pair from Oregon who offered transportation to a Denny’s to get something approximating dinner on Thursday night. We connected with other people over meals in the campus dining hall including two young woman who left for a New Zealand vacation the next week! It is not easy to generalize about why people were there, (Read Raechel Wong’s guest blog) I would guess that it was for spiritual growth and inspiration to live a more adventurous life. Most people had a more “millennial” attitude toward their faith–faith in action, not a spectator sport. One of the clear favorites at the conference was Bob Goff who had a line of people waiting for a word and a hug everytime he attended a session. My curiosity overwhelmed me and a I bought and read his book Love Does. Wow.
Sarah and I enjoyed our time in San Diego so much that she and her husband decided to return for a fun weekend. She is giving Humphrey’s another chance. It is a great location–near airport, on the shoreline.
We arrived by bike and the sheer effort to get there created an appetite worthy of the Homeroom’s famous macaroni and cheese. We signed in because even at 2:00 p.m. on a Saturday there was a line. We waited about 20 minutes during which we drooled over (at a safe distance) the outside diners’ food. Mulitple friends had insisted that Austin try Homeroom with raves about the mac&cheese so we waited with much anticipation.
americanjulie.com 