5.5.00
Greens For ages I'd been saying I'd take
Jayne to Greens, the celebrated vegie restaurant in San Francisco. But, of
course, we hadn't got around to it until Ramon phoned up and said he'd booked
a table for the three of us. We ended up at a really cool table right at the
window in a small alcove, kind of like having your own private dining room.
The food was fantastic and we had a great evening - thanks Ramon. Here's
more information on Greens.
6.5.00
Pebble Beach, Carmel and Point Lobos Inspired
by a driving tour book Jayne's parents brought us we headed off early Saturday
with the intention of checking out the coast below Monterey and, if the fancy
took us, staying over somewhere for the night. In fact we had a great day -
but decided not to stay over since the weather forecast didn't look too
promising. A wise move in the end I think since it really rained on Sunday.
Highlights included a great lunch in Carmel -
tourist heaven but not too crowded while we were there - and lots of walking
around Point Lobos State Reserve. You can see photos on the photo page.
13.5.00
Dave and Ann Who
should phone us at 10am this morning - and get us out of bed I might add - but
Dave and Ann who had come out to SF for a few days. We were heading into town
anyway to go and see some free fireworks and music on the waterfront (KFOG's
KABOOOM annual event) so this worked out really well. We did some sightseeing
(maybe too much walking :-) had a nice lunch in North Beach and then went
drinking before the fireworks and music. These were fantastic, synchronized to
a sound track blasting out from the PA. Slightly bigger scale than those in
Interlarken for Swiss National Day (always my fav fireworks) but probably not
quite as spectacular - I think because the sound got lost over the water
rather than having some handy mountains to echo off !!
21.5.00
Calaveras Jumping Frog Competition Every
year Calaveras County holds a competition in which people bring along their
frogs and see whose can jump the furthest. This started off as a small time
event but when Mark Twain wrote a short story about it the word spread and it
is now a huge four day festival with a rodeo, demolition derby, stalls, live
bands and a fair to go along with the original competition. Best of all, it
takes place at somewhere called Frogtown. Well, we had to go didn't we!
In fact, Jayne was working on the Saturday at
the theatre so we went on the Sunday and man it was hot - just over 100 we
learned later. Tons of fun though. The drive was nice and the countryside
really changed as we headed up into the Sierras. The competition itself was
kinda weird. People brought along their frogs - pretty big California Bull
Frogs - and tried to make them jump. Jayne got to meet lots of frogs (check
out the photo page) and even visited the Frog hotel where all the frogs hang
out between jumps - I kid you not, ponds and everything! After a time this got
pretty repetitive (quite a short time actually :-) but there was lots of other
stuff to do including watching a rodeo. I'd never been to one of these and it
was actually rather fun - if a little "nationalistic" for my sensibilities.
We also got to check out a real cowboy town and generally had a great day.
Here's a link to more info about the day from the Frogtown
web site.
23.5.00
On Bike Racks Not so much a report as an
observational rant. Probably more in line with the original intent of the
"notes from" page than recent months. Looking back over the text I
notice a trend away from wry observations towards a holiday diary - not
something we ever really intended.
So before I brought my bike I phoned up Givi
USA to check that they did a luggage rack for my bike. "Oh yes" they
replied and gave me a model number. So, I brought the bike and ordered the
rack from a local bike shop. In fact, since I'd shipped over the rack and bags
from home, all I actually ordered was the fitting kit for my bike, a
ZX600C9.
After a stupidly long wait (i.e. nearly two
weeks!) the kit arrived. I took it home and tried to fit it but it was clearly
for the wrong bike. So I took it back to the shop and they were confused. The
problem is that the ZX600 in US isn't a ZX6 in Europe, it's either a ZZR600 or
a GPZ600 or, as a I was to learn later, a GPX600. And Givi are a European
company. In the end, they asked me to send them some digital photos of the
frame and they would work out which kit I needed. I did just this and they
said I couldn't fir a whole rack, just a top box and mailed me the kit. I
waited a week or so and the kit arrived. Fantastic. Did it fit ? Oh no, of
course not. Sigh. I phoned Givi back and they said, sorry but there's nothing
we can do. They insisted my bike was called a ZZR600 in Europe.
So I had to take matters into my own hands and
try and match the ZX600C9 I had into a European model. After searching I found
a really cool web site, for GPX owners. Thanks to the members of this club
(who produce a news letter called GPX files :-) I now know my bike is a
GPX600. However, the problem is that early C models, at least 1-5, directly
correspond to the GPX600 in Europe but I can't seem to find the match for my
C9, which seems a newer version of the GPX. I'm still working on it and will
report progress later. Bah humbug - I shipped all this luggage over and I
can't fit it onto my new bike. Bah humbug again.
27.5.00
Memorial Day Weekend This weekend we
went to the beach for kite flying, picnics and fun in the sun. There'll be
some photos up soon. Oh yeah, and summer starts this weekend.
