3838 (big rock ranch), 5858 (skywalker ranch) and the presidio tours....
ok...now that I'm back on the home front, i figured i should complete the San Fran blog...
to set the background: Joe (my husband) is the eldest of 6 kids...Andrea being the 6th. Andrea and her husband Bill live in San Fran with their two kiddos; Will and Tori. Andrea works for George Lucas of the Star Wars, Indiana Jones and LucasFilm, LTD conglomerate.
On Monday, Andrea sped us out to Marin County, North of Golden Gate Bridge. George owns some 3,500 acres sprawling in Lucas Valley. The Valley itself was quite a lush site itself do to the recent rain deluge. We arrived at the Big Rock Ranch first:
a simple address sign marks the entrance of Big Rock
Big Rock Ranch holds the animation department of LucasFilm LTD, this day the animators were busy on a "new" project and we are not allowed to enter the animation studios. The Big Rock is designed in true prairie style a la Frank Lloyd Wright! The walls were adorn with original Star Wars, Indiana Jones and other artwork. You wouldn't realize these pieces were original artist drawings, paintings etc as you walk by them in the office hallways. Another great common theme throughout the ranches and Presidio was George's collection of original movie posters, some hand painted during the Cold War in Poland at a time the artists were not allowed to watch the movies and therefore; relied on a description of the movie to create the posters!
Alec saunters to peek out the "Wright" windows
that provide views to the outside world....
Part of the Big Rock Ranch tour also included Koi ponds, bridges and the Yoda statue marking the entrance to the Ranch.
Alec and Owen at "entrance" Yoda statue
Bridge + Koi Ponds
Errol Flynn original movie poster....
On to the Skywalker Ranch witch houses George's "office", a fitness center, the Sound department, guest housing and Skywalker Ranch Inn, Skywalker Firehouse, General Store and Cafe, George's "Coppola" vineyards, George's Kobe beef and one wayward coyote!
skywalker ranch address...
Skywalker Ranch is unbelievable in a "I just saw a Wookie walk by" kind of way...of course, George doesn't have his Ewoks and Wookies roaming the grounds freely, but the "unrealness" is there just the same. The Ranch is nestled in a valley surrounded by green, rock, vineyards and animals! George built his personal office within a traditional Victorian ranch house. We were prevented from entering the house as George decided to start a fire in the fireplace the week before and somehow managed to start a chimney fire...the house was under renovation from the fire.
George plants Francis Ford Coppola grapevines for his own bottled wine. Of course, I snatched up a bottle of that rose' to bring home. He also planted Olive trees to press his own Olive oil. The Sound house is nestled in the valley hear and I'm told that you can see the sound engineers roam the grounds every so often with long booms to capture natural sounds to place in movies etc...
George's "office" with full wrap-around porch
Lucas Sound (below)
coyote (left) "playing" with the Kobe Beef cattle
Skywalker Ranch Inn - rustic
view into the valley from George's office porch
...that's it for today! More tomorrow!
M
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
SAN FRAN DAY 3; WILL'S HOCKEY PRACTICE; GIRLS GO SHOPPING; PACIFIC COAST HWY; DINNER AT THE MOSS BEACH DISTILLERY
We started our day 3 with rain, rain and more rain. We packed up both families and headed to the Yerba Buena Center for Arts area for Will's hockey practice. I was wearing my Tigers t-shirt that day and I was surprised when a father of another hockey player approached me to ask if I was a "fan", this sparked a 15 minute conversation of he being from Michigan and he was a "fan" as well. On that same note, I had a similar run in at Trader Joe's with a man from Massachusetts who thanked ME personally for Tom Brady (former U of M quarterback)...he was a big hometown Patriot fan. I kindly replied "you're welcome". Will pushing cone during practice!
From there the 'girls'; ie: Andrea, Miss Tori and I headed for some shopping at Nordstrom...shoe shopping to be exact. Tori kept us laughing and entertained singing in the back of the car, climbing shoe displays and in the end decided to strip herself of her bibs to wear around just her shirt and tights...new toddler fashion in the Bay area..she's quite the trendsetter indeed!
Tori watching the escalator people..Bibs still intact!
We all returned to 679 Waller for lunch and naps. Soon after we were driving down the Pacific Coast Hwy with awesome views of the Pacific Ocean. Andrea lead us to Moss Beach, a sleepy, presumably quaint fisherman town. The homes are quaint cottages and I enjoyed the hometown "village" feel of it. After several turns into residential neighborhoods we emerged out onto the cliffs of the Pacific to the Moss Beach Distillery. The Distillery is an old, hidden speakeasy built back in the prohibition. It made sense that it was so well hidden within residential neighborhoods. There is a ghost story of The Blue Lady that accompanies every menu. The Distillery it's self if thought to be haunted and the Blue Lady appears intermittently on cliffs just outside your window view seat...awesome atmosphere especially with old children.
Moss Beach Distillery (below)
View of Moss Beach from the Distillery -Alec and Owen (below)
We returned home to 679 Waller, jammied up and watched some Star Wars...one of the fav downtime activities in the evening when the kids were tired...Will was given the privilege of watching Clone Wars for the first time while Alec and Owen were in town...he was riveted!
Day 2 Breakfast at The Grind, Lombard Street and Fisherman's Wharf...dinner at the Robb's
I was pretty excited to hit the Wharf and do some sightseeing after a phenomenal Napa experience the night before. Alec, Owen and I decided to venture out for some local cafe brunch. We were directed to The Grind Cafe which was yummy and served me up a double caramel latte in a tall pint glass. I should mention the cafes/coffee shops have beer, wine and drinks as well...either they want ya wired or tipsy...but, always with a full belly of awesome food! By the way, my obsession with oddly worded or curiously comical signs continues at The Grind...(pix below) Irony at it's best...if you know anything about my two boys...they didn't find this one bit humorous!
We traveled down to the Wharf, first stopping along the way at Lombard Street. Lombard is the famous "most crooked street in the world" street. I was driving and had the pleasure of maneuvering the van down the narrow twists at a dang near vertical grade...at least it felt that way. The boys shot a lot of pix and at the bottom we hopped out of the van to snap a couple of shots of us with the street in the background.
Alec and I in front of Lombard Street
Once we parked near the Wharf we headed straight to the main drag of shops, restaurants, street entertainers and attractions known as Jefferson Street. The boys and I hit the Ripley's Mirror Maze. Very interesting trying to find your way out of a dark room of mirrors...
Owen and I winding through the maze!
Eventually we made our way down to the Bay and the San Francisco Maritime National Park. The park sits just below Ghirardelli Square and has a small sandy beach with a view of Golden Gate Bridge. The boys felt the Bay water on the beach and then we headed up the hill to Ghirardelli Square. Pronounced "Gear-are-delly".
Touching the Bay
Ghirardelli Square...soda fountain...ice cream...chocolate...$100.00 worth of it.
Joe decided to take the boys back to the Robb residence (Joe's sister and her husband + two adorable kids) via cable car..I schlepped the chocolate and goods back to the van and shopped my fav store ever...Trader Joe's! I bought the evening's dinner ingredients; Spaghetti n Meatballs ala Michelle. It was nice to eat a home cooked meal and relax at the homestead with all the kids. Bill Robb whipped me up a delicious toddy made with the Valentine Vodka I had brought them from Detroit. He and Joe sat on their deck drinking some Bad Ass beer, also schlepped from Detroit...Bill said the beer was "Bad Ass"....
...and with that folks...I'm beat and have to head to bed. Tomorrow is Skywalker Ranch and Presidio tours by my very own sis-in-law guide...gonna be a great day!
After 4 or 5 years of threatening myself that I'd make it to Napa, CA "soon" my two sore feet landed firmly on San Francisco, CA soil March 28th, 2012; 10:08pm local Pacific time. Which means my brain and body was exhausted and excited both at the same time..."super-uber, fall-back time warp" is my coined phrase for the travel to the West Coast..this is the farthest trip back in time I've taken so far...and it's enough!
Soon after we deplaned at SFO, Alec realized he left his prized Red Wings ball cap on the plane...we were long past security and now at the mercy of the luggage claim staff at a sleepy 10:30pm, which are youngin's trying to make a wholesome dollar on a third shift...no such luck recovering the hat that night. We'll be able to check back in on the way home to see if it was recovered...not good enough for Alec. Hard lesson learned for the 11 year old and his prized possession!
We arrived to 679 Waller Street around midnight (our bodies shouting 3am!). My sister-in-law, Andrea, and her family sleeping soundly already. We were instructed to enter her home, grab a set of keys and let ourselves into the neighbor's home. We would be "borrowing" one of their bedrooms for a few days while they were visiting Great Britain. We were so focused on not waking them that we failed to see the note left for us next to the keys...and, therefore; were not informed fully of our sleeping sitch for the eve...more on that later...
We proceeded to unload the Mini Van that we had rented at the airport onto the sidewalk outside of Andrea and Bill's home. The row homes in San Fran are tall...skyscrapper'ish is terms of climbing stairs up until your legs bow...not really, but it seems that way if you're not used to climbing a million stairs every day. Everything is built UP, not OUT and AROUND! So, after unloading we realized that when the Hertz Rental Car guy offered me a free upgrade from a full size car to a Mini Van I should've said "NO", not "sure, i have a lot of stuff and kids and would love the extra room in the car"...(I blame me for this) It took the boys as three guiders and me, thanks to my superior spacial awareness, to wedge the van into the small garage space underneath their home...and the back end of the van hung out onto the sidewalk about 3 ft as well. But, I'll be damned if I didn't park that puppy and climb out the back door to let myself out....
Minivan wedged
Note: Parking in San Fran is not fun...it's very competitive like some sort of ongoing sick "Minute to Win It" parking game where all the contestants vie for spaces, circling the block several times on the hunt for a space that your car will fit into...it's all spacial...whoever manages to wedge their vehicle into the smallest space wins! Mind you, you are attempting to parallel park on 90 degree (some feeling 180 degree) streets...if you have a stick shift, you're either screwed or deserve the Oscar award of parking. (this would be my sis-in-law, Andrea...parking guru).
The good news about the driving in this awesome city....they drive like Detroiters...'nuff said.
So back to the sleeping sitch story...we (I blame Joe) didn't quite get the "which neighbor" we are sleeping at part of the first eve's instructions and proceeded to unlock the door and let ourselves into the wrong neighbor's home...
Seeing a gentleman greet us with a "hello?" as we were "breaking and entering" his home was beyond mortifying... "Robert" was stunned, yet kind and understanding at 12:00 at night and if I could have apologized one more time that night, I would've. Turns out Robert and Scott were friends of Andrea and Bill and we would be staying our last night with them...so, we just showed up on the wrong night...ha! (so damn embarrassing). To make me feel even worse, Robert proceeded to help us carry our mountain of luggage down their flight of steps and back up into the "correct" neighbor's home...I turned to look at him all bloodshot eyes and disheveled look to say thank you and "one of these days while I'm here, I'm gonna sit down with you with a good glass of wine and we're gonna have a good chuckle over this"...the prediction was unnecessary...Robert and I were already chuckling...
Alec in front of The Robb Residence
****
On Thursday, March 30, 2012, our first day found Joe heading to Alcatraz with Alec and Owen. I took the rental behemoth for an unscripted drive out to Napa, CA. Crossing the Bay Bridge into the Oakland area and on to Napa...just me and my new best friend, Siri.
Siri first brought me upon the Francis Ford Coppola headquarters. No wine tasting here, but a nice receptionist in the lobby pointed me in the right direction for tasting wineries and chatted about her son who lives with his family in Chelsea, MI. Huh...small world, I thought. I decided that driving the main strip of Napa/Sonoma wineries was not what I flew out here for...I wanted a bit of adventure...wander off the beaten path.
I headed onto Old Sonoma Road and happened upon my first winery..Madonna Winery. The staff was educational, friendly and eager to sell me wine. The tasting room had a very distinct Mediterranean/Tuscan sort of feel. The family is a fourth generation owned and operated team of vintners, the patriarch and matriarch hailing from Italy itself. The pourer proceeded to educate me on the process of "Dry Farming" the grape vines...minimally watering the vines after planting as to "stress" the vines...then mother nature takes over to produced these small, concentrated grapes ripe with sweet concentrated sugar... By the time I left I had bought 6 bottles to ship home and signed up for their Wine of the Quarter Club...ugh! My first stop and I was already a "member"....
Madonna Winery
Second stop was the familiar Black Stallion tasting room...I've tasted their wine in the Detroit area, but uncertain of which wines I liked. The tasting room was bigger and reminded me more of a ski lodge common room with couches and a fireplace. The staff was friendly, younger and seemed to be knowledgeable...but, the wine was more crisp, clean and sterile. Many of their wines are aged in stainless steal as to not lose the fruit flavors to the naturally siphoning of oak. In my opinion, the oak should siphon away! I was a fan of the Pinot Grigio and that was it...I bought one bottle and was on my way.
Black Stallion Winery (below)
Third stop, a winery named Domain Carneros...loved, period.
As I had concert tickets for the Ani Difranco show in downtown Napa that evening, I inquired about a local hot spot for further tasting and dinner. Carpe Diem Wine Bar was suggested and let me tell you I was not disappointed! I first walked into the establishment noticing it was well established (busy) and quaint. The main bar had all of 12 bar stools/chairs and the main eating area held no more than 20 tables. I waited 20 minutes for a bar stool. Once seated I was greeted by a man in his late twenties with a fauxhawk spiked upwards, tats up and down both arms and big smile. Back home I'd expect to be ordering from a tap selection of 20-30 beers at a beer garden or a tequila shot from the local dive from this tender...but, alas...he was pouring up some fine wines and had equal knowledge to boot! The bar did have 4 beers on tap to be fair, but no one was drinking beer....
Carpe Diem!
After a entertaining Cape Diem dinner and a hour of chatting with my bar "neighbors"I eventually moved on to the Uptown Theater for my Ani show. During the bar experience I had the pleasure of chatting up with two young ladies traveling to Napa on a friend trip from Chicago, IL. One would be getting married soon and moving to Kalamazoo, MI. The other turns out to be a closet Michigan fan displaced by birth to a Louisiana childhood and transplant to Chicago. What makes her love Michigan so much was never disclosed, but I instantly liked them both.
The Ani Difranco show blew my mind. This is an artist that would have you believing she's been to the underworld and back...and survived...through her music. The poetry in her music writing is raw, honest and unabashed. The fairly recent pleasure of becoming a mother has softened her around the edges..but, the passion in her singing is still detectable. I posted a couple of live iPhone vids on my YouTube channel...milolady2003 and facebook...The one pivotal moment in the concert for me was Ani's poetry reading mid-concert. She proves to be just as riveting reading poetry as singing poetry. I hope you get a chance to see what I see some day...see below...
more tomorrow...
enjoying life in San Fran....M
Ani Poetry Reading followed by song "Mariachi"
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Geesh....sorry it's been awile since the last blog. Stella was discharge, not without drama, directly to Mary Free Bed Rehab Hosp. She left CHM 10 days after surgery...
She is doing very well with her inpatient PT/OT/Speech therapy. Erin reports she's quite exhausted at the end of the day. Remarkably, she will be going home tomorrow 2/5/10. What an awesome day!!!
Thank you for your remarkable support. Every gift, card and inquirey is truly appreciated. Now our prayers are for a year of no seizure activity so that she may throw away her anti-epileptics and live a relatively normal life....
Erin and I had an interesting conversation at the beginning of the week about "Surreality"...my new word for the detached feeling you experience in your familiar surroundings under times of stress. Throw in a healthy dose of schedule confusion and this is how I started my day today.
I ran out of coffee two days ago. Making a mental note to buy coffee on probably "a gazillion" times (Alec's favorite number)...the actual act of purchasing a single pound of coffee for home seemed to fade onto the back-burner much like many things these days.
Last night...another mental note "I need to buy coffee"...but wait! I do not...tomorrow is Coffee with Principal day after drop off at school....woohoo...just need to get to school in the morning...
Disappointingly, upon arrival, Erin (Friend) reminded me...Principle's coffee is every other Friday...not this morning....ugh! So, getting into my car, I decided to head straight to the hospital to visit Stella (it was Candy Land day)...but wait...my car mocks me with the Red "E"....need gas...I literally sat in my car a bit stunned at the way the rest of the world just passing me by has no idea how hard it has been for me to get coffee in the last 24 hours. In hindsight, a bit selfish of me...but warranted considering the events of the last 7 days.
Gassed up, coffee in hand I headed to CHM as planned. On the way I recalled Erin's and my conversation days earlier how deaths, stress, unemployment or a post-surgical child catapults you into Surreality! So many acquaintances, friends and family lovingly attempt to comfort you with words in reaction to your tragedies, challenges etc...but, it wasn't until this morning that I actually realized the perfect, most comforting words anyone could say to me in the midst of Surreality..."Can I get you some Coffee?"
Stella continues to improve each day not without challenges; low grade fevers. She's on her 5th IV site (she started with 3 post surgery). Her continued meds and IV fluids along with physical therapy irritate her little veins and prompt switching sites often. Today she about collapsed in exhaustion from a visit from "Logan" the Great Dane therapy dog, returning fever, painting toenails and sitting up during lunch for 30 minutes where she persisted to dip her french fries into her choco milk...this had to have been the best she's eaten post surgical! And, of course, several Detroit Tigers came to the floor to which we packed Stella in a wagon and caravaned her and her IV pole to the Activity Room for autographs and pix with Maglio, Inge, Guillen, Willis and the new and improved Miguel Cabrera!
I left in the afternoon, a latter status update from Erin this eve reports Stella had a CT Scan today to verify her brain is regulating CSF. They will more than likely be staying through the weekend.
Tomorrow, Saturday another Slumber Party is planned....
First, I wanted to express a big thank you to all of the followers of the blog, Fb page that have sent thoughts, cards, balloons, pictures, stuffed animal "friends" etc...to Stella. Her room has shaped up to feel festive and homey.
Yesterday, I ran into Nurse Alicia, whom I work with, in the CHM cafeteria... I seriously thought I was losing it when I heard a women's voice "Michelle", I looked up at the cafeteria worker who clearly thought I was a bit confused... She received a stuffed bear from my friends at Southfield Pediatrics whom she promptly named "Alec". Not sure if this is a shout-out to my son Alec or she named him in a post-dilaudedstooper...either way it's cute!
Stella's night went a bit more restful last night, but the morning started with pain control issues again, vomiting and general abdominal discomfort. Of course, the entourage of morning staff entered the room early in the morning and it was decided to remove the last drain from her head in the afternoon. This drain is the one that is regulating the cerebral spinal fluid in the left ventrical post surgery. The hope is that Stella's brain has learned to balance this fluid itself now and it will be safe to remove. The concern would be that her left ventrical continues to overfil with CSF and there is deteriation of her neurological status...this may indicate she will be one of the 5% who will need a shunt placed which will remain the rest of her life. At this point, it would require another surgery.
I decided early today that tonight would be the night to spend the night with Stella and Erin at CHM. I busied myself ticking off my "to do" list I put on hold for the last week and packed my bags for the slumber party. Joe has been an awesome support for the boys at home and myself. In the midst of this week, we've delt with car repairs yesterday, built up dirty laundry, sport practices and other items that make up our daily lives....which reminds me, I forgot to put that last load of laundry in the dryer before I left home....
My trek down to CHM tonight was delayed by 20 mintes of traffic on 696 waiting in line to head south on 75...this would have been par for the course for the evening traffic in Metro Detroit, except when I reached my on ramp to 75, I realized I was waiting in the wrong lane the whole time. I was waiting in the ramp to go north, not south...that's why all those cars were wizzing by me at 100mph in the right lane...doh! Upon arriving at CHM, the bottom of my Chipoltle's Grill burritos bag broke open in the parking ramp and promply dumped Erin and my's food on the ramp floor. I'm thinking..."Really?" by this time...
Our evening was quiet, Stella and I played "War". (only got into a couple of discussions with her about cheating and stealing my cards). We talked and played with her new "Jungle Pocket" set...freshly supplied by one of the nurses during the day. Stella has brought sarcasm to a new level tonight stating "yah, yah, yah" when I speak...I thought to myself "maybe we should have had them take out the "smart-ass" cortex as well"....
...good night...I've got some slumber partying to do.....
