Today was our first day in the San Francisco Bay area. We drove to Berkeley and spent the day with Vicki, Kiriki, Jennifer, Emerald, and Iris. It was great to catch up with them since our joint visit to Lopez Island last summer. We had lunch at Saul’s Deli, at great NY style deli. I had a wonderful Ruben sandwich. Other delicacies at our table included bagels and lox, turkey pot pie, potato latkes, corned beef hash and eggs, and a Mediterranean Mezze plate!

After lunch we went to the rose garden in the nearby Berkeley hills and proceeded to walk/hike up the steps, trails, and roads to vistas above Berkeley.  On the way we saw vistas of San Francisco Bay, met an artist in front of his house where he was looking at a couple of new paintings in the sunshine, talked to a local man about the new mansion a Twitter executive is about to put in the midst of the neighborhood, and worked our butts off climbing said hills.

The late afternoon was a time for conversation and napping. Then Jean and I headed back over the Richmond Bridge to Sonoma county. If the weather looks okay for photography tomorrow we will go to Bodega Bay. If not, we will visit wineries. Either way we can’t lose!

I think I forgot to mention that yesterday we passed 7,000 miles on the trip meter this winter. That means another oil change if I can find a Jiffy Lube in the next two days.