Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Back With a Smile
Got in late from San Francisco . 2AM EDT. On the ass end of Tropical Storm Alberto. Kind of a fun bumpy ride the last hour. I always liked roller coasters. The scariest part was not in the air but crossing Tamp Bay Skyway in 40 MPH winds.
The time zone thing always bothers me more coming East. There is no chance I'm going to get caught up on blogging anytime soon. But I'll plug away. Lot of guitar students to get caught up with and a gig Friday.People rave about San Diego but I have to say I much prefer LaJolla where we stayed. Gorgeous coastline with caves you can explore. If you left yourself enough time, which we didn't. We spent an entire day at the San Diego Zoo which may be world famous but to my eye, rather viewer unfriendly. We gave Old Town and the Gaslight District a drive through and weren't impressed enough to park and visit mostly becasue we were too tired and running short on time.
The Taylor Guitar Factory was the highlight of this leg of the trip. Somehow I managed NOT to start lusting for still another guitar. But I know I'll be selling one and getting another. Taylor puts their money where their mouth is. They have done everything humanly possible to recycle, protect the environment and promote US business. They gladly share their secrets with other American guitar manufacturers if it's in the interest of protecting the environment or natural resources like tone woods or just showing the world that American made guitars are well worth the price. No, I didn't get an endorsement deal. They don't give away guitars to their endorsers anyway. They let them use two a year but they have to trade them in and you have to tour. I'm not touring. I'll gladly buy another Taylor when I want one. If you could see what they put into their product, you'd be hard pressed to find a better made instrument anywhere. Interesting that one of the Breedlove brothers works in design at Taylor and that Bob Taylor goes on camping vacations with the Breedloves and the Martins and a few other guitar maker big names.We spent an enjoyable evening in Orange County visiting Cathy's oldest nephew Jay, his wife Debbie and their beautiful youngsters, Nick and Emma. Sort of wetting my appetite to meet up with my first grandchild the next day.
San Francisco is my favorite spot on the west coast even though the weather is ridiculous. Fifty degrees in June? They think 70 is hot. Meeting my new granddaughter, Stella, was the high point of my year! I'm not gonna gush. You've heard this kind of stuff way too many times before for it to be novel or even remotely interesting. People have babies, people love their babies, people inflict everybody they know with too many baby pictures, baby stories and baby what have you. Stella is a beauty and I loved every second I got to spend with her. I'll fully accept the grandfather tag when I hear her call me that.
We got to spend a fair amount of time with my son, Jason, and daughter-in-law, Anne as well as my step daughter, Mickey. Mick teaches at the California Culinary Academy so we ate there when we first arrived. The food was excellent but I can't remember it as I was busy showing Stella around the dining room. She loves to be walked past colorful objects like the yellow-checked wall. Yeah, we got our groove on right away. We took her to the zoo the next day and she wasn't as impressed with the animals as we were. We saw more in ten minutes at the San Francisco zoo than we saw in an entire morning at San Diego. Stella's focus at just under four months, is probably only close enough to enjoy the human primates that took turns holding her.
We stayed bundled up in the only warm clothing we own until we drove down to San Jose to see Mick's new place and have dinner. It's warmer at night in San Jose than it is on a sunny day in San Francisco. I thoroughly enjoyed driving through San Fran. Big city driving only bothers me when there is grid lock. The only nerve wracking part there, is coming off the 101 at the right place so you don't wind up going over either the Bay Bridge to Oakland or the Golden Gate. Even with GPS, it's not clear to me so I wind up getting off an exit or two early and finding my own way. The Bay City has lots of interesting driving challenges, like trolleys and bike lanes, midtown four way stop signs, unnaturally steep hills and gorgeous women who seem to benefit from walking up and down those hilly streets. Parking is every day's biggest nightmare and people with garages must back out into traffic. But it's a very pretty town, both naturally and architecturally. People there, are more likely to see things the way I do too. As accepting as I am to everyone's beliefs, it's still nice not to feel hostility from your surroundings for the way you believe. That's a vacation everybody should take from time to time. And then go back to living among those who are different from us. Remember, they think we are totally out of it too.
I'll do my best to make the blogging rounds this week. Those who comment here go first.
posted by Bud @ 10:45 PM
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