For many years we made an annual visit to Tassajara Zen Monastery, but we hadn't been there since 2012. We decided to return, and this time we wanted to go there to work. Located in the Ventana Wilderness, our trips to Tassajara have always restored us with its natural beauty. The views from the top of the ridge as we drove in were magnificent!
The first thing we saw as we arrived at Tassajara was the new gate. Designed by Paul Discoe, it uses Japanese joinery techniques.
And here's how the gate looks from inside Tassajara.
This is the view from the flower garden looking up to ridge. Tassajara is in quite a deep valley.
The garden is lovely this time of year with blooming roses.
In the past we’ve visited in September, so this was our first time to see the wisteria in bloom.
And there were other nice blossoms too.
We were there on Earth Day and joined in for a ceremony in the garden.
The buildings at Tassjara feel like they are part of nature; For example they've used tree branches for lumber on the cabins. This cabin is similar to the one we stayed in for 10 nights.
We liked the look of this living roof with succulents next to solar panels.
Inside the Kaisando (Founders Hall) is an altar to Suzuki Roshi, who founded Tassajara in 1967. Tassajara was the first Zen temple established outside of Asia.
We meditated with many others each morning in the zendo. This photo was taken on the wooden walkway that surrounds the zendo. The bells and drums are played to signal the timing of meditation and service.
This fish drum is a new addition since we were last here in 2012.
This is the exterior of the dining hall and courtyard.
This photo shows the details of the window and wood beams.
Each meal is listed on a menu board. The food is vegetarian and very tasty.
Across the courtyard is the tea area, with charming tea pots on display.
We often heard the squawks of stellar jays who were frequent visitors to the courtyard.
This male canyon wren was supporting his mate and babies by bringing bugs to them. The nesting pair was spotted by Taiyo.
These four people all lived at Tassajara in 1979. From the left are Taiyo, Ted, Leslie and Frank. We enjoyed hearing their stories about living here 40 years ago.
Our visit to Tassajara was during the spring work period. It felt good to give back to this special place. Kristina worked on plastering the wall by the new gate, and she learned how to remove the cracks and burnish the plaster using a trowel.
Pete was put to work on the women's showers that needed re-tiling. Bernard is the manager of all the construction projects, and he and Pete worked together.
After grouting the new tile floor, Bernard made a Buddha out of the extra grout.
The schedule during the work period is to work for four days then take a day off. We went on a lovely hike on our day off.
Walking along the creek at Tassajara is a treat. We could hear the sound of the water and feel soft, cool breezes. We have many happy memories of this tranquil place.
Pete thought this moss looked like calligraphy. We enjoyed being at Tassajara during the work period, and we hope to return next April.
We left Tassajara and went back to Oakland to stay with Cynthia and Humberto. Here are their boys Julian and Emilio taking a hike with us; Being 11 and 9 year old brothers, they are often wrestling.
The hike took us to a pasture where we had a picnic. The bar is used to tie up horses, but we didn’t see any on our hike.
We met our friends Michael and Michele for dinner. Here is Michele with her daughter Nora. Nora is 9, and she is a big Warriors basketball fan.
She also loves to dance so we were happy when she agreed to show us a few of her new dance routines.
While in Hong Kong we learned that our favorite chef from there would be in San Francisco cooking at Izakaya Rintaro so we made plans to go. This is the entrance gate to the restaurant.
The courtyard in front of the restaurant is charming. The oven is from a 18th century Japanese farmhouse called a "minka."
The interior of the restaurant is spacious and features a Japanese-style post and beam design.
Our friends Lance and Laura joined us for dinner.
Rintaro has an excellent sake menu, and Lance is showing the nice bottle of unpasteurized Tedorigawa Kinka we enjoyed.
Chef Matt Abergel cooked his scrumptious yakitori, skewers of chicken seasoned with Japanese flavors like shiso and yuzu.
Laura is squeezing lime onto the KFC, Korean Fried Cauliflower.
KFC is a Yardbird signature dish, and we were happy that Matt was cooking it at Rintaro too.
These are chicken wings flavored with Japanese pepper called shichimi.
And this is a chicken meatball served with egg yolk, which was amazing.
We bought a new tandem bike from our favorite bike shop, Crank Two. Here’s Pete with Bryon, the owner of Crank 2, and our new bike.
After test riding several types of tandems, we decided to buy a CK2. It’s a custom frame from Crank 2 that we feel gives the smoothest ride. Pete is near Chabot Reservoir in Oakland.
We’ve been riding our new bike as much as we can, usually 4-5 times a week. We especially like the Chabot Reservoir ride, as we can ride from Cynthia and Humberto’s house and be in the trees with little traffic very quickly.
We spent a fabulous weekend in San Francisco at our dear friends Sean and Paul’s house. On Saturday morning we went to the Alemany Farmer’s Market. They sell beautiful flowers there.
Sean and Paul bought garlic.
And we admired lots of beautiful displays of vegetables and fruits.
Sean and Paul are so awesome: they hosted a party for us and invited 15 mutual friends!
Sean grilled ribs and chicken. He got our attention with the flames, but he’s a pro at grilling and the meats came out perfect.
It was great to catch up with folks after being gone over two years. Here's Pete with our friend Bill.
Pete decided to take selfies of himself with the guests. This is Kirklan with Pete.
Our friend Steve and his partner Matt invited us to visit them in Comptche this summer.
Sean and Kate are being dramatic for the photo.
It was fun to be back in our old neighborhood, and we took a walk around Bernal hill.
Our friend Jeff was playing drums at Revolution Cafe in the Mission, so we went by to listen to the music.
Then we went to our friends Pat and Sarah’s house to celebrate Sarah’s birthday.
We were looking forward to Pat cooking dinner for us. Here are Pete, Sean, Peggy and Paul at the table.
Pat braised rabbits in a romertopf, and the meat was tender and moist.
We enjoyed delicious plates of rabbit, beans and sweetbreads.
The salad greens were grown in Pat and Sarah’s garden.
Since we were celebrating Sarah’s 64th birthday, Sean, Sarah and Kristina had some fun singing “when I’m 64”.
Sarah brought out several homemade limoncellos for dessert and Kristina asked her lots of questions about how to make it.
Sarah loves Italian painted pottery. In their kitchen are several beauties.
Her birthday cake was displayed on this lovely cake stand.
She showed us a picture of her at her 3rd birthday.
You may notice that part of the cake is missing its frosting. Sarah loves frosting, and the birthday girl indulged in some extra nibbles.
We brought home some of the leftover birthday cake and shared it with our nephew Emilio. It’s so much fun to watch him eat chocolate - he is 100% intent on scarfing it down while enjoying every bite.
We met our friend Mya at Jonga House for Korean food one night. We were impressed that they served us 16 banchan dishes.
Their seafood bibimbap was outstanding!
We went to Chinatown in San Francisco and enjoyed the murals.
This mural was in progress.
It’s been so nice to have time in the Bay Area for visiting family and friends. But we didn’t always have our cameras with us to take photos. We went to Pt Reyes for a weekend with our friends Paul and Julie. Here’s the picnic spread, yum.
We made sure to have a camera, as we wanted to capture Paul’s expression when we popped out of the trees and surprised him on his birthday!
We worked off some of the picnic lunch with a hike out to Marshall Beach. Pete, Julie and Paul posed on the charming fence with Tomales Bay in the background.
We saw a great blue heron hunting.
Moments later he caught a mole and flew away with it in his beak.
The next morning we did a little bird watching on the deck of our motel.
This is the view of the wetlands where we saw belted kingfishers, Anna's hummingbirds, ducks and geese.
We went for brunch at the Pine Cone Diner in Pt Reyes Station. Then Paul and Julie headed home, as they had to get ready for their upcoming three week trip to Morocco.
And we went for a bike ride. Kristina is at the top of Wilson Hill with Petaluma in the background.
An old cement works had a mural of Buddhas, so we stopped for a closer look.
The Buddhas had different hand positions called mudras. This Buddha is doing the earth-touching mudra, which signifies he is about to become enlightened.
Back in Oakland we rode on Bike to Work Day with lots of other riders.
We rode 20 kilometers with Julian and Emilio on a school holiday.
Our ride was on the Iron Horse Trail. We liked seeing this old railroad car and rails, showing the history of this place.
We got our first flat tire with the new bike, which Pete changed quickly.
And we rode our longest ride this year: a metric century. We have switched to metric since we are spending the majority of our time in countries that use metric. (Divide kilometers by 1.6 to get miles.)
Our friends Manoj and Divina had made us a delicious Indian dinner when we visited them in Salt Lake City. They told us how to make dosas by soaking and grinding rice and urad lentils, then letting them ferment overnight to make a tangy batter. In this photo Pete is frying a dosa in coconut oil, with a stack of cooked dosas on the right.
We are glad they inspired us to learn how to make Kerala dosas with sambar and coconut chutney, a tasty Indian meal! We shared them with Cynthia and Humberto.
Another reason we love staying with Cynthia and Humberto is they have a beautiful cat named Nero.
Next we are going on a one week meditation retreat, then we'll spend two more weeks in the Bay Area.
The first thing we saw as we arrived at Tassajara was the new gate. Designed by Paul Discoe, it uses Japanese joinery techniques.
And here's how the gate looks from inside Tassajara.
This is the view from the flower garden looking up to ridge. Tassajara is in quite a deep valley.
The garden is lovely this time of year with blooming roses.
In the past we’ve visited in September, so this was our first time to see the wisteria in bloom.
And there were other nice blossoms too.
We were there on Earth Day and joined in for a ceremony in the garden.
The buildings at Tassjara feel like they are part of nature; For example they've used tree branches for lumber on the cabins. This cabin is similar to the one we stayed in for 10 nights.
We liked the look of this living roof with succulents next to solar panels.
Inside the Kaisando (Founders Hall) is an altar to Suzuki Roshi, who founded Tassajara in 1967. Tassajara was the first Zen temple established outside of Asia.
We meditated with many others each morning in the zendo. This photo was taken on the wooden walkway that surrounds the zendo. The bells and drums are played to signal the timing of meditation and service.
This fish drum is a new addition since we were last here in 2012.
This is the exterior of the dining hall and courtyard.
This photo shows the details of the window and wood beams.
Each meal is listed on a menu board. The food is vegetarian and very tasty.
Across the courtyard is the tea area, with charming tea pots on display.
We often heard the squawks of stellar jays who were frequent visitors to the courtyard.
This male canyon wren was supporting his mate and babies by bringing bugs to them. The nesting pair was spotted by Taiyo.
These four people all lived at Tassajara in 1979. From the left are Taiyo, Ted, Leslie and Frank. We enjoyed hearing their stories about living here 40 years ago.
Our visit to Tassajara was during the spring work period. It felt good to give back to this special place. Kristina worked on plastering the wall by the new gate, and she learned how to remove the cracks and burnish the plaster using a trowel.
Pete was put to work on the women's showers that needed re-tiling. Bernard is the manager of all the construction projects, and he and Pete worked together.
After grouting the new tile floor, Bernard made a Buddha out of the extra grout.
The schedule during the work period is to work for four days then take a day off. We went on a lovely hike on our day off.
Walking along the creek at Tassajara is a treat. We could hear the sound of the water and feel soft, cool breezes. We have many happy memories of this tranquil place.
Pete thought this moss looked like calligraphy. We enjoyed being at Tassajara during the work period, and we hope to return next April.
We left Tassajara and went back to Oakland to stay with Cynthia and Humberto. Here are their boys Julian and Emilio taking a hike with us; Being 11 and 9 year old brothers, they are often wrestling.
The hike took us to a pasture where we had a picnic. The bar is used to tie up horses, but we didn’t see any on our hike.
We met our friends Michael and Michele for dinner. Here is Michele with her daughter Nora. Nora is 9, and she is a big Warriors basketball fan.
She also loves to dance so we were happy when she agreed to show us a few of her new dance routines.
While in Hong Kong we learned that our favorite chef from there would be in San Francisco cooking at Izakaya Rintaro so we made plans to go. This is the entrance gate to the restaurant.
The courtyard in front of the restaurant is charming. The oven is from a 18th century Japanese farmhouse called a "minka."
The interior of the restaurant is spacious and features a Japanese-style post and beam design.
Our friends Lance and Laura joined us for dinner.
Rintaro has an excellent sake menu, and Lance is showing the nice bottle of unpasteurized Tedorigawa Kinka we enjoyed.
Chef Matt Abergel cooked his scrumptious yakitori, skewers of chicken seasoned with Japanese flavors like shiso and yuzu.
Laura is squeezing lime onto the KFC, Korean Fried Cauliflower.
KFC is a Yardbird signature dish, and we were happy that Matt was cooking it at Rintaro too.
These are chicken wings flavored with Japanese pepper called shichimi.
And this is a chicken meatball served with egg yolk, which was amazing.
We bought a new tandem bike from our favorite bike shop, Crank Two. Here’s Pete with Bryon, the owner of Crank 2, and our new bike.
After test riding several types of tandems, we decided to buy a CK2. It’s a custom frame from Crank 2 that we feel gives the smoothest ride. Pete is near Chabot Reservoir in Oakland.
We’ve been riding our new bike as much as we can, usually 4-5 times a week. We especially like the Chabot Reservoir ride, as we can ride from Cynthia and Humberto’s house and be in the trees with little traffic very quickly.
We spent a fabulous weekend in San Francisco at our dear friends Sean and Paul’s house. On Saturday morning we went to the Alemany Farmer’s Market. They sell beautiful flowers there.
Sean and Paul bought garlic.
And we admired lots of beautiful displays of vegetables and fruits.
Sean and Paul are so awesome: they hosted a party for us and invited 15 mutual friends!
Sean grilled ribs and chicken. He got our attention with the flames, but he’s a pro at grilling and the meats came out perfect.
It was great to catch up with folks after being gone over two years. Here's Pete with our friend Bill.
Pete decided to take selfies of himself with the guests. This is Kirklan with Pete.
Our friend Steve and his partner Matt invited us to visit them in Comptche this summer.
Sean and Kate are being dramatic for the photo.
It was fun to be back in our old neighborhood, and we took a walk around Bernal hill.
Our friend Jeff was playing drums at Revolution Cafe in the Mission, so we went by to listen to the music.
Then we went to our friends Pat and Sarah’s house to celebrate Sarah’s birthday.
We were looking forward to Pat cooking dinner for us. Here are Pete, Sean, Peggy and Paul at the table.
Pat braised rabbits in a romertopf, and the meat was tender and moist.
We enjoyed delicious plates of rabbit, beans and sweetbreads.
The salad greens were grown in Pat and Sarah’s garden.
Since we were celebrating Sarah’s 64th birthday, Sean, Sarah and Kristina had some fun singing “when I’m 64”.
Sarah brought out several homemade limoncellos for dessert and Kristina asked her lots of questions about how to make it.
Sarah loves Italian painted pottery. In their kitchen are several beauties.
Her birthday cake was displayed on this lovely cake stand.
She showed us a picture of her at her 3rd birthday.
You may notice that part of the cake is missing its frosting. Sarah loves frosting, and the birthday girl indulged in some extra nibbles.
We brought home some of the leftover birthday cake and shared it with our nephew Emilio. It’s so much fun to watch him eat chocolate - he is 100% intent on scarfing it down while enjoying every bite.
We met our friend Mya at Jonga House for Korean food one night. We were impressed that they served us 16 banchan dishes.
Their seafood bibimbap was outstanding!
We went to Chinatown in San Francisco and enjoyed the murals.
This mural was in progress.
It’s been so nice to have time in the Bay Area for visiting family and friends. But we didn’t always have our cameras with us to take photos. We went to Pt Reyes for a weekend with our friends Paul and Julie. Here’s the picnic spread, yum.
We made sure to have a camera, as we wanted to capture Paul’s expression when we popped out of the trees and surprised him on his birthday!
We worked off some of the picnic lunch with a hike out to Marshall Beach. Pete, Julie and Paul posed on the charming fence with Tomales Bay in the background.
We saw a great blue heron hunting.
Moments later he caught a mole and flew away with it in his beak.
The next morning we did a little bird watching on the deck of our motel.
This is the view of the wetlands where we saw belted kingfishers, Anna's hummingbirds, ducks and geese.
We went for brunch at the Pine Cone Diner in Pt Reyes Station. Then Paul and Julie headed home, as they had to get ready for their upcoming three week trip to Morocco.
And we went for a bike ride. Kristina is at the top of Wilson Hill with Petaluma in the background.
An old cement works had a mural of Buddhas, so we stopped for a closer look.
The Buddhas had different hand positions called mudras. This Buddha is doing the earth-touching mudra, which signifies he is about to become enlightened.
Back in Oakland we rode on Bike to Work Day with lots of other riders.
We rode 20 kilometers with Julian and Emilio on a school holiday.
Our ride was on the Iron Horse Trail. We liked seeing this old railroad car and rails, showing the history of this place.
We got our first flat tire with the new bike, which Pete changed quickly.
And we rode our longest ride this year: a metric century. We have switched to metric since we are spending the majority of our time in countries that use metric. (Divide kilometers by 1.6 to get miles.)
Our friends Manoj and Divina had made us a delicious Indian dinner when we visited them in Salt Lake City. They told us how to make dosas by soaking and grinding rice and urad lentils, then letting them ferment overnight to make a tangy batter. In this photo Pete is frying a dosa in coconut oil, with a stack of cooked dosas on the right.
We are glad they inspired us to learn how to make Kerala dosas with sambar and coconut chutney, a tasty Indian meal! We shared them with Cynthia and Humberto.
Another reason we love staying with Cynthia and Humberto is they have a beautiful cat named Nero.
Next we are going on a one week meditation retreat, then we'll spend two more weeks in the Bay Area.
