Leaving Costa Rica to return to California, we were delayed 48 hours, as the weather had forced hundreds of flight cancellations. Kristina has plenty of experience sleeping on planes, and she likes the combo of sunglasses and an eye mask to make it really dark.
We flew back to the Bay Area and helped Pete’s Mom Csilla get her house ready for sale. She’s moving to Las Vegas to live with Pete’s sister Denise.
Here’s the last family photo we took in Csilla’s house.
In April we spent three weeks in Auburn, California on a self-retreat. Here’s the cute Airbnb cabin we rented.
Situated on a 10 acre property, it was quiet and felt like being in the country.
The interior had an open floor plan that worked well for our self retreat.
There were lots of charming animal decorations.
To the right the three wise monkeys of good mind, speech and action is a tenuki, a Japanese cartoonish version of a raccoon-dog.
This owl picture was above our meditation area. It reminded us of Bodhidharma.
We learned about Bodhidharma, the first ancestor of Chinese Zen, during our trip to China.
From Auburn we went to a meditation retreat at Spirit Rock. Here’s a link to more photos from another Spirit Rock retreat.
The Spirit Rock landscape is really lovely.
We saw their new community meditation building.
After the retreat we wanted to ease back into civilization, so we stayed near Sebastopol for a few days. These whimsical sculptures are called “junk art” by artist Patrick Amiot.
There were a bunch of sculptures in the neighborhood, so we strolled around and took photos of our favorites. It was our only time to use our camera while we stayed with our friends Bill and Frederick in Forestville.
Not quite Bodhidharma, but a cool owl none-the-less.
We had a great time seeing friends at Sean and Paul’s “before” party. Sean and Paul are undertaking a major remodel project on their house in Sonoma, so they won’t spend much time riding this summer.
This little guardian angel seemed to be protecting this cute house.
We went to the Bay Area to celebrate some birthdays and graduations with Pete’s family.
Here’s our nephew Erich with his Grandma, before blowing out their candles together.
Nephew Spencer doesn’t like chocolate, so he got his own lime tartlet with his birthday candles.
We also celebrated that our niece Abby graduated from high school.
As did Erich.
Pete’s sister Csilla sent us photos of his actual graduation. Erich will be going to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the Fall.
We had a chance to watch Erich perform at Yoshi’s with his high school jazz group. He’s playing the baritone sax on the right.
And we went to his last symphonic band performance at El Cerrito High School. Erich is in the third row on the right end.
The ROVA Saxophone Quartet has been around since 1977, so they’re celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. We watched them perform in the San Francisco Presidio Officers’ Club.
Also at the Officers’ Club is Andy Goldsworthy’s Earth Wall that he made in 2014 to evoke the Native American archaeology dig nearby.
In the Officers’ Club Museum we saw a small but powerful exhibit entitled Exclusion about Japanese American internment during World War II. This is Pledge Allegiance by Judy Shintani and it's made of wood and barbed wire from the Tule Lake Incarceration Camp.
While in San Francisco we participated in the People’s March.
The Russian nesting dolls of Trump and his cronies were built by Indivisible SF, with the smallest doll being Putin.
We enjoyed a meal at Cock’s Comb with our dear friends Sarah and Pat.
We started with the house-cured charcuterie plate.
And had incredibly thick and delicious skin-shoulder-pork chops with escargot and greens, wow!
We stayed in Oakland with Kristina’s cousin and best friend Cynthia, her husband Humberto and their sons Julian (left) and Emilio.
Everyone likes to ride! We hit the Iron Horse trail together. We’ll be publishing more photos of them in our next blog, as we’ll be spending a week together on Vancouver Island.
It was great to be able to ride from Cynthia and Humberto’s house up into the Oakland Hills! We are wearing our favorite Biciamo jerseys for Oakland and the Warriors.
With our friend Chris we watched the Warriors become the NBA Champions, yea Dubs!
Then we packed up our stuff and hit the road to start our summer road trip.
Our friends Heather and Mary invited us to house-sit for them while they were in Hawaii. We love their place in Point Reyes Station, with its incredible scenery out back.
We took advantage of many delicious treats in Point Reyes Station, like Brick Maiden bread, Cow Girl Creamery cheese, and Double 8 water buffalo gelato, which is the creamiest ice cream we’ve ever eaten!
In 2014 we also started our summer road trip by first visiting Heather and Mary.
They are Buddhists too, and their house reflects this.
Heather and Mary found this bird’s nest while hiking.
They are Buddhists too, and their house reflects this.
Heather and Mary found this bird’s nest while hiking.
It was such a treat to be able to ride right from their house, and we tried to ride everyday. At first we thought the quail on top of this sign was part of the exhibit, but he was a real bird.
It was fun to explore all of Inverness by bike.
We rode out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse.
Behind Kristina is historical Pierce Point Ranch and where we saw the elk herd.
We also saw signs of resistance to Trump and the GOP agenda.
On a rainy day we opted for a hike in Point Reyes National Seashore.
All too soon it was time to leave. We drove up to Albany, Oregon to visit Peter, who we met in Nicaragua on the GRID Alternatives solar project. He showed us around Albany, pointing out several examples of solar power that his company installed.
Peter gets around by bike. He wears a very visible hat under his helmet.
And here’s his ride, a custom recumbent bike.
We love Portland, so we planned a three week visit. We stayed in this charming bungalow in the Hollywood district.
There were lots of cool spots to sit in the yard.
But we liked hanging out on the porch.
The kitchen was really well-equipped, making it fun to cook.
Inside there were many colorful details.
We were within walking distance of the Hollywood theater, and we watched I Am Not Your Negro, an incredible movie about James Baldwin and other ’60’s civil rights leaders.
We went to a Naomi Klein event for her new book No is Not Enough. Here she’s signing Kristina’s copy.
Horrified by the systemic racism in America exposed in Ana DuVernay’s 13th but inspired by the articulateness of Michelle Alexander, we bought her book, The New Jim Crow. This summer we’re reading these political books.
All around Portland we saw these Little Free Libraries in people’s front yards that made us curious. We learned they started in Wisconsin, and today there are more than 50,000 of these libraries in 70 countries.
Portland has so many interesting residential neighborhoods with nicely landscaped yards.
Our friends Lance and Laura moved from the Bay Area to Portland last year. Laura took us to the beautiful Portland Japanese Garden.
Here was the view of Mt Hood from the top of the garden on this spectacularly clear day.
We were glad to spend time with our friends Lance and Laura. They love good food, so we often planned our get-togethers based on what we wanted to eat. Here they are at Afuri, a Japanese izakaya and ramen restaurant.
We started with Kobe beef tartar on wonton chips.
Next was their hamachi jalapeño carpaccio covered in edible flowers.
Afuri makes their own gyoza dumplings, yum.
Another day the four of us went for brunch at Tiffin Asha. On the griddle are dosas, crepes made of fermented rice and lentils.
The cuisine is from southern India and features dosas and chutneys. This is a bacon-egg-tomato-greens dosa that tasted even better than it looks.
We tried their chutney and pickles sampler. They were all tasty but our favorites were the ginger and rhubarb pickles at 6 o’clock and 4 o’clock.
In 2014 Lance and Laura had told us about Andy Ricker’s northern Thai restaurants in Portland, and we’ve been enjoying eating at them ever since. This is the interior of Pok Pok Northwest where we had lunch with our friends.
We started with sai ua samun phrai, Chiang Mai sausage served with naam phrik num (spicy green chile dip), pork rinds and steamed vegetables.
We shared main dishes of muu paa kham wan, grilled boar (right) and served with chilled mustard greens; Yam samun phrai, a tasty Thai salad (middle); and neua naam tok, a spicy Isaan flank steak salad. It was like being back in Chiang Mai!
To finish we had a favorite Thai dessert, durian sticky rice.
We love durian fruit, so we went in search of it in Portland. We found frozen musang king at Pacific Supermarkets - what a treat!
Lance told us that Paa Dee restaurant was now serving northeastern Thai cuisine two nights a week. We went the next night.
Similar to Pok Pok we started with nahm phrik dip, sausage, pork rinds and vegetables for dipping. This time the dip included trumpet mushrooms and was spicy.
Also fantastic was their duck larb that included duck liver with Thai herbs.
Another day we tried Hat Yai, a casual southern Thai restaurant with Malaysian influences that Lance and Laura love. In the bowl is Massaman curry and chicken, served with pickles and roti, Thai pan-fried bread.
We also shared a bowl of oxtail soup that was wonderful.
We walked to Pok Pok for lunch one day, and enjoyed eating their catfish laap, water spinach, and white tumeric salad.
We went for dinner at Chalino with Lance and Laura. Chalino has only been open for four months.
And the whole block of buildings were new and only partly occupied. We liked the architecture.
As we walked into the restaurant we could see into the kitchen area.
It was so nice to spend time with our friends!
We all agreed the halibut ceviche was excellent.
And the red pozole was great too, a fusion of traditional pozole with ramen.
Here's a Chalino chef preparing tostadas.
And we finished with pineapple ice cream topped with dulce de leche (left) and chocolate cake with an horchata whipped cream.
Vietnamese cuisine is another favorite of ours that is readily available in Portland. We ate bun bo hue and pho, beef noodle soups that are spicy and delicious.
Basilisks’ fried chicken sandwich is done well, and here it's complemented by a bowl of kimchi and pickles.
The kimchi and pickles came from next door Wares. Every day at Wares they offer different types of pickles. The strawberries were sweet.
Wares is in the Zipper Building, along with a handful of other restaurants that share a common dining area.
We checked out Wares' specials and decided to try the corn.
Pete agrees, it's SO GOOD!!
But truth be told it was the panko-fried kale with candied bacon and fish sauce (left) that kept us coming back.
Here we are at Xico, a Oaxacan restaurant.
We met our friend Mya (right) who was visiting Portland with her best friend Lindsey.
We liked that Xico's carnitas came with tasty vegetables and pork rinds.
Mya and Lindsey both live in San Francisco. Here’s a photo of Mya in the City, where some days she commutes to work by bike.
Besides eating delicious food, we stayed three weeks in Portland because the cycling is fantastic! Pete is by the St John’s bridge.
It’s especially pretty on the historic Columbia Highway, with views of the Columbia River Gorge.
There are some incredible rocks along the Columbia Highway. Pete is on the bridge near Shepherd's Dell.
Besides eating delicious food, we stayed three weeks in Portland because the cycling is fantastic! Pete is by the St John’s bridge.
It’s especially pretty on the historic Columbia Highway, with views of the Columbia River Gorge.
There are some incredible rocks along the Columbia Highway. Pete is on the bridge near Shepherd's Dell.
Another day we rode in Sandy. Kristina is next to the Sandy River.
We also like riding in the farmland and nurseries east of Portland.
Portland has tons of great bike paths, so we could ride right from our Airbnb. Pete is near the Columbia River on the Marine Drive bike path.
Kristina is on the Springwater Corridor bike path. After all the winter rains, there were so many blooming plants this year, like this field of foxgloves. So far on our road trip we’ve ridden over 1,100 Kms on our tandem and we are loving it.
We rode several times with the Portland Wheelmen. Pete is next to Roger, who has been the Wednesday morning ride leader for years. Roger is next to Dean who is 82 and still rides almost every day (except in winter). And Doc is on the left - don't let the white hair fool you, he’s a fast rider.
We’ve ridden with the Wheelmen for the past three summers. Here are links to photos from 2015 and photos from 2016.
Next we head to Canada.
