We made time for a quick visit with our friends Paul and Jeff, who we know from the Bay Area. They moved to San Diego a few years ago and try to eat vegetarian these days.
They took us to their favorite neighborhood restaurant, Donna Jean. Kristina ordered the Salisbury Tempeh with mashed potatoes, greens, mushrooms, onions and red eye gravy.
We drove from San Diego to Paso Robles, and the blooming mustard along the way made for bright yellow hills. We were looking forward to more riding as we explored places in California we didn't know.
There was quite a wildflower show going on, especially when we rode on part of the Wildflower Century route that is organized by the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Cycling Club.
Although our nephew Erich is not in the SLO Cycling Club, he is attending Cal Poly SLO. We were happy to get this photo of Erich from his parents when the three of them attended a dinner at a winery near SLO.
While riding we stopped to take this photo since we don't often see signs for the 2014 California law, three feet for safety, which requires motorists to give at least a three foot buffer when passing cyclists.
One day we rode out to Morro Bay. We hadn't been on these roads since we rode the Central Coast Double Century in 2008.
It was a sunny day but cool enough that we rode wearing our windbreakers.
There were otters in Morro Bay, behind us in the above photo. As we rode through the touristy little town we saw their welcome banners with an otter.
We keep in touch with our friends Günter and Connie who live in Düsseldorf. They sent us this photo of them cycling in Sri Lanka. They are troopers as they braved high heat and humidity on their Red Spokes tour.
Our week passed quickly. We loved riding in Paso Robles, which has vineyards, horses, meadows and lots of oak trees.
As we left and headed north to Aptos, we stopped for lunch at The Neighborhood in Paso Robles. On the wall of the cafe was the name of our old band, Hi Neighbor, a jazz-inspired trio, so Kristina had to pose by it. Our traveling lifestyle means we don't play much music these days and we miss it.
We ate healthy vegan bowls.
We went to Aptos to visit our friends Melia and Scott. They took us on an awesome hike in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, near the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
We didn't hike all the way to the epicenter but we saw these twisted redwoods. Later we learned they were shifted during the Loma Prieta quake and now they are growing this way to self correct.
Scott and Melia had traveled in Scotland last year, and they told us about their adventures meeting Scott's relatives and learning about his family's tartan. Scot is a musician who plays the mandolin, guitar and fiddle, so of course he had to try on a family kilt during their trip.
They took us to their local farmer's market. We met their musician friends who were performing there.
Melia and Scott were taking care of their two year old granddaughter one of the days we were visiting, so we got to hang out with Maxine.
Melia had bought Maxine her first pair of red cowboy boots. We think she's now on her second or third pair. She wore them the whole time we were together.
Scott pushed her in her swing for a long time so Pete was able to get some cute photos.
Back at Scott and Melia's we gathered to watch the Warriors vs. the Clippers on Easter Day. Kristina had made a tasty vegetable pate and a tomato spread to nosh on while we watched.
It was a great visit. A few days afterwards Melia sent us this photo of the Easter bouquet we had brought them.
From Aptos it was a short drive to Santa Cruz, our next cycling destination. This is part of the Surfin' Bird mural by Brian Barneclo.
We hadn't spent much time in Santa Cruz before this trip, so it was fun to explore the neighborhoods. There were wisteria blooming everywhere.
We rode mostly on Highway One along the coast, but didn't take photos because it was mostly overcast skies. When we spotted this beautiful blooming protea pincushion flower bush, we stopped to get a photo.
We learned the name when we saw them for sale at the farmer's market.
We ate lunch at the Cafe Gratitude in Santa Cruz. There are nine Cafe Gratitudes in operation these days, yet this was our first time to eat at one. They serve healthy, vegan food.
We drove from Santa Cruz up the peninsula so we could attend our friend Catherine's show Reconnaissance: Paintings of the City at the Peninsula Art Museum.
One of our favorites in the show was Sea Wall with Faucet from 2018.
In the adjacent rooms was Tess Felix's Curious Remnants: An Ocean in Crisis show. She collects plastic trash from the beaches, then forms them into portraits of people she knows. She states, "Plastic is everywhere in our lives, in fact we touch it more than we touch our loved ones." These are Milan and Bessem.
We spent a day in San Francisco. We know the city has changed, but we still enjoy many aspects of it, especially on a sunny day.
Our friend Nancy met us for lunch at Gracias Madre.
Their version of vegan nachos didn't include any cheese, instead using cashew cream over beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and chips.
Nancy brought us a gift of furoshiki, a Japanese-style cloth used for wrapping gifts. Pete, take that off your head, it's not a hat!
For dinner we met up with our friend Chris and his daughter Mira. They had just returned from a college tour of the northwest. Mira's a junior who plays tenor sax in jazz band and is on the basketball team at her high school - she's awesome.
We rented an Airbnb flat in Oakland near Lake Merritt and we used it to host several fun social events. Cynthia and her almost 16-year old son Julian are hanging out on the couch with Pete while we watched the Warriors vs. Houston.
Another evening we hosted (from right) our friends Michael and Michele, plus Pete's sister Csilla and her husband Dale. It's hard to tell from the photo but we ate vegan southern food: barbecued jackfruit, collard greens, coleslaw and pickled onions. Csilla made delicious black bean and sweet potato chili. It was great to spend an evening together.
We rode a few times from our Airbnb, which is seen behind us in this photo. We rented the bottom half and our hosts live in the top half.
We climbed up to Skyline to see the beautiful trees.
Here we're modeling new hats from Biciamo, a gift from our new friend Martina.
Martina is the founder and designer of Biciamo cycling jerseys, which are our favorites.
We brought our friend Ken an Oakland Biciamo jersey when we visited him in his newly remodeled home.
And we bought ourselves new Biciamo San Francisco jerseys, which have become our new favorites.
This photo was taken near the Alexander Valley, after we left the Bay Area and spent ten days staying in Forestville. The dogwood trees were towards the end of blooming.
Most days in Forestville we rode our tandem. It was great to ride in this beautiful area.
We regularly rode up Sweetwater Springs Road, which was hilly but well-shaded with almost no car traffic.
To get there we would pass the iconic hop kilns at Walters Ranch, a California Historical Landmark that was built in 1905 when hops were grown in this region.
In Forestville we were house sitting for our friends Bill and Fred. We had plenty of time to cook and Kristina made rhubarb compote. Here's what the cut rhubarb looked like before it was cooked.
The compote was a tangy topping for our hot breakfasts, which fueled us for our bike rides.
We visited our friends Joe and Sherry in Occidental. Joe made this awesome sculpture Milk 99, a laser cut big letter construction in a pop art style.
In Nicasio we took a tour of Rancho Compasión, a non-profit sanctuary that provides safe haven for over 70 farm animals .
Kristina met the friendly and curious goat named Reggie. Rancho Compasión was founded by Miyoko Schinner, a pioneering vegan entrepreneur and animal lover. Miyoko's favorite is Reggie, and we could see why: he likes to give kisses.
Believe it or not, this goose named Echo liked being held. He came up to each visitor and nibbled on their shoe laces until they picked him up.
Oxy the pot bellied pig was cooling off in a mud puddle. It was fun to hang out with the farm animals and get to know their personalities.
We went to a well-attended Green New Deal town hall meeting in Santa Rosa.
It was inspiring to hear the young Sunrise activists speak about their determination to force the issue of climate change into public consciousness and to push for action.
The last stop on our California cycling adventure was Davis for the 50th annual Davis Bike Club's rides. Here we are at 6 am at the start of the ride.
We had ridden the Davis double century twice before, in 2008 and 2009. This time we opted for just the century route. Davis has lots of agriculture, so it was interesting to check out what was growing as we rode. Behind Pete are young olive trees.
We arrived at the "lunch stop" at 10:30 am so we didn't stop. The clouds were accumulating and we could tell rain was on the way.
We rode our 100 miles at a record fast speed and finished fifteen minutes before the rain started. It was fun!
Next we head to Colorado.
