FALL VACATION

or how the heck did I get 2 vacations this fall.

My sister-in-law (SIL) called me and invited us to come out for two weeks while her husband was out of town on a business trip. The Doctor didn't want to go, but I did. It was my birthday present.

 The airport send off in Jacksonville. My flight got to Oakland at midnight AKA 3am my time! That was along day.

SIL and I hung out with friends, eating and talking, talking, talking in her backyard (it was warm for November).

Every Sunday evening there's an event down the street at the North Berkeley BART station called Off The Grid.

As you can see by the sign, it's a food truck event. About 8-9 food trucks park around the parking lot and it turns into the coolest food court in town. It's family friendly and there's live music. We went twice and the trucks were different each time. Off the Grid happens all the time at different locations .

 

We had bbq and catfish from this truck.

 an overview of the area. It was warm the first night, but the second was chilly, so we got our food to go.

 Yummy, cupcakes. My SIL looks so much like The Doctor in this photo.

One day I took a walk from the house to downtown, it takes maybe 15 minutes. Because I took tons of photos, I'll have another posts about all the different restaurants.

This is the library. It's from the 1920's and has an arts and craft style

 These panels go around the building. A lot of the public building in Berkeley are in the arts and craft style.

I took 2 trips to San Francisco. The first was with "cousin" Neil, my friend of 30+ years.

We drove over the new Bay Bridge. The old span is being torn down from both ends.

 The new part. The bridge is in 2 section. The green part at the top of this photo is Treasure Island, there's a tunnel that the bridge goes through.


Who's says you can't find cheap, good eats in SF? Pizza by the slice at The Pizza Shop on 24th St in the Mission. 4 slices, 2 drinks for $18.

Speaking of the Mission, I took tons of photos there, too. Those deserve a post of their own. ( I'm dragging this out LOL)
 

 Here's a taste: Where's Frida?

 A beautiful "Painted Lady"

 Mitchell's ice cream, not just for breakfast. Years ago we had breakfast here, funny thing, they only have ice cream.

 The parking Gods always smile on cousin Neil. Right at the door at the Thrift Town on Mission. People who know how hard it is to find parking in SF will hate us for this. Neil always finds a parking space, always.

After all that city fun, we went to the beach.

 This is looking south from Sutro Park. The Pacific ocean is on the right, the trees are the west end of Golden Gate Park

 Watching the surfers at Ocean Beach

 This is the beach my family came to when I was little, back in the 1960's. It's cold and windy, but who cares, it's the beach!

If you keep going, you hit China.  

That's vacation 2, post 1. I'll probably be don't a couple more. After all, I was there for 2 weeks and a double birthday party happen. Until next time.....