Today was Martin’s day. We visited Morteza, Mandi and family at their gorgeous “cabin” on 40 acres in the Tahoe area mountains. We hitched up the Hobie 16 sailboat, put the paddle board in the RV and headed towards Donner lake for some sailing, swimming and paddle boarding and a picnic lunch.

It was already dark when we headed back to the cabin for dinner, wine and good conversation until 1AM.

Note: No track data is available as the GPS needed a hard reset to get it working again. This lost all track data that had not already been downloaded.

Today was Ruth’s day in San Francisco. We took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train from Millbrae, near the airport, to Powell street in downtown San Francisco. First stop was Bloomingdale’s. Serious shopping therapy was exercised.

Next stop was Chinatown which looked really beautiful with its red lanterns decorating the streets since Chinese New Year back in February. We continued on our walk through Little Italy and then towards Fisherman’s Wharf. It was nice to see the well maintained buildings. We liked the humour in one shop window with the two frogs.

Fisherman’s Wharf was buzzing with tourists and a cruise shop towered over a good portion of the wharf. We stopped for coffee and tea and watched the ferries go by and had a great time at the market at the pier where we bought wine and cheese for our friends and hosts Mandi and Morteza whom we would visit the next day.

We left San Francisco around 7PM and crossed the Bay Bridge on I-80 which will be our path home for the next couple of days. The Bay Bridge is a “double decker” bridge and therefore seems low. About half way along one can still see the older bridge which is now being dismantled.

We made it to Penryn where we spent the night at a truck stop.

It was a good thing that our campground was just across the street from the Ricochet Ranch where we wanted to go horseback riding.  We didn’t have a reservation so we walked over first thing in the morning and were lucky to get two spots for the 10AM ninety minute ride along the beach. After a quick breakfast we galloped to the stable where we had to sign our life away, were fitted with riding helmets, watched an 11 minute video on mounting and dismounting a horse correctly and basic “steering” instructions. We then got to meet our horses – “Cowboy” for Martin and “Cloud” for Ruth. Our ride took us across the highway, through some forest and then along the beach. We had a wonderful time!

After lunch at Denny’s we continued on twisty and turny Hwy 1. We arrived in Mendocino where we visited the Mendocino Arts Center with its fine art gallery, many studios and workshop spaces. We were guests at a glass bead making workshop for a while and got to know the instructor and participants.

Hwy 1 continued to twist and turn almost making us seasick. We had to stop at one point because Ruth had to walk in the ocean amidst the high waves. What a delight!

The other highlight of the day was the drive across the Golden Gate bridge and right through San Francisco with the RV. Campgrounds are sparse so we stayed at a hotel in Belmont, just south of San Francisco. Pepsi, unfortunately, wasn’t welcome at the hotel so she was on guard duty to make sure that the van and contents were safe.