Northcoast Travelogue: 3/3-3/4

Had to go to the Bay Area again on Monday. This time we had a 4:00 appointment on Monday at UCSF which meant we could leave Monday morning and have enough time to drive down and make the appointment, rather than leave the day before as we usually do.

The getting up and not being able to lounge around for hours in the morning- my usual practice- really rubs me the wrong way. I'd done most of my preparation the day before, though, so it wasn't too big a deal. Still, I didn't get to play my morning session of Aces High so that threw me off the whole day.

We left town about 8:15am and I was surprised at the lack of traffic we ran into, the exception being what must have been the first time I noticed the long line of cars heading north. They were obviously commuting to Eureka for work. For some reason I'd never noticed that before. Probably because we usually drive down on Sundays.

I read some letter to the editor a while back by some lady upset about the "budget cuts". She'd made reference in her letter to the Caltrans rest stops in Trinidad, saying they were closed and suggesting this was the result of the budget cuts, if memory served me right.

I wondered if the rest stops between Laytonville and Willits might be closed, as well. Checked the Caltrans web site and found they were open. No mention of budget cut closures, at all. In fact, there was a note that some rest stops, like the ones in Trinidad, would be opened in April as they usually are.

Well, at least ours was open. That's all that mattered to me since we use them all the time.

When we made the Moss Cove stop, I noticed the Ron Paul stickers that someone had rudely stuck up on the phone booth and men's rest room sign had been removed. We noticed, as we were leaving The City Tuesday, the Ron Paul signs adorning all the traffic signs that someone had rudely put up had also been removed.

GO, Ron Paul, but you guys that are putting those signs where they shouldn't be: DON'T DO THAT!

The UCSF Medical Center now allows patients to access their wifi network. I didn't get a chance to try it out, though. I'd noticed last time we were down there that I could connect to a UCSF login page, but I didn't have a username or password and couldn't find the guy that could tell me where to get one.

I ran into him right away this time, but didn't have my laptop with me. I suppose I could have ran back to the truck and gotten it, but didn't feel like running down to the parking garage. The guy told me there was a web site where I could go and get a username and password. When I got home I did a search for UCSF Wifi and found it right away.

Simple enough, as everyone gets the same password. I'll try it out next time we go down there.

When we left the Cathedral Hill Hotel Tuesday morning, Connie suggested we try taking Geary Blvd. to Park Presidio, or whatever that street is called. I didn't want to do it without checking the map as oftentimes streets down there will dead end and start again some ways away. I had Connie check the map but I told her we'll try a different route next time, when we know what we're doing.

Neither of us like Van Ness Avenue- too crowded- but we only use Van Ness when we're going straight to the hotel from Eureka. Leaving, we go down Franklin to Lombard and then to the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't have a problem with that, but it would be nice to avoid Van Ness when going straight to the hotel.

When I got home I checked the map and figured a couple different ways. One would be, when entering San Francisco, to take Lombard for just a few blocks and then take a right on Divisiadero drive south to Post and then go left until we got to the hotel on Van Ness. No Van Ness to really deal with that way and it looks like Divisiadero and Post go straight through without interruption.

Another possibility is to take turn left off Park Presidio, instead of using Lombard, and take Geary all the way to nearly the Cathedral Hill Hotel. Actually, I'm not sure if you can turn left from Park Presidio to Geary. Park Presidio and 19th Avenue only allow left turns a couple times on their entire length, but you can turn right just before the street you want to go left on, make a couple turns and get yourself heading the right way.

We'll try one, or both, of those ways next time. The main thing is to avoid Van Ness.

Getting back into Humboldt County we finally tried the sandwiches at the One Log House place at the south end of Richardson Grove. We'd stopped there once before but just bought a couple drinks.

They have a deal where you get a sandwich, chips and beverage for $5.99, but we just ordered a couple sandwiches. They were quite good and I was surprised how quickly they had them ready.

For the two sandwiches and a latte for Connie, it came to around $12.00, I believe. Fair enough for me. They also seem to have a higher end clientele than the gas station on the other side of 101 that we usually stop at. Seemed like more the tourist/ traveler types as opposed to the locals the gas station seems to mostly cater to. We'll be stopping there again.

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Ooops

I almost forgot: While we were at UCSF waiting for an appointment, there wasn't much to read. The wife suggested I go down to the street and see if there were any free newspapers as there often are. A little late in the day to expect anything to be left but I found a paper I'd never seen offered there before: The Onion!

I didn't even know they published a hard copy of that one and it was free. The bin was full of them. Must not be many fans of that paper in San Francisco. I'll have to admit, though, except for one or two articles, I didn't find much of what was in that paper very funny.