Happy New Year

Ok, now that the year 2013 is here, this would be my first blog – GET HEALTHY. It has been almost two years since my surgery but I still have the dizziness as one of the side effects. So this year I am trying the holistic approach – acupuncture! My regular acupuncturist has long gone to a retirement in San Francisco, so I ask around my co-worker Malavika if she knows any acupuncturist, so here I am under the care of Dr. Shuyi Dong. This is my first treatment and I have to say OUCH a few times when those needles went into my head. I certainly hope that it will help me in the long run; I just have to be patient and do the routine visit once a week at least.



OUCH OUCH



Under The care of Dr. Shuyi Dong

More needles for the back



Mount View Orchards

Mt. View Orchards

Middle of summer means an abundant variety of summer fruits such as blueberries, cherries, nectarines, peaches and soon pears and apples. We decided to go to the Mt. View Orchards in Parkdale, some seventy miles to the east and thirteen miles south from Hood River. It was a warm day in the low 90s but dry. I really like the so called country store and it s honor system just in case the owners are not there managing the store, it is very rare these days.

Mt. View Orchards

Exploring the Redwoods area

Along Avenue of the Giants

When we drove to this area many years ago, we did not stop to look around. Pokie always wanted to see the Redwood area, so this year we explored many of the sites. Since the area of redwood is spread about 150 miles long, we started by visiting the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Trees of Mystery and Avenue of the Giants (worth the drive), there are many more tourist trap such as one log house, Origin of Big Foot, but we do not bother to stop at those roadside attractions, one is enough.

Redwoods area 

Skunk Train



Skunk Train, Fort Bragg, California



I will always try to add a train-ride as a side trip; we drove about 100 miles further south from our main destination, which is the Redwood area. Here, we did not wait for another day for the steam train due to the time that we had, but I am as happy as I could be if I am able kick the bucket list of the trains I want to ride.

Come ride with me 

Home on the road



Redwood RV Park, Crescent City, California



A journey of a thousand miles begins with your first step. To be exact, we drove 1,171 miles or slightly less than 1,900 km. We headed south to California to explore the Redwood areas and of course a train ride for me. Redwood areas are scattered about 150 miles from California-Oregon border to the south, so we do not know where we stay every night, we just took it as it went. Here’s our first installment of “Home on the Road” with our Wanderlust.

Home on the road 

Home on the Coast



Lincoln City

Let’s call it a dry run. After almost two years we finally take the Wanderlust (our RV van) for a spin again to Lincoln City, Oregon. I have to say I was pretty rusty to the routine such as installing the water filter, but it came back quickly and I manage to get used to it again. We were supposed to meet our good RV friends from Spokane, but they have mechanical difficulty in the middle of the road with some kind of bad oil leaks in one of their motor home’s axle. We have made a reservation already and we have to go, plus the weather in Portland was rather warm, so going to the coast is a good remedy.

Home on the coast

San Francisco

Fishermans Wharf

A short visit to San Francisco – conquering the concrete jungle, we flew there and took all public transportation all over the city. Since we stayed in San Mateo about twenty miles to the south, we often took the trains to my delight, a short walk from our hotel to the train station.

We visited the usual touristy spots, at times; we were overwhelmed by the crowd. Nevertheless, we managed to visit the Palace of Fine Arts, Chinatown, Fort Mason, Ferry Building and  of course the Fisherman Wharf.  We explored the city for a full three days and that’s enough concrete for me. By the way Pokie found her favorite burger- “In-N-Out”. Overall, we had a good short visit, enjoy the website.

San Francisco
Public Transportation