A tire change and a sense of humor

It's been a long few weeks at work and my desk is showing it.  I just couldn't bring myself to stick around today to organize/shred/file...all the papers everywhere.  I actually got out before 5pm today instead of 6 or 7.  Yeah, that's a Samoa cookie by the stapler.  I had 5 of them today!  I actually can't remember when the last time I had a cookie was, but I went overboard today.  I felt a little sick after 2 of them, but that didn't stop me.

I'm lucky I have such a great wife.  Cezanne does and says some hilarious stuff.  She likes to kid me about all my cycling stuff, but she's really supportive.  I was changing out my tires last night (see my previous entry) and pulled out some of the stickers they include with the tires.  I jokingly asked Cezanne if she wanted some stickers.  Her reply was "yes please, maybe I can put them on me and you'd pay as much attention to me as you do to your bike stuff."  Hilarious.  She was joking back of course.  I went back to changing the tires and didn't realize she actually put both "Vittoria" stickers on.

And here they are, the new blue tires.  I don't want to keep saying that JW was right, but he is; a different color tire can change the whole look/personality of a bike.  And of course, they'll definitely make me go faster...

The View on every ride...almost every ride

I'm pretty lucky to live near the coast in California.  When I head out for a ride, I usually don't mix things up.  Given that daylight is an issue right now, I'm sometimes able to squeeze in a 30 mile ride during the week.  It's basically up the coast for 15 then back.  It works out well because at the 15 mile turn-around in Encinitas there's a public restroom and water fountain at the train station.  

The views on the ride are beautiful.

I was finally able to pick up my NiteRider Sol (little, but bright headlight in the pic below) today.  

I dropped it off at NiteRider headquarters here in San Diego so they could fix something with the battery.  I'm lucky I did as my ride went into the evening.  A little bit into the evening was the plan, but this went a little longer due to a flat.  

JW could probably smack me right now.  I was just explaining to him this morning I've flatted the last 2 long Saturday rides.  He suggested new tires.  I was one step ahead of him, I bought them on Saturday.  But, maybe I wasn't really one step ahead of him since I hadn't found the time to put on my new tires and kept thinking, "oh, I could get one more ride out of these tires, even though there are huge gouges and nicks."

So, I flatted on this ride...  I will put on my new tires tonight.  While I was fixing my flat on this ride, I couldn't have asked for a better view.  The sun actually set while I was fixing it. 

Yup, there they are just begging to be put on.

Besides having a headlight and 2 sets of tail lights (I want cars to see me at night and not run over me) I also am hoping the cars headlights reflect off my shoes just like my camera flash does.

Saturday in San Francisco

Cezanne and I made it to San Francisco on Saturday, February 16th.  The trip served 2 purposes.  One was to see the first couple of days of the Amgen Tour of California (ATOC).  The other was so Cezanne could experience San Francisco, a city she had yet to visit.

Selfishly, the major reason for the trip, was purpose one for me, to see the ATOC.

We took off on a beautiful day from San Diego.

We arrived at the San Francisco Airport (SFO) in the early afternoon.  It's always an interesting approach into that airport if the landing pattern is from the south.  It looks like you're going to land in the water, but the runway/land pops up at the last minute (on the right in the pic below).

After getting our luggage we hopped on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) into downtown San Francisco.  We exited the Powell St. station and once out of the underground, we were hit by the loud and vibrant city of San Francisco.  We stopped on our walk to the hotel to snap some pics.

Once we got settled at the Marine Memorial Club Hotel just off Union Square, we started getting hungry, having only eaten breakfast.  We tried unsuccessfully the 2 weeks before our trip to get reservations at "Kokkari," a Greek restaurant we heard really good things about.  We had reservations at another place for 9pm.  It was about 4pm and we were starving.  We called Kokkari and Cezanne talked with the hostess.  They had no cancellations, but she said we could come sit at the bar which also featured a full menu and was first come first serve.  They opened at 5pm, so we thought we'd be like some "older folk" and go for an early dinner given we were starving.  We also thought going early would obviously up our chances for getting a spot at the bar.   After getting changed, we set out on foot for the restaurant, about 15 blocks from our hotel.

 

We arrived at Kokkari at exactly 5:03pm.

Good timing!  We felt a little awkward being there so soon after they opened, but that feeling faded once we went in.  We got the last 2 seats at the bar!  What!?!?  It was 3 minutes past opening time and the bar was full!  And it was full mainly with 30-40 year olds.  A couple came in a few minutes behind us and they would up waiting an hour and a half to sit at the bar.  We were actually the first ones to leave the bar.  Somebody tried to snag our seats, but the couple who had been waiting and the bartender were all over it, and fairly gave the seats to the couple who had patiently been waiting.

We couldn't have been more pleased with the food.  It was all excellent, including the Greek "Tselepos" wine.  We wanted to try something different that our usual American Pinot Noir or Merlot and were very pleasantly surprised.  We started of with dolmathes, grape leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts, and currants.  They were the best I've ever had.  I could describe every last dish, but I'll just say it was all some of the best food we've ever had and it was very reasonably priced.  With 4 mezes plates (kind of tapas sized), one main plate, and 2 glasses of wine, the total bill was $86.  Not too shabby.

We wanted to work off dinner and an appetite for dessert, so we decided to walk from Kokkari along the Embarcadero to the fisherman's wharf area...and ultimately to the Ghiradelli Factory for an ice cream sunday.  It was a long walk, including views of the Coit Tower, the Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate), the very touristy fisherman's wharf, the street performers, many signs for sourdough bread and clam chowder.

We finally made it to "Ghiradelli Square."  I guess I've always called it the Ghiradelli Factory, but that's not what the sign says.  So, we concluded our first night in San Francisco with a Brownie and Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Sunday.