Tobia and I pulled up in a hotel in Tel Aviv for the week, and we visited my grandparents a couple of times up in Haifa.

Abu Yussef restaurant, Haifa. The picture and food just don’t get old. I still love ‘em after more than 25 years.	Board walk to Yaffo.		Tel Aviv coastline
At the business lounge where I worked everyday	Amazingly fresh rogalach in Jerusalem	Guy and Tobia, ba Kotel	Holy of Holies
		Judaean Valley, right outside Yad Va Shem	Victims Memorial, Yad Va Shem
	Guy, Lihi, Tobia and I after dinner		Guy and Saba
	Rainstorms created a great surfing evening for these folks		Hummus with fuul

Following lunch, we walked around, hitting up several joints and bars along the way.

Marc had to draw the line and amicably say goodbye to us when we decided we’d act like tourists really in what is our own city around here… we went to do the Ride the Ducks. We’d done that in Seattle and enjoyed it, and thought we should try to see SF in tourists’ eyes.

My favorite part of the ride was going into the water in the Mission Bay district. We got nice glimpses of the city, from angles I’d never seen before. I also appreciated being in McCovey Cove recalling the wildness I used to see on TV every time Barry Bonds hit a homerun. I also really liked the new condo developments around UCSF in that area… I’d move there if I didn’t already have a house, and if I could afford it.

Our tour ended where it started, right at Fisherman’s Wharf. From there we walked down to Pier 3 to meet our friends at Plant Cafe. We were a group of 8 and had a great dinner.

Following dinner, we thought we’d walk to China Town to see the New Year’s Parade they had going on. As we got closer, we realized we were probably too late, so Tobia suggested we go to the Punch Line Comedy Club instead. Unbelievably, we were able to get some tix right before the show started, and ended our night laughing hard out there.

To me this guy is an iconic SF figure. Sitting just below Ghirardelli Square, he speaks at least a few lines in dozens of languages and often makes people laugh. Actually, many times he guesses people’s nationalities as they simply approach his area. He is really jolly, I’ve spoken to him a handful of times over the years.			The new Bay Bridge can be seen behind the current one.
		McCovey Cove

There were other places, too, like “Oren’s Circle” out in Santa Clara and Corvin’s (for those rainy days) that were also excellent, but no place was quite like “The Hockey Circle” in Sunnyvale, often followed by a drive thru at Taco Bell for dinner.

Gabriel, Richard, Val, Jared and Arthur also joined Frank, Tobia and I.

We brought our new mini-BBQ grill, some chairs, meat, and half our kitchen sink from home. So did some of the other folks. The path down to the beach was a bit tough given all the supplies we had to carry. It was a pretty steep decent, and then a ton of stairs down to the sand. Well worth it, though.

We had an awesome time, getting there before 11am and staying until just after sunset. I couldn’t believe how warm it was, possibly in the mid-low 70s.

After the picnic, we headed for some small bites, but really just to relax, at Moss Beach Distillery in Montara. That was really nice, and eventually afterwards we all headed home pretty late at night.

On Sunday we hiked with my in-laws up to Coyote Peak at Santa Teresa County Park in South SJ.

And, for the cherry on top for the weekend, the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl!

Whale Cove SB. Top right of pic is Devil’s Slide		Val
		Jared and Arthur	Looking down at San Jose from atop Coyote Peak

Frank and Elizabeth joined Tobia and I for a walk along the North Shore Trail recently. The weather was nice and the air really clear.

Following our jaunt, we went into Mission Ranch Restaurant in Carmel for an awesome brunch. We sat outdoors and lazily enjoyed the rest of the morning unfold while stuffing ourselves.

From there, we continued into Main Street in Carmel and walked around/hung out for a while before heading back home.

	Sheep grazing close by as we had brunch outdoors at Mission Ranch

So Tobia and I returned there determined to walk the rest of the bridge. It just felt long overdue.

We got into SF right around noon and took about an hour to walk to the end and back. The weather was nice, visibility was great and the wind was gentle. I came across some stats/facts about the bridge in the parking lot after our walk. The most interesting to me was that the total amount of wire used for the bridge is roughly 80,000 miles.

Following our walk, we did another first- we drove to Tiburon just north of the bridge. I thought Tiburon was quite beautiful: just far enough away from the Bay Area to be quiet and slow, and yet had great views of almost all of SF, views of Mount Tamalpais, and in and of itself nice with bay waters coming right into it. We got some views of Angel Island as well but decided not to head there.

Instead we headed back to SF, had dinner at Plant Cafe and returned home after walking quite a large chunk of the wharf past pier 39 for some caramel apples.

We got there on a an early Saturday afternoon, pulled up the car in the short parking area and went to explore. I thought it was quite nice and it reminded me of Twin Rocks at Rockaway Beach in Oregon. There were some surfers and quite a few beach-goers, but the water was too cold for me to fully enter.

We spent a little while there, then continued to Pink Godzilla, a nearby Japanese restaurant we’ve enjoyed over the years.