More days.

I think David just had the worst night of his life.

I’m not sure either of us FULLY considered the implications of checking all our clothes until 15 min. after the train pulled out of the station. I’m wondering if Amtrak keeps the temp hovering around 30 degrees to keep travelers sedated (you know…like flies…or lizards).

Have you ever read the kids books Fortunately/Unfortunately? “Fortunately my mom bought me a snake; unfortunately he ate a cat. Fortunately the cat wasn’t mine; unfortunately it was my sister’s”…etc.

Well, fortunately, I’m always cold, so I packed two shirts, leggings, socks, and a scarf. Unfortunately, David was wearing shorts and all the clothes were Kristen-sized. Fortunately, I wasn’t that cold (miracle!) so David could borrow them…unfortunately, David now had a fever. Fortunately, Amtrak sells blankets! Unfortunately, not until 8 am (it was 9:50 pm).

I could keep going, but you’d probably be tired of it. I’m not exactly sure how I slept last night in the strange contorted positions I was in (trying to cover David with my legs), but I DID sleep most of the night… and David didn’t. When I intermittently awoke, David’s body was shaking from cold…teeth chattering… I seriously considered my options:

1. Waking a neighbor that had a suitcase above their head to ask for a shirt, pants, socks…underwear… you know…
2. Opening a suitcase downstairs to ‘borrow’ an article of clothing for a few hours for him + then putting it back later.
3. Asking the conductor to search through all the baggage below the train for our ONE pannier bag with clothing in it…

You get the idea; none of the options were really options. But, I DID think about Aladdin and Robin Hood. I don’t have kids yet, but I think I understand why some people steal.

I covered him with my dress last night (going against my motto that leggings, no matter the opacity, are NOT pants. They were pants last night). Made oatmeal in the morning, bought a blanket, and tucked David in before coming to the café car to typey our lifey. **Which, side-note… I’m getting emails, texts, and facebooks from people letting us know you are following us via the blog. THANK YOU! I thought only my Mom and Dad were reading.

The scenery is gorgeous out the train window… like something you see out of Adventure magazine. I’m glad we’re not cycling in the wind right now…but I’m also wishing we weren’t missing this on our bikes.

So, we left you off at Half-Moon Bay, right? The next morning we woke up, ate the best doughnut EVER, and rode into San Fran, which was a huge surprise for me. New York and Chicago are comparable in that the vibe of the city is similar…art, dirt, hard, old, and vibrant. Similarly, Boston and other east coast cities have the same ‘feel’. San Francisco doesn’t feel like any other city.

San Fran is one of the cleanest, most condensed cities I’ve ever been in. Not too many giant apartment complexes…just a town that feels very ‘toy’. The Painted Ladies + pretty much every other building are all wacky colors, about the same size, clean, with little details that set them apart. They’re all set on comically steep hills. It’s like visiting a real Lego-land. Population? 790,000. All the sights are a short bike ride (over hills) away. Leave the parachute bags at home…we didn’t. The Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, Beatniks’ hangouts , North Beach, Jack London’s spots… all are thisclose.

We stayed with Neil and Malka Huffman, whom we know through David’s friend, Yoav, in Chicago. They live in Richmond, which, obviously, is not San Fran… or thisclose to everything else. However, to ride to Richmond from Half-Moon Bay we’d have to take an 80 mile trek through the mountains. Or, we could ride 35 miles into San Fran and then take the train under the bay…so, we took the train. Have you ever seen someone try to get a bike with a trailer onto a train? Yeah, me neither. We looked like monkeys again.

Neil and Malka have a house in the middle of Richmond with a veritable orchard out back. Fig, lemon, orange, and…who knows what other trees grow in their back yard. They work to recycle everything, including watering their garden the “finding the right shower temperature” water. They made a bunch of delicious food for us, told us about spots we needed to go to in Berkeley, San Fran, and Oakland, and basically treated us like their kids. Malka lent me a sweater when she thought I might get cold, and Neil chatted with us about the downfall and potential rebuilding of America. What great, hospitable people. I loved spending the time we had with them, and hope they visit us in Chicago.

Our second day in the Bay area, we took a Napa Valley tour. Most of the other tourists on our “party bus” also didn’t know anything about wine… so we were all in the same boat--starting from scratch. It was fun… we got wine, olive oil, fudge, and cheese samples, breakfast + lunch, and a brief education about wine making and tasting. And, although the bus interior was leather and looked like it could possibly be a Strippermobile on it’s off-days, and although they were pouring strong at the four wineries we visited, everyone remained calm and collected. I’m not sure what I expected from a Napa Valley tour, but I felt like we got a pretty typical experience. Rolling fields of grapes, funny driver, and people wanting to be more sophisticated than they are. There probably are more sophisticated Napa Travelers than people than we had on our trip (ie. serious wine lovers), but probably not at the price we paid.

Lastly, thank you, Michael-bike-shop-friend for transporting our bike boxes twenty blocks last night to the Oakland train station. It wouldn’t have been fun to carry giant cardboard wind-sails on our bikes, and you knew it.

This is a long entry. If you’ve made it to the end, I commend you.