California Trip

Pitchers

Had a delightful trip to California and visit with Dave. Trip out was uneventful - arrived in San Jose exactly on time. Drove up to Sausalito on Friday for some sightseeing, photography and geocaching, and then met Dave for dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Menlo Park.

Saturday was a casual day of catching up with Dave. Did a little shopping at Frye's and Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto. Wish we had a store like that around here! Dinner at Kabul in Sunnyvale. On Sunday we drove up Mt. Hamilton to the Lick Observatory, and then had pizza at Paxti's in Palo Alto.

Linda and I drove to Napa on Monday to do the wine train gourmet luncheon trip. Fabulous! Food was great, wines were spectacular. Then on Tuesday, we drove down through Napa Valley, stopping at several wineries and at an old grist mill. very nice day. We then drove back down to Oakland to Jack London Square on Wednesay, had a fabulous light luncheon at Jack's Bistro (great tapas-style lunches), and then drove through San Francisco to the Cliff House. Finally, we met Dave for dinner (at Dishdash in Sunnyvale).

Weather was generally very nice. Lots of fog in the morning, and very cool. Sun burned through by early afternoon. Once again I was amazed at how much stronger the sunlight is in California. Also noted that while the air temperature is fairly cool, it's still very warm in the sun.

The return trip had a few problems. The first thing was that Delta had a mechanical problem that delayed the flight out of San Jose. They chose to put us on a red-eye out of Oakland that connected with an early morning flight to Albany, and then gave us a taxi ride to the Oakland airport where we spent the day. Long day! But the once the flight departed, everything was fine.

Then there was the problem with Hertz. Apparently, some bozo entered the trip odometer reading on the car as the "out" mileage, so they wanted to charge us for driving 8600 miles rather than the <600>

Photographically, the trip went very well. I took only 35mm equipment, and the tripod got there in its carrying bag. Yesterday, I processed two rolls in Rodinal 1:200 for 60 minutes with minimum agitation - they came out fine. Then I did two rolls in HC-100 dilution H that were uselessly thin. The developer was the last of a gallon bottle of stock, and it was pretty brown so I think it was dead. So I did the remaining four rolls in Rodinal 1:200. The negatives all look pretty good - but I haven't made any proof sheets yet. The image above is from a negative scan.

Went in to see Dr. Hubicki on Friday afternoon for my annual physical. Everything appears OK. Nice party last night at Dave and Muggsie's.