The car is a mess. That playa dust is horrible. The car is about to go to a car wash. We shall see how many times through it takes to get the dust off.

On the way back from the playa, I was driving through San Francisco and stopped at a stop light. The car windows were open & I over heard a pedestrian say "they should take the wax off that car." Ha! That's not wax! It's dust.

I went to Opera in the Park with Niall. We were late & sitting at the very very back. If you look very very closely in this image (might help to click on it to see the larger version) you can see a stage. Yeah, this wasn't about the music...mostly about hanging out in the sun.

Conveniently, after the opera music had ended, Don showed up & we went to dinner.

Getting to dinner was an adventure. There were three people for my two seater car. Don, 'cause he's the tallest, got to drive. I sat on Niall's lap & we left the roof off. In the process of loading the car, I managed to close the car door on my nose. But it wasn't broken, although it hurt a lot. (see older nose pictures here).

Don asked if I'd like to go on adventure.

He wouldn't tell me what it was about. I just had to trust him.

He asked if I had a jump suit.

I didn't but he said it would still be OK.

He took me on a moonlight tour of a couple slides in San Francisco. San Francisco has a lot of hills. And why walk down stairs when you can slide?

Of course, Don was prepared with a complete mini-bar.

It's another mini-bar event...this time, it was formal (see the tux in the background?) and the drinks of choice were on the opposite side of formal. While there wasn't any Thunderbird, we did have Mad Dog 20/20. The remains of this bottle acquired a green blow stick. We left it behind as a beacon.

This is a tour of Telegraph Hill stairways. There are whole blocks with only a stairway for a front door. These houses have no street frontage. Everything from appliances to furniture gets delivered via steep stairs.

It was a beautiful walk & great exercise. And great company, too.

I went to Alcatraz.

I went to SFO. Eerie place, with the sharply curtailed flight schedules and extra security. The place seemed almost deserted, yet I was there at what should have been a peak time.

I made Bruschetta with tomatoes from my garden and rosemary bread from my breadmaker.

I went on a fog-lit (yes, this is San Francisco) walking tour of Bernal Heights. Part of the tour included a visit to the Bernal Hill Slides.

The sweet peas in my garden are in bloom.

I went to Reno for the weekend to visit friends. The grey bag is my travel bag with clothes, shampoo, etc. The big bag next to it is my knitting bag.

I went swimming in this lake.

This was a great way to celebrate the equinox.

I drove back from Reno & got stuck in a horrendous traffic jam at the Bay Bridge toll plaza.

:-(

The cats have brought me three snakes and one salamander in their 6 years. And now, for the first time ever, they started bringing me mice. This makes three in a week. Yuck.

I on a walk with a friend. We saw this "please don't pick the roses" sign.

It was Dunkin Donuts & Guinness beer night at the Zeitgeist bar in San Francisco. This is a picture of one of the murals on the inside courtyard.

I met a friend for coffee at Higher Grounds, a wonderful crepe/breakfast hangout.

It was movie night on Kite Hill. With the help of a portable generator, Kite Hill became an impromptu movie viewing venue. We sat on the hill & watched an outdoor showing of Harold & Maude with the lights of San Francisco in the background.

After an afternoon at Shakespeare in the Park, we went on a short walk around Golden Gate Park.

Oh, that Folsom Street Fair...I'd never been before. It seemed awfully tame. There seemed to be a high population of camera toting tourists from San Jose. Yawn.

I had to have two pictures for September 30.

This was part of a very romantic walk up Russian Hill on one of those beautiful San Francisco nights where there's no wind & no fog and a full moon.