THURSDAY, AUGUST 13

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13:

      Took it easy today. Bill took in the camera stick to a local computer repair, and voila – they restored everything. Crisis averted. I took a long needed nap.

      

       In the afternoon, we drove south the short distance to the last Hwy 101 exit on the Marin county side of the bridge. We had a couple of hours and thought it would be fun to view the GG bridge from the other side than we've done previously. We've always been on the south side, and thought we'd enjoy seeing it from the north side. There's no big plaza on the Marin county side like on the south side – just some viewing points along the road with small parking areas, which were usually full, but somehow we managed to park. The payoff was that, from these vantage points, we had marvelous views of the bridge with the city behind it. Looking towards San Francisco, not towards the Marin headlands, as had always been the case before. The wind was fierce, and at one viewing area where Bill was double parked and I took the camera to get some shots, I thought it would blow the camera right out of my hands! But it was totally worth it . . . no matter how often we've seen these now familiar views of the cityscape and surrounding landmarks, they never cease to thrill us. 

 

                                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 
                                            Looking down at Sausalito:

 

      And just as thrilling – for me – was meeting an old high school friend I hadn't seen for nearly 50 years. We recently had re-connected via Facebook, but really hadn't communicated. But I knew that she lived in Novato, just up the road from our RV park. So I contacted her, and we met for late afternoon drinks at a location halfway between both of us. It was one of those surreal experiences – in between talk, talk, talking about where we'd been for the past 50 years, and sharing what tidbits we knew about other classmates, we'd just kind of stare at each other, tracing the memories in each other's faces of those jr. high years and especially the one summer we spent so much time together – me at her house playing Canasta by the hour, laughing ourselves silly when we imitated our introductory French teacher Mr. Merkelson instructing us to get the nasal tone quality of the language. Next year is our 50^th reunion . . . I tried to get her to commit to come, telling her how much fun the 20^th was. 

 

                                                 Patty Towns & Caryn:  long lost jr. high & high school friends.  No way it's been 50 years!!!