For lunch we enjoyed a couple of real ales and burgers in a quaint old English pub.  Chatted to locals about visiting Australia and New Zealand.

In the evening we went to an Italian bistro which was really jumping.  Full on Italian staff, food, noise and atmosphere.

Working on getting over our jet lag.

In the air, somewhere near Manchester.  Arrived uneventfully and explored the city a bit yesterday.  Lots of urban regeneration happening, and lots of grand Victorian architecture.  Off for a bit more exploring today, then train tomorrow morning to the start of the walk at St Bees Head.

Yesterday we took advantage of the Brisbane public holiday to got to the ‘Ekka’, aka the Royal Queensland Show.  It’s the Brisbane equivalent of what in NZ we used to call A&P shows – farm animals, traditional crafts and baking competitions, sideshow alley for the kids etc.  We get a public holiday for what’s referred to as ‘People’s Day’.  For years we’ve been meaning to go, but the lure of a lazy day at home has been too strong; that and the fact that around the Ekka Brisbane generally gets strong westerly winds that drop the temperature.

Anyway, yesterday was a beautiful and unusally warm winter day, so off we went early.  Once again John was the only bloke in the quilt show – missed you Caroline!  But then we surveyed the photography competition, baking a preserves, cats, sheep, cows, sheep, goats, chooks, vege displays etc.  Having arrived at 9am we were ready to go by 12, but not before a beer in the Stockman’s Bar!

So above are the prizewinning giant pumpkin, prizewinning preserves, and two of the more striking quilts from the quilt competition.

The traffic getting out of the Napa Valley was horrendous – like being in peak hour traffic in the city!  I wasn’t too worried until I heard the driver radio to his base that this was abnormal and what was going on?  But we arrived only about 20 minutes late at the airport and I have never been so pleased to see my plane!

With a bit of a delay as life intervened, this is the last of the posts about my trip to see Caroline.

After coming back from Mariposa we had a few days in the Napa, chilling out.  On Monday we had lunch at a lovely place overlooking the valley, and then hit the outlets at Napa City.  I picked up a couple of things at Gap and J Crew.  Even with the Australian dollar not quite as strong as it was, the prices were very reasonable.

And on Tuesday we headed into San Francisco to see the High Style exhibition at the Legion of Honor museum.  It was a travelling exhibit from the Brooklyn Museum’s costume collection – flash frocks from the last 100 years!  It was the first day so Caroline and I certainly weren’t alone as we oohed and aahed our way around.  The workmanship in some of the clothes was fabulous, as was the embellishment.  The shoes, from the 1930s through to the 1950s looked surprisingly modern.  A real highlight was the room given over to an American designer, Charles James, whose dresses were in amazing fabrics like lush velvet, and very sculptural – and in some cases feats of engineering!

After that we had lunch overlooking the garden of the nearby de Young museum and took a quick trip up the tower (great view of San Francisco), checked out a small but lovely exhibit of weaving from Laos, and on hour way came across a lovely exhibit of cloaks combining glass and flax weaving from a young NZ artist.

On Wednesday we spent part of the day at Caroline’s friend Trina’s with her Wednesday quilt group, and then it was time to head for the bus at Napa City .

Photo loading isn’t cooperating today so only two: the view down to Lake Henessey from Pritchard Hill (taken on a walk with Caroline) and the view from the de Young Museum across San Francisco.

Coincidentally, there was a local quilt show on at Oakhurst on the Saturday we were at Mariposa.  As it was only about a half an hour drive, we piled into Trina’s car on Saturday morning to take a look.  For a small show there were a lot of quilts!  Caroline and I both found it really instructive to go around some of the show with Helen (who also quilts other people’s quilts with a long arm quilting machine and so was able to explain some of the finer points of what we were seeing) and Trina, just becaue they both know so much more about what they are looking at than we do.  So below is Caroline with an enormous string quilt and then a quilt from a pattern called Celtic Solstice – I don’t have the patience for this sort of quilt, but I admire those who do!

The reason for the trip down to Yosemite in the first place was to go to a quilt retreat Caroline’s friend Trina was hosting at her husband’s family cabin near Mariposa, about 40 minutes from the park. The setting was lovely, and the cabin, originally started in the 1940s, comfortable with all the comforts of home. So the plan was for four days of sewing and eating!

So, after my trip to Yosemite with Dan, I joined Caroline, Trina and Helen at the sewing table.  After an initial wrestle with getting used to a new sewing machine, the biggest issue was not getting distracted by the interesting projects the others were doing!  I had taken a couple of projects with me and didn’t finish either of them, but had fun along the way.  Dan and Paul, Trina’s husband, kept themselves amused in various ways, which generally involved fixing things. 

Below is a view of the cabin, and then Caroline with Trina, and then Helen, in the midst of making the hideous number of blocks she needed for the scrap quilt top she finished the next day.  Oh to be as productive!

  
[First two photos are from the viewpoint at Glacier Point, the next is from Tunnel View down in the valley and the last is in the Mariposa Grove.]

Yesterday my friend Caroline’s husband, Dan, took me for Yosemite National Park for the day.  We hit the highlights and it was a bit of a whistlestop tour but it is an amazing place of which I could only scratch the surface.

The first stop was the Mariposa Grove of redwoods.  Saying they are big trees doesn’t even start to describe it.  They are massive. I was luckly to see them as next week the grove closes for two years for restoration.  Then we went to Glacier Point, which is where the amazing views of Half Dome above were taken.  The view is just stupendous!  Lastly we went to the Yosmite Valley floor, where the views down the valley are amazing.

The park is nothing like a NZ or Australian national park in that you can drive extensively in the park, there are hotels (a bit like the Chateau in NZ in that they were built in a grander time), and the accessibilty versus conservation balance is probaby weighted more to accessibiliy than in NZ or Australia.  Yosemite is extremely well visited so even on a week day early in the season like  yesterday when we arrived the Mariposa Grove mid morning the carpark was full – but there are frequent shuttles to points of interest in the park so that’s what we took.  You really need more time  than I have to explore the park and it is possible to stay in a house or something more salubrious than a tent inside the park itself, unlike most Australian or NZ parks.

So, all in all a magic day with good company

This will be a short post just to say I made it safely across the Tasman and the Pacific with no mishaps and even after a very very long queueing experience in the Immigration hall in San Francisco airport (many many Chinese passport holders and what appeared to be an official lunchbreak) I just caught the bus up to the Napa at the agreed time.

We were at Caroline and Dan’s last night and this morning headed south and east to Mariposa, which is  one of the gateway towns to Yosemite National Park.  if the weather is good we are off there tomorrow..  Photos tomorrow I promise!

Today, as I am home and not sharing my sore throat with the office, I thought I’d have a play with the blog.  Best of intentions since I set it up, but there’s been a lot to do at home, including supporting John in his demanding but temporary promotion.

So, how are things progressing?  Well, we got our walking poles last week but haven’t had much practice with them yet.  Even with the little bit of coaching I got from Mike (the pole dude and friend of Janine and Rob) I can see how they are going to make a difference for us.  We just need to get the pole technique sorted out and practice before we get confronted by the Lake District in late August.  We are persevering with the PT, and while we’ve had our share of niggles (knees, backs etc) we are both fitter and stronger and better prepared than we have ever been for a walk

In late breaking news, I am heading to the US in early June to visit Caroline!  So watch this space for some pictures from the Napa Valley and maybe further afield!

And below, in my first attempt to upload a picture, are those red walking boots which so far have spent most of theit time walking between East Brisbane and the city!