We set off for San Francisco earlier this week so Ted could get a second opinion (nothing life-threatening), and because it wasn't quite cold and rainy enough for us here in Powell Butte. We usually stay downtown, but this time decided to try something new. We ended up at the Queen Anne Hotel, a lovely pre-earthquake Victorian on Sutter.
We had a nice room, with a big four-poster and a little wood-burning fireplace. Some of you may remember, in pre-blog days, my emails of a trip which included a bizarre bed and breakfast stuffed so full of Victorian-era bad taste and I had to tell the world. This wasn't like that.
They served tea, sherry and cookies every evening from 4-6 in the downstairs parlor, which had two fireplaces of its own. The hotel apparently started as a girls' school, then a "gentlemen's club" (something involving girls, but not school, I'm wagering), before it became a hotel. It was lovely.
We had a bit of free time after Ted's appointment at the University, so we started hiking towards Fisherman's Wharf. Ted was able to recognize this famous dry-cleanery from the Mel Brooks hit, "High Anxiety,"
and I got a huge charge out of the following electronic road sign:
We had a nice lunch, as always, at Alioto's, and after returning to the hotel for a nap, enjoyed a light supper at the nearby Majestic.
We decided to head home a day early (after I found the kimono I wanted online), and so headed up I5 to Weed, then into Oregon. South of Klamath Falls, we stopped for a break and it began to snow. It stopped eventually, and we found another interesting sign on the road:
Makes one wonder what kind of food they served previously, hmm?
We didn't wonder for long, because just north of Klamath Falls we came to a complete stand-still. Look carefully at the next two photos - each of the white cube-like things is a semi stopped on the road miles ahead.
We waited about half an hour (which let me catch up on my I-Only-Work-On-This-In-The-Car Crochet-Shrug),
before Ted got fed up, turned around, and we backtracked to Klamath Falls, then over a winding mountain road into the Rogue River Valley at Ashland. It was still rainy, but what beautiful scenery.
Ashland was an absolutely beautiful town and while we intended to press on to Eugene, we were too tired. We didn't see anything we liked in Ashland proper, so I asked my phone for a recommendation and it came up with Callahan's Mountain Lodge, about ten miles south of Ashland. THAT was a wonderful find.
Great room, nice restaurant, full bar.... Boy, we needed it after that ride. In the middle of dinner, it started to snow. Here's how we ended the day:
And here's what we faced the next morning, driving near Cave Lake to reconnect with US97:
Oh- and Ted did get carded in Vacaville. As did I. The waitress said "they" were cracking down on people with expired licenses. Ted wondered aloud whether drunk driving with an expired license was more serious than drunk driving with a valid one - to no response. Here's the spot:
A mediocre bloody mary, but the laugh was priceless.
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