Harris Ranch

evening folks, we just drove for a bit over 3 hours to get to harris ranch. We love staying here, the rooms are big clean and fancy. this time I drove almost all the way from Novato. We had bumper to bumper traffic in San Rafael and once again in Oakland I couldnt fucking believe it, Jim always does all the driving and this time I said no I am going to drive so I drove all the way to the rest stop nearest Harris ranch. The drive was ok except it fucking RAINED what the fuck it is sept and it is raining??? I just cant take it I want summer summer summer not rain, argh! we also saw a few flashes of lightning. We checked into our room and then we went to dinner, Harris ranch has two restaurants, one is the country kitchen and the other has a BAR! we were told the bar/steak house was closed for the night so when we walked by we asked ands they said come on in we are still serving! yeah so we ordered a few beers som cocktails for me and had a fantastic dinner. Harris Ranch is known for its beef it is the best. I had a salad that was beefsteak tomatoes, tri trip, blue cheese onions and lettuce, just fantastic. Jim had mashed potatoes a ten ounce new york strip and veggies. While we were sitting in the restaurant i said the music is a bit loud isnt it? and then I noticed it was live..lol ad there were three couples right out of central casting dancing, the men all were wearing jeans plaid shirts and cowboy hats, they were two stepping. I said I wish we had some europeans with us, they live this stuff...lol
they were hooting and hollering, and dancing, was real fun. Live music no matter what it is always is so much fun. We are back in the room, which smells like carpet cleaner and dust so we have the door to the balcony open trying to air the place out. Anyway we survived the first leg of our trip, rainiy roads, truckers and me driving 80 miles an hour...YIKES!

new york city

We were in New York city 2 weeks ago. Our first trip ever. We stayed at the hilton times square which was probably the most comfortable hotel room I have ever stayed in. the sheets were so soft, the room was large, a corner room with two large windows so we could look down on times square. New york is very warm colored, brick buildings, wooden water tanks on the rooftops, We saw curtains, staring david hyde pierce, what fun! the music was very reminiscent of the music man, very well done, bought the cd. We also saw chicago, the movie was very well done. Chicago wasnt my first choice but Jim bought the tickets and there really wasnt too much we haven't already seen or have tickets to see this season in sf. I love going over the list of shows and saying seen it seen it going to see it...lol We had a wonderful time, I took tons of pics http:www.flickr,com/sarahracha. After three nights in New York city where we were only able to see the Guggenheim, so we need to go back..lol we drove to Philadelphia where we met my sister and saw the king tut exhibit. fantastic, the artistry just blows my mind. Then we drove on to Maryland where we stayed for two nights, We visited Harpers Ferry, and Baltimore where we saw the american visonary museum loved it.We also saw my brother in laws show at the delplane gallery in Fredrick. I really like his work. this is my condenced blog, I am not good at going back over things I did two weeks ago.

New York

Jim and I went to New York Labor day week. This was the first trip to New York for both of us. The reason for the trip began when a friend who lives "upstate" was talking in e mail about her new garden center. Her husband quit his job to help her with her dream and things sounded like they were coming along and she said she wished everyone could visit. Everyone meaning the 25 or so of us in the email group we call echat. we talk to each other every day sharing life stories, gardening woes etc. Jim was pestering me with ideas for a vacation and so I said lets do New York. I was able to get one other couple to come along too.Kath and Jerry from Ohio. We have been in this group for 10 years and some of us have met, some of us havent. Our trip began with a stay in Hyde park in a cute b&b run by students from the CIA. We flew the red eye,slept a bit but it seems to me the flight attendents area bit sadistic, offering beverages when you are just hitting rem. I had a chatty patty sitting in front of me and no matter how deeply I pushed my ear plugs into my skull, I could still hear him yammering away,also he was waving his arms in the spot light he needed on and it created a flickering light show that made me wish I had brought along one of those sets of eye covers. Still I do think I slept, I am getting better at sleeping on planes. We checked in to our b and b sat by the lake enjoyed the sun, freshened up and then headed to Victoria gardens in Rosendale.Vicky is a wonderful relaxed warm comfortable person who is so much more articulate than her communications by email. Some people dont write like they speak. The shop looked beautiful and I took lots of pictures. Jim and I headed off to lunch at this cute funky place called the birds nest. When we came back Kath and Jerry showed up. We hung out at the shop for a bit, did some shopping and then we went to a farm stand for corn and then on to Vickys house where we met her husband Wayne .The men hit it off instantly and there were lots of laughs. We ate a wonderful grilled dinner drank LOTS of wine, had a wonderful night. We drove back to our b and b and fell into bed.The next morning we met at a farmers market where I was shamed by the size of the tomatoes, I thought California grew the largest tomatoes.After the farmers market we went to brunch and then wandered around a flea market. Vicky ahd Wayne had a wedding to go to and Kath Jerry Jim and I went off to the hooley on the hudson where we hung out for the rest of the day and night drinking beer. It was fun to just hang out, hearing bag pipes, watching people. The next day we met for lunch at the birds nest where I discovered sea breezes, wow nummy .then we headed to New York ccity