Today I opted to stay home for the day. I needed to sort out my belongings after being out and about for a few days and I thankfully found that in spite of what seemed like a lot of buying I can still comfortably fit everything into my suitcase. However, I do realise the holiday is still in early days and so more purchases could yet be acquired.

Part of the reason for staying home was to cook dinner for the family, a long time favourite of David's, fried rice. To enable this I needed to walk to the local supermarket - about half a mile away, to buy the necessary ingredients for the meal.

When I was at the shopping centre yesterday I asked for directions to a shop and was told I needed to take my car (which I don't have and couldn't drive if I did) but when I explored further I found that the shop was not more than 5 minutes away so to say that I was going to walk to the supermarket today would be the exception for most people and not the norm.

I was quite happy to be doing this as it has given me a better sense of my bearings. The day was beautiful, clear blue skies and 20 degrees or more and so very pleasant.

David and Lisa live in a very large gated community and towards the back of the complex so I had quite a long walk through the various dwellings before getting to the main road. Somewhere towards the centre there is a fenced and gated swimming pool, an amenities room and a fitness centre. The property has paths throughout, lots of well established trees and gardens.

The photos in today's blog are of an apricot rose on a bush near the entrance way. I saw quite a lot of rose bushes today. They are coming towards the end of the season but nice to look at nonetheless.

I also saw squirrels from time to time - a pest in this part of the world but always a source of fascination to me. I must have seen them romanticised in too many books when I was a child, I think.

So, the trip to the supermarket was successful and dinner too and well received.

When Jackson came home from day care we had play mat time and had a lot of fun crashing trains into each other along the train track.

I still did not achieve all that I wanted to at home today so I may well spend another day indoors tomorrow.

We go out tomorrow night to celebrate Lisa's birthday and that of a workmate as well.

When I was in the United States two years ago I kept looking for the change in the trees indicating the onset of autumn weather.

We were a little early and did not see autumn in its full glory.

Today when I went out shopping it was the first time I noticed here that the leaves on the trees are beginning to change colour here.

When I lived in Sydney, I worked for a time in the Westfield office block and the Westfield shopping centre in Miranda was my shopping home for quite a number of years so it was amazing to me that I should travel half way across the world to end up shopping at a Westfield shopping centre, Westgate, San Jose, for the day.

There just happened to be quite a few stores there that I wanted to browse through, so with David and Lisa back at work for another week and Jackson in day care, it was the perfect opportunity for me to take my time about exploring the vast quantity of goods available.

Today we decided to go to down town San Francisco.

It was decided that we would try to see Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, the Golden Gate bridge and go for a ride on one of the cable cars.

We were going with an open mind and if we achieved at least some of them I was going to be more than happy.

The weather has been quite warm since I have been here but Lisa checked out the weather conditions and said it could be a bit cool down town so I was thankful that I wore a jacket for extra warmth.

We travelled into San Francisco via South San Francisco and came home along the Pacific Highway.

Going into town we saw lots and lots and lots of homes on the hills. Some of them were terrace homes, much like you would see in parts of Sydney but lots of them had flat roofs and looked like boxes in a row. Put me very much in mind of the words of the song - little boxes on this hillside and they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

It was quite a surprise to me as I had always admired the houses in the States, but this is Texas and towards the eastern seaboard where so many of the houses look rather grand with their deep eaves and lawn surrounds.

I guess the heritage of these houses in San Francisco go back to their early settlement days and so give the area its own characteristics.

The trip home along the Pacific Highway surprised me when at times we came down to one lane traffic - most unusual along main thoroughfares here.

At first the traffic in the opposite direction seemed to be delayed but then the same thing happened to us. It was Pumpkin Festival day here. Market gardeners had pumpkins on display by the acre and apparently today was the big day for people to go out and select their pumpkins for halloween.

Pumpkins with bright orange skins were the pumpkin of choice for halloween and they made quite a dramatic display spread out on the fields.

We saw the remains of the pumpkins at the end of the day and there were so many, it is hard to imagine how many there would have been at the beginning of the day.

Apart from pumpkins aplenty it was lovely to travel along this part of the highway with sometimes quite dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean. Again, I was reminded of parts of Sydney, especially the trip down the coast to Wollongong where similar sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean from a totally different part of the world can be observed.

Boats aplenty were moored at Pier 39.

Although I have listed Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf as separate entities, Pier 39 is within the district of Fishermans Wharf and so there can be a little bit of ambiguity when talking about these two areas. as pointed out by my ever knowing son, David.

This is probably the closest I will ever come to the notorious Alcatraz Prison.

The weather was overcast and even the Golden Gate Bridge could hardly be seen for the mist that surrounded it.

As we walked through Pier 39 I was aware of the noise of sea lions and as we reached the end of the pier so we came upon crowds of people standing and watching these sea lions.

There was a constant honking noise and the smell had to be ignored but a fascinating sight, nevertheless, as these creatures swarmed over each other and occasionally some jumped into the water for a swim.

A trip to downtown San Francisco would not be complete without a trip to Fishermans Wharf.

The cable car in the picture is about as close as we came to riding on one. By the time we had done the rounds of Fishermans Wharf the queue at the cable cars was longer than we might have been able to wait, especially with a young boy in hand, so that will have to keep for another day, hopefully.

Whilst in this area we visited the very popular Ghirardhelli Square to try some of the famous chocolates. There was a man at the door handing out squares of chocolate to prospective customers and the shop was overflowing with prospective buyers.

Seemed an appropriate thing to do, to have a seafood lunch whilst at Fishermans Wharf. Lots of stall holders with live crabs like these ones for the picking or crab chowder if prefered but we stayed with conventional meals like fish and chips.

Pretty much all of the shops in Pier 39 and at Fishermans Wharf cater for the tourist trade.

Some of them had carved ivory for sale and I saw elephants tusks in at least two shops that had been intricately carved like this one.

When I planned my trip to San Francisco I had no idea whether there would be any quilt shows or activities in which I might be able to participate.

Johanna let me know about the Pacific International Quilt Festival and it just happens to be in the same part of San Francisco where David and Lisa live and on during the first few days of my arrival.

On Saturday afternoon David and Lisa dropped me off to spend a few hours enjoying the wonders of the world of quilting.

After wandering the first few aisles of merchants they seemed to run out which I thought rather strange as this was supposed to be HUGE. When I backtracked and went down a few aisle of quilts and then more merchants, I discovered they had alternatated between quilts and merchants, which meant you did not get too much of one of the other. Very good idea.

Lots of lovely merchants and so I came home with heavier bags and lighter pocket book but all in a good cause, I feel.

The quilt image in this posting was a mystery applique quilt. It started with an image of the border only in black and white which gave participants the opportunity to choose their own colours for the whole quilt and then the rest of the quilt was revealed after borders were done. I had never seen applique quilts used in the mystery concept before.

My three/four hours at the quilt festival were well worth while and I could go back for more of the same today but we must press on and do some of the sightseeing that San Francisco will provide for us today.

This one I found particularly appealing. Probably not everybody's cup of tea but the colours and design worked for me. The lady who made it said she bought it as a kit and wondered if she would be able to finish but once she started she loved it and was able to complete.

This quilt won best wall quilt of the show. An original design by the creator of the quilt, machine appliqued and machine quilted. The intricacy of the work was amazing and from the photo you might think it was an oil painting but instead it is a 'painting' created from fabric. This quilt was gaining a lot of interest, including mine.

This quilt fascinated me because of the layers within layers. Diamond shaped blocks made up from lots of small strippy pieces. It must have taken many hours to construct and yet the maker said how liberating it was to make. She was a cancer survivor so may have been grateful for the opportunity that at least she was able to do this one.

I very much liked this quilt, the colour contrasts and composition were very appealing.

In case you are wondering, I have not photographed part of the quilt, this is all of the quilt, very cleverly done.

Just so I don't forget all the lovely things about living in Taupo, I took a few photos of the garden, to remind me of what I have to come back to - as well as a lovely family too, of course.

The play mat I quilted for Jackson was received very well and has been a play place already.

Although not showing on the screen at the moment, Jackson very much loves the DVD 'Cars' that Ricky and Johanna bought for him.

He is watching it at the moment, while I am updating my Blog.

Although he is sitting beside me at the moment while he watches, it is not uncommon for him to stand in front of the TV like this for some considerable length of time while he watches the action.

Last night Jackson was up in the middle of the night asking Mommy and Daddy if they could get up so he could watch 'Cars' - needless to say his request was not met with any enthusiasm.

After lunch we went to pick up Jackson from day care.

He was having his afternoon nap when we arrived so was very quiet at first so we took things quietly and he soon warmed up as the afternoon progressed.

I couldn't help noticing the 'peace' symbol on Jackson's t-shirt so had to take a photo to mark the occasion.

Apparently peace and flower power is still alive in San Francisco, even after all these years.

San Francisco destination achieved safely. I must be travelling too much lately. All airports seem to be getting a 'sameness' about them and I had trouble focussing on where I really was.

The Customs process was plain sailing as was the collection of baggage and in no time at all I was through.

David was there to meet me and all too soon we were on the freeway heading out of downtown San Francisco.

He suggested we go and have some lunch at Google, in one of the 20 restaurants supplied for staff so that is what we did.

The whole of the Google 'campus' covered several blocks and where we stopped for lunch looked very much like a college campus.

I had to be signed in as a guest to Google and we went to 'Pure Ingredients' for lunch. David said this particular restaurant prides itself on only fresh ingredients and the lunch was very nice. Everything was buffet style and so you could help yourself to whatever you wanted. There was quite a smorgasbord of delights and probably the thing I enjoyed the most was the Peppered Veal - nice bite size pieces, tender, juicy and peppery - delicious!

When I was at San Francisco airport I noticed in the ladies that they supplied brown, recycled paper hand towels - hmmmmmmmm, clean and green, I thought. Same at Google, the serviettes are brown, recycled paper - clean and green at Google as well.

Such trivial notations on an overseas trip - strange the things you notice along the way.

Ah, the wonder of a child finding the strength in his legs.

It was only a few weeks ago when I visited with Lochlan's family and he was just beginning to roll over and move around the floor on his back.

Now at less than 9 months he is crawling as much as he can and doing mini push ups, like in this image to strengthen his legs.

If I take too much time in visiting again he may well be up and walking - fascinating time in a parent's life.