Wow, I'm having a tough time keeping up with our fearless travelers! I thought I'd break their San Francisco adventures up into FOUR smaller posts made from Wendi's personal travelogue. I'll try to address everything they did chronoligically. There will be a video in this posts, videos in the next post, and a picture set at the end! Here's what she had to say about their first stop in Frisco:
For our San Francisco/Berkeley visit, we first met up with a college friend, Pete Guinosso, at Cafe Gratitude. It was fun catching up, and Pete treated KDcat and I to our meals. While at the table, I labeled Pete as the "Quote Man" because he had a fantastic book of quotes he has been collecting. He periodically read from it as our conversations brought specific quotes to mind. It was a beautiful collection of poems, which Pete said is his second book and is filling up quickly.
Cafe Gratitude lived up to its reputation of having a great vibe with pleasant servers and fantastic raw foods. I wondered, however, why there isn't a dish called "I am Love." (There is a drink called "I am Loved," but I was interested in one that claimed I AM Love. Maybe they'll come up with one for my next visit!) After leaving Cafe Gratitude, I have to admit I wasn't overly grateful to find a $40 parking ticket waiting on the rental car. OUCH! We kept the car parked there (since it was already ticketed), and Pete showed us around the Berkeley shopping area. It was a fun stroll on a beautiful sunny, California day.
Pete is a yoga instructor in the Berkeley area, offering some fantastic retreats (not only in CA) and has a nice newsletter that's regularly sent out. He has maintained the charming nature he was known for in college, making KDcat and I feel extra special. You can find out more about Pete on one of his web site -- www.YogaIsLife.net -- and in the future you'll find him at his newly blossoming site called www.YogiPranksters.com (not live as of today), a site that will hold information about his mission to spread peace through sharing smiles with others.
I saw the largest lemons I've ever seen when I was visiting Pete's home. I noticed a bowl of giant-sized lemons on his kitchen counter and pulled out the video camera. Pete showed the lemons he was able to pick from a neighbor's tree. Have a look at this VERY short, maybe 30-second long, clip:
WOW! California is amazing with all of the fruits and veggies that grow here!
Sounds like a nice start to their adventure!? Wish I could have seen Pete again... He and I, and his brother Pat, were roommates for a year at Wilkes University! Anyway, stay tuned for Part 2 of "Glowing Gypsy Gals Glimpse the Glorious Golden Gate's Gastronomical Goodness" when Wendi interviews a kale chip maker, Part 3 when she meets with the rawsome Shivie and Cemaaj, and then Part 4 when we'll (finally) meet our good friend and gracious host, Carolyn (yet another college friend who loves the west coast!), and visit her unbelievable back yard paradise!
Once again, we d love to thank our generous trip snack sponsor, Natural Zing, for helping us to make this possible on our budget!
Original Comments
Below, we have included the original comments from this blog post. Additional comments may be made via Facebook, below.
On March 20, 2010, wrote:
I will be writing about the girls visit soon!
we miss them!
deb
On March 22, 2010, wrote:
Now you can see, lemons are picked small for commercial sale. More profitable! Until I visited California, I thought my Tn. store bought lemons were it's full size like an apple or avacodo for example. Also want to share that the excaliber dehydration trays with the screens on make great trays for greening up your sprouts on the last day. You can sprinkle them with water over the sink while they are basking in the indirect sunlight- i have a window above my sink- and the water goes right through the screen. Sprouts won't dry out and you get to spread them out real well so you get a lot of them green!