Travel and Tales By Susan Campbell

I was at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco having tasty chicken wings, and some of the staff there were prepping for dinner.   I think those green beans originally filled up that entire box!

What a beautiful day on Ocean Beach.  San Francisco is not always foggy!  The neighborhood out here is slowly changing and a little less off the radar – good coffee, good restaurants.  There are more families with small children around – a sure sign of gentrification – and a lot of surfers!  Parking is more of a challenge now.  Grrr.  :)

Natural Bridges State Beach is home to a Monarch Butterfly Preserve, a grove of eucalyptus where thousands of Monarch butterflies overwinter in the fall.  This early in the season they number in the hundreds, but it was still awe-inspiring to see clouds of them clustering in the trees and dancing in the skies above.  There are also plenty of jays on the chase, predators of the monarchs.

What to say?  This is a street off Via Giulia, in Rome.  Stunning.  Of course.

Once upon a time in Providence, Rhode Island there was an awesome ice cream parlor called Big Alice’s.  I used to live nearby, and that is where I discovered oreo cookie mix ins!  Sadly, it has gone out of business, but the restaurant in its place still displays its iconic sign.

This is an art piece called Raygun Gothic Rocketship, near Pier 14 in San Francisco.  I like walking down by the Embarcadero, along the water with a view of the Bay Bridge.  The stretch from the Ferry Building to the Hills Brothers Building is a particular favorite.  San Francisco is as cute as ever.  It’s so cute it almost doesn’t seem like a real city, which I am allowed to say because I’ve lived there.

Budapest is actually made up of Buda, on the west side of the Danube River, and Pest, on the east side.   In the middle you see Margaret Island here.  Visiting Budapest in the spring rather than the winter was a revelation!  No more four degrees and ice floes on the Danube.  People were out and about in the sun.

I had just seen the Tower of Belem in Lisbon, which, by the way, is an impressive building.  As I was walking away from it, I saw this person at a distance and just had to take this shot.  I think it is a man, and I’m not sure why the getup since there were no jesters called for on or near the Tower premises.  A little way off I saw a deserted easel and some paints, so perhaps this jester was offering to paint portraits for tourists for money.  At any rate, he had to take a smoke break.  It was a sunny day, so I imagine it was hot in that costume!

While in Lisbon, I made it my mission to see this incredible bookstore.  A printing company used to be in this space, and to the right is even more space with the old equipment still there.  The store is huge!  Two floors, with a café and open until midnight.  Across the way is a delicious gelato store, too.

There are actually four ocean baths at Coogee Beach.  Here’s another photo of this one, called the Ross Jones Memorial Pool.

This visit we stayed both at Coogee Beach and also at Woolloomooloo Bay.  Woolloomooloo Bay was striking, on the water and beautiful, and next to the Royal Botanic Gardens.  Coogee Beach was charming!  I liked being in a neighborhood with city residents.