Author: drewwfaust@gmail.com

Surprise, we headed back to Mexico! We found a cheap flight from LAX to Cabo San Lucas. Cabo’s a super-touristy beach town catering to west coast Americans and cruise ship passengers. The tourist zone surrounds a large marina, and it’s about what you’d expect: crowded with overpriced restaurants, LOUD bro bars, shops with cheap souvenirs, and touts ready to sell you just about anything. But that doesn’t spoil everything. If you venture a few blocks from the tourist area the food is cheap and delicious. We went back to Taco Gus three times!

We visited the self-proclaimed “smallest bar in the world” which has dollar bills all over the place.

And fortunately, Cabo is a stunning setting. The beaches are lovely, and the water is just warm enough for a swim even in January. We took a boat ride from the marina (on the inland side) around the tip of the peninsula into the Pacific Ocean.

The guide pointed out plenty of illusions in the rock formations. This one looks like the Baja Peninsula itself.

Here’s the first peek at the Pacific Ocean through a tiny slot in the rocks.

And here’s Cabo’s famous arch.

The seals were plentiful on this rock. And rather stinky.

The arch from the Pacific side.

We climbed Mt Solmar, the biggest hill near the end of the peninsula. It’s on private land that’s used as a dog rescue, but they guide tours twice a day. We went in the late afternoon to enjoy sunset from the top. A look back at town.

Cruise ship in the harbor. Fortunately, there wasn’t a cruise ship every day. But one day there were two and the tourist zone was packed.

Looking down at the Pacific side.

The tip of the peninsula.

I recognize that silhouette.

This dog is named Polo and took quite a liking to Leena. He kept circling back during the hike to check on her.

Northwestern landed in the Holiday Bowl on December 31, so after our San Francisco house sit we rented a car and headed to SoCal for a few days including the game. We stopped for a night in Carmel and stayed with Brian and Anne (uncle and aunt). We met Jack the cat and lined up another house-sit. They’re heading to Europe for three (or four?) weeks when the school year ends in June (Anne is a teacher). We’ll take care of Jack and rough it in Carmel. The US Open is at Pebble Beach during our stay (how nice), so get in touch if you’d like to come by for that or some other part of our stay.

We next stopped in Los Angeles and stayed a night with my college friend Maria. Another college friend, Andrew, joined us. We all jumped in the car and headed to San Diego the next day. To break up the drive, Andrew found us a nice brewery to visit.

Unfortunately, it was overcast on game day with a few showers thrown in. We met up with Branaca, another college friend, at her tailgate.

Andrew, Maria, Branaca, Leena, Drew.

We also connected with Randy and his tailgate. The west coast crew made plans to meet again for Northwestern’s 2019 opener at Stanford.

The weather was looking decent at the start of the game.

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Midway through the first quarter, rain was imminent, so we moved to some mid-field seats just under the stadium cover. That was a good call because it rained for the rest of the game.

Northwestern was dominated by Utah in the first half and we found ourselves down 20-3. Oh well, we were 7-point underdogs. We got a stop to start the second half, and then drove for a touchdown on our first possession. But Utah moved the ball down the field and had a first-and-goal from the six. Then came the game-changing play: a strip-sack fumble followed by an 86 yard return for a touchdown. Suddenly it was 20-17. Northwestern got three move turnovers in the quarter and two touchdowns, taking a 31-20 lead heading to the fourth quarter. I can’t ever remember Northwestern scoring 28 points in a quarter.

Northwestern controlled enough of the ball and the clock for a scoreless fourth quarter to win 31-20.

The team headed over to the band for the Alma Mater after the game.

We drove back to LA for a few days before flying to Cabo San Lucas on the fourth. I got in a last round of golf (for a few months) at Rustic Canyon. From the 16th tee just after sunset. I finished on 18 in pitch black.

We house and dog-sat in San Francisco in December for our friends Matt & Galina who took advantage of some work travel to Sydney to explore Australia and New Zealand. We lived in San Francisco for a year (and lived in Oakland as well) and fell in love with the city. It was so much fun to spend a month there. We caught up with lots of old friends – Mark and Leslie, Shannon and Damon, Kenny and Evelyn. We even saw Kathleen and Kelly, Portland friends who moved to Ohio who came to town over Christmas to visit their daughter. Sometimes social media is great for helping find those connections. And we had many visitors. Alex came down from Portland for a few days, then Aaron also came down from Portland. My (step) brother Steve and his partner Kate came through town and we headed over to his cousin Brett’s place for dinner. His parents Dave & Kathy drove in from Ripon to join us. My aunt and uncle, Anne and Brian, drove up from Carmel for a weekend and took us to see A Christmas Carol at the theater. (Thanks!) We were joined by my cousin Katie (their daughter) and her partner Cameron who live in Oakland. Travel is great and rewarding, but it was really nice to spend time with so many good friends and family.

Matt & Galina’s place is near AT&T Park (home of the SF Giants) is on the 16th (and top) floor of the building. It includes a deck and amazing views of the city. Like this:

Turning west for the sunset.

The deck even had a fire pit.

“Our” place was across the street from Mission Creek Park along Mission Bay. We walked the dogs here daily.

We should introduce the dogs! We dog-sat the odd couple of Dexter, an 11 year old Yellow Lab, and Sterling, a 7 year old Toy Poodle. We took them to Baker Beach a few times where they endlessly chased tennis balls up and down the beach.

We set out on a long walk along the bay towards our old North Beach neighborhood passing under the Bay Bridge along the way.

We lived a block from Coit Tower for a year. It’s at the top of Telegraph Hill in the northeast corner of the city. We climbed the steps from the Embarcadero.

Alcatraz.

A view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

A view of the Bay Bridge.

We stopped by Greens Sports bar one day but unfortunately it was closed. We watched a bunch of March Madness games here and made some lifelong friends.

And here’s one of them, Kenny, along with his wife Evelyn. We got together for dinner in North Beach one night and later visited them for lunch in Moss Beach, just south of the city.

Seals on Moss Beach:

I planned ahead and shipped my clubs to Matt & Galina (thanks for storing them!) before we departed for Europe and Africa in September. I used to play a lot at Harding Park when we lived there. It was cheap for residents, though often in fairly rough shape. Since we left, it’s become TPC Harding Park and underwent a massive renovation that primarily removed trees from the property. The course has since hosted a Presidents Cup, one of the WGC Match Plays, and will host the PGA Championship in 2020. I got in a round there as well as several rounds at the renovated Corice Park South Course in Alameda and a round at Wente in Livermore with my friend Wally. Here’s a look across the 18th fairway at Harding Park.

This is San Francisco’s version of a “white” Christmas. (This was actually Christmas Eve.)

And here’s a few more shots from the deck. You can tell I loved the view!

London served as our gateway in and out of Europe for this leg. We’d found a really cheap ($200 each) one-way non-stop from Gatwick to Oakland that we will take on December 4th. We’ll be house and dog-sitting in San Francisco until the end of December.

We’ve been chasing the sun for over a year though Madrid and Barcelona were certainly more autumn-like temperatures. London was cooler yet. And rainy. So we didn’t venture out too much over our long weekend here and don’t have any pictures to show for it.

We did get together for dinner with our friends Tom and Val that we met while on safari in Africa five years ago. We had fun catching up with them over delicious Indian food. We walked to and from dinner that night mostly along the Thames. We went to a pub near Chelsea’s home stadium, Stamford Bridge, and we enjoyed a couple of pints while we watched them beat neighboring Fulham. We saw Bohemian Rhapsody which seemed like an appropriate thing to do in London. I enjoyed the movie – I’ve liked Queen’s music for years – and there were some tears shed towards the end.

We took a high-speed train from Madrid to Barcelona for our last week in Spain. We started exploring with a walk to the beach. We passed the Arc de Triomf.

A hill on the south side of the city gave a nice panoramic view.

The Olympic Stadium is on the hill on the south end of the city.

Some views on the walk down the hill to the city.

There’s a famous fountain here, but it wasn’t on when we went by.

A couple of views from Park Güell, a park designed by Antoni Gaudi.

Speaking of Gaudi, we stopped by for a tour of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. I suppose you’d call it his masterpiece. Constructions began in 1882, Gaudi took over the design a year later, and worked on it until his death in 1926. The current goal is to complete construction in 2026, 100 years after Gaudi’s death.

I learned that the word gaudy is derived from Gaudi, and I can see why. To me, it’s an awful-looking building on the outside.

But I found the inside stunning. The stained glass windows create incredible lighting, and the columns have an organic quality as they rise from the floor. They’re not all the same size; they’re not symmetrical. It’s like being in a forest.

A few views looking out after an elevator ride up.

We took a day trip from Barcelona to the mountain town of Montserrat, a Benedictine monk retreat. Monserrat is part of the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range. History says that shepherds saw a bright light descending from the sky in 880 AD and decided to build a monestery to capture the spirit.

After a couple of hours of train rides, you have this view just a short walk from the station.

We hiked through the small town and out on a trail winding along the side of the mountains.

We headed back to town and took a funicular up a few hundred more meters in elevation and hiked some more. The landscape and scenery were incredible.

Heading even further up!

Selfie at the top.

Heading back down to town on the funicular.

A final shot from the first change of trains further down the mountain from Montserrat.

Next up, Madrid. We enjoyed a week in the capital of Spain. Our AirBnB was just down the street from a lovely park surrounded by coffee shops and tapas bars.

When you’re walking along and see the Museo del Jamón, a stop is mandatory. And delicious.

The Plaza Mayor had a ton of work being done in preparation for the holidays.

Some impressive government buildings.

A stop for chocolate and churros at San Ginés, established in 1894.

The “center” of Spain is called kilometer 0. All road mileages (kilometerages?) in Spain start here.

A few shots from a beautiful urban park with lovely fall colors.

We took a train to the outskirts of Madrid and hiked through a park to a vantage point of the city.

A couple of evening shots.

Our last day trip in Morocco took us to Chefchaouen. On the drive out, we stopped at a vantage point over Sidi Chahed, a reservoir formed by a dam built in the 1990s.

Our first look at Chefchaoen.

The city is famous for it’s blue painted buildings and walls. We wandered through alleys.

We hiked to a vantage point above the city.

We headed back to the city and wandered through endless alleys full of shops. I may have become addicted to finding the perfect encapsulation in picture form of the beautiful city with my endless photos of the blue buildings. A sampling:

We took a day trip from Fez to see the Berber/Roman ruins at Volubilis. The city dates from the 3rd century BC and became part of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. It peaked in the 2nd century AD and was essentially the southwest corner of the Roman Empire. The city fell to local tribes around 285 AD and was never retaken. It remained inhabited for another 700 years.

It’s remarkable to me what can survive for nearly 2000 years.

We continued on to the city of Meknes in the afternoon. It had a huge market, but the goods seemed really cheap with endless redundancy. We’d seen much better in Marrekech.

We took a quick flight from Marrakech to Fez to spend a few days there. Fez was surprisingly large, at least to me, and we drove through a modern cityscape on the way from the airport to the Médina (old city).

The gate near the area of the Médina in which we stayed.

On our way to dinner the first night, we had a little trouble finding the restaurant. Amid the concrete buildings and high walls the GPS on the phone can be pretty flakey. A local guy offered to help. And while we were probably less than 100 meters from the restaurant, he took us on a 15-minute walk through the winding alleys of the Médina. I was watching our progress on the phone GPS and could see he was just taking us in a big loop to make it seem like he’d had to take us a long way to find the restaurant. I gave him a little bit of money (I think about a dollar’s worth) and he was insulted and demanded more. Sorry, but we were right around the corner 15 minutes ago. Fortunately, we didn’t see him again.

The restaurant had stunning tile work (and delicious food).

The royal palace:

Though the gate near where we’re staying is also blue, this is Blue Gate.

A colorful street in the Médina:

Fez is famous for its leatherworks and tanneries.

A look out over the many different vats for dyeing the leather different colors.