Bridges and Nice People

Today was another good day.
When you drive from Rivka's house on the hill in El Cerrito--near Berkeley--you can see San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Oakland Bridge.  At night, it is breath-takingly beautiful!

I decided not to travel today--except to drive to a town about 30 miles away to find a Mini dealership and get the oil changed and the tires aligned--which took hours!  While waiting, I had a nice Vietnamese soup at the Saigon Buffet, then took a nap in the Mini lounge.

I had a massage scheduled for 4:00--but the traffic returning here tripled the thirty minute drive.  I left at 3:00 and was half an hour late for my massage.  My aversion to being late really kicked in, and I could feel my anxiety rising with every mile and every hopelessly long red light.

Andrea, at the Hibiscus Boutique Spa, gave me a very intense workout on my legs (active release, she called it) and when I left there I told her about a Robert Earle Keene song that was befitting of the moment:  "Feels so good feeling good again!" (For those of you who are interested in different healing modalities, you can check out her blog at www.ahimsabody.com)

After that, Rivka and her friend Judy and I went to a wonderful vegetarian Japanese restaurant in Berkeley--and now we're back and I'm so relaxed from a massage and good company that I'm going to turn in for the night.

I have decided to shave off some miles at the top of the original itinerary for this trip (no Vancouver this trip)  and stay another couple of days in this area.   Tomorrow, it's Marin; the next day, who knows?  I'm hoping the pain stays at bay enough that I can return to full exploration mode mañana!

Every day someone says something I want to save and share.  Today it was Andrea's words:

"Taking a journey is not an external collection of places and things; it's an internal recollection of one's experiences."

I loved that!  I asked her if she'd write it down for me so that I could post it--and she did!