Oakland Excavation and a Day of "Rest"

Two days of digging under my supervision, and one day under another geologist, and the excavation is complete. Now we'll just need to see how the confirmation samples come back for if we'll need to expand the excavation or not.

A few weeks ago, Jennifer had suggested taking this Friday off, so while it later ended up corresponding to a day excavating, it's what we did yesterday. And did we walk.

We started at the Embarcadero Hyatt where she had stayed for a party for a friend, and then walked to where she had parked over at the Rincon Center. Then we walked down to the Embarcadero, and had breakfast at Sinbad's on Pier 2. Then we walked along the Embarcadero, heading around to a bike shop owned by a guy Jennifer knows, and along the way, we came across Tcho.

Jennifer spotted it by the words painted on the side of the building at Pier 17 (I can't remember them, but something like "All chocolate made on site"). It looked like just another warehouse on the pier, but there was also the word tour painted on it. We found out that the tours haven't begun yet, but we did stop by their little shop attached to the factory. It's some incredible chocolate, so if you're walking along the Embarcadero for whatever reason, stop in.

We continued on to Bay Street, then curved onto Powell, and went to Citizen Chain Cyclery. the guy's philosophy about bikes is great, so check the site.

We then walked up Powell to Washington Square, and the Rogue Public Alehouse located there. We ended up not having their beer, but had an apple and pear cider each. They were a very different taste, but we followed them up with the Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey. It's very light, and has a slow finish but builds up nicely. I'll have to look and see if the local BevMo carries it or not.

After Rogue, we continued up Powell towards up to Union Square. Just before the square we had lunch at one of our favorite sushi restaurants, Maru Sushi. We ate light, but got our fill, and then we moved on to the shops around the square; essentially Levi's. They were having a sale.

Then we headed further down Powell and stopped at Lush for Jennifer, and then DSW for both of us. We could have spent nearly $1,000 at DSW (they have Mark Nason), but limited ourselves to one pair of shoes each.

Finally, we figured we had done enough damage, and walked down Market to where Jennifer's car was parked, and drove home.

Whew, about 4.6 miles all told. I deserve this relaxing evening coming up.