San Francisco restaurants are plagued with two challenges. In these viral times, most people prefer to dine outdoors, but the fire-related smokey conditions do not make for a good experience. We did eat lunch outside yesterday, but today the skies were hazy and dark on my morning run. It will not be worth going to the beach today as planned, and we’ll once again make use of the kitchen for at least breakfast and dinner. 

After I get done writing this morning, the Indy 500 will get underway, providing a couple of hours entertainment. Yesterday, we watched the Trailblazers and Pacers stumble again, then capped the evening off with the Adam Sandler movie, Murder Mystery, over oven-baked pizza and lots of wine. It was not much different than a quiet evening at home, but more enjoyable with the company of my wife’s daughter and her husband. They were the purpose of this first stop on our Coast-to-Coast tour from Oregon to Florida.

Tomorrow we’ll get off to an early start to make an afternoon tasting at the Hearst Ranch Winery.  We’ll next travel an hour south from there to Cambria for a stay at the Moonstone Landing and dinner at Robin’s – smokey skies permitting. We’ll be getting together with some dear friends of mine, reunited after years together of Indycar racing involvement back in the late 80s and early 90s. We were all in the radio business at one time and then part of the same racing team. Race day was naturally a special time for all of us. Today, however, we’ll all be sitting at home watching on TV with empty grandstands in the background. It’s by far the most unusual race we’ll ever see on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval. “Gentlemen Start Your Engines.”