San Fran, continued

I vaguely remember watching the opening credits of "The Streets of San Francisco" TV series when I was a kid. That was the first time I saw those huge hills of the city. Since then, of course, I've seen them in countless movies and TV shows. But this was my first time to see them in real life. WOW. I don't know how well you can see this pic on here, as its kinda small, but standing at the top of this street, looking down, was BREATHTAKING. And dizzying. Yikes.
Driving up and down these streets was so wild. Down it was like being on a giant rollercoaster. Up, you felt like your car wasn't going to make it. You almost felt as if the car would fall over, and flip backwards down the street. Weird. Plus, it is amazing how people park on these streets. I can barely parallel park anymore on the flat streets of Florida. I can't imagine doing it here.

Thusday our great friends Tom and Anna Richmond flew in. We drove up to Sant Rosa and had dinner with Jeannie Schulz, the widow of Charles Schulz, creator of the PEANUTS strip, , Stefan Pastis (creator of the "Pearls Before Swine" comic strip) and his wife, and Anna's Brother and sister and law. We has a great time. What a cool bunch of people. Anna took photos with her high tech camera, but I didn't get any. When I get copies from Anna, I'll try to post them.

Friday, we went to the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. Tons of comic strips and exhibits on the PEANUTS characters and Schulz himself were there. If you know me, you know I bought some books in the giftshop! Even cooler, perhaps, is that Jeannie Schulz, met us there and gave us a top secret tour through the offices of Creative Associates, the Schulz company's headquarters. This is where they do all of the licensing art, contracts, etc., etc., for all of the PEANUTS merchandise around the world. Paige Braddock, of the strip "Jane's World", works there, and it was cool to meet her as well.


Jeannie Schulz was a great, gracious host on our trip to Santa Rosa. I think she's gotta be in her 70s, and is incredibly active still. Besides being a shrewd businesswoman and keeping tight reins on the entire Schulz empire, she pilots her own plane, and takes trapeze lessons with her granddaughter, if you can believe it! I have this one photo of her right now, with her cool little yellow truck with the Woodstock stripes on it...
Thanks for the hospitality, Jeannie!


Tom and Anna
Joe and Kelly ( Anna's brother and sister in law ,who are graciously letting us stay in their beautiful home in nearby Geyserville)
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