San Francisco East Bay Travel Group Meeting - July 8 (online) and July 25 (in-person)

PREVIEWS

Future online meetings (2nd Saturdays except as noted):
August - no online meeting (summer break, due to my travels)
September 9, 2023 @ 11am PT, online

Future in-person meetings:
September 26, 2023, location TBD
October 19, 2023, location TBD
December 9, 2023, special in-person event (hopefully!)

TOPICS: for July 8, online
Sheri M - introduction and RS tour in England
Carol and Tony say hello!
CWsocial - tales from Bulgaria (and a few photos)
Diane - plans for Mexico travels in 2023 and RS tour in 2024
diveloonie - travel plans for London, Mexico and Cuba

Please let me know if you have travels to share, with or without photos

Please add me to the Zoom on the 8 th. I’m going to Mexico in the fall and booked a RS tour for October 2024, skipping European travel this year.

I will miss July 8 due to a family trip. And for the in person meeting--July 25 is a Tuesday. Do you mean July 27?

Count me in for July 8 please!
Cynthia

Diane, very interested in hearing about your Mexico plans!
Barbara N, good catch, thank you! I meant Tuesday, July 25. Though I'm also open to Thursday, July 27th if that makes it work for you.
ponygirl813, you're in!!

I think we’ll make the Zoom meeting and hopefully the in person meeting as well.

(raises hand) Me please!!

I will miss you guys but will be driving that day.

We were supposed to be on a 3 week trip that would have included both of those dates, but since we had to alter our plans it looks one I’m available on the 8th. I’d love to join in. Thanks.

I'm planning on being at both meetings!

Andrea, ummm, yay? Glad that you'll make it, but not because your travel plans have changed.

TexasTravelmom, it definitely sounds safer to focus on your driving. Especially after hearing about some of the roads you've driven on!

Carol, Christine and Nigel - it will be great to see you!

I would love to join your online meeting on July 8th. I have recently travelled to England with a Rick Steves tour and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Please add me in for July 8th.

Thank you.

Sheri M

I hope to make it July 25, as long as I'm not overwhelmed with packing for a trip back East the next day.

I hope to be able to attend on July 8th.

CWsocial, not a huge deal about the change in our plans. Our 3 week RV trip, culminating in a week in Washington to visit family and 5 days in Portland to catch up with friends had to be cancelled due to RV issues. We are just skipping the first portion that involved camping on the Oregon coast and will stay with family in Washington and friends in Portland. Our camping friends aren’t happy, but they can go without us.

Oh, I remember RV issues. Although camping on the Oregon coast sounds very nice to get away from this heat that's about to hit us, I'm glad you get to make the rest of your trip.

In the air on the 8th but would love to come on the 25th.

I've sent the meeting link via private forum message to everyone above who has expressed interest. There is sill room for the online session.

I'm waiting to see how many will be joining the in-person meeting on July 25th before confirming a location. Please let me know if you'll be there so that I can get a reasonable count. Thanks!

I'm looking forward to July 8th on line.
I can probably also come to the in person meeting on July 25.
Thanks, as always, Catherine, for arranging all of these.

If I’m not too late, please include me for tomorrow’s online!

I vote for Orinda for the 25th - even though I already have a 1pm zoom on my calendar that I have to decide to do or not...

I am currently at my mothers in AZ, but going to try to join from my phone. I have a lot of travel planned-London, Mexico and Cuba.

diveloonie and bugslife, I've just sent you messages with the meeting link.

avirosemail, I vote that you skip the 1pm Zoom and meet up with us! But don't tell your boss I said that :-)

Hello,
I would like to be added to the online meeting, tomorrow at 11am.

Thank you,
GagetGirl

Hi GagetGirl, I've just sent the meeting link to you via private message.

See you, and everyone, online in a few hours!

(There is still time and space for anyone who would like to join....please RSVP on this thread and I will send you the meeting link.)

Hi Catherine --
I don't see a link in my email yet...
I'm looking forward to the meeting this morning.

I sent you a DM. I can’t make the merry today!

SharYn - I just sent it to you via pm. Sorry about that!
Diane - we will miss you and thanks for letting me know!

thanks CWsocial and avirosemail - another wonderful zzzzoomland party! Gotta work on my Cyrillic and Bulgarian!

Great meeting, thank you Avi and CW! Loved hearing about Bulgaria as it is a country we may be spending some time in, in the future. The food looked awesome and you did a nice job on your photobook.

What was the name of the gardens in Burbank that was talked about?

Thanks CWSocial and Avi for a fun meeting. CWS, thanks so much for your Bulgaria trip report with great photos. I’m not a foodie but those food photos reminding me of Bulgarian food made me hungry. It was interesting to hear about the differences between your Bulgarian tour and mine. Also it was nice to see photos of the Rose festival.

The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Gardens are in Marino, CA, about 15 miles from Burbank. I don't know the gardens in Burbank.

This was indeed a fun zoom get-together and a strong case for Sofia --
one question I didn't get to pose was about the ground meat patties:
were they called kofte or kefta or something similar --
that's what they're called in the MiddleEast and in Turkey,
and i find it brings a smile to the deli counter guys in Mediterranean shops if you ask for it that way instead of for meatloaf :-)

I found the menu online for Egur, Egur, the upscale Armenian place in Sofia that I went to a couple of times for lunch:

English Menu:
http://eguregur.bg/en/menu/35000/BBQ.GRILL/
Bulgarian/Cyrillic Menu:
http://eguregur.bg/bg/menu/35000/BBQ.GRILL/

In the first column, the second item is:
ПИКАНТНИ СВИНСКИ КЮФТЕНЦА

The Latin character version is, in fact, a variation .... "kyuftentsa":
PIKANTNI SVINSKI KYUFTENTSA

Egur Egur gave me an English menu and I asked for "spicy meatballs." At another place with a Bulgarian menu, I used Google Translate with my camera and then pointed :-)

Thanks all for a really enjoyable and enlightening meeting. Great presentation and I also appreciate all the suggestions for exploring the US west coast! No gardens in Burbank that I know of, but Huntington is definitely worth seeing and easy to access from L.A.

It looks like there are 6 of us for the meeting on July 25. That should work at Geppetto's. I'll plan to be there before 12:30 to get a table. The forecast is for 80 degrees in Orinda - bring a hat!

See you all there!

I will see you at Geppetto’s!

We plan to be there. 80 degrees? Sounds cool to me! I might have to bring my puffy jacket 😂

Hah, true! A 25 degree cool down!! ❄️❄️

Looking forward to seeing you at Geppetto's on Tuesday.

I'll be there, too!

Terrific! It will be fun to see everyone where we started in August of 2019!

I have posted the September (and beyond) meetings on a new thread while I have my laptop, so that I can easily "bump it up" while I'm traveling. Not to be confused with this upcoming July 25 in-person meeting!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/travel-meetings/san-francisco-east-bay-travel-group-meeting-sept-9-online-and-sept-26-in-person

Please post on this thread for July and on the new thread for September and beyond.