Good thing I flew home on Friday instead of Saturday.  The storm that knocked down our fence did considerable damage around the Valley (some folks are still without power), and the winds were so high that they had to evacuate the control tower at Sky Harbor (and of course shut down the airport) for a time!  

The following was posted yesterday:  

Severe thunderstorms have caused significant damage to Phoenix's international airport.  The storms have also grounded all flights, according to the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport's Twitter account. Parts of the airport are reportedly flooding, and a portion of the airport's roof appears to have been ripped off in the storm.

We reportedly got 3 inches of rain in 3 hours yesterday (and apparently it stormed again in the middle of the night, although I slept through that.)  Not surprised to hear that; half of the Sprouts' parking lot was flooded and unusable today, so I had to park in their Back 40.  But at least there's some food in the house now.

Patti came by this afternoon for an hour or so.  

Always good to visit with her and catch up! 

 

 Alex also came by and moved some of the furniture in his bedroom, so tomorrow I can start to paint.  This would be nice...

But this is more likely!

And now for the Gilroy pictures I promised.

While waiting for the Mercantile to open, we popped across the street for coffee for Tom (and chocolate bread for me.)  This sign was sitting on their counter, and who wouldn't love a To Do List like this?

This sign was posted on the front of another of the buildings on that block; 

a first for me!

This quilt hanger was in the window of the Mercantile.  

Looks like something I could use, right?

And also this bumper sticker- 

because there's no such thing as too much garlic, right?

Once inside, I admired this miniature quilt (part of a display for the light.)

Great sign <g>

Yummy fabrics!

This RV is a clever sewing machine cover, and I asked about a pattern.  But she said the pattern was a disaster, and not to bother.  So maybe one of my talented quilting friends can whip one up just by looking at the picture?

This quilt was made from a jelly roll - nice idea. 

There are names written on each of the leaves on this Visitor Tree.  

Wouldn't this be a good fund-raiser quilt at the AQG Show?

After I made my purchases (several yards of fabric, and the perfect t-shirt for the quilt show in March) I reluctantly left the store.  We headed back to the Garlic Shoppe, where I had breakfast:

It really was good - and we could definitely taste the garlic!!!

From there we headed next door to check out the garlic wine. 

Creative front door!

Later on down the road we stopped at a fruit stand, and Tom got his first look at a stalk of brussel sprouts.  After that we noticed fields and fields (and fields) of them.

 

We didn't buy any of those - but did get some sweet strawberries, peaches, and grape tomatoes.  The strawberries were gone by the time we reached San Francisco that evening, but the peaches and tomatoes were perfect for breakfast nibbling in the motel room.

In Santa Cruz we took a walk on the pier, 

which had cut-outs to enable viewing of the critters below.  

And there were lots of them!

This guy almost seemed to be posing for me.

And critters up above also.  The one standing on 2 legs had a nice voice.  Don't know about the other one because he didn't sing.

Continuing up the coast we stopped to watch some wind surfers (sail boarders?)  It was windy and COLD just standing by the truck watching, so even though it looked like fun I wasn't too envious!

And we got to watch one surfer pump up his sail.

I snapped this through the windshield as we were driving.  

A little blurry, but not too bad.

And here 'we' are on the beach that night, once we checked into our motel in San Francisco.  The beach was just across the street from us, but unfortunately the dunes blocked our view of the ocean.

Tom looks pretty cold.

I was a little happier.

This was as close to sunset as we got 

before scurrying back to the room to warm up!

This little patio, with a view of the dunes, was outside our room.

Time to get more stuff done, but next post you'll see pix from our time in San Francisco.  We did all the touristy stuff - and had a blast!