4-17-08 Free Hugs

As I woke up I remembered that the truck leaves at 7:15am, so I got all my stuff packed and ready by 6:30am.  I went down stairs to the breakfast room and ate my frosted flakes really fast and got out to the Penske just in time. We had to ride to city hall in Santa Cruz.  When we arrived at city hall, I noticed they used florescent light bulbs for their outdoor lighting.  The mayor called April 17th  An Inconvenient Ride day in Santa Cruz.  That was really neat and made us all feel real important. Next we went to San Jose where I learned that they had buildings with offices that would automatically turn on when you walked in and turn off when you walked out.  They were planning to do the same thing with street lights in the city.  We couldn’t ride our bikes because of all the traffic so we rode in the cars.  It was really busy on the highways, we aren't used to seeing all these cars. Next we went to Palo Alto High School.  When we got there they were having a celebration called “Knot in Our School.”  They had signs that said “free hugs” and the girls and boys gave everyone hugs.  We went to San Rafael High School to talk to students about our ride and Pelly Place.  There was a really big guy there – big like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it wasn't him. Next we went to Sonoma City Hall and talked to the mayor and talked to kids that were in an Earth Club.  We rode our bikes to their High School.  Behind the school, they showed us a creek that they cleaned up, took out garbage, and removed some blackberry bushes.  Very much like our work at Pelly Place.  They made us a great lunch!  The food was fresh from their gardens.   They had brownies that used apple sauce instead of eggs as one of the kids was a vegan.  They had some really good bread and cheese from local Sonoma shops that was really good too. Ally’s grandparents, Connie and Ray, met us at Sonoma.  After our event, they took us out to dinner at the Red Grape.  I had clam chowder and a chocolate cupcake. We are spending the evening at the Double Tree Hotel in Rohnert Park.  It is very nice and I'm very tired, it was a really long day.