Dan Goldwasser

Woke up again pretty early, since I had to pack and we had to leave the Ranch to get Paul to the airport in time for his noon flight. We had a 9am tour scheduled as well, so I made sure to get a few snaps before leaving.  Once more, here’s the Norman Rockwell room that I stayed in.

Probably the most surprising thing was what I discovered in the downstairs bathroom in the Inn.  On the wall are two original posters. One from the 1925 silent film version of The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille:

And the other was an original poster for the 1935 Errol Flynn classic, Captain Blood:

That these two posters were sitting in a bathroom makes me wonder what other hidden gems are on this Ranch! (And that’s not even counting the Archives building!)

Our tour followed the same path as the one I had taken back in April, starting with the Skywalker Sound tech building, and then out onto the vineyard.

From there we walked over to the main house, saw the different rooms and display cases, and then headed back to the tech building.  It was a seriously gorgeous day out.

We could even see some long-horned cows grazing on a nearby hill. Apparently sometimes they have Kobe cows here.  Yum!

We also paid a nice visit to the main reception area for Skywalker Sound, which is oddly located on the second floor (and therefore, most people don’t see it)! I love the Art Deco look and style of it.

We then headed down Lucas Valley Road to the 101 Freeway, and were treated to a lovely panoramic view of the valley.

Twenty minutes later, and we hit the Golden Gate Bridge.

Once we crossed the bridge, it was really easy to see Alcatraz Island.  The Rock!

After taking Paul to the airport, we headed back into town, and checked Jason and Dan into their new hotel, and then we headed up towards the Fisherman Wharf’s area to get lunch. Our destination: Boudin’s Bistro.

It didn’t matter what the specials were, or what was on the menu – we had one goal in mind: chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  I opted for crab and corn chowder, since I prefer to save my clam chowder experience for the experts in New England.

Yes, it was as good as it looks.  We then headed out to walk around Fisherman’s Wharf, and headed south towards Pier 39.

Aside from all of the shops, the main attraction at Pier 39 is, of course, the colony of sea lions.  It was stinky, but fascinating and loud. Watching them lounging in the sun, and roaring when they stepped on each other, was quite an entertaining experience.

From the end of the pier, we could get a nice view of Alcatraz Island, and the Golden Gate bridge.

We started walking down the length of the pier; Jason remembered a crepe place which he was raving about, so we decided to get a little dessert when we found it.  The “smores” crepe only had one substitution – we swapped out the Ghirardelli chocholate with Nutella. Yum!!

Woke up at 7:20am, and after getting some stuff done, headed downstairs for breakfast.  The coffee machine was enticing me with its brew, and the photo speaks for itself.

The weather outside was absolutely amazing – not a cloud in the sky, beautifully clear and crisp – it was in the high 60s.

The scoring session went pretty well – three hours of strings, and then three hours of brass after lunch.  More on that in a year or so when I can talk about it; there’s a good chance we’ll be back up here in the spring for additional scoring.

For dinner, we went to Frontoio, which was highly recommended. This Italian restaurant presses its own olives (as well as the ones from the Skywalker Ranch) and makes homemade olive oil. It was quite tasty. I got the risotto for my meal, and it was also quite good.  Our waiter, on the other hand, was a model of absent-minded ADD.

When we got back, we lit a fire in the fireplace at the Inn, which was quite nice and comforting.

I also managed to borrow a Nikon D90 from the music editor I knew who was up here for another project, since he had a remote shutter release.  I tried to do more night photography, but it didn’t quite come out the way I had hoped; I need to experiment more when I have more time.  Suffice it to say, the following photo came out pretty cool, but you can see that the earth’s rotation blur is evident – so I held the shutter open too long.  But it’s a pretty cool shot, at least in regards to the colors!

We headed into San Francisco, with a mission for some coffee before continuing on to the Skywalker Ranch.  A quick Google search resulted in the “best coffee in San Francisco” being the Bluebottle Coffee Co., so I found a convenient location, and we went there.

It was a small little kiosk hidden down a side street, but it reeked of “San Francisco” charm. I got the New Orleans-styled Iced Coffee, which was absolutely delicious. I can’t remember what was in it, but it did have chikory. Everyone else agreed that their coffee was top notch. Huzzah!

We then headed north, towards the 101 freeway. It’s a silly thing to say, but San Francisco really has a lot of steep hills.

From there, we worked our way to the Golden Gate Bridge….

…. and then across the bridge….

… at which point we got a spectacular view of San Francisco.

We drove the rest of the way to the Skywalker Ranch, which is nestled in the middle of Lucas Valley Preserve.  (No relation to George Lucas – really!!)  The weather was absolutely gorgeous – mid 60s, sunny, and crisp. It was incredibly refreshing.

We could see a family of deer grazing near Lake Ewok.

We checked into The Inn, where every room is themed and named after a famous artist.  I ended up with the Norman Rockwell room, appropriately named for the painting over the fireplace:

It’s a pretty sweet room, and incredibly peaceful and relaxing.

This was a very long – but great – day.  Added a photo gallery to the bottom of this post, for your enjoyment.  Went to bed really late, and yet I still managed to drag myself out of bed at 5:30am so that I could head up to the Burbank Airport.  Got there a little earlier than planned, so I stopped in to Starbucks for some caffeinated goodness.  At 7:30, I met up with Ray (the publicist) and then everyone else arrived.  There were five of us in all – four writers and Ray.  Our Southwest Airlines flight took us from Burbank to Oakland, where upon we got a rental car (Chevy Yukon SUV) and drove up to the world-famous (and rather hard to get into) Skywalker Sound, located at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch, in Marin County, CA.   Ray had arranged the press junket on behalf of his client, composer Shawn Clement, who was recording the score to an upcoming 3D IMAX film, Quantum Quest.  When we arrived, the weather was hot but gorgeous – and the facility is in the middle of nowhere. Aside from a non-descript driveway off of Lucas Valley Road (no relation to George), there is absolutely nothing to indicate that Lucasfilm and the Skywalker Sound facilities were located here.  In fact, there was only one security gate that we checked in with before entering the grounds, and while there was no real visible security, I’m sure our every move was being watched. We observed the session for about 90 minutes or so, and then they broke for lunch – upon which we were given a tour of the main “house”.  It was a short walk from Skywalker Sound to get there, passing Lake Ewok, and then going into the Victorian style manor.  So far, we hadn’t seen any real memorabilia – which was nice. It was not meant to be a Star Wars Theme Park, after all!  There was a display case in the mansion that housed some Star Wars and Indiana Jones props, which was neat, but it was really just idyllic and peaceful.  Definitely a calming work environment! After a bite for lunch, we hit the Skywalker Ranch General Store to pick up some souveniers (you can only get some of these things here), and then it was back into the car to head back down to Oakland.  After a few GPS hiccups, we made it back, whereupon we discovered that our 4:45pm flight was cancelled.  So, we were put on the 5:50pm flight, which meant we had more time to kill.  Hence, we hung out at the bar for a bit – thanks to Costa Communications and Daily Variety for the drinks! The flight back to Burbank was rather uneventful, and by the time I made it home, it was 7:45pm.  I’ve never done the type of trip that involves flying somewhere and back in the same day, so this was a first for me.  I would love to get back up there at some point – it was really gorgeous, and a great day!