I'm convinced - it is the most beautiful city in the world

When I did my trip trip around the world 2011, I had a stop in California. I then wrote in a blog post about San Francisco that it might be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  Today we spent the day in San Francisco and I'm convinced -  it is the most beautiful city in the world. It is the combination of cute victorian houses built on hills, surrounded by water that is doing it. It is just so cute and wonderful.

We started off our trip with a visit to Georg Lucas new film studio close to Presidio. We wanted to pay a visit to Yoda. It turned out, that Yoda lived in a cute little park with a coffee place. So we spent a couple of hours there.

Mr Yoda and my family

Linus on top of the world... or something. Note the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Then we continued the trip by just strolling around in the city checking out the architecture. There are so many cute houses to look at. It was a nice long walk in the wonderful warm weather, which is unusual in the normally quite "cold" city (normally around 18 degrees C, today around 24). 

Cute houses everywhere

After all that walking we needed to fill up the batteries. We decided to go to Mel's Drive in, which is a sister diner of the one that appeared in the movie American Graffiti (Sista Natten med Gänget). We ordered my favorite american dessert: Hot Apple Pie a la mode. It tasted soooooo good!

Waiting for the pie and feeling tired.

Hot Apple Pie a la mode

After the apple pie we went back home via the bridges. First the new Bay Bridge (the old one got destroyed during the earthquake 1989, but it has taken a long time to build a new one), where you could see the old one being dismounted next to the new one. Then we took the San Mateo Bridge, which is a very long low bridge over the bay. It was a long a nice drive home, but we came home feeling quite exhausted. It is hard to have vacation. :-)

The new Bay Bridge

The old Bay Bridge being dismounted next to the new one.

After the San Fransisco Sightseeing, we just spend the rest of the holidays relaxing at my sisters place. We don't get to spend that much time together as a family, so we better make the best out of it when we have the chance. Now we will see when we have the possibility to meet F2F again. But before that I will make some more trips on my own.

Enjoying American Traditions

There are a couple of things that I think is typical for USA: barbecues and pic-nics in the park. Combine the two and you are really taking part of an American tradition. We didn't combine them on this trip, but we managed to do both - separately.

My sister Monica arranged a barbecue party at a friend's house during the weekend. It is a beautiful house in the hills close to my sister's apartment. The house has a big patio with, of course, a big gas grill. It also has an imported Chinese teahouse, a cinema, a big bar and so on. In other words - a real party house. We were around 20 people enjoying a fantastic american barbecue and nice evening together. It is always interesting to meet new people, especially people from other countries, so there were a lot of interesting discussions ongoing during the party.

On my way to California I had a stop in Frankfurt. There I passed a shelf with champagne. In the corner of my eye I saw that they had Dom Perignon. It is supposed to be one of the best (and most expensive) champagnes. I couldn't resist it. I bought a bottle for us, so we could celebrate our 170 years (60+60+50 years) birthdays'. I didn't want to bring the champagne to the barbecue party, since (if I'm being honest) I didn't want to share it with other people than my family. So the day after the party we decided to have a pic-nic in a close by park. It was a wonderful pic-nic and the champagne tasted FANTASTIC, especially with the fresh strawberries.

With this we close the section of American traditions.

Pic-nic in the sunset in the park. The champagne was fantastic!

Wine, wine and more wine

There are some things in life that I appreciate a little bit more. Hiking, running and singing are some of them. To drink great wine (not wine in general - it has to be great) is another. The last time I was in California with my brother and nephew I didn't make it to Napa Valley. So this time I stated it from the start - there will be a trip to Napa Valley and everyone has to come. :-)

Before we went on the trip I called my friend and sommelier Michel to ask for some tips. He gave me a list of 3 vineyards to visit: Chateau Montelena, Duckhorn and Darioush. He also gave us the tip to visit the hamburger place Gott's Roadside. So we made a plan with all these places and then we added one more winery: Clos du Val.

The weather was, as always, beautiful in California. The sun was shining from a clear blue sky and we headed off from Silicon Valley to Napa Valley in my sisters very nice Lexus SUV. My sister's friend Jerry came along for the trip.

The first stop in Napa Valley was Gott's Roadside for lunch. I LOVED my burger. It was pure angus beef with cheese, avocado and a nice mixture of chopped tomatoes and onions on top.The other's seemed to be happy with their burgers, but not extremely impressed. (There are many great burger places around)

Linus and Jerry look, at least, like their enjoying their burgers.

Next stop was Chateau Montelena. I just had to visit a winery that almost has my name. It was a funny place, which looked like a castle, but it was just the fasade. Behind was just a big house. We tried 4 different wines: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and their famous Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. I loved the last one, but for 150 dollar/bottle I though it was just a little bit to expensive for me.

It looks like a real castle, but it isn't.

Wine tasting in Chateau Montelena

At Duckhorn we tried 6 different wines were 4 of them cost around 90 dollar/bottle. In other word quite expensive wines, but ooohhh so good. Here I loved the Merlot Rector Creek for 95 dollar/bottle. Again I wasn't sure it was worth that much for me. So I didn't buy any.

There were a lot of discussions about wine going on....

The wines we tasted at Duckhorn

We spent the night at Holiday Inn Express. I thought it would a very simple hotel (since we only paid 112 dollar/night/room), but it had big rooms with all the things I want to find (hair dryer, iron/iron board, big nice beds and so on), fitness room, pool & jacuzzi and even a good breakfast. Of course Linus and I enjoyed the pool & jacuzzi in the afternoon.

The next day we continued with Darioush where I only tried a couple of wines. Both good, but not as mind blowing as the ones the day before. The architecture was interesting though, since it looked like a persian temple.

The final stop was at a winery that my sister's friend Jerry proposed. Clos du Val. He had been there many times before. He also knew the guy that took care of our wine tasting, so I think we got better service due to that. Here we tried in total 9 wines and ended up buying some. I bought a bottle of their Three Graces White (Sauvignon Blanc/Roussane/Viognier). Jerry bought the same wine, but also an additional Three Graces Red. The Three Graces White is an excellent white wine for 35 dollar/bottle.

On our way home we stopped at a fantastic italian restaurant and had lunch on the balcony. So we were 4 very tired happy people that fell into bed in the evening.

The Basketball Family - or not?

My brother became a basketball coach 1972. Ever since then I have heard about basketball at home. When my brother's son was 7 years he was introduced to the sport and immediately liked it. Now basketball was even more present in our family gatherings. I think that I, just because of this exposure to the sport, never got really interested in it.

Last time when the three of us went to visit our sister/aunt in California, it was outside the basket ball season. So already before we decided when to go on this trip, it was decided that it should be within the NBA season.  An NBA game was a must. I wasn't really up for it, but decided to tag along anyway.

On Monday night - it was the night with an capital B for basketball. It was time to see the game between Golden State Warriors - Minnesota Timberwolves.

We headed off to the game more than a couple of hours before the game started. The idea was to be there early, so we could experience the pre-party. I don't know if there was that much of a party, but it was nice to be there before the big crowd.

On the way to the game - we took the train. :-)

Excited faces - waiting for the game to start

The sugar on the cake of the evening was that it was a FANS NIGHT - some kind of celebration of the Warriors fans. This meant that T-shirts were handed out to everyone, there were lots of Fan-lotteries, Fan-activities, video from the players to the fans and other stuff.

Fan night with special fan t-shirts

During the game I mostly looked at the cute guys, followed the show (and listen to the screaming fans) and tried to follow the statistics of the game. (Numbers usually interest me), but I wasn't really impressed by the game. I thought it was just me, not understanding the game. But after the game I was surprised to hear that both my brother and nephew felt that the game was boring and not played with a full heart. The players seemed to have done exactly what was asked of them, but there was no enthusiasm in it. In the end - it was still fun to have seen an NBA-game. At least we now know what it is all about.

As always - there is a lot of show added to a sports event in USA

The final shot by the cutest guy and the best player - Curry.

A short hike

On our third day in California we had to cancel our plans to go to Napa Valley today (due to my brothers bad back). Instead we decided to go to a vista point and a park close by. Monica's friend Jerry who was familiar with the places came along for the ride and to guide us.

First stop was Windy Hill - a place where you on a clear day can see both Silicon Valley and the shore line. It was a short hike there, only 2 km back and forth. But unfortunately we didn't have a totally clear view. We saw Silicon Valley, but the shore was hidden behind a big cloud. 

I would have loved to run on these amazing trails looking down on Silicon Valley, but my new, equally amazing hiking boots are not really made for running. :-)

Somewhere under or behind that cloud you will find the Pacific Ocean.

The second stop was the Castle Rock Park. A park with many trails, but since the present company was not in the best shape and my nephew was tired and wanted to stay in the car for a sleep, we ended up taking a very short hike, only about 1,5 km. :-) (Not a lot for a girl that did 29 km hikes with a back pack on the last trip.) But it was just nice to get out in the forrest. The main attraction in the park was a collection of strange looking rocks. The rocks are great for climbers that want to try out different grades of climbing. We hang around for a while to check them out. I think it was the first time ever I have seen climbers in the forrest carrying mattresses. 

The cliffs were excellent for the the climbers to practice on, but they were also quite funny to look at. For example the giant nostrils made me giggle.

The land of Shopping

The second day in California was a light variant of the first day. I just went to ONE store, instead of one huge mall. But what a store. It is my favorite store in USA - REI. It carries outdoor - and sport clothes.

Since last summer I haven't bought any hiking clothes or equipment even though I needed quite a lot. I waited for the California trip. Especially I needed boots. Hiking boots it's a sensitive thing. They have to be bought with a great deal of care, since you know that you will have a long relationship with them. My first pair I had for 7 years and my second pair I have had 8 years. 

So it was with great expectations I entered the shop which I planned to spend a couple of hours in.

First I got slightly disappointed! I was off season, so there wasn't a lot to choose from and there were not much left in the "Clearance" either. But I found a nice young guy that could help me to find at least the basics that I needed: Hiking pants with zippers (which they have stopped making for some strange reason), wool T-shirt, Fleece and hiking underwear.

And then we stepped into the boots department. I think I tried hiking boots for more than one hour. And finally I found my pair in the correct size (which was a struggle to find since the translation from European to American sizes were different from one pair to another). A pair of Assolo, light weight Gore-tex , with good Vibram soles (and only a hiker understands the last sentence). I was happy!!! The young boy that helped me was also happy - I was his best customer that day. And I managed to finish almost my whole shopping list in 2 days. Only a few minor thing and pair of jogging shoes left. Pretty awesome to feel on top of the shopping schedule. 

We have one BIG issue on the trip. My brother hurt his back a few weeks back. It was getting better before the trip. But the long flight here and the first long day of shopping completely destroyed it. So now we mostly see him laying down and he has a hard time to move and can't sit in the car. This meant that the planned trip to Napa Valley today had to be moved until Wednesday. Hopefully he will feel better then.

My brother's normal position at the moment

Another trip has started - CALIFORNIA 2014

Here we go again. :-) Another trip. And this time to my beloved California. I don’t really know how many times I have been here, but at least 10. For more than a decade I went here at least once every second year, sometimes every year. These California trips didn’t stop until I realized that if I spent all my money and vacation on California I didn't have any money and vacation left to see the rest of the world. So now I don’t come here as often. Last time I was here was 2011. :-)

The main reason that I come here so often is that my sister lives here since 1982. The last three times (including this one) I have travelled with my brother. The last two times my nephew has also joined. So nowadays this is the family vacation place.

When we, in february, decided to go here, I immediately also decided to fly with Lufthansa and use my old points to get an update to business class. On these long-haul trips it is such a relief to travel business. I queued for the tickets at least 2 months, but I finally managed to get the tickets.

With the information above you have the basic for my trip: family vacation with comfortable traveling. Not at all the kind of vacations I usually have, I would almost state it is the opposite. Even the focus on this vacation is totally different - shopping, wine tasting and good food. Of course I try to exercise, but nothing compared to my activity trips where everything is about moving, in one way or the other.

The trip has started off quite calm. A nice relaxed flight Stockholm - San Fransisco without any issues. I didn’t ran into any strange people, didn’t experience anything unusual. The only thing that was somewhat hard was that I was awake for more than 28 hours in a row, since I had an early morning flight. I woke up at 2 PM Swedish time and went to bed at 9 AM CA time (9 hours time difference). My normal nap on the flight became very short since I was traveling during the day and that makes it much harder to sleep. Ah well - not really a problem, is it?!

Since I'm here with my nephew that LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to shop we spent the whole first day shopping. We went to Milpitas where they have huge mall with only Outlets. We spent a good 4 hours there and came back with many, many bags. I bought 5 tops, a dress, 2 pairs of jeans, a jacket and a skirt. My nephew had many more bags and even my brother and sister managed to get a few things. It was really cheap. A couple of times I went to the cashier and was expecting to pay one price and ended up paying half of what I thought, since there was an additional discount. Nice surprise you could say.

Today we have lazy day catching up the jetlag. But I will go to favorite store to look for hiking clothes. No - I didn't skip hiking completely from this trip. Tomorrow we are off to Napa Valley.

Yesterdays result!