A normal day in San Francisco: we had a nice picnic at the water front with the Golden Gate in the background, Alcatraz in the other direction while a gay couple got married nearby in their spandex tuxedos. The renounced foggy city of San Francisco served us the best of weather with only sun and really pleasant temperatures.
A very good friend, Emil met 20 years ago in Pennsylvania, flew in with her family to see us for a few days. It was great to catch up and to experience the city together. We enjoyed San Francisco by boat beneath the Golden Gate and around Alcatraz, by the old cable cars / trams up the steep hills, by car along the curvy road of Lombard Street and over Golden Gate and of course heaps of exercise walking the hilly city through China Town, along the water front and the great Farmer’s Market.
We also had the pleasure to celebrate one of America’s greatest holidays. The whole country have prepared and decorated for months throughout our travel. Our girls where dressed up in fairy outfits with wings, tutus and wands our friend provided. It was then time to go trick and treat, and there was for sure a lot of treat to the great joy of Emma and Lina. The evening of the Halloween we had to spend at the Emergency Room with Lina screaming bad. Fortunately she wasn’t sick more than a bad constipation. A busy day…
We then stayed with a Swedish friend who had settled down in Belmont. We also stayed with an distant relative to Emil in Menlo Park. It was very nice to meet up with good friends and family and also to come into local houses and just relax with good company. Both these towns are in the Silicon Valley so except for a visit to Stanford University we also visited the campuses of Google (Googleplex), Facebook and Apple. Not much to do unfortunately but to take a few photos.
We then went to Monterey and drove the 17 Mile Drive passing by the famous and the rich people’s homes, I’m sure we probably weren’t able to see the nicest but I have to say they should go to Europe to get some inspiration how to build beautiful houses and not just big. The coastline was spectacular with a massive surf pounding the cliffy shore line. We also passed the renounced golf course Pebble Beach but had to give that a miss costing $1200 for one round of golf.
Hanna and Emil celebrated 10 years anniversary since we became a couple. 10 years of experiences together, ups and downs and two amazing children. We spent the day at Monterey Aquarium with an astounding variety. Walking through a dark room with backlit aquariums filled with jellyfish was just magic.
Heading north we made a brief stop in Berkeley at the university campus of UCLA. We then headed to Redwood National Parks hosting the tallest trees in the world – Coast Redwood. We drove, walked and climbed around, through and on these logs. They can become 135 Linas, 65 Emils, 380 ft or 115 m tall, with a bad diameter of 7 m and an impressive age of over 2000 years old. It was purely majestically to be among these giants from ancient times. Yes we were impressed.
Going west 