napa valley [wednesday, may 21]

The Napa Valley was such a surprise, mostly because I had no idea what to expect. I'd never seen pictures of it before and had no sense of what it was like. I knew that it would be covered by vineyards, and that's about it. Napa is absolutely beautiful and if you weren't paying close attention, you would think that you're in the Mediterranean. It was hot, sunny, filled with vineyards and olive trees, with pretty little towns lining the road as you drive through the valley. We had lunch in the sun in Rutherford, and headed out to sample some local wine.

Our first stop was Mumm to sample their Cuvée Napa (champagne really, but they're not allowed to call it that...shhhhh). The tour was really interesting and the tasting room has a lovely open terrace around the back. We did a tasting of 3 different sparkling wines (a half flute each), nibbling on crackers in between sips. It's just all so civilised and yet completely unpretentious. I did feel like a bit of a dork when I took my first sip (it's not like I know what I'm supposed to do and have never done a "tasting" before) as the server stood next to us waiting to pour the next wine. It ends up that no one cares what you do or what you know, and most people just end up taking wee sips and going "Mmmmm" afterwards. After declaring their Blanc de Blancs a winner, we headed to the shop and bought a bottle for ourselves and a little bottle of Brut Prestige for Gary and Ruth (who were currently car and plant sitting for us). We were served by an incredibly nice woman called Victoria who not only gave us an additional 10% off (she knew there was a better coupon around than the one we had), but gave us a list of other vineyards to try. She wrote down a list of places we had noticed in our brochure reading, and also mentioned one place that "will get you hammered" (I suppose their tasting consists of slightly more than the usual sip or two you get at other vineyards). This friendliness seemed to be a trait found in almost everyone we encountered on our wine tour. Everyone was willing to explain about the wines and suggest other vineyards to try, and no one looked down at us as plonk-swilling heathens who buy wine in a box from Tesco (but it's really good stuff, honest).

Our next stop was Neibaum Coppola, home of the director Francis Ford Coppola. You can see his Oscars and various film props upstairs from the tasting room, but it's the wine that steals the show. For around $7 you get to sample a large list of wines (and keep the glass) and snack on bits of baguette in between tastes. The wines were so gorgeous; we ended up buying a bottle of Chardonnay and Zinfandel to take back with us. No Francis in sight, though.

We headed back to Calistoga for dinner at the inn. We discovered a beautiful local Zinfandel from Tofanelli, but very unfortunately, we never did find it in any of the shops. The dinner entertainment was courtesy of an older couple on a first date sitting next to us, who had apparently met over the Internet. Not to pooh-pooh this concept, but we think this is one of those times that the online persona must have been far less scary than the real thing. I thought of going over and trying to get this poor guy out of the date by pretending that his car was on fire or something similar (the woman he was with had, within the first 20 minutes, talked about her failed marriage and her therapy), but it was more fun to listen to the conversation. After dinner, we went back to our room, which didn't have a television but did have a supply of Trivial Pursuit cards (but no board, oddly enough). We spent the next two nights quizzing each other with the Trivial Pursuit cards in a fun old-fashioned "oh so this is what they did before television" kind of way.

more food and wine in the napa valley [thursday, may 22]

Our whirlwind tour of wine tasting continued with trips to 5 vineyards. This may sound slightly alarming (especially considering that we were driving), but you do not get enough alcohol at these tastings to get legally drunk. You do, however, eat enough crackers and bread to fill up substantially throughout the day. We stopped at Rutherford Hill where Paul and I did a wine tasting and then he sampled their port (served with chocolate covered blueberries, it won him over and he bought a bottle). Hurrah, more wine glasses to keep! We moved on to St. Supery for another tasting (and were very tempted to buy a bottle of their Sauvingnon Blanc but declined). During the morning, we saw a sign for olive oil tasting at a place across from the Rutherford Grill. Intrigued, we went inside the St. Helena Olive Oil Company for a look. Not only could you dip breads in various olive oils, you could dip pretzels, spoons, and crackers into several varieties of mustards, dips, jams, spreads, sauces, and vinegars. Fantastic! We spent ages here sampling everything, with the intent of coming back and picking up a bottle of wonderful chipotle BBQ sauce. When we returned the next day on our way to San Francisco, they were shut (they didn't open until 10am) and we had to continue on our way.

We read about vineyards with picnic facilities and noted one called V. Sattui. They have a deli on site, filled with gourmet salads, breads, cheeses, fruits, and everything you could possibly want for a picnic lunch (including plastic cutlery and plates). We sat at a table outside and dived into a seafood salad, a prawn salad (with the most enormous prawns I've ever seen), goat's cheese, brie, baguettes, and olives. It was absolutely divine and the perfect way to spend an afternoon. We did a tasting at the winery and bought a bottle of delicious Madeira.

Paul's a port fan, so we headed to Prager Ports for a tasting. They also do wines, but he was after the ports and did a tasting of around 4 varieties. The tasting was hosted by Peter Prager (this is obviously a family run vineyard) who was jovial and friendly. We bought a bottle of their white port, made from Chardonnay. Unusual, gorgeous, with a slight taste of hazelnuts. Out of all the bottles we bought in Napa, this is the only one we've broken into since we've been back home. It's that good. Our last tour was at Silverado Vineyards, which we went to see specifically for the views. The tasting itself was a bit bland and slightly pretentious (the woman we had simply didn't seem to care although other staff seemed a bit more enthusiastic and friendly) and the people there were very well coiffed and driving SUVs. The views are, as we read in the brochures, very pretty. This vineyard is worth the visit for the view but not for the wine, sadly. We went back to Calistoga for dinner, did some more quizzing with the Trivial Pursuit cards, put in our earplugs and went to sleep. I would love to come back to the Napa Valley again for a longer period of time - it's beautiful and full of good food and wine. What more could you need?

i left my heart in san francisco [friday, may 23]

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It's a short journey from Napa to San Francisco (or more accurately, Oakland to our hotel) and we arrive at our hotel quite early. Luckily, our room is ready and we're able to dump our luggage before heading over to the big city. The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system gets you from Oakland to the centre of San Francisco in about 20 minutes. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's probably the most tourist unfriendly transit system I've ever encountered. There are no signs, maps, or helpful staff members (they have their own unique brand of apathy) who will direct you to your destination. There is no way to know which platform on which level takes you to San Francisco. There is also a rather convoluted ticketing system wherein you put money in a machine and it should give you a ticket. Sounds simple except for the fact that some machines require exact change, some will give you change for anything under a $20 bill (i.e. you're screwed if you only have 20s from that bank machine you just used), some don't work but there are no out of order signs on them, and some will take credit cards but only if your ticket is worth the minimum amount (something like $5, I believe). A fellow traveller (and local) took pity on us and helped us purchase a ticket and directed us to the correct platform. My advice is to pick up a BART map before you travel (they surely must be available somewhere), and take lots of change with you.

We made it to Powell Street, a little rattled but excited to be there. Our first point of call was to take a cable car ride - along with the kajillion other people who also decided that this would be a fun thing to do. It was a long queue, but moved surprisingly quickly. You can buy several different kinds of tickets, and we went for the day pass that would get us on the cable cars, buses, and trams. We piled onto the cable car and ended up having to stand and hold on to the rail at the side of the car. This was fun for about 5 minutes until the thrill wore off and my hands got very cold. It was also hard to take pictures, but I did manage without dropping my camera or falling off into oncoming traffic. A cable car ride really is something every tourist should do; it's a lot of fun (a bit more so when you get a seat) and a great way to avoid walking up the massive hills.

We got out by the pier and wandered over to Ghiradelli Square, or as I kept jokingly calling it, The Land of Chocolate (say it with a Homer Simpson voice and you'll see what I mean). It's a nice area with shops, restaurants, and most importantly, the big Ghiradelli chocolate shop. Oh yes. I bought chocolate for Ruth and Gary, chocolate for me, chocolate covered blueberries for Paul, and was transfixed by the 10 lb. block of chocolate they had for sale. You could use it as a doorstop, patio tile, or cutting board. There was a massive queue just to get in, and another massive queue to get into their ice cream parlour next door. I bought my choccie covered goodies and we made our way along the piers past many tacky shops and places selling clam chowder. We stopped at The Cannery, an old cannery (no, really?) that's been converted into shops. We found an excellent shop full of insane tourist dreck (I got Gary an amusing bottle of hot sauce), moderately nice tourist dreck, and a good selection of wine and spirits. The highlight for Paul was discovering that this shop carried his RMS brandy, that has sadly gone out of business. Of course now that it's out of business, the price has almost doubled. Figures.

We took the cable car back up the big hill and across to the Hyatt Regency hotel. We had dinner and drinks in the Equinox, a 360 degree revolving restaurant and lounge. Even through the mist, the views are splendid and it's easy to spend a couple of hours here watching the city drift past. There's a 2 hour limit here, although no one was rushing us out of our seats. I suspect that as long as you're ordering food and drinks, they won't kick you out unless they really need the table. We ordered from the bar menu which had an interesting selection of dishes, even though it was somewhat limited. We had big bowls of clam chowder with an enormous plate of nachos. For dessert, we went for the cheese and fruit plate. Back at the hotel, I started into my chocolate supply. Mmmmm.

i left my heart in san francisco, part 2 [saturday, may 24]

It's a grey, misty day but that doesn't dampen our mood. We're back on the BART (we're experts at this now), back to the harbourfront (another very long queue for the cable cars encourages us to take a tram instead), and it's time for some sea lion spotting at Pier 39. We could have watched these creatures for hours. I'm not entirely sure how long we stood watching, but the sea lions were extremely entertaining. They stank of fish like you wouldn't believe and yet we stood mesmerised by their movements. We watched three sea lions battle for control of one of the pontoons, laughed at sea lions bounding on top of one another, and went awwwww at the sea lions hugging each other for warmth. They were noisy and smelly and yet we couldn't tear ourselves away. Click here (1.81MB) to see a short movie of the sea lions in action.

Everywhere you go, people are selling bowls of clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls so I feel I must have one. I get one from a place on Pier 39 that claims to have the very best clam chowder in SF, but it's fairly dire. We're off on a tour of Alcatraz, which I'm expecting to be sort of interesting, but not very exciting. After a short (and bumpy) ride over by boat, we listen to one of the ranger tours (about the famous inmates) that ends up being really well done and interesting. The audio tour is fantastic - you wear a headset and follow the tour whilst ex-guards and ex-inmates relay stories about their time at Alcatraz. It's fascinating and extremely effective and much more enjoyable than I had anticipated. Paul let himself get locked up in one of the solitary confinement cells, but I chickened out and took pictures of the outside instead. The tour took us over 2 hours in total, so we didn't have much time to do anything else before dinner.

Paul did a bit of research and found a promising looking Japanese restaurant for us to try. I've been dying for good sushi for a long time, and Paul's been hooked on it ever since I introduced him to it. We tried out a place called Sushi Rika, a modern and funky looking place filled with young and funky looking people in lower Nob Hill (for more details, see "food watch", below). All I'll say is perfection. Absolute perfection. Back at the hotel, more Ghiradelli chocolate ensued. Mmmmmmm.

along the coast [sunday, may 24]

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On the road again...doo doo doo doo dooo on the road again. It's Memorial Day weekend which means everybody is in holiday mode and filling the streets and beaches. We stopped for a late breakfast at Denny's (more pancakes...more!) and tried to stop in Carmel afterwards. The streets were packed and there wasn't anywhere to park, so we had to be content in seeing it through car windows this time around. The drive along highway 1 along the Big Sur is breathtaking. The ocean splashes up against steep cliffs with white beaches below. We stopped at a few points along the way to take pictures, and noticed someone had a small marquee set up on one of the cliffs. If that was for a wedding, what a lucky couple. For some reason, we keep seeing cafes advertising deep fried artichokes. I'm guessing this is the local speciality, but it's bizarre to see a sign saying "Cappuccino, espresso, deep fried artichokes" along the road.

We arrive in San Simeon (more sea lions are spotted along the shores) and settle into our lovely hotel room. It's beautiful here and I can see the ocean from our window. After dinner, we sat near the beach in front of a bonfire (lit by the hotel along the length of the property) waiting to see the sunset. Unfortunately, the fog kept most of the sunset out of view but the sky still lit up with shades of pink and purple. We cuddled in front of the fire, joined by a Korean family with a slightly unruly pre-teen son. More Koreans wandered up to us and started chatting away with the family sitting with us. After they left, various Koreans continued to stop by our bonfire for most of the evening, leading me to suspect that I had started some sort of Asian trend by sitting there first. We sat by the fire for hours and watched the father pile more and more wood on as the evening wore on. It got so hot that we had to move our chairs away but it was almost hypnotic. I have a theory that we will watch anything for hours if it's in a boxlike formation. Television. Fish tanks. Store windows. Movie screens. Fireplaces. If you want something to get noticed, stick it in a box. I guarantee that a small crowd will form and stare at it for hours.

castle in the sky [monday, may 25]

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Hearst Castle is less like a castle and more like a very large and elaborate mansion. A bus takes you up a steep hill to the castle, where a guide greets you and starts the tour. It was the home of William Randolph Hearst, newspaper and film magnate and inspiration for the film "Citizen Kane". The who's who of Hollywood frolicked here, although the tour disappointingly doesn't provide many celebrity tales. One of my favourites, Carole Lombard, apparently played pool here but that's the only story we hear. Our tour group is blessed with both the grumpiest tour guide in the free world and the family who can't whisper. The guide barks out at one poor girl who dared to stick a millimeter of her toe in the fountain, "You are NOT to touch anything!!", yells at us to hurry it along so that people at the back can see the house too, and stands there looking generally miserable the entire time. The Loud Family decide that it's more fun to speak incredibly loudly to each other nonstop instead of listen to the tour, and also decide that none of us really wanted to hear the tour either. People finally start to shush them but at this point, it's almost the end of the tour. Still, the house is very impressive and the pools are incredible. You can get a sense of that 1930s-1940s Hollywood glamour and it's really quite fun to imagine who ended up drunkenly snogging in the indoor pool.

After the tour, we headed south towards our hotel in Marina del Rey near Los Angeles. We passed by crowded beaches and many insanely large houses. Mansions, really. Malibu is home to the rich and famous, and although we didn't spot anyone famous, we did gape at the real estate. Some houses had fronts that were entirely made out of glass. Some were surrounded by "fences" made from some sort of glass. It all made me feel like there are a lot of people in the world with far too much money who probably have several rooms they've never even seen. We got to the hotel in charming Marina del Rey. I leafed through the brochures in the hotel room and noticed a listing for the Chart House restaurant (we'd passed one in Malibu and Paul said he had eaten there years ago), so we headed there for dinner. Although tempted by the Cheesecake Factory restaurant across the road (do they sell anything other than cheesecake? Because even I couldn't eat an entire dinner of cheesecake.), our meal was excellent. Must. Stop. Eating. So. Much. Food.

why does it always spray on me? [tuesday, may 26]

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Today we're doing a tour of Universal Studios in Hollywood. After a few diversions (the map on their brochure leaves a lot to be desired), we arrived late in the morning. It was Memorial Day the day before, and everyone must have gone back to work today - there was plenty of parking and no queues for any of the rides. The longest we waited was around 10-15 minutes, and most times we walked straight in. You walk through long alleys of restaurants and gift shops before you reach the sections with the rides. Although you're never going to have a limited choice of food, you are going to pay big bucks for it. You cannot bring food into the park, so my Mom's usual trick of bringing along a picnic to the amusement park wouldn't work. Lunch was 2 Diet Cokes, a chicken sandwich, and a Pizza Hut personal pan cheese pizza - for $20. A dinner/late afternoon snack of a grilled cheese sandwich for me and burger for Paul was another $20. We had a voucher for $10 off park admission (which is normally $47), but even with that reduction, it's a very expensive day.

The new ride this year is a Shrek "4D" film, which is a 3D film with other effects in the cinema itself. It's a funny and fairly lengthy film done especially for the park (as are all the films that play on rides here) with all the characters from Shrek back for a wee adventure. The seats move and rumble slightly in certain places, you get sprayed with a fine mist of water a few times, and one bit involving spiders made me literally scream and jump out of my seat. We did the Back to the Future ride (another simulation film where you don't get sprayed with water, but you do get a face full of dry ice), Terminator (dry ice and spray), Jurassic Park twice (a big fantastic water ride where you get sprayed with water in the queue as you wait), and the studio lot tour (spray and shark splash). We think that there may have been a sale on dry ice and mist machines because every single thing in this park is either spritzing water on you or blowing fog at you. Or both. Still, it's tremendous fun and forgetting the fact that I'm over 30, I found myself going "wheeeeee!" a lot.

We later went to see the walk of fame, which isn't really very exciting. Mostly, you look down and point out the names of people you've heard of (and explain who some people are to your Englishman) and pass a lot of grotty souvenir shops and dodgy clothing stores. I really wanted to see the hand and footprints further up the road, but as we made our way up to Mann Chinese Theater, we were disappointed to see signs telling us that the sidewalk had been shut down for the evening. The premiere of the American remake of the Italian Job was that night, so the pavement was filled with fans and the entrance to the theater was blocked off. Didn't they know we were coming?! Sheesh. Very dejected and fed up from having walked a long way to get from our car to the theater, we went back to Marina del Rey with the intent of returning the next day.

really shouldn't have eaten that last pancake [wednesday, may 27]

Without going into the gory details, suffice it to say that I either had mild food poisoning or a bit of a flu today. We had a nice pancake breakfast at the hotel, checked out, drove back towards Hollywood to see the footprints, and I started feeling worse by the minute. Poor Paul had to figure out what to do (what do you do when you're ill and you've got nowhere to stay?) and had to drive us all the way back to Marina del Rey. All I wanted to do was lie down and be near a bathroom, so he went in and asked if we could check back into our room again for a few hours before our flight. He never would tell me how much it cost, and all he cared about was getting me back to bed to get some rest. I slept for a few hours and woke up feeling much better. The woman at the front desk was so sympathetic (Paul must have told her our situation - otherwise, it would have looked a bit odd asking for a room for 3 hours) and kind.

We got to the airport, and after an incredibly thorough luggage check (we had to stand there while they opened our luggage and went through it by hand), we sat and waited for our flight to board. Ugh, we're getting an Airbus back - aren't they the planes that keep falling apart or crashing or something? I'm nervous, not very happy, and probably a bit emotional from not feeling very well. It wasn't the most comfortable flight (the seats felt like they were wood covered with fabric), but it was happily turbulence free and I did actually manage to sleep on a plane for the very first time. Paul drove us back to Northampton and we tried our hardest to stay awake until the evening. After unpacking our wine and making sure all the glasses made it back, we flopped on to the sofa and didn't move for the next few hours. Tomorrow we'll be waking up after lunch, after falling asleep at an ungodly hour.