Jess' Travel Blog Summer 2006

Well, I arrived in San Fransisco yesterday after a rather rushed departure. There was along delay at the check in counter so I ended up just making it to my flight at the final call. Once on the plane I had twelve hours to calm down. My seat 'neighbours' were a British couple who were friendly but reserved and I managed to sleep fairly well once the attendants paused the incessant supply of food.

My 'cousins', Lou and Richard met me at the airport and welcomed me into their home. They are an older couple (late 60s-70s), but very active and interested in everything. As Lou aptly put it at dinner tonight, "The world is so interesting, if you get bored, it's your own fault!"

Lou and Richard live in a lovely house in Vacaville, an hour or so's drive from San Fran. Although they do not consider themselves wealthy, they have an amazing car that is heated through the seats and has a satelite assistance system through which we were able to get directions and a dinner reservation from a live operator. However, the car does have a mind of its own and we had some trouble disarming it's alarm to leave the airport.

As I was not so tired from my flight, we took a scenic drive around San Fran to see the Golden Gate bridge, Cliffhouse which is naturally perched on the side of a cliff overlooking the bay, and the remains of a centre built for the 1905 Great Exhibition. I especially enjoyed seeing all the quaint San Fran houses, whose colouful and ornate architectural style is quite distinctive.

Today I have had another wonderful day-this time we drove along the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley, home to some of California's best wineries. We stopped at Sterling vinyard and ended up staying the whole afternoon. Sterling is big white greek inspired building perched at the top of a very steep hill. You have to take a cable car to get up to the top so on the way you are treated to a marvellous view. The valley is bordered by some rugged looking mountains that are as sparse and brown looking as australian hills but the valley floor is covered with vinyards. It is of course autumn here, so the weather was cool and crisp but beautifully sunny. I am told such weather is quite unexpected for November. After a tour of the presses and barrels we tasted a selection of delicious wines. They had a fresh, clean flavour that I really enjoyed. We were made very welcome by the staff, who upon hearing that I was all the way from Australia, brought out a very special golden reserve wine that is produced especially to be served at the Oscar's. Talk about red carpet treatment! Needless to say, it was very good.

After such a relaxing and indulgent afternoon, we then made our way to the Culinary Institute of America for dinner. The Institute is in an imposing building aptly called Greystone Cellars, which was once the largest stone winery in the world. It used to be a monastery owned by the Christian Brothers, who produced a range of wines, brandies and ports. Today it is the premier chef-training school in America.

The restaurant is not run by students, although there are student interns, and the food was delicious. The kitchen is open so you can see the chefs at work. As it was a Thursday night and not so busy, the manager (a British expat arrived recently from Australia) illuminated us as to the complexity of the kitchen's organisational structure and then took us on a private tour of the rest of the building. We saw a room full of 2000 gallon red wood casks, now used for special banquets, and an enormous display of corkscrews. Apparently they were only a selection of the Brother Timothy's collection which numbers in the thousands.

On the way home, we swung past Vacaville's Candy Cane Lane to admire the christmas lights that are up already. These private homes spare no expense in decorating for Christmas.

All in all, a fantastic day!

Lou and Richard continue to be the most gracious of hosts and I feel very privileged to be a guest in their house. They are also very entertaining conversationalists whose knack for asking the right questions and finding connections with the people we meet seems to open doors...such as the Greystone tour! San Fransiscoans seem very friendly and extremely patient. They are more formal in the way they address eachother (sir and mam and even boss). I am still adjusting to how serviently customer service is delivered.
Tomorrow we head to Sacramento which promises to be another great day...

Hope all is well with everyone back home! I'll upload some photos when I work out how. Something to learn tomorrow I think!
Love Jess