Lands End and Anniversary

It was a beautiful day to walk around at Lands End, and as you can see from this picture, I was there, too :-)
Sirpa wanted to go to Top of The Mark for our anniversary (since we started dating in 1997), so I reserved a table.
They did a great thing remembering us, as well as finding a nice table.
Unfortunately they had only a fixed menu, and the food was really not that fantastic. Fortunately they did have some ok wine and champagne.
The views are great, here shown from the bar on the top of the Sir Francis Drake hotel, where we went after that for drinks.

TSir and Jaana visiting

We had more friends visiting from Finland, but just quickly this time. The guys had driven around in California for a week, or so, and joined us for dinner at Lulu´s.
We agreed to meet the next night, too, but on the way Sirpa and I were stuck next to the Moscone Center by a zillion of bikers, who were around for some reason.
We had a table inside at B44 this time. The aircon bugged us a little, but otherwise it was nice.

Those great washing machines

I have written about how much the washing machines here suck, but I thought this was a great example of what they can do with the clothes you put in there.

Guests leaving

The ladies did and saw a lot during the week without me, like visiting Alcatraz and walking around town, but it was finally time to leave.
They prepared a tasty brunch and bought flowers, too.
It was great to have you here - welcome back!
And here´s a picture of the flowers the next day.

Last Supper

We took the ladies to Farina for the "last supper", a place they liked as much as we do. Some of the dishes look pretty simple (like the pasta), but they just taste fantastic.
And then to the Bi-Rite Creamery for some great ice cream

Warning signs

Since this is the promised land of lawsuits, it is also the promised land of warning signs. Ans just FYI, he spanish version resembles some other "wet" words in Finnish.

More good news

Lots of good things were happening at the same time, and another great thing was that Sirpa finally received here work permit - and also had the promised job waiting for her.

Shopping

Yes, the ladies did some shopping, or "investments", as they called it :-)

Monterey - Santa Cruz

With 3 ladies we were bound to stop at the Gilroy mall, but this was a short stop (they went back, later), and the trip continued towards Monterey,
the Cannery Row,
and the beachline.
We spent some time in Santa Cruz on the way back.

Wine country, widely

Saturday, and a tour to Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Armstrong Redwoods, Jenner, and Bodega Bay. Santa Rosa and Snoopy´s home was done pretty quickly,
so we continued to Healdsburg for brunch.
The redwoods here are not the biggest ones in California, but a tree that is 100m high, 5m wide, and 1400 years old is not something that you see every day.
We reached jenner just at sunset and saw a glimpse of the seal there, too. Dinner at Bodega Bay was memorable not for the food, but for the fact that the ladies were asked to show their ID :-)

I love these guests

So, these ladies are great, but it does not make things worse when they make great food together, too.
Yummy!
And soon they felt just like home :-)

Stinsin Beach

No, it was not cold here, either.

Heli and Mira visiting

Sirpa´s cousin Heli and her friend Mira flew in on Friday, and the next day we walked to the Ferry Building to get some fresh air and get rid of some of that jetlag they had. It was quite funny, Sirpa and I had warned them for months not to come and visit us in January, because it is freaking cold and rainy. So they came here with warm clothes, only, and we basically had 2 weeks of sunshine and warm weather. We went all the way to to Pier 39, so it became quite hot... Had lunch at Bubba Gump, which I had only visited on Maui before.
Dinner at Lulu´s was not that fantastic, but the wine was pretty decent.

Fog

Just a morning with quite a morning fog that I wanted to capture.

New plates

My year was full of driving... um, maybe I should not write in a blog what I did for a year... Anyway, I ordered personalized license plates for the car. I was expecting it to be difficult (like everything else related to U.S. officials, government, etc), but the DMV website worked fine, and the price was much lower than in Finland. I also became "green" by ordering the plates with a background, where the extra fee goes to efforts in preserving the sea and the whales.

And it is easy to find my car, although it has not been that difficult before, either.

Big package

Sirpa and a big package. Unfortunately not her own, but found at the mall in Corte Madera.
And a dungeness crab sallad for brunch in Tiburon at Rooney´s.

Napa, Glen Ellen

We headed towards Napa (which sounds pretty amusing for the Finnish-speaking) and Chateau Domaine Carneros, which looks old, but was build in 1988. The building was inspired Chateau de la Marquetterie in Champagne, France, which is the country home and estate of the Taittinger family.
Although a "fake", the building is very nice outside, as well as inside, with a big open fire,
and naturally some pretty decent "champagne".
And something to accompany the champagne with.
We still go hungry, so next stop was Glen Ellen
and a place called the Fig Cafe & Winebar. A nice brunch place for us, but apparently also a popular wine bar and restaurant.
There´s not that much to see in Glen Ellen, a few shops along the river, and a few restaurants, but very restful. (For the programmers out there, no, I am not talking about an API).
Oh, with the colours Sirpa us using, it is pretty damn hard to stay incognito :-)
Driving back to SanFran I saw this sign, which somehow summarized the problem with the U.S. car industry. If this is the cars that the kids learn about, well, things can not go well.
And in the evening I enjoyed some good food from Restaurant Sirpa.