beloved bel

We had the car for one last day and we reserved it for a day trip out to Napa Valley, the famous wine region in California.  Typical tourists, we also made sure we drove on the Golden Gate Bridge.  The famous bridge where it is known to always be shrouded in fog and it wasn't much of an exception that day. Gloomy day Thankfully once we were out of SF, the traffic was smooth and we arrived in the town of Napa after 1.5h.  The drive there was scenic and Napa is a beautiful and clean town, at times felt posh too.  I like!  We were armed with a small guide book with notes on which wineries to visit, thanks to our Air BnB host, Saana.  We went into the Tourist Information Centre and was shown this map of Napa Valley which is a long strip: Napa is on the south and you can drive up one straight highway (the Silverado Trail) and reach other winery towns such as St Helena, Yountville and Calistoga.  It happened that all 3 wineries which Saana reco...

Our honeymoon seems like a distant memory but I still have 2 more posts to finish it.  Picking up from where I last blogged, we were on our way from Yosemite (goodbye dangerous mountain roads) and onto the motorway headed straight for San Francisco, a 4h drive away. En route SF.. are we there yet?? We decided to stay with Air BnB hosts for the second time at San Francisco (SF).  Approaching SF I contacted the host Saana and kept her informed of where we were and estimated arrival time.  We picked this Victorian house in the Mission district.  This is an upcoming district and she was honest enough to tell us it's not the best neighbourhood but they will tell us which streets to avoid.  Not that it's dangerous but you know, to be safe… when we arrived, I knew what she meant.  I was actually surprised at how many homeless people are there in this city, or rather in this neighbourhood. Driving into SF, the start of the jam that is soon to come I w...