California Love

Pre-Christmas dinner photo 

Come. Take a little trip with me down memory lane. In my High School chemestry class, Ms. McFadden, in satisfying the request of one of my classmates, had us hold two minutes of silence for the death of 2Pac Shakur. Yes, that really happened. Anyway, in his immortal words (may he rest in peace), and those of Dr. Dre, let me just say: "California knows how to party/...Let me serenade the streets of L.A./From Oakland to Sacktown/The Bay Area and back down/Cali is where they put they mack down/...Let's show these fools how we do this on that west side/Cause you and I know it's tha best side/Yeah, That's right/West coast, west coast."

On December 23rd 2011, I stepped out of the San Francisco airport... and took off my coat. Did you read that? I took off my coat! I can't remember the last time I had been able to do that on the eve of Christmas Eve. Wait... wait a minute... yes!  I do remember.  Silly me.  It was December 23rd 2007... in California.

From the 23rd until the 28th, I spent sun-filled days on the veranda of my grandmother's villa, overlooking the vineyards below.  We hiked through parks, shopped at little boutiques, and ate bite after delicious bite of food at every meal.

I spent a day in San Fransisco with my aunts, shopping around Japan town, eating Japanese for lunch and relaxing at a Japanese spa. Thankfully, the day we went to Kabuki Springs & Spa, was co-ed and 'mandatory bathing suit' day. (Hooray for US customs. In Holland co-ed day is the same as female or male only days: not in your swimming suit, but in your birthday suit). And I'm just not down with that.

lunch in San Francisco

My 5 days in California had me wishing for more.  Then again... you never know what the future may bring.