Stress, tornadoes, phones, and ‘Is it March yet?!’

“Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold.  But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.” ~Douglas Pagels

Soooo, I’m slacking on posting again, but considering my life has not consisted of much more than work, stress, an almost breakdown because of work and routine family stuff..it’s not surprising.

Highlights Lowlights

*San Diego had an incredibly unusual rain storm take over the city for over a week, complete with pelting rain, car accidents, hail, and even a tornado warning in North County. One of the best things about moving from the Midwest  6 years ago was I thought I no long had to deal with tornadoes…one of my biggest fears. Throughout this gloomy period the city practically tried to shut down and I was confident, on multiple occasions, that our 17th floor office windows would collapse under the pressure of the hurricane like wind. Ok, so not a big deal in general, but when the temperature only changes by about 25 degrees throughout the year in Southern California, this strange behavior of Mother Nature is shocking!

*I’ve been dealing with DeutschBahn, about two missing train tickets that were shipped from Germany. After being advised of the ship date, which was a month ago, I contacted the US Post Office and was basically told…”Sorry, you’re out of luck. They were probably lost, mis-routed, or torn during the rainstorm. It happens. Blah blah blah.” Um…WTF?! The first ticket came just fine. Luckily, after much correspondence (which I will note DBahn is very efficient with), they told me I could repurchase my tickets and after my journey, send the replacement tickets for refund. The catch is they want me to buy them at the ticket stand and I prefer to buy the Dauzer-Special rate online for half the price, and not pay full price at the Berlin train station and hope I get my refund. I decided to suck it up, buy the same tickets twice and deal with it. Frustrating process. Fingers crossed I can get a refund for the replacement online tickets.

*Most recently, I’ve tried to do some research on which EU Pay-As-You-Go cell phone plan is the best to go with. Last year, I just went with payphones, but it would be handy to have a phone to make plans with new friends, confirm any travel planning stuff, and just for plain ol’ convenience. I don’t plan to use it much, but it will be handy and I can use it for future travel. I don’t dare bring my iPhone thanks to horror stories of $800 bills.  So, I’m scrounging through information on mobile phone tariffs (which are cell phone plans in British I finally figured out after about 5 minutes on the site trying to find the cell plans wondering why I would care so much about taxes or tariffs to justify a whole section on them). There are standard rates, international rates, roaming rates, international roaming rates and oh-my-god-which-is-which…-and-when…-and-how-will-I-ever-know rates. There is a ‘Passport’ plan with Vodaphone and a ‘My Europe’ bolt-on with O2 that help lower the pence per minute rate or pence per text rate. Thank goodness, my good  British friend, Becca helped me out and recommends I go with O2. Phew.

I am, thankfully, a month away from my 3 weeks abroad. Throughout the work stress and other frustrations… anticipation of this trip has kept me (almost) sane!!

thanksgiving, couchsurfing, and the horrible conversion rate

“We have a vision of a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter.” – couchsurfing.org

Happy almost Thanksgiving everyone! Time flies and I have suddenly found myself in the middle of the holiday season again. What have I been doing for a year?! It seems like just yesterday I was digging up my once a year Creamed Corn and Parmesan Potatoes recipes and now I’m doing it again. Another Thanksgiving with the family… overeating… reminiscing over funny family moments… shaking my head in awe at all the people looking forward to the maniacal “Black Friday” (it’s called Black Friday for a reason… it’s clearly comparable to the plague in all things horrible that should be avoided). The short work week is fun though.

This weekend, after the holiday, I am participating for the first time in the giant CouchSurfing community. I joined the site a couple months ago in preparation for eventually trying it out. This next trip I take will be my first venture into solo-traveling, but next I want to try couchsurfing, in which one stays with a local in any given city worldwide. The host provides a place to crash and usually will take you out and show you their home city. It’s a give-and-take kind of community, expecting that you will also “host” fellow couchsurfers in your own town. Well, I am going to be a host this weekend for a nice girl from Japan. What a great way to meet new people, new travelers, and eventually get to enjoy the benefits abroad when I’m ready. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Speaking of travel, I’ve started booking some of the hopper flights and other random things for my trip next spring. I almost want to cry at the conversion rate which has been hovering around 1.47′ish and will probably rise between now and March. The British Pound is, of course, even worse than the Euro. What was I thinking choosing the MOST expensive country I could find outside Scandinavia? Oh yeah, I love Europe… it and its criminal conversion rate. Mr. Dollar, I beg you to rise. I can’t stand paying an extra 50% for everything for long.

Yosemite!

“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.”- Ansel Adams

(July 30, 2009)

Today is Yosemite! After a couple of relaxing days at the pool, at the lake, barbecuing, and quality family time, we are ready to see Yosemite.

Climbing the hills, into the dense trees, we arrive. It is difficult to describe the utter beauty that is Yosemite. As we drive past the entrance into gigantic national park, we pass stunning scene after stunning scene. Towering redwoods surround us, as we pass intermittent canyons. The view before us sprawls into what seems like eternity. There are valleys of redwood groves, giant cliffs of granite, waterfalls, and streams. This is some of the most gorgeous countryside I’ve ever seen. We spend our time hiking to a couple waterfalls and then proceed to the south end of the valley to see the giant redwoods. These trees are massive!!

Regarding our day at Yosemite, there are only so many ways I can say “beautiful” or “stunning” and these words don’t even do it justice at all. I shall just post a few photos instead.

Yosemite National Park is an absolute must see.

The next day we departed…back to Southern California. What a great road trip it was!

El Capitan

Redwood on it's side

Redwood Tree

Yosemite Valley

Twain Country

“The charming landscape which I saw this morning is indubitably made up of some 20 or 30 farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet.” – Emerson

(July 28, 2009)

We’ve left wine country and are heading to redwood country, with a plan to visit Yosemite during our stay. Back in the car, We pass tiny small towns, more vineyards, and the occasional farm as we make the three hour drive to Angel’s Camp… Mark Twain country. This region is where Twain’s collection of short stories, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, is set. I feel more like I am in the hills of Colorado, than California. This is so completely different from Southern California.

Calaveras County

We stop at a local grocery store, or market I should say, collect the food for the next four days and check-in to another time share. They’ve decorated it appropriately for the area…and I feel like I’m in a cabin. Across the street is nothing but nature; groves of trees, a couple moving herds of cows, the sporadic fox, and a couple deer sightings at night. It is so peaceful up here…and SO quiet. What a great getaway.

The first day, we head into an adorable old gold-mining town, not far from the giant sequoia park, called Murphy. This town still looks like I imagine it did back when the gold-miners settled, only with newer store fronts of course. There is one “Main Street” with not a single commercial business to be found…only local stores. We wander a bit admiring the history. I learn that the Murphy’s hotel is one of the oldest continually operating hotels in California and both Ulysses S. Grant and Mark Twain spent times staying there. We enjoyed some ice-cream in a 1950’s malt-shop, browsed an old book store, an old-school toy store and proceeded to the famous caves on the edge of town.

Murphy Hotel

While waiting for the guide to take us down into the caves of Mercer Caverns, the kids enjoyed practicing gold mining. Finally a mini-group was assembled and we ventured down into the dark, damp caves. The guide was full of interesting facts about the man who discovered them, Mercer, and how the stalactites and stalagmites develop over hundreds of years. Down at the bottom, the lamp was put out and we experience true darkness. I can see how someone could go blind after a significant time in that kind of darkness. Now even a hint of light for your eyes to find. It was crazy. I really enjoyed our hike down into the depths of the caves and learned all kinds of stuff. If you find herself in this area…you should definitely check it out.

Mercer Caverns

Wine Tasting in Sonoma Valley

“One not only drinks the wine, one smells it, observes it, tastes it, sips it and–one talks about it.” – King Edward VII

(July 27, 2009)

Leaving San Francisco, we drove north through more beautifully contrasted golden hills with bright green trees. Soon we were passing vineyard after vineyard… we have finally arrived in wine country. Ahhh, wine. I have been wanting to go wine tasting in Sonoma and Napa Valley since I moved to California and am surprised it’s taken me so long. I love California wine.

Sonoma Valley vineyards

With three nights of relaxation ahead of us, we hunkered down into our timeshare in Windsor, California. The time share was great for a family vacation. There was a pool for down time,  it had a full kitchen, the kids had their own bedroom, and was large enough to settle in and the kids had their own bedroom. No more hotels! I was pleasantly surprised to see a small farm across the street from our balcony reminding me of back home! Sitting out on that balcony at night was so peaceful.

The first morning, I met up with a book club friend for breakfast in Santa Ana. It was nice to finally meet her in person (being an online book club) and we spent a pleasant morning together at a local cafe. After breakfast, I picked up the family and we all headed wine tasting. I heard that Sonoma is more accommodating with kids than Napa, so the kids came along. They enjoyed their time in the gardens while we sampled some delicious wines. One of the most gorgeous properties belonged to the Ferrari-Carano winery. Their gardens were beautiful…and the wine was tasty too! After a few wine-tasting stops, we went to Korbel for a tour. We were given the history of Korbel’s origination in 1882 and then taken down into the champagne cellars, followed by samples of the bubbly.

I couldn’t get over the scenery along the way between the wineries; it is just stunning. Northern California is so lush with trees and vineyards…I just stared out the window. It is so beautiful.

Ending the day with a nice buzz, I was happy.