California - 2022
My wife wanted to fly out to SF to see our son and his GF. This is a deal because he told her once if he ever introduced her to a girl, she was the one, and he's 42 now. We arrive fairly late in SFO and stay in San Mateo because it's close, get up next day and drive to Half Moon Bay which is much as I remember it, pretty cool overall. Then we drive south along the coast to Monterey, which turned out not to be as I recalled it. It's been "Gatlinburged". We walked around a bit and decided it's now chain restaurants and souvenier junk shops for the most part. And crowded. Change of plans, next day we drive down the coast to Big Sur which is still interesting. I got some photos of the Bixby Creek Bridge.
After two nights at an Embassy Suites (which was hosting a large wedding party for three days of Palestinians) we drove to Fairfield, CA for two nights. It's a much cheaper place to stay than over in Napa, and rather close by. We meet son and GF, who seems nice, she is originally from Hong Kong, then spend two days touring and tasting Sonoma and Napa, both of which are of course changing rather radically also. We had an appt at Passalaqua which was very nice, recommended, good wines, and then another place I thought was disappointing.
On Sunday we all drive in separate cars to a Doubtree Tree Inn in Rohnert Park (Sonoma) which is akin to a resort in some ways, nice gardens etc. The "kids" have to drive back to SF after we basically chill out and have lunch at a decent brewery. Monday we drive south and detour to see Muir Woods to find we need an appointment, bosh, I drive further on on very crooked roads and discover Muir Beach Lookout, which is pretty nice.
Then we drive through SF to see his new apartment, which is a tiny one bdr in a pretty nice area. We walked around quite a bit, I got photos of Giants Stadium nearby, have dinner, and then head to the airport for the redeye. We discover the Delta lounge there has showers so we avail ourselves, and we were upgraded for first which helped o the four hour plus a bit flight.
I'm not sure my wife is sold on the GF. Anyway, next slated trip is to France next month for two weeks.
