random collection of photos from San Francisco

Here is a pretty much random collection of photos of my parents wandering through the streets of San Francisco.

What would be SF without its cable cars?!


Chinatown Gate:


On the streets of Chinatown:


Nice to meet you, Mr President!


I want to perform on the streets of SF, too!


Transamerica Pyramid and Sentinel Building:


On the way to the Coit Tower:


Bay Bridge:


Behind Port of San Francisco:


In front of SF Museum of Modern Arts:


On top of Potrero Hill, my neighborhood:


In front of my work, downtown in the background:


At my work:


Green San Francisco:


Let's read together!


On the last evening in San Francisco we went for dinner at Little Nepal in Bernal Heights:


The food there was delicious as always:


Union Square at night:


I left my heart in...

photos from recent holidays

I am so behind with everything that I have no idea when I will manage to update my blog on the recent travels. In meantime, you can enjoy photos from our Hawaii trip here and photos from our trip to King's Canyon, Sequoia and Yosemite NP here.

Hawaii

Sequoia/King/Yosemite

Once I find a bit more time, you can expect posts about:

1. Oahu - Waikiki Beach & Diamond Head Crater
   
2. Oahu - Manoa Falls
   
3. Oahu - downtown Honolulu & Chinatown
   
4. Oahu - Pearl Harbor
   
5. Kauai - Na Pali Coast
   
6. Kauai - Sleeping Giant
   
7. Kauai - Opaekaa Falls & Wailua River Valley
   
8. Kauai - Waimea Canyon
   
9. Kauai - Alakai Swamp
   
10. Kauai - Sprouting Horn
    
11. Maui - snorkling
    
12. Maui - road to Hana
    
13. Maui - lava tube beach
    
14. Maui - Hana lava tube cave
    
15. Maui - Halakela volcano
    
16. Maui - Oheo Gulch
    
17. King's Canyon NP
    
18. Sequoia NP - Giant Grove
    
19. Sequoia NP - Crystal Cave
    
20. Sequoia - Moro Rock
    
21. Yosemite Valley & Vernal Falls hike
    

Bausack (Sack o' Bricks)

What the better way to spend an evening with the family than to play a few games of Bausack? Especially when your boyfriend and your parents do not speak the same language :) This game is definitely good at breaking language and cultural barriers, as well as it provides a great entertainment.

The idea behind Bausack is to use provided blocks (bricks) to built a structure on blocks put down by other players. Players take turns choosing (preferably blindly from the provided bag) blocks. When the structure falls down, the player who caused it looses.

Here my father is reaching into a bag to pick a block that will fit onto the existing structure:


Few bricks further the structure looks like this:


Here is another, pretty impressive structure that we managed to built:




And this photo commemorates the moment of my father's defeat:

Monterey Bay Aquarium - seahorse exhibition

Last Thursday I took my parents to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is my favorite aquarium in the whole world. I have been there more than five times during past two years even though: (1) it takes at least two hours to get there from SF, (2) I do not have a car, (3) the entrance price is pretty high - 30$ per person.

The highlight of this visit to the aquarium was the newly opened exhibition The Secret Lives of Seahorses. There are more than 15 species of seahorses featured in this exhibit and all of them are absolutely delightful to look at. You can see that for yourself at the photos below. Forgive me the poor quality of the photos - the seahorse exhibit is not well lit and it is forbidden to use flash photography.

Leafy Seadragon and part of Weedy Seadragon in the background:


Dwarf seahorse:


Ribbon pipehorse:


Other seahorses which names I do not recall:






Other great exhibit at the aquarium is the Jellyfish exhibit:


I can spend hours watching The Kelp Forest. Here are my parents in front of it:


But Sea otters are the most adorable:






There are also many interesting fish like those flatfish that change color as to match their environment:




Or these fish with interesting hairstyles:

Wine tasting in Sonoma

On Wednesday this week we went wine tasting to Sonoma and Napa.

Our first stop was Cline winery. There we took a guided tour through the vineyard, which, unfortunately, focused more on the history of the Cline family rather than on wine making. Still, the tour was quite informative and interesting as the Cline family owns models of all twenty-one California Missions that are faithful representations of missions built by Spanish missionaries along California coast. The first of the missions is located in San Diego and the last one six hundred fifty miles north in Sonoma. All those models can be seen at the California Missions Museum that was established by the Cline family.

As for Cline wine, I am quite fond of their Viognier, but I was not impressed by none of their reds.

My parents in front of the Cline tasting room:


From there we went to downtown Sonoma to visit *real* Mission Sonoma:


Afterwards we visited a much less touristy Saint Francis winery that also happens to make cabs and zins that I love. Here are my parents in front of it:


We shortly stopped at several other vineyards, but none of them was really memorable.

Views from the Coit Tower

At the beginning of May, Manja and Bartek were again visiting San Francisco and together with them I went to the top of the Coit Tower. The views of the city from there were simply spectacular. 

The statue of Christofer Colombus in front of the Coit Tower:

Western part of SF and Golden Gate Bridge:

Lombard St:

Downtown and Transamerica Pyramid:

Bay Bridge:

Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Campground

The campground at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is located alongside the Bright Angel Creek. It has 31 sites, all of which need to be reserved up to 4 months in advance through the Grand Canyon's Backcountry Permit Office. All sites are very pretty and for most of a day shaded, which is very important taking into account high temperatures that one can experience in the canyon.

If you do not feel like camping, you can also stay at the Phantom Ranch, which is located just few hundred meters away from the campground. But, honestly, why would you deprive yourself of the pleasure of caring 30+ lbs on your back up and down the canyon? ;)

Even if you are not staying at the Phantom Ranch you can still take advantage of the restaurant located there and reward yourself with a cold beer, lemonade or a glass of wine. Admittedly, it does feel awesome to drink wine at the bottom of the canyon...

In between the ranch and the campground, there is also a rangers' station, which is really cool as during afternoons and evenings rangers usually give talks on various interesting subjects like: canyon's geology, history of the trails leading to the canyon, or on California condors. We went for several of these talks and we always found them both entertaining and informative.

Bright Angel Creek as seen from our campsite: