SanFrancisco / Lamorinda

I realize this post is WAY overdue, but this is the first time I have had both time and internet connectivity to write in the blog.

Got on the plane the other day (January 25) to fly to Oakland to meet up with Hillary and stay with her family in the Lamorinda valley. While we were there for that Wednesday, Thursday, and most of Friday, I feel like time flew by way too fast.

Our first day in the area, we drove into San Francisco and ate lunch at this cool pizza restaurant called Pizzeria Delfina. This was not a typical pizza place, and I already felt like I was expanding my horizons with trying new food. We finished lunch and walked down the street to get ice cream at the Bi-Rite creamery. I had some brown sugar ice cream that was really sweet and really good. After walking around a bit, we got back in the car and headed over the Bay Bridge through Treasure Island (not a joke) and back toward Hillary's house.

We took a scenic drive through Berkeley's campus and over Grizzly Point, where we had some amazing, albeit a little foggy, views of the city and surrounding areas.

Next, we picked up Hillary's little sister, Lucy (7) from school and headed to the church. I do not really remember the rest of the events of the night, except that we watched American Idol, and played with the Foss's dog, Cody.

Thursday was an amazing day of driving through Napa Valley through wine country. We visited California's Old Faithful Geyser at Calistoga. On the way back, we had lunch at Taylor's Refresher (Now Gott's) and I had an amazing burger with avocado and jalapenos and salsa (Dad, you would have loved it).

We stopped off at Yountville (a small town on the road with beautiful architecture), before heading home to Orinda. That night, Hillary's grandparents (Dad's mom and dad) came in for dinner. I got to play some basketball with Sam (12), and we practiced dunking. Lucy also joined us for a bit before we ate a great steak and chicken dinner. Mom and Dad- I tried bell peppers. I liked them. That night we spent more time with the family playing with Lucy and Cody while we watched American Idol again.

The next morning was leaving day, so we packed up (Hillary needed a bit of help), and headed to breakfast at a cool place called Chow in Lafayette. Around noon we headed out to the airport, getting through security by around 2:30. Our flight departed around 4:15, so I had time to spend some American cash by grabbing a last meal and a Gatorade.