California 2018

On Friday 20th July we flew to San Fransisco.  We had come to SF for the Rugby Sevens World Cup. Held in the baseball stadium with the bay as a back drop to some really exciting rugby. 

With the Blitsbokke as the current series champions, our team and the Fijians were favourites. In the end we had to settle for 3rd and 4th respectively with the Kiwis taking gold and the English, silver.

The 21st Amendment Brewery became our fan base. We met Gary and Craig and a bunch of Saffers there after the tournament each day.

Hotel G is a cool hotel in the Union Square area. Just over the road we discovered the Pine Crest Diner, good for brunch or late night suppers. It's open 24hrs a day and there is almost always a line waiting for a table.

We stayed till Tuesday and enjoyed walking through neighborhoods like SOMA, North Beach, Mission and Chinatown.

We saw a really good Magritte exhibition at SFMOMA.

SF is a cosmo-foodie paradise as the list of places we enjoyed attests to..

Chaat Cafe - Indian

Belotta- Spanish

Ideale - Italian

Lao - Laotian

And don't forget to try Sight/Glass coffee, the ultimate West Coast hipster brew.

We spent a few nights with Stephan and Andrea; as always a pleasure.. We enjoyed a few parties to try out their new beer-garden tables and benches. More wine than beer consumed, for sure.

We stayed with Larry and Jean in Capitola for the weekend. They have a wonderful apartment with great sea views. Capitola in Summer is a typical Northern Californian beach town with a laid back feel. After walking along the coast, we enjoyed a pub crawl through town and down to main beach. Neil declared that if he HAD to pick a place, he could retire there.

On Sunday we drove to Long Beach to see Julie and on Monday after a walking tour of downtown LA, we checked into Union Station to board the South West Chief for the 43hr train journey to Chicago.

It's a fun journey. We had a sleeper cabin but all meals are served in the dining car and there's a viewing lounge too. For each meal we were seated at a different table which made for meeting some interesting people. There's lots of time to read but the patchy WiFi connection would drive some people a little mad.