California Dreaming.....

we had a superb two week trip in California. It started with the best part (for me that is)... a 5 day gastronomic feast in the wine country north of san francisco. Sanoma and napa were beautiful and the surrounding towns just gorgeous. I loved cruising in our mustang convertible, stopping at beautiful wine farms, tasting gorgeous californian chardonnays and picnicking under the lush trees. In the evenings we would go for a run through the mountainside or vineyards as the sun was setting before going to the fancy shmancy restaurants I had booked well in advance! We had some amazing meals with local, organic produce.... so yummy! And our fair share of fresh seafood and oysters!! We then drove via San Francisco to highway 1 down to Monterey and Carmel, where we stayed for 2 nights. Carmel is my new favourite place- one day when we're millionaires we might get ourselves a little trendy shack on the beach... ha ha! It was freezing cold though and I had a few spells of major complaint.... Cayman has really turned me into a woosy. Then we followed the Big Sur to San Luis Obispo, the student haunt for some steaks and margheritas.... and then onto Santa Barbara for real mexican cuisine (which is rather different to how we know it!) and lastly to LA where we got onto our fabulously large cruise ship. We sailed for 5 days, to San Diego, Catalina Island and Ensenada in Mexico. We played bingo, had some fun in the casino on board, danced, drank champagne and fought through a night of very very rough seas! The food was excellent, not even spoilt by the fact that we were placed at the kiddies table. Yip- Lee and I were the only ones allowed to drink! The mormon missionary couple were on there honeymoon (about 18 yrs old) and the rest were an interesting bunch of yanks and a german. Each night dinner consisted of everybody gawping at us and asking us questions... we were 'old and wise and well-travelled'... we regaled them with wonderful stories of africa (snigger) and European trips filled with adventure. It kept us amused too. Then after a day at Universal Studios in LA, we flew the 'red-eye' midnight flight back to Cayman... and now we rest. xxx