Santa Cruz & wine country

On Thursday Russ, Hannah, and I cruised down to Santa Cruz for fun. We stopped at Aloha Island Grill and had some ono Hawaiian food like lomi lomi salmon, poi, kalua pig, mahi mahi, loco moco, and junk kine macaroni. We drove to Capitola and walked along the beach. Cold water, lots of seaweed in and out of the cold water, and kids flying kites was the big picture. There were a bunch of tourist stores and I bought myself a bracelet made of real mahjong tiles (I hardly ever by things for myself, let alone jewelry). It was cloudy and cool when we arrived, but as we drove toward the west coast to take the 1 back to Sunnyvale, the skies became clear and the air warm.

On Friday we woke up really early (5:30 am) and drove to Pleasanton to see Hannah's roommate, Allison, swim, bike, and run a triathlon for fun (400 yard swim, 11 mile bike, 3.1 mile run). A fellow Teach for America person, Caroline, came along to watch as well. While Allison was swimming we made a very long sign for her while included embarrassing pictures of her past (printed off by Hannah) and a checklist that included "Swim _ Bike _ Run _" and we checked off each item as Allison completed them (good idea Hannah!). We had a nice brunch at Dean's Cafe in Pleasanton and headed off to wine country taking Caroline along.

Since I was little I had a dream of living in Napa Valley. I'm not sure why or how I got this image but I kept thinking it was the place for me so I had high expectations going there. It was not as I expected, of course. Tourists lined the main highway going into the wineries, it seemed dry (but Hannah says this is the dry season for California) and brown, and I didn't get a gut feeling for the place so really a no go by me. Quite frankly I know we could never afford anything there but it was nice to visit. We tasted the wines of the Diamond Oaks and Chateau Potelle wineries and laughed at a sign coming into the valley "Clearly Miles has never tasted Napa Valley Merlot"...or something like that. We went to the Robert Mondavi winery last and it was packed with tourists so we couldn't even taste the wines, but we took pictures in the grape vines so all was good. Sushi in Berkeley then to Sunnyvale for a good night's sleep. Today is Sunday and I think we're going to take it easy before we head the SFO tomorrow.