Category Archives: _North America_

Santa Fe Impressions

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Today we made it into Santa Fe proper, New Mexico’s capital and home to around 70,000 people.

Our first stop – after yesterday’s adventure around Abiquiú – had to be the brilliant Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in downtown Santa Fe – with good insight into her development and some of her major works.

From the museum we continued through town. At the main plaza we were surprised by car show, featuring mainly vintage cars (as well as some otherwise ‘special’ cars). From the plaza we made our way to the Cathedral and then on to Loretta Chapel.

Sightseeing makes hungry, so we decided to go for lunch – which unfortunately did involve a lengthy wait. After lunch we had a look through some art galleries, we also walked by the capital building (only at the outside, as the building itself was closed today).

We were now approaching the late afternoon and were getting thirsty, so decided for pre-dinner drinks in Harry’s favorite bar in town to then proceed for dinner in a tapas bar – complete with wine and live music.

Around Abiquiú – in Georgia O’Keeffe Country

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Today was dedicated to the late Georgia O’Keeffe.

We left Los Alamos after breakfast and made is all the way up to Abiquiú and the Ghost Ranch – and into Georgia O’Keeffe Country.

From the ranch we engaged for the 5km chimney rock trail with some amazing views of the area, including – of course – Cerro Pedernal (a major piece of inspiration and subject of the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe).

After the hike we had lunch, before continuing into town for gas and some ice cream at the Frozen Cow ice cream shop (imagine our surprise, when we realized, they were serving Oakland made Dreyer’s ice cream).

Our next stop was a the Echo Amphitheater, a natural rock formation resembling an amphitheater (you would not have guessed that – right?). From here we continued to the Benedictine Abbey of Christ in the Desert. This was to get a glimpse of the church and monastery and its architecture – but also to get a bit into the back country during the 13 mile dirt road drive.

We eventually made it back and through Abiquiú – and had a further stop just outside of town at the Poshuouinge Ruins – again with a little hiking trail – passing by the ruin site and then to a view point for a full view of it.

From here – after a short stop at El Santuario De Chimayo – we continued into Santa Fe for a nice and spicy introduction to the most New Mexican of questions – will it be red or green …

 

Miami Impressions

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After last week in Madrid with focus on the European processes, this week saw me flying into Miami for similar discussion on North America.

Once more we had intensive meeting days – with a little time in between for some sightseeing and exploration of Miami – below some photos.

Around Half-Moon-Bay

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The plan for today was less tight and – after the action the previous days – we kind of took things easy. Also the weather turned against us – with rain and low temperatures (around 12C).

We left Oakland late in the morning and made our way South to the San Mateo Bridge to cross the bay and then over to the Pacific Ocean at Half Moon Bay.

With the weather against us, we decided – after a short coffee / tea stop – to have a small road trip down famous Pacific Coast Highway / California 1 to Pescadero for lunch and then back via the back country with a stop at the beach on the way (it had stopped raining at least).

Heading North we stopped in El Granada to pick up some crabs – that would become dinner later tonight. After a short walk around, we made our way back to San Francisco for a crab dinner with the family of Lisa’s son – a great opportunity to finally meet them, after having heard so much about them over the years.

Around Mount Diablo (literally)

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Today we were heading inland for Mount Diablo. With just below 1200m the single highest elevation in the bay area – offering stunning views.

We first made it to the summit by car (this is the US at last) to take in the views and check out the visitors center. We also talked to the ranger about hiking / walking options. There was the easy going 1km trail around the summit (even halfway paved) – with the next bigger hike a proper 12km hike around the mountain (and no real options in between).

We decided for the latter one – and soon discovered, that we had underestimated both elevation changes and trail conditions – in short gravel and gradients are not a combinations … the hike in the end took us a good four hours (including breaks) and not the 2.5 to three hours we had expected. Yet – it was a very enjoyable hike, with fantastic views (some proof below), abundant plant life (many wildflowers in full bloom) and perfect weather conditions (cloudy, temperatures of around 18C). So – we took our time and enjoyed.

California Wining

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It had been some time since my last visit to the San Francisco bay area, so it was about time to return – with the main driver really being to see Lisa – my old pen pal, who I had originally met on my first trip to Antarctica – and to finally get to personally meeting some of her family.

So on this Saturday I was handing myself over to Delta Airlines to get me across the pond into Detroit (my favorite US airport) and then on towards San Francisco. I made it into San Francisco in the late evening (around 22:30) after two uneventful flights (good thing). Lisa and Harry did pick me up and we made it over to Oakland.

Sunday saw me sleeping until about 10:00 (not unexpected, given how timezones work). Over breakfast we looked into the planning for the upcoming days – to then head for an easy day of wining around the more local wineries.

We first made it over to Treasure Island – straight in the middle of the bay and straight in the middle of the Oakland-SF bay bridge – for a visit of The Winery SF (or simply W). We made our way through a number of wines. Not being a fan of Chardonnays (anymore), my focus was on the reds here – all were nice, though the Pinot Noir really outstanding.

On the way out we had a stop at the coast for a view over to San Francisco – before making it back into Oakland and a stop at Dashe Cellars to try some great Zinfandels. After a late lunch, we had a final stop at Rosenblum Cellars for a further tasting. Dinner was at home with a home-made Korean-style ox-tail soup.

Overall a great and easy going day – and a good introduction to California wines (which over here are still somewhat seen in the ‘mass-production’ and ‘nothing-special’ category) – and even better preparation for the following Monday.

Monday saw us driving up to Napa; Harry had secured tickets for the wine train – i.e. a train ride through the Napa valley, accompanied by a great lunch. With the train marketed as ‘wine train’, we somehow had expected the trip being themed around wine, e.g. with a proper tasting, some wine backgrounds etc. – but that was not the case, it was really more like a restaurant on tracks (with an extensive wine list though). To make up for that, we had another tour around the valley – after we returned to the train station. We also did two more tastings – one at the Whitehall Lane Winery and the other one at the Grgich Hills Estate.

So – two wining days … with many great wines – in other words two winning days 😉