Blogs from California, United States, North America - page 2

The very next time you are in the East Bay, or Oakland, or better yet, near Kaiser Hospital at 40th near Broadway. You must stop here! My travel buddy, Mr. Mike discovered Umami Mart at 4027 Broadway in Oakland. Here is an "About Us" from their website: Since 2012, we have been an independently owned small business, headquartered in Oakland, CA, striving to bring joy through quality products from Japan. Our shop is a space to discover something new about Japanese cuisine and culture through its kitchen tools, barware, and drinks; while the blog is a space to share recipes and knowledge. Read more about the evolution of Umami Mart here. About Yoko Kumano After spending 5 years as a salary woman in Ginza, Yoko moved back to the Bay Area to open Umami Mart with ... read more

On Friday, my second trip to the Golden Gate Bridge was struck by a crisis neither of us foresaw, the only selfie stick we had broke. You never really know a crisis until you're in a crisis!! Our trip to the Fine Arts museum now hung in the balance, now dependent on the traditional method of taking selfies; the threat of happy memories blemished by photos with heads chopped off due to short arms and poor camera work was now real. If you take nothing from any of these blogs and there is a strong possibility you won't!!, promise me one thing, at least once in your life go to watch Cirque Du Soleil. This is not Crusty the Clown type characters with endless handkerchiefs in their pockets! These are athletes whom practice 10 -12 hours ... read more

The morning had a slight blip when a chap I asked for directions to the 28 bus misheard me and directed me to the 38, thankfully we managed to get a connecting bus and then the correct one. Our destination the Golden Gate Bridge, though Orangy Red Gate Bridge maybe a more accurate name. Not sure though the tourist board would be able to sell to potential tourists to come visit the Orangy Red bridge. Upon arrival there is an excellent viewing point of the city and a model of the bridge. Apparently it has a 28 foot sway from left to right, in heavy winds, similar to how some of us sway in and out of my driving lane but without wind assistance. The good news is there's walking and cycling lane on the bridge ... read more

The song "City of Chicago" goes "In the City of Chicago As the evening shadows fall. There are people dreaming. Of the hills of Donegal." I can understand why there aren't people dreaming of the hills of San Francisco. They are extremely steep buggers, you know your fitness level or lack of when you tackle one of those. Lombard Street was our first port of call, it claims to have the bendiest street in the world. We had done our quota of hills at this stage, so only looked on from a short distance as cars meandered slowly around the downhill bends. Not to be tried with a hangover and dodgy brakes. Today we got a glimpse of the Golden Bridge, it is actually 3.5 miles outside the city. It is indeed impressive from the distance, ... read more

Today was a fun day! We dropped Millie off at doggy daycare where she got to spend the day running and having fun. Then Scott, James, and I went to the San Diego zoo. The weather could not have been more perfect. The animals were super active and it was a overall great day. The we picked Millie up and took her to Dog Beach. She had a great time running through the water chasing and being chased. We ended with dinner at Under Belly in downtown San Diego. ... read more