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

"Chris Stasse: Official Ambassador of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich" 100 years ago, the horses on this road would have carried a lot more—physically and symbolically—than the backs of eager tourists. 100 years ago, relations between China and Tibet were as shaky as today, but nonetheless had a major artifice of trade linking them together. This was the Tea and Horse Road, which formed a kind of second, southern "Silk Road" connecting China to Central Asia through the Himalayas. China wanted Tibetan horses. Tibet wanted Chinese tea, much of which was grown here in the middle of Yunnan Province. I drank a cup of the famous Pu'er tea this morning. There was no doubt that this was the road Eleanor and I stumbled upon, though it had been steadily disappearing for lack of use since ... read more

Rain threatened all afternoon with off and on drizzling. As we drove to Arista Winery where the wedding and reception took place it seemed like we might be in the clear...so to speak. We were riding in a van with the maid of honor at the helm. Emily was sitting in the middle row with the back of her dress and her veil draped over the back of the seat to keep it from being crushed. MOB sat in the middle row with the two of the three bridesmaids in the back row. Emily had me sitting in front to prevent any motion sickness in the drive over. Rebekah joined us at the winery. With expert piloting from the Sarah in the back seat and the on board navigation system we made to Arista without incident. ... read more

I want to show you a couple of photos of the hotel at which we stayed, The Flamingo Inn. These are outside shots. I didn't take any photos this time of the rooms but the rooms had recently been redone. The restaurant breakfast and dinner that I had there were good and not overpriced. I think they really expect people to take advantage of all the fabulous restaurants in the area for dinner. It was interesting because most of the guest have a hallway door and a door that connects to the parking lot. To enter the building from the parking lot, a person has to swipe a key card so it is a protected entry. Each outdoor door opens to four rooms, two up and two down. This eliminated a lot of walking when you ... read more

It was a beautiful rehearsal and dinner. All the plans were put into place if it is pouring rain...which it very well could be according to the weather reports. I don't want to share many details of the rehearsal and dinner until after the wedding but the group of friends and family participating in the wedding ceremony are wonderful and they are all having such a good time. I too a few photos of the view from the pace where the reception will be. As you can see, it is a fabulous view.... read more

Hello hello ! Sooooooooooo sorry for not posting earlier. I will not tell you that I had no time, it's just that USA is so advanced on new technologies that you won't find any internet-cafe in the cities !! Everyone has a portable device like Iphone, Blackberry etc or the own laptop (very popular to sit in Starbucks and check your laptop for hours...) to browse the web. Especially in lost areas. The only internet-cafe I've seen during my whole trip , no joking, was in San Francisco last week. But after 2 minutes my fingers got stuck on the dirty keyboard and I thought " One week more without posting...should be ok". (I only managed to get connected in Apple Stores for important emails). So I deeply apologize for that and I advise you to ... read more