Right then. We’re back.
Here’s how our holiday belated honeymoon added up:
- two weeks
- twenty hours in the air
- eight terrible movies
- one thousand and thirty-seven photos
- four locations
- five strange beds
- three year anniversary
- eight hours time difference
- 3 portions of eggs benedict
- a dozen Diet Mountain Dews (they’re like crack)
- 14% city hotel tax
- two new pairs of trainers
- 8 counties (Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Jose)
- 1 24-hour cold
- 2 boxes of tissues
- $2 to £1 (or near enough)
- 1300 miles of driving
- Highway 1
- 20% tipping
- 7 miles walking every day (average)
- 1 former prison
- two dozen sealions
- 1 comp bottle of champagne from the flight crew
- countless seals
- 3 whales
- 4 hailstorms
- 1/2 an incredibly sickly slice of carrotcakecheesecake
- half a dozen wineries
- 100.5 KTDE (your voice on the Redwood Coast)
- 11 hours sleep a night
- 1 Australian out for drinks
- 1-in-4 gradients
- 1 Norman-Bates-like innkeeper
- 3 brits bumped into in a bar (expats or otherwise)
- 300′+ trees
- 1 washeteria in a redneck town
- 30spf sunblock
- 8 (or possibly 9) fruity cocktails
- A bunch of nice local microbrews (Anchor Steam, Steelhead Pale Ale, Boont Amber)
- 1 night’s sleep lost on the way home
- two very happy people
We had a fantastic time. I’m still getting over jetlag a bit and trying to shake a bug I picked up on the plane home, but tomorrow it’s back to work (and also my birthday). I’ve got all sorts of thoughts jostling in my head about our American immersion - things about travelling and culture and society and American-ness and all sorts, really - but they’ll have to wait for a bit, or at least until I’ve processed the pictures in flickr and the whole experience in my head.
In the meantime, it’s good to be back.



Happy birthday for tomorrow, good to have you back, and love the two pics you’ve put on here, especially the flag. Will check out the flickr pics when they’re up.
Sounds like a blast. I did a very similar trip (minus the belated honeymoon part) when I went to the Bay Area this time last year.
The feature I directed, ENCOUNTERS, played at the Sonoma Valley International Film Festival so I took the opportunity of having a 3 week holiday.
SF, Monterey (twice), Mendocino, Sonoma, Yosemite and Mountain View/Palo Alto (including guided tour of Googleplex).
Happy times :)