The Lighthouse

Lighthouse at Point Montara

We spent Thursday night (29th) in the Lighthouse hostel at Point Montara 

(on the road between Half Moon Bay and San Francisco).

Another wonderful way to wake up:

the sound and smell of the ocean.

The wind in your hair and the view...

Oh my god, the view!

Floats to keep fishing nets down

Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruzing...

Half Moon Bay (reflective window)

We spent this week in Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz.
I don't have a lot of pictures of the places, because I spent too much time enjoying the wonderful company we met and hung out with!
Thank you Cheryl and Carl, Alicia, Megan and you four wonderful girls Caitlin, Jen, Sam and Katy!
I had so much fun and you are all golden stars!

Talking about stars...

• I saw my very first "ocher star" (zeester),
• drove an automatic for the first time,
• ate my first "kumquat",
• learned about sharks who make little bags to lay their eggs in (also called "mermaid purses" and Tim actually found one washed out on the shore),
• bought my first painting kit (got to have something meditative to do during my two months yoga retreat that's coming up),
• had burritos for dinner two evenings in a row for the first time,  
• said ''no'' to buying a wonderful pair of second hand boots and
• talked to a stranger in the lighthouse hostel with just a little bit of blushing instead of a lot.

Beautiful Coral on beach

Two wonderful ways to wake up!



Waking up in Pinole with Eric and Caitlin's Earl Grey!

Waking up in Half Moon Bay after a dip
 in the ice cold, but beautiful ocean!
It's a one minute run from Cheryl and Carl's amazing house.
Thank you for having us here and pampering us!

XL supermarket with Xtra fun company

Next stop (23th to 25th): Pinole...

Chilling out with Caitlin, Eric, Earl Grey and glimpses of Bubba (cats).

They showed me some of the American eXtremes:

XL supermarket Costco.

What an eXperience!

Giant containers of 'butter'.

Two babies fit in their shopping carts
AND they have to wear a seatbelt, of course!

 

A giant bag of tortilla chips for only 3,99!

After an XL veggie burrito, we went to another supermarket.

The Berkeley Bowl with an XL section of fresh produce...

All the veggies my heart desires.

Not 1 type of carrot, but 15.

Not 1 type of banana, but 17.

The crasiest fruits and veggies.

See for yourself...

Bananas!

All kinds of weird stuff!

More weird stuff!

Ronda road trippin'

Ronda, our little red rental car, took us
from Portland (left the 19th of march)

to Shasta (one night)

to Mendocino (2 nights)

to Berkeley (one night).

Some things we did and saw: 

Walk in Van Damme Park. GORGIOUS. In Mendocino, CA.

Mendocino beach walk. FANTASTIC!

Walk on cliff (bluff) next to the ocean. AMAZING!

Walk in Mendocino town. Art made out of washed up wood.

Walk in Mendocino town. So beautiful!

Walk in Mendocino town. Small, but so charming.

One of the things I love while tavelling are the supermarkets.
Mendocino had a good one!
It just looks so American to me...

Wine tasting @ Husch winery in Anderson Valley,
between Mendocino and Berkeley.

Some lovely foods and amazing walks in/through Berkeley
with an awsome new friend.
Thank you Jack for being such a great host!

Portland, you have been great!

What to say about our time in Portland?

A lot of THANK YOU's come to my mind..

• Thank you brotha Noel for so many things: you were a great taxi driver, an even greater host and such good company! Thank you for guiding us to amazing foods and various growth experiences ;-).
• Thank you Barb for your delicious food and your wonderful support...
• Thank you rainy weather for reminding me of my homeland.
• Thank you Havices for the warm and welcome home and the cozy evenings together.
• Thank you Melvis for your enthousiasm.
• Thank you baby Rio for your smiles and cheers. Your lovely 10 months old spirit reminded me of that other 10 months old spirit that I love so much...
• Thank you Steve and Susie for the fun time out and that unique experience of a Portland Croquet Social.
• Thank you awsome vintage shops for those unique finds.
• And thank you amazing nature for showing me what really matters...

Bye Seattle and awsome people!

After a lovely visit to Victoria, we had one more night and one more morning ( 11th of march) in Seattle.
I spent the night recovering from the very rocky ferry ride.
I spent the morning with some lovely people.






We had a delicious breakfast and visited Volunteer Park and the Conservatorium, which has amazing plants and gorgious flowers.  
Those gorgious flowers almost made us late for our train... But we jogged for it and jumped on for a three hour ride to pretty  PORTLAND!!!!

Spring in Victoria

Our last day in Victoria, Canada...

What a nice town... Tough competition with Settle though...

The town is a mixture between a lot of Britishness
 and Native American tribal stuff...

What I loved the most were the cute and vintage shops (yes, I'm a girl)
and SPRING in town!!!

Spring in Victoria: Cherry blossoms!

I'm loving the travelling!

Nice to settle in Seattle

Even though it was just for a couple of days... I felt settled in Seattle. I felt comfortable there and I loved it!
From the place we where staying in, to the people we met and the food we had!


This is what I ♥ about Seattle:

I ♥ the Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup)

• I ♥ our little artstudio
• I ♥ all the little notes from the owners of the studio all around the building.
• I ♥ how I feel so welcome in the building.
• I ♥ the mattress in the art studio!
• I ♥ Pike Place market and the flying fish (although, as a vegetarian I would have liked it more when they would be throwing broccoli and carrots around I reckon)
• I ♥ the eye for detail that the city has
• I ♥ hanging out in 'Cherry street cafe' and journaling with a chai latte
• I ♥ the little shops (just for looking, because somewhat pricey) 
• I ♥ the asian supermarket and all the unrecognizable foods
• I ♥ dinner at the Japanese place, because it was delicious
• I ♥ dinner at the Japanese place, because of the wonderful company of two talented and nice people
• I ♥ Seattle!

I ♥ gum ball street, but was also a little grossed out by it...

I ♥ Pike Place market

I ♥ chai latte at Cherry street cafe

Beautifully ugly...

New York New York!

The two days we've been in New York, I felt like I was walking around in a movie! It's like in the movies!
- big skyscrapers
- massive billboards
- crazy traffic (cars will not stop for you when you are crossing the street)
- yellow cabs all over
- freakish looking people
- a lot of different ethnicities
- joggers
- the subway!
- hot dog carts
- and a touch (or a big smear) of superiority complex

Met heel veel zin en wat verdriet...

Met heel veel zin en wat verdriet...

want opgroeiende kindjes wachten niet. 

Vandaag start ik het avontuur,

wedden dat ik jou een kaartje stuur?

Moeke, vake, Wim en Griet,

om jullie treur ik, zie je niet?

Lieve vrienden allemaal,

ik kijk uit naar jullie verhaal!

Fijne familie, laten me weten hoe het je gaat?

Nu vertrek ik... anders kom ik te laat!

Lieve Ella:
"Ik neem je mee; ik neem je mee op reis.
Ik neem je mee, naar Rome of Parijs."

Het laatste avondmaal

Was heerlijke zelfgemaakte lasagne en een Liers vlaaike als dessert.
Was ontzettend gezellig en met z'n allen samen (we hebben je gemist Wim).
Was iets dat ik in mijn doosje vol herrinneringen stop en meeneem op reis.
Was een grote hulp want we speelden het spelletje:

"Wat mag ik zeker niet vergeten in te pakken?".

Gepakt en gezakt.
Hopelijk heb ik alles bij...
Hopelijk heb ik niet te veel bij!