After a very short night we got up at 3.30 in the morning. Our taxi was right on time, waiting for us at 5am sharp. The ride to the airport was fast and without any surprises. But there were surprises waiting for us at the KLM check-in. Three KLM employees puzzled for almost thirty minutes over Lianne’s Canadian passport, which is not machine-readable, until they finally let us proceed with checking our bags and getting our boarding passes.

The plane left for Amsterdam right on time, at 6.50am. We had three hours until our next flight, so we had our breakfast. The Boeing 777, which KLM uses on their route from Amsterdam to San Francisco, is one of the most comfortable planes we have ever flown in. They even have on-demand video – in coach! The plane again left right on time at 11.30am for San Francisco.

Lunch at Dante’s was excellent. We had crab cakes as appetizer, and Clam Chowder in sourdough bowls with salad for entrees.

With a full stomach Christian was ready to cope with an extensive visit to the GAP. Later we took the streetcar F to Market Street – and spent some more time at Old Navy. Hungry from all the shopping we returned to Pier 39 and had dinner at Bubba Gump. The Bourbon Street Mahi Mahi was delicious, and so were the Fried Shrimp Lianne had. 10.45pm we arrived back at our hotel.

Shortly before 11am we arrived at Lombard Street, but we did not drive down "the world’s most crooked street". We found that there are already too many people treating this residential neighborhood as some sort of amusement park. We saw some idiots racing down the narrow road with screeching tires, while others from the same group cheered them. There were people laying flat on the road in the middle of the intersection just to get a good shot for their photo album, and even tourists swearing at the locals, who expressed their anger about their ruthless behavior.

We then drove to Chinatown, where it was impossible to park our car. So we headed back to Pier 39, where Lianne did her shopping at Bare Escentuals. We ended up parking our car again at Ghirardelli Square. Streetcar F and the cable car took us directly to Chinatown. It was like on another continent. The only thing that reminded us that we were still in the USA was the cars on the street.

Today we hadn’t had any lunch so we were quite hungry when at 5.30pm we went to the "Floating Sushi Boat Restaurant", located at 700 Grant Avenue. Small plates with sushi are placed on boats, which float by the hungry patrons. It’s not an "all you can eat" restaurant, instead you are charged by the amount of plates you unload from the boats. With full stomachs we continued our walk through Chinatown. We then took the cable car back to Ghirardelli Square, put our shopping bags into the car’s trunk – and then, just for fun, took another ride with the cable car to Market Square and back. At 10.30pm we arrived back at the hotel.

Wednesday, May 18. 2005 - From San Francisco to Mendocino

The day greeted us with clouds, which reached down almost to the roof of the hotel, accompanied with wind and rain. Originally we had planned a scenic drive along the West Coast. As we arrived in Point Reyes there was a heavy rainstorm with very strong winds. But, as we already travelled across half of Europe, the Atlantic and the whole continental USA, we didn’t give up. We put on our raingear and hiked the last mile to the lighthouse, where we saw absolutely nothing. The clouds were just too thick. But we knew it was there as we could hear its fog horn. Soaked from the rainstorm we decided, to abandon our original plan and headed to Petaluma, where we had sandwiches at Lund’s Café, 1096 Petaluma Boulevard North. We then took highway 101 and 128 to Mendocino.

At around 6pm we arrived at the Alegria Inn. The views from our room (Seabreeze) were spectacular and our deck and the beach access were wonderful. Elaine and Eric, the owners, were excellent hosts, and their breakfasts, prepared with organic ingredients, were delicious. The location is terrific – everything is within walking distance: beach, shops and restaurants. Well worth the $179 they charged per night.

Eric suggested the Mendocino Café for dinner, so we went there and had excellent clam chowder, salmon, scampi and an apple-blueberry crisp. And again, everything is prepared with organic ingredients.

Thursday, May 19, 2005 – Mendocino

The sun shined through our curtains, so it was easy to get up – breakfast at the Alegria is usually served at 9am. We started the day with a walk to the beach and then sat down in the breakfast room. Elaine prepared frittata with broccoli and sun dried tomatoes, accompanied by cinnamon scones. Yummy! The next few hours we spent just walking alongside the cliffs. At the Mendocino Market we bought ourselves two (organic) sandwiches to go, which we enjoyed at around 1.30pm on the sun deck of our hotel room.

Then it was time to walk through the village itself. Mendocino was established by New England whalers. There are no supermarkets, fast food chains or motels. Instead the village offers historic buildings, small markets, intimate restaurants, a hotel and bed and breakfast inns. Our dinner at the "955 Ukiah Street Restaurant" was well worth every cent of the $100 (including tip) we paid for it. We had one soup, one salad, two entrees (Mahi Mahi, prawns), 1 dessert and 2 glasses of wine.

Friday, May 20, 2005 – From Mendocino to Redding

Organic chicken-potato-lemon sausage with pancakes – our breakfast again was out of this world. We checked out of the Alegria Inn at 11am and drove north to the Mendocino Botanical Gardens, the only public garden in the continental United States fronting directly on the ocean. Sunshine, blooming flowers on the cliffs with the restless waters below – it was unbelievable.

What followed was a long drive to Redding, interrupted by a few stops. Our first stop was at the Chandelier Drive-Through Tree in Leggett. The tree, which is impressive, is the focal point of a 200 acre redwood grove. And yes – we drove through the tree, twice.

We then left highway 101 for a scenic alternative through the Avenue of the Giants. But we soon got bored of Redwoods so we drove back onto the main highway. In Eureka, which didn’t look too inviting, we took a couple of pictures of "gingerbread houses". Just a few blocks down on M Street sits the world-famous Carson Mansion, an 1886 castle that epitomizes the height of Victorian gingerbread architecture. Unfortunately it is not open for public tours.

We then gassed up the car and drove another three hours east to Redding, where we checked into the Best Western Hospitality House Motel (room rate 84.99, plus 10% tax) at 7.45pm. We had no lunch this day, so we had an extensive dinner at Marie Callender’s.

We had just toast and coffee in the hotel, checked out at 9.15 and headed straight to … Old Navy, where we spent the next 45 minutes, before we finally arrived at … Marie Callender’s, where we got ourselves a "real" breakfast, consisting of omelets and a banana split pie.

Lassen Volcanic National Park is located approximately 50 miles east of Redding. All four types of volcanoes in the world are found in the park. This is, when the road (highway 89) through the park is not closed due to snow. And it was closed when we were there. So we just got to see Manzanita Lake, then drove 2 hours around the whole mountain and entered the park again on the south side. There the road into the park was open for one mile, so we got to see Sulphur Works, which lies at the center of the ancient Mt. Tehama. Sulphur Works is aptly named; the smell of hydrogen sulfide in the area is overpowering.

At around 5pm we left for Lake Tahoe. We had dinner at Jake’s in Tahoe City (excellent tuna steak!). At 11.30pm we finally arrived in South Lake Tahoe where we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express for the following three nights. The hotel is located within walking distance from the lake, Nevada Stateline Casinos, shopping, and boat cruises. Room rates were $105 / $76 / $76 (excluding 10% tax).

After breakfast we decided to take a lake cruise with the Tahoe Queen. It was a 10min walk to the boat dock and it was already around 20°C/68°F outside. The cruise was from noon to 2.15pm and cost $29 per person including taxes. The Tahoe Queen is a paddle wheeler, which was built on the Mississippi River in 1983, then trucked to Lake Tahoe and reassembled. The cruise heads for gorgeous Emerald Bay and back. It is well worth the time and money and flies by very fast.

Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the United States, with a maximum depth measured at 1645ft (501m), average depth of 1000ft (305m). It is about 22mi (35km) long and l2mi (19km) wide. With an average surface elevation of 6225ft (1897m) above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the highest lake of its size in the United States. After the relaxing boat cruise, we headed back to the hotel, freshened up, and walked further to Stateline, Nevada – just 4 blocks away.

We treated ourselves to an excellent dinner at the Pacifica Seafood Buffet, located inside the Harvey’s Tahoe Resort. It was delicious. We paid a total of $65 including taxes. And in our enthusiasm we ate way too much. And also in our enthusiasm we unfortunately lost a combined $120 at the casinos just during this afternoon/evening.

We arrived in Carson City around noon. After parking our car – there are plenty of free parking spaces in the city - we headed for the State Capitol. The Capitol complex in the heart of Carson City provides a picturesque campus setting which includes the State Capitol, Legislative Building, Supreme Court, and State Library and Archives. We then walked the Kit Carson Trail, which is a walking path through Carson City's residential homes district. A painted blue line and bronze medallions along the sidewalk mark the route, which features stops at landmarks, including 1800s era Victorian-style homes, museums and churches.