new trip

Both of us would like to do another trip very soon, but I don't think there is any money for that now. So I guess this blog might be updated sporadicaly.

Flying home

It started out with a little delay even before we left the gate. We were even later before we got into the air. Since the weather was bad in Chicago the flight took longer than it was supposed to. When we landed Shannon was waiting with Max, Marge and Marty. She had also brought us Chicago style hot dog from Super Dawg. We really needed to get something to eat and it was good.
Our flight from Chicago to London was late and we had to get a later flight from Heathrow. This made us kind of late for our train.
When we arrived at the station we had about 3 minutes to get to the train and we started running. At the first board I saw that the train was really far away but I also saw that it was about 45 minutes late. This was the first delay that we where glad for, since we had time to buy some food for the ride.
We got home OK, even if it was a bit late. The entire trip had taken about 36 hours.

and now we leave SF...

After the brunch we got our rental and went to the hotel we where staying in for the night. We went to dinner with Marge, Marty and his kids. It was nice to get to talk to them a little more than the nights before. On Monday we drove across the Golden Gate and towards Muir Woods which is one of the only places where there is still Red Wood trees. It was nice to see what they looked like and how amazingly big they really are. After that we kept on driving Highway 1 along the coast for a while and then we turned inwards on a really small road. We ended up in a small town and had lunch at a Mexican place. After lunch we kept driving towards Napa where we found a nice hotel and stayed for 2 nights. We were not aware that it was Memorial Day, but the traffic was not too bad.
Tuesday we started out to watch Old Faithful which is a geyser. It wasn't much to see but it was nice anyway. Then we started our tour back towards Napa with a stops at some wineries. The first one we tried 5 different wines and then we found Mumm, where they make sparkling wine. They had a tour around the place and we got to see how they make their wine. It was really neat. When we got back to Napa we went on a shopping spree at their outlet mall. Wednesday we drove back to San Francisco but we stopped on the north side of Golden Gate and drove around to get a better view of the bridge. We ended up driving past the place for the wedding. When we got to the other side of the bridge we followed the Scenic 49 mile route for a while. It was a nice way of getting a look at new places of the city. We stayed in the same hotel as before and went to watch a movie. This time it was Pirates 3.
Thursday we met Rob and Amanda in China Town and had a really nice lunch at a small place on a side street. We walked around with them for a while before we drove out to Berkley where Andy and Jess live. We just hung out that night and Jess made fish tacos. It was really good. Friday we went out for breakfast before we left for the airport.

Our trip home deserves a post on its own.

Quick recap... up to the brunch

I'll try to write about what we did during our days in USA.

We arrived Monday night and we only rode a cab to our hotel and went out for a sandwich. We woke up pretty early Tuesday and walk toward the city center. We found an Internet Cafe and logged on to check it out. We found all the shopping that was downtown and after lunch we headed back to our hotel for some rest before we went back. This time we watched a movie, Shrek the Third.
Wednesday we started out by walking towards Fishermans Wharf and walked by the shoreline for a while. We turned in towards Coit Tower which we climbed and took many pictures. Walking back towards our hotel we discovered that it was just a short walk. After that we took the BART over to Oakland to met up with Andy to get our tickets for the Giants game.
Thursday we walked downtown again before the bachelor/-ett party. It was kind of hard to find the place since our directions where not the best, but we found the place and it was nice to see everyone again. We started out on sailing in the bay. It was really cool to see the city from that point of view. The night turned out as expected with a few beers and a lot of fun. Friday we laid back at the hotel until lunch and the we headed out into the city. We walked to the rehearsal dinner which was at Fishermans Wharf and stopped for some pictures at the most crocked street in the world. It was nice to see some of the people from my year as exchange student. Stina and I took the cable car home that night since we couldn't find a cab.
Saturday the Shannons picked us up to go to the wedding site. We rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and then turned of the freeway to go through a tunnel and then we kind of ended up in an old military base. The wedding was really nice, even though it was outside and freezing. The reception was in a building next to the ceremony. After dinner there was square dancing, at which Stina was really good. The party continued on at the hostel where most of the young people stayed in. There was even a game of beer pong going on.
Sunday was the day for brunch at Jessica's parents house in Walnut Creek. We went there with the Shannons and on this side of the bay and hills it was really hot. Not at all like in the city. We rode back into the city with Andy's aunt and played a game of car-ABC, since it was a lot of traffic going over the Oakland Bay Bridge.

Midnight picture

This is what it looks like at about 1 am from our livingroom window.

Pictures

Here is one picture from the wedding. Click on it to get more.




I will post more pictures from our trip to SF and Napa when I've had the time to go thru them all.

Back home!

Now we are back home in the apartment. There will be updates soon with pictures.

Leaving Napa

Today we are going back to SF and hopefully we can get together with Rob and Amanda, the middle brother of the Waggoner family. On our way back we also hope to get some nice pictures of the golden gate bridge. But one never knows what the weather will be like.

Tomorrow night we will have dinner with Andy and Jess. That will also be our last night in USA, since the next one will be on our flight back. Hopefully we might get to see Shannon x2 and little Stinky on our layover in Chicago.

The Wedding and everything!

The wedding was really beautyfull, we had so much fun, I even square danced!
Now we're in Napa Valley and staying there until tomorrow and we have so much we want to do and we're not spending the day on the computer...so bye!

The day of clouds

When we woke up this morning it was cloudy for the first time, and it's a bit chilly. But we're not complaining.
Yesterday we attended the bachelor/-ett party and met up with Andy, Jess and all there friends. We started with a trip on a sailboat in the bay-area. We had the best of times, it was a bit windy and cold but we borrowed som jackets and then it was ok. Afterwards we did some serious barhopping.
We won't be updating for a few days, since we are not sure where we are staying. and if there are any internet cafes in the neighbourhood...

Today

Yesterday was the day of walking, but it ended with us going to AT&T stadium to watch a baseball game. The problem was that it was a lot colder than we expected which made us not watch it until the end. Today we are going to walk around in the shopping district and see what we can get, and later we are going to the bachelor/-ett party. That is going to be a really nice experience since we haven't tried that before.

There are some difficulties updating hourly since we have only found one internet cafe in SF.

The day of walking

The day started with us walking toward Fishermans Warf. there we payed a lot of money to see Ripleys, a good waist of money. And then we walked...to Coit tower, one of the highest pionts in San F, looked at the view and then we walked a little more...It's facinating how the buildings clings to the hills.
Yesterday we went on a shopping spree, buying a lot of things, among other things a Nintendo DS lite for me! Yeay! I also bought two games, Finding Nemo and The unemployed ninja, not sure if I can part with it later Suss :).
Later we saw Shrek the third at a movie theatre. It was really nice to sit back and relax for a while, and the film was excelent!
Thats all for now, big hugs for everyone!
*blip*

Landed

We have now landed and slept the first night here in SF. Today we are going to explore some parts of the city and hope to get hold of Andy so we can get our Giants tickets for tomorrow.



More updates will come.

And soon we are of!

It feels a bit strange that it´s less than one week left, were did the time go? Even more strange is that I´m not worried. In these cases I usually get really stressed and start to worry about everything, but not this time, I´m really looking forward to going. Maybe Mikes calm personality has started to rub of on me?

2 weeks

Now, there's only two weeks left until Stina and I start our trip. The first leg is to Stockholm and Arlanda where we will stay the night and fly out the day after.

Not long, now

Today is Stinas birthday and that means that it is a month til we take the plane back to Sweden. It feels kind of strange that it is not that far away anymore. Well we have to get used to speaking English soon then.

Rental; done!

I have gotten a rental for the last five days in the US. Now Stina and I will be able to see something else than just the city. Hopefully we can get to see Highway 1 and maybe also some parts of Napa Valley.


This is a picture taken with my new camera. Hopefully there will be many pictures like this one from San Francisco in a month.

New camera

I just got myself a new camera today. This so that I will be able to get nice pictures of SF and the wedding. I bought a Nikon D40, which is a digital SLR camera. Here is a review.

It will be really nice to have an opportunity to take nice pictures while away.

Sleeping arrangement, done

I have booked our hostel from the day we arrive in San Francisco til the day of the wedding. This is good. We will stay in a hostel a block or two from China Town.

We have no idea where we will stay after the wedding as of yet, but that we can arrange while there. This is because I want to see more of California when I'm in the area. And also because I hope to visit a site that will be useful in my Master Thesis.

These two are the reason for our trip across the ocean.

Hotels

I've been trying to find a decent looking hotel in San Francisco for a reasonable amout of money. It turns out that living while away is really expensive. Why is that?

I did find a nice hotel that is in central SF, that I will try to book for the first four days at least. After the wedding I don't know where we are going to be so at that point we need a new hotel and a car so we can se some other parts of California.

Something personal

I got a company to use for my Master Thesis. Now I have about 5 months to finish it. It's gonna be a lot of fun and hopefully I can get a job there afterwards.

Nothing new to report...

There is nothing new to report really, except that our flights keep changing times. Not much but in the last two weeks there have been small changes on two of our flight... I don't get this at all.

Well I have been looking for things to do while being in SF. We will try to se Alcatraz but is there anything else important? And see a Giants game.

Super Bowl XLI

We had a few friends over last night and watched the game. Too bad Chicago lost, but they where not playing their best. For snacks there was buffalo wings and chips and we had Bud to drink... Nothing you do every Sunday night.

All of us had a great time and we might have to do this again in three weeks when the Oscars is on.

Super Bowl

In our efforts to peeper us for our journey, and because we don't think you have to sleep at night, we are going to watch Super Bowl, the biggest sport event in the US. We have invited some of our friends that also think that sleep is overestimate and with help of a lot of the typical American beer Bud it's hopefully going to be fun.
This year the Chicago Bears are going to try to defeat the Indianapolis Colts. So of cause if I have to pick one team it's going to be the Chicago Bears, the home town of Mikael's American family. I also read that Prince is going to sing at the halftime entertainment...yeay...that´s going to be...did I mention that we're gonna have beer? Or something very close anyway...
I have never seen a game of American football and I´m not completely sure how the game works, but Mikael has promise to explain the rules to me. I know the basics; get the ball to the opponent's "goal area"and most of the time they trow it but sometimes they kick it. Sadly it's not going to be football season when we visit the US, it would have been fun to watch a game, but we're going to try to watch a baseball game instead, an other big American sport.

And how did it really begin?

So why are we going to San Francisco? *humming the famous song* It began this fall when we got the invitation to Andy and Jess´s wedding.
And who are Andy and Jess? When Mikael was 17 years old he was an exchange student at Main South High School in Chicago and lived with Andy's family. So Andy, Shannon, Rob and Marge is Mikael's American family. This also explains why we're writing this blog in English. This is going to be a very interesting experience for me, because I haven't written anything in English since High school. I hope that my new American family will understand me anyway.

And so it begins...

Today we payed our tickets for the trip to San Francisco in May.