Give Me Bananas

 

Have you ever played with the thought of taking yoga classes but then dropped it, because you so don’t seem like “the yoga type”?

Well guess what, there is no such thing as a typical yoga person (besides Tara Stiles or Kathryn Budig.. We’re talking about normal people with flaws here! ). I can do it and so could my 150kg driver buddy from work. You just have to find the style of yoga, and eventually a yoga studio, that suits you best.

However, this is already the trickiest point.

How on earth can you figure out which style of yoga you should practice? Within Hatha Yoga (the physical practice) there are more than 200 different styles. It’s no surprise that people first feel încredibly overwhelmed at first.

 

Here’s a step-by-step directory to discover the style (and eventually the studio) that suits your type. Please note that there are (obviously) also other ways to get on your yoga path. I’m also no yoga teacher and what I write about is based on my own experiences.

 

Step 1:

Figure out in which direction you would like to go and what you “want” from yoga. How much do you want to focus on the physical practice? Is meditation important to you? What about pranayama?

We’re all different people and therefore it’s no surprise that there are so many yoga styles. It’s a market that’s booming. Yoga on roller skates? Got that! Yoga with trees? You can find a class too. However, if you want something less “special” (or if you aren’t living in LA) and want to get back onto the mat I would recommend you to do some research.

Sure, I could make a list of several different yoga styles but even if I’d write something about Vinyasa, Bikram, Power, Ashtanga, Jivamukti, Kriya or Kundalini Yoga there’d still be a few hundred styles left that would deserve equal attention.

Step 2:

Research! Online, in books, whatever you can find about yoga. You don’t have to get too much into the details though and get overwhelmed before you even get started with yoga. Get a general picture of the different styles and you’ll sure find some that seem more interesting to you.

Step 3:

Go to a few classes and see what suits you best. Now, this is a pretty simple but incredibly important step. Experience the class and observe how you feel. You will know what’s right for you, it might just take some time and patience. But try to be a bit egoistic here – not in a bad way – but if your friend loves a certain style of yoga.. it doesn’t mean that it’s automatically right for you. There are lots of studios that offer beginner classes – don’t worry, everyone in that class is in the same boat as you are, there so there’s no need to feel embarrassed about the fact that you are new to yoga.

Step 4:

Once you’ve found the style (or several styles even!) that seems right for you, find a studio that kind of feels like home once you enter it. Often, that already happens with Step 3. Again: trust your gut feeling and you will find the perfect place.

Step 5:

Go and do some yoga. And stick with it.

 

As mentioned before, there are obviously other ways to find a style and studio that’s great for you. Heck, even I went a different way! However, I wish I would have started as described above.

I will tell you my yoga-story someday. In the meantime I’ll practice my forearm stands a bit.

Namaste!

 

Q: If you do yoga.. How did you get into it?
If you don’t: What got you hooked on a workout (running, pilates, zumba, spinning..)

Hey guys!

How did the weekend treat you?

Saturday was wonderful and I did lots of things that I love:

• Went on a 10+km run and listened to an audio book (“Gut gegen Nordwind” by Daniel Glattauer – highly recommended!) while running. I never did that before and it was quite funny and made time fly by. I was grinning like a moron the entire time.
• Had crèpe for lunch, followed by some ice cream by the newly opened Gelateria di Berna with my friend Karin and sister Selina. Good food & good company = what more can you wish for?
• Met up with Marina!!

As you read in the title: it was kind of a spontaneous meeting! I knew that she’s currently in Zurich and that she had plans to come to Bern someday but I didn’t know when Well when I checked my mail on Saturday morning it turned out that they were going to come to Bern on that day!

So sadly I got to meet up with her and her boyfriend later than originally planned but they might come and visit in September which is fantastic.

Marina is such a lovely and amazing person and just as nice as on her blog. She even brought me some goodies which was so sweet of her!

It seems like August is the month for blogger meet-ups and I’m absolutely loving it! The community of food/health bloggers is so inspiring and kind, I’m so glad to be a part of it.

After a few hours of chatting Marina and her boyfriend left for Mürren and I headed to my parent’s house for dinner.. Oh wait, I need to continue with my list!

• Went to my parent’s place for dinner. Gave presents from the US of A to everyone and ate an amazing dinner (quiche for myself! The joy of being the only veggie in the family!).
• Went to my home village’s annual party. And yes, it usually is as exciting as that sounds . But this year was actually fun; I talked to my amazing friend Livia all night (“How did we grow up so fast???” Oh nostalgia!) but then I had to run (literally) to catch the last train back to Bern.
• Oh and I drank lots of wine.

Dolce vita, right?

Sunday was way less exciting. I basically stayed in bed all day long and watched old Gilmore Girls episodes. I have no idea what came over me but I just felt like being lazy. In the evening I went to see my friend who is going to travel the world for a year and who leaves the day after tomorrow. I’m going to miss her lots! I persuaded her to set up a blog so I could “follow” her on her journey! My Central America/London plans sound like peanuts in comparison.

 

Monday wasn’t even that bad for a.. Monday. I went to a new yoga school (more about that soon) and watched the final two episodes of season 6 of Grey’s Anatomy! Pure drama and constant texting with Karin (my pal, not my alter ego). I love being a girl.

 

There’s no need to point out how much I love travelling. I guess that’s pretty obvious.

But I have to admit that coming back home is sometimes equally as wonderful.

For me it often boils down to cooking. Whenever I’m away I just miss my own kitchen. Even though you can cook in hostels or on camping sites it’s just not the same as cooking with your own pots and pans and eat from your favourite bowls and plates.

I had some frothy carrot & ginger soup in my most beloved bowl for dinner last night and I enjoyed the comforts of a homemade meal with some faux burger, sea weed salad and cooked eggplant on the side, served with a side of “Gossip Girl”.

I’m actually not the biggest fan of that TV show because all that drama gets on my nerves but I kind of missed New York .

For some reason I’m having huge troubles with my jetlag. I wake up incredibly late in the morning which is so unlike me and I feel like I have no energy at all. At least I’m not feeling as dead tired as on Monday/Tuesday and I’m treating my sleepiness with green smoothies that definitely help lots.

Q: What do you usually miss most when you’re away from home (besides your family and friends of course)? Besides my bed I really miss my kitchen equipment. I know I sound like a grandma but cooking’s just not the same when you’re away! I also miss my heart-shaped measuring cups when I’m on the road.

 

Looking through the New York photos make it seem so surreal. Did we really go there?

In fact, our entire stay in the city seemed like a dream but there are pictures that prove that we were in that magical place, plus there are souvenirs too.

So I guess we did go there.

We landed at JFK at 9pm-ish and were welcomed by a lovely heat and humidity. How different from San Francisco! Well after a few seconds we realized we weren’t properly dressed (jeans and boots) and started to melt away.

We were still in our westcoast groove and never got extremely tired but eventually went to bed at 1am.

The next day started off early because:
1. We were in New York (!!)
2. We could only stay there for 1.5 days

There was a diner around the corner and so we headed there for breakfast..

Mmmm multigrain waffle!

Then we headed out to a super New York-ish place as we both have never been to the city before

Times Square!

 

I know, I know, it’s probably the most hideous part of town but we just wanted to experience that New York vibe (and yes, I am aware of the fact that this is the absolutely worst place to look for that vibe ). We jumped right into the tourist’s playground and walked around with big eyes and our mouths hanging open.

(Don’t tell me you didn’t walk around like that the first time you visited New York!!)

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit but we spent almost the entire day around that area. Sure, we also dropped by 5th and 7th avenue but we kind of always circled around Times Square. Oh and we mainly shopped.

Now, that probably makes us sound like shopaholics as we either only shopped or ran through national parks on this trip but it’s not all that we did. Seriously! However, we’re both girls who never shop at home (or if we do we only buy necessary stuff like.. rain jackets or tooth brushes. hehe) so we just had to do a tiny bit of shopping.

Oh and by the way, there’s a fabulous HBO shop that we stumbled upon and I bought the most amazing thing there – a “Fangtasia” t-shirt for my boyfriend. Please don’t tell me you don’t watch True Blood!

Anyway…

 

A “You-can-see-the-reflection-of-the-arm-in-the-sunglasses” picture. Classy!

 

Oh look, there’s Dave! (LOVE his humour!)

 

 

In the evening we decided to doll up for a dinner and Broadway date. It was our last night in the states and we had to dress up at least once!

(Urban Outfitters dress, Forever21 bangles and flip-flops by yours truly)

 

(Dress & shoes by Urban Outfitters, headband by Forever21)

 

Urm.. about that dinner date… we missed our reservation at Candle 79!!! As we were shopping being busy we checked the watch and realized that it was already 5:20pm. Our reservation was for 5:45pm. Dang!

We ended up going to Dean & Deluca.

We had to have dinner this early because we had tickets for “Race”!

Oh I loved that show! So sad that it already closed (the last show was on Saturday – we were lucky!) It was extremely interesting and much more funny and cynical than I thought.

Dennis Haysbert and Eddie Izzard were in it and I think both actors are amazing (especially Dennis Haysbert, aka President David Palmer in 24 ). Some might know Eddie Izzard as the crazy dude who ran 43 marathons in 51 days.

 

 

On the next day we headed to the diner again (egg white omelette) and then decided to go and say hello to SoHo.

We resisted the Lululemon store. We have magical willpower.

There was one place I just HAD to visit though…

Oh My God.

Can I move to New York please?

 

Babycakes is the most adorable shop I’ve ever been to.

They sadly didn’t let me camp there. Kidding!

 

I got the red velvet cupcake (that lost some frosting because it fell over), some mini brownies plus some unpictured cookies and mini banana muffins.

 

I didn’t eat it all myself of course. The cupcake was devoured seconds after finishing lunch and I took the rest back home (though two brownies didn’t survive the trip. They fell into my mouth! Very mysterious..)

 

Our trip actually ended with cupcakes as we had to leave for the airport at 2pm. I was sad to leave because there was so much more to be seen but on the other hand I was looking forward to my own bed and seeing the boyfriend again. I don’t mind travelling without him though asI think it’s good to spend some time apart, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t miss him.

 

On Sunday at 11am-ish we landed in Zurich. And the rest is well known.
Now I’m back in real life again.

 

Q: Favourite dessert? One, two, three GO! I absolutely love almost everything but I think that cupcakes are my favourite. They’re decent sized (you can easily overdo it with cake), incredibly pretty and SO delicious!

To be honest with you: I feel like death. What do they say? There are always consequences when you play too hard? Or maybe I just made that up .

I am so incredibly jet lagged and honestly don’t understand how all these party people do it. Or the models. I turned down several modelling gigs only because I hate the jet lag. Kidding (obviously!)

 

So I owe you a San Francisco and New York recap. I’m so sorry I never wrote that that I promised the day before yesterday but travelling was quite insane. Our flight back home got delayed because of “technical issues” (very reassuring, I know) and the plane had to be brought to the mechanic (!). In the end we took off 3,5h later than planned and I was so glad that it flew at all.

In the end I got back home to my little apartment at 2pm yesterday afternoon and found it with Lindt chocolate balls and other treats all over the place. I love my guy! (Thank god there were no roses at the airport! – I’m all for chocolate!! ). Ok, I’ll end the gushing now.

Let’s start with San Francisco.

(Man, that seems like ages ago. Time flies!)

Driving into the city is – plainly said – a HUGE pain in the ass. Please excuse my language but you’ll understand my feelings when you drive through the city.

Once we got there we were informed that the office of the rental car company was already closed and that we could drive the car to the airport’s office. No, thank you (it was 7pm and we were tired). We ended up spending 29 bucks on an overnight parking place. Nice.

We had plans to stay at the hostel and cook something there but after all those troubles (we also drove to an other office but without any luck) we just needed two things: beer and Thai food.

 

 

On the next day we started exploring the city. One question:
Where are the hippies?

I know, I’m such a tourist but I thought that things were a bit more flower power-y. I wasn’t disappointed though, guess every city moves on with time

We walked to the piers (those hills!!) and made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s before heading to Pier 39, aka tourist magnet. We had to go and do something touristy though!

 

Look, it’s Alcatraz!

 

We dropped off our stuff at the hostel, walked around a bit more and then made our way to a very special dinner meeting. We thought that we still had time to have a drink beforehand but it turned out that the Mission street was a bit further away than we thought .

When we got there I realized that I didn’t write down the house number. And, I guess you all know how long these streets tend to get.

I started to freak out a bit. It was 5:45pm and we planned to meet up at 6pm. Where is Gracias Madre? By 6pm I was power walking like a mad woman. My poor friend Simone! Anyway, I asked some random dude where the restaurant was and I was nearly crying and hyperventilating and he pulled out his smart phone and told me the correct number. 8 blocks down? Ok.. we walked by the restaurant before and didn’t even notice the sign! (It turned out to be tiny – no wonder why we didn’t see it!)

When we got there it was 6:20pm but our lovely dinner dates didn’t mind. So who did we meet up with you ask?

Well nobody guessed! (Don’t you know the food blogger elite of SF?? )

It was Me-Linh and Stef two fabulous food bloggers from the Bay Area! (They actually both go to Berkley – those smart chicks!).

They didn’t seem to mind our delay at all (which made me think they’re even more amazing than on their blogs – who waits 20 minutes without minding it at all??)

We actually met up at Gracias Madre, which is an organic and vegan Mexican restaurant and simply AMAZING (highly recommend that place!). I had such a hard time choosing anything because it was so overwhelming to be able to choose everything. I also had to constantly chat with the girls so it took me forever and a few additional decades to decide on what I should get.

In the end I simply picked the tacos (which were – as you probably guess it – fantastic).

So sad that the picture got blurry! I took an other one, though that makes you think of something nasty.. I’ll post it anyway.

Told you it looks nasty on the picture!!

 

After dinner we headed to Bi Rite Creamery & Bakeshop

 

You know the place is good when there’s a line in front of it!

 

Simone and I dug in and ordered a sundae. I never felt any guilt or shame when ordering huge desserts (and there were many, trust me) – you only live once and we can’t go to places like Bi Rite on a daily basis (though I would love to)..

Salted caramel and chocolate coconut ice cream, topped with caramelized peanuts, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Or: Food porn at its best.

 

I will write more about the food we ate on our trip soon but I need to include the most amazing eats of our San Francisco stay in this post.

Oh I love having friends who take me to food heaven that no guide book knows of. Actually, I’m only friends with them because of that. HA! Kidding!!

We parted ways after making plans for meeting up on Wednesday again (we had dinner on Monday).

 

On Tuesday we met up with my good friend Puneet (who also lives in the Bay Area) for a 10am brewery tour at the Anchor Brewery. Yes TEN A.M.

I was actually feeling more like having coffee but after the first tasting (at 10:45am) it felt fine to drink beer.

 

Then we headed out to Ike’s Place, a sandwich shop that got famous with amazing sandwiches (it was also on Man vs. Food).

Puneet actually drove us there. I was amazed.

What do we know about lines?

We ended up waiting for one hour.

It was worth it though – the sandwich was heavenly!

Too bad that the photo is utterly awful. I just had no time to take a decent picture .

 

After our in the picnic in the park we decided to go to the thing that pops into every person’s mind when they think of San Francisco:

The Golden Gate Bridge! Puneet told me that it wasn’t red but “international orange”. Did you know that?

We were so lucky, the weather was amazing!

 

 

 

Afterwards we headed to the Haight which is a pretty cool street.

 

Puneet insisted on taking this picture.. Needless to say that I wasn’t that thrilled.

 

Then we were already off to see the Painted Ladies! Full House anyone?

Right before dinner we passed the City Hall (where Harvey Milk and George Moscone got assassinated – so sad)

 

We headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner! Now this restaurant serves some portions.. Holy mother!

This is the biggest salad I’ve ever seen. I didn’t eat all of it because I needed some room for cheesecake (obviously). The sauce was also way too sweet for my taste.

We all had to get our own cheesecakes of course.

I had the last one – red velvet cake cheesecake. Mmmm!!!

 

Unfortunately we were both feeling under the weather and couldn’t go out. I hate feeling sick on a holiday! I felt still very blah-ish when I got up the next day but decided that it wasn’t the time or place to be ill so I told my bad feeling to go away. It actually did in the afternoon .

We met up with Puneet and went to see the crooked Lombard street.

And afterwards we headed to the pier where we got picked up by Stef and Me-Linh. After a short lunch we already had to say goodbye to Me-Linh which was sad.

Stef had a docror’s appointment so we hung out a bit (see the size of that iced coffee??)

..and then went to Lululemon after she came back. I am SO glad that we don’t have that shop over here (or otherwise I’d be broke very quickly).

One fro-yo and one yoga outfit later Stef and I headed out to yoga while Simone and Puneet went to the park.

It felt so incredibly good!! I missed yoga so much on our trip and it felt amazing to practice for an hour (even though the guy next to me moaned like there was no tomorrow).

Our foodie insider Stef made a reservation for dinner at Udupi Palace, an all vegetarian restaurant so we met up with Simone and Puneet there after yoga.

Food heaven? Check!

Afterwards we finally did go out which was a perfect ending for a perfect stay in San Francisco.

 

Me-Linh and Stef: I loved meeting you guys! It felt like talking to old friends Come and visit me soon!

Oh and Puneet, I loved seeing you too of course. Next time you’ll come to Bern and we’ll swim in the river, okay?

 

I will post the NY recap tomorrow as this took me almost 2h to write and I’m pretty sure you’ve seen enough pictures for the day.

 

Tip of the day: Don’t go back to work the day after you came back from a long trip

Q of the day: Have you ever met any food bloggers OR have you ever been on a blind date? (Let’s face it; they’re quite similar – though with different intentions hehe)

 

Hey there!

I just wanted to chime in and let you know that we’re doing fine – we’ve just been so “busy”! We’ve had the most amazing time in San Francisco and New York and I can’t believe that we’re flying back home tomorrow.

Oh and that title.. well it still feels pretty surreal to be in NY. I feel like in a film or something.

 

It also felt strange when we saw the Golden Gate bridge for the first time…

 

Anyway, thank you so much for your kind words on my last post. You are amazing.

 

I will write a long post tomorrow. In the meantime I’ll leave my fellow food blog readers a task…

GUESS WHO WE MET UP WITH IN SF!

(And please ignore my red face – it never recovered from our 10+ blocks power walk.. but more on that tomorrow)

 

Love & Hugs!

 

ps: NY is so freaking hot! Literally I mean.

 

Hello from San Francisco!

 

Let’s get right down to business:

Bad or good story first?

Bad, ok? Otherwise you’ll skip the good part and scroll down to the bad (I know you curious folks! )

 

 

 

On our way to Yosemite we were driving on a busy but small road and all of a sudden a deer jumped out of nowhere onto the street a few cars away and was followed by a tiny little fawn. I actually don’t remember what exactly happened but none of the cars (and there were lots, trust me, that park is popular!) hit them.

Until an other fawn jumped in front of our car that is.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion and I was screaming as we were driving over that poor animal. Thinking about that feeling.. how the car drove over the body.. makes me shiver. Everything seemed to happen so quickly afterwards. We pulled over and saw that a guy got out of his car, shot the fawn and threw it on his truck. It turned out that he was a gamekeeper of sorts (or at least I think so.. I was kind of in shock then and didn’t really read what was written on his badge that he showed us). He asked us if we were fine (“Yes”) and if our car was ok too (“Yes”).
Now that I think about it I’m really glad that he was there because otherwise the fawn would have suffered so much longer.

It wasn’t until we were eating lunch that I noticed how much my hand was shaking.

It’s hard to explain what I felt during/after the accident. I was in such a state of shock that alI could do was sit there and stare blankly into the air. I am so glad that my friend “stayed normal” and drove us to a small shop. In some way I felt like hyperventilating and crying at the same time but all I did was staring. And shaking.

Some people would say that it was “only” an animal and we couldn’t have done anything to prevent this incident.
Well, I agree that we couldn’t have prevented this. It was such a busy road and we are glad that we didn’t drive into a car at the same time either.

But I for my part felt like someone quickly stabbed my heart as the car was rolling over the fawn in super slow motion. I will never forget this feeling ever again. Also,  I swore to myself that I will never ever harm an animal again (or at least I’ll try, we all know how quickly such an accident can happen).

 

Let’s take a breath and go to the good part now, shall we?

Other than that our trip has been purely wonderful.

Yosemite is such a crazy (huge!) park and there was lots to see but way too little time.

We went on a short hike the day we arrived (on the deer-incident-day.. it was nice to clear our heads a bit).

Those paved trails again…

I’m glad to say that we didn’t see a bear though.

 

At dinner we decided to have some wine and to make a toast on our dear little friend, the fawn.

We talked a lot about the accident and it helped enormously. I could somehow make peace with the whole story through our conversation.

 

On the next day we went on a longer hike. The brochure said that it takes 6-8 hours and that the incline was apparently insane (I guess these weren’t the actual words but the incline definitely was insane).

It took us almost 4 hours (plus the time for one lunch break and a short break on the top of the mountain).

We decided to take the Yosemite Fall trail which took us to the top of the fall.

Yup, right there to the top.

 

The incline felt like a breeze and there was sand to walk on. HOW NICE! HOW NOT EXHAUSTING! (Heavy sarcasm here!)

I absolutely love “challenging” hikes though. The ones that get your heart rate way up.

 

We couldn’t properly enjoy the view from the top because Simone and I are both a bit scared of height. Reaching the top of a mountain and then running down as quickly as possible! Ha! Chickens!

 

 

Yesterday we just drove around and tried to find a place in Monterey but they didn’t seem to want us (their loss! ) so we stayed in a motel in the middle of nowhere. Fancy, I know.

Today we we spent a majority of our time shopping our little hearts out in a huge outlet park but I won’t go into details .

 

I must admit that I was hesitant to write about the rest of our Yosemite stay after I typed the deer-part. It seemed to be so.. cold-hearted. However, we should always embrace the good as well as the bad and ignoring the good part of our stay wouldn’t have been right. Because we did have a great time. Just with a sad beginning.

 

Would I recommend going to Yosemite? Of course. Would I go back? I don’t know.
Two more deer jumped in front of our car during our time there but those weren’t hit and I must say that I’ve had my fair share of near heart attacks for a lifetime.

 

Q: Have you ever hit an animal with a car (or any other vehicle)?
Did you know that 27 (twentyseven!!) BEARS were hit in Yosemite in 2009? I don’t want to figure out how high the number of deer is..

 

There’s one main thing to do in Sonoma and that is tasting wine of course.

 

We were being absolutely reasonable though as we had to drive.. Something about drinking and driving scares the hell out of me (though I guess that’s a good thing ). We only went to two wineries.

The first stop was at Quivira in the Dry Creek Valley which is a biodynamic and organic winery.

 

They have some seriously amazing wine.

 

And look, there are solar panels on the roof!

 

Next up was Preston of Dry Creek which is also an organic winery. They also sell homemade bread, olive oil, pickles, veggies and fruit.

 

Their tasting room is so cute!

I left with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

 

Wine is such a perfect souvenir but I wish it weren’t that heavy! I constantly have to mind the weight of my suitcase.

 

Q: What’s your favourite wine? Ah that’s hard, I know, as they always differ so much. I really like good Chardonnay (but it depends on which winery it comes from) and also like a good Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc. They have some fantastic Zinfandel over here which I also really love.. Ah there are so many to choose from!!

 

Today we’re off to Napa!

Hello from Healdsburg!

Yes, we’re already all the way down in Sonoma and things have been absolutely fantastic (as expected ). It definitely feels quite surreal sometimes and I regularly have to pinch myself to make sure that I truly am awake.

We both experienced pure bliss at yesterday’s dinner but I need to write an other post for that because it needs its own space. Therefore I will continue with our journey recap here..

 

I’m not sure if there’s much to do in Oregon. But the coast, my friends, the coast is absolutely breathtaking.

 

On the day before yesterday we drove from a foggy Oregon into a foggy California…

 

…but for some reason it was incredibly sunny in the Redwoods.
Yup, we headed to the big trees! Couldn’t miss those.

Finding camping sites has been pretty easy so far which I’m really glad for. However, it’s been pretty cold at night on the past few days which is why we’re currently in a motel .

 

After getting everything settled we headed out to find a nice trail…

(We kind of misread the sign.. It’s a 2.8 miles hike in one way. So we ended up walking 5.6 miles.)

Now THAT’S a real trail.

 

The Redwoods are absolutely unbelievable. The pictures don’t do them justice and no words can properly describe how impressive they are. I’ll still share some photos with you of course..

 

Promise me you’ll go there and see them for yourself!

 

Anyway, we continued driving south yesterday and all of a sudden there was blue sky and sunshine.

 

 

It’s funny, the more south we get, the more eco-friendly and natural foods shops we see. (Love it!)

For lunch we stopped in a very small town (don’t remember the name..) and got a veggie fix.

Mmmm.. yesterday was such a fantastic day, food-wise!

 

Today we’ll head out to some wineries – there are so many to choose from! It’s almost overwhelming.

 

Q: Have you ever been to Sonoma or Napa? If yes, did you visit any wineries? I think that wine’s pure beauty and I love having a nice glass (or two.. or three.. hehe) with dinner. We had such a fantastic local Pinot Noir yesterday but I’ll write more about that soon.

 

Now we’re off to find some lunch to take with us to the wineries. Oh and some wifi would be nice too so I can post this thing..

 

Missed (part 1) the recap of our trip to Mt. Rainier?
Check it out here!

On the next day (we’re talking of 5th August here) we packed up our stuff and drove south.. Our next stop was a campsite near Hood River, Oregon, only because we wanted to see the Columbia River Gorge.

 

Holy mother, it was hot (and kind of looked like in the desert.. No we weren’t in Arizona.. we were still in Washington!)!!

 

 

The Colombia River Gorge was indeed absolutely beautiful

 

Our tent site was also really nice (and it had a shower! Hooray!) and there was a small river nearby which we loved.

 

 

Sunburnt duo!

 

It was quite a long drive and we crashed early (mainly because there isn’t much to do when you don’t have any light..)

The day before yesterday was the most boring day on our journey so far which was due to yet an other long drive.. It was quite foggy so we decided to find an inn or motel or whatever that had two beds and running water. We then found shelter in a lighthouse.

Sort of. It was a motel in Yachats, Oregon (go look it up on Google earth, I know that’s what my boyfriend would do.. ).

We spent the rest of the day doing our laundry and eating ice cream.

Yes that place was just as nasty as it looks like. I’m glad you all didn’t have to experience that smell. Heavens, I had to wrap my scarf around head.

But hey, at least we have some clean clothes now and could eat some ice cream.

 

I randomly have to mention here that it doesn’t surprise me that America is constantly fighting obesity. Seriously, look at the sizes of… everything… at the supermarket! Or the uncountable fast food joints.

I’ll never get used to that.

 

Anyway, yesterday has been absolutely STELLAR!

(For me) it started off with a quick 20 min run by the pacific and it was absolutely amazing.

The drive also went smoothly as we only had to take the Hwy 101 South. Easy!

We stopped by some viewpoint..

 

..and also for some drive-thru coffee (very American!)

  

 

Then we had to go and say the dunes hello.

 

 

We also improved our posing skills a bit (Simone).. or not (me)…

 

  

Yeah.. there’s a face somewhere.. (I was having quite a Hair moment)

 

 

 

We then drove to the darling town of Bandon which was incredibly cute..

 

 

I actually wrote this post yesterday (or actually today because I’m writing it right now.. but that gets confusing so let me talk in the past tense now). However, I set it to publish on the 9th. So I’m sorry that it’s not much of “real time” posting but I wanted to share those pictures with you anyway. Hope you don’t mind

 

Love, The Travelling Two.