North to Calistoga and Davis, California

The day after the wedding we flew from Cancun to Los Angeles (LAX), overnighted, and took an early flight the next day to San Jose. After a few days of recovery at Sun-Ling's sister's in Saratoga, we headed NORTH to the Napa Valley to visit my old friend Mike who with his wife Laura own and operate Laura Michael Wines in Calistoga. Mike is known as the Pope of Calistoga and we had a fun time tasting Michael Laura wines, eating, and strolling around Calistoga. Rainy weather canceled our planned hike near Mount Saint Helena, so we made an early start of the drive over the hills to Davis where SL's niece is a junior at UC Davis.

Our time in Davis was pleasant. We stayed at the house of old friends. They were out-of-town so we were hosted by their daughter Zora, a top notch host and conversationalist. On Saturday we picked up Sun-Ling's niece Cameron and drove west past Winters to Stebbins Cold Canyon for an awesome hike and picnic. To sum up: the kids are alright! And not to mention that we ate some tasty Burmese, Nepali, and Indian food in Davis.

Traveler's Tip:The American Airlines Verifly app allowed us to quickly get through check-in and to the gate at the Cancun airport for our international flight to LAX.

Sun-Ling heads to our gate at LAX.

The view on takeoff south to Redondo Beach.

Sunset from the balcony of SL's sister's house in Saratoga.

Mike and I with Laure Michael vineyards in the background.

Gas prices in Calistoga.

Downtown Calistoga.

Mike and I.





We stopped to hike the lower section of the Stebbins Cold Canyon Loop before continuing to Davis. Pretty cool "entrance" to the trailhead, no? There was a bit of low clouds on the rocky, green hills.

The next day was sunny and beautiful and we had a great hike on the Stebbins Cold Canyon Upper Trail with Sun-Ling's niece Cameron.

...with awesome views to the east of Davis, Sacramento, and the High Sierra.

Tasty Nepali dinner at Kathmandu Kitchen. And lunch at Yeti.

On the drive back to Saratoga, we stopped for a long walk at Tilden Regional Park in the hills above Berkeley, and had lunch with this view to downtown San Francisco, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Our outbound route was on the ridge top, and the return in the canyon.