California...

I've heard about it but it (=the extremes in California) is still pretty awsome to experience... from people surfing in sunshine to 2-3 meters of snow and really great snowboarding all within just 3 hours of driving ...and snowstorm which I've never experienced anywhere before.
Since I managed to loose all the pics from the week's trip due to Vista (or my lack of Vista understanding), a short recap of the trip just to remember it.... Verbal pictures in no particular timely order:

Nice walks all over the city with the help of SFO's nice buss network. Great local cafes (especially where accidentally the skateboard shops were ;o). Excellent snowboarding with Antoine in Lake Tahoe's Squaw Valley until the snow strom hit the area. Then next day 8 hours of home coming driving in the strom with longest ever traffic jam time for me - close to 1.5 hours from Olympic Village cross road to I80 chain check-up point...
AM1610 frequency and all the infosigns enforcing "you are only allowed to go on I80 if you have 4wheel drive and all weather tires - all other cars must use chains", and then few guys checking basically all the cars in I80 when going into Sierras. And still during the first 5 minutes after the chain check point there was a big SUV sideways in the Interstate, back wheels spinning wildly and 2 guys in their shorts trying to push it.... we are all immune to traffic conditions since we are all such bloody good drivers ;o)

Before the storm Antoine also took us to the other (left) side of Golden gate - very nice views to the city, bridge and the sea. There were some gun station from 2nd world war when US was getting prepared fro potential Japanese invation.

On Monday we did 49mile scenery road thru SFO different areas - nice sunny day and nice trip. Saw surfers having their immense fun under the Golden Gate. Twin peaks. Great Ocean road. Nice Dinner with HeGe and Antoine.

We had the same Delta stewardess on the way to SFO and coming back to home, and it was a nice start for the trip to get her greetings "oh hey guys - did you have fun, was it nice ?" ;o)

Both ways over the states we had almost totally clear skies thru the trip. Awsome scenery - took a lot of pics (whch are now lost :o( ). Anyway funny to see how different areas seemed to repeat typical patters - 1st came an area where all the farms were square with farm houses along the roads. Then next area has square areas but with triangles cut from each corner. Then Square again with farm house in the middle and with bit of a forest around them. Then suddenly only circle farms ....
Lake Tahoe and Utah, Colorado looked wild and great from 11km.

Otto had his skateboard with him and oh boy is that a magnet for good will ;o)
well also without skateboard I have to say that I've rarely experienced so much street kindness ...

Succesfully used combination of staying awake for 48hours and enegry drinks for the next 2days to overcome jetlag ... barely noticed the time diff.

Ou jees and the Jelly Bean factory visit before Sacramento was an experience on the way to Lake Tahoe. Kiwi and Watermelon rocks.

The beer scenery in SFO rocks too. 10-15 meters of top notch brewery stuff is tough to pass without some serious ad hoc shopping. The only bummer is that since it's US you can only buy them in 6packs.

Ou jees 2 - US is the only place in the world where Audi Q7 looks like moderaly sized car.

Thanks Antoine !