30th August - Recovery day in Berkeley

We both slept very well, only waking at  anormal local time. No sign of jet lag apart from a little general tiredness. Alastair and Sophie are at work all weekdays we are here, except for a couple they are taking off after next weekend, and Labor Day on this coming Monday. Alastair was off on his bike/bus/bike trip to work in San Francisco itself, and Sophie was working from home as she does 3 days a week.

We had a slow start to the morning, then headed out through South Berkeley towards the centre of Berkeley, or should that be the "center"? The streets on the route to our intended cafe were very attractive - generously wide, trees everywhere, almost no traffic and a great variety of interesting houses. The premium style is like a large redwood-clad country cabin. They are generally very cottagey-looking, quite highly decorated, and have very scruffy gardens! The climate is just too dry to allow for rich growth and the front gardens and verges tend to look rather neglected. There isn't much money about for footpath repairs and there are huge trees growing in the verges, so the footpaths are up and down, all cracked and lumpy, with asphalt ramps or grinding to smooth out the worst of the steps created by underground roots.

A garden just down from A & S

We have been most impressed with the traffic. Speeds are very gentle compared with NZ and you only have to look like you are trying to cross a street and cars will stop and wave you over. The lack of speed and noise is a pleasure.

We had coffee at Baker and Commons, a very popular spot in the Elmwood precinct. We were surprised at the prices. We'd imagined that it would be similar to NZ, but it was way more. A cappuccino for Karen - flat whites are not on the menu - was $4.75, add a standard $1/cup tip, and it came to a shade under $10NZ. That's an awful lot for a coffee which wasn't up to NZ's admittedly high standards. It feels pretty hard to justify.

An amazing range of flours in an organic shop

For dinner we went out to a co-op run pizza joint where there is only one pizza and one salad type available each evening, both vegetarian. Delicious crunchy pizza.

All-in-all, a very pleasant start to our fortnight in Berkeley.

29th Aug - Arrival in Berkeley

Just like that we have been translated into a different country, timezone and culture. It all went very smoothly and quickly. Our Uber ride to the airport delivered us in plenty of time, even more so when we were told the flight was delayed by 30 minutes. In the end our scheduled 7.45pm flight left at 9pm, but we made up most of that time on the way to San Francisco.

We'd paid a little extra to upgrade to seats with at least 5 cm additional legroom over the standard economy seat and it was well worth it. There was space to burn. A reasonable meal at 10.30pm saw us tucking down to sleep by 11pm, which we did solidly until around 4am, a stretch of legs and another 2 hours sleep. We were feeling well rested for breakfast and the final few hours flight. A slight moment of consternation when the captain announced we were descending into Los Angeles, but we knew that was an error, right?

We whizzed virtually straight through immigration, and then even faster through quarantine because no quarantine cards were given out on the flight, nor were there any to be filled in when we arrived, nor any staff to declare to what food we may be bringing into the country. Everyone, unless transiting, was basically waved through to the exit point of the terminal. It was astonishingly different from the quarantine scrutiny everyone goes through when arriving in NZ or Australia. 

Within minutes were were onto the BART train for the direct one-hour ride to Berkeley, where Alastair and Sophie live. When we stepped out into the sunlight and 29 degree heat it was a bit of a shock. After stripping off layers and putting on sunglasses it was only a 10-minute walk to their apartment. It was late afternoon and Sophie was home to meet us, which was lovely. 

Their apartment is delightful - very light and airy, with spacious rooms and a private outdoor garden. We can see why they have enjoyed their move from their previous 3rd-floor apartment in the inner city. A cold beer hit the spot and we chatted away, with Ali arriving home on his cycle before 7pm. We spent a very enjoyable evening catching up on news over a platter meal seated at the outdoor table, followed by a gentle stroll around their neighbourhood at 9pm. It's a very quiet area, with wide streets, incredibly little traffic and many large Californian bungalows on well-treed sections. Quite a few streets have been blocked off with large concrete planters, turning them into very quiet cul-de-sacs.

Off we go - 2023

We are on our way. This is our 10th return visit to Ceret. It seems hard to believe that we first bought back in 2011, 12 years ago. We first visited Ceret further back in 2009! This trip began on 28 August, and we return to Nelson on 14 December. We start with 2 weeks in San Francisco staying with Alastair and his fiancee Sophie, have 4 nights in Paris and then TGV down to Ceret. We will be leaving via Brno and Prague in wintertime.

We are very glad to be leaving for Europe much later this year than last. A late August departure will be our norm from now on. Last year we had a wedding to attend in July, so had to deal with temperatures in France which were brutal from May until August. This year they have not been quite so unrelenting, but the drought conditions and maximum temperatures in Ceret have been fierce. It reached a new all-time high of 41.1C just last week. It appears that the "heat dome" that caused the latest highs has now gone and it should be back down to the more normal high 20s by the time we arrive in mid-September. We certainly hope so.

We had a one-night stopover at Karen's sister's in Auckland as we are very wary of delays before the international leg of the journey, specially after last year's fog which had us horribly close to missing our outward flight.

Leaving Nelson

Even though we are now in Auckland, and only a few hours away from returning to the airport to board our flight to San Francisco, I still can't quite believe we are actually on our way. Our build up to this departure has been rather frenetic, but all self-inflicted. Two weeks ago we enjoyed five glorious days in Hanmer Springs with Bella, Nic and our grandchildren. Our days were filled with walking various tracks, constructing a snowman, dodging snowballs, barrelling down the hydroslides at the hot pools,  and consuming coffees and carrot cake as appropriate. It was absolutely fabulous. 

Last week was manic in another way, packing our bags and also catching up with friends and other family members to say farewell. It was a very social and enjoyable time. We are both feeling very ready to sit down on a long flight and chill out (or, even better, sleep).