Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Hiking the Stawamus Chief in British Columbia - Spring 2013

One of my goals is to hike a mountain every summer. This wouldn't be a goal if I lived in a place with actual mountains, but I live in flat-semi-hilly Ontario. I love mountains. I grew up in Caracas, a city surrounded by enormous mountains, where the Avila is revered as our watchful patron. Moving to Southern Ontario has made me realize how much I miss hiking mountains and appreciate the opportunities for doing so.
Caracas, my hometown.
This spring I went to Vancouver (my absolute favourite city) to visit friends, eat seafood, and most importantly reach a mountain top. My friend Julia, G and I hiked the Stawamus Chief in Squamish. This was a moderately challenging hike with unbelievable 360 views of the Howe sound, mountains and forest.

California and Bicycle Wine Tour

Sorry for the hiatus, the past couple of weeks have been crazy. I transitioned from full-time work to part-time and second year of law school started. I felt super guilty about abandoning my blog temporarily but I was so excited to see all my friends back, enroll in classes and organize my life that it was hard to make time.

In these past few weeks that I have been away I accomplished a couple of goals! I went to California and took a Bicycle Wine Tour. G and I packed our bags and headed to San Francisco, a city neither of us had visited since we were kids. Although many aspects of the city didn't match our expectations (we thought it was going to be the place we would want to move), nevertheless it is an incredible and absolutely beautiful town. We did TONS of exploring and visited almost all the districts that tour books recommend. The best part of our stay in the city was without a doubt the food. We had some of the best meals I have had in a while (I will soon do a city guide with the names of restaurants). We were also so happy to be reunited with one of our best friends and his family, it made the vacation so much more special.


After 4 days in SF we headed north to Marin County, Napa and Sonoma. We took a day to do wineries in the Napa valley. During this day we took a Bike Tour (goal 57!), which was AMAZING. We rode for 20 km through wineries and stopped at two, one of which we fell in love and bought a couple of bottles from. The rest of the day we went to two more wineries and explored the area. One of the wineries we visited is called Silver Oak, which is a special place for us since its the wine we had at our wedding. We were so excited to be there. 


The second day in Wine Country we headed west to Sonoma, where we had lunch at the famous Russian River Brewery. G could not contain his excitement as we sampled 16 beers and had the most delicious pizza I have ever had. After we took a nap at the local mall, we continued our journey through the Russian River valley, and towards the coast. This was by far my favourite part of the trip. The Bohemian Driveway that starts in Monte Rio is a must-do if you are in the area, and a visit to the coast along the town of Bodega Bay will blow you away. It was an incredible experience and some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen in North America.