A Lady in London

I didn’t want to come home for Thanksgiving. For the past five years I have gotten used to being away. From St. Petersburg to London, I have enjoyed carefree Thanksgiving dinners and have largely avoided cooking. But this year my mother’s attempts to guilt trip me into coming home to Silicon Valley finally worked. I packed my bags and got ready for a California Thanksgiving with the family.

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One of my favorite things about traveling home to California is the abundance of outdoor activities on offer. From hikes in the Santa Cruz Mountains to walks in Northern California’s coastal regions, from big wave surfing at Mavericks to kite surfing in San Francisco Bay, there is no shortage of things to do.

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California doesn’t have much history. It didn’t become a state until 1850, and not many people were around before the Gold Rush in 1849. Compared to London, where there are actual Roman ruins in the city center, my state looks pretty pathetic. But there are a few places that have more history than most, and one of them is the coastal town of Pescadero, California.

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There are protests in London. The Occupy movement has taken over one of the city’s most famous landmarks, St Paul’s Cathedral. Across the pond, the Occupy Wall Street movement that inspired its London counterpart was in full swing until last week. When I left home on Wednesday to travel to New York City for my mother’s birthday, I felt a bit like I was going to the same city from which I had come.

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I will never forget my first trip to New York City. It was at the beginning of my sophomore year at Brown. Earlier that week, I decided to wake up in time for breakfast at the dining hall for the second time ever. As I stood in line, the girl in front of me told the woman serving her that she was sad because a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. It was September 11, 2001.

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Destination weddings have a way of taking me to the Pacific Northwest. A few years ago my cousin’s wedding on Lopez Island in Washington gave me a chance to explore Vancouver and the beautiful San Juans. This time around it was a destination wedding in La Conner, Washington that brought me back to the region.

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Seattle is one of my favorite west coast cities in the USA. I have been visiting relatives there since I was a child, and each trip brings with it a deeper knowledge of the city and the diverse Seattle neighborhoods.

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After a great weekend in Bloomington, Indiana, I planned a long layover in Chicago. It had been five years since my last visit to the Windy City, and I wanted to explore one of the less touristy neighborhoods. Chicago’s Wicker Park restaurants and shopping spots were the highlights of this agenda.

A friend that I went to Mongolia with last summer generously offered to pick me up from the airport and take me around for the afternoon. Given Wicker Park’s relative proximity to O’Hare, we went there to explore the trendy area. I had never been to Wicker Park before, and I was excited to see a new part of Chicago.

As soon as we arrived, we walked along Damen Avenue to a restaurant called Francesca’s Forno. They were still serving brunch at 2pm, so we ordered french toast and eggs while catching up with one another.

After brunch we walked down Milwaukee Avenue. Both sides of the street were packed with trendy shopping boutiques, hip cafes, restaurants, and bars. The buildings were painted in bright colors accented by murals and other decorations.

We went into several shops, including one that had a special sale offering two tank tops for $10. The deals made me miss shopping in the States. My friend bought a few items, and then we continued down the road.

At one point we veered off onto a side street in Wicker Park that had fewer restaurants and less shopping. There we passed an old house that almost looked abandoned. The front lawn was decorated in faded garden gnomes and sculptures that were both amusing an eerie at the same time.

Back on Damen Avenue, we made our way back towards my friend’s car. On the way we stopped into a new Wicker Park shop called Arts n Spirits. The owner, Jessica, told us that the store’s concept was to host events where people could work on an art project while drinking wine and other spirits. It sounded good to me.

Back in the car, we had a bit of extra time before I had to be at the airport. We made our way to O’Hare along the back roads, taking in a diverse array of Chicago neighborhoods as we drove. Of all of the ones I saw, though, Wicker Park was definitely my favorite. It was a unique part of the city, and the Wicker Park restaurants and shopping were a great way to spend my long layover in Chicago.

It’s not often that my travels take me to Indiana. Aside from a Notre Dame football game a few years ago, I’ve never been to the state. But when one of my best friends from college planned a wedding in Indiana, it was time to head to the Midwest to celebrate and do a bit of Bloomington, Indiana sightseeing on the side.

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One of my favorite things to do when I travel to San Francisco is to go wine tasting. Most of my recent tasting trips have been to Russian River, which is famous for its Pinot Noirs. Last week, however, I decided to venture a bit more north to go wine tasting in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley.

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The best thing about being from San Francisco is that no matter where I travel, I always have an excuse to return to one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

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Dallas has a car culture. On my first visit to the city, I refused to give into it, opting instead for public transport. I had a good time on my self-guided Dallas sightseeing tour, but it didn’t take me long to realize that the city was spread out enough that having a car would have been helpful.

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I’ve never been to Texas. Despite having traveled to almost 75 countries, I have only been to around 25 U.S. states. It’s a little embarrassing. So when I booked my trip to Chile in November I decided to choose flights that would give me a couple of long layovers in a city and state I had never been to: Dallas, Texas.

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What do you get when you mix one part gorgeous weather, one part excellent fresh food, one part world-class wine, and one part home? You get October in San Francisco.

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After my day of Disneyland fun on Friday, I was ready for some grown-up entertainment. This started at my hotel for the evening, the W Hollywood. A drink at the open-air bar turned into a tequila-tasting session when the guy next to me turned out to be a rep for a high-end tequila brand. This was followed by dinner with my brother and his wife, who kindly came up from San Diego to have dinner with me at a Mexican restaurant nearby. This, of course, involved more tequila in the form of margaritas. By the end of the evening I was pleasantly in grown-up fun mode.

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