Wine and winding roads Part I

Anyone not planning a PhD should get inspired to do do once I finish writing my travelogue - yah ha I did travel some more last weekeend. Ille ille to you all who work on your computers all day, we poor PhD types are compensated for our poverty with an overabundance of vela time to do as we wish!

So thursday night (12 am) we set off on our much planned "road trip" to San Fran and the wine county (this place called Healdsburg, 60 miles north of SF). After a looong foggy drive reached Sf. The highlights of that day were lunch at Chaat Cafe (3rd and Folsom for anyone who gets to visit SF someday when u retire from your busy jobs :P). I was drooling all over the seekh kabab roll - I swear it beats Kareems. The crowd was enjoyably eclectic there - not just different shades of desi-ness (unlike at Viks' another Indi dhaba in Berkeley), mostly office goers in fancy -ass suits and some touristy types.

The weather was fantastic - perfect temp and a really bright sun so we spent the rest of the afternoon at Union square engaging in our favorite hobby - people watching! Union Sq has the perfect ambience for doing that without feeling stupid (never do that in the Simla Mall - you are bound to get classified as the pitiable Himachal university vela variety). The art exhibitions, pigeons and cafe music actually manage to make you feel very aantel (arty farty intellectual for you non Bongs) even if u know nothing about the art and all you care to check out is how many desis are around and who's wearing what..


That night was spent in hysterical conversation over Tamarind Margaritas (!) and an exotic Senagalese platter - I unashamedly accept that my life's happiness revolves around different cuisines. The place was young, fun and not too expensive. Definitely worth a second visit. This is beginning to sound like those restaurant rating websites so I'll change track.






Next stop was the much talked about "Redwoods" which obviosuly struck my Enid Blyton fancy - what's the point of having tall trees unless the tree tops hit a cloud and the Land of "Do as you want"! The woods were enchanting no doubt but the obsessive precautionary attitude of this country was a killjoy. Yah, it makes sense to preserve nature for the next generation and all that jazz but it does seem a bit excessive to treat tree trunks like dinosaur skulls in a museum with elaborate "Don't touch this and that" signs. Woods for me are meant to get lost in and not be spoon fed .. well, I guess I'd just have to get that kind of thrill from my mad-bull-infested pine forest trek in nainital!