The Stephenson Families' Great Californian Adventure

Well, the Russian, singular :) Natalia's good friend Olga came to visit us and another of her friends who lives a couple hours from here. She came to us for a few days over New Year which was really nice (as was the nice vodka she brought me!). We picked her up from Oakland train station on the foggiest night ever! We managed to get a bit lost too but all ended well and we had a great few days.

We took a few trips - to the shopping mall, to Sausalio (again, foggy and cold - not ideal really) and also to the Golden Gate Observation Point atop the hills to the West side of the highway - which is on the way to the Pacific coast and has some rather magnificent views as you can see. Amazing that we have been here over 2 years and this was the first time we'd done this trip, and its 1 minute off the highway!