Born and Raised in Northern California - Show and Tell Friday

 

I finally started packing some things for my move next month even though I'm not totally sure where I'm moving! My apartment is not very photo worthy now nor will it be for the next month so I'm going to share some previous photos with you for the next month! At least when I get into my new place I will have something new to blog about! I'm looking forward to that! 

 

This week I saw that Conde Naste came out with their 10 top cities in the U.S. and I'm happy to live close by three out of 10 of them and I've shared them all with you here on my blog in the past! I was born and raised in Northern California so I'm really proud that these 3 places made the top 10! Most people that come to California visit Southern California but Northern California has some of the best touristy places too!  Carmel, California came in #6 on their list and these first two photos are ones I took of the quaint little cottages there. I love going to Carmel! It's a little over an hour away from me so it's a perfect day trip!

About an hour and a half north of my place is Napa which was ranked #10 on their list. I've shared many of my wine tasting trips there on my blog and here are some of my favorite photos...

 

 

 

 I remember when you could go to Napa and do FREE wine tasting at all the wineries. Now they get so many visitors that they charge for wine tasting.

 

It is such a beautiful place...I've even wondered how I could move there and make a living!  I think the same thing about Carmel though!  I guess I should be happy that I can visit these places on a day-trip!

 



 

San Francisco is #3 on their list. In my opinion I would rather go to Carmel or Napa than San Francisco but if you've never been there it's beautiful (in a different kind of way). My favorite thing to do in SF is to bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and ride down into Sausalito which is another great place that should have made this list!

 

Photo taken from a top floor restaurant in SF

Biking across the bridge is popular!

There are sidewalks on each side of the bridge. One side is for bikes and the other side is for pedestrians but it can still get crowded with bikers going in each direction on a small sidewalk. This area is where we start the ride.

About to take a Spring-time ride across the bridge

 

 

 

I just happened to find this photo from a few years ago of me wearing a "Carmel" sweatshirt while in San Francisco!  I must have lost that sweatshirt because I haven't seen it in years! I look like such a tourist and yet I was born and raised here!  I think that's what I like the most about living here (besides the weather) ....there are so many fun places to visit and they are all so close by!

 

I live in Silicon Valley but I was here before it became what it is now! When I grew up here there were still a lot of fruit orchards.  Now instead of orchards I drive by Apple, Google, Ebay, Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard (I work at HP!), Netflix, Intel, Adobe...I could go on and on!  It's a different place than when I was little but it's still home and I still love it here and I can't imagine living anywhere else! 

 

I hope you enjoyed your little tour around some of the best cities in the U.S.  (there are many more that didn't make this list!