Our first trip to Napa Valley was over Thanksgiving weekend and the autumn colors made the trip that much more spectacular! Even though we had done our research in advance, all of the hills and wineries were filled with yellows and oranges and reds which made it hard to decide where to stop. Amanda loves wines and generated an agenda based upon the different wineries that she wanted to visit. My agenda was based upon taking photos throughout the colorful region.

We spent a cold and rainy Black Friday in San Francisco this year. Having been to San Francisco many times now, this was the first time that I had the chance to see it while raining. Despite the weather, we found plenty of ways to see the sights that we wanted to see while staying warm and dry, relatively. It was actually nice not having crowds of people everywhere we went.

Amtrak's Coast Starlight is a train adventure that runs the west coast of the United States, from Los Angeles to Seattle.  While train travel has lost a lot of its popularity due to the reduction in cost and increased convenience of air travel, it can still be a lot of fun to experience.  The Coast Starlight is one of the most scenic routes that Amtrak offers.  We decided to make the trip from Los Angeles to Oakland (San Francisco) over the Thanksgiving weekend aboard the Coast Starlight.