Peace out Cali

"I took a road to nowhere on my own...because I left everyone I love at home. I don't want to be alone forever, but I can be alone tonight. I don't want to be alone forever, but I love Gypsy life." -Lady Gaga

The past couple weeks have been crazy. I did a hundred things and ran out of time to do a thousand more. There were so many moments and faces that just flew by. From the last day of our San Francisco weekend to my departure on a new adventure, there hasn't been a second wasted (as long as you don't count marathon Doctor Who-ing as time wasting, which I do not). 

When you live somewhere for so long it becomes easy to take for granted how lucky you are; California is a prime example of this. One weekend, we went to San Francisco to celebrate my Mom's Birthday, explore a castle (see here), visit my Aunty, and explore creepy toy artifacts, all whilst enjoying a mild 65 degree climate.

Calistoga under the clouds

Castles are just awesome. That's a fact. Unfortunately, America is not brimming with remnants of medieval knights and courts. We don't let that stop us though, why not just build a modern castle that looks really old? Problem solved.

Dario Sattui had the grand idea to build Castello di Amorosa as an Italian inspired winery. Located in Calistoga, CA the castello (castle) is modeled after a 13th century Tuscan castle and hosts both wine tasting and tours. 

For Mom's birthday weekend we began with a venture to this not-so-ancient relic. While the whole gang enjoyed walking around the structure and grounds, Mom and Dad got to also enjoy some fine wine. 

The cold gray day gave the castle an eerie out of its time feel. You could turn a corner and nearly forget you were in the center of California in the year 2014. 

Castles do pose the problems of tiny windows, but I like to peek anyway. 

There is also one thing every proper castle needs that we can't forget...princesses! 

Especially princesses that know how to wave properly (thank you Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway). 

Keeping with authentic Italian style, the castle features a small chapel off the courtyard. 

There are also lots of excellent hiding spots throughout the castle (hide and seek anyone?). 

The Castello di Amorosa, though likely (in my opinion) the coolest winery in Calistoga, is definitely not the only one. Napa Valley is home to over 300 wineries and you could shuttle around all day week month long tasting wine. However, Dad's not the happiest wine man, and we were on our merry way to San Francisco, leaving time for only one more stop: Beringer Winery. 

Beringer is over one hundred years old, making it one of the largest wineries in the area. It's long history has made it infamous, and well known to many Hollywood stars, including Mr. Rhett Butler himself, Clark Gable (my favorite fun fact of the day). 

As the sun settled low in the sky, the winery portion of Mom's birthday trip came to an end and it was "onward and outward, kiddies" to San Francisco. 

Yours, Kenna 

Welcome to 2014

Well here it is kids, 2014. Prepare to spend the next three months writing 2013 4. While this scribbly side effect may be a bit unfortunate, you get a whole new year just waiting to be filled with memories, which makes up for a few wasted pieces of paper.

This past year did its job well. I wrote 2012 on all my papers until at least May and tried to fit in as much fun and adventure into 365 days as possible. I would love to post every single photo I have taken this year and relive every single moment. It seems to be a pretty good sign of a great year when you get to the end of it and cannot even begin to narrow down your favorite moments. 

In any case, I've tried. Theoretically (according to the ever wise Miss Jewel), I should have picked twelve photos to sum up my year; but you all know me, never one to keep it short when it comes to pictures. So here's a few more than a few pictures, but still not nearly enough, to sum up some of my favorite memories of 2013: