The America's Cup

We are back from our trip 'home' to California and school starts tomorrow. There are lots of lovely summer memories for us to look back on and absorb but today I want to tell you about our day out in San Francisco to watch the America's Cup.


We actually got to see one of the final races in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challenger series, that determines which boat races the defender (USA) in the America’s Cup Finals. After a month of races the last two in the race were the boats from New Zealand and Italy.


The America's Cup has been contested since 1851 making it the oldest trophy in international sport. Having grown up as the daughter of a passionate yacht racer, I've known of it's existence for as long as I could remember. We knew the 2013 race would be coming to San Francisco before we even left to live in France but it was a lucky coincidence that we happened to be back there at just the right time. Rather like cycling, yacht racing is a better participation sport than spectator sport, but this year for the first time the organizers have tried to make it more spectator friendly with a grandstand overlooking the picturesque race course.


We paid for the seats, but we could just have easily watched for free from the shore as all these people in front of us were doing. However, the thrill of being in attendance at a major sporting event and access to the beer tent just about made the seats worthwhile. I got better photos too!


Racing yachts have come a long way since 1851. The boats in this year's race are more like space ships than sailing boats and literally fly when they really get going. This is not the racing I grew up doing!


The trouble with sailing is not only is it difficult to watch, but it is also incredibly weather dependent and these super hi-tech boats are prone to breaking. A lot. Team New Zealand was way out in the lead when their dagger board became jammed and they had to abandon the race...


...leaving the Italian boat to sail home uncontested. A bit of an anti-climax for what was already a short race but that's sailing!


The New Zealand boat was soon fixed and graciously sailed in close to the grandstand so that the crowd could see better which made for much better pictures than if they had actually been racing! The crowd clicked away while the race committee decided whether the wind conditions would permit the second race of the day to go ahead.


While they deliberated, we checked out the America's Cup Village where you can see an AC45 catamaran up close. That's the angle the boats are at when they are going at high speed!


There were some fun games for little kids which kept Florence entertained.


She took a while to master the catamaran trampoline, but was so pleased with herself once she finally figured how to climb to the top. It might be a while before she's ready to take to the high seas though.


Eventually it was decided that the wind was too strong for the second race to start. However, the conditions were fine for a junior regatta of much more stable boats. Although the super yachts are amazing to watch, it was in some ways more fascinating to watch these simple races close to shore and the girls got quite into what was going on.

It is ten years this week since my Dad's premature death from cancer. He taught me to sail and he taught Keith to sail. I wish he could have taught his granddaughters to sail too. He would have absolutely loved the chance to watch the America's Cup live so I am so glad we took the opportunity to go and see it.

Farm Fresh to You

We have just a couple of days left in California before we return to France. When we first arrived, with four weeks stretching ahead of us it seemed like we had so much time and I expected we would fill much of it doing some of the touristy things we never got around to whilst living here, like visiting Alcatraz or walking across the Golden Gate Bridge in its 75th anniversary year. The four weeks have flown by though and those activities will have to stay on our bucket list as we chose to spend our time staying local, near friends and our favourite swimming pool, a ballet camp for India and a quilting camp for Georgia and more sleepovers for the big girls than we can count!

Last weekend though, we did fulfill a long held desire to attend the Capay Tomato Festival, hosted by the farm, Capay Organic, that used to deliver us our weekly box of organic vegetables. We started getting the box about four years ago and it completely changed the way we ate. I already loved cooking at home, but starting our menu planning with the vegetables we had available rather than the meat seemed to be a much healthier approach and never quite knowing which seasonal vegetables were going to turn up in our box really got the whole family trying new foods on a weekly basis.

We had attended lots of open days at the farm in every season whilst we lived here, but the heirloom tomato festival in the summer never seemed to fall at a good time for us. This year though we finally made it with our good friends who share our love for the contents of those boxes.


The farm is about an hour and a half's drive north of San Francisco and in such a pretty location. Tractor rides took visitors around the fields, filled at this time of year with summer squash and asparagus.


There were plenty of activities for the little ones. Arts and crafts, hula hoops, herb salt making and Florence's favourite...


...bubbles!


The main event though was the Heirloom Tomato Tasting.

Not only did the family who run Capay Organic pioneer organic farming in the region, farmer's markets and fresh produce delivery, they also reintroduced heirloom tomatoes to the market. Here's how...




What a great story!


Now, although those organic boxes have got my kids eating carrots, pistachios, spinach and even kale, India, Georgia and Savannah still maintain that they hate tomatoes and cannot usually be persuaded to eat them. I think they may have been converted though after this weekend. All three girls tried and liked the huge variety of tomatoes on offer.


Georgia sporting some Bastille Day fireworks!


Someone who doesn't need any persuading to eat a tomato though is Florence. She adores them and she was in tomato tasting heaven here.





The party continued with live music.


Just a few more tomatoes.


And dancing.


A wonderful day out in the fresh air with good food, great company and more tomatoes than you can eat.

Miam! Miam!

Sunshine State*

At the beginning of this week American Mom in Bordeaux, a URL friend who is fast becoming an IRL friend was kind enough to pass on a sunshine award to me. We certainly have plenty of sunshine here in California this week with the temperatures in the 100s every day (will those of you reading in Paris or the UK please look away while I complain that it's too hot!) and while receiving the sunshine award brightened my day no end, I'm never any good at wittily answering the questions that go with these awards.


Instead I thought I'd spread the sunshine love a little differently by showing you some of the photographs I've been taking for my class of the California Poppies growing all over the land around the house we're renting. I might even sneak in some of the answers to the questions as I go!


I've always loved the California state flower not least because orange is my favourite colour. They bloom all through the spring and summer and like their bolder French cousins, grow all along the roadsides making you want to stop your car in inappropriate and dangerous places to take their picture.


This house is right out in the country though at the top of a private road so not many people have seen this particular crop of poppies. I was just fiddling around with getting a better picture of this scene when I saw a snake crawling towards me through the dry grass - didn't stop to ask what kind before I scrambled back up the hill out of harm's way - so this is as good as you get!


Don't mind taking pictures of the bees enjoying the flowers though.


The California Poppy officially became the state flower in 1903 and until I started to do a bit of research today, I was under the common misconception that it is illegal to pick them. There is no state law specifically prohibiting you from picking the poppy, but it's a misdemeanor to remove any plant from land that you don't own so leave them where they are for everyone to enjoy and you won't get in trouble!


Recipients of the sunshine award are supposed to pass it on to ten more bloggers, but as I don't know that many bloggers who haven't already received it, I've decided to give a much needed update to my blogroll and have added ten blogs I love that I've found in the last year. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I've got a few more changes for the blog planned when I get a minute. I might even start a Growing Berries Facebook page. What do you think?!


*Florida is actually the Sunshine State, California is known as the Golden State but I'm not going to let the facts get in the way of a good post title!

Red, White and Blue...

parades...


...and popsicles too!










An all American day especially enjoyed by the US Citizens in the family!


If you were celebrating, I hope you had a good day too!