The past few weeks I've been meeting many many different people. After flying back from Panama, I met up with a 59-year old English/Canadian couchsurfer from Vancouver Island, Canada. A ballerina for a couple of years in London, she continued to get a PhD in philosophy and then freelanced her way through life by writing, lecturing and doing PR. She was more or less retired and was now exploring California by car. I joined her for ten days to see Highway 1 curving the coast between Santa Barbara and San Francisco, get a feel of the campuses of the University of California in Santa Cruz and of Stanford, and explore San Francisco for a couple of days.

In Santa Cruz we were hosted by Larry and Debra and their German shepherd Molly. They lived in a beautiful wooden mansion, which was nominated a historical building (Californian Craftsman Bungalow). Debra was a librarian and Larry had been a teacher of German - without having a personal connection with the country, just because he loved the language. He now produced educational reading material for secondary schools about California, the US and the world. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there: they took us to Gale's for breakfast (in Santa Cruz, houses are advertised as being in walking distance to Gale's), to Monterey for the Aquarium, and to Carmel to have lunch at a cute French bakery and see the beautiful beach. I'm not too sure though whether Molly liked finding us in the back seat of Larry's car - she kept breathing (and licking) in our ears...

After spending three days exploring San Francisco, we continued north through the Sonoma wine valley. In Windsor, north of Sonoma, we were welcomed by Jessica and Don and their two pets: hyperactive dog Spike, whose favourite game was to chase a red dot projected on the floor, and very mellow parrot Noelle, who was a wonder of communication. Jessica was writing a zombie novel and mapping out the next children's hit series after Harry Potter, while Don was making old Norwegian coins and fighting the Viking way on the fields of California (we saw evidence on YouTube). They both were active in ‘living history' and were specialised in the Viking era, around 1000AD. Their garage was full of armour, shields and weapons - from clubs to hand-forged swords. I can tell you, you don't want to be on the wrong side of Don!

The next day we headed to Cloverdale, 40 miles north of Windsor and still in the Sonoma Valley, where Tina and Jim were hosting us for the night in their cottage with a beautiful view on the wine ranks surrounding it. Tina used to be a court clerk and Jim was a former pastor, quitting after 20 years, who was now working with the homeless to help them get their life on track again - in addition to giving the occasional vineyard tour. They took us to the first Friday evening open air concert of this summer in Cloverdale, so we had a not quite so delicious kebab at the farmers market and got to see Shana Morrison - the daugther of Van - perform live.

The next day we made our way through Mendocino county - another valley famous for the wines - drove underneath towering redwood trees and dipped into sea mist as soon as we arrived at the Pacific Ocean. After admiring the many Victorian mansions in Eureka (amongst others what is considered the most grand Victorian home in America - built in 1886 by a lumber baron), we got on the road inland again, climbing higher and higher, passing 3000 feet, stopping once in the lovely village of Weaverville, where we stumbled upon a concert of ‘early music' - from 16^th and 17^th century.

In the afternoon, we arrived at the home of Barbara and Sjaak, a Dutch expatriate couple who have been living in Redding - a town at the north end of the Central Valley in California - for seven years now because of his job. Judging by Barbara's stories, we had arrived in the wild west, where everybody (except themselves) owned a gun, where the police didn't dare to go into some valleys, and where marihuana was grown al around (actually, in California it is legal to smoke marihuana for medical purposes even though federal law prohibits it entirely). Moreover, you could not go walking by yourself on any of the trails on the wooded hillsides because there is no cell phone coverage - in case something happens - and bears, mountain lions and coyotes could cross your path. It was very interesting to listen to the stories, exchange thoughts about the culture and get an idea of expatriate life in Redding. The next day we were also introduced to Pat, a fellow Couchsurfer and a friend of Barbara, who showed me her seven looms, the many colourful rugs she made with them (and heaps of wool still to be converted) and let me try my hand at one of them. How unfortunate that my travels aren't over yet - otherwise I would definitely have created my very own rug to take home with me!