It was most stunning to discover San Francisco without a cloud in the sky! During my former travels there, I only experienced cold & fog, fog, fog … This time, I simply enjoyed walking around the different districts, the Mission, Ashbury Haight, Twin Picks with a stunning view over the city and Pacific Height and its steep hills. A special treat was the Castro District on St. Patrick’s Day, an incredible experience.

Most unbelievable was getting a good view of Golden Gate Bridge completely clear of fog and clouds, something I had never experienced. After taking 250 photos, it was time to enjoy a great “Fusion Sushi” restaurant with our friends Alan & Maureen. Back in 2001, we exchanged home with this lovely family and kept in touch ever since.

Another highlight was Big Sur, to walk on deserted, endless beaches partly engulfed by the fog moving in from the Pacific, while at the same time warmed by the sun penetrating the misty clouds. My brother Joel and I also went to see elephant seals at a nearby national park.

Although I had the privilege to view these giants at Peninsula Valdez / Northern Patagonia this time it was different. We took a tour and had the chance to learn a lot more about these animals weighing up to 7.000 pounds, able to dive up to 5.000 feet deep and travelling as far as to the Sea of Japan. I was fascinated to hear that elephant seals in the southern hemisphere are even bigger!

Nevertheless, one thing that struck me immediately during this visit to the Bay Area was the impact of the financial crisis. During our previous visits everybody was super-positive, life was great, business and job opportunities were abundant. Now with the crisis raging also through California, I experienced trendy restaurant being half empty in downtown San Francisco, something unheard of, I was never caught in a traffic jam and only listened to economic uncertainty and cuts people’s standard of living. A very strange atmosphere in the region!

Those who are sick of crowded ski resorts in Europe, read on: eight feet of powder snow, perfectly clear blue sky for three days and most important, the slopes around this small but pleasant resort in the Sierra Nevada were almost ours.

Of course it sounds weird to fly ten hours to go skiing, but once you are there, why not! I should have remembered that we were at the same latitude as Sahara and that in California, at 2.800 meters you still have pine trees … And put a little more sun block. Well, in the first evening I had a beautiful lobster color!

Let’s look at the positive side of life: if I had not been fired, I would not have spent two weeks in the Bay Area, California. Losing my job came completely out of the blue. Though, looking back at the last few weeks on the job, it became apparent that I had been hired upon a lie by a man who would not accept anything else but his very opinion. Well, and this changed a few times a day.

In the beginning of March the Bay Area, and especially San Francisco, is much more pleasant than during the summer. Not only because there are far fewer tourists but because San Francisco is not permanently engulfed in a dense, freezing fog.

A few days I helped my brother move to a different house within Palo Alto, but the rest of my time I spent strolling around in San Francisco, exploring the Silicon Valley and the shores of the Pacific. There I walked for hours on deserted beaches. Yes, and I even went skiing in the Sierra Nevada.

In 1993 / 1994, Heidi spent an unforgettable and formative year at Georgetown University. A few years later Gilles invited her to return to this city, where she had enjoyed an exciting year amidst great people. Heidi is still in contact with most of them and so this visit turned out to be THE reunion.

Georgetown is one of the most scenic areas in Washington, DC, a prestigious neighborhood to live in and the home of many politicians and moneyed people. DC is famous for its museums, thus we visited its latest hype, the Museum of Native Americans, excellent!

Since Gilles had never been to Arlington Cemetery we also spent half a day there. Though Heidi had been there three times she was still impressed, all these people who died for questionable causes are remembered at last in dignity!

One of Heidi’s former house mates, Alex Korovin, has made Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, his home. He lives in a house right in the woods and our visit there was simply awesome.

What about the vacation itself?

We actually spent many days at the pool in a beautiful and quiet “gated community” in Boca Raton, partly with friends we invited to stay for a couple of days. If you do so, you need to let your exchange partner know.

We did travel to Key West and to St. Petersburg, Florida, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and in the interior of Florida, a different world! On our way back to Europe we did a quick stopover in Manhattan. Nothing spectacular, but a many nice memories and nice photographs!

Doing a Home-Exchange, does this mean anything to you? The system is rather simple: you exchange your apartment / your house with someone else during your vacation: you live at this person’s place and your exchange partner comes to stay at your place in the meantime.

There are many advantages in doing this: (1) You pay nothing for accommodation during your vacation and enjoy a nice apartment or a beautiful, comfortable house. (2) You do not have to eat out three times a day, and usually you exchange cars.

How does it work? (1) On www.intervac.com you can “advertise” your apartment / home and define what you are looking for. There are many such organizations; Intervac is the oldest one and the second biggest, as far as we know. (2) You contact the persons whose offer might suit you and you work out an agreement. We often contacted people who didn’t plan to travel to Austria but changed their mind when they received our offer. (3) This simply costs about 80 € per year, actually, in some countries 120 €, which is about the price for a night in a barely acceptable hotel in a major city!

Can we recommend it? We have so far made 23 home-exchanges, all of them were good to fantastic experiences. We exchanged with a beautiful house downtown San Francisco near the Castro District with view on the whole bay area, with a big house in the Provence in the south of France with a very nice pool and a breathtaking view on the sea, with a very nice house with a garden full of flowers in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, only to give you a sample of our experiences. The most import issue: communicate, communicate, communicate, what you expect, what you definitely don’t want, ...