The day was cold and very sunny, just as I like it. Here is how the city looked like during lunch break.
Today the Chronicle has an interesting article on the front page. They said that California is the state with the most students of the english language, they already have a shortage of teachers. 30 per cent of the american people who aren't speaking english live in California. Well, so I was not the only one who decided to go to California for learning english...
But this could not keep us from going to the movie theather. There is a new one in the upper level of the San Francisco Shopping Center, right above Bloomingdales. Seats, screen and sound were really fine and there was also a refreshment and popcorn supermarket.
We watched the new James Bond movie "Casino Royale". It was a great movie again, all the necessary components of a Bond movie were there: expensive cars, huge explosions and beautiful girls... :-)
This time we headed for the giant trees in Mariposa Grove. And the trees were true giants! These redwood trees can get several thousand years old. Maybe this one has seen the time of the roman empire...
Today we saw no bear, but a couple of deers croosed our way.
The famous waterfalls of Yosemite have not much water this time of the year, but they look still great. And I liked the colors of the autumn trees.
We had to leave Yosemite early in order to return our car in time. Then, after another 5 hours ride we were back in SF, tired after 4 interesting days and over 700 miles on the road (half of them in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada).
It took some hours of driving, so we reached Yosemite Valley, the center of the national park, in the early afternoon. Since we had only a couple of daylight hours left we decided to take part in a guided bus tour to see and learn as much as possible about the park.
Yosemite is photographers paradise, but the bus stopped only two times. The first stop was in front of El Capitan, a huge granit block which is overlooking the valley.
The second vista spot where we stopped is called tunnel view. Here we had an amazing scenic view over Yosemite Valley. It was nearly to good to be real. 
In the last minutes of daylight we went for a short walk to Yosemite Village. On the way we came across a couple of american black bears. They had dinner just some steps away from the tourists. The bears aren't a unusual sight in the Valley, every trash bin etc. is bear-protected and there are many warning signs that warn not to leave food in the cars or tents because bears smell it and break the car windows open. We were lucky, the bears didn't detect our bag with chips and chocolate :-)
In the evening we drove one hour to reach our Best Western motel. There we found out that I had used the address of another Best Western motel in the navigation system and we had to drive another hour in order to reach the hotel where our room was reserved :-(
Well, the discounts were remarkable. 30-50 per cent was not unusual.
But inside the shops it looked like a battlefield. Waiting time to checkout was upto 30 minutes. And at the time we arrived the needed sizes and the interesting colors were already sold out.
So we ended, after seeing most of 145 stores and after 7 hours of shopping, with only a few bags. 
It was a great experience, but hard work. I cannot understand that women can have fun while shopping for hours... :-)
After some hours and a late breakfast we reached the bay of Monterey, a nice place.
Beside many nice houses along the coast there was nothing than a beach, a yacht harbor and another Fishermans Wharf, the small brother of the Fishermans Wharf in San Frncisco.
We decided to enjoy a bay cruise with this ship. It was so relaxing to sit on the boat, to enjoy the sun and to see the beautiful coast.
Just like the Fishermans Wharf in S.F. they had sea lions, too. This time we were able to see them from the near.
This one watched me all the time :-)
In the evening, after driving through Carmel-by-the-sea without having time to stop and to take photos we reached our hotel just in time for our Thanksgiving celebration.
Of course there is roasted turkey...
...and football....
...and cold beer! ;-)Happy Thanksgiving!!
The weather was grey again, but the weather forecast promised sun from tomorrow on. So I hope I can provide better photos then.
In the basement of the huge San Francisco Shopping Center there is a huge supermarket named Bristol Farms. It's so nice but expensive. Here is a photo of one of the vegetable displays. I will post some more photos of it in the next weeks, because it's one of the best supermarkets I've ever seen regarding the quality and presentation of the foods.
The christmas tree on Union Square already looks great in the evenings. 
Thanks to an unaccountable number of lights on it and to the christmas music from the surrounding buildings it feels already like end of December. But first comes Thanksgiving. We have Thursday and Friday off from school and we will do a nice trip to the south to see Monterey, Carmel, Gilroy and the huge shopping mall and then on the weekend we will try to visit Yosemite national park. Weather forecast is sunny, so I hope I can take great pictures and tell interesting stories this week...
So I made two quick shots of the crossing Sutter Street and Grant while drinking a coffee and eating a banana-walnut muffin during lunch break.
The San Francisco 49ers are back. After winning three games in a row they are back in the playoff race. The next games will be decisive. Fortunately I have already tickets...yeah!!! :-)
A typical cell...
It was very crowded since it was Saturday and the perfect weather.
From the island there is a beautiful view over downtown San Francisco. Poor prisoners, they saw the city so near but out of reach. It's very understandable that so many tried to escape.
And this is the recreation yard, where Al Capone and the others spent their hours in the sun and counted their remaining days.
After such a hard day we decided to indulge ourselves with a nice evening at Hooters. Cold beer, a huge platter with chicken wings and a football game on tv is almost everything a man needs to be happy ;-)
