Angelika Unless you've been hiding under a blanket the last couple of weeks, you've probably heard of the Orlando massacre. 49 dead and 53 injured by a lunatic who entered an Orlando night and dance club and opened fire on the guests. Once again, this triggered new discussions about gun laws, which I suspect won't lead anywhere.

Michael Every time we book a rental car on vacation, the agent behind the counter brings up the question on how to insure the car. In California, rental car agencies are required by law to provide liability insurance at no extra cost with the rental. In case of an accident, it covers bodily injury to other people and damages to their cars. But watch out, these policies only cover the minimum required by law, which is a measily $30.000 in California. You're personally on the hook for any damages exceeding this amount, which can easily occur if you scrap someone else's luxury car or run over a pedestriant. Especially with severe bodily injury cases or even fatalities, damages can easily go into the millions in our litigious country. People who live here usually already have insurance for their cars at home, and the contract typically also covers rental cars while on vacation. But read the fine print of your contract to make sure this actually applies to your personal situation.

Angelika San Francisco has been in the news lately with one sad record after another. The out of control rent spiral has catapulted us past New York City, now San Francisco is the most expensive city in the United States. Along with that, we're also number one in property crime like burglaries and theft. Lucky for us, the murder rate is lower than in comparable American cities.

Angelika Last weekend, we finally managed to visit the newly renovated San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SF MoMA for short. After a whopping three years of renovation, it reopened at the end of May 2016. They spent 305 Million Dollars on the new addition, right behind the old building, which had been designed by Mario Botta 20 years ago. The addition serves to host new works by various artists. The Fisher family, founders of the San Francisco based apparel store GAP, had loaned the museum a total of 1100 artistic works, but the old building simply didn't have enough space to put them all on display.

Michael Since Angelika is traveling a lot of miles by car on her work commute every day, and our backup car, Perly Perlman, was decommissioned recently ( Rundbrief 02/2016 ), I purchased a new vehicle for her, a 2011 Honda Fit, which we've nick-named "Brummi". It's a nice, agile commute mule, and it has the unbeatable advantage that you can fold down the rear bench and the passenger seat in such a neat way, that even "Catchy the Wavecatcher", my 9 footer surf board for slow days, fits in with the hatch closed.

Michael As you know, we're living in a dystopian region with regards to availability of fresh German-style pretzels. In Rundbrief 09/2008 , I told you about "Ester's" German bakery in Mountain View, whose pretzels are decent when they come straight out of the oven, but have typically exceeded their expiration date when they arrive in stores in San Francisco. They're on sale at the local alternative supermarket "Rainbow", but you have to be pretty heavily pretzel deprived to pay nine dollars for five stale pretzels. Yet, I take the plunge every now and then.

Angelika We just went through the last phase of the presidential primary elections here in the United States, while scratching our heads upon the fact that Donald Trump won the Republican mandate. At the same time, our California governor, Jerry Brown, has signed two different pieces of legislation, which many consider to be pretty progressive, compared to other states. One raises the minimum wage in California, currently at $10/hour, to $15 in 2022. Individual states can set the minimum wage independently, as long as it is higher than the federal minimum, which is $7.25/hour. Cities and counties in turn can ask for more than their state requires. In this way, the minimum wage in San Francisco currently is at $12.25/hour, starting July this year it is going up to $13, and will reach $15 in 2018, four years before the state sets this amount. The state of New York, always in an arms race with California, also decided to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour.

Angelika Strangely, even at my fairly advanced age, my skin is still behaving as if I was a teenager going through puberty. For this reason, my dermatologist recently prescriped a balm named "Tazorac", which keeps pimples in check. But, when I wanted to fill the prescription at Walgreen's, the person there told me that our health insurance would only pay for it when prescribed to patients under the age of 30. Well, bummer, that doesn't apply anymore! So I carefully inquired about the cost if I had to pay for it out of pocket, and the pharmacist told me without hesitation: "800 Dollars".

Once again, we spent our summer vacation on Oahu this year. Traditional surfing is still in high demand on the islands, in fact, I think it will continue to thrive as long as the islands persist. Every couple of years, however, there's a new trend in Hawaiian water sports. First there were the kite surfers, criss-crossing on the waters propelled by giant parachutes, to Michael's dismay. They're still doing their thing, although we've noticed a decline in popularity, which is highly appreciated by swimmers not having to constantly worry about kite surfers losing control and dumping their chute on them. Then came the paddle boarders, trying to stand upright while pushing themselves forward by paddle strokes. This variant even has some history on Hawaii, but recently, lots of unfit surfers flock to this method, crowding the waters.