San Francisco

Earthquake aside, California was superfun! I'll give you a quick smattering of the vacay photos. As always, you can click them for bigger versions.

We spent Friday in Napa Valley. On the drive, I saw three cows eating grass on the very steep incline of a huge hill. They looked like giant mountain goats, y'all. I wish I would have taken a photo, because I never saw any more cows on hills and I don't think I ever will. I have no idea how they didn't roll off. Seriously.

When we arrived in the town of Napa, we stopped in at the Visitors Center to pick up a map and any tips they had to offer for covering the area. What is next door to the Visitors Center? Morimoto- the Iron Chef's restaurant! Had we known, we would have tried to arrange to have dinner there. Such a shame our timing was off, starting mid-morning and ending late afternoon in Napa.

The first winery we checked out was Opus One. It is simple and exquisite, made of limestone from Texas!

The view was fantastic. The mountain in the distance is the northern end of the Napa Valley, near Sterling Vineyards.

We stopped at V. Sattui for a picnic lunch. They have meats, cheeses and panini sandwiches along with an array of delicious sides in the deli. You purchase a set of paperware and head outside to the picnic tables to eat. Grab a glass of wine, dessert, anything you want. It's really yummy!

Don't miss the potato salad. They put green apples in their broccoli salad instead of raisins, which I am most certainly going to do when I make it!

Drove a while more and when we reached the north end of the valley, we took the aerial tram up to Sterling Vineyards, with panoramic views of the valley. It's designed with a Greek style and has a couple of old bells from England in the bell tower. It's really beautiful! The view ain't too bad either:

At the bottom of the hill, there is a Before I Die chalkboard, which had some interesting bucket list items.

We stopped at a couple of other wineries and completed the circle back to Napa, where we saw a bank named Rabobank. Ha!

We headed back to San Fran and spent the evening at the wharf. We had a fabulous dinner at The Waterfront. Best swordfish I've had in decades! Amazing clam chowder, too.

Me: It's funny, but I feel like I've seen that same boat go back and forth and back and forth over and over again the whole time we've been here.
Jeff: That's the ferry.

Ahhh.

We went to Chinatown on Saturday morning. It was interesting and I'm glad we went, but I only wanted to see the authentic Chinese shops. We enjoyed figuring out what the dried items were in the food shops and looking at silk robes and peeking into restaurants. I don't have any desire to shop in any of the kitschy, Americanized souvenir shops closer to the edges of Chinatown.

China Green Tea- Special Gunpowder?

Just a sample of the beautiful architecture. This is Bank of America.

These were everywhere. We called them buttheads.

One authentic shop had a large box mysteriously labeled as being for the health of a woman's private parts. Not sure if it contained tonics and herbs, or some sort of exotic vibrator, but we got a chuckle out of it. We felt it would be awkward to ask the girl behind the counter to explain it.

We walked back to the Marketplace to check out all the stores and food options there. It was really crowded in the morning, because of the farmers market. (When we went back in late afternoon, it was far less crowded, so we recommend waiting.) There are all sorts of things to taste and restaurants to try. A very fun spot. Grab some ice cream and take a seat outside the back of the building, along the bay.

The Ferry Building where the Marketplace is housed.

Intriguing ice cream flavors

After lunch, we took off for Golden Gate Park to walk around. On the way, we drove all over Pacific Heights. Such gorgeous homes! You have to be prepared for anything as far as roads are concerned, because you're driving along and then WHEEEEEEEEEE... you're headed straight down like a roller coaster.

Up a hill, down a hill, up a hill, down a hill

We took a wrong turn coming out of Pacific Heights and ended up in the absolutely god-awful Golden Gate Bridge construction traffic. We thought we were going to have to cross the bridge (SO wish we hadn't missed that turn!!), which would have taken an hour with all the craziness, but luckily we turned around in the parking lot and headed back to the park.

We did the Golden Gate Bridge thing during our last trip together- 1990.
Glad we could just grab a glance through the construction this time on our way to the park!

We drove around Golden Gate Park, but there aren't many signs telling you where any of the attractions are. It was very strange and we ended up just driving through and going into Sunset, where we spent some time looking at the absolutely ADORABLE houses.

This isn't my photo, but I wanted to show how they are each different
styles and so nice! Teensy, but wonderful.

Oh my gosh- so cute! I would totally live there.

Well, until the whole earthquake hoo-rah later that night.

The Hyatt Regency was awesome. There is a huge piece of art towards the Embarcadero.

Wish a person was in this. It's huge!

The Embarcadero Center mall is next door and this thing was lit up outside our balcony at night:

(Glad the curtains were closed and I didn't see that swaying in the quake, or even worse, the skyscraper BEHIND it. OY.)

Here's the daytime view from our balcony:

There's that boat again!

;)