Day 50 & 51 Friday, April 20, 2007 and Saturday, April 21, 2007
Friday…. a day of rest and maintenance
After the nice day yesterday in Napa Valley we took a day off to take care of some normal daily maintenance activities around “the house”. We also rested up and relaxed by biking around the base and taking Lucy for some long walks.
Saturday – San Francisco
Today was our first day to visit San Francisco. We could have driven; however, we decided to drive to Concord, CA (45 minutes) and take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) metro into the city from there (50 minutes). Saturday was an overcast day with rain threatening in the afternoon; however, we were excited to see the city and the sites.
After getting off the BART we surfaced at Powell and Market Streets and purchased an all day passport on the city public transportation system that included the famous San Francisco Trolley. The turn around for the trolley was right there at Market and Powell so we watched as the trolley pulled in and was manually turned around on a “lazy susan” type device!
We hopped aboard with Sylvia sitting inside and with Richard standing on the outer step rail and holding on like the guy in the picture above. This was pretty exciting to be hang on with one hand and taking pictures as we rolled down the street with the other hand!
We road the cable car down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area and the walked directly to Ghirardelli Square, built in 1893 as Domingo Ghirardelli’s chocolate factory.
The factory was moved in the 60’s but still has a Ghirardelli cafe and candy store where we immediately ordered some fabulous hot chocolate and purchased some chocolates before leaving.
Now that we warmed up with the hot chocolate, we grabbed a bus and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge. We were determined to get our exercise and walk across the bridge (1 3/4 miles) hoping to catch a bus back across from the other side.
The bridge was quite something to behold! The bridge is named for the deep Golden Gate Strait (400 feet deep) that it spans. It was opened in May of 1937, is 1 3/4 miles long, the towers rise 746 feet; it was designed to withstand strong winds, able to swing up to 27 feet.
You get a really good view of the San Francisco skyline from the bridge.
Well we made it across the bridge and looked for the bus we hoped to take back but found that there was no such bus and so we hoofed it quickly back across as the sky began to open up with some sprinkling of rain. We were lucky in that it only sprinkled very lightly and so we really did not get wet; however, we were a bit concerned that we would; so, we made it back over the bridge quicker than we did going across the first time!!
We grabbed a quick bite to eat in at Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store across the street from Washington Square Park in North Beach area. And then made a bee line to the bus to get back to the BART for the trip home.
A very nice day…. and healthy with that long walk across and back on the Golden Gate Bridge. Got to get back for at least one more day to see some more sites of San Francisco…
Day 49 Thursday, April 19, 2007
Napa Valley — here we come
After stopping by the Visitors Center at Napa Valley we headed out for our tour – driving through the valley reminded us of the Mosel River, the Rhein and of course vineyards in Italy. The houses with their red clay roofs just added another touch to this deja vu experience. Many little bed and breakfast along the way invite you to spend the night. Which is not a bad idea. We did learn that now most wineries charge for the tasting to deter college kids stopping in and getting a little wasted before heading to the next wine tasting down the road.
We stopped at Brix for lunch, I had an August Briggs Shiraz with the best burger ever. Sylvia enjoyed a duck sandwich with an a glass of Pinot Noir from the Acacia Winery. We plan on visiting this vineyard!! We drove on up the road and stopped in at the Robert Mondavi Winery where we looked around the beautiful grounds and gift shop.
We then drove on to the V. Sattui Winery that was built with stones imported from Europe. There you could enjoy various cheese and Italian lunch meats with crusty bread topped off with a bottle from their winery at picnic tables provided by the winery in their back yard. Since we just eaten we voted for a chocolate cheese cake with a latte instead. Definitely a place we would like to return.
We also stopped by the CIA, yes, you heard right…Culinary Institute of America which is housed at the former Christian Brothers Estate Winery.
Of course we had to look at all the gadget the cooks use their to whip up their fabulous meals. For a fee you can watch them prepare a dish and then sample it. Again … love to try this one as well.
We are planning on visiting several wineries in the coming days.
Day 48 Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Monterey, CA to Travis AFB, CA (between San Francisco and Sacramento) — 153 Miles
On our way to San Francisco we again initially drove up California Hwy 1 and were amazed at the acres and acres of vegetable fields. We had spoken with a local person yesterday and found that this area along Hwy 1 was considered the vegetable garden of California; rightfully so. The strawberries we purchased were absolutely the sweetest ones for this season. We had already experienced strawberries at the Strawberry Festival in Florida as you my recall in an earlier posting; however, we’d have say the California berries win out over the Florida ones.
We saw many workers in the fields and even the Diamond Organic Farm which Sylvia was familiar with since we have purchased their products in the past. The soil was super dark, not like some of the red soil we are accustomed to in parts of Virginia. We also noticed that artichokes were in season. The plants look like big thistle bushes. We have enjoyed artichoke hearts marinated but never prepared fresh artichokes ourselves – so we just had to purchase some and got on-line for some suggestions on how to prepare them. We decided to steam them and they were excellent; hurrah - for trying something new!
Sylvia has always been interested in recycling; we’ve noticed that recycling in the various campgrounds vary from aggressive to non-existent – which surprised us somewhat. Since we are mainly staying at military bases we thought recycling would be more established throughout these campgrounds. Hurrah for the Commissary at Travis AFB – they charge for bagging in plastic bags. In the San Francisco Bay area there is a big movement underway to save the Bay from the thousands and thousands of bags that wind up in the bay killing the fish and the turtles. A fellow camper involved in the movement informed us that fish and turtles will eat pieces of plastic bags thinking it was food – the pieces of bags then get logged in their throats resulting in a slow death by starvation.
San Francisco area is one of the places we had planned on staying at least a week – which we have really looked forward to. We have gotten into a certain routine, and we can honestly say we always leave a location wanting to stay some extra time – but the road calls and our itinerary to get Sylvia to Oakland fly out of back to Virginia on April 25 is firm. So staying here at Travis AFB for a week sounds like fun. As I mentioned we have had certain routine by now…look at the road ahead for the next destination and the time to reach the destination determines our push off time. The longer the distance the earlier we want to hit the road. We now know 5 to 6 hours is our maximum daily travel time with the RV. One constant we learned… it always takes longer to get there than planned!
Once at the new location we set up and then usually have to head for the Commissary or grocery store as the small refrigerator does not allow us to stock up as we are used to at home.
Day 47 Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Monterey Cannery Row
Another beautiful day in California…. We took some maintenance time today and later decided to take a bike ride back down to the Monterey Fisherman’s Warf to pick up some fresh fish we had heard about yesterday. We found the fish wholesalers and pick up some fresh red fish and scallops for tonight’s dinner, yummy!
The fish was packed in ice so we decided to do a little exploring further by biking several blocks to Cannery Row. Cannery Row was established around 1902 at the start of the Monterey canning industry by the Booth Cannery in the Monterey harbor and the Japanese canning venture, Monterey Fishing & Canning Co., on the coastline near McAbee Beach.
The “row” expanded during WWI and WWII as sardines were canned to support the troops in Europe.
In 1945 John Stienback wrote the book Cannery Row telling of the exploits of a band of bums on Cannery Row, surrounded by bordellos, flophouses, a Chinese grocery store and the laboratory of a man who, in reality, was quietly revolutionizing modern marine biology: Ed Ricketts - the "Doc" of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. Today, Cannery Row Is a major tourist attraction for Monterey with over 84 retail stores and 20 restaurants.
Day 46 Monday, April 16, 2007
Monterey to Capitola, CA – 39 Miles
Today we took a drive up the coast on CA-1 to Capitola, CA to meet up with our friends Helga and Jack Perin for a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant on the bay. Helga and Jack are friends from our church back in Woodbridge, VA; they have been out here taking care of Jack’s family business. We had a nice visit and lunch and then we headed back to Monterey.
Back in Monterey at the RV we took a little rest letting our bodies rest and catch up with all our adventures of the previous several days. Later in the day we took our bicycles down and road them several miles to Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey.
Being later in the afternoon, many of the shops on the “new Wharf” were closed for the day. We asked around about getting some fresh fish and were told to check out the wholesalers on the “old” wharf tomorrow. While on the wharf we heard what sounded like barking or woofing; when we asked we found this was this “happy noise” was coming from the sea lions on the rocks along the Coast Guard pier.
We hopped onto our bikes and peddled over and down the pier to satisfy our curiosity. What a treat to see this site! We have never encountered sea lions in the wild; we’ve only known them from seeing them on TV and in the Aquarium.
