San Francisco city tour

Let me just warn you, we took a TON of photos. Lucky for you, we only go on vacation once every four years or so! Just be glad we didn't invite you over for a slide show.



The Baylink ferry...our transportation to/from Napa and San Francisco.

Sean enjoying the wake from the ferry.

View coming into the city (from the ferry, of course). We took a "Hop on, Hop off" city tour on an open top double decker bus. It was great, especially since we didn't want to rent a car. You will notice the top of the bus windows in many of these pics.



A view of the Bay Bridge from outside our hotel. Incidentally, we stayed at the Harbor Court Hotel in SF. It was a trendy boutique hotel in a great location. (Owned by the Kimpton group that also owns Hotel Monaco in Denver.) *Unpaid endorsement* Join their (free) "In Touch" rewards program for awesome hotel deals at their super cute locations across the country.

Night view of Sean in front of the Bay Bridge.

Coit Tower, donated by Alfred Hitchcock's daughter & where some scenes from "Vertigo" were filmed.

The building on the corner is the only one that did not burn in the 1906 fires that ensued after the big earthquake. Our hotel was farther down on this block, right across from the Ferry Building.

The mess of cables that somehow power the city buses and trolleys.

Courthouse

Museum in Golden Gate park with roof-top garden.

Famous Hippie neighborhood from the 1960's.

The "Painted Ladies" on the right side of the street. These Victorians are historic and expensive.

View of the opening scene from "Full House".

Our tour guide Thaddeus (in red) posing in front of this life-sized cutout of the entire "Full House" cast that some random guy had in the park that day. Thaddeus told us he's never seen it there before. Bizarre.

Funny sign we passed on the way into China Town.

Gates into China Town.

Pyramid building (I forget the real name).

Beautiful Redwood tree park nestled amid the skyscrapers in the city.

The Ferry Building & an old, restored Cable Car (green) in front. We took this down to Fisherman's Wharf a couple of times. The other option was to walk along the Embarcadero.

Where our tour bus dropped us off for Lombard Street. See it at the very top of the photo where it looks like all greenery?! It was quite a hike.

Made it to the bottom of Lombard Street, the "crookedest street" (although the locals disagree).

Bottom of Lombard St.

Half way there!

Made it to the top!

Success! (Too bad you can't see the view of the street & bay behind us.)

Walking down from Lombard towards Fisherman's Wharf. What a view!

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I would just like to send a HUGE thank you to my mom (Mimi) for watching the boys for five days so that we could take this much-needed vacation. We had an absolute blast and did not once worry about the boys, knowing you were in charge. (We did, however, miss them!) I know they are lovable, but not always easy to take care of, so thank you for all you did to make sure things ran smoothly while we were gone. We love you, Mom!

Alcatraz

We were lucky enough to get last minute tickets to tour Alcatraz. I honestly did not think it would be as cool as it was. We did the audio tour and really enjoyed hearing about the history of this island.

The view as we approached the island.

Guard tower.

The shower room. Yuck!



Prison cell sans prisoner.

Sean as "the prisoner". I was too creeped out to go in any of the cells. Notice the audio tour player hanging around his neck. We looked like big-time tourists!

Three rows of prison cells stacked.

Window at the end of one row of cells that gave a clear view of SF.

The island is 1.5 miles across the bay from SF.

View of the remains of some building & stairs.

This is the cell where the most infamous jail break took place. You can see how the prisoner dug out around his vent (over the course of a year or so). He escaped into the plumbing behind the wall & up onto the roof to freedom. He and his accomplices were never found.

Napa River Inn

We stayed at the Napa River Inn. It is located in the old Napa Mill and has a lot of character. There are tons of amazing restaurants nearby and we enjoyed the view of the river running right in front of our room. Exploring the town of Napa was so much fun. We started each morning with a great breakfast at Sweetie Pie's bakery, also in the mill building. On our quest for allergy medication for Sean (we think he was allergic to the grape vines!), we walked to a combination liquor store/convenience store/Italian restaurant/pharmacy. In this town, anything goes!

Outdoor dining at Celadon restaurant.

Beautiful mosaic water feature on the patio.

Napa Wine Train

We took a lunch trip on the Wine Train on our last day in Napa, before returning to SF. It was fun to see the countryside from the unique vantage point of the train. Actually, just the train itself was interesting to explore. There is a full, working kitchen on-board and we were served a delicious four-course lunch.

Hanging out in the parlour for appetizers and drinks.

The bar in our parlour car.

View from one end of the kitchen car.

On the back of the train, passing by vineyard after vineyard.

Sean on the back of the train at the first of our two stops to let passengers off.

Waiting for my Bloody Mary (I was a little wine-overloaded from the day before).

Our turn in the dining car for lunch and dessert.

Sean waiting for his birthday dessert. Yummy!

Napa--winery tour

Napa was by far my favorite part of our trip. I am still trying to figure out how we could afford to live there. It was so laid-back and beautiful. We took a Platypus winery tour (I highly recommend them if you are ever in the area) that was absolutely perfect. Kevin, our tour guide, shuttled us, along with three other couples who knew nothing about wine, to four relatively smaller wineries throughout the day. We had a gourmet cheese platter and plenty of bottled water on the van, then Kevin set up a picnic lunch for us after the second winery. Of course, in between it all was some great wine and a killer soundtrack that Kevin put together himself (the music got louder throughout the day). It doesn't get any better.

Kevin from Platypus. Hands-down the best tour guide ever. This was our first stop of the day, attempting to learn about the grapes.

These barrels have a cost of about $1000-$1500/each and typically are used through three seasons. No wonder wine is so expensive!

This is "Dan the Man" and his dog, Chile at our second winery of the day. Dan played some rockin' tunes, too. Loved it.

Me with "the Man".

Beautiful cactus outside Dan's vineyard.

Sean at our winery stop in Stag's Leap. The land there goes for $500,000/acre.

Beautiful garden area above the wine cellar at our Stag's Leap stop.

Kim (the blonde), her two sisters and their husbands run this family winery. This is Kim's father's wine collection from his beginning days as a vintner. This was a great stop because Kim's daughter kept riding her tricycle into the tasting room. Kim is a PE teacher and runs the winery as her "second job". I loved the atmosphere here...felt like we had stepped onto a Hollywood movie set.

Thousands of dollars worth of oak barrels.

These pictures above & below go together...Sean took them at our last stop, Laird. Yes, almost four thousand dollars for this piece of tin artwork. Needless to say, it did not make it into our suitcase.

Our only photo at Laird Winery. Can you tell this was the last stop on our tour?

Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39

We got into San Francisco last Thursday morning and spent whole afternoon exploring Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 especially. I had been there for my 21st birthday with my mom, Debbie & my grandma, so this trip brought back very fond memories for me. It was fun to explore it again with Sean. We had such an amazing trip!

At the end of the pier, looking out across the bay to Alcatraz.

The gobs of sea lions that look like they have been there since I last visited 14 years ago!

Alcatraz in the background...

City view from the end of Pier 39.

We immediately thought of Carter when we saw this carousel. It is a double-decker...even cooler than the one at the zoo!