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| Visiting the seals at Pier 39 |
San Francisco is one of the most eclectic
cities in the US, and it’s packed with far too many breathtaking things to see
in only 4 days. Steve was attending a conference so I was on my own to
explore. However, we did have Monday
morning together. Both of us have been several times before so it was fairly
easy to narrow down our morning and my adventures for the rest of the week.
The first thing we did was grab a packed cable
car, so we had to hang onto the outside, but that’s truly the best way of
experiencing a cable car ride. You can see more because you don’t have anyone
in front of you. We wandered the Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 area and, of
course, visited the seals, which is a must. Our stroll through Ghiradelli
Square didn’t tempt us too much because we each had only one bite sized
chocolate.
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| Main street of Chinatown |
On previous visits, I had wandered the streets
of Chinatown but never did much more than a tiny bit of shopping and hurrying
past the dead ducks and other fowl hanging in the windows. This time I took a
walking tour of Chinatown. Linda, our tour guide, is Chinese American and had
grown up there, so she was able to give us an inside track on day-to-day
experiences.
One of the highlights was a visit to a Chinese pharmacy to see
where the shelves were stocked with all sorts of weird and wonderful
ingredients used in numerous remedies. A pre-packaged soup mix that Linda
pointed out had a main ingredient of dried cicadas; we could see them through
the clear wrapper. Oh, and later, when we visited the market there were basins
of live frogs and turtles waiting to be purchased for dinner!!
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| Hand made fortune cookies |
Another favorite was the fortune cookie
factory, which I would never have found on my own. We had to walk down a very
nondescript alley to find this tiny little space with only a small sign out front.
While we were there, there was only one woman who was folding hot circles of
pastry, inserting the fortunes and then folding them into the cookie shapes
that everyone recognizes. We got to taste samples and also got to read some of
the fortunes, including some of the “adult” fortunes (printed on pink paper).
After an enjoyable and educational tea-tasting,
I walked to Old St. Mary’s Cathedral for a free noontime concert. I found it by
accident, and it was an hour filled with stunning violin, cello and piano
music. The performers, from Scotland and Russia, were so professional; I would
gladly have paid $50 or more for a ticket.
Several hours were spent that afternoon
wandering the Asian Art Museum. There were so many things to see, but my main
purpose was to see the world’s oldest dated Buddha. It can be dated back to 338
according to an inscription at the base.
There are older Buddha statues, and I’m sure that Steve and I have seen
plenty in China and Japan, but this one is actually dated!
Wednesday dawned foggy and gray, but I had a
day trip planned to Sonoma and Napa Valley so I didn’t care what the weather
was like. Our coach driver acted as a tour guide on the way to the first
winery, and as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, he filled every moment with
facts about it. It was good to be reminded of its’ history, and even though
it’s one of the most photographed bridges in the world; I didn’t take a photo
this trip.
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| Vines soaking up the sun |
We visited 3 different wineries, not only
learning about the history of wine making in California but learning about the
different methods of growing the grapes. The Nicholson Ranch Winery was our
first stop, and the fog was just starting to lift so that we could see the
vines off in the distance. After a brief history and a little tour of this family-owned
artisan winery, our first tasting began at 10.30.
Our second stop was the Madonna Estate where we
learned about their organically grown grapes and the “dry farming” of the
vines, meaning they only rely on the
natural rainfall to water the vines. The winery combines traditional and modern
techniques of making the wine, so we saw both oak and steel barrels.
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| Oak barrels |
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| The whites |
After the two morning tastings, we stopped at a
lovely little town for some much-needed lunch. Eating lunch while sitting in the warm 70° F sunshine was perfect but
soon we were headed to another winery. Our third and final winery for the day
was the Sutter Home Winery. Most of us already knew about Sutter Home’s White
Zinfandel but we also learned that it was discovered by accident when one of
the family members was told to “not waste a drop”. Some of the juice from their
premium Zinfandel red wine was bled off before fermentation. This juice was
fermented separately into a dry almost white wine. The winery was established
in the 1800’s, and it has become the second largest, independent family-run
winery in the US.
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| Trees reach the sky! |
Thursday dawned foggy and gray again, but this
morning I was off to see Muir Woods. It’s less than an hour from San Francisco
and the drive to the park is up a very windy steep road. The park is where you can see giant redwood
trees - not the ginormous ones that you see in Sequoia National Park. Still
very impressive, it’s a stunningly beautiful, quiet and calm hike through these
giants.
I had the option of returning to San Francisco
on the bus or taking a ferry from Sausalito. I chose the ferry so the bus
dropped me at the wharf on its’ way back. I had an hour to wait for the ferry,
so I sat and soaked up the sun. The weather was perfect, and the ferry ride
gave me views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, downtown San Francisco and
the surrounding hills. I was so thrilled that I had chosen to take the ferry
back – it definitely beat sitting on a coach for another hour!
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| Alcatraz Island |
San Francisco has always been one of my
favorite cities and this trip just added to the magic!
More photos can be found at this link
