A day of wine tasting in the Napa Valley

Tom and I spent a wonderful, warm, relaxing day in Napa.  There were no crowds.  Wine and sunshine were abundant.  I am decidedly not ready to return to rainy Seattle and work tomorrow!

Just pictures today:

 

A Day in San Francisco

We’ll be in the Bay Area for four full days on this trip. The first day, of course, we spent in the City. My foot was given the run-around (so to speak) and by midnight my foot was just about numb, but oh what a time we had!

We headed from Berkeley across the Bay Bridge…

…drove through downtown…

and up and down San Francisco’s famous hills…

and decided on the spur of the moment to stop in Chinatown:

Of course, with all the trinkets and knick-knacks in just about every store, we couldn’t help but play tourist:

And took all the requisite “look, we’re here” photos:

While I was waiting for Tom and Elisabeth outside yet another Chinatown trinkets store, I played with my shadow (a concept us Seattle-ites find intriguing):

After Chinatown, we headed toward the ocean, passing Grace Cathedral…

…as well as the “home” of someone who probably isn’t feeling like the recipient of much grace…

As we approached the Pacific Ocean, we came upon these familiar windswept San Francisco trees:

As a child, going to the Cliff House was always a special treat… though I don’t remember ever having a meal there! Yesterday, we did!

After lunch we explored the ruins of the Sutro bath house, which look like this now…

…but used to look like this!

I didn’t lament the loss of the bath house because it was gone before my time. But the fact that Funland at the Beach is now condos does really bother me!

My memories of Funland include bumpy wood slides, a long wall of distorting mirrors, and a big, fat, automated laughing redheaded woman. Oh… and my brother Michael literally running from ride to ride and exhibit to exhibit, like a kid on crack!

A few more tourisity photos…

…and we headed through Jurassic Golden Gate Park

to…

…where Kat is considering applying to nursing school.

As we toured the campus, Elisabeth sent a steady stream of photos to Kat.

After USF I insisted on heading to the Marina District to take some photos of the the City from the water, and of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

It was a cool and windy day, which meant that we were treated to this:

From the City, we made our way to my favorite cousin’s house on Grizzly Peak, near Tilden Park in Berkeley for a Zachary’s Pizza dinner… and even after that, at midnight, Tom and I met Ron, who also happens to be in Berkeley to take photos of the Dali Lama’s visit here. It was a FULL day – which explains my very low key, slow day today as I keep it mellow and slow… while Tom and Elisabeth run all Berkeley (which is wonderful for Elisabeth, as Cal is her alma mater)!