(Or How We Put 1,200 Miles on a Rental Car in 8 Days)
Hey look, we're blogging again! Been awhile, I know. This one's for Grandma Kathy. She likes to see where we went on vacation, so here goes.
This year, we finally decided to go out to the Bay Area. The girls have always wanted to go to California, and since Lori lived there in a previous life, at least one of us knew how to get around the area. We pulled the trigger on plane tickets around Spring Break. Southwest had a pretty good deal going, and we were able to get round-trip tickets for around $340 per person (bags included of course).
One of the things that Lori wanted to do while we were in the Bay Area was to meet up with her old roommate Monica who still lived out there (in San Jose, about 60 miles or so south of San Francisco). We got in touch with Monica and found out that unfortunately, we'd only be able to see her, her husband Mark, and their kids the night that we arrived in town, since they were leaving for vacation the next morning (London Calling!). However, Mark and Monica made the extremely gracious offer of asking us to house-sit while they were away. We gladly accepted their offer. Off to California we go. By the way, all the pictures below were taken with the camera on my HTC One phone.
Day 1 - Flying to the West Coast
Thankfully, we were able to have a flight out of Kansas City that left at a decent hour. Our flight left Kansas City around 9 AM, so we were able to get Sandy to the doggie hotel first thing and still get to our flight on time. The first leg of the flight was Kansas City to San Diego. Pretty uneventful flight. There was not a whole lot to see since we flew over southwest Kansas, northwest Oklahoma, north Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Pretty much a whole lot of this:
San Diego from the air looked gorgeous. Palm trees, hills, and beaches. I'm sure there was more, but that's all I wanted to look at. We had about an hour and a half layover which wasn't too bad. The Southwest gate area at the San Diego airport is pretty small and pretty crowded. There was a bar, however, which allowed us to watch parts of a couple of World Cup games.
The last leg of the journey was the flight from San Diego to San Francisco which pretty much followed the coastline. We knew we were getting close when we passed over the Monterey Peninsula. If you look closely, the golf course that you can see is Pebble Beach. The long stretch of sand is the left side of the 18th hole, which is probably one of the most famous finishing holes in all of golf.
Less than 30 minutes later we were on the ground in San Francisco. Really annoying setup in the airport. We had to go down one level to reach baggage claim, then go back up three levels to catch the airport train to get to the rental car area.
It was a little bit after 2 PM by the time we got to our rental car, and we didn't feel like driving to Mark and Monica's yet, so we took the girls on a quick drive into The City. We took them through Downtown and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito. We then turned around, drove back across the Bridge and headed towards San Jose. By the way, the toll on the Golden Gate Bridge is $7, and is only collected going south (into The City). There are also no toll booths. You either have an electronic pass, or you go on a web site to register your license plate number (for a set number of days in the case of a rental car), and pay online. That's what we did. Driving from the Bridge to Mark and Monica's took about an hour and forty-five minutes. Yes, we hit rush hour traffic. It's the Bay Area.
We made it to Mark and Monica's about 6:30 PM. Got to sit down and relax after a long day. Lori and Monica caught up on what each of them had been doing for the past 15 years or so.
Mark and I went outside and had a drink (or two). The girls took advantage of the pool. It was good to be on vacation, in California, visiting friends.
Day 2 - Monterey Bay & Super Silly Fun Land
First, a little bit of a geography. This is where we would be roaming around during the week. On the map below, you'll see a star that says "Almaden". That's where Mark and Monica live. Today, we would be heading south to Monterey, home of the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.
So, we set off down The 101, through Gilroy (Garlic Capital of the World) to the beautiful Monterey Peninsula, home of lots of awesome golf courses, people with some serious money, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The aquarium is housed in an old cannery along the ocean. The aquarium has as it's main focus, the sea life along the Pacific coast. Not only do they have indoor displays, but they also have this pretty cool tidal pool just outside.
There are also some amazing vistas of the surrounding area.
And one more shot of the tidal pool and the back side of the aquarium:
Yes, we did go inside. There were otters, sharks, penguins, an interactive area where you could "pet" various forms of sea life along with huge tanks representing various ecosystems. I was particularly fascinated with the jellyfish. Always have been. Don't know why.
We spent the rest of the morning and about half of the afternoon at the Aquarium. We also wandered around Monterey a bit. Walked along Cannery Row and found a little beach. Yes, the water was cold. Probably somewhere in the mid to upper 50's.
And of course, it wouldn't be a vacation without a picture of the girls with a life sized statue.
Then, it was up Highway 1 towards Santa Cruz. The drive takes you through the Central Valley of California - one of the largest produce growing areas anywhere. We of course had to stop at one of the roadside stands. Inexpensive, freshly picked cherries, avocados, peaches, peppers, and so on. Good stuff.
Next up was the ocean front city of Santa Cruz. Besides lots of beaches, Santa Cruz is home to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, which is a beach front amusement park. It has a 90 year old roller coaster, a log ride, lot of stuff that spins, carnival games, and deep fried everything. They were having a promotion where it was only $14 for unlimited rides with a Pepsi can. We found some Pepsi cans and got the girls wristbands and set them loose.
After a few hours at the Boardwalk, we called it a day and made the hour or so drive back to the house. Not a bad first full day in California.
Day 3 - The Rock and Cable Cars
This would be our first full day in The City. It was also the day for the first of our two "scheduled" things to go do. Today, we'd head out to Alcatraz.
The drive to Alcatraz took about and hour and twenty minutes. Our cruise out to Alcatraz was scheduled for 11 AM.
We were able to park pretty close to Pier 33 (which is where the cruise boat docks) and it was only $25 for the day, which is pretty good for that part of The City. We walked along the Embarcadero and got ourselves checked in for our departure time.
Cruise boats leave every 40 minutes or so for the mile and a half trip to Alcatraz. It looked to me like there were around 300 people or so (maybe a bit more) per boat. Only one company has the contract to run boats to the island through the National Park Service, so they can control the number of people on the island. Once on the island, you can stay as long as you want (well not really), but you aren't assigned a time to come back, so you can get on any returning boat.
So, on to the cruise. The weather wasn't bad at all. Temps on the Bay were in the low 60's. Bright and sunny and not too much wind until you got into open water. Here's our ship:
We got ourselves a spot on the top deck and set off. Here's a look back at the dock:
We pulled away from the pier, rounded the corner into the Bay, and this appeared in front of us:
The area where we docked is on the right side of the island. The prison itself is the taller building on top of the hill just behind the lighthouse. Here's the dock area as we pulled up to the island. Again, the prison is not the building in the foreground. It's the building on top of the hill.
We made our way around the island, up the hill to the prison. There was an audio tour which we all took advantage of. You grab a headset and a small MP3 player. The tour is narrated by an ex prison guard, supplemented by a couple of ex inmates. It was rather well done and presented a lot of great background information as well as a lot of great stories about the history of the place. If you need more information, here's the link to the NPS web site: http://www.nps.gov/alca/index.htm. Here's a look at one of the main cell block areas:
If you weren't a prisoner, the views on the outside were spectacular.
One of the neat things that they are doing is that there are gardens all over the island that are being taken care of by several volunteer groups. Hard to believe that the "Rock" can really support any kind of life.
And finally, the touristy shot of the girls (and yes, it's the wind, not static electricity):
After we took the boat back from Alcatraz, we continued walking down the Embarcadero to Pier 39 - Fisherman's Wharf. Fish & Chips for a very late lunch, with an Anchor Steam to wash it down. Then it was still farther down the Embarcadero to Aquatic Park. Time to ride the cable cars.
Aquatic Park is one of the turnaround points for the Powell/Hyde cable car line (there are three lines). This was probably the most popular spot for tourists to get on the cable cars. We waited an hour or so to ride.
As you can kind of see, there are three different seating areas on the cable car. One is inside the enclosed area. The second is sitting on bench seats that face outwards in an unenclosed area. The third is standing on the running boards next to the bench seats. Lori and Sara chose to sit on the bench seats in the unenclosed area, while Libby and I chose to stand the whole way. We had to. That's Lori and Sara photobombing Libby and I. Yes, we held on.
And here's Libby and I while the cable car was rumbling up the hill:
And a view looking forward:
And here's a short video:
After another great day out west, it was back to Mark and Monica's for some pizza, a couple of beers, and pool time for the girls.
Day 4 - Golden Gate Park and the Golden Gate Bridge
It was Friday and back to the City we went. Today, it was off to the California Academy of Sciences http://www.calacademy.org/ in Golden Gate Park.
The CAS has a lot under one roof. There's a three story indoor rainforest, they have an aquarium, a planetarium, penguins, stuffed animals (a natural history type thing), an earthquake simulator and more.
I'm always good for posing in front of a dinosaur myself.
There wasn't one particular thing in the CAS that stood above the rest, but they did a lot of things well. In the aquarium area, there was one of those cool tubes that you could walk through:
And one more picture of the entry area. The de Young Art Museum is across the plaza.
Next, it was off to the Golden Gate Bridge. We went through The Presidio, which was an old military base that's now run by a trust. The base now is home to a bunch of businesses, housing, recreation and so on. Pretty cool area. Anyway, we found a place to park that was only a few hundred yards away from the Bridge. Time to do some walking.
Yes, the Bridge is as cool as you would think it would be. There's a visitor's center, souvenir shop, and a small cafe at the south end. Once past the visitor's center, it's onto the Bridge. Once you're on the main span, there's a 4-foot railing between you and the water, several hundred feet below.
It's hard to imaging the effort it took to construct this thing. The towers are over 700 feet tall. All riveted. It's an amazing structure.
We walked to the halfway point on the bridge (to where the cables sag the most). It was about 4,500 feet onto the bridge. San Francisco on one side, the Pacific on the other.
As we walked back across the bridge, we noticed what appeared to be an old fort at the base of the bridge at the south end. It looked like an interesting place to get some different views of the Bridge and the Bay. We decided to make our way there. We got back to the car, drove down a couple of roads and found ourselves at Fort Point, which at one time, was a fort that helped protect the Bay.
The closer you got to the fort and the bridge, the more spectacular the view. We were really happy that the fog had not rolled in and that it was such a gorgeous day.
I found out that when the bridge was constructed, the original plan was to tear the fort down. At the last minute, they decided to keep it and designed an arch span to go over the top of the fort. This part of the bridge was impressive as well. Remember, this was built in the 1930's.
On our way back to Mark and Monica's, we decided to go a different way. We drove down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) towards Half Moon Bay. Pretty spectacular drive down the coast. We stopped in the town of El Granada for dinner at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, which was located just across the street from the ocean. We requested a table outside and got to watch the sun start to go down over the Pacific as we ate. Great way to end the day, and technically the work week (even though we still had an hour drive back to the house).
Day 5 - A Hiking We Will Go!
On Saturday, we decided to take it a little easier and do something different. At first we talked about taking a hike in the hills just south of Mark and Monica's, but with the ongoing drought in California, hiking on a parched and exposed hillside did not seem like a whole lot of fun. So, I started scrolling through Google Maps to find someplace that we could go. After a few minutes we found our destination: Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=546, which turned out to be only about 45 minutes away.
We stopped on the way down to the Park at a Safeway to pick up lunch supplies. After entering the park, we had lunch in the middle of a grove of redwoods. (Can't do that in Kansas!). Near the parking lot, there was a 1-mile trail that took you through the main area of redwoods.
The trees really are massive. There were a couple of trees that they thought were almost 1,500 years old.
The State Park was more than just the redwoods. There's over 20 miles of trails spread throughout. Horseback riding and mountain biking were big here as well. We saw some of those 20 miles of trails in that we decided to head for the "Observation Deck" which was supposedly the highest point in the park. Round trip, it was about 7 miles of hiking and we gained about 450 or 500 feet of elevation. Here's the panorama view from the top:
And the not so panoramic view - a bit different looking than the redwoods area just a couple of miles away:
After the park, we made our way back to Santa Cruz (the same city with the Beach Boardwalk). The girls wanted ice cream, so using Google Maps, we found a place called Marianne's Ice Cream that was supposed to be an iconic place in this part of the world. It was located in a rundown red shack next to a liquor store. However, the line of 30 or so people outside told us we were in the right spot. It only took about 30 minutes to get to the front of the line. They had about 50 or 60 different flavors of ice cream. Prices weren't bad either. I had the macadamia nut ice cream, and Lori had the peach ice cream (can't remember what the girls had). I can see why the place had such positive reviews. Then it was off to dinner / snack time. Went to the Seabright Brewery in Santa Cruz. Pretty average beer, but Lori was happy that they had brie as an appetizer.
Day 6 - Chinatown and USA / Portugal
Back to the City on Day 6. Time to get all touristy. San Francisco is home to many famous and iconic neighborhoods: Castro, Haight Ashbury, Telegraph Hill, and so on. But, probably the most famous of all is Chinatown. That's where we were off to this morning.
Chinatown is not only important for cultural reasons, but it's also one of the most densely packed areas in the US with over 100,000 people living in an area of only 1.3 square miles. After finding a place to park (it took awhile, but we found a metered spot) we walked down Grant Avenue, which is the main thoroughfare through Chinatown.
Time to go browsing, shopping, and eating. The girls stopped at a fortune cookie factory. It looked like a very labor intensive process, at least it was for the public view. The factory was located in this alley:
Thinking about food made Lori hungry, so she needed to get some Dim Sum, which is basically small portions of Chinese food. We stopped at the House of Dim Sum. Lori got some steamed pork buns and rice. I think it was her favorite meal of the whole trip.
Time to do more shopping. We found some very inexpensive rice bowls and Lori found a traditionally patterned robe.
After Chinatown, it was off to go watch the USA / Portugal World Cup match. We did some research, and it looked like a fun place to watch the game would be the SOMA Streetfood Park http://somastreatfoodpark.com/. It looked to be an old parking lot where someone had put in some infrastructure, including permanent bathrooms, a building or two, and a semi-permanent beer tent. Food is supplied by local food trucks. From the web site, it seems like they have 80 or 100 food trucks that rotate through there at a rate of 10 or 12 per day. They are open 7 days a week.
There was probably around 1,500 people crammed into the venue. There were 11 big screen TVs located around the facility. We ate, drank, and watched the match which unfortunately ended in a 2-2 tie after Portugal scored in stoppage time.
The match ended in the late afternoon, so we still had some time to explore The City. It was too late to go to something like a museum, and we didn't want to go shopping. We wanted to see something unique to San Francisco. Lori suggested Lombard Street, so off we went.
Lombard Street of course, is the really crooked street located on the side of a hill with houses on either side. Recently, City government has decided to close Lombard Street to vehicular traffic on the weekends. With the number of people mulling around, it's probably a good idea.
So we parked the car and started walking around. Here's what you see at the corner of Hyde and Lombard Streets (the top of the hill):
By the way, Hyde Street is still open to traffic, so you have to make sure you don't get hit by one of these:
We wound our way down the hill (literally). Here's the bottom:
Then, it was back up to the top for some pictures. Some good, some bad.
All of that walking up and down the hill made the girls hungry for chocolate and ice cream. Since we were just up the hill from the Embarcadero, it looks like we were headed to Ghirardelli Square for chocolate and ice cream at the Ghirardelli mothership.
There was also this diner that we found in the Square. Lori was excited.
Day 7 - Double-Double's and Double Plays
Monday. The beginning of another work week. Unless you're on vacation! Today, we thought we'd wander around and eventually make our way into the City. We got a bit of a late start and it was already nearing lunch time when we ventured out. This time, I was hungry, and since we were out on the West Coast, and since I'd never been to one, we hit the local In-N-Out Burger.
Yes, that's my first "Double-Double" (animal style by the way). Wish that we had those here in the Midwest.
After burgers and fries, we drove north and stopped in East Palo Alto. Why? East Palo Alto has an IKEA. Had never been to one of those either. After walking through, I can see why it gets all the hype. We're looking forward to the one opening here in the Fall. We already have a few things we want to pick up.
Since we were already in East Palo Alto, we thought that we might as well go to Palo Alto to take a quick look around Stanford University.
The photo above was taken from Hoover Tower (the ex-President's papers are here).
Leaving Stanford, we made our way north into the City for our planned event for the day: Padres versus the Giants at AT&T Park.
I have to say that a Giants game is a pretty cool experience. Great ballpark, located on the edge of Downtown, right on the Bay. We were able to park a couple of blocks from the park (for only $35), walked down 3rd Street, crossed a small bridge, and we were at the ballpark. This is the entrance in the right field corner.
We had a bit of time to kill, so we went to the team store (where Lori found a pretty cool shirt) and then went to the main entrance behind home plate in Willie Mays Plaza.
They finally started letting people into the stadium, so we made our way past the statue of Juan Marichal and into the park.
The entrance was really close to our seats, so before we went looking for food and beverages, we thought we'd find our seats just to get our bearings.
We took a lap around the stadium to check out the amenities and to figure out where to drink. This is from just behind the seats in right field.
Just beyond center field there's a marina.
We also walked up to the upper deck to get an overall view of the stadium. Here's right field:
And left field:
And a panorama from the right field corner for good measure:
Eventually, the game started. The Giants never really got started and ended up losing 6-0 (or something close to that). Being San Francisco, the temperatures dropped into the upper 50's by the end of the game. It's pretty funny watching everyone switch from drinking beer to drinking hot chocolate in the later innings.
Day 8 - Heading North
This was our final full day in the Bay area. After pondering what to do, we realized that we hadn't done any wine tasting yet. So, it was up to Napa Valley.
We drove north along the east side of the Bay, through Walnut Creek and Vallejo and finally into Napa. We kept going north, through Yountville and up to St. Helena. We stopped in St. Helena at the V. Sattui Winery http://www.vsattui.com/. V. Sattui is different in that they have a full Italian style deli on the premises. That obviously meant lunchtime.
That was a view from the picnic grounds behind the Winery. The train in the background is the Napa Wine Train.
After lunch, we kept going north to Calistoga. In Calistoga, we stopped at the Dutch Henry Winery. Lori and I stopped here the last time we were out in the Bay Area (back in 1996 I think). The winery had changed owners, but it looked the same. We sampled their wines (five or six), and settled on a couple of bottles of wine to bring home with us.
We continued our tour of the Napa Valley, winding our way through endless acres of vineyards. We stopped in the little town of Geyserville and walked around for a bit. We then started our way back to Mark and Monica's, which at this point was a good couple of hours to the south. As we passed through Healdsburg, California, it dawned on me where we were at. Under the pretense of finding a bathroom, I parked the car and we found our way to the Bear Republic Brewing Company. Naturally, we stopped for a couple of beers. They've always been one of my "go to beer fridge" beers (with Racer 5 IPA). I settled on a Cafe Racer 15.
Continuing to head south, the next big town (city actually) was Santa Rosa. I knew what was located here and I was stopping. Santa Rosa is home to the Russian River Brewing Company. Currently, they are the 7th ranked brewery in the world (BTW, Three Floyd's is ranked #2). They don't sell their beers in Kansas or Missouri, so this would be my first time trying them. When we got to the brewery, it was just past 4 PM and the place was packed. It was officially Happy Hour and beers were $3.50. We were staying for Happy Hour. I started off with a Pliny the Elder (the #2 rated Double IPA - #1 is Russian River's Pliny the Younger which you can only get a couple weeks out of the year) and Lori had a Supplication (#2 sour/wild ale - it was a brown ale with sour cherries that was aged in pinot wine barrels). I also had a Blind Pig (#10 rated IPA). We also snarfed down a couple of pizzas. To say that we were glad that we stopped was an understatement.
After dinner, it was back to San Jose. We crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge one more time and made it back to Mark and Monica's to watch the sun set.
DAY 9 - THE FLIGHT BACK
The final day. Always a bit bittersweet. You hate for vacation to be over, but you're always glad to be home. Home for a week was in San Jose, and we enjoyed every moment. Thanks to Mark & Monica for letting us house sit. I should have captured some of the neighborhood palm trees in the shot below.
For the first time that we were in the Bay Area, the weather turned a bit foggy and cool the closer we got to the City. We stopped for gas about a mile from SFO, and it was drizzling and the temperatures were in the upper 50's. I guess this was our one experience with "stereotypical" San Francisco weather. Due to the weather, our flight was delayed leaving SFO by about an hour and forty five minutes. The upside was that I won a $50 Southwest Airlines voucher while waiting. Our scheduled layover in Phoenix gave us enough of a buffer in that even with the flight delay, we were able to catch our connecting flight and made it back to Kansas City on time.
