California Here We Come!

My cousin Neil got married in May 2003 so my parents and brother headed out to San Francisco with us for the event and we all decided to stay a week and make a vacation out of it. We spent some time in San Francisco and then also spent some time in the Napa Valley to do some wine tasting. It was the first time any of us had ever been to California and we had a great time.

Here are Andrew and I on the Powell-Hyde trolley line, which is the famous San Francisco trolley car that still has the original old-fashioned look. We took a trip through the hilly city and it was often a bit of thrill ride when the trolley needed to stop midway up a steep incline or coasted down one of the streets.

I loved visiting Fisherman's Wharf and we tried to do all of the touristy things while in the area - Ghirardelli Chocolate Square, Alcatraz Island, Pier 39, and I made sure to sample some of San Francisco's famous seafood. That clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl was my warm welcome to the city!

Here are Mike and I in one of the jail cells on Alcatraz Island. We took the nighttime ferry over to the island for a tour and the dark, foggy night definitely added to the creepy feeling of that place!

The three of us visited an arboretum one day while my parents went shopping and Andrew was able to take a photograph with the giant redwoods that he had been wanting to see. We walked through the botanical gardens and loved seeing all of the different foliage and fauna in bloom.

Our camera's highlight of this trip was definitely on our last morning in San Francisco, actually on our car ride out of the city to the Napa Valley. We had had nice weather while in the city, but as it was San Francisco, there was not a day that was perfectly clear without any fog. In fact, the fog was so heavy for two of the days that we were there that we could not even see the Golden Gate or Oakland Bay Bridges! However, on our last day, we had a beautiful, clear blue day and we hoped that we would be able to catch a glimpse of The Golden Gate Bridge since you have to see this landmark while in northern California! So, we rounded a curve in the road and immediately we saw it clear as day. It's amazing that just the day before this bright orange bridge wasn't viewable at all!

The second half of our trip was devoid of many photos since it basically constituted eating, drinking and relaxing at the pool and in the spa, but we did capture a photo of our favorite vineyard along the way, a small family-owned winery in the Sonoma Valley en route to Napa. It is called Viansa and the wines there were fabulous. Apart from this winery, we also had a good time at some of the larger wineries in the Napa Valley such as Rutherford Hill, Domaine Chandon, Beringer and Robert Mondavi. Viansa: