Day 293: The Chocolate-Lover's Dream Stop

Now was a stop that I could get really excited about!

I really regret, though, not taking a picture of the incredibly chocolatey Sundae that we each ordered! Highly gooey, caloric, most likely extremely bad for us . . . but I rationalized that we were walking off piles of calories, thanks to our Drill-Sergeant Tour-Guide Scott!

Day 291 Fisherman's Wharf

After Alcatraz, we headed to Fisherman's Wharf. What's a visit to San Francisco without seeing Fisherman's Wharf?

And I could have looked at these noisy fellows all day long! They just crack me up!

My family was very much "on the move", so I didn't get a good chance to get the perfect positioning of a cable car, but I liked this one well enough.

Scott was trying to track down an apartment to move into, and was becoming quite familiar with his new Blackberry as we walked along.



We ate at the famous Aliotos . . . overpriced, cranky waiters, not particularly good food . . . . but a great view of the Bay, and we got to sit down!

Scott's guidebook next sent us off to Jack's, some kind of microbrewery with lots of beer, or something like that. I was holding out for the next stop. . . .

Day 290: Alcatraz & last vacation day

These photos are from Friday, the last day of our vacation. I thought I could post all of the photos from the last day at once. . . . but what was I thinking????!!!! So I'm breaking the photos down into a few sections. . . and not as many sections as there were for Thursday, the Endless Day! (I actually filled three 2 GB cards on this trip!)

We took the ferry to Alcatraz. . . a pretty predictable touristy thing to do. But actually, I was quite impressed with the National Park Service! What a way to capitalize on the National Park Service--take an old prison, call it part of the park system, and charge admission!

I liked Crater Lake's accommodations much better than this!



Here you can see Golden Gate bridge in the background. What a way to add to the misery of prison life. . . glimpses of a beautiful city, but you're trapped on a cold, inhospitable, rock-prison!



See you tomorrow!

Day 289: And the end of the day, at last!

Oh, Scott was not done with us yet, oh no! Next we passed (and note the emphasis on "passed") this adult bookstore, which, by the way, had a back-to-school discount for teachers.

Then we stopped at this coffee shop, in which the part of the screenplay for "The Godfather" was supposedly drafted.


And we NEEDED that caffeine, because Scott had us climbing and climbing, for blocks, to get to the top of a hill to overlook the Bay. I gave up, got this photo, (and it was beautiful) but wished I had a tripod with me.

Scott SPRINTED the rest of the way to the top of the hill.

And then we realized that we had only 30 minutes to make it back to the BART station, and back to our stop at San Bruno, in order for the shuttle to pick us up at 11:30 pm to bring us back to our hotel. Thank God it was downhill. . . all 20 blocks! We tried to get a cab to pick us up, but no luck. . . Scott finally took pity on us elderly middle-aged, exhausted parents, and apologized the whole 20 blocks for NEARLY KILLING US ON VACATION!!!!!


But my shutter finger was still operative!

Day 288: And there were Still more hours in the day!

Next on our agenda, after dinner, was to continue our walk through downtown San Francisco, and head to Vesuvios.

We headed inside for a drink, but for me the appeal was to take all these colorful photos!







City life in San Francisco is definitely different from "city life" in Grand Forks, ND. I was struck by the ambulances, "at the ready." (eta: as in "impressed", not run over!)

I think the sleeping EMT had it right, but rest was still not on our agenda as Scott shepherded us off to our next stops. . .

Day 287: Endless Vacation Day

Our endless vacation day continues with a ride on the BART from our hotel to China Town in San Francisco. Doug and I followed Scott, and I got a little leery when he led us down this alley. He really did know where he was going (as he always does!), and Doug and I just scrambled to keep up.


And then he led us into a Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory! Such fun! It turns out that I'm a Photo Thief; I didn't see this "Pay 50 cents" sign until I got home and looked at the photo.

Next we were led off to Brandy Ho's Hunan restaurant! It was delicious, and I was starving! There was no room in the Vacation Commando Guide's plan for a lunch stop today, and we'd been on the go since 4 am!

Let there be no doubt: There is NO MSG in their food! There's another rather large sign outside attesting to this fact.


And this was just a cool little grocery that we passed in our endless walking and walking and walking. . .

Day 286: Muir Woods and Redwoods

Before we went on this trip to the west coast, I said to Doug, "Let's make this a relaxing trip. Let's not kill ourselves on this trip." (I know my family!)

On the 25th, starting at 4am, we took our balloon ride over Napa Valley. Then we visited wineries. Next we drove to Muir Woods (on dreaded mountain roads) and saw beautiful redwood trees.

A little tree gnome, no doubt.

And then after the woods, we drove across Golden Gate bridge, found our hotel, and took the BART into downtown San Francisco. More photos to follow!

Day 284:More of Napa Valley Wineries

Not only are wineries fun for the partaking of the wine, but they are just out and out pretty to look at! This is the Robert Sinskey winery.

I thought of POTD while I was at this winery, because they happen to be especially fond of photography! The wine that this man is holding is called POV! One of the owners of this winery loves photography, and although it's not really clear, the label on this wine is one of his photographs.

This winery not only gives out a free set of 3 b&w photograph posters, but the "flight" includes very tastey treats to sample, paired with the wine.


We didn't have time to go into this impressive winery, but I had to at least get a photograph of the Domaine Carneros Winery

Day 283: Wine Tasting, Napa Valley style

While in Napa Valley, we decided to do some wine tasting. The area is filled with vineyards (and the hot air balloons are usually launched from the vineyards!) and wineries. Most of the larger wineries allow you to come in and sample their wines.

A true wine connoisseur will likely have a heart attack reading this, so if this be you, go ahead and call 911 now!

But here's what you do--you stand at a bar, look thoughtful, and order a "flight." A "flight" could be something like a 1-ounce taste of 4 or 5 different wines, for $10 to $25. I like when they put out a different glass for each of the different wines (which they only seem to do at the end of the day, if the "pour" is ending.) I like this because then I can move the other glasses around to keep better track of which ones I like, which ones I don't, by moving the glasses forward or backwards like a game of chess.

You smell the wine, swirl the glass around, stare thoughtfully into its swirl and color, and then take a sip. You squish it around in your mouth, and swallow (if you're me, because you paid for the wine, after all!), or spit it out into a little spittoon bucket if you're serious and anal about wine tasting. For added credibility, you nod and talk appreciatively of tannin and acidty and chocolate and fruit flavors. And twice, we actually bought a bottle of wine. It was actually quite a bit of fun, and reminded me very much of Sideways, which still makes me laugh out-loud whenever I think about it. Personally, I think the little bucket thing on the counter is just gross.


A road along some vineyards.


The three of us tasting the wine. This was at the Hess collection, which also has an art museum on the 2nd floor. I would have loved to take photographs there (not allowed) because it was so interesting and creative. This winery is worth going to for the museum alone!


And a few more Hot Air Balloon photos because this adventure is just not out of my system yet! These are the memories that I'm storing up now to weather the long winter ahead in ND!



And this photo was shot through the front window of the chaser van (I was in the 2nd row of seats in the van) as we raced to follow the balloon to a landing spot.

If you're ever in Napa and see odd driving behavior by groups of 3 vehicles each, dashing off in one direction, suddently pulling over to the side of the road and just sitting for a few minutes, and then racing off in another direction. . . they're not necessarily psychotic: think balloons!

Day 282: What Goes Up Must Come Down (not stock mart related)

Balloon Installment #6:

And this will be the last installment; hopefully I haven't bored you out of your wits! Now it was time to land, and it was almost going to be the Wallmart parking lot! Attention Wallmart Shoppers!


But Frank decided he didn't like the number of cars, took us back up, and looked for some place else without power lines.

He directed his ground crew to meet us in the parking lot of United Rentals.

A tarp gets spread out because the major cause of wear to balloons is as they're deflated and dragged along the ground, and get scraped up. The tarp helps protect them.
These guys were quite amused to have their lot taken over. Kids gathered at the fence to watch. I wonder how many calls they got this day for Balloon rentals?

Once we were safely on the ground, having a champaign breakfast, we told Frank that we'd prayed for his health and worried about sudden cardiac arrest (in him!)

He told us two amazing stories!

One of his first instructors had a daughter, who became a certified pilot as young as she possibly could, at the age of 18. She took up a group of Japanese businessmen, who didn't speak much English. They didn't hear/understand that they shouldn't all jump out at once at the end; it's a carefully orchestrated effort of first deflation and then exiting the basket. Four or 5 men jumped out and the balloon started to go back up. (Premature e. . . . Never mind!) The Japanese men shouted "Save the Little Girl!", grabbed her and pulled her out! Pulled out the only pilot in the balloon! And the balloon went up with 8 or 9 Japanese men who did not speak English. Fortunately, one of their cohorts on the ground was able to translate the instructions over the phone, and the pilot talked them down to a safe landing.

The second story actually did involve sudden cardiac death of the pilot. The passengers were talked down, and before the ground crew could reach them, they had very carefully, respectfully, lifted the pilot's body out of the basket. . . and the balloon and other passengers went right back up! Once again, the passengers found themselves becoming emergency pilots and landing the balloon safely.

If you ever go on a balloon ride, take cell phones with you!