Countdown to My Next Trip

In 33 days I get to jump on a ✈️ and fly south to Singer Island. I cannot wait!  It doesn't help that Chris is there this week and sending us pictures like this one:

So you see why I'd be excited to get to the beach! For now I'll have to be satisfied with living vicariously through Chris.

Feb. 22, 2015- Good Bye For Now

On Sunday morning, we said good bye to California for now. We'll be back, though that's for sure. We woke to a clear sunny day again and I just had to take one more picture from our hotel room. See us next time! 

Feb. 21, 2015- Point Reyes and Sonoma

Today started with breakfast at Crepevine. It was a beautiful morning to sit outside and plan the rest of our day. 

Jon needed to go in to his lab to check on some results, so UCSF Mission Bay was our first stop after breakfast. 

 While Jon went in to work in the lab, Mike and I found a spot in the sun and enjoyed sitting and soaking up the sun. It was super relaxing to be outside and warm. 

Our next destination was Point Reyes, a national seaside park. It was an hour and a half away and very remote and isolated. We drove through ranch land and rocky hills on the way there. Upon arrival, fog and clouds moved in so our views were limited. 

 

So we were off to Sonoma to check out some wineries. We visited Jacuzzi and Cline. We tasted at both. Then bought two bottles for Jon at Cline. 

 

Here we are outside at Jacuzzi.  

 

Conveniently located across the street was the Cline vineyard. Jon was quite familiar with this place as he had visited here on his Berkeley visit. We had a great time here tasting and then drinking wine while wondering around on the grounds. 

I even spotted an owl in a tree...Mike thinks I just had too much wine, but Jon saw it move too, and agreed with me that it was definitely an owl. 

Back to Berkeley and dinner at Fenton's in Oakland. Of course, it was really about the ice cream, not dinner. 

We shared two sundaes.  They were delicious!

 This one had coffee ice cream and double chocolate chip with hot fudge. 

This one had banana nut ice cream, peanut butter chocolate crunch ice cream, hot fudge, and almonds.

Here we are. We sat at the counter. 

Feb. 20, 2015- Bubble Tea and Jupiter

For an early evening snack, before going to Jon's house to chill prior to dinner, we stopped at Purple Cow for bubble tea.  

How do you describe bubble tea?  It's milk, tea, flavoring if you want it, and tapioca pearls floating in the bottom.  The 

drink is interesting to say the least. I'm not sure I like it, or not.  

Dinner tonight was at Jupiter. A fun bar with an outdoor courtyard and live music. 

We had a fun night eating pizza and drinking beer with two of Jon's roommates and three of his close friends from his BioE cohort. The old folks (Mike and I) left early and the young folks went off to another bar. 

All in all, it was a great day in California!

Feb. 20, 2015- Chinatown and Cable Cars

The plan for the afternoon was Chinatown and a cable car ride. 

Walking in Chinatown is an adventure in itself. It's so colorful and exotic. Especially the market windows. 

Glad we didn't eat there.  We did find another very authentic place to eat, however. 

Food was good. The challenge in it was that we were only given chopsticks to use. I know the wait staff and other customers were laughing at me!  Oh well.

With renewed energy after lunch, we hit the streets to see more of Chinatown.  We eventually made our way through North Beach and ended up at the Mason Powell cable car line. 

 

Our ever diligent tour guide made sure to point out the safety tips for us as we waited in line. 

It was hard to tell who was most excited about our upcoming ride. Mike was bouncing up and down in line plotting how best to get to the front outside of the car where he could hang off the side. But Jon was right behind him as they rushed to claim the front spots. 

Me, I was content to find a spot to sit and watch as the "boys" had their fun. 

And soon we were off!  

Our ride ended in Union Square. 

We find ourselves in Union Square, which was bustling with people. Our car, however is parked back in Chinatown. Do we use a Lyft ride to get back there?  Walk?  Jon was pretty sure we were closer to the car than we thought, so we started walking. We did have to climb one set of stairs and one steep hill ...

Jon took off up this hill at a jog. Mike wasn't going to let this slide, so he took off at a jog, too. Not me, though.  I took my time and walked up the hill at my own pace. I saw no reason to rush. 

And I made it. 

Unfortunately, we were heading back to Berkeley in the middle of rush hour traffic.  We quickly understood why Jon likes public transportation so much. Luckily, he was able to redirect us out of stopped traffic. 

Feb. 20, 2015- A Quiet Relaxing Morning

Today we slept in. We were picking Jon up from lab at 2:00, so we had some time to relax. Mike ran then we went to a coffee shop/bakery place, very much like a Panera, for breakfast. 

The best part of the morning was after breakfast. We found a pretty park with a bench in the sun near the water to sit and enjoy the sunshine.  That's just what we did. Sat and let the sun beat down on us. Oh, did it feel nice!

Feb. 19, 2015- Perdition

For dinner tonight, Jon took us to a BBQ place called Perdition. It also serves over 40 beers on tap. We enjoyed a couple beers, a lot of great conversation (tax lessons and investments, really), and some delicious BBQ pork. 

As you can see, the bar area was quite colorful. 

Feb. 19, 2015- Sausalito and Muir Woods

Driving across the bridge is always fun. So is walking around in Sausalito.  We drove straight through town this time, and went to Tiburon first. We were ready for lunch, but nothing there looked interesting enough so it was back to Sausalito. We decided on the Napa Valley Burger Company. We shared some truffle fries, a burger, and a spinach and kale salad. It was a very tasty lunch. We managed to get a picture of the fries, but not the rest of the meal. 

After lunch we drove to Muir Woods. Here we enjoyed a lovely walk through the woods and saw many beautiful tall old trees. They were quite massive and impressive.  

I was trying to get a nice shot of Mike. I had him standing so that he was blocking the people walking towards us. Somehow the woman figured out what we were doing and photo bombed Mike. 

Like I said, the trees are massive. We had fun taking pictures with them. 

It's amazing what nauture has provided for us in terms of natural beauty.

Feb. 19, 2015- It's All About the Golden Gate

Exploring San Francisco today is going to primarily about the Golden Gate Bridge.  But first, we do a mini driving tour of Nob Hill, Russian Hill, and coincidentally, Chinatown.

We couldn't just drive through the streets without seeing the Dragon Gate, so we swung around and made sure to find the gate. 

Yep, we're driving under it. Let me just say right now how much we (meaning me) are enjoying the turn by turn navigation on our phones. It sure makes driving in the city much easier. 

And...before long we make it to the bridge. 

It really is a beautiful structure. It amazes me every time I see it. Today we take our time and explore the exhibits explaining its history and construction.  Then we walked out onto it. 

Once we were back off the bridge, we took a couple more picture then it was off to Sausalito and Tiburon.