San Francisco and Sacramento, California

September 27 - October 2, 2008

San Francisco (Petaluma), California

Sacramento, California

We're staying in Petaluma rather than San Francisco for two reasons: one, there are very few campgrounds in the area that can fit a big rig; and, two, it's about the halfway point between San Francisco and wine country. I have to say though, this isn't the greatest campground we've stayed at...it's located across the street from a cow pasture and the smell in 90+ degree weather is quite strong to say the least.

It took us about four and a half hours to get here and we actually ran into some traffic for the first time since we traveled through Seattle way back in July.

We were scheduled for a tour of San Francisco on Sunday, but it was cancelled as there was not enough people. That really worked out well for us as we got a chance to head into town on our own and meet up with Eric and Megan Schermerhorn, who were visiting their friend Jen Rojas and her husband, and celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary (can't believe time is flying by so fast)! We had breakfast at a small restaurant called Toast, and had a great couple of hours catching up. It's pretty amazing how this get-together came about. Megan was reading the last blog and found out we were going to San Francisco, e-mailed to see if our visits would coincide and voila, here we are. By the way, I'm not grouchy and I don't have a toothache...the waitress snapped the picture when I was still chewing!

We entered the city when we traveled across the Golden Gate Bridge. However, you never would have known we were on a bridge going over water because...you guessed it...it was too foggy!!! It was a bit better on our trip back. And, the roads in San Francisco are "hilly". In the more residential areas there is a stop sign or light at every corner and the cross street is fairly flat. But going both up or down, it feels like you're going to bottom out. I really wouldn't want anything but an automatic transmission to get around this city!

After many suggestions on the "must sees" in San Francisco, we regretfully said goodbye to Megan and Eric, and started our explorations at Fisherman's Wharf.

Fisherman’s Wharf, which has been the home of San Francisco’s fishing fleet for nearly a century and a quarter, is world famous for its wide variety of seafood. Much of this fame is due to the annual harvest of that most delectable of all crustaceans, the Dungeness crab of San Francisco.

Now tourist-packed, today's Fisherman's Wharf is home to sidewalk seafood vendors and people eating those Dungeness crab, souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels. While there's little "real" here, you haven't seen San Francisco unless you visit this area. And that's what we found here ... loads and loads of tourists. Everyone who passed us was speaking a foreign language, felt like Babel.

We ventured over to Pier 39 with all its souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes, and street musicians. Here there was an entire band!

We managed to find Pier 45 where we could walk down to the water and there in the middle of San Francisco Bay was Alcatraz Island, sometimes informally referred to as simply Alcatraz or locally as the Rock. It served as a lighthouse, then a military fortification, then a military prison followed by a federal prison until 1963. During the 29 years it was in use as a federal prison, the jail held such notable criminals as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), George "Machine Gun" Kelly and James "Whitey" Bulger (maybe he's still there disguised as a tour guide!?)

We had to try to fit everything into one day, so we took one of those cable car tours around the city.

We saw the original Cable Car Turnaround

Grace Cathedral in Nob Hill

Union Square surrounded by Saks, Macy's, etc.

The Gates to Chinatown (by the way, not only does the cable tv lineup out here contain Spanish speaking stations, there are also Chinese speaking stations.)

Then there was Saints Peter and Paul's Church with the Coit Tower behind it.

And, Lombard Street (the "World's Crookedest" street with 8 hairpin turns...no rv's or trucks allowed!)

We also saw the Ghirardelli (the chocolate) Square, Nob Hill (called Snob Hill by the tour guide), The Embacadero Center, The Ferry Building Clock Tower and we drove down Broadway Strip, the city's area of ill repute.

On the return trip home,the coastal fog was a bit lighter than in the morning, so we stopped to get a picture or two of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension bridge span in the world when it was completed in 1937 and has become an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco and California. Since its completion, the span length has been surpassed by eight other bridges. It still has the second longest suspension bridge main span in the United States, after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City.

We then said good-bye to the City of San Francisco.

Did you know there are over 2,500 wineries in the State of California? And I think we saw at least a quarter of them. I planned our wine-tasting trip so we would visit wineries in both Sonoma and Napa Valleys. From the list I tried to pick known names or a winery that might offer something other than your everyday tour.

We started at Sebastiani in Sonoma, Sonoma Valley. Its founder, Samuele Sebastiani was born in Italy and immigrated to America in 1895 to pursue his dream of winemaking in America. Here we found the most reasonable fee for the tasting at $5/pp. The tasting room was quite elegant and this was our second-favorite wine.

Here you see what the majority of the landscape looked like on our travels that day.

We left Sebastiani and traveled 30 minutes to Napa Valley where our first stop was the Niebaum-Coppola Estate, now known as Rubicon Estate. This was by far our most favorite stop and the best wine!

Our tour started out with valet parking and "walking the red carpet".

In 1880, Finnish Sea Captain Gustave Niebaum founded Inglenook and began building the Chateau for his winery. The Inglenook brand is still around, however, no longer connected to this vineyard.

In 1964 the property was divided and wine making ceased at the Chateau. In 1975 the back property, which included the Niebaum mansion but not the Chateau, was purchased by Francis and Eleanor Coppola who reunited the vineyards and Chateau in 1995.

Hearing the word "Chateau" I thought we would find a charming cottage-type residence. However, the Chateau is part of the winery and not a residence at all. When we first walked in, there before us was a tremendous staircase which could be in any grand hotel, therefore, I thought it had rooms on the upper level. The stairway, however, led to a museum containing displays of both winemaking and moviemaking.

The $25/pp "guest fee" included a 45-minute tour and an "unlimited" wine tasting. The wines were outstanding. We walked away empty-handed, however, as the cost of these wines were anywhere from $45 - $180 a bottle.

This one was hard to top.

Our next stop was Sterling Vineyard, also in Napa Valley. Here we had an aerial tram ride up to the winery where we enjoyed a self-guided tour. The $20/pp covered the tram ride and tour as well as tasting five of the vineyard's reserve wines. Each wine was served in a different area. Unfortunately, none of the wines hit our favorites list.

Even though we may look it, we are not tipsy (yet!)

Our last stop of the day was the Beringer Winery which was founded in 1876 by Jacob and Frederick Beringer from Germany. We expected to take a tour only to find they were sold out (unusual for a Monday, off-season). We did, though, take part in a wine-tasting. This one was $10/pp and although we had a charming "wine-server", the wine left a lot to be desired.

We really had a good day but after spending $120 and traveling a little over 90 miles, we didn't have much of a "buzz". We weren't home very long though and we started to get very, very tired. We ended up making it a very early night and getting a good night sleep in preparation for our next day's travel to Sacramento where we plan on spending a day in Old Town Sacramento before heading to our original stop at Yosemite.

We arrived at Sacramento KOA on another bright sunny, hot day. I have to say KOA charges a pretty penny for a night's stay and most of them are just not worth it. This site was $5 less per night than Durango, a beautiful resort. We are finding KOA is best only when you need an overnight stay and there is no Walmart nearby.

We spent our day at historic Old Town Sacramento which dates back to 1848 when the discovery of gold attracted prospectors and entrepreneurs in search of adventure and riches on the riverfront. That riverfront is the Sacramento River, the same river we were on at Red Bluff, much further south, of course. Old Sacramento was the last stop on the Pony Expresss route and the end of the transcontinental railroad.

One of the attractions in Old Town was the California State Railroad Museum which houses more than 20 restored locomotives and railroad cars in its 100,000 square foot main exhibition facility. These locomotives and railroad cars have actually been brought in on railroad tracks.

The most interesting to me were the mail car where mail was sorted, the sleeping car and the dining car. Did you know that each railroad had its own china pattern?

After enjoying the museum, we went over to the riverfront and had lunch at Joe's Clamshack. Since I had only had Dungeness Crab when Kathy made her delicious crabcakes, I decided I should have a steamed crab bucket for lunch.

After lunch we took a cruise on the Spirit of Sacramento. We had been planning a cruise out of San Diego but because of today's economics we decided we should hold off for awhile. So, we considered this to be our cruise. Instead of a 7-day cruise of the Mexican Riviera, we took a one-hour cruise on the Sacramento River. Instead of tropical island views, we saw a cement processing plant and the Sacramento skyline. Instead of a luxurious cabin with balcony, we had plastic chairs. Instead of great food, we went hungry. And instead of great all-day musical entertainment, we had a crackling speaker with a

few (and I mean a few) highlights of the tour.

Here you see the Delta King Hotel which is a retired paddle-wheel steamboat made into a hotel and the Tower Bridge which functions the same as the Railroad Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal.

Tomorrow we resume our regular schedule and take off for Yosemite. This "detour" was well worth it.