San Francisco Pt 1

Jill and I spent four amazing days in SF. We got there on Wed night just in time to see Project Runway(My pick to win is still in the running with four to go) and go to bed.

Our first two nights we stayed in the Cow Hollow district between the Wharf and Golden Gate Bridge. The room was an older place and had a vintage look. But it was clean and quiet and we werent in there for very long.

The first day was comprised of a lot of site seeing. We woke early and ventured down to the Wharf. I was expecting more of a place like Seattle but it was still interesting. The seals were barking continuously to get our attention. The history of them was interesting that after the 89 quake they just showed up in huge numbers.

Then we jumped on the trolley and rode it around. Down to Union Square. To the Port. Castro. Chinatown. And as you can see in my sideways picture to the crooked street.
We had a great time exploring the city. We ate in a rooftop restaurant in Chinatown. Good food and cool atmosphere. At one time this looked like it was the place to go. Pictures of Presidents and Celebrities such as Erik Estrada and Jack Lemmon. We saw a woman making fortune cookies down an alley. If I wanted a picture a $1.00 donation please.

Then Friday it was off to Wine country. Napa.
We got a little rental car, a Kia, and took off over the bridge and through the hills. We met up with Kevin Kuhl and his wife, who happened to have vacation the same time so we planned this expereince together. Our first stop was at Artemis. This is where we are standing at. Beautiful even with a little hazy fog in the air.
We go inside to be welcomed with our names on the desk as guests. The receptionist pops a bottle of sparkling wine and our day is on the way. We followed along with their short tour, basically showing us their barrell room. Then it was to the bar where since I never drink wine it opened my eyes to the different flavors. Since it was completely comped by the wineries GM we went up and down the list from whites to red so we didnt ruin our palletes. The best agreed on by all was their Merlot. From there we were picked up in our limo to ride in style and be safe for the rest of the day.

We rode across the country side along with the compimentary bottle of champagne and a bottle that we had just picked up. We went by numerous wineries and stopped once along the way to pick up another bottle for the Kuhls. We stopped for lunch at the Oakville Grocery, which had a wonderful deli and a whole lineup of natural foods. I ate a turkey sandwich with cranberry spread on pumpkin seed bread.

Then it was on to Sutter Home, which Jill had put into my head wouldnt be that special since it is a lower priced wine. Boy were we suprised when we got there. They have there own Inn right on the grounds. We went in to the main house and were greeted like we were royalty. Jill had her boss set us up with this tour so they thought we worked for Walgreens, which must be a huge client for them. So we head across the street to the winery and it is harvest time for them. Trucks lined up like semis bringing corn to the elevator. As they dumped the trucks out we were able to eat the fresh grapes both red and green. Then we watched as the went through the press and got to tast the freshly squeezed juice. We also got to taste the wine two days into ferementation which was like a really sweet sparkling wine. It was great to see all that goes into making the wine and sampling it along the way. Now it was time to taste what they offered. Trinchero is their high end wine and that was what they served to us. A nice buzz later and it was off to dinner. We were dropped off at a fancy steak house in downtown Napa. We ate and then ventured to another wine bar that had a nice midwestern feel to end the night.

I will finish the trip another time when I get my other pictures back.