Sip-Sip Hooray...Sonoma, San Fran & Sausalito

Right next to Napa is Sonoma Valley. It’s a short thirty mile, forty minute jaunt from one to the other. So why move? For one, Sonoma is much less expensive and two, moving to Sonoma made San Francisco a do-able fifty minute drive and Sausalito we did in thirty. It worked out wonderfully.

The goof is, if you read our Napa blog the part about our last day visit to J Vineyards, Simi, Jordan, Ferrari - Carrano and Coppola Vineyard was really our first day in Sonoma. Haha, our bad and our apologies. We have to admit, when you move around as much as we do, sometimes they blend together. Case in point! Sometimes we wake up in the morning and we’re not sure where we are. Old? Wine? Moving so much? You be the judge….FYI-Those first day of Sonoma pics were absolutely beautiful so if you haven’t read that blog, it’s worth checking out.

Our campground was called Petaluma/N. San Francisco Koa. It was very woodsy and our campsite had a double swing, fire pit, and lounge chairs. Nice amenities to the stop. It also had Bocce, horseshoes, a petting zoo, pool and a hot tub. We only took advantage of using the latter two.

After our first day touring wineries, we met some friends in San Fransisco. We parked a block away from Fisherman's Wharf waiting for Brad's Bloomsburg Buddy David Gardner and his lovely better-half Nina. Nina for nine years lived in San Fran so she toured us. We took a trolley to the SalesForce Tower and walked the adjoining park. It was a beautiful third floor outdoor garden with plants, trees, flowers, cactus and shrubs from all around the world. Then we took a cablecar ride through Nina's old neighborhood in the Nob Hill section of San Fran on Van Ness St. and California Avenues.

We headed back to Fisherman's Wharf and had a couple beers at the Chowder Hut and then went to dinner at Scoma's. Dave picked a winner! It was not only right on the water but the food was excellent, the service impeccable and better than all three of those wonderful things was the company. We had a lovely time hanging with Dave and Nina. We enjoyed catching up. It was the first time we really got quality time with Nina so that was an added bonus. Thanks for the tour Nina and Dave thanks for your generosity.

The bayside picture above is Alcatraz from the view from Fisherman's Wharf. The next day we chilled at the campsite and took advantage of the warmest day of the week and hung out at the pool. We played 500 gin rummy and rode our bikes while touring the campground.

Our last day we took a drive to Sausalito. It's a lovely waterfront community about 15 minutes north of San Fransisco. We toiled around town for a bit and then had a late lunch/early dinner at The Spinnaker. Good Food-Good Fun!

On the way back from Sausalito, we took the scenic route and went to an overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge. Some dudes were biking it and we were dizzy just driving it. At the top of the overlook which provided vintage Golden Gate Bridge views which had a route down with a 20% grade. Uh-Uh...We passed on that and went down the same way we came in. We hit two more overlooks on the way down. The last one which was the closest to the bridge was busy as heck. It was called Battery Spencer which was an old fort that had dual purposes. One, to oversee the waters during WWII and second for holding illegal aliens after. It was pretty from all levels, all views, and all heights.

Next!!!!!!... Stop is South Tahoe and Reno Nevada. We had a nice wine, weather and friend fix in Sonomo, San Fran and Sausalito. Thanks for reading down this far and thanks for following our journey. Kathy and Brad