California in April/May

Off to California for a spring vacation! We will spend the first three nights in Monterey and then a week in San Francisco. Home base in Monterey is the Marriott. They upgraded our room to a suite and a breakfast buffet comes with our stay. Wonderful! We decided to take the famous 17-mile drive on the first day through Pebble Beach and Del Monte Forest. We enjoyed the coastline drive and stopped at many areas.

Bird Rock

Seal Rock - actually many rocks covered with seals!

Several of the lookout points were closed due to the harbor seal pupping season. They fence off the areas to protect them. The famous Lone Cypress - it has prevailed on its rocky perch for over 250 years and is the symbol of the Pebble Beach.

We walked around and saw the 18th hole at the world-famous Pebble Beach Golf Links. We exited the 17-mile drive to have lunch in Carmel-by-the-Sea. We found a wonderful little cafe and were delighted to have live music and dancing.

We had a relaxing afternoon and then off to dinner at Domenico's on the Wharf. The restaurant overlooks the marina and Monterey Bay. We enjoyed watching the harbor seals and several big sea lions. The city was tired of trying to keep the seals and sea lions off the wharf so they created this area for them.

Don had crab legs and reports that they were delicious!

Destination: The Big Sur It is about a 120 drive along the coast in the mountains from Carmel to San Simeon.

Lovely evening meal in the conservatory room (this restaurant had many themed rooms) at The Sardine Factory Restaurant. Don had steak and I had halibut and prawns. For dessert we had sorbert and it came in an ice sculpture. Interesting!!

ON TO SAN FRANCISCO!!


HIGHLIGHTS OF SF

**Club Donataleo: our residence for the week. A traded time share located us in the midst of SF. We are just 1 block off the Powell street Cable Cars.

** Basketball Game: We took BART (Bay Area Regional Transportation) the first evening in SF to see a basketball game between Oakland Warriors and San Antonio Spurs.

** City Bus Tour: crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, the Golden State Park with the Japanese Gardens, the view from Twin Peaks, viewing the steep hills, the "Painted Ladies" - the many colored houses.

**Baseball Game - SF Giants vs San Diego Padres. We had dugout seats right behind home plate.

**Lombard Street - the crookedest street in the world. Yes, we drove down it!

**An evening of blues at Biscuits and Blues

**Boubin Bakery & Restaurant on the wharf. Yummy clam chowder in a bread bowl.

**Fisherman's Wharf

**Cable Cars - our favorite mode of transportation. We can catch a cable car a couple blocks from our hotel and go to the wharf. Standing on the side and hanging on tight is the most exciting way to ride.

**Bay 2 Bay boat ride - We rode the "red and white" fleet under the Golden State bridge then under the Bay bridge.

A seal hanging out on the bouy.

The Bay Bridge

The Giants stadium

**Eating crabs at The Francisan on the wharf. We ordered "lotsa crab" which was a delicious amount for two.

**Alcatraz. We were ferried across the mile of cold, choppy bay water to get our evening tour. Alcatraz was a maximum-security federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1961. Due to it's location on an island in the bay it proved to be "escape proof." We heard many stories of attempted escapes only to be caught or end up drowning. It's a cold, isolated place.

**Wine Tour of Napa and Sonoma The bus picked us up at Union Square and we were off to 4 wineries and 1 cheese, gelato, and fudge tasting location. We were surprised when we stepped in the bus - it was like a limo complete with breakfast. There were only 18 in our group and that made it easier for tasting at the wineries. In the morning we tasted at two wineries in the Sonoma area. The last two were in Napa and at the third winery we had a lunch on the grounds. This whole area is beautiful and we enjoyed the drive and tastings!

Look closely at the new bunches of grapes just budding.

**Boat trip to Sausalito. Sausalito is a quaint town across the Golden Gate Bridge from S. F. It's famous for the many house boats.

**Another Giants baseball game and eating at a family run Italian restaurant.