California - From the Valleys to The Hills (Wine and San Fran)

Grab a cup of tea and a sandwich before reading this one.

(edit: or try and piece the week together from the photos here)

We spent Monday afternoon in the Napa Valley. The drive from Sonoma was on proper Irish style back roads so it's nice to know that they do exist. One of the hills we went up had Ita really struggling, she slowed down to 12 miles an hour. With no place to pull in until the top, the queue of cars behind us grew quite large. We visited 3 wineries in the Napa Valley. The first was St. Clement which was a very nice, small local winery with 5 of their own wines. Emer did the majority of the tasting here. After this we had some lunch parked in a turnout on the side of the road. 

From here we headed to the second winery of the day. We hoped to partake in a tour at Mumm Napa but the last one had left for the day. It was mainly a sparkling wine producer so we left and went to the last winery of the day. Girard's was a much more fashionable tasting room, sampling wines from grapes grown around the valley. We bought a bottle of white here for a meal somewhere along the road. The evening was young so we decided to head to San Francisco. Highway 101 brought us over the Golden Gate Bridge and into the city to Jack's apartment.

For those of you who don't know or remember Jack Hanley, he was over in Ireland a couple of years ago and played Ultimate with us on Johnny Chimpo during that time. On Monday, himself and his roommate Mike were organising a shufflepuck tournament in their local, the Buckshot. There was space for another team so myself and Emer made a team and followed them down. We had a great night with Jack, Mike and all their friends. Few of them could believe us when we told them what we are at but every single one of them were really nice people and we had a great night drinking beers, playing pool and shuffle puck, having chicken fried bacon (yes it's as unhealthy as it sounds - it's bacon that is cooked, breaded and fried in chicken fat - absolutely delicious says Mark) and generally just having the craic.

But boy did I pay for it the next day. We headed up to the park to play a round of frisbee golf. It's a full 18 hole course which is free to use. Myself, Emer and Jack met up with Dimitri and Garrett (who were in the Buckshot the night before) played a round. However, I was in such a bad state that I had to retreat to the RV after 13 holes to have a nap. After the golf, Dimitri and Garrett were given the tour and then we dropped them home. That night we were treated to a lovely lasagne cooked by Jack's girlfriend Tara (pronounced Tera) so Jack sent us up to a view point to have a look at the city while they prepared dinner. After dinner we went to another local for Trivia Night (Table Quiz to you and me). The standard of answering at this was incredibly high but we were able to chip in on some of the questions, even getting an American History one correct ("I got this one, I was delighted with myself as you can imagine"-Emer)(A natural disaster in 1980 that killed 57 people - Mt. St. Helen's erupted). Everyone was still feeling it a bit from the evening before so we were back and in bed fairly early.

Wednesday brought some baseball. Dimitri and Garrett are big Red Sox fans and it was $2 to go and see them play the Oaklnad A's. The lads had 4 tickets and Mike drove myself, Emer and the 2 boys over the bay bridge to Oakland. On the way we passed the Oakland Port which is where George Lucas was inspired by the cranes to create the AT-AT Walkers in the Star Wars films. We hit heavy traffic and had trouble parking. By the time we got to the stadium and got the fifth ticket it was already the 5th innings. It was a pitchers duel which meant the innings were very short and there were not many hits. Emer went off to get Hot Dogs and we settle into our seats. After queueing up for half an hour and making it to the top of the queue they ran out of hot dogs on Emer so she came back very disappointed. Eating hot dogs is part of baseball so I headed off to see if I could do better. I got very lucky and found a short queue and bought 9!! They were only a dollar each after all. I brought them back and we enjoyed the rest of the game. It was Jackie Robinson day so every player was wearing 42. Garret explained it to me that he was the first African American baseball player and they are celebrating the fact that they are a little less racist. Dimitri however never got to see an innings as he got thrown out for drinking from hip flask in the queue for the hot dogs. After the game we all met up and Mike brought us back to his place. We had a few drinks, watched some basketball and headed down to the Buckshot to play some more shuffle puck. Tomorrow was to bring our first touristey day so we didn't go at it that hard.

So we woke on Thursday quite excited about the upcoming activities. We pre-booked our Alcatraz tour a couple of weeks ago as everyone and all the travel books said that they are really popular and can get booked up. April isn't high season so things haven't been too bad yet but we fully expect that to change in the coming weeks. Anyway, our trip had us leaving dry land at 6.45pm as we booked the evening tour as it looked better so we had a whole day of things to see and do. We started of in Union Square which is the main high end shopping area. All the main stores are here from your Versache's to Hugo Boss and the likes of Apple (which is massive over here-nearly everyone seems to have an iPhone) and Virgin. Virgin are closing down so they were having a massive fire sale of all their stock. The whole shop was 50% off so we went in to have a look not intending to purchase anything. Naturally enough I picked up the first thing I saw and bought it, the collectors edition of Ten by Pearl Jam which has 4 LP's, 4 CD's, a DVD and a load of extras. Now I have to sort out sending it home.

After this we grabbed a quick bite to eat and hopped on the cable car which was to bring us to Fisherman's Wharf. They are as much fun as they look. We both stood on the edge holding onto the rails as we trundled up hills and down the other side, passing dangerously close to parked and moving traffic. We hopped off at the end of the line and walked down to the water. The area is your typical seaside touristy village type setup but a little classier. There are buskers everywhere, from the incredibly talented to the downright mental (we were informed that Reagan closed all the mental institutions and basically turfed a load of people that needed help onto the streets which results in alot of homeless people wandering the streets with a screw or seventeen loose). We also experienced the "bush man" which is a guy who hides behind a couple of branches to make himself look like a bush. He scares unsuspecting passers-by and is known all around the city. We also took a tour of a World War 2 submarine that is docked in the harbour. It's fascinating to go on board and see the cramped conditions that up to 80 sailors had to endure back in the 40's.

As we were strolling along the piers we bumped into Garret, Dimitri and Lauren (Dimitri's Girlfriend). They were on their way back from Alcatraz and on their way to the In N' Out Burger. I didn't need to be invited twice so we headed down with them. It's basically a fast food restaurant but they only have 4 things on the menu and they do all of them really well. Their fries are cut from real potatoes every morning and it is really nice. Everyone enjoyed their food and we parted on seperate ways. We headed down to pier 33 where we were due to board our boat to bring us to Alcatraz.

And what a tour it was. I'm sure the people who have been and are reading this know how much I am going to rave about the tour but it really is brilliant. As we sailed out to the island the sun was starting to set behind the Golden Gate bridge which was a nice beginning. We reached the dock and were brought up the route the prisoners took as they entered Alcatraz for the first time. Where the prisoners were given prison wear, we were given audio tours to guide us around the prison. It's an award winning tour narrated by former guards and inmates and is really well put together. It brings you around the cells, tells you about attempted breakouts, through the kitchen and into the wardens office. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. We caught a couple of buses back to Jack's to hit the hay before another touristy day.

Friday brought the bikes. We took two buses back down to the piers and we rented a couple of bikes. Our plan was to cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausilito and get a ferry back over to the wharf. The cycle itself was lovely. It brought us along the sea all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. After 3.30pm the west side of the bridge is opened exclusively to cyclists (no pedestians wandering into your way) so we took that side. However, due to all the stops for photos by the time we actually got across the bridge the ferry was due to sail from 20 minutes down the road. We decided that it would be as quick to cycle back and we wouldn't have to pay all the money for the ferry. We crossed the bridge again on the east side and the pedestrians really made a difference, constantly getting in the way. Emer decided to cycle it in one and left me to take photos and we met up on the other side. For the return cycle we had the wind at our back so it was alot easier. After dropping the bikes back we walked up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. Telegraph Hill is incredibly steep, so much so that we took steps up the majority of it. At the top is a 21 story tower. I climbed it while Emer stayed at the bottom chatting to a kettle bell instructor who was having a break from a lesson he was giving. All the windows at the top had cheap glass in them which kind of ruined the view from the tower but it was nice all the same. From here we walked the length of Lombard Street, a portion of which is more commonly known as "the Crookedest Street". A portion of it is so steep that they have to have a series of cut backs to get down it, similar to a road in the mountains. The majority of people driving it are video taping themselves so it's funny to see a local get stuck behind them. From the end of this we got a bus home and helped the lads with packing as they are due to move out in a couple of days.

Saturday was to be our last full day in San Francisco and since we had seen and done all the things that were "essential" we asked Jack to recommend a few things. First up was a view point of the Golden Gate bridge from Presidio Park. As we were there we could see some fog rolling in from the sea so I persuaded Emer to hang around a bit. And it was totally worth it. There was a 3 minute window where the deck of the bridge was in fog and the pillars were visible and then the whole thing was gone. It was amazing how quick the fog rolled in. We thought the whole city was going to be like that so we were happy when we found that it was locally only to the bridge. From here we headed to Haight Avenue, known locally as hippy hill. This area is credited with the birth of the hippy movement and the proof is still very much in evidence today. We parked up by Buena Vista park and walked towards Dolores Park. Along the way we stumbled upon a "Dogfest" which was a dog show for local dogs. Emer was delighted with this and went around talking to all the dogs and scratching their ears. When I finally managed to distract her and get her away we went to Dolores Park which was full of people having a good time throwing discs, playing dodgeball, tennis and lacrose, having BBQ's and drinking beers in the sun and just having a good time in general. We had a quick throw and then went to head back to the RV. Along the way we stopped at Burgermeister, a Michelin recognised burger place which does really good food.

After this we drove up to Twin Peaks which has the best view of San Francisco. Up here is the old TV tower which is not used anymore but is a protected structure after it was supposed to be dismantled back in the day. From here we could still see that the deck of the Golden Gate was covered in fog. We took some photos and then headed back to Jack's as we were attending a concert that Mike was playing in. Mike plays the violin and the orchestra he is in performed 3 pieces: Concerto for 2 Violins, Strings and Basso Continuo in D minor by Bach, An Outdoor Overture by Aaron Copland and Dvorak's New World Symphony (No. 9). It was something I didn't expect to be doing when planning this trip but we really enjoyed it. There was free food and beer afterwards which always helps. We headed back to the lads, had a couple of drinks and went down to the Buckshot for some more beers, Off-Road (a brilliant arcade game from the 80's) and some shuffle puck. I got a two dollar note in the pizza place on the way home which is safely in the do not spend section of my wallot.

Sunday brought a final check of the apartment to make sure we didn't leave anything, a couple of photos and some goodbyes. We had a tremendous time here in San Francisco and having Jack and Mike to do stuff with that we wouldn't have done if it was just the two of us contributed greatly to this. It's the first place I have been really sad to leave but there is so much left in the trip. We said our goodbyes, fired up Ita and hit the road to San Jose.....

ps All our photos from this fantastic week are now online so go and look at them here and here