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Rich and I celebrated a wonderful fun-filled Labor Day Weekend visiting the San Francisco Bay Area.

After a great welcome dinner with Siegrid and Dennis the night we arrived, we got up early on Saturday morning and headed to the North Bay. While the fog still hung low over the Bay, we stopped for a coffee break at Starbucks in downtown Sausalito. This is one of Rich's favorite towns, often dreaming of living on a houseboat in the shadow of Mt Tam, looking across the Bay at Tiburon and the San Francisco skyline. Afterwards, we headed up 101 and stopped at the Marin County Civic Center, a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright near the end of his life when he was into circles and curves. Living so near Taliesin, we have both become Wright architecture fans, and we love discovering his buildings while traveling.

It was still early and misty when we arrived at Muir Woods, so we opted to follow a ranger for an early morning tour. Our guide arrived at the park before sunrise, so it was it was nice to hear about how this forest comes to life each morning. The ranger shared a lot about the history of the park, including the days when you got there via the "crookedest railroad in the world" to the top of Mt Tam, followed by a hair-raising freefall down the other side of the mountain in a "gravity car" till you hit Muir woods. After hiking to the end of the paved trail, we opted to return via the hillside trail, which was rocky and still wet with morning fog. Hiking at the tops of these majestic trees, the tricky part was trying to take in the breathtaking sights without accidentally walking over a cliff. We were both reminded of that saying, that you should measure a life, not by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.

At about noon, the sun was beginning to peek through at the coast, so we headed out for a drive, first to the beach and then inland to the Wine Country. On the way to Napa, Rich took me on a detour up to Sonoma where he once lived, and we stopped at the Viansa winery which sits atop a hill just below Sonoma (the first three pictures below). Afterwards, we toured the square in Sonoma, and then took a back road over to Napa. Rich said that if we drove up Highway 29, we would never make it to his favorite winery near Calistoga (because there are so many big-name wineries along the way that could take up our entire day), so instead, he headed toward the mountains, and we drove North up the Silverado Trail. We stopped by a couple of wineries along the way, the best of which was Rutherford Hill where we sampled about a half-dozen wines, including the best Port I have ever tasted (accompanied by chocolate-covered blueberries). Many of the wineries along the Silverado Trail back up against the mountains and have caves and therefore cave tours, but our timing wasn't that great in hitting the tours. Just before closing time, we finally arrived at Sterling winery, and I could immediately see why Rich loves this place. Rich is not a big wine lover, so for him, visiting the wine country is about beautiful places and educational tours. To get to Sterling, you first take an aerial tram to the top of the hill, and then you walk a self-paced tour with large plasma educational video displays inside the winery, intermingled with beautiful outdoor patios for wine-tastings. After visiting Sterling, Rich took me through Calistoga, which is a really cool little town surrounding a hot spring, where we picked up some Calistoga water for our trip down Highway 29. It was already past 5:00PM as we drove South, so it was excruciating for me to pass all these picturesque well-known wineries that we couldn't sample. Although the wine-tasting rooms were closed, we did walk around at Robert Mondalvi's and Berringer Brothers, which I believe has the most beautiful grounds of all the places we saw. The bottom line is that I think I need at least 20 more weekends to do the wine country right.

Rich's mom joined us for our second outing, which began in Chinatown where Siegrid and I spent the morning shopping for trinkets for the grandchildren and nephews and nieces. After walking up and down Grant street, Rich took us up to the side streets and alleys near Jackson street where the locals do their shopping. In this part of Chinatown, it felt like we were in China with all the strange foods and smells, and all the hustle and bustle and crowds. For lunch, we ended up eating at a brand new Thai place that was on Broadway near what Rich remembers as the "Barbary Coast" red-light district (although these days, it looks pretty tame).

We arrived at Fisherman's Wharf and parked near pier 39 where our first stop was the Aquarium of the Bay, which Michael said is his favorite place on earth. Most of this aquarium winds through underwater tubes, so the two photos of Rich and I with fish swimming right on top of us is exactly what it appears to be. Afterwards, we went out and visited the end of the pier where we got our first taste of why Mark Twain said that "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Along the wharf, we found a guy hiding behind some tree-branches who would growl and shake the branches to startle passersby. About 100 people lined up across the street to watch the mayhem and then they all laughed, and that was about the strangest thing we saw all day. After that, more shopping picking up some jewelry from street vendors, drinking an Irish Coffee from the Buena Vista, getting some chocolate at Ghirardelli square, and finally an picking apart some some fantastic cracked crab at Fisherman's Grotto.

On our third day, we headed South for breakfast in Carmel, where we walked the town till noon, and then headed down to the beach and out on the 17 mile drive. Carmel is another town where I need a bunch more weekends to explore. About 20 years ago, I had some jewelry custom-made by an artisan in Carmel, and I was told that he is still in business there, although we never found his shop.

In Monterey, our first stop was Lover's Point for a photo together, and then off to Cannery Row where we grabbed a seafood lunch and walked over to the main attraction, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. As much as I loved the Aquarium in San Francisco, I enjoyed this one even more, less of a novelty, but far more diverse and educational, and besides, I have a thing for otters. Unfortunately, arriving an hour before closing time, I know I only got to see a small portion of it before having to return to San Jose to grab a flight home.