GATEWAY TO THE REDWOODS…GARBERVILLE, CA

Friday, May 18 – This morning we left for Garberville, CA, to see the Avenues of the Giants. Unlike many of the roads we have traveled in California, we found 101 North of Petaluma to be a very nice smooth newly-paved road. We passed vineyard after vineyard.

It took us about 3½ to reach Richardson Grove Campground and RV Park. We are staying here for four nights at the Pass Port America price of $16.50 full hookups. Our site is about 80 ft. The Park has several trails which Bella is loving.  The couple that own it are wonderful.

Site 65

Looking to our right.

Looking to our left.

We will start our sightseeing adventures tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

A DAY OF CORKHOPPING!

Wednesday, May 15 – So what's Corkhopping you ask? It's defined as wine tasting at multiple wineries. We had numerous wineries to choose from in the Sonoma Valley area, so we looked for those offering free tasting and picked several that would be easy to get to without long drives.

We headed North on CA-101 from Petaluma, CA, to Healdsburg and the Alexander Valley Vineyards.

We enjoyed a little tasting and then was invited to take a tour of the Cave where the aging wine is stored. The cave totals 25,000 square feet and holds 6500 barrels of wine.

Scott our Wine Steward did an excellent job!

In the cave we were treated with tasting unfinished wine directly from the barrel. Interesting, but we like the aged and finished wine better.

Marsha asked why they only till every other row. Scott explained that the rows with the grass/weeds attracted the insects needed to keep the unwanted insects away. Also, it helped enrich the soil. Next year they will alternate the mowing.

The winery was in the process of moving barrels out of the cave and into the bottling process. They will be bottling over 60,000 bottles of one of their award winning wines.

Since 1975, the Wetzel family has produced handcrafted estate grown and bottled wines at the Alexander Valley Vineyards with distinctive varietal character. Acclaimed for their elegant Cabernet Sauvignon, crisp Chardonnay, the iconic Sin Zin and CYRUS – The First Growth of Sonama. The Alexander Valley Vineyards was named Sanoma's Best Winery in 2011.

We then traveled about a half-mile down the road to visit Johnson's Alexander Valley Winery.

This is a small family owned winery. This was a little strange as a wine tasting experience. As we pulled into a deserted winery that appeared a little run down, a lady climbed out of a trailer and directed us over to an older barn style building for the tasting.

This winery only makes three brands of Zinfandel wines, non of which we cared for. Much can be said about presentation, and this Wine Steward lacked a considerable amount of public presentation. We simple didn't care for any of the three wines, so we departed with our money still in our pockets.

Our third and final winery was the Sausal Winery.

What stop number two lacked in presentation was captured by the Sausal Winery. Our Steward was an energetic young lady that had grown-up in the wine industry. She was knowledgeable about the wines she served and welcomed us to taste any of the seven wines Sausal produced.

The Sausal Winery specializes in older vines (the oldest vine is over 135 years old). They have become a benchmark for Old Vine Zin. These distinctive, 100% varietal Zinfandels reflect the age of the vines from which they are produced. In addition, Susal produces estate grown, 100% varietal Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and Petite Sirah.

We enjoyed this tour very much and like our first stop, at Alexander Valley Vineyards, we left with a bottle to enjoy later. Feeling the effects of our tasting, we decided we better call it a day and return to the motor home. There are over 50 wineries in this area alone, so one could spend a great deal of time tasting wine and learning about the wine industry.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

A LONG DAY IN SAN FRANCISCO

Tuesday, May 15 – About 31-years ago, we visited San Francisco. We are exploring the city again today and are anxious to revisit some of those same sights. I sure wish we would of thought to bring some of those old pictures with us....darn!

Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge.

They are about to celebrate its 75^th Anniversary on May 27^th. It opened in 1937, for those of you not wanting to do the math. We walked under the bridge and even strolled partway on the bridge. You can walk, run or ride your bike across the bridge. Pretty neat. There is a list of Bridge facts at the bottom of the post.

View from underneath.

After parking ($15 for all day), we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf.

Some of the seafood being sold by the vendors sure looked delicious, but not for breakfast....ha ha! We did stop at the famous Boudin's Bakery and Café for a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll.

It was unique the way they transferred the freshly baked sourdough bread from the bakery to the sales area – an overhead pulley system.

We strolled along the pier to see Alcatraz Island. You can take a tour of the closed prison and even go on a haunted tour at night. We walked out on Pier 39, an area full of unique touristy shops. If you are ever in the area, be sure to walk over to the west side of the pier and watch the sea lions sunning themselves on the docks. They make quite a racket barking at each other.

We considered riding the Cable Car up to Lombard Hill ($6 each for a one way ride) to see the serpentine street, but decided to walk instead. By the end of the day, we may have regretted that decision.

We walked uphill.

Then downhill.

Lombard Street…known as the crooked street. It has eight switchbacks in one block.

While walking in that direction we heard sirens going off followed by an announcement that is was a test of the Tsunami Warning System. First time for something like that.

We walked a very long way through Chinatown to see the famous front gate.

This is the largest Chinese settlement outside mainland China. What an amazing walk through the market place. You could buy just about anything in the many small shops lining the street.

Who needs Walmart?

An man, were the people out shopping. What an enjoyable time we had watching the shoppers examine the produce, sea food, and fruit & vegetables.

This is really how red these fish are. We didn't touch up the photo at all. YUCK!

The shoppers were sure checking things over before making any purchases.

Above the stores, you could see the apartments where many of these residents lived. They weren't shy about hanging their laundry out the windows to dry......even their underwear!

We thought only the Italians did this.

This sign cracked us up. This guy can do just about anything.

We finally arrived at North Beach, more commonly referred to as Little Italy.

We knew we were in Little Italy when we saw the flag painted on the poles.

On the way, we passed hundreds of “painted-houses.” Wonder what it's like to live so close to your neighbors. Much like some of the campgrounds we've stayed-in, I'll bet!

We stopped for a quick visit in St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Francis Cathedral. Very beautiful and a nice relaxing break from our long walk.

By this time we were getting pretty tired and looked forward to a break and a bite to eat. We looked forward to dining in one of the little eateries, so spent some time finding just the right spot. A couple nice slices of Italian Pizza was what we were after. We found it at Golden Boy Pizza...yummy!

Last stop was to jump in the car and drive to the top of Telegraph Hill for an over-view of the city. There was no way we had enough energy remaining to walk up this hill. A wonderful place for a 360 degree view of the City.

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE: Some interesting facts!

1. It took 4 years, 4 months and 26 days to build the 8981-foot bridge

2. The bridge's suspension span is 4,200 feet (the ninth longest in the world).

3. More than 1.9 billion vehicles have crossed the bridge in its 75 years.

4. A total of 600,000 rivets hold together the steel in each tower.

5. Each of the two main cables weigh 12,250 tons and have 25,572 wires – a total of 80,000 miles of wire (enough to span the equator more than 3 times).

6. For the bridges 50^th birthday in 1897, 250,000 people surged onto the span that morning and another 500,000 gathered anywhere they could in the areas surrounding the span.

7. The bridge has been closed only three times due to weather – the longest closure was 3 hours, 27 minutes on December 3, 1983, because of 75-mile per hour wind gusts.

8. Headed southbound toward San Francisco, it will cost you $6 toll to cross the bridge.  There is no charge if headed northbound.

9. The Golden Gate Bridge spans the strait of the same name, which is approximately 3 miles long and 1 mile wide.

10. If you like the Golden Gate's color you can get it at your paint store: Cyan 0%, Magenta 69%, Yellow 100%, Black 6 %.

There is so much to see and do here. We couldn't possible begin to show all the photos we took. If you would like to see more painted houses, Chinatown, Golden Gate Bridge, etc., please click here.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!