Continuing from where I left off in Part 1 of my trip to San Francisco, we start by taking a trip to the Napa Valley. After spending time in the city of San Francisco all weekend, my brother and I woke up on Monday morning, May 2, and made our way to the Napa Valley. It was probably about an 80-minute drive from where he lives in the city. Almost the entire way there is a very scenic route. My brother had planned to take me to one particular winery which offered a tour at 10:30 AM. We got there about 30 minutes early, only to discover reservations were required and they had not planned to give any tours that morning. But, to their credit, they gave us a great map of all of Napa wine country (there are literally hundreds of wineries, many of them offering tours and tastings) and made some recommendations.
So, taking their advice, we headed to Mumm Napa. They are known mostly for their sparkling wines (very close to champagne) and we got a great tour and some amazing views. In fact, it was the best tour of the day. That may be in large part to the fact that they do everything on site – from growing the wine in the vineyards to full scale production and bottling. We were walked from A to Z of the entire process and it was quite neat. They also had some very scenic places to sit from and enjoy some sparkling wine, which went well for the late morning tour.
Next, Tony took me to a great restaurant nearby, where he had made reservations. We had some great food (I took a break from the wine and had some root beer – the look on the waiter’s face was puzzling). Next, we stopped by two vineyards – V. Sattui and Franciscan. We didn’t do any official tours at these two, but we walked around their gift shops and at the V.Sattui one we were able to walk through some cavern-like storage rooms and read a little bit about the history of their winery, including how they survived through Prohibition days.
We moved on to our next tour at the Beringer winery. Beringer is one of the best selling wines in the world. We took the tour, were offered 3 handsome samplings of wine, and toured their grounds. Finally, we moved on to our final stop in the Napa Valley: the Sterling winery. This was perhaps the most unique, as it included a gondola ride that took us to an elevated point so we could tour their facilities and sample five different wines. It was also the most scenic. Sterling grows different kinds of wines at various elevations, as they are located right alongside the valley. From atop their rooftop deck, you can look out and see much of the Napa Valley. We were drinking wine, looking out on such beautiful scenery, on a crystal clear 75 degree day. I asked my brother, “Are we in heaven?” I mean seriously, this is kind of what I think of when I think of heaven.
We left Napa around 5pm and headed back to San Francisco. It took us a bit longer, especially with getting out of Napa at that time. Not much traffic, but only one two-lane road for many miles out of it. We headed back to Tony’s place, ate some leftovers we had from dinner two nights before and then met up with my friend Jonathan later that evening at a really neat bar called 25 Lusk in San Francisco’s Embarcadero district. It’s definitely not a place we would have found without Jonathan’s recommendation. It had great ambience though. Part restaurant, part bar, part lounge. We sat on these neat couches in this lounge area. It was very quiet – it was a Monday night – and we ordered some unique drinks there as well. It was a great place to just chill and hang over good conversation.
The next morning, we woke up, grabbed some bagels at a New York style deli and then spent the day doing all the “little things” that are part of the San Francisco experience. We went by the row of houses that was used in the opening of the TV show Full House. We walked around the Haight Ashbury neighborhood, where the hippies all came to in the 1960s when they were “going to San Francisco.” We drove through Golden Gate park, saw a windmill near the beach, then I dipped my hands into the Pacific Ocean (only to have some water creep up on me real fast and get my shoes and bottom of my jeans wet). We stopped by Tony’s place to let those items dry out so I could wear them on the plane later that night. Then we had lunch at the California fast-food chain In-n-Out Burger near Fisherman’s Wharf. We went by the Coit Tower, where we had a real nice view of the city. Finally, we drove over to Chinatown and walked around there for nearly an hour going in and out of shops.
