Paul and I on the San Francisco Street Cars

San Francisco, CA was our first stop on our week long vacation!  Paul was able to align his vacation with my scheduled break so we decided to heat to California - a land unexplored!  We left Saturday morning EARLY, and by early, I mean a 3AM wake up call.  Woof.

Paul's fried critters...

We were delayed a little bit in our departure flights but we arrived in San Fran and began navigating about the city, finding the BART like big city professionals.  We arrived at our "mystery hotel" - which is when you book, they don't show you the name or location so you can get a cheaper price!  Classic Alyce and Paul move.  That evening we walked around and bought our trolly passes.  We went down to Fisherman's Warf and Paul indulged in some fried sea creatures!  I had a fried tentacle or two, but mostly watched.

The next day we were picked up at our hotel to do a day long Muir Woods and Wine Tour!  We were dropped off at Muir woods - and yep, it started to pour!  We were slightly soaked and walking it what may have been classified as sponges rather than boots - yuck.  The Redwoods were massive and beautiful, I'm so happy they were able to preserve the woods so close to the city!

In front of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA!

Paul's long arms trying to give the Redwood a hug!

Hiding in a Redwood to escape the rain!

I skipped the samples and went straight for a glass of Zin!

After the wet and rainy, but beautiful, woods - we grabbed lunch and boarded the next bus for our wine tour!  It was so fun to go to the different wineries!   We went to three different wineries in the Napa and Sonoma Wine Valley.  There were all wonderful, but we particularly enjoyed the first winery!

On Monday we had a free Anchor Brewery Tour scheduled!   What a steal!  We walked through the brewery and learned about the art of "steam beer".  We finished the tour tasting many fine brewed treats and left feeling pretty happy!  I love going on brewery tours - it always brings back such vivid memories of the bottling machine and seeing Joel and Erik literally inside the mash tun cleaning out the grain!  Ohh, I miss Slab City Brewing, LLC!

Monday night we splurged and went to a nice restaurant close to our hotel!  It was very good Italian food, with a nice wine happy hour!  What a treat!  Paul drank the $3 PBRs that were on special...hah!

Tasting our Steam Beer at Anchor Brewery!

Don't mind if I have a slug or two!

Alcatraz Island

On Tuesday, our final day in San Francisco, we booked our tour of Alcatraz!  What an interesting landmark and tour.  I cannot imagine how isolated a prisoner would feel living in the middle of the water.  They are doing a lot of restorations, because a building out in the middle of the water takes a lot of beating from the wind, water, and salt!  It was a great tour and I highly recommend it!  Luckily that day, it was also down pouring - yikes!  Additionally, we miscalculated the days we had on our bus pass, so we ended up walking the 1.5 miles to the tour in the rain, can you say soaked and freezing??

The kitchen area with the outline of the knifes painted on the wall, so one didn't go missing.

Paul a little chilled walking down from our tour of the island...

Next stop... warmer San Diego...?  Nope, still cold.